Wizz Air’s Chief Corporate Officer, Owain Jones, noted, “This summer has demonstrated exactly what strong air connectivity delivers for Serbia. Hundreds of thousands of people have been able to travel affordably for holidays, to visit family and friends, to study, work and do business. It is important to remember that connectivity works both ways: Serbian passengers can travel abroad, while visitors coming to Serbia generate tourism revenue, supporting local hotels, restaurants, shops and businesses and helping to create jobs”. He added, “Connectivity is an economic asset and Serbia should protect it. A competitive aviation market gives consumers choice, keeps travel affordable, brings international visitors to Serbia and makes the country more attractive for business and investment.”
Addressing the regulatory changes, Mr Jones said, “Wizz Air believes the regulatory changes planned by the Serbian authorities could threaten the viability of its Belgrade base and ultimately lead to a reduction in the connectivity currently available to Serbian passengers. The potential consequences extend beyond Wizz Air itself. A reduction in the airline’s operations could mean fewer direct routes and flight frequencies, less consumer choice, potentially higher fares, fewer visitors to Serbia and jobs being put at risk, both within the airline itself and across the wider tourism and aviation sectors”.
Highlighting that over 25.000 people have signed a petition calling on the government to safeguard the carrier’s Belgrade base, the airline also noted, “Wizz Air remains committed to Serbia and will continue its dialogue with the Serbian authorities in an effort to find a solution that protects connectivity, consumer choice, jobs and the wider Serbian economy”.
Keep up the good work Wizz. Valued.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete700.000 passengers in three months says everything. There is obviously huge demand for Wizz Air in Serbia. It would be absurd to introduce rules that force them to reduce operations.
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteThat is why Air Serbia is the most likely culprit, no one besides them stands to profit from this decision.
DeleteWell JU will have a monopoly on many routes where W6 can't operate W pattern flights. First one to go will be BVA. I can't wait to pay €600 to fly to Paris on a A319 with those beautiful worn out cabins.
DeleteSpain and Italy are safe thank God thanks to their bases there. A friend of mine flew to MAD on Saturday, the A321 was full to the last seat.
DeleteWhat a surprise that flights in August are full...
Delete^ That is 239 pax that JU couldn't serve at a reasonable price.
DeleteSo you are saying that the Belgrade-Madrid route can't accommodate two airlines? You are saying that Air Serbia is empty and that only Wizz Air has passengers? You are saying that Air Serbia should have the same or lower prices than Wizz Air? You are saying that Air Serbia is expensive on this route, without actually looking at Air Serbia average fares on this route? Well done. What a wealth of aviation knowledge in your single comment.
Delete^ what a patronising comment.
Deletehe really is saying all of that.
Delete@ anon 09:25
DeleteThere is also easyJet to CDG so you are safe for now.
Yes, poor Air Serbia grew from 2 to 6 pw, while Wizz air grew… what?
DeleteWell Wizz Air grew enough for Marek to be worried. I guess he didn't make JU Wizzier than Wizz.
DeleteI am no great fan of Wizz but competition is important. Without them Air Serbia would have much less pressure on fares, especially to Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia.
ReplyDeleteExactly! I wish Wizz would launch ATH, VIE, WAW.
DeleteAbsolutely. A friend of mine lives in Nis and he thought of going to Corfu with his gf.
DeleteIn the end he flew a few days ago with FR and the flight was 100% full.
He paid a last minute ticket with luggage €130 and just for fun I looked at JU for the same period. Return flight from BEG without luggage was €500! Air Serbia is such a scam.
Or maybe because the Air Serbia flight is also full and it is not an LCC like Ryanair. It means it cost pre passenger is much higher so its tickets are higher. You must learn the difference between a ULCC and a full fare airline.
DeleteAlso the taxes at Nis are just 3 euros. Now compare that to Belgrade.
DeleteCalling Air Serbia scam is way too harsh. Air Serbia is full-size carrier and cannot compare with Ryanair which is ultra-low-cost carrier.
DeleteMhmm so why not charge €300 if the one hour flight was full? Taxes in BEG are not that high especially for JU for them to charge over €500 for a one hour flight. This is such a scam and tha is why JU wants W6 gone so that they can bully us into flying with them.
DeleteIts not a scam. Its how pricing works mate. Calm down. JU is a solid airline, and so is wizz. We need them both.
DeleteThe service difference between ASL and the two LCCs is that JU is giving you a biscuit while the LCCs fly with new aircraft.
DeleteHe doesn't know what scam means nor does he know how aviation actually works. Let him be.
DeleteHahahahahahah so true Anon 09.23, so true. Thank you for a good laugh and hopefully some people get a reality check.
Delete@9.23 no it actually is not the only difference and it shows that you actually don't know what you are talking about, nor do you know what cost per passenger actually is.
DeleteSo what is this difference with JU that justifies them charging over €500 for a one hour return flight?
DeleteThere is a reason why LCCs are so popular in Serbia. JU tends to keep frequencies low so that fares end up being high, that is why they have so few destinations with double daily flights.
LCCs popular in Serbia? They have very low presence in Serbia and one of the lowest in the region.
DeleteNot when you look at the market size in Serbia. In BEG alone W6 carries 50% of O&D market, when you exclude transfers JU carries. That's a lot. But you are right, there is room for growth and that is why we shouldn't support W6's base closure.
Delete"W6 carries 50% of O&D market"
DeleteI am not saying that they don't but you actually don't have any proof.
"So what is this difference with JU that justifies them charging over €500 for a one hour return flight?"
DeleteThe difference is not about cookies but pricing model. Airlines charge what the market is willing to pay based on demand, remaining seat availability and competition on a particular route. A €500 fare is expensive, but it does not mean Air Serbia believes its onboard product is worth €500 more than Ryanair’s. Like I said, you thinking this shows a basic lack of aviation knowledge. It means that based on booking patterns and historic pricing it believes someone will pay that fare for the one seat left. Not to mention you are comparing a flight out of Belgrade to a flight out of Nis but that is a different story.
^ we a get that JU pricing model is very expressive for most locals and that is why they prefer LCCs. 🤷♂️
DeleteThe airline you seem to hate has over 100 destination from your capital city and handles millions of passengers per year. Just because you seem to hate them as you believe flying is a human right and airlines should be charities does not translate to everyone else thinking the same as you.
DeletePeople really cant shake off communism and embrace free market pricing. Airlines charge what they think they can get away with and succeed in that.
Delete@ anon 09:26
DeletePricing is driven by supply and demand. Market economy. Should I say for W6 scamming prices too? For example, BEG-MLA return flight October 24'th, one day is 8000+ RSD and the other day is 2000+ RSD. So tell me what's the difference between JU and W6. At the same time JU's price on the route remain unchanged.
Some people just can't accept the fact that other people choose to fly Wizz or FR.
DeleteThey just want to force everyone to fly only with the state owned airline and pay whatever ticket price they demand.
Anon 10.01 is spot on...
DeleteUntil we shake of communism from the national mentality, we just cant move on. It is a disease feeding off of common sense
JU wouldn't survive without government protectionism which comes from communism, it didn't survive thanks to market dynamics.
DeleteI'd add shake off the 90s also...
Delete14 million passengers since 2010 is a serious contribution to the Serbian market. Hopefully common sense prevails.
ReplyDeleteThe government should explain what exactly Serbia gains from this regulation. If the end result is fewer flights, higher fares and lost jobs, I don't see the benefit.
ReplyDeleteWizz is doing what every company would do - lobbying to protect its business model. There are always two sides to the story and I would like to hear CAD's detailed explanation as well.
DeleteYes but no one sane can understand the benefits of the other side.
DeleteGovernment is just making fair market game. Equalizing all players to the same rights. And trying to get taxes by turning non residental company into residential
DeleteYeah..right.
DeleteEven if Wizz keeps most routes by flying aircraft in from other bases, the schedule will probably become much less attractive. Early morning departures from Belgrade and late evening returns are one of the biggest advantages of having based aircraft.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Plus the signal it sends would be a negative one regarding the airports openness and desire to work with external airlines. What a horror show of move this is.
DeleteVINCI does not seem to care less.
DeleteSerbia spent years trying to attract airlines and improve connectivity and now we are potentially creating obstacles for one of the biggest operators at BEG. Very strange policy.
ReplyDeleteThey carried 700k passengers in just three months and someone thinks they can easily replace that capacity? Good luck.
ReplyDeleteJU clearly can not compete with W6 on CASK on the routes served by both.
ReplyDeleteSo kicking Wizz out is the only solution.
JU generally can't beat well run airlines, it's not just Wizz Air.
DeleteThey failed to beat KLM on BEG-AMS, Lufthansa on FRA-BEG and now we see them struggle on MUC-BEG. The other day Lufthansa sent the A321 while JU dispatched the ATR.
If Wizz Air is forced to shut their base then I see them going on full revenge mode on JU which will be good for the consumers.
I could also add Aegean and Austrian Airlines while LO forced them out of WAW.
Delete"They failed to beat". Have you thought that the market is large enough to support two airlines? Or in your attempt to belittle them you are actually advocating that there should be just one airline on all routes?
DeleteWhen people here were saying that JU does not see benefit in launching flights to Munich because the market is such that it won't be able to effectively compete against Lufthansa, most, and I am assuming you too, were screaming how they must launch Munich at any cost.
Beating Lufthansa was never an option since they have hundreds of connections through their hubs. Air Serbia is targeting P2P traffic and some connections through its network.
DeleteAnd therefore, JU has 13 weekly in summer and 10 weekly in winter to Frankfurt, which is quite good frequency.
So anon 9.17 and 9..18 believe only Air Serbia should fly all routes from Belgrade right? If there is competition and Air Serbia flies alongside them that is proof they are uncompetitive because they can't "beat" them. What a logic.
DeleteOf course it was an option to beat LH by taking away p2p. They needed to take enough of them for LH to reduce flights. Instead LH is boosting capacity this winter and W6 in FMM doesn't seem to be affected.
DeleteSeems like their MUC adventure isn't as successful, thank God they have the small Atr.
Well Anon 09.21 that is what JU wants, that is why they are trying to attack all of their competitors. They launched MUC to hit W6 and LH and so far they seem to struggle, that is why they are regularly sending their ATR.
DeleteThey launched Munich when Lufthansa suspended the route actually. So another lie.
DeleteWhich proves my point, they wanted to take over the market while LH couldn't respond.
DeleteIn the end LH hit them back and hit them hard. The market returned to LH for a good reason.
So people that are most pro-competition believe that Air Serbia must beat everyone. If there are more than two airline on any route, to them it is proof that Air Serbia is a failure.
DeleteMan, if you read those rubbish and know a little bit about aviation, you would see that it doesn't have any connection with reality. It's just pure hatred, not even worth an answer.
DeleteJU "failed" in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, while flying there with so many frequencies? How can you call that foolishness behind hatred?
^ cannot disagree more with the above.
DeleteLosing four based aircraft would be a major setback for Belgrade Airport.
ReplyDeleteJU is far more important for the Government than BEG and its traffic.
DeleteI honestly don't have good feeling about this anymore - it's basically September and the state is still turning a blind eye
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWell at least according to Wizz Air's statement they are in discussions with authorities, which was not the case until recently. So things have started to move.
DeleteWhy is Wizz, Ryanair, easyJet etc allowed to have bases in Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Morocco, the UK for flights to the EU but we want to ban them? What is so special about our market compared vwith all the others?
ReplyDeleteExactly
DeleteMaybe because those markets doesn’t have their own regulations, but borrowed ones from EU?
DeleteNo, they have their own regulation but they don't protect their national carrier.
DeleteIf Wizzair are forced to reduce operations they would do a Ryanair tactic from the old era a paint an aircraft 'bye bye..[insert airline here].
ReplyDeleteWhile I genuinely despise government involvement, I'd really like to see the facts in this case. Just as Wizz Air UK was formed to secure market access post-Brexit, this might be a similar case here.
ReplyDeleteI truly hope Wizz Air maintains its strong presence in Serbia. Over the past decade, they’ve brought immense value to our country and people, making travel affordable and giving many their very first chance to fly.
Getting an AOC for such a small number of planes is not worth it
ReplyDeleteWizz may say it won't withdraw, but without a base I doubt they can maintain anything close to the current network. You can't operate everything efficiently with aircraft coming from Budapest, Rome, Dortmund etc.
ReplyDelete700,000 is impressive. Wonder what load factor that translates to
ReplyDelete