Wizz Air toend three Cork services Aviation

Cork Airport suffered a blow yesterday with the news that Hungarian low- cost carrier Wizz Air is to cease three of its services from the airport to Eastern Europe.

The Irish Times has learned that Wizz Air will pull out of its routes from Cork to Warsaw and Wroclaw in Poland and Vilnius in Lithuania from January 13th.

The airline currently flies to six destinations in Europe. It will continue to operate services from Cork to Gdansk, Poznan and Katowice in Poland.

Informed sources said Wizz Air's decision was due to a drop in load factors on the routes following the launch of similar services by Ryanair in November.

In October Wizz Air was reaching load levels of 80 per cent or more on the three routes; this dropped to below 70 per cent in some cases since the arrival of competition from Ryanair.

Wizz Air has built up a considerable business between Cork and Eastern Europe, carrying 80,000- 90,000 passengers per annum. Last August, launching Ryanair's new services from Cork, deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said Ryanair's prices would be 50 per cent cheaper than Wizz Air.

"People here are being ripped off at the moment," said Mr Cawley.

Wizz Air was offering one-way tickets to Warsaw and Vilnius from €19.99.

Mr Cawley strongly denied that Ryanair was simply seeking to take out Wizz Air on its Cork to Poland and Lithuania routes.