Low cost carrier Wizz Air is in the process of temporarily suspending over forty routes from its network out of the former Yugoslavia, in addition to the planned new destinations which have, for the most part, been deferred. It comes as a result of weakening demand on the back of a surge in Covid-19 cases across the continent, fears over the new Omicron strain of the virus, as well as the reintroduction of travel restriction and testing requirements. The airline’s winter operations will be affected across all markets it serves in the former Yugoslavia, including Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Slovenia.
Wizz Air President, Robert Carey, said travellers are waiting longer to book tickets, making it harder for the airline to gauge near-term demand. Mr Carey noted this trend has been witnessed throughout the pandemic and is now being heightened by the new Omicron variant. “Passengers are assessing whether they will be able to travel amid new border closures. Customers are booking closer and closer in. Every week it feels like it gets one day closer to departure”, Mr Carey said. However, Wizz Air is upbeat and has its sights set on increasing demand next summer.
Operational routes throughout the entire winter season from its biggest base in the former Yugoslavia, Skopje, are Charleroi, Copenhagen, Basel, Beauvais, Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Hahn, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg, Baden Baden, Memmingen, Eindhoven, Sandefjord, Gothenburg, Malmo and London Luton, however, many will be maintained with a trimmed-down schedule. All other routes have been affected by partial or full suspensions. From Ohrid, only Basel will be operational throughout the winter season, which runs until March 26 of next year. From its Tuzla base, Wizz Air will be flying uninterrupted to Basel, Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Hahn, Memmingen, Malmo and Skavsta, while routes operational throughout the winter months from Sarajevo include Copenhagen, Basel, Dortmund, Memmingen, Eindhoven, Basel and Abu Dhabi.
From Belgrade, the airline will continue to run services to Basel, Dortmund, Baden Baden, Memmingen, Eindhoven, Malmo, Skavsta, Abu Dhabi and London Luton throughout the winter, albeit some with fewer frequencies than originally planned, while from Niš flights to Basel, Dortmund and Memmingen continue to run as initially scheduled. Wizz Air will only link Podgorica with Dortmund throughout the winter, with all other routes from the Montenegrin capital having been affected. On the other hand, from Pristina, services to Vienna, Basel, Dortmund, Memmingen and London Luton will run as per normal, while Baden Baden, Milan and Rome will all be impacted by temporary suspensions. Finally, Wizz will go ahead with the launch of its new service from London Luton to Ljubljana on December 13 with a reduced schedule, while Charleroi will only be maintained until January 7, after which it will be suspended until the start of the 2022 summer season.
To be fair they scheduled Ljubljana - London route 3x weekly in summer,replacing Easyjet so thats good
ReplyDeleteConsidering the latest entry requirements announced by UK, I highly doubt these flights will launch.
DeleteA total of 10 flights per week planned between LTN and LJU in 2022 from Easyjet and Wizz, and now only 3 flights from Wizz. Also consider that Easyjet dropped STN, this is even bigger drop. That isn't "thats good", but a disaster.
DeleteYes, I'm not so sure even the mid-December flights will start as planned.
DeleteThis is really silly and blatantly obvious.
ReplyDeleteIs someone trying to purposely distroy aviation industry?
Greta will be happy!
DeleteHaha true
DeleteJust make it free to change dates Wizz, problem solved.
ReplyDeleteWizz does not allow anything to be done for free ;)
DeleteWinter is coming!
ReplyDeleteAnd it's going to be a freezing one.
DeleteMeanwhile Ryanair is launching Paphos, Malaga and Naples in December. Even adding Corfu from Zagreb? Wizz is lagging behind in the region.
ReplyDeleteBecause these routes are subsidized in first 2 years, they don't care if they're empty.
DeleteWizz is cancelling all over its network. They are getting cautioius
ReplyDeleteOnly blind ppl think things will be normal again. Aviation will be moved to 70s level
ReplyDeleteI’m inclined to believe this as well.
DeleteUnfortunately, it will take a very very long time for things to recover.
DeleteThis would not be happening if everyone got vaccinated. Then even if thee was a variant brought from say Africa, only mild symptoms would persist for a day or two.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone got double or triple vaccinated?
DeleteWhat about the second booster shot? Then the third? Fourth? Seventh???
DeleteThere was a good question on the web , quote:
Delete"If every passenger on arrival and departure is vaccinated, fully covid pass secured etc., then where do these new strains are coming from to our country(es)"?
First they were saying they are 100% effective and you will not get K19, then it protects you from death, then protects you not to end in a hospital...now it is the 3rd or 4th dose even somewhere.Till when?
Skopje - treviso will operate during the season as well, you dont give full information!!!
ReplyDeleteCorrection, the route will operate until mid Jauary, sorry!
DeleteThey needed only 20 months to understand that going all-in during covid is silly. As far as I know them they will announce huge expansion for the next summer season soon which will be another failure. But hey, no need to worry about your bookings, we still have 1,5 billion EUR in the bank!
ReplyDeleteYeah well, cash is king, the main purpose of an airline is not the satisfaction of the paying customers but to have their pockets full of money.
no demand on these markets
ReplyDeleteGood for Wizz, hope they continue cancelling routes. If they continue at this rate they will soon reach zero carbon emissions :D
ReplyDeleteA ot of Yugo people dont want to take vaccines, which means they will not be allowed to enter a plane even as there is big demand .
ReplyDeleteNo wonder that loadfactors are going down ..
True
DeleteWizz became very irresponsible company. I can't rely on them anymore.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I postponed my tickets to the some route in the future (at the same price), I don't know where and when, but I'll receive e-mail when check-in begins. Never again.
+1
DeleteIf this is not a wake up call for SKP then I don't know what is. Airport management must reduce reliance on Wizz Air no matter what the cost. Inviting FR would be a good first step
ReplyDeleteYou obviously missed that there is a pandemic which affects literally every airport and carrier on this planet.
DeleteAlthough I don't know much about the Macedonian market, thanks to Wizz it still has a relatively large network. They still operate many routes. Ryanair did pretty much the same at many airports. They suspended a lot of routes. It would make little difference.
DeleteThat's a loong list of suspended routes.
ReplyDeleteThis is gonna hit done airport's hard.
ReplyDelete*some. Fat fingers
Deletewow @ them having just one route to Podgorica operating for the entire winter.
ReplyDeleteHow many routes do they have in total?
DeleteFrom Podgorica obviously
DeleteIn winter normally 4
DeleteTaking in consideration all the circumstances Belgrade is not that bad at all.
ReplyDeleteJust nine routes uninterrupted for entire winter. Not exactly great.
DeleteEveryone is cancelling and suspending flights.
ReplyDeleteWell not surprising considering the situation. No one wants to travel.
DeleteMany people that eant can't because of all the restrictions.
Delete*want
DeleteIs this only ex-Yu or is Wizz cancelling everywhere in the network?
ReplyDeleteAcross the network.
DeleteThey seem to be suspending routes on a daily basis.
DeleteDidn't Joszef Varadi say how everything will be back to normal for Wizz this winter?
ReplyDeleteAnd now Wizz president promising the same for next summer
DeleteIt would have been a good winter had countries not gone full crazy over this variant.
DeleteOh I remember them saying how they will come out as winners from this. Don't see much evidence of it yet.
DeleteNo one is going to come out a winner from corona.
Deletewell travel restrictions made them perform a u-turn.
DeleteSad :(
ReplyDeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteIronically their Abu Dhabi flights to BEG and SJJ are preforming great
ReplyDeleteReally happy to hear that. They got great fares.
DeleteThis is just bad.
ReplyDeleteI think same number of routes suspended as last winter so I agree
DeleteI do wonder if all will resume eventually or if Wizz will use this as an opportunity to cull some routes for good
ReplyDeleteWizz Air has been pretty loyal in resuming routes as soon as they can.
DeleteI just feel, that the region will be lucky, if half these routes come back.
DeleteIt's really unfortunate for ex-Yu. Quite a lot of routes.
ReplyDeleteSo much for their winter expansion.
DeleteLCCs have to have a very high LF to make a profit on a flight. Simple as that.
DeleteWhile state-owned airlines in exyu don't have to make profit at all.
DeleteThey will likely offer a very reduced network for a while.
ReplyDeleteSeems routes to/from Germany have stayed in tack for the most part.
ReplyDeleteWe shall see what next year brings.
ReplyDeletePoor SKP, another unfortunate event. Guess their government needs to cough up some cash to urge subsidies. Madrid, Gatwick and Lisbon flights are needed for instance.
ReplyDeleteSo, from BNX all scheduled flight will perform without suspension?
ReplyDelete