What next for Pristina Airport?
During the week Pirstina’s busiest airline, the Italian registered Belle Air Europe, ceased operations, a move which is expected to have short term effects on Pristina Airport. On Thursday, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority suspended Belle Air Europe’s operating license. Affected passengers are now seeking compensation which the defunct airline has an obligation to provide, though it has been difficult getting in contact with the airline. Belle Air Europe operated flights out of Pristina to Basel, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Malmo, Milan, Stuttgart, Venice and Verona. In addition, it often ran services on behalf of other airlines, making it the busiest at the airport.
Adria Airways and Wizz Air were quick to respond to Belle Air Europe's demise. Adria operated up to five flights between Pristina and Ljubljana the day following Belle Air Europe’s suspension announcement. Wizz Air launched a dedicated webpage to those affected by the bankruptcy, offering low “rescue” fares for travel from its Skopje base. However, no airline has committed to taking over any of Belle Air Europe’s routes. On the other hand, in Albania, where parent company Belle Air also filed for bankruptcy, Italian low cost airline Blue Panorama immediately took over seven of Belle Air’s routes. Adria is in the best position to profit from the bankruptcy since it has a Bombardier CRJ900 based in Pristina, as well as local staff. In addition, Adria is a EU registered airline, allowing it to operate flights out of Pristina to EU markets.
In 2012 Pristina Airport was the third busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia, handling 1.527.13 passengers. Of that, Belle Air Europe accounted for 210.787. In the first three quarters of 2013, Belle Air Europe carried 175.535 passengers to and from Pristina. The airport has seen significant passenger growth so far this year, however, the rate of increase in the last few months has considerably slowed. Split Airport is currently ahead of Pristina, handling 1.524.192 passengers compared to the latter’s 1.440.632 during the first ten months of the year. After a strong 2013, Split is vying to overtake the title as the former Yugoslavia’s third busiest airport this year. However, in order to so, it must continue to see growth during the slow winter months while the effects of Belle Air Europe’s demise in Pristina remain to be seen. Pristina Airport will continue to be served by fourteen scheduled airlines this winter.
I guess Skopje airport officials and Wizz Air are currently popping champagne. With less competition in Pristina I guess it means more passengers for them.
ReplyDeleteTalking of Skopje, Air Serbia will send its Airbus A319 to SKP tomorrow, nice upgrade/upgauge. Hopefully SKP Facebook fan page will take some pictures, they are quite good at it.
OT: AS 4th A319 is planned for tomorrow to come to beg from muc
ReplyDeleteA Hungarian friend of mine was in Munich the other day and he said that Air Serbia's livery looks so much better in real life than in pictures.
DeleteWhat registration will it carry? YU-APD? Does anyone know where it came from?
YU-APE ex volaris
DeleteAnd ex Olympic and Mandala as well...the youngest one so far, 6 yrs old ...two more are leased and will come til the end of the year;-)
DeleteWait, the two that are coming in 2013 or in 2014? Does anyone know when 7 and 8 are being delivered?
Delete2 A319 in January and 2 A320 in March
DeleteThere will be 6 A319 at the end of 2013. All are leased, paineted and registrated
DeleteWe have YU-APC and here YU-APE. As we know that giving the registrations to the planes goes according to the alphabetical order what happened to YU-APA, YU-APB , YU-APD?
Delete
DeleteAirbus A319 - MSN 2650 - YU-APD
Airline Air Serbia
Status : On order
Last Registration : YU-APD
Airline Air Serbia
Country : Serbia
Date : 2013 -
Codes JU JAT
YÛ-APA and YU-APD are still A6-SAA and A6-SAB, in service already
DeleteThanks for the clarification. Do you, or anyone else, know why they have not yet received the Serbian registration?
DeleteI really don't know except that two A319 with UAE registrations were leased from Etihad and that they are oldest in the fleet, so Etihad leased planes to 49% Etihad airline..little bit funny indeed
DeleteThanks again. It will be so great when the fourth A319 arrives tomorrow, the same day when Prague and Banja Luka are being launched. :)
DeleteActually I was the one who placedthe questions about registrations and thank you for your reply. It seems that some registrations are "reserved" for planes leased from Etihad altough they still keep UAE registrations. I have heard they want to keep UAE registrations as on that way they can buy ful in UAE almost for nothing comparing to commercial prices.
DeleteWhat about YU-APB?
YU-APB is A6-SAB
DeleteI made mistake in previous post, YU-APD is coming soon with Serbian registration
DeleteSo the fleet at the end of the year would be:
DeleteA6-SAA
A6-SAB
YU-APC
YU-APD
YU-APE
YU-APF
When they can buy fuel cheaper if they keep UAE registrations...
DeleteThen why not keep for all the new aircraft the UAE registrations?
I don't think so. All airlines from the UAE have separate fuelling contracts at various airports.
DeleteI wonder how their flights to Zagreb are doing.
ReplyDeleteBA that is, the post got deleted by the time I commented.
DeleteWhat was your original post?
DeleteIt wasn't mine, I think it was spam about some news from the UK. Dusan asked how BA was doing and then I asked how BA flights to ZAG were doing.
DeleteNaturally, if someone else has any information on these they are more than welcome to answer them.
If we look at the seats offered, has Air Serbia overtaken Croatia Airlines?
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines fleet:
4 A319 (126 seats)
3 A320 (162/164 seats)
5 Dash-8 (76 seats)
For a total of 1.396 seats.
Air Serbia fleet
4 A319 (128 seats - fourth is to be delivered these days)
5 Atr 72-200 (66 seats)
7 B737-300 (average 130 seats as the Bulgarian ones have higher capacity)
Total: around 1.700
Is this correct or am I missing something? Naturally, if there is a mistake or if you know the exact number you are more than welcome to correct me.
3 ATR72 200 and 2 ATR 72 500 leased from Nordic
DeleteYeah but isn't the capacity the same?
DeleteCroatia A319 has 144 seats now (before they had 132 seats) and they have 6 Dash-8. Total is 1524. Some of Dash-8 have 78 seats, but it is small difference so I didn't count.
DeleteAh thanks for the information. I got these numbers from Croatia Airlines' site and from planespotters. I guess they should really updated their information.
DeleteAdria got flights PRN-DUS and PRN-STR till the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteHowever JP PRN-VRN in 2014 got cancelled
source JP
So is Adria using the aircraft it used to send to Verona to operate these flights? Are they operated by the CRJ-900?
Deletethey had one ac based in PRN which was doing vrn muc fra. don t know how many weekly flts STR and DUS are but per JP they dont plan an add ac in PRN yet
ReplyDeletemy friend flew BEG-ZRH-BEG with APC. they served normal sandwiches in Coach class. Apparantely also no water tab in the back galley. So if coffee, tea wished, needs to get it fm the front galley. QR 319s for ex also get water in the back
I do not know why it was like it. Our friends flew from LCA to BEG two days ago and they got the full service. It was also an A319, don't know the registration though. Another friend who flew with them last week said it was also the full service.
DeleteBy the way, both flights were packed to the last seat.
BEG-ZRH, ATH, FRA.... are flights under 2h, so the service is sendwiches, water, sweet and selection of hot and cold beverages. Yes, APC has some problems with hot water at the moment, hope it will be sorted out soon.
DeleteI flew four times ZRH-BEG with Papa Charlie and every time I received a kifla and a voćni hleb :)
DeleteWas the kifla fresh and tasty?
DeleteYes, it was OK. As it should be - nothing spectacular but much better than the old triangle :)
DeleteCool! You know what, though I am happy that they got much better I am still happy that I got a chance to experience the old, crappy, dysfunctional Jat. :) I have some rather interesting memories flying them.
DeleteI would think that a sandwich is "Full service" considering the length of the flight to Zurich, whereas a hot meal is "full service" to LCA because of the longer flight time...
ReplyDeleteCould be, they got an omelette with some sausages, tomato... and on the side there was a fruit salad with some pineapple, mango and some other fruits. I don't remember what else was served.
Deletei only know that on todays 371 ZRH BEG 91 pax were booked in Y class.
ReplyDeletelast nights 374 was 3/4 full. so quite good figures for this period of the year
71% loadfactor is very decent, especially since the airline operates two daily. Do you know if any of them connected in Belgrade or were they solely O&D?
DeleteDoes anyone know if there will be some special event in Prague and Banja Luka tomorrow to mark Air Serbia's first flight? Like a cake or something like that?
ReplyDeleteYes, there will be. You can read about it tomorrow here :)
DeleteYou're great, as always! Will it be for both flights or just for the banja Luka one, since they are sending their A319 there forcing people heading to Frankfurt to fly on the B737-300. :D
DeleteBNX will get all the attention tomorrow.
Deletehaha, of course it will get all the attention, i suppose beacuse their airport is usually crowded with passengers
DeleteDamn, you are so funny. It will get all the attention because there is a delegation on the inaugural flight.
Deleteeven better! we love politicians, they keep their promises and never lie ;-))
DeleteYou should visit Anna.aero site for coverage of new routes opening and cake ceremonies!
DeleteLeft on the side is a link to them.
They will for sure report about the Prague and Banja Luka openings but they will do it always a whole week later.
"Avaz" saznaje Stanje u "BH Airlinesu" alarmantno
ReplyDeleteJažić: Svaki dan je patnja
http://www.avaz.ba/vijesti/teme/jazic-svaki-dan-je-patnja
Why is there an Adria A319 landing in Zagreb now?
ReplyDeleteIt took off from Zagreb at 00.30 so I suppose it's a charter.
DeleteMedvescak hockey club to Russia tour for 4 games in KHL league.
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