Wizz Air to launch the first UK direct flights to Medina

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• CaptainPtk says:

  26 Feb26 February 11:41

  You can always book the Emergency Exit row seats. Those would offer really good leg space.

• ADS says:

  26 Feb26 February 12:00

  does Gatwick airport do deals with airlines on exclusivity on new routes?

  or if Saudia come along tomorrow and want to start an A330/B777 service just to screw over Wizz … will Gatwick just let is happen?

  • Zain says:

    26 Feb26 February 12:23

    SV already ply a 787 on LGW-JED but rates have been as expensive as their LHR service.
    XY coming to LGW might provide WizzAir some real competition.

• Aston100 says:

  26 Feb26 February 13:43

  “XY coming to LGW might provide WizzAir some real competition.”
  I wonder how many people would have known which airline XY is without googling?

  • John says:

    26 Feb26 February 21:01

    People interested in airlines who are also interested in going to Saudi Arabia more than once probably know.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  27 Feb27 February 13:47

  Only a matter of time before they’re on the transatlantic market.

  • Londonsteve says:

    27 Feb27 February 16:41

    Do you mean Wizz, or the 321 XLR? If the latter, it’s already flying over the Atlantic with Iberia and Aer Lingus. If it’s the airline, the answer is never. Way too much competition and low yields in Y. In theory a ‘long and thin’ route to a leisure-heavy destination (Las Vegas? Miami?) might be economically viable, but the US carriers will make sure to compete offering prices that Wizz can’t stomach.

    • Spaghetti Town says:

      28 Feb28 February 12:56

      Wizz.

      And i don’t agree – they are clearly carving out a niche here with routes like medina and within 2 years you’ll see them do the same to the USA and Canada.

      • RC says:

        28 Feb28 February 19:41

        757 has been flying the Atlantic for over 35 years. Not just charters but BA used to fly it from Glasgow and Birmingham to JFK for a brief period.

        Continental – now United – have used it since the mid 90s. Their longest route is a 9 hour Stockholm to Newark. So there’s demand for that sort of route.

        It will be interesting to see if Wizz can make it work without any premium seats. Iberia, Aer lingus, JetBlue and SAS all have premium cabins – and premium eco in SAS’s case too. I’ll be surprised if an all coach layout works profitably without a big bung of petrodollars in subsidies.

      • Londonsteve says:

        1 Mar1 March 10:54

        I hope you’re right, as choice is always a good thing and clearly there is a market for ultra cheap flights between North America and Europe from the likes of student backpackers and the very parsimonious. It’s questionable when flying between two wealthy markets if there are enough of them to sustain a route with 2-3x weekly frequency, I don’t know the answer to that. The US has also become an exceedingly expensive place to visit, even if the flight were almost free, suggesting that traffic on these flights would mainly be heading from the US to Europe for tourists to avail themselves of destinations they find cheap prices in Dollars. Every attempt at flying low cost to the States has ended in failure thus far. From the airline’s perspective, yield per hour is the most important factor and the XLR has a tremendous range meaning the array of route possibilities for Wizz is endless, many of which will be unserved or only flown by expensive flag carriers. Varadi, the Wizz CEO has stated he sees no opportunity flying across the Atlantic so I can’t see this happening in the next decade but who knows. For an operator like Wizz I’d have thought ETOPS would also present a problem when flying long sectors over water.

• ADS says:

  27 Feb27 February 14:10

  “Jeddah is 2,930 miles making this the longest low cost carrier flight from the UK. This is peanuts for an aircraft that can, on paper, do 4,700 nautical miles”

  I wonder if Wizz are considering swapping some of their 47 XLR orders to LR versions? why are they opening LR routes with an XLR plane – it’s a waste of the extra plane purchase cost!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.