NEWS FLASH
Low cost carrier Wizz Air will introduce flights between Vienna and Pristina this coming winter season. Services will be maintained four times per week starting December 18, each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The announcement comes just weeks after Eurowings scheduled a new service from the Austrian capital to Pristina from this November. Vienna will become Wizz Air's sixth destination from Kosovo, complementing existing flights to Basel, Budapest, Dortmund, London Luton and Memmingen.
Further details for the new service can be found here.
Nice. Much better than the one weekly EW flight.
ReplyDeleteBye bye OS.
ReplyDeleteOS offers excellent connecting flights. I flew with them earlier this month and it was perfect fare-wise, transfer-wise, and service-wise. Most other passengers were transferring too.
DeleteDoesn't matter, their costs are too high, they will most likely transfer VIE-PRN to EW since their costs are more aligned with the market potential.
DeleteIt could be. Cheaper is certainly better, but Austrian has been operating to PRN for close to 20 years now, so most of this time more than 7 weekly flights. So, the market can sustain OS pricing.
DeleteOS never faced so much competition in the past, not only directly but also from SKP and INI. They were sheltered for a really long time, let's see how tough they are now.
DeleteAgreed.
DeleteA little off topic.. Pristina Airport in August 2019 had 302.000 passengers.. https://indeksonline.net/aeroporti-adem-jashari-thyen-rekord-te-ri/
DeleteFour weekly flights at launch by Wizz Air is very aggressive. As far as I am aware that's the most frequencies than any other of their routes to PRN.
ReplyDeleteI had a hunch that Eurowings launch of PRN-VIE route was a pre-emptive action to a low-cost airline considering launching the route. My suspicion was on Lauda (Ryanair) who used to fly to PRN as Lauda Air a while back considering that they are expending aggressively out of VIE. So, this announcement is a pleasant surprise.
Wizz Air's network into PRN is slowly but surely expanding.
Can all the 3 survive though?
DeleteIt's hard to tell whether all 3 airlines can keep the route open, no one knows at this stage.
DeleteBut we heard here people complaining about OS fares. They serve this route with 12 weekly flights and if the fares are high it implies that there are passengers. However, their yields will either go down or they can reduce their frequencies (that would be a shame since connecting on intercontinental flights in VIE is really convenient).
Wizz Air will be very hard to push out. I can see return fares of 90 Euros.
That leaves EW as the weakest operator, low-cost-ish but one-way fares start at 99.99 Euros and only fly once weekly. So, we'll see how determined they are on this route. They are being backed by local travel agents that know the local market better than anyone else though because people like to have a physical office to go and complain if anything goes wrong, plus they can pay in cash.
Wizz is not impossible to defeat, they launched 4 weekly VIE-INI hoping to push FR out but in the end all they managed to do is to reduce their own flights to 2 weekly. They also failed in Tuzla so we have to see what happens with PRN. The market isn't that big at the end of the day.
DeleteThe point being that W6 is not competing against FR on VIE-PRN, but OS.
DeleteHowever, I hope OS does not lay down and take it. VIE is a neat hub (not too big, not too crowded, and well organised) and are my second favourite airline out of PRN behind LX.
Even if OS leaves EW will stay and they will offer connections via VIE, same as in FCO.
Delete@ anon 13:33
Deletecomparing PRN capacity to that of Nis or Tuzla simply isnt realistic!
Well Wizz is cutting VIE-Malmo/Bergen/Gdansk so I think those are comparable to PRN.
Deletethat's a totally different story. besides, i dont think the swedes or poles pay 600-700 euros for a round trip to vienna with austrian, among many other factors...
DeleteWizz doesn't care about market size, they want to crush OS and its allies. They are increasing TLV from daily to double daily, LIS from 4 to 7, launching CGN flights... they are attacking them on all fronts. PRN is just a tiny battle in a much larger war. W6 is in for the kill, expect there to be considerable damage to OS-EW.
ReplyDeleteW6 also launched VIE-TIA. They are attacking OS on their cashcow routes. I am so glad they did because as someone who flies from PRN the Austrian prices were a shame. Lets go WIZZ!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow we will read how EW is launching TIA. :D
DeleteAbsolutely right, OS have shameless prices in TIA
DeleteThey had pure monopoly on flights from TIA to VIE and almost 170K passengers flew out of TIA to Austria last year. 3rd busiest destination out of TIA.
DeleteWizz Air is slowly but certainly gaining ground at TIA. There still potential to expand such as: Hamburg, Berlin, Malta, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Larnaca, Barcelona...
anyone know how TIA performed in the period January July?
DeleteTIA January-July will be released on 27 August
DeleteOS was attacked long ago by taking away the lucrative high-yielding connecting passengers in Europe by establishing direct links - primarily Scandinavia, but also German speaking regions.
ReplyDeleteThis is just the last piece of the puzzle, P2P Vienna.
For the record, the extortionist OS fares were one of the key motivating factors for me to take up the disruption (read make flying available to many more people) opportunity with Wizz. I'm happy it's finally arriving to TIA and PRN as well.
Of course it was easy when Wizz has an investment fund to pay for their price dumping.
DeleteTranquilis, OS has been increasing the number of its passengers out of PRN the last 3-4 years. The growth has been small, but it was growth nonetheless. In 2018 they were a few hundred passengers short of 100,000 passengers.
DeleteThat being said, their numbers are at the same level they were in 2013-14, which is when more direct routes to Scandinavia opened.
and
Anonymous, why don't other airlines get "an investment fund" to pay for their own price dumping?
Because there is no more room? That investment fund has an airline in the US, Europe and India. They are pumping billions into them so that they can kill competition and then rip people off. You are celebrating today but tomorrow you will be crying your eyes out when OS and EW are pushed out and you are left with an overcharged, shitty LCC to VIE with no onward connections.
DeleteBe careful what you wish for.
Anonymous, I'm sorry but I totally missed where I was celebrating and wishing W6 push out OS?
DeleteRead the above comment and let me know what I am wishing for:
"However, I hope OS does not lay down and take it. VIE is a neat hub (not too big, not too crowded, and well organised) and are my second favourite airline out of PRN behind LX."
Also, I was not aware that there is only ONE investment fund in the world. Perhaps, just perhaps, when we're left with 'overcharged, shitty LCC to VIE' a new investment fund steps in and pushes them out by paying the the price dumbing of a new/different airline.
Doubt it, other investment funds know that there is no room for them, they care about maximizing their investment and with W6 around it ain't gonna happen. Maybe in Africa or south America in some years but not yet. :(
DeleteWow, it sounds like we're doomed!
DeleteWell you guys are safe as long as you have your archaic reiseburo mafia selling tickets to diaspora ;) Others like ZAG are not allowing their predatory tactics by forcing them to play on the same level as others.
DeleteLol Anon, it’s not 2004, get with the program.
DeleteWhat program? The one where one investment funds bankrupts businesses so that they can secure monopolies? Luckily FR is having none of it and they just attacked Wizz Air on many European routes such as BUD-ODS, SEN-VNO...
DeleteTranquilis, please don't spoil the fun!
DeleteGrab popcorn instead.
#WeAreAllDoomed
Bad news for SKP.
ReplyDeleteAgent provocatour much?
Deletewhy would you even feel provoked? trying to show youre cool boy?have you ever flown bratislava- skopje? half of plane if filled with Kosovo passengers....
DeleteThe other day we read that half of SKP passengers are from Kosovo so of course this is bad news for them.
Deletelol
DeleteI'm not feeling provoked, but you're trying to provoke people associated with SKP.
DeleteWhy bad news for SKP? For as long as Wizz Air has been flying to SKP both airports, PRN and SKP, have grown. Wizz Air now flies from BUD, LTN, MLH, DTM, FMM to PRN and SKP and yet both airports (and routes) are growing. That's because these are two separate markets albeit with a degree of overlap.
There will be some people that will "switch" from one to the airport from time to time, but that's normal everywhere. Opening of LTN, MLH, DTM, and FMM routes to PRN has not resulted in closures of these routes to SKP. Look at the undeniable facts, not at statements from people that want to deflect from their failures.
We (PRN/RKS) will be more successful if we look at ourselves and ask, what can I/we do? We should focus on things that we have control over, not waste energy with things we cannot control or even influence. And God knows there are plenty of things we can improve on at PRN, i.e. the scandal with radars, ATC strikes, ground services staff strikes, nepotism... the list if long, very long.
+1
DeleteKudos.
@visit kosovo,
Deletesomeone just stated the factual truth. SKP is reliant on kosovo passengers, this route especially, hence the expected impact.
if someone feels provoked by stating the obvious - it is their problem.
This won’t affect OS in PRN or TIA because most of its passengers are connecting passengers also being part of the LH group W6 won’t affect them.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt this will be the most successfull Wizz route in Kosovo and beyond.
ReplyDeleteThere are at least 500+ travellers from Vienna to Kosovo everyday only by bus or plane! i expect Wizz will launch daily flights soon after!
i don't understand why croc tears for Austrian? They charge 600-700 for a silly 1 hr flight? I personally hope they leave Kosovo ASAP and never return! Go Wizz!
gap between SKP and PRN just grew by 100k PAX a year.
ReplyDelete+70.000 by new WIZZ VIE-PRN Route
-30.000 by WIZZ BRATISLAVA-SKP
exactly wizz is gonna sabotage their own flights *facepalm*
Deletedont want to have your logic really
Not exactly. Wizz may lose some 30k passengers in Skopje, but will earn 100k in Prishtina.
Deletesure ^^
DeleteSKP will be collateral damage for a change. cest la vie!
Deletewell done Prn!
lol (why is the admin accepting such comments is out of my imagination)
DeleteWhat did he say that's offensive?
DeleteHow many flights does OS operate out of PRN in summer/winter?
ReplyDeleteDuring the summer OS flies 12 weekly to PRN.
DeleteDuring the winter that reduces to 10 weekly flights.