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| Belgrade - Ohrid flights to launch this summer |
The Mayor of Ohrid, Nikola Bakračeski, has confirmed that Air Serbia will launch flights from Belgrade to Ohrid in June, following talks between the two sides earlier this week. Services are expected to run on a seasonal summer basis until late October. Mr Bakračeski said he was confident both local authorities and the Macedonian Ministry of Transport and Communication will jointly support the new flights through subsidies and deemed it an "important project". "During our meeting we reviewed all possible models of cooperation, which would benefit both sides. We concluded that the Belgrade - Ohrid service is significant for us in two respects. Firstly, the flights will cater for Serbian tourists but also travellers across Europe and the United States, keeping in mind that services from New York to Belgrade will launch in June. On the other hand, these flights will benefit locals who will be able to travel to various destinations and back home via Belgrade", the Mayor said.
EX-YU Aviation News inquired Air Serbia about the planned new service back in December last year but received no response to date. Flights between Belgrade and Ohrid last operated by Jat Airways in the summer of 2013, on a seasonal basis, when Air Serbia's predecessor maintained six weekly services (launched on June 23). Last week, Air Serbia's Chairman, Siniša Mali, said the carrier is also considering introducing flights to Kiev and St. Petersburg, as well as acquiring a second long haul aircraft. The airline last expanded its network in December 2014 when it introduced flights to Zagreb.
Ohrid Airport handled 107.916 passengers last year, overtaking its 1996 record. The airport's 54% growth in 2015 was fuelled by Wizz Air, which introduced year-round flights from Basel and seasonal services to London Luton Airport, carrying some 60.000 passengers to and from Ohrid. This summer, Arkia Israeli Airlines will launch seasonal flights from Tel Aviv on June 9, which will operate up to three times per week, each Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, with an Embraer E190 jet. In addition, one of Europe's largest tour operators, Thomas Cook, will introduce summer charters from Brussels to Ohrid on June 20, while Corendon Dutch Airlines will resume its seasonal services from Amsterdam.
that is well beyond summer "season". If its true then they are going for a year round service
ReplyDeleteOf course, especially if subsidies are involved. JU needs the extra cash in winter time to reduce loses.
DeleteWill the prices be as favorable as BNX?
ReplyDeleteHighly doubt it. BNX prices were agreed by the highest government officials, it wasn't up to JU.
DeleteOHD will most likely be the same price as SKP. JU has a policy of no offering tickets for less than €100.
Awesome news. This will be "zlatna koka" for Air Serbia. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHope this includes fleet expansion.
ReplyDeleteThey should also consider Mostar, Maribor and Zadar and exend their fleet with at least 4-5 more aircraft already. I don't understand why wouldn't they go with Split and Dubrovnik year-round, 2-3 weekly flights in the beginning would surely work well. Also, there is plenty of room for them in Romanian market, they could easily introduce flights to Oradea, Cluj, Iasi, Sibiu, Constanta and so many other cities. I don't understand what are they waiting for, they should've done it many months ago while OU wasn't even able to compete with them. On the other hand, maybe there is no capacity at BEG for many developments in their market, shouldn't they start expending T2 in September? What happened with that?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear ZAD will likely start this summer after all.
DeleteFrom what i read, Croatian Assistant Minister for Tourism said that Serbian tourists irritate him, so am pretty certain that no flights to ZAD will start at all
DeleteHe also had that blog post that went viral. Also, the other day a Serbian tourist was beaten up in Croatia. It's beyond me why people go there when it's obviously not that safe... with the exception of Istra, of course.
DeleteNothing happened with T2 expansion. BEG recently posted RFP for capacity evaluation, a solid sign they are trying to justify lack of expansion. Airports like SPU are busy expanding, not trying to measure capacity.
DeleteBEG-MBX would work great, since there are no carriers to offer transfer flights from MBX
DeleteBut would BEG-MBX work? I don't see there being a large market from eastern Slovenia to the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia (served via AUH).
DeleteIn my opinion, JU should tap into currently unserved markets which have a certain amount of O&D passengers; some of these are secondary Austrian cities as well as some currently unserved destinations in Germany such as Hamburg or Nuremberg. However, the Atr might be too slow and the A319 too heavy and economically uncompetitive- a regional jet is more than needed for such markets.
I think Slovenia is well covered with double daily flights to LJU.
One destination I would consider is Trieste which, even though close to LJU, has enough local demand to justify flights. If not Trieste then there is Venice.
As far as Trieste goes, I just checked and Jat suspended it back in May 2011. If I remember correctly that was the time when their Atr fleet was falling apart and they needed to redeploy the aircraft elsewhere.
DeleteBEG-TRS-BEG
April 2011, 13 flights, 728 pax, 42%.
May 2011, 9 flights, 486 pax, 41%.
Some used to argue that most passengers flying to Trieste used to end up in Slovenia. I don't believe it as at the same time we had.
BEG-LJU-BEG on JP.
April 2011, 28 flights, 1.681 pax.
May 2011, 32 flights, 1.992 pax.
With a competitive fare structure and a decent enough schedule, Trieste could become a nice market for Air Serbia, especially when you add the O&D passengers.
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DeleteNUE su mogli prepustiti AB sa Q400 i ponuditi im 1-2 linije izvan BEG bilo bi odlicno.
DeleteINN-NS
Мислим да би NUE био пун погодак, посебно ако га лепо искомбинују тако да нуде брза преседања ка Балкану. Још ако би имали доброг GSA онда би комотно могли да шаљу А319 пет пута недељно када већ немају регионалне авионе. Ствар је у томе што је Рајанер отворио базу тамо те ће вероватно почети да успоствљају летове ка својим базама на Балкану смањујући потребну за преседањима. Визер већ лети из SKP-a и OTP-a.
DeleteЗа ЈУ би било паметно да се сконцентрише на Немачку, Холандију, Белгију и Данску јер су то доста богата тржишта која нису толико пропатила због кризе а имају доста потенцијалних путника ка тржиштима ка којима Ер Србија нуди конекције.
Jos bi dodao mozda jednu destinaciju u Velikoj Britaniji ,i po meni CPH ima pre malo letova sto je steta . I jos bi dodao Skandinavskih zemalja posto ne znam sto ih ignorisu kad ima potencijala . Nemacka isto jako ignorisana i Austrija isto samo za VIE lete . I nije mi jasno sto nece malo vise da rizikuju nekako hvali jedna dobra ekspanizija.
DeleteINN-NS
OT
ReplyDeleteNedeljnik Vreme, br 1312, 25.02.2016. INTERVJU – PREDRAG VUJOVIĆ, BIVŠI DIREKTOR JAT-A Skupo ćemo platiti let za Ameriku
Radmilo Marković
"Iznajmljivanje aviona erbas 330 košta između četiri i pet miliona dolara mesečno, to je 50 miliona godišnje."
Zar je tesko izguglati?
"Iznajmljivanje aviona erbas 330 košta između četiri i pet miliona dolara mesečno"
DeleteIs he... retarded?
What was the name of that CEO from the early 2000s who wanted to establish a regional branch of JAT which was supposed to feed its flights out of BEG? He seems like one of the few rare, competent CEOs JU ever had.
DeleteFenomenalno!
DeleteAnon 9:53 AM.
DeleteVasa cifra od cetiri do pet miliona dolara mesecno ne da je fasinanto! Goglali ili kuglali lsto se hvata. Pa da je i misprint pa je nemoguce. Blog trpi sve i svasta. Pa i mene. Ali tih ''cetiri do pet miliona'' dolara za mesecno iznajmljivanje A330-200 je ''rekord'' ne samo ovog vec svih blogova. What to say? ✈R✈... KVO✈SYD
Kakav je Radovan kralj, on se uvek nesto oseca prozvano ili ne konta bas najbolje sta ljudi pisu...
DeleteToliki je lizing za A380 i to samo za prvih nekoliko godina ako ste prvi korisnik.
DeleteRadovane da ne bude zabune, moj post @9:53, poenta je da naravno da nije tesko videti na internetu da 330 mesecno staje 700.000 max. Stvar je u tome sto je taj deo teksta postao highlight celog intervjua pa se sirokoj publici stvara pogresan utisak o celom projektu JFK.
DeleteOT off.
Ljubomora je opasna stvar. Odavno besni zbog toga što on nije uspeo da sa JAT-om ponovo leti za Njujork pa prodaje Uzbekistance kao svoj "uspeh" a omalovažava sve što je postigla Air Serbia. Ovde i deca znaju da je 5 miliona dolara mesečno za A330 čista laž.
DeleteWhat a disaster ! This says much about the credibility (ie. severely lacking) of the journalist, magazine and last but not least, the interviewee.
DeleteAnother gaping whole was the statement in the article that "even Berlin, a city of 4.5 million people not having flights to the US".
Poorly researched and nothing this guy was quoted as saying was checked for its accuracy.
This magazine wouldn't even make it to the outhouse to be used as toilet paper ...
Worse even, was to roll out such a discredited person to throw criticisms at Air Serbia.
I won't even mention what others above have already said about the $50m to lease an A330.
Just goes to show you that some people will go to no ends ...
Discredited person? How so? He wasn't that bad, actually he was above average when compared to the others who used to run JU. Even today with Mr Kondic the airline is struggling in many different ways.
DeleteOhrid is not confirmed by Air Serbia so far. Last year Zadar and Brač airports talked about getting Air Serbia flights and nothing happened.
DeleteLaicki gledano, trosak letova za JFK ce otprilike izgledati ovako: Sat letenja na Airbusu A330 je oko 17-18,000 dolara (all in). Ako uzmemo u obzir da ce se do New Yorka leteti recimo 8 sati - odnosno 16h povratno - to je oko 288,000 dolara sa svim troskovima po povratnom letu. Letovi ce ici 5 puta nedeljno sto znaci oko 22 leta mesecno - 6,366 miliona, plus lizing od oko pola miliona i izadjemo na cifru od skoro 6,9 miliona dolara mesecno (bez troska inicijalnog treninga pilota ali sa kompletnim odrzavanjem).
DeleteSvakako JU ce prodavati karte i ja ocekujem da ce makar 70% ovog troska dobiti nazad, ali u najboljem slucaju u proseku JU ce morati da izkesira oko 2 miliona mesecno da bi linija opstala - po trenutnim prognozama koje su bile objavljene u javnosti.
Sumnjam da ce preostala dva dana ovaj avion bilo gde ici posto se mora i odrzavati u maticnoj luci.
"Sumnjam da ce preostala dva dana ovaj avion bilo gde ici posto se mora i odrzavati u maticnoj luci."
DeleteAre you serious? Why on earth would an aircraft need 2 days of maintenance per week?
JU has lower workforce cost and can use fuel subsidy. It will likely recover more than 70% and could use plane on extra days, it is now flying 7 days per week. Overall it was planned to be cash negative for the first 2-3 years but much less than $2M per year.
DeleteAS will open OHD, KBP, and HAM + 1 more.
ReplyDeleteAloso AS will take CRJ planes.
Any idea about the source of the CRJs, how many, or what type?
Deletelupeta...
DeleteJust before the last ATR was added to the fleet, in a brief talk with Sinisa Mali, I got the info that AS will acquire 5 more a/c prior to the first a320neo in 2018. 1 ATR arrived, 1 a330 is coming, 1 more a330 is possible and that means that 2 more a/c are planned. I doubt that anything other than a319/320 or atr72 will be acquired but again anything is possible.
DeleteI'm hoping this will go through as planned but again, so much was promised from them and not fulfilled that every info should be taken with a reserve.
p.s. I am not the Anon with the info on CRJ
Mali also said lease for second A330 could close in February. Good thing this is a leap year.
DeleteCRJ u opste nije u razmatranju i nece nista osim ATR , A330 i A319 doci .
DeleteINN-NS
Etihad's 319 will leave the fleet, could that be a scource?
DeleteEY 319's is supposed to leave after the summer season somewhere by beginning of November.
Delete@INN-NS
Deletetoliko o tvojoj "obavestenosti"....
That is more than good decision by Air Serbia. Ohrid is 100% success. It should be all year!
ReplyDeleteOhrid greškom mnogi smatraju turističkim aerodromom zanemarujući catchment area. Prilep, Bitolj, Kastoria, Pogradec, Elbasan, pa i Tirana, sve to je na 30 do 90 minuta.
DeleteThe last time I checked, the catchment area of OHD, including Albania, is around 600.000 people which is not that bad, especially if you are using the Atr to operate the route.
DeleteIs OHD open 24h? It will be interesting to see if they get a similar schedule to Varna or if it will go during the noon wave.
@Anon.11:44AM
DeleteThank God some percept OHD for something more than 'tourist airport'.I wrote before on some other article almost the same.The Benelux tourists are coming trough their own network (Corendon, ArkeFly from AMS and Jetairfly from BRU, there was even few charter with Transavia from RTM), now adding Thomas Cook Belgium and to give some different taste, the Israelis.
But rarely who tooks seriuos the numbers of SKP (app.1/3 of the passengers are coming from this region, and back at the days when MAT/Avioimpex operated most of the flight were via SKP (AMS,CPH,STR, GVA, HAM), exept ZRH, VIE (one of them flew directly, don't remember which), DUS.
Kinda like the situation with INI/BEG (maybe the only difference they never even gave INI a chance).
Also JP was flying 4p/w (DC9/320/CRJ) and Balkan to SOF (at some point 7p/w).
The problem back than was the killing of the passengers with the pricing, no order at all, etc.
The numbers are bad for the region but i guess not for transportation; statisticaly OHD has the greatest percent of emigration in the last 7-8 years (almost 1000 a year, about 85% abroad - NL, BEL, ITA, USA...you name it.Even in UAE and Qatar the last 3-4 years).The town went from city with good industry in ex-yu times (>90% employed) to a place called 'tourist one'.Almost the same thing with Struga (ITA,AUS,CH,GER) and especially with Bitola (CAN, AUS, USA - adding the emigration from the 70's till now,unnoficialy the number of people from BT abroad is more then the population in the city itself).
In the 90 min's zone Prilep is the most distanced, right about 90 min's.Even Gostivar (huge diaspora) is in that limit and faster after the Kicevo - Ohrid highway will be finished.
Some people from Korcha and Elbasan are using OHD even now, especially after Wizz got in.
Tirana on the other hand is 3 hrs by car (the part from the border till Elbasan is horror, but then there is highway), but they got lack of LCC there, so it's ok.
@Nemje On it's official site, it says 'generally from 5.30 till 22.30, 24 hrs on request'.JP used to fly to LJU early morning around 5AM and arrived about 1AM.I don't think it will be fidderent for JU if they ask for those midnight hours.
Okani se tih decijih gluposti, ceo Gostivar da se iseli to nije ni blizu "huge". Kako lupeta bivsi direktor JATa nije ni cudo kako vi ovde.
DeleteOHD
DeleteCool, thanks.
U tudjoga tatka pogolema ... znaci za Ohrid se ima avion,a za Nis se nema. . Pa nema te sile koja bi me ubedila da ce Ohrid fungcionirati bolje nego Nis. Na ignore su kod mene do daljnjeg!
ReplyDelete..mi u srbiji kazemo funkcionisati.
DeleteOhrid ce naravno raditi bolje nego Nis. OHD je 100 posto dobar potez, dok je INI rizik i to preveliki!
DeleteSmorili ste vise sa tim Nisom. Mnoge velike svetske aviokompanije fukncionisu po principu Air Serbije, jedan hub preko koga se ljudi povezuju za dalje destinacije. Mogli bi eventualno uspostaviti let BEG-INI-BEG, mada ne vidim ni zasto bi ako su Beograd i Nis udaljeni oko 3 sata autoputom. Dosta aviokompanija je pokusalo da odrzi letove iz Nisa i nisu uspele da urade nista. Imate WizzAir, Sofia i Skoplje su u blizini, ne vidim zasto bi Air Serbia morala da salje svoje avione u Nis.
Delete1) Nis-Beograd 2 sata i 15 minuta. Ohrid-Beograd oko 7 sati. Razlika je valjda ocigledna.
Delete2) Koliko Nis ima turista godisnje? (Uporediti sa Ohridom.) Da, naravno, turisti za Kopaonik bi mogli da dolaze preko aerodroma u Nisu, ali za to trebaju direktni letovi (ne konekcije preko Beograda) i objektivno to je jednostavno premali biznis da ponese O&D deo letova za Nis.
Ne zivim u Srbiji od rodjenja tako da ne govorim savršeno. .U svakom slucaju ste razumeli o cemu pricam, a to je najbitnije :)
ReplyDeleteOsim jezika vidim da se ne razumes ni u tematiku.. A sto se ove linije tiče, hvale je i oni koji nemaju simpatije za Air Serbiju.
DeleteIma li šanse da ga pošalju nama? Često šalju a321 znači da smo im dobra linija.
ReplyDeleteБило би супер али не верујем да ће се то десити... ако се не варам ове зимске сезоне су чак и смањили број летова ка Београду.
ReplyDeleteАтина је често добијала широкотрупце током разних промотивних тура, неки од примера су Емирати А380, Луфтханса Б748...
Ми смо ипак мали, регионални аеродром без премиум путника.
Congrats AS and OHD! MK has really developed during recent years. Maybe FR can launch OHD-STN?
ReplyDeleteStill hoping for flights to Kraljevo!
Samo su valjda planirali PMI,BCN i FRA i jos nekoliko destinacija cak nije ni VIE nigde pisao sto je steta.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
Nemjee, tvoja skromnost i realnost je ocarljivj u ovom balkanskom megalomanskom svijetu. Svaka cast!
ReplyDeleteOT: Admin? Sta je sa letovima Prag-Sarajevo sa CSA, karte jos nisu pustene u prodaju?! Zna li netko vise o ovome?
ReplyDeleteThey have been contacted for a comment. Hope to have some more info soon.
DeleteAnonymous 3.50
ReplyDelete+1
Хвала. :)
ReplyDeleteThe question is, with what are they gonna fly the route? Are there enough Atr's once BUD has been suspended or they're gonna lease another one?
ReplyDeleteMoram pohvalito da je air serbia dovela u red svoje vreme letenja!!! Avioni polaze tacno sto je za svaku pohvalu
ReplyDeleteso far we have a number of destinations in game: OHD confirmed, JFK confirmed, PRN most likely mentioned by a couple of people, LED and KPB mentioned by politician, ZAD mentioned. Other destinations that were mentioned on this site: CAI, MUC, and secondary Romanian city.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to assume that MUC is not going to happen, it would be suicide if they decided to launch it.
Deletejust to include: PRN will be operated by Aviolet is what I heard and BUD was suspended so an ATR was freed, so technically JU can open OHD,PRN, and one other destination like LED 4 p/w without acquiring extra aircraft. With that in mind, it would have to reduce charters a bit. Somebody correct me if my interpretation is wrong.
DeleteMUC bi bila cista glupost bolje im je 100 puta otvoriti INN umesto toga .
DeleteINN-NS
A zasto bi bila glupost?
DeleteMUC je bolje povezan sa Balkanom od INN i zato je logicnije i zbog drugih stvari da pre otvore INN.
DeleteINN-NS
Tvoja uobicajena budalastina. Svabovi nemaju uopste interes za BEG. Palma de Majorka i sl.
DeleteVasa je budalastina sto ne znate u opste o cemu ja pricam.
DeleteINN-NS
OHD, ZAD, HAM and KBP will be operated by JP on behalf of JU :D
ReplyDeleteHahahahah all with the CRJ700 leased from LH! :D
DeleteGood part is, I am very serious. Please review this post in late June or July ;)
Deletehaha this guy is pretty hilarious, almost like the guy who said that A330 will need 2 full days of maintenance per week
DeleteHe is actually correct and I'm none of the anonymouses from above. Wait and see.
DeleteAnd just to add they will be operated by JP in the sense that the aircraft will be wetleased. Think of a very small aircraft Adria has in its fleet ;)
Deletestop trolling dude. Wet leases of CRJ 700 or 900 are probably more expensive than getting 2 A319 till 2018.
DeleteIt will be neither 700 nor 900. And I'm not trolling.
DeleteEmbraer 170 from Estonian lol. They have only one CRJ 200
Delete