Air Serbia discontinues Nice service
Air Serbia has terminated its seasonal operations between Belgrade and Nice as a result of strong competition from low cost rival Wizz Air. The Serbian carrier initially planned to restore operations between the two cities this April, but delayed the resumption of flights until May before scrapping the route altogether. The development comes just three weeks after Wizz Air introduced a two weekly service between Belgrade and Nice using its 230-seat Airbus A321 aircraft. Air Serbia initially commenced flights to the French city in 2019. The route briefly operated in the summer of 2020 but was promptly suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was not restored for the duration of 2021 due to strict entry requirements into France at the time.
Despite the termination of its Nice operations, Air Serbia will boost its presence on the French market this year. In addition to maintaining doble daily flights between Belgrade and Paris, the carrier will also inaugurate two weekly operations to Lyon on June 2, which will be maintained by the Airbus A319 aircraft. “By introducing flights to Lyon, Air Serbia will offer good connections, via Belgrade, between this city and other destinations in its network, such as Athens, Bucharest, Istanbul, Larnaca, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Tirana and Tivat”, the carrier recently said. The Lyon flights are expected to run on a year-round basis. The route was previously maintained by Wizz Air for a single season, during the summer of 2019.
Air Serbia and Wizz Air now compete head-to-head on flights from Belgrade to Barcelona and Larnaca. Indirectly the two face off each other on services to Paris, Frankfurt, Oslo, Rome, London, Stockholm and Paris. In recent years, Wizz Air has managed to successfully outperform Air Serbia on routes to Malta and Hamburg. Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said last year while still serving as the company’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, “We will compete [against Wizz Air] by being faster and ‘Wizzier’”. So far this summer season, Air Serbia has cancelled plans to launch new operations to Amman and Sochi, in addition to terminating its plans to resume services to Nice.
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