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| Maribor Airport turns to Wizz Air for low cost flights |
Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport is in talks with low cost airline Wizz Air over potential flights from Slovenia’s second largest city. The newly appointed Managing Director of Maribor Airport, Ladimir Brolih, says the two sides are locked in talks over potential services but adds further analysis and discussions are required. Northern Germany and Scandinavia have been identified as underserved markets from Slovenia. Wizz Air previously planned to launch additional flights to Ljubljana, complementing its existing services from Charleroi and London Luton. However, despite talks with Ljubljana Airport in late 2013 and early 2014, the planned flights never materialised. Wizz Air was the fourth busiest carrier operating out of Ljubljana in 2014, handling just under 150.000 passengers.
Wizz Air says it is continuously looking at opportunities to expand its network of destinations in the region. It says, “Wizz Air is committed to achieving the lowest cost base in the region and airport choice has a crucial impact. This is why Wizz Air operates to a mix of primary, secondary and regional airports, which provide low costs that reflect in price and provide friendly and fast customer service”. The no frills carrier boasts three bases in the former Yugoslavia - Skopje, Tuzla and Belgrade - and maintains services to Ljubljana, Ohrid and Niš, as well as seasonal summer flights to Split. Furthermore, the airline has held talks with Sarajevo, Pristina and Podgorica airports over the past year over potential services. However, Wizz has conceded that all three must first lower their fees before the airline could consider flying there. Furthermore, its operations in Croatia have been limited as a result of pricing. CEO Jozsef Varadi recently told EX-YU Aviation News, “Croatia is very expensive. If Zagreb Airport becomes more reasonable we will certainly consider that airport as an opportunity for expanding our network but this is not yet the case”.
Maribor Airport is looking to attract new carriers in an attempt to boost passenger numbers. In addition to Wizz Air, the airport has entered talks with Express Airways, which has a flight school at the airport and offers panoramic flights over Slovenia, as well as seasonal commercial services from Brač and Split in Croatia to Germany and Sweden. It currently operates its flights with a leased ATR72-500 aircraft. Maribor has suggested for the airline to launch scheduled services from the city. Furthermore, Adria Airways is expected to announce by the end of the month whether it will extend its seasonal service from Maribor to London Southend Airport into the winter season. Mr Brolih says that, following the decision, the two sides will discuss plans for Adria to base an aircraft at the airport in an attempt to minimise costs. Maribor Airport handled 17.568 passengers last year, the majority of which were flown on charter flights. During the first half of 2015, the airport welcomed 5.289 travellers, up 41% on the same period last year.
This is great news for us. Fingers crossed they start flights.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteVeseli Štajerc
I just can't understand why they don't add destinations from Ljubljana. Are they so expensive?
ReplyDeleteI think Fraport increased fees at LJU. That's how JP got the idea to create a base in Maribor so their planes vwould not sit in LJU.
DeleteThe reason why LJU and other airports aren't willing to lower their price for LCCs is because these airports understand that their limiting factor is actually their Origin/Destination (O/D) passenger demand.
DeleteO/D passenger demand is the main resource of airports, and on a very basic level, that is their product.
If they allow Wizz to transport all their passenger while paying low airport fees, the airport will earn less money than if they allow full service carriers to transport their passengers while paying higher fees.
So to sum it up, LJU would rather have 1.5 million passengers while collecting €20 per head from legacy carriers than having 3 million passengers at €5 per head on LCCs. These figures are made up for the example.
Well said
DeleteOk, I understand, but why for instance not allowing wizz to get two other destinations that are not served from Ljubljana? Better collect 5 per head on the two new destinations then nothing. Or not?
DeleteAnonymousAugust 25, 2015 at 10:29 AM
DeleteBecause all others will follow with demand for lower prices.
Yeah, that's the trick. LJU would want Wizz to exclusively carry passengers whom would otherwise not travel or would use competing airports.
DeleteBut this is very difficult. Wizz only seems willing to skim off some passengers from already popular routes. From LJU, they fly to London and Brussels, directly competing with Adria.
I think a way to solve this issue is similar to what Skopje is doing, and only offer discounts on new route launches to unserved destinations.
Primary EU airports would have HUGE problems if they offered Wizz preferential pricing over other carriers. This simply proves that the LCC model is limited at best, to secondary or underserved airports - hence the reason why they avoid major hubs
DeleteYeah, right, that's why Ryanair is opening literally day by day more and more flights to and from main/primary airports
DeleteSure they are - but not at specially reduced rates which is what Wizz Air is asking for ... that only goes to prove how limited their business model is when compared to Ryanair.
Delete"LCC model is limited at best, to secondary or underserved airports-hence the reason why they avoid major hubs" is what An. 3:46 PM wrote and I responded to it with the FR example. Otherwise, I fully agree that Wizz has limited business model, I think they won't be able to spread as much as their new orders are, and I think they'll last for 5-6 years more, in the best scenario. And Ryanair is the ONLY real and successful LCC in Europe at the moment, although some "experts" use to spit on them here on daily basis
DeleteTo add to the above comments, just wait until some of the airports in ex-yu that Wizz is currently flying to, start to raise their fees ... that will only hasten their departure as evidenced in BEG. Then Ryanair and perhaps easyjet, will fill some of the void. Wizz Air's business model is as brittle as a china doll ...
DeleteMajko moja, sve sami znalci i gatare.
DeleteEvo vam malo da procitate, mozda vam nesto i udje u glavu.
http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/who-has-the-right-model-for-european-aviation-pan-european-airlines-lead-but-models-vary-225831
When will Wizz offer solution for following cases:
Delete1: London-Madrid or Frankfurt-London or Paris-Madrid
(major cities in west EU to major cities in west EU)
2: Belgrade to Trondhheim, Norway (connecting flights to small destinations)
3: full business class offer for company-paid travel
4: long haul flights to USA or Australia
5: summer charters to Antalya or Tunis?
Wizz model covers only for a tiny percenage of overall aviation market. Wake me up when Wizz realizes they have to change model to compete in other segments.
Brilliant analysis Einstein, now go back to sleep
DeleteNo because the airport does collect full fees, the passenger need to fly through major european hubs, and the other thing is that ground operations and passenger handling has a lot more work with an LLC with their 20-30min turnarounds. So bottom line LJU also collects 17€ fees for pax flying to BCN, DUS, HAM, OSL, SVX, LED, SOF and so on.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Wizz decides to fly from MBX. I think that opprotunity is great for both, Wizz and MBX. Better for them also zo change their services from LJU to Maribor. It will be cheaper for them and LF will be really good.
ReplyDeleteVeseli Štajerc
Does anyone have numbers for Belgrade -Tirana/Zagreb flights? Load factor, number of pax on a random flight ect.? :)
ReplyDeleteJU stats for 2015 untill 10thAUG : ZAG 441 flights, 38k passengers, lf slightly below 60%. TIA 171 flights, 16k passengers, lf 69,5%.
DeleteZAG je bio preko 75 kao i TIA ;)
DeleteINN-NS
Quoted figures are official. It's true that during summer months load factor rises. In July Zagreb LF was 73%, while for Tirana was 80%.
DeleteШта се палиш клинац... видиш да је човек рекао да је то просек за целу годину.
DeleteTIA ide jako dobro, ZAG nekim danima ima katastrofa punjenje, licno leteo nas 20-tak na vecernjem letu u povratku, dok je u odlasku bio pun avion...
DeleteZagreb je dobro popunjen na onim letovima koji se mogu dobro povezati s mrežom Air Serbie, a puno lošiji na onim letovima koji "hvataju" puno manje letova Air Serbie za dalje poput večernjeg leta koji spominje Anon at 2:12 PM. Očito da Air Serbia mora poraditi na jačanju ponoćnog vala letova jer između ZAG i BEG nema dovoljno point to point putnika.
DeleteThere goes the story about Croatian people not flying on Air Serbia planes.
DeleteNe palim se nego je bio veci za ovaj period Godpodine.
DeleteINN-NS
@Anon at 3:15 PM: Zar treba itko od Hrvata uopće letjeti Air Serbiom da bi ista bila uspješna na liniji BEG-ZAG? Pa Hrvatska ima više od 12 000 000 turista koji ostvare više od 65 000 000 noćenja. Ni jedna kompanija koja leti za Hrvatsku se ne oslanja na domaće stanovništvo nego na turiste.
DeleteHow can the numbers be "official" when the company doesn't release load factor statistics by route ?
DeletePalis se zato sto ti pricas za letnju sezonu a ovaj covek za celu godinu. Kontas, dve razlicite stvari. Tako u buduce Gospodine Lukic, ne pali se vec mucni mozgom, ako ga uopste imas.
DeleteNema ga.
DeleteOvo je domaci udarac za CTN i ADR .
ReplyDeleteAko se ostvari ovo svakako nije dobro .
INN-NS
Isto kao i u Nisu! ovo je odlicna vest za stanovnistvo i potrosace.
DeleteNaj ima tudi Adria konkurenco... saj prav.
DeleteVeseli Štajerc
Actually, INI is much worse because it seriously affected JU's loads to CPH and to a lesser extent ZRH.
DeleteNe to nije odlicna vest to je katastrofa .
DeleteINN-NS
A macko, zasto je katastrofa? Sada narod moze jeftinije da leti kao sto moze sa W6 jeftinije da leti iz Beograda.
DeletePa sta njega briga za narod i sto narod moze jeftinije da leti kad moze taj isti narod da ne leti nego samo da placa iz budzeta da njegova najmilija i jedina prevozi za dzabalesku strance preko BEG-a a on to predstavlja kao nesto najpozeljnije i najbolje. I jos dobije i sendvic za to.
DeleteINI had 12000+ pax since beginning of WIzz flights. I think they will end the year with around 30k pax which is great.
DeleteNe to steti Aerodromu naravno je bolje koristiti domace ili prave LCC kao U2
DeleteNe ja sam vece od Bota zaboravljate.
INN-NS
I am sure that this means a start of a new era for MBX. Good luck, make a story of success like Tuzla or Nis. Best hopes!
ReplyDeleteExclusive: first ASL cargo plane picture:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/1/5/6/2691651.jpg