AIBU to be stunned how Wizz Air can do this?

[KateW1989]

Hi all,
I’m quite interested in hearing for anyone who knows how airport service charges work.

I purchased a return flight between Gatwick and Athens from Wizz Air for just £31 RETURN.

Now what I just cannot understand is this.

I searched for the same route on the on British Airways Fare Calculator, and was presented with the following information.

“
Adult 1
Item Price of item
Fare £82.00
Carrier imposed charge £18.00
Air Passenger Duty - United Kingdom £13.00
Passenger Service Charge - United Kingdom £21.79
Airport Development Charge - Greece £10.30
Passenger Terminal Facility Charge - Greece £13.70
Passenger Security Charge - Greece £4.30”

The fare BA would charge was over £163

Now, I assume that BA can’t just be the only airline that has to pass these charges onto their passengers.

Yet I just DO NOT understand how on earth Wizz Air can make a profit based on charging £31 for a return flight?!?

The Air Passenger Duty is surely mandatory, so that’s £13 + €12. Let’s say that’s about £22.

Do Wizz Air passengers also have to pay the £21.79 ‘Pssenger Servive Charge’ to Gatwick Airport? Or the Greek (Athens) Airport charges (totalling over £28). If so, Wizz Air would be LOSING £40 on taking me to Athens and back.

It just does not make sense to me.

Are budget airlines exempt from the same airport charges as legacy carriers such as BA, or have they negotiated a lower rate? Do budget airlines pay the same level of Air Passenger Duty as airlines such as BA?

If so, how can they survive?

Loads of businesses sell goods or services that they lose money on as advertising.

We once got return tickets to Lanzarote for £30. Apparently the taxes on that route are £26, leaving £4 to pay for the actual flight.

A return bus ticket to the town 2 miles from our house costs more than £4 return

How do you mean by advertising?

I just don’t get how they can survive if they have to pay all of these fees to the airports as well as government taxes when their fares are so low?!

@BarbaraofSeville And then there would be airport fees too it seems. I just don’t get how budget airlines can survive.

I'd pay more and fly a better airline.

I hate flying it's so tiring.

And wizz air is the shittest airline.

I wouldn't p on them if they were on fire 🔥.

I understand @R4R1 , but that doesn’t answer my question as to do they have to pay the same taxes and airport charges on the same routes as airlines such as BA ??

I've flown on a variety of airlines from Ryanair to BA/KLM and it seems a much of a muchness, in shorthaul economy at least. And price doesn't always correlate with the level of service or comfort, as the £700 return flight in a tiny turbo prop would attest, not my money in that case, I hasten to add.

Is there any public document that shows the airport fees that Gatwick charges? I’m curious to know as to whether Wizz need to pay the same as BA.

it doesn’t make sense to me. They are meant to be an airline, not a charity.

Flights are different prices on different dates

Each airline is different

You can see this info on Sky scanner

Some airlines charge extra for luggage, reserve seats etc

@RydelikeaViking But that’s what I paid. I did not take any bags. Bags are not taxed but departing passengers are, so surely Wizz would have had to pay all the charges. In this case, did they lose £40 on my booking?

Of course, some people pay a lot more than the £30 fares, and I think they hope people will spend money on food, drink, scratchcards, perfume etc while on the flight, although we rarely do.

I think they look at it on the basis of the whole plane, they make the most money when it is full, and it seems that they make more money with some people paying £30 and some paying £700, than they would if they charged everyone £250.

An acquaintance had a job with a fancy title, 'revenue maximisation consultant' or similar and her job was to set the ticket prices to make the most money for the airline for each flight. So if tickets were selling well she put the prices up, but not too much, and if they hadn't sold as many as they'd hoped, she'd put them down.

@BarbaraofSeville Wow - as if anyone has paid Wizz Air £700 for a return to Athens… Surely this level of stupidity doesn’t exist?!

Maybe the charges vary by time of day. Airlines have 'slots' and maybe the popular slots cost the airline more than the ones very early in the morning or late at night.

Airport gets a lot of money from BA for the popular slots and then sells off the ones that BA don't want cheaply to the likes of Wizz Air. So they get some money for them and Wizz Air can pass the saving onto their passengers who accept a less convenient time because the flight is cheaper.

Your associating a British airways experience with a Wizz air experience and they are different. Cheaper airlines keep costs low using the following methods:

Cheaper flight times (not using peak times)
Terminal and gate allocation (which is why you usually have to use stairs for these airlines)
Overage charges (all those little charges that your not expecting such as printing boarding pass, amending a name etc)
No expensive lounges
Flyin to cheaper airports or taking slots at airports that are unfulfilled.
Negotiation with airports for cheaper rates.
Planes are cheap - no fancy decor, no mealtimes (generally) no free snacks
They tend to bulk purchase cheap aircraft (such as A320s) and cram the max no of seats

Sometimes these cheap flights are planes that just need to be moved to do another route so rather than fly empty they maximise their revenue

However LCA operate on tight margins generally, in my previous job i spent 10 years negotiating with the likes of Easyjet, ryanair etc

They pay the same fees and taxes as anyone else. Cheap flights are a loss leader. They advertise them for all they can. But they'll only sell a few at that price. The vast majority will be sold for far more.

Ryanair are the same, a few cheap flights. The majority will be normally priced.

Google 'loss leader'

Each airline negotiates fees with the airport. The airport charges different amounts for different services.

Ever wondered why Ryanair flights leave from the furthest away gate? It's more expensive to use the ones close to the terminal. That's why Ryanair don't use air bridges. It's cheaper if you only use the steps.

Wizard overbooks their flights. You may turn up at the airport in good time and be refused place on your flight, with an offer to fly later that day or the next day, theyboffer some voucher as a good will gesture. Many people experienced it from them this year.

@talknomore Hmm, surely overbooking is a terrible idea. Wouldn’t that leave them wide open to expensive EU261 claims if the passengers were delayed over three hours?

You're not taking into account that some people might find that they have to book last minute flights and have no other option (e.g. for a funeral). Maybe not literally the 700 pound example, but something in the range of 300-400 return seems realistic.

Only some airports have 'slots' (Heathrow is one), and early morning is peak time for many airports.
Fees are agreed between the airline and the airport. That's part of the reason Ryanair are everywhere, and also why they drop destinations after a season or two when the cheap deal ends.
It's likely Wizzair are paying less at that particular airport than BA, but it's also likely that Wizzair won't be flying out of there in a few years time, but BA will.

Just take the cheap fare and don't worry about it so much.

If you want to travel to Athens (or Warsaw) that's the only two routes I looked at for Christmas, there's return flights around £550 going out on 22/23 December and coming back early January, so if someone wanted to visit relatives for Christmas for example and hadn't yet booked, that's what they'd have to pay.

When Monarch went bust 2 days before we were due to fly with them, we had to get new flights to save our holiday. Luckily I had the time, forethought and available credit card to book flights just as the news was breaking and they still cost about £400 each to Mallorca (we got the money back from the credit card as section 75 protection). A few hours later when there were thousands of other people looking for new flights, a return to Europe was over £1000 pp.

Yup. It's just a risk they take. They weigh up the increased income from selling seats twice against the costs of compensating passengers if they are bumped.

An awful lot of airlines do this and not just the cheap ones. The only airline I know of that doesn't is bizarrely Ryanair.

No idea how co.plaint system works with Wizzair flying out of UK airport. I will not be flying with them after reading so many distressing stories.

It'll be a lead price, the rest of the tickets will be more and will subside yours. It's so they can say 'return from £31' and hook people in, then charge more. And you've not brought bags or paid additional fees that others will.