Ryanair considering new Niš flights


Europe's largest low cost operator, Ryanair, which last week announced its entry onto the Serbian market with the introduction of flights from Berlin to Niš in September, says it is considering new routes to the city for the 2017 summer season. "We are in the process of determining our schedule for next summer. Now that we have opened the doors to Niš, it makes it easier to expand. It will be something that we will discuss over the coming months", the airline's Route Manager, Luis Fernandez-Mellado, says. He notes that Niš is an appealing destination for Ryanair hubs which already sport an extensive network and are now looking to be linked with regional secondary cities, such was the case with Berlin.

The no frills carrier says that once it introduces a new city to its destination network, it looks to follow up with the addition of several routes. However, the airline notes that it has made no definitive decision concerning its future operations in Niš. "We are starting with this new route and are on the lookout for new opportunities", Mr Fernandez-Mellado adds. Ryanair expects to handle 30.000 passengers on its flights from the German capital to the south-east Serbian city within a year. Furthermore, the carrier says it opted to launch services to Niš following fourteen months of negotiations and as a result of low fees at Constantine the Great Airport. Low cost rival Wizz Air, which runs services from Basel and Malmo to Niš, and will introduce flights from Dortmund later this summer, says it welcomes competition in the city and will continue developing its own operations.

For comparisons sake, Ryanair entered the Montenegrin market in 2013 with flights from Charleroi to Podgorica. They were followed by the introduction of services from London a year later, which will be complemented with a new route from Berlin this September. Following an evaluation of the market, Niš Airport's General Manager, Vladica Djurdjanović, says the airport is seeking links to Rome, Turin, Paris, Thessaloniki and Malta. "Carriers have been informed of this. Once an airline determines that an average cabin load factor of over 90% can be reached on any particular route, it will launch it", Mr Djurdjanović notes. Constantine the Great Airport welcomed 36.258 passengers in 2015. It anticipates handling some 100.000 travellers this year.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:04

    Is there really demand for Niš - Malta o.O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      The majority of Serbs living in Malta are from eastern Serbia. That's why.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:13

      Ah ok, had no idea thanks. If a service like that started from Niš it would kill Air Serbia on the route because it would easily get the diaspora and the leisure travel all in one. JU is quite expensive on that route.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:41

      SKP is also not connected directly with MLA

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:15

      I've got a feeling Ryanair will announce Skopje flights towards the end of the election campaign there. Just like these flights to Nis.

      Delete
    5. Last anon,
      We top thought the same when they announced W6 arrival in SKP (and later OHD).Be positive, don't know about MLA but for sure INI can go forward.

      Delete
    6. Last anon,
      We top thought the same when they announced W6 arrival in SKP (and later OHD).Be positive, don't know about MLA but for sure INI can go forward.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    Ne vidim prepreke da jednoga dana Niš postane baza, polako samo dok krene voda da ulazi posle se samo puni. Pohvale za novi dizajn sajta mnogo je pregledniji i funkcionalniji, ali ovu sivu pozadinu sa kvadratima i sivo zaglavlje menjajte pod hitno nečim vedrijim ko da je dan žalosti sa ovim! Novi logo je super!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:07

    Samo da se javim da cestitam na novom izgledu sajta. Jeste da sam poslednjih 7,8 godina navikao na stari izgled, ovaj mi se svidja. Zelim rajanu da uspostavi mnogo linija iz Nisa, jer odista nikada nisam leteo boljom I profesionalnijom loukost kompanijom. Imaju najbolje cene kao I najbolju politiku prtljaga za razliku od viza koji je 2012, kako bi stekao sto vise novca za kupovinu novih aviona ukinuo kofer od 55cm kao besplatan prtljag. Na rajanu je I 55cm besplatan I jos jedna torba. Bilo bi dobro da uvede sto vise linija kako bih prestao zbog nekih destinacija da idem u Budimpestu.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:11

    It will be interesting to see Wizz Air's reaction to all of this. I think they are more likely to introduce several routes rather than Ryan. We will see.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:11

    EX-YU...waw!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:12

    Lets wait and see how the new SXF route works.
    On the other hand, I am concerned about LH group, they now decreased BEG-MUC from 3 daily flights to 13 weekly with smaller a-c for example in May, only 1 flight on Mondays. This will give ASL more monopoly :( They also will fly the Avro jet in summer for Swiss. I guess they are slowly reducing capacity. Worst of all is BEG-FRA will reduce to 1 daily in winter 2017 in some months. Lets hope this will change...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      So no chance of seeing Swiss send C series to BEG? :(

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:16

      LH group will surely feel the impact from JU launching JFK (impact on their BEG flights). A few of their departures are squarely aimed at transfers to the US from/to BEG. It won't be so much of an issue this year, but will probably become more of problem in 2017.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:21

      More reducing of foreign companies in Belgrade?

      Not good, not good.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:32

      * group has had it pretty easy over the past 15 years in BEG with no competition. Now when they need to up the anty they are giving up with out as much as a fight.

      Delete
    5. JU520 BEGLAX09:32

      No C Series of LX planned to BEG so far. Fiest destinations are known. First flt will be 15jul ZRH-CDG
      A321 will be a frequent visitor to BEG until end of SUTT

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:45

      How will a decrease of BEG-MUC give JU more monopoly when JU doesn't fly the route? And if you're talking about connectivity, there are still at least five hubs you can use for European connections.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:56

      "Worst of all is BEG-FRA will reduce to 1 daily in winter 2017 in some months"...
      Worst of all repeating the same schedule they had in previous winter schedule? Unbelievable

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:22

    Ex-Yu, could you write, for example, "10:16 AM", instead of "10 minutes ago" like it used to be? Thanks, I have to say, you're doing an amazing job!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:28

    Nis will definitely become little LC hub in coming days.. There is already 4 routes which is not bad to start with at all.
    Hey ex-Yu! Why EXU? I'm not excited with your new identitiy to be honest. Doesn´t look professionally done at all! Sorry, but just beeing honest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mali Marko Lukic14:49

      LCC hub? Contradiction in terms. LCC can have base, not hub.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:04

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:31

    Memmingen would be great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:32

      Have a feeling Wizz might launch that one.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:35

    It will be interesting to see how Ryanair goes. Remember they are no strangers to picking up and leaving like in Maribor or even Osijek when they started (they came back later).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:44

    Paris flights will definitely be launched. It's just a question of whether it will be Wizz Air or Ryan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:49

      Paris, Memmingen, Sandefjord and London would be much welcomed.

      Delete
  12. This is a great start but the management of Niš airport must not get complacent. They sound keep fighting and working hard to continue the growth. Other potential targets should be Norwegian, EasyJet, Pobeda, and Turkish/Pegasus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:01

      +1 completely agree. I was just about to write that they should go after Norwegian and Turkish as well.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous10:17

    First of all I would like to congratulate the admin. Great work on the design of the new web page. Personally, I am very fond of it.

    Regarding the news.. It would be awesome if Ryanair introduces new flights, but my opinion is that Nis airport should go after Pobeda. Obviously, there is demand for the Nis region (mostly Kopaonik) during the winter months, so the biggest operational problem is more or less solved (low demand during winter season). Don't forget that SKP has no flights to MOW, therefore the airports might attract quite a few passengers from Macedonia on this route. On the downside, it will definitely hurt Aeroflot (although Pobeda is a subsidiary of Aeroflot), AirSerbia and Ural. The question is, who will get hurt the most.

    ReplyDelete
  14. WOW - AMAZING JOB EX YOU, the web is splendid !!!! :) :) :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:34

    Who would have thought two year ago INI would have any flights. This is a great development.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:35

      I don't want to rain on anyone's parade and I'm not a hater but one has to ask about the airport's finances and whether they will benefit from this. Anyway great work for INI.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:01

      Anything is better than having an empty airport with employees needing to be paid. I agree that the charges are low (3 euros per passenger for all handling/landing services) but it's the only way to attract airlines. The city will benefit from getting more tourists and people coming to the city.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:59

    What about scheduled flights to Russia? There will be charters from Kaluga this summer, and there were some last winter as well.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nice one for Niš, every competition is good.

    OT:
    The Dutch low cost carrier Transavia (Air France-KLM group) intends to start flights from Eindhoven to Zadar.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous11:44

    Great work INI. So happy that my home airport is waking up :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous12:19

    You can easily guess Ryanair's performance. If their fares to INI become pricey it means they are filling up the planes. If they stay low outside of promo period it means they are struggling. FR easily gives up if they don't have +90% lf in 6 months

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With 5 months before flights begin, if they don't have good ticket sales they may can them before they start, it's been done before.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous12:21

    I think Ryanair and Wizz can operate besides each other in Nis. I'm sure none of their services will overlap because there is no point. It's a small market and it's only a matter of who will snatch up a route first.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous12:58

    Sve cestitke za novi Sajt odlicno izgleda :)
    Bilo bi odlicno kad bi INI uspeo da dovede jos U2 sa letovima za ZRH.
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete
  22. JU520 BEGLAX13:23

    OT: those travelling ex BSL hve now 9 daily Bus departures fm ZRH downtown to the Euroairport. Ticket 10 CHF per leg. First dep at 0230h am

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:27

      That's good. Wizz air flies to Basel from a lot of ex-yu cities. Easy way to get to ZRH at a low price.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous13:49

    Good work. Pitty we didn't get them in BEG too.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous15:45

    Can someone tell us what are their plans from Sofia? When do they start flights, what destinations and have they mentioned any long term plans? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:23

      They already fly to Pisa and London from Sofia.

      Berlin SXF will start in Sept
      18 other routes to commence end of Oct/beg of Nov

      Plans are to expand the Eastern European bases by spring 17

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:31

      It´s way too early to predict. I think they are aware it´s going to be a low season but want to check which destinations they can boost, STN will become 2x daily, while SXF launched 2 months in advance. I saw that prices are already high for CGN, the second daily flight to STN, DUB, CIA. Not sure if NYO will do well, not so many Bulgarians in Scandinavia such as ex-YU countries.
      In the end, I think they might apply the OTP model and launch daily flights to CRL, MAD, EIN in spring 2017 ifthey perform well.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:16

      In my opinion, DUB + all 4 UK routes will perform great in the winter due to the huge influx of skiers to Bansko & Borovec

      As for the rest, I think ryanair has selected them very carefully. Spain, Italy, Germany, Athens should be running quite well, not sure only for Stockholm
      And I expect Nuremberg to be announced soon as well

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:21

      That is excellent for Sofia. It will see huge growth in 2016 tnx to Ryan.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous16:23

    OT: Croatia Airlines records profit in 2015

    http://www.jutarnji.hr/croatia-airlines-poslovala-s-dobiti-u-2015--ostvarili-neto-dobit-od-13-8-milijuna-kuna/1566812/

    Of course they recorded profit in 2015, they should have explained how they did it, but at least we don't have to finance them anymore! They can sell all of their engines as far as I'm concerned!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:34

      Koliko je to € ?
      Hvala unapred.
      INN-NS

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:45

      Oko 1,8 milijuna eura. Nema na čemu.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:46

      I don't understand why Croatia Airlines reposted this news. It was published 2 months ago. I remember reading it here as well.

      Delete
    4. Danijel21:14

      Mislim da tu nema previse realno profita, nego prodaja svega i svacega. Prosle godine su u prva 3-4 mjeseca imali 80milijuna kuna gubitka, preko 10milijuna eura, a onda na kraju profit. Malo nesto sumnjam u to.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous00:54

      Prodali su Pleso prijevoz, superprofitabilnu tvrtku koja ima monopol na prijevoz putnika iz Zagreba do Zračne luke. Uz to prodali su i dva motora. Bez toga bili bi opaki gubitaš, u vrijeme kad su sve zrakoplovne tvrtke profitabilne radi niske cijene goriva.

      Identična priča kao i sa Air Serbijom. Kreativno knjigovodstvo!

      Delete
  26. Nice one for Niš, every competition is good.

    OT:
    The Dutch low cost carrier Transavia (Air France-KLM group) intends to start flights from Eindhoven to Zadar.

    ReplyDelete
  27. A complete OT:
    Just saw TAP flight from Lisbon to Zagreb TP9733 (https://www.flightradar24.com/TAP9733/985996a). Wasn't that route suspended like a month ago?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:02

      Judging by the flight number, it seems to be a charter flight.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous02:20

    So FR will not be expanding there for the next 12 months. It's time for Air Serbia to open some flights to Vienna and Moscow, perhaps Zurich, these will be good sellers.But knowing who are the managers, especially sinisha the Little, who is currently busy rigging the elections, it won't happen anytime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger08:40

      Air Serbia flights to Vienna and Moscow (maybe latter Munich and Zurich) for sure would be successful. There is no need to base plane in INI it can be done like BEG-SVO-INI-SVO-BEG. In few months it would be too late as competition will be too strong.

      Delete

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