Wizz to temporarily suspend three EX-YU routes, reduce network

Wizz Air will cut capacity across its network from mid-January until mid-March due to a global issue with Pratt & Whitney-manufactured engines. As reported back in September, aerospace supplier and parent company of Pratt & Whitney, RTX, is performing quality control on engines installed in hundreds of planes across the world, which need to be removed and examined. As a result, Wizz Air will temporarily discontinue three routes from the former Yugoslavia during the two-month period, including Skopje - Luxembourg, Skopje - Bologna and Dortmund - Niš, while frequency reductions will impact Skopje, Belgrade, Niš, Ohrid, and Pristina. Its only two bases in the former Yugoslavia - Skopje and Belgrade - will be most impacted as they boast the largest volume of flights.

Wizz Air plans to temporarily relocate two of its six Skopje-based aircraft from mid-January until mid-March. This will result in the temporary suspension of the two abovementioned routes, with the Luxembourg service only having been introduced last week. In addition, over thirty weekly flights have been removed from its Skopje network. Services to Basel and Memmingen will sustain the biggest frequency reductions. In Belgrade, the budget airline plans to maintain its entire network, but has removed over fifteen weekly flights during the affected period, with one out of its four aircraft to be relocated for two months.

Skopje base network revision

Belgrade base network revision

In Niš, the airline will suspend flights to Dortmund during the two-month period and reduce services to Basel from three to two per week. In Ohrid, flights to Vienna will be decreased from the originally planned four weekly rotations to three weekly, while in Pristina the airline will cut down services on the Memmingen route from seven to five per week. "The company continues to take proactive action to mitigate any financial and operational impact and will be seeking financial compensation from Pratt & Whitney”, Wizz Air previously said.