Low cost carrier Eurowings will implement significant cuts to its network of destinations in the former Yugoslavia this winter season, which will impact Belgrade, Sarajevo, Split and Zagreb. Eurowings has become increasingly problematic for the Lufthansa Group due to its high costs. The carrier will operate five fewer aircraft next year and has halted all network growth plans for 2023. "The already difficult earnings situation at Eurowings with its millions in losses has been made even worse by additional costs resulting from the pilot strikes. What do you do then? You take the worst routes out", Lufthansa’s CEO, Carsten Spohr, said.
As previously reported, the company will suspend operations from Dusseldorf to both Belgrade and Zagreb this winter. It will run limited operations from Dusseldorf to both cities for the Christmas and New Year holidays, from December 23 until January 9 (Belgrade) and from December 20 until January 7 (Zagreb). Both routes are scheduled to resume during the 2023 summer season which begins in late March of next year. The carrier previously suspended its only other service to Belgrade, from Stuttgart, which is also due to resume next summer.
Eurowings will temporarily suspend operations on its two other Zagreb routes, from both Cologne and Stuttgart. Flights from Cologne to the Croatian capital will not be maintained from January 16 until February 18, while services from Stuttgart will be halted from January 16 until the end of the month. Split will also see temporary suspensions on three routes – Cologne, Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. Flights from Stuttgart to Croatia’s second largest city will not be maintained from November 28 until December 19 and then again from January 9 to February 18. Cologne will be suspended from January 11 to February 13. Sarajevo will see Lufthansa’s low cost subsidiary halt flights from Stuttgart starting November 28 until December 19, and again from January 9 until February 25. Furthermore, services from Cologne to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital will be suspended from January 11 until February 17. Some of the route suspensions which are slated to occur in January and February could be extended into March. Furthermore, plans for the 2023 summer season remain uncertain as the carrier looks to maintain its network with 76 aircraft, which is fewer than it had at its disposal this year.
They don't seem to have any strategy in place for ex-Yu markets.
ReplyDeleteIt is the local market that has no money. The local market is no more.
DeleteOne of the worst LCCs out there without doubt.
ReplyDeleteWhy? I think they are one of the better ones in terms of service.
DeleteI'd compare them to Easyjet.
DeleteThis is one of the worst market
DeleteAnd here I was hoping they might actually launch SKP
ReplyDeleteAnd compete against Wizz? No chance.
DeleteWell remember a few years ago they started selling tickets to Skopje and then discontinued sales.
DeleteThat tells you they weren’t successful. Wizz Air has completely covered the German market from Skopje.
DeleteI was hoping that for Ljubljana too. Well to be fair I lost all hope for Ljubljana so…
Delete@anon 8.26 is right. Wizz served 10 cities in Gemrnay from Skopje!
Delete^ Berlin, Bremen, Cologne, Dortmund, Hahn, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Memmingen and Nuremberg.
DeleteThere is nothing left for Eurowings.
They could try Dusseldorf.
DeleteOnce upon a time, there was a SKP-MUC in 2017 but beautifully butchered by Wizzair:
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/09/eurowings-cancels-new-skopje-service.html
SKP is still not prepared for primary airports such as MUC, let alone a Lufthansa daily service even if it is served with their CR9s.
SKP will have daily flights to Memmingen so an Lufthansa or
DeleteEurowings is possible. But now they will have 5 planes less and that is why the least profitable destanations are reduced or suspended while destantions as Barcelona not.
No more A321s in SKP as well. Many airports in the region will have significant Wizzair flights next summer to FMM. Typical Balkan gasto airport.
DeleteDon't get why BCN is cancelled, a destination with so much demand.....
This identity crisis isn't of their own making. It comes from LH management which has been rather confused when it comes to developing Lufthansa's product.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, LH is an overpriced ULCC (not even LCC) and the only thing saving them is the relatively weak lowcost presence in Germany. As LCCs flee Germany there will be less pressure on LH to address some burning issues. These will be postponed until some future moment when they will be forced to do so.
When it comes to Belgrade, they lost to both JU and W6. They decided to launch two routes with relatively strong competition.
If Lufthansa ends up keeping Eurowings then I don't see them entirely giving up on BEG. However, recently Lufthansa pilots demanded equal pay for their colleagues at EW. If that goes through then their cost base will dramatically increase making them less competitive when faced with easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air or even some legacies with relatively lower costs like Air Serbia, LOT and so on.
This whole situation is turning into a real mess. BEG will not be impacted to such an extent as both Wizz Air and Air Serbia will step in to fill the void (no matter how small it is). The real question is what will become of some other airports where EW played a much bigger role.
Agree. In terms of BEG, their routes are more or less covered by Air Serbia and Wizz. I just find their operations in BEG completely foolish. They offer no advantage over any of their competitors and their operations have been completely unreliable. Few flights here and there, then they suspend flights for a few weeks, then they are back...
Delete" You take the worst routes out " That says it all ! Why they keep all of their routes in Athens and Thessaloniki ?! Because it's so simple : There is demand there and no demand in Belgrade or Zagreb .
DeleteIt's not about demand, it's about Eurowings not being able to make these routes work based on their current cost structure.
DeleteBut other routes are obviously more profitable in winter. There are higher ticket prices to achieve
Deletewell yes, obviously the purchasing power in the region is lower than in other places in Europe. Nothing new.
DeletePlus there is a huge Greek diaspora in Germany and on top of that Germans are looking for some warmer weather this winter.
DeleteThe market is price sensitive which is why JU and W6 triumphed and they flunked. Simple.
DeleteWe shouldn't blame the market because EW's business model failed.
What? Nobody demanded equal pay, you got us confused with DLH out-sourced GWI pilots that are in Kurzarbeit now. Union did ask for more pay in the beginning, but dropped the plans after they couldn't even get the proposed +14 off days per year.
DeleteEurowings is competing with LCCs while it has a cost base that is higher than most full service carriers in Europe. So it is logical that they are struggling in every market they operate, not just exyu.
ReplyDeleteWhy are their costs so high?
Delete1 important factor is labor cost, eventhough EW pilots and crew earn less as per collective agreement than LH.
DeleteSince LH has no legal means to change collective agreements (+very strong unions in Germany), their strategy was/is to rotate much of the staff to EW as the only way to decrease labor costs.
On the other hand, oil prices aren't helping either
No direction and no strategy.
ReplyDeleteThey are failing on all fronts.
DeleteThey are failing on all fronts. Look at their financial performance. Their millions in losses are not being generated by ex-Yu routes.
DeleteThey are cutting also LJU route? Oh wait...
ReplyDeleteI have gotten used to airlines cutting LJU, the few that fly here so if they were operating to Ljubljana it would probably be on the list.
DeleteMaybe they start LJU?
DeleteMaybe not.
DeleteWhat even is there left at LJU to be cut? Almost nothing.
DeleteThat's unfortunate. Less options an higher fares.
ReplyDeleteAnd just a couple of years ago they were expanding like crazy in the region. Sad.
ReplyDeleteObviously it was not sustainable.
DeleteNot if your operations are expensive. But overall their routes should work easily. These are huge diaspora markets.
DeleteInterestingly not a single one of their multiple Pristina routes is affected :)
ReplyDeleteYes all routes are being maintained but most of their PRN routes are filled up by tour operators which is the main way people buy tickets to fly to PRN from the diaspora.
DeletePRN had surprisingly by far the lowest LF from all ExYU markets for flights from Germany in September according german stats
DeleteThat's interesting. Do you have data from the other ex-Yu airports?
Deleteyes
DeleteBravo LH cartel!
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me these suspensions will be extended until the start of the summer season and probably won't come back next winter.
ReplyDeleteMost probably
Delete:(
ReplyDeleteIf any of these were profitable then someone else will step in.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily.
Deletenot surprising really. Kill routes during the slowest months of the year.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to say Ljubljana is not affected by this!
ReplyDeleteBravo Slovenija!
DeleteLOL
DeleteLJU keeps on winning!
DeleteFraport haters are quiet!!
DeleteFraport fanboys delusionaly thinking how everything is perfect in LJU. Bravo!
DeleteAnn 08:58 can't detect sarcasm
DeleteFraport is simply defending and promoting Germany in Slovenia. They built a nice, posh and new modern airport. This is why we so the Lufthansa Group very strong in LJU.
DeleteBut I don`t get why they don´t have more daily departures to Munich and Frankfurt? There are 4 daily departures to each of both these airports from Graz!
DeletePeople should factor in that they are getting more and more competition from LCCs in ex-Yu region.
ReplyDeleteWho are they getting competition from in Sarajevo exactly? Wizz Air has withdrawn and their parent company Lufthansa is the only one flying to Germany.
DeleteIf both Wizz Air and Eurowings failed in SJJ then that tells us that the market isn't that big.
DeleteWhen you think about it, the state of things and SJJ are quite sad now. Sure it will have great results thanks to Wizz this year but in general it has no national airline, it is not a hub to any airline, has few LCC options and has few airlines serving it in winter.
DeleteWizz Air maybe had passengers but they were obviously not makin enough money. You need to have people who are willing to pay enough for tickets to cover costs. Selling €20 fares to Europe is obviously not a sustainable model.
DeleteI hope they manage to overcome their issues and return to growth soon.
ReplyDeleteThey have lost the plot. Being forced to take unprofitable Lufthansa long haul routes, it’s no surprise they are bleeding money.
ReplyDeleteThe long haul sector closed about 2 years ago. The new AOC EW Discover is a separate company now
DeleteThey are a typical LCC but their costs are much higher than traditional LCCs. Hence they are losing money and cutting routes.
ReplyDeleteAnd on many routes that are not being suspended they are reducing frequencies.
ReplyDeleteThey used to have a much bigger network out of Zagreb once upon a time.
ReplyDeleteYes, they flew from Berlin, Dusseldorf was year round and I even think they operated Hamburg or Hanover at one point.
DeleteThey had flights from Hamburg. It was a seasonal route and then got terminated.
DeleteI really do hope that Ryanair will step in and launch flights from Zagreb to Berlin. It is long overdue
DeleteI can't believe an airline can't make Zagreb-Berlin work.
DeleteYou would think Croatia Airlines would start it.
DeleteOU isn't allowed to go outside LH hubs Frankfurt and Munich.
DeleteBerlin being one of the most expensive airports despite the lower GDP per capita compared to other major cities in Germany certainly doesn't help airlines to serve Berlin.
DeleteUsed this route to Berlin by Eurowings! Had good loads this summer :(
DeleteThere is Banja Luka-Berlin, Tuzla-Berlin, Niš-Berlin, in summer Ljubljana-Berlin, Sarajevo-Berlin, Pula/Rijeka/Zadar/Split/ Dubrovnik-Berlin
DeleteBut no Zagreb-Berlin !?
There is no LJU-BER. Fraport stopped Easyjet to operate on that route to feed Cartel.
Delete@10.09 lol conspiracy
DeleteBut Fraport couldn't stop anyone from flying Zag-Ber. Berlin has a similar problem as Zagreb, it is more profitable to fly from other airports. Easyjet is massively reducing its presence. Ryanair too, at least currently in winter. And we can still remember Air Berlin well and what became of it.
DeleteInterestingly, BER will have flights to the US next year to New York and Washington. US airlines usually operate to FRA and MUC. The amount of connections to North America from FRA is quite significant if you add the LH Group, US carriers, Condor....
DeleteBER also had a very turbulent history with its new terminal and Tegel was a disgrace of an airport. Also, for EW, easyJet have been quite dominant in the airport for many years as well similar to Malpensa where now Wizzair are trying to get a piece of a larger cake as they are doing in Rome-FCO. Don't think they have any chance in Spain because it is a very competitive market.
Also with Vueling aggressively expanding frequencies next summer in Barcelona and Volotea quietly expanding, one knows how saturated Europe will be with low-costers.
Easyjet are also significantly expanding in LIS this winter, I don't know which markets are left for EW.
Ex-Yu is a very small market, Greece has its own airlines (SkyExpress new expansions and probably launching ex-Yu in the future - they have a nice marketing, livery and very quality product it seems) but generally very seasonal country excluding Athens. Poland is taken by Ryanair, LOT and Wizzair, Ryanair are also expected to surpass Wizzair in Bulgaria even if they have less based planes but fly from other bases and aggressively operating with their 197 seater Maxes even SOF-ZAG yesterday!
Maybe they can try with Romania following the serious BlueAir downgrade but OTP already has a fierce competition, CLJ perhaps reached its limit and TSR simply is no longer expanding too much as an airport. IAS is definitely worth trying because it is more isolated geographically in Romania, roads are not the best in the country and air transport is vital.
funny how the "cartel" is not against US flights by United from Berlin but apparenty against mighty OU to launch ZAG-BER or any other ExYu destination
DeleteDid OU ever operate flights from ZAG to BER in the past?
DeleteYes, OU flew from Tempelhof and then from Tegel to Zagreb. They had an office at TXL, after terminating connection to ZAG, they closed the office, too
DeleteNo need to come back.
ReplyDeleteTerrible.
ReplyDeleteWell EW has to survive somehow. Their losses are huge.
ReplyDeleteLufthansa CEO complaining about Eurowings losses yet he is the one that oversees Eurowings operations. Ok..
ReplyDeletePerhaps Air Serbia could consider launching Cologne? it has a sizable diaspora, they could get some transfers and many people would also use the opportunity to visit Cologne for tourism purposes.
ReplyDeleteThe coverage to Germany is sufficient. They have Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Hannover. On top of that Wizz Air covers Memmingen, Hamburg, Dortmund and Karlsruhe and you have Lufthansa from Frankfurt and Munich. More than enough.
DeleteJU should focus od DUS as it is a main airport (3rd biggest) in Germany. Do you want to know the LF for INI-CGN? its 23% in September (one way data for flights D>Srb, 8 flights 278pax, no data for other direction)
DeleteAir Serbia is very cautious regarding LH. Ne čačka mečku.
Delete@anon 10:14 you forgot Berlin
Delete@10,07
DeleteCologne is not far from Dusseldorf (~25 mins by train). FRA is also just over 1 hour away by train. CGN would most likely end up eating into DUS loads, which already has indirect competition from Wizz in EIN and DTM. JU would benefit more from increased frequencies to fewer destinations rather than diluting them across the country with smaller frequencies.
@ 11,32
Doesn't surprise me. HHN and CGN seem more of preventing FR launching the flights rather than connecting INI with European hubs, which is what the PSO should be doing. Perhaps cargo was a motivation for launching CGN? Any info on cargo loads?
How many frequencies did they operate on these routes?
ReplyDeleteMost are 2 weekly.
DeleteThey are using try and error.with route launches.
ReplyDeleteDays of LCC as we know are slowly coming to an end. Its main engine is large numbers of customers, attracted by low prices. In a certain a sense it is a classical Ponzi scheme. This kind of operation also needs constant increase of either frequencies, destinations or passengers in order to feed itself. As soon as one of the pillars start to crumble, the whole kingdom goes to hell. Shrinking network in order to save costs, but at the same moment sawing the branch on which they are sitting. Seems to me like story, which will end soon.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. See the EUR 400 million loss reported for the last six months by Wizz Air today.
DeleteIn DUS they have a really fierce competition with Wizzair, who are getting quite strong in DTM and been operating there for at least 15 years and Ryanair are also are agressive in CGN.
ReplyDeleteTheir PRG base seems to be doing okay. Yet again, I agree with some people that they lack strategy, brand and vision and now with this bizarre Eurowings Discover division. If they want to create a more leisure division such as Ryanair Buzz and deploy it on more busier routes, then just change the name and logo entirely similar to what Ryanair did.
It also seems that they copied Ryanair and now Wizzair soon by creating a Maltese division and avoiding paying high taxes. Malta is one smart, little arse country.
and you have Ryanair at Weeze
DeleteTrue dat. Forgot about Weeze.
DeleteLH plans to open a new LCC in Italy.
ReplyDeleteThis sucks. It leaves Sarajevo/Split/Zagreb with no direct flights to some of the major German cities. I would often fly from Sarajevo or Split to Berlin via Düsseldorf/Cologne. Now that’s gone.
ReplyDeleteI like Eurowings since their service is good, they offer connecting flights, they are usually reliable. However I don’t know what their strategy is. Prices are usually much higher than other LCCs.
so Eurowings is on the brink of going bankrupt? thanks Scholz
ReplyDeleteI'm a frequent flyer from Milan to Berlin(but my end trip is Leipzig),this route(BER/MIL) is already "busy",so surely no way to step in,but besides BER,no other route from ex-East German Airports(Dresden-Leipzig/Halle) is offering a Direct route to Italy for example,generally is available,only by connected flights with DUS,which makes the trip longer(min 4:30 Hrs to even 8 Hrs travel time) and obviously more expensive in the end,which is an absolute No-Go...(take a train to BER and fly off,is the most sensible solution in terms of time&costs).
ReplyDeleteI surely would be glad though,to take advantage of a direct flight from MIL to LJE if available for example,I wonder how many other similar routes could be found if only the eyes and brains could be seriously set at work instead of going "Standard" as it looks to me.
I know that Spain or Greece seem as a "must go" for beach travellers,but ther are not only beach travellers out there, what about "potentially possible" Business Connections or Evolved Tourism Excange routes for these flyers to the Italian territory?
These routes,could be interesting also to boost economically a geographical area as East Germany(from Leipzig to Gorlitz to Zwickau) and occupy/develop uncovered routes. I'm no business maker,it's just my thought as a traveller.