In the late autumn of last year, Wizz Air President Robert Carey announced that the Vienna base was back on course for growth. The number of aircraft stationed should be expanded to six Airbus A321neo and even a seventh or even eighth aircraft were under discussion. Nothing came of it, because it was downsized to four machines.

The flight destinations offered from Vienna-Schwechat have shrunk to 2022 destinations in 36 countries in the 24 summer timetable. The offer was thinned out in several steps and not only city routes, on which there was fierce competition with Ryanair, fell victim of red pencil but also "holiday classics" like Mallorca.

Flights to Ukraine had to be suspended indefinitely for a completely different reason: Russia launched a military attack on its neighboring country. This has consequences for Wizz Air, because about nine percent of the offer was in the direction of Ukraine and Russia. In addition, in the 2022 summer flight schedule, the intention was to increase the UA range considerably. Because of the war in Kyiv-Zhuliany there were threei Airbus A320 and in Lviv another "stuck". For safety reasons, flying out is not possible.

The low-cost airline had to reorient itself quickly and has shifted capacity westwards. Notably, there has been significant expansion in the UK and Italy. According to Carey, they have Norwegian Air Shuttle bought numerous slot pairs in Gatwick and is expanding rapidly at the second largest airport in the UK capital.

Various factors have led to the downsizing of the Vienna base

The Wizz Air President makes no secret of the fact that the Vienna base has experienced many "ups and downs" since it opened in 2018. Due to a lack of demand, which was primarily due to the travel restrictions and lockdowns, the corona pandemic almost led to a complete collapse in demand. Ultimately, the fact that airport costs and taxes are higher than elsewhere also contributed to the decision to base fewer aircraft in Vienna than originally announced. In other words: Wizz Air can use the machines that were actually intended for the Austrian capital airport cheaper and more profitably from other airports. Carey expressly does not want to rule out another "up". They want to continue the growth in Vienna and “announce one or the other new goal in the next few months”.

According to Carey, the decision to downsize Vienna was made in January 2022. Apparently, the fact that Austria was one of very few countries to declare a lockdown again towards the end of 2021 also contributed to this. This seems to have created uncertainty at Wizz Air as booking numbers have plummeted and have been slow to recover. Shortly thereafter came the next slump, but this affected almost all carriers in Europe, because in many countries politicians thought they had to stir up panic because of Omikron.

Passengers are booking their tickets earlier again

The current state of affairs at Wizz Air is that demand has risen sharply throughout the route network, including from Vienna. But even the low-cost airline has a problem with the acute shortage of staff, which is keeping the entire industry in suspense. According to Carey, supply will be reduced by around two percent in the summer of 2022. One of the reasons he named was that the planes were delayed at many airports. The air traffic control in Germany and Poland would be overloaded due to too few controllers and there would be constant shifts in slots. Catching up on delays would be almost impossible, which is why they "take out" about two percent of the network-wide offer. The manager cannot rule out that there will be more.

The Wizz Air President explains the booking behavior of the passengers as follows: Before the pandemic, most of the tickets were sold about 90 days before departure. That changed abruptly, because then bookings were only made at extremely short notice over a long period of time, sometimes only on the day of departure. Passengers now buy their tickets 80 to 20 days in advance, depending on the route. The trend would clearly be towards long-term bookings again. According to the manager, many tickets for the winter of 2022/23 are already being sold.

Competitive situation in Vienna a little calmer

In Vienna, there was fierce competition from Ryanair and Level Europe, among others. The IAG pulled the plug at Level Europe in the course of the corona pandemic - unsurprisingly - and sent the company into bankruptcy. The Ryanair Group changed the flag from Lauda to Ryanair and is still present in Vienna. Robert Carey admitted that the competitor has a much larger presence at Vienna-Schwechat Airport and that one route or another has left the competitive situation. There wouldn't be as much "fire" in the competitive struggle as before the pandemic, but it's definitely not a mowed meadow.

Regarding future plans, the Wizz Air President said that opportunities to make money are being looked at from Vienna. The focus is on underserved routes with potential. Recent examples of this would be Damman and Abu Dhabi. One or the other niche route is currently being examined, but the manager did not want to give any details.

Talks with Klagenfurt "fallen asleep"

In addition to Vienna, Wizz Air is also focusing on other airports in Austria, explained Robert Carey. However, you don't really know what you want to do in Salzburg, because you flew for a short time a few rounds in summer 2020 and since then the comeback has been postponed indefinitely. The only route that is currently in the reservation system cannot be served due to a war: Kyiv-Zhuliany. The budget airline still has three Airbus A320s there that cannot be flown out. Another remains in Lviv, Carey confirmed.

At times, Wizz Air had intensive discussions with Klagenfurt Airport about the inclusion of two routes: London and Bucharest. However, the negotiations stalled at some point and are not exactly "hot" at the moment. Competitor Ryanair has already given notice his comeback in Carinthia and has long since started selling plane tickets. Will Wizz Air ever fly to Klagenfurt? That is completely open, because all Austrian provincial airports are considered expensive and therefore not very attractive for low-cost airlines. In general, Robert Carey does not want to rule out the possibility that Wizz Air could "sometime" fly in Austria outside of Vienna. The manager did not give any details.