The low cost airline Wizz Air will discontinue services from its Belgrade base to Rome in late September. The flights will operate on a seasonal summer basis instead. Despite strong passenger figures, the airline explains that they are only recorded during the peak summer season. The two weekly flights will be discontinued from September 24. The airline will continue to operate flights to Charleroi, London, Gothenburg, Malmo, Memmingen, Stockholm, Dortmund and Eindhoven as normal.

Wizz Air has been recording strong passenger figures to and from Belgrade. All of its flights have seen an average cabin load factor of over 80%. The news of Wizz’s Rome cancellation will be warmly welcomed by Jat Airways and Alitalia. However, the two airlines carry a different set of passengers to that of Wizz Air. Both Jat and Alitalia rely heavily on lucrative transit passengers from the United States and Canada on the route. On the other hand, Wizz almost solely handles point to point passengers. The Serbian capital will continue to see both Jat and Alitalia on the route this winter. Next month the low cost Air One will join Jat on flights to Milan.

Late last year Wizz Air was considering basing a second aircraft in Belgrade, however, for now, those plans seem to have been shelved with the airline focused on expanding into new markets and developing its Budapest base. Wizz Air will be spreading its wings throughout the EX-YU region this winter. At the start of the 2012/2013 winter season it will open a base in Skopje while flights will also be launched from London and Charleroi to Ljubljana.