New Route of the Day – Europe (22 July 2021): Wizz Air between Rome FCO and Satu Mare

As part of Wizz Air’s recently open Rome FCO base, the carrier introduced 2-weekly service to Satu Mare in Romania on Thursday 22 July. The inaugural service (flight number W6 8281 operated by an Airbus A320neo registration HA-LJC) departed Rome FCO at 07:04 local time and touched down 98 minutes later in the Romanian city at 09:42. Going forwards, flights are scheduled to operate every Tuesday and Saturday. Wizz Air first started serving Satu Mare from London LTN in October 2016 and is currently offering 2-weekly flights from the UK capital, with the airline’s online booking tool indicating that frequency will increase to 3-weekly in October.

Satu Mare also has direct flights to Bucharest, Frankfurt and Paris

Satu Mare is quite close to the Romanian borders with both Hungary and Ukraine. In 2019, the airport handled over 84,000 passengers. However, this fell to 25,000 last year. HiSky is currently offering flights from Satu Mare to both Frankfurt FRA and Paris BVA, while TAROM offers domestic flights to Bucharest.

Wizz Air has 42% of Romanian market in July

According to Cirium Data and Analytics schedule information for July, Wizz Air accounts for 42% of scheduled seat capacity in Romania, more than twice as much as closest rival Blue Air with 20%. Then comes Ryanair with 12% and flag-carrier TAROM with just 11%. Wizz Air operates from 11 airports in Romania, only operating international services at present.