Wizz Air has backtracked on its announcement to launch a new route from Abu Dhabi to Milan Malpensa, which was scheduled to take off on 2 June with daily flights.
“The route would not be sustainable”
In a brief statement, the Hungarian low-cost airline recently announced that “Due to unexpected changes in market conditions and operational considerations, we have taken the difficult decision to suspend the launch of our new Abu-Dhabi-Milan Malpensa route.” The launch was announced last September in Milan by Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi, who now states: “Although we were excited to offer this service to our customers, careful analysis has determined that, at this time, it would not be sustainable. We remain committed to exploring future opportunities in line with customer demand and our strategic objectives.”
Competition from Etihad Airways
The blame therefore lies with the low number of tickets sold on the route and the fact that not many passengers seem to be willing to spend almost six hours sitting in the cramped seats of an ultra-low-cost airline. It also probably lies with the fierce competition that the announcement had triggered with the only other direct connection between Abu Dhabi and Milan Malpensa which is operated by the Gulf carrier Etihad Airways.
The ball is now in Wizz Air’s court
Etihad was not caught unprepared, choosing to modify (in other words, lower) its fares, at least for the time being, in order to discourage Wizz Air's ambitions on the route. This strategy seems to have proved the Emirati airline right. Wizz Air now needs to decide whether the idea of using an A321Xlr aircraft for long-haul flights is the right type of plane to put on routes of this type given that the Hungarian low-cost airline was also planning to open a route from Europe to India with the same aircraft.
