Wizz Air has reopened its summer base at Burgas, on the Bulgarian Black Sea. The base at Burgas, which opened last year, is one of a handful of airports at which European carriers station aircraft and crew for a few months in the summer to capture peak season demand. Indeed, Burgas is an extraordinarily summer-seasonal airport, with the vast majority of passengers between June and September.
What's happening?
At 08:04 on June 15th, Wizz Air flight W64211 left Burgas bound for Poznan. The departure saw the official reopening of a base that began on June 10th, 2021, and ended for the summer on September 12th.
Operating the flight was HA-LYZ, a four-year-old A320 and the only aircraft it stations at Burgas. Flightradar24 shows the aircraft positioned empty from Budapest, arriving at 07:14 and departing 50 minutes later to Poland.
On that first day, HA-LYZ flew Burgas-Poznan-Burgas-Eindhoven-Burgas-London Gatwick-Burgas. By stretching the operating day, it had a block time of almost 18 hours, an enormous amount, especially with six sectors.
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Wizz Air at Burgas: a summary
Burgas has been part of Wizz Air's network for years. Its first route was in May 2006 from (you guessed it) London Luton. Burgas is one of four airports the ULCC serves in Bulgaria, joining Sofia (a big Wizz Air base), Varna, and Plovdiv.
According to OAG, Wizz Air has 301,592 seats for sale from Burgas this summer, 44% more than its previous record and well over double what it had in pre-coronavirus summer 2019 (S19).
Its network spans 16 routes, as shown in the map above, up from just four in S19, not all operated by Burgas aircraft. Luton has twice as many seats for sale as number-two, Warsaw Chopin. Luton sees a 1x daily service, while most others are the standard 2x to 3x weekly.
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Not all plane sailing
Of course, there will always be 'route churn,' reflecting route experimentation, driven by the need to grow, airport deals (and the need to ensure they're met), and aircraft availability. For example, neither Liverpool nor Doncaster are now served, while Turku, in Finland, was pulled from sale.
Doncaster used Wizz Air UK aircraft, and the route's end was partly the consequence of its Doncaster base closing and many routes ceasing. Still, the UK CAA shows that it carried just 2,298 passengers last year for a seat load factor (SLF) of just 38%. Of course, that abysmal performance was influenced by coronavirus restrictions, which led to a stop-and-start approach. The route began briefly in May 2021 but was postponed until late July. It all, it barely operated for two months.
Liverpool had a seat load factor of just 56%, obviously also partly from restrictions. However, Wizz Air's Liverpool-Varna remains, despite a similar SLF to Burgas last year. A crucial difference is that Varna has history: it was introduced in S19 and in 2019 achieved 88%. It performed well enough overall, including by fares, in that normal year to warrant still being served versus what else could be done with the aircraft.
Are you flying Wizz Air this summer? If so, let us know where you're flying in the comments.