Why Wizz Air should consider Newcastle

Wizz Air are one of the most ambitious airlines in Europe, starting out in Eastern Europe and serving a 'Visiting Friends and Relatives' market, to expanding in Western Europe and serving leisure-orientated routes. In 2020, Wizz Air announced 2 new bases in the UK - Doncaster/Sheffield and London Gatwick, with a third, Cardiff, launching in June 2021. This has taken Wizz Air to 4 bases across the UK and a total of 11 airports served. Yet one region is mysteriously absent from Wizz Air's expansion - North East England.

Newcastle is the 11th busiest airport in the UK and 2nd busiest in the UK outside of London without a Wizz Air route (after Manchester). In 2019, the airport served approximately 5.2 million passengers with some of its busiest routes including Alicante, Tenerife and Malaga within the top 10 from the airport. The Newcastle catchment also stretches a wide area - including Scotland, North East England and Yorkshire, making it a lucrative market for any airline.

In August 2020, easyJet announced the close of 3 of its 11 UK bases - London Southend, London Stansted and Newcastle. Newcastle remained part of its network with domestic flights from Belfast International and Bristol, with Faro resuming in Summer 2021. However, Newcastle no longer has a base for a low cost carrier - with Jet2, Loganair and TUI being the only airlines to base at the North East airport. This leaves an opportunity for Wizz Air, which has surprisingly not taken the opportunity - yet.

easyJet served predominantly leisure destinations from Newcastle including Corfu, Nice and Split. Whilst Ryanair serves some leisure routes such as Alicante, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca, the full extent of easyJet's offering has yet to be picked up. With available stand capacity and unserved leisure routes - it seems an ideal airport for Wizz Air.

Wizz Air has been expanding its leisure offering from several UK airports. This includes flights to Greece, Portugal, Spain and Turkey from its four bases as well as Larnaca from Birmingham and Bourgas from Liverpool. This shows intent for growth and has been reported to be looking at opportunities to base additional aircraft at its existing bases.

So why has Wizz Air not launched flights to Newcastle?

Doncaster/Sheffield is Wizz Air's second largest base with two based aircraft and 25 routes. The airport is approximately 2hr drive to the south of Newcastle and has an overlapping catchment area. Wizz Air may not want to compromise the integrity and growth potential of its existing base by launching a new base in close proximity.

Teesside Airport also provides a problem for Newcastle. The airport is growing in destinations with a Loganair now basing two aircraft at the airport and Ryanair offering four destinations in Summer 2021. With new routes and growth potential, Newcastle has to battle with Teesside for flights in a similar catchment area, leading to increased competition between the airports. Whilst this is good for passengers, it could lead to unprofitable deals for airports, which is unsustainable in the long term. Newcastle may want to keep a certain profit margin and to do this, has to be selective in which deals it offers which airlines.

Newcastle also has nine routes with Ryanair, a major competitor to Wizz Air including some of the most popular leisure destinations from the catchment area. Furthermore, the former easyJet network has been largely replaced with routes from Jet2, Loganair, Ryanair and TUI with only 2 routes remaining unserved - Nice and Split. This provides a problem for Wizz Air as any route they decide to launch could face competition from other airlines.

Is there potential for Wizz Air at Newcastle?

Only 1 airport in the UK (Cardiff) became a base without a previous Wizz Air presence. From this, Newcastle could look into attracting Wizz Air with some away-based flights. Bucharest, Katowice, Sofia and Warsaw Chopin are some of the largest bases for Wizz Air and all are unserved from Newcastle. These four destinations could provide an opportunity for Wizz Air to grow a brand recognition in the Newcastle catchment and test the waters to see if further flights are viable from the area. Additionally, Wizz Air has a strong brand in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania which would help grow further routes in the UK for inbound passengers visiting friends and relatives.

How likely are Wizz Air to enter Newcastle?

That is difficult to answer. However, they have added Cardiff in 2021 to their network and 24 other airports across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The airline is also set to receive dozens of planes over the next few years showing a desire to grow its operations around Europe. This could lead the airline to come to Newcastle but nothing is a given with aviation, especially in the current climate.

Photo: https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/about-us/press-office/aircraft
Photo: https://mediacentre.easyjet.com/content-files