Wizz Air’s summer sizzler – 120+ new routes to launch in S21
Wizz-ing into Wales! The ever-expanding Wizz Air will base one aircraft at Cardiff Airport from 17 May, launching eight new routes in S21 to destinations throughout the Mediterranean. Pictured welcoming an incoming Wizz Air A321 at the Welsh airport recently are Spencer Birns, Interim CEO, Cardiff Airport and Owain Jones, MD of Wizz Air UK. The carrier is poised to launch 122 new routes in S21 (data as of 18 March 2021).
Wizz Air is certainly a carrier which has not messed around during the past 12 months, expanding rapidly throughout Europe, exploiting new markets, with it showing no signs of stopping in S21. Having opened new bases at the likes of Abu Dhabi, Bacau, Bari, Catania, Doncaster Sheffield, Dortmund, Larnaca, London Gatwick, Lviv, Milan Malpensa, Oslo Gardermoen, St Petersburg and Tirana airports, the airline is pushing for further European domination. In S21 Wizz Air is expected to open further bases at Bourgas, Cardiff, Sarajevo and Palermo. There is nothing to say that further bases couldn’t be announced as more aircraft join the airline’s fleet in the coming months.
Looking at OAG Schedules Analyser data and Wizz Air’s own online booking engine, it shows that as of 18 March 2021, it will operate 122 new routes that it did not serve in either S20 or W20/21. It should be noted at this stage that 44% of the ULCC’s new routes this summer will face direct competition. A further note to add is that these 122 new routes do not include routes which in S20 flew to Berlin Schönefeld but are now showing for S21 as Berlin Brandenburg.
The first route launch of the upcoming summer season for the carrier is between Lviv and Catania, airports which became Wizz Air bases in 2020. The Ukrainian and Italian cities will be linked twice-weekly, with the first departure scheduled to take place on 27 March. The table below indicates all 122 new routes which anna.aero has identified that the airline will commence in the S21 season, with the furthest launch poised for 1 October, two routes linking the UK with the Canary Islands.
|
Launch date |
From |
To |
WF |
Direct competition |
|
27-Mar |
Lviv (LWO) |
Catania (CTA) |
2 |
|
|
28-Mar |
Belgrade (BEG) |
Hamburg (HAM) |
|
|
|
01-Apr |
Dortmund (DTM) |
Palma de Mallorca (PMI) |
Eurowings (14), Ryanair (5) |
|
|
03-Apr |
Katowice (KTW) |
Zaporizhzhia (OZH) |
|
|
|
Kiev Zhulyany (IEV) |
Milan Malpensa (MXP) |
3 |
|
|
|
19-Apr |
Salzburg (SZG) |
2 |
|
|
|
20-Apr |
Bacau (BCM) |
Turin (TRN) |
Blue Air (4) |
|
|
22-Apr |
Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) |
Cologne Bonn (CGN) |
Blue Air (2) |
|
|
25-Apr |
Belgrade (BEG) |
Oslo Torp (TRF) |
|
|
|
Milan Malpensa (MXP) |
Odessa (ODS) |
|
||
|
26-Apr |
Chisinau (KIV) |
Eindhoven (EIN) |
2 |
|
|
Kiev Zhulyany (IEV) |
Rome Fiumicino (FCO) |
3 |
|
|
|
Odessa (ODS) |
Venice Treviso (TSF) |
2 |
|
|
|
Varna (VRN) |
Salzburg (SZG) |
|
||
|
27-Apr |
Kharkiv (HRK) |
Venice Treviso (TSF) |
|
|
|
Kiev Zhulyany (IEV) |
|
|||
|
Larnaca (LCA) |
Tel Aviv (TLV) |
3 |
El Al (13), Cyprus Airways (7), Bluebird Airways (2) |
|
|
Odessa (ODS) |
Bologna (BLQ) |
2 |
Ryanair (2) |
|
|
28-Apr |
Bucharest (OTP) |
Bergen (BGO) |
|
|
|
Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) |
Hamburg (HAM) |
Blue Air (2) |
||
|
Kiev Zhulyany (IEV) |
Catania (CTA) |
|
||
|
Bologna (BLQ) |
|
|||
|
Odessa (ODS) |
Rome Fiumicino (FCO) |
Ryanair (2) |
||
|
29-Apr |
Bucharest (OTP) |
Cagliari (CAG) |
|
|
|
02-May |
Larnaca (LCA) |
Kharkiv (HRK) |
|
|
|
03-May |
Lviv (LWO) |
Verona (VRN) |
|
|
|
06-May |
Dortmund (DTM) |
Porto (OPO) |
|
|
|
13-May |
Abu Dhabi (AUH) |
Nur Sultan (NQZ) |
|
|
|
14-May |
Almaty (ALA) |
|
||
|
Tirana (TIA) |
Rome Ciampino (CIA) |
5 |
|
|
|
Malmo (MMX) |
3 |
|
||
|
15-May |
Larnaca (LCA) |
Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) |
2 |
Norwegian (2) |
|
Tirana (TIA) |
Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) |
|
||
|
17-May |
Cardiff (CWL) |
Heraklion (HER) |
3 |
TUI Airways (1) |
|
Tenerife South (TFS) |
TUI Airways (2) |
|||
|
Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) |
Faro (FAO) |
2 |
|
|
|
Kosice (KSC) |
|
|||
|
Palma de Mallorca (PMI) |
TUI Airways (5) |
|||
|
Larnaca (LCA) |
Birmingham (BHX) |
Jet2.com (5), TUI Airways (4) |
||
|
London Luton (LTN) |
Dalaman (DLM) |
3 |
easyJet (4), TUI Airways (2) |
|
|
18-May |
Cardiff (CWL) |
Larnaca (LCA) |
2 |
TUI Airways (1) |
|
Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) |
Alicante (ALC) |
3 |
TUI Airways (2) |
|
|
London Gatwick (LGW) |
Malaga (AGP) |
4 |
easyJet (42), British Airways (30), TUI Airways (3) |
|
|
London Luton (LTN) |
Alicante (ALC) |
5 |
easyJet (15), Ryanair (5) |
|
|
19-May |
Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) |
Dalaman (DLM) |
2 |
TUI Airways (3) |
|
20-May |
Cardiff (CWL) |
Alicante (ALC) |
2 |
Vueling (6), TUI Airways (2) |
|
Faro (FAO) |
Ryanair (2), TUI Airways (1) |
|||
|
Palma de Mallorca (PMI) |
TUI Airways (5), Vueling (3) |
|||
|
Sarajevo (SJJ) |
Copenhagen (CPH) |
3 |
|
|
|
Dortmund (DTM) |
|
|||
|
Memmingen (FMM) |
2 |
|
||
|
21-May |
Basel (BSL) |
3 |
|
|
|
Brussels Charleroi (CRL) |
2 |
|
||
|
London Luton (LTN) |
|
|||
|
22-May |
Eindhoven (EIN) |
|
||
|
23-May |
Gothenburg (GOT) |
|
||
|
Paris Beauvais (BVA) |
|
|||
|
26-May |
Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) |
Bourgas (BOJ) |
TUI Airways (2) |
|
|
28-May |
Heraklion (HER) |
TUI Airways (1) |
||
|
Tirana (TIA) |
Pescara (PSR) |
|
||
|
29-May |
Cardiff (CWL) |
Corfu (CFU) |
TUI Airways (2) |
|
|
31-May |
Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) |
Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) |
3 |
|
|
Milan Malpensa (MXP) |
Kharkiv (HRK) |
2 |
|
|
|
Zaporizhzhia (OZH) |
|
|||
|
01-Jun |
Tirana (TIA) |
Genoa (GOA) |
Albawings (3) |
|
|
Milan Malpensa (MXP) |
Cagliari (CAG) |
7 |
easyJet (28), Ryanair (3), Neos Air (3), Alitalia (2) |
|
|
Pisa (PSA) |
Brindisi (BDS) |
3 |
Ryanair (8) |
|
|
Palermo (PMO) |
Basel (BSL) |
2 |
easyJet (3) |
|
|
Bologna (BLQ) |
7 |
Ryanair (14) |
||
|
Pisa (PSA) |
Ryanair (14) |
|||
|
Turin (TRN) |
4 |
Ryanair (10), Volotea (7), Blue Air (4) |
||
|
Verona (VRN) |
3 |
Volotea (10), Ryanair (7), Neos Air (1) |
||
|
02-Jun |
Dortmund (DTM) |
Marrakech (RAK) |
2 |
|
|
Bologna (BLQ) |
Brindisi (BDS) |
4 |
Ryanair (10) |
|
|
Catania (CTA) |
Pisa (PSA) |
5 |
Ryanair (12) |
|
|
Palermo (PMO) |
London Luton (LTN) |
3 |
easyJet (4) |
|
|
Venice Treviso (TSF) |
5 |
|
||
|
04-Jun |
Tirana (TIA) |
Ancona (AOI) |
2 |
Albawings (2) |
|
10-Jun |
Tel Aviv (TLV) |
Rhodes (RHO) |
1 |
Bluebird Airways (6), Aegean Airlines (1) |
|
Bourgas (BOJ) |
Dortmund (DTM) |
3 |
|
|
|
Tel Aviv (TLV) |
Bluebird Airways (7) |
|||
|
11-Jun |
Liverpool (LPL) |
2 |
|
|
|
Kiev Zhulyany (IEV) |
3 |
|
||
|
Poznan (POZ) |
2 |
LOT Polish Airlines (1) |
||
|
Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) |
Mykonos (JMK) |
|
||
|
Gdansk (GDN) |
Santorini (JTR) |
|
||
|
Krakow (KRK) |
Split (SPU) |
|
||
|
Sofia (SOF) |
Santorini (JTR) |
|
||
|
Tel Aviv (TLV) |
Mykonos (JMK) |
Bluebird Airways (2) |
||
|
Warsaw Chopin (WAW) |
Preveza (PVK) |
|
||
|
12-Jun |
Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) |
Zakynthos (ZTH) |
|
|
|
Vilnius (VNO) |
Santorini (JTR) |
|
||
|
Wroclaw (WRO) |
Bourgas (BOJ) |
|
||
|
13-Jun |
Bourgas (BOJ) |
Eindhoven (EIN) |
|
|
|
Turku (TKU) |
|
|||
|
Budapest (BUD) |
Chania (CHQ) |
Ryanair (3) |
||
|
Gdansk (GDN) |
Heraklion (HER) |
|
||
|
Iasi (IAS) |
Santorini (JTR) |
|
||
|
Sofia (SOF) |
Chania (CHQ) |
Ryanair (2) |
||
|
Corfu (CFU) |
Bulgaria Air (2) |
|||
|
Vienna (VIE) |
Chania (CHQ) |
1 |
Austrian Airlines (3), Lauda Air (3) |
|
|
Warsaw Chopin (WAW) |
2 |
LOT Polish Airlines (1) |
||
|
Rhodes (RHO) |
2 |
Corendon Airlines (1), LOT Polish Airlines (1) |
||
|
Thessaloniki (SKG) |
Aegean Airlines (2), LOT Polish Airlines (1) |
|||
|
Zakynthos (ZTH) |
LOT Polish Airlines (2) |
|||
|
15-Jun |
Krakow (KRK) |
Heraklion (HER) |
|
|
|
Tel Aviv (TLV) |
3 |
Bluebird Airways (7), Aegean Airlines (4) |
||
|
Santorini (JTR) |
2 |
|
||
|
Warsaw Chopin (WAW) |
Heraklion (HER) |
Aegean Airlines (3), Corendon Airlines (2), LOT Polish Airlines (2) |
||
|
Santorini (JTR) |
LOT Polish Airlines (2) |
|||
|
16-Jun |
Chisinau (KIV) |
Heraklion (HER) |
|
|
|
Katowice (KTW) |
Corfu (CFU) |
LOT Polish Airlines (1) |
||
|
Krakow (KRK) |
Santorini (JTR) |
Ryanair (1) |
||
|
17-Jun |
Debrecen (DEB) |
1 |
|
|
|
Gdansk (GDN) |
Split (SPU) |
2 |
|
|
|
20-Jun |
Wroclaw (WRO) |
1 |
|
|
|
01-Jul |
St. Petersburg (LED) |
Milan Bergamo (BGY) |
3 |
|
|
02-Jul |
Venice Treviso (TSF) |
2 |
|
|
|
04-Jul |
Catania (CTA) |
|
||
|
Salzburg (SZG) |
|
|||
|
01-Oct |
Cardiff (CWL) |
Lanzarote (ACE) |
3 |
TUI Airways (2) |
|
Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) |
Fuerteventura (FUE) |
2 |
|
|
|
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser data and Wizz Air’s booking engine – data sourced 18 March 2021. |
||||
The new routes are spread throughout Europe and Asia, including two services from Abu Dhabi, utilising the carrier’s UAE-based unit, to Nur-Sultan and Almaty respectively. Of the 54 routes which will face direct competition, it is worth noting that 14 are already served, or to be served, by Ryanair, 14 by TUI Airways, eight by LOT Polish Airlines, six by easyJet, five by Bluebird Airways, and four by Blue Air, amongst others which are served by fellow European carriers.
Overall, the number of routes currently scheduled to be operated by Wizz Air in S21 is 922 (dependent on government border controls and demand pick-up), an increase of 8.1% (net increase of 69 routes) versus what it planned to serve in S20. Therefore, the result indicated that there are 63 routes planned to be served in S20 which will not operate in S21, or plans to launch the routes have been halted.
While the airline is showing gains in S21, it is worth pointing out that Wizz Air is already looking ahead to W21/22. A couple of new routes are already showing in the carrier’s booking engine, including Cardiff to Sharm el Sheikh, plus St. Petersburg to Oslo Gardermoen and Stockholm Skavsta, all poised to begin in November 2021.
Note: This analysis excludes any routes which may have launched and operated for a brief stint in the winter season before relaunching again this summer.
Wizz Air launched a base in Catania in October 2020, one of over 10 new bases launched by the airline in 2020. For S21, the airline is expected to launch a further five new routes from the Italian airport in S21 to destinations in Russia, Ukraine and Italy.
Some brilliant routes from Doncaster but, I wish there were also routes to Algeria and Newquay from Doncaster too.
What about the internal market.planes were mostly full flying to scotland