Air Serbia has seen its passenger numbers grow during the first three quarters of the year. According to a report by Belgrade Airport, the national carrier welcomed 2.112.735 passengers during the nine-month period, an increase of 1.8% on last year. The airline accounted for 55% of all traffic at Belgrade Airport. It operated 25.816 flights, an improvement of 1.7%. Air Serbia's busiest route was Zurich where it handled 138.441 passengers, an increase of 16.6% on 2015. It was followed by Paris with 121.785 travellers, down 3.5%, then Podgorica with 109.949 passengers, up 4.5%, Tivat with 97.767 travellers, up 4.3% and Moscow, where it registered 89.571 passengers or a decrease of 12.9%. On all other destinations, the Serbian carrier welcomed 1.561.222 travellers on board its aircraft, up 1.7%. The airline had previously published its own regular quarterly updates but has stopped with the practice since this year.
Commenting on the airline's main goals for the future, Air Serbia's CEO, Dane Kondić, said in a recent interview with "Paste Magazine", "Our primary goal at Air Serbia is to be the leading airline in Southeast Europe, and that means offering best-in-class products and services, with modern aircraft and a network that takes people where they want to go. As the national airline we care about preserving our national heritage, but at the same time we want to showcase the modern Serbia many travellers are simply unaware of". He added, "The launch of flights to New York was significant in this regard as not only has it reconnected Serbia and the US with a Serbian-operated flight after a break of 24 years, but it has provided a new air link for American travellers and businesses to discover what we have to offer".
According to Mr Kondić, Air Serbia's main strong point compared to its competitors in the region is its focus on service. "We have a strong network, flying to 44 destinations, so people can fly from New York to Belgrade, spend a week or two in Serbia, and travel on to Montenegro or Croatia for example. At the same time as building up our Belgrade hub, we are also quickly gaining a reputation for our service, both long and short haul. Our business class service is particularly recognised for being arguably the best short haul product in Europe - a ninety minute flight between Belgrade and Berlin offers a level of service comparable to many longer flights on other airlines. With the rise of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) travel to Serbia, this is another segment we are keen to focus on", Mr Kondić said.
What generated such high growth on Zurich flights? They operated the same frequencies. Also would be interesting to see why such a decline to Moscow although I think they cut frequencies since last winter.
ReplyDeleteDouble daily flights with convenient times attracted s lot of p2p but also a great number of transfer passengers from the region.
DeleteThis is the reason for decline on Moscow route.
Deletehttps://scontent.fbeg2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/15042080_10207994755365975_8105606344024653814_o.jpg
HAHAHAHHAHAHAH OMG is that for real?!
DeleteI would have thought their growth would have been larger considering they opened several new routes.
ReplyDeleteIt probably means that they saw quite a big decline during last winter.
Deletethey did have a decline in the first half of the year, so bearing that in mind, this result is quite good
DeleteHow will they deal with all the competition next year? Apart from Wizz Air starting flights to a few cities from Belgrade they will also have competition from Transavia to Amsterdam and they will also have to compete with the Nis factor.
ReplyDeleteWhat can they do besides lower their prices? They don't have extra planes to add flights.
DeleteWell if we are to believe some commentators here they will be moving towards a hybrid model next year.
DeleteWe are already seeing now that they are trying to get money and passengers any way possible - offering economy class passengers access to the lounge at a charge, offering non baggage tickets. Next will probably be meals. But they failed a year ago when they started charging exit row seats at an extra fare. It lasted a few weeks before it failed miserably and they removed the charge.
DeleteA hybrid model is the direct opposite of what the CEO is saying in this article they will do:
Delete"Our primary goal at Air Serbia is to be the leading airline in Southeast Europe, and that means offering best-in-class products and services, with modern aircraft and a network that takes people where they want to go".
They way they can compete against LCCs is by trying to do what LCCs can't. Attract as many transfer passengers as possible. And that means opening routes like Tehran and others where you can get people to fly via Belgrade.
DeleteAgree with the comment above.
DeleteApparently Air Serbia's management was less than happy when they heard Wizz Air would be basing another plane there.
DeleteBut there isn't anything they can do about Wizz. Less complaining, more competing.
Delete@9:23, 9:25
Delete+1
Old news recycled, warrants the same answer. Air Serbia needs to expand where LCC's can't fly due to legislative reasons and make those markets their primary, instead of Ex-Yu and the 'region'. Those are Iran, Caucasus, Central Asia, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, North Africa...or pretty much everywhere where, understanding that and facing Ryanair and Wizz Air at their home base, Aegean has been expanding for the past two years. Actually, that should be the logic with or without the LCC but now it's even more paramount. If needed, take the damn regional jets of the almost bankrupt Adria which'll be happy to give them for peanuts, but do something about it instead of expecting everything to fall from the sky. Air Serbia lags more and more seriously behind Aegean as a transfer airline in SE Europe, becoming a lag that'll be impossible to overcome, breaking down the very model they were trying to introduce.
DeleteWithout a decent number of connections to the East, you can't have a decent number of connections towards the West and vice-versa. Poor Balkan countries aren't enough and won't fill the front seats. Presence in the larger/richer Balkan markets of Greece, Turkey and Romania needs to be improved categorically. I think Air Serbia has until the next summer season in order to wake-up.
Aerologic - it's not your fault you don't understand airline economics, but let me try to help you .... transfer traffic is great, but only during off season as fill traffic. Transfer traffic is extremely poor yielding and does nothing for route economics. The only profitable way forward is to generate much greater P2P traffic - shorter stage lengths with far greater yields.
DeleteThe regions you talk provide much lower c/RPKs for airlines .... it only works for much bigger network airlines.
Aegean has 3 x more aircraft than JU and they can never compete with or be compared with them - simple as that.
It also takes too many aircraft out of their scheduled rotations which would leave them flying far fewer passengers at far lesser yields.
I guess EK and FI don't understand them either.
DeleteWhile whether i understand airline economics or not is debatable, what is not is that you are burning mine and other taxpayers money with your incompetence. Therefore, you need to answer to that, change your strategy or quit, leaving the office for someone more capable.
DeleteHere are some points:
- Nobody is saying JU is gonna make a fortune out of transfers or become the new EK BUT as you just said, since BEG sees relatively little O&D traffic, it'll certainly help bring down the losses, which ain't a bad start, isn't it?
- Second, it would improve brand-awareness, not only of the airline but of Serbia as a whole, meaning, more point to point traffic.
- Third, the aviation landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years. Aegean doubled while Air Serbia more or less stagnated, it didn't become 3x times the size overnight. Now there is Sofia. Air Serbia could have become the airline of choice for the Greek market such as OS/TK were for Serbia while instead, it barely flies one daily to ATH during the winter. Sending Atr's to IST. There is no excuse for that.
Without talking of opening new mid-haul routes to ME/Central Asia, the existing regional routes are largely under-performing due to inconvenient schedule for point-to-point passengers you're PRECISELY talking about. You chased them away. On IST they fly with TK, to ATH with A3, to OTP with RO... At the end of the day, you need to decide who you are. A transfer-boutique airline as envisioned from the start and shape your schedule accordingly, develop your transfer network further, or a point-to-point hybrid/LCC with convenient schedule for O&D pax? Try and being the both will follow in the steps of Air Berlin.
Fourth and most important - while discarding my proposals, which have been successfully implemented in other airlines, you're not telling me - what is your solution other than sit and wait, while burning money that doesn't belong to you?
I'm sure that's one comfortable position, now that's something that isn't debatable.
And which airline do you work for again ?
DeleteAre you implying only people who work for airlines can post on here? If that was the case we would not read Purger's great posts.
DeleteI hope Mr Aerologic works for JU! ))
DeleteNot bad. Paris dropping slightly is not a big surprise considering that many used CDG as a transfer point to JFK. Plus, I would assume that people have been much less inclined to travel to Paris this year with all the terrorism incidents in France and Paris.
ReplyDelete"The airline had previously published its own regular quarterly updates but has stopped with the practice since this year." Yeah I wonder why lol
ReplyDeleteKondic talks about service levels but I would not go overboard with it being amazing. Business class- yes it's above the European average. Economy - no. Especially on shorter flights. There are maybe 3-4 destinations in Europe where you get a choice of hot meal and a menu because they are 2+ hours.
ReplyDeleteTrue, their flights up to.two hours are pretty standard not to mention the horrible legroom.
DeleteWhat "horrible" legroom? Compared to what? You have to elaborate it and give complete info. Otherwise it reads like trolling.
DeleteJU has minimal legroom in their Airbuses, how do you think they.fit 126 seats in economy while having a dedicated business class product. You are either unimformed, a dwarf or you never flew on JU.
Delete126 seats in economy and you could add another three rows where you have the business section which comes out to 144, same as all LCC carriers.
DeleteJust as I thought. Hateful trolling.
DeleteAltogether 128 seats in 319, typical for 2-class A319.
https://www.airserbia.com/en/our-fleet
Please stop.
With the exception of the exit row A319 seating has horrible legroom where for anyone taller than 180 cm it is a true pain to sit properly. They should do something (remove 1-2 rows) about it, others have A319 with more legroom!!!
DeleteCheck the LX A320 fleet legroom and toilets, where they put 178 pax in a A320 and 218 pax in a A321!
DeleteThe same amount of pax as on their A340 fleet!
Anon 12.01
DeleteYou are forgetting that JU has a dedicated business class product so it's not a standard configuration for Europe.
Also, airlines like LX, W6, A3, OS, LH... all have slimline seats so it's easier and more comfortable to sit while JU has the old, classical seats like in some of the older A320s W6 has.
That's why 144 in LX and 144 in JU does not feel the same
Swiss seatpitch in Eco is horrible
DeleteI heard many complaining about 773. Now they will also add seats in the 5 A340 which remain in the fleet ufn
LX has high wages and other fix costs which they need to cover with extra seats in Y cabin
Oh please just stop with ignorant and hateful trolling.
DeleteWhen you were shown that what you say at 11.10, 11.18 is a totally invented and mean bs, you just find additional angle for trolling.
Please don't troll.
You are the one who is trolling since you have obviously never flown on Air Serbia.
DeleteThe business class has large, robust seats whose two rows take up three rows of normal economy class seats, that is a total 18 seats if it was an all econ class.
In economy class you already have 126 seats so when you add 18 and 126 you get 144. If you had 120 or 114 in economy then it would be trolling. Like this it isn't.
Also if their pitch was above average, or even decent then Dane would have mentioned it by now. Obviously he can't since its the same as any other carrier just without decent seats.
DeleteIt's one thing for you to want to defend your favorite airline but there are limits and you should know better.
JU A319 does not have 126 seat in economy, it has 120.
DeleteAs for seat pitch, in Economy it is average at 32". I travel frequently between BEG and AUH with them and find the pitch fine.
http://www.airlinequality.com/info/seat-pitch-guide/
Only feedback is that the Elevate Play system has very limited options and is not smart phone friendly - layout could be made more user friendly. That, and the issue of no where to charge your device as the wifi system drains your battery. And the wifi is outrageously expensive.
I am 1.83 and the pitch is a bit problematic when the flight is longer than 2 hours.
DeleteWizz Air got much better when they installed new seats, old ones were horribly uncomfy.
JU has 132 seats in economy on the A319.
DeleteAll JU A319 have cabin seat configuration 8J/120Y means that's pretty comfortable for passengers. Old B733 are of 144Y or 8J/126Y configuration.
DeleteI wouldn't go as far as say that it's pretty comfortable but it's just bearable on shorther flights.
DeleteThe guy complaining about seat pitch has no idea what he is talking about. I am 195 and I did not notice any problem.
DeleteYou were probably seated at the window.
DeleteNow your trolling sounds really desperate :)
DeleteWill JU be profitable this year again?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they have ever been profitable. They just fix up the results like all other ex-Yu airlines. I'm just wondering how big of a fake profit they will publish this year and if they will make it smaller than last year because of New York or if they will inflate it even more.
DeleteTheir financials did improve quite nicely but then JFK happened and threw them off their balance. That said I don't know what tricks they will use to do it this time with so much more expenses.
DeleteTheir results are audited by KPMG so don't know what you are on about.
Delete@ Anonymous November 21, 2016 at 9:53 AM
DeleteI think you don't know what you're talking about. KPMG are no different from any other company. They will give you the result you want and you pay for. Just to tell you that KTB /3rd biggest bank in Bulgaria/ was odited by them and collapsed 2 month later despite the "great" results shown in the report.
KPMG like all other audits will present you with what you want them to present. Let's not forget that EY was also audited to show profits.
Deletethe accounting was correct. they just added the BEG airport write-offs as revenue (this was taken as serbian goverment investment).
Deletereport for 2016 should be different, since they started paying for the airport services, so let's see.
Not only that but they added a loss making route to New York.
DeleteWhy always complaining, remember if it wasn't Etihad this airline wouldn't exist anymore.I think that Croatia Airlines would mind to be the same situation and have a Ceo like Air Serbia has.
ReplyDeleteCould we see some new aircraft next year?
ReplyDeleteSomeone wrote a few days ago that 2 B737-800s will replace 2 of Aviolet's B737-300s... Not sure if there is anything more planned.
DeleteThey will surely have to address replacements for ATRs.
DeleteIntroducing another fleet type into an already fragmented and small fleet is ludicrous!
DeleteThey need to standardize and reduce the number of types they operate to maximize commonality benefits - getting a single class A320 with the new space-flex galley at the rear can afford them 186 seats, just three shy of 189 in a 738.
I wonder if those passengers to/from Moscow migrated to Aeroflot. Aeroflot's business class product on this route is just a touch above JU's as you have PVTs although Air Serbia gives you an ipad.
ReplyDeleteMoscow is down because during the winter they operated 7 weekly flights compared to 12 the year before. Their scheduling on these flights is also a big problem. I guess Aeroflot does well because of all the connections they offer.
Deleteand they have now direct flight to LED, where Belrade was most unserved destination
DeleteDon't forget that Russia has been experiencing a major economic crisis (with a major devaluation of the Rouble), and this has influenced the number of international passengers. Don't look at overall airport numbers, but look at international traffic: http://favt.ru/novosti-novosti/?id=2334
DeleteSo how come that Aeroflot and Sheremetievo airport stats all see YOY improvements while JU on their Moscow flights has reductions!?!? ...strange at least I would say!
DeleteHow nearly all airlines make money on LHR just OU cant?weird?.Its funny i know!
DeleteGuess Whoo,
Deletewe are not talking about OU, there was enough bashing yesterday. If you are not done feel free to go and comment there.
@anonymous 2.58pm:
Deleteread what anonymous 1.22pm wrote. Word by word. Try to read slowly. Don't skip any word. Repeat. Then check the link. Read slowly. Try to see if the numbers make sense in your head. Do you see the sharp fall in intl traffic? Repeat. Ok?
I find the route by route passenger numbers quite interesting. Seems quite a few passengers wsent from Swiss to Air Serbia on Zurich. Because I think Swiss has a big decline in passengers to Belgrade. Moscow has been underperforming for the entire year.
ReplyDeleteZRH saw an increase because of normal ticket prices, unlike last year.
DeleteIt is strange that more frequencies since end of March did not accumulate bigger passenger growth.
ReplyDeleteThere were only 1,7% increase in flights which is not a lot at all.
DeleteGood results. Hope we see more growth next summer. I really think people here are overly picky. Which nearby airline (other than major LCC) introduced 5 new routes this summer, wide body, and trans atlantic flights?
ReplyDeleteLot, Austrian and Aegean experienced growth and they are both directly and indirectly competing with JU.
DeleteThe fourth quarter will be much stronger than last year, so JU might end the year with about 2.5-2.6 million passengers.
ReplyDeleteHow many did they handle last year?
Delete2.5 million. I think they will finish with 2.7 this year. Hopefully 3 million in 2017.
DeleteAny info on the loads on the JFK flights?
ReplyDeleteaverage LF is 24%. they're considering to end it, and to employ 330 for charters next summer season
Deleteps. yes, I'm trolling you :)
DeleteYou are not funny
DeleteBEG-JFK vv loads : JUN (6 fl.) 78%, JUL (22) 82%, AUG (22) 76%, SEP (22) 72%, OCT (22) 61%, NOV (11) 62%.
ReplyDeleteIf cargo is not doing extremely good, then the losses so far should count somewhere between 3 to 5 million USD, based on these LF's and the assumption that JU fares are 25% lower than its competitors.
DeleteASL fares are not lower than it's competitors. From top of my head, most of the dates I have check it out lately, price is ~15% more expensive than LOT on the same route for example
DeleteIvan, you are obviously using the wrong head to think from ....
Delete@ last anonymous
DeleteFor people heading from JFK, the tickets are almost always more expensive. Please go ahead and look for yourself on any airline ticket website. For example, next summer Aeroflot 780 with Aeroflot, 1200 with air Serbia.......
Err... have you taken your pill today yet ?? Ju flies non-stop, while Aeroflot flies via Moscow ... and how are these the same ? ofcourse Aeroflot is going to be cheaper, just like any 1-stop legacy carrier competing against a non-stop legacy carrier
Delete... hi lol ^ you're wrong.. from BEG to JFK it is usually cheapest with ALS, even though they're direct... soo
Delete15% increase of capasity in full season (one A330 and one CRJ900)
ReplyDelete10% more routes
But still just 1,8%increase of passenhers!!!!
Not good
...samo si zaboravio zimski red letenja do aprila i smanjenje od 10%
Delete... i da je to povecanje od 15% vazi samo za treci kvartal a ovo je izvestaj za tri kvartala.
DeleteOne can easily calculate the exact numbers no need for making numbers up like anon at 1:15pm.
DeleteFor example number of passengers stand like this:
1-9.2016 2.112.735
1-9.2015 2.075.487
In first 6 months:
1-6.2016 1.110.360
1-6.2015 1.144.396
So for the summer 2016 (6-9):
6-9.2016 1.002.375
6-9.2015 931.091
So the growth in passenger number in summer is 7.66% or 71.284 passengers.
At the same time number of operation count is:
1-9.2016 25.816
1-9.2015 25.371
In first 6 months:
1-6.2016 14.846
1-6.2015 15.240
So for the summer 2016 (6-9):
6-9.2016 10.970
6-9.2015 10.131
So the growth in number of operations in summer is 8.28% or 839 flights more.
Nadam se da ce buduce nove Destinacije ASL biti one koje ce im doneti mnogo dobiti kao sto su nor IKA i jos neke na Bliskom istoku , naravno ne treba se zaboraviti i Africko trziste koje bi mnogo transfernih putnika donelo.
ReplyDeleteI takodje se nadam da ce se pronaci odgovor na letove LX za INI da uzvrate istom merom prema nekom Star Alliance trzistu .
INN-NS
Maybe it would have been smarter if JU had opened flights INI-ZRH before LX did.
DeleteIt's not the same at all. ZRH is Swiss hub and main base so they target both p2p and transfer pax. ASL would have to target p2p pax only plus I doubt they have any airplane to fit in that schedule. On top of that, crew management, maintenance and catering would incur more cost than possible bnefit from that line
DeleteASL is dropping WAW and VAR airports for good.
DeleteEven in summer?
DeleteFor good means forever.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAko se gleda iz Ekonomskog Aspekta ASL nema sta da trazi trenuno u INI. A kao odgovor Star Alliance za pocetak letenja za INI ja bi odgovrio slicnim potezom uspostavio let kao odgovor prema nekoj drugoj Destinaciji u Nemackoj ili Austriji.
DeleteINN-NS
S ekonomskog aspekta, "odgovor" ASLa prema Star Allieanceu u vidu letova prema Nemačkoj je promašena ideja :)
DeleteWhen will be opened de-icing platform,excatly?
ReplyDeletePrekosjutra.
DeleteHvala.
DeleteFrankly, hard to be operational before January next year.
DeleteOT: Croatia airlines presenting new business class menu and opening new routes next year (Stockholm, Oslo, Dublin, Moscow)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poslovni.hr/hrvatska/croatia-airlines-uvodi-nove-linije-evo-koji-gradovi-su-u-planu-320848
http://www.jutarnji.hr/biznis/tvrtke/sef-uprave-croatia-airlinesa-na-zalost-svih-dusobriznika-nemamo-ni-kune-gubitka-koji-treba-pokrivati/5289315/
DeleteYou need to read the report more closely ... what their CEO said was, "the POSSIBILITY of opening new routes....."
DeleteThis is like all other announcements that he has made this year - aircraft orders, new bases etc etc .... nothing concrete of firm, just POSSIBILITY after POSSIBILITY after POSSIBILITY.
He has been under enormous pressure these past few days due to the LHR slot sale, so an announcement like this serves to deflect things somewhat ...
Nothing will come of it, just like all the previous announcements.
This guy is a master in the art of spin
Kaže CEO da su Adria i Air Malta propali? Flagrantno neznanje. Nisu propali, Adria se prodala, Air Malta leti i prodaje se, zainteresirani pregovaraju. Za razliku od Croatie koje se ne može prodati nakon "uspješne" restrukturacije. Nema zainteresiranih.
DeleteKaže CEO da su Estonian i Cyprus napravili restrukturaciju po istom modelu kao i Croatia. Flagrantno neznanje. Oni su restrukturaciju napravili prema nelealnom modelu i zbog (uvjetno rečeno) "sankcija" EU su banktorirale preko noći. Kao i Malev.
Kaže Kučko da je LOGIČNO da Croatia ljeti gubi udio u tržištu. Po čemu je to logično? Niti je prihvatljivo, niti je logično!!!!
Kaže Kučko da je morao izbaciti A320, ali zanemaruje da je uzeo Fokker F100 Trade Aira. U međuvremenu je povećao broj sjedala u svim jetovima, po načelu "sardina" konfiguracije. Dakle godišnji kapaciteti sa tim mjerama su isti kao oni prije restrutkuracije sa A320. Manipulacija informacijama!
Kaže Kučko da posluje sa dobiti. Ali je zaboravio reči da je zbog toga prodao avione, motore, Pleso prijevoz... Da nije, bi li bilo dobiti?
Kaže Kučko da u posljednje 4 godine nema ni kune novih gubitaka. I opet prodaja opreme. Ali po medijima se spominje hipoteka na preostale avione radi kredita koji su u posljednje vrijeme uzeli radi plača. Hm, hm, hm...
Kaže Kučko da će vrijednost slotova pasti kada se izgradi 3. pista na LHR. Ali pritom zaboravlja reči da je to za 10 godina. Do onda će potražnja za slotove porasti preko svake mjere i biti veća od novonastalih kapaciteta.
Considering the competition from BEG the results are quite good.
ReplyDeletePeople constantly get hung up on passenger numbers. Down and they are bad, up and the airline is doing super. Total crap !
ReplyDeleteBest is when passenger numbers are up, as well as profits (or less losses, depending on the airline).
So what really matters for JU, is how they finish up at the end of year, based on the airline metrics that really matter.
RASK needs to be up and it needs to be more than their CASK - if they achieve that, then they are doing great.
In the meantime, this story means nothing. Just look at YM. Their numbers were reported here recently to be up - yet they continue to bleed money.
Growing passenger numbers is easy - discount like crazy and the sky is the limit.
OT:
ReplyDeleteRyan to base another 2 a/c in Sofia next year. They will add also another 10 destinations out of SOF.
They are definitely going after W6
Delete