Voyage Air to start 8 routes from Varna using rare B737-500; another three routes coming?
Voyage Air’s owner, Stefan Ivanov, gears up for the carrier’s new routes.
Voyage Air, from Bulgaria, is to begin eight services from Varna, on the Black Sea coast, to Austria, Germany, and Poland. All will operate until between mid-September or early October.
The carrier has previously struggled to take off.
Düsseldorf, Erfurt, and Graz also appear in its booking engine, but are not yet bookable.
Its sole 126-seat B737-500 – a rare aircraft in European skies now – will operate these routes.
| Routing | Start date | Weekly frequency |
Direct competition (weekly frequency) |
Indirect competition (weekly frequency) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Varna – Bremen | 6 July | 1 | None | None |
| Varna – Frankfurt | 28 July | 1 | Eurowings (3) | Wizz Air: Hahn (2) |
| Varna – Kiev Boryspil | 10 July | 1 | Sky Up (1) | None |
| Varna – Łódź | 7 July | 1 | None | None |
| Varna – Münster | 9 July | 1 | None | None |
| Varna – Munich | 9 July | 1 | Eurowings (2) | Wizz Air: Memmingen (3) |
| Varna – Stuttgart | 11 July | 1 | Eurowings (2) | Wizz Air: Karlsruhe (2) |
| Varna – Vienna | 1 August | 1 | Wizz Air (2) | None |
| Source: OAG Schedules Analyser and each airline’s website. | ||||
Germany key to Varna, but turbulent times
Germany is by far Varna’s leading country market, with 353,000 seats last year, or 16% of Varna’s total seats.
However, these 353,000 seats were down 19% YOY. Condor ceased serving Varna, with 63,000 seats cut, while the end of Germania (30,000 seats) and capacity reductions by SunExpress Deutschland (59,000) further exacerbated the situation.
Germania previously served Bremen and Munster for years.
SunExpress Deutschland ends helping to create opportunities for Voyage Air
SunExpress Deutschland was the leading airline between Germany and Varna last year, with a 47% share of seats. It operated eight routes to Varna, with Dusseldorf its number-one route by seat capacity, followed by Leipzig and Stuttgart.
However, SunExpress Deutschland ceased to exist last Friday, 26 June, creating opportunities for Voyage Air.
This is despite Eurowings picking up some routes previously operated by SunExpress Deutschland, including Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart, and Wizz Air last week announcing Frankfurt Hahn, Hannover, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg to Varna.
Source: OAG Mapper. Yellow: those routes available for booking. Red: those which are in its pull-down menu but aren’t (yet?) available to book.
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