Low cost carrier Wizz Air will close its base at Sarajevo Airport in November, less than a year and a half after initially stationing its first aircraft in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. All routes will be terminated with exception to London Luton and Abu Dhabi. The carrier will shift focus to Tuzla instead, where it faces incoming competition from Ryanair, which will launch services to the city next month. As a result, Wizz will introduce new flights from Tuzla to Eindhoven and will bolster frequencies on services to Basel, Dortmund and Memmingen. This summer, the airline had two jets based in Sarajevo and maintained 21 destinations in eleven countries
In a statement, Wizz Air said, “It is with deep regret that we had to make the difficult but responsible decision to close our base in Sarajevo from November 1, 2022. Passengers with bookings affected by this decision will be contacted by email with advice on all their available options”. The company pointed out that the decision is the result of “the challenging macroeconomic environment”, as well as continuous issues in the supply chain. "After reviewing our current performance, it is important for us to quickly adapt our network to changes in the market and the needs of our customers, in order to remain resilient and competitive. Accordingly, for now, we are focusing on increasing our presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Tuzla, and, therefore. we will close our base in Sarajevo”, Wizz added.
Wizz Air launched operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital after winning a tender organised by Sarajevo Airport which was seeking a low cost carrier to base two aircraft in the city, in return for a number of incentives. Based on the tender conditions, Wizz was eligible for additional discounts in the coming period. The carrier was the only one to apply during the tender process. Sarajevo Airport welcomed a record 1.131.486 passengers during the first three quarters of the year, with 2022 set to become its busiest on record. Much of its growth has been fuelled by Wizz Air.
Pilots and cabin crew stationed in Sarajevo will be given options to move to Tuzla or other neighbouring bases. Wizz Air is suspending a growing number of destinations in the former Yugoslavia this coming winter season, although most are set to be restored next summer. "Despite unprecedented difficulties in the tourism industry in the last two years, Wizz Air remains committed to long-term growth in Bosnia and Herzegovina, creating hundreds of direct jobs, while stimulating the tourism and hospitality sectors. We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience this decision has caused", Wizz Air concluded. Further details for the airline’s new service from Tuzla to Eindhoven can be viewed here.
This is BAD. And it shows how unreliable the airline really is
ReplyDeleteHonestly I'm not worried about reliability of WizzAir. They shut down bases or terminate routes and then launch new bases and routes. It's their business model.
DeleteWhat Wizz air is doing can be defined as a scam. They publish number of routes, selling tickets, canceling them and there they have strange and unfair practice of returning the money (even if they return there are always some fees they claim non-refundable). This will not end well.
DeleteIf only the Hungarian CAA or EASA would be as fair as the Romanian one... They would be like Blue Air already.
DeleteI had enough of Wizz cutting routes. I would rather have Air Serbia fly direct from Sarajevo to the major EU hubs. It would improve connectivity and make life easier.
Deletewow!
ReplyDeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how low the yields were.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts too. That or they couldn't agree about subsidies going forward.
Delete+1
DeleteThose parasites can't subsist without subsidies.
DeleteThis is disastrous news for Sarajevo. I guess it's back to LH group and Turkish with a bunch of Gulf routes no locals use.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
DeleteThey have JU too.
DeleteJU is not very strong in Sarajevo.
DeleteJU is outperformed even by OU not only in SJJ but in SKP too. It's long overdue for frequency increases.
DeleteThere goes Sarajevo's dream run. Really unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteA shocker. People were talking just a week ago how Sarajevo turned it around this year and that numbers will explode next year.
ReplyDeleteOuch
ReplyDeleteAs some fondly say here "winter is coming". It's going to be a quiet one in Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why countries need a dependable state owned Airline such as Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines. You can always rely on them. Wizz air and Ryanair are no cheaper anyway, and give you a big headache!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteOf course , and tax payers eaters !!!
DeleteSo... an average Serbian or Croatian, could rely on flying with Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines with those prices and fares, if Ryanair or Wizz Air would pull out of Zagreb and Belgrade? Riiiight...
DeleteWizz Air can quote often be much more expensive then a full service Airline once all the extras are added on. I fly London to Split and OU can easily beat easyJet on price once all the extras are added on!
Delete@11,06
DeleteAlthough I've been very critical to JU fares, they have been fairly ok this year. They've had quite a few decent promos, one just ended a couple of days ago with 39€ fares. Competition is good and we can see this where Wizz competes with JU. Either of them pulling out isn't good.
@10,21
Wizz also eats tax payer funds. They were given subsidies in SJJ for their base. The national carrier at least stays in its home country. You aint going to see JU for example relocate aircraft to Germany, Italy or Spain.
I had enough of Wizz cutting routes. I would rather have Air Serbia fly direct from Sarajevo to the major EU hubs. It would improve connectivity and make life easier.
DeleteIf an LCC can't make it work in Sarajevo, what chances do the other have.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey didn't do badly in Sarajevo. This is not a reason to close.
DeleteThey didn't do badly in Sarajevo. This is not a reason for closure.
DeleteIf I were Skopje Airport, I would be working hard to actually finding a second partner. LCCs are like this. One day you see them, the other you don't.
ReplyDeleteWhich legacy carrier would set up a base in SKP?
DeleteI didn't mean legacy but they could diversify their LCC offer.
DeleteThey are not gonna do that. SKP is a really reliable base for Wizzair.Ofcourse they will suspend a route for some months but they are not shutting the base down. They almost have no concurention and Wizz in Bosnia has with Raynair. Maybe Wizzair reacted to this becasue of Raynair introducing flights from Tuzla and it's presence in Banja Luka. But probably two bases in an close catchment area was too much(for the low season of course in the high season it works). I am curious if raynair will react to Wizzair closing it's base in Sarajevo.
DeleteIt is still better not to have all your eggs in one basket, especially if that airline is generating 70% of your traffic, it has very good blackmailing potential. TAV needs to wake up.
DeleteAnonymous 09:11 which LCCs are not like this?
Delete@Anon 09:35 Cardiff, Doncaster, Prague, Kosice, Riga, Dortmund, Catania, Lublin, Poznan etc etc were all reliable bases yet they were abandoned in a blink of an eye. It must be great to be a business partner of Wizz Air.
DeletePRG is known very well for being notoriously expensive for ULCCs. DCA is bankrupt but will be served by Leeds.
DeleteDSA is not bankrupt. The owner decided to sell it for housing. Partially because Wizz abandoned their DSA base back in August with 2 weeks notice. Joke of an airline.
DeleteLocals no not fly much.
ReplyDeleteActually, it was mostly locals on these Wizz flights from Sarajevo, and most of them were full
DeleteMakes sense, Tuzla has a much bigger catchment area
ReplyDeleteGreat. Now we no longer have flights to most European countries anymore... AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on Tuzla? They still have significantly less flights to TZL than they did 3 years ago.
ReplyDeleteWinter is coming!
ReplyDeleteIs this the first base Wizz Air has closed? I don't remember them completely packing up and leaving any of their bases.
ReplyDeleteDortmund,Doncaster,Oslo,Kosice,Bergen
Delete+Cardiff
DeletePalermo, Trondheim...
DeletePoznan, Riga, Prague, Targu Mures. They come and go as they wish.
DeleteCatania.
DeleteCatania is a base and will not close. They will close Palermo.
DeleteA sign of things to come from Wizz for the region.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, whoever at Wizz decided that opening a base in Sarajevo was the right thing to do should be fired. Don't they do any research?
ReplyDeleteConsidering how many routes they launch a suspend within months, it seems like they don't.
DeleteThe one made that decision does not work there anymore. Complete departments are leaving after 1-2 years.
DeleteIf having 160pax minimum on every flight is bad for business, than you shoud never comment about aviation again.
DeleteI feel really sad for Sarajevo. This is really unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteProbably poor research. While I'm sure loads were good to/from Sarajevo, I can imagine the yields were low and there was probably marked seasonality.
DeleteWhere did it go wrong?
ReplyDeleteIdiots. I got an email from them this morning saying that I can take a flight from Tuzla.
ReplyDeleteDid they offer compensation?
DeleteYes, in form of a voucher to use on their flight.
DeleteAren't they also legally obliged to pay off the whole amount to the passenger?
DeleteAre things at Wizz Air getting bad financially? I don't think this Wizz story will end well.
ReplyDeleteThere's a great word in German for this kind of company : Suppenfirma !!!
DeleteNece prezivjeti narednih 12 mjeseci.
DeleteWho is running that company and how unorganized they are I can only imagine what is big business decision next? Base in INI? Base in Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteLjubljana ;)
Delete09:17:
DeleteIndigo Holding (Arizona) and other small shareholders from UK,USA.
Wizz Air is UK based airline holding with subsidiaries in Hungary,UK,Abu Dhabi,Malta.
Anon 9:25 that was a rhetorical question Ofc I know who's money behind it, but it is run by CEO Varadi and bunch of idiots from Hungary...
DeleteOfc Ljubljana looks like a good base that has not been yet ripped off
DeleteThe real question is whether this is a Wizz problem or a Sarajevo problem. Considering the very few European airlines serving Sarajevo, I fear it may be the latter.
ReplyDeleteEvery Wizz cancellation from SJJ was due to crew duty time. They were late on departure for 30min on each flight. That accumulated at the end of day up to 2 hours. Most of these flights were 90% full. Sowe kinda expected something like this to happen in near future. Not as fast as this happened
Deletethough...
:(
ReplyDeleteWizz started to nose-dive since the pandemic, this shows how crucial it is to have a management with vision to steer during the hard times. It's easy to have insider info about bankruptcy of a national carrier and establish a new carrier to replace it using the connections within a corrupt government.
ReplyDeleteThis also means absolutely 0% of them launching flights to Mostar. So that agreement Mostar Airport management signed in the lobby of Wizz Air HQ means nothing.
ReplyDeleteIf they get tax payers cash for a season they will turn up at OMO
Delete^ True.
DeleteIn my mind Wizz air is like an enemy of the airports. Eaven wizz should do some research when they enter the market. They say that yield is low but I'm not surprised. They are unreliable and acting like they own the world.
ReplyDeleteOuch. This is an extreme fail. W6 is going nuts, what ever happened to them since Covid ???
ReplyDeleteTheir massive expansion during Covid is what got them in this situation in the first place.
Delete+1
DeleteIt is time to put SJJ up for concession.
ReplyDeleteI guess the 5 year terminal expansion of Sarajevo Airport, which would have been completed in 1 by most airports in the world will satisfy its needs for the upcoming period.
ReplyDeleteIs it not difficult to open/close/suspend here/there on a short notice?
ReplyDeleteI can't get how they can be so flexible with all their plans ( facilities, agreements, offices, staff, contracts etc.) everywhere they decide to fly?
It seems an organisational nightmare with all these changes.
Am I missing something?
That just means I will never fly with them. To London Luton I CAN'T fly (as long as they require visas from Bosnian passport holders), Abu Dhabi no interest at all, and I am not mad to use the awful road Sarajevo-Tuzla. Hopefully we get flights from Mostar instead soon
ReplyDeleteWhere were you originally heading to?
DeleteI wanted to fly to Treviso and Memmingen, Cologne too
DeleteWhat a mess!
ReplyDeleteI don't like Sarajevo's chances if no other airline applied for the tender last year.
ReplyDeleteGoes to show that airports should be very careful of the subsidies they give to LCCs.
ReplyDeleteThe very worst airline in Europe, by far. Shall vanish from the market. A bunch of clowns, completely unreliable people, starting from the Top Management. Fly a full-service / national carrier instead, pay a bit more but at least you do not need to worry about CONTINUOUS cancellations and route changes.
ReplyDeleteIf you check carefully on other bases such as SOF or OTP, they are oddly leasing SkyUp aircraft and using them fo fly inspite of having their aircraft permanently based there for years.
ReplyDeleteIn Romania, they are hungry to get more profit after the final decision that BlueAir ain't gonna fly soon anytime.
Ryanair has not yet launched its summer 2023 in many countries which is normal by this time of the year. I guess they are acting really cautiously because of this stupid energy war bs that affected may Euro countries.
Tarom is also suspending Vienna and Barcelona for the first time in decades. Bulgaria Air has leased 3 Embraers to TAP during the whole summer season probably and some of its A320s to Condor. Survival mode I guess.
Either way, kudos to JU for being resilient and even getting new aircraft and not being affected. Will be interesting to see the Cuban and Chinese developments. And yes, as banal as it sounds the winter will be a harsh one.
Finally also have my doubts about their recent Saudi expansion. Their first flight from Italy had barely 60 people onboard. I don't even wanna know how smaller markets will perform and if the cost of the tourist visa is absurdly expensive. Even if Saudi is trying to be like UAE.
Yes but keep in mind Saudi Arabia is making up for any financial losses on routes. That's why Wizz Air expanded there.
Delete"Saudi Arabia has begun offering financial incentives to airlines in exchange for operating unprofitable routes. The incentives are available to any airline, with funding coming from the country’s Public Investment Fund."
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/08/former-yugoslav-markets-see-untapped.html
Yep, they go anywhere where money is offered. Hopefully they continue to go east then end up as Wizz Air India and Wizz Air China leaving Europe alone eventually.
DeleteAnon 12:29 - Thanks for the info. Had no clue about the KSA policy. No wonder why Wizz did not lose even a minute and expand there. Again, visa prices are insanely expensive and only for selected countries:
DeleteThe cost for the tourist eVisa is SAR 535 SAR. The visa cost includes a fee for full health insurance during your stay in the Kingdom. The cost for the tourist visa on arrival is SAR 480 SAR. The multiple-entry tourist visa is valid for one year from the date of issuance, and the permissible period of stay is 90 days
https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/about-e-visa#:~:text=The%20cost%20for%20the%20tourist,of%20stay%20is%2090%20days.
Also, I heard that JED is much more enjoyable than RUH it being their coastal capital.
@12,24
DeleteJU looks like won't be launching BEG-HAV. Nordwind has restarted regular SVO-VRA flights a few days ago, Cayo Coco to follow. They're being arranged by Russian travel agencies. That was supposed to be one of the main markets for JU. The ac that is supposed to be YU-ARC hasn't been active in the last 2 weeks since doing a test flight over Arizona. Painting the livery is almost always done in Europe and the aircraft is yet to make the journey across the pond. JU has also been awfully quiet about TSN which is supposed to start this month. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the delivery isn't pushed back to February/March when YU-ARB would go on maintenance, returning just before BEG-ORD is launched (March/April 2023). Hopefully I am wrong.
You are wrong. In any case this is an article about Wizz Air in Sarajevo. You should try sticking to the topic.
Delete+1
DeleteWizz Air will report heavy losses once again, so it's no surprise they are cutting routes.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrific airline, I booked with them for the first time this winter EIN - SJJ. Got a mail yesterday that they changed to TZL and a few days earlier. Online I could only cancel and get wizz credits. Phone numbers were almost not possible to find on the website or 1 min = 1 EUR LOL!
ReplyDeleteCould Ryan Air potentially come into the Sarajevo market?
ReplyDeleteThat would be a great idea. Ryanair could benefit from Wizzair's missfit
DeleteRumor has it Ryanair will jump in very soon in Sarajevo :)
DeleteBecause Ryanair is well know for never closing down bases. I think just this year they closed 3.
DeleteWith less than a month notice like Wizz Air?
DeleteAlready got email from AirSerbia that they are increasing capacity on Beg-Sjj route; good work asl :D
ReplyDeleteAnd dumping prices for connecting passengers on several routes. Well, that was QUICK
DeleteYou will get an email one day from OU too but for now it is still too soon.
DeleteWizzAir actually never was an Airline in traditional sense. It was a hedge fund with planes run from London. This news has absolutely nothing to do with Sarajevo market potential or airport. It has to do with global financialization of the Airline industry in the last 30 years. It the next period people should be aware of additional risk when purchasing tickets from these so called low cost companies. It is the model of making quick euro/dolla by Excell types sitting in corner office in London that is falling apart.
ReplyDeleteHit the nail on the head.
DeleteVery interesting and good point, Boris.
DeleteSpot on.
Deleteyet you can recognize leader's personal vendetta and petty revenge behing some of the so called business decisions at wizz.
Delete"Financialisation of airline industry"... Never have more people flown nor has connectivity been better, largely thanks to LCCs and investors who backed them... I'll take Wizz over a corrupt local national airline any day of the week
DeleteAlot of destinations left unserved now, I wonder if anyone will fill some spots in? Maybe Ryanair with a few destinations? Thats a big hit for Sarajevo considering Wizz was a big part of there success.
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t make sense that they couldn’t keep 1 aircraft based in SJJ, operating 4/5 routes, sounds like there more worried about running RyanAir out of Tuzla?
ReplyDeleteIssue is that SJJ is incredibly unreliable during winter months due to poor visibility. Not sure if something can be done to address this or is approach to steep. Would decrease summer seasonality and there's a bit of extra winter demand that could be attracted (e.g. TUI launching from LGW)
ReplyDelete