China's Hainan Airlines has said it is satisfied with the performance of its new service between Beijing and Belgrade, which launched just over a month ago via Prague. The carrier, which maintains the flights twice per week with a 292-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft, told EX-YU Aviation News, "This route is still in a market nurturing stage, and we believe its performance will continue to improve in the future and meet our expectations". After putting tickets on sale for the new service just several weeks prior to its launch, over 90% of all booking were made by Chinese tourists, however, this is beginning to change. "Tourists contribute a lot on this route, but now we can see some business travellers as well. We’d like to see more business travellers and more Serbian passengers on this route in the future", the airline said.
Hainan Airlines secured fifth freedom rights from Serbian and Czech authorities on flights between Prague and Belgrade, allowing it to sell tickets between the two cities. The carrier notes it is pleasantly surprised by the demand it has seen on this sector. "We are very glad to see an increasing number of passengers travelling between Prague and Belgrade on our flights. We offer a more comfortable aircraft type and a competitive price. We think more and more passengers will fly with us". The Chinese carrier competes against Air Serbia on the route, which maintains ten weekly flights between Belgrade and Prague with the ATR72 turboprop. Hainan has matched Air Serbia's prices and its Friday departure from Belgrade and early morning Monday return to the Serbian capital provides a convenient option for city break travellers.
The Chinese airline has said it is still too early to determine how it will develop its Belgrade service in the future. If there is sufficient demand the airline has said it will either up frequencies or introduce a nonstop service from Beijing next spring. "We will adjust these plans based on market demand. We will evaluate the possibilities whether to increase frequency or operate nonstop before the summer season", Hainan noted. Serbian officials, including the Prime Minister and the Minister for Construction, Transport and infrstructure, expressed hope last month for the latter. Concerning potential expansion in the region, Hainan has said that it is sticking to its current operations, noting, "We don’t have new plans to expand in Central and Eastern Europe".
How many Pax fly on average between BEG-PEK and BEG-PRG?
ReplyDeleteno one knows-
Delete"nurturing stage" - you can bet it ain't exceptional.
DeleteMost likely in low 50s. For new route that is not unusual, question is, if it doesn't improve with in-6 months, will Hainan simply pack and leave?
Belgrade ain't Prague, has little or no demand from Chinese market. Prague/Czech Republic has 400 000 Chinese visitors each year, Belgrade has 18 000.
Perhaps if Hainan started flying to Belgrade when 100 000 Chinese visitors visited Belgrade and Serbia there might be some demand there, as is, not sure route will be here beyond 2018. Winter 2018/2019 will be crucial, if numbers are still in nurturing phase, you can guess there won't be summer flights in 2019.
Don't you worry and focus on those projections of yours.
DeleteGood to hear that the route is off to a good start.
ReplyDeleteIf I got it right, by summer we will either have direct flights or more frequencies?
ReplyDeleteYes, if there is demand.
Deleteor the same as today, which is also an option.
DeleteAccording to the airline it seems like the demand is there.
DeleteNot surprised they are seeing demand between BEG and PRG. Between an A330 and an ATR, I don't know who would choose the other.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who is not flexible with dates?
DeleteNot to mention the price difference (140 vs. 210 EUR, on average)
DeleteThe average on both is 140 euros. JU has some flights at 110 but the prices are pretty much the same.
DeleteThe ironic thing is that you can earn Etihad Guest miles by flying Hainan Airlines :D
DeleteTheir business class fare between PRG and BEG is quite expensive. 1300 euros. A bit too much for a 1.20 flight.
DeleteWhy would you need to travel on business class for such a short flight?
DeleteI don't but companies might pay for some of their employees and there is business travel between Prague and Belgrade but with that price...
DeleteThe days of travel are not suitable for business travel - Monday and Friday. No business traveler is going to stay for five days or over the weekend.
DeleteI fly in order to avoid sitting next to economy passengers.
Delete?
Deleteseems there is premium demand in BEG, why not charge more money then?
DeleteJU has reduced prices to Prague on the days Hainan has its flights. They are now down to 110 euros return, while on other days the prices are 140 euros. Shows that competition is good for consumers.
DeleteBecause these premium passengers have not been travelling to China (or Asia in general) on a train. Hainan needs to lower their fares so as to attract as many passengers as they can so that they cna experience their phenomenal service.
DeleteI believe if they get concession they will fly non-stop, if not who knows.
ReplyDeleteSomeone wrote on another forum that on their last flight from BEG they had 122 passengers, 13 of them to Prague. That's very good in my opinion in October a month after the launch, considering they also block seats for passengers from Prague (and remember the tickets from Prague have been on sale continuously)
ReplyDelete122 is actually really, really good.
Deleteeveryday you can see guided groups of chinese tourists in knez mihajlova. what is noticeable is that they like to show their branded clothes. very rich folks.
DeleteBranded clothes? That sounds silly, just say, their expensive or fancy clothes.
Delete@AnonymousOctober 19, 2017 at 9:11 AM
DeleteEmirates flies to Zagreb with 90% LF, reduces winters to 5, its gloom and doom.
here we have 41% LF, you call that great LF!!???
Seriously, what would be bad LF ? 1-2%???
You do realise that unlike Emirates Hainan blocks 50% of its seats for Prague based passengers. Of course you don't. And you have no clue what eithers load factor is.
DeleteHe probably knows that but it does not suit his argument that BEG should have flights to anywhere. He would be happiest if it did not exist.
DeleteAnd people were predicting doom and gloom on this route. It's a good decision that they started off conservatively like this and then build up their operations as the route develops then launching a lot of frequencies and then reducing them gradually.
ReplyDeleteNo numbers, no LF of these flights, where is the actual data?
DeleteOn what planet do you live if you think an airline will give out its average load factor on a particular route one month after the route start. What else do you expect? A revenue and financial breakdown of the route?
DeleteDo you have the data to prove him wrong? Given the statement of the airline I am sure there are more than enough grounds for optimism.
DeleteNo need for actual data. It will be nonstop next year 5 times a week.
DeleteWell Anonymous 9.12 is going on what Hainan Airlines said. Resident experts here are going on their hope that the route is a failure. And that's after they were went on that the route would never launch.
DeleteWhen did Emirates publish its LF on the route to Zagreb? Never. You know why? Because airlines don't do that.
Delete^The issue is that they are satisfied with the route... and that wasn't supposed to happen.
Deletebut still we had those Emirates numbers on this blog regularly.
DeleteNo, you had people in the comments writing them and anyone can make it up.
DeletePeople also claimed here advanced bookings were strong and then a few days later EK reduced its W18 operations by 2 weekly flights
Deletewhat is more than normal practice for most companies in low winter season.
DeleteSeems to be only "more than normal" in Croatia's case. When Air Serbia reduced New York only during winter by the same amount it was hysteria over "the beginning of the end".
DeletePlease don't believe any load factor or passenger data people post here; not many people actually have access and those with at least 1% of brain and respect for their employers wouldn't publish it on some forums.
DeleteThat being said, most of that 'data' is probably made up, usually to support one's argument...as no one can actually confirm it, yet people here (for some strange reason) take it as a fact. Especially if the number is high, as people here are simply obsessed with load factors.
Anon 11.48
DeleteLet me remind you that it was initially 7 and was only reduced to 5 later on
As in most companies especially on their start on the route (totally new route) they can not predict their frequencies with 100%.
Delete5pw is more than good in winter. Most of Zagreb and other routes in region can not support that frequencies even to short-haul European destinations. So 5pw in summer and 7pw in winter is more than good for 777-300ER route.
Data for Emirates was provided here by regular blog reader who is working on ZRH and most of us know his backup, expertise and how serious he is. He is not anonymous, and we know his name and position in air business.
Of course it is same in Croatian and Serbian case. But when Emirates reduce several routes out of few hundreds, that will not influence their business, but when Air Serbia reduce their only long-haul, and sill pay 500.000 EUR just for leasing + all other costs for crew and operation that is something one has to be seriously worried.
"Data for Emirates was provided here by regular blog reader who is working on ZRH and most of us know his backup, expertise and how serious he is. He is not anonymous, and we know his name and position in air business."
DeleteWhat on earth are you talking about? Find me an example of this.
Hahah, we know his name etc..this is a forum, having somebody not being Anbonymous doesn't give it credibility. Plus, one get's fired for publishing such data as there is something called confidetiality which airline employees sign.
DeleteSo, he is either publishing data from unreliable source or making that up, or is EK worker with really sub standard professional level. Feel free to choose.
Will Air Serbia start codesharing on these flights?
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that they haven't made a CS with them.
DeleteThey have a codeshare to Beijing with Air China via Vienna. Could that be the reason?
DeleteProb when (and if) they start direct flights.
DeleteYes, I think the issue may be the BEG-PRG sectors on which JU does not want to codeshare.
DeleteJU has a special prorate agreement with China Southern, Xiamen Airlines and Hainan Airlines too.
DeleteSo basically they said nothing. This is one of those articles that everyone can interpret as they like.
ReplyDeleteBasically if you know how to read you would see that the route is meeting their expectations. That they are seeing passengers between Belgrade and Prague which is not what they were initially expecting and that they don't plan on expanding in the region for the time being. Maybe read next time before posting a comment.
DeleteAgree. Not sure what to make of this article. Mixed messages. Treading carefully not expanding to elsewhere in Eastern Europe or the Balkans. I’m reading that they are not overally satisfied. Hard to beat the gulf carriers with a much more frequent service, 1 stop. Can’t make much cash filling a plane with a bunch of tourists better off putting the plane on a LAX flight or something
Delete"I’m reading that they are not overally satisfied."
DeleteOnly you can read that because you WANT to read that. The airline tells you they are satisfied just a month after the route is launched but you read that they are NOT overly satisfied. Some of you are really unbelievable.
"Hainan Airlines satisfied with Belgrade performance"
DeleteAnon 9.54
"I’m reading that they are not overally satisfied".
How pathetic you are.
Anonymus 9:57, the title of rge article is not their statement.
DeleteHow about you read their statement and the article? Wanting someone to fail so badly to satisfy yourself is pathetic.
DeleteNow, cool down.
Delete"we believe its performance will continue to improve in the future and meet our expectations" can be interpreted as "it's too early to judge", much rather than "we're satisfied with the performance".
Everything they said after this is what they hope for for the future.
This is also what they hope for the future? "We are very glad to see an increasing number of passengers travelling between Prague and Belgrade on our flights".
DeleteSeems some Croats have become experts at linguistics. Again wanting someone to fail so badly to satisfy yourself is pathetic.
Ok, this isn't. But they don't at any moment mention that this will be enough to keep the route alive. If it were, than we'd have to talk about BEG-PRG flights, not BEG-PEK.
DeleteI didn't know it mattered, but I am Serbian, not Croatian.
One of the most popular tv shows in China currently being filmed in Dubrovnik and Zagreb, so even more Chinese tourists in Croatia next year, some of them probably over BEG...
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of better connections from China to DBV instead of 2 stop flight via BEG.
DeleteI think Serbia will have enough of its own Chinese tourists, to require any dependence of the ones to Croatia. With expected growth, Serbia will be attracting more Chinese tourists than Croatia, by 2019.
DeleteDon't put oil on the fire. You will get the guy with the crystal ball to give you a 100 year growth projection of Chinese tourists in Croatia.
DeleteNo need for predictions. Present numbers are more than impressive.
DeleteCroatia last year 125.000 Chinese tourists.
This year 35% more (till August), so it will be around 170.000.
Serbia had 20.000 last year, with 120% more this year it will be 42.000.
Croatia 35.000 more Chinese tourists this year, Serbia 22.000 more Chinese tourists this year.
Your predictions are (yet again) off. Serbia had 31800 Chinese tourists in first eight months according to the statistical office and will surely have more than 42000 at the end of the year. Also that is a very small number of Chinese tourists in Croatia considering you say you are a global tourism mecca compared to a country you also say has nothing to show. I wouldn't say those numbers are impressive.
DeleteWill not. September-December are slow months. For sure there will not be more then 10.000 tourists in last 4 months (2.500 per month) if there were 3.900 tourists average per month, summer high season including.
Delete170.000 tourist from destination 9.000 km away for sure is not "small number" not by any standard. That is much more than in bigger markets than Croatia.
During those slow months Hainan Airlines is flying to Belgrade which already has prebooked tourists on these flights.
DeleteIn those 4 months Hainan will bring 3.360 passengers (not all of them would be Chinese tourists) and that is if LF would be huge. Sooooo?
DeleteThat would be an extra 3.360 and there will be additional growth from those travelling on other airlines.
DeleteBut fine, I will give you what you want to here - the number of Chinese tourists to Serbia will decrease this year as they will all go to Croatia instead. Hainan will suspend its Belgrade flights which they by mistake lauched instead of Zagreb. Happy now?
Maybe they'll move to Osijek like that they could cover both countries. :D
DeleteNo prediction of crystal ball required, Croatia publishes its data on a regular basis,
Deletehttp://www.htz.hr/sites/default/files/2017-10/Turisti%C4%8Dka%20statistika%20-%20rujan%202017..pdf
123 000 Chinese visitors from the mainland, first 9 months, 160-170 000 likely till the end of the year.
Next year, 240 000 Chinese visitors expected, from the mainland only !
2020 - 400 000 Chinese visitors quite possibly. 17.7 million visitor to Croatia this year, 20 million expected next year.
Austria is expecting 32.5 million tourist this year, Greece - 30.6 million. So long way to go to catch up with these two. Still Croatia is in top 10 in the EU, in terms of visitors and stays.
1. France - 87.5 million
2. Spain - 69.2 million
3. Italy - 56.6 million
4. Germany - 37.5 million
5. UK - 34.6 million
6. Austria - 32.5 million
7. Greece - 30.6 million
8. Croatia - 17.7 million
9. Poland - 16.8 million
10. Netherlands - 16.7 million
Turkey and Russia have more visitors, 26.5 million, but Russia has less nights, only 65 million to Croatia's projected 102 million.
gosh, these daily/hourly updates about the tourist numbers are getting ridiculous
DeleteGood for Croatia but the whole point is that here we are talking about the number of Chinese tourists in Serbia.
DeleteAt the end of the day, Serbia does not have to compare or justify its actions to anyone.
As mentioned on here before, those who visit Croatia probably do so as part of a larger tour whose point of arrival is either BUD or VIE.
Serbia caters for a totally different kind of travelling public. After all, Hainan said it themselves that they are seeing more and more business people. What interests me is if that also mean C loads have improved.
Good news. I think 2-3 weekly nonstop could work during the summer with the B787 which has less capacity then the A330.
ReplyDelete+1 hope so, plus Air Serbia codeshare.
DeleteI wonder if Shaghai would have been more successful considering most of the Chinese living from Serbia are from that province.
ReplyDeleteIf flights from Shanghai start eventually I don't think it will be Hainan. Air China said last year it was interested in this route.
DeleteChinese in Serbia are likely mostly from Zejiang Province.
Delete*Zhejiang
Delete浙江省
Delete:D :D
DeleteAnyone flown with Hainan? Care to sahre their experience?
ReplyDeleteHere is a youtube trip report from Prague to Beijing. They seem quite good
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re345FkiQjM
Thanks. Looks good!
DeleteI used to fly more times domestic in China by Hainan Airlines. I think Hainan is the most valuable in China.
DeleteThe number of Chinese walking on the streets here in Belgrade is noticeably up. I see them every day with photo cameras and maps and I notice they are of all ages - young and old. I am certain that this is the result of this route.
ReplyDeleteOh my God, I thaught that all of those people were Japanese :) :) :)
DeleteWell, if you've granted visa free travel for over 1 billion people and cannot fill a 292 seated aircraft, then you have a serious problem.
ReplyDeleteNationalist embitterment and propensity to belittle, never goes out of fashion in western Balkans.
DeleteGood work, Hainan!
what a stupid comment
DeleteYeah, and then there is the fact they can't fill a single seat to ZAG therefore "they don’t have new plans to expand in Central and Eastern Europe"."
Deletemislim da je jasno ko dolazi u beograd mladi zeljni evrope i poslovni ljudi za ostale koji se zezaju sa vizama tu je poseta zagrebu na nekoj od vecih tura po evropi preko beca ili venecije. beograd ce tako nabiti jedno pedeset hiljada putnika jos na aerodrom.
DeleteThe amount of jealousy from some over a two weekly one stop flight is thoroughly entertaining (and concerning at the same time.
ReplyDeleteNice to read this positive development. I was a bit skeptical at first but I'm glad that these flights are working out so far :)
ReplyDeleteThey started sales to BEG 3 weeks before launch so this is great news.
ReplyDeleteTo me it is interesting how quickly this route was launched. First time government mentioned that they wanted nonstop flights to China was in the summer of 2016. They managed to make it happen within a year.
DeleteIf only they were so effective in other areas.
DeleteOvde ne moraju da investiraju. zasto mislis da Zorana glumata po praznim gradilistima. Ne placaju i ne rade firme.
DeleteThree airlines were in talks to launch Beijing-Belgrade route: Air China, Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. So maybe we may see one of the other two come to BEG eventually on another route perhaps.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would really like to know is why other EU/European countries didn't abolish visas for the Chinese (except for San Marino)? There has to be a catch, a reason...
ReplyDeletePolitics.
DeleteSerbia has had good relations with China for a very long time. It's a shame that only now they discontinued visas.
DeleteYugoslavia introduced visas for Chinese in late 2000 upon request of EU because people were transiting through Yugoslavia to reach the EU. When that happened JAT discontinued its Beijing flights.
DeleteThis is really good news and at the start we were not even certain it would be year-round.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Belgrade and Hainan Airlines. Good luck with the new route.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that this wasn't operated by Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteIt's a saviour. Air Serbia would never have been able to shuttle Chinese tourists like Hainan can since they own the biggest tour operator in China.
DeleteExactly. Just like ASL could not have carried all those Turkish tourists KK does.
DeleteVozio ih je uglavnom turkish i Pegasus. Neki narodi imaju lojalnost prema domacim komanijama.
DeleteThe 330 already serves JFK s doubt JU can also send it to China. It's not bad seeing Hainan in BEG, just better to send daily B787 rather tan huge 2 weekly A330
DeleteWhat we can read here is typical propaganda material for media.
ReplyDelete"We are satisfied with route". Was there any airline in World that did say "we are not satisfied" even if LF was 10%? To say that they are not satisfied would make so bad promo that passengers will rather choose other airline instead not to risk cancellation of flights or route.
When airlines does not put LF or real numbers than they are not good. Remember how Air Serbia manipulate with JFK results. But when they become good enough (summer) they publish very precise numbers.
"We will not expend in East and Central Europe". Wasn't that exact Emirates announcement just 3 months before starting Zagreb flights?
We will evaluate our results before decide to make more frequencies or nonstop flight. So different than Vučić announcement "Hainan will fly nonstop from next summer". There one option would be 3 pw via Prague, but even that is questionable and will be so if performance will be good. And nonstop even has less chance because if so they would never mention "we will evaluate" and "more frequencies via Prague is an option". In media material, if there is good chance they would always say "there is possibility for nonstop flights in near future" without "evaluation" and "1stop option". On that way they really told you what will really happen and that is so called "preparing for future reality on soft way". Real scenario is always first and unreal one is mentioned just to make your hope and dreams on. Next announcement will be: "present frequencies stays for one more year" or "we will make one more frequency and will fly 3 flights via PRG this summer and back on 2 flights pw in winter". And to make it clear that is not low, it is more than good.
wow your irritation and jealousy in full display there.
DeleteIf an airline is not happy with a result of the route they don't publish anything. They don't go to the press or they don't answer the questions of the press. No airline in the world has published their LF so it would please armchair experts like yourself. You especially won't get LF on a route from an airline that has one stop operation meaning it has to block seats for the Prague leg making 100% LF unlikely ever to happen. Although I am certain even if they said they had 100% LF you would have said it is propaganda and not true.
But hey keep hoping it gets cancelled since you are that twisted that something like that would bring you joy.
You could have spent that time on a short walk in the fresh air. It helps clear your mind from bitter hate that consumes it in front of the screen.
DeleteAnon 11.02. Or they make it up,try to gloss it over like a good politician. I think anon 10.56 is entitled to an opinion and I think there is merit is these comments.
DeleteYou need to respect Others opinions which may come from a commercial / financial / analytical perspective, others are nostalgic or simply dreamers
Judging by the tone and disregard for anything he read, it comes more from ingrained nationalistic hate.
DeleteDear anon 11.32. Nationalistic? Hate? Ingrained? Your comments. Sad. Tragic individual you are indeed and one that can’t accept others opinions. It can’t be easy
DeleteYes, it is exactly that, and since you can identify with it I understand your frustration.
DeleteAnonymous 11:02:
DeleteFirst of all airlines regularly publish their announcements and press material in hope they will make some free promo of the route. Especially if the route is not performing so well.
Not to answer questions would make airline an-serious, will miss opportunity for promotion, and will open so many questions. Especially for good journalist.
Ohhh, so many airlines publish their LF. In USA all of them, lot of them around the World, espetialy if they are good. I gave you example of Air Serbia which publish results when they are good, and not when they are not so good.
In this blog whatever is critical to Serbia, Air Serbia or Belgrade airport is "hate", "nationalistic", "pathetic", "politics", "serbophobic"...
Let me remind you that in same pattern were classified information about:
- subventions to Wizz by Belgrade airport - later if becomes true
- problems with Etihad and that Etihad is collapsing and will remove from Darwin, Air Berlin and Alitalia - becomes true
- Air Serbia multimillion subvention - after 3 years and 160+ millions of subvention at last that becomes cold shower
- problems in Air Serbia and huge reduction in future - one can see so now
- A320neo delivery postponed or cancellation - now you can read on annual report they don't plan to have those planes in fleet for 5 more years
- 2nd A330 will not come to fleet even as Mali announced that it will come till December 2016 - and it is not here even one year after
etc, etc...
And all of that was "hate", "nationalism", "serbophobic"... And today it is not that any more but reality.
First of all you may as well sign yourself Purger since we know it's you.
DeleteSecondly, according to your logic Emirates is doing poorly in Zagreb no?
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/07/emirates-satisfied-with-zagreb.html
Or does the same logic not apply to a Croatian example. Probably not in your case.
Of course it doesn't apply. We know the drill all too well: if it's Zagreb it is huge. HUGE. If it's Belgrade it's all politics and camouflaged disasters.
DeleteI don't think its purger, he usually has heaps of spelling mistakes.
DeleteExactly the same style of comment, same format, same bullet points and exactly the same examples i.e Sinisa Mali promise for second A330 he gives all the time.
DeleteSince when did W6 receive subventions from BEG? All they got were discounts and those were suspended later on.
DeleteLet me remind you that EK CFO said that the Croatian government 'helped' them with the ZAG route. On top of that it was the HR government that stated that they need to help and back other airlines that want to launch flights.
Help does not mean financial help. You can not find any financial help to Emirates from any Croatian institution.
Delete"We are directing a part of our funds towards closer cooperation with airlines, which will result in more flights to all of our airports."
DeleteGari Capelli, Globus Magazin.
Burn. :D
DeleteThis Chinese route has ZAG written all over it. Some people in Beijing are scratching their heads as we speak, and asking themselves how on Earth did we make this awful decision when ZAG already have the numbers we need to be successful.
DeleteNumbers never lie.
Oh wait, our loads are low because all the Chinese are going to Croatia.
DeleteOh no why didnt you tell me that earlier!!!
+1 :D
Delete"Oh wait, our loads are low because all the Chinese are going to Croatia...."
DeleteNot all of them, most of them... And yes, numbers never lie.
And yet no flights to China. Keep your jelousy to yourself.
Delete好，勇敢的人有什么让你的船漂浮
DeleteI love it when ZAG fanboys roll in here and say that the market is HUGE, and yet, no US flights and no PEK
DeleteAlways have a nice laugh :D
Lets face it, ZAG merely and barely makes as much traffic as its coastal counterparts. Yes, the airport is growing but it still remains very small compared to the rest of the cities nearby. BEG is a much bigger city and prooved to all of us that it is able to sustain year round long haul flights. So after JFK, it is now turn to PEK. And, I would't be surprised to see flights to DEL soon.
DeleteOn the other hand, we all know that the Gulf bubble will burst sooner or later. ZAG is still not prepared to fill 6 daily planes (round trips from/to DXB +DOH) throughout the whole year.
Your joking right, not to praise ZAG to much, but it still is the number two airport in the region considering pax numbers. Only Split which is also seeing a boom in Croatian tourism has a chance of de throwning ZAG, but only time will tell.
DeleteBEG has the LCC quantity for now, but ZAG has the flag carrier quality.
Now if we look at the wide body loads coming into ZAG they are very healthy.
Now what would you say once Korean starts its party in ZAG, then US flights are just a matter of when EK, or a US mainland carrier start flying to ZAG-US, and sooner, or later the Chinese will come to, they are already knocking on our door, but we wont subsadize them. Heck even Qatar will start flying in with a wide body soon.
I give BEG five years max before Zagreb, and Split over take it regarding pax.
Just tell me what will sustain BEG once EY decide to not extend their contract with JU, whats your plan B?
....and BTW what happens to JU if OU cuts into another 3 of your big markets next year?
You will be lucky if OU is even around next year.
DeleteNice wish list 9.53. Pitty you have been singing the same tune for years now. Since when were US flights starting from Zagreb? 2009 was it? And yet no airline can sustain flights to the tourist mecca of the world you all make Zagreb out to be. Compare yourself to the big boys in tourism, not Serbia which you belittle all the time and is not up to your 'high' standards. Also your dream about Koreans are just not happening. They fly 10 charters per year. Less then they did 2 years ago.
DeleteAnd as for China subsidies prove it. No one is supporting the route unlike your tourism minister who publically said the minustry will pay airlines to fly to Croatia.
Mogu da se kladim da ce godisnji rast BEG biti u procenat isti kao i ZAG i da ce se povecati odstojanje izmedju ova dva aerodroma.
DeleteSo in not so many words your saying ZAG will never get a US trans Atlantic flight, nor a schedueled Korean flight, and absalutely never ever get a scheduled Chinese flight if I hear you well???
DeleteWhat if just one of those flights turn into reality, could we agree to disagree.
What if they all come into fruitation, and for some reason JU axe the JFK flight??
No, I wish Zagreb gets all of that and more. It is you that belittles and hopes everything gets axed from BEG and says nothing is sustainable from Belgrade yet it has 2 scheduled year long long haul flights. I also hope your crystall ball projections come true for Zagreb.
DeleteIt would be beneficial if they got rid of the Prague stop and kept 2 weekly flights next summer. But anyway it is good to see they are already making plans for next year.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people saying how they started too cautiously. I think it was a very smart move especially when you are practically launching the route in the low season.
ReplyDeleteBoth VIE and BUD have direct flights to China, so I'm not sure if this route can be 100% sustainable but lets wait and see. It's still early days but things seem to be going in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteAustria and Hungary don't have such political backing like Serbia does. Also, China has been investing a lot in Serbia.
DeleteChina is also building some sort of a scientific park in Belgrade which should further stimulate demand.
Nice to see another regular widebody in BEG.
ReplyDeleteI think that the route has potential: chinese workers and business people going to Serbia and the region, chinese tourists visiting Serbia as well .
ReplyDeleteBtw do we know what Wizz Air will do with their extra frequencies at BEG? The ones from the route suspensions.
ReplyDeleteRoute suspensions? Only Nuremberg is going seasonal. Everything else stays the same.
DeleteI still think W6 is not paying so much attention to BEG. Yes, they launched 4 routes this year but it's always Germany again. No sunny routes, no interesting destinations e.g. PMI,CFU, PFO, FUE, LIS. I think BEG is too expensive for them. Also, not 1 sole A321 based to handle busy routes.
DeleteThey launched Malta this summer. They launch routes where there is demand and they don't have A321s based at much bigger bases.
DeletePFO? Why would they enter Ryanair's playground when they have quite a lot of flights from LCA?
DeleteAlso, Wizz Air just announced 8 routes to Athens, I am sure BEG is not more expensive.
BEG is double the price of SOF for example.
DeleteDaily BEG-ATH or 2 weekly BEG-PFO would nicely fit.
DeletePodrzavam ovu inicijativu. Uvek sam se pitao, zasto Wizz zapostavlja Beograd, kad jako puno putnika koristi njihove letove, ne samo iz Srbije nego i okolnih zemalja. Treba nam Barselona, Lisabon, Madrid, Milano, Bolonja, Napulj... a ne samo Nemacka... Cak te nove rute iz Srbije ni ne objave na svom sajtu, niti ih izreklamiraju...
DeleteLet's not forget destinations outside the Schenghen area.
DeleteThere is no market for BEG-PFO, LCA is much better positioned to serve the Cypriot market. Let W6 first increase LCA to two weekly year-round before thinking about PFO.
DeleteI think a destination in Spain would perform well. I landed at BEG this morning and there was a charter flight to Ajaccio. Maybe a destination in Italy or southern France could work.
Samo Lion koji AS zapostavlja kao i putnike iz Zeneve koji bi leteli od tamo.
DeleteThe only way we are going to see Air Serbia add more destinations is if they add more planes or suspend some (underperforming) destination.
DeleteI think easyJet is enough for the time being. If the market was that large HOP! would have operated flights (from LYS).
My point was to tigger that the "gasterbeiter routes" are now all covered. What W6 needs to offer is the current Serbian population looking for new and exciting places to go. I bet you Serbians are sick and tired of German routes and want to try Spain or Portugal and why not Eilat in south Israel?
DeleteOn the other hand, again we return to the importance of domestic flights in a country of 7 million. Domestic flights are very important to the economy of the country (and please don't tell me INI or KVO are just a couple of hours drive).
INI or KVO are just a couple of hours drive.
DeleteOf course. Eilat, maybe even Moscow after all.
DeleteThey can't fly to any country oitside of EU + Switzerland and Norway out of Serbia.
DeleteBTS-KSC 4h by car (plane)
DeleteCLJ-TSR 3h by car (plane)
SOF-BOJ 3h by car (plane)
PRG-OSR 3h by car (plane)
VIE-SZG 3h by car (plane)
So? What do you think?
Then they might as well get lost.
DeleteNemjee Francuzi su potpuno aut of Serbia. Pokusavali su da slome JAT i onda su digli ruke. Pored Pariza Lion i okolina je drugi centar srpske emigracije u Francusku.
DeleteChinese carriers are terrible overall but BEG definitely got the best of the bunch. Hainan is miles ahead of Air China.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI don't agree at all. Had more than 12 segments of flights with Air China this year, both from Europe to China and domestic ones and I found their product very competitive and better than the one from European carriers. I do agree than Hainan is even better.
DeleteAgree with Anon 4:50 PM. And congratulations to Belgrade!
DeleteIn the best scenario, they might increase the route to 4 weekly and get rid of the triangular route via PRG. In the worst obviously is to stop flying. Remember, having high factors doesn't mean the route is making money.
ReplyDeleteIt is bot triangular route, triangular route would be PEK-PRG-BEG-PEK. This route is via PRG, so PEK-PRG-BEG-PRG-PEK
Delete