Airliners.net

"Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) has confirmed it will start Frankfurt Int'l operations during the upcoming summer season. The Hungarian LCC said in a statement it would connect the Frankfurt gateway with daily return flights to each of Sofia and Budapest effective May 22 and December 15 respectively.

“We are very happy to welcome Wizz Air, Central and Eastern Europe’s largest low-cost airline, here at Frankfurt Airport with flights beginning in May 2017," Winfried Hartmann, Fraport AG’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Service, said. "The decision by Wizz Air also underscores the growing importance of Frankfurt for the low-cost market.”"

More competition in FRA. Only a matter of time until U2 will start as well IMO.

http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/ ... n-mid-2q17

Great news, indeed. I am not too sure with U2 since space in T2 is limited, especially if FR, who already have strong brand recognition in the area due to HHN as opposed to U2 which the flying public has never seen or heard of in the region, and T3 will take some time. Suddenly, it seems T3 can't come soon enough if Lufty won't let them use their sacred halls in T1

Looks like Ryanair and wizz air are looking at more main airports.Legacy airlines probably need to watch out now.

If Ryanair can do this, Wizzair can't stay behind. I guess Hahn is still a bit too far from the city.

The closest airport EasyJet serves from Frankfurt is Stuttgart and that's even further than Hahn, so it would be a logical move for EasyJet to also start flying out of Frankfurt. Out of the big LCCs only Norwegian is further away, closest airport they serve is Cologne-Bonn.

How difficult is it to get slots at FRA?

TheGeordielad wrote:

Looks like Ryanair and wizz air are looking at more main airports.Legacy airlines probably need to watch out now.

Yep. I'd expect that with Easy's planned ops at LHR, The fact that Norwegian has to put those 787s and 321/737-8s somewhere, and the expansion of VY in Paris, the Legacies need to watch themselves.

jimbo737 wrote:

How difficult is it to get slots at FRA?

Present number of movements about 460K, planning permission on Hand is for 701K

Wizz Air is also dropping CGN-SOF and HHN-SOF.

Seems Wizz lost the battle against Ryanair from CGN, despite entering the market sooner.

W6 will fly SOF-FRA daily. Expected that this would mean its 2x weekly HHN-SOF would cease.

Not surprising that it is stopping SOF-CGN. At 2x weekly it couldn't much compete with FR's 7x weekly.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

If Ryanair can do this, Wizzair can't stay behind. I guess Hahn is still a bit too far from the city.

The closest airport EasyJet serves from Frankfurt is Stuttgart and that's even further than Hahn, so it would be a logical move for EasyJet to also start flying out of Frankfurt. Out of the big LCCs only Norwegian is further away, closest airport they serve is Cologne-Bonn.

Either FRA or CGN. CGN would the the easier and cheaper solution.

Pe@rson wrote:

W6 will fly SOF-FRA daily. Expected that this would mean its 2x weekly HHN-SOF would cease.

Not surprising that it is stopping SOF-CGN. At 2x weekly it couldn't much compete with FR's 7x weekly.

True, but it was going to be operated 3x weekly this summer (+ increase in capacity to an A321 almost doubling total capacity) at a time when Ryanair are decreasing to 4x weekly.

It says a lot about Wizz Air's ability to compete head to head, even when they operated the route first and it it involves the Bulgarian market where they are long established and have a far stronger brand recognition (apparently).

PanHAM wrote:

jimbo737 wrote:

How difficult is it to get slots at FRA?

Present number of movements about 460K, planning permission on Hand is for 701K

How is gate availability during peak times? I've heard that is the issue at FRA, but I would be happy to be corrected.

Lightsaber

lightsaber wrote:

PanHAM wrote:

jimbo737 wrote:

How difficult is it to get slots at FRA?

Present number of movements about 460K, planning permission on Hand is for 701K

How is gate availability during peak times? I've heard that is the issue at FRA, but I would be happy to be corrected.

Lightsaber

Its a serious issue and most short haul carriers in T2 also now use exclusively bus gates.

LTenEleven wrote:

True, but it was going to be operated 3x weekly this summer (+ increase in capacity to an A321 almost doubling total capacity) at a time when Ryanair are decreasing to 4x weekly.

It says a lot about Wizz Air's ability to compete head to head, even when they operated the route first and it it involves the Bulgarian market where they are long established and have a far stronger brand recognition (apparently).

I believe the difference is in the hand luggage policy. Ryanair allows large hand luggage for free, Wizzair doesn't. This gives Ryanair the upper hand. If Wizzair would also allow large hand luggage for free they'd be more competitive.

Well, it is highly likely that Wizzair will park at remote stands. Bus gates are available. Turnaround times can be kept by including the taxi times into flight Duration and bus the cattle to the stand once the inbound cattle has emptied the aircraft. Open the bus doors when Boarding is ready and if it takes 10 minutes wait, be that so. There is no time consuming cargo and no transfer luggage. That way, 25 Minute turn arounds can be made possible.