Wizz Air heads from Belgrade to Cyprus
Wizz Air has announced it will launch flights from its Belgrade base to Larnaca in Cyprus next summer season. The airline will inaugurate two weekly flights between the two cities starting March 30. Services will operate every Wednesday and Sunday with tickets already on sale. The low cost airline will compete directly against Air Serbia on the route. However, the two airlines will likely have a different customer base with Wizz Air putting greater emphasis on point-to-point travellers and holiday makers while Air Serbia will focus on transit passengers.
Larnaca becomes Wizz Air’s eleventh destination to be served out of Belgrade with further flight details available here. The low cost airline will also resume seasonal services from the Serbian capital to Sandefjord in Norway next summer. This year, Wizz Air based its second aircraft in Belgrade and launched new flights to Beauvais as well as seasonal services to the Greek islands and Sandefjord. Compared to last year, Wizz Air increased its flight offer from Belgrade by 58%, with 41 weekly departures from the city during the summer.
Wizz Air’s announcement tops of a big week for Belgrade Airport. During the weekend TAP Portugal announced the launch of its flights from Lisbon next summer. On Monday B&H Airlines inaugurated four weekly flights from Sarajevo, which will increase to daily next summer season. Yesterday, with a 100% load factor and 169 passengers on board, Swiss International Air Lines launched services from Geneva. The return service saw 93 passengers. Swiss will be joined by easyJet and Etihad Regional which will launch flights between the two cities next year. In addition, Vueling Airlines will inaugurate flights from Barcelona while Air Serbia will launch services to Budapest, Kiev, Sofia, Varna, Beirut and Warsaw next summer season as well. The airport estimates it will see passenger growth of up to 20% this December.
Good news for BEG.
ReplyDelete4 million passengers next year.
Really awesome! Im wondering which new airlines will inreduce flights from BEG next year. Any idea?
DeleteWell, from the top of my head: Etihad Regional, Vueling and TAP. These are the ones so far.
DeleteI mean the ones which still didnt anounce flights to beg. I think Air baltic might return soon.
DeleteHmm I don't think airBaltic will return to Belgrade any time soon. They managed to post a profit this year and it will primarily go to repaying their debt to the Latvian government. They are doing this just in case the EU Commission rules that they have to return the aid they go a year ago. In addition to that they have recently launched Abu Dhabi flights with their new A319 (leased from CSA) and they will be launching Edinburgh flights in 2014. They have not announced any new, major expansions. Especially not after downsizing their network.
DeleteWell, we could add Aegean to that list as they will be launching Belgrade flights after their merger with Olympic Air will be completed. Another possibility is Hellenic from Thessaloniki or the Greek islands but only as charter flights.
It is amazing how things change...
ReplyDeleteFew years ago I was really excited about W6 starting BEG-LTN...
My thoughts were- does JAT's sandwich and warm apple juice realy cost £100...and the answer was obvious, it should not.
Two flights later with change to insane departure time from BEG, knee pain following the worst seat I ever enountered with adding up return to good forsaken place called Luton...I really prefer JU's sandwich and warm apple juice...(and £100 difference...it is really not true when you add it up all).
Good luck to W6...(I hope they change)...bring back BA (wishful thinking) or at least U2!
I guess the £5 sandwich + juice of your own choice was too much for you.
DeleteI get you though - When somebody else is paying the tickets, I'd prefer the top comfort without any additional costs myself.
FYI, LGW / LTN / LHR / STN commute time depends on where you're headed to in London. On average it's the same.
That's the same thing with Vueling. I am not super tall (184) but their seats felt really uncomfortable and I couldn't sit normally unless I wanted to destroy my knees. Thank god I was flying from Barcelona to Madrid so the flight was about 45 minutes long, I don't want to think how nice it must be to fly on them from Belgrade- especially on that nasty night flight.
DeleteSpeaking of uncomfortable fights for me KLM is the worst when it comes for seating. I'm a quite tall guy 205 cm and the seats on KLM where so tight and 7 hours (JFK - AMS) of knee pain I will never forget.
Delete@Anon December 20, 2013 at 10:18 AM
DeleteAfter fifteen years living in London, I am pretty sure I can judge the commute time all around M25 and it is the same indeed (bar LCY which actually can be used to get to BEG).
Still, LTN which has the most appalling connection, rude staff, charges £2 for fluids bags, does not have train station serving it but you have to use bus, has massive queues just coming off M1 if you are taking cab...is really not my preferred way of traveling (have a look on Skytrax reviews about that place).
So...overall, return ticket on train to LTN (or cab), plus hand luggage charged by W6 makes that £5 sandwich actually rather expensive compared to Oyster on LU to T4 at LHR and no extra charges indeed!
Maybe some airlines will return like Air France or KLM or even British Airways. We could see Iberia if Air Serbia doesn't start first with Madrid. There is also a possibility in which I personally belive has the least chances is that a bigger African carrier may come to Belgrade like Ethiopian Airlines or Royal Air Morocco.
DeleteBut we will see.
Time is the best judge.
Personally I find the Wizzair LTN-BEG service quite good. The seats are not always so tight - it depends which machine is flying on the day and you may well be lucky to get away with another half-inch legroom on some aircraft. Also, during winter season (excluding holidays) the tickets can be found at rock-bottom rate if you have Wizz club discount, watch out for sale days (further 20% off), book in advance, travel light and skip the add-on services, so it's useful for frequent short hops between the two cities, dirty weekend breaks, family visits etc. The (Serbian) crew are always well presented and unobtrusively professional. And Luton is no more inaccesible than any other London airport save for LCY, there's a very comfortable and frequent coach service running from and to Victoria, if you've no checked luggage it's sufficient to turn up at the security 40 minutes before the flight (which usually leaves and arrives with very little delay). I've been using the service A LOT in the last couple of years without a single hitch and intent to continue to do so indefinitely. As for the sandwich, I bring my own - far better than any catering company's overpriced yet thin layer of next to nothing.
DeleteI wish Wizzair every success in branching out yet more business from Belgrade and look forward to the third aircraft being stationed there one day.
I was actually surprised when I head that Wizz Air pays its cabin crew €1.000 per month. That's actually not bad, that's what Jat used to pay their own.
Deleteot: swiss sent a321 this morning to beg :)
ReplyDeleteToday Swiss even sent two of their A321 to Belgrade.
DeleteMy take is that they'll upgauge to A321s to BEG for the next week (if they can). I've just looked it up on their website and the only connections until next Friday are through GVA on Tue and Thu (and given high prices for those tickets, I'd say GVA flights are pretty full, too). JU flights in the next week seem almost sold out, too (one way ZRH-BEG Sunday night is 50K dinars in economy)...
DeleteJoyeux Noel a tous!
That's really good! Long are gone the days when we used to have one daily flight with Swiss and one daily flight with Jat. :)
DeleteAdmin did not mention Cairo among new JU destinations. I wonder if it is just a mistake or this route is being intentionally left out or it is still questionable...?
ReplyDeleteIt''s being intentionally left out at this point.
DeleteWill they still present their summer timetable by the end of this week?
DeleteI just did a small, random fare check for the summer and this is what I found:
ReplyDeleteBelgrade-Larnaca
Wizz Air: €180
Air Serbia: €276
Air Serbia's fare is not that bad and if they keep these prices they will manage to compete very well. Serbs in Cyprus are predominantly wealthy business people with families. Most of them know the two ladies working for JU in Nicosia. They are very kind and, for example, every Friday when Larnaca-Belgrade is on sale they will automatically hold the fare for some frequent travellers and then call them to check if they are interested in buying it. I think their office there was one of the most efficient, no wonder they kept it open all these years.
On the other hand, Wizz Air could attract not only Serbian tourists heading to Cyprus but Cypriots interested in going to Serbia. A friend of mine who works for the biggest Cypriot tour operator told me that they have been trying for years to organize Cypriot religious groups to visit Serbian monasteries but they could never get a decent fare from Jat which they used to give them €450 per person. Even if we remove these religious groups from the equation the market is still rather big as it's not that hard to sell a holiday in Serbia to a Cypriot. Serbia is very popular there and most of the locals consider Serbs as brothers. Not to mention that Belgrade's night life is known there as well.
Another potential market is western Romania which lost its flights to Larnaca. Currently there are 15.000 Romanians living in Cyprus and the island is well connected to all parts of Romania but the western areas. I remember seeing Romanians from Timisoara on old Jat flights.
I really hope these flights will put an end to Serbs flying on either Pegasus or Turkish Airlines from the north, which is illegal. Wizz Air can find a market in Cyprus, it's not even that hard. If they do it right then they could even keep flight throughout winter time.
did I tell you that yesterday morning was not start OK, and it will make huge delays at evening.
ReplyDeletecancellation
SKP
more than 1 hour delay
DUS 4:10
ARN 1:45
ATH 1:30
OTP 1:10
LHR 1:10
45-60 minutes delay
TXL
SKG
30-45 minutes delay
AUH
VIE
MPX
ZRH
15-30 minutes delay
FCO
VIE
AMS
SJJ
FRA
TLV
ZRH
CDG
SVO
on time and up to 15 minutes delay
AMS
TGD
ZRH
LJU
STR
CPH
BNX
TGD
TIV
and today morning starts even worst:
LCA 4:00 hours delay in arrivals
and 10 flights with more than 30 minutes delay in departures (few even more than 1 hour delay)
Petrol pump, catering, deicing, or some other problems this time?
I suppose you do not live in Belgrade because if you did then you would have know how thick the fog was, especially after 20.30.
DeleteThis morning even Austrian Airlines cancelled its flight to Belgrade while Tarom, Montenegro Airlines and Swiss were delayed.
Plus, most of the morning departures had a delay between 20 and 40 minutes which is not that bad.
Oh for heavens sake not again. But in order for you to top spamming. SKP- AIRPORT IS CLOSED! DUS – aircraft rotation delay, ARN – waiting for 50 transit passengers, ATH – aircraft rotation delay, OTP – baggage processing, LHR – delay at immigration and customs, TXL – waiting for mechanics in order to push back, SKG – waiting for over 30 transit passengers, AUH – a member of the crew was sick, VIE – waiting for 5 transit passengers, MXP – waiting for 10 transit passengers, ZRH – waiting for 12 transit passengers, SJJ – baggage processing, TLV – catering delay, TIV – baggae processing and so on . BEG is experiencing unprecedented traffc these few days due to a large amunt of flights rerouted to BEG and it can’t cope. So stop spamming every single topic.
DeleteThis time the reason is Santa Claus! In fact, he was behind it all the time.
DeleteHe delays and cancels all these flights so that you can have some happiness in life. Merry Xmas :)
Wow 50 transit passengers to Stockholm! That's very good. Do you know where they are from?
DeleteI don't know where they came from but 46 pax were delayed incoming so offcourse the flight to ARN is going to wait for them. If I remember correctly ex-Yu said most flights are being delayed because of late transit passengers and now that I got the chance to see the reasons for yesterday's delays it makes complete sense.
DeleteOf course. Thanks anyway. That should shut up the obnoxious anonymous from above.
DeleteOf course you can say it is about transit passengers what you can not influence (usually air companies say so even when they are totally guilty). But to have 107 transit passengers not in BEG but somewhere else to connect to BEG flights what makes 5 flights delay? Yes sure! And which connection JU has via ARN? Code-share (which one?), or they just show mercy to those who, for example, travel with Norwegian from USA? Very expensive mercy! :-)
DeleteBut even so, you can not put in danger all transit passengers via BEG or those who must come on time (car transportation, meetings, obligations), so hundreds of passengers just because of 5 (VIE), 10 (MXP) or 12 (ZRH) transit passengers that are late. That is stupid, and I don’t thing management of Air Serbia is stupid, at list they should not be as they are top World professional. Or that is just excuse.
Also excuses:
Rotation delay DUS and ATH - that is not excuse, that's fact. Question is why rotation delays?
LHR – delay at immigration and customs – give me a brake, that is every day thing for LHR, so you will be delay every day from LHR, and for sure thousands of flights are not waiting in LHR because of every day problems with immigration. LHR can not afford planes to wait (98% of LHR slots are occupied), not a companies can afford that.
Waiting for mechanics in order to push back TXL – you have bad station manager and support service in TXL (isn’t that your “partner” from Etihad alliance, called Air Berlin, who is JU future)
Baggage processing SJJ, OTP and TIV, catering delay TLV – again bad station manager and support service
...and to have bad station manager and support service is quilt of company. Change them! First time it is their quilt, after that it is your quilt if you ignore that kind of behavior.
Conclusion: Air Serbia – Joke About Time x 10
Ok we get it you dislike them. What do you want exactly? An award?
DeleteI think that he doesn't want an award or anything, I think he is just schizophrenic.
DeleteATH and DUS are both routes operated by EY crew. EY crew do multiple day layovers in BEG operating for 2 airlines - Etihad and Air Serbia, to which they will have 2 sets of uniforms. BEG-DUS/ATH are layover destinations for the crew. Rotation delays would be the extra time needed to rotate crew,
DeleteIn BEG, who knows when was the last time they recieved this amount of departures and arrivals at once, it is a big change to suddenly happen. Not an excuse, but BEG will need to quickly upgrade its facilities and fast. The whole renovation process is taking far too long for a terminal of that size!
Actually, according to the unions, Etihad will be taking over BEG, so...
Delete@ Anonymous 1:58
DeleteI totally agree with you.. But its very funny how they give us everydays explanations about delays which are more or less the same.
Great news!!!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I believe this is the only way for Air Serbia to reduce high prices to Larnaca. They had monopoly for so many years and it is time for change!
They should focus on transit flights to and from Larnaca via Belgrade and not to overcharge tickets.
Second, they should serially consider changing flight hours! I know so many passengers flying via Athens, Vienna, Frankfurt or Munich to Belgrade, because it is impossible to take families (specially children) on these red eye flights!
The number of people flying via other cities in Europe is not that big primarily because it's very expensive. If you are lucky, you can find a ticket with Aegean for €380. Most of the time its between €400 and €450. On top of everything you have to take the 05.30 departure which is horrible if you live anywhere else but Larnaca (which most people do).
DeleteI do agree with you that the fare were astronomical and that the arrival of Wizz Air will help. They should do what old Jat used to do. In summer, introduce one weekly flight in the morning (09.40) for the locals. It was rather popular last year, I think the average loadfactor was close to 70%.
So Belgrade is definitely passing the 3.5 million mark. If they record a 20% increase in passenger numbers then they will handle 3.545.739 up from 3.363.919 in 2012.
ReplyDeleteDecember numbers should climb to 269.842 from 224.869.
Zbog približavanja božićnih i novogodišnjih praznika na beogradskom aerodromu „Nikola Tesla“ se značajno uvećava broj aviooperacija i putnika. Prema nezvaničnim podacima za prvih 20 dana decembra porast broja putnika na aerodromu u Beogradu je 20%.
ReplyDeleteInteresantno je i da je Air Serbia u ovom periodu zabeležila porast broja putnika od 25% i broj operacija 50%. Skoro na svim letovima našeg nacionalnog prevoznika zabeležno je preko 100 putnika.
Mnogi drugi letovi kojima je Beograd odredište beleže izuzetnu popunjenost. Juče su avioni bili krcati. Iz Dortmunda je doputovalo 174 putnika, iz Geteborga 156, iz Moskve 149, iz Dubaija 164, iz Ciriha 168 i iz Ženeve 169. U toku jučerašnjeg dana na beogradskom aerodromu je zabeleženo više od 10.000 putnika, što se može smatrati sjajnim rezultatom.
I dalje jednak trend povečanja broja operacije za duplo nego putnika, što znači da je LF bitno manji nego što je bio kod Jata, a gubici su veći.
DeleteFirst of all, we do not know if JU's losses have been increased, that's pure speculation. Their cost structure has been reduced, not to mention that fuel costs have been brought under control. These costs have been the greatest problem for all carriers around the world. In other words, even if their loadfactor has been reduced, the same could apply for their losses.
DeleteAlso, Air Serbia's fares have not been cheaper than Jat's which means that the income was probably not pathetic.
All in all, these results do not have to be bad. Air Serbia is slowly turning into an airline with a considerable number of transit passengers. It takes time for this model to take off. 25% passenger growth is really good. We can not realistically expect them to record a 110% passenger growth just because they increased their operations by 50%.
I, šta čemo sad? Da ih gasimo več narednog jutra ili da sačekamo do kraja meseca? Ja sam čuo da na njihovim letovima zapravo uopče nema putnika, to su sve crash test dummies kojima su stavljene perike da izgledaju kao ljudi. Inače je poznato da nijedan prevoznik nikada nije morao da se bori za tržište i vremenom povečava LF. Svako ko je ikada otvorio neku liniju je več prvog dana ostvario 80% LF. Ako mu to nije uspelo, drugog dana je liniju zatvorio. Tako funkcioniraju avio prevoznici danas.
DeleteLet the pathetic bastard keep hating as long as he wants... It takes minimum six months to a year to have the slightest idea what these big changes will bring result wise to Air Serbia. Not everything is perfect at the beginning, but JU is definitely heading to the right direction, and results should be seen and analyzed this time next year.
Deletep.s. By taking a deeper look into writing style and few characteristic words used, I suspect that those daily bad comments about JU, signed as anonymous as written by nobody but Purger. Just compare the structure of the posts he signs, and the other ones bashing JU signed as anonymous - I strongly suspect it is the same person. And while that is perfectly fine, it is rather sad to be such a hypocrite.
There were 73 passengers on flydubai's flight to Skopje. That's really bad.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know? Were they further bussed to Skopje or...?
DeleteAll the flight that diverted to Belgrade and where passengers were bused to their final destination, do they count as BEG passengers?
ReplyDeleteif they left the plane, which they did, then yes
DeleteA small OT: does anybody know how is Moskovia doing on its Moscow-Sarajevo route? They are quite expensive, as I can see on Skyscanner. in most of the cases, Air Serbia is the best way to go: it costs around 220-230 euros (most of the time) to go via Belgrade, while Wiena connection is around 300e. Direct flights with Moskovia are around 360e. Air Serbia offers nice connections with only 45 of waiting in Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteSo any info?
45 minutes sorry *
DeleteWell, I suppose they are not doing that well if they decided to, once again, postpone their launch.
DeleteObviously not very well http://exyuaviation.blogspot.com/p/moskovia-cancels-sarajevo-launch.html
DeleteWow haha, I always forget to take a look at the news flash. I did not know it supposed to begin today, I thought it already started at the begining of December. Thanks :)
DeleteMaybe some airlines will return like Air France or KLM or even British Airways. We could see Iberia if Air Serbia doesn't start first with Madrid. There is also a possibility in which I personally belive has the least chances is that a bigger African carrier may come to Belgrade like Ethiopian Airlines or Royal Air Morocco.
ReplyDeleteBut we will see.
Time is the best judge.
Ethiopian is very much devoted to Star Alliance and if they were to launch any new flights in this region then it will most likely be Vienna. If you pay close attention, they are not such an adventurous airline. Most of their network includes destinations which have a considerable amount of O&D. Naturally, this can change as their fleet grow, Before they become a serious African carrier they better fix their terminal building in ADD.
DeleteThe only African carrier that could launch flights to Belgrade is Egypt Air. Unfortunately I do not see it happening before the situation calms down in the country.
I'm sick of WizzAir
ReplyDeleteIs Cyprus a member of the EU?
DeleteOT:
ReplyDeletewww.ekapija.com/website/en/page/244137/AG-Real-Estate-Large-cargo-center-at-airport-Konstantin-Veliki-on-the-doorstep
The article is from 4 years ago
Delete