Wizz Air plans Skopje expansion
The low cost airline Wizz Air, which began flights from London Luton to Skopje only 10 days ago, is recording strong passenger figures and vows to expand its services from the Macedonian capital. From September 20 the airline will launch flights from Treviso in Italy to Skopje with more routes to be added during the 2011/2012 winter season. The airline has already sold some 8.250 one way tickets from Skopje to London. Furthermore, it expects to handle approximately 25.000 passengers on flights from Skopje to London and Treviso by the end of the year.Gyorgy Abran, Wizz Air’s Chief Commercial Officer, said at a press conference in Skopje that this was only the beginning of the airline’s presence on the Macedonian market as the no frills carrier plans to introduce new routes soon. “This is a very good start and we plan to introduce more routes, but we will first wait and see how our current offer performs”, Abran told the press.
Wizz Air has big ambitions for the EX-YU region and it plans to base a second aircraft in Belgrade by the end of the year. The airline also serves Croatia on a seasonal summer basis.
To view flight details for the upcoming Treviso - Skopje service, click here.
wizzair = this balkans SAS some people go on about
ReplyDeleteThat cake looks mighty crappy! :P
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear, I knew they would be doing great. Wish they linked smaller airport in EX YU with some of their destinations (OSI, INI, BNX, RJK, MBX, etc)
ReplyDeleteI am more concerned about the fact that the tickets were in one way. Is that began of mass migration in London, or they will come back with another airline. Because as far as I know only Wizz fly London-Skopje route.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous
I think it would definitely fly if they would have subsidies such as Montenegro Airlines in Nis 4 example.
I wouldn't say it is a mass migration, as they are really tough at the Borders and from EX yu non EU countries only Croata doesn't need visa for the UK> Yes you' re right, Wizz is the only one on direct LON-SKP route, as I said several times, I knew this route would work because so many macedonians live in London and England.
ReplyDeleteWell...slightly off topic (and I ranted about this before) but one way with Wizz for me on LTN-BEG since I am not even beggining to think about 5.30 departure from BEG on return leg.
ReplyDeleteBring back BA!
im sure they mean 8000 tickets in general for both directions
ReplyDeleteoff topic,
ReplyDeleteAlitalia added 5 new weekly frequencies, starting in July ending in September. It is on beg.aero
Also, ok so everyone including the big airlines saw that Chicago - Beograd flights would be full, and everyone heres and sees how many people from USA and also europe would love these flights. If only a Star Alliance airline could start BEG - ANYWHERE IN N. AMERICA! ?
to Beograd*
ReplyDelete@Aleks
ReplyDeleteAlitalia made a minor schedule change, there are still 7 weekly flights FCO-BEG-FCO... look at the flight numbers and youll see it ;)
btw - What happened to Spanairs charters from Mallorca?
plus, Nouvelair once again dropped BEG from MIR.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh, thats so stupid how it shows that there will be 5 extra flights weekly, until you look at the flight numbers. Thanks JU500 ;)
ReplyDeleteand the Mallorca flights, seems like they are dropped. They are not at all on the destination list at beg.aero
thats right, how many weekly flights did they have again to BEG?
@ Peter from Sydney
ReplyDeleteI agree. That cake looks such a mess :) I hope it tastes better than it looks :)
Well, I think Wizz's success in Macedonia shouldn't be of a surprise as the country doesn't really have a national carrier and people can finally have some reliable air transportation to major European destination. Good luck to Wizz and let's hope they offer more flights across ex YU.
@Aleks
ReplyDeleteUnited could easily do it from their Chicago hub. Even once a week would likely be successful.
@ Aleks Nikolic
ReplyDeleteHeyy...you still in BEG or you are already back to Cleveland? I and I am sure many others here were very happy we had someone like you who shared the news on the Chicago-Zagreb-Belgrade flight from the first hand. Too bad it didn't realize, but let's hope it's not all lost. I hope Delta or United spot the opportunity soon and give us a try.
Cheers
@ E
ReplyDeleteMajor US carriers won't fly anywhere once a week. If they don't have enough passengers for at least 3-4 times a week they are not going to devote an airplane to that service. Too bad ZAG and BEG are not in B757's range as it would be a perfect airplane type to test the route. Maybe with new A320 NEO or the Dreamliner this might be more viable.
If Wizz Air is gonna base a second airbus in BEG, who is doing their Maintenance there?
ReplyDeleteAs Daily-, Weekly- checks, Brake and Wheel replacement, etc....
@ E
ReplyDeleteexactly, ORD-BEG once weekly, people would connect from all over USA and Canada to ORD and then continue to BEG. that would be amazing
@ Sam
I am in my house in Serbia.... we came to Beograd with Lufthansa via Frankfurt. It was nice and everything but man, connecting sucks! I still am praying on intercontinental flights to BEG.
Yes and if anyone has any questions from the Air Plus experience I will answer. We travelled 5 days all together from Cleveland, me my family and friends , to finally get to BEG. One man was still at the hotel when we left, and the next day left to Zagreb via Paris. And we flew on Lufthansa from Frankfurt , 8 hour wait as the JAT flight 2 hours after we landed was full. I saw at ORD, all the Serbs there were going via Munich.
@ Sam
you are right, I don't think major US carriers fly anywhere once weekly. Well honestly, I believe United could do 3 weekly flights, 4 maybe. (767 aircraft) If only you saw, at Chicago when I came (like 4-5 hours before departure) , the Lufthansa section was ALL people traveling to Beograd! When I was there, maybe there was 15 families and more individual people. I talked to them and most lived in Chicago and were not from the AirPlus flight. Which means just alone from Chicago there were many there. I asked this German lady who was measuring our luggage about this, and she said every day there are maybe 20-30 families traveling to Beograd from ORD in summer season. (rough estimate)
Ok so, you have 20-30 families daily (about 100 people) from ORD alone, now add connecting flights from Cleveland, New York, Toronto, LA, many other cities Serbs would connect at ORD. You easily have once daily flight ORD- BEG with a UA 767 , summer season, I would say rough estimate 80% capacity, on some times it would be full.
@ last Anonymous
I heard that instead of them sending the planes to Budapest or other places for maintenance, they might open a maintenance center in Beograd. That would be very good! But again nothing of this is 100% true, just rumours
Lufthansa likes this, as it fills it flights to Munich and Frankfurt every day. I was a witness, and me and my friends were laughing that it was all Serbs at check in. On the Munich flights , maybe 30 serbian people. Then later one 10 through Frankfurt. And earlier that day many Serbs left as well on a Lufthansa flight. I think the time is coming as more and more Serbs are moving to USA and traveling back to Serbia (my friends who were with me for example) , for direct flights. USA - BEOGRAD! once again
ReplyDeleteIs it just me...or every topic has to end up with Belgrade to US flights discussion...or how many flight per day Belgrade has. Isn't easier to have a separate blogs for: Belgrade Airport and JAT Fan Club?
ReplyDeleteI flew Wizzair Ukraine. It was really awesome. Looking forward to my Memmingem flight in 10 days :)
ReplyDelete@ Doot:
ReplyDeleteWizz Air = SAS?!
Please tell me that's a tongue in cheek comment. Hahahaha.
No, i dont know if you noticed but a lot has happened lately regarding international flights to Beograd, or not enough* in that matter. We put it on this blog post, because for today everyone looks at the comments for this one. How many times on Beograd or JAT posts have people put off topics about other things happening in the ex yu? Thats right, many.
ReplyDelete"Is it just me...or every topic has to end up with Belgrade to US flights discussion...or how many flight per day Belgrade has. Isn't easier to have a separate blogs for: Belgrade Airport and JAT Fan Club?"
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, no one prevents you from discussing anything, this is a public blog and it doesn't say "Forbidden discussion on anything besides the topic itself". If you have anything to post, post it, no one is stopping you.
Also, no one is stopping you to make a separate Macedonia blog (since Croatia already has it).
@ PRAGuc
ReplyDeletei admire you very much haha
Fragmentation is exactly what is holding our region down both in the aviation industry and in business in general.
ReplyDeleteFor the anonymous person that is complaining, I would love to hear more about Wizz Air and Macedonia so if you have any info, please share.
I, for one, have only flown Wizz Air once from VIE to BCN and they seemed like a very decent airline. Definitely much better than Ryan.
@AleksNikolicUSA
ReplyDelete"Ok so, you have 20-30 families daily (about 100 people) from ORD alone, now add connecting flights from Cleveland, New York, Toronto, LA, many other cities Serbs would connect at ORD."
I live in the NY area and sorry but I REFUSE to travel "backwards". :P
I am not starting any flights so I cannot tell you exactly what is best haha but the main reason flights will be starting from chicago more likely is because there is a larger diaspora there. I live in Cleveland, last year and this year I flew Cleveland - Chicago (backwards) about an hour and then continued to Europe.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't even do it if there was direct flights to Beograd from USA? Maybe it would be smarter for an airline to fly from JFK to Beograd, and then passengers can connect there plus there is for sure a large diaspora there.
Aleks shut the fuck up.... you are going on mostly erveryone nerves... In every news you must write something about beg. make your own block and write what ever u want but stop spaming!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat news for skopje i hope they will start flying from ohrid too and soon add more destinations to germany or other western european contries
@hi,
ReplyDeleteIf you want to insult people then at least know your terminology, it's called a blog not a block. It's better for him to write about Belgrade than for your to write pointless rants through which you come across as an uneducated moron.
Not to mention that this is a free public place where everyone can express their opinion.
Maybe the reason why Belgrade always comes up in discussions is because it's the airport with most things going on.
If you have some news from the region then share it with us. Don't just come here and bitch about other people.
As for this, yeah great that they are having success. However I would not dream of them opening up a base in Skopje. It's one thing to have success on one route but it's a completely different thing to have an aircraft based there.
Where on earth would they send their A320 with 174 seats? Even Copenhagen which is one of the more popular destinations out of SKP has about 65 passengers per day.
@ hi
ReplyDeleteanybody else thinks i piss em off? let me know. when something happens, people write about it... you know, when they write "off topic"... anyways great for Skoplje, but when something happens somewhere w/ ex-yu aviation, people write about it. Air Plus people at Rockford actually thanked me very much and over the phone as well for sticking up for them through the internet, because of bull-shitters like you. Take your garbage elsewhere please. Thanks.
you dont see be bitching when people post off topics on belgrades posts, about skoplje, ljubljana, etc.
@ last Anonymous
yes, but there are not many people on that blog. everyone posts things on this one because there are hundreds of visitors all the time.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Nemjee
ReplyDeleteyou are correct. listen Hi, there are more things that happen with belgrade in proportion to other items of the ex-yu. im sorry but this is like a fact, not nationalism. they will soon implement the EU flying standards and that is expected to attract more airlines, plus they are hoping for transatlantic flights which will occur soon, and also they have the largest control center in the balkans i believe built there not too long ago.
do anyone know what happens with MAT Airways? Every flight is canceld, since 3-4 weeks...
ReplyDeleteyoutube video of rockford airport, june 17th
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJuWN8jUw8k
ok guys, this complaints are somewhat correct. I am macedonian and I am interested in issues on macedonian aviation, so I predominantly open the posts about macedonia.
ReplyDeleteEVERY and each time I am happy to see "oh nice, 38 comments on this issue. people are probably sharing further information on this particular news".
and EVERY and each time I get this massive disappointment. after reading 3 comments on skopje, it starts with "hey guys I heard that BEG has...or BEG will...or BEG is...".....I have to tell you, it's a HUGE disappointment :-)
so please have some respect that people in a macedonian news post would like to read about macedonian news. no offence against BEG, but please do not bother people with "off topic" things.
off topic: lets talk about football! you thing real madrid will make it next year? hey, it's a free blog....;)