Low cost carrier Wizz Air has held talks with Tuzla Airport’s management in Budapest over the potential reopening of its base in the city, according to the “Klix” portal. The budget airline, which had two aircraft stationed in Tuzla announced the closure of its base in September 2023. At the time, the carrier said, “The challenging macroeconomic environment, along with complicated weather conditions in the region, such as frequent fogs which heavily affect operational performance, have, unfortunately, made it impossible to operate a large network from Tuzla Airport and base our aircraft there”. The decision caught Tuzla Airport by surprise and has led to a significant decline in passenger numbers, with the low cost carrier being the airport’s sole scheduled airline operator.
Wizz Air discontinued thirteen of its sixteen routes out of Tuzla following the base closure, keeping only services to Basel, Dortmund and Memmingen. In August 2023, the airline maintained a total of 416 Tuzla flights during the month (combined total for both inbound and outbound services), offering 74.880 seats, while this August, the carrier has just seventy Tuzla flights scheduled offering 12.912 seats on the market. Apart from the three routes the airline has kept in operation, Wizz Air had the most frequencies from Tuzla to Hahn, Stockholm Skavsta, and Berlin, which could be among the destinations restored if the airline opts to reopen its base. During the first quarter of 2024, Tuzla Airport handled 51.070 passengers, representing a decrease of 67.1% on the same period last year. These figures also include travellers who flew on Lumiwings flights out of Tuzla which have since been discontinued.
Tuzla Airport has scrambled to find an alternative to Wizz Air but has so far has no success. After local authorities issued a public call for an airline to open a base in the city in return for subsidies, Greece’s Lumiwing won the contract, launching several routes. The venture lasted just over two months and ended in a financial dispute between the airline and airport, resulting in Lumiwings discontinuing all its operations out of Tuzla. Although a new public call was issued, there has been no interest from carriers. Tuzla Airport is reported to be in talks with another airline to launch one route to the city later this summer.
A s*it show! 😂
ReplyDeleteNot really. Wizz knows exactly what it's doing
DeleteShow is in Serbia lol
DeleteDo they have money for this
DeleteIt would be a life saver for Tuzla
ReplyDeleteSeems like someone has finally got the message hard way from its butt into the head. Fingers crossed 🤞
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteWill the Wizz get the message? You can't have frequent fogs as an excuse to stop having a base and then ignore the excuse when talks about reopening the base continue.
DeleteI would avoid Wizz like the plague if I was them
ReplyDeleteYes because their results are great without Wizz.
DeleteSome comments here are just ridiculous. Avoid Wizz like the plague?? Wizz is still the only airline serving Tuzla
DeleteFool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me..
ReplyDeleteThe airport management is far from innocent in all of this.
DeleteI'm guessing Wizz realised that Tuzla is a good way they can compete against Ryanair in Sarajevo and not give up the entire market to them.
ReplyDeleteTrue. They were number 1 airline in Bosnia and now they have just handed it over to Ryanair.
DeleteMore likely Tuzla is begging and throwing money at them to come back because they realised they're screwed otherwise.
DeleteThey announced their arrival to Sarajevo from this spring onwards but the P&W issues made them delay it. They surely see more potential here as they've been flying Budapest and London for a while. Hope the Budapest flight is reinstated soon
DeleteWhat arrival in Sarajevo? They only just left!
DeleteWell they do fly to London and Abu Dhabi and plan to introduce Rome.
DeleteI said many times that Wizz Air may return to TZL. Its obvious now, they closed the base because they need those aircraft for other bases, they closed Suceava base as well while Varna, Craiova, Naples, Wroclaw are left with only one aircraft. At the moment Wizz has at least seven wet-leased aircraft and i believe that once the problem with the engines is solved, we can expect big expansion from them.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThat will take years.
DeleteSupposedly until 2026, so 2 more years
DeleteAgree! It is mainly because of insufficient planes. Sofia has been operating with wet leased planes and Bucharest has one wet leased plane as well. Wizz said they will bring potentially back the 2 planes to Varna. It is very likely, Tuzla will get at least one plane back once they resolve the plane issue. Wizz likes subsidies, look Skopje. However, even with subsidies, they would rather keep the available planes in rich non subsidised bases like Rome, MXP…
DeleteThey cut their fleet from almost all bases except TIA. FCO, MXP, VCE, CTA, NAP, SOF, VAR, BEG, LCA, KUT, AUH, IAS, CLJ, CRA, TMS, VIE, DEB, BUD all have less planes.
DeleteDidn't see that one coming.
ReplyDeleteImagine the power Wizz will have in these negotiations. I'm sure the airport will do anything to get them back.
ReplyDeleteYeah Tuzla is basically on their knees at this point, Wizz will milk them for all their worth.
DeleteWell if they dont want to give to wizz whatever they ask for then fine, i am sure Wizz will have no problem with out operating in Tuzla. Those two A320s will fit in many other bases.
DeleteIt's impacting. Most of the rent a car now don't have work like they've used to. Panonian lakes are tourism of Tuzla at summer time. A lot of people coming because of them so it is impacting a lot. "Gastarbajters" aren't coming every week or every second like they did before. Now they need to drive to Tuzla and it is not that easy like before. Take 50€ ticket, sit and be in Tuzla in a seconds..
DeleteJust wondering, what impact has Wizz Air's base closure had on the city of Tuzla. Has it been felt?
ReplyDeleteRiots in the streets, crop failure, biblical rains, rivers flowing upstream, my friend even claims to have seen one of the pyramids take off into space and rejoin the mothership. Can anyone here confirm?
DeleteOk, I didn't mean it like that. I meant had it had any impact on the tourism industry, hoteliers etc. Did Wizz bring in any of that. I'm genuinely interested
Delete+1 I've been really curious myself
DeleteConsidering that the route was almost exclusively used by gasterbaiters, tourism probably didn't take a large hit. Tourists to Tuzla mostly come by car from other parts of Bosnia or the Balkans (last time I was there, saw quite a few EU registration plates)
Delete13.02 "last time I was there, saw quite a few EU registration plates" 100% gastarbeiters
DeleteWhat tourism is there to do in Tuzla?
DeleteSalt mine visit?
Deletehttps://tztz.ba/en/
DeleteCar rental companies have certainly felt it.
DeleteFrom my very limited experience I can say that last summer I noticed many 'sobe' or apartments very close to the airport - and I needed one, because the Wizz plane was scheduled to arrive between 22-23h. Since I continued to travel by bus to Sarajevo, I had to stay over (very pleasant, btw).
DeleteI can imagine that others - arriving late since Wizz does not seem to pay for prime travelling times 10-18h - at least briefly visit the wider Tuzla area in a similar way, and the cancellation of the flights might have been felt in this respect.
What do pleople say who actually live in the area?
I was flying with them every 2-3 months in 2022 and 2023 until they've cancelled flights to Hahn and Baden-Baden. I can confirm, that Bosnians and also Serbians, who live and work in Germany, go there to visit their relatives. The flights were packed every time. There were no tourists, as far as I could tell.
DeleteI doubt they will come back in the end but they will surely want to see how low the management will go to get them back
ReplyDeleteAs my granny used to say: oce kaki, nece kaki…
ReplyDeleteGonna be honest, BiH is not a country where the gastos are prone to fly home. They want to bring their Persil, Smartphones, IKEA stuff and other things, safe and in a customs free way back to their friends, family and their own homes.
ReplyDeleteMost of them live in Austria, South Germany and Switzerland.
Wizt has got bad cards, because every person which is not from Tuzla, needs a ride home.
And bosnian roads are not so good.
Please no backlash, I am Bosnian.
What I tried to say, Ryanair is now a too big adversary for them. BiH should focus more on Sarajevo.
DeleteThey need more european destinations.
This is just not true. I was flying from and to TZL airport with wizzair 14 times in 2022. The flights were sold out every single time. I was even avoiding winter and summer holidays, yet still I had to fight myself through crowds of people
DeleteThey rather play s**t show in Tuzla than open one in Ljubljana..
ReplyDeleteI don't LJU give similar conditions. And Wizz relies on diaspora. Not much of that from Slovenia
Deleteim quite sure no need for them in Ljubljana (and by no need i mean Fraport Ljubljana is positive business)...
DeleteIf there was no need for them, their Skopje-Ljubljana flights would not be full.
DeletePlease read my comment again. Im talking about profitability not connectivity…
DeleteBtw ljubljana had 96k in march … so 23% growth on 2023
And compared to March 2019?
Delete-10% on 2019.
DeleteWhen will wiz air start flying to Bristol from Warsaw again. As now Ryanair have stopped flying from modline Bristol , southwest cut off 🥴👎🏻
ReplyDeleteBruh....
DeleteThere are way too many airports and bases in and around Bosnia.
ReplyDeleteAt some time offer will overwhelm demand..
Wizz Air is badly needed back in TZL.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThat passenger decline is spectacular and sad. I really hope Wizz comes back.
ReplyDeleteThe airport should first get those runway approach lights they have been promising for the past 10 years.
ReplyDeleteI.D dobro imaš volje za tipkanje hehe
ReplyDelete