✈ Wizz Air to discuss potential base at Sarajevo Airport

Next week, Wizz Air will hold talks with Sarajevo Airport about the possibility of reopening a base at the airport. The airline plans to base one Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport, with additional details expected to be announced soon.

In the meantime, Wizz Air is expanding its Abu Dhabi-Sarajevo route. Initially, the airline had scheduled 3 to 5 weekly flights between the two cities. However, due to strong demand, Wizz Air is adding 88 additional round-trip flights, increasing seat capacity by 21.032. From April to October, the airline will operate 332 flights on the route, offering a total of 79.348 seats.

With the expansion of flights from Abu Dhabi, Wizz Air has climbed to the fourth position in terms of seat capacity at Sarajevo Airport, with a total of 150.570 seats across three routes: Abu Dhabi, London-Luton, and Rome.

Source: Zahid Krkić

✈ Air Arabia is increasing Sharjah-Sarajevo flights

Air Arabia is increasing Sharjah-Sarajevo flights from daily to 10 weekly, the airline is adding second daily flight on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, flights are scheduled to operate from June 10^th to September 8^th. Air Arabia will operate a total of 266 flights offering 44.688 seats. During the peak of summer season Sarajevo Airport will be served with 35 weekly flights from three airports in United Arab Emirates.

• Flydubai will offer 21 weekly flights between Dubai (DXB) and Sarajevo
• Air Arabia will offer 10 weekly flights between Sharjah (SHJ) and Sarajevo
• Wizz Air will offer 4 weekly flights between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Sarajevo

During April-October period Sarajevo Airport will be served from United Arab Emirates with a total of 1.062 flights, offering 198.792 seats, making it second most served country from Sarajevo, right after Türkiye.

Source: Zahid Krkić

✈Wizz Air continues to reduce operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina

With Ryanair announcing flights to Sarajevo and additional frequencies to Banja Luka, Wizz Air is definitely losing Bosnian market share, and its slowly making its way out of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the past two years Wizz Air lost the trust of Bosnian customers due to constantly opening  “new” routes, just to close them months or sometimes only weeks after, lack of transparency and very unhelpful customer service. In two years time Wizz Air started over 20 routes from Bosnia, just to close them all in less than a year. 

Recently announced route reductions:

Basel – Banja Luka from 3 to 2 weekly flights

Basel – Tuzla from 3 to 2 weekly flights

Abu Dhabi – Sarajevo from 7 to 5 weekly flights

The only reason Abu Dhabi and London-Luton flights are not canceled yet is due to subsidies provided by Sarajevo tourist board.

Wizz Air was named the worst short-haul airline by UK passengers in 2023. Passengers surveyed by consumer group (WHICH?) gave the Hungary-based carrier one star out of five for boarding experience, cabin environment and seat comfort. The budget airline’s seat pitch in standard economy is only 28 inches, two inches smaller than rival Ryanair. The airline’s overall customer score of 48% put it at the bottom of the ranking, below Ryanair (52%), Eurowings (53%) and British Airways (56%).

In December, the  UK Civil Aviation Authority said it had significant concerns about Wizz Air’s “unacceptable” behavior as its passengers were far more likely to make escalated complaints than those of other carriers. The regulator also found that the airline was delaying paying money owed to passengers.

Source: Zahid Krkić

✈Wizz Air to increase Abu Dhabi-Sarajevo flights to daily

Wizz Air is increasing Abu Dhabi-Sarajevo flights from four weekly to daily from March 26, 2023. Last year Wizz Air introduced two weekly flights between two cities, increasing to four weekly just three months after the first flight. Due to increased demand flights will go daily from the beginning of summer timetable. Wizz Air operates this route with an Airbus 321 neo aircraft offering 239 seats. From April 1st to October 31st Wizz Air will operate a total of 426 flights, offering 101.814 seats. Abu Dhabi-Sarajevo distance is 3.934 kilometers or 2.444 miles, with an average flight time of 5 hours and 30 minutes.

Source: Z.K. @flyingbosnian

✈Sarajevo Airport statistics for November 2022

Last month Sarajevo Airport recorded 68.243 passengers, representing an increase of 10% when compared to the same month of 2021. The January-November period airport handled 1.310.309 passengers, representing an increase of 88% when compared to the same time of the last year. This is the first full month since Wizz Air has closed its Sarajevo base and discontinued all its flights except London and Abu Dhabi. Even though Wizz Air is no longer operating Sarajevo base, the airport managed to increase passenger numbers by 10%, recording 6.254 passengers more than in November of 2021. The increase is coming from airlines operating larger aircraft, mostly Pegasus Airlines switching all its Istanbul-Sarajevo flights from Airbus 320 to Airbus 321, with capacity to seat 239 passengers. Also, majority of its flights to Sarajevo, Turkish Airlines is operating with an Airbus 321 (180 seat capacity). From November 1^st Wizz Air has switched London Luton-Sarajevo flights from Airbus 320 to Airbus321 (239 seats). During this month Sarajevo Airport will welcome TUI Airways new service from London Gatwick. From December 23^rd flydubai will increase its service from Dubai from currently four weekly flights to 10 weekly. During the month of December Sarajevo Airport has 94.000 seats on offer.

Source: Z.K. @flyingbosnian

✈ Solid start to the year for Sarajevo Airport

For the first week of the new year Sarajevo Airport is having very solid start to a new month and the year. During first week of January airport will have 214 commercial flights with 33.034 seats on offer. Out of 214 flights, Wizz Air will operate a total of 78 flights, offering 14.276 seats, representing 36% of all the flights, and 43% of all the seats on offer. Istanbul is destination with highest number of frequencies, total of 20 weekly flights, followed by Vienna with 12 weekly flights. During this year Sarajevo Airport should reach its 2019 traffic numbers when airport recorded 1.143.680 passengers.

✈ Wizz Air Tuzla winter timetable

Wizz Air will introduce two new routes from Tuzla Airport from December 17, 2021. Bringing total number of routes from Tuzla to 17. During winter timetable the airline has scheduled 1.344 flights (672 departing and 672 arriving ), offering 241.920 seats. The route with most flights is Malmo, followed by Dortmund and Basel.

✈ Wizz Air Sarajevo winter timetable

Wizz Air will base its second Airbus A320 at Sarajevo Airport from December 14, 2021. and introduce seven new destinations from the city. During winter timetable the airline has scheduled 1.388 flights (694 departing and 694 arriving ), offering 249.840 seats. The route with most flights is Dortmund, followed by Memmingen and Gothenburg.

✈ Wizz Air Abu Dhabi to launch Sarajevo flights

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will launch two weekly flights from Abu Dhabi to Sarajevo beginning October 03. Flights are scheduled to operate with airline’s brand-new Airbus 321neo aircraft offering 239 seats. With yesterday’s expansion announcement,  by the end of this year Wizz Air will offer connection to 17 destinations out of its Sarajevo base. United Arab Emirates – Sarajevo is very popular for air travel during summer months with flights being operated by Flydubai up to 3x daily and Air Arabia 2x daily. From May 2023 it is very likely that Wizz Air will operate daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Sarajevo.