EX-YU airlines to boost winter operations

The national carriers from the former Yugoslavia will boost operations throughout their networks this coming 2016/17 winter season, which begins on October 30.

Air Serbia will lead the growth, with the airline to operate flights to New York and extend seasonal services to Larnaca and Hamburg. In a statement, Air Serbia’s CEO, Dane Kondić, said, “Initially launched as a summer service, Hamburg has quickly established itself as a valuable point in our network, with strong passenger load factors. As a result of its exceptional performance we have decided to upgrade Hamburg to a year-round operation”. At this point, the remaining new seasonal routes, launched by the carrier during the summer, will not be extended, although flights from Belgrade to St Petersburg will be operated between December 21 and January 22 twice per week. The Serbian carrier will add one flight per week each to Berlin, Milan, Tirana and Tel Aviv. Earlier this month, Mr Kondić hinted at “one or two surprises” in the winter network. On the other hand, the carrier will suspend its flights to Warsaw.

After downsizing its network during the summer, Adria Airways plans to boost frequencies on several routes out of Ljubljana this coming winter season when compared to last year. They include Amsterdam, Paris, Sarajevo, Warsaw and Zurich. Furthermore, the Slovenian carrier intends on concluding codeshare agreements with Sky Team-members Air France and KLM, on its flights to Paris and Amsterdam. From its base in Lodz the airline will strengthen its Munich service by adding another weekly departure for a total of twelve, while flights from Tirana to the Bavarian city, launched during the summer, will continue to be maintained. On the other hand, the carrier will discontinue services from the Slovenian capital to Berlin and will end operations out of the Polish city of Olsztyn.

Croatia Airlines will discontinue two routes this winter season in order to boost frequencies and vacate aircraft for more popular destinations. The carrier will add one additional weekly frequency between Zagreb and Copenhagen, and two extra rotations from Split to Munich for a total of six weekly flights. Furthermore, it will extend its seasonal service from Dubrovnik to Frankfurt into the winter months. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines will terminate operations from Zagreb to Pristina and between Dubrovnik and Rome. At this point, flights to Pristina are set to resume at the start of the 2017 summer season in late March next year.

Last month, Montenegro Airlines signed a wide-ranging codeshare agreement with Air Serbia to over thirty of the latter’s destinations, which comes into effect on October 1. There have been suggestions that winter will see significant changes in the airline’s operations, however, at this point, none have been made. The only amendments to the airline’s schedule so far is the reduction of one weekly flight from Tivat to both Belgrade and Moscow. All services from Podgorica remain the same as last year. Montenegrin press have reported that the carrier will add an additional daily flight from Podgorica to Belgrade, although they have not been added to the system.