Eurowings tipped to announce new EX-YU routes


Lufthansa's fast-growing low cost subsidiary Eurowings, which has capitalised on the collapse of its former rival Air Berlin, is expected to unveil several new routes to the former Yugoslavia in the near future. It comes after the airline announced plans yesterday to grow its fleet by thirty Airbus A320-family aircraft by the summer of 2018, following a major breakthrough in negotiations with pilots and crew. The carrier has agreed on a collective agreement for the growth of flight operations of Eurowings Germany. “As a result we are now capable of short-term growth in all Eurowings flight operations. By summer 2018, Eurowings will grow by thirty aircraft at all German locations, as well as in Austria and Spain", the carrier's Managing Director, Jorg Beissel, said.

The airline is tipped to announce the launch of new routes to Brač, Osijek, Podgorica and Ljubljana. Eurowings has made Croatia the focal point of its expansion in the region over the past year, with the carrier opening up eleven new routes to the country this past summer. The low cost airline is expected to announce services to Brač from more than one German destination, and potentially from Switzerland as well. Furthermore, it will add a new route to Osijek and increase the existing two weekly service from Stuttgart to three per week. It anticipates handling over one million passengers on the Croatian market next year.

Eurowings is also poised to introduce services to the Montenegrin capital in 2018 after adding its first seasonal flights to the country, from Dusseldorf to Tivat, this year. The Lufthansa Group member has said it is considering boosting frequencies on its Tivat route and launching flights to Podgorica. The Montenegrin capital was featured in the airline's public vote this October to select its newest destination, which was ultimately won by Mostar. On the other hand, the carrier tentatively scheduled its first nonstop service to Slovenia in November, between Dusseldorf and Ljubljana, which was slated to launch on January 15. It later removed the planned operational timetable although both airports have confirmed that the budget airline intends to link the two cities. Earlier this year, Eurowings' Senior Manager for Network Development and Airport Relations, Ivan Oreč, noted, "We are in constant talks with airports in Slovenia and we anticipate for a greater presence there in the coming period".

The low cost carrier has already scheduled new flights for next year from Munich to Pristina, starting March 24, and from both Dusseldorf and Stuttgart to Mostar, commencing on May 16 and 19 respectively. Previous plans to operate services between Munich and Skopje, as well as Dusseldorf and Sarajevo, have been dropped after "expectations regarding the economic efficiency of the routes were not fulfilled" during the sales period. The German airline is likely to maintain its limited operations to Serbia with seasonal summer flights between Stuttgart and Belgrade but has previously said it is in negotiations with airports in the country. Interest has been expressed in serving Niš, in the country's south-east.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    Should be noted that they announced their last big expansion for ex-Yu on 22nd December last year. I think it was seven or eight route that time. So maybe they do it again tomorrow :P ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      Hope so. They do usually announce a lot of new routes just before Christmas.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    Here is a route they could consider: Cologne - Belgrade

    With over 20,000 searches in the last year, a potential city pair from Cologne Bonn to Belgrade has been identified as this week’s “Skyscanner-anna.aero Unserved Route of Week” – a powerful analysis based on aspirational data captured from the Skyscanner.net flight comparison site used by +60 million unique visitors per month. “The Belgrade route was last served in 2011 by germanwings for over five years,” comments Tobias Lyssy, Director Aviation Development at Cologne Bonn Airport. “The demand exceeded 43,000 passengers annually. More than 62,000 Serbs are living in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is 27% of the total in Germany. Serbia is one of the last white hot spots we have in the Balkan region”.

    When looking at the previous year of search data, the busiest month for potential traffic flows (for both directions on the route combined) is June 2017, with over 3,200 searches, over 2,000 higher than the lowest monthly figure, which was recorded in June 2016 (1,200 searches). According to OAG Traffic Analyser, because there is no direct service, the top three connecting options chosen by those passengers who did book travel between Cologne Bonn and Belgrade in the last year indicates that the majority of connecting travellers used Munich (49%), Vienna (22%) and Berlin Tegel (16%). In total, transfer passengers looking to fly between the two cities used 19 different airports to complete their respective journeys. However, with over 20,000 annual searches in the past 12 months, a twice-weekly service should be immediately viable for the airline choosing to start this potential city pair. “We are convinced that this route will deliver exceptional results for the airline who wants to take a chance upon this opportunity,”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      Considering how many flights there are between Serbia and Germany, it is odd there are none to Cologne.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:18

      Searches mean nothing. Interesting ist the conversion between searched and bookings made. I also constantly search destinations where I could fly to. Lufthansa just announced 2 weekly FRA-ZAD flight bringing the total in Summer to 7 weekly flight. Probably there are nearly not as many searches on Skyscanner, but flights are still full and profitable.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:37

      Germanwings used to fly from CGN some years ago, I think even before visas were removed.

      The thing with BEG is that EW would have to fight for a certain market. It's not like launching ZAG-DUS where there was no one flying before they came.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    Truth be told I wouldn't be surprised if they skip Belgrade. They would bring nothing new to the market.

    Maybe INI?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      Eurowings is perfect for INI. Hope it happens.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      FR and W6 already cover majority of routes to Germany from Nis. What would be beneficial is if they launch VIE-INI. It would also be a good alternative to the Austrian-Air Serbia monopoly from Belgrade on this route.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:22

      FR already flies Bratislava-Nis which is good enough for anyone going to Vienna.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:33

      INI-MUC
      INI-DUS
      INI-FRA

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:35

      It would be nice but does anyone know what happened with this? I remember they were talking with INI a lot and then suddenly nothing.

      Here is the link: https://www.aviatica.rs/eurowings-u-pregovorima-sa-niskim-aerodromom/

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:35

      What about INI-CGN?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:40

      I think the whole saga with Air Berlin created a bit of a mess for them. I am sure INI is still very much on their radar especially with booming numbers and LX doing really well there.

      I hope they introduce VIE-INI to put pressure on FR.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous09:43

      I'm confident INI will be included in the list. INI-MUC would perfectly fit and connect via MUC hub.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous09:55

      But wouldn't that take away some passengers from LX? I mean it's not like they are killing it on the route to INI.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous10:27

      They are increasing Nis to three per week next summer and have extended their flights to operate year round instead of planned seasonal ops. They have also increased capacity to Nis this December to CS300. So I would say they are doing rather well from Nis.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous10:30

      Also the diaspora from Switzerland hailing from eastern Serbia is large enough to sustain the operations between INI-ZRH so if Eurowings starts Munich I don't think it would affect their flights at all.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous14:12

      I think so too. MUC or even NUE could work due to INI's large catchment area.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:05

    If Brac gets more than one EW route that would be fantastic. It would be a really big year for a such a small airport.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      Are there any plans to expand the terminal at Brac? I know it's not necessary now but with a lot of new flights expected how will they all fit. It's a very tiny terminal.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:31

      Brac will get munich,dusseldorf and zurich..

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:39

      Wow that is fantastic! All with A319?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:41

      I think that would be their first non-German route from Zurich.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:42

      No,Q400 or crj900

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:42

      Great. With smaller capacity I actually think these routes have an even better chance of success.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:07

    I must say I don't understand how a collective agreement has enabled them to add 30 planes to the fleet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:23

      They needed to negotiate with crew so they could staff those planes.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:47

      Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) signed a collective agreement with Lufthansa at at time when Lufthansa decided to expand EW, then a regional carrier paying lower wages. VC agreed that LH may switch the EW ops from CRJ to A320. As the so called scope clause does not allow any aircraft larger than 100 seats be operated by other than LH mainline crew, VC agreed but limited the operations of EW to 30 aircraft, a size EW had with its CRJs. Since LH has threatened to defer the Jobs to EW Europe in Vienna, paying extremely low wages, VC (also in the light of the AB insolvency) agreed to have the 30 Planes rule abolished now.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:52

      Thanks for the clarification :)

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:10

    Again no new flights to Split planned. Just like Easy Jet :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      Like I said about easy jet, the airport is too busy. There is little capacity or slots left during the day.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:38

      Zadar is seeing the spill over effect from Split capacity limitations.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:51

      Split will surpass 3 million next year. With the expansion SPU will have 5 million in around 3-4 years. Due to the proximity of the airports of ZAD and SPU, airlines have started shifting between SPU, ZAD and BWK which makes sense.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:33

      Thank you Lord that all those pax are going away from SPU to ZAD and BWK. It would be great if half of them would go to those airports. SPU should focus on travellers visiting area from Sibenik to Makarska riviera, the rest should go to other airports. We need to focus on quality, not the quantity in SPU.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:11

    Still wondering how Eurowings gave up on Macedonian market so easily. They could it try and pull out after some time if it didn't work out. I believe there was something else behind the scenes which caused the cancellation of Munich-Skopje.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:16

      With them getting more aircraft there is a possibility they might start these flights to Skopje and the DUS-SJJ line too.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:26

      I doubt it. They were very direct that the sales did not meet their expectations.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:51

      Lufthansa should have started flights to Skopje, not Eurowings!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:21

      EUrowings could not make it work. How would Lufthansa?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:24

      Lufthansa would handle much more connecting traffic.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:28

      There is Austrian Airlines for that.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:13

      Lufthansa already tried Skopje and failed in 2001. From Munich.

      Delete
    8. They tried Skopje in the worst period in Macedonia plus while MAT was still flying and their prices were cheaper, 700DM for return flight ( i remember it well coz my father flied back then). Today it's quite different , the market ,the prices ,the interest is different. But LCC has more chances than Lufthansa

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:12

    Tipped to announce Ljubljana. EX-Yu aviation news has already reported it starts in January.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      Read the text

      "On the other hand, the carrier tentatively scheduled its first nonstop service to Slovenia in November, between Dusseldorf and Ljubljana, which was slated to launch on January 15. It later removed the planned operational timetable although both airports have confirmed that the budget airline intends to link the two cities."

      The flights were in the system but then they removed it. I contacted DUS Airport through facebook a while ago and they said the flights have been moved to February. They were even listed on their website but not anymore...

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:17

    Great news for Osijek too. Another airport which will record strong growth in 2018 along with Brac.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      BWK is still massively underserved though. It could get more flights to places in western and eastern Europe.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:45

      For now 7 new routes ,and 4 new company in s18 is very good work.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:37

      Nice. Well done. Tonci Peovic did a good job at all the airports he was running so I'm not surprised.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:36

      Exempt Zagreb. Zagreb airport had huge increase of flights, routes and passengers before and after Peovic, but decrease during his period.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:27

    There is also rumour that they will start new route(s) to Rijeka and Pula next summer too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:29

      Do you know which ones?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:32

      If they start Munich-Rijeka expect to see Croatia Airlines drop its second route after London.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:57

      Such a shame that they allow LH to treat them like that.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:40

      No one said they were starting flights from Munich to Rijeka. It's just a guessm

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:42

      They will not start Munich to Rijeka. They already stopped that route to Pula. A319/320 is to big for this short route to Pula and Rijeka.

      Lufthansa have plan to start Munich - Rijeka route with CRJ9 from the summer 2019.

      I'd love to see Eurowings on the route from LGW to Rijeka!

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:29

    And Banja Luka sits on the sidelines and rots. They have missed every single opportunity to benefit from the changes happening on the European aviation market.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:40

      +1 let's see what the new ambassador CEO will do? My guess is nothing.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:22

      Who?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:26

      http://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/11/banja-luka-airport-gets-new-general.html

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:36

      Lol missed that news. Good luck with that.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:40

    DBV has 7 destinations to Germany but we are definitely missing more! FRA, LEJ, FKB, FDH, SXF, DRS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:36

      No flights from Frankfurt? That's a bit surprising.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:48

      DBV has a daily flight to FRA by OU and LH in Summer and 3 weekly in Winter. Condor also flies twice a week. LEJ is served by SunExpress, SXF by EasyJet.

      Delete
    3. Alen Šćuric Purger11:39

      Not true. Lufthansa will have in summer 2018:

      7 pw by Croatia
      4 pw by Lufthansa
      = 11 pw in code-share

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:29

      LEJ is not bookable anymore, neither from/to Split nor DBV. Really odd. From whole Eastern parts of Germany (16 mill. Inhabitants) there are only few Berlin seasonal services to a very few Exyu airports. That large chunk of Germany is massively underserved.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:48

    LJU is developing like crazy and might surprise all of us next year by reaching 2 million. The gap with ZAG is getting narrower. Bravo LJU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      LJU has a massive advantage and that is that they have a larger and wealthier catchment area than ZAG. By lowering their charges and fares LJU will keep on growing. It was massively underserved and undervalued.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:58

      U redu kojih velicina pricamo?
      10tina, 100tina ili 1000ca???

      Ne nasmijavaj me

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:01

      Hahahahhaah
      Samo da nekaj rečeš čez zagreb ali Hrvaško te takoj napadejo

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:03

      U kojem redu velicina pricas?

      Delete
    5. Isto obrnuto.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:47

      LJU has a massive advantage? Larger and wealthier catchment area? Yes people are the wealthiest on average in Ex-Yu. But according to your claim Luxembourg airport should handle 100 Million Pax. And I doubt that the planes are filled by the people living in the area only.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:00

      the thread with LJU and the wealthy Slovenes summarized:

      no ME carrier flies to LJU- very strange, but we are so wealthy

      no new routes from other carriers to LJU- very strange but we are so wealthy and love to go to vacations

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:16

      Oh please, who are Slovenes compared to Ivica Todorić or George Soros?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous13:59

      You mock LJU yet its growth this year will be over 20%. ;)

      Delete
    10. What was the growth in 2016?

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:06

      Zakaj pa se vi konstantno primerjate s Zg? Ocitno kaksen kompleks. Ahaha

      Delete
    12. Anonymous14:11

      Frishki, it was because of JP's failure. Now the airport might handle the most passengers ever and things will only go up from here. You can't deny that LJU had an impressive year.

      Delete
    13. First, you can not know how things will go in the coming years. Befor someone call me a hater, I'm just stating the fact. Wish you more airlines and passengers.
      Second, you probably realize that when you say 20% more passengers yoy is a lot because of the crappy year before that.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous14:51

      I would never call you a hater. :)

      Also, if the market and the demand was not there then 2018 would be a slightly better version of 2017... it wouldn't be this good. :)

      Last year the drop was some 3% while this year growth is over 20%. So it's not all about weak year before.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous15:15

      Kao sto ni ZAG nikad nece dostici BEG, tako ni LJU nece dostoci ZAG.

      Delete
    16. Anonymous17:19

      Yes, but both SPU and DBV will overtake ZAG.

      Delete
    17. Anonymous19:12

      Anyway, congrats to Croatian airports, obviously know what they're doing!

      Delete
    18. Anonymous20:15

      Lets all face it, LJU deserved those double digit positive growth figures. The airport is slowly and quietly growing like a small giant. Again, Fraport has done a great job. I will never be surprised if LJU manages to handle 2 million passengers in 2018. Catchment area or not, its figures are higher compared to its counterparts: VCE and ZAG.

      Delete
    19. Anonymous21:46

      You do realize that in real number ZAG and VCE have more new passengers.

      Delete
  14. Gdje je smisao EW za Dizeldrof-Sarajevo, kada lete 4 puta sedmicno iz Kelna? ccc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:33

      Dizeldrof??? :)
      Love it!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:44

      Ever heard of Menšingladbag? Lol

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:22

    I hope the two new routes to Mostar work out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:39

      I don't see why not. These are gasterbaiter routes with no competition.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:36

      Not so sure. This part of BiH/Exyu is poor and relatively lightly populated. Hardly developed tourism there.
      OMO should promote itself as an airport for parts of Croatian coast, although it might be a bit if a stretch.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:24

    It's fantastic to see so much interest in Podgorica lately. A true star performer. Well sone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:29

      True. Podgorica has been very impressive this and last year. I hope in 2018 it will surpass 2 million passengers.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:39

      You expect them to add a million passengers next year? The same amount of passengers they handled for the whole of 2017? Right.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:42

      +1

      Delete
  17. JU520 BEGLAX10:35

    Yesssss, pls Switzerland-Brac

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:48

      Brac ce preteci Osijek i Rijeku.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:05

      HAHAHAH. I Zagreb! a onda će Lošinj preteći svih njih! :D

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:41

      Osijek easily, but Rijeka?!?!?!?! How on earth?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:17

      Vrsar!!!

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:52

      Varazdin!!!

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:45

      Udbina !

      Delete
    7. Anonymous20:41

      Unije!

      Delete
    8. Anonymous21:48

      Gubaševo.
      Prpuša International.

      Svi će oni u 2018. preteći Zagreb

      Delete
    9. Anonymous01:00

      Rijeka-Grobnik

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:47

    Should Wizz Air be worried?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:07

      Yes, Wizz Air with bases in Skopje, Belgrade and Tuzla should really be worried. They have over 1 million passengers from SKP alone.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:11

      Well EW will handle over 1 million passengers from Croatia with no base...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:29

      Wizz Air is pretty much dominant on every other ex-Yu market other than Croatia.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:58

      Wizz Air is really weak in Slovenia as well. It could be a good alternative to the overpriced ZAG.

      Delete
    5. Like LJU is super cheap?

      Delete
  19. Anonymous11:29

    So they will primarily keep on focusing on Croatia.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous11:35

    Their BEG presence is laughable. Flights from 1 destination for a month and a half. But then again BEG is really well connected to Germany

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:50

      There is nothing left for them to launch from Germany. It is really well connected to BEG and there is no need for more German flights.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:58

      That is why they should focus on INI instead.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous11:49

    Bravo Hrvatska!!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous12:24

    They should start Tuzla and give Wizz a run for their money.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:27

      It would be good to end Tuzla's reliance on W6.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous13:51

    Good news :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous14:01

    As they keep growing their fleet, we will definitely see more of them in ex-Yu. There are a lot of untapped opportunities in the region.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous14:08

    People might mock Air Serbia or belittle Wizz Air but the fact that Eurowings is keeping away from Serbia goes to show that these two are not such innocent or easy opponents. It also shows that Serbia is the most competitive market on a year-round basis.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Can Eurowings launch flights from FRA? I am asking because they fly from MUC, but there are no them in FRA.
    It would be nice they to launch MUC or FRA from TGD, with LH codesharing, because of connections. YM flights to ZRH and FRA don't have codeshare, I think none airline codeshare this flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:42

      No, sacred LH main base, so far.
      Currently LH doesn't allow EW serving FRA/ basing planes there. Every slot there goes to LH group main airlines. But it might change anytime, as was the case at MUC.

      Delete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.