Wizz Air will suspend flights between London Luton and Sarajevo in September amid increased competition from Ryanair and high seasonality. The carrier will operate its final service of the year between the two capitals on September 23. No flights have been scheduled thereafter, although it is unclear whether they will be restored in the summer of 2026. During the 2024/25 winter, the budget carrier maintained four weekly flights on the route, up from two weekly rotations which were maintained during both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 winters. Wizz Air’s London service benefited from subsidies awarded by the Tourism Association of the Canton of Sarajevo, which led to an increase in flights over the past two years.
Wizz Air handled 41.354 passengers on its Luton - Sarajevo service in 2024. Its average annual cabin load factor stood at 70.3%. As of last April, the airline has faced increased competition, with Ryanair launching operations between London Stansted and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. Ryanair managed to handle 37.384 travellers on the route in 2024 during its nine months of operations, with an average cabin load factor of 90.3%. During the first quarter of this year, Wizz Air outperformed Ryanair on the London - Sarajevo service, although it maintained more flights than its rival. It handled 12.742 travellers with an average cabin occupancy rate of just 56.2%. On the other hand, Ryanair saw 8.516 travellers, with loads amounting to 64.3%.
During the 2025/26 winter season, which begins on October 26, Wizz Air will continue to operate three weekly flights between Sarajevo and Rome. Services to Abu Dhabi will remain summer seasonal. Wizz Air commenced operations to Sarajevo in 2017, with flights from Budapest. In February 2021, it announced the establishment of its 41st base in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, positioning a single Airbus A320 aircraft. Operations began in May 2021 with nine new routes, including London. By August 2021, Wizz Air introduced a second A320 at its Sarajevo base, expanding its network with additional routes. However, by November 2022, the airline closed its base in the city, terminating seventeen out of its nineteen routes, retaining only services to London Luton and Abu Dhabi. The airline cited operational challenges and strategic realignment as reasons for this move. In October 2024, it launched flights between Rome and Sarajevo, which also benefit from subsidies.
With those loads, I am really not surprised.
ReplyDeleteBoth carriers having a sub-70% LF while being LCCs is really bad. It'll probably improve during the 2nd and 3rd quarter, but still, they're half empty
DeleteRyanair finished čast year with 90+%, they'll fix this one too
DeleteThat was just during peak season of 3rd and 4th quarter. Their 1st and 2nd quarter are equally abysmal
Delete70% load factor on A-320 Neo with 239 seats amounts to 167 passengers per plane, is not bad at all actually. It is up to WZZ and their decision to use such a large plane and ungodly times for departures or arrivals at LTN compared to RYR at STN, why they are pulling out. Firstly, nobody knows whether they are coming back and turning the route into the one similar o AUH. And secondly, if this will have impact on RYR to start daily flights with much better times and access to STN is in-win for the passengers, both the foreign tourists and Bosnians. [S.K.]
DeleteWhile 167 passengers per flight might sound decent at first glance, a 70% load factor is actually quite low for a an LLC operating an A321neo configured with 239 seats. LCCs rely heavily on high load factors typically 85% to 95% to remain profitable. Their business model is built on low fares and high volume which means that every empty seat affects revenue. The profit margins on each ticket are already thin so filling the aircraft close to capacity is essential to cover fixed and variable operating costs. Their high density A321neos on this route only makes financial sense if those seats are consistently filled. A 70% load factor means they're flying with over 70 empty seats per flight, which quickly becomes unsustainable. From Wizz Air’s perspective a low yield + low load factor combination is the likely reason for the suspension.
Delete167 passengers per flight on intra-European flight is more than decent, full stop. No ifs, no buts, no matter if that is LCC or legacy carrier. LCC configured A320 and A320 Neo are seating 180/186. And that is the average number of passengers on WZZ flight that for some reason utilise only 239 seats configured plane - the same with AUH and FCO the only other routes they flying from SJJ.
DeleteWhy are they (WZZ) discontinuing the route and whether it will be resumed in the 2006 summer season is left to be seen. They are the only ones knowing the reason and if they do not come out about it, we can only guess
they would carry even more passengers if they gave the tickets away for free. So the passenger number really doesnt say anything about the sustainability of a route (which apparently just isnt there for Wizzair), no matter if they carry 100, 167 or 200 passangers average
DeleteThey’re not carrying 167 passengers on every flight. That figure refers to the average annual load factor. The actual numbers are in the article. In winter, loads drop below 60%, while in summer they reach around 85%. Togeather with Ryanair’s figures it suggests this route is clearly seasonal.
Delete20:21 very good described , thank you👏
Delete@20:17 stop embarrassing yourself
DeleteI hope they launch back Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteShows how seasonal traffic is on this route. 50% LF for an LCC is a disaster. The Ryanair loads are not much better in winter, although they seem to do much better for the rest of the year.
ReplyDelete50% LF is a disaster even for OU
DeleteI wonder what the LF is like from Osijek to Zagreb?
DeleteOU does not fly that route
DeleteSince they are ending these flights in September, something tells me they won't be back next year.
ReplyDeleteThey will not come back thats clear.
DeleteHow many times have flights between London and Sarajevo been launched and suspended/terminated by various airlines? It seems every other year.
ReplyDeleteIirc we've had TUI, Wizz and Ryanair, plus FlyBosnia for a short period before they went bankrupt
DeleteAnd before that BA with LGV, as well as Air Bosnia long ago!
DeleteMy guess is highly seasonal diaspora traffic. Full in summer and December. Relatively empty the rest.
DeleteIt's not diaspora as much as tourists. Bosnians obviously need a visa and having an average of 1+ rotation per day is just too much in spring months as Brits arrive in summer months and a bit of December and January
DeleteWizz Air: Now you see it, now you don't.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they launch London from Tuzla
ReplyDeleteSarajevo not work , and Tuzla will do it right ? Are u serious ?
DeleteThey will surely go to Mostar.
DeleteWe see how Ajet has nice numbers there.
Yes Mostar is their wish list so big demand there😂
DeleteWell if you read the news from the other day, Wizz will now get over a million euros in subsidies per year from TZL Airport so it is not impossible.
DeleteWe will see for that ;)
DeleteThats a really bad LF and makes Wizz to suspend the route , its obvious , for a low cost carrier thats miserable ...
ReplyDeleteSarajevo desperately needs the taxes to be abolished so that the locals can benefits from flights to the Netherlands, Prague, Krakow, Madrid, Cyprus and all other in demand leisure destinations
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteYes!
DeleteThe pax numbers to AUH are very low as well, at least these three weeks. LF is under 50%.
ReplyDeleteI traveled to AUH recently, and on Sarajevo - AUH flight the plane (A321neo) was almost full, with only a few seats empty. But on the flight back to Sarajevo they were around 35 empty seats, so not great but not terrible either.
DeleteAnd I have to add, I would really really love if the route becomes year-round like it was a few years ago, but I know the chances of that are quite slim, but I was browsing their in-flight magazine and I saw that Sarajevo is one of only a few routes they don't fly year-round, so it's maybe possible.
Of course Bosnians for transfer mostly use that route ...
DeleteWizz Air is in Sarajevo (and Bosnia in general) just to collect subsidies.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to know taxes collected versus subsidies paid out…betting there is a difference between these two numbers
DeleteWizz uses A321 betweeen LTN and SJJ?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteNo biggie, Ryan will just absorb the passangers, and the route will have good load percentages year round.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Was simply nonsense to go from almost no flights for 20 years to 6pw (Wizz and Ryan combined)... Ryanair will now take it all and maybe even increase the frequency in the future slowly
DeleteBut Luton is not served by Ryanair thats the thing... Sarajevo losing one route basicly..
DeletePerhaps more work should be done to get UK tourists to visit Bosnia as the Mideast tour operators have done. They might hear about Croatia beaches but they might not hear about the beautiful Bosnian rivers and mountains.
ReplyDeleteAre you comparing the Adriatic Sea to a river in Bosnia???
DeleteQuite a few there…Una, Sava, Neretva, Vrbas, Buna, Bosna, don’t forget Miljacka just to name a few…tourists from the UK would love the nature, more like the Scottish highlands! Many famous UK travelers went there even before the advent of airplanes…think “An Oriental Holiday’: constructing Bosnia and Herzegovina as a destination in British tourist literature, c. 1890–1914” by
DeleteRoss Cameron
Wizz in big troubles, their shares just plunged amid a drop in profits and no outlook given. Lets see how it develops with wizz…
ReplyDeleteYou will see them next year when they will recieve brand new A321 airplanes , + their airplanes that are under manintenance now next year most of them would be in operation.
DeleteMy opinion is that the only route from W6 to stay operational from Sarajevo will be Abu dhabi. All others clearly not work. This statistics shows that reality.
ReplyDelete