Wizz cancels Abu Dhabi and immediately Etihad quadruples ticket prices

What happens when an airline, especially a low-cost airline, cancels a route where it was in direct competition with a traditional carrier? simply land countermeasures put in place by the latter in order not to lose market share fail, and the price goes back to being "free".

Let's take a step back

Yesterday, Wizz Air cancelled its direct Milan Abu Dhabi flight., the reasons as explained in the email would seem to be a lack of passengers, or rather an insufficient number of passengers who, 9 months after the route was announced, had bought a ticket to fly aboard the carrier's new A321XLR.

As I had anticipated I also received the cancellation notice, in which of course I do not get an automatic refund, but first you have to receive the credit on the wizz account and from there you have to make explicit request for reimbursement. In the series, we do everything we can to not give you back the money we took right away.

I also received an e-mail apology, I must say that this is the first time I have received it compared to 5 flights that this company has already canceled for me in the last 3 years.

We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of your flight, booked under the reference number XXXXX, as a result of unforeseen changes in market conditions and operational assessments.

Although it was a difficult decision to make, we tried to communicate it as far in advance as possible to minimize any inconvenience or last-minute changes in his travel plans.

We thank you for your trust, loyalty and understanding. We continue to strive to provide you with the lowest fares, safe and reliable service, while guaranteeing you full support to re-book your flight or get a refund easily and worry-free.

Please use the links in our previous email to choose one of the available options to manage your reservation.

In real time Etihad returns to offering market-rate tickets

As we had seen when, again Wizz, canceled the Rome Abu Dhbai last January, this time too the official UAE airline has removed all its countermeasures by bringing prices back to "pre-competition" levels.

The reason is simple to counter the low-cost EY policy had put on sale one-way tickets on the same route at identical prices, if not a few euros cheaper.

When I booked the Wizz flight last week, I had seen Etihad's prices and honestly I had thought, "but why do I have to fly bad when for the same money I can fly EY?" Now the music has completely changed. Now a one-way ticket from the capital of the Emirates costs no less than 600€, whereas before with a little more than 100 you would detach the ticket.

The same is true in the opposite direction, from Milan to Abu Dhabi. If before with 105€ you could find both Wizz and Etihad, now the lowest price is about 450€.

In conclusion

Sure the low-costs offer a basic product, but when they are in direct competition with a traditional carrier then things get interesting for travelers, unfortunately, however, when the low-cost shuts down the flight everything goes back to the way it was before. It is the law of the market: supply/demand, and if the supply is reduced to one operator, it is normal for that operator to decide the price of the bigleitto.