Wizz Air has boosted its South-eastern and Eastern European network out of Germany’s city of Hamburg to a total of nine destinations. The airline has found its niche in Hamburg by offering flights exclusively to the former communist bloc.

An Eastern and South-eastern European portfolio

Wizz Air has found its niche in Hamburg by offering flights exclusively to destinations in the former communist bloc in Europe. This niche allows Wizz to be the airline of choice for migrants and their families flying back and forth between Germany and their countries of origin.

In contrast, Ryanair, Wizz Air’s main ULCC competitor in Europe, flies an extensive network from Hamburg to Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Croatia, with just one Polish city on offer. Ryanair’s network out of Hamburg is mainly a holiday portfolio.

Ryanair Boeing 737-800 Landing
Ryanair has had a big impact in Zagreb after setting up a base last year. Photo: Getty Images

A new route from Hamburg

Earlier this month, Wizz Air launched a new route from Hamburg (HAM) in Germany to Cluj-Napoca / Klausenburg (CLJ) in Romania. The two-weekly service operates as follows:

  • Flight W6 3377 leaves Cluj at 06:30 on Sundays and at 12:55 on Wednesdays to arrive in Hamburg two hours later
  • Flight W6 3378 leaves Hamburg at 08:25 on Sundays and 14:55 on Wednesdays to arrive in Cluj just over two hours later

On Sundays, the operating aircraft is an Airbus A321, and on Wednesdays it is the A320, and both are from Wizz Air’s Cluj base.

Commenting on the launch of this new route earlier this month, Gesa Zaremba, Head of Airline and Traffic Development at Hamburg Airport, said (translated):

“Cluj is one of the most important cultural, economic, and scientific centers in Romania. We are very pleased that Wizz Air is now flying to this exciting destination from Hamburg Airport and is thus expanding its range of services to Eastern and South-eastern European destinations.”

Wizz Air
The daily service will launch just in time for the Winter season. Photo: Getty Images

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Other Wizz Air routes on offer

Out of Hamburg, along with Cluj, Wizz Air has the following routes on offer:

This network of VFR routes out of Hamburg gives Wizz Air a total of 25 weekly departures from Hamburg airport.

Currently, on most of these routes, Wizz does not have any competition at all. Only two routes have direct competition year-round: Gdansk in Poland from Ryanair and Bucharest in Romania from Blue Air. The route from Hamburg to Varna in Bulgaria also has direct competition seasonally from Eurowings.

Another route has direct city-pair competition but not airport-pair competition: SkyUp of Ukraine flies to Kyiv / Kiev but not to Zhuliany Airport (IEV) like Wizz Air but to Boryspil Airport (KBP).

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