Wizz Air is continuing to downsize its operations across the former Yugoslavia with the budget carrier to terminate a select number of routes from its Belgrade base. The airline, which had earmarked flights to Vaxjo, Sandefjord and Billund for suspension over the winter months has now decided to terminate the routes for good. The trio of destinations are no longer planned to return to the network during the 2023 summer season. Furthermore, the carrier does not intend on restoring operations from the Serbian capital to Santorni, which has been maintained on a seasonal summer basis since last year. Wizz will continue to operate flights between Serbia and Greece through Heraklion.
The budget airline launched services from Belgrade to Sandefjord near Oslo during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in July 2020. At the same time, Air Serbia responded with the introduction of flights to Norway’s capital. Since then, Norwegian Air Shuttle has also restored operations between Oslo and Belgrade. Air Serbia has been successful on the route, which it launched with two weekly frequencies. This summer, it ran up to five weekly rotations between the two cities. Wizz Air’s service to Vaxjo in Sweden was introduced in December of last year, following several delays. It will continue to maintain operations to Skavsta, Gothenburg and Malmo in Sweden. Billund was also added to the carrier’s Belgrade network as part of its expansion last December.
Wizz Air reported a net loss of 450 million euros for the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year owing to "a challenging macro and operational backdrop". The carrier estimated that due to higher operating costs, which are related to capacity reallocation stemming from the war in Ukraine, it also experienced an operating loss of 285 million euros. "We've been continuing to push on a balance between yield and load factor to make sure we're getting the most we can - we've got to cover the fuel costs. When we're thinking about our network planning, we have to be a little bit more focused on expanding what we know already works as opposed to going into too many new exploratory things", Wizz Air’s President, Robert Carey, said during the World Aviation Festival in Amsterdam last week.
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This Wizz is such a joke, they suspended routes to LJU, BEG, SSJ. You can see how Abu Dhabi has become their focus now.
ReplyDeleteThey have suspended routes from all ex-Yu airports this winter.
DeleteI believe this is the second time that Sandefjord hasn't worked for them from BEG. Didn't they fly this route a couple of years ago too?
ReplyDeleteYep. They launched it in January 2013 and discontinued in May 2013.
DeleteAir Serbia was too strong competition.
DeleteNorwegian too.
DeleteDY performs really well on this route. Plus they both fly to Gardermoen and not to a town over 100km away from the city.
DeleteThis is true. Sandefjord is not Oslo and I can't believe Wizz Air is allowed to advertise it as "Oslo Sandejord". It would be like advertising Valjevo as being part of Belgrade.
DeleteNot to mention that Gardermoen Airport is even further away from Sandefjord. Like 130km.
DeleteIt's good news for Air Serbia
DeleteWith UAE, and KSA bases it's pretty evident that they don't know what they are doing
ReplyDeleteTheir post covid plan was to serve everyone with planes that were 70% too big at the start. They will either be gone by 2026 or will do a merger with someone as last effort to keep them alive
Absolutely ridiculous
This loss is enormous and paramount to what Etihad partners was having prior to collapse.
DeleteFor the sake of ex-Yu airports I really hope they don't collapse.
DeleteThe only way for wizz and easyJet to survive is to merge together.
DeleteIf they were smart they would immediately replace their A321 in BEG with A320neos. With so much competition around, A321 is just too big for most routes.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what they do with extra capacity. Hopefully they boost frequencies next summer on existing routes which have enough demand.
They also terminated several destinations from Sofia, I believe Bari was the latest to be cut.
I hope they launch some new routes next summer.
Delete4 from Sofia and 5 from Burgas
DeleteWhat routes did they cut from Sofia? This is good news for BEG as they have a real chance of finally overaking them.
DeleteBillund,Bratislava,Chania,Mykonos and London-Gatwik( announced suspension prior this 4)
DeleteBillund is being cut from many airports.
DeleteRyanair has also not added the entire summer schedule from Sofia.
DeleteBelgrade has the chance to surpass Sofia.
They are sending a lot of planes to Bucharest.
DeleteBecause of Blue Air collapse.
DeleteWizzair has probably less planes than they actually want, that's why they are cutting routes an d places that are less profitable and going to places that are more profitable. They are starting for example 7 new routes from Bucharest and they shut down some routes from Sofia but at the same time they are gonna start 3 new routes from Sofia.
DeleteThey cut routes from Debrecen, Cluj, Warsaw. All info is on Wiki.
DeleteIn Sofia, Ryanair has remained quite solid but literally beated them in routes such as Budapest, London, Bratislava and especially Vienna which they will do daily this winter.
@11.38 in a year, half of those new Bucharest routes will be gone too.
DeleteIn September SOF had 600,668 passengers. Let's see if BEG can stay ahead as they were the last couple of months.
DeleteI think BEG will have something like 540.000 in September.
DeleteRubbish of an airline.
ReplyDeleteJoke airline
DeleteThese guys are falling apart.
ReplyDelete"When we're thinking about our network planning, we have to be a little bit more focused on expanding what we know already works as opposed to going into too many new exploratory things"
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm guessing gasto routes and more gasto routes in the future.
Winter is coming!
ReplyDeleteAnd it's going to be chilly by the looks of things.
DeleteIn GOT, the long, cold winter was over pretty quick and they destroyed the bad guys in the process.
DeleteIn the past all we used to read about Wizz was new route launches. Now it's all route termination and suspensions.
ReplyDeleteMight have something to do with their 450 million EUR loss this year...
DeleteThey have recently started announcing some new routes. Hopefully we see ex-Yu cities included.
DeleteAll of the new routes announced recently are related to Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel.
DeleteRead the last paragraph. This is going on.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air reported a net loss of 450 million euros for the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year
The boss of Wizz Air bankrupted Malev, now it looks like Wizz will be gone before long also!
ReplyDeleteExcept for Santorini which I'm sad to see go, the rest are not a major loss.
ReplyDeleteAgree.
DeleteIt was not logical to me at all that they started Vaxjo and Billund. What did they expect to get there?
At the same time they constantly ignore LIS and BTS as an alternative to VIE from BEG. The situation with LIS reminds me on the time when they ignored BEG-BCN for ages and we have now 3 airlines flying on that route.
Agree, Also think you are right about Bratislava. Many people would use it compared to the expensive fares on OS and JU to VIE.
Delete+1
DeleteAnon@9.29 - the challenge for them and others - incl JU - in serving LIS, is slots. I live in LIS and I can tell you that that is the major handbrake for any airline to be able to fly there - despite the demand being there. However, no slots no flights - it's as simple as that.
DeleteI really wonder about slots as easyJet lately managed to obtain 18 TAP slots due to the fact they were quite persistent in that request.
DeleteLet's not forget that also not flying to Ukraine made few slots free particularly for Wizzair that used to fly to at least 3 destinations from LIS.
Slots isn't as much of a problem as is parking positions at LIS. There is an active NOTAM regarding this problem and the limitations LIS has put into place. Code C aircraft (A319/A320) have a maximum of 60 minutes of parking time in LIS. JU usually has a turn time of 45 minutes.
Deletehttps://slots.nav.pt/en/airports/lisbon
They grew way too fast, especially during Covid and launch a lot of senseless destinations. Now they are paying the price.
ReplyDeleteSinking ship
ReplyDeleteThey are cutting everything and closing bases. Apart from Sarajevo they also recently announced the closure of the Palermo base.
ReplyDeleteTheir focus has completely shifted to the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteNot surprising. That is where they get huge government support, where they are making money and where the situation is much more stable than in Europe, ironically.
DeleteGive us new routes Wizz!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't seem likely anytime soon.
DeleteStill hoping that they will finally launch LIS
DeleteAt this rate, we should be happy if they don't close the base.
Delete^ Don't be dramatic.
Delete@09:28 - like someone commented earlier, LIS is simply not do-able due to slots not being available. You would think with Vinci operating both LIS and BEG airports that that would be a logical point to serve, yet they can't due to the unavailability of slots.
DeleteShame
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise. They are constantly playing with their network. No point in buying tickets in advanced with this airline.
ReplyDeleteAgree. They seem to be introducing and suspending routes near constantly.
DeleteUnfortunate :(
ReplyDeleteIn total this is 7 flights per week. I think they can be easily substituted.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air needs to get a grip
ReplyDeleteI'm getting the impression that they have lost their direction. I mean now they are announcing how they will acquire new AOCs and launch new airlines in Middle East and Asia.
ReplyDeleteRecipe for disaster if you ask me.
DeleteThey should rather focus on what made them a success in the first place.
DeleteSounds good. From SOF terminated Bratislava, Bari, Malta, Billund, Mykonos, Chania and what else........
ReplyDeleteSounds pretty much the same.
DeleteBari and Malta and many other only for winter season.
Deletefor now^
DeleteSOF is expecting a strong winter ski season. easyJet are launching daily Manchester flights. European Air Charter is working actively with local tour operators and already doing charters from Plovdiv and Varna.
DeleteI don't think the loss of of a few Wizzair flights is a major thing because Ryanair have always been breathing below their neck especially by launching their Maxes in routes such as Bari or Bratislava. In many days, Ryanair had literally twice as much flights. Even London will go 3 daily this winter. easyJet also will have 2 daily flights to Gatwick on weekends. Fly Dubai going daily, Skyexpress to Athens and flights already launched for summer 2023, Pegasus Antalya becoming year-round are just few examples.
I don not think so. Less UK charters on a higher prices.
DeleteProbably will cut more of Italian duplicated with FR routes for the winter.
DeleteWhat about Serbia and ski season? Not one single flight scheduled while Bulgaria is, what, famous ski destination for UK people? Wow.
DeleteSerbia have ski flights from Israel and Russia(prior war and partly now) also from China ,Ukraine. Serbia also have but not as Bulgaria.
DeleteIt's ironic that routes that were supposed to serve gasto market like Vaxjo have failed while Nice which they launched this summer is continuing this winter and next summer as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping these routes will be substituted with new ones next summer.
ReplyDeleteThey will.
DeleteJednostavno nisu mogli protiv JU na ovoj ruti. P2P putnika je nedovoljno za 3 prevoznika a JU je imala gomilu transfernih putnika.JU je prvobitno planirala dva leta za Oslo u zimskom redu letenja pa su povećali na 3, a sada me ne bi iznenadilo da vidimo i 4. nedeljni let.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteOK za JU ali kako ne mogu da se izbore sa Norweignom? S kim mogu da se izbore?
DeleteAnd here I was hoping we would see them launch more new routes in winter.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know what's Wizz's best performing route from BEG?
ReplyDeleteThat's defenitly London Luton
DeleteLet's see what happens with their Malta route now that Air Serbia is launching it.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is really going after them lately.
DeleteW6 has picked up on routes that JU have abandoned rather than had competed directly with JU and won. HAM, NCE, AUH, GOT, MMX (MUC) are examples of this. I think MLA is the only route where they directly competed with JU and won, until recently that is. Directly, they compete with JU to BCN, LCA, soon MLA, and the rest of their destinations indirectly. JU outperforms W6 on both LCA and BCN. Wizz has been unsuccessful with CRL, TRF, while failing to even launch MXP and TKU. CIA is their second attempt now that AZ has pulled out of the Rome-BEG market. Wizz isn't doing well on the BEG-HHN route where they compete with both JU and LH, with the route suspended until the summer season, that is if they restart the route. Wizz has struggled to jump into the huge charter market in BEG, previously failing in CFU and now JTR. Wizz quickly abandoned BEG-SZG while JU launched it initially with the ATR, however from December will go onto the A319.
DeleteNevertheless, it'll be interesting to see what Wizz will do next in BEG.
It'll be interesting to see what Vinci is planning since Wizz is not to be trusted too much and they do have double-digit market share...
DeleteSo what will be Wizz Air's total destination count from Belgrade this winter?
ReplyDelete18 routes this winter.
DeleteNot bad but they could do much more with 3 planes based there.
DeleteSame thing happening in Skopje. All routes suspended this winter were introduced in the last round of expansion.
ReplyDeleteAegean is gonna start Santorini now that W6 terminated it. That’s how they work mark my words.
ReplyDeleteHope so!
DeleteA3 doesn't have a base in JTR, unlike HER and RHO where A3 launched flights to BEG from. A3 flights to JTR are almost all from ATH except for a seasonal ATH-TLV-JTR-TLV-ATH rotation. I doubt we will see A3 jump into JTR-BEG. What is more likely is that JU might jump into the route as a seasonal operation with agencies buying up a select amount of seats.
DeleteOverall bad news for the consumer. Less choice means higher prices.
ReplyDeleteWizz is causing less choice with those cuts therefore Wizz is to blame for higher prices.
DeleteI flew billund to beg. 10 €... dont know why wizz didnt start seasonal burgas/varna
ReplyDelete