Wizz Air will suspend three routes out of its Skopje base in the coming days, with flights slated to resume next summer season. The budget carrier will end operations from the Macedonian capital to Turin, Billund and Turku. The last service to the Italian city is scheduled for next Wednesday, to Billund on Thursday and to Turku on Saturday. At this point, flights are set to resume during the last week of March 2023. As previously reported, Wizz has also removed a number of routes over the winter from its other bases in the former Yugoslavia, including from Belgrade and Tuzla, although Sarajevo will see the biggest reduction with flights to six destinations to be halted until next summer season.
The low cost airline boasts its biggest base in the former Yugoslavia in Skopje, with five aircraft stationed in the city. The carrier introduced services from the Macedonian capital to Turin this June, while flights to Billund were inaugurated last December. The Finnish city of Turku has been a fixture of Wizz Air’s Skopje network since 2019. The low cost airline has faced a number of operational issues this summer due to a lack of staff and capacity, which forced it to reduce frequencies across its network, including those from Skopje.
Wizz Air’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, visited Skopje earlier this year. The carrier is believed to be preparing to take part in the Macedonian government’s tender aimed at subsidising the launch of new routes, which it has won on all three previous occasions. Tender procedures were expected to kick off this summer, although the process is yet to be launched. Wizz Air is said to be considering flights from Skopje to Slovenia, as well as a destination on the Croatian coast, Prague and the resumption of some routes which have been discontinued by the carrier from the Macedonian capital over the past few years. New services from Ohrid are also expected.
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What is happening with Wizz Air? Why are they cutting routes across ex-Yu so much?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like damage control. They've lost a lot of money this year.
DeleteDon't forget that Wizz has added a few routes from PRN in the last year and I assume it is having some impact on their SKP routes.
Delete^ that makes no sense. None of the suspended routes are operated from PRN.
DeleteNor did they have impact on SKP. Trolls are just trolling
DeleteThat’s how slowing down for winter looks like. Every winter is like that .
DeleteIt’s a pity that out of the 3 new routes they launched in the last year from SKP just 1 was kept year round
ReplyDeleteWhich one was that?
DeleteBologna
DeleteThanks
DeleteIf SKP doesen’t diversify its destination network and airlines Sarajevo will overtake it next year
ReplyDeleteIronically both depend a great deal on Wizz
DeleteYes but Sarajevo also has Gulf network to rely on
DeleteSarajevo growth will slow significantly in winter with 6 Wizz routes suspended.
DeleteI don't think any airport in region will grow during this winter. Sure, they will comparing to last year (all will), but vs. 2019 I think SJJ will still have good ratio.
Deletedifference now is around 400k so SJJ needs atleast 30 more departing flights weekly to overtake SKP.
Delete@9.19 A lot of it is seasonal
DeleteSJJ will overtake SKP. Flydubai is already launching daily flights over the Christmas period to begin with and the gap is already narrowing quite a lot.
DeleteWe will see in the future but for this year defenitly not.
DeleteThey should come to ZAG and expand the routes where Ryanair does not fly and make benefit from it. Would be great for people and I guess for Wizz Air too... I think there will be demand since it is still low cost and if it flies where Ryanair doesn't people will travel...
ReplyDeleteThey have been there, done that and they couldn't make it even without Ryanair.
DeleteAnd why is that?
DeleteLow demand
DeleteHopefully the tender takes place soon and new routes are launched.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope the tender is launched and another airline actually wins.
DeleteWe have been over it a million times. No other airline is interested. Not a single airline other than Wizz has ever applied to the tenders.
DeleteBecause the tenders were made in their favour.
DeleteNot really. The process was rather transparent.
DeleteThe process was transparent but the main prerequisite for bidding was that the airline has at least one aircraft based at SKP. No other airline will open a base just to win a subsidy of 3mil €
Delete@10.32 what kind of troll are you? If Wizz could open a base for 3 mio Ryanair could have done it too .. they are just late to the party.
Delete@11:12
DeleteI don’t know why you think I’m trying to troll.
I didn’t say that Ryan or any airline couldn’t open a base. I said that I don’t think that it is economically feasible to open a base just to win a public tender of 3 mil €.
Wiz opened SKP in 2013, long before the first subsidy. By the time the first subsidies were announced they already had 3 aircraft in the base. I do not have exact numbers but I am sure that the cost of running a base for 3 years (the duration of the subsidies) is more than the 3 million that they will get. Also low cost airlines are trying to avoid running 1 aircraft bases because it’s not cost beneficial. And for someone to base more than one aircraft they would have to open 6-8 new routes which is not realistic at the moment.
I was just stating my opinion. Don’t know why you thought I was trolling
Dude the first ever tender was to base a plane at Skopje and so the story with the Wizz base began (stop inventing things). Before that they only had two routes: Luton and Venice. They also applied to base one aircraft later in Ohd (just one) for the same price but the mk gov annulled it. Ryanair just slept (or werent taking this area seriously back then or werent intetrsted , fair enough) as did Easyjet
DeleteFor you to have a good sleep again am gonna tell you that the next tender is not about basing a plane
If you think that the cost of a base is bigger then the subs which are indeed the smallest in exyu then SKP must be a pretty good market for Wizz to have based 5 airplanes there under such conditions
Again, no need for hostility.
DeleteI might be wrong about the first subsidies but that is how I remember it.
I do not know the reasons why Ryan or Easy didn’t step in when they could so I don’t want to speculate.
I sleep well as it is so whether a based aircraft will be a condition in the new subsidy program will not change it. But if they don’t require based aircraft then there is a real possibility for someone else to apply. Otherwise it will be only Wizz
SKP might not be the best market for Wizz (like TIA at the moment) but it is very stable. And it took 5 years and 3 subsidy tenders to get to 5 aircraft. Didn’t happen overnight. That is why I said that I don’t see anyone else applying if the based aircraft requirement stays. It was just an observation, no criticism or anything else
They should really launch Abu Dhabi. No competition from Flydubai or Qatar Airways anymore. It would be a really good destination.
ReplyDeleteThere is likely a reason those two are not back and there are no flights to the Middle East
DeleteToo many routes in Italy
ReplyDeleteNothing compared to Germany :D
DeleteSad
ReplyDeleteBillund really didn't work out for them from any ex-Yu city.
ReplyDeleteIt works in summer but it's very seasonal obviously.
DeleteThey also launched it last winter from TIA and it was catastrophical. They need to start CPH instead.
DeleteTIA did well with 9 plane's from WIZZAIR...
DeleteI know they did well. I was talking about Billund specifically.
DeleteConsidering Wizz's financial performance, I'm not surprised.
ReplyDeleteNot that drastic. The worst cuts are in SJJ.
ReplyDeleteWill they remove a plane from SKP during winter?
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteI watch YouTube quite a lot and Skopje usually is included in a trip frequently by land if you are coming from Albania or Serbia. There is simply no demand by air and not much to see and do compared to Ohrid for instance. For the last 3 years we have not witnessed not even 1 new route with constant demand. Not even Moscow survived.
ReplyDeleteTirana closed July with figures almost as much as Belgrade and there are still new destinations yet to come. Skopje serves mainly Germany and Sweden and a purely gasto airport. Lets be honest.
Lol
DeleteKeep on watching youtube, dude
DeleteWhy are you triggered? Tell me which route has survived during the last years in Skopje?
DeleteDude, look at Sarajevo. They are even gonna have UK winter ski flights and even have Lufthansa flights.
SKP serves whole Macedonia. Wizz air is perfect for Macedonia. The Macedonia diaspora who mostly use these flights have directs flights to SKP, on every wizzair flight wil be a tourists and foreigners found who probably wouldn't have visited Macedonia without these direct flights. And the people from Macedonia can visit places like Berlin, London, Rome,Milan,Amsterdam(via Eindhoven),Malta,Venice and Budapest. So it's really not only diaspora who use these flights and the passenger numbers in SKP are really good for a country with 1,8 million people.
DeleteSKP does not serve the whole country because there is also OHD. Yes, there are tourists but not in huge numbers. The city lacks basic important destinations such as Amsterdam, Paris CDG, Frankfurt, etc.
DeleteToday, the airport relies mainly on diaspora flights and those via Turkey. 1,8 million can be the size of Belgrade or Warsaw by the way.
OHD is peanuts compared to SKP. Even people from OHD use mostly SKP and Tirana become lately also populair there. I think it will be good to have flights to FRA and AMS and i think there is enough demand for these routes. But with staff shortages there they will very likely start Skopje. And if SKP removes Hahn Lufthansa will defenitly start SKP from FRA but WIZZ will defenitly not let that happen.
Delete@ anon 14:02 - that’s bs. I am from Ohrid, and I either fly out of OHD or TIA, which is closer than SKP anyway.
Delete16.02 not convinced at all
DeleteHey, they have increased flights to other destinations so the effect is not gonna be that big
ReplyDeleteBCN has gone from SKP
DeleteWrong thread
DeleteWizz Air has gotten very shaky post pandemic. Very frequent delays and cancellations. A shame because they are the only ones we (we being most folks here in Skopje) can afford to fly with.
ReplyDeleteI hope Barcelona will be back to Skopje
ReplyDeleteIt will be hard since Barcelona performing so well in TIA going 5x weekly
DeleteBarcelona, Ljubljana, Prague, Split?
DeletePula
ReplyDeleteThe next financial report will not be pretty. Besides they need the capacity to move something to Romania because of Blue Air. I would expect further cuts.
ReplyDeleteThey just cancelled the flight BEG-NYO
ReplyDeleteLook at the picture. Skopje airport has 204 gates....
ReplyDeleteGlad that you like it
DeleteAnyway, we still don’t have CDG, AMS and FRA flights
ReplyDelete