Vienna: Wizz Air and Ryanair in comparison - who flies more?

The low-cost airlines Wizz Air and Ryanair will continue to face tough competition from Vienna in the summer of 2021. A direct comparison of the offer shows, however, that the Hungarian provider is more cautious than the Irish competitor this year.

In July 2021, Ryanair will be offering 246 weekly departures from Vienna Schwechat. At Wizz Air there are significantly fewer, as the carrier sells 128 flights per week. This picture continues in the following months, as can be seen in the table below:

At first glance, this might suggest that Wizz Air may have taken a bit of vigor from the competition. But this is not the case, because both providers are specifically looking for a confrontation. In the last few weeks and months, both low-cost airlines have announced routes that are already being served by the other. Thus the match between Ryanair and Wizz Air continues at Vienna Airport and there was even a kind of “compression” on more and more routes.

Ryanair is planning much more optimistically from Austria's largest airport and also has more aircraft available. According to Lauda Europe boss David O'Brien, 12 Airbus A320s operated by Lauda Europe will be in use in midsummer. There are also three Boeing 737-800s operated by the sister company Buzz for Ryanair. In total, there are 15 aircraft that the Irish group of companies is flying from Vienna.

Wizz Air flies a lot “into Vienna”

The Wizz Air base in Vienna has always been smaller, although the Hungarian competitor also uses machines from other bases. For example, on the routes to Varna and Kiev-IEV, machines are usually used that are stationed outside Vienna. Of course, Ryanair also practices this. For example, Malta Air machines ex Malta are also used on the Luqa route. Another example is Bergamo. The bottom line is that Wizz Air offers fewer flights per week with a maximum of nine planes stationed there.

There are differences in terms of seating capacity, however, because the A321 aircraft, which Wizz is increasingly using again from Vienna, have more seats than the Boeing 737-800 or Airbus A320 used by the competitor.

The following table shows the Vienna plans of the two low-cost airlines and it can also be seen on which routes there are overlaps. There are some differences between the airports, as Ryanair markets Torp as Olso, while Wizz Air actually flies to Oslo. The Hungarian company uses Chopin Airport in Warsaw, while the competitor flies to Modlin. In London, Ryanair uses Stansted Airport and Wizz Air flies to Luton.

A special feature should be pointed out in Rome. Ryanair flies to Ciampino and Fiumicino. The competitor Wizz Air also lists both airports, but only FCO is served from Vienna. In the first booking step of the CIA, there is a small note that this flight will land in Rome-FCO. It remains to be seen why Wizz Air opted for this unusual selection.