Ryanair’s withdrawal from the Serbian market and partial pullout from Bosnia and Herzegovina this coming winter season, coupled with its symbolic presence in Montenegro through a single route, will result in the low cost carrier reducing both its number of flights and seat capacity across the markets of the former Yugoslavia by 16% compared to last winter. Ryanair was the largest airline in Bosnia and Herzegovina last year, a title it will relinquish to Wizz Air in 2026. The carrier previously announced it would suspend operations to Sarajevo due to “operational conditions and market demand”, while its withdrawal from Niš has been attributed to “fuel regulatory issues”.
In Montenegro, Ryanair will maintain only four weekly flights between London Stansted and Podgorica this winter. Although frequencies will remain unchanged from last winter, this represents a notable reduction from the four routes operated just several years ago, which also included services to Berlin, Gdansk and Krakow. On the other hand, in Banja Luka, Ryanair's capacity this winter will be reduced by 8%.
During the 2025/26 winter season, Ryanair operated 5.704 flights to and from markets in the former Yugoslavia, offering 1.057.280 seats. This coming winter, it currently plans to run 4.794 flights, down 16%, and offer 885.842 seats, representing a decrease of 16.4%. In 2024, Ryanair said it aimed to continue growing strongly in the Balkans, with its CEO, Michael O’Leary, dismissing Wizz Air as a serious challenger. Two years later, however, Wizz Air is the largest low cost carrier in almost every market across the former Yugoslavia except Croatia and Slovenia, with easyJet ahead in the latter.
Ryanair continues to dominate the Croatian market. The airline has confirmed that it is still modifying its schedule but currently plans to increase its winter capacity by 18.6% compared to last year. At its Zagreb base, it has scheduled 3.800 flights, up from 3.308 during the 2025/26 winter season, and will offer 696.342 seats. As previously reported, the growth will be driven by increased frequencies on existing routes and the more frequent deployment of the larger Boeing 737 MAX 8 on select services. The carrier will also launch flights to Warsaw Modlin this winter, although the new route will replace Thessaloniki, which is being discontinued.
So much for their plans to dominate the region. Wizz simply knows this region better.
ReplyDeleteRyanair will be just fine. The future is FR no matter what we might think. Give it time ;)
DeleteWizz doesn't know the region better, Wizz is willing to fly less profitable routes than Ryanair because Wizz has nowhere else to go. Ryanair flew to Sarajevo and Podgorica from its bases in Poland and Italy, and those bases are now getting new routes that will make more money. Unless you think Gdansk-Podgorica in the middle of November is a viable route?
DeleteRyan is the future... In other words is further impoverishment of huge swaths of people and then giving them a perception of being able to travel that's the future. Meanwhile the future is racketeering local communities and extracting subsidies and not paying for services. Great
DeleteYes, Ryanair is a project created by the globalist elite to fool the stupid masses into thinking they are richer and flying more than before, when in fact they are poorer! But what will the global elite do now that you have figured it all out? Maybe they will offer you a seat on their table seeing that you are so clever?
Deleteyeh sure they have nowhere to go. just opened 3 spanish bases....the stuff you read here
Deletemust admit, some brilliant responses here to the "future" guy :))
DeleteIt's a fact that Michael O'Leary was full of hot air, some people can't handle that fact.
DeleteMOL sees the success Wizz Air has in BEG and SKP and this hurts him quite a bit. W6 does extremely well in both airports, they are making a lot of money and neither of the two wants to work with MOL and FR.
Deletesay what you want but those two airports are the only ones that have proved to be able to host a base by a foreign airline in ExYu
DeleteYes and that is why MOL is bothered by it, I am sure he would love to be present there instead of W6. Combined BEG and SKP have 11 planes, that's not insignificant, even for FR.
DeleteFR is wildly more profitable than W6 or any other LCC.
DeleteTHAT is what matters at the end of the day.
well certainly not in ExYu and that is our prime discussion topic on this blog
Delete(ZAG too ofc, and i meant year round bases)
DeleteAnon 11.43 well many highly profitable businesses have gone bankrupt. Just because they are doing well today doesn't mean they will do it in the future.
DeleteFor example their attitude of treating passengers as trash has its limits. Our region plus Greece has clearly shown that we are not rushing to give them our business.
Ryanair was not successful in ex-YU and Greece.
Ryanair operate at 16 airports im Greece which is great and welcome.
DeleteFirst they say how they will dominate the region and then they told us Wizz Air will go bankrupt. Fast forward to today Ryanair has always completely withdrawn from the region and Wizz Air is king.
ReplyDeleteSeems like Ryanair has failed to beat Aegean, Sky Express, Air Serbia and Wizz Air and to dominate the Balkans.
European aviation has adapted to their tactics and they are no longer the customer you don't want to be without.
The region is a footnote in european aviation. Lets not forget that.
Delete"European aviation has adapted to their tactics and they are no longer the customer you don't want to be without."
DeleteAll these Ex-Yu airports that lost Ryanair this winter are literally begging for Ryanair to come back.
You are twisting the narrative into airports "adapting to tactics" as if they chased Ryanair away by finding someone better?? Ryanair abandoned both Niš and Sarajevo, and both airports would have the airline back in a second if they could. Same goes for Ljubljana, Zadar winter flights, Osijek, Tuzla, Pristina etc etc
Exactly. FR doesnt 'need' the region at all. As an aviatio market it remains tiny. People perhaps forget sometimes just how little some of these destinations actually are...
DeleteRyanair was not beaten by Aegean or Sky express in ATH or SKG . They fly this summer season to 27 destination from ATH and to 35 from SKG . They were beaten by the airports that did not give up to Ryanair's demands .
DeleteThe "region" doesn't exist in aviation. It's not a region by any means. What do Pula/Rijeka/Zadar have in common with Osijek/Pristina/Belgrade?
DeleteThat is corect.
DeleteThe "region" is used colloquially by locals. The fact that you know EXACTLY what the region refers to shows that it is widely used.
DeleteWhat utter nonsense that FR doesn't need the region. If they didn't need it then they wouldn't have scheduled those flights. Do you people realize that we live in a capitalist era and any business needs all the business it can get. Do you honestly think Morocco where they are massively expanding this winter is more lucrative than ex-YU region?
DeletePlease! Flights to Morocco are longer and yields aren't any better. They are there because they are desperate to attract more tourists, that's all, they are getting the support from the government.
Ryanair has a lot of planes coming in, they can't afford not to employ them. They need any market they can get.
Let's wait and see what JU and W6 do regarding INI. Personally I think you will be disappointed by the news that will be announced soon. ;) ;) ;)
First, thank you for educating everybody about capitalism, as most of us were living under a rock for the last 30 years, so we were not aware about it.
DeleteOn a more seriuos note, I actually agree:
They have like 300 orders for B373s to be delivered from 2027 onwards and they need to employe these planes somwehere. And while indeed Morocco is a nice country, many, rather most people want to travel within Europe and there Ryanair will have less and less an upper hand, even in the region.
They cut 2 million seats in Spain in the last 2 years, because they were not happy with a 6% increase of fees, and the competition (Vueling) happily jumped in. Similar would happen to the region.
Not just Vueling but Wizz Air is profiting from it as well. I think they are confident in the Spanish expansion since they are doing really well in Italy. Recently they added their 15th plane to the Rome base.
DeleteRyanair will be back. They are the most efficient money-making macine with a long and steady history. They'll be back.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, they will NOT be back precisely because they're an efficient money making machine
DeleteThey willbe back IF and WHEN they can make money. Which is as it should be.
DeleteAh yes because others flying to the region are doing it at a loss. How unfortunate that only FR should make money flying to the ex-YU, someone please inform all the other airlines.
DeleteOthers in the region are literally tiny compared to FR. Even wizz is small as an operation. Gosh some people are bizarre in their views
Delete^ Of course only your opinions and views are valid.
DeleteRegardless Anon 11.12 Ryanair failed to beat all of them so...
Delete'Beat them' lol i mean what a strange world some people live in. Hilarious
DeleteYes, that is quite correct my Anon friend. FR tried to attack various airlines in the region, including Greece, and they failed to dominate in all those markets. Just look at Greece where they scaled back their operations in ATH and basically their presence in SKG collapsed to just serving STN.
DeleteThey'll be back.
DeleteLol sure
DeleteThey will. Been around longer than some countries have. They'll be back
DeleteSarajevo - Karlsruhe is now Agadir
ReplyDeleteSarajevo - Stockholm is now Rabat
Podgorica - Krakow is now Rabat
Podgorica - Wroclaw is now Marrakesh
Etc etc
lol sure
Delete@09:30 laugh all you want, but the comment is correct.
Deleteif you cannot make Memmingen work, not worth discussing further
Deletetremendous success nema sta
ReplyDeleteEpic results for Ryanair in Serbia, Macedonia and Slovenia ! 0% market share
ReplyDeleteTragic for the consumers of those countries. Thats the sad part.
DeleteHow is it tragic when all three markets are growing without FR?
DeleteYeah, such a tragedy that I am not able to fly with Ryanair...
Deleteyet millions of people across Europe do it
DeleteWell mostly in Western Europe and a few places in the east. In many regions people have chosen their competition.
DeleteGive me a break with mythomania. I don’t care what and which plane I fly until it’s safe, affordable and on time. I don’t give which company is that.
DeleteIt is very safe when you get sucked out of a window and the airline plays dead about it.
DeleteAnon 11.56 you might not but millions of people in ex YU and Greece don't share your opinion, you are in the minority...obviously.
DeleteGreat. I seriously hope they pay you to fly with them because such an impassioned defence of all things Ryanair on a Sunday morning, I hope is not voluntary
DeleteAnon 12:00 don't be so sure about Greek passengers . Ryanair had 5,8% market share at ATH airport . Don't know about the rest of Greek airports . Meaning almost 2 million passengers in 2025 .
DeleteFR expected a lot more than almost 2 million before they were forced to scale back their initial expansion. Their network today is much more modest than it was some years ago.
DeleteWhat happened to them in Posgorica? They used to be one of the busiest airlines there and now just one route
ReplyDeleteI think they increased their fees
Deletedoes anyone know load factor winter DBV-STN-DBV on FR? is a/c still based there in winter for it?
ReplyDeletenot based there
DeleteThey will not be missed.
ReplyDeleteThey will be missed.
DeleteZnam da će svi da skoče, ali nama realno više odgovaraju gubitci ( jer te pare završavaju manje više u našim džepovima) koje prave CTN i MNE - nego dividenda RYR..
ReplyDeleteDa ne kažem, da je sto puta lakše zakukati pres izbore i dobiti budžetske pare ako si aerodromsko preduzeće - nego raditi turnaround za 25min..
Apart from tiny airlines like Lumiwings, anyone is better than Ryanair and Wizz Air.
ReplyDeleteRyanair je rekao za Wizz da neće opstati u regiji sa tim povećanjima i da će propasti,gledamo kako Ryanair postaje slab u regiji a ne Wizz.
ReplyDeleteThey will be missed.
ReplyDeletegrab MBX again :)
ReplyDelete