Wizz Air Postpones New Lines from Belgrade – Destination Base Not to Expand Before Next Year

Low cost carrier Wizz Air has canceled plans to introduce nine new routes from its base in Belgrade and station an additional aircraft in the city this year.

Instead, the carrier will now inaugurate the routes, which include Lisbon, Barcelona, Friedrichshafen, Charleroi, Cologne, Hamburg, Sandefjord, Milan and Turku, at the start of the 2021 summer season from March 28. Operations to Friedrichshafen will operate for a limited time, between September 17 until October 22, 2020 once per week, before resuming on March 30, 2020, EX-YU Aviation News reports.

The decision to postpone the base expansion was made due to a significant decline in bookings since the closure of the majority of the European Union’s external borders for Serbian nationals in mid-July due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, Wizz Air said that it had already reorganized its route network in numbers of countries and recently announced new bases in Russia, Cyprus, Germany, Albania and Italy, adding that they were committed to develop the route network in Serbian airports and to grow or adjust it according to market demand.

Wizz Air had already postponed the launch of the nine new routes on two occasions. Initially, the new routes were to be inaugurated on July 16, but were pushed back until August 17 and then again until September 1.

At first, Wizz Air had seen strong bookings for its new services, however, interest quickly began to wane as numerous European countries maintained or introduced new travel bans and entry restrictions for Serbian citizens.

Just last week, Wizz Air’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, said travel restrictions would continue to disrupt air traffic across Europe until the end of the year, EX-YU Aviation News.

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Belgrade base expansion

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