Air Serbia has responded to Wizz Air’s Belgrade expansion, after the low cost carrier announced yesterday the addition of five new routes, among which are Berlin and Copenhagen, where it will compete directly against the Serbian carrier, as well as Bergamo, where it has indirect competition on the Milan route. As a result, Air Serbia is increasing services to Berlin from six to eight weekly, Copenhagen from five weekly to daily, and Milan from daily to ten weekly. The airline will add a seventh weekly flight to Berlin from April 1 (on Saturdays) and the eighth weekly service from May 4 (on Thursdays). Copenhagen operations will grow to six weekly from May 17 (on Wednesdays) and to daily from May 31 (on Saturdays). The carrier will add an additional flight per week to Milan from May 2, May 19 and May 26, respectively, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Almost all of the added frequencies will run on the same days Wizz Air is operating its flights to the three cities. The budget carrier plans to maintain four weekly rotations to both Berlin and Copenhagen, as well as five weekly to Bergamo. Air Serbia and Wizz Air will compete head-to-head on a number of routes in 2023, with the Serbian carrier having announced over twenty new destinations so far for next year. The airline is expected to unveil more new routes in the coming period, with the carrier’s CEO, Jiri Marek, noting last week that up to thirty destinations could be added to its network during the year.
Air Serbia has prided itself in recent years for its agility and swift reaction to evolving market conditions. In 2019 it was the first carrier to respond to the collapse of Adria Airways by introducing additional flights to Ljubljana. Similarly, in 2020 it was the first to react to Montenegro Airlines’ sudden bankruptcy, while this year it also moved quickly after the collapse of Blue Air in Romania and Wizz Air’s base closure in Sarajevo by adding additional flights, capacity and launching rescue fares. The carrier has noted that its dynamic approach to scheduling and pricing during the height of the coronavirus pandemic enabled it to quickly rebound from the global slowdown in air travel.
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They will have to match them on price too.
ReplyDeleteThat will be easy since currently AirSerbia is cheaper than Wizz on those destinations on majority of flights. AS service cannot be compared plus the fares in AS include more services for a about the same money. Idk who is willing to pay about 18000 for a return ticket to Berlin or Copenhagen and to take only a backpack with them...
DeleteBig advantage of Air Serbia is that their price include normal cabin luggage and not only a backpack.
DeleteI also personally prefer much more to fly with A319 than with A321 as it takes much longer with A321 to board the plane and to leave the plane after landing.
Air Serbia also has FF and Wizz doesn't.
In case of flight cancellation Air Serbia is going to book you the flight with any other legacy carrier to bring you to booked destination. Wizzair is going only to pay you back the money for the ticket and they won't care how you will get to requested destination.
That sure is the case, right now AS is more competitive with both prices and the service they offer, I really don't see a reason someone would fly Wizz, their flight time is ok but still...
DeleteYou might like e A319 more than A321, but numbers speak for itself. Wizz will always be able to offer lower fares without having to lose the money…
DeleteWizz lost money in the last 2 years
DeleteAno11:32, ditto! The cabin luggage fare is so ridiculous on Wizz now. As a frequent Belgrade London flyers (not for business), flying with them has become much less interesting since they increased their cabine luggage fares. So I prefer to spend a bit more on Air Serbia and land in Heathrow as a bonus on top to fly with a legacy carrier.
Deletewizz does not offer low fares on these flights right now
DeleteNeither Air Serbia. Overpriced service on both carriers with low quality service
DeleteAS is cheaper only in august for a limited number of flights. Later, wizz is 60€ + return ticket.
DeleteI took a random om date, not too far from now. 19th of January. Belgrade to London with Air Serbia ticket costs 90 eur. Wizz Air cost exactly the same but if adding cabin luggage it is more than 150 eur!
DeleteYou need to know to choose right option with Wizz. Flex, priority and other... You can travel on that date for 90€ and checked luggage, not cabin..
DeleteAnon21:20 I am not a moron and know how to use the Wizz Air app, I’ve been using it for years. Wizz priority which is required since it is the only way to get a large cabin baggage cost 60 eur on this flight.
DeleteSince when is Wizz Priority €60? It was €10 or €12.
DeleteI noticed the Wizz Priority price increase during the summer and it only got worse since. I think they took advantage when Airports were struggling with the handling of checked baggage and much more people started to travel with cabin luggage only. And for those who will still pretend they know better, here is a a screencap of app https://ibb.co/F5CNQjm
DeleteTalking about wizz flex too, you can combine that. Check to see the cheaper options. Your priority of 60€ for me is about 15-20€. So, you know to use app but other options?
DeleteGood move
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how they are going after each other.
ReplyDeleteThere is noting interesting there, its simply cut throat business, or survival mode, only way to kick one or the other out of the competition is to go after them full force. I don't agree with the method, but it has been around for a long time. After all, this is JU's home turf.
DeleteYes but it will make BEG a lot more competitive compared to other airports in the region. OSI, TZL and TSR will feel this.
DeleteHope there will be room for both.
ReplyDeleteW6 has also increased a lot of frequencies. Many of their routes from BEG will become daily.
ReplyDeleteWhich ones?
DeleteBarcelona has become daily from what I see! That's on top of JU's 9x weekly next summer.
DeleteNice!
DeleteWizz Air also increased BEG-FCO to daily.
DeleteBEG-Italy will have 52 weekly flights next summer.
Eindhoven and Memmingen also becoming daily.
DeleteI guess EIN does well for them given the chaos at AMS.
DeleteDortmund also going daily.
DeleteWhy such a huge increase in flights and capacity to Italy (from both airlines).
DeleteSo how many weekly flights will Wizz Air have from Belgrade?
DeleteDuring the summer I mean
DeleteJust under 100 weekly flights by Wizz from Belgrade next summer.
Delete99 weekly flights to be exact
DeleteItaly is the 4th most popular tourist destination from BEG. This market was highly underserved and we are finally getting the capacity we need. So far all routes launched by JU and W6 to Italy were a success.
DeleteJust look at how well W6 does in Rome now, a destination where they failed some years ago.
Knowing Wizz, Air Serbia doesn't have to worry much since Wizz will probably cancel half of the routes by launch time.
ReplyDeleteI hope not but you are right, they are completely unreliable.
DeleteNo-one in their right mind would book a flight with Wizz Air. Before COVID they were OK, but nowadays they cancel flights regularly and the customer service is non existent. It's worth paying a little extra to Air Serbia and avoid headaches!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI fully agree that Air Serbia is better and I would choose them always ahead of Wizz however Air Serbia customer service needs major improvement too.
DeleteWizz is flying full from and to BEG so I guess people are not at their right mind.
Delete@09:05
Delete+100!
With which aircraft? Where are the aircraft orders? This massive expansion is getting really strange.
ReplyDeleteTheir next ATR had a test flight in Germany the other day so I expect it to come soon.
Delete@09,06
DeleteYou keep repeating your comment even though aircraft have been arriving. Just the past 2 months we have seen the addition of 1 A330 and 2 ATR's. You're not going to see aircraft orders as they will be leased aircraft and not new purchases. Perhaps actually reading articles will answer your question.
Wizz should start cluj, burgas and bratislava, and anything from niš...
ReplyDeleteCluj with A321? Or Burgas? OMG!
DeleteIn summer season why not
DeleteNobody would fly point to point to Cluj. And even Burgas would struggle to fill an A321 once weekly.
DeleteThey are quick as OU is. Not.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find interesting is that most of the new Wizz routes have much more frequencies than they usually commit to when launching new flights, at least from BEG.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense, the market is performing really well. In November it overtook 2019 levels and December will be the same. Wizz Air is just going where the money is.
DeleteThere was probably a lot of demand on the site
ReplyDeleteSome of these will be oversaturated.
ReplyDeleteAt least it'll be great for passengers who will enjoy some great fares next summer.
DeleteNow compare this to OU which still hasn't responded to FR opening a base in ZAG.
ReplyDeletePlease don't do an injustice to OU. OU has responded to FR by moving its seasonal destinations from ZAG to SPU. Some respond and stand tall, some respond and run away like a chicken.
DeleteJasmineeeeeee!!!! Dje si????? Aj pitaj gazda Ivana jel' smijes nazvat u Beograd profesore da ti dadnu repeticije. Nego kad razmislim bolje nemoj, dobro je 'vako.....
DeletePozdrav calling Jasmin out alwaya makes me laugh.
DeleteImmediately sketch ny Top lists nadrealista comes to mind: Đasmine dira me Hakala!
DeletenotLufthansa11:02
DeleteHahahahahahaha
Air Serbia already defeated Easy jet in Berlin. They can do the same with Wizz.
ReplyDeleteOnly difference is that Wizz Air already showed that they can pick a fight with JU and win. I think Berlin is big enough for both of them.
Delete@09,22
DeleteWizz did show that it can do better on a couple of routes, but JU is showing it's up for a flight. Where they once lost out to Wizz, they're back (MLA, HAM, GOT). Wizz only has NCE left where they've managed to kick out JU, while JU has OSL, BRU (CRL), FRA (HHN).
I don't think there will be much of a fight in Berlin, the market is big enough for both of them. I think JU was not growing as fast in order to boost revenue.
DeleteTheir site is unfriendly to use. Just a small thing to mention is the date setting ...well if you set a departure date why is the return month something that you need to adjust as well instead of it being automatically advanced to the departure date. Second, often due to some bug the date (month) on the return portion can not be moved back to previous months so one needs to start the search for flights all over ... Kind of small things but really not friendly and why are the IT boys getting paid if these things do not work properly and smoothly!?!
ReplyDeleteCompetition is always good :)
ReplyDeleteLet's see Wizz has managed to outperform Air Serbia on some routes where they competed directly and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteFunny how BEG-BER is getting its second carrier while BER-ZAG is still not served, not even by OU or EW.
ReplyDeleteSame for SJJ-BER
DeleteBEG shall soon commence building a new building with a separate terminal and concourse from the existing ones to handle this growth.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they will. Their next expansion phase is to add more gates that is C15 to C18 with additional bus gates underneath.
DeleteAlso don't forget that they are also expanding A gates and adding more bus gates.
What BEG need is more remote stands.
Anyone know when A gates are going to be finished? They will desperately need those from spring.
DeleteYes, it will be open by the start of 2023 summer season. The central processor building, inserted runway and A gates will open around the same time.
DeleteThank you, summer 2023 as in April or summer as in June?
DeleteBecause JU doesn't want to pay good IT guys to sort it out.
ReplyDeleteAnd just a few days ago some "experts" were writing how Wizz is stagnating and retreating from BEG.
ReplyDeleteThe same "experts" announced that BEG will have next year growth only because of Air Serbia flights 🤣
DeleteAir Serbia better be adding some unserved routes which might be interesting for travellers such as Dublin, Reykjavik, Vilnius, Chisinau (this one was already announced once), etc.
ReplyDeleteBesides Iceland, I dont think Chisinau and Vilnus are atractive destinations for Serbian tourists and vice versa, i dont think there is much demand for that. However, Dublin would be amazing and manu Serbs actually dream about visiting Ireland, however Ireland is still one of 2 countries in Europe that demands visas for Serbian citizens plus the visa application process is way too complicated and expensive.
DeleteVilnius is very beautiful city. It has an amazing old city, very big, very beautiful and very well preserved. Several interesting museums, nice restaurants with excellent local food, closer than Dublin, and with very affordable prices, much lower than in Dublin. And very nice people, very polite and modest. One of my best surprises and the city I always gladly return to. Not saying airlink should be immediately introduced, just I prefer Vilnius over Dublin, and lot of people are not aware how nice it is.
DeleteI never said Vilnius is a bad city, i am sure it has a lot of potential and things to do and see, there are many beautiful cities that are not connected to BEG, however i dont see many people having a clue about visiting Vilnius at all. There are some agencies doing bus tours, but its really rare. Even business is not that developed between Serbia and the Baltic states. Thats why i dont think it will be there any time soon. :D
DeleteBT is coming next year with good connections to Baltic and Northern Europe. I thonk Finland too. Do that gap will be filled somehow.
DeleteWizz's fares are not so cheap on these new routes so I think JU can compete quite well.
ReplyDeleteMost of their fares from Belgrade are not ULCC.
DeleteThat is probably down to BEG's airport taxes and charges.
DeleteIt could also be down to the fact that they don't need to compete so heavily and reduce fares. We saw this summer what it looked like when competition kicks in, on the BCN and FCO routes, where both JU and Wizz reduced fares and I'm sure we will see it next summer on BER, HAM, GOT, MXP (BGY). What's also interesting is that for the first time we will see Wizz operate a route daily, that is a couple routes daily, while BGY, BER and CPH will have the most frequencies from launch by Wizz, which has until now launched routes at 2-3 pw.
DeleteIt is great to see competition and a responsive flag carrier. Passengers will benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteDelays and suffering are on the way too this summer season !
ReplyDeleteWell that's the only thing left for you to hope for lol.
DeleteIt is not a hope it's a certain thing and fact lol !!!
DeleteI pity you :)
DeleteThe website is a total disaster. Sometimes one cannot even access it. A couple of times I ended up booking through eDreams et similia.
ReplyDeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteCroatia would answer by adding one weekly service in summer season
Bolje i jedan nego ni jedan! )))
Delete...and the one weekly flight they would add would be to FRA!
DeleteI think MUC is considered as well ☺
DeleteYes, true, they can't discriminate against Mutti's second home!
DeleteLetovi WIZ do BER će više uticati na LH nego JU. Masa ljudi zbog skupih karata JU koristi LH preko FRA. Više neće biti potrebe za tim jer će sada karte biti mnogo povoljnije.
ReplyDeleteNece to u znacajnoj meri imati uticaja ni na koga, AS nema razloga da spusta cene jer su daleko cenovno konkurentniji od Wizz-a, pruzaju daleko bolju uslugu od wizz-a, a najjeftinijoj tarifi pokrivaju usluge koje wizz ne pokriva bez doplate (ili kupovine skuplje tarife). Nemam ideju kako uz takve uslove koje trenutno nude Wizz planira da napuni avione 5 puta nedeljno.
Delete@Anon 13:34
DeleteUpravo tako.
Cak mi ni mentalni sklop ljudi nije jasan da daju W6 150-170€ i da kada im se let otkaze ostanu nasred ulice.
O ugodjaju da se i ne raspravlja: A319 da odlicnim leg prostorom i A321 u sardina konfiguraciji gde cekate 30 min da bi raja izasla.
Људи аман, ЈУ је скупа јер су летови за Берлин ПУНИ ПУНИ!
DeleteОвде има простора за оба играча, не бринем ја за њих. Много ће већи проблем бити Копенхаген.
Wizzair 2 or 3 years ago already should to be here in Milan, instead Covid 19 is an excuse.
ReplyDeleteThen, you have Air Serbia with single way fare of more than 200 euros, and they are responding to someone, who is doing fake news.
Then, you have Ryanair, everybody is laughing, but at least with them, you can do something.
They did schedule Milan in 2020 as part of their expansion for that summer but Covid did happen and Serbian citizens were not allowed to enter Italy nder any circunstance other than humanitarian (even vaccinated) until this year.
DeleteFalse information, Anon 12:37. Air Serbia to MXP is 80e, return ticket is 160e.
DeleteFalse info?
DeleteI checked few days ago and there were no tickets under 220 euros single way.
I was paying to Air Serbia 130 euros round trip, but during era of Easyjet, that is strange also, as Wizzair, cancelling route with maybe 4 empty seats per flight.
MXP is becoming airport for low cost carriers, mostly they already went to Linate.
Air Serbia is using Milan mostly for Serbs in Switzerland 🇨🇭 Ticino County, that is nearby.
I have booked yesterday flight to MXP for Easter and paid 320e for two return tickets. So, the price is actually starting from 160e for the return ticket.
DeleteGood for you.
DeleteI am talking about single ticket and in next days.
If you look more ahead, you can find some ticket for 67 euros, but even for 373 euros.
I guess they gonna bring you Moët Chandon for that price.
Anyway, last time I have flown with them, we were in 24, and they were offering some sandwiches in plastic bags.
I ate it, but then after 1/2 of hours, stewardess passed to ask for garbage and they were throwing away those sandwiches.
Very nasty to see, passengers with no respect and also other side with very expensive tickets.
I didn’t come back anymore, I don’t pay ticket for Theater, but airline ticket.
You need to know how to handle those kind of problems, otherwise you loose customers, as well as Wizzair, forcing everyone to put mask 😷 on face and they are all without mask in last lane, having fun.
No Service, No Party.
I just got back from Gran Canaria with Ryanair and no bad things to say.
Just to mention also, I mean, you need to change yourself always in life and to follow new trends, like Aer Lingus for example.
DeleteThey are national airline, but they managed to go on together with Ryanair.
They are more likely like Ryanair, your ticket is with no baggage, if you want extra service, you need to pay.
Then, no cats on board but with Tap Air Portugal, you can bring cats, small dogs.
You pay let’s say extra ticket for cat or dog, but it is good service for passengers.
Selling good products or domestic ones, good wine or good Gourmet food, Serbia has a lot of it, mushroom truffles with pasta, Porcini(Vrganj) well known in Italy or smrcak(Morel-Morille).
I am interested to taste it.
It is not only about cheap or expensive tickets, but to be creative.
Someone can make more money with food on board, instead with tickets.
Be creative, vision, innovation, create future,
bring something new in market, people like changes and new things.
The numbers of passengers as well expansion plans are arguments that you are right. AirSerbia is loosing passengers because they are expensive, because this service is so bad etc.... Hmm, something sounds strange here, but let's ignore it and spread our heat around.
DeleteWizzair didn't really add many destinations for next season, and the ones they added comence to late, mostly from august. Additional flights on existing routes also start in august, too late for the summer season. Besides that, nobody trusts them any more, who would buy expensive ticket for one LCC, just to find out less then a month before the date of flight, that flight is canceled, like that did this entire season...Now, if they want to compete with Air Serbia, they would need to drop the prices double or triple than they are now. With these prices, all the story about expansion is a joke, and I recon they are gonna be canceling many flight s by the time summer season is due..I don't think they will start eith Lisbon as well. Easy job here for Air Serbia to kick them out from most of these newly introduced routes, even from some of the old ones..
ReplyDeleteBut Wizz is flying to Belgrade and has 3 aircrafts here, what do you mean "who would buy" like the people don't buy it already.
Delete@15:01 Yes, with these prices, and with completely unknown destiny of the future routes, would they start flying or not, who would buy it! But there are always people who don't think too much, you're right
DeleteIf you think too much, you wouldn't buy tickets with JU neither cause they really didn't have smooth season. Don't think too much.
DeleteThing with Wizzair lately is that they "expand" routes but quietly eliminate others. You can check their KTW or CLJ routes for instance. 7 months is a very long period plus LIS is quite a seasonal destination especially given that there are few Serbs living there. Many airlines are cautiously expanding in 2023.
DeleteIf recession and inflation hang around in the next 6 months some of those new routes and increased frequencies will quietly be reduced and cancelled.
Delete@15:34 when Air Serbia canceled the flight during this year? Wizzair was canceling flights even because of the rain in Belgrade, come on! You cannot compare 2 of them, especially considering non existing customer service comunication with wizzair..
DeleteListen, as someone potentially an Air Serbia high yielding customer, you wouldn’t catch me dead on their flight again given the decades of unprofessional behavior and mistreatment of customers. The comments here are just.. sad.
Deletelet me finish that for you...comments here are just sad for a Wizz employee.
DeleteGuys, Wizz Air might not have won the war but they just won a small battle.
DeleteAir Serbia has revised their BEG-BCN schedule and was reduced from planned 9 to 8 weekly flights. Seems like Wizz Air is pretty strong in Barcelona.
Ignoring the fact that people do fly with Wizz will not help.
Delete@06.59 I see 9 flights BEG-BCN for Air Serbia during summer season, I don't know how they revised plan to less? 2x on fridays and saturdays, and 1x on the other days
DeleteNajgori Wizz air
ReplyDeleteSlazem se. Dno dna.
DeleteThe irony is palpable.
DeleteWell, I never ever had any problem. So, what should we do about it? Does it mean it perfect? No! Same it is not a total disaster. It requires some changes, adaptations, some new services, but it is fine.
ReplyDeleteDo I think fine is good enough, no, but come on guys, don't be džangrizave babe all the time.
AirSerbia is developing the network, they are renewing the fleet, their on board service is good, they launched the app that didn't have....it takes time, but they are continuously working on improvements, so let's be patient.
Air Serbia is like, I'm the boss here.
ReplyDeleteNiš-Budapest will be my wish for the next year :)
ReplyDeleteAny destination from nis is bingo
DeleteYes and number of passengers is: Two and a half men.
Delete@14,50
DeleteINI-BUD was launched in 2019 and cancelled after 3 months despite being part of PSO subsidies. I believe the average load was less than 10 passengers.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/10/air-serbia-to-axe-nis-budapest-service.html?m=1
Everybody accept that Nis is not viable for some serious routes
DeleteWizz becime too greedy and inflexible, stealing money from the customers basically. 😐
ReplyDelete175 aircraft and booming.
DeleteAt this age and time, 175 aircraft and booming is perceived as a major climate emergency offender. Much bigger and sought after target than tiny 20 plane airline. 321NEOs or not, regulation will come after big fish first.
DeleteLarnaka povećana na 14 letova nedeljno. JU ozbiljno rešila da se obračuna sa WIZ-om.
ReplyDeleteI see LCA 11pw in the summer. Where have you seen 14pw?
DeleteSomeone said that advantage of Air Serbia is that includes the luggage, not only backpack))) I would say the disadvantage of Air Serbia is that it does not include the low price of backpack only. Wizz is gonna crash Air Serbia and its time to.
ReplyDeleteLegendary comment… The only problem is that Airserbia with cabin luggage is often more affordable than wizz with backpack
Delete