Flights to Split in the works
The director of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Velimir Radosavljević, has announced that new gates will be added to Terminal 2 in 2011 which will allow the current terminal to be freed up for intercontinental flights. Speaking at a conference addressing the open sky policy in Serbia, Radosavljević says that the airport will expand the Terminal 2 parking platform by two football fields, allowing the C gates of the terminal to be used by larger aircraft, as was the case more than 20 years ago when intercontinental flights were operated on a daily basis. Radosavljević hinted that flights between Belgrade and Toronto could begin next year.Closer to home, Radosavljević said that meetings are being held with the management of Split Airport in the hope that flights between the two cities could resume after 2 decades next year. Serbia’s main airport is reporting strong growth in 2010. In September, passenger numbers increased by 19.6% when compared to the same period last year. In the first 2 weeks of November, figures are up by 23%.
Interesting stuff. Talk on expanding T2 has been goin on for a while.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if 5G is returning to BEG :)
As for SPU, hmmmmm. I wonder who with and with what. I guess it would most likely be JAT a few times a week as seasonal flights, like PUY was.
@JATBEG: 5G has gone bankrupt
ReplyDeleteCloser to home, Radosavljević said that meetings are being held with the management of Split Airport in the hope that flights between the two cities could resume after 2 decades next year.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure you need airlines to connect two airports...
So who is likely to be the successful candidate? JU who can't seem to operate any Croatian route without something going wrong, or OU who seem to have an allergic reaction to flights east of the country? Could we see another, independent player involved?
2008 record will be easily broken. 2.75 milion by the end of the year.
ReplyDelete@ frequentflyer said:
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure you need airlines to connect two airports...
Maybe Mr Radosavljević has decided to become a pilot, after successful carrier of CEO and PR for many companies, maybe he has decided to create airline and become a pilot :):)
Well I suppose that he needs to have a meeting with the airport authority so that they can start lobbying for some flights in summer so that we don't get the same scenario like Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Jat will operate these flights.
Would something like BEG-PUY-SPU work?
well, there is 2D which uses SPU as a focus city with many seasonal destinations
ReplyDeletethat's great! how many gates does it have now, and how many they are planing to put? Hope there will be more than 3,3 mil. passengers in 2011. :)
ReplyDeleteHahaha. This goes for all of you who said I'm insane, crazy, or that such things were not possible. Just as I predicted...
ReplyDeleteThe only way for regional cooperation to strengthen between Ex-Yu airlines is to strengthen airport cooperation. Most likely, the flights to Split will be code-shared between Croatia Airlines and JAT. That way they each profit equally from the flights, and the airports make money too.
As for the intercontinental departure gates, it was only a matter of time. My guess is that within the next year, Emirates might say something regarding the long-haul operations it has planned, and JAT will say something too once it holds talks with USA associates. It looks like intercontinental travel from Belgrade might be reality after all.
Also forgot to mention, that this is a great step between Croatia and Serbia. I'm just pissed that they didn't figure this out before. Hopefully flights to Pula will recommence and flights to Dubrovnik will be inaugurated.
ReplyDeleteHey guys, JU revised their web site. Take a look.
ReplyDeleteRegarding interconti flights, just wondering how JAT going to manage it (except making huge loses covered by tax payers) when MA, CSA, Tarom could not...BUD airport has 8,5 milion passengers and PRG 11,6 mil last year; I think that without subventions it is not possible to make profit...
ReplyDeleteMy wish :
ReplyDeleteDalmatian.hr starts BEG-SPU, summer 2011, with 2 wekly frequncies, on A320.
Summer 2012, Dalmatian.hr increases A320 BEG-SPU to 3 weekly frequencies, and adds 3 weekly frequencies on A320 BEG-ZAG, to connect to A330 ZAG-JFK.
And please, no spitting, I said my "wish" not my "prediction" or "guarantee".
Concerning long-haul, I hope and wish plans for long-haul from BEG will come true, and new gates will not be staying empty. However, I'm pretty sure JAT has absolutely no chance to (re)start interconti.
@pozdravizrijeke
ReplyDeleteFrankly I don't really care which airlines operate Croatia-Serbia routes. IT just needs to get done. I can't imagine that a beautiful coastline isn't connected to the party capital of Europe...just doesn't make sense. But like I said, to resolve any potential conflict, JAT will most likely code-share with Croatia Airlines on routes between the two countries.
In regards to JAT not starting long-haul...I think they have a chance. I'm not going to say that it's foolproof, but I am not taking out any possibility. If the Emirates flights goes ahead, or JAT doesn't get privatized, the chances are near 0%. Who knows, maybe an American company might decide to fly lol...
Fully agree that it is a shame there is no airlink between Serbia and Croatia, at least seasonal during summer. With smaller aircrafts and right pricing policy it would work out. JU flights to PUY were a good example, tho not that cheap, loads were decent, yet the reason for route termination was never given...Strange.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree it is unimportant which airline will start the routes, they should code share them anyway. Hopefully in summer 2011 those things will change.
As of BEG T2 expansion, expected and great news.
Allow me to bit correct the news author, maybe it was wrongly quoted by the agencies. I'm not BEG PR but was present. BEG Director General said he has contacted not that he has had meeting with SPU Director. I don't remember him mentioning additional gates but terminal building expansion for passenger comfort increase. BEG namely is for a long time having trouble and is one of rare airports with two security controls since arriving and departing passengers are not separated, so maybe this was focus. He added that regarding BEG intercontinental flights can start tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteRegarding BEG-SPU-does it necessary has to be flag carriers? SRB-CRO airlink is shown to be a necessity and JU and OU seem to show little interest since focusing on BEG-ZAG flights. Bear in mind W6 base as of March and that U2 is seasonally present in SPU and is still testing BEG market potential and is expected to soon commence flights.
All the best
To Ex-Yu Aviation. As much as I am delighted to hear such news regarding Belgrade Airport, I cannot find any sources on the internet that verify what you posted. I would like to believe all of this is true, but I want to read it in the news somewhere, and I just can't find where. If you could please post the sites from which you got this info from, that would be wonderful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe news was posted by the Beta News Agency
ReplyDeleteThe only way for Split-Belgrade to have a chance is for Wizz to operate it.
ReplyDeleteand again and again waisting of time with silly dreaming of Emirates flights out of Belgrade, Qatar buying Adria, Etihad buying Montenegro, and years and years of dreaming of Jat intercontinental flights. I really like the news on this page, but comment are full of naivity and childish dreaming comments which has nothing in common with aviation reality in the world ...
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 2
ReplyDeleteI must admit that some people, including myself, may be overlooking the possibilities due to excitement. Such was the case when the Dalmation.hr project was announced. There was also hype and hysteria about that, and in the end, nothing happened. So it is possible that a similar situation is going on here. However, the fact that Belgrade is expanding terminals for intercontinental travel, means that there is a good chance of those flights to take place. Like nearly everything else in Serbia, investments occur in areas that are extremely likely to produce positive gains. So I assume that Belgrade is preparing for Emirates, another carrier, or that JAT is serious about going about its long-haul flights.
BEG already has "intercontinental gates"!!! BEG has been operating intercontinetal flights from the 1960's when Surchin Airport opened, from Sydney to Los Angeles.
ReplyDelete@ pozdrav iz Rijeke
I dont think ZAG could handle much intercontinetal traffic. OU barely does TLV, the terminal isnt big enough for current traffic.
@ Jeebusman
And what would EK do in BEG? they dont have small enough aircraft, connecting onto Australian flights wouldnt work unless they kept the aircraft on the ground 12+ hours at BEG (which is expensive and a waste of aircraft utilisation)...If JAT was serious about anything they would have made some big changes by now.
of course they do. BEG is just expandig C platform
ReplyDelete@JATBEGMEL
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand why Emirates of all airlines wanted to open a "regional base" in Belgrade. They claim that they eyed the Serbian market for some time and they wanted to start long-haul traffic as early as 2006, but couldn't due to Serbia not signing an agreement (which they did sign with UAE some time ago). I can see that Belgrade has a large potential, but I never thought that Emirates would be the one to target that. I really don't know, it's just what is being stated by news sources. But don't forget that Emirates and JAT have code-shares on flights to USA from Germany and I believe the Belgrade-Dubai routes as well. Who knows, maybe Emirates will want to buy JAT too lol.
Finally that they are talking about starting Belgrade - Split flights! These would be already feasible with 2 weekly rotations in winter and 4 weekly rotations in summer!
ReplyDelete@ Jeebusman
ReplyDeleteEK isnt eying on the Serbian market and havnt been eyeing on the Serbian market. I think their cooperation with JAT is enough for them. As for the cooperation via Germany to the US, this was stopped years ago, a few months after they started, due to pressure from LH. And it wasnt a code share.
^
ReplyDeleteExactly. Emirates are NOT eyeing the Serbian market at all, nor have they ever done so apart from a brief time a couple of years ago.
The most likely scenario would be for their low cost carrier, FlyDubai, to start BEG-DXB flights with 737NGs.
Dunno. I'm just reporting what I've been reading on business news sites like Bloomberg, NYTimes, BalkanBusinessNews, etc.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that this expansion is a great thing and most likely will be necessary in the long-run. Hopefully flights to USA/Canada will start soon, and that an increase in passengers will result in those routes being launched.