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| Wizz Air to establish flights to Sarajevo and maintain Tuzla base |
Low cost airline Wizz Air says it plans to launch flights to Sarajevo in the near future while continuing to maintain its base in Tuzla. The airline's Head of Airport Development, Jozsef Ujhely, said on Thursday, "After Tuzla, which continues to be our main base in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we intend on establishing flights from Sarajevo, which we consider a very important destination. Furthermore, we are also interested in investing in Sarajevo Airport". The comments were made following a meeting between Mr Ujhely and the Deputy Minister for Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Saša Dalipagić, in Sarajevo. It comes just weeks after the Hungarian government said it would subsidise services between Budapest and the Bosnian capital. Wizz Air is Hungary's largest airline. The carrier says that in addition to Tuzla and Sarajevo, it is looking to further strengthen its presence on the market, which could result in potential flights to Mostar as well.
Last year, Wizz Air's CEO, Jozsef Varadi, confirmed the airline was in talks with Sarajevo Airport. "We need to make a proper commercial agreement with Sarajevo. We are in talks with Sarajevo Airport but they are simply too expensive. They need to lower their costs”. He added, “We are highly excited for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wizz Air is very well suited for that environment and we hope to replicate the success in Tuzla across Bosnia. The country is absolutely right for our business plan”. The budget carrier opened its base in Tuzla in June last year. It currently operates flights from the city to eight points in Europe. It handled 268.748 passengers to and from Tuzla in 2015, up almost 75% on the year before.
Sarajevo Airport announced last week it would be upgrading its terminal building in a bid to increase capacity and improve services. Furthermore, it is in talks with several carriers over potential new flights. Sarajevo Airport handled 53.438 passengers in March, an increase of 6.3% compared to the same month last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 843. During the first quarter, Sarajevo Airport welcomed 137.213 travellers through its doors, up 2.5% on 2015. Its growth over the past three months was dampened by an underperforming January, which was affected by poor weather conditions, resulting in the airport's closure on several occasions.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 41.208 | ▼ 5.7 |
| FEB | 42.567 | ▲ 6.7 |
| MAR | 53.438 | ▲ 6.3 |
Long overdue and welcome news for B&H. Along with Macedonia and Montenegro (the poorest ex-yu countries), Bosnia would really benefit from a long term stable airline presence, which is key to economic growth.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air, on the other hand, will work hard to secure this market and cast their net wide before the bloodbath of competition next winter when Ryanair enters 7 W6 bases (and possibly more!) Troubling times ahead for them.
I am sure SJJ-EIN is pretty high on their wish list.
DeleteSarajevo - Eindhoven would great
DeleteGreat news for Sarajevo. It really needs a major LCC/
ReplyDeleteAll the best of luck to SJJ. Definitely an underrated destination. Hoping to see flights to Scandinavia, Germany, Benelux, Switzerland, Italy, Dubai, etc and hopefully the same Wizzair effect as SKP! Balkan cities need more and more connections linking them to the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteПоздрави от София! :)
Hoping to sen flighter to Sweden to Sarajevo Best wizzair I love You 😊
DeleteNice :)
ReplyDeleteiz cisto profesionalnog ugla - ovo je najgora kompanija na ovim prostorima i savet Sarajlijama da se ne upustaju u aranzmane sa njima.
ReplyDeleteATCO
Zasto? Ja sam leteo sa njima nekoliko puta i sasvim su ok, posebno imajuci u vidu kakve cene nude.
Deletepost je pisan iz prof. ugla, a ne iz perspektive putnika
DeletePre 4, 5 godina za Božić leteo sam sa njima za Malme. Tih dana cela severna Europa je bila okovana ledom. Avion je zbog velikog nevremena kasnio više sati. Umesto u Malme posle dugog kruženja sleteli smo u Kopenhagen oko 2 sata ujutro. Iako Wizz u Kopenhagenu nije imao svoje osoblje sačekao nas je momak poreklom iz Bosne i svima podelio vaucere za taxi i hotel a ujutro je obezbedjen prevoz za Malme. Da napomenem da je to veče na hiljade putnika prespavalo na aerodromu u Kopenhagenu, takozvanih "flag prevoznika". Neprofesionalno? Ne bih rekao.
Deleteprof. kao profesor?
DeleteA iz licnog ugla? Jel su ok? Give us a break...
DeleteGreat news for SJJ! TZL showed what can be done with a good plan and carefully chosen destination at an airport which had no flight beforehand.
ReplyDeleteWhat is BNX waiting for, I simply cannot understand. Corruption there is at its highest! Insane! BNX and its catchment area has even more potential than TZL, let's not even talk about better winter conditions etc.
Bravo SJJ! Looking forward to see what destinations they will pick and to see new pink/purple colours at SJJ.
AlexLondon
Kakve veze ima korupcija sad sto nece da dozvole da ih ucenjuje strana kompanija u BNX .
DeleteINN-NS
Pa zato sto zbog korupcije BNX nema letove i jedina veza sa svetom im je Er Srbija koja ovako i onako nema dobre rezultate tu.
DeletePa nije to korupcija nego se Manegment BNX trudi da dovodi legacy carrier sto je jako pametno .Zavisi koji je mesec .
DeleteINN-NS
A kako je pametno ako nisu imali nikakvih rezultata do sada? Cak i plan da LX krene da leti je propao. :(
DeleteINN e pa super beka se BNX drzi "legacya" i Air Serbie sa citavih svojih 20 000 putnika,dok ce TZL i SJJ uskoro dostici pola miliona i milion, i Mostar 100 000. Bas bas pametno, samo tako neka nastave.
DeleteINN-NS sorry, but what are you talking about?
Delete"They are trying to bring legacy carriers ? How long does it take, a decade?
AirSerbia is fine as it is (I use BEG-BNX quite regularly and I am more than happy with it. Nobody mentioned legacy carriers. I simply said that TZL finished 2015 with over 250,000 passengers while BNX had exactly TEN times less passengers - that is what I am talking about! I DO NOT CARE is it legacy or not, I want an airline to take me safely from point A to B for as less money as possible.
AlexLondon
TZL ima samo malo vecu Diasporu od BNX ali BNX nije lud da dopusti da ga uceni neko i jos da Aerodrom nema bas nikakve koristi nego trosak .
DeleteNajbolje resenje od svih za BNX je U2.
INN-NS
Hoces da kazes da INI nije imao koristi od W6? Da nije bilo koristi od €3 po putniku i jos od svih dodatnih prihoda?
DeleteTZL ima veću dijasporu! OK, koliko? 10 puta obzirom da TZL ima 10 puta više putnika od BNX?
DeleteZnači da BNX naplati 3 EUR po putniku + restoran + parkiranje + + bus prijevoz + duty free + rent'a'car + ostale usluge to je lošija opcija nego sada kada sve to ne naplačuje.
Jedini problem je u tvojoj i sličnim glavama koje na svaki način nastoje privilegirati Air Serbiju te nastoje administrativnim i financijskim mjerama spriječiti dolazak konkurencije. Tako je na BNX, ali i na BEG (naravno daleko veći aerodrom koji je već imao niz kompanija pa nije moguće samo tako uništiti konkurenciju).
Will they open their stupid airport before 6AM? Cause otherwise no upgrade makes any sense.
ReplyDeleteWizz does exactly what it says on the tin. They will take you over there, but expect to be a bit annoyed if you are used to more friendly LCCs like Easyjet or Ryanair. Wizzair luggage policy is outrageous!
ReplyDeleteThat said, legacy carriers' standards flying to the Balkans have been eroded, so an issue to worry about Wizz air remains cabin crew! They come across as incompetent, they mumble something that is supposed to be a security announcement- there is a general feeling that they are not fully aware how important their role is in aviation.
I understand they deal with a particular category of travellers that often disregard cabin crew announcements, but shambles and borderline chaos cannot be tolerated onboard a packed airplane with more than 180 people. Wizzair cabin crew should enforce rules properly and assume their duties in spite of passengers thinking they are having a Balkans bus ride!
Skopje has obviously benefited from Wizzair based there, but the danger remains that in spite of seemingly more connections, one could only fly to the likes of Charleroi, Hahn, Memmingen etc. Partially due to strong Wizzair there are no direct flights to major European hubs like LHR, FRA, AMS. Also, Wizz flies around twice per week to the alternative airports, which makes them mostly diaspora airline.
All in all, happy times for Sarajevo! :)
"more friendly LCC like Ryanair" you say?
DeleteSeriously?
LOL!
Pricing-wise in spite of Gov subsidies London Skopje is same price Wizz and legacy carriers- if you take into account trip to Luton (which is actually middle of England), luggage surcharge, seat reservation + people clapping on arrival and take off- that's priceless!!
Delete@1st anonymus- Ryanair has changed at least, they stopped punishing people for a bit oversized hand luggage- and admitted they are annoying! They addressed that internally indeed. Unlike Wizzair which takes pride in annoying travellers just because can and bcs they are cheap. Literally.
DeleteRyainair is friendlier than Wizzair for sure
DeleteI agree Wizz luggage policy is outrageous! I only fly with them when i get tickets bellow 30€
DeleteHowever, the macedonian Wizz crew is friendlier then any Ryan crew i had so far.
I stil hope for some Ryanair flights at SKP though, lol
you should experience romanian diaspora on low cost flights ... compared with them the ex-yugoslav gastarbeiters seem like intelectuals
Delete@anon 12:46pm
DeleteSkopje-Luton route is not subsidized from MK government.
P.S. I am not defending their price strategy, since they can charge premium on certain routes if the interest is there.
Macedonian Wizz crew is friendly, the airline itself is not :)
DeleteYEEEEES! Awesome news for Sarajevo! :)
ReplyDeleteDobre vesti ako hoce da im naglo naraste Broj putnika ali bolje da su se trudili da dovedu HV da ih poveze sa AMS i KL . I da se povezu sa jos nekloliko vaznih Aerodroma.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
CPH, SXF and BTS will be the first three destinations from SJJ!
ReplyDeletesource?
DeleteBTS je tolika glupost od njihove strane pa cisto sumnjam da ce biti puna .
DeleteINN-NS
Zasto? Da znas koliko naplacuje OS ne bi to rekao. Ili mislis da je glupost jer mogu leteti sa JU preko BEG-a? ;)
DeleteOS ce da snizi cenu , i ako je naplacuje dobro LF je odlican. Ne mislim sa JU preko BEG nego vecina nece koristiti te usluge ako bude slican plan letenja kao sto je bio TZL-VIE a i narod je lenj da bi isao do BTS .
DeleteINN-NS
Ocito da ima dovoljno ljudi koji nisu lenji pa lete iz BTS. Za nekoga usteda od €20 zlata vredi.
DeleteHow do you know about CPH? Would be AWESOME!
DeleteWhy don't they fly to BTS from BEG? Any news on introducing Memmingen from Nis?
DeleteSure BUD will be one of the first destinations from SJJ
DeleteI think that until they can add a second a/c in BEG they won't be adding any new destinations. Also, I think they might need the capacity elsewhere given that they are faced with a FR attack.
DeleteWitnessed a medical emergency onboard Wizz flight Brno - Luton two years ago. After landing in Cologne they continued their paying service without offering complimentary glass of water to people witnessing what seemed to be a woman dying. Horrible
ReplyDeleteZagreb (one of last Wizz flights from ZAG), plane did not come, no information, passengers were on airport for 36 hours without any information, food, water, hotel...
DeleteOT: Combination for Belgrade: Airport Nikola Tesla - Bozidar Djelic - Lazard - EBRD - VINCI. Good or bad mix?
ReplyDeleteHope that they will establish a base @ SJJ.
ReplyDeleteHope to see them in Mostar soon as well!
ReplyDelete