News: Wizz Air to axe flights from Coventry
Flights > News > # 1862 (18/08/2008)
Wizz Air is scrapping its flights from Coventry to Katowice next month due to poor ticket sales.
The no-frills airline will stop the route on September 15, just over a year after the service was launched. Wizz Air have already cancelled flight to another Polish city, Gdansk, from Coventry earlier this year.
Wizz Air’s exit from Coventry means that budget carrier Thomsonfly is now the only airline offering flights from the West Midlands airport.
A Wizz Air spokesman said: “The trends are changing and the demand for city breaks is on the increase, while the trends towards working in the UK are in decline.”
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In the grand scheme of things, an airline scrapping a single route, which only operates three times each week, does not seem like that much of a big deal, but it will be a serious blow to Coventry airport, who are now reliant on having flights operated by just one airline - Thomsonfly. With the airport embroiled in a legal battle with the Government over its plans to build a new terminal, relying on just one airline customer has to put Coventry in an extremely precarious situation.
Meanwhile, Wizzair's statement about demand for city breaks rising against the backdrop of falling demand for migrant labour flights sounds like a rather lame excuse for cancelling a route in the face of increased competition from rival airlines. Katowice serves as an alternative airport for Krakow, which is a prime example of the emerging city break destinations Wizzair have consistently claimed are becoming more popular. If Wizzair can't make their flights to Katowice work, how come other Midlands-based airlines such as Ryanair (East Midlands to Krakow), and BmiBaby (Birmingham to Krakow) can? Price is unlikely to be a major factor here, as Wizzair have one of the lowest cost bases in the industry, but it was never going to be easy to market just one route from Coventry - a problem which Ryanair and BmiBaby don't have to worry about, as both airlines have substantial bases in East Midlands and Birmingham.
Airlines always love to blame economic conditions or rising oil prices for their decision to stop routes, but this looks like as clear a case as any of survival of the fittest.
