Low cost carrier Wizz Air has prolonged its service suspension across most markets in the former Yugoslavia due to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. The carrier, which initially planned to restart services from the region on May 1 has now postponed most flights until mid-May or early June. Further changes remain possible. “Wizz Air sincerely apologises for the disruptions the travel ban could bring to customers and assures that the safety and well-being of its passengers and crew remains the airline’s top priority”, the company said in a statement.
| City | Resumption date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | May 15 / June 1 |
Flights from London Luton to resume in May, remaining operations restart on June 1
|
| Ljubljana | June 1 | - |
| Niš | May 15 | All destinations to resume except Malmo and Vienna, which will launch on June 1 |
| Podgorica | May 1 | New Vienna service launch pushed back from July 3 to July 20 |
| Pristina | June 1 | - |
| Sarajevo | May 3 | - |
| Skopje | May 17 | All destinations to resume except Malta, which will launch on June 2 |
| Split | June 1 | - |
| Ohrid | May 17 | - |
| Tuzla | June 1 | - |
All dates are subject to change and pending government approval
The airline remains upbeat on its post-corona growth prospects and said it “fully expects to maintain its plans to grow capacity by an average of 15% annually”. In previous weeks, Wizz Air has operated a number of repatriation and cargo-only flights. It ran services on behalf of the Macedonian government, bringing home over 600 Macedonian citizens from across Europe. Wizz Air’s Corporate Communications Manager, Paulina Gosk, said, “It is a great feeling to be able to help those who need to return to their families in this difficult period as we know that together we can face this pandemic more efficiently. Wizz Air is dedicated to its passengers and will remain so regardless of the context. The safety of our passengers and crew has always been Wizz Air’s number one priority and we remain true to this principle under any conditions, especially during these times”. The carrier also transported aid from Budapest to Banja Luka last week.
The airline remains upbeat on its post-corona growth prospects and said it “fully expects to maintain its plans to grow capacity by an average of 15% annually”. In previous weeks, Wizz Air has operated a number of repatriation and cargo-only flights. It ran services on behalf of the Macedonian government, bringing home over 600 Macedonian citizens from across Europe. Wizz Air’s Corporate Communications Manager, Paulina Gosk, said, “It is a great feeling to be able to help those who need to return to their families in this difficult period as we know that together we can face this pandemic more efficiently. Wizz Air is dedicated to its passengers and will remain so regardless of the context. The safety of our passengers and crew has always been Wizz Air’s number one priority and we remain true to this principle under any conditions, especially during these times”. The carrier also transported aid from Budapest to Banja Luka last week.
Wizz Air passengers with bookings affected by the flight ban will be automatically informed via e-mail, if the customers booked directly through Wizz Air’s website or via the airline’s mobile app. A total of 120% of the original fare will automatically be uploaded to the customer’s Wizz account, with the amount to be used in the next 24 months for the purchase of Wizz Air products and services. Passengers can also opt for a cash refund, which will take longer to complete, and will be informed about the necessary steps for a bank transfer or transfer to a bank card in a separate e-mail. In this case, customers will be eligible for 100% of the original fare. Passengers who made their bookings via travel agencies, including online travel agencies, should get in touch with the company from which they purchased their tickets.
Not good at all.
ReplyDeleteWith 30 aircraft to be returned to the lessors, it is more than questionable if those ops will come back at all.
DeleteI think it was 32 or 34! Let's see what happens in the end, they might just replace them with A321neo that are arriving. I think base in Kutaisi will be eventually cut.
DeleteIf there are any tangible commercial flights before October anywhere I'd be very surprised. 2020 and 2021 will be years of deep recession caused by this virus, the things won't be the same as they used to be. 2.5 million infected world wide, 165 000 dead, bare that thought.
DeleteAnd how many people die of cancer each year? Or AIDS? This is blown out of proportion. On a global scale 165.000 is not much, less than yearly number of suicides.Let that sink in.
DeleteCancer and AIDS are not transmitted from close contact with people, as is the case with this virus. You dont get cancer just by sitting next to a person who has it.
DeleteIn the UK as an example, 595 people died of HIV/AIDS for a full year (2015) compared to over 16.000 from corona virus for the past 3 months.
And how many have died from the flu which is as easily transmitted as covid yet we are not rushing to close down air traffic. This whole situation is a show perpetraded by the media.
DeleteThis strain of virus has a higher death rate than the flu, and unlike the flu, there are no vaccines for corona virus, and there is uncertainty as to what tests are more effective/accurate. Death rates from the corona virus, after a couple of months, are creaping up to annual death rates for the flu.
DeleteSome form of quarantine has been proven over time to be effective in containing outbreaks, what ever the virus or disease. Sure, media has made a show of it, depends where you are getting your news. However, I'm not understanding what you want to say. That governments should ignore the virus and pretend it doesnt exist? Chinese authorities jailed people reporting the virus until they no longer could hide the truth, and even then, tried to spin news praising the Beijing government. Had they took adequare measures alot earlier, and were more open to acknowledging facts, we wouldnt be seeing the scenes we are seeing today.
Covid19 is the biggest scam the globalists have come up with this far.
DeleteGates can't wait to vaccinate you. Just research his polio vaccine and the disastrous effect that it had on people in Africa.
Exactly, it's odd how there was soooo many coordinated media campaigns around the world. I can't remmeber the last time something got this much global attention this fast.
Delete@Dejan22:02 - you have some serious conspiracy theory going there, typical of anti-vax movement in US, right wing biosphere, and no Gates Foundation doesn't vaccinate anyone, they're funding the research in to new drugs, and funding WHO efforts. All Bill/Melinda Gates are doing, is rising funds for efforts to eradicate number of ailments in Africa, Asia and South America where there's little infrastructure to deal with serious medical issues.
Delete@Anonymous16:03 Covid-19 mortality rate is around 6.5%, 171000 dead, 2.5 million infected, extrapolate. Flu mortality rate is around 0.6%. If as predicted at current growth trend by September 2020, there are 20 million infected, 6.5% of that is what ??? 1.3 million deaths from Covid-19, and you still think this is just ordinary flu?? The ignorance of some is mindboggling.
You are quite ignorant if you think that's thr total number of people infected. Apart from the fact that many people have not been tested, many countries have also underreported their number of cases. Therefore the mortality rate is much lower.
Delete@Anonymous12:52
DeleteUnder reported number of infected as not everyone who has a mild version of covid-19 will report, however number of unreported cases of mortality from covid 19 is also staggering, in many cases as much as 30% of all recent deaths in UK are attributed to Covid, yet the government is reporting only deaths from covid in NHS hospitals. 17000 deaths in UKs Hospitals from Covid 19 in past 50 days, UK had almost no cases in February. Mortality rate of 4% is more accurate, but this is still around 7 times higher than just another flu...
Is there a chance that they will start BEG earlier now that it's known the airport will be reopened?
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. London will start earlier because it's performed by UK aircraft.
DeleteAnd after this summer, who knows what their ex-Yu route network will look like.
ReplyDeleteIt will interesting to follow. Airlines like Wizz I see having a harder time as they focus on O&D pax. It might push them to hub through a few airports to stimulate demand through transit pax.
DeleteIt's also a question what exactly will be rescinded. Highly doubt they will be able to restart all routes because of travel restrictions
ReplyDeleteMany gastos are losing jobs in the west and many are returning home. This could be a big problem for Wizz Air. Intra-eastern Europe travel is minimal and not enough for W6 to survive.
ReplyDeleteNot only is it minimal, in most cases it would be impossible as they can't fly between two non-EU countries unless they are registered there.
DeleteGastos coming back may be only temporary. As the economy sinks there will be another exodus of people to western Europe. And yes I realise there will be a crisis everywhere but that didn't stop Greek and Spaniards to migrate in record numbers during the world economic crisis
DeleteRemember that many yugo gastos moved to WEurope long long ago, this is quite an advantage towards other EE countries, as they are already settled and will still be visiting friends and family.
DeleteThis crisis is unlike anything we've seen until now. Effects on the economy will be much deeper this time around. Things are not looking up for the EU. Macron even warned of the Union falling apart if more money is not thrown at the poor south. UK must be laughing right now.
DeleteOf course and that's because tourism sector in the west will experience a total meltdown leaving many without a job. The worst is coming. Yesterday the Czech government told its citizens not to plan on going for summer holidays while the French government said that its citizens should not go far away on holidays.
DeleteThe worst is not coming, whatever that means.
Deleteif you are quoting Governments, the Austrian will probably let Germans and Czechs into the country, so at least their tourist sector will not experience a "total meltdown".
No chance Podgorica flights will start on schedule.
ReplyDeleteWow return tickets Budapest-Sarajevo are 19 euros. Just had a look.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's so low, after all, Hungarian taxpayers are subsidizing cheap flights for Bosnians out of Sarajevo. Wizz is not worried about profitability of any of its BUD-exYU routes.
DeleteTalking of that government call, how come Wizz Air did not get money to fly BUD-ZAG/LJU/BEG?
DeleteBecause it was for cities that had no flights to Budapest or little prospect of getting them in the future.
DeleteAnd what prospects did ZAG and LJU have? BEG I understand but what about those two?
DeleteRoutes were mainly awarded for cities Malev used to fly to. Belgrade already had flights to Budapest at the time through Belavia and Air Serbia.
DeleteZagreb also had multiple airlines fly the BUD-ZAG route after Malev collapse. Ljubljana wasn't even taken into consideration. These were for so called "Western Balkan" routes.
DeleteThese subsidies were just a way for Orban to fund Wizz Air and to make sure they kept on adding more and more flights even though most of them made no sense like BUD-Odessa or Kazan.
DeleteIf you already had an opinion and answer why did you ask the question?
DeleteAnon 09.58
DeleteHuh??
Is there any indication of when SKP might open?
ReplyDeleteNope. Let's hope by mid-May.
DeleteAny indication of new routes?
DeleteNew routes? There will be no new routes. We can only expect some routes to be discontinued. Apparently 2 Wizz planes will be taken away from SKP.
Delete2 planes???? You must be kidding, where should they put them then?
DeleteCould the removal of 2 planes be a threat and a way to ask more subsidies for SKP? I fear if they do take them BCN will be among the first to go, it struggled in the past.
DeleteAlso 21 people losing/lost their job at Wizz in Skopje.
Deletethey should kill VIE not SKP
Deletelink (please) or it didnt happen
DeleteI never understood these guys who ask for links. Like you think Wizz Air issued a press release stating how they are excited to fire 21 locally employed staff? Whoever works in the industry knows that they are firing people left and right, the airline admitted it some weeks ago.
Deletewell sorry that some of us prefer more reliable sources of information than anonymous postings on aviation blogs.
DeleteIf this aviation blog is not reliable then why do you follow and comment on it? Also do you have a source to back your claim they haven't fired anyone? Many thanks in advance.
Deletefirst of all he didnt claim they havent fired anyone ... just made your post an oxymoron
DeleteThe Aviation blog is reliable, not all anonymous postings in it are - which was my point, but I obviously need to repeat it so you can get it.
DeleteRight and if you were a regular on here then you would know that many things that were announced on here actually happened in the end.
DeleteRealistically which routes can actually resume between ex-Yu countries and the rest of Europe considering all the travel bans?
ReplyDeleteOn routes where the overwhelming majority of passengers are gastos who have dual citizenship and are not affected by restrictions in places like Germany or Austria.
Deleteand between Hungary-Serbia?
DeleteWhat about it?
Deleteand Purger is predicting that Wizzair will rule the world in 6 months, LOL.
DeletePurger stopped writing here long ago...
Deletehaha he did? Really?
DeleteDual citizenship do not exist in Germany, Holand,...
DeleteOf course that dual citizenship exists in Germany
DeleteHoland as well.
DeleteUnknown17:16 = No, the Netherlands does not offer dual nationality. I was looking for someone who wants to move to the Netherlands, I am half Dutch. There's an exception for Dutch nationals that live in the UK, and they were offered an opportunity to apply for British Citizenship and retain their Dutch nationality, but this is an exception in Dutch immigration law, something special session of Dutch Parliament had to approve in 2017. Also, this only applies to Dutch nationals who's parents and ancestry is Dutch.
DeleteSuch projections are meaningless. As long as D/A/CH borders remain closed, exYu Airports can count mainly on cargo jets!
ReplyDeleteThey are not closed for their own citizens
DeleteGod bless W6! They did a revolutionary job in the Balkana and Eastern Europe. They connected the whole continent from east to west and made travel affordable for the ordinary citizen and not precisely the taxpayer. Now for 19€ you can reach another place in less than 2 hours!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, Mr. Varadi!
Well someone would have done it in Balkana and anyway there were airlines like Belle Air which already paved the way for them so it's not like they are totally revolutionary.
DeleteVaradi showed his competence in MA, let's see if he bankrupts W6 as well
Bitter a bit today, aren't we dear? There is zero chance of seeing W6 go bust anytime soon. They generated a huge profit that, similar to U2, allows them to survive for at least a summer without no problem.
DeleteAccording to a CAPA report, Wizz Air is reported to have liquidity of 48% of 2019 revenue. That’s equivalent to operating for 176 days, almost six months’ worth of cash. Ryanair comes a very close second, with 47% of 2019 revenue. That’s the same as 170 days.
So before you write stuff, please do some checks. This is no Balkana airline.
Are we talking about the same Wizz that stated they have enough cash not to fly for three years only to quickly revise it to a year ? Also it's not just about flying again but more about demand returning to where it was before the crisis. What will Wizz do with hundreds of A321neo that are coming?!??
DeleteBeginning of the end for Wizz.
DeleteUse them in the routes that FR was intending to expand. Don´t forget that them A321s are also long-haul. So Budapest and the Balkans can be connected to JFK or YYZ one day.
DeleteNot to mention the leisure destinations such as CMB, BKK, etc.
A321XLR can make it from Budapest to Boston, nothing more than that. A321 can make it to Greenland. ;)
Delete...and in other news, Germany has saved Condor by providing it with a credit line of €580 million. Remember this the next time you attack ex-YU governments for fighting to save their own.
ReplyDeleteThe Austrian government doesn't want VIE dehubbed so they are prepared to spend €750 million on Austrian Airlines. People should also remember that when they start attacking Serbia's efforts to build a hub in BEG. Aviation is a geopolitical asset and Germans have understood that.
DeleteGovernment of what country will save Wizz? Too big for Hungary. No other country will save them.
DeleteIt's not about geopolitics, but about the needs of the economy. The Austrian economy is pretty much global. For this reason the government thinks, it is essential to have a hub assuring direct links with business parters of Austria around the globe. The moment the economy in a given country really goes global, it needs a proper hub.
DeleteTo explain more, here are the data for 2019:
Deletetotal exports - % of exports outside Europe:
Austria 179 bln USD 21.3%
Germany 1,486 bln USD 34.4%
Serbia 19 bln USD 9.4%.
Bases on these data you can see what globalisation of the economy means and why in some countries (like Austria) direct air links are essential for the economy. Weighting all pros and cons Austria may be therefore more willing (or even forced) to upkeep these links and therefore business ties with their global partners, irrespective of the high absolute cost of doing that.
Looking at those numbers Serbia is not that bad given all the things the country went through. No wonder Serbia is pushing JU in the right direction, they need it because they see in what direction the economy is developing. Good thing for Serbia and JU is that OS' future is extremely uncertain. Just because the Austrian government wants OS to be a hub doesn't mean that will happen especially not if LH isn't willing to pursue that path. We all remember how well OS was run when it was government owned.
DeleteEvery country needs to make a decision on its own and there is nothing like one size fits all (contrary to what one may read in posts on this blog). Every country has its resources and needs to spend them in the most efficient way. I provided these stats in response to a claim that an airline hub is about geopolitics, while it is, like almost everything, primarily about money (precisely: about making money). Talking too much about politics usually leads to losing money, becoming poorer and consequently loosing politically. This is because it promotes uneconomical behaviours.
DeleteI am not a Serbian taxpayer so I am not going to comment what is best for Serbia or what Serbia does or doesn't. Just one general remark to how you interpreted my earlier post: being an export powerhouse requires much more than an airline hub to ensure good direct connections to business partners globally. First you need appropriate goods and services to sell at competitive terms globally. A hub probably comes as part of that (usually following on that and not prior to that), but needs to come at a proper time, growing naturally, or otherwise it comes like buying for yourself a huge cargo fleet at a time when your business only needs a small % of that and only from time to time.
As to OS, I will refrain from critisizing. Pls remember GDP per capita in Austria is 53.000 USD (nominal), while in Serbia 6.000 USD (nominal). This creates a totally different environment for an airline growth, so I am far from expecing Austrian's demise.
One amateur analyst expected airline from his country to do much better than Air Serbia based on higher GDP per capita but was proven wrong. If that number was relevant, Wizz would only fly between high GDP countries like Luxembourg and Ireland and Norway.
DeleteAnd what kind of things did Qatar or the UAE export before their airlines became global carriers? Besides oil there wasn't much and oil itself doesn't stimulate global demand but rather just for a few, select destinations around the world. So it is irrelevant how much your average Serb earns or how much the country exports because what matters is how many people book their flights via BEG on JU. Given the meteoric rise in passenger numbers at JU I would say there are more and more people.
DeleteSo an airline can grow even without things you mentioned. Look at Aegean's network in winter when there is no tourism in Greece.
And of course aviation is about geopolitics, you are draining the wealth of those markets into your own banks. When you book a flight on OS, where do you think your money goes? To their accounts in Vienna.
Can you tell please in what month you will operate in Tirana ,Albania? Thankyou!
ReplyDeleteThe Albanian land, air and sea borders are currently closed. It is still undecided when the airport will open for commercial traffic because it is up to the government. Airlines dont just decide themselves when to begin or end flights in the middle of a pandemic
DeleteThankyou !
DeleteHow is this possible Sarajevo May 3 and June 1 Tuzla where Wizz air has its base ...
ReplyDeleteOne country, two airports
Because the only route they fly to Sarajevo is Budapest. The flight is operated from Budapest base with Budapest based plane, crew etc
Delete