Flights between Belgrade, Split, Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Pula are set to resume this summer. Jat Airways and Croatia Airlines have come to an agreement on who will serve which route and the public will be informed this coming weekend at the Belgrade Tourism Fair.Currently, it is known that Croatia Airlines will operate flights between Dubrovnik and Belgrade, which are expected to commence on June 20. Jat Airways will operate flights between Belgrade and Pula. Croatia Airlines will most likely operate flights between Zagreb and Belgrade with the service codeshared by Jat Airways, although this has not been officially confirmed. Rumours are circulating that the Zagreb – Belgrade service will be brought forward and will start this summer instead of the 2011/2012 winter, as was initially planed. Finally, which airline will fly between Split and Belgrade remains to be seen.
Croatia Airlines has never operated scheduled flights to Belgrade while Jat Airways served flights between Belgrade and Pula in 2008, although both Zagreb and Split haven’t been in the airline’s network for almost 2 decades.
I wonder if Jat is going to use it's codeshare to feed its flight to Dubai. I do not know how much demand there is from Zagreb but surely there must be some.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that many passengers will use Zagreb as a transit point for the rest of Europe but why not for flights to the Croatian coast.
Didnt Zagal fly to BEG before the break up of Yugoslavia?
ReplyDeleteWelcome both! / Philswe
ReplyDeleteI don't think so the route Zagreb - Belgrade will work, the cities seems to be close , it's faster by car then plane when u take in to account all airport procedures etc. Anyway it's worth to try , after reading all those posts from "nezavisna Republika xxxxxxx" and so on , ppl are too rasist , they wont fly, Srbs will not like to fly on Croats aircraft with flight number JUxxxx , and other way around.
ReplyDeleteWith all my due respect, the image used with this article is mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9899582@N05/3967395664/in/set-72157622358747537/.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome to use it, but please credit me in the future.
OK. So we have some back room deal that will divide these lucrative routes up between the two airlines, using frequencies which don't represent the demand, therefore inflating the fares.
ReplyDeleteWe will also have a situation where the two airlines will not go head to head on any of these routes, providing both the adequate capacity and competition which should be in force.
It's time to let bygones be bygones, 20 years without linkage between the two major cities of the exYU has been detrimental to both economies. Coastal routes which used to operate at high frequencies for leisure as well as some business should also return.
Predicted is what I think we might see weekly once this is released, Possible is how many the route could sustain (routes are 70-seat turboprop ops).
City Pair Predicted Possible
ZAG-BEG 5 (OU) 21
SPU-BEG 3 (JU) 14
DBV-BEG 2 (OU) 7
PUY-BEG 4 (JU) 7
ZAG-BEG needs to be seen as a business route. Business flyers (who often pay to keep these services running) will want at least twice daily flights to get to/from meetings and not have to overnight in either city, and both airlines (with a plane based away from hub overnight) could then feed their respective networks.
I know i've said this before, but this is exactly why OU needs another Q400. There's not a great deal of spare capacity left in their fleet to truly open up the required frequencies to/from BEG.
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think so as there would be a very long layover at BEG between flights. But if it was cheap enough, perhaps some might just do it!
The Route Shop shows that there were 7,347 pax who flew indirect DXB-ZAG in 2008. That's around 150 pax a week, and only OU has the right plane to make the direct flight with a 319.
Of course, they've never opened the service and they would need the same interline agreement that JU has. Come on OU, get creative and open the route - you are guaranteed 2/3 weekly flights and profitablity!
Source: http://www.therouteshop.com/zagreb-airport/
the flight time between BEG-ZAG, is the time how long you have to wait on the serbian-croatian boarder, so I think that flying is still faster on this route
ReplyDeleteCant wait to see the results! :)
ReplyDeleteBEG-ZAG should go 2 daily at least on weekdays, and one daily on Saturdays and Sundays. ;)
Actually, that would be another 4 new routes for BEG airport. Nice.
offtopic:
ReplyDeleteJP internals:
AAH was grounded by our maintenance. There are some AD (airworthiness directives) to be done on the plane but owner didn’t want to pay.
They are now negotiating that will get the plane basically for free (we were paying 50k/month till now) just to pay those works and keep plane airworthy.
There were plans to lease two Ukranian 737-500 for summer – one flying out of PRN , but now voices of sense are herd that we should upgrade
AAA and return her to duty.
AAH is the CRJ100 and AAA is the old A320 from 1989
I hope they won't insist on translating the fasten your seat belt signs from Serbian to Croatian (or ekavski to ijekavski)
ReplyDeleteMost of you are missing the point. The whole purpose of these flights is to reconnect the two countries. It appears that there is a wave of reconciliation between the two societies (not governments). In BGD, there are more cars with Croatian license plates, while in Croatia, Serbian-plated cars are not being vandalized as much as it was 2 years ago. There is still some discrimination in the job market but at least each country's citizens could visit the other freely and most likely without repercussions.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who works for the EU Aviation industry and he claims that the EU will definitely go ahead with regionalization of the Balkan market (as well as the other markets too). He confirmed that BGD will take over air traffic control over the entire Balkan airspace including Greece and the Adriatic Sea. It is obvious that BEG will be positioned as a regional hub especially as intercontinental traffic will expand and the regional network strengthens.
Unfortunately this may mean some losses for ZAG, but not too much. However, like someone said, Croatia has the coast and that is enough to keep pax going through Croatia very high. So there will be an interest for the ZAG-BEG flights as BEG will have more expanded connections to larger markets, and Croatia's coastal airports will attract Serbian tourists. Not to mention that over 1 million Croats visit BGD for the New Year alone. Include the rest of the year and there are at least 2 million tourists annually.
However, relations will be extremely good once Croatia stops Serbian discrimination, brings back refugees, and both drop their lawsuits. FYI, Croatia's suit will not win (if Serbia was not convicted for Srebrenica, it won't be convicted for Croatia) while Serbia has the WW2 card which will surely win (as it has Israeli and Jewish backing which also includes the US).
@Blockbuster
ReplyDeleteWhat mushrooms are you smoking?
I tend to agree with the lawsuit comments, but I seriously doubt that this will affect the aviation industry in the region.
ReplyDeleteRelations are getting better and there is more cross-border travel. We could discuss the factors involved in the relations, but they are not pertinent to aviation.
Personally I think flights between the countries will increase as will tourist interest between the two countries as well as from outside. The only thing that can derail this process is renewed nationalism. In general, what benefits one country in the region will benefit the other ones because lets face it ex-yu countries are the main trading partners that any of the ex-yu countries has.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@ JATBEGMEL,
ReplyDeleteZagal maybe did fly Belgrade - Zagreb pre 1990 but it would have just been cargo and I think they only had a C402 on a UPS contract.
At Blockbuster, dude your way off! (Your head)
It will not be the EU who decide who will be the 'hub' of the region but the market! Do you honestly think either Athens or Vienna will give up market share to Belgrade because someone from the EU tells them to even though that idea actually goes against every competition principle of the EU!!! (In other words EU has no say it that so forget about that)
Just Vienna handled over 18 million pax last year so I think they have stamped there authority as a 'hub', don't forget Prague with over 10 million pax per year and I don't think I even need to mention Athens with over 15 million pax per year.
So, do you really think Belgrade or Zagreb can become regional leaders without HUGE investment and I mean hundreds of million Euros if not more to both attract wide body airlines and along with passengers. I will give you an example to put this into perspective for you. The nation of Qatar is trying to make Doha a regional hub amongst stiff competition in the Middle East and is loosing over 1 billion dollars a year in the process. Yes they can afford it but can Croatia or Serbia do the same????
Also, the war was a terrible part of our history and it is nice to see relations starting to normalise betweens Croatians And Serbs but to suggest that persons or institutions should not be punished for there crimes from whatever side is just ridiculous!
@ Anjci, Ex Yu should have used your blog photo, it’s a much nicer pic ;)
@ frequentflyer,
Here’s hoping that the meeting was just to ensure that all sides will agree that these flights between Croatia and Serbia actually happen this time and are not blocked by either side. But sadly it does look like a ‘back room’ deal was required for the guarantee on both sides.
@Blockbuster
ReplyDeleteYou misread the articles. Belgrade will become a regional control traffic operator. It will take over all air controls and they will be redirected to BEG. Yes this also includes Greece and the Adriatic, but I am not so sure about Hungary and Austria although due to their close proximity it might. But these HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH AIRPORTS. I think that this might be what you wanted to say, but this is air traffic controls, NOT airports.
As for the nationalist comments...as I told Purger and others, not acceptable here.
@Q400
The back room deal was most likely the decision to which carrier operates which routes. My guess was that JAT wanted Pula due to earlier connections and it wanted Split because it was sure CA was going to want Dubrovnik. Unfortunately for CA Dubrovnik Airlines is starting its Belgrade route and JAT received rights to operate as a charter airline to the city. So in my POV, JAT ended up with the better end of the deal although all 3 companies will definitely have gains from the routes. I am curious to see how many Croats are willing to fly to BEG as I know that most like to drive anyway.
@Everyone
I agree with the notion that relations are improving. However, as Blockbuster said, there is more hesitation and discrimination on the Croatian side. However, THERE HAS BEEN IMPROVEMENT! I think that these flights are a result from interests in both sides. These flights could have started much earlier if politics hadn't interfered. But the fact that there is mutual interest is nice to see.
Just don't forget: No matter all the shit that we've all been through as people, cultures, and nations...we are all in the end Slavic Brothers.
Argh... I am from Serbia and I think that we have spent enought time in the past. So much time that it has distracted both Serbs and Croats from looking and facing the future. That is why it was so hard for both countries to move forward.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction of these flights only goes to show that finally someone looked ahead.
It doesn't matter who gets what as long as we have the flights. I bet to you that these flights are going to be an instant success and I suppose that already from next summer these airlines are not going to be that friendly when they start competing for the passengers.
I think Jat was smarter to get Pula where as Dubrovnik might have a greater potential in the long run, it will take some time to develop this market.
Anyway, best of luck to these guys! can't wait to see the results!