Qatar Airways arrives in Belgrade
Qatar Airways inaugurated three weekly flights to Belgrade on Tuesday. Services from Doha to Belgrade operate via Ankara with the carrier’s Airbus A320 and marks the first time the two cities have been linked. A special arrival ceremony was hosted by Belgrade Airport for the occasion and was attended by more than fifty local dignitaries, VIPs and media. At the route launch, Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker, said, “Serbia’s capital Belgrade is renowned across Europe for its buzzing nightlife and unique cultural attractions. With world class entertainment and hospitality on offer, we are very proud to provide both our business and leisure travellers worldwide with new seamless connections to one of Europe’s most exciting and vibrant cities”. Qatar Airways is hoping to attract transit passengers from Belgrade to connect onto its flights to Australia, the Far East and South Africa.
On its inaugural service to Belgrade, a total of 35 passengers touched down in the Serbian capital, while a further 45 were bound for Doha. Qatar Airways was unable to obtain fifth freedom rights from Turkish authorities to sell tickets on the Ankara - Belgrade - Ankara sector. Belgrade is Qatar’s second destination in the former Yugoslavia following Zagreb, which was launched earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Turkish low cost airline Pegasus has been issued a license to launch flights from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport to Belgrade from February 1, 2013. The decision won’t go down well with Jat Airways which last week criticised the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate for not adhering to the bilateral air agreement between the two countries. According to the agreement only one nominated airline from each country can operate flights. Earlier this year Pegasus was denied a flying permit. The no frills airline, which operates summer charters to the Serbian capital, will launch its scheduled service four times a week with a Boeing B737-800. Details can be viewed here.
I wonder if these flights have anything to do with the recent news that Arabian businessmen are looking into Serbia for potential large-scale investments. Either way, good news for Belgrade and for the Balkans. If Belgrade keeps this up it can regain its position it once had in the Balkans as a regional airport. If only JAT could follow suit...
ReplyDeleteCabin load < 30%
ReplyDeleteJust 35 passangers? Very poor. Zagreb LF was much better.
ReplyDeleteI think they should cancel the route for that reason only.
DeleteDo you think somebody cares about what you think?
DeleteOf course!
DeleteThats the reason blogs exist!
Be happy!
To all challenged readers, I was being sarcastic.
Deletehahha thank god. No need to fly german junk anymore.
ReplyDeleteAllah akbar!
So what if tere was only 35 people that landed. They just started. Hello from foggy Gorski kotar, Croatia :)
ReplyDeleteWell we do not know how many passengers boarded in Ankara. Also,flydubai's initial loadfactor was catastrophic so...
ReplyDeleteDon't think QR really cares about LF at the moment. They are busy launching destinations with less competition and/or the ones with lots of potential to compete with Emirates.
ReplyDeleteThe Zagrab/Buda LF is high and flights daily mainly thanks to Budapest rather than ZAG. It's a more important city.
Yes and it was also stated at one point by Qatar that Budapest is the one that fills the seats, especially in the premium cabin.
DeleteIf sector ESB-DOH is booked very good
Deletefor BEG are not much seats left.
How many seats have their A320...maybe 160.
130 from BEG,30 from BEG.
This could be explanation.
I mean 130 for Ankara..
DeleteQatar Airways A320 has 12 seats in business class and 132 in seats in economy class.
DeleteLet me just remind you that on inaugurate flight DOH-BUD-ZAG was 120 passengers out of which 77 was flying to ZAG. It is 120% more than BEG. But still your comment was (I quote just one)
ReplyDelete"This is bound to be a total failure, if the inaugural flight that was selling for half a year couldn't been sold out, even with the Budapest-bound load. Surprising that those "Qataris interested in Croatian economy" didn't even bother to come, since the business class to ZAG was left empty (...)"
OK, and what is your conclusion about 35 passengers to Belgrade?
The conclusion about Belgrade is that the market is incomparibly more competitive than the one in Zagreb. Things will become even worse when Pegasus launches its own flights.
DeleteAs someone mentioned before, flydubai had very light loads at first but shortly after they improved and additional flights were added. I would also like to remind you that flydubai will be adding additional flights to BEG this winter season in order to compe with the growing demand. On top of it all FZ operates high density B737-800s. That says a lot.
On top of it all we had TK increasing frequencies on top of JU's flights to IST.
Plus let us not forget during which year period fligjts were launched to Zagreb and during which the ones to Belgrade.
DeleteIf you want to be that smart then please provide us with passenger numbers out of Zagreb during the slow months.
Хвала унапред.
ZAG also has 14-17 weekly flights with Turkish and Croatia airlines + 4 to Tel Aviv (some of those even with 767, or regularly with 757) + some 3-4 flights per week to IST from DBV. Also QR flies to ZAG by daily basis not just 3 times per week.
DeleteIt is not problem in number of passengers and potentials, but your dual criteria. When it is about ZAG than it is disaster, when it is BEG it is something temporary, not important or because of big competition. This, or cancellation by British, Air France, Air One, Aero Svit, Air Baltic, CSA, Aegean...
95-100% on BUD-DOH leg out of what 45-90 passangers from ZAG depends of BUD booking.
DeleteUnfortunatly I don't have data for November
Air One IS flying normally to BEG, Aegean swapped its route as part of a deal with Olympic. As for AF, ZAG will be canalled from winter 2013-14 as well.
DeleteOlympic is merging with Aegean so they are actually one and the same airline.
Delete" for AF, ZAG will be canalled from winter 2013-14 as well."
DeleteThat is not true!
"Olympic is merging with Aegean so they are actually one and the same airline."
That is also not true. EU did not alowed that.
The EU did not 'alowed' that but what the other guy is referring to is that they are attempting to merge once again.
DeleteA3 offered 78 million Euros for OA.
I love to watch the BEL-ZAG battles here always, we all want to be something special in the aviation-world while we dont have the money, people or the market for nothing lol :)
ReplyDelete"Like"
Delete(and...honest guys...it is getting boring!)
I am BEG will profit from Qatar airways. We have many Serbs here in Doha, and than the connecting flights. Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteZAG-+BEG battle? Look at the traffic numbers...... BEG just got QR, PGS and Airone.
Qatar does not fly four times weekly to BEG ,its three times !
ReplyDeleteBtw dont forget aeroflot and jat's flights to moscow. Thats some huge competition. Next year SU A321 will fly regular daily to bed, and 767 very often. It is in amadeus already.
ReplyDeleteI tried to find it on amadeus but all I can see is that flights will be operated by A321s.
DeleteSU NEVER had flights to Beograd using B767...
DeletePlease read what he wrote. He never mentioned flights in the past but those in the future, that is summer 2013.
DeleteI suppose SU will go double daily next summer.
DeleteJat will be back with ten weekly while Aeroflot will be sending daily A321s. I guess it is better for them to send a daily flight with larger capacity rather than double daily with lesser capacity (such as two A319s).
DeleteBut they decided to fly double daily. One of them with A321.
DeleteDo you have a source of this information? When do they intend on making this information official?
DeleteYes, and this summer new airlines will come to croatia and then bel-folks will cry, it's always the same story but fun to watch =]
ReplyDeleteThe battle for balkans, while we both get our ass kicked by the airports in our region lol
+1
Delete-1
DeleteYeah airlines like ; "i paid twenty euros and i am off to croatia'..... Dont you get bored of those airlines ...... Well i can understand.
ReplyDelete17 weekly flights to istabul from zagreb? Nah way, and that is for summer only.
ReplyDeleteIn winter we have 14 flights per week ZAG-IST, plus some flights DBV-IST
Delete@AnonymousNovember 22, 2012 12:47 PM
ReplyDeleteFor the year pax numbers ( where BEL folks are very proud off ) it does not matter if you arrive at the airport with a Emirates A380 or with a Easyjet A319, a pax is a pax. The more you get the better, how they fly in is not always important.
And with pegasus & wizzair in BEL you have the same story, cheap ass crap airlines but they do there job, cheap and ok :)
...and Wizzair is so good company! Not a cheep crap the worst one.
DeleteYou said it...
Deletethey do their job,cheap and OK!
And thats fine
Pegasus is definitely the best 'low-cost' airline I've ever flown.
DeleteHey Doot. :)
Delete@Doot
DeleteTogether with Air Arabia.
Stop this nonsense! I'm Speechless. SPEECHLESS.
ReplyDeleteLOL well if what I say is dumb, then wouldn't you repeating what I say make you as dumb?
Delete:* x2
DeleteI like how you linked your article with Youtube!
ReplyDeleteThere are actually a lot of videos which perfectly correspond to the themes you show us on this blog.
And one picture says more than a thousand words!
I hope to see more of this in future...
Best wishes and thank you for your nice work!
: )
I said it when ZAG flights began, and I'm going to say it again - LF on inaugural flight, be it 1% or 100% means absolutely nothing. It will take at least entire season for anyone to see the real impact of a route, so I guess ZAG numbers from S2013 and BEG numbers from W2013 are going to be a real indicator of how routes are doing.
ReplyDeleteApart from that, ZAG and BEG are both tag flights, so they don't really have to perform great to be viable.
Did any of you use ZAG-DOH? Is there in flight service between ZAG and BUD? Of course, there should be one between BUD and DOH. When is the food served?
There is warm wrapped chicken sandwich and all kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available between Zagreb and Budapest. Before departure they offer refreshing tissue and candy. Really 5 star service for 40 minutes flight. On BUD-DOH leg they give you menu and you can choose between different meals.
DeleteThats so cool!
DeleteThe Zagreb-Budapest route is probably the
best in whole Europe.
I would love to fly them on the route Belgrade-Podgorica.
But maybe in near future?
Haha although its dreaming i can not stop thinking about this!
The entire business class was empty on inaugural BUD-ZAG. In economy were Japanese and Korean tourists but it was not full.
DeleteSo basically ZAG-DOH pax get two full meals. That's great, I would hate to see different kind of service for BEG pax, since no one leaves a/c at ESB. They might go with only one meal.
Deletevodeni luk u zagrebu nedavno, je bio bolji
ReplyDeleteOMG. Seriously? Who has bigger water salute!? Dear God..
DeleteLOL my water is more liquid than yours!
DeleteMentally retarded.
DeleteWell i guess he thought the water archway when they brought back home the war criminals.
DeleteIts official, no war criminals in Croatia!
DeleteOMG does anyone know what the loads were on the flight from Sharjah to Приштина?
ReplyDeleteYeah this will be interesting.
ReplyDeleteVisitKosowo wil tell us.
But its too early now,probably in a week or so.
It is very tiring to listen those stupid talks about Belgrade vs. Zagreb since i see not a single comparison possible between the two cities, even if ZAG had twice the pax of Belgrade. Belgrade is the leading hub of South-Eastern Europe, period. Besides regional legacy carriers, Belgrade has Qatar Airways, FlyDubai, Pegasus and Tunis Air operating to the wider Middle-East region. Zagreb has only Qatar. Belgrade will have twice more capacity to Istanbul than Zagreb, not mentioning the capacity Aeroflot offers towards Asia which is thrice of ex-ZAG capacity. Common, just don't be ridiculous. Be happy with what you have and stop looking and spitting after your neighbor. You have the right to love your country/city but please remain realistic and devoid of empty hatred and imaginary pretensions.
ReplyDeleteApplauze
Delete+1
DeleteYou and your friends need to listen to your own advice.
DeleteHub? What hub? SE Europe includes Bucharest and it is currently having almost 2,5 more traffic than BEG, period.
DeleteRomania is a country of over 20 million inhabitants, period.
DeleteDude, your first sentence completely contradicts with the rest.
Delete%)
.. and by South-East Europe you probably meant West Balkan, right?
DeleteA hub? Seriously?
DeleteAirlines use certain airports as gateways to multiple destinations; these are called hubs. An airline hub is an airport where a particular airline offers a myriad to direct flights allowing passengers to transfer to connecting flights to their final destination. Oftentimes, travelers are headed to a destination not served by a direct flight from their departing airport. The airline they choose to fly with takes passengers to their hub so they can transfer to their connecting flight and begin the final leg of their trip.
BEG is not a hub since it does not have:
a) direct flights to overseas destinations
b) regional airports to feed from
If you mention flights to Moscow, Doha, Dubai, Istanbul, Frankfurt then you should realize that those airports are HUBS, the only regional airport that feeds BEG is Podgorica.
Actually you are wrong, and once again you could have checked your data before posting. In addition to Podgorica there is also Skopje, Sarajevo and Thessaloniki.
DeleteSo JU feeds Thessaloniki? :) The joke of the day! :) SJJ and SKP have Austrian with much better connections and yes Vienna is a hub.
DeleteActually it does, about 30% of the passengers on the flight are transiting in Belgrade. But I am glad your ignorance has made you laugh.
DeleteThe fact that Austrian offers better connections is irrelevant here. We are talking which cities are used by Jat as feeders. Please, read the discussion carefully before posting nonsense.
Thessaloniki with its 4 mil passengers feeds BEG? If they want to use hubs for long haul flights they can easily use Athens or Munich or Frankfurt.
DeleteWake up boy!
'Boy' you are the one who should wake up and actually read what is the discussion in relation to Jat.
DeleteAre you that dumb that you can't understand something as simple?
Blog post about QRs inaugural flight to Belgrade has video in it, but the one with Zagreb doesn't .!.
ReplyDeleteOMG, stop spamming God damn it!!!
ReplyDeleteQatar Airways' "Introducing Belgrade" site http://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/destinations/belgrade.page made quite a mistake: what you can see on the photo is not Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know which city is presented on Belgrade page?
You obviously haven’t been to Belgrade then ;) That’s Belgrade’s suburb of Zemun.
DeleteWell, just look for Zagreb's page title:
Delete"Look out for Europe's little surprises"
Cause it's little indeed.
There were many far better images of Belgrade to post, but anyway, that's for now, Zagreb image got changed as well since the launch.
DeleteI love the video !
ReplyDeletePlease more videos in future.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I did not recognize Zemun immediately since it is heavily photoshopped!
And btw I am from Belgrade.
Zemun is Zemun and this image does not show any typical landscape of Belgrade.
At least they showed a typical image of the center of Zagreb which is objectively small (and beautiful).
Does somebody knows on which runway did the inaugural flight DOH-ESB-BEG landed? 12 or 30? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteEx-Yu do you have the info? Thanks.
DeleteIt landed on one and only runway, from approach direction 12 :)
DeleteBEG has only one runway.
DeleteBe aware!
DeleteYou probably mixed it up with Batajnica
Air Base,which has three runways.
Belgrade Airport is situated in the west of Belgrade,west of Sava river.
I am aware that it has only one physical runway, however in aviation we consider it as two magnetic runways. Anyway, thanks for the info.
DeleteOh okay! : )
DeleteYou are welcome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SgErzq5VZ4
ReplyDeleteStart at 1:20
Wow what a great video! I didn't know it existed. Thank you very much for posting it.
DeleteAre Mr Al Baker and his delegation included in the
ReplyDelete35/45 pax list or not?
Was reservation for this flight restricted because of security reasons or not?
Any "start operatio" ultra special offers ex Beograd to anywhere with Qatar Airways?
ReplyDeleteWell, actually they offered the lowest prices during 3-day global sales (in September, and again couple of weeks ago); they did have two more BEG-specific promos, but they weren't as good as global sales, roughly, tickets were 40-60 EUR more expensive in Y.
DeleteSo, unfortunately, no "ultra specials".
Wow 92 comments, 90% of witch is completely irrelevant to the topic. Unfortunately.
ReplyDelete3 flights per week are more than enough for a city like BEG. The only pathetic part of it is that flights are via ESB and there are no traffic rights such as ZAG/BUD and SOF/OTP. Even if they had such, don't think you will have traffic on BEG-ESB.
ReplyDelete