NEWS FLASH
Low cost carrier Wizz Air plans to trial its new Wizz Class, which will give a few perks for those willing to spend more. In particular, passengers will be able to block out the middle seat, offering more space. Wizz Class seats will be in the front rows and may also include perks like priority boarding. The product will initially be trialled on five routes that will not involve destinations in the former Yugoslavia, but rather London, Bucharest, Warsaw, Rome and Budapest. However, if successful, the concept will be rolled out across the network. Michael Delehant, Wizz Air’s Chief Commercial Officer, said the trial would likely begin in early December. “I don’t expect us to have half the aircraft blocked. But as we’re moving more and more towards business passengers, they’re requesting a little bit more”, Mr Delehant said.
Low cost carriers in the United States have already started introducing business class seating, some of which have dedicated larger premium seats, as well as frequent flyer programs, as the premium travel segment continues to grow following the pandemic.
I was thinking the same thing yesterday, LCCs, considering that they are main airline serving many primary airports, need to have a "business class" where the ticket gets you front row, no middle seat, fast track at security control and lounge access. It costs nothing to them beside some tweaks at booking system, but they can get those extra revenues. Glad to see that they are considering it.
ReplyDeleteSince Ryanair is flying 737 NG it will be easy for them to put real business class. Frontier did it, Wizz is going to, for MOL it is just matter of time before STN, DUB, BGY starts offering premium products. Expect business offer hand in hand with trans Atlantic offer on wide body. They are already huge it’s just matter of time. Southwest is already looking for a wide body order.
DeleteYou already get all those things, you just have to add them individually. Ryanair offers front row seating, speedy boarding, fast track security etc and it has been doing it for probably 15 years.
Delete@anon 1117, I know that you can get them as add ons. Thats why i am saying it wont be difficult for them to add this "business class" option. The ones booking will have just to pick the fare type and all will be included.
DeleteIt makes no sense. The trend in aviation is toward de-bundling.
Delete1709, do you understand that this is a fare class? LCC concept will unchanged. There will just an option for the ones that one too spend more. Like Ryanair’s Flexi Plus but with empty middle seat.
DeleteUS LCCs have already gone a step further. This is the business class seat on Spirit, an airline that is equivalent to Ryanair in the US
ReplyDeletehttps://runway-media-production.global.ssl.fastly.net/us/originals/2021/04/Spirit-Airlines-A321neo-Big-Front-Seat-Zach-Griff-7.jpeg
Spirit is essentially bankrupt, is halving its fleet and network and desperately looking for anyone to take it over.
DeleteThey may be. But you have similar examples with biz class with other LCCs in the US
DeleteThe US market is different, much richer and with a different geography. The routes are longer, so the advantage of a low-cost carrier model diminishes the longer the route is. Therefore, airlines have to differentiate themselves.
DeleteBeside this, I think Wizz is doing good on this. There are many airports where they are the easiest way in/out, and they can cater to this segment with a more premium product. To add, eurobusiness is a joke, it wont be difficult for Wizz to match that.
Also, US LCCs are generally struggling quite a bit - Spirit has gone through bankruptcy twice in the last year, Frontier only started making money last year since Covid, JetBlue is losing a ton of money and last made any profit in 2019, etc.
DeleteUS premium market is much more developed that Europe's. You can see the difference between legacy carriers in the US having proper business class, while intra European flights have a glorified economy plus class at best. Weird that wizz is trying to tap into it as it should be clear majority of Europeans are fine with cheaper economy for a few hours than the luxury of a pricy business class. Hope it doesn't end up killing wizz as a wrong move, we as passengers have a lot to lose with it going down
DeleteI mean it's not particularly revolutionary if it's just priority boarding and blocking the middle seat. I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to pay this, considering there are quite a few routes where Wizz Air really is the most convenient to fly on.
ReplyDeleteFrontier is not, and they have introduced business class as well. Real business class seats, not a block middle seat business class.
ReplyDeleteThis company is totally lost. They will discontinue this in a few months, open a base somewhere random, close three bases in Western Europe, order 200 aircraft and then lower that to 12. How is Varadi still in his post?
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteAnd probably collapse in 10 years. All these routes we see now, especially from SKP will be terminated after two years maximum, maybe Cologne and Stockholm will stay, but Madrid, Larnaca and Bari will deffinetly be gone. I hope they close SKP base and another airline or FR to open a base, it will be a change for everyone. Ryanair is way better lcc then Wizz, more stable, more reliable and more on time.
DeleteThe same Ryanair that closed and reduced ton of bases across Spain and western Europe after an increase in fees? The same Ryanair that literally blackmails airports and has public meltdowns if it doesn't get it's way?
DeleteWell it's not the same, Ryan is veeery profitable. Small difference, right?
Delete11:18 and 15:54 is Michael O'Leary.
Delete16:46 is Jozsef Varadi
Delete@13:45 What "ton" of bases did Ryanair close? Please list them, I'm waiting.
DeleteTBF that's just Eurobiz so fair enough, took them long enough
ReplyDeleteEveryone copies each other, always afraid of missing out or losing something. This results in uniformity, causing people to become increasingly entangled with their original product instead of focusing on their own strengths. Everyone wants to be everything, but no one is themselves anymore.
ReplyDeleteThey are like a headless chicken. Can't decide to which way they should run.
ReplyDeletebetter would be if seat pitch could be increased for 2-3 inches for some EUR, I understand it is not possible to do it ad hoc, but if that could be done, I am sure people would pay more for that than to have empty seat near them..
ReplyDeleteYes, but remember what seats they plan to introduce in LCC.
DeleteI think it would be better for them to focus on getting airplanes to be on time....12 flights with them this year and none (0) on time, neither for departure not arrival.
ReplyDelete