Wizz Air is in the process of suspending up to fifty routes to and from the former Yugoslavia, with every city it serves in the region affected. Skopje is seeing the largest number of cancellations, followed by Tuzla, Ohrid, Podgorica, Belgrade, Niš, Pristina, Ljubljana, Split and Sarajevo. During November, the carrier will no longer serve Podgorica as all six of its routes from the Montenegrin capital will be suspended, however, some are scheduled to resume in December. The carrier has again delayed the launch of its new flights from Milan to Pristina, which are now set to commence on December 19. The budget airline has also suspended its service between Dortmund and Split, which was launched this summer and was envisaged to run throughout the winter season.
Several routes still in operation, such as Memmingen - Podgorica, Vienna - Ohrid and Stockholm Skavsta - Skopje, will be suspended in two weeks’ time for the winter season. The carrier plans to restore some of its routes in November and December, although this is likely to change. The majority of the flights are not due to recommence until the 2021 summer season in late March. The carrier is in the process of resuming some routes that were temporarily cancelled over the summer, including Skopje - Turku and Belgrade - Larnaca, while Skopje - Nuremberg, Skopje - Copenhagen and Belgrade – Baden Baden will restart at the end of the month.
Despite shrinking its operations in the former Yugoslavia, the airline is growing elsewhere in Western Europe, most recently announcing the launch of domestic flights in Norway. Wizz Air suffered a near-60% drop in passenger numbers in September, the month in which it had been hoping to step up its recovery. According to the airline, its capacity remained 40% lower than the same month last year. This October, the airline is only flying 50% of its capacity. It does not foresee operating at a higher capacity during the winter if current pandemic curbs remain. However, its existing operations are significantly larger than those of most other European airlines.
List of suspended Wizz Air routes
| Route | Resumption date |
|---|---|
| Skopje - Salzburg | MAR 29 |
| Skopje - Charleroi | DEC 5 |
| Skopje - Larnaca | MAR 28 |
| Skopje - Copenhagen | NOV 1 |
| Skopje - Beauvais | DEC 5 |
| Skopje - Bremen | MAR 28 |
| Skopje - Hanover | MAR 29 |
| Skopje - Baden Baden | DEC 5 |
| Skopje - Nuremberg | OCT 25 |
| Skopje - Budapest | DEC 4 |
| Skopje - Milan | DEC 5 |
| Skopje - Rome | DEC 6 |
| Skopje - Venice | DEC 6 |
| Skopje - Malta | DEC 5 |
| Skopje - Sandefjord | MAR 29 |
| Skopje - Bratislava | DEC 4 |
| Skopje - Barcelona | MAR 28 |
| Skopje - Stockholm Skavsta | MAR 28 |
| Skopje - Vaxjo | MAR 28 |
| Tuzla - Salzburg | MAR 28 |
| Tuzla - Vienna | MAR 30 |
| Tuzla - Billund | MAR 30 |
| Tuzla - Basel | DEC 4 |
| Tuzla - Cologne | MAR 28 |
| Tuzla - Friedrichshafen | MAR 29 |
| Tuzla - Baden Baden | MAR 30 |
| Tuzla - Vaxjo | MAR 29 |
| Ohrid - Vienna | DEC 5 |
| Ohrid - Basel | NOV 10 |
| Ohrid - Dortmund | DEC 5 |
| Ohrid - Memmingen | MAR 29 |
| Ohrid - Milan | MAR 28 |
| Ohrid - Malmo | DEC 4 |
| Ohrid - London Luton | DEC 7 |
| Podgorica - Vienna | MAR 30 |
| Podgorica - Dortmund | DEC 4 |
| Podgorica - Memmingen | DEC 4 |
| Podgorica - Budapest | DEC 6 |
| Podgorica - Milan | DEC 6 |
| Belgrade - Salzburg | MAR 28 |
| Belgrade - Hanover | DEC 10 |
| Belgrade - Baden Baden | OCT 27 |
| Belgrade - Malta | DEC 4 |
| Niš - Vienna | DEC 6 |
| Niš - Malmo | MAR 30 |
| Pristina - Budapest | DEC 6 |
| Ljubljana - Charleroi | MAR 30 |
| Split - Dortmund | MAR 30 |
| Sarajevo - Budapest | DEC 4 |
If this is not a wake up call for SKP then I don't know what is. Airport management must reduce reliance on Wizz Air no matter what the cost. Inviting FR would be a good first step.
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder where you spent the last 9 months of this year and obviously missed that there is a pandemic which affects literally every airport and carrier on this planet.
DeleteAlthough I don't know much about the Macedonian market, thanks to Wizz it still has a relatively large network. They still operate many routes. Ryanair did pretty much the same at many airports. They suspended a lot of routes. It would make little difference.
DeleteAnon 09.08
Deleteif anything this pandemic has taught us that one should not put its eggs in one single basket which is something SKP has done with Wizz. If there was more competition Wizz wouldn't rush to cut flights and to hand over those passengers to their competition.
You know, you still have many other airlines flying from SKP.
DeleteRemind me please last Anon, what was W6's share before the pandemic? ;)
DeleteYes OU's one weekly flight or JU's two weekly are really competitive.
DeleteIt provides connectivity. Along with Austrian Airlines, Edelweiss, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus.
DeleteAnd how many LCCs besides Pegasus and Wizz Air are there? Which serious competitor does Wizz have? Not everyone is ready to pay €300 to fly on OS around Europe.
DeleteI can't keep up do you have an issue that there is too much Wizz Air and not enough legacies. Or too much Wizz Air and not enough other LCCs. Or you just have an issue with Skopje in general. There are two LCCs serving Skopje, which is more than some other ex-Yu capital city airports.
DeleteToo much Wizz and not enough legacies.
DeleteGood, at least now you picked what's the problem for you so stick to it.
DeleteHave you ever considered the market size when formulating your comments? Have you thought that the number of legacies is a reflection of the size of the market? For its size, I think SKP+OHD do really well. And I'm from Serbia so have nothing to do with Macedonia.
DeleteI disagree with you. Imagine if people thought like you before Wizz came to Macedonia. If they said well the market is 800.000 and there is no room for such big growth. Look at the numbers today and how far the market has come. Now if there was a bit more competition there would be even more growth.
DeleteAnd what did other LCCs do exactly? From what I can see, easyjet and Ryanair have suspended most of their flights from ex-Yu cities.
DeleteMr notorious, do you think they would have stayed all winter and flown empty planes if there was another airline flying from SKP?
DeleteRead below. JU does well to LCA so Wizz cant cancel destination but still keeps one flight a week. Such things could also happen in SKP in certain market.
DeleteIn times of emergency, it just shows how extremely relisble is SKP to Wizz. Simply unbelievable. This is what you get when you put all of your eggs in one basket.
DeleteAnd FR (Ryanair) has NOT HAD A SINGLE FLIGHT YET to both FR and INI since March !!! too funny that @9.03 wants to "invite" and rely on FR !!
DeleteWizz is the most reliable and dedicated airline for this region pre or during Corona. Period!
Aha because INI and SKP are exactly the same. The things you will read on here.
DeleteBanja Luka has zero traffic (2 weekly to BEG excluded) at the moment because it relies on FR. Tuzla at least has some routes (fully relies on Wizz). Compare and think about it which airline is the more reliable one
DeleteThat's a loong list
ReplyDeleteSo much about the recovery at any airport in ex-yu.
ReplyDeleteAnd now people see why it's good ZAG isn't relying on them. Too unpredictable and they change their flights all the time.
Delete^ Your comment would make sense if Zagreb had staged some sort of recovery, but its rate of decline is bigger than most ex-Yu airports, so your comment does not make much sense.
DeleteActually his comment makes a lot of sense because at least ZAG's connectivity has not taken such a massive hit. Sure OU is sending smaller planes but at least you can still fly around. You can't do that from airports that almost exclusively rely on Wizz.
DeleteAnon 09:10
DeleteVirus is still here so i doesnt see any posibilities of recovery now at any aiport. Winter is coming, decline of flights will be even higher and no managment in the region would stop that. Decline is literally everywhere, and in ZAG, BEG, LJU, SKP or OMO. You cannot manage recovery in these times when everything depends on numbers of cases. Thats why SPU during August this year had more flights then BEG and BUD.
That was July, not August.
DeleteIt was August and July. More flights per day.
Delete@9.09 ZAG had a bigger minus then SKP in Sept. Maybe WIzz is a good thing after all
Delete@10.29 BEG has not published its August numbers, so it is difficult for you to know who had more flights or passengers.
DeleteBut you had daily timetable.
DeleteYeah, this guy keeps repeating that mantra, let him be. Don't even want to mention that BEG will be super close to the total traffic all Croatian airports combined had this year. Tourism took a big slump, no matter what is claimed.
DeleteIt is a fact not mantra.
DeleteI doubt most of those routes scheduled to resume in December will actually start. More like March.
ReplyDeleteThey will resume sooner or later.
Deletewow @ them not having any flights to Podgorica in November. They have 5 routes from there.
ReplyDeleteTaking in consideration all the circumstances Belgrade is not that bad at all.
ReplyDeleteI think it has to do with Serbia's open door policies so some tourist market has recovered. Biggest success at BEG is that we avoided total collapse of flights.
DeleteThis Sunday they also resume LCA but only one flight per week. Strange but i guess they cant compete wit ju
DeleteIt's not strange at all. Unlike JU, which is carrying transfer passengers on top of point to point traffic, Wizz Air carries only point to point traffic and its planes also have 40 seats more than JU. Also it's cost structure is completely different with JU and it has to think about profitability.
DeleteWhere did you find 40 more seats when yesterday JU sent two A320 to LCA. Its configuration is 174 seats so 6 less than W6. Also what transfers can JU carry from BEG at 10.10 in the morning? ;)
DeleteAgain it comes down to costs. JU is fine with flying with a loss or selling cheap tickets to fill planes which does not bring them money. Other airlines are not.
DeleteObviously it comes down to you writing utter nonsense. Just because JU might not be profitable overall doesn't mean ALL of its routes are loss making. Losses it records might come from JFK, too many employees, loan payments and so on. Basically JU doesn't generate enough overall income to pay for all of its expenses.
DeleteAs for LCA, I would love to see where those cheap tickets are. My parents flew to LCA and they bought one-way tickets for 24.000 Dinars so close to €200. Last night's flight to LCA departed with 10 in business and 153 economy class passengers. Are you seriously implying they lost money on that flight? Wizz Air used to sell one way tickets for their Wednesday flights for as little as €13 and they still couldn't fill their planes so they cut them.
Thing is that JU introduced times that actually suited people. Simple as that.
Those business class passengers were certainly loss making since 98% of them were instant pay upgrades which cost as low as $40.
DeleteOf course they were.
DeleteDon't bother Nemjee. For some here JU can never win no matter what.
DeleteAnon 10:00
DeleteIs that true?
Of course it isn't true. Even if someone was upgraded he didn't merely pay $40 for an upgrade but it was added to his existing fare which is never under €170 (and anyway not all classes can be upgraded). It's just more nonsense.
DeleteIt's not nonsense at all. It's the reason JU has managed to fill up business class recently when it usually used to sit empty and their upgrade rates are extremely low. But this is a discussion about Wizz Air so let's leave it for another day.
DeleteDon't get me wrong, but I don't think LCA is a business destination. So what Anon 10:00 said sounds quite reasonable. Basically, there is no big difference between economy and business except on the jfk route.
DeleteJa sam jedan od tih Srba koji su isli na Kipar. Nocni let, dupke pun A320. U Larnaki skoro svi su imali kofer (koji se doplacuje). Koliko sam shvatio Kipar nit je gasto linija nit jeftina destinacija. Ljudi koji idu tamo imaju para da plate da lete normalno sa JU te Vizer tu nema neku veliku prednost. Jedno je kada vodis gastose koji gledaju svaki euro a drugo je kada imas turiste koji nisu toliko ograniceni svojim budzetom.
DeleteE tu je verovatno odgovor zasto JU trijumfovao na Kipru a Vizer nije.
LCA is definitely a more expensive destination you can see that from package tours from Serbia.
DeleteIt can still be expensive but definitely not a business class destination compared to PRG or BRU for instance. It's an island where people go to rest and predominantly gasto as well. Absolutely same situation with MLA.
Delete"trijumfivao" ^^ left me cold
Delete"Again it comes down to costs. JU is fine with flying with a loss or selling cheap tickets to fill planes which does not bring them money. Other airlines are not."
DeleteThat's a funny comment because I bought return tickets BEG-LCA on Wizz in November for 20 EUR return. Air Serbia is at 130 EUR minimum.
I was thinking of heading to Cyprus for some well deserved holiday and those business pax were definitely not upgrades as the seat map in business was getting more and more occupied 10 days to 4 days before the flight.
DeleteWizz is fighting for survival in Cyprus, I think JU will finish them off soon. They already cut the Wednesday flight and they already cut winter flights in the past.
DeleteLCA is not a business destination. Come on, mate. It's like comparing it to CTA or PMI. Island nations are mainly leisure. There are some exceptions in Europe such as LPA, which is a large island and does has some business travellers mainland Europe.
DeleteLPA has a population of almost 900,000 which is twice as much as Cyprus.
Haha one gem after another. Cyprus' population is around 1.2 million if you count the north and around 900.000 without them. Cyprus is 23rd in the world in terms of quality of life and has GDP per capita of some $28.000. Both LCA and PFO welcomed 11.273.000 passengers in 2019. In 2019 Cyprus welcomed 3.976.000 tourists (+1%) and around 20% of its economy relies on this industry.
DeleteAs far as JU is concerned, this is their perfect opportunity to position themselves in Cyprus. Austrian Airlines was a major player (after Aegean) and now they are down to just 4 weekly flights on the E95. JU actually offers more weekly seats than OS does.
And before some start going on how OS is bigger than JU, that's besides the point because OS only managed to capture the Cypriot market because they were the first to respond to MA's bankruptcy.
Thursday flight to LCA on the A320 is sold out. ;) Next flight is also on the A320.
Delete"Wizz is fighting for survival in Cyprus"
DeleteErm, yeah ok. You might want to check how many destinations they have from there and how many aircraft stationed.
Hey Anon 15.51 I did check, did you check how many new destinations were postponed? Meanwhile JU is selling out their A320s to LCA! Wizz can't even fill two weekly flights.
DeleteYou are right. They will shut down their base and Air Serbia will open a base in Larnaca instead.
DeleteCY can have a good GDP but we are talking about the BEG-LCA and it being a business destination. How can you convince me that that JU is in most times full with businsess passengers? YU-APH is used because it has a MONO class 174 seating and so is the case with Wizz. The destinations is leisure in summer and gasto in winter. Quite normal.
DeleteI don't understand the jubilation over a couple of full Air Serbia flights (at the same time cheering for another airline to stop flights altogether which is ludicrous in these times when you need everything and everyone you can get). The likelihood is that in 3 weeks Cyprus will again ban entry from Serbia and there will be no flights.
DeleteWhy shouldn't we jubilate after months of bankruptcies, reductions, delays, cancellations...? Any market recovering now is fantastic and we should all be happy.
DeleteBecause it's not a recovery at all. If it were, you wouldn't have news today of another airline suspending flights.
DeleteIs this likelihood based on something other than wishful thinking?
DeleteI mean I normally don't get tangled in these pointless discussions, but the number of naysayers and doomsday prophets on any BEG-related subject is becoming ludicrous. There is absolutely no reason why Cyprus would ban entry for Serbian citizens in three weeks considering a negative PCR test is required.
I'm from Serbia and it's not wishfull thinking. We weren't allowed into Cyprus until a few weeks ago with a negative PCR test either.
DeleteYes that's because corona exploded at that time and our cases were close to 300 from what I remember. Quarantine was introduced once again and it was removed when numbers fell to these levels. I don't think quarantine will be introduced because with these Serbian tourists many hotels are staying open longer than initially planned. Hotel occupancy was around 30% this summer so any bit helps.
DeleteSo many worried people on here, so genuine it makes me cry. ;)
DeleteIt's not a matter of worriness but rather the claims that Cyprus is a business destination whilst ignoring important cities such as Frankfurt, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milano where the class and type of people is quite different compared to Cyprus. The passengers themselves are different and have an opportunity to buy a business ticket or use the business lounge in BEG.
DeleteCyprus is just like the rest of South Europe, a highly, exclusively leisure destination and Wizz additionally clarifying your doubt about the customer type and JU with the airplane type. 174 seater, for God's sake.
No one initially claimed LCA was a business destination from BEG, all that was said is that business class demand comes from it being a higher yielding destination. Quite simple. Those who claimed otherwise came forward with all sorts of odd arguments including the business destination one. What matters is that demand for LCA is booming in both classes which should come as welcome news given the overall situation over the past six months. Seems like many are just plain annoyed by these positive news.
DeleteThat's a huge number of routes
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show how bad the situation is.
ReplyDeletePRN seems to be doing really well for them. Just one route (from BUD) suspended. The rest are operating normally.
ReplyDeletePRN is the biggest threat to SKP, not the lack of competition for Wizzair. If people get used of using PRN, a huge passanger stream will be cut from SKP.
Delete@9.57 wishful thinking. 3-4 routes are maybe (very) interesting for Kosovars that they dont have and thats all.
Delete3-4? LOL
DeleteLike whole of Germany and Scandinavia.
Situation will stay this way until EU starts opening borders.
ReplyDeleteSad :(
ReplyDeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteShame about Dortmund-Split. Would have been good to have a year round route.
ReplyDeleteSplit has been converted into a seasonal route with many other destinations ex DTM. This has been announced 2 Months ago by the airline.
DeleteTrue. First Wizz Airs year round out of SPU.
Delete@10.26 they were selling Dortmund-Split on their website until the end of last week. So it definitely was not announced 2 moths ago.
DeleteWhat do you expect when you are not allowed to travel
ReplyDeleteQuarantines will kill the aviation sector in these months.
DeleteSwitzerland has just introduced quarantine for Berlin and Hamburg and Venice! Expect Swiss to suffer greatly from this. Those are major markets for them.
DeleteI do wonder if all will resume eventually or if Wizz will use this as an opportunity to cull some routes for good.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air has been pretty loyal in resuming routes as soon as they can.
DeleteThis is just bad. I'm sure most of these routes won't be back at least not before summer 2021
ReplyDeleteIt's really unfortunate for ex-Yu. Quite a lot of routes.
ReplyDeleteAnd after this year, who knows what their ex-Yu route network will look like.
ReplyDeleteActually what we may see from them is growth after this year in ex-Yu markets.
DeleteWinter is coming!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised how many flights they are still operating, especially to Germany, all things considered.
ReplyDeleteOuch.
ReplyDeleteThey will likely offer a very reduced network for a while.
ReplyDeleteWell at least Skopje-Turku is resuming after so much controversy :D
ReplyDeletethank god, Santa can come now :PPP
Deleteit has resumes last week
Deleteresumed*
DeleteSo they expect to come out as winners from all of this?
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be suspending routes on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteActually loads from most ex-Yu markets is rather good for them. The cancellations are primarily to fill the void left in many western markets which are more high yielding and tap into new ones. For example they are launching domestic Norway flights from Gardermoen no less because Norway has been the most resilient domestic market in Europe during this crisis with passenger numbers falling the least. With Norwegian on its death bed there really hasn't been a better time to start the flights.
ReplyDeleteLCCs have to have a very high LF to make a profit on a flight. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteWhile state-owned airlines in exyu don't have to make profit at all.
DeleteHow long did all these Salzburg flights last for?
ReplyDeleteFrom BEG about a month.
Delete^ Well that's not true. W64061 from Belgrade to Salzburg operated for 2 weeks (total of 4 flights). From Skopje and Tuzla they operated for a week.
DeleteThat is bad news for ExYu airports.
ReplyDeleteIt took an awful lot of time for Wizz Air's mediocre management to realize that speeding into a wall is not the best tactic.
ReplyDeletenope its the travel restrictions that made them perform a u-turn
DeletePRN-MXP is missing in the table. posponed to Dec 19
ReplyDeleteIt's not on the table because the table only displays routes which have already been in operation. MXP-PRN never launched. It's mentioned in the actual article.
DeleteI just feel, that the region will be lucky, if half these routes come back. I am not just talking about Wizz, I am including all the LLC. The routes may be suspended for now. The airlines will say they would be back next year. We shall see what next year brings. You don't think that the LLC's won't want to negotiate new agreements, with the airports they serve? They just may ask for more subsidies. I also feel that the service charges for ie baggage, seat selection etc will increase dramatically. Also, the flying public will dictate which destinations will be served. If the public, doesn't feel safe, planes will be empty.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, NMK is one of the most affected countries by COVID. 24 affected destinations is quite a number combining both skp and ohd. The hardest part will be to maintain those flights until next year, let alone frequency increase. The skp management should also be concerned about the reduction of the w6 base and downgrade from 5 to 4 planes, from 321 to 320 and not being able to grow more. This is before Corona.
ReplyDeleteWizz brought a lot to skp but is now taking a lot with it and focusing on richer markets such as Norway and Doncaster.
It is high time to speak with Ryan, British, KLM, AF, SU to begin flying. The airport is really in need of primary airports. Nrighbouring PRN and especially INI are perfect example of a healthy combination of legacy and LCC. Skp risks resuming to the year 2000 levels and having 600,000 passengers annually.
and especially INI ...
DeleteThis is a great opportunity for JU with ATR fleet and Croatia with Q400.
ReplyDelete