Montenegro Airlines will face increased competition on a number of routes this summer, as it makes minor changes to its operations. One of the airline's best performing destinations last year, Ljubljana, will see an additional flight this summer for a total of three per week. On the other hand, the carrier will reduce services from Podgorica to Moscow for a third consecutive year. In 2015, Montenegro Airlines recorded an 18% decline in passenger numbers on its flights to the Russian capital, which has, in turn, led to a reduction in frequencies this year. The carrier blames a volatile rouble and the state of the Russian economy for its lacklustre performance on the market. In contrast, the airline expects to boost passenger numbers on its Paris flights, despite maintaining the same amount of frequencies as last year, after it inked an agreement with the French arm of the global travel giant Thomas Cook. The deal will see the tour operator book hundreds of seats on scheduled services between Paris and Podgorica from April 2016 until the end of September.
From Tivat, Montenegro Airlines will decrease its operations to Moscow following last year's addition of a number of frequencies. This summer, the airline faces added competition on the route with Red Wings Airlines to become the latest Russian carrier to launch flights between the two cities. Furthermore, the carrier will suspend its seasonal service from Tivat to Vienna, launched last summer. However, it will maintain flights to St. Petersburg which were also introduced in 2015. Montenegro Airlines will add an additional weekly flight to Belgrade, operating up to 25 weekly rotations during the peak summer months. While the carrier will run an additional weekly service to London Gatwick, it will face direct competition from low cost giant easyJet, which will launch the route on June 16. Montenegro Airlines will also operate a number of charter flights to Bari, Hannover, Naples, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. The airline is the official carrier of the Albanian national football team and will be responsible for the transportation of players and fans for the upcoming 2016 UEFA European Championship taking place in France between June 10 and July 10, as well as other friendly away games to be played in the lead-up to the competition.
Please note that the changes listed below are preliminary and based on current availability in the Global Distribution System (GDS). Furthermore, the table below displays the peak weekly frequency on each route during the course of the summer season. Increases in frequencies, particularly on flights from Tivat to Belgrade and Moscow, do not come into effect until later on in the summer. You can now review the 2016 summer season changes for each national carrier from the former Yugoslavia by clicking on the links below. Furthermore, you can review Wizz Air's summer operations from the former Yugoslavia here. The 2016 summer season begins tomorrow and lasts until October 29.
Departing Podgorica| Destination | Frequency S2015 | Frequency S2016 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | 14 | 14 | - | - |
| Copenhagen | 3 | 3 | - | resumes MAY07 |
| Dusseldorf | 2 | 2 | - | resumes APR09 |
| Frankfurt | 5 | 5 | - | - |
| Ljubljana | 2 | 3 | ▲ 1 | - |
| Lyon | 1 | 1 | - | resumes APR09 |
| Moscow | 3 | 1 | ▼ 2 | - |
| Paris | 7 | 7 | - | - |
| Rome | 4 | 4 | - | - |
| Vienna | 5 | 5 | - | - |
| Zurich | 6 | 6 | - | - |
Departing Tivat
| Destination | Frequency S2015 | Frequency S2016 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | 24 | 25 | ▲ 1 | - |
| Moscow | 20 | 15 | ▼ 5 | - |
| Paris | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| London Gatwick | 3 | 4 | ▲ 1 | resumes APR27 |
| St. Petersburg | 4 | 4 | - | resumes JUN06 |
| Vienna | 1 | 0 | ▼ 1 | - |
If they don't get bought or do something radical this will probably be their last summer. Easy Jet is starting flights and will trump them completely on the TIV-LGW route. It will get worse next year.
ReplyDeleteMGX future pax numbers on TIV-LGW route:5/0! Cockpit&cabin crew:5,PAX:0.EZY first flight LF:90%
Delete"The airline is the official carrier of the Albanian national football team and will be responsible for the transportation of players and fans for the upcoming 2016 UEFA European Championship taking place in France between June 10 and July 10, as well as other friendly away games to be played in the lead-up to the competition."
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much they are getting paid for this?
I think it is them who are paying the Albanians for this.
DeleteThey are sponsors of their team.
Bizarre
Deleteposlednja sezona za MGX u ovom obliku !
ReplyDeleteHope we will see Etihad's influence from next year.
ReplyDeleteWhy? The best thing for our region would be to have them go bankrupt.
DeleteMilo won't let that happen. All these airlines are a source of national pride. I don't mean among the people but the administrations. It's sort of a symbol of their independence and I'm sure Montenegro Airlines won't go bankrupt. They will just pump it with cash. So it might be better to see them get their act together.
DeleteCareful what you wish for.
DeleteAir Berlin and Darwin also experienced the "Etihad influence" and it wasn't a positive one.
I think there are limits. As the airline is being increasingly attacked on all fronts, their losses will only keep on increasing- especially now when they are losing the Russian market.
DeleteAir Serbia could destroy them if they really wanted to. However, as I mentioned once before, it's in JU's interest for YM not to go bankrupt.
As far as Etihad goes, I agree with the anonymous above.
Those airlines were already in intensive care BEFORE Etihad came on board. Without Etihad, they would have disappeared long ago. Same goes for Jat Airways and same goes for Alitalia.
DeleteAnd no one is arguing otherwise. All that was said is that Etihad failed in turning these airlines around so it's not as if they would have much success in a country like MNE. EY desperately needs one of its European airlines to start functioning properly on its own otherwise its business model might end up a failure- same way Swissair's did.
DeleteNemjee, i doubt it very much. Swissair didn't have the wealth of Abu Dhabi behind it.
DeleteIt is not so easy or quick to financially and culturally turn around airlines such as Alitalia (which was loss making for the past 20 years), or air berlin, which is an amalgam of 3 different airlines and the union concessions that it is not able to extract.
Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Jet Airways are all moving in the right direction in case you haven't noticed.
Etihad hasn't failed in anything. All are still works in progress. They are all still operating, right ? None have closed down, right ? So where is the failure ?
Please read carefully what I wrote before replying:
Delete'otherwise its business model might end up a failure-'
Key words: might end up a failure.
So it's still not one but it can easily become a failure if all these airlines are not turned around in due time. You are forgetting an important thing, Etihad can't pour endless amounts of money in either AZ or AB so Abu Dhabi's wealth isn't a crucial factor in the survival of these airlines.
What is though is the know-how Etihad was supposed to bring into these airlines. You can argue all you want but it's been years since Etihad's initial investment in AB and the situation just keeps on going from bad to worse. Like I mentioned a few days ago on here, with an ever-increasing level of competition in Germany, things will become even worse for the airline. The fact that Etihad is considering removing AB from the stock exchange can only go to show that they are well aware of the state the airline is in.
What is shocking to me is that Etihad never provided AB with a concise business plan but instead they allowed them to remain a mess they had become over the years.
As far as Air Serbia goes, we can only evaluate how successful it is from 2017 onward.
Nemjee just ignore them. They obvious don't understand aviation
DeleteNemjees last sentence is ignorant of hard work and solid management of Air Serbia since 2013. Positive change is not just a result of investment. Air Serbia has their ducks in a row for successful 2017 and beyond. Postponing evaluation of how successful they are for 2017 and after makes Nemjee a bit of a closet hater, and in line with EC strategy for bullying Air Serbia.
Deletehahaha ok, sure. Anyone who possesses the basic understanding of business will know that you can't seriously evaluate the state of a certain company until the restructuring process is over. Like it or not we are still in that phase and it will be (officially) completed only once the subsidies end- that is at the end of this year.
DeleteWhat you are doing is that you are making definitive statements on something that is still 'in progress.'
That's like someone saying a few years ago that AA's restructuring process is a success even before the airline exited Chapter 11.
Finally, the EC is not bullying anyone. It is just doing its job in enforcing the Lisbon Treaty. Like it or not, Serbia aims to become a member of the Union which means that these subsidies will eventually have to stop.
And I will not stoop down to your level and call you names. I much prefer to use arguments and common (business) sense.
Možete vas dvojica da raspravljate do mile volje kada je danas samo važno da je firma profitabilna a ne da je ne znam ni ja šta. Da nisam u pravu ne bi Ryan Air bio najpopularnija i najprofitabilnija kompanija u Evropi!
DeleteCena je posebno važna na Balkanu gde je narod prosto siromašan. Da nije tako ne bi Er Srbija povukla jastuke i ćebiće sa svojih evropskih letova kao rezultate mere štednje. A opet ne možeš da nudiš luksuz i da naplaćuješ kartu 100 jura.
Osvestite se obojica.
Ali meni su najveci hit ovi cheerleadersi sto odmah napadaju svakog da je hejter samo zato sto kaze nesto protiv njihove miljene kompanije. Plus da pratis malo vise blog znao bi da je nemje pre nekoliko dana branio program subvencija.
DeleteNemjee se odmah upecao da bude čirlider za EU-EK a ni jednu lepu reč o transformaciji Er Srbije, kao da je to rezultat zamaha čarobnog štapića nekog Šeika.
DeleteEK sve više liči na prevazidjenu socijalističku selektivnu plansku privredu nego na efikasne alatke kapitalizma kao što je američki čapter 11 koji omogućava da se najbolje očuva vrednost. Engleska se sve više udaljava od neefikasne EK i približava drugoj strani okeana. Armiji EU birokrata (od kojih neki verovatno posećuju ovaj sajt) se ljulja stolica posle bregzita pa za par godina EK više neće biti kakva je danas, ako je uopšte i bude.
Oh my... what a comment. Planned economy? How so. Please enlighten me. By the way, you do realize that the EC is not allowed to launch an investigation (regarding subsidies) on its own and it can only do so once an official request/complaint has been submitted to it. So it's not like Brussels bureaucrats can launch a witch-hunt on their own.
DeleteSecond of all, there is not going to be a Brexit. The moment the UK would leave the Union they would go bankrupt. And no. London is not turning towards the US, they are looking in the exact opposite direction. ;)
Finally, you can call me a hater or whatever else you wish but I have probably contributed more to making JU profitable than you ever will. ;)
Our company is regularly sending people abroad and I've booked 90% of them on JU. The other day I booked a PRG ticket for 28.600 Dinars so you can imagine that I wasn't particularly thrilled to be ripped off and to have our client fly on an Atr for almost two hours. God forbid he ends up flying on ALP, ALN or ALO.
So sure, if being an internet crusader means more than giving business to JU then be it. I will gladly be a hater. ;)
However, I will just add this. Air Serbia is losing a lot by not being fully integrated into the Etihad Business Connect programme. Hopefully they either become a part of it or launch their own.
Planned economy is too mild of a term, EC austerity for Greece is economic stranglehold, many references and sources confirm this.
Delete“it's not like Brussels bureaucrats can launch a witch-hunt on their own.”: There is no shortage of interested parties to (re)launch EC investigation into Air Serbia, LH being prime suspect initiating current one.
“…there is not going to be a Brexit”: Perhaps they should cancel the June 23 referendum as you already know the outcome? Besides, regardless of outcome recent concessions already render EC weak in Britain. Concessions are giving them more independence, not getting them closer to EU.
Not sure where are you going with internet crusader? Didn’t you run your own web site/blog on Yu aviation couple of years back?
“…you can call me a hater”: dully noted.
You do realize that it's not the European Commission pushing austerity in Greece. It's primarily the IMF and to a lesser extent the European Central Bank. Still, even if they are 'encouraging' austerity it's still far being a planned economy. Maybe you should first research the meaning of terms before throwing them around like that. Maybe a good start would be to read up on the Troika, who they are and how they function. ;)
Deletep.s. Troika was kicked out of Cyprus two weeks ago as they have officially completed their restructuring. So in a way the reason Greece is still a mess is because of their own incompetence.
Brexit will not happen because the benefits UK gets has by being in the EU are far greater than the money they are giving back. Brussels wouldn't just allow the UK to leave without a punishment and the fact that UK based companies would no longer operate within a single market would probably lead them to bankruptcy. Then imagine all the grants Brits would lose, all the money from CAP (40% of the total EU budget) and so on.
Well, LH is welcome to do it. Anyone can do it as it's the law. It's EC's job to verify and check if everything is in line with the Lisbon Treaty. Given that Serbia is not in the EU it can go on handing out cheques to all sorts of loss-making companies.
I most certainly did and then when I graduated I stopped as I no longer had the time for it. As far as internet crusaders go, they are numerous on here. People with no clue and very often those who probably never flew on Air Serbia. Not to mention that in stead of using facts they are using pejorative adjectives to qualify those who do not share their opinion. At least when I comment/complain I make sure to back the arguments with facts.
But it seems that many people were bothered by the fact that I said that we shouldn't evaluate the state of Air Serbia until subsidies run out. Many are forgetting that a business must be profitable. Without it there is not much point in keeping it alive. This applies to all government owned companies in the country. It's unfair towards the private sector.
Finally, I will just add that it was thanks to my connections in Baku that the whole Azal deal was even discussed. In the end I had to explain to my friends at their ministry of economy and at the embassy here why JU didn't follow through. So excuse me if I tend to be critical at times.
Yawn. EC is the hammer, not the hand holding it. Hand might want Air Serbia to go down like Malev did but it is blind to see Air Serbia is prepared to prevent any Malev or similar scenario. The idea of using decaying EC against JU is simply obsolete.
DeleteJU can't do much if the EC makes an unfavorable ruling.
DeleteEC has no basis for unfavorable ruling.
DeleteI don't know what the point of this airline's existence is...
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with their one-weekly charters to MBX, they were talking about. They said these flights were in final stages of talks between the two sides.
ReplyDeleteAnyone knows from where you can extract schedule info for last season and compare it with this one?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Very disappointing. All national airlines are growing this summer, they are reducing frequencies in a year when tourism numbers should rise sharply.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletethey have not paid any kind of fee for service or tax ever since. they are worse than ASL and CTN together.
ReplyDeleteAside from the losses that continue to mount, they owe the Montenegro Airport authorities millions and millions of euros. How is it even possible that the EU allows them to continue to operate within the ECAA regime when they are receiving so much state aid ?
DeleteAsk air serbia for the answear!!!
DeleteYeah, what a great comment - gosh, that took alot of thought.
DeleteWhat has Air Serbia got to do with the debts that Montenegro Airlines owes to its airport authority and the losses it continues to make ?
Why are you suprised?where do you live,in your own dreamy world or in a parallel universe?It'not a secret that air serbia receives state aid too!!
DeleteGo and educate yourself. Air Serbia gets 51% of its funding from the state, since it's a state company. This is not "state aid". It's investment, based on the 51%-49% investment split between the state and the private investor.
DeletePlease stop comparing and getting Air Serbia down into a conversation about this phony Milo company, used to enrich the great and ever-lasting Montenegrin leader's friends and family.
How ignorant you are!!I suppose you know nothing about backstage in politics!!
DeleteUnderwhelming to say the least
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting all the changes :)
ReplyDeleteOT: From another forum, today Swiss RJ100 Zurich-Zagreb,
ReplyDeleteLF 100%
I am fairly certain that all carriers are full or extremely close to 100% full inbound on ZAG day before Easter. Good for LX all the same.
Deletethat is a poor load in some sense, considering its Easter time for Catholics.
Delete^not in terms of actual LF, but the fact that it was not upgraded to A320 ...
DeleteQatar's flight from Doha to Zagreb today with A321!
DeleteOU MUC A319 instead Q400
DeleteAlmost all companies came last 3 days with much bigger plane.
Any news about privatisation of Croatia Airlines and their Management
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to connect Tivat and Warsaw during the summer. Not sure if they have any spare planes.
ReplyDeleteOkay, the airline is ran the way it is, and so are/were JP/OU/JU to a certain extent, but I think there's still merit for national carriers in small countries like exYu - namely, to connect them to legacy carriers' hubs so that they can connect onward around the world from there. I mean, look at the connectivity of SKP, regardless of the W6 boom.
ReplyDelete