Proposed new look for Užice Airport
With the construction of Morava Airport in Kraljevo in full swing, plans are being made for yet another airport project in Serbia, this time in the country’s West in the town of Užice. Ponikve Airport, a military base which served as a civilian airport during the 1990s before its complete destruction in 1999, is anticipated to get a new passenger terminal building, which would open new opportunities for the local economy. However, for construction to take place, mines, which are scattered throughout the airport complex, must first be removed. At a recent donors conference in Belgrade a total of 4 million Euros was donated for the removal of the mines which will begin in 3 months. A total of 15 countries along with Slovenia and Serbia will take part in the project. Construction of the new terminal and supporting infrastructure should begin in the second half of 2012 if finances are secured.However, Užice is not day dreaming of becoming a passenger hub. The city’s mayor says that Užice can only attract cargo and charter airlines. The city has a population of just over 100.000 but also has a developed industry, a lot of which is exported.
During the 1990s, JAT Yugoslav Airlines used the airport as an occasional stopover for flights bound from Belgrade to Tivat or Podgorica in order to increase flying times for pilots, needed to retain their license since, at the time, the airline was only able to operate within its country’s boarders.According to local media, the Serbian Government has drafted a post economic crisis plan which sees planed investment for 16 airports throughout the country, one of which is Užice’s Ponikve Airport. Currently the former Ladjevci airbase in Kraljevo is being transformed into an airport for civilian use and is expected to be open in either September or October.
Our government made a post-crisis plan? Thank God that the elections are coming up and that this current government will be forced to step down and to be stopped from further destroying Serbia.
ReplyDelete@ I agree 100% with anonymous 1
ReplyDeletelol @ post-crisis plan!!! i hope they dont spend too much money on the civilian side of the airport realistically it will only attract cargo business
ReplyDeleteI love how the invest into airport that have no use such as Kraljevo or this one. They constantly refuse to invest into the single airport that could actually make profit, Sombor.. joke, Batajnica.
ReplyDeleteI bet that the only reason why they refuse to invest there is because of BEG.
Ponikve should be fixed so that it can take winter charters, nothing more.
You people think that if there is snow and mountains it must be winter charters:-)No causality is observed!
ReplyDeleteBtw. when did JAT stop flying to Pristina?Did they operate flights to the city during the serbo-croatian-bosnian war?
This could have been the longest route for them!
belgrade-tivat was the longest route for them, in terms of distance
ReplyDelete@ EX-YU Aviation
ReplyDelete16 new airports you say. Well, I think it's strange it's not at least 116.
I guess you are aware yourself that this article has absolutely nothing to do with the ex-yu aviation, but only with pre-election period propaganda.
And I think you shouldn't publish such ridicolous articles any more.
JU sent ATR72 to Berlin today!? C'mooooon!?
ReplyDeleteI just cant believe it.
This terminal is AWESOME.. Is gonna definitely be one of my favourite airport terminal in ex yu.
ReplyDeleteAfter opening of these small and I hope functional airports network such as INI, UZC,KVO.. BEG will lose a large number of passengers which many ppl here doesn't like at all. Well done Uzice! I believe in at least 2 direct flights and around 50.000 -100.000 passengers a year together with these charter flights. :)
This is embarassing - ex-YU AVIATION, you are made to look like an idiot publishing this sort of nonsense. I know for a fact that Uzice is NOWHERE even near anything like what you've mentioned. The ONLY thing they are working on is a de-mining of the land around the airport. HELLO!
ReplyDeleteJU500,
ReplyDeleteThey probably had a problem with one of their 737s and sent their Atr-72 as a last minute replacement.
However, then we can ask ourselves how light was the load on the original flight???
I doubt that the Atr-72 can make the route without weight restrictions. This measn that the 737 was scheduled to fly with a load 50/126. Bad.
@JU500 and last Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteATR72-200 was not a last minute change. It has been published in 1A for some time already.
Check out todays flight, it was ATR72 again! :-)
JA used to fly SJJ-TXL with an ATR as well... (and we all know how this story finished ;-)
It's amazing how there is no way for JU to connect these two attractive capitals, Berlin and Belgrade and make money out of it. Look at BER-BEG vv fares - they are actually quite acceptable, ranging from ca. 200 to 350 eur ( tax incl.). Still it seems that there is not enough demand, or at least not for the price... Very odd. On the other hand, many PAX choose to fly AB/HG to BEG x/VIE. Or LH via FRA and MUC... Man, it takes ages that way. (easily over 3,5h) And JU offers 30kg of FBA + cabin baggage! As if there was some kind of curse on this JU route...
BRGDS, YU
If this article is true, then it means more wasting of precious resources. When will you people learn?
ReplyDeleteYup... I know. That is why Jat would need a regional aircraft for that route, Embraer beign the most suitable candidate.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note Jat doesn't allow 30 kilos anymore. Trust me I leaned that the hard way ;)
@Anonymos May 23, 2011 8:01 PM
ReplyDeleteMan, no way Jat is getting anything like Embraer or similar A/C. I mean, I cannot imagine this happening...
Let's stay within some realistic frames - Jat should see how to utilize the existing fleet to their best. Prolly start by increasing CLF, and go from there...
30 Kg FBA is current standard for JU and JU online flights. For interline its 23Kg I think. There's been a lot of fuss with the new IATA 302 Resolution, and if you were flying somewhere beginning of APR2011, it may be that you had to pay some excess bagg. Many airlines had similar problems with this new Reso 302...
BRGDS, YU
this airport terminal should be for civilian but this terminal would be better if they had jetways to the plane??
ReplyDelete