Wizz Air in Belgrade and EX-YU region

Wizz Air marks first Belgrade anniversary
The low cost airline Wizz Air has been celebrating its first year since basing its Airbus A320 jet in Belgrade. The venture has turned out to be a successful one so far. Wizz Air is now the second busiest airline operating out of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport behind only Jat Airways. Since launching its first flights to the Serbian capital in late 2010, the airline has handled over 340.000 passengers and operated more than 1.160 flights. Currently, from Belgrade it offers direct services to cities in Germany, Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands. However, many expected for the pace of expansion to be somewhat swifter.

Last year, Wizz Air also launched flights to the Macedonian capital from London as well as Treviso in Italy. There were strong indications that the no frills airline was planning to open a base in Skopje as several routes were also planned to be launched. With incentives soon to kick in for low cost airlines to operate to Macedonia and with airport operator TAV in a desperate search for an airline willing to base an aircraft in Skopje, new destinations could soon be on the cards.

Wizz Air has also tried its luck in both Croatia and Slovenia. However, flights to both Zagreb and Ljubljana have failed. Still, the airline will maintain its presence in Croatia this summer with five weekly flights from London to Split on a seasonal basis. Planned summer flights to Dubrovnik have been scrapped in face of strong competition. Earlier in the month it was reported that a low cost airline is seeking to launch flights from London, Rome, Dusseldorf and a Swedish city to Sarajevo later this summer. While the airline hasn’t been named Wizz Air is being tipped as a possible candidate. So far, Wizz Air is the only low cost airline to have a base in a city in the former Yugoslavia.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:13

    its ok to have an lowcoster here in beg, but wer r wizz direct flights from beg to bcn. we dont have it since spanairs break up. it was very popular destination. wizz doesnt even think about it. so many tourists from serbia would travel there. now, the only solution is lufthansa, austrian, swiss... so, if about serbia, my opinion is that wizz only take care about gastarbeiters which is not fair...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:20

      JU will fly to Girona...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      I agree, there is no any direct flight to Prague too. I don't think that Wizzair is bad low cost airline, but Belgrade deserves more flights. For example: Paris, Prague, Budapest, Barcelona, Malaga (seasonal), Rhodes (seasonal), Zakynthos (seasonal), Corfu (seasonal)...

      Delete
    3. Well that's the whole point about LCCs, they will always fly only highly profitable routes while flag carriers were historically subsidized to fly the not so profitable routes too.

      There is nothing fair or unfair about it.

      Delete
    4. GVA_Cointrin11:22

      MD #nailedit

      Cheers, mate.

      Delete
  2. GVA_Cointrin09:24

    You might wonder why there are no routes dependant on Serbian demand / buying power, bar Rome? You might also wonder why regional airlines are failing.

    It should be obvious, really.

    If it weren't for the diaspora, they'd all be gone long time ago. Next step - check # of Serbs in Barcelona. Check # of Serbs willing to pay more than a EUR 150 return ticket to Barcelona.

    Doesn't really add up, does it now?

    Good luck to Wizz for based a/c in Skopje and Sarajevo. Shouldn't be too far away now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:32

      spanair had 85% occupancy on Beg-Bcn route. Just to inform you. Barcelona is something special, if we talk about Barcelona, we do not mention serbians who work and live there, at least 50% of travelers there are simple tourists from serbia.

      Delete
    2. GVA_Cointrin11:13

      .. and why did they cut it then?

      In this day and age, with variable fares, LF% doesn't mean much.

      I'm sorry to say it, but being dependent on 'Simple tourists from Serbia' is why it won't work. Trust me, Wizz Air would've opened the route ages ago if it saw any potential.

      .. and then, there's the issue of doubling airport taxes in Spain. Are you aware of that?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:48

      so than, u dont know about spanairs bankrupcy? thats y they cut it... and LF is very important nowdays because it is telling us about traveling interests, thats the second, and finally, have u heard about seasonal and charter flights from belgrade to girona? what does it say? it says that many tourists from serbia are interested in barcelonas region, or if u want, in costa brava... and i will finish with statistics that around 10.000 serbians live in barcelona, so 2 flights p/w is quite good reason for wizzair to start direct flights to barcelona... is this enough for wizzes potential?

      Delete
    4. GVA_Cointrin14:54

      If you had observed carefully, they cut BEG before they went bust, as an independent cost-saving action. BEG cut was after orthodox Xmas, while they went bust end of January.

      As for LF%, there are many routes with seemingly similar LF% and great difference in financial performance.

      BEG-BCN (BEG-GRO) will be deemed potentially interesting the day Wizz put it on sale.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:59

      Ok, but they cut beg only for january as i remember and in the meantime they failed. And beg was supposed to be on their network from bcn beggining of march. u remember? second, u want to tell me that LF is not that important in planning of routes in airline industry? How is it possible? And for the end, if deb-ein line is more potentially interesting than beg-bcn, than i agree with u about interest of beg-bcn.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:38

      BEG and some other routes were supposed to be canceled for one month only while Spanair's aircraft underwent regular maintenance, and were to be resumed in March with 4 weekly flights between BEG and BCN.

      In the meantime, Spanair filed for bankruptcy.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:28

    EX-YU, this information is not correct. Wizz Air handled over 340000 passengers since forming the base in Belgrade,ie. April11/April12. Since launching its first flight to date they handled more than 430000 passengers and operated more than 1550 flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:09

      Something is getting really bad in those numbers. If they manage to transport 340,000 people in 1160 only flight, this gives us the number of 293 passengers per flight.
      A320 they based in BEG can carry only 180 passengers. So the maximum they can carry is 208.800 passengers per year. I really do not think even this number of 208.800 is correct cos is hard to bealive they had load factor of 100 percent either. You theory annonymous 12:28 is still confused .. 430,000 in 1550 is around 277 pessangers per flight. This has no other explication then to call this marketing pumping! Good luck W6

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:48

      It has to be that they implemented Ryanair model of stand-up places, so more passengers can be accommodated :)

      Delete
    3. GVA_Cointrin11:20

      The answer is simple - 340k pax is 293 pax per rt flight, which would be ~81.4% LF. The problem is that it's not consistent with 1160 flights, which are rt, not one way.

      They must be boasting with both departing AND arriving pax. ;) No wonder, days of default return fares are kind of behind us..

      Delete
  4. Studio LAV17:04

    Congratulations Wizzair !!

    We wish you all the best and hope for new routes !

    Hamburg-Lubeck would be a dream for our Serbian community in Hamburg ,Northern Germany and Denmark .

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous17:56

    Belgrade was chosen as the best tourist spot in South East Europe, on top of Zagreb, Sofia and others.

    http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/turizam.90.html:376941-Beograd---najbolje-turisticko-mesto-u-regionu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!
      -:)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous06:09

      LOL
      Serbian agency declared BEG as best tourist spot! LOL, LOL, LOL!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous18:11

    'Koliko vidim SACEN je organizacija vezana samo za jugoistocnu Evropu mada ni za Tursku a ni i Kipar necete naci ama bas nista ni na internet pretrazivacu ni u njihovim medijima. Opet sami sebi dodeljujemo priznanja pred izbore'

    One of the coments below article :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous21:55

    I agree with other people that there is potential for a route to BCN. I have regularly checked their loads and most of the time Spanair had 100-120 pax. Not only Serbs going there but also Spanish tourists and visitors and groups. The JAT route to Gerona is meant for tour operattor and never open in the GDS. I see also potential for Wizzair to fly from BEG to LCA, PRG, LBC and PAR.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous03:16

      You can add KBP to the list as well, once a weak at least.

      Delete
    2. GVA_Cointrin10:15

      Oh, wow, so it was even worse than stated above. Pity.

      Re: Spanair's maintenance closure. Nice excuse for whoever buys it. I don't see profitable routes being cancelled for maintenance.

      Anyways, before randomly throwing out recommendations as armchair quarterbacks - check the utilization of Wizz Air's based a/c. Notice any gaps? Didn't think so. Conclusion - no new routes before a new a/c comes in.. unless they do a "W". It'd have to be a potentially profitable route though - and for that you have to stop thinking small and locally.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:04

      GRO not in the GDS? I have to tell you that is not true. GRO is meant for tour operators in general, but the route itself is open for general sales, just like any other JU scheduled flight. With this GRO route JU made something a bit different compared to other charters it operates through summer months, which is to enable general public to book flights to GRO, not having anything with any travel agency holiday arrangement.


      ** AMADEUS TIMETABLE - TA ** GRO GIRONA.ES 01JUN12 08JUN12
      1 JU 254 2 BEG 1 GRO 1815 2045 0 05JUN12 23OCT12 733 2:30

      Delete
  8. Anonymous23:41

    Hamburg could work out well with 2 flights a week.

    Wizz already flies to the Luebeck airport(Gdansk and Kiev).

    Serbs are after the Turks number two of foreigners in Hamburg (even excluding the Kosovars)!

    A lot of them use airport in Copenhague to fly with Jat or Norvegian.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous06:16

      So, you counted them!

      Could you tell us correct data or your numbers are coming from scientific serbian "odokativna metoda"?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:19

      No...my data comes from the totally unreliable
      German institutions.

      The Germans are renowned for their
      incompetence worldwide!

      If the "Auslanderstatistik von Hamburg"
      will publicate some data you can be sure this is not correct.

      Delete
  9. OT: Has anyone flown recently from BEG airport? Is there still a double security (regular one + at the gate? Does anyone know when they plan to remove the second security screening?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:00

      Within 2 years when the new floor is completed and rest of the work at the airport...

      Delete
    2. JATBEGMEL00:44

      you still have the double security at BEG. It wont change anytime soon, and the construction going around gates A1-A5 is going slow, as per Serbian standard.

      Delete

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