Wizz Air closes flights from Budapest, Debrecen

The Hungarian low-cost airline, Wizz Air, is to close two flights from Hungary, one departing from Budapest, while the other from the Debrecen International Airport. Furthermore, the latter is a well-functioning holiday flight.

Göteborg and Mallorca out

Okosutas.hu, a Hungarian travel news website, found out that Wizz Air is to close two Hungarian flights soon. The first one departs from Budapest and lands in Göteborg, Sweden. The company closed that route among the firsts when the COVID pandemic started in March 2020. Moreover, Wizz Air reopened it among the last ones in 2021. However, it seems that the flight’s utilisation remained low.

In January and February, Wizz Air did not fly between the Hungarian capital and the Swedish city. However, days earlier, spring flights also disappeared from the airline’s booking system. The last flight took off in mid-January. But people aiming to travel from Budapest to Göteborg with a budget airline can choose Ryanair.

The other cancelled flight of Wizz Air is much more painful, okosutas.hu believes. The moment the airline started its flight from Debrecen to Antalya, Türkiye, they dropped their regular one to Mallorca, Spain. You can still reach the jaw-dropping destination on the Balearic Islands from Budapest by Wizz Air and Ryanair. However, the route is expensive from the capital, while from Debrecen it was considerably cheaper. And you can travel to Debrecen from Budapest in only two hours by train.

Read also: PHOTOS: Tens of thousands of Hungarians get futuristic international airport

Wizz Air more expensive than Ryanair

Hvg360, the paid version of the famous Hungarian online and offline news outlet, HVG, compared Ryanair and Wizz Air, considering multiple factors. Since the content is available only to subscribers, we cannot share the factors why an airline can sell cheaper tickets, whether the plane number or the type is more important regarding profitability. The article also details why Ryanair and Wizz Air claim they are market leaders in Hungary and gives answers on whether Wizz Air will be bought or will acquire other airlines.

However, the following information is accessible. First, there are more differences between the two companies than one might think at first glance. Secondly, as Gábor Bukta, a shares analyst of Concorde, explained, Wizz Air suffered a considerable disadvantage due to an erratic decision of its management during the COVID pandemic. As a result, the Hungarian low-cost airline bought fuel for a much higher price than their Irish competitor. That is why Michael O’Leary, the CEO of the latter, said at his Budapest press conference that the operation of Wizz Air was more costly than that of Ryanair.

The balance will be reestablished this spring, Mr Bukta added. Afterwards, only two factors will matter in their contest: the utilisation rate of their planes and the profitability of the operation scheme.