Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has discontinued ticket sales on its services from Abu Dhabi to Belgrade, Sarajevo and a number of other destinations in what is believed to be a major overhaul of the budget carrier’s network from its base in the Emirati capital. The airline is scheduled to operate its final flight to Belgrade on July 19, while the final service to Sarajevo is currently scheduled on August 31. Other routes which are no longer on sale include Sofia (no longer operational), Varna (last flight July 14), Tirana (July 20), Kutaisi (July 29) and Cluj (no longer operational). The carrier has also suspended flights to Budapest (until September 1), Vienna (September 21), Krakow (from July 29 until September 19), Katowice (until October 26), Astana (November 1) and Samarkand (November 1). Further changes remain possible.
The airline has launched a dedicated hotline for passengers affected by flight cancellations to or from the United Arab Emirates. In a statement, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi said, “In the last few days, we have taken several steps to reach and inform the passengers concerned, but more than two thirds of them did not book their tickets directly with the airline (but through an online travel agency). Therefore, the contact details of these passengers are not available to Wizz Air, as these online ticketing portals do not forward the contact details of the passengers to the airlines”. The carrier has set up a dedicated 24-hour hotline for those affected by UAE flight cancellations at +3616777530 (international roaming charges apply for this Hungary-based number). The carrier added, “If your outbound flight is operating as scheduled, but your return flight (inbound) is cancelled, you may request a full refund for your outbound flight by contacting our regular Call Center”.
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is the sole operator between the Emirati capital and both Belgrade and Sarajevo. The carrier has maintained up to five weekly services to Belgrade on a year-round basis and a daily seasonal rotation to Sarajevo. Last year, the airline handled 82.883 passengers on its Belgrade service. Like much of Wizz Air’s network over the past year and a half, its Abu Dhabi base has been impacted by engine inspections affecting its fleet. The affected Leap engines operated in dusty regions such as the Middle East have been particularly susceptible to durability issues. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi launched flights to Belgrade in May 2021 and to Sarajevo in October of the same year. Both services have been operated by the 239-seat Airbus A321neo aircraft.
Air Serbia should jump in and launch these flights!
ReplyDeleteMore likely Etihad
Delete+1
DeleteEtihad could retutn too.
They should both start flights. Competition is good!
DeleteHopefully Etihad enters the market.
Deletehopefully Air Serbia
DeleteTime for JU to DXB.
DeletePerfect for night turnaround with A319. Complete leg should be around 12 hours?
Delete^ +1
DeleteWay too long for JU, and they cannot compete.
DeleteWhy is it too long for JU? Are they handicapped? Sure, it is unusually long, but sooner or later they will start flying longer routes, if they are going to grow.
DeleteThey need better configured aircraft for such routes. If they want to be competitive on such market, they need some narrowbody with proper business class and huge codeshare with Etihad (they have codeshare right now).
DeleteI agree they need to start flying to key Middle East destinations, especially in view of the EXPO.
DeleteIt is a chance to showcase the country and its business to many important markets outside of Europe.
It's time att send A330 to middle east... Perfect timing!
DeleteWell, Wizz air doesn't have business class at all. Way too long for 12 hour round? They fly long haul last 10 years. That may do with one single crew. I think 3pw for a start may do the job perfectly.
DeleteIf it starts from BEG at 10pm, it arrives at 5:15am. Return leg starts at 6:00am, arrives back to BEG at 9:45 am with second morning wave
Delete09:02
DeleteAnd with the presence of Wizz and flydubai, and even if there was a third airline like before - Etihad, JU would have a chance. Remember my words that agencies will launch charters to Ras al Khaimah or Sharjah to cover the traffic. I fully support you.
Wow seems their network has completely collapsed.
ReplyDeleteSo their whole Europe network is gone.
ReplyDeleteYes. And highly likely some of those routes in September won't resume either.
DeleteMany people warned Wizz that their Abu Dhabi adventure would fail.
ReplyDeleteIn true Wizz style, even the emergency hotline is not toll free
ReplyDeleteI’ve contacted Expedia, Lufthansa and Air Europa. Iberia, too. And none were toll free.
DeleteAegean has a normal number which is free.
DeleteJU is also free.
DeleteSad. A lot of people impacted by this.
ReplyDeleteThats why I always choose Air Serbia over them for my vacays with family in Cyprus. Imagine the drama of loosing flights for 4 people
DeleteThe worst thing is, even though the flights are cancelled, your reservation stays as confirmed until 2-4 days before the originally planned flight. So Wizz Air says that until that happens they can't compensate you. So if you booked a flight for say December, good luck.
DeleteJust pick an agency which will hit them on EU court.
DeleteIs the EU court responsible/has jurisdiction on matters regarding flights between Serbia and the UAE?
DeleteOf course not.
DeleteBut they do have rights under Serbian law. If Wizz air Abu Dhabi does not respond to you, contact the Civil Aviation Directorate of Serbia: https://cad.gov.rs/strana/25321/passenger-complaints?lang=en
DeleteAlmost like there is almost no P2P traffic to a destination where there is currently 50 degrees outside :O
ReplyDeleteWhat nonsense. This has nothing to do with demand but the airline's internal problems.
DeleteLast year's annual load load factor on Wizz Abu dhabi on BRG route was 87% as published on this site. So seems like there was year round demand
DeleteYes. We have and big P2P traffic with serbs living in Dubai also workers (tourism, restaurants, finance)
Delete
DeleteLots of Russians were using this flight too
FZ already has decent loads to BEG, maybe now they will add more flights?
DeleteAlmost like AUH is a vital transfer destination for so many passengers flying to Asia.
DeleteThey were wrong. They should have created an airline in Dubai. It would have been more successful. All flights from the Balkans are sold mainly by a tour operator, the holidays are the first one day in Abu Dhabi, and then the remaining 6 days in Dubai, just because they land in AUH.
ReplyDeleteMost of the pax used the line to transfer to Saudi, Kuwait, Oman, India, Central Asia, Maldives, Seychelles etc
DeleteBecause I'm looking at the Wizz website, that is, BEG, TIA, SJJ, SOF are completely eliminated, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, no tickets are being sold for those destinations.
DeleteAnd yet they continue flying to TLV
ReplyDeleteTells you what Arabs really think about the conflict in Israel.
DeleteSuspended until mid September.
DeleteThis is why it's best to book with a flag carrier. They will never let you down!
ReplyDeleteOh please
DeleteFor some reason my flight BEG-AUH has not been cancelled. Also the app allows me to buy tickets even after the indicated dates. Does anyone know why this is the case?
ReplyDeleteIt does not allow you to buy tickets. The calendar is showing you that flights are available. When you click on it to buy a ticket, it will tell you that no flights are available.
DeleteYes I just saw that, but my flight still says "on time"
DeleteThey will change the status just days before your flight even if it's cancelled for months. It is Wizz Air policy so they avoid paying compensation immediately. Unfortunately there is not much you can do to get compensation until that status changes.
DeleteActually that is great! If they cancel the flight outside the 14 day window, they are not liable for any compensation. But if it's within this time frame, they are liable up to 600 EUR per passenger! In case they don't want to pay the funds, contact the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate: https://cad.gov.rs/strana/25321/passenger-complaints?lang=en
DeleteWe all know that's not going to happen because Wizz Air doesn't pay compensation. In the UK they don't pay compensation even after the court orders them to do it.
DeleteDo you know the website of Slovenian or Italian Civil Aviation Directorate? Thanks
Deletehttps://www.enac.gov.it/passeggeri/diritti-dei-passeggeri/cancellazione-del-volo/
DeleteI hope so Etihad comes back
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean more spare planes to support and enlarge their exYu bases?
ReplyDeleteNot really
DeleteLikely they will move some planes to European bases. They’re adding one extra plane to Vienna from August and they only added the extra flights a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteThey are greatly increasing flights from Yerevan starting in October.
DeleteCause they are opening a base there.
DeleteThey'll move 2 neos to Europe
DeleteWell two weeks ago when i was sharing the pax numbers on the SJJ service people thought that i am making them up. I was expecting this.
ReplyDeleteCome on it's not just Sarajevo. It's also Belgrade.
Delete@12:57 Sarajevo is actually on sale for the rest of July and August whereas other routes were cut sooner. Belgrade has no flights on sale in August.
Delete@14.53 actually if you bothered to read the article, all their European routes are being cancelled or suspended. I don't think it would take longer than 3 minutes to read the article.
DeleteAs for Sarajevo, it was a seasonal route even before cancellation whereas Belgrade was a year round route. Belgrade route is primarily for local Serbian population, Sarajevo is primarily for Arab tourists. Their results for BEG route were published here for last year. 88% LF average for entire year, which I don't think is bad.
Sarajevo Route was also mostly used by locals and tour agencies from Bosnia sending people to UAE. It was also operating until Dec 2024 and only became March-October this year
DeleteNo it wasn't operated until December, it was operated only until October or something like that
DeleteThey ended the flight on 29 September
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/08/wizz-air-abu-dhabi-cuts-short-sarajevo.html
The fleet of Wizz Abu Dhabi will be cut as well (to 10 aircraft, all ceo).
ReplyDeleteNow they have 11 so it doesnt make a difference.
DeleteThey have 12 (8 ceo and 4 neo). It's a downgrade in quantity and quality as well.
DeleteWizz served around 60.000 passengers in three quaters of 2024, so there is a room for JU to step in!
ReplyDeleteIt literally says in the article how many passengers they handled for the entire year.
DeleteWe fly from Belgrade to the Emirates every December. The plane has been full every time. We have an existing booking for December 2025. There hasn't been a cancellation yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd you won't get the cancellation until a few days before your flight. It is a well known Wizz Air tactic. This is not related to passenger numbers, their entire Abu Dhabi base has financially underperformed and they are relocating some aircraft back to Europe.
Deleteflydubai can be used with additional frequencies, but I still think Wizz will bring back all these flights. It did this before. It is even possible to launch Dubai instead of Abu Dhabi and anyway the passengers are mainly going to Dubai. flydubai is a transfer airline.
ReplyDelete