Wizz Air To Close Sarajevo Base This Month

Wizz Air will is suspending 17 out of its 19 routes in Sarajevo this month, shifting capacity to Tuzla Airport with just three weeks' notice.

 

Wizz Air is closing its Sarajevo Airport base, which it launched in May 2021, with less than a month’s notice. It will end 17 out of its 19 routes to Bosnia’s capital city, shifting capacity to Tuzla Airport, where it is bracing for Ryanair’s arrival later this month. Other airports in Bosnia will benefit too.

Read more: Despite current challenges, is there growth ahead for European aviation?

Sarajevo to close after just one year

Wizz Air announced in February 2021 that Sarajevo Airport, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, would be its 41st base. The announcement followed a tender by the airport to attract a new airline, to replace its country’s dormant flag carrier, FlyBosnia.

The base opened as scheduled in May 2021. Wizz based an Airbus A320 in the city and launched the following routes:

• Sarajevo - Dortmund (DTM), launched 20th May
• Sarajevo - Memmingen (FMM), launched 20th May
• Sarajevo - Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL), launched 21st May
• Sarajevo - Copenhagen (CPH), launched 22nd May
• Sarajevo - Eindhoven (EIN), launched 23rd May
• Sarajevo - Gothenburg (GOT), launched 23rd May
• Sarajevo - Brussels Charleroi (CRL), launched 14th June
• Sarajevo - Paris Beauvais (BVA), launched 15th June
• Sarajevo - Stockholm Skavsta (NYO), launched 18th June
• Sarajevo - Abu Dhabi (AUH), launched 3rd October and operated by Wizz Air Abu Dhabi
• Sarajevo - Malmö (MMX), launched 16th December
• Sarajevo - Frankfurt Hahn (HHN), launched 16th December
• Sarajevo - Cologne (CGN), launched 16th December
• Sarajevo - Hamburg (HAM), launched 16th December
• Sarajevo - Billund (BLL), launched 17th December
• Sarajevo - Oslo Sandefjord (TRF), launched 19th December
• Sarajevo – London Luton (LTN), launched 29th March 2022
• Sarajevo - Venice Treviso (TSF), launched 14th April 2022
• Sarajevo - Saarbrücken (SCN), launched 14th June 2022

With the exception of two, all of these routes will end with the start of the IATA winter schedule on Sunday 30th October, which is when the Sarajevo base will close, and the A320 aircraft that is based there will relocate elsewhere.

The two routes that will continue to operate are Sarajevo - Abu Dhabi, which is operated by Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, and Sarajevo – London Luton, which will be operated by Wizz Air UK.

Wizz has been progressively closing its Sarajevo base for weeks now. First, it removed one A320 from the base during the summer. Then, it started trimming its winter schedules, pulling some routes off sale in October and others in November. Finally, earlier this week, it pulled all but two routes off sale starting 30th October.