A rash of connections from Abu Dhabi to Poland – Wizz Air and Air Arabia will bring Emirates closer to us
Wizz Air is expanding very rapidly in Abu Dhabi more flights to our region
For several years, Wizz air has announced the dynamic development of its subsidiary in Abu Dhabi. Pandemic has slowed down these plans somewhat, but now they are slowly materializing. Every few months we get announcements of more connections to our region. Flights to Kiev or Belgrade have already been announced. And the most recent, in August, announcement concerns connections to Sarajevo and Tirana.
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is thus coming with its offer to Poland. It should be remembered that in the past, a flight from Abu Dhabi to Katowice, has already replaced operations to Dubai. Certainly, Wizz Air analysts see an increase in demand for the emirates in Central Europe. We are seeing this in both airline ticket sales and hotel bookings.
A strong player in hotel offerings for agents RateHawk signaled this super trend some time ago, and it has accelerated even more recently. Could Wizz Air be tempted to add more flights, from Poland to Abu Dhabi. There is certainly an opportunity for this, especially when it comes to regional airports. Wroclaw and Gdansk seem to be ideal candidates.
In the case of Warsaw, much will depend on whether LOT decides to stay in Dubai beyond March 2022. If it resigns, a Hungarian carrier will easily jump in its place.
Air Arabia is getting into the game, and here, too, regional airports could benefit
Air Arabia has been looking at the Polish market for several years now, successes in operating from Prague and Kiev made it seem obvious to enter Poland. However, a major opportunity has been slept through, and operating from Warsaw now seems unlikely.
However, strategic changes and expansion of the Abu Dhabi-based airline’s offerings open up new opportunities. It seems that a connection from Abu Dhabi to Poland makes much more sense than the one once planned from Sharjah. In addition, Air Arabia, unlike Wizz Air, can offer connecting flights, both on Etihad’s network and its own, operated under the Air Arabia banner.
The latter includes a few flavors, such as Oman, Nepal and Uzbekistan. As with Wizz Air, Air Arabia may rather choose a regional airport for its first destination in Poland. Business logic points to Wroclaw. This Polish airport would give the airline synergy with Prague, which has been in operation for several years now.
We are waiting for specifics, it seems that the opening of the connection of a line relatively little known in Poland must take place well in advance. In this case, it could be expected in early 2022 at the earliest.
Abu Dhabi’s big investment plans will attract both business and tourism
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi signaled its ambitions very strongly at this year’s Berlin Travel Fair, where we were able to attend several sessions treating its plans. Planned infrastructure investments are truly impressive, will surely translate into increased tourist traffic.
And there is no shortage of efforts to bring international talent and start-ups from many industries to the emirate. The golden visa project is to be further improved in terms of making it more accessible and attractive. Emirate will also certainly proceed to promote the idea of Workation, hotels in the region already have this type of offer on their websites.
Abu Dhabi is now launching the Tourism 365 project – sends a clear signal
The agency responsible in the emirate for promoting m.In. tourism i.e. Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company – has just announced the launch of the Tourism365 project. It is supposed to be a tool for generating tourist traffic. Its participants already went to visit key markets in early August, including m.in. Germany and Czech Republic.
It is worth noting that the project was headed by experienced manager Roula Jony. Formerly associated with German giant FTI. It’s also a sign that Abu Dhabi authorities are taking the competition for tourists coming from our region extremely seriously. Certainly, for the realization of tourist and business ambitions, the availability of air connections is crucial.
The failed project to invest in Air Berlin, or Aitalia, will prompt decision-makers to move in the low-cost direction. The expansion of Wizz Air and Air Arabia seems to confirm this very scenario. In addition, the latter airline can also bring passengers on long routes to Australia or South Asia /Africa to Etihad.
The market for air connections from Poland to Emirates is shaping up to be an interesting competition. We can see that Fly Dubai, whose narrow-body aircraft can more easily fight low-cost competitors than Emirates’ machines, is also getting ready to do so. Perhaps Fly Dubai will soon want to outdo its competitors by adding more cities to its network in Poland, here Gdańsk and Wrocław also seem to be natural choices.