Even before the corona pandemic, the low-cost airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air didn't give each other anything for free at the Vienna-Schwechat location. If you avoided each other a little at first, you increasingly switched to “doubling the route”. This only got worse during the crisis.

Wizz Air announced a new route and only a few days later the same announcement was made by competitor Ryanair. Or vice versa. Although the Irish company largely stays out of traffic in the former Soviet republics, there is enormous overlap in the south and west. This is not a coincidence, but purely intentional.

The two companies make no secret of the fact that they want to push the other provider out of Vienna. Wizz Air formulates it much more diplomatically than Ryanair, because their Group CEO believes he will also have to act as the Hungarian carrier's deputy substitute spokesman and announced the closure of the Wizz Air base in Vienna.

Of course, the pink low-cost airline couldn't let that go and also invited to a press conference. The stationing has been announced of another airplane and the photo of Sharm el Sheik. Admittedly: Ryanair has a week ago also no “breaking news” announced, because most of the “new routes” were either already known or at least already announced for summer 2020.

It is also noteworthy in this context that both providers pretend to be stationing more aircraft in Vienna than ever before. Wizz Air ignores the fact that summer 2020 was planned with up to nine aircraft and Laudamotion wanted to use well over 20 aircraft. In both cases, nothing came of the plans due to the corona pandemic.

"Would never get on a low-cost airline"

Regardless of this: Both providers want to grow in Vienna and benefit greatly from the catchment area of ​​Vienna Airport. A not inconsiderable number of passengers from Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic use the offer of the two carriers. In Austria, the cheap tariffs are also well received, although there is also the absurd phenomenon that a very specific customer group claims in online forums that one would never fly with the two providers and is then even more likely to be found on board. From this one can deduce: If it is cheap, then one likes to break with “principles”, but does not like to admit it.

As long as Ryanair and Wizz Air think they have to "fight for each other" in the single-digit price range, ticket prices will not increase significantly. Austrian Airlines offers comparatively low prices on routes on which you have at least one of the two “fighters” as a competitor. Where there is no competitor, one asks heavily to checkout, but offers a low-cost, zero-service product. If the only noticeable difference is the larger piece of hand luggage, many people lack the argument to book with Austrian Airlines. There is no serious distinction between self-proclaimed “premium” and “low cost”.

How much Ryanair and Wizz Air don’t treat each other also shows a look at Venice (Marco Polo). On the same day, the two low-cost airlines announced the stationing of aircraft. It goes without saying that you double the number of routes and try to force the other provider out through the price. Ryanair has often been successful with this tactic in the past, but Wizz Air is a different caliber. The pink group also has extremely low costs and financially strong investors behind it and they do not shy away from competition with Ryanair.

What happened to the Easyjet versus Ryanair duel? Basically it still exists, but Easyjet has been weak for a few years and the corona pandemic is hitting the orange low-cost airline much harder than Wizz Air and Ryanair. In addition, Wizz Air UK is creating a lot of competition at its headquarters in Luton, of all places. In general, Easyjet is increasingly no longer trying to position itself as an ultra-low-coster, but somewhere between low-cost airlines and pseudo-network airlines (keyword “Worldwide by Easyjet”).

There was already consolidation

Again and again there is talk of a consolidation in the low-cost segment. This has already taken place, because many smaller providers have already had to give up and those who have remained either belong to large corporations (e.g. Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, IAG) or have financially strong investors behind them. The few remaining “smaller providers” have either found their niche or are struggling to survive.

A takeover of Easyjet by a competitor would be problematic under competition law. If, for example, Wizz Air or the IAG were to strike, the eligibility for approval would be questionable. The reason for this is simple: At many airports, the variety of providers would decrease significantly. Regardless of this: Easyjet has often been traded as a takeover candidate and so far it has not happened.

In summary, it can be said that the competition in the low-cost segment is picking up speed again. While the corona pandemic was at its height, there was no “ceasefire”, but they were forced to hold back. For the summer of 2022, the "battle" for every single passenger is announced and it is to be expected that numerous more routes will be announced in the coming weeks and months.

The travelers are likely to benefit financially from the competition. Unfortunately, this is not an incentive for providers rescued with taxpayers money, such as Austrian Airlines, to improve their own product in order to clearly stand out from low-costers. The price is not the only argument, but at the moment it is not foreseeable that the Lufthansa Group will rethink its “high-price strategy with low-cost airline service”. The group of companies has yet to prove whether it is wise to position itself as “premium” in the long term, but to offer hardly any differences to the products of Ryanair and Wizz Air. You can do copy and paste quite well, because at Eurowings you already have them Hand luggage regulations copied from the two lowcosters...