It did not stop at 99 kroner.
Next week, Hungarian Wizz Air will start its Norwegian domestic routes. Initially, the company announced with the shock price NOK 199 on all the new routes. Later, the price was adjusted down to 99 kroner on a number of departures.
On Wednesday morning, the price of several of the new Norwegian routes has been reduced to NOK 49, reports flysmart24.no. The company believes they will be able to sell 10,000 tickets in Norway at this price.
– Wizz Air will test how competitors and the market react to such ultra-low prices, says aircraft analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs in the company WinAir to flysmart24.
– Do not ignore the fact that there will be tickets for a tier! In any case, Wizzair has 55 percent of its revenues other than ticket sales, Terje Berge, commercial director of Finn Reise, commented to Nettavisen on Tuesday.
Also read: The former Ryanair director praises the award to Wizz Air in Norway
Tromsø, Ålesund and Bodø
Last week, Wizz Air announced new routes from Oslo to Bodø and Ålesund, among other places. Departures start one week before Christmas. These were initially priced at NOK 99, and later rose to NOK 300-400.
It is these routes that are now being sold for a meager fiver.
This also applies to flights from Trondheim to Stavanger, Tromsø and Bodø, respectively, reports flysmart24.no.
Aircraft analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs, who himself has extensive experience from a marketing manager job at Rynair, pointed out to Nettavisen last weekend that when the tickets can be so cheap, it is because the low-cost airlines put the entire marketing budget into the pricing.
He also reckons that there will be airline tickets for a decade eventually, but does not think that the competitor Norwegian will follow the challenger so far down in price.
Also read: Sissener thinks Norwegian is going overboard: – The money is flowing out
Turns off 2000 kroner on the tickets
However, as Nettavisen wrote on Tuesday, Wizz Air’s price stunt has already had a major effect on competitors SAS and Norwegian.
The low-cost company’s offensive pricing has triggered a price slump among the Norwegian competitors, which have cut several routes by NOK 2,000 from one week to the next.
SAS and Norwegian have reduced the price of all routes where Wizz Air will start flying. The result is a sharp increase in ticket purchases.
– We already see that Wizz Air has stimulated bookings. There will be more and more planes and prices will stay low for a while, says Terje Berge.
Elnæs believes that many who otherwise would not have been able to afford to fly, now buy tickets, and that the low-price shock in this way contributes to expanding the market
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