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#1 Bucharest, and I got the Wizz call three weeks after my assessment and the base allocation was Cluj, not Bucharest, which I did not expect and which the Romanian crew told me is the better allocation. I am in training now and I have asked the Cluj and Iași and Timișoara crew what the regional Romanian bases are, because the Bucharest thread exists and the regional ones do not.
The bases
Cluj (the Transylvanian city, the IT hub, a big Wizz base with the Italy, Spain, Germany and UK routes), Iași (the eastern city, the Moldova border, the Italy and Spain diaspora routes to the Romanian workers), Timișoara (the western city, the Germany and Italy routes), Sibiu, Craiova, Suceava, Bacău (smaller, seasonal in parts, the diaspora routes). All A320 family, all Romanian crew mostly, all growing.
The diaspora routes
The Romanian diaspora in Italy and Spain is enormous and the regional bases fly it: Cluj and Iași and Timișoara to Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, full year round with the workers going and coming. The winter at the regional Romanian bases is kinder than Warsaw's and comparable to Bucharest's, because the diaspora does not stop in January. The crew on the Italy routes know the passengers by name.
Why the regional bases promote fastest
Smaller crew rooms, growing fleets, and the seniors leaving for Bucharest or the Gulf or Western Europe: the regional Romanian bases have seniors at two years and line trainers at four, faster than Bucharest. The crew who want the fast promotion ask for Cluj or Iași. The ones who want the capital ask for Bucharest and wait longer.
The regional life
Cluj is a university city with the IT money and the rent rising, the crew in the centre or near the airport. Iași is cheaper and quieter with the Moldovan crew as a specific group (Moldovan Romanian speakers with EU passports through the Romanian citizenship route are a large share of the Iași base). Timișoara is the western city with the German influence. All three are home for the crew from the region and a surprise for the Bucharest crew who were allocated there.
What the crew told me
That the Cluj allocation is a gift: the fast promotion, the Italy routes, the city. That the Bucharest crew who were sent to the regions mostly stayed. That the regional bases are the Wizz Romania growth and the Bucharest base is the established one. And that the Romanian crew community across the bases is one community that meets at the Bucharest training centre.
For the Romanian applicants
Put the regional bases on the form. Cluj for the speed and the city, Iași for the rent and the Moldovan community, Timișoara for the west. The allocation to a regional base is not a demotion. It is the fast door.
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#2 Wizz Budapest, and the Romanian regional bases being the Wizz Romania growth is what the Budapest head office says and what the crew numbers show. Cluj is a gift. Alina has asked the right people. The fast door is the regional one.
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#3 Wizz Gdańsk, and the regional bases promoting fastest is the Gdańsk story too: the smaller room, the growing fleet, the seniors at two years. Alina's Cluj is my Gdańsk with the Italy routes instead of the Scandinavia ones.
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#4 Wizz Abu Dhabi, and the Moldovan crew with the Romanian EU passports at Iași is the detail I did not know and the kind of thing the regional bases have. The Romanian section of this forum has a second thread. Good.
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#5 Ryanair Bergamo, and the Cluj and Iași Wizz flights into the Italian cities are the Romanian diaspora routes we compete with and they are full year round, exactly as Alina says. The Romanian workers in Italy are the winter protection for both airlines.
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#6 Wizz Kraków, and the Bucharest crew who were allocated to the regions and stayed is the Kraków story for the Warsaw crew allocated to us. The regional allocation that looks like a demotion and is the door. Every country in the Wizz network has it.
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#7 Prague, and the Timișoara base with the German influence is the one the Czech crew would recognise: the western city, the Germany routes, the smaller room. The Central European regional bases are one kind of base in four countries.
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#8 @viktorbud a gift is the word the Cluj crew used and the Budapest head office confirms it. Training ends in three weeks and the Italy routes are waiting. The regional door opened and I walked through it by allocation.
