This is great news! Following in the footsteps of airlines like LH and BA who are successfully competing with LCCs with this tactic.

Sorry to say but you sound like a ASL-SNS bot.

thank god. now add london to the list and I may be able to afford Air Serbia

How much cheaper is the ticket this way?

No I am not, and although I don't think this is the right place to discuss politics, I would rather die than vote for SNS. The only reason I say this is great news is because I think it will make ASL more profitable and burn less of the taxpayers money. If it was up to me I would privatise 100% of ASL and BEG, as well as all the other publicly owned companies because I don't think it's goverment's job to run a business (but that is a discussion for a different place).

I dont see this option on airserbia.com?

At the moment you can only buy these tickets by calling the call centre or going to their retail shop.

Nevermind then, I will drive to Vienna.

Calling the call centre is free from any country

FFS it's 2016 and they expect people to buy tickets over the phone...

Ok then, respect.

Dobro je da su krenuli, ali zašto su ovako iskomplikovali ? Samo u određenom periodu, samo za određene destinacije, samo preko call centra, ne mogu se nigde uporediti tarife po obe varujante... Da li neko ima ideju o kakvom sniženju je reč po pravcu ?

I can give you an example from my personal experience. I recently bought two return tickets for ZAG-BRU with Brussels Airlines in March 2017. The full baggage ticket (Light & Relax) cost was 96 € and the hand baggage ticket (Check & Go) cost was 56 €. That's around 40 % cheaper. Higher priced ticket brings benefits like early check-in and free change to an earlier flight on the same day.

Odlicna ideja, ali realizacija nestrukturirana, kaoticna, nerazmisljena. Zasto ne urade nesto od pocetka do kraja kako treba, nego samo polovicno? Ovakvi koraci se lansiraju mnogo ozbiljnije.

Kakva drzava takva i avio kompanija a ni Arapi nisu mnogo poznati po planiranju unapred.

Anyone called to check prices?

Yes it's free to call them but when buying a ticket via the call center they charge you €20

Of course it is well thought out ... they only offered it on the routes where they thought they might generate the sales and made it available in the most cost effective sales channel.

If you don't like it, no issue, travel with another airline

Nisam siguran da je to dobra ideja.
Na letovima za FRA JU je cesto kod putnika dobijao prednost bas zbog mogucnosti cekiranja 23 kg slobodnog prtljaga besplatno dok LH je taj prtljag naplacivala.
Ono sto se vrlo lako moze sada desiti je da najnize cene koje je JU imala na odredjenoj destinaciji (na primer FRA ili ZRH) ostanu iste kao i ranije, ali uz uslov nosenja samo rucnog prtljaga, dok bi najnize cene uz 23kg predatog prtljaga poskupele.
To fakticki znaci da za svoj novac putnik sad dobija manje nego ranije, odnosno za istu uslugu kao ranije mora vise da plati.
Kako to za putnika moze biti dobro?
Jedino sto mogu dobiti je to da mnogi putnici predju da lete sa konkurencijom jer pruza bolji izbor letova( na primer LH iz FRA ima dva dnevna polaska dok JU ima samo jedan) uz cesto nizu cenu (nema LH posebne doplate za letove vikendom itd)a od sad i pruza istu uslugu sto se tice predatog prtljaga.
Los potez.

"I don't think it's goverment's job to run a business"

Wake up. Start learning about EU and the USA. Most airports in the US are owned by some form of a government. Around the world aviation is run or controlled in some way by governments. Go change the world and the Serbia will follow, not the other way around.

Who says he isn't flying on another airline?

+100000000000000000000000000000000000

Ahahahahaha kakva vest :)))) Koji amateri..

@ Anonymous 12:51
Sorry but you are defending a strategic move, which by description shows mankos. There is no objectiv way for your argumentation, so please don't take it personally, because with that attitude you are not helping anyone (nor the airline, nor the passanges)

Airports could be government owned as they represent infrastructure (like the railroad) but give me one example of a state owned US airline? Not to mention that in Serbia the government is in the business of telecommunications, banking, bus transport, television broadcasting, it even owns newspapers, energy companies, partners with Fiat, subsidizes many private companies which line the pockets of the politicians. More than half of Serbian GDP is produced by state owned companies, which is insanity and probably the main reason why we're so 'prosperous'.

well said

You are shifting away from aviation. US has very low bar for foreign ownership of airlines, ensuring they are controlled by US entities. Serbia does not have enough private capital to run an airline so the mix of EY and government investment makes sense. If you don't like the rule, go to EC and change it. It's easy being armchair CEO and PM here.

“Our hand-baggage only fares are designed to meet the demands of modern travellers... We are proud of the culture of innovation at Air Serbia"

Innovation? Haha! Welcome to 2016, people!

Now seriously, they are great at adopting the general trend in Serbia (and I suspect the broader region) of marketing deterioration as innovation.

What a lack of commercial policy! The introduction of no baggage fares is simply Air Serbia's matching the fare structure of the competing airlines operating on Vienna, Frankfurt, Zurich and Athens routs. But to present it as innovating and customer oriented is the climax of impertinence.

To anyone asking why only via call center and why only certain routes... It is because they are testing the model. After the test period they are expected to introduce it on all flights and also to be able to book it on-line.
For example, WizzAir also tested the small/big cabin luggage on certain routes before implementing it all over. So in time we will see whether this will live or not.

If we are using random examples as "proofs," aren't Etihad, Emirates, and Qatar state-owned companies?

I wanted to say that in real life it is not such a simple and clear choice. You are right that Serbian state is too involved in the economy. There is no need for telecommunications being in state hands. But I much prefer BBC to US Foxnews or Big Three.
As for airlines, I have mixed feelings about this.
Do states or pension/health funds own major legacies in Europe, including Turkish?
We are all in Europe, so a comparison with US does not make much sense. We are not a US state and a part of US market, which is a whole other animal.

It really feels more like testing the model than using it for real.

Or... they need to implement the Sabre Sonic suit which will allow them to do this online... If they wanted to, the simple and cost effective way would to do it online. However, they don't have the means to do it, yet.

In real life, every govt in Serbia since Djindjic tried to find buyer/investor for Jat and failed, so I agree that real life choices are not easy. Etihad to Air Serbia is not a government, they are outside equity investor with great aviation expertise as a bonus.

Did anyone call? How much is the luggage-only fare to ATH? They could have at least published those fares on their website!

Not a fan at all of this pricing methods. The airline doesnt save a buck with this. As far as i know GHA contracts are not yet negotiated per bag piece or total weight
Complete owngoal as more pax are taking cabin bags and this leads to delays in boarding and deboarding
But welcome to the world of discounts and super deals, where less and people estimate work and are willing to pay for services

This should be in place by April.

Completely agree.

@JU520 I don't understand your last sentence.

If i appreciate and respect someones work, i show this with appropriate payment. But thats what were raised up, fully understand that todays younger generation which is raised up with cheap cheap or super value deals looks different at it. Also i respect everybodies wealth status. In CH most of us were raised up with jobs, regular payments, salaries above world average. Where someone maybe in Bosnia never had this luck and needs to look out for best deals to at least fly once a year or every couple years. Delicate and sensitive theme where i need to be careful how i spell it out
Laku noc fm ZRH ;-)

Ok, danke mann.

I called the call centre yesterday to enquire about a ticket BEG-VIE-BEG without luggage on 3-5 December. They told me 150€. However, the cheapest price they had for those dates with luggage was 115€. It was strange to me that they would charge 35€ more to travel WITHOUT luggage.

That's because the call center charges you €20 processing fee. Air Serbia is becoming more and more absurd.

Nisu amateri, već testiraju sistem na onim destinacijama gde konkurencija nudi isto to. Ako se pokaže dovoljno interesovanja, pretpostavljam da će uvesti za sve linije.

Ali vi ste svakako pametniji.

"Ono sto se vrlo lako moze sada desiti je da najnize cene koje je JU imala na odredjenoj destinaciji (na primer FRA ili ZRH) ostanu iste kao i ranije, ali uz uslov nosenja samo rucnog prtljaga, dok bi najnize cene uz 23kg predatog prtljaga poskupele."

Ovo je potpuno neosnovana pretpostavka, tako da je samim tim i zaključak irelevantan.

Pretpostavka je vise nego osnovana i bojim se da ce do bas takvog razvoja situacije doci jer se ta novina uvodi kod destinacija gde je konkurencija potpuno istu stvar napravila kad je uvodila ovakav nacin poslovanja. Malo obavestenosti nije na odmet