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| easyJet bids addio to Italy – Belgrade flights |
Low cost airline easyJet has announced the suspension of a second route from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport in only two weeks. The budget airline will discontinue services from Milan Malpensa Airport to the Serbian capital next summer season, but will maintain flights between the two cities over the coming winter. It comes only days after the airline said it was discontinuing its Rome Fiumicino - Belgrade flights starting next month due to poor ticket sales. In a comment to EX-YU Aviation News, easyJet spokesperson, Matteo Tadei, said, “We can confirm that we are continuing to offer flights at affordable prices between Milan Malpensa and Belgrade across the winter season until March 27, 2015”. Ticket sales on the route have been suspended for travel beyond that date .
easyJet gave no further comment on why it was discontinuing the three weekly flights launched last summer. The airline will maintain its presence in Belgrade as it will continue operating two weekly services from Geneva. It faces stiff competition on the route from both Swiss International Air Lines and Etihad Regional. The low cost airline’s Milan suspension will be welcomed by Air Serbia as it will regain a monopoly over the route. easyJet has a respectable presence in the EX-YU region with flights to Belgrade, Ljubljana, Pristina and Zagreb. Services to the Croatian capital will be suspended this winter, however, the airline continues to operate flights to the country’s coast during the summer season.
This year has seen a shake-up of low cost operations at Belgrade Airport as they face stronger competition. Wizz Air suspended flights to Charleroi earlier this year and cut down on frequencies from its Belgrade base, blaming increased fees and charges at the airport for its decision. However, at the same time, the airline has also launched flights to Larnaca, which will be maintained throughout the winter, and on Monday said, “We are interested in growing in Serbia, but this does not mean we are growing without Belgrade - we are not interested in moving”. Germanwings will pull out of Belgrade this winter with the suspension of its Stuttgart flights as it faces strong competition and fare dumping from Air Serbia. The German low cost airline has been steadily reducing its destinations and flights to Belgrade over the past few years. On the other hand, Spanish low cost airline, Vueling, launched flights to the Serbian capital this summer from Barcelona, albeit on a seasonal basis
Verujem da će se zaista neke kompanije pojaviti u Nišu, ako država organizuje malo bolji u jeftiniji prevoz, jer su im ovde u Beogradu šanse za profitabilnost pored Air Serbie i drugih veoma male, da ne kažem minimalne...
ReplyDeleteThis sucks. Does anyone have any stats about GVA-BEG route? Right now, U2 flies 3 times per week (2-4-6) and the article states it's 2 per week (is it just for the winter?). LX is dropping the route this fall and EY seems to be keeping its 3 per week frequency. Can we expect (hope) to see EY increase in frequencies? All flights on this route that I flew were over 90% full and I can't believe that no one is making money on it...
ReplyDeleteI flew BEG - FCO on Wednesday and it was almost empty. There was around 40 pax... When I asked the cabin crew is it like that usually, they said that now is okay, how somstimes it can be even worse.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow I will fly MXP - BEG , curious to see how the load will be for that.
I have a feeling that people are overestimating the size of the Serbia-Italy market. Ok, it's probably not small but I am sure the O&D is enough for a daily flight to/from Milan and maybe 10 weekly from Rome.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how anyone can succeed on FCO-BEG when Wizz Air failed. The problem is that when they flew, their average loadfactor was 66%. For a regular carrier that would be ok but it's very bad for low-cost airlines. They need loads in the 80%s in order to make it work.
On the other hand, we saw many people here complain how it's the Air Serbia subventions or God knows what that is chasing low-cost airlines away. Well, it's not.
First of all, Air Serbia is doing rather poorly in Rome which will result in the number of frequencies going down from 14 to just 7.
Second of all, both Alitalia and Air Serbia are filling their seats to/from Belgrade with connecting passengers. Alitalia has a massive hub in Rome where they can offer flights to pretty much any part of MENA as well as the western Mediterranean. That's how they manage to succeed at surviving in Belgrade and that's why Alitalia sends regularly their A320 and A321 to Belgrade.
I hope Wizz Air survives in Belgrade because if we are to see Air Serbia's fares to places where they have no competition then things get scary, really fast. Just look at the prices to Prague! :O
easyJet should consider expanding in Belgrade from Germany or Scandinavia and not Italy. They should launch flights from Berlin, Copenhagen (serves the Malmö region as well), Hamburg...
I would also like to add that it worries me that Air Serbia has not managed to attract any connecting passengers from Rome. The market is massive and has tremendous potential. Not to mention that Alitalia has a pathetic presence in the Balkans and this should have been a market where they would thrive, not shrink!
DeleteKako nisu kad iz Rima ima dosta putnika za OLBA, i jos mnogo drugih gradova. I odakle im onda profit od 56mil eur:) INN-NS
DeleteCan you please write in English, the official language of this blog.
DeleteOlen from SKP
DeleteAsl has O&D pax from LIRF to OLBA =D
INN-NS
And from LFPG to OLBA a lot of Lebanese people fly with ASL :)
DeleteINN-NS
Aha.. and can you tell me how is it possible that they get many passengers from Rome to Beirut when Rome arrives just ten minutes before Beirut departs? And from my sources there are NO passengers from Rome to Beirut.
DeleteI don't see why you mention Paris, that's not even what we are discussing here. It's Rome.
JU 535
DeleteAZ 7072 ROME 23:30
JU 827
BEIRUT 05:50
It is more than 10 minutes =D
INN-NS
I don't get the point of your comment. JU 535 is the arrival from Rome while JU 827 is the return flight from Beirut.
DeleteYou need to combine JU 535 and JU 826. ;)
Look here it is more than 2 hours
Deleteit´s JU JU 534 and not JU 535
http://www.beg.aero/%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8/%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8/%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%86%D0%B8.336.html?brojLeta=&destinacija=&datum=2014%2F09%2F12&vreme=&timeZone=2&type=ID&flightSearch=true
INN-NS
Erm... you are still wrong. Why don't you try to figure it out. ;)
DeleteYou are wrong it is more than 2 hours =D
DeleteINN-NS
You do realize that JU 534 DEPARTS Belgrade to Rome, not the other way around, right?
DeleteJU 535 arrives back to Belgrade at 23.30 while Beirut departs at 23.40.
Unless you seriously believe that someone would bother to sit at the airport from 05.50 to 19.10 when there are countless other, faster options to fly on between the two cities.
Excuse me! i am wrong =DD
Deleteinn-ns
OT: From 29.09.2014 Air Serbia cut night flight from Beograd to Skopje, Does anyone now why ??
ReplyDeleteThat night flight was seasonal only. The initial plan was for the airline to keep the day flight and to be operated by the Atr-72!!!
DeleteHowever, according to the latest plans Air Serbia will fly three times per week with the A319. I heard it's mostly due to cargo demand!
Btw: germanwings also cancels SJJ-TXL from 27. March citing very poor demand and yields.
ReplyDeleteI recent video of Belgrade airport from above: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x257ess_belgrade-airport-take-off-aerodrom-beograd-poletanje_travel
ReplyDeleteNice video! I suppose that was around 07.00 in the morning given that B&H Airlines was there and most of Air Serbia's fleet wasn't.
DeleteThe airport looks so much better since they renovated it.
Etihad livery looks so ugly though!
ali niko nije nasao za shodno da kritikuje menadzemnt easyjeta. kako im je uopste pala na pamet ideja da lete za rim kada su znali da je wizzair odleteo sa te linije? leteo sam vizom nekoliko puta za rim i uvek je bilo 50ak putnika u avionu. nismo mi toliko jako trziste da bismo podrzali 5 dnevnih letova za rim. sto se tice milana, pa u pocetku je bilo 3 leta nedeljno, a odmah potom i 4. kako to da su uveli i cetvrti nedeljni let za mxp, ako im je islo lose? neke stvari mi zaista nisu jasne. ali konacno covek moze da zakljuci da iz srbije jedino vrede gastarbajterske rute.. isto tako se secam da su proslogodisnji vizovi avioni za krf i rodos sezonski bili puni krcati, da bi ih ove sezone ukinuli i postavili na vilnijus.. ne znam, nisam pametan.. zar nije logicno da se prvo dugo ispituje trziste, istorija letova, popunjenosti kabine itd itd pre nego se uspostavi neka linija iz siromasne istocnoevropske drzave? mada mozda i gresim, vizu je sve bilo po meri dok se nije pojavila konkurentna airserbia. znam jedino da bi easyjet bio dobro popunjen iz beograda za barselonu, hamburg, berlin, london, pariz, nicu, kopenhagen i stokholm.. sa po 2 nedeljno ka svim ovim pravcima i mogao bi easy cak i da zaradi u srbiji. sto se tice vuelinga, zaboravili ste da napisete da je njegova linija do bcn iskljucivo sezonska, tako da od kraja septembra nema vise letova iz beg-a za bcn, osim 4 leta oko nove godine, i to je sve. svakako easy nije morao da obustavi letove ka mxp vec da ih smanji na 2pw, i to petak na ponedeljak..
ReplyDeleteMy comment is below, completely agree with you. Any Greek island would work during season. and plenty other summer destinations. Additionally, some cities (e.g. Madrid) could definitely work all year around.
DeleteОчигледно да успевају само гастербајтерске линије када је Србија и званично постала најсиромашнија држава у Европи.
DeleteМали број Срба може да приушти одмор у западној Европи. Они што одлуче да путују се углавном определе за гастербајтерска одредишта зато што могу да уштеде на смештају.
Исто тако, не заборавило да огроман број Срба и даље иде у Европу аутобусом. Само погледајте новогодишње понуде. Скоро свака је аутобусом, ретко која је ваздухопловом.
I will never understand why airlines start routes which are already well covered by other airlines, It doesn't make sense. I am pretty sure if Easyjet considered a route or routes where there is no competition: Spain no direct flight apart seasonal to Barcelona, maybe to Canary islands, Valencia, Madrid, .....), Portugal (three flight to Lisbon you could hardly call a competition), Germany - cities which are not covered by Lufthansa or Air Serbia), Scandinavia, France, Italy (Venice maybe?????), Morocco (seasonal), etc.....
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that these kind of airlines are expanding into new markets from places where they already have a base. That's why easyJet might consider flights to Hamburg, Copenhagen or Berlin where they have an operational base.
DeleteWhat I am surprised about is that no airline considered launching low-cost flights from Belgrade to Moscow!
Because interstate agreement between Russia and Serbia allows flights for only one carrier from each country to two destinations in each country. Russia is not a part of Open sky agreement.
Deleteno, it allows any company from Serbia/Russia to fly to any destination in Russia/Serbia. both countries signed sort of an open sky few years ago
DeleteI also noticed that quite often, Lot sends their E-175 to Belgrade! I hope their Belgrade flights are paying off. Nice to see that they have not suspended them when they were reducing a lot of their European flights.
ReplyDeleteTotally wrong ex-yu they do not face the stronger competition neither Air Serbia would be able to affect their no of pax. Single reason for withdrawal is that the state wants to protect monopoly of the flag carrier by imposing very conservative price list & forcing BEG to apply it. If that don't change asap we'll soon loose all lcc.
ReplyDeleteSo the conservative price list imposed on BEG is the reason why EasyJet had 40-50 pax on their flights to MXP?
DeleteThat same price list is also the reason why Wizz pulled out of the BEG-FCO route back in the time they were actually the ones who enjoyed benefits in BEG?
I would not say Easyjet has 40-50pax on their MXP flights, I flew on that flight three times, and the planes were comletely full. The flight was very popular among Italians, so it was not totally dependant on Serbian diaspora.
DeleteIt's not like EasyJet departs BEG, circles around and lands back at BEG - there are also circumstances at another airport to consider before jumping to conclusions, and that airport is Milan MXP.
DeleteAs Alitalia made a bunch of stupid moves in the years past with moving hubs back and forth between Rome FCO and Milan MXP, low cost carriers exploited AZ weakness to establish themselves as strong players at MXP.
However now with Etihad-Alitalia deal likely to be approved and Alitalia's announced plans for FCO and MXP, writing is on the wall for LCC's. It's not like they will be pushed out, far from it, but on the routes between Etihad alliance hubs like BEG-FCO and BEG-MXP, there will be dominant presence of JU or AZ (or both). So the heat is on at both sides for EasyJet, which still leaves a lot of other attractive destinations for them from BEG. I hope we'll hear new EasyJet BEG destinations for S15 season.
I highly doubt that easyJet is puling out of MXP-BEG because of a hypothetical future Alitalia. Let's not forget that the minority takeover was not yet cleared by the EC and there is strong opposition to this deal from the airline itself. It will be years before Alitalia is remotely strong in Milan.
DeleteOT: For all of you who cried about conbections to Spain it seems that AirSerbia is going to fly there on Monday.
ReplyDeleteOne flight only though :)
ŠAMPIONI
I also think that the government wants to throw out one foreign airline after the other...
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know how AirSerbia is doing in Skopje since they cancelled their night flight?
ReplyDeleteOn some days it does well while on some other it does quite bad. A few days ago we got a full A319 while another it came with just 23 passengers!
DeleteEX YU Aviation News
ReplyDeleteMaribor dobija konacno letove =D
Izvesna "Shabani-Airlines" planira letove iz Maribora od 15 Januara 2015 godine.
Planirane Destinacije iz Maribora su:
Maribor - Amsterdam (via Klagenfurt): 2x Dnevno osim Subote.
Maribor - Rom (via Klagenfurt): 2x Dnevno osim Subote
Maribor - Berlin (via Linz): Ponedeljak-Utorak-Sreda-Cetvrtak
Maribor - Köln/Bonn: svaki dan osim Subote
Maribor - Split: Petak-Nedelja
Maribor - Zadar: Petak-Nedelja
Maribor - Brac: Subotom
Maribor - Linz: Subotom
Klagenfurt - Brac: Subotom
Graz - Brac: Subotom
Wien - Brac: Subotom
Linz - Brac: Subotom
Innsbruck - Brac: Subotom
Salzburg - Brac: Subotom
München - Brac: Subotom
2Dornier 328 i 2 do 3 Bombardier CRJ-200: Dornieri dolaze iz USA a CRJ-tovi dolaze od Lufthanse City Line =D
INN-NS
Lufthansa CityLine did not have any CRJ-200s.
DeleteА зашто не провериш пре него што пишеш овде?
Delete'Shabani airlines' - without doubt very competitive name ;) imperial sense
DeleteТо је више нека гастерјбатеркса циганчлукјана, нема везе са Шахом.
DeleteI flew several times from Milan to Belgrade with Easyjet and the flights were always full, mostly with Serbian diaspora from Ticino region of Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteVery strange decision to cease flights to Belgrade and I hope that Ryanair or Wizzair will launch connection between these two cities.