Wizz Air, the largest low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe announced, at a press conference on Friday, that it would enter the Serbian market by opening 2 new routes from Belgrade, as early as the 2010 summer season. The initial network will include services to Dortmund and London Luton from June 12 and July 24 respectively.Route / Frequency / Starting date
Dortmund / 3 times per week / June 12
London Luton / 3 times per week / July 24
György Abrán, Chief Commercial Officer of Wizz Air said, “We are delighted to extend our service offering to Serbian passengers, who can now enjoy our low fares coupled with excellent travel experience all along their journey. Wizz Air has been proving its commitment to the region by opening new bases and routes and growing the fleet of our brand new Airbus A320 airplanes. The Serbian market has good development potential and we are looking forward to exploit it. We look forward to working together with all parties to address the regulatory constraints and cost of logistics in order to unleash the full growth potential Wizz could deliver”.
Velimir Radosavljević, the General Manager of Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade said, “Considering that the strategic orientation for Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is to recognise and meet the demands of our users, whether passengers or airlines, it is my pleasure to announce that we have succeeded to bring to Serbia yet another low cost airline, to the benefit of the Serbian citizens. At the same time, and co-operating with the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development and the Tourist Organization of Serbia, we would like to have as many foreign tourists as possible. It is our wish for Belgrade and Serbia to be recognized as a destination offering a new picture of hospitality, and able to meet the wishes and needs of different categories of our foreign guests”
Great news! The wait is over. Schedule to London could be better though. I'm eager to see the reaction from JAT and BA.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering, how come there is so much interest in Belgrade by foreign airlines? I mean there is far more than for Sofia or Zagreb, what is attracting them so much?
ReplyDeleteFinally...great news!
ReplyDeleteWe hope to see much more of their flights in coming years, especially to Italy, Scandinavia and Benelux.(Milan/Bergamo, for example, with great connections with other LCC from Milan to nearly everywhere in Europe).
Number of new flights from 25th Oct. 2009 (launched flights incl.):
ReplyDelete1.Slovenia:
LJU 1
2.Croatia:
ZAG 5
ZAD 2
SPU 4
DBV 6
3.FYR of Macedonia:
OHD 1
SKP 1
4.B&H:
SJJ 1 (?)
5.Serbia:
INI 1
BEG 10 (+1? Spanair)
PRN 6
6.Montenegro:
TIV 1
It seems like Belgrade is the first, Dubrovnik the second and Zagreb the third...
But, dont forget about flights to/from CRO already started, before winter 09/10...
Becouse Belgrade has great scope to incrise number of passengers.If you compare Belgrade lets say with simmilar city like Bucuresti.Both of them 2 milion residents .Bucuresti with two airports has 6.5 milion passengers per year compare to Belgrades only 2.3 milion.
ReplyDeleteOtopeni had 4,4 million compared to Belgrade and it's 2,3. That is not so much different knowing that Romania is a country of 26 million people and it's a member of the EU. Definetly Belgrade can be a good hub for the Balkans!
ReplyDeleteI think they are really stupid for not starting the London flights to coincide with EXIT Festival, those flights would have been 100% full
ReplyDelete@JU500 Split has much more then 4 new flights. Except others, only Easyjet is opening 6 new routes to Split!
ReplyDeleteTo correct your listing
ZAG 5 new OK.
SPU 10 new routes + 6 new charter routes
DBV 12 new routes (no new charters)
ZAD 4 new routes
"But, dont forget about flights to/from CRO already started, before winter 09/10..." - my own quote...few posts above ;)
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know whether a direct low budget flight Belgrade - Berlin is expected at some point?
ReplyDelete@ Zagreb:
ReplyDeleteThe fact (whether you in other parts of ex-Yugoslavia like it or not) is that Belgrade is seen as the capital of the region.
One only has to go to Zagreb once to realise it's a small city that will never really be that important to the region. Belgrade, on the other hand, has HUGE potential.
Prague as almost exactly the same population as Belgrade and it's airport caters for over 12million pax/year.
Belgrade can be seen as capital of the Balkan region. But face it: ZAG and LJU have never been and will never be part of that region. LJU with Vienna as a capital of the region - historical and cultural - so a natural hub for Slovenia is VIE. With the EU BEG is so so fare away in all respects of present day contemporary Slovenia and Slovenians.
ReplyDeleteGo Belgrade, go! :)
ReplyDeleteI don't wanna make a fuss outta this, but I'm so excited that Belgrade is finally getting new airlines with new flights... and I don't wanna cause some competition... I'm glad that I'll soon enjoy seeing Nikola Tesla airport all full of all different kinds of aircrafts... that's all... ;)
Belgrade has a huge potential and within 10 years there will be at least 7-8mil. passangers at Nikola T airport.on a year basis.The airport must expand within 5 years.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia-like it or not you look like us,talk like us-how can you feel that austrians are closer to you then we are,Then i could say as you that istanbul are closer to me...wake up-Belgrade is the capital of the region.
^
ReplyDeleteCorrect. I don't want to offend anyone, but you only have to look at the statistics. Slovenians are the #1 visitors to Belgrade out of all nationalities in terms of overnight visits for 2009. Why? I guess a desire to re-connect with what you're familiar/comfortable/culturally similar to? You were a known quantity within Yugoslavia - within the EU you're nothing, and I bet 90% of people in the EU don't know the difference between Slovenia and Slovakia.
Sorry.
Luton Airport is very popular as it is not very busy(busy is but definitely not as Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick!!) and especialy easy to access from North London(where huge Serbian comunity lives!) and lets hope Belgarde will become a popular weekend holiday destination!
ReplyDeleteGo Belgrade go! :-))
And as someone has said I think that Wizzair shoud start before EXIT, those flight would definitely be packed, Exit is very popular among the Brits!
ReplyDeleteis there anynews how NIKI is doing on Vienna-Belgrade flights? what is the load?
ReplyDeleteFormer Yu consisted of how many republics 4 or 6?- was it 4 ok but 6 incl slo and cro-you are belonging to the region culturally,ethnicity and geogr.In Eu or not you like us are peanuts for them-travelling between the f.repyublics will show thats the case-we are nearest you have in all aspects-you just have to admit it and not fool around the big boss Germany
ReplyDeleteFly Niki loads are doing exceptionally well, especially considering it's a new route and it's in the middle of the quietest time of the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's simple as I've said a million times:
short haul travel is a commodity product, and lowest/cheapest will always win. SIMPLE.
@ anonymous
ReplyDeletethe niki flights havnt been that much of a success. Malev on the other hand...wow. their success is very impressive and very quickly are going from daily to 11 p/w!
---
BEG has much potential but the progress is going too slow. It has taken far too long in this city to bring infrastructure to standard (roads, rail, new bridges...), funding for projects are being misused...this just to begin with. Instead of BEG being a strategical point in the Balkans and JAT profiting off it, BEG sees 2,5 million passengers atm while JAT barely passes the 1 milion mark, way below its capacity!
Things will change in our favour slowly, Jat will expand and renew the fleet and a lot of other carriers is starting to fly or increase their flights to Beg.
ReplyDeleteI think that within 10 years Beg will have number of passengers as Bud.I WOULD ALSO RECOMEND NIKOLA T AIRPORT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE AIRPORT VERY SOON...as someone above me vrote, it does not cost so much to refurbish and buy some new airportbriges.
@ JATBEGMEL:
ReplyDeleteWhat would you know about FlyNiki loads? Their load factors have been very good for a new route in the middle of winter season.
As for Malev, the fact they're increasing their flights doesn't mean the route is a success. The tickets are ridiculously expensive.
To Jatbegmel.
ReplyDeleteYes the prices with Malev are very high 270euros and more but if you buy the tickets at least 30 days in advance you can still find some for 100 euros, Malev will extend this offer to the 15 May and after 15 September what i have heard but you never know because you can not book anything with Malev after 28 March yet.The cheapest to fly from Beg towards Europe/within is with Lufthansa and Austrian-buy the tickets 30 days at least in advance and you get the tickets for 190-210 Euros (returnticket)
^
ReplyDeleteCSA via Prague is also very cheap (relative to the others) to many destinations also, in some cases €160-€170.
Once again, once Wizz have established a base in BG, the days of €170 fares will be long gone.
Yes of course if you book months ahead otherwise it will be the same story as usual 200-300 euros to travel to London,Paris.
ReplyDeleteI wish that Serbia could establish their own lowcost carrier like Centavia wanted, maybe airpink has something in their minds.