Swiss International Air Lines will discontinue services between Geneva and Skopje at the end of the 2016 summer season. It will become the fourth route in the former Yugoslavia to be terminated by the carrier this year. Swiss' spokesperson, Meikke Fuhlrott, confirmed to EX-YU Aviation News that the service will be discontinued as the airline struggles to turn a profit at its Geneva base. The last flight between the two cities is scheduled to operate on Saturday, October 29. While tickets for the route can still be purchased, the flights are to be removed from booking engines soon. Swiss launched two weekly operations between Geneva and Skopje in May 2015. At the time, the airline said, "Skopje is increasingly becoming a travel destination, along with Ohrid, and, as such, we anticipate on bringing Macedonia closer to Switzerland".
Belgrade and Pristina will remain the only two cities in the former Yugoslavia to be served by Swiss on a year-long basis. It comes after the carrier suspended operations to Ljubljana in January, which is to be followed by Zagreb, Sarajevo and Skopje this October. Swiss' subsidiary, Edelweiss Air, will continue to maintain flights between Zurich and the Macedonian capital. During 2015, Swiss handled 7.192 passengers on its services between Geneva and Skopje since the route was inaugurated in early April. Switzerland is one of Macedonia's biggest markets with Belair, Edelweiss, Germania Flug and Helvetic Airways all operating flights between the two countries.
It has emerged Swiss' parent company Lufthansa has put pressure on the carrier to improve its performance in Geneva, which will likely result in the suspension of up to ten routes from the city as part of a market turnaround plan, dubbed “Geneva Reloaded”. The two-year plan, which runs until 2018, is aimed at improving the profitability of the carrier’s Geneva hub operations. Unless the plan pays off and Swiss’ regional European operations are able to generate a profit, then the airport could be turned over to the group’s budget carrier, Eurowings. As a result, Eurowings has now been tasked with devising its own business plan for a possible Geneva market entry. Lufthansa Group insiders have said the company expects to make a decision on the future of its Geneva operations in mid-2017.
Swiss's ex-Yu expansion last year has turned into an utter disaster. They have now officially suspended each and every route they started to the region last year.
ReplyDeleteMust be all the good guidance they get from Lufthansa like people mention here
DeleteI don't think there are many here who will describe Lufthansa as "good guidance company". I know one from Serbia, and of course Croatia Airlines management.
DeleteHow were their loads on this route?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the text they handled 7.192 passengers last year starting from April when they launched flights
DeleteI meant in terms of LF.
DeleteDon't know but that doesn't really matter. Could have been 100% but the yields could have been low. The assumption is it unperformed.
DeleteIt does matter if you know what the average price levels were (publicly observable). It is essential for establishing whether another airline with a lower cost base could pick it up. ;)
DeleteIt's a pity. Not that it is a major loss but I think for Skopje it is extremely important for tgem to have legacy carriers flying there seeing as they are dominated by Wizz Air. This is a loss for people wanting to fly to the US.
ReplyDelete+1 fewer transfer choices although I think this route was primarily aimed at P2P passengers.
DeleteHow many legacy carriers are there in SKP?
Deletelol this (1 weekly) route was never meant for transfer to the US
Deleteyou have ZRH for that
@ Anonymous September 2, 2016 at 9:18 AM
DeleteAlitalia, Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, Austrian, Adria, Turkish and CSA.
Ok thanks. Overall a good mix. Surprised there is no Lufthansa.
DeleteMissing connections to MUC, FRA, CDG, AMS, LHR, CPH, SVO...
Deleteand airlines like Lufthansa, British, Air France...
And that is why Swiss, for sure, is huge minus when they leave this tinny list.
So now they have suspended from Geneva - Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo and from Zurich Ljubljana, Zagreb and Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteTerrible.
They're coming back to Zagreb in March 2017. No idea for other airports.
DeleteDid SWISS ever fly Zurich - Skopje or was it always Edelweiss?
ReplyDeletemostly Edelweiss, but sometimes its even operated by Swiss
DeleteThe title of todays news is somewhat misleading. Swiss (Edelweiss) is in fact doubling its frequency to Skopje with the coming winter schedule to 6 weekly.
ReplyDeleteI know its Edelweiss but its stil Swiss
The title is completely correct. Edelweiss is not Swiss.
DeleteEdelweiss is 100% Swiss
DeleteSwiss itself will no longer operate flights to Skopje like the title says. Edelweiss is a different brand, different service and you are no longer able to buy tickets to Skopje on Swiss website. Under that same logic you can say Swiss is Lufthansa since it is 100% Lufthansa.
DeleteOr that you say it is same if someone change route from Lufthansa to Eurowings.
Deletelol the stuff people post on here....
Deleteyou CAN book the ENTIRE Swiss network from SKP with Edelweiss flights feeding to ZRH
you can purchase tickets on swiss.com!!!
DeleteBut you can not say it is Swiss, as it is not.
Deletehaters gonna hate
DeleteZRH in the coming winter season is becoming the 3rd most important hub for connecting passengers from SKP leaving BEG,ZAG,LJU and FCO behind
How the mighty have fallen.
ReplyDeleteDid Wizz Air introduce a route near Geneva? Maybe that impacted on their numbers?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteWell, for sure Wizz routes to Basel, Bergamo, Freiedrichshafen and Memmingen does not help this route to survive. We all know that passengers today drive for 200, or even 300 km to fly cheaper. Especially for those potential passengers that leave between those airports served by Wizz and Geneva.
DeleteTe rute su jake u javnom prevozu u CH i nista se ne stedi tako u evropskom saobracaju. To sto Purger ovde prica kako se vozi 500 km za jeftiniju kartu ne vazi za svajcarce i tamosnje gastarbajter. I parking tamo mnogo vise kosta.
DeletePurger nikada nije rekao da vozi 500 km radi jeftinijeg leta. I to dobro znate. Normalna motivirajuća distanca je do 300 km, a iznimno (ako se radi o destinaciji za koju je konekcija komplicirana i jako skupa) onda do 400 km.
DeleteI to ne čini radi uštede od 100-200 EUR. Od kada je Zagreb dobio bitno više prijevoznika i konkurenciju i cijene su ozbiljno pale, pa zadnjih dvije godine nisam letio iz aerodroma u okolini. No, ako moja pratnja i ja (najčeće 3 osobe) uštedimo 400+ EUR svi zajedno i nakon što platimo parkiranje, cestarine i benzin svakako ćemo tako što napraviti. Za manje od toga sigurno ne.
I da to rade i njemci, i francuzi, i talijani, i englezi, a i švicarci. I na tome žive LCC, to i je poanta LCC u kojem im aerodom 100 i više kilometara udaljen glumi aerodrom velikog grada i u kome postavljaju baze na svakih 400-500 km, tako da su motivirajuće udaljeni od potencijalnih putnika (do 300 km). Ili vi stvarno mislite da EasyJet ima bazu u Baselu sa 61 linijom na temelju 500.000 stanovnika Basela, Mulhausa i Freiburga, kao i da Wizzairom isključivo lete putnici iz Tuzle, gradića od 80.000 stanovnika (što će reči da svaki od njih obavi 3 leta godišnje)?
Znaci tema je da li moze wizz zameniti swiss sa baselom umesto zeneve. Tvoji napadi pisanja nikog ne interesuju, bolje pogledaj malo cene javnog prevoza u CH i da li na njima moze neko da ustedi leteci u Basel, a putujuci vozom do Zeneve. I to dva puta i u povratku. Tvoje skretanje teme je po obicaju bezobrazno, prestani lupati o Tuzli gde se ide krdzavim autobusima to niko ni ne pominje.
DeleteNe, ja to nisam napisao, niti sam komentirao da će putnik iz Geneve potegnuti do Basela. Ja sam:
Delete1. Demantirao netočnu informaciju da će potegnuti 500 km radi jeftinije karte. To je naprosto laž.
2. Napisao činjenicu da velik broj putnika poteže u krugu od 300 km do aerodroma koji ima jeftinije karte i da na tome svoj poslovni model temelje LCC. Pa i u Švicarskoj.
3. Nisam okrenuo temu, nego samo reagirao na vašu laž i nadovezao se na nešto što su prethodnici pokrenuli i diskutirali.
Korištenje javnog prijevoza kao konekcije ima svoje koristnike, iako većina putnika koji odlaze na "alternativne" aerodrome čine to vlastitim automobilima. To je najčešće najjeftinija i najpovoljnija opcija za uštedu vremena. Upravo stoga i ima toliko mnogo stranih tablica na parkiralištima zračnih luka u Beču, Veneciji, Budimpešti...
I molim da ovakav neprimjeren ton pisanja izbjegavate ako želite da raspravljamo. Jer ako nastavite tako ja ću vrlo jednostavno prekinuti komunikaciju sa vama. "Lupanje" i slični izrazi su primjereni birtijetinama i tržnicama, ne strukovnim forumima.
A posebno mi nije jasno što je bezobrazno u tome što sam ja napisao? No, ovaj stil pisanja i etiketiranja ipak više govori o vama nego o meni.
Tant pis.
ReplyDeleteI see an opportunity for easyJet to take it over. The fact Swiss pulled this one out last is sufficient proof of an existing market that can be tapped by an airline with a lower cost base.
Nobody else is really an option at this point as one needs either a Swiss or a Macedonian AOC to operate the route.
fingers crossed.
DeleteLogic dictates that the fact SWISS pulled is more of a proof that there is no market there. easyJet has a lower cost base, but it also has bigger birds. SWISS operated this route mostly with Avro RJ100 weekly. Even if there was a market for a one weekly frequency it would be hard for easyJet to open a new route and make it profitable.
DeleteThe other alternative would be if MK Gov stepped in, as it does, and take care of all costs for Etihad Regional to fly the route. Saab 2000 would probably fit best.
Logic only dictates that under certain premises, and I don't agree with those. The market is not a fixed amount, and different brand and product characteristics can drive demand up or down.
DeleteThe way Wizz Air has stimulated the market and uncovered additional demand with low fares is the case study proving the opposite.
Again, the fact that Skopje was pulled out *last* means this one was the best regional route they had. When optimizing for financial purposes first you throw the worst performers out and if the general business situation doesn't improve, yo move on with setting more and more stringent criteria.
One would be intimately familiar with the above once involved in commercial decision making instead of merely observing the market from an ops standpoint :)
if easyJet can maintain 3-4 weekly to PRN, it can do so with SKP too. Its a similar passengers structure.
DeleteEasy won't ever go to Macedonia. Don't forget who is the owner of easyJet.
DeleteWe don't know if SKP is the last route to be pulled or not.
DeleteeasyJet routes out of GVA are not restricted to the former Yugoslavia. Hence, being the best of a bad bunch is not *proof* that: (i) market exists; and (ii) market yields are sufficiently high to make the route profitable.
Wizz Air did not stimulate the market, the MK Gov did. Why isn't Wizz Air stimulating the market out of SJJ instead of TZL? Is there no "uncovered additional demand" for SJJ?
The only undisputed proof is that SWISS could not make GVA-SKP work with a single weekly flight utilising Avro RJ100 jets (97 seats). Everything else is spin and hype. Could easyJet make it work? Sure. easyJet could also make INI, TIA, MXP, MRS and so on work with A319 jets though. That too is involved in commercial decision making.
Oh wow.
Delete1. We do. It's the last exYu route to be pulled from GVA.
2. Yes, it does mean that some market exists. Quantifying it is up to what assumptions you put in the model. My model tells me there is. Yours doesn't. I'm confident mine works :)
3. As for actual financial contribution, the investment is 98% Wizz Air, 2% Mk gov. However, that's not what the claim is at all. Wizz Air's low CASK and variable pricing are what's driving the additional demand. I guess you have some other points to make that are not related to this specific topic.
4. (i) Based on this, all business is spin and hype. (ii) The statement for INI, TIA etc does not follow logically from the above since Swiss hasn't operated any of the above lately.
It's a good lead as any out there really. I'm sure easyJet will pick it up if they have some spare capacity lying around.
Again argument that Stelios is Greek. Stelios is not easyJet CEO and he is in huge business conflict with majority of owners. It is really a war between them.
Delete1. I don't have a crystal ball nor do I sit on the SWISS board, hence I don't know if it's the last destination in the former Yugoslavia to be dropped or not. But you seem to know more. So, you can confirm that neither BEG nor PRN will be pulled?
Delete2. An airline dropping a line that it operated once weekly with a 97 seat aircraft would normally indicate that the market is *not* there. You suggest it's completely the opposite, so please share with us your model for this route.
3. Completely related to your 'Wizz Air model' in point (2), please educate us ignorant observers why is Wizz Air "stimulated the market" in TZL and not SJJ? In the same argument, please elaborate why does Wizz Air not see any "uncovered additional demand" for SJJ, but it does for TZL?
4. You misunderstood this point. The question I was asking was why would easyJet have to consider only destinations in the former Yugoslavia in its commercial decision making? With the right 'stimulation' they could make INI or TIA or MXP or MRS (outside former Yugoslavia) work just as easily.
5. Yes, it's a lead. But I am not convinced by your arguments that it is a good lead and I am even less convinced that easyJet would surely pick it up if they had some spare capacity.
1. Is this a trick question? Check the schedule of GVA-BEG.
Delete2 & 3. Compare capacity available on any P2P route served by a traditional airline and the same - or very similar - served later by Wizz Air from SKP. That will tell you something about the market stimulation. I don't see how SJJ vs TZL considerations come into this. That decision has nothing to do with market potential.
4. A route operated for at least a couple of seasons in the past is a much safer bet than ones with no historical data. Nobody said they are only looking at exYu by the way.
5. It's not you that needs convincing :)
Let's agree to disagree on this one :)
DeleteThe reason why I brought TZL into this discussion is to illustrate the fact that Wizz Air does not stimulate the market, it's the local authorities that do. If SJJ were to waive (or significantly) reduce its fees then Wizz Air would fly there instead. The same with SKP, MK Gov 'stimulated the marked,' hence SKP market grew. At what cost, that's another discussion though.
So, this whole idea that an airline like Wizz Air steps in under the same market conditions and simply because it has a lower cost base it 'uncovers demand' and turns a route profitable does not wash. They need local governments to pay most or all of their airport costs (plus cover 'marketing' costs) and they need to fly to a secondary or tertiary airport. The latter is not an option in GVA and you've not mentioned the former.
In any case, it was nice discussing with you and it will be interesting to see if anyone picks up the route, and also see where the Wizz Air model takes airports like SKP and TZL in the long run.
I think you need to look into more actual data before coming up with these conclusions. As long as it's just words and opinions it's always going to be black and white. I would recommend looking at capacity trends and CASK comparisons provided by sites like CAPA and Anna Aero.
Deletethis route is perfect for wizzair. they already fly to Geneva
ReplyDelete.. from the EU. Non-EU is another matter altogether.
DeleteBilateral limitations. Switzerland is not EU, Open Skies do not apply.
DeleteI am not sure about it. Open Sky is not limited only to EU members. Serbia is not yet member of EU but it must follow Open Sky regulations in order to have free access to any destination in Europe. After all, W6 flies to BEG from BSL without bilateral and easyjet flies from GVA to BEG
DeleteYes but Serbia and Switzerland expanded their bilateral cooperation
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/p/serbia-and-switzerland-have-signed-new.html
Open Skies is not applied when both countries are out of the EU.
DeleteW6 flies to MLH, technically France.
easyJet Switzerland (DS as opposed to U2) is a separate legal entity and has a Swiss AOC. The company was created for this purpose exactly.
Thank you, I didn't know it.
DeleteCan you please let me know how W6 flies TRF-SKP? Both countries are out of EU and flight operated with Hungarian AOC
Technically, ECAA, not EU.
DeleteCheck this link out. The second map explains it best. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Common_Aviation_Area
Many thanks!
Delete@Admin: Flight to Zagreb are bookable in Spring / Summer 2017. Will flights operate or not?
ReplyDeleteI think they resume them next summer for a few months.
DeleteDobio sam fotku dijela Aeroputovom reda letenja iz 1939. godine. Vrlo interesantno, pa prenosim:
ReplyDelete1234567 Skopje 6:20 - 7:10 Niš 7:15 - 8:20 Beograd 16:10 - 17:15 Niš 17:20 - 18:10 Skopje
-2-4-6- Beograd 9:00 - 11:25 Sofija - 11:45 - 12:10 Beograd
123456- Beograd 9:50 - 10:45 Sarajevo 10:55 - 11:35 Dubrovnik 14:20 - 15:00 Sarajevo 15:10 - 16:05 Beograd
123456- Zagreb 11:55 - 13:00 Split 13:10 - 14:00 Dubrovnik 12:05 - 12:55 Split 13:05 - 14:10 Zagreb
* očito su se ove dvije posljednje linije križale u Dubrovniku, pa je tako avion iz Splita išao za Sarajevo, a ovaj iz Sarajeva za Split, a što je prvenstveno napravljeno radi konekcija u Zagrebu prema Dalmaciji, te iz Sarajeva preko Dubrovnika. Nevjerovatno inovativno za 1939.
123456- Ljubljana 10:25 - 11:10 - Zagreb 14:40 - 15:20 Ljubljana
* vidljivo je da je konekcija iz Ljubljane za Split i Dubrovnik idealna preko Zagreba, a vrijeme konekcije je bilo tek 45 minuta u odlasku i 30 minuta u povratku.
* jednako tako moguće su konekcije iz Sarajeva preko Dubrovnika za Split i Zagreb sa 0:40 u odlasku i 1:10 u povratku
Žao mi je što nemam cijeli red letenja, baš bih volio proanalizirati stanje.
@ Purger 1005...
DeletePogledajte na web site Timetable Images. Tamo mozete vidjeti stare slike red letenja Aeroput i Jat-a. Ima na mhesti gdje imadu cijeli raspored da se moze vidijeti.
OT: Kiev-Belgrade JU661 photo&video report with landing @BEG:
ReplyDeletehttps://1drv.ms/f/s!AvUdTqzcTw66gok3KtTN4U1XuOQHbA
Is Air Serbia cutting Kiev this winter or what? So far only Warsaw seems to be going.
DeleteSKP gains more low-cost destinations and looses legacy airlines. Increases Wizzair monopoly in the airport which is not really good now. But yeah, for a small regional airport like SKP, I guess this is normal.
ReplyDeletethis is OK for SKP, only there must be at least a second LCC, which has based one or more aircraft there (ryan or easy)
DeleteNot really. What they do need is a proper feeder connection to AMS / FRA or similar westbound one-hop connection to the world. Eastbound they already have Turkish for that.
DeleteThere are Istanbul, Vienna, Rome & Zurich on daily-basis, that's enough. More LCC please!!!
DeleteSoon enough Swiss won't fly to any Ex YU airport
ReplyDeleteunofficial: Split in August recrded 487k pax.Up 13,3% from 8/2015.
ReplyDelete01.01-31.08 so far 1.72mio pax.
BEG in August 590.292, up 3%
ReplyDeleteFlight ops up 4%
What about cargo?
DeleteThe data is not published yet (Friday, 16.23).
DeleteZAG in August 306000 pax
Delete+7,8%
So the difference between ZAG and SPU is 120.000. It is not so near as someone said it would be. And from September gap will be bigger and bigger at the end of the year it would be half a million passengers.
DeleteAnd after August results some people still believe that BEG airport will hit 5 million passengers till the end of the year LOL....
DeleteNow BEG has to have at least 14% growth each month to hit 5 million.
DeleteI really do hope that Skopje manages to get a few more legacy carriers.
ReplyDeleteBtw in regard to the discussion why Wizz flies SKP -Basel although Switerland is not in EU and thus not in Open Skies :
ReplyDeleteBasel Airport is situated on the French side of the border not in Switzerland !
Nobody was talking about Basel. It was about Geneva. However, while we're on the topic: Basel / Mulhouse / Freiburg airport appropriately has three codes: BSL, MLH and EAP and is handled by both EU and Swiss jurisdictions, depending on how the flight is classified.
DeleteOn old days they had 3 entrance, 3 police controls, 3 exits, so that you can directly from plane go to Switzerland, France or Germany.
DeleteOT:
ReplyDeleteWizz Air are with brand new website.
Another waste.
Deleteso much fuzz about one weekly flight
ReplyDeleteOT; Swiss will resume flights from Zurich to Sarajevo in 2017!
ReplyDeleteYes 3 times per weeks :)
DeleteNeverujem da je ovo zbog zamene Regionalne Flote LX izleda im se samo isplati PRN i BEG i jos bi se jedino isplatila BNX .
ReplyDeleteOvo ce da poboljsa LF od ASL.
INN-NS
BNX bi se isplatila tamo gde se nije ZAG, SKP, LJU, SJJ?
DeleteZaboravi li ti popiti lekove danas?
Pa ako se iplati što sa svojim jeftinim brendom Edelweiss nisu uspeli ni jedan let da naprave nego odoše i prije nego počeše da lete?
O Bože, ima li te?
Ja ne pijem ali izgleda vivase jeste .
DeleteBNX ima jedno od najvecih O&D prema CH .
WK nije zbog prodaje odustao sigurno.
INN-NS
Yet another legacy departure from an ex-yu airport ... must be Air Serbia's fault
ReplyDeleteSweety, Air Serbia is important as a carrier, but not that important!
Deletexoxo
BTW, the fact that there aren't enough aero bridges at SKP airport is also Air Serbia's fault too
DeleteChill it Jackie.
DeleteO.T. Today 101 departures for BEG, very good for september
ReplyDeleteOn BEG Website - Alitalia flights from Rome to Belgrade now have Saudia as a codeshare partner.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beg.aero/en/strana/7731/timetable?kompanija=&odDan=1&odMesec=3&odGodina=2016&destinacija=Rome%20Fiumicino&doDan=28&doMesec=10&doGodina=2016&type=ID&flightSearch=true