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| Government backs down from proposed fee hike |
Wizz Air will continue flying to Tuzla Airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Canton government cancelled earlier plans to hike fees for the budget airline. In a statement, the Prime Minister of the Tuzla Canton, Bahrija Umihanić, said, “After reviewing the potential negative side effects of terminating our cooperation, such as job cuts and other benefits, we call on Wizz Air to continue implementing plans on establishing a base at Tuzla Airport”. According to earlier reports, the low cost airline is considering launching up to seven new routes from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s third largest city. “Opening a base at Tuzla Airport would see an increase in business activity as a result of additional flights, destinations and passengers”, the government says.
Wizz Air warmly welcomed the government’s decision to back down on its previous insistence to increase fees. Janos Bartis, Wizz Air’s Airport Development Manager, says the airline is delighted with the decision, adding that the no frills airline will revisit plans to open a base in the city. “We will continue to negotiate and cooperate with the government over the opening of a base at Tuzla Airport, leading to the creation of new jobs, which is one of the priorities of the Tuzla Canton government”, Mr. Bartis says.
The government’s change in heart comes only a week after its Minister for Transport, Mustafa Isabegović, said, “When an airport has its own market, we can say we want this and that, do you want to work with us or not. We want Tuzla Airport to become a profitable business, as early as next year”. The government was looking at a fivefold increase in fees and taxes for the airline. Wizz Air is the only carrier operating scheduled flights to Tuzla Airport. If it is successful in establishing a base in the city, Tuzla will become its third in the former Yugoslavia after Belgrade and Skopje and the first low cost airline to also call Bosnia and Herzegovina its home.
thank god they didn't chase them out!
ReplyDeleteGood news from Tuzla. A base would be amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Tuzla, happy to see it work, finally!
ReplyDeleteWonder how opening a base in Tuzla will affect their bases in BEG and SKP? Or will it affect them at all
ReplyDeleteI think only BEG will be affected
DeleteYes as soon as they reduced Belgrade they increased Tuzla. I think they see it as a substitute. Plus a lot of people from western Serbia also use this Wizz air service from Tuzla.
DeleteIn July Belgrade airport handled 539.823 passengers which represents a 25% increase.
ReplyDeleteSo far this year, Belgrade handled 2.528.387 passengers, 30% growth.
This is also the first time the airport handled more than 500.000 passengers in a single month. :D
Aircraft movements up 18%, pax numbers 25% = more full planes!
DeleteCargo is also doing very good. I guess we have THY Cargo to thank for that.
DeleteOT - Baggage tractor crashes through Zagreb terminal:
ReplyDeletehttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8uYp6mkuyC4/U-sk6leY7JI/AAAAAAAANl4/nEamtUKvKtU/s1600/1.jpg
This looks quite bad, i wonder how much they're gonna need to fix the damage. Are there any cancelled flights?
You have that news on the left hand side since this monring. No flights were cancelled
Deletehttp://exyuaviation.blogspot.com/p/wednesday-august-13-2014-baggage.html
OT: Qantas opened sales office in Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that soon JU will join Oneworld, as that alliance has extremely low presence in our region, and the fact that AB remains their member despite Etihad partial takeover.
What would be the benefit for Air Serbia (and Etihad) for JU to join Oneworld?
DeleteWizzAir will leave Belgrade for Tuzla.
ReplyDeleteThat path is clear - no competition in Tuzla but still not far from the Serbian market.
The only problem i see is Easyjet increasing its presence in Belgrade.
But that will probably not happen.
i think easyjet is doing very good in beg. hope soon to see flights to ham and cdg..
ReplyDeleteIn May and June their average loadfactor from/to Rome was at 41%. This is not surprising given the fact that there is so much capacity between the two cities. As far as Geneva goes, that's a different story.
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