Wizz Air has removed what was to be its longest route. It had planned to launch Milan Malpensa to Abu Dhabi with the A321neo this July, covering 2,932 miles (4,719 km) – about the same distance as Boston to Dublin. Using Milan-based aircraft and crew, it had a block time of 7h 20m back to Italy.

Now it has been cut, presumably from insufficient forward bookings and what else it could do with the aircraft. It was not too far, duration-wise, from what it said it plans with its incoming A321XLRs. Moreover, the XLR has the added benefit of enabling a higher payload for longer, even over the A321LR, let alone the standard neo.

Wizz Air removes Milan-Abu Dhabi

Expected to have started on July 24th and operated daily, it was scheduled as follows, with all times local:

• Milan Malpensa to Abu Dhabi: W67060, 10:50-19:25 (6h 35m)
• Abu Dhabi to Milan Malpensa: W67061, 20:10-01:30+1 (7h 20m)

To reduce costs, European ULCCs very rarely overnight crews, instead returning to base at night. It is probable that Wizz Air would not have overnighted its crew either. That is despite the very long crew duty time in relation to legal flight limitations, which seems would have left little room for a delay, especially with a 45-minute turn of a 239-seat A321neo.

Four flights a day

As you can see from the schedule, it was likely that the operating aircraft would have had a short roundtrip service in the morning, before switching crew to operate to/from the UAE. If so, the first crew shift would have been suboptimal by length, in particular, unless something else could have been done.

Stay aware: Sign up for my weekly new routes newsletter.

The aircraft would have operated four flights a day rather than the usual (and ideal) six-plus, a crucial aspect of productivity. It is typically achieved by ULCCs by aiming for routes of between one and two hours in duration. This is the 'sweet spot' as it helps to increase flights per day, growing passengers, ancillary revenue opportunities from that higher volume, and overall revenue per day.

However, four flights per day is standard and reasonable when involving longer routes, especially if the first crew shift is of a reasonably decent length. That said, for shorter-haul airlines, aircraft productivity tends to be more important.

Four flights would be offset by higher block hours (another aspect of aircraft productivity), higher sector fare revenue, and more ancillary revenue from longer flights, albeit from a smaller number of daily passengers.

Wizz Air's longest routes in July

Given Milan-Abu Dhabi is no more, what are Wizz Air's longest routes this July? The below schedule includes all the group's airlines, Wizz Air Hungary, UK, Malta, and Abu Dhabi, using Cirium data. As of May 5th, the top five longest, by distance, are as follows:

What is the longest (U)LCC flight you've been on? Let us know in the comments.