Etihad Airways and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, which are poised to benefit from the closure of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi from September, have said they are reviewing the possibility of taking over some routes operated by the low cost carrier but noted it will take some time to do so. Both Belgrade and Sarajevo have been impacted by Wizz Air’s decision to shut down its Abu Dhabi unit. This week, Etihad announced the launch of seven new destinations to its network, six of which were previously served by Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. However, it has denied they are in connection with Wizz Air’s exit. “It does not work like that. These destinations were underserved and part of our 2030 plan. Where there is a space in the market, someone is going to fill it in, and we have the agility to fill it. We saw a market opportunity and we took it”, Etihad’s CEO, Antonoaldo Neves, said. Some of the new routes include Bucharest, Tbilisi and Baku.
Mr Neves added it is “too early” to say whether Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, a joint venture between Etihad Airways and Air Arabia, will take some of Wizz Air slots following its exit from the UAE capital. “It is too early because it requires aircraft, it requires pilots, and they need to study that. They're adding capacity here into Abu Dhabi, but it is too early to tell because everything happened so quickly”, Mr Neves noted. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi said it had introduced two Airbus A320s to its fleet and will add two more before the end of the year, increasing operational capacity by 40% in 2025.
Etihad Airways previously maintained year-round operations to Belgrade from 2013 until 2020, while Air Arabia Abu Dhabi ran seasonal services to Sarajevo in 2021 and 2022. Both were replaced by Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. During its last full year of operations on flights to the Serbian capital, Etihad handled 114.256 passengers on the route for an average annual cabin load factor of 87.2%. Last year, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi welcomed 82.883 travellers on its Belgrade service with its average annual cabin occupancy rate standing at 82.2%. On the other hand, in 2023, the airline carried 98.124 travellers on its Sarajevo service, for an average cabin load factor of 82.8%. Figures for last year are still unavailable, however, they are expected to have decreased, with Wizz Air halving capacity on the year before by downgrading operations from year-round to seasonal.
In the end, I think Air Serbia will launch Belgrade-Abu Dhabi and Air Arabia will start Sharjah-Abu Dhabi.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for JU launching Abu Dhabi!
DeleteAir Serbia should get at least 2 A321s for this
DeleteIt can fly it with any of its Airbuses.
DeleteIt can but the A321 would be perfect for this route. It could also be used on other routes. Just my 2 cents, I think its worth it for Air Serbia
DeleteNope, it can't in its current maximum configuration. Don't forget that these flights would not go in a straight line, there are numerous restrictions out there. Add to that winds and you get a very complicated situation.
Delete@Nemjee so are you saying JU would need newer generation aircraft?
DeleteNew generation planes or the A330.
DeleteTheir current planes are too dense to make it comfortably over there when you factor in all the restrictions. That's why Wizz Air planned their AUH base with new generation A321s.
Even when Etihad flew to BEG, their A319s and A320s were not in the densest configuration.
Personally I think JU should consider employing the A330 to the UAE. Both passenger and cargo demand is there.
@ Nemjee
DeleteAgree with you but then again JU used A319 on the same AUH route back in the day. Why it would be an issue now. But at the end of the day yes, using A330 would be perfect.
An A321XLR could allow JU to launch India, Boston, IAD, Montreal, Philadelphia, Indian ocean vacation destinations.
DeleteAirbus is trying to place differed and cancelled orders for them by Jet Blue and Wizz Abu Dhabi.
Aegean just got two of them for deliveries in a few months.
I see Air Serbia getting Neos in 2027 or at least getting ready to get Neos at that time. There was an article saying how there were Neos coming into the market and I think by 2027 air serbia will have plenty of options to choose from and will make an order
DeleteI think JU had a dedicated business class product back then so the plane wasn't as heavy. Also, at that time there were far less air space restrictions and geopolitical limitations to consider.
DeleteAlso, BEG-AUH only started performing really well by the end, maybe a year before it was terminated. During most of 2014 the route barely had more than 70 or 80 passengers.
^ What Nemjee mentions goes to show how shortsighted was JU discontinuing AUH.
DeleteThe airline was struggling financially at the time to the point it had to adopt a new business model and had half the network it has today.
DeleteIf JU is sending A330 to UAE then wouldn't DXB be a better option than AUH?
DeleteOf course it would. Don't get this AUH obssession
DeleteIn AUH will face no competition as things stand. In DXB it will compete with FZ.
DeleteNo one's going to Abu Dhabi though. Might as well fly directly to DXB.
DeleteI'm not so sure it would be smart move for JU to launch AUH flights...For LCC is ok. move, but in Abu Dhabi there is not much of diaspora from Balkans..There is also not much of full paying transfer pax, because main transfer hub is DXB..Who on Earth would pay full ticket price on JU in order to transfer to Etihad onward flight, if it can do it for the same price with Emirates/Fly Dubai and with much better transfer options..On AUH majority of transfer pax were from one LCC carrier ( Wizz in this case) to another LCC carrier for continuing jurney...Who would fly BEG-AUH with legacy carrier as JU, pay quite high price ticket, and than transfer to LCC carrier in AUH without any joint ticket option, or any security...Fly Dubai perfectly covers type of pax going from BEG to UAE..You fly with EK owned company, and transfer to EK onwoad flight in DXB..P2P pax are also covered with FlyDubai, because most of our diaspora lives in Dubai, business pax as well, all of them are higher value pax, that wouldn't take risk with AUH just to pay less for ticket..So far ,on the route BEG-AUH Wizz was attracting mostly low cost passengers, Indian diaspora in Balkans, that would connect onward to some Indian city, again with LCC..Also some of our local pax, that were traansfering to other LCC for Caucasus region or India as well..this type of passengers wouldn't pay JU price, in order to gamble again with LCC...If you want to gamble on such a long distance destinations, you pay low cost price, and you fly on low cost rules, which means you can be waiting few days on the airport or missing your onward flight, or flight to be canceled suddenly, and you being left without anything apart of returned money for the ticket price, like Wizz air normally does it all the time...You don't wanna gamble like this if you pay full price ticket with legacy carrier on one leg of your jurney
DeleteThere is a reason why FZ has been so successful from DXB while other have struggled to make AUH-BEG work.
DeleteIn reality, the only real market in the Arab area of the Persian Gulf is Dubai. All the others are just bland copies. Only source of considerable O&D demand is DXB.
The only way JU could make AUH work is if they team up with EY and offer connections. Otherwise they should focus on resuming Dubai.
Aegean just signed a major agreement with Emirates where you can redeem points when flying with either airlines. Unfortunately JU's alliances department has been unable to pull anything of this sort which is why JU and EK have no relationship whatsoever.
JU flew with its narrowbody fleet to Dubai daily during Expo in 2022, so it should have no problrm reaching nearby Abu Zabi (that's how Dhabi is pronounced locally).
DeleteJU flew with narrow bodies to AUH for four years. No issues
Delete@21:54 if we ever talk in Arabic we'll call it Abu Zapi or whatever.
DeleteIn English it is Abu Dhabi though. In Serbian as well.
Etihad’s CEO can downplay the Wizz Air link all he wants but the timing is a little too convenient.
ReplyDeleteThey’re moving fast to plug the gaps and secure market share.
DeleteSmart
DeleteClearly they’re taking advantage of the vacuum. Shame neither BEG or SJJ made the cut.
ReplyDeleteThey’re probably still negotiating for the route.
DeleteNegotiate what? Timeslots are more than available on both airports.
Delete^ AUH is slot coordinated. Read the article. And it really shows some of you don't know how things work.
Delete^ I was clearly talking about BEG and SJJ.
DeleteAUH on the other hand has plenty of evening slots available and more during the day now that Wizz is leaving.
If they can get 10x a week slots for Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia they can definitely find 5x a week slots for flights to our region.
@09:17 what a "logic"
Delete^ What a thoughtful contribution ...NOT!
DeleteYou do realize they don't have unlimited planes and pilots don't you?
Delete10x weekly to Batumi, Baku and Yerevan shows that they indeed have enough planes and pilots for 5x a week to the region.
DeleteFirst of all it's Tbilisi and not Batumi. And no that means nothing. These routes have bigger demand and are a lot shorter.
Delete^ finally some common sense in the comments.
DeleteHow come they seem to find the aircraft to replace W6 in places like Batumi, Yerevan, Baku and OTP but not in BEG?
ReplyDeleteI hope EY management isn't repeating the mistakes of Hogan era.
During Hogan era they flew to BEG. Btw all these routes start in 2026.
DeleteMy guess is that they knew in advance that Wizz Air will be shutting down their base in AUH so they prepared. I am sure the writing was on the wall so Etihad made the necessary arrangements.
DeleteDuring Hogan era they were losing so much money that the oil wells couldn't keep up! 😉
Delete@Nemjee judging by the interview the CEO says it "all happened very fast".
Delete@9.06 they have record profit
Actually no one knew this was coming. Authorities in Abu Dhabi are less than happy with how this turned out.
Delete@09:12
DeleteAre you in close contact with aviation authorities in Abu Dhabi?
With aviation authorities, yes
DeleteOf course the CEO will say that. It's all PR. Reality is a whole different matter. We all knew Wizz Air had struggles and I am sure people in Abu Dhabi were aware of the problems Wizz Air faced.
Delete@anon 09.12
DeleteI'll bet JU had a tip Wizz is pulling out from AUH before public announcement.
Why would you bet on something like that? Have you seen JU react to it to be so certain that they had a "tip".
DeleteEtihad's former Belgrade route was excellent in terms of service and they had great fares. The only downside was the airport in Abu Dhabi but now they have a great new terminal.
ReplyDeleteLoad factors were quite healthy for both Belgrade and Sarajevo.
Great fares for us passengers mean loses for airlines.
DeleteSo they will fly higher yielding destinations instead.
Do we know yields were a problem in BEG or is it more of рекла казала. I am sure Qatar or China Southern are not flying to BEG for the fun of it.
DeleteThe majority of Chinese airline routes in Europe are loss making.
Delete^ they send you their yields and financial performance per route?
DeleteI honestly doubt that. Not only are they allowed to overfly Russia (lower costs) but because of that advantage many European carriers have either scaled back or completely terminated their flights to China. Just look at the Finnair debacle. Their Asia strategy was completely destroyed. Most of those passengers just switched to other carriers, starting with the Chinese ones.
DeleteI fear we won't see either in BEG though it would be spiffing news if EY comes back.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion we will see more flights with flydubai. Third daily maybe.
DeleteWhy third daily? LF last year was 75%. There is enough capacity for extra demand.
DeleteAnon 09:11 is right.
DeleteIdeally I would like to see both flights replaced by an EK widebody.
A middle of the night departure to BEG could be useful to further improve connectivity in DXB.
DeleteFlydubai has become very unreliable lately. They are constantly delayed. Today's first flight from BEG is delayed over 5 hours, the other day 3 hours and several other times this month.
DeleteWhat's causing the delays? They use to have a good on time performance in the past.
DeleteEtihad has the chance to re-establish itself in Southeast Europe. Bucharest, Tbilisi and Baku were smart picks and I hope Belgrade is next.
ReplyDeleteEtihad handled over 100k passengers on Belgrade flights in its last full year. There’s potential if they structure the route right. They shouldn’t have left in the first place.
DeleteIt is a great opportunity for JU me thinks!
DeleteEtihad was very slow in BEG. Just remember how long it took them to upgrade the route from A319 to A320. I think they only did it because they were retiring the A319 from their fleet.
DeleteWhat would be the optimal schedule for JU if it were to launch AUH?
ReplyDeleteWhat was their schedule when they flew there?
DeleteDeparture from BEG at 23.40. Return was the next day just before the regional wave. This schedule made sense because they code-shared on EY flights to BEG which used to arrive arrive 05.45.
DeleteThanks. From what I remember EY had a long turnaround time in BEG right?
DeleteYes, arrival at around 05.45 and departure at 12.20. Later on they added another flight to compensate for JU's suspension. Both flights to AUH would depart within an hour from each other.
DeleteNice photo. Love the Etihad livery, and the sprcial ones too.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI flew wizzair Sarajevo-Abu Dhabi once. The flight was very delayed so we arrived basically the next morning. I remember most of the crew were from south east Asia. For the very low price it was fine even with the delay. The return was full with people from the Gulf heading to Sarajevo for the summer 'cool' weather.
ReplyDeleteDid Wizz Air compensate people for their cancelled AUH flights or they just gave them credit?
ReplyDeleteKnowing how stingy they are, probably just credit.
DeleteTheir customer care is terrible.
DeleteCustomers can choose either.
DeleteWhere is Tirana on this expansion
ReplyDeletexD Tirana is not Dalmatia dude. its purely diaspora + heavy war between wizz and ryan like Sofia had it. It wouldbe great if we in Zag have it.
DeleteHope someone covers both routes. There is sufficient demand
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSome people are so unrealistic here. Wizz Abu Dhabi still hasn't even shut down. The Sarajevo flights are till the end of August and they expect another airline to launch flights within 15 mine of Wizz's announcment.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteExactly! If someone steps in by winter it would be a major succsess but summer 26 is more realistic. Also Sarajevo was seasonal so it's unlikely there will be flights this winter.
DeleteEveryone here seems to think airlines have countless planes on standby as well as crew just to take over routes out of nowhere.
DeleteThis remindedn me about Bajic's statement when Adria went bust :D
ReplyDeleteMr Neves added it is “too early” to say whether Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, a joint venture between Etihad Airways and Air Arabia, will take some of Wizz Air slots
It is also too early for JU to decide if it will fly the now vacant BEG-AUH route.
Delete^ The route is still not vacant and Wizz Abu Dhabi announced its closure 4 days ago. Are you insane?
Delete@13.35 if they schedule flights you better be booked on every single one of them. You really need to seek help if you expect an airline to schedule a 13 hour rotation within days of another airline vacating it.
Delete^ We are saying the same thing, why get angry?
DeleteIt is too early for JU to decide.
Honestly, there are much better markets out there for JU to launch than AUH. There is northern Iraq which can be a good source of business for JU. It's also within the range of the A319.
DeleteAir Arabia would be the much better option from both cities for p2p passengers due to moreafordable fares.
ReplyDeleteIt's most simmilar to Wizz Air
DeleteTotally agree. Air Arabia tends to be more budget friendly and has a decent schedule too.
DeleteIn the end we get neither Etihad nor Air Arabia ...
ReplyDeleteWizz Abu Dhabi hasn't even ceased operations. Some of you are devoid of reality. On top of that, your comment shows you have not read a word from the article.
DeletePeople expect way too much immediately. Give it some time and a solution will be found.
DeleteDidn't the Macedonian transport Minister recently say they were in talks with Air Arabia over flights?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/04/macedonia-in-discussions-with-air.html
DeleteJust another one of his myth announcments. Like Flydubai too.
DeleteAnd Ryanair..
DeleteThat guy ALWAYS issues press releases about "important" meetings he has with various airlines but nothing comes of it.!
Delete