Review of Wizz Air flight Lisbon Vienna in Economy

Airline Wizz Air
Flight W62844
Class Economy
Seat 13A
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 02:45
Take-off 04 May 20, 18:55
Arrival at 04 May 20, 22:40
W6   #17 out of 22 Low-cost airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 107 reviews
FConceicao
By 1258
Published on 5th May 2020

Hello Dear Reader, 

This is the report of flight W6 2844 from Lisbon - Humberto Delgado Internacional Airport (IATA: LIS - ICAO: LPPT) to Vienna - Schwechat Internacional Airport (IATA: VIE - ICAO: LOWW) with the low-cost airline Wizz Air Hungary (IATA: W6 - WZZ), in Economy Class.   

It was founded in 2003, by an old CEO of Malev (the former flag-ship carrier of Hungary and bankrupt in 2012) and was initially based in Katowice (Poland) and Budapest (Hungary). The airline is being expanding thru Eastern Europe with 27 bases. They have a Wizz Air in Uk. Previously they had another in Bulgaria and in Ukraine, but were closed in 2015.   

Currently Wizz Air Hungary has 111 airplanes: 69 A320s and 42 A321s (including 8 A321 neo) with an average age of 5,9y old. Only 35 airplanes were reported not to be parked/stored. 

Its filial in UK (IATA: W9 - ICAO: WUK) has 10 airplanes (3 A320s and 7 A321s), just 1 is in operation and the fleet age is 1,6y on average.   

Together they operate for 150 destinations in Europe, North Africa and Middle East.   

In 2019, 34,6 million passengers were carried (a 19,6% increase), received more 19 new airplanes, reported a total revenue of 2,3 billion Euros and a profit margin of 12,7%. 

I booked this flight 2 weeks before, for 15€. I chose the Wizz Air Basic bundle, with only a small carry-on bag is included and online check-in 48h before the flight. This flight was also the second flight from Lisbon to Vienna operated by Wizz Air after the grounding.   

Check my video with the full flight report:  




Departure airport


Lisbon Airport, located in the city and only 5km north of the city center, has 2 departing terminals: T2 for low cost and T1 for all the others. The arrivals are always made at Terminal 1, due to marketing reasons, as the passengers are transferred by bus from the airplane and have to walk through all the restaurants and duty free stores to get to the exit.   

Due to reduction of the traffic the T2 is closed. Lisbon has 2 runways, but one of the shortest was deactivated a couple of years ago and now is used as parking position for the grounded airplanes.   

Last year, 2019, was the 20th largest airport in Europe & a gateway to South America, carried 31,2 million passengers (7,4% increase compared with 2018) and 217.703 movements (an increase of 1,9%).   

The kiss-and-go parking area outside of the departure terminal 1 is currently under construction and the road access to the terminal 2 closed.  



There was a check point at the entry and only passengers were allowed to enter in the terminal, which was quite empty as this was the penultimate flight of the day: The previous was departing when I was arriving at the airport (Lufthansa to Frankfurt) the next one was after 2 hours (operated by Wizz Air UK to London Luton).   

Actually on this day they had another 2 Ryanair flights (one for Dublin and another to London Stansted), Azul to São Paulo, KLM to Amsterdam and TAP Air Portugal to Terceira Island.   

Apart of that, in the public departures area were 3 cafés, the post office and the pharmacy opened.   

The check-in area C & D was also completely empty. This area was previously for TAP Air Portugal Check-in (now is at Area A, right in front of the main entrance of the Terminal 1).  I worked at this airport for 7 years, plus all the travels I have made from Lisbon and I have never remember to see the airport so empty. I remember even during the night time was busier than now. 



The check-in for Wizz Air was at the zone B, desks 30 to 32. As I booked the cheapest fare, the check-in at the airport was not included, otherwise I would have to pay 20€ for it. 

Wizz Air have also sent me some mails with health & safety recommendations to fly during this times.  



Due to the drastic reduction of traffic, the access for the security control was made by the fast track, as the main access (upstairs) was closed. Nobody was at the security so the screening was very fast.   

I proceeded through the Duty-free walking store, which was opened but with only one cashier. All the other stores at the Schengen area of the airport were closed (except another small duty-free located near the passport control/bus gates for arriving passengers). At the food court only a café and McDonald’s were opened.  



Thru the windows was possible to see some Airbus A330s from TAP Air Portugal parked and also stored parked on the previous runway 17/35 and mostly A320Fs parked on apron 60/50/40/30&22. On Apron 20 (in front of Terminal 2) mostly Ryanair B737s.   

Near gate 25 was also some bunks. The pier for Gates 16 to 21 were under construction (including the smoking room), as well the exterior of the terminal. I also noticed a passenger was smoking inside the terminal on a dark corner near the smoking room…

There were also some vending machines located along the airport and boarding gates. Also near gate 14 is possible to buy some small electronics and sim-cards. 



Boarding


The boarding gate for this flight was the number 22, or S-22 (New denomination identifying this is a Schengen Gate)

3 hours before departure, Wizz Air sent me a notification announcing the flight was late and delayed in 15 minutes, due to the late departure in Vienna (occurred 35 minutes after scheduled).   

The airplane from the outbound flight landed at 18h05 (25 later) and arrived at the gate at 18h08. The scheduled rotation time (without delays) is 40 minutes.   

Around 15 passengers left the airplane proceeding from Vienna and the refuelling process started right away. At 18h20 the boarding started, initially with Wizz Air Priority and then the rest of the passengers. I was the last to board at 18h35.  



Flight


This flight was operated by an Airbus A320-232 (fitted with IAE V-2500 engines), Registration HA-LYI, with 5,5 years old and serial number 6352. This low cost operated this flight in full economy class cabin, with a total capacity for 180 passengers in 30 rows (3-3).   


photo unnamed9

This airplane was parked in Debrecen (Hungary) and was ferried to Vienna on Apr/30th. This is a picture from Vienna, right after its arrival, on Apr/30th.


photo a-13

On May/1st this aircraft operated the first passenger flight (after the grounding) to Dortmund and back to Vienna. It was parked on stand F01, after its flight on May/1st, right next to the airplane I flew to Lisbon back on that day. (Picture from Vienna on May/1st) 


photo a-14

As I bought the basic fare, I got a random seat selection during check-in: 7A. There is also the option to choose a seat: 1st row for 24,5€, upfront seats (row 2 to 4) with an extra legroom for 20,5, Front Cabin (row 5 to 11) with prices varying between 17,5€ to 13,5€, the 2 emergency rows for 23,5€, the rear cabin seats from row 14 to 27 for 10€ and the last 3 rows (28 to 30) for 11,5€. The seats also have no reclining function.   

This A320 also had 1 toilet in the front, only for crew, and 2 in the back. 45 passengers were on this flight, which was the second after easing the Corona Virus Mesures.   

When I boarded, the very welcoming crew gave me 2 alcohol pads and asked me to take a seat on the emergency exit so I was reassigned to 13F (Last flight I got the same row but on the left hand side).   

The aircraft pushed-back at 15h47, accomplishing a rotation time of 39 minutes and taxied to the holding point U5 of runway 21.   

Usually the pilots opt to take-off from this position. Apart of a smaller runway length (around 2500m instead of around 3900m from S4) they save time because they won’t need to cross the active runway (now wouldn’t be a problem but when the airport is at normal operation they have to wait usually 5 to 10 minutes to cross the active runway) and taxi all the way to reach the runway threshold.   

The actual departure time was at 18h55, 35 minutes after scheduled departure time (at 18h20). 

Around that time, the speed wind was 26km/h at 220 degrees, visibility more than 10km, few clouds ar 450m and Broken clouds at 600m. The temperature 19 degrees, dew-point 13 and the atmospheric pressure of 1014 mbar.  



4 minutes after take-off, the airplane reached 10.000ft and the captain turned off the seat belt signs.   

30 min after departure, the crew started with the dinning service. On ground, Wizz Air has sent the menu and the duty free shopping offers, because there was no onboard magazine onboard, to contain the Corona Virus’ propagation. Only the safety card and the sickness bag were in the seat pocket.  



They had limited options onboard (no sandwiches and also no pasta Bolognese) so I chicken instant noodles, for 3€.   

There was some slight turbulence during the flight and the captain turned on the seat belt signs for 2 times during 5/10 minutes.   

On this flight, compared with the other I took, was only one dinning service and no duty-free service.  



The crew handed-over an entry form in Austria, where the passengers should fill the name, birth date, ID number, address in Austria, mobile phone & mail. For arriving passengers a statement for a 14 days self quarantine has to be signed. For transit passengers, ensuring they won’t do any layover in Austria.


photo unnamed26

At 22h18 (Local time at Vienna - Plus 1 hour than in Lisbon) the descent have started.     

The aircraft landed on Runway 29 at Vienna Airport at 22h40, 5 before scheduled arrived (at 22h45) and a total flight time of 02h45. 

Then taxied to the stand F03 and arrived there 7 minutes later. Block time: 02h59



Arrival Airport


Wizz Air operates in Terminal 2 (Gates B/C&D) but during this Corona crisis, the T2 was closed (not only for the lack of passengers but also to allow construction works to take place), so this flight was operated in terminal 3 (Gates F) at Vienna International Airport. This airport, located 20km east of Vienna, counts with 2 Terminals and 2 runways. There are future expansion plans for a 3rd runway and now construction works are being made to connect both terminals and also include more shops.   

Last year, 31,7 million passengers were in VIE and more than 266k movements. During March 2020, had a Decrease of 65.8% in Passenger Volume (compared with Mar/2019), a total of 808.454 and -50% of the flights: 10.479.   

The crew asked for the passengers to leave the airplane in groups of 15 and always keep a 1m distance. 

The disembark was made by the airbridge, where 4 police man were. Before, for Schengen flights, the passengers had direct access to the gates F concourse, but due to the regulation of the Ministry of Health, since Mar/20th, all the arriving passengers have to go under a strict control. This mesure was previously until Apr/30th but was extended until May/31st.



So I was redirected to the access to the Non-Schengen flights and around 5 desks were before the passport control. They checked the declaration and informed me I would have do a 14 days self quarantine (like I did before, when I have arrived in Vienna on Mar/20th) or from that day (May/4th) was possible to do a PCR test. In case of positive testing the quarantine doesn’t need to be done.  


photo unnamed31-36792

The airport has a facility, located outside of the main terminal, in the Office Park 3 (5 minutes walking from Terminal 3). A appointment has to be booked previously, costs 190€, are only carried out on people without any symptoms or who haven’t had contact with a potentially infected and the results are sent in 3 hours. For more information please check https://www.viennaairport.com/pcrtest 



After getting all the information and signed the statement, I passed near a temperature scanning machine right after the "Nothing to declare" gate. Right after it a employee from Red Cross was checking my temperature again with a Touchless Forehead Thermometer.


photo unnamed32

After it I passed the luggage carousel, left the airport (10 minutes after in-block) and took a train home. The train station is located right after the exit on a lower floor.   

Thank you very much for browsing through my flight report,
Fábio Conceição   

(Data source: Airfleets.net, Wikipedia.org, Airports and Airline’s Website)



See more

Verdict

Wizz Air

4.2/10
Cabin5.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi0.0
Buy-on-board menu5.0

Lisbon - LIS

6.0/10
Efficiency8.0
Access6.0
Services2.0
Cleanliness8.0

Vienna - VIE

6.5/10
Efficiency8.0
Access8.0
Services2.0
Cleanliness8.0

Conclusion

I was a frequent flyer and was also grounded for almost 1,5 months. I have to say I was a bit excited to fly again but these 2 flights made me very sad to realize the situation at the airports - no passengers and hundreds of airplanes parked, the almost empty flights, all the health and safety measures adopted and also the situation of the economies. I booked this super cheap flight with Wizz Air (30€ round trip) and fulfilled all my expectations. Hope we can fly widely, longer and freely very very soon

Information on the route Lisbon (LIS) Vienna (VIE)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 7 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Lisbon (LIS) → Vienna (VIE).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est TAP Air Portugal avec 7.2/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 3 heures et 14 minutes.

  More information

3 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 553471 by
    EuroAirport68 155 Comments
    Hi,
    thanks for both detailed reports VIE-LIS-VIE. It gives us an idea on what will be aviation in the following months... Such a weird feeling looking at all these planes sitting on the ramp...

    This airplane was parked in Debrecen (Poland)

    FYI Debrecen is actually in Hungary ;)
    • Comment 553479 by
      FConceicao AUTHOR 24 Comments
      Hi, Thank you for your comment! Yes and is very sad to see the way is it taking... If the countries won't ease or lift the measures I am very sure most of the airlines will be bankrupt... how come they can fly with 15 or 40 passengers... Thank you for the correction, my mistake!
  • Comment 553717 by
    ThomasDutch SILVER 633 Comments
    In case of positive testing the quarantine doesn’t need to be done.

    I think you mixed it up here. If you are tested positive, it means you actually have covid haha!
    -
    Also I heard some good news from Wizzair who said that bookings are increasing right now, so hopefully most rumours about aviation will be killed and people will eventually be back in the air... cause it is definitely not fun flying like this.
    -
    Thanks for sharing!

Login to post a comment.