Wizz Air opens Belgrade base

Wizz stations A320 at Belgrade Airport

Less than a year after it launched its first flights from Dortmund and London to Belgrade, Wizz Air opened its 13th European base at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport on Tuesday. Wizz Air will become the second largest airline operating out of Belgrade, behind Jat Airways, in April. The airline has carried some 18.000 passengers on its Belgrade flights from June 20, 2010 until March 1, 2011 and has already sold 131.000 tickets from Belgrade. Starting tomorrow, 1 of the airline’s Airbus A320s will be based at the airport.

Wizz Air operates flights from Belgrade to Dortmund, London-Luton, Rome-Fiumicino, Malmo and Charleroi (Brussels). Tomorrow, the low cost airline will inaugurate flights to Stockholm-Skavsta, on Saturday to Memmingen and on Sunday to Gothenburg and Eindhoven. The CEO of Wizz Air, Jozsef Varadi, told a press conference in the Serbian capital on Tuesday that Wizz Air will employ 290 people in Serbia. “Wizz Air has come to Serbia to become the leading airline on the market”. Jat was quick to respond with the launch of a third successive discount fare sale. The airline has been reporting strong passenger growth so far this year but whether Wizz Air’s future expansion plans out of Belgrade will hurt the national carrier remains to be seen.

Comments

  1. Anonymous10:47

    Well done Belgrade and Serbia. This is so great to see. I hope Wizzair will spread its network from BEG, I think destinatins which could do weel are Valencia, Malaga, Istanbul, Paris, Lviv, Kyiv, Warsaw.... I only mentioned airports Wizz curretnly flies to/from, do see any reasons why its network wouldn't spread to other airports/countries they don't currently fly at all. People in Serbia should start booking their holidays on line, not through some agencies charging them ludicres fees. It si 2011 for God's sake. I am so hoping we'll see Wizz connecting two ex Yu cities, that would be a day :-) Lets see if that can do with other "dead" airports such BNX, INI, OHD, OMO, OSI, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:56

    Well done! Congratulations from SLO!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:59

    hm sounds familiar "dead airports" like MBX and POW???

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:48

    @ last anonymous, yes POW, MBX too. such a shame for all of these airports, they could do much better with a good plan. Just wait and see what is going to happen to RJK this summer after Ryanair starts. our "lovely" governments instead of paying EMPTY seats to carriers which charge ridiculous prices, should make a deal with Ryanair and the destination wouldn't only bring passengers but advertise that destination.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous13:16

    BRAVO, SVAKA CAST ZA WIZZ AIR a takodje i za BEG...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous13:18

    Congratss!!!
    Does this mean that they will train also serbian pilots and FA's?
    If so it will be very nice!

    Jat is yet to feel the real pressure because it will have a global competitor with the same advantages on the local market.It could not be worse for them!
    I can imagine that if this for example happened is SLO, Adria would declare bankruptcy in 2 weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous13:22

    Well i doubt that JP will go bancrupt as owner has still some money for them. However MBX had Ryanair 3 times per week and it was a success, just the ammount of money for Ryanair was to high! from 650.000 EUR to 1,2 mio for the same number of flights....

    Congrats to BEG!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know that Ryanair's MBX was a success as so many British people flew there and they loved it. I assume it is even better paying that money rather than having an empty airport which is being waisted and less tourists....

    As for staff from BEG, as far as I know cabin crew is definitely Serbian so I assume pilots are too. Bright news as their colours are. Well done BEG :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well done Belgrade

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous14:17

    SVAKA CAST SRPSKE KOMSIJE!

    This is real good news! :]

    From a Bosniak!

    ReplyDelete
  11. JU520 BEGLAX14:37

    Offtopic:

    Atlasjet launches Tehran and Pristina service
    Posted: 31 Mar 2011 12:13 AM PDT
    Turkish carrier Atlasjet has started Istanbul Ataturk – Tehran service. This route operates with Airbus A320 aircraft 6 times a week, according to the airlines’ website. In addition, the airline is to operate 2 weekly Istanbul Ataturk – Pristina service.
    Planned Schedule:

    Istanbul Ataturk – Pristina
    KK625 IST0950 – 1010PRN 320 37
    KK626 PRN1130 – 1400IST 320 37

    ReplyDelete
  12. You can call me crazy, but I prefer going to a travel agency to book my ticket. I am relatively computer savvy and have traveled to many countries. I have used travel websites many times but when it comes to complex itineraries where I have my friends traveling with me and going to multiple destinations, trying to get everyone on the same flight and sitting together, nothing comes close to having an agent who can think and work on all of this for you. I don't mind paying extra 10-20 EUR for the service charge as I know it involves a lot of research, especially when there are hotels and rental cars involved.

    The fact is that the travel industry has become so diverse, offering so many options with so many tricks and stipulations that an average traveler needs a bachelor degree in travel to understand it. How to explain someone who wants to travel ZAG to FRA and has to pay 400 EUR, but if travels to London taking the same flight through Frankfurt, he pays only 200 EUR. Just look at the luggage fee rules. Almost every airline charges differently. I could go on and on. The air travel might have become more accessible to wider audience but in terms of complexity it grew exponentially.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous15:31

    What are the chances of wizz air starting flights to pristina?

    ReplyDelete
  14. ANONYMOUS16:22

    I like this sentence from the article: "...whether Wizz Air’s future expansion plans out of Belgrade will hurt the national carrier remains to be seen"- HAHHAHAHAHAHA! Wizz will CRUSH Jat. Jat's average fare per sector is around €100. Wizz' is about half of that. This is like a cheetah versus a turtle in a 100m race.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous16:25

    None are the chances for PRN as long as Albanians buy tickets only from their ticket dealers in Western Europe.
    Look only at the former MAT.They wanted to get ridd off these guys and implemented online sales with prices abou 50 Euros lower.Do you think it worked?No!At the end they were left only with transit pax to ZRH and dealers made arrangement with other unknown swiss/german/italian airlines like Helvetic, Mistral and took the profit.MAT was bankrupt.
    As long as this mentality is preserved no real low costs at PRN!

    ReplyDelete
  16. congiuntivo16:59

    About the Wizz crew, we flew FCO-BEG 2 days ago and I was very glad to see that not only FAs but the pilot as well were Serbian. FAs were a bit confused and obviously newbies, one of them was reading the security instructions/announcements from a piece of paper and they were all a bit shy but they did great. I'm happy that they will employ 290 people from Serbia.

    Also, someone mentioned Wizz connecting ex-yu cities, and I think it would be great if that could happen sometime. I'm flying BEG-SPU via VIE and FRA these days and it's quite bothersome not mentioning the ticket price (the cheapest Lufthansa/CA return ticket costing me a minimum 200€ and sometimes even more...)Anyways, it's great news and hopefully they'll introduce new fligths from and to BEG.

    ReplyDelete
  17. CrystalBall17:04

    @Anonymous
    "What are the chances of wizz air starting flights to pristina?"

    Do you mean BEG-PRN? If so, the chances are zero. Serbia closes its airspace to all aircraft that fly to and from PRN. So, this will simply not happen unless there is a U-turn from the Serbian government.

    If you mean PRN to anywhere else, the chances are the same as any other airline starting flights to PRN. I would say it is likely since they already fly to SKP, but this moves into "crystal balling the future" business.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous17:16

    PRN has already Easyjet and JP :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous17:22

    Jat is pretty much screwed because of this. They will go bankrupt within the next 5 years unless someone bails them out. I would prefer the Russians get Jat, and develop a regional airline leader.

    Jat was the leader until they screwed up the Airbus deal and just toyed around with it for no reason. Now, Croatia Airlines is the leader, and Adria is second. Aeroflot buying Jat would be the best choice (unless they force Jat to buy Russian aircraft).

    As for Pristina, no chance for flights to Belgrade. Not yet. Once the situation is settled and Kosovo begins obeying the law, then there will be flights. As for the chances of other airlines going there...not so good. Definitely possible, but not good.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ANONYMOUS19:08

    ^
    What's wrong with Russian aircraft? A 'new' Jat with 12-15 Sukhoi SSJ's could be a strong competitor.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous20:38

    Congratulations to both BEG and WZZ for their newest base...Hopefully even more flights would be offered in the near future. Surprised that BGY is missing out in this round of new flights introduction...

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous21:48

    Well done. Wish WIZZ will comence flyights from and to INI!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous09:42

    Hi all,
    Why doesn't wizz air opens routes to Pristina? They will have a lot of passangers, mainly in the summer season, flying from London, Brussels Charleroi, Eindhoven, Dortmund, Lubljana.

    It will also help passengers a lot. currently prices to Pristina in the summer is like flying from Amsterdam to US.

    It will be a great opportunity for them as the only low cost airline flying to this destination.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.