Wizz Air will introduce three new routes from Skopje and a new service from Ohrid this December as it restations a fifth aircraft in the Macedonian capital. The announcement comes just days after easyJet unveiled it would enter the Macedonian market in November. Wizz Air will introduce flights from Skopje to Turin, Bologna and Billund on December 18 and 19, while it will also launch operations from Ohrid to Friedrichshafen in southern Germany on December 18. All of the routes will be maintained twice per week. The new additions will bring Wizz Air’s Skopje network to 34 destinations, while it will serve Ohrid from eight points in Europe.
| Route | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Skopje - Turin | 18.12.2021 |
| Ohrid - Friedrichshafen | 18.12.2021 |
| Skopje - Bologna | 19.12.2021 |
| Skopje - Billund | 19.12.2021 |
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The low cost airline will now maintain five destinations from Skopje to Italy with Turin and Bologna complementing Rome, Venice and Milan. Based on OAG data, in the pre-pandemic 2019, some 1.888 travellers flew indirectly on a single itinerary between Skopje and Bologna, while passenger flow between the Macedonian capital and Turin was negligible. Billund will become Skopje’s second destination in Denmark after Copenhagen. On the other hand, Friedrichshafen will be the carrier’s third point in Germany from Ohrid after Dortmund and Memmingen.
Commenting on the expansion, Wizz Air said, “The new routes will add up to the existing services already operated from both Skopje and Ohrid airports and will restate the airline’s commitment to offering Macedonian passengers flights to diverse destinations. The new services to Bologna, Turin, Friedrichshafen and Billund will start being operated thanks to the allocation of a fifth aircraft to the Wizz Air base in Skopje”. Prior to the pandemic, Wizz had five jets stationed in the Macedonian capital, however, this was downsized last year due to Covid-19, with the airline yet to reinstate its entire Skopje network. “Wizz Air is now offering even more diversity in terms of destinations to Macedonians”, the airline’s Corporate Communications Manager, Paulina Gosk, concluded. In the former Yugoslavia, Wizz Air has already announced the addition of new routes from Belgrade, Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Tuzla from mid-December.
Excellent news!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Italy is turning out to be such an important market for Wizz in Skopje.
ReplyDeleteMacedonians with Bulgarian passports living in Italy. Same goes for Denmark. It has become the new hot gasto spot, specifically Billund.
DeleteItaly is a classic gasto market, nothing new
Delete"Trst via Skopje" ;)
their first route after Luton was Venice (later moved to Treviso when the airprort works finished)
DeleteAre these gasto or non gasto routes? Hard to determine.
ReplyDeleteThere is huge Macedonian diaspora in Turin, and as well Albanian in both Turin and Bologna. Friedrichshafen is more than obvious, but I am not sure about Billund.
DeleteSkopje seems a very handy market for them since they not only serve Macedonia but others too.
DeleteBologna will get a fair share of tourists. It will be the closest airport to Florence arguably one of the most popular italian cities in MK. and Bologna itself is fab
DeletePisa is closer but I I think wizz doesn’t want to compete with Ryanair.
Delete"closest" from Skopje. I think they chose Bologna over Pisa because they can get more ethnic (aka gasto) travel trough BLQ.
DeleteMaybe one third from the diaspora from SW MK (Debar, Struga, Ohrid, Resen, Bitola) is in Italy, the latest gasto point (underestimated with many daily bus dep.) and maybe half from the first town) Macedonians/Albanians - no matter.
DeleteAlso Turin is near Alba, Asti, Alessandria, Piacenza (or so called little Strumica).
@Anon 14:07 why the route is not served from OHD instead of SKP then? OHD is only connected to MXP in Italy :(
DeleteGood they are bringing the fifth plane back.
ReplyDeleteIt was reported that the EU will blacklist North Macedonia (USA, Israel, Lebanon and Kosovo*) from the next evaluation. Hopefully this doesn't affect air travel that much.
ReplyDeleteDoes Wizz have a base in Billund now? I notice they are launching it from many ex-Yu cities.
ReplyDeleteNo but their network to Billund is growing. More and more routes not just from ex-Yu. It used to be a Norwegian focus city which it no longer is following their near-collapse so I guess they see an opportunity.
DeleteInteresting, thanks.
DeleteBillund is the geographic center of Denmark and not situated on an island but on the continent.
DeleteI'm surprised they are flying Billund and Copenhagen from Skopje.
ReplyDeleteI believe these are the first new Wizz routes being launched from SKP without subsidies.
ReplyDeletenope. second tme
DeleteI think the current subsidies for the new routes launched during the expansion before this one runs up at the end of the year. So we can expect the government to launch new tender soon.
Deletethese subs were halted when the pandemic started because Wizz didnt fly to Larnaca, Bremen, HAJ and the 4th destination which i forgot.
Deletebut yes a new tender is to be expected
Delete3rd time if we consider Luton and Venice/Treviso the two oldest routes
DeleteDidn't see these routes coming. Good work.
ReplyDelete"The new additions will bring Wizz Air’s Skopje network to 34 destinations"
ReplyDeleteThis really is amazing.
Huge network. Bigger than OU and Air Montenegro which are national airlines.
DeleteTrue but OU has much more frequencies since most of Wizz's routes are 2 to 3 weekly.
DeleteGreat. They are all already on sale, except the Ohrid one.
ReplyDeleteSurprising they haven't loaded the Ohrid flights yet.
Deletegerman media saying tue and sat with A321
DeleteLet's see. The new routes from Skopje are on A320 which can be seen on their seat maps when you go and book a ticket. Probably one of the Skopje A321s will be doing the Ohrid rotation.
Deletecould be. this morning they flew out of SKP with 4 A321s
DeleteIt's an A320 scheduled for now Ohrid - Friedrichshafen
Deletewow 5 italian destinations! Svaka cast
ReplyDeletethought Ancona would be their next italian destination from SKP as they already showed interest in that route(was also reported here i think)
ReplyDeleteMe too but I think this was dependent on Ancona Airport's plan to subsidise new flights and then Covid came so they probably never followed through with the subsidy plan.
Delete@exyu Ohrid will have 8 dest. not 7 ;)
ReplyDeleteOHD has a lot of potential for even more growth with Wzz. Scandinavia is not well covered from there, but Scandinavian tourists would love OHD. CPH, GOT/NYO, TRF/OSL could all be served and also EIN would work perfectly. HAM might work as well and TLV probably.
Deletei thought Frankfurt-Hahn and Götteborg would be the next ones. Shame they are not interested (yet) in seasonal flights. the potential there is even bigger
DeleteWhole UK can work seasonally for Ohrid.
Deletea second norwegian destination (Bergen?) and all Scandinavia is covered
ReplyDeleteBergen is the most logic destination in Norway other than Oslo. Also, maybe OHD-TRF can work.
Deletethis is Turin's first exyu route!
ReplyDeleteIt should've been to Kragujevac:D
DeleteFinally Torino!
DeleteFJ!
:)
^ Why Kragujevac ???
DeleteStojadin
Deleteljubljana waits
ReplyDeleteNice additions.
ReplyDeleteSkopje-Bologna is 1888 pax and thus gets two weekly connections?
ReplyDeleteThats fascinating because there are so many unserved routes in Ex Yu that have indirect traffic in four digits.
Alone from BEG that could be more than 20..
Wizzair is a blessing for Skopje and Macedonia!
Interested to hear the SME's on this site - do you think we will ever see the likes of KLM, BA or LH flying to Skopje from the major European hubs?
ReplyDelete