Wizz Air Urges Serbia to Resolve Dispute Over Belgrade Base

Wizz Air issued a public call today, September 12, urging Serbian authorities to urgently resolve a regulatory dispute the company says threatens the survival of its base at Belgrade Airport. The statement comes from the Hungarian low-cost carrier and is signed by Owain Jones, Chief Corporate Officer.

The airline has operated in Serbia for more than 15 years and says it has invested sums running into the hundreds of millions of euros in that business. It has carried more than 14 million passengers on routes to and from Serbia, including roughly 700,000 passengers on more than 3,000 flights this summer alone. Wizz Air says it directly employs more than 200 people in Serbia, while several thousand additional jobs depend indirectly on its operations through tourism, hospitality and aviation.

What is the dispute about?

The dispute concerns changes to the rules governing permits for foreign airlines, introduced in Serbia this year. Wizz Air says the changes threaten the viability of its Belgrade base and argues the issue goes beyond a single company: it touches jobs, competition, affordable fares, Serbia’s connectivity with Europe and foreign investors’ confidence in the domestic market.

The company also says the European Commission is already reviewing whether the changes to Serbia’s aviation rules comply with the obligations Serbia holds under the agreement on a common European aviation area. Wizz Air does not predict the outcome of that review but cites it as additional pressure on Belgrade to resolve the dispute quickly.

According to the company, the request is backed by around 25,000 citizens who signed a petition to protect the base and Wizz Air’s business in Belgrade. The company points to that number as evidence the issue extends beyond its own commercial interests.

In the statement, Jones says the company is not seeking special treatment, only a level playing field:

We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for equal treatment and the opportunity to compete for Serbian passengers on price, service and route network.

He adds that the choice now rests with Serbia:

Serbia should be attracting investment and improving connectivity, not calling both into question.

Who is at risk?

If the Belgrade base does prove unsustainable, the first to feel it would be the airline’s own employees and the businesses that depend on its flights: travel agencies, hotels and hospitality operators in the cities Wizz Air connects to Belgrade. At the same time, the permit rule changes were introduced to reshape how the foreign carrier market is regulated, and Wizz Air is so far the only airline to react this publicly and this sharply.

For the economy, the stakes are not trivial. Air connectivity is one of the indicators foreign investors track when assessing a market, and a dispute with a company that has put hundreds of millions of euros into Serbia sends a signal that reaches beyond aviation, touching the broader question of how predictable the country’s rules are for foreign capital.

Wizz Air says it remains ready for further talks with Serbian authorities, the Civil Aviation Directorate and European institutions to reach an urgent resolution. What happens next depends on the response from Belgrade and on the outcome of the European Commission’s review, which is meant to determine whether the new rules comply with the common aviation area agreement.

The company also argues that shielding one airline from competition protects no one, while competition delivers lower fares, more destinations and better connectivity. Wizz Air concludes that passengers in Serbia deserve the right to choose among several carriers, rather than having that choice narrowed by regulation.