Wizz Air is continuing to suspend operations from cities in the former Yugoslavia with the list of temporarily cancelled routes surpassing forty. The latest markets to be affected include Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The airline now plans to shelve its flights from Skopje to Salzburg until March 2021. In addition, the resumption of some fifteen routes from the Macedonian capital, planned for late September, have been pushed back until October. The budget airline is also cutting its operations between Vienna and Podgorica, just a month after their launch. The final service of the year is scheduled for September 19, with flights to resume on March 30, 2021. Furthermore, the carrier will temporarily discontinue services between Malmo and Niš on September 19, which will be restored on March 30 of next year, Ex-Yu Aviation news reports.
As previously reported, all markets in the region have been impacted by Wizz Air’s reduction in operations. So far, Skopje remains the airline’s most affected base in the former Yugoslavia, followed by Tuzla. Wizz Air has warned it may have to “park planes” to preserve cash as the coronavirus crisis wreaks havoc on the industry during the leaner winter months. The airline also said that if ongoing travel restrictions continue over the next three months, it will fly at 60% capacity rather than the 80% previously guided. Despite suspending over forty routes in the former Yugoslavia, Wizz Air has opened ten new bases across Europe over the past few months, launched dozens of new routes and has not deferred aircraft deliveries.
Commenting on the latest developments, Wizz Air’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, said, “It is a difficult time for the whole industry and certainly we are not immune to the situation. Clearly, this has become kind of a rollercoaster, so we are seeing markets and countries going up and down. This is a hardship and a time to get very focused in order to get through this situation”. Mr Varadi added, “We are going up and down [with the markets] at the same time. We are very focused at managing the situation as it unfolds every day but at the same time, we keep an eye on our future”.
