Low cost carrier Wizz Air will launch an additional two new routes from Niš Constantine the Great Airport this summer, for a total of five, with services from Eindhoven and Memmingen to commence on August 1. It comes just a week after the airline's low cost rival Ryanair announced it too was adding new services from the south-east Serbian city. The new flights will complement the airline's existing network from Niš, which includes Basel and Malmo, as well as the previously announced Dortmund service, which will commence on August 20. Wizz launched operations from Niš exactly a year ago. At the time, the airport had no commercial flights or passengers. With yesterday’s announcement, the budget carrier will offer a total of sixteen routes to six countries out of Belgrade and Niš combined. The carrier serves both Eindhoven and Memmingen from its base in the Serbian capital as well.
Commenting on its network expansion, Wizz Air's Head of Communications, Tamara Vallois, said, " We are delighted to bring more good news to our Serbian customers this summer. August is going to be a month with many reasons for celebration. Our three new routes to Germany and the Netherlands expand Serbia’s largest low fare network, giving our Serbian customers a wide choice of both leisure and business destinations to enjoy this summer, as well as stimulating inbound travel to Serbia". She added, "As the only airline operating from both Belgrade and Niš, we look forward to welcoming ever more passengers on board our Serbian flights, to experience Wizz’s lowest fares and great onboard service delivered by our Serbian colleagues".
NEW ROUTE LAUNCHES FROM NIŠ
| Destination | Airline | Launch date |
|---|---|---|
| Eindhoven | Wizz Air | 01.08.2016 |
| Memmingen | Wizz Air | 01.08.2016 |
| Dortmund | Wizz Air | 20.08.2016 |
| Berlin | Ryanair | 04.09.2016 |
| Weeze | Ryanair | 30.10.2016 |
| Bratislava | Ryanair | 31.10.2016 |
| Bergamo | Ryanair | 01.11.2016 |
Wizz Air's new service to Eindhoven will indirectly compete against Ryanair's planned flights from Niš to Weeze in Germany. Eindhoven and Weeze are some eighty kilometres apart. Last month, Wizz Air said it welcomed competition in the south-east Serbian city, noting it would continue to develop its own operations. Constantine the Great Airport has managed to lure the two low cost giants after reducing its fees last year, charging all airlines (both full fare and low cost) only three euros for handling, landing and passenger services. It anticipates welcoming a record 100.000 passengers this year, although this estimate is expected to be easily surpassed. By the end of the year, Niš Airport will offer direct flights to nine cities, five of which will be operated by Wizz Air and the remaining four by Ryanair.
Comments
The combination of BEG's reluctance to LCC traffic and SKP's success in proving the region's got potential gave the green light for this to happen. Having both Wizz and Ryan bodes well for future development, something neither BEG nor SKP have managed to do just yet. I wish them all the success and hopefully we will see another destination or two from a third party.
INI needs Turkish to IST to bring access to the East.
If Niš could snatch Pobeda, that would be a big win.
Niš-Podgorica on Ryanair could work if those two countries allow it. It would be great to compete against busses.
Niš-Oslo on Norwegian would be another idea.
There should be no rest, only progress!
ZAG YYZ 30%
Also, is the 'growth' at BEG because of O&D or because of transfer passengers? ;)
Exactly!
http://tangosix.rs/2014/22/12/smatsa-planira-instalaciju-ils-a-za-aerodrom-nis-u-2016-godini/
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2014/09/nis-prepares-for-low-cost-flights.html?showComment=1410174402372#c8247852495232156383
This is what competition does.
Perfect timing as Ryan expands into CEE.
Congrats!
The split of traditional and ancillary revenue in Western Europe goes up to 30%/70% these days, maybe even higher. How they complement the airport taxes is, as the previous poster rightly pointed out, additional business - duty free, restaurants, business space, parking, etc. If you consider the amount of people going through their doors, a certain figure per pax, however low it might seem at first, means considerable revenue.
Of course, for this you need proper business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit. The Balkan region is not the best place to go looking for these I'm afraid.
I'd disagree to use this as a very good indicator of O&D. Air Transat is a leisure company, and their 3-3-3 configuration is horrible. I'd personally fly with a brief stop in FRA or so instead of that sardine can.
That is, very low.
Monday - Friday from INI WIZZ
Monday - Wednesday (from Dec) - Sunday from SOF WIZZ
Monday - Friday from SOF RYAN
are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday generally considered with "lower traffic"?
Additionally, from next week Air Transat is planning to use the larger A333 according to the booking platform on their website.
Ali oni sto pricaju da ce ovo neki veci broj Putnika odneti BEG svakako to nece .
INN-NS
BEG has about the same, or even smaller ex-Beograd demand compared to ZAG. BEG has 4 mil pax, ZAG 2,5 mil. ZAG has 10% transit/transfer pax, BEG 50%. So, roughly speaking, at this moment, 2 ex-yu biggest are about the same, ex-demand-wise.
But let's not forget that BEG is not limited capacity-wise, while ZAG is (especially shown in almost non-existing LCC traffic at ZAG which had to be given up in favour of legacy carriers which pay higher taxes, and because of capacity limitation).
Next year, with the new terminal openinig in ZAG, and with the current actions of the new MZLZ management which is in talks with dozen new carriers, from LCC (which will bring much higher numbers) to long-haul operators from North America and Asia (which will improve finances and connectivity), I believe we are going to see HUGE numbers increase in ZAG, which is definitely NOT in "2,5 mil.category. Period."
So just a year more patience, please! And if you want to continue calling my posts "bragging" please give some opposing arguments, not just nationalist spitting.
I fully agree with your comment. We just have to look at how long Zagreb had a small terminal. It goes back to the former SFRJ. Things at that time were just concentrated on BEG. But once the new terminal opens, I can see rapid growth at ZAG. Who knows they may even surpass BEG.
No. 50% of JU's passengers are transfer, not BEG's so your calculation is flawed pal.
"Ako dodju LCC" ?!?!?! Pa ne postoji ni jedan LCC koji ne leti za Hrvatsku. Ryanair ima bazu u HR, Easyjet je drugi operater po broju putnika u Splitu i Dubrovniku, Germanwings razbija Nemacku, Norwegian razbija Skandinaviju, oba sa po najmanje 5-6 pa i do desetak letova dnevno, Vueling, Transavia, svi lete za HR, i gle cuda, klasicni prevoznici nisu "pukli" nego otvaraju nove linije, dolaze nove kompanije, povecavaju frekvencije. Zasto? Zato batice (ili sekice) sto i LCC i legacy carriers imaju svoju klijentelu u raznim segmentima trzista, i u svetu, i u Evropi, i u Hrvatskoj. E sada sve ovo sto sam napisao za razinu Hrvatske preslikaj na razinu Zagreba, koji je do sada bio ogranicen kapacitetima, pa mi onda reci jos jednom da nisam u pravu. A da vecinu putnika u Hrvatskoj cine strani gosti, to je toliko normalno jer HR ima 4 miliona ljudi, Evropa 500 miliona, a svet 7 milijardi. Pa je nekako i logicno da ovih ostalih bude i nesto malo vise nego hrvatskih putnika. A sto se Nisa tice, kapa dole, i zelim mu svu srecu, i jos 10 puta vise putnika i letova!
I am still surprised no lowcost tried Berlin-Belgrade. Given that Wizz Air is expanding there maybe we could have them do it.
I think Air Serbia was very smart to launch Hamburg.
We are a poor country, where bus and combi are still the preferred travel method even to longer destinations.
I wish INI the best, heck it would be great to have at leadt two, fully functioning airports with expanding conections, but I fear that reality will prevail in the end.
do Munich i Frankfurta ni LH ne moze to da brani.
Destinations like Nis are the future.Here we have pure low cost without monopolies.Serbia really is happy with having best of both worlds.
Belgrade and Nis coexist peacefully next to each other.
Air Serbia is right in not flying from Nis.It does not benefit them and also would harm Nis Airport.
Banja Luka should adopt the Nis model too.As they do imitate everything that happens over there in Serbia.
Banja Luka is in best location between everything-Zagreb-Sarajevo-Bihac-Doboj.
Important for the future is that foreign airlines choose right airports in Ex Yu and there are only two -Belgrade and Zagreb.
Twice weekly with FlyDubai to Skopje is stupid when Belgrade should be daily first.
And why is Air Arabia flying to Sarajevo?
Legacies and foreigners to Belgrade and Zagreb and the others get Ryainair and WIZZ.
That would be perfect.
AA: no. More likely to codeshare with JU on JFK-BEG-ZAG
DL: no, they have no SkyTeam partners at ZAG
UA: very unlikely. They would have to fly from EWR instead of popular JFK, they wouldn't be able to use 752 because ZAG is too far, next up 763 has wrong config for the route with about 80 premium seats (J&Y+) and lastly this move would upset LH/LX/OS/OU, so no, not even UA.
Seems like a dream come true for INI, hope if would last long, and wish INI lots of growth in the future years. It was long overdue.
Are you saying JU's flight to VAR, TIA or BEY happened because of demand? ;)
So many things wrong with your post.
First of all, BEG has 4,7 million, not 4 million.
Second, how do you suppose that BEG has 50% transfer pax? Except for Air Serbia, I don't think any other airline at BEG has any meaningful number of transfer pax, and Air Serbia is about 50% of BEG. So even if Air Serbia has 50% of their pax as transfer (they don't, but even if they did), that would still be only 25% of BEG's number as transfer.
Third, these posts such as yours have been going on for years on this site, always from anonymous posters because they don't have the confidence to stand behind their predictions. First it was once Croatia joins EU, then after the airport is sold, then this then that.
accident....