Wizz Air scraps long-haul flight due to catastrophic ticket sales, aircraft delivery delays, and Arab competitor
Officially, the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has scrapped its brand-new long-haul flights between Milan and Abu Dhabi due to unexpected market changes and operational reasons. However, an Italian newspaper reported that the real reasons behind the decision were poor ticket sales on the route, delays in the delivery of their new long-haul aircraft—the Airbus A321XLR—and stiff competition from a rival Arab airline.
Not enough tickets sold
According to Airportal, a Hungarian air travel news outlet, Wizz Air announced the launch of new long-haul flights between Italy and the United Arab Emirates last September. The airline stated that the route would be operated by Airbus A321XLR aircraft, with the first flight scheduled for 2 June and daily service thereafter.
That is the route Wizz Air has now cancelled—officially due to unexpected market shifts and operational considerations. However, Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily, claims the real factors behind the damaging decision were weak ticket sales, delays in receiving the A321XLR aircraft, and price competition from Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi. The paper noted that passengers were more likely to choose the more comfortable Etihad service over an ultra-low-cost airline operating narrow-body aircraft.
According to the report, Wizz Air managed to sell only 6,000 tickets for the new service—representing just 50% occupancy. This figure is disastrous, given that Wizz Air typically achieves around 90% seat occupancy on its flights.
Etihad Airways outperforms Wizz Air
The Italian publication also highlighted that Etihad Airways was able to offer tickets on the same route at a similar price point to Wizz Air. However, unlike its budget counterpart, Etihad includes in-flight meals, checked baggage, and entertainment in its fares. Furthermore, it attracted passengers with the comfort of wide-body Boeing A350 and 777 aircraft and convenient transfer options in Abu Dhabi.
Wizz Air was due to receive its first Airbus A321XLR on 10 April—part of a fleet of 47 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney GTF engines. However, the delivery was postponed due to unforeseen complications in the transport process. The airline has not yet announced a revised delivery date.
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The marketing genius for Wizz Air must be a Fidesz apparatchik to be so incompetent.
Joe Twicks is a genius
Having ordered so many 321-XLR type aircraft this is not a good omen for the airline. Ultra low cost configurations are manageable up to 5 hours flying time, but beyond this the appetite of the travelling public to travel in such cramped and austere surroundings falls off a cliff. There are undoubtedly travel niches, like transporting south Asian workers to the UAE but the risk is that even people with little in the way of financial resources will simply not travel if they cannot afford to fly with a traditional full service carrier. Wizz would do best to exploit destination pairs that are too insignificant to interest the legacy airlines due to their inability to fill a wide bodied aircraft. Also routes with high levels of migrant workers traffic who are making irregular one-off flights and will often just want the absolute lowest price with no concern about on-board comfort.