On April 15, 2010, after 19 years, Jat Airways will resume scheduled flights from Belgrade to the town of Portorož in Slovenia’s West. The Portorož Tourist Association broke the news yesterday, after months of negotiations with the airline. Jat will operate 2 weekly flights to Portorož, which is located on the Adriatic Sea and is popular with tourists.Jat Airways will sign a contract with Portorož Airport, local town authorities and the Portorož Tourist Association. It is believed that the association will subsidise the flights for a certain amount of time. All details will be released on December 19, 2009 when a formal contract between all parties involved will be signed. The flights will be operated by the regional ATR72.
Jat first hinted at a resumption of services to Portorož earlier last month. On Wednesday, Slovenia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Žbogar, said, “Soon the closest European sea will be even closer”. Jat’s delegation will arrive in Portorož on December 19 on a special promotional Jat flight. In 2007, talks were initiated to resume services between the two cities.
Portorož becomes Jat’s second destination in Slovenia after Ljubljana. Adria Airways has, according to media sources, applied and received necessary licenses to operate flights to Belgrade although these claims have not been confirmed by the airline itself. More details December 19.
Great news! Also: WizzAir will start flying between Zagreb and Dortmund from March 30, 2010. It seems as especially Croatia is able to attract more low cost airlines (also Norwegian etc.)
ReplyDeleteGood job!
Wasn't there talk of this flight some years ago?
ReplyDeleteSo I think we have our answer to where the extra two flights from Banja Luka are going to go.
Great job!
I wonder how often and what times will Adria fly into Belgrade!
Best of Luck to both airlines!
i dont realy see the point in the POW flights especially with LJU and TRS close by. I would imagine that the ATR7 wouldn't be flying to or from POW filled due to the short runway at POW. Maybe MBX would of been the better option if JAT needed to open another destination in Slovenia, as it is Slovenia's second largest city and is close to Graz...
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely true about ZAG and Dortmund, well done, Wizzair are OK and you can get quite good bargains with them. I wish they start flying to BNX from ANYWHERE or to BEG for example. As you have said, now we now where JAT's flights from BNX are going to.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that Adria's flight to BEG will be daily.
Good luck with BEG - POW route.
And do not forget what Ryanair has done to Croatia's airports, they made real BOOM, all flights were packed to Zadar and Pula, and according the numbers they were not empty on Frankfurt-Osijek route either.
The only correction regarding Zagreb-Dortmund route is, starting March 13th
ReplyDeleteWell, even in WizzAir's own timetable, not to mention all the media reports, it clearly states that the first flight from Zagreb to Dortmund will be on March 30, 2010. So, I don't really know where you find the information about March 13, but I suppose it doesn't really matter as long as there will be flying between those two cities :-)
ReplyDeleteIt says 30th officialy, but you can buy tickets from 13th, one of these two info is mistake, either some people will buy a ticket for 13th and days before 30th and there will be no flights or there is an error in the system.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, the most important thing is that something is happening, and this definitely is a great news.
@JATBEGMEL
ReplyDeleteIt makes perfect sense to open Portoroz before Maribor especially if the whole point is to transport tourists, and especially if they have signed a deal with the tourist organisation.
Maybe once they receive the 737-700 the next step will be some regional plane? They do have a good coverage of ex-YU region, now all they need is to increase the frequencies...maybe with another 1 or 2 ATR-72's ?
@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteThe problem in POW is the short and narrow runway. When JAT operated to POW back 19 years ago it was with ATR4's. I wonder what the weight restriction will be like and the loads. Maybe a better addition to the fleet would be 40 seater aircraft rather than more ATR7's, which i have heard arent the most efficient regional aircraft out their.
Great news!good luck Jat!for Adria's flights LJU-BEG, there will probably be daily, CRJ 900.
ReplyDeleteWell I am sure they have thought out what to do in this case. If their intention is to transport passengers to Portoroz then it makes no sense flying them to Maribor and then by bus to the sea side, then just place them on the flight to ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteAdding a new 40 seater to the fleet would be silly as I am sure they have far more important routes to fill with the ATR-72. And from what I know a lot of airlines are more than happy with their ATR's- so that someone who told you that they are not profitable lacks some knowledge ;)
So JU will serve 4 airports with 200km of each other (TRS, LJU, PUY and now POW) - surely that's competing for passengers and saturating the market? Will we still see increases of frequency to LJU and PUY for the summer with these extra flights in place?
ReplyDeleteAnd as for comments about Wizz flying new destinations from ZAG, this is a good attempt provide some competition and alternative: not always the case with LTN (poor frequencies, high prices for a LCC). There were always rumours they were going to operate flights to MMX - will we see these in operation soon?
I assume with the opening of this route we won't be seeing OU reinstating ZAG-DUS in the summer.
I do not think we will see any frequency increase to LJU as Adria is starting flights, and it would be interesting to see if they will code-share on their flights. As far as Pula goes it would be great if they actually added another flight, or even two but I fear that Jat doesn't have enough planes at the moment. What will happen with the Dubrovnik flights? Could we see them starting that this summer?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Blic Adria is starting daily flights and they are discussing a code-share agreement with Jat.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteare you talking about the -200 series or the -500 series? JAT's ATR7's (actually whole fleet) wasnt the most reliable during the summer, and it was a couple years ago where the entire ATR fleet was grounded with oil pressure problems, having flights being replaced with B722's and DC9's.
@ frequentflyer
JAT is too busy flying stupid destinations like BNX and POW to worry about adding frequencies to destinations like LJU. JAT hasnt for years done daily (most 6 p/w, atm 4 p/w) to LJU and now suddenly JP will come in with daily to BEG??? funny how PRN gets 11 p/w from JP but JAT cant serve LJU with daily flights!!!!
@ anonymous
Would be good for JAT to add frequencies to PUY, afterall, they fill well, aparently above 90% CLF. But im sure POW and BNX is better use of an ATR rather than PUY or LJU.
@ anonymous
and blic has to be to most reliable of sources ever, just like the article on how EK will offering BEG over 100 destionations...