Jat back in Dubai
Jat Airways will relaunch services to Dubai on Moday March 26, 2012 after a five month suspension. Despite a strong backlash from employees, particularly from the pilots, the route was suspended on the orders of the acting CEO despite good results achieved over the years. However, unlike before, Jat will now have direct competition from the low cost Flydubai and has given the airline a five month head start. Jat will operate services to Dubai three times per week via Larnaca in Cyprus with flight times remaining the same as in the past several years. According to inside sources, bookings for the flights are going extremely well, all of them coming from the Serbian diaspora in Australia. The route is popular with those from Australia as a Special Prorate Agreement between Jat and Emirates makes it easy for passengers to depart from four cities in Australia and two in New Zealand and transit through Dubai with a short connection time onwards to Belgrade.Dubai is not the only new service Jat is launching next summer. It will resume seasonal flights to Dubrovnik and Ohrid in Macedonia and inaugurate flights to Pula and Split. A recent agreement between Russia and Serbia will now allow for new routes to be added between the two countries with Jat considering launching flights to St. Petersburg.
Flight details for the Belgrade - Dubai service can be found here.
Well since it's a well known fact that Jat is unable to get new aircraft I wonder where they are going to cut frequencies in order to launch St. Petersburg and these regional flights.
ReplyDeleteAre there really enough passengers for FlyDubai, Jat and Qatar? Don’t think so!
ReplyDeleteSPU :
ReplyDeleteWhy not fly directly ? ...
low load ? I dont think so ...
733 range ? I dont now ...
to be able to compete JAT need a direct line ...
Purger,
ReplyDeleteWe will have to wait and see.
Don't forget that just because Jat operated flights to Dubai until now it was sufficient for the market.
With competition growing prices will go down. With the prices down demand will rise.
With so many Serbs in Australia and South Africa more of them could travel back home now.
Jat operates DXB via LCA because the B733 doesn’t have the range. The B733 can make it to DXB direct if it is virtually empty but this is never the case on Jat flights to DXB. It is always fully booked at least one way (from either DXB or BEG). This is good news!
ReplyDeleteI'm from Australia and I know for a fact that when me and my family go to Serbia we will fly with Jat and not FlyDubai just because of the extremly good offer Emirites gives us. So for sure the flight would be unsuccesful if it wasnt for Emirites, however, they are lucky enough to have this agreement.
ReplyDeleteTo last anonymous
ReplyDeleteFrom Australia to Serbia you could fly with Emirates + Fly Dubai, or Emirates + Jat.
Don't forget that fly dubai is emirates feeder
Just check a price difference (Amadeus.net)
ReplyDeleteEmirates + Jat cheaper 200 euros than Emirates+ Fly Dubai. But for people living in UAE Fly Dubai is better option, cheaper and shorter flight.
Exactly what the last anonoymous said, it is much cheaper and considering it costs so much as it is, any discount would be great.
ReplyDeleteAlso to add to that if you go through a Serbian travel agency within one of the Australian cities they can generally give an even cheaper bundled price because they do their work through Jat rather than going directly to Emirites where it would be more expensive for the exact same flight.
There are also speculations that FZ will move their operations from the current DXB international to DWC airport in the Jebel ali free zone. DWC airport is roughly half a way between DXB and AUH and has cargo operations only at the moment but passenger terminal is expected to receive first visitors by January 2012. If this move occurs transit passenger from Australia or Africa would lose their interest to use EK/FZ connection, while EK has no interest to establish BEG flights, JU on DXB BEG sector remains as the only logical solution.
ReplyDeleteSo why exactly did Jat cut the flights? The CEO felt like it!?
ReplyDeleteSun Tzu wrote in 'The Art of War' that:
ReplyDeleteThe enemy of your enemy can be your friend
We're seeing this played out at a highly strategic level by the ME3: EK through *two* prongs pursues the BEG market - full service (albeit one-stop) with JU, and cram-em-in, budget FZ. Combined we see 10 weekly frequencies (against a likely maximum of 7 with QR) to have complete stranglehold on the market.
It's actually rather clever, EK retains their position on providing feeder flights (and they haven't got any planes small enough with premium config to send to BEG, or any ex-YU destination) and makes authorities at JU look like fools for dropping the route in the first place...
Peter, everyone here at Jat knows that Ognjenović is in cahoots with Fly Dubai. That is why it was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteThat news sound totally insane to me...first cutting the route,then resuming service again,then probably cutting service again ...those news sound like from a mental asylum!
ReplyDeleteI have impression that this plans will be only talk..nothing will come out in the end!
Because it doesnt make sense at all!
Jat has no aircraft to fly nonstop
and so can not compete with FlyDubai .
Most important ..as far as i know ...this deal with Emirates expires end of this year!
Emirates replaced Jat as feeder with FlyDubai...Purger is totally right when he says there are too much airlines involved now .
Only the best will succeed ..i doubt Jat falls in this category!
I am sure next year there will be at least two new routes to Russia from BEG including St.Petersburg...
ReplyDeleteJATs flights to Sarajevo yesterday and today cancelled . why?
ReplyDeleteJat needs to at least lease a pair of new metal by next year. Hitno. Or they could sell off a couple of their 733s and use the money to get a second hand 736 or anything next generation. Any rumours on what moves Jat might pull to refresh the fleet in the next year?
ReplyDeleteThis whole story seems ridiculous if you take into consideration that the JU/EK SPA expires on 31JAN. Even with it in place, fares to AU/NZ were lower on FZ/EK than on JU/EK. A couple of years ago, when the JU/EK SPA was renewed, EK raised its prorates and JU switched to AUH.It is reasonable to assume that if the SPA is renewed, JU won't be getting a very good deal.
ReplyDelete@Aleks: Fog in Sarajevo is the reason for the cancellations.
ReplyDelete@Lento: The SPA should be renewed in mid December.
By the way....what happened to the 50 m € that the government gave to JAT? No new a/c, nothing....was is just to pay off debts to airports, handling partners and for salaries? Seems so.....
ReplyDeleteIncredible, what an idiotism. Hoping that with the new government in Serbia after the elections will come a better management as well.
ReplyDeleteWhy should EK renew the SPA
ReplyDeletewith JAT ?
Wouldnt this ruin its cooperation with FZ as a feeder ?
Why to give advantages to JAT (a foreign and as it seems totally unreliable airline) before FlyDubai which even has the same ownership
as EK ?
This nonsense would only begin to make sense if FZ would stop flying to Belgrade next summer
...hmmm ?!
Thanks for sharing the information.
ReplyDeleteAirline Tickets to Dubai