Wizz Air is growing its network and frequencies out of bases in Skopje and Belgrade this coming winter season, which begins on October 29. As previously reported, the airline is launching new services from the Macedonian capital to Ljubljana and Luxembourg on September 27 and December 18 respectively, with Stuttgart and Salzburg also expected to be scheduled in the coming period. Wizz will station its sixth aircraft, an Airbus A321, in the Macedonian capital in December, which will enable it to increase frequencies across its Skopje network. The budget carrier will boost flights on eleven existing routes compared to the ongoing summer. They include Basel growing to eleven weekly, Dortmund to ten weekly, Memmingen to nine weekly, Berlin, Eindhoven and Charleroi to daily, Hahn, Hamburg and Rome to five weekly, Baden Baden and Bratislava to four weekly, wile Bremen will be increased to three weekly.
The budget carrier is introducing five new routes from Belgrade starting next month, four of which will kept over the upcoming winter as well, the exception being Zakynthos, which will operate on a seasonal summer basis. The arrival of the airline’s fourth based A321 aircraft in the Serbian capital will also enable it to increase frequencies on a number of routes this winter when compared to the ongoing summer season. They include Dortmund and Memmingen growing to daily flights, Basel to five weekly, Hamburg, Malta and Malmo to four weekly, while Gothenburg will be increased to three weekly.
Commenting on the planned growth in Skopje, Wizz Air said, “We are delighted to expand our operations in Skopje. We are proud to be a market leader in the country. By increasing our frequencies and offering new destinations, we aim to provide our passengers with unparalleled connectivity and travel experiences”. In reference to its growing Belgrade operations, the budget carrier said, “We are delighted to be expanding in Belgrade, demonstrating our commitment to the Serbian market where we are the number one ultra low cost carrier by both seat and passenger numbers. The allocation of our latest aircraft in Belgrade allows us to further strengthen our market offer, providing our Serbian customers the opportunity to travel on a total of 23 routes in thirteen countries from Belgrade and to another five routes from within the country”.
That is bad news for JU.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the bus companies.
JU will probably focus on connecting traffic to the rest of its network and W6 will get more of point to point travel.
DeleteIt's going to be good news for the consumers.
Is it really bad news? I mean as the standard of living improves so will demand grow. JU and W6 are just catering for the growing demand for air travel out of BEG and the rest of the country.
DeleteFor example JU had 130 passengers on the inaugural to Palermo yesterday. I think BEG was underserved for a long time. We are seeing it now through booming passenger numbers.
I don't think it's bad news. Perhaps JU will actually do something to improve their deteriorating service. For example I paid for an exit row seat on my flight to Chicago which cost almost 200 euros extra (return). They have changed my seat (to the last row of the plane) already 3 times now without any notification and continue to sell the exit row seat I selected. If I go into my booking to select the seat I chose, they want to charge me again. Thankfully I am constantly monitoring it so I call the call center and they give the seat back to me but it is kind of unacceptable. I'm sure they do it on other routes too. So maybe having more competition wakes them up.
DeleteWell if you paid for it then they have to refund you the money or secure your seat at the exit row. They can't just take your money and put you in the last row.
DeleteYou can sue them like so many business class passengers did in the beginning when they would end up flying on the ancient 733s instead of the A319/320.
@Anon 09:02
DeleteHow is it bad news for JU when both JU and W6 keep growing in Belgrade??? JU is getting two A321 to increase capacity, not decrease! W6 first announced LIS but JU stole the show by launching LIS before W6 and having one of the best LF on that particular route. JU keeps adding far more destinations from BEG than W6. W6 expanding to 4 A321 didn't stop JU turning profit in Q1. Dozens of indications JU is doing great but looks like some jealous people avoid facts just to post something negative about Air Serbia as the first comment of the day.
Ryanair what are you waiting to come at both SKP and BEG we need you
ReplyDeleteOr easyjet to increase destinations and flights.
DeleteAnd FR needs some subsidies for winter flying.
DeleteHonestly I'd rather have Wizz Air grow even more than for Ryanair to arrive. It's also better for BEG.
DeleteDespite their flaws, Wizz Air has been rather stable in BEG. They realized that they can't bully and blackmail the airport so they started growing organically. I suppose the market is rich enough for them to charge higher fares.
I had a look at their BEG-LCA flights and I am certain that next year they are going to boost it even more, maybe even to daily. With many destinations such as BCN, CIA, LCA, MLA... performing so well for them, I wouldn't be surprised if they add another A321 next year.
Wizz is cutting Timisoara-Treviso. Who knows, maybe they'll plan it from BEG next year.
I'd say FR is good for business and customers. When everyone here (including me) were eagerly expecting them to open a base in SJJ, they open 17 new routes in TIA. The best thing of this is that Wizz the next day announces 10 new routes and doubles on some of the routes announced by FR. So, do we need FR? My answer is yes, particularly in airports, such as SKP, where Wizz has no real competition.
DeleteIf they opened a few routes in BEG, it will definitely be good for competition and customers.
Wizz air is much more reliable and provide better service than ryan air. Ryan air has the smallest size cabin bag allowance.
DeleteAnd they don't pretend and act like good people. When they take so many subsidies citizens are paying for.
Additional competition is good only as long as the market is big enough to absorb all the extra capacity. Otherwise it's a war of attrition and someone always loses in the end.
DeleteThat is why I said that for BEG it's better to have JU-W6 combo than JU-W6-FR. The market is not big enough for three players. Maybe once the market grows to 10+ million there will be room for a third big player.
BEG's catchment area is a hole in FR's network and they are aware of it. Just like they were aware of the fact Wizz is doing extremely well in TIA which is why they arrived to spoil their party. They did the same in SOF, BUD, RIX... and they had mixed success in those markets. They won some battles while they lost some other ones.
I really wonder why FR left the Belgrade market to Wizz.
DeleteThey simply gave up. If W6 can make a profit with the prices that BEG offers, so can FR.
Because if they accept higher charges in BEG then other airports can do the same. It might create a dangerous precedent for them.
DeleteWizz Air accepted it as back then it was a virgin market and they were looking to grow. Now they have positioned themselves and have created a fortress operation.
It will be difficult for FR to break through their defenses. Not only do they have a decent number of frequencies but they also have a loyal following from the wider region.
In BEG, Ryanair would have to fight both JU and W6. FR is a strong airline but they are not impossible to defeat. Just look at how much they struggled in Athens.
Nemjee LCA tickets are not really expensive in July I found for €125 return and even end July begin August it’s €225( which is usually the most expensive period to fly). In the West europe it’s really normal to charge €500 for the Greek islands and Costa brava.( even Raynair)
DeleteAnd Zakynthos €87 mid-end august
Delete@Nemjee,
DeletePlease let me remind you that FR fly from BCN, PMI, FCO, ATH, BER, BUD, HAM, HEL, CPH, LIS, MAD, MXP, OSL, PRG, VCE... so if they did not create precedent with all these airports I highly doubt they would do it with BEG. And for sure many of them are much more expensive than BEG.
FR is very late in BEG. They intentionally left Belgrade market to Wizzair and they did nothing, but observed how W6 had introduced more and more planes in Serbian capital. Of course with every new W6 based plane in Belgrade entering Serbian market by Ryanair would be more and more challenging.
If they had opened BEG at the time W6 came and Jat Airways was nothing but a joke they would have had huge advantages up to now.
But instead of having that kind of business strategy they were looking around seeking for the airports that are going to provide them cheap prices.
I am not saying they are not finding these airports (ZAG is the best excample of it), but they need to be aware of the fact that it does not work in every single case.
I think that FR missed their huge chance in BEG and they have still making the same mistake over and over again.
Ryanair arrival would make sense if they fly to Helsinki, Alicante, Manchester, Dublin, Paphos and why not Bratislava/Porto
DeleteI meant from BEG, and to Barcelone, Paphos and Vienna from SKP
DeleteWho need Ryan in BEG??? Seriously, with dozens of new routes in Belgrade by W6, JU and others, who still needs Ryan in Belgrade (other than Burger)? No one. Absolutely no one.
DeleteAs someone said, FR would have difficult time facing JU-W6 duopoly in BEG. I bet late two will join forces to prevent FR spreadung and to keep BEG all for themselves.
DeleteI just checked Wizz fares from BEG to LCA and I noticed that they were reduced. About a week ago you could barely find a lower fare than 10.000 in July (one way).
DeleteCould be that they opened lower classes to fill remaining seats or one of the tour agencies canceled their deal with them.
As for FR, they definitely wasted a good opportunity and now it will be more difficult to break through. Not only do they have W6 but also JU which can definitely put up a fight.
If Wizz is to consider Treviso, they have in mind that Air Serbia does Venice. In my opinion mistake has been made by Air Serbia to cancell Trieste which I think they should introduce this winter because there are no flights to Istria, and if announced in time JU would not have a problem with Trieste during the summer. With Trieste and Venice by JU there would be no place for Wizz in Treviso. Wizz and JU will have a competition for Milan because of Wizz in Bergamo. Air Serbia should introduce Beirut and Amman this winter or Wizz can do it. What new routes can we expact from Wizz this winter from BEG?
DeleteSKP will never allow W6 to fly to Vienna, as long as Austrian flys there. That's why W6 flys VIE-OHD
DeleteUs from cities far from Skopje like OHD - VIE, thank you very much :)
DeleteNice to see Wizz operating some Skopje routes more than daily!
ReplyDeleteDon't know the timetables of all, but some depart as early as 6 a.m. Nice to have an alternative for the ones of us, who don't want to miss on our beauty sleep
DeleteNo surprise it is Basel.
DeleteDon't know what easyjet is waiting for. They should start Basel too.
DeleteIt is really not understandable how easyJet allowed to be defeated in BSL.
DeleteAfter they stopped flying BSL-BEG Wizzair introduced 2 additional weekly flights and with A321 while easyJet wwas flying with the mixture of A319 and A320 2 weekly flights.
Market is obviously there, but easyJet sadly failed here.
Wizz Air just knows the market better. And it helps that their cost per passenger is lower than easyjet.
DeleteIf you check now price ticket BEG-BSL-BEG for February next year (the weakest month) you will find prices of 200 EUR for return ticket.
DeleteSo , it is hige price for a company that has lower costs per passenger.
They have huge loses. Their economic plan do not work.
Delete^ Wizz Air?
DeleteThey lost 400 m do 600 m last year.
DeleteThey are very well capitalized.
DeleteThat doesn't change the fact that they are loosing money.
DeleteIt's incredible the level of traffic SKP can support to so many German villages.
ReplyDeleteMarket dynamics: demand and supply
DeleteAnd also the number of charters!
Deleteif you call these places villages then you are completely lost
DeleteDordmund has 600k people and is located in the Rurh gebiet urban district which has 5,5 million people in an area that is 3 times smaller than Montenegro.
DeleteMemmingen is a small town and it’s more like alternative airport to Munich and Zurich
Perhaps Lufthansa will see the potential and start Munich to Skopje as well, although I'm not sure how their Frankfurt flight to Skopje is performing, haven't seen A320 for a long time now,,,A319 is the plane they use. On a side note Turkish is not operating the evening flight to SKP, not sure why...
Delete09:40 Appearently they startted from 22 may to cut 3 evening frequencies to SKP every week. IDK why TK could have some fleet problems but it could also have to do with the starting of the charter season where on good days there are 5 flights to the Turkish rivera(they might lost some important traffic to these charter flights) but from 23 June they will operate again 2 times daily.
DeleteI don't know how FRA-SKP is performing, but they planned from the beginning to operate A319. I know some days they are using A320, but it's difficult to tell according to this information
As far as i know the flights to FRA are mostly full, and the flights to and from IST are always full till the last seat. We need Qatar back, all of the australians are using TK now, they fly with Qantas to SIN or Kuala Lumpur or Bankok and then with TK to SKP. I am sure SKP will handle 3M passengers this year.
DeleteSo flight are full around but LH is sending the A319, TK is reducing flights and QR isn't coming back? It doesn't add up.
Delete🤣
DeleteLH always planned to send the A319 to Skopje. It was upgraded to A320 on some days,
DeleteFor example: From Portugal to SKP we have bad connection flights for cheaper coast. I've done OPO - FMM and FMM - SKP for 40€! This is how the german small airports have such good trafic!
DeleteExcellent and good to see this growth coming in winter during the slower months.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteHow many A320s vs how many A321 will be based in Skopje?
ReplyDeleteNow we have 5 A321/321NEO.
DeleteSixth also maybe will be A321.
Thanks. Impressive!
DeleteSo all the planes currently based in SKP are A321s right?
DeleteWhat plane will send to LJU?
ReplyDeleteA320 or A321?
A321 has been announced.
DeleteI am really interested to see how they will fill LJU twice per week with the A321. Of course I wish them all the best and am happy this route is back but just think it is way too much capacity.
DeleteIt is 3 pw. Only in the first month it is 2 pw.
DeleteNice but even more so, 3 A321 flights per week...
DeleteWith reasonable pricing they will. This is one of the most requested routes from LJU and historically very strong one.
DeleteThere are 3 buses daily from LJU to SKP, so there is no doubt that Wizz can fill 3 weekly A321.
DeleteBus capacity is around 70 passengers which is about 25% LF on the A321neo.
DeleteDo the math. 3 buses per day is 1470 seats per week which is about 6 A321s. And majority of people are traveling by car at the moment or even flying from ZAG.
DeleteIs it an express bus or does it stop along the way? Nis-Ljubljana stops in Belgrade so they also fill seats with Nis-Belgrade and Belgrade-Ljubljana market. Don't know if that bus stops in other places.
Deletethey are flying twice weekly to BUD and you are arguing about 3 weekly to LJU with all that diaspora plus exyu-connection? bit funny
DeleteBus Ljubljana - Skopje 3 X day, taking between nearly 15 h up to 17 h. No intermediate stops in Belgrade, Nis. Still is a long ride
DeleteBus Ljubljana Skopje travel time on average below 15 h now.
DeleteYeah they are traveling from ZAG but also from Treviso, the planes to TSF are always full with Albanians and Slovenians, some of them remain in Italy and the rest are continuing to Slovenia.
Deleteany frequency changes for OHD?
ReplyDeleteflew OHD-FMM this week, full.
They have kind of neglected Ohrid lately
DeleteHope they restore Ohrid-London.
DeleteIt's really great to finally see daily Wizz flights from BEG! Are there other destinations that have daily flights? I remember reading about BCN and Rome going daily this summer on comments here, but nothing more
ReplyDeleteYes Barcelona and Rome are daily this summer and will be daily in winter too. But I think they are not mentioned in the article because it says increase compared to this summer and these two stay the same.
DeleteHad you asked me a few years ago, would never have thought Barcelona would be daily for Wizz from Belgrade. And JU has something like 9 weekly.
DeleteI will never forget how long W6 was waiting to open BEG-BCN.
DeleteThey even introduced SKP-BCN few years before BEG-BCN.
Are all the aircraft Wizz operates in Belgrade A321s?
ReplyDeleteYes, including the fourth one that is coming.
DeleteIf they can fill them the CASK advantage the A321neo gives them is huge.
DeleteAll Wizz A321 based at BEG are A321CEO, not NEO. Air Serbia is also getting two A321CEO, so except for a couple of additional seats on Wizz, no major CASK advantage.
DeleteThat's a lot of routes being increased.
ReplyDeleteWith Wizz you are never sure. You must check a week in advance if their plans will actually be a reality.
DeleteWizzair is a blessing for Skopje airport
ReplyDelete:)
Delete"If you book them, they will come."
W6 keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteBravo Wizz Air! 🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGreat. Would love for Wizz to restore Barcelona from Skopje.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed
DeleteAir serbia needs to look Into more efficient fleet otherwise they will never be able to decrease prices and wizz air will keep taking more market share.
ReplyDeleteAnd with Air serbia bad customer service no wonder people are happy to fly wizz.
Mark so focused on long haul everything else falling apart
JU is adding A320s to their fleet so that's already a step in the right direction. I doubt they are actively looking at adding A319s especially with their announcements regarding A321s.
DeleteLuckily for JU, Wizz Air's ontime performance isn't the best either. Also, Wizz Air is not that cheap from BEG and on many markets they are similarly priced as JU. By the way, have you seen their prices for BEG-BER? Definitely not cheap, they are more or less matching JU.
@nejmee.
DeleteYh the a320 are in much better direction but they really do need the neo.
The a321neo is reported to be be much more efficient that it can have 60% load and still be cheaper than the a319
A321neo is efficient but it is also much more expensive and JU doesn't need to increase their costs.
DeleteWhen it comes to breakeven you can't look at it that simply. Many factors define a route's profitability starting from the average fare, expenses etc.
INI-HHN is from within the same catchment area as BEG-FRA. If both are operated by the A321neo and same average price is charged, then they are not going to have the same break-even level.
It would be great to see Wizz from Belgrade to Vienna, Thessaloniki or Athens
ReplyDeleteThat would be bad news for JU.
Deletebut it wouldn't be bad news for Austrian and Aegean on ATH and VIE routes? LOL JU hater alert!
DeleteYes, Vienna would be very welcome. In their latest expansion they have focused on adding primary airports which is great news.
DeleteVienna Belgrade has been extremely well covered in terms of frequency and capacity by Austrian and Air Serbia. Except for those who put their own interest to fly for 10eur above all, Belgrade would benefit much more by opening new routes to currently unserved destinations than by adding a third carrier to Vienna.
DeleteLets be honest that WizzAir will cut so many flights during the winter like they always do. You cant be sure with them, but i am sure that the next summer season will be great in both SKP and BEG.
ReplyDeleteTrue. They are not very reliable.
DeleteHave a look into TIA with WIZZ & RYANAIR
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a bloodbath there between the two.
DeleteHope Wizz considers basing a fifth plane in BEG next summer.
ReplyDeleteThere are enough routes for them.
DeleteBrussels and Madrid come to my mind.
Air Serbias frequencies to there are so low that Wizz could do well against them with twice weekly flights.
If Saudi Arabia and Serbia will finally liberalise their visa regimes i could even imagine Riyadh and Jeddah.
Although i would prefer Flyadeal or Flynas..
Airports can't order airlines what to launch. Belgrade's unserved destination list has been expanded by 25 this year so far.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is requesting more slots in Portuguese Airports (Porto & Lisbon) to Winter 23.
ReplyDeletePorto will be a new route, as 300 slots have been now allocated to JU! From Lisbon is just a continuation of Summer 23, being not a season route.
No one said anything about "ordering" airlines what to launch. Airports can and should provide incentives for new routes. SKP provided subsidies to Wizz under specific conditions, including new destinations only.
ReplyDeleteBy far most of the new destinations at BEG this year were launched by Air Serbia.
They dont like flights over 2h i think
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Ryanair is not interested in Belgrade to make any base there because Serbia is not in the EU and they have already enough space to grow inside the EU for example they have huge base in Naples with 530 flights per week and adding new routes every 3/6 months. But I would love to see Ryanair at Belgrade airport but even more I would prefer to see EasyJet because it is my fav low cost company. Another thing I think that Belgrade has not became tourist destination for European in big numbers, I would like to see % of let's say Spanish passengers on flight from Barcelona to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteI've been using W6 regularly between LTN and BEG and back for many years now. With 5 flights a week practically sold out at any time of the year, with very reasonably priced seats - particularly if you're flexible with dates and travel light - they are having an absolute ball and so are the many frequent passengers. Here and there a flight goes horribly late - mostly on Sundays, which are afternoon rotations - but the rest are in the morning and are mostly on time. Now, I'd obviously consider flying to BEG from Stanstead if Ryanair were to introduce a good, convenient, cheap service but the "Luton connection" works so well for so many people that I just don't see that happening any time soon.
ReplyDelete