Wizz Air registers Serbia market growth
Low cost carrier Wizz Air has seen its passenger numbers increase in Serbia during 2018 despite limited network growth throughout the year. The budget airline handled close to 800.000 travellers on flights to and from Belgrade and Niš, representing an increase of 6% on 2017. It held a 13% passenger share and was the busiest low cost airline in Serbia in 2018, ahead of Ryanair in second place and easyJet in third. Furthermore, it was the second busiest airline in the country overall, behind only Air Serbia. In 2018, Wizz Air introduced new flights from Niš to Vienna but also discontinued services from Belgrade to Friedrichshafen and from Niš to Eindhoven. In addition, it downgraded its year-round operations between the Serbian capital and Larnaca to seasonal summer flights.
Wizz Air noted it carried over four million passengers from Serbia since launching services to the country in 2010. It currently has two aircraft based in Belgrade and maintains seventeen routes to eight countries from both the Serbian capital and Niš. The airline says its operations this year will support more than 500 jobs in associated industries in the country. Wizz Air will put just over 900.000 seats on sale from Serbia this year. "We are totally committed to the [Serbian] market and we hope to see some improvements of commercial terms in the marketplace. That would certainly attract us with more capacity", the carrier's CEO, Jozsef Varadi, told EX-YU Aviation News late last year.
Wizz Air has said that high airport costs and government protectionism of Air Serbia are preventing it from developing at its Belgrade base. "I think the significant issue in Belgrade that has hindered our development there is the cost of the airport relative to its peers. It is a high price airport and we need to see costs coming down. As we are bringing in more passengers and operations to the airport, we need to be at least in line with what we are paying at similar places. I think that is one issue. We will see what VINCI will bring into the party. I don't know", Mr Varadi said last month. He added, "I think the Serbian government has taken steps towards protecting Air Serbia's business and I think they are trying to put some pressure on competitors like ourselves. These two factors are really holding us back in Belgrade". Airport operator VINCI has previously said it will keep Belgrade's fees unchanged for the first three years of its 25-year concession. However, the operator can make change the airport's incentive plan.
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