Low cost carrier Wizz Air has announced it anticipates resuming operations from its three bases in the former Yugoslavia at the start of May, pending government approval. In a statement the airline said, “As a result of the prolonging of the travel restrictions imposed on all foreign flights to and from the Republic of Northern Macedonia, the airline will extend the suspension of all its flights to and from Skopje until April 30 inclusive”. The carrier has been running a number of repatriation flights from Skopje, after being selected by the Macedonian government to do so. “The total number of Macedonian citizens helped by Wizz Air the past week stands at over 460. Wizz Air didn’t hesitate when it was asked for help again and carried its passengers home safe and fast”, the company said.
Wizz plans to resume operations from its Tuzla base in Bosnia and Herzegovina in May and has also delayed the resumption of its Budapest - Sarajevo service, following the latter’s closure for commercial flights last Monday. “Bosnia and Herzegovina has imposed strict conditions on travel to minimise the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. These restrictions are currently open-ended and Wizz Air continues to closely monitor developments for any change to their status. Wizz Air has suspended all of its flights to and from Tuzla initially until April 30, 2020”, the airline said. It added, “As a result of the Bosnian government’s decision, the airline has extended the suspension of the Budapest - Sarajevo route until the end of April. Reopening of that route is planned for May 3, 2020”.
The budget carrier has also announced that services from Belgrade and Niš will be suspended until the start of May as well. The airline’s Niš operations will likely be further pushed back, as the airport’s closure for commercial flights has been extended until May 12 based on a Notice to Airmen issued on March 27. "Wizz Air sincerely apologizes for the disruptions the travel ban could bring to the customers and assures that safety and well-being of its passengers and crew remains the airline’s top priority", the carrier noted.
I think May is plausable but I doubt all flights will be resumed since some countries will keep restrictions
ReplyDeleteThey should be able to resume Vienns and German routes.
DeleteGermany has declared that the entry into Germany will be possible with a quarantine of 14 days until at least June. So I dont see then having too many passengers. What about the Ex-yu countries? do they have any measures on arriving pax?
DeleteIt involves self isolating for a certain period of time.
DeleteThey can resume Sweden from Belgrade, they have three destinations.
DeleteIn case it were 14 days that would significantly reduce demand i guess. The question will be if that makes sense for WIzz to fly then.
Delete@anon 09:10
DeleteAny link?
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/corona-reisende-quarantaene-101.html
Deleteand the surprising thing is that wizz is not participating so far in ferrying the seasonal workers from south east europe in that got greenlighted few days ago (not many, but 20.000 per month is still some flights)
Looks as if they will do more repatriation flights from SKP. Brussels flight in a few days.
ReplyDeleteThey are getting nice money from it.
Deletenice money? that's a drop in a bucket;
Deletethey are trying (as almost everybody else) to move deliveries of new machines into the future; every machine they can move by a month saves them much more money
Let's hope so.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason it seems they will be most affected at TGD since they don't plan to resume the majority of their flights to Montenegro until June.
ReplyDeleteWith tourism dead this year let's see if they resume anything from MNE
Deletefake news. check again on wizzair.com
DeleteI checked and I don't know what's fake?
DeleteVienna does not start till the 20th of July and Katowice and Warsaw start in June.
Vienna is a new routes, which was supposed to start in early July but got moved to 20th. Katowice and Warsaw are seasonal routes which usually resume in June.
DeleteI think it would be a good idea. I mean many countries won´t let in tourists this year to avoid the spread and keep up the successes they reached so far in battling Covid19 and securing their citizens.
DeleteMNE could capitalize on this and let everybody in.
and spread it in MNE because the health system in Yugolands is world class. wow brilliant
DeleteAre they still flying commercial flights from other markets?
ReplyDeleteYes they are
DeleteThey fly from Budapest and Sofia.
DeleteThis is their current network
DeleteBudapest – Barcelona 3 weekly A320
Budapest – Dortmund 3 weekly A320
Budapest – Eindhoven 1 daily A320
Budapest – London Luton 2 daily A320
Budapest – Stockholm Skavsta 3 weekly A320
Sofia – Barcelona 5 weekly A321
Sofia – Dortmund 3 weekly A320
Sofia – Eindhoven 2 weekly A320
Sofia – Lisbon 1 weekly A321
Sofia – London Luton 16 weekly A320/321
Romania as well.
Deletethey stil sell tickets to/from SKP from 17.4 (with the execption of italian destinations)
ReplyDeleteIt's obviously not happening.
DeleteSame way they are selling Nis from early May even though the airport will be closed until mid May.
DeleteAnon @09:29, can you please state source for Niš airport closure? Thx
DeleteNotice to airmen. They are visible on ICAO's website
DeleteI fear this will further be pushed back.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion June is most likely.
DeleteWith Austria starting to relax its measures soon, I guess they can resume Vienna-Tuzla and Vienna-Skopje, if Macedonia and Austria don't extend their airport closures.
ReplyDeleteAustria relaxing measures? Yes the Austrian Government said they are planning on slowly opening up restaurants from Mid may at the earliest. Mr. Kurz however also said that travel this year wont happen.
Deletehttps://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/nachrichten-der-bundesregierung/2020/bundeskanzler-kurz-stufenplan-fuer-schrittweise-oeffnung-von-geschaeften-nach-ostern-aber-massnahmen-weiter-befolgen.html
they fly to Bratislava
DeleteAustria won't open its border this year? What about Serbia? Do you know something about that? I should go back home at the end of June! I desperatley need to go back...Thanks
DeleteSerbian President said last night that state of emergency in Serbia should be lifted in a month or less.
DeleteLifting the state of emergeny does not mean- People just feel free to go wherever you want and have fun in hordes. two different things. I will be happy if I can visit a restaurant in 4 weeks time, let alone sit in on overcrowded cinema or lie on a full beach.
DeleteFingers crossed
ReplyDeleteI wonder how this will impact their negotiations with Tuzla Airport about their base which started before the crisis.
ReplyDeleteProbably not for the better for Tuzla.
DeleteI doubt they still base a third plane now.
Deletethere will not be enough business to fully utilize two machines this year
Deletebut in case they operate from tuzla this year, they will probably use two machines anyway, and utilize each on only one or two rotations as most operators are doing it that are still operating lines now
W6 is somehow in an hurry. Where are they flying to?
ReplyDeleteEveryone is in a hurry.
DeleteHow are they in a hurry? Air Serbia also plans to resume flights on 1st of May.
DeleteI really hope so. Interestingly Etihad will begin using automated check in machines which will identify if a person is exhibiting corona symptoms and if they are alert the airport staff. Sane at baggage drop off.
ReplyDeleteGood idea
Deleteand guess these 'machines' are just checking body temperature which don't give any guarantee if someone is covid19 positive or not and spreading a virus around even without knowing that
Deletenot sure how good a idea that is;
Deletethere is rather good data from china that estimates that 44% of infections are done before the person spreading it has first symptoms
even better data from two german regions estimates this number to 46%
there is no reason to assume that such measures will help much in containg the spread of the virus....
Wuhan airport opened three weeks after the last new case was reported. Most ExYu countries are not yet at their covid case peak. Airlines are expected to postpone resumption date into late May or June.
ReplyDeleteBad news from Tuzla very sad
ReplyDeleteMelvin Hasecic