Air Serbia has posted solid operational results for the first half of 2017, with growth registered in a number of key areas, including passenger figures, cabin occupancy and cargo. The Serbian carrier welcomed 1.12 million passengers during the first six months of the year, representing an increase of 3% on 2016 when it welcomed 1.08 million travellers on board its aircraft. Passenger carrying capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs), stood at a record 1.93 billion, up 16% year-on-year. Air Serbia achieved an average cabin load factor of 70.5% in H1, showing an increase of 3% against 2016, with particularly strong seat occupancy in the second quarter, standing at 73.3%.
The airline’s cargo operations recorded significant double digit growth of 54.6%, with 2.988 tonnes of mail and freight uplifted in the first half of 2017, compared to 1.932 the year before. The growth was fuelled by the airline’s New York service, which sees notable cargo loads. Meanwhile, on-time performance at its hub in Belgrade came in at 88.8%. Some of the major developments at the airline during the first half of the year included an IT upgrade to Sabre, the retrofit of ten narrow-body Airbus aircraft, the launch of flights to Venice and the suspension of its Istanbul route, as well as the first flight in its history operated by an all-female crew. Furthermore, the carrier put into effect its new business strategy, which saw the introduction of new ancillary services such as seat selection, mobile boarding passes and annual Premium Lounge passes. Over the past six months, Air Serbia also marked the 90th anniversary of commercial aviation in the country, the first anniversary of its long haul service to New York, and won the 2017 Airline Market Leader Award from Air Transport World.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s CEO, Dane Kondić, said, “Our operational performance in H1 has been strong across the board, with passenger numbers and cargo volumes both rising since last year. We continued to introduce new products and services during this time by reconfiguring our narrow-body Airbus fleet with new seats and upgrading our sales, boarding and check-in systems to Sabre”. He added, “These developments are designed to strengthen the business in what continues to be a very tough and competitive operating environment. We recently celebrated our 90th anniversary as the national flag carrier and are proud that we are continuing to grow and solidify our position as the airline of choice in Southeast Europe”.
Wow 54,6% in cargo is really huge improvement... I don't know if basis was low or NY flights really make change?
ReplyDeleteWell it says last year cargo was at 1,932, so the base wasn't that low.
DeleteAny idea on what the products the JFK flights are carrying?
DeleteFrom two articles on ex-Yu
Delete"Since June, the airline has transported a wide variety of cargo to the United States, from food products made in Serbia to mozzarella from Italy, garments and machine parts from Turkey and Romania, mail from Russia and Greece and safety glass from Croatia"
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/12/air-serbia-cargo-posts-strong-results.html
“Air Serbia's cargo operations are performing above all expectations. The airline's uplift capacity to JFK, which is fifteen tonnes per flight on the Airbus A330, is in high demand. We are transporting a wide variety of goods to the US and onwards to Canada and countries in South America, including textiles from Romania, Italy and Turkey, automotive parts and gaming industry machines from Bulgaria, and Serbian fruits and mushrooms, to name a few. From the other direction, there are even regular shipments of cargo from Ecuador and Argentina being sent to the region on board our service from JFK”
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/06/air-serbias-transatlantic-service-one.html
Thanks.
DeleteGood results.
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion foreign carriers are responsible for all growth at BEG.
ReplyDeleteWell it's good that both have grown their passenger numbers at BEG during the first half of the year. Remember a few years ago, JU provided all the growth in BEG which I don't think is a good thing.
DeletePassenger numbers are holding up well. Considering they cut Istanbul, Kiev, Warsaw and Varna compared to last year, it's amazing that the number of passengers actually grew.
ReplyDeleteNot really, their pricing makes more sense now. They generally lowered their fares and they actually do open lower booking classes a few days before the actual flight departs.
DeleteTake LCA as an example. In the past the cheapest winter fare was around 25.000 RSD. This past winter it went down to 17.000 RSD which is comparable to what Wizz Air offers.
So ASL's share at BEG dropped to 52% from some 56% a few years ago. Great for the consumers.
Delete@ Nemjee.That's true! I've booked tickets for Larnaca in September and Air Serbia with luggage turned out be cheaper than Wizz. Mind you the departure and arrival times are horrible.
DeleteWizz Air has gone crazy with their fares to LCA. That said their flights seem to be full and they have extended the second frequency throughout the winter season. Their Sunday flight to LCA departed with 176/180 passengers! Our flight on ASL had 99/144 and they were mostly transfers, lots of Americans, Germans, Croats and Dutch.
DeleteAir Serbia's flight does arrive a horrible time but at least the bus company has introduced departures to both Nicosia and Limassol at 04.00 so you end up waiting less than hour, more like 20 minutes.
High prices would indicate Wizz is doing extremely well and probably took all of JU's point to point passengers. The bad news for JU here is that since the majority of passengers on their flight are transfers, they are not making a lot of money on this sector.
DeleteI still don't understand why they are leasing out two A319 this winter in stead of introducing two morning departures from BEG to LCA at 07.45, the same schedule like TLV.
DeleteIn such a way they could offer JFK and actually attract a lot of local passengers who are otherwise flying on Wizz. Given the loads on Wizz, I am sure that soon we might see a third weekly flight.
I am telling you, when I was at the airport there were at least 50 Americans waiting to board on one of the 'midnight flights.'
Also, I doubt they are losing money on LCA even with these transfers. I mean the route would not be brought back if it was loss-making.
LCA is a major example of the need for regional aircraft.
DeleteThey could increase frequencies to maybe 4-5 times a week and gain back the O&D traffic.
Only problem with that and with morning flight to TLV is that they are loosing aircraft for two rotation. It would be much better if they could return in the one way. Maybe it would be much if they have similar times as Wizzair. On Friday it could catch passenger from New York and return from LCA with passenger to New York.
DeleteThat could work very well for them. They could also attract some passengers arriving from Moscow as that market is particularly large.
DeleteThat said, I don't think they would mind losing the aircraft for two rotations. The fact they want to lease them out shows they have no special need for them.
At the end of the day we won't be seeing anything new from ASL as far as LCA goes... which is a shame.
Well at least it's no longer linked to another route. I think JU had it linked to Dubai or Tel Aviv.
DeleteCargo is doing great! I don't know how much money it brings to the airline, but I assume it isn't negligible.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't!
DeleteI meant revenue from cargo isn't unimportant.
DeleteAnyone know how they are doing in July?
ReplyDeleteUnlike last year charter flights this summer will do extremely well and I think will really help them boost numbers and help substitute the suspended flights.
ReplyDeleteCapacity increase on Airbus fleet will also help.
DeleteOh yes, forgot about that. We will see the effects of that in Q3.
DeleteThere is a good article about strong demand for charters this year in Novosti
Deletehttp://www.novosti.rs/vesti/turizam.90.html:677027-Cak-700000-Srba-letovima-ide-na-odmor
Would be interesting to see what are their best performing routes in terms of LF.
ReplyDeleteZurich and Paris I would assume
DeleteIt's Zurich.
DeleteThat has always been traditionally a good performer. During easter/christams holidays and at the end of summer they could easily fill the A330 on this route.
DeleteIn early 2000s JAT used to send the DC10 to Zurich during summer peak travel times and the plane was always full.
DeleteOne of the lagerst Diaspora in Switzerland is from Serbia.
DeleteBut it pales in comparison to the Albanian one.
DeleteNo, the largest diaspora in Switzerland are; Germans, Italians, Franch and than Yugos ... slowly are comming, as those migrated were born in Yugoslavia not Serbia btw.
DeleteYou're talking about foreign permanent residents, but that fails to account for naturalised citizens. Albanians absolutely take the cake in that regard.
DeleteWould be nice if they finally posted their financial results for 2016.
ReplyDeleteIt's up to APR. Companies submitted their financial reports at the end of June. Now the APR has to review them and publish them on their website.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe APR can conveniently delay the publishing of the results if they want to
DeleteActually, the APR returned Air Serbia their financial report because they asked for some things to be corrected in their report.
DeleteDon't know why everyone is in such anticipation of 2016 results. It will be a profit and all of you will say it's creative accounting.
DeleteWait, I thought our seasoned experts on here told us that everything is a disaster and that the airline is on the brink of collapse.
ReplyDelete90yrs of being the flag carrier? I'm sorry but when you change name and have an entire new business structure you have in effect created a new business. Sorry but Air Serbia is a new flag carrier and not a 90yr old business. Typical Balkan BS as usual!
ReplyDeleteName change doesn't mean much as they inherited the IATA code and registrations from JU.
DeleteBesides, the article says they celebrated 90 years of commercial aviation in Serbia.
It's actually the same company, it was just rebranded a few times.
DeleteArticle states:
DeleteHe added, “These developments are designed to strengthen the business in what continues to be a very tough and competitive operating environment. We recently celebrated our 90th anniversary as the national flag carrier and are proud that we are continuing to grow and solidify our position as the airline of choice in Southeast Europe”.
Wikipedia states:
Air Serbia
IATA ICAO Callsign JU ASL AIR SERBIA
Commenced operations: 26 October 2013 (as Air Serbia)
Hub: Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport
Frequent-flyer program
Sorry but it's not the same continuous airline for 90 years.
You forgot to add (also on Wikipedia):
DeleteFounded: 17 June 1927 (as Aeroput)
The truth is that JAT was never the legal successor of Aeroput. It was registered as a completely new company BUT Jat Airways and Air Serbia are both successors of JAT. They never shut down Yugoslav Airlines and then created Jat Airways or Air Serbia. They just renamed Yugoslav Airlines and then Jat Airways.
DeleteNeviđeno, neverovatno i neopevano ste dosadni sa tom raspravom o tome da li postoje 90 godina ili 3 godine. Dosadni ste vi kojima je sve to jedno te isto, a ultradosadni ste vi koji po svaku cenu tražite razlike i svaku bogovetnu vest spinujete u nešto negativno.
DeleteStvar je vrlo prosta. 2013. Etihad je usao u vlasnistvo Jat airways-a sa 49% Ostao je isti PIB (poreski broj) isti maticni broj, isti IATA kod. Pravno i formalno to je ista firma!
DeleteAh, sta ti je ljubomora, pa neki nisu imali ni drzavu kad Srbija imala avio kompaniju i avio saobracaj medju prvima u svetu.
Delete+1
Delete@1:52 Aeroput je osnovan 1927. u Kraljevini SHS, dakle u zajedničkoj državi.
DeleteAeroput je bio privatna kompanija koju su onovali dioničari, privatnici. Nije imala nacionalni predznak.
DeleteIf their results where really good they would say how much was their profit!
ReplyDeleteas other people noticed before me, where are the financials?
ReplyDeleteon-time performance at its hub in Belgrade came in at 88.8% ... how do they calculate and come with this number? I have some doubts that this is correct as most Europe major hub flights are constantly late arriving / returning back to Beg airport. London and Frankfurt (as two most important) never return back to Belgrade on time.
ReplyDeleteLondon and Frankfurt are usually delayed because of huge congestion at both airports at that time of day when they have their flights. Also worth mentioning that some flights from BEG have to be delayed when an incoming flight is late because of transfers.
DeleteAs for on time performance, all flights with up to 15 minutes of delays are not considered as late.
as far as i have seen some of the serbian standard documents on otp it is defined as aircraft departing within 15 mins of scheduled time (as 9:35 have said)
Deleteif it is for the hub, then it is just for the aircrafts departing BEG, not getting to it.
It will be an interesting few months at JU. I wonder how winter will turn out.
ReplyDeleteWinter is coming :)
DeleteI think with a better fleet which would include 100-seaters they could actually cut their losses significantly.
ReplyDeleteAnd also urgent is renewal of regional fleet.
DeleteHow would that affect cargo?
Deleteif it has bigger capacity than ATR, cargo will benefit
DeleteAnd how do the passenger numbers compare to H1 2015?
ReplyDelete+3%
DeleteSo 3% compared to 2016 and 3% compared to 2015. Not bad.
DeleteNot true 2016 H1 compare to 2015 H1 was decrease. That is why 2017 H1 is increase.
Delete^Why do you write nonsense if you don't know?
DeleteTheir pax numbers were the same in H1 2015
https://www.airserbia.com/en-RS/corporate/news/air-serbia-announces-strong-results-for-the-first-half-of-2015
Nice to see some good news coming from JU.
ReplyDeleteAmazing transformation of an airline. From Chef on board to water on demand.
ReplyDeleteWhen was there ever a chef on board?
DeleteAnon 9:54,
DeleteNo need to feed a sad pathetic troll.
Congratulations Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteThey actually have the highest average LF among flag carriers in ex-Yu!
ReplyDeleteLF has been improving nively over the last couple of years
Delete2016:72%
2015 71%
2014: 67%
2013: 64%
and remember they have grown their fleet.
Actually they are only now starting to return to the Jat Airways load factor figures. In 2012 LF was 73%.
DeleteKeep in mind how much they grew the fleet in 2013/14 compared to the Jat days. In 2012 Jat had 6 operational planes. Now it has 21.
DeleteGrowing their LF is one of their main targets. They said there would not be any major network expansion until the LF is at a satisfactoty level, which I assume would be around 80%.
DeleteI still think they haven't managed to surpass the revenue per passenger they had during Jat Airways.
Delete@ Anon 10:55 smart. No need to expand left and right if it doesn't do any good to your bottom line finances.
DeleteNetočno. Jat je 2012. imao 64%, ane 73% LF!
DeleteSo how many passengers can we expect at the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteA lot, like 2,6
Delete^ There will be more than that. Last year they had 2,62 million. I think this year we will see 2-3% annual growth
Delete2,7 or 2,8 max.
DeleteIs catering still free of charge? Yes, I have read only that the generosity of meals drastically reduced. Anyone flew a 2,5h+ flight?
ReplyDeleteYes, it's free of charge.
DeleteThey have reduced the meals. When they started they were extremely generous and really above European standards. Hot meals on 2+ hour flights with a selection of two meal options in economy and a menu. Now they give out a bigger sandwich on longer European flights but it is free.
DeleteInterestingly in supermarket Idea in Serbia you can buy "Air Serbia Catering" packaged food - sandwiches, salads and all sorts of things. It even has the Air Serbia logo on the packages.
That's interesting about Idea. Good thing since they don't do much catering for flights anymore.
DeleteWow, great results keeps on growing smart move to cut back a little route wise to strenghten up, maybe in 1-2 years they will start expand again, and hopefully as soon as NY gives profit they start Chicago or Toronto
ReplyDelete+1 hope so
DeleteI do hope they work through their issues and that next year we will see some new destinations and hopefully at least one A320neo come.
ReplyDeleteI dont think they have any particulary hard issues compared to every other european airline, they are struggling like everyone against lowcost airlines, but they did it well they have cut back on lose making routes, retrofiting their seats, put in some luggage/seat fares etc, now they are strenghtening what it has and will be ready to profit again in 2017, 2016 was a big year with a lot of changes so its natural that it makes a loss but its not nearly as huge as people here like to speculate, considering NY route will be a loss for 1-3years and its a high expense to start it its only natural, without it would have been profit, but that cant stop an airline for expanding. Risky but well worth it.
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteDoes anyone know for certain the status of those A320neos. Would be nice if we knew their faith.
DeleteI don't think they even made a decision about that at Air Serbia.
DeleteThey won't come next year. That's for sure.
DeleteThat's good news for Belgrade airport too.
ReplyDeleteYes, they should reach 5.5 million without a problem.
DeleteWithout revenue and profit margins operational results mean little.
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteIt will be interesting to follow Etihad's strategy in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteEtihad wants to sell 25% of Air Berlin to a Lufthansa subsidiary. In return they want greater access to German market and even potential Star Alliance membership (that would be huge). Interestingly, media reports suggest they have also put in an offer for Alitalia!
Interesting times ahead indeed.
I think Air Serbia is safe in terms of their European investments.
DeleteNew Etihad management has yet to confirm plans for Air Serbia.
DeleteThese are ok results, 3% passenger growth is nothing to write home about.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that Wizz Air opened 4 new routes and increased frequencies significantly, while Transavia launched flights to Amsterdam, I think it is a very good result.
DeleteAlso they cut 4 routes which is huge and opened only 1. So this is is suprisingly good.
DeleteOk results in my opinion. LF is the biggest of ex-yu airlines. I find it odd how EX-YU airlines struggle so much with the load factors. I assume it is a seasonality issue?
ReplyDeleteYes it's a seasonality issue. Winter is a real pain. In February most of these airlines have a load factor of just 60% sometimes even lower.
DeleteThat is why I think that Air Serbia leasing 2 planes during the winter is not a bad idea. Croatia Airlines does it too but I don't understand why they don't actually lease them instead of letting planes sit in Zagreb.
DeleteJust open seasonal routes during winter to warmer destinations like Morocco or Canary islands...
DeleteCroatia really try to do that for years now. And many other companies in Europe. There are more than 1.0000 planes try to be leased from Europe during winter.
DeleteAny new routes planned for the next 12 months?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it.
DeleteVenice was a surprise and completely unexpected so you never know.
DeleteVenice was a really smart move. Route is performing great.
DeleteNo surprise they extended it to year round.
DeleteThey extended it to year round cause VCE proposed them 20.000 Euros.
DeleteWow, 20K. That's like the equivalent of three full flights?
DeleteNice to see all metrics performing well. Well done Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteExcept for finances which they have not published.
Deletelaunching New York and other strategic changes in 2016, i think they made a loss but not a big one, it would be really strong if they made a profit. hope they did, but its not the end of the world as many wish, rather expected considering.
DeleteMy guess is ~ +/- 2M euro. What is your guess taking into account all the facts?
Yeah, trouble about finances is that is really hard to take a guess, especially since LF as such is not really a tell without information on costs and incomes. By any count, I hope they are doing a financially sustainable work nevertheless!
DeleteTwo key stakeholders are well aware of finances. If numbers were in trouble as some try to imply, they would be ordered to sell engines and LHR slots. Oh wait, that happened to other airline, not Air Serbia!
DeleteYou mean like they did force AB and AZ to sell anything :D
DeleteIn the end Darwin, Alitaila, Air Berlin and Air Serbia will be sold, noth just their engines or slots.
DeleteAir Serbia has to this date sold nothing. Other two major airlines in the region have sold everything they could.
DeleteOh and btw Air Serbia has already been sold once and that worked out well for them since the size of the airline more than doubled and it easily overtook another airline in the region which not only failed to be sold but is now selling its assets so when they attempt to be sold again no one will want them, again.
Delete^^ anon 4:52 how can you say that?? air serbia has sold many things.
DeleteWhat exactly? Name one thing.
DeleteQuestion is what have they not sold!
DeleteCargo transport
Airplane tickets
Charter leasing
Wifi access
Business class upgrades
Now they are going one step further by putting two planes on the ACMI leasing market.
They are in desperate need of cash it seems.
What nonsense. They have sold business class upgrades LOL. We are talking about ASSETS. Selling slots or engines is an ASSET. They sold business class upgrades... What are you even on about? Charter leasing? They operate the flights and get money for them. Charters are operated in a way where you sell seats to tour operators who then sell seats to others.
DeleteSorry to say but your comment is so dumb I don't know where to begin. And you obviously don't know what an asset even is. Also you have no clue the difference between leasing something and selling something. Back to school.
Please can you tell me which airline on this earth has developed it's own wi-fi system and didn't include a third party to create the technology? Sorry dude you really are dumb. But really dumb.
DeleteAnd what exactly can Air Serbia sell if they want to? What assets they have.
DeleteCroatia still has
- 5 own A319 and A320
- maintenance (biggest assets)
- hangars and real estate
Both of you are dumb - you are responding to a provocateur ... and you got sucked in hook, line and sinker
Delete9 weekly slots at London Heathrow, 5 weekly slots at New York JFK, Ground Handling Division, Air Serbia Catering, six operational planes in ownership, plus several others used for spare parts, engines, hangars and real estate.
DeleteThe number all look promising- the only thing the keep silent about is their most important numbers- Finances!
ReplyDeleteWhen you start selling engines and LHR slots you know finances are fantastic!
DeleteJU July figures : Operations -9,5% compared to July 2016, number of seats on sale -3%, passengers -4,5%.
ReplyDeleteis july over?
DeleteHahaha it appears so... hm strange
DeleteThis just in: JU August 2017 figures: Operations +6%, passengers +19.5% compared to 2016.
DeleteOT: FlyDubai 1 additional flight Dubai - Skopje each saturday from 04.11.2017 for total 3 weekly flight.
ReplyDeleteis this to counter QR? or its because they r doing well out of SKP?
DeleteWe can only judge their performance after they publish financial results (if they ever publish them).
ReplyDeleteare you talking about 4K? cause we talked about all kinds of Adria topics including performance without seeing any financial results, if they ever publish them. so it's not a problem to talk without it.
DeleteWhy is that? You cant just look at the finances it doesnt say much, air serbia have invested in a transatlantic route, its not cheap because then OU would do it aswell as they want. Its several aspects you take into consideration when you look at a company.
DeleteIf I was anti-Air Serbia troll I would be unhappy about good results mentioned and would desperately try to find something negative or that's missing like financials. Looks like we have many trolls posting that same question over and over again. It's just a hygiene issue at this point. Cleanup in aisle 6, admin!
DeleteOT: LX to/ex INI this weekend
ReplyDeleteA320, 12/162
LX2512/28 09/166 (-4)
LX2513/28 00/148
A320, 12/162
LX2512/30 11/162
LX2513/30 05/149
+1
DeleteSure Mr. Kondic learned from the Master how to PR Stats. Nevertheless creative accounting is important element of how to paint a success of an airline.
ReplyDeleteThe stats are the stats - no matter what language you couch them in. You don't like them - that's ok. You like them, that's also ok.
DeleteMaybe what you are really looking for is not on this website and subject matter for another forum
Did you bring up accounting again? Your answer is here:
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/07/air-serbia-posts-stronger-results.html?showComment=1500995770584#c9003027579696743985
OT: Does anybody (probably insider) know why every single in- and outbound flight from/to BEY is late? Since majority of pax are transfer they create havoc each morning at arrival. Tonight both A320 arrived on time to BEG, but still BEY is still 38 mins late, so for sure arrival will be also late again! I am sure that ASL looses hell lot of money of rebookings for missed connex.....!
ReplyDeleteBecause they wait for transfer passengers from other flights.
DeleteCould BEY eventually fill a larger aircraft?
Delete1) Because the timetable is unrealistic and doesn't allow for any airport congestion or headwind, ie it is the bear minimum to fly from A-B
Delete2) because there are many other BEY that implicate real BEY to be late
3) because the handling agent in BEY is probably not the most effective but instead of raising hell JU management sits and does nothing instead to resolve the issue.
Great article and we have read all this before. Still no detail regarding JUs actual financial performance?
ReplyDeleteThey lost 2 mil eur. No, they made a profit of 1,2 mil eur. What difference does it make to you personally?
Delete