The Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air actually wanted to start a non-stop connection between Varna and Salzburg on Sunday. But it did not come to that, because the carrier also canceled the last route planned for midsummer from the city of Mozart.
Last year, Wizz Air surprisingly announced some routes from Salzburg. After only a few flights, the carrier discontinued the offer again due to a lack of demand. Since then the resumption of individual connections has been postponed at regular intervals. Most recently, only Varna, St. Petersburg and Kiev-Schuljany were announced and all other routes planned in the previous year were completely canceled.
Initially, St. Petersburg was postponed to September 2021, with Kiev-Shulyany following just a few days later. The destination Varna was also bookable for June 13th, 2021 until the end. At short notice and without further communication, Wizz Air also canceled the route to the Black Sea. At least no flights to Bulgaria are planned for 2021, but it is noteworthy that the route can be booked from June 13, 2022 and has therefore been postponed by a whole year.
CEO Jozsef Varadi recently emphasized in various interviews that Salzburg would play an important role in Austria's strategy. In view of the fact that so far only a few flights have been carried out and the announced resumption of flights has repeatedly been postponed and has now even been postponed, the city of Mozart should not play a great role in the planning of the Wizz Air Group. It therefore remains to be seen whether the carrier will return to Salzburg at all.
Also postponements and cuts in Vienna
In Vienna there are first signs that Wizz Air could have a sales problem, as numerous routes, including Cologne / Bonn, Dortmund and Lisbon, were postponed again, this time to August 2021. In this context, it is noteworthy that the competitor Ryanair is exactly has even made increases on these routes.
The Wizz Air reservation system also shows that frequencies have been reduced on many routes from Vienna-Schwechat. Specifically, this means that fewer take-offs and landings should be carried out per week in summer 2021 than planned around six weeks ago. In view of the fact that Austrian Airlines and Ryanair are constantly throwing more offers on the market, rising ticket prices are being felt and holiday routes in particular are being increased, there is at least a not unfounded assumption that Wizz Air in Vienna could have a sales problem on many routes and in the tough competition with Ryanair, at least currently the Irish could have the lead.
Because the market is developing more dynamically than ever due to the effects of the corona pandemic, these are snapshots. Everything can change within a few days and in all directions. Much depends on political announcements and these are very difficult to predict.