NEWS FLASH
Wizz Air will close its Abu Dhabi base from September 1 after almost five years of operations. As previously reported, this will result in the termination of its Belgrade and Sarajevo flights on July 19 and August 31 respectively. This decision stems from sustained operational challenges in the Middle East, including engine performance in hot climates, airspace disruptions and restrictive regulatory conditions. The airline’s priority is to strengthen its position in Central, Eastern and select Western European markets. Cabin crew working for Wizz Air in Abu Dhabi will be offered the possibility to relocate to Europe.
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi held a 25% share of the point-to-point market in Abu Dhabi and had strong loads on both its Belgrade and Sarajevo service. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, Belgrade Airport is in discussions with two carriers to take over the Abu Dhabi service, while Sarajevo Airport considers the Emirati capital as a destination of strategic importance and is seeking an alternative. In Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways and Air Arabia could potentially replace Wizz Air on some of its routes.
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| Wizz Air Abu Dhabi network, July 2025 |
When it rains it pours
ReplyDeleteWhere are the people who were arguing they are cutting BEG and SJJ because of demand. LOL.
ReplyDeleteIt was always a crazy take, tour agencies alone forced an increase in operations, people really underestimate both the appeal of UAE and the transfer potential. It was even used for Central Asian layovers
DeleteJU could definitely jump in. Demand is big.
DeleteBullcrap 13h34! It was immediately clear they were suddenly cutting some 80% of its network.
DeleteThe reality is that they failed, it's better for them not to experiment anymore and be a true llc within Europe. And try to be the first ones in Ukraine when it reopens. Any A321XLR flights to long haul destinations will make them fail
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteWhat W6 mostly needs is a change of management.
Both strategic decisions and route management need to greatly be improved.
What are they going to do with the XLRs now?
Well, they weren't failing for 5 years, only after Israel-Iran conflict they decided it's not worth it.
DeleteSure lol
DeleteAmuses to me no end seeing comments ridiculing Wizz Air's management here..
DeleteBecause their management is subpar to put it mildly. Second tier westerners mixed up and revolved around departments in every 2 years led by an arrogant guy with no knowlegde about aviation whatsoever. They completely lost track in the last 5 years. Trial and error system (instead of proper planning) will lead you nowhere.
DeleteMy guess Etihad to BEG and Air Arabia to SJJ. There won't be cheap BEG-MLE flights now.
ReplyDeleteThey had already cut MLE
DeleteNot gonna happen.
DeleteSo I guess all these A321 now are heading to SKP :)
ReplyDeleteOf course not. They're ordering A380 for SKP
Deleteok ok, stop with nonsense. we never wrote we want a380. we wrote a350 or b787 to JFK. Stop hate towards SKP.
Delete" and restrictive regulatory conditions." - I thought only western Europe struggles with bureaoucracy..
ReplyDeleteThey were kinda invited by the Abu Dhabi "government" to create a strong P2P/LCC airline adding to (read: cooperate but not compete with) Etihad. At some point, it all went into the wrong direction, not sure what happened but most logical explanation is that they became too aggressive towards Etihad and attacking their markets.
DeleteConsidering the conflict potential this area has and will still have in the near future, it is the right decision for a LCC.
ReplyDeleteThis is just another Wizz Air fiasco, nothing new. As if those conditions did not exist when they entered the market.
DeleteHow many planes they have in AUH base?
ReplyDelete12
Delete8 A321ceo and 4 A321neo
DeleteJU needs 2-3 A321 ceo. I think they are listing them out. Those birds should not be more than 10 years old
DeleteWhy on earth would they list them out
DeleteBecause their plan is to utilise only A321neos. PW problems are slowing them down, but their plan is to phase out all A320 and A321 ceo
DeleteThat's not going to happen anytime soon though
DeleteWizzair failed to be wizzier than common sense.
ReplyDeleteHow will all those Balkan influencers fly for no money to MLE!!! OMG
ReplyDelete😂😂
DeleteFrom BUD, of course. Like most influencers on a budget.
DeleteThe fact that they are starting TelAviv flights on 8th of August but stopping AbuDhabi flights tells me that this is not because of the geo politics :D
ReplyDeleteThose TLV flights will probably be operated by the freed up 321s from AUH :D
DeleteThe problem are probably the reroutings and increased flying times to AUH during the recent conflict situation.
DeleteThat's just a handy PR excuse. The one month of limited reroutings on just some drstinations does not lead an airline to close all ops. This would have happened either way.
DeleteWizz Air is in trouble. They are also cutting flights in Europe. For example their just cut flights from Leipzig to Bucharest, Tirana and Varna.
ReplyDeleteThey always do that. Doesn't mean much
DeleteLCCs just open and close routes according to subsidies, opportunities and local market "spot" needs.
DeleteThey do not have long term comitments as there is no hub logic but quantity of independant routes.
It was a vary bad idea to start with.
ReplyDeleteI would be surprised if they start flights to Dubai from European bases at some point.
ReplyDeleteGood point.
DeleteWizz CEO said returning to Wizz's "bread and butter" of central and eastern Europe, would boost profits.
ReplyDelete"We have been underinvesting in this market over the last few years. Now we can go back to the full spirit of continuously exploiting the market
They don't even serve all capitals of central and eastern Europe. Zagreb for example.
What other major cities are they missing in East Europa?
DeleteNow all 12 planes from Abu dhabi will be transfered to Europe which will giwe them super extra planes for increasing flights , add new routes ..I think they will make huge expansion this and next year , plus 2026 they expect brand new planes...
ReplyDeleteSuper.
DeleteReally a shame, Wizz isn't a great airline but in 2023 I flew VIE - AUH and AUH - MLE both round trip, for under 200 euros. Extremely cheap for getting to the Maldives, though every flight was mostly empty, had a row to myself every time. Would be ok if the moved some of the central Asia routes to Budapest.
ReplyDeleteWizzair employee here.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason for AUH closure is their government. When Wizz entered 5 years ago, Etihad was in a bad shape, and at that time, Arabs promised milk and honey to Wizz. But by today, Etihad recovered, and of course Arabs will always give priority to their own instead of Wizz. Second reason, corrupted India and Pakistan governments, who also favour their own airlines. So, without this perspective and strategy of going to Eastern markets, Wizz simply has no incentive and no business to stay at AUH. It's not Wizz's fault and when they entered 5 yr ago, the picture was very different. XLR program will be significantly reduced, and now they are looking into options for XLR conversions to 'normal' NEO, because they need the aircraft anyways, but just a few XLRs, instead of plans just a few months ago where they announced huge plans with XLR, but not it simply doesnt make sense anymore. So, this marks a big shift in Wizz paradigm of conquering Eastern markets, and now they will push the European capacity where they have better options for growth and strong markets. We will see what happens.
Interesting and thank you!
DeleteSo all that to say that it was another Wizz failed experiment. But sure, it was the Indians and Pakistanis fault.
Delete12:53 , it was a business venture, of course there are risks involved, like in any other industry, especially aviation, so i dont know what do you expect? For any company to grow so much, there must be also some failures and unknown factors in the equation. I gueds they learnd their lesson in dealing with Arabs and corrupted countries
DeleteAlso a reason i forgot to mention, engines are 'worn out' at the rate 3 times higher in hot and harsh enviroments like AUH, compared to Europan enviromrnt, which significantly increases costs, especially in this situation where there are not enough GTF engines. Also, not to mention numerous airspace closures, reroutings, cancelled flights, diversions due to political instability in the region. Simply, the profit is not there anymore. And Wizz is not Red Cross or NGO to work for free.
DeleteEtihad is opening Bucarest, Baku, Medina, Yerevan, Tashkent, Almaty and Tbilisi. That means that JU will take BEG
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't mean anything
DeleteIt does, if you read the article
DeleteIt doesn't mean that Etihad won't launch BEG at a later date. Just because it wasn't included in this phase doesn't mean it's not in their plans
Delete