Low cost carrier Wizz Air has begun restoring and growing frequencies out of its Belgrade base after it was forced to reduce operations due to an ongoing fleet issue, caused by the grounding of some fifty Airbus A320neo-family aircraft, which need to undergo inspections due to a manufacturing problem with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines. The carrier has scheduled an increase in frequencies on a dozen of its routes out of the Serbian capital for the remainder of the summer season. The airline says it is committed to protecting its market share. Wizz Air initially cut its Belgrade capacity by almost 25% this summer compared to last year and removed one of its four aircraft from the base.
Wizz Air will progressively restore frequencies from Belgrade from July, with the majority of the increases scheduled from September onwards. Starting mid-July, the budget carrier will increase frequencies to Nice from two to three weekly. In August, the airline will add an extra weekly service to Larnaca, for a total of four, while from September the route will grow to six weekly. Elsewhere, in September, Wizz Air will boost services to Abu Dhabi and Malta from three to four weekly, to Basel and Barcelona from five weekly to daily, to Beauvais from four weekly to daily, to Berlin from four to six weekly, to Dortmund from three to five weekly, and to Malmo from two to three weekly. Furthermore, from October, the carrier plans to maintain its Memmingen service ten times per week, up from daily.
As a result, frequencies on several of its Belgrade routes in September will surpass those maintained during the summer of 2023. Destinations with more frequencies than last year will include Berlin, Basel, Beauvais, Larnaca, London Luton, and Memmingen, while a number of others will have the same number of flights as last year. Wizz Air’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, said, “We are not seeing a softening of yields. Demand is very, very robust, so we are not seeing any significant weakening of markets, anywhere. We actually have scarcity of capacity versus demand for our services. This is pushing the yield up as opposed to [going] in the other direction. When you rip off the market ... I think you start creating a plateau. You can’t do that every year. I think this is the issue for many of the airlines. They have just gone up so much on pricing”.
Interesting what they say about market share. They were obviously feeling the competition in BEG.
ReplyDeleteIt is probably the reason why they are not rushing to go back to growth from SKP. No threat to their 50%+ passenger share.
DeleteYes, it is due to competition. The only cities they launched new routes from this summer are the ones where they are under threat from Ryanair or another competitor.
DeleteWell in June 2024 Wizz had less passengers than last year (I mean on company level). Was just announced.
Delete^ it's hardly a surprise when 50 of your planes are grounded.
DeleteWonderful news for travelers and BEG.
ReplyDeleteNot so good news for JU though.
Hopefully it will reduce ticket prices to stay competitive with W6.
W6 prices are nuts at the moment. Which even their CEO admits in this article.
DeleteBoth have crazy high prices from BEG at the moment probably due to demand. Wanted to buy 2 one way tickets BEG-BCN with JU in August and price of lowest fare without bags was over 1000 euros
DeleteThat is crazy expensive.
DeleteYes, just to make clear it is total price for two one way tickets. Around 1,100 euros. Wizz air for simmilar date with all included (baggage, seat selection) was sum total 450 euros
DeleteIt differs from route to route and day to day. You can buy tonight's ticket to Heraklion for less than 70 eur, two days from now it's double the price.
DeleteFriday tickets are always more expensive than Wednesday tickets ;)
DeleteJU might only have 5-10 seats left. High demand, high price. W6 might have 60 empty seats and happy to drop their fare to fill it up. Supply and demand work wonders.
DeleteWell 250 euros one way for Wizz Air isn't really cheap either.
DeleteI paid £9 one way Belgrade Luton on july 19th.
DeleteGood for you.
DeleteFinally. Let's hope next summmer some new destinations
ReplyDeleteOr this winter maybe :)
DeleteThere won't be new routes this winter. Next summer is possible.
DeleteIt looks like from September, 4th plane is returning back to BEG base.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLove it!
Deletewhat about puting back sundays flight INI-VIE?
ReplyDeleteSame for SKP-LUX...
DeleteDisappointing news for those who hoped and prayed for BEG's decline.
ReplyDeleteSelf proclaimed "Analitičar" loves this....
DeleteC'mon bro, you forgot to take your vitamins this morning.
DeleteThere will be a certain self proclaimed expert that won't be happy, I can guarantee you that.
DeleteOK, maybe him.
DeleteTake care about JU instead of BEG
DeleteWell, his predictions were wrong regarding JU and BEG. Again…
DeleteWere they ever right? 🤣
DeleteAnaliticar je na aparatima
DeleteThe engine issue really affected them a lot, I imagine their growth around Europe for the winter season will be strong, including in Belgrade. BEG managed to add passengers over the summer even with Wizz struggling, so I expect a very strong winter, especially because JU is starting new long-haul routes.
ReplyDeleteWinter will see some growth but not much. Next summer is when things should start moving again.
DeleteGreat!
ReplyDeleteAre we to have 10 mil pax this year now?
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think that is achievable this year.
DeleteBEG will probably add some 500,000 passengers compared to last year so 8.4 million is more likely.
DeleteAre you ANALiticar? So far growth is 17% and will go up in the second half. So no less than 9.5 mil, probably closer to 10mil.
DeleteNo, I'm just following the results on this site. Currently airport has some 320,000 pax more than last year and has been hovering around the 300,000 mark for 2 months. So I think half a million more passengers is realistic.
DeleteYou can't simply compare H1 and H2 as H2 has strong July and August.
DeleteWe can expect in BEG this year 9 mil pax.
Close to 10 million if not more
DeleteWould be fantastic if they added Vienna - Belgrade or Bratislava - Belgrade
ReplyDeleteLast time an airline tried that (Niki) they failed big time. Back then Austrian/Jat jointly slashed prices on the route and squeezed them out.
DeleteW6 compared to old Niki is a giant. Today neither OS or JU can afford to slash prices and go to a price war with them.
DeleteExactly. The market has developed so much in the meanwhile.
DeleteBratislava or Brno by some LCC would do great.
DeleteAnyone know their busiest route from Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteLondon, Memmingen, Basel probably, based on frequencies.
DeleteWhen they next plan to expand, what are the routes we could expect?
ReplyDeleteMore Spanish destinations would work.
DeleteSpain is crazy this year. All routes from BEG are doing extremely well.
DeleteAnd we have 5 of them!
DeleteThere is still 2 or 3 that could be added in my opinion.
DeleteWhich?
DeleteAlicante and Tenerife would be good additions and potentially Bilbao.
DeleteSevilla is a must
DeleteI whish they restored Charleroi.
DeleteTFS would be a nice addition somewhere down the line.
DeleteWhat about Helsinki? Used to be served by Air Serbia. Does Wizz Air even fly there?
Delete@10:16
DeleteAlicante is only 2 hours from Valencia. It is better to increase Valencia to 6x per week or daily.
Sevilla a must, Santa Cruz de Gran Canaria ( better than Tenerife) during winter season, literally to continue when Palma de Mallorca summer route stops beginning of october..This should do, and increase frequencies for Madrid is a must, its always top full...Also addition of 1x each for Valencia and Malaga would do really well..Alicante too close to Valencia, pointless..
DeleteSorry, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, my mistake..Santa Cruz is on Tenerife
Delete12:35 Wizz can not increase Valencia, since only Air Serbia have a route there. But W6 might start Alicante as a competition. Same as Seville, which is close to Malaga served only by JU.
DeleteAlso, Bilbao and Tenerife could be new hit destinations.
Helsinki is much needed, but JU didn't restore it after Covid, so it's hard to expect from LCC to have enough demand. It's more route for JU, when it have enough Embraers in the fleet.
Bratislava/Brno would be quite successful for W6.
Probably one or two more desintations in UK with 2/3 pw might do. Manchester/Dublin/Glasgow/Birmingham/Bristol
AirSerbia reported demand from/to Bergen, Norway. It's gasto route, but not sure if demand is high enough for LCC
FMM growing to 10x weekly and JU is still ignoring MUC...
ReplyDeleteNever understand why JU is to do that.
DeleteBecause they can't get the slots and LH planned BEG as triple daily. Even now they send mostly A319/320/321.
DeleteIt is no explanation.
DeleteIf LH wants to introduce third daily MUC flight BEG might "have the problems with slots" and you will see how, by pure magic, slots for JU in MUC will be found.
JU has to start daily to MUC, and then increase as demand grows. Don't wait for LH to go triple daily.
DeleteJU doesn't want to compete against LH in MUC.
DeleteWrong. JU doesn’t want to feed LH transfers
DeleteThe question is why?
DeleteThey compete against LH in FRA, against OS in VIE, against LX in ZRH, against KL in AMS, against A3 in ATH, but not against LH in MUC?
@09:43
DeleteIs JU flying to FRA to feed LH transfers?
No.
DeleteIs lacking MUC a legacy of old Lufthansa JAT cooperation and codeshare?
DeleteGood luck Wizz. Hope they add more destinations in the future.
ReplyDeleteWe desperately need more flights to LIS!
DeleteYes, I was about to say this too. Lisbon is on fire with Serbian tourists.
DeleteThey're afraid of Ryanair coming.
ReplyDeleteRyanair is not coming to BEG.
DeleteCool.
DeleteGood
DeletePitty...Ryanair would lower the prices of others..From the customer, passinger point of view, I would like anyone of those who are cheering for Ryan not to come to BEG to explain, what is their reason? Unless they are employees of competitor airline companies
DeleteFrom the customer point of view I would like to see only services between new city pairs, not third airline or additional frequency for existing city pair. By city pair I mean for example London-Belgrade that is already served as a city pair. Other than Dublin-Belgrade and just a couple of others, I don't see existing demand for many new city pairs between EU and Serbia. If there was, Wizz or Air Serbia would pick it up already.
DeleteAnd what about basic postulate in economy- bigger competition brings lower prices? I would love to see additional routes, but also would live to see lower prices for existing ones..New airline company, especially low cost, would bring both..
DeleteIt would not. At one point three competitors operated Geneva-Belgrade and it was simply unsustainable. Wizz is competing on existing Air Serbia routes (including nearby airports) but is not known recently for opening a bunch of completely new, unserved routes. There is a clear reason for that.
DeleteIf bigger competition was more important than number of destinations as you think, IST, FRA, LHR, CDG and others would cut down on number of destinations and focus on having dozens of airlines serving same key routes. That's not how it works.
In the end it's always selfish desire for some BEG passengers to have 5-6 airlines serve for example LON airports so someone could save 10 eur instead of opening new route to for example Manchester.
Well exactly what I'm saying- open new routes, but keep competing on ones that are highly popular..I'm sure Ryanair, for example, if decided to arrive, would bring a new bunch of routes that are unserved for now- especially lot in France, Italy, Scandinavia and Baltics, Magreb as well
DeleteI hope they come. Better and more reliable than Wizzair.
DeleteNo increases in SKP so far :(
ReplyDeleteThere will be dont worry. They are still announcing new routes and increasing frequencies.
DeleteThey just started to increase the flights from SKP. SKP-BER from 5 weekly to
Deletedaily as of September. The system is still updating the other routes.
Sixth plane is coming back as well. :)
DeleteIt has been a week now since they added those Berlin flights. Since then nothing.
DeletePrag-Beograd bi bio poželjan
ReplyDeleteHm, as to my point of view, this is not a network-wide growth...They are just coming back to the previous number of flights they've had, before the cut..Even some numbers are not retrieved- Rome, for example, last year was 7, winter was 6, then 5, now they are announcing only 4..Did they add any new route, in comparisson to last year? That would be growth, and not just returning where we were standing 1 year ago..
ReplyDeleteYes, but some routes are getting bigger frequencies than before cut.
DeleteAlso, you must have in mind slots. All these increases are on short notice. Wait for the winter season before making any conclusions.
Their president resigned with immediate effect.
ReplyDeleteWhose?
DeleteRobert Carey, Wizz Air's president resigned today. Although it's really not a big deal. It was just a ceremonial role so to speak.
DeleteHe was not the president of the board (which is a ceremonial role indeed) but the president (as in the second-in-command after the CEO).
DeleteAs a future cabin crew member for Wizz in the holding pool, does this mean they are going to activate us soon? Will they need more crew?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting that Wizz Air doesn't have planes for some airports and announces additional cuts while for others it does. It seems there are many things we don't know exactly here and that Wizz is misleading the public with engine problems
ReplyDeleteIts capacity is just below 2023. There is no mystery. They are still taking delivery of new aircraft on a monthly basis. They said themselves they are growing in cities where their market share and position is under threat.
DeleteWhen will we have Dortmund - Niš again?
ReplyDelete