Low cost carrier Wizz Air is temporarily suspending six routes out of five markets in the former Yugoslavia as the airline battles with staffing shortages. The carrier has been forced to cancel hundreds of flights this summer with operations out of the United Kingdom and Hungary particularly affected. The airline’s services from Pristina, Tuzla, Ljubljana, Belgrade and Ohrid will also be impacted. Wizz Air is suspending its flights from Dortmund and Rome to Pristina, with services to be restored on September 2 and October 2, respectively. Similarly, the carrier has cancelled all of its flights from Tuzla to Milan this summer, which are now scheduled to be restored on October 30 with two weekly rotations.
Wizz Air is cancelling its flights from Charleroi to Ljubljana until September 4. This leaves Brussels Airlines as the only carrier flying between Belgium and the Slovenian capital, although it too is reducing services during July with 22 instead of 26 flights to be operated during the month. Wizz Air has also suspended services from its Belgrade base to Billund until October 31, after which flights will run three times per week. Operations out of Ohrid are also being impacted, with services from Dortmund cancelled until September 2. Further changes and cancellations remain possible as the airline struggles with a lack of staff and a high number of cabin crew members taking sick leave amidst a fresh wave of coronavirus infections across Europe..
Wizz Air said passengers who are affected will be contacted by email and offered the opportunity to rebook or get a refund. “To be able to avoid cancellations and secure a more punctual operation to our customers, we have further improved the agility and resilience of our network including adjusting schedules where we have seen a higher occurrence of issues, e.g. slot allocation issues, turn-around timings. In total for the peak summer period we expect to reduce utilisation a further 5% versus the plan outlined at the full year results to reduce the impact of ongoing external disruptions.”, the carrier noted.
They are also cancelling a lot of flights last minute.
ReplyDeleteIf your flight isn't cancelled it will likely be delayed. All their flights lately are heavily delayed.
DeleteYep, Wizzair are delaying flights like crazy.
DeleteWizz has became a very irresponsible company. You can't rely on them anymore.
DeleteIt's the same like this winter when they suspended hundreds of routes. Then they blamed Covid. Now it's a lack of staff.
DeleteCalm down. Wizzair is still a good company, don't spread false rumours.
DeleteThey are not a good company the way they treat their passengers.
Deletejudgments are to be set in relation to the environment/competition and substantiated with a significant number of evidence
DeleteI fly wizz all the time and have never had an issue.
DeleteShitiest flight company
DeleteThe smartest thing this summer is to avoid flying to Western Europe.
ReplyDeleteIs BEG considered Western Europe cause it's really hectic over there?
DeleteI'm sure you fly from BEG often. Matter of fact is if flying from BEG you won't wait longer for 5 minutes in line anywhere, your luggage will get delivered (unless flying from Western Europe, then it is likely no one bothered to load your luggage) and all the passport booths, check-in desks and security lanes are staffed. I flew from Belgrade last week. Everything was working smoothly. All security lanes opened, all passport booths open.
DeleteI didn't get my luggage from IST, is that considered Western Europe too?
DeleteShame
ReplyDeleteIt's still much better than Ryanair
DeleteThey are really lacking crew. They have even wet leased a Sky Up plane from Ukraine and based it in Bucharest.
ReplyDeleteSame as in Sofia. The plane has been operating since the beginning of July with Ukrainian crew and pilots.
DeleteAs of now there is only one wet lease, and it’s based in Sofia.
DeleteYes, the Sky Up plane they wet leased was the one that was stored in Belgrade.
DeleteWorst company ever they dont refund cancellled flights
DeleteSo a lot of their flights from Dortmund seem to be affected.
ReplyDeleteHow did I know that it was impossible for LJU to have escaped the cancellations.
ReplyDeleteLJU-LTN also reduced from 3 to 2 flights per week. Bad news keep on coming.
DeleteEveryone is struggling this summer.
ReplyDeleteSome more than other so it seems.
DeleteWhat a surprise. I wouldn't be surprised of a further cancellations.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a feeling that those routes resuming in late September will be moved until start of winter season.
DeleteThis is really silly
ReplyDeleteIt's better that they pre-cancel flights than do it at the gate as they have been doing the past few weeks.
DeleteWizz is cancelling all over its network.
ReplyDeleteIt's worst for their flights from UK.
DeleteShit company
DeleteIs this only ex-Yu or is Wizz cancelling everywhere in the network?
ReplyDelete"The carrier has been forced to cancel hundreds of flights this summer with operations out of the United Kingdom and Hungary particularly affected."
DeleteAcross the network.
DeleteShit company
DeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteConsidering how many flights they have from ex-Yu this is not that bad at all. Their Skopje and Sarajevo base are not impacted at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd taking in consideration how many flights FR cancelled in ZAG this summer this is actually more than acceptable.
DeleteZero FR flights cancelled in ZAG at the moment. There were about 20 % cuts, either temporary suspensions or frequency reductions, for a period of one month and a half. Passengers were offered full refund, or rebooking to earlier or later flights, at least a week in advance. Obsession of some people with Ryanair /Lauda base in ZAG is just beyond imagination
DeleteShit company
DeleteFor anyone traveling, do it via Zurich and with Swiss.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason they are the only one in Europe flying on schedule -
I've canceled most of my intra-eu flights and am traveling with train this summer, as it's getting insane.
Last time my flight was canceled on gate as crew couldn't be secured (due the delay max working hours were reached)
Traveling within EU is particularly hard this summer. I just wonder how is it possible that absolutely no one saw it coming.
DeleteFully agreed. Flew yesterday through Zurich from Belgrade to Vancouver, Canada, and it was smooth, on time, and with luggage arriving with me. Plus, transfer was within 150 m between gates (Air Serbia is accepted at gate bridge) in the same building, from one plane to the other, no security checks. One of the best transfers ever for me, and I have flown a lot in my life…
DeleteShit company
DeleteSo, from BNX all scheduled flight will perform without suspension?
ReplyDeleteFor now, yes.
DeleteAnyone having prediction for BNX number of passengers for 2022?
DeleteShit company
DeleteThey seem to be introducing and suspending routes near constantly.
ReplyDeleteNothing new from Wizz.
DeleteShit company
DeleteSame old same old from Wizz
ReplyDeleteTaking in consideration all circumstances it could have been much worse.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunate :(
ReplyDeleteShit company
DeleteHope all the routes are restored as planned.
ReplyDeletethey will all be back
DeleteI don't think this is a big loss. Just a few flights per week from a few cities.
ReplyDeleteLJU from 5 flights a week to 2, more than a half of flights canceled.
DeleteShit company
DeleteThey need better internal planning.
ReplyDeleteWas Billund just recently launched from Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteYes in December last year but than it was suspended till March because Wizz cut something like 50 routes from ex-Yu because of Covid.
DeleteThis shows that it wasn’t doing the best, therefore it was cut. Other routes are performing better.
DeleteIt doesn't show anything. All new routes last year were temporarily suspended.
DeleteShit company
DeleteI wonder what was the rationale for choosing which route to suspend.
ReplyDeleteLogic would dictate routes with the lowest profit margins from bases where they have the most staffing issues.
DeleteGood to see SKP spares since they have the biggest network from there.
ReplyDeleteI hope it stays that way but they have just started pre-cancelling flights and routes so there is a possibility some flights from SKP will be affected.
DeleteWith the current protests in SKP you will need more flights to Western Europe.
Delete?
DeleteMore people are expected to leave following the aftermath of the protests. What was not clear from the comment?
DeleteI'm assuming some routes are also reduced in frequencies.
ReplyDeleteWhat they are not telling you (at least slovenian most popular airline) is, that there is a fine print in the terms&conditions, stating sick leave and lack of staff as force majeure, hence not covered by insurance. So no money back.
ReplyDeleteBut the airline offers you a refund or rebooking.
DeleteThe way they are dealing with passengers is atrocious. At least these are pre cancelled flights but they are cancelling a lot of flights at the gate and just leave people stranded.
ReplyDeleteThings seem to be going backwards.
ReplyDeleteThey need another serious LCC in SKP, TZl and BEG to wake them up.
ReplyDeleteWhy do they need to wake up? What are they doing differently than most other European airlines.
DeleteOverlooking leisure demand? How much leisure destinations they introduced this season (or any season) from the region?
Delete“To be able to avoid cancellations and secure a more punctual operation to our customers, we have further improved the agility and resilience of our network including adjusting schedules where we have seen a higher occurrence of issues, e.g. slot allocation issues, turn-around timings,”
ReplyDeleteHaha. I love this PR talk. Cancellations = improved agility and resilience of our network
Crazy
DeleteWizz just recorded a €450 million loss for the three months to June.
ReplyDeleteNot good
Delete@Anon 10:08: Source? According to their website Q1 FY23 results will only be published on 27th July.
DeleteFor the first quarter to June 30, Wizz Air said it registered a EUR285 million operating loss but expects a "material" operational profit in the second quarter on strong summer demand.
Deletehttps://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/AN_1657523564119162700/london-briefing-wizz-air-posts-quarterly-loss-amid-travel-disruption.aspx
How much in total did they lose since March 2020?
DeleteW6 did much better than most airlines during Covid.
DeleteIt lost couple of billions since 2019.
DeleteI am not sure what is going on with Wizz but recently most of their flights have 2-4hrs delays.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly the result of airports having operational problems that causes the late departure.
Delete10 days ago flew Belgrade-Hamburg. It's the first flight of the day for the W6 plane from BEG so plane left on time and we arrived minutes early.
DeleteAfter a few days I was coming back. Plane also left BEG on time, arrived in HAM ahead of schedule BUT the plane then does Hamburg-Banja Luka-Hamburg. Plane in HAM was delayed by an hour before departing to Banja Luka. Eventually it made up for lost time and arrived back in Hamburg for our flight to Belgrade 20 minutes late. But then there was another issue. Massive line for passport control for non Schengen passengers resulted in passengers arriving late to the plane and flight was delayed over an hour. Only one person was doing passport checks in HAM.
Plane continues from Belgrade to Santorini after that and of course was late by over an hour.
HAM airport also has massive staffing problems.
DeleteTo make matters worse, there was recently a massive security breakdown. The Wizzair flight to HAM was diverted to HAJ and my flight to BEG was cancelled.
^ what was the security breakdown? Did they offer any compensation for your cancelled flight?
DeleteThey just announced today cuts across Europe. ex-Yu didn't do too badly actually.
ReplyDeleteI fear it's just the beginning. We will see
DeleteIn my opinion biggest hit is for Ljubljana. It doesn't have too many flights anyway, so cutting one route makes a big impact.
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteTbh any route suspension or frequency reduction has a much bigger impact on LJU than other airports because of low volume of traffic.
DeleteI wonder what impact this and other airline cancellations will have on passenger numbers at ex-Yu airports.
ReplyDeleteIt will slow recovery.
DeleteYes, recovery of many airlines this summer is threatened by lack of staff.
DeletePart of the reason so many Wizz flights are late is because they cross use aircraft between different bases and then everything gets even more delayed.
ReplyDeleteMany airlines do this.
DeleteWizzair is a joke. They don't care about people and they are not reliable airlne at all. Are they going to give back the money they got from the Slovenian government?
ReplyDeleteTrue. Like Swiss got money for not operating flights last year, now Wizz will get money.
DeleteWizz already suspended both Charleroi and London earlier this year from Ljubljanq for several months.
Delete*ljubljana
DeleteCorrect. They don't even meet the subsidy criteria.
DeleteAs long as Varadi gets that promised bonus for reaching certain number of annual passengers, they don't care about passengers.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they are suspending two routes from PRN. They didn't cut routes from there during the height of Covid.
ReplyDeleteIt has more to do with their Rome and Dortmund base than with Pristina.
DeleteThey don't have base in Dortmund.
DeleteThey are the worst airlines, as they canceled our flight almost two weeks ago without justification and made us miss another transit flight and so far they have not compensated us or returned the amounts they owe us, and their staff is mean and uncooperative (we are a family of 6 people)
ReplyDeleteI just flew back to Belgrade from Iraklion yesterday and the flight was only 30 minutes late. I flew from Munich in late June and it was an hour late, that’s not too bad considering the chaos happening in the rest of Europe! I hope they’ll add new routes to BEG this winter, as I’ve flown everywhere on their list except Abu Dhabi. I’ve always had great experiences with Wizz and I buy tickets at the cheapest prices months ahead, so I can only praise a company that gives Serbs so many affordable options. More island destinations please! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a crap company! They canceled my flight from Tuzla on the 7th of july and me and my family were supposed to fly on the 20th. I wrote to them about comensation according to Eu law, but they are bull.... Why did they sell tickets if they knew they did not have stuff. Few years my plane from Tuzla got delayed 5 hours, and they did the same telling me that is is not compensation issue. I took the errand to higher instance in my country and then they paid me and my family 400 euro each. They should have found another company that could fly us back. Just proposing refund or rebooking that I have to do by myself was not optional. I got back 2 days after than planned. So we from the balkans ain´t worth nothing. Another thing, bought priority also, nobody cared about that, they took my money and I had do stand in the queue as others. Company with zero service, just leaving people far from home just like that.
ReplyDelete