Low cost carrier Eurowings is preparing for its first major expansion in the former Yugoslavia since 2017. The Lufthansa Group airline recently introduced year-round services between Berlin and Sarajevo and upgraded equipment on its seasonal operations to Mostar from both Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. The flights are now maintained by jet-engine Airbus A319/A320 aircraft instead of the Bombardier Dash 8 turboprops used last year. However, the carrier will soon base a jet in Pristina, enter the Macedonian market, as well as increase frequencies on existing routes. Over the years, the budget carrier has also said it has considered flights to Podgorica, Skopje, Ljubljana, Brač, Niš, as well as a base in Rijeka, however, these have so far not materialised.
Eurowings will station a 150-seat A319 jet in Pristina on June 18 and introduce flights to Basel and Geneva. The airport's Scheduling Manager, Driton Hyseni, recently announced the launch of flights from Vienna starting July. Frequencies on existing services will also be significantly increased with Dusseldorf to be served ten times per week, Stuttgart eight times, Munich six times per week, Basel, Geneva, Hamburg, Hanover and Cologne all twice per week, while the new Vienna service will run once per week. As a result, Eurowings will, for the first time, offer nonstop flights from Pristina to Switzerland and Austria, which remain among the airport's biggest markets.
Eurowings will introduce seasonal summer flights from Stuttgart and Dusseldorf to Ohrid, which will be maintained twice and once per week respectively. Operations from Stuttgart will commence on June 21 and run each Monday and Friday until September 9. On the other hand, the company will operate a total of seven flights between Dusseldorf and Ohrid over the summer, from July 17 until August 28, each Wednesday. The new services will mark Eurowings' entry onto the Macedonian market. Initially, the low cost airline planned to commence operations to Skopje in 2017, but the flights never materialised. “With more than forty million passengers carried last year, Eurowings has clearly become the strong number three among point-to-point airlines in Europe. We are consolidating this status by expanding our network in the direction of Eastern Europe", the airline said.
Won't the VIE-PRN flight be in direct competition with Austrian?
ReplyDeleteIt's just once per week. I highly doubt it will affect Austrian. Plus they have the same owner.
DeleteThe good thing is that they offer connecting flights through Lufthansa.
ReplyDeletePffft I am sorry but except PRN none of these are major news. Some are seasonal while all have low frequency. It's a fact, EW has failed to secure the ex-YU market which is handled by Wizz, easyJet and Ryanair. They are an unimportant carrier in most markets out there. I think soon Transavia will have a great presence than they do. lol
ReplyDeletewhen you see eurowings prices from PRN you feel sorry for them
DeleteI just checked some PRN-DUS flights for September and wow... €130 one way without luggage. Also flight departs at 05.25. Yikes.
DeleteWould have proffered Skopje instead of Ohrid.
ReplyDeleteI think Dusseldorf-Skopje would have worked out great.
DeleteShame they dropped those plans.
DeleteStill wondering how Eurowings gave up on the Macedonian market so easilya few years ago. They could have tried it and pulled out after some time if it didn't work out. I believe there was something else behind the scenes which caused the cancellation of Munich-Skopje.
DeleteLufthansa should have started flights to Skopje, not Eurowings!
DeleteEurowings could not make it work. How would Lufthansa?
DeleteLufthansa would handle much more connecting traffic.
DeleteThere is Austrian Airlines for that.
DeleteLufthansa already tried Skopje and failed in 2001. From Munich.
DeleteI wouldnt realy say thay Eurowings even tried. they cancelled few destinatitions to oppose the new 6daily Easy-Jets MUC-TXL flights back then.
DeleteA few years ago Eurowings completely overestimated the ex-Yu market and didn't realize how seasonal and poor it is.
DeleteThere are several flights offered by the Lufthansa-Group to SKP: Austrian and Swiss + Codeshare with Adria and Croatia. So why the hell MORE flights to SKP? OHD is the absolutely RIGHT choice!
DeleteBanja Luka should try and get some flights for them from Vienna.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Lauda would make more sense with FR expanding at BNX.
DeleteBecause EW offers much more choice with connecting flights so it would be a better option then Lauda but I do agree that it is more likely Lauda will start the flights.
DeleteOS is too expensive anyway for connections. BNX needs more point to point connections and Lauda is perfect for that. I mean look at EW prices, they are not cheap unless they have so much competition.
DeleteIt's interesting that this summer they will have no presence in BEG. They never really tried though.
ReplyDeleteTheir BEG presence was laughable. Flights from 1 destination for a month and a half. But then again BEG is really well connected to Germany. JU flies to Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. Lufthansa flies to Frankfurt and Munich, and Wizz flies to Dortmund, Hannover, Karlsruhe, Memmingen and Nuremberg.
DeleteThere is nothing left for them to launch from Germany. It is really well connected to BEG and there is no need for more German flights.
DeleteThey did about a decade ago but that was the same time as W6 entered the market. They never managed to compete with them for the market. Also today EW would not bring anything new to BEG.
DeleteThey could start flights from their base in Vienna to BEG.
DeleteBut why? That would hurt OS which is struggling at the moment, it's so rare to see anything larger than E95 this summer. I think AF and HV have really hurt them.
DeleteStruggling? They are constantly full. They also increased frequencies to Belgrade and are operating 20 weekly flights during peak summer.
DeleteEW simply can't bring anything new to the market at the moment.
DeletePeople might mock Air Serbia or belittle Wizz Air but the fact that Eurowings is keeping away from Serbia goes to show that these two are not such innocent or easy opponents.
DeleteExactly, they have their core markets which they stick to and defend religiously.
DeletePRN's numbers will probably skyrocket from this month onwards.
ReplyDeleteWon't it just replace Germania Flug?
DeleteYup, pretty much.
DeleteNo, others have already replaces them.
Delete^replaced
Deletelol who?
DeleteEurowings is using A319 jet on Mostar-Dusseldorf route and an A320 on Mostar- Stuttgart route, and you can check it out on a flight timetable or eurowings web check in if you want a proof.....also LF on Mostar-Stuttgart is crazy high, 98%
ReplyDeleteDo you know how the new Berlin-Sarajevo route is performing?
DeleteAs from what i've heard, Berlin-Sarajevo route is performing well, they have solid loads, 75-80%, depending on a flight not a great load but solid, i think it will get higher in the summer months of july and august
DeleteGreat. Thank you
DeleteThe Berlin-Sarajevo flights very good schedule too.
Delete98%? proof please
DeleteAnon 10:31
DeleteYour proof is that Mostar Stutgart flight are dold out almost to the end of Jly at this moment.......alsoI workat OMO and inbound flight from Stutgart had 180 pax and outbound flight had 173 pax on board, i am talking about flight that happened on 8th of june and it is almost the same situation with other previous flights from Stutgart, and another proof that LF is good is that Eurowings opted for A320 insteand of A319 which was announced previously, because demand from Stutgart is really big
Maybe they will consider opening Berlin-Pristina again like they did in Sarajevo. They used to fly it but cancelled it a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteLaunch Tuzla Flights!!!!
ReplyDeleteNot sure Wizz would allow it.
DeleteThey have a say?
DeleteIt would be good to end Tuzla's reliance on W6.
DeleteThey do have a say. Particularly when they are renegotiating their deal with Tuzla Airport which has met few conditions they were supposed to secure in the last deal.
DeleteAs they keep growing their fleet, we will definitely see more of them in ex-Yu. There are a lot of untapped opportunities in the region.
ReplyDeleteGood news :)
ReplyDeleteCan Eurowings launch flights from FRA? I am asking because they fly from MUC, but there are no them in FRA.
ReplyDeleteThey are starting some seasonal long haul from Frankfurt this winter but no short haul flights.
DeleteEurowings should open service FRA-PRN-FRA possibly, summer here wake up EW hurry.
DeleteAdria fail next is Eurowings.
Did not expect Eurowings' first base in ex-Yu to be Pristina. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteI always thought it would be Zagreb to be honest.
DeleteIn Pristina they are trying to make a move before Wizz Air opens a base.
DeleteEurowing's first base outside of Western Europe in fact. The first base outside Germany, Austria and Spain.
DeleteOnwards and upwards EW!
True good job PRN. And with 5 routes to PRN, I think Wizz Air will probably next.
DeleteWhy are you congratulating PRN? The only reason why EW came is because airport management was stubborn all these years to negorineg with real airlines and LCCs.
DeleteEurowings is a well established airline. Don't know what makes them "unreal".
Deletewell most of their flights are for AirPristina
DeleteBut they still sell them through their site.
DeleteYes but have you seen their prices? Crazy!
DeleteLet's also not forget they launched Nuremberg - Split earlier this summer.
ReplyDeleteAre the new Ohrid routes aimed at gastos, Albanians near the boarder or tourists?
ReplyDeleteAll of the above I would assume.
DeleteConsidering the seasonality and number of flights it is probably mostly for gastos.
Deletewrong, the timing (july-aug)is for leasure pax, but they will prob. be filled with many gastos
DeleteAre most of the gastos from the Ohrid area in Germany?
DeleteThe flights would be mainly for leisure. They will be flying from Stuttgart and Dusseldorf to Ohrid as well as to Tirana (they already fly from Stuttgart to Tirana). Also, they will be flying only for a short period of time (6 to 8 weeks).
DeleteThe new Eurowings flights will destroy Adria in Pristina.
ReplyDeleteI agree. They will probably take a hit. It will take away their German/Swiss bound passengers with more affordable prices and much better services. Also they offer connections onto Lufthansa flights through Germany.
DeleteDefinitely, Adria fail already! Now Eurowings should open FRA and MUC to PRN and earn money. Sorry to Adria
DeleteIs EW hiring local crew for flights from PRN?
ReplyDeleteYes
Deleteeurowings is having a second go at ExYu it seems
ReplyDeleteTheir first go involved mostly Croatia and nothing else.
DeleteEurowings must be the only LCC with Dash 8s.
ReplyDeleteFlybe has them.
DeleteThe Dash is a heritage of Air Berlin subsidiary LGW. It was needed to take over slots and the AOC. It will gradually be replaced with A320.
DeleteI find it very interesting that Eurowings didn't introduce any German routes to Pristina.
ReplyDeleteThey increased frequencies quite a lot to German cities.
DeleteThey've already covered the main German destinations.
DeleteThere really is nothing else they can add. They fly from Munich. They don't fly from Frankfurt in general so they won't add that one anytime soon.
DeleteEurowings is not so relevant in ex-Yu. It is Wizzland.
ReplyDeleteThat's not really true. Eurowings is one of the busiest airlines in Croatia, they are just about to open their first base in ex-Yu and they fly to CG, CRO, BiH and soon MKD too.
DeleteEasyjet is larger in Croatia and so are other LCCs in the other countries you mentioned. Prisrina is the exception.
DeleteWhen will VIE-PRN start?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the text it starts in July.
DeleteI know but I meant exact date
DeleteWould have this Pristina base happened if Germania was still around?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteThey should consider Nis.
ReplyDeleteNot anymore now that JU became the new sheriff in town.
DeleteThat's true no point anymore although they would have been more convinient because of LH connections.
DeleteYou can just use Swiss.
DeleteI hope the base in Pristina is successful and hopefully it encourages them to do more of the same in the region.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWe will see if the PRN base sticks.
Delete