Wizz Air’s EX-YU suspensions grow to over forty routes


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.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    To be fair they scheduled Ljubljana - London route 3x weekly in summer,replacing Easyjet so thats good

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      Considering the latest entry requirements announced by UK, I highly doubt these flights will launch.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:47

      A 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.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:24

      Yes, I'm not so sure even the mid-December flights will start as planned.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    This is really silly and blatantly obvious.

    Is someone trying to purposely distroy aviation industry?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      Greta will be happy!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:24

      Haha true

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:44

    Just make it free to change dates Wizz, problem solved.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:25

      Wizz does not allow anything to be done for free ;)

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:57

    Winter is coming!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:25

      And it's going to be a freezing one.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous10:28

    Meanwhile Ryanair is launching Paphos, Malaga and Naples in December. Even adding Corfu from Zagreb? Wizz is lagging behind in the region.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:26

      Because these routes are subsidized in first 2 years, they don't care if they're empty.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous11:32

    Wizz is cancelling all over its network. They are getting cautioius

    ReplyDelete
  7. Only blind ppl think things will be normal again. Aviation will be moved to 70s level

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I’m inclined to believe this as well.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:23

      Unfortunately, it will take a very very long time for things to recover.

      Delete
  8. This 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:22

      If everyone got double or triple vaccinated?

      Delete
    2. What about the second booster shot? Then the third? Fourth? Seventh???

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:05

      There was a good question on the web , quote:
      "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?

      Delete
  9. Anonymous15:55

    Skopje - treviso will operate during the season as well, you dont give full information!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:56

      Correction, the route will operate until mid Jauary, sorry!

      Delete
  10. Anonymous16:20

    They 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!
    Yeah 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.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous16:33

    no demand on these markets

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous20:03

    Good for Wizz, hope they continue cancelling routes. If they continue at this rate they will soon reach zero carbon emissions :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous20:33

    A 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 .
    No wonder that loadfactors are going down ..

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wizz became very irresponsible company. I can't rely on them anymore.
    Luckily 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.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous22:19

    If 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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:08

      You obviously missed that there is a pandemic which affects literally every airport and carrier on this planet.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:14

      Although 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.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous22:20

    That's a loong list of suspended routes.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous22:20

    This is gonna hit done airport's hard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:09

      *some. Fat fingers

      Delete
  18. Anonymous22:21

    wow @ them having just one route to Podgorica operating for the entire winter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:10

      How many routes do they have in total?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:10

      From Podgorica obviously

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:30

      In winter normally 4

      Delete
  19. Anonymous22:22

    Taking in consideration all the circumstances Belgrade is not that bad at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:45

      Just nine routes uninterrupted for entire winter. Not exactly great.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous22:24

    Everyone is cancelling and suspending flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:43

      Well not surprising considering the situation. No one wants to travel.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:51

      Many people that eant can't because of all the restrictions.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:52

      *want

      Delete
  21. Anonymous22:26

    Is this only ex-Yu or is Wizz cancelling everywhere in the network?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:29

      Across the network.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:59

      They seem to be suspending routes on a daily basis.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous22:28

    Didn't Joszef Varadi say how everything will be back to normal for Wizz this winter?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:34

      And now Wizz president promising the same for next summer

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:35

      It would have been a good winter had countries not gone full crazy over this variant.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:58

      Oh I remember them saying how they will come out as winners from this. Don't see much evidence of it yet.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous01:01

      No one is going to come out a winner from corona.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous01:03

      well travel restrictions made them perform a u-turn.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous22:38

    Sad :(

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous22:43

    No surprise

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous00:04

    Ironically their Abu Dhabi flights to BEG and SJJ are preforming great

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:07

      Really happy to hear that. They got great fares.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous00:06

    This is just bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:08

      I think same number of routes suspended as last winter so I agree

      Delete
  27. Anonymous00:17

    I do wonder if all will resume eventually or if Wizz will use this as an opportunity to cull some routes for good

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:28

      Wizz Air has been pretty loyal in resuming routes as soon as they can.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous01:00

      I just feel, that the region will be lucky, if half these routes come back.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous00:28

    It's really unfortunate for ex-Yu. Quite a lot of routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:31

      So much for their winter expansion.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous01:00

      LCCs have to have a very high LF to make a profit on a flight. Simple as that.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous01:04

      While state-owned airlines in exyu don't have to make profit at all.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous00:58

    They will likely offer a very reduced network for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous01:02

    Seems routes to/from Germany have stayed in tack for the most part.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous01:03

    We shall see what next year brings.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous01:37

    Poor 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.

    ReplyDelete
  33. So, from BNX all scheduled flight will perform without suspension?

    ReplyDelete

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