Wizz Air, the airline that knows not transparency?
For those who like to analyze low cost business model, Wizz Air is a great example. However with no traffic figures and no financial results to look at, you’ll quickly understand that trying to gage the future of Wizz Air is no easy task. Nonetheless, this airline is an interesting case, as it is one very close to that of Ryanair. Indeed, few airlines have explored to such lengths the low cost model philosophy. Obviously, Ryanair is the one truest “pure player” among low cost companies. South West, even with its original model, is far from having a pure player strategy. In Europe, only Ryanair and Wizz Air are pure players. EasyJet, Transavia or Vueling are half way between being pure players and regular airlines.
What about business opportunities?
Is Wizz Air’s model viable? Hard to answer, precisely because we have no data. Wizz Air’s business is mainly focused on Eastern and Western European countries. Its networks clearly spans across Eastern European countries. Is this a good strategy? Once more, it’s hard to tell, but I doubt that this strategy will be successful. In fact, if you take a look at SkyEurope’s business model, it is clear that this East-West strategy did not work. Why you ask? Because Ryanair or EasyJet could easily operate these routes too, all the while having a larger network of bases with to work with. Indeed, Ryanair considerably increased its number of routes towards Estern European, always seeking the most profitable routes in the area. Will Wizz Air follow in Sky Europe’s footsteps to its demise?
The lastest figures we got from the airline revealed by a Budapest journal said the airline was largely in deficit. In November 2009, the airline would have accumulated a debt of €78 million. Worse, an online Czech paper, Napi Gazdaság, said the company never managed to turn a profits in its five years of operation!
While waiting to obtain more information, we can observe that Wizz Air is massively developing its routes out of Romania. According to a recent article, the Eastern European airline carried 1.6M passengers last years out of Romania, and hopes to globally carry 10M passengers through Europe by the end of the FY10.
Comments
3 Responses to “Wizz Air, the airline that knows not transparency?”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[...] of Wizzair. how the airline, followed a very “pure player” developmental model, but was plagued with shady communication, inexistant traffic figures and financial difficulties? Well, I must admit, in spite of my pessimistic outlook on the airline two years ago, it’s [...]
-
[...] airlines are not usually the best at corporate communication. Granted, some of the driving concepts behind their business can be quite hard to pass on to [...]
Topping blog I salute )!