Wizz Air slashes winter schedule at Cardiff airport
James ChappleWizz Air has slashed its winter schedule at Cardiff airport, with all nine of the routes it announced or launched earlier this year set to be suspended – although it has reiterated its long-term commitment to the airport.
Cardiff became Wizz’s fourth UK base in April, with the budget carrier immediately launching routes to Lanzarote, Tenerife, Alicante, Faro, Palma, Larnaca and Crete (Heraklion).
Corfu services got under way in June, with a Sharm el Sheikh route planned from 1 November.
However, all eight operational routes will be suspended from 19 September, Wizz confirmed on Wednesday (10 August). It also listed the planned Sharm route among those to be suspended.
The budget carried said the move to reduce its schedule at Cardiff was necessary "to adapt to the challenging macro-economic climate".
Wizz isn’t abandoning Cardiff altogether, though, promising new winter season flights from 30 October to Milan and Bucharest.
It said the decision to dramatically reduce its winter schedule at Cardiff had been "incredible difficult" and had been made with as much advance notice as possible to minimise last-minute cancellations and to maximise rebooking options for passengers.
Passengers affected by the changes will be informed by email. They will be able to opt for a 120% refund of their original fare in airline credit, a full cash refund, or comparable flights for summer 2023 from Cardiff or this year from one of Wizz’s other bases – Gatwick or Luton.
Wizz pulled out of Doncaster Sheffield airport in June. Cardiff’s chief executive, Spencer Birns, hailed Wizz’s arrival at Cardiff as "a real turning point" for the South Wales airport.
"As a consequence of suspending base operations during the winter months, all Cardiff based employees will be offered redeployment opportunities at other UK airports over the winter," said Wizz, adding it planned to increase operations from Cardiff in spring 2023 as part of its "long-term commitment" to the airport where it has placed its summer 2023 flight schedule on sale.
Marion Geoffroy, Wizz Air UK managing director, said: “We are very disappointed to have to suspend several routes from Cardiff airport for the winter season. Though these routes have proved popular through the summer season, it would not be commercially viable to continue to operate them through this coming winter due to the challenging macro-economic environment. This leaves us with no option but to pause these routes until next spring.
"We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience this will cause customers who already booked flights with us. We are in touch with all affected customers to explain their options.
"We continue to value our close working relationship with Cardiff airport and plan to resume base operations at the airport next year. We have already placed our full Cardiff summer schedule on sale on wizzair.com and are introducing two new winter routes.
"It takes time to build up sustainable operations at any base and we are prepared to build up operations at Cardiff over the long term."
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