easyJet has no interest to fly to Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia or Montenegro
Despite earlier announcements that easyJet was interested in commencing flights to Belgrade this year, the airline has recently said it will do no such thing. Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro will also miss out on easyJet flights. The low cost airline operates services to both Croatia and Slovenia and flies out of Priština. An easyJet spokesperson told the “Uvazduhu” portal that the airline had requested market statistics from the Serbian Aviation Directorate but that it will not be commencing flights to Belgrade.Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not received a single request from any airline in relation to new flights since visas were abolished for Bosnian passport holders on December 15. It was anticipated that more airlines would be interested in opening flights to Sarajevo with more people able to travel. Nevertheless, this will be good news for B&H Airlines which won’t, at least for now, see large scale competition currently experienced by its counterparts in Croatia and Serbia.
Yesterday, the Serbian Aviation Directorate announced that the country has begun enforcing the full European Union open sky policy, after taking the first step towards aviation market liberalisation in 2010. The move will make it easier for airlines to begin flights to the country.
One small correction, Easyjet flies to Serbia.
ReplyDeleteFlies to Serbia no used to fly to Serbia if you consider Kosovo as Serbian land.
ReplyDeleteRegardless the carrier doesn't serve Belgrade.
Ex- Croatia Easyjet flies currently Paris CDG - Zagreb, Paris and Rome to Split (along with many seasonal destinations ex Split) and from Rome and London Stansted to Dubrovnik (along with many seasonal destinations ex Dubrovnik)
Pristina sees Basel and Geneva services.
Suppose the Balkans should see more flights from Easyjet more so Montenegro and Macedonia since for one Macedonia has limited scheduled carriers and Montenegro is quite touristy during the summer season. Belgrade on the other hand will see Wizz services so LCC section is basically nearly covered. Same with Croatia!
If the airline sees destinations (anywhere really, not just exYU) as profitable, they will open them. Simply put, they obviously they don't at this stage.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say it may not change into the future...
EZY should really go for Basel-Skopje
ReplyDeletethere is a significant number of macedonians in Switzerland anyway, who
are all flying from ZRH on numerous of charter flights (plus those 4x on Swiss Edelweiss) which EZY can easily beat in terms of pricing .
too bad.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping for BEG-GVA this year.
Easyjet flies to Serbia, just not Belgrade (which is a shame). But I think this is because Wizz Air is gonna open its base in Belgrade, and Easyjet wants no concrete competition like that. Slovenia and Croatia are not bases for any low-cost carrier and thus they have less competition than BEG. But I'm sure that they will surely commence flights sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteFinally the Open-Sky policy is adopted. Now US flights can finally commence. I looked at the Chicago Consulate website, and they said that as soon as the agreement was implemented concrete talks could begin. Hopefully the same goes for NYC.
When are LCCs comming to Bosnia? :(
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteWhen the flights from Zagreb to USA start lol
Eh bas do djavola! Tako sam se nadao makar Zenevi.. :(
ReplyDeleteShame! Does anyone know what percentage of JAT passengers on LHR-BEG route are transfer passengers ?
ReplyDeleteIf the % is small, EZY should be able to squeeze them out completely given that JAT's lowest RT fare on the route is GBP 200. While Wizz is very popular (I fly with them always), Luton is not, particularly after Wizz changes the timetable in April. EZY from Gatwick would be great alternative, middle ground between Wizz and Jat, and Heathrow and Luton.
chelica2
Oh yeeeea, Easy is so afrait of Wizz. That is reason why they open Zagreb-London rout where in same time fly Croatia and Wizz. Result: Wizz put tail between legs and stop to fly on that route. Wizz serve Eastern Europe, and Easy target Central and Western Europe. You can not compare Easy and Wizz on any way. Trust me Wizz will be target of Ryan or Easy (or even Norwegian) in near future and it will disapeard like SkyEurope, Click, Go and others.
ReplyDeleteIt's could be an agreement between them to split the routes. Why compete ?
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought on mergers with EZY (rather than Ryan) acquiring WIZZ. Both operate Airbus fleet. Not sure how much overlap on routes, but cutting it would yield savings and enable redeploying planes elsewhere.
chelica2
Why would Wizz just drop dead if they seem to be booming?
ReplyDeleteMakes zero sense. You say we can't compare Easy or Ryan with Wizz yet you compare Wizz with SkyEurope and Click!
Strange~
LCC have limited market, and there are much too many companies in Europe. Analitics in Europe predict that there would be just 3 or maximum 4 LCC coumpanies in Europe in near future. Easy and Ryan are safe for now (if they will not have some huge disturbance inside). Biggest chance with them is on Norwegian. NTT stategie is on constant growing (buying and selling planes), and if they don't have more market to grow they will have to fight against each other. Now, tell me what you thing will Easy confront Ryan or they will find some easyer target?
ReplyDeleteOf course you can not compare SkyEurope and Wizz. SkyEurope had much better product. Till they work on market which was not intereste of begger coumpanies they didn't have problems. But whan Slovakia start to be interest of the biggest they just disapeared throw night. Yes Wizz have chance but in same time chance is on Norwegian, Germanwings, Vueling, Transavia, Jet2. In USA you have just 7 LCC, and in Europe 36. So many coumpanies just get out of bussines in Europe. Let's jut remember Virgin Express, Sterling, Volare, V bird, Centralwings, SkyEurope, FlyNordic, Go, flyglobespan, Click, and other 40 of them.
Think about it...
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteAnalysts said that? Are you sure? I mean a nation the size of Australia is currently home to 3 strong LCC, and Europe can only have the same amount? Come on!
Globalisation is aposlute trend and fact in all industries and even faster in air traffic.
ReplyDeleteIn Australia there are just 2 australian LCC: Virgin Blue i Jetstar Airways, while Tiger Australia is just subsidiary of Tiger Airways Holdings from Singapure(owner or coowners of 4 LCC in Asia and Australia). And now how many LCC get out of bussines in Australia:
- Compass Airlines
- East-West Airlines
- Impulse Airlines
- Sungold Airlines
Also you have to know that Australia have 7,6 km2, and Europe 10,1 km2. Australia is much, much less conected by other way of transportation then Europe, and their main cities are very far away from each other(in midle there are almost non important cities). That menas pepole trawell much more with planes.
Firstly East West Airlines wasn't low cost it was a regional carrier from the 90's! Sun Gold airlines never got off the ground, Compass ceased operations due to the high prices of tickets on Australian routes and again in the 90's! Impulse ceased operations because it was operating for Qantas and insider trading was found by the some Australian Government probe. Your list is in exact order as the list of LCC of Australia featured on Wikipedia, I guess you've just copied that out since you don't know that much about Australian aviation and its economics.
ReplyDeleteTiger Airways Australia is infact Australian! Doesn't matter who owns it.
Also alot of people in Australia choose to drive interstate and catch trains! Not to mention ships as well. So in summery aviation does face competiton in Australia from other forms of transport too, and Europe can be home to many LCC not just 3! That is un heard of.
Tiger Australia is one of the best example of globalisation. The same thing is Jetstar which open subsidiaries all around.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that you have less and less indipendent companies, and that trend is even worst in LCC.