Low cost carrier Wizz Air will base an Airbus A320 aircraft in Sarajevo from May 20 and introduce nine new routes, in addition to the existing Budapest service. The airline will commence three weekly flights to Copenhagen, Dortmund and Basel, as well as two weekly rotations to Charleroi, Memmingen, London Luton, Beauvais, Eindhoven and Gothenburg. The expansion comes as a result of a public call launched by Sarajevo Airport last year, seeking for a carrier to open a base in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital in 2021. Wizz Air will have the option of growing its fleet in Sarajevo, as the airport's capacity grows and other conditions are met, based on the tender brief. The budget airline was the only one to apply. It will be given incentives for stationing aircraft in the city as well as additional funds depending on the number of passengers carried.
Sarajevo Airport becomes Wizz Air's second base in Bosnia and Herzegovina following Tuzla and fourth in the former Yugoslavia. All of the new routes are currently unserved from Sarajevo and will significantly improve the city's connectivity. Most markets selected by Wizz Air from Sarajevo are driven by VFR (Visiting Friends and Family) traffic. “It is well known that an airline opening a base at an airport creates preconditions for an increase in traffic volume (a larger number of flights and a significantly greater number of passengers, as well as the launch of new routes). All of this is very important, not just for Sarajevo Airport but for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entire tourism sector and other subjects whose livelihoods and recovery largely depend on the resumption of flights to our country”, Sarajevo Airport's General Manager, Alan Bajić, said.
| Destination | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Memmingen, Copenhagen, Dortmund | MAY 20 |
| Charleroi, London Luton, Basel | MAY 21 |
| Beauvais | MAY 22 |
| Eindhoven, Gothenburg | MAY 23 |
Click on link for flight details
Commenting on the new route launches, Wizz Air’s Corporate Communications Manager, Andras Rado, said, “After eight successful years in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I am delighted to announce our second base in the country in Sarajevo because we see potential and demand for affordable travel. Today’s announcement indicates our commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are certain Wizz Air will have a positive impact on the economic development and growth of tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Sarajevo Airport’s Operations Manager, Nermin Zijadić, added, “It is particularly important that these are destinations where there is a large diaspora. This important company introduced flights from Budapest to Sarajevo four years ago, which saw great interest and thanks to which a significant number of people had the opportunity to visit the beautiful capital of Hungary, but which also enabled the arrival of a large number of tourists to our city”.
WOW :)
ReplyDeleteI'll believe it when I see it. Their expansions around Europe did not really go as planned. Yesterday they closed their Norwegian base.
ReplyDeleteBase in which city in Norway?
DeleteI think they got money to do this so somehow they must do it.
Deletewhich one they closed? because I didn't find anything in news
DeleteThey're getting subsidies or incentives?
DeleteIt's in the article. Last sentence, first paragraph.
DeleteSo, they didn't ''get money'' to do it
DeleteDo you really believe that SJJJ simply called airlines to open base there without giving them a motivation for it?
DeleteAirlines are so blind not to see airports on the map and therefore airport must wave a big red flag saying "hello, we are here, come to fly from here!"
Either Trondheim or Stavanger. Can't remember now.
Delete12:33 What are you on about? Yes, SJJ is offering incentives, which is not ''got money''.
Delete@ 12:35
Deletethey've just opened Trondheim and Stavanger is not a base
@anon 12:39
DeleteOne way or another SJJ is giving money away or has less income.
Same thing
Exactly, so it's not subsidies. TIA offered incentives also but Wizz hasn't operated half of the routes since summer, meaning they don't somehow have to do it just because of that. Hopefully, the pandemic situation will have improved by May and there will be enough demand to keep these routes sustainable.
Delete13:38 yeah, they just opened Trondheim and they already announced that they are closing it. All flights will be managed by OSL base. Also, the frequencies on Norwegian routes were lowered
DeleteThey did not announce it. They announce new bases with big a fanfare then cancel or reduce them quietly without even admitting it. Trondheim started in December and being closed already. It happens in a blink of an eye if you don't pay enough to Varadi (or he doesn't make enough money on your airport). See Poznan, Lublin, Kosice, Prague, Targu Mures, Lviv and so on. If Sarajevo pays out for him, Tuzla will be left alone in a minute. There were huge cuts at all of the new bases (Norway, Italy, Tirana) but you never hear about that. Wizz is currently operating at 2% of ot's capacity but Varadi still forecast glorious summer. Yeah, you bet. Like the glorious last summer, autumn and winter he also forecasted.
DeleteFinally!! Congratulations Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteWell, now even SJJ will have more passengers than LJU.
ReplyDeleteMore than ZAG :-)
DeleteLol anon 12:12
DeleteToo bad there's no connection to Baden Baden!
ReplyDeleteYeah, would have been nice nice.
DeleteNice- but very doubtful it will start in May.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thoughts and remembered they plan to open many new destinations from BEG last summer
DeleteSJJ-VIE would have been nice
ReplyDeleteHow will this affect Tuzla?
ReplyDeleteVery bad.
DeleteTuzla had a lot of passangers from Herzegovina.
But now Sarajevo region and everything south will use SJJ
Wizz has opened basis or have a considerable number of flights in most of the major airports in WB now (BEG, SKP, Ohrid, TIA, PRN, PODG, SJJ, TUZLA); apart from Croatia. It's difficult to say if this is a success story for them at the moment cause of the restrictions. Will see what happens after the restrictions to EU are lifted.
ReplyDeleteOhrid = OHD
DeletePodgorica = TGD
Tuzla = TZL
the elephant in the room is TZL
ReplyDeleteIt stays unclear what impact is this going to have on TZL.
ReplyDeleteI should say that now Bosnia's SJJ (WZZ), TZl (WZZ) and BNX (Ryanair) offer decent connections to mainland Europe AND Wizz is the 1st airline company in the region (WB) to have two bases in the same country. Good for BiH people!
ReplyDeleteApart from North Macedonia with their airports in Ohrid and Skopje
DeleteWizz Air does not have a base in Ohrid
DeleteFINALLY SJJ! It's very nice to see London, Paris, Brussels and Copenhagen!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteFinally key markets will be served from Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteGreat job
ReplyDeleteHello ZAG, how are you? Doing fine? Good for you!!!!
ReplyDeleteTime for them to wake up
DeleteAnd LJU
Delete@pozdrav iz Rijeke What do you think, is there any chance that RJK becomes alternative airport to ZAG and attracts Wizz (or similar) during the winter?
DeleteRJK is almost 2hr drive from Zagreb.
DeleteLJU is also about 2 hr drive.
BNX just over 2 hr.
All too far for most people to consider using them.
Sadly, few airlines want to fly to RJK from anywhere. Looks like Ryanair have dropped for S21.
DeleteSorry..ryanair have dropped STN to RJK..for S21. Maybe others?
Delete@An.15.10
DeleteDuring the winter, definitely not. RJK runway has very unfavourable position with extremely strong windshiers, and gets closed on bura wind of just over 20 knots, especially in night operations. It is very often closed during the winter. For the summer, yes, it already serves partially as alternative to ZAG : Speaking of non-corona situation, of course, Air Baltic, Transavia, Ryanair to STN, Eurowings to Berlin, Volotea to Marseilles, are used by passengers from and to ZAG significantly
How many passengers could we expect Sarajevo to have now?
ReplyDeleteIn normal circumstances, some 1.6 million. It had around 1 million before corona.
DeleteGood choice of destinations
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there will be more with time.
DeleteI completely agree with the good quality of destinations. Fewer German villages but still LTN, CPH and BSL are not very small airports. Although CRL has became a significant airport as well. The FR presence there is insane.
DeleteBravo! New era for Sarajevo Airport.
ReplyDeleteWith good Europe network now and strong Middle East flight offer (when corona calms down) Sarajevo will be booming.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they start cleaning the toilets at SJJ. Situation is getting out of control.
DeleteI hope they all launch on time and as planned. Good luck SJJ!
ReplyDeleteFares are fantastic.
ReplyDeleteIt's Wizz...
DeleteA light at the end of the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteBUD-SJJ will be cancelled in March as the Hungarian state subsidy expires. Today this route is suspended, so probably will not resume until the last planned flight at the end of March.
ReplyDeleteOther Balkan cities are also cut such as TIA and PRN.
DeleteJust checked that FR are still keeping all their destinations in BNX with the exception of BGY.
ReplyDeleteThis means that BiH is likely to have a better than excepted year.
SJJ and BNX are the new ex-Yu stars.
This is a very big news. Even for more a more significant airport than SJJ this would have been a big deal. We have been talking for a long about the potential SJJ has. Let's see how this works. There are some gossip stories behind the scene about introduction of Barcelona and Rome flights from SJJ in 2022. Wizz air as well.
ReplyDeleteFlyBosnia is affected by this. They can continue to operate charters to Middle East but scheduled flights from SJJ to EU are no longer realistic.
ReplyDeleteSJJ was known as fairly expensive airport similar to ZAG but Sarajevo found a way to work with Wizz. Sarajevo is showing the way forward for Zagreb to increase passenger numbers. If this deal with Wizz works out for SJJ, ZAG will be next.
Zagreb will keep resisting low cost airlines. Cerklje Airport attracting Wizz could kill two birds (LJU and ZAG) with one stone.
DeleteCerklje? Lol
DeleteAnon 19:80
DeleteThey dont have passanger terminal and i dont think Slovenian goverment will open this airport for passanger use when they have LJU.
19:41
Yes, it exist. Very large military airport between Ljubljana and Zagreb.
FlyBosnia is such a microscopic thing that doesn’t even deserve to be called an airline.
DeleteNot Cerklje but MBX could kill LJU, ZAG and GRZ with LCA during the year and charter flights in summer season. LJU is owned by Fraport, while MBX is state-owned.
DeleteI support this.
ReplyDeleteWill this Wizz Air expansion hurt JU's presence in SJJ? After all, there is transfer traffic to routes such as CPH and BRU.
ReplyDeleteI think the SJJ-CRL route will be quite successful.
No, but it is already hurting OU. Croatia announced pause in serving SJJ, likely to become permanent once Wizz starts flying.
Delete@21.29 lol
DeleteOU paused it because of travel restriction and bad demand, not because of Wizz. And yes, it will probably hurt all transfer airlines at SJJ, including OU and JU.
ReplyDeleteYou many wish JU to be hurt, but it won't. Wizz announced destinations in the west close to destinations OU serves, but Air Serbia has many more destinations in the Balkans and the east where OU can't compete, so Air Serbia does not need to worry unlike OU.
DeleteEvery legacy airline has to worry when serious LCC is invading their markets.
DeleteI disagree with the @An.22.20. LCC's and legacies are generally after different market segments. Legacies usually serve transfer pax and LCC P2P. On small and price sensitive markets like ex-yu markets are, one may have some impact on the other one, but still not to extent of endangerment and worry.
DeleteAnon 21:40
DeleteWhat a nonsense...
SJJ is in the east wave so mostly connections to the west are possible
DeleteNo Malmo Flights out of Sarajevo. Interesting
ReplyDeleteCopenhagen Airport is less then 30 minutes away from Malmo by direct train or car. Most people from Malmo fly out from Copenhagen. No reason to operate from both airports.
DeleteCould we see Wizz flying SJJ-ZAG. Theoretically yes, I think Wizz can fly to any EU country from BiH without special approval.
ReplyDeleteNo. Not because of administrative limitations but because P2P demand between SJJ and ZAG is weak. OU serves mostly transfers.
Deleteaha, ok. it takes about five hours to drive.
DeleteYES GREAT NEWS THANKS
ReplyDeleteFantastic news! Sarajevo will finally be able to show its full potential :)
ReplyDeleteGreat news, they should`ve attracted Ryanair as well so they can have a little war at SJJ. Nis Airport did a good job with that until Air Serbia at INI happened.
ReplyDelete