Best June results in over two decades
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has recorded its busiest June since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Belgrade Airport welcomed 350.453 passengers compared to last year’s 325.896, thus recording an increase of 7.5%. Numbers were aided by an increase in the number of operated flights. A total of 4.354 arrivals and departures were recorded in June, a 2.7% improvement compared to the same month last year. During the month, Belgrade welcomed Etihad Airways as its newest customer as well as several charter airlines which have launched services for this year’s summer season.
Following its best post-Yugoslav break up results in May and June, Serbia’s busiest airport will hope to see another record breaking year after a successful 2012. In the coming period Belavia has announced the launch of scheduled flights from Minsk and Budapest while Swiss International Air Lines will launch a two weekly service from Geneva, which is set to increase to three times per week from April 2014. Furthermore, from late October, the Serbian national carrier will launch a handful of new routes and boost frequencies across its network under the guidance of Etihad Airways, more of which will be revealed in the coming weeks. In the first half of the year, Nikola Tesla Airport handled 1.507.043 passengers, an increase of 1.7% compared to 2012.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency (SMATSA) recorded its busiest July day in history. The Agency, which controls the airspace above Serbia, Montenegro, part of the Adriatic Sea and 55% of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s airspace, said it recorded 2.400 aircraft fly over areas it monitors in the past 24 hours. The Agency expects more records to be broken, with some 2.500 aircraft per day anticipated during the August weekends or 180 aircraft per hour.
Good news for Belgrade. I am happy that the Jat fleet saga has come to an end and that numbers are rising once again.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that from this winter timetable things will be even better thanks to Etihad, especially when the 10 A319s arrive. Mind you, they will have 134 seats which means they will have slightly more capacity than the current B733s.
I would also like to add that it is great to see yet another month at BEG with more than 300,000 passengers. Last year there were 284,000 passengers in May while this year that number rose to 301,000.
Etihad is thinking about replacing ART fleet with new Bombardier aircraft.
DeleteHow is that relevant to the post above which was related to the upcoming winter season?
DeleteEven if Etihad replaces Jat's Atrs they will not enter scheduled service until next summer.
Current configuration of all Jat's B733 is exactly 134 seats : 8C/126Y.
ReplyDeleteNo, at least not for all.
DeleteThe following aircraft are configured with 126 seats:
YU-ANI
YU-ANJ
YU-ANL
YU-ANW
YU-AON
No. Some received all economy layout with 144 seats last summer.
DeleteThere is no 144 seat configuration on a B733, there is either 141 at six abreast or 149 with 30 pitch.
DeletePlus, I recently flew with YU-ANI and the seat pitch was definitely not 30.
One more time : all of them are with 134 seats. Only Aviogenex ANP has 125 seat. There used to be 144 seat configuration for charters couple of years ago.
Deletejust curious: does anybody know cabine occupancy of etihad since it started? thx a lot.
ReplyDeleteLess than 50 passengers per flight.
Deleteand 55% of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s airspace
ReplyDelete-------
This is not true, Crocontrol controls whole lower Bosnian airspace up to FL 285 and half of upper airspace so it is not possible that other half of upper airspace is 55% of BiH.
who give a sh.. is it 55%, or 45%, or ..
DeleteGreat news.
ReplyDeleteThis summer only I know around 5 persons who are from Zagreb, but chose to travel from Belgrade airport - to the States and to Bangkok (Bangkok with Etihad just 5 days after their inaugural flight). I guess they are aiding to this number. :)
What amazes me is that they are prepared to pay 50eur for a (return) bus ticket, travel whole night, arrive in Belgrade in 5am, pay 10eur for a taxi, and some additional 20-30 eur at the airport cafes, restaurants. I would not be prepared to go through that much hassle.
If there was a ZAG-BEG flight, with return tickets around 90eur for transfer passengers, the line would be flourishing.
It is price driven. EY has many promo activities cause of route launch and hence basically completely available flight throughout summer (meaning very good availability for lowest fares) while other airlines are much busier this time of year (at least in ZAG) so cannot and have no need to offer low fares. EY will have the same situation next summer, if business picks up which is expected. Additionally, serbian market has lower fares to far east than croatian (in general) which just adds to the calculation.
DeleteWell, for Bangkok now I fully agree, although two of the same friends were doing the same thing last year, and year before that (Sri Lanka, and some other destination) - and it is primarily because ZAG is poorly connected with East, and the prices are way too high. So, it is in a way expected.
DeleteBut this year, some of my other friends are traveling to ZAG from United States via Belgrade. In this sense, I think that ZAG-BEG flight will be lucrative for transfer passengers (especially if there is still large capacity for various destinations from Belgrade).
It just all depends what fare becomes available. I actually know a few families that went to Zagreb from Toronto and then will make their way to Belgrade. Some family member waits for them in Zagreb and then they drive on.
DeleteYep but usually in these cases, they fly to Budapest and continue to Belgrade, since it's closer, and the tolls are less expencive. Plus, usually the prices to BUD are usually lower than to ZAG. Of course, there are some promo fares, in these cases, that's cool.
DeleteThis summer all airlines operating zag have expectedly very high loads, so probably getting from anywhere to zag is very expensive...those more price oriented pax will look for other cities in vicinity offering lower fares. So sometimes they opt for beg, bud, vie or vv....and for east, like I said, ey has still very available flt with low fares for such pax. being from zag, bud, sjj...
DeleteJust 14 comments on Belgrade Airport, and yesterday 43 on Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteSo, what about that teory several days ago, that Serbians mostly wisit this blog and it should be "more Serbian"?
This is just another montly update for an airport, Croatia Airlines post was about the very fate of thr Croatian national carrier. JAT-Etihad posts are some of the most commented on this blog.
DeleteOh please for crying out loud. every single time everyone reverts back to nationalism and blaming others. This is an aviation blog, not The Hague.
ReplyDeletepozdrav
Does anybody know why Pegasus has such a strange schedule to BEG?
ReplyDeleteThis week: six flights.
Then three weeks: five flights.
Again for a week: six flights.
Then decreasing from five times a week to four and even three times a week !?
What is the reason for this ever changing frequency...
maybe they have a fleet shortage in the next months?
Well, I guess most of their traffic is O&D, unlike TK which has 50% of its passengers transiting in IST. With the ongoing riots I would not be surprised if many people cancelled their trip to Istanbul.
DeleteGenerally a lot of people have cancelled their bookings for Istanbul, not just in Serbia but in the entire world.
Pegasus Airline will retire its 737-400 this summer.
ReplyDeleteSo...yes, they will actually have a fleet shortage!
And as everybody knows that aircraft is used alot of times on the Belgrade route...Belgrade as destination will suffer from this.
WELL DONE, SERBIA! Live long and prosper, Air Serbia! Greetings from Montenegro. We hope that Air Serbia will decrease prices on flights to Montenegro.120 euros is shame price for that short flight return line Belgrade-Podgorica.We expected half price decreasing, at least.
ReplyDelete