Wizz Air news

[YorkRailFan]

Starting things off, Wizz Air has announced today that they will begin to pull out of Vienna:

Wizz Air today announces the gradual closure of its base in Vienna, following a strategic review of its operations and fleet allocation. The process will take place in two phases: two aircraft and two routes – to Bilbao and London Gatwick - will be withdrawn on 26 October 2025. Three remaining aircraft and the rest of the routes will cease operation on 15 March 2026.

Wizz Air launched its Vienna base in 2018 and its current based fleet of five Airbus A321neo aircraft, operating 28 routes to 20 countries, reflects the strong position it has achieved in Austria. However, since the inception of Wizz Air’s Vienna base, airport costs and taxes have increased significantly. With Wizz Air’s strategic focus on building its Central and Eastern European core markets and delivering low fares made possible by cost discipline, operating from Vienna has become incompatible with the airline’s ultra- low cost business model.

https://www.wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/about-us/news/wizz-air-to-cease-base-operations-in-vienna

Can't say I'm surprised, Wizz only recently opened a base in nearby Bratislava. Easyjet has already pulled out of Vienna, instead only serving Salzburg & Innsbruck during the winter months for the ski season and Jet2 has a limited presence there. This leaves Ryanair in a very good position, as another competitor leaves Vienna, so I'll expect prices to increase as BA, Ryanair and Lufthansa Group see less competition, especially from the UK.

At this point, Bratislava is Vienna's second airport. Once a lesser-known travel hack, Bratislava is now a very well known alternative to get into Vienna, and unfortunately airlines have got wind of it, with prices more so reflecting that Bratislava just serves as another gateway to Vienna.

Edit: Just seen this post from Ryanair:

MACH’S GUT @wizzair!

5 aircraft Vienna base to close in March 26.

Ryanair rescue fares from €29.99 available now.

https://x.com/Ryanair/status/1965782532399788267?t=XId4AkWgNDStjbAHtGfWjg&s=19

 

[edwin_m]

Is this actually saying they will not serve Vienna at all, or still fly there (except to/from Bilbao and Gatwick) with aircraft based elsewhere.

I also see the start of a Ryanair-like complaint about airport costs.

 

[YorkRailFan]

I also see the start of a Ryanair-like complaint about airport costs.

Included in the press release I quoted in #1 was this:

Statement from Mauro Peneda, Managing Director, Wizz Air Malta:

“We recently celebrated seven years of operations in Vienna, during which Wizz Air has remained committed to offering Austrian travellers affordable and convenient travel options. Unfortunately, the airport cost base in Vienna, as well as taxes and ground handling services have risen significantly since our launch, making continued operations unsustainable. This was a difficult, but necessary decision to safeguard the long-term competitiveness of our business. We will support our colleagues in Vienna with job opportunities across our ever-growing network. We are grateful for their dedication and thank our passengers for their understanding. Guided by our Customer First Compass initiative, we will continue working to ensure that all our decisions place customers and employees at the heart of Wizz Air’s future growing network.”

(My bolding)

 

[Cloud Strife]

Starting things off, Wizz Air has announced today that they will begin to pull out of Vienna:

I'm surprised they were basing planes there to begin with, to be honest. Vienna has never been a cheap airport, and they must have got a good deal to undercut Bratislava.

At this point, Bratislava is Vienna's second airport. Once a lesser-known travel hack, Bratislava is now a very well known alternative to get into Vienna, and unfortunately airlines have got wind of it, with prices more so reflecting that Bratislava just serves as another gateway to Vienna.

In fairness, Bratislava has also developed considerably as a destination in its own right. It's quite a wealthy place by EU standards, even to the point where quite a few Slovaks prefer to live in Austria and commute to Bratislava to work. You're right that it was a low cost alternative to Vienna at the beginning, but now I'd say it's also a strong destination in its own right.

Is this actually saying they will not serve Vienna at all, or still fly there (except to/from Bilbao and Gatwick) with aircraft based elsewhere.

With Wizzair, you never really know what they'll do. They sometimes plan for new connections a year in advance, but they also drop and add them with barely any notice. Tirana is suffering with this right now, but I suspect that they'll try and build their presence in Bratislava before returning to Vienna with an "offer you can't refuse". They've also started (or will start?) Kosice-Bratislava flights, which is a strangely ignored route by other airlines. Ryanair and Austrian fly to Vienna from Kosice, but not to Bratislava. Given that it's a 5 hour drive between the two cities, I'm surprised no-one else took this up before them.

In unrelated and very strange news from Wizzair, my parents-in-law had a 3 hour delay going from Wrocław to London two weeks ago. Wizzair actually paid compensation WITHIN A WEEK, which is mindblowing given their reputation for simply not paying up. Perhaps they're finally trying to get rid of their terrible reputation?

 

[WestCoast]

I'm surprised they were basing planes there to begin with, to be honest. Vienna has never been a cheap airport, and they must have got a good deal to undercut Bratislava.

It can all be traced back to the bankruptcy of Air Berlin in 2017 and its Austrian subsidiary Niki whose assets eventually got partially sold to Ryanair as LaudaMotion then Lauda. Seems at the time Vienna Airport was keen to attract low cost airline traffic to replace lost capacity and that‘s when Wizz arrived too.

I wonder where Wizz plans on expanding since closing Abu Dhabi and now the Vienna base, and they haven’t exactly become a huge player at Gatwick that many predicted after Norwegian’s short-haul demise. It will be interesting to see what they plan to do with their huge number of aircraft on order.

 

[YorkRailFan]

You're right that it was a low cost alternative to Vienna at the beginning, but now I'd say it's also a strong destination in its own right.

Wizz is very much saying to affected customers to use Bratislava (and also Budapest) as an alternative to Vienna.

I'm surprised they were basing planes there to begin with, to be honest. Vienna has never been a cheap airport, and they must have got a good deal to undercut Bratislava.

At one point, quite a few Low Cost Airlines flew to Vienna so it was quite a competitive destination which Wizz would've wanted to get their hands on. Since COVID, we've seen Easyjet withdraw and Jet2 dwindle down to a handful of once weekly flights from a few UK airports, and now Wizz pull out. Ryanair is very much the biggest low cost player thanks to their purchase of Lauda. I do wonder that if it wasn't for Lauda, if Ryanair would be pulling out of Vienna, leaving only Eurowings.

 

[TravelDream]

With Wizzair, you never really know what they'll do. They sometimes plan for new connections a year in advance, but they also drop and add them with barely any notice.

It does appear Wizz is worse for this than the other big low cost airlines. Bases open and close. Routes are announced and then cut before they even start.

All airlines do it of course, but it just seems Wizz is more willing to announce/ cut than others.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Sep 2025 ==

In fairness, Bratislava has also developed considerably as a destination in its own right. It's quite a wealthy place by EU standards, even to the point where quite a few Slovaks prefer to live in Austria and commute to Bratislava to work. You're right that it was a low cost alternative to Vienna at the beginning, but now I'd say it's also a strong destination in its own right.

Bratislava definitely has its charms. It's got a fairly beautiful, if small compared to Prague, touristy centre and it's doing well economically as many Eastern European capitals are nowadays.
But it can't be denied that the airport is not a particularly busy one so demand is not shown in passenger figures.

Bratislava's best year was 2019 with 2.29 million passengers. Its second best was 2008 2.22 million passengers. 2008 was with the big Ryanair base selling flights as Vienna (Bratislava). Ryanair still has a base of course, but a much smaller one than in Vienna.

The new Wizz base is fairly large so let's see how things go.
Wizz has run from Ryanair multiple times, but Ryanair seems to prefer to fight Wizz out which bodes well for the Ryanair base.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Following Ryanair pulling out of Tel Aviv, Wizz has published the following on their Twitter:

https://x.com/wizzair/status/1973064503018270741?t=_Yfu-ppZogq0zZu7D3TLDA&s=19

We're taking off bigger than ever from Tel Aviv this Winter 2025 with over one million seats - more than 240 percent up from last year.

Our 18 direct routes connect Tel Aviv with some of Europe's favourite cities, from Budapest and Bucharest to Rome, Milan, London, Athens, Warsaw,.Vienna and beyond.

As the largest non-Israeli carrier in Tel Aviv, we're here to keep travel affordable, reliable and within easy reach. Fares start at EUR 49.99, available on the website and on our mobile app.