Air Serbia will commence a two weekly service between Belgrade and Geneva next summer season. The Serbian carrier will introduce flights each Thursday and Sunday starting March 25 with tickets already on sale. The route, which is currently maintained by easyJet, will be operated by the airline's 144-seat Airbus A319 aircraft as part of its morning and afternoon bank of departures from Belgrade. easyJet has not put tickets on sale for the route past March 23, but has previously denied reports it would suspend the service over the summer. The budget airline has additionally announced it would launch flights between Basel and the Serbian capital from July 31.
Geneva will become Air Serbia's second destination in Switzerland following Zurich. Its flights to Switzerland's largest city will be boosted to seventeen weekly departures, up from fourteen per week this past summer. It mirrors Swiss International Airlines' move to add an extra two weekly flights to Belgrade, for a total of sixteen next summer. As a result, the two cities will be linked with 33 weekly flights by Air Serbia and Swiss during the high season. The Serbian carrier will allocate the additional capacity to Switzerland by reducing frequencies on some of its other operations.
Several airlines have tried their luck on the Belgrade - Geneva route with up to three carriers operating the service at the same time three years ago. Swiss, easyJet and Etihad Regional have all maintained flights between the two cities. Etihad Regional was the first to suspend operations in 2014, followed by Swiss in 2015. Belgrade Airport has so far secured several new routes for next year. Apart from Air Serbia's service to Geneva and easyJet's new flights to Basel, both Iran Air and Qeshm Air will commence operations from Tehran, with more announcements expected in the coming weeks.
Further flight details for the new Belgrade - Geneva flights can be found here.
Nice to see something new from Air Serbia for a change.
ReplyDeleteYes Switzerland again. Something new would mean Barcelona or Lisbon. This is (again) pure diaspora traffic.
DeleteWell that's what the market is like. There will be like 40+ weekly flights between Serbia and Switzerland next summer if you include Wizz and flights from Nis.
DeleteI agree with last anon. I would like for them to fly to Tahiti but we have to be realistic. The airline goes where there is a market. This is a low-risk destination. 2 times per week and a relatively short block time for the aircraft. Least probability to loose money.
DeleteI suppose you are the one who writes "boring, just another gastarbeiter route whenever there is a new flight to Germany/Switzerland" :). I don't think that New York, Moscow, Tehran, Cairo, Budapest, Minsk, Prague, Venice, Athens are one of those. There is a plenty of exotic routes that are active or been active offered both from Air Serbia or BEG. Neither you nor me is going to pay for empty seats to Lisbon or Barcelona. So that's business.
DeleteYeah but you and I are already paying so much for JU so why not add LIS or BCN to the list? Couldn't they find some extra pennies from the €40 million we gave JU last year.
DeleteIt's not just extra pennies. Extra pennies is when the plane is 75% load factor. This is pure waste of money, not even TAP managed to do something of it, and they have both south American connections and they flew via Budapest/ Bologna . If there is demand, I am sure that Vueling would launch a year round route ages ago.
DeleteWell Vueling IS increasing their flights this summer which means that the market is there. Plus, the airline has been a mess. If they weren't I am sure there would have been year-round flights by now.
Delete33 weekly flights between Belgrade and Zurich :O
ReplyDeleteIt's good that they will also increase Zurich and stay competitive against Swiss.
DeleteThe extra ZRH flights start March 25th.
DeleteJU372 BEG ZRH 1240 1430 A319 Mon, Fri, Sun
JU373 ZRH BEG 1520 1700 A319 Mon, Fri, Sun
Seems to me that these three flights will come from some regional route that used to get the A319 last year. I think it's from OTP which will have five night flights and three day flights, all on the Atr.
DeleteI dont think the flights should affect utilisation of the A319's on other routes during this wave. IST used to be operated during this wave and I think this is where it will come from.
DeleteI wonder if easyjet decided to pull out when it learned JU would start these flights. It just doesn't make sense. They were always full.
ReplyDeleteEasyJet will not pull out. Its just fairy tails by those hating us. Easyjet has always said it will stay.
DeleteIt's a bit of a paranoia that you think everybody hates you and there is a conspiracy against one. TAKE IT EASY, you are just not that important, that's all
DeleteEasyJet have strong demand for flights to the holiday destinations during the summer and they just calculate what is most profitable for them to do. They will surely continue to fly on Geneva-Belgrade route only this summer is questionable. People in AirSerbia has seen opportunity because EasyJet is calculating what to do and because they aren't start selling tickets AirSerbia decided to start selling tickets for the summer season on this route before EasyJet decide what to do. That's smart move because EasyJet doesn't have problem with demand on this route they have problem with capacity during holiday season.
DeleteSwitzerland again??? If the route was successful then why would all the carriers eventually terminate it? I don't understand JU's logic sometimes
ReplyDeleteIf Zurich can work 33 times per week, so does Geneva twice per week. Good move IMO.
ReplyDeleteYes, proven by Darwin, Swiss and EasyJet. Guess what happens to the JU service?! The time line you can calculate.
DeleteEasyjet is keeping Geneva. As for Darwin and Swiss, Swiss suspended many routes from Geneva because easyjet killed them there. As for Darwin you know the story. Let's not play dumb. BTW Swiss was destroyed on its flights to Sarajevo, Ljubljana and Zagreb too. They are do not have a great track record of being competitive in ex-Yu.
DeleteIt probably didn't help that all three airlines were flying to the same city at the same time.
DeleteFor those interested there were 364,435 passengers between between Zurich and Belgrade last year. That's more than Belgrade-Podgorica-Belgrade at 284,329.
ReplyDeleteIt's not surprising then that another two airlines will start flights between Swiss cities and Belgrade... and both are already served.
DeleteDo u know how many passengers between Vienna and Belgrade?
DeleteSorry, I don't
DeleteIf Vienna was some extra 300km away from Belgrade I imagine there would be 500 000 passengers between Vienna and BG :D
DeleteTime to launch Berne and Lugano - to cover the whole country just like Germany. Serbia needs more connections to Switzerland.
DeleteAlso I am surprised that GVA is not daily with this huge traffic.
Izvini, ali St Galen ima i duzu pistu i vise Srba i exYu oko sebe i sada ce imati slican broj putnika.
DeleteConcerning Zurich-Belgrade-Zurich stats it's interesting that there is more passengers on this route than the Pristina flights which I would have thought would have the most passengers.
DeleteZurich-Belgrade-Zurich - 364.435
Zurich-Pristina-Zurich - 332.321
Zurich-Croatia (all airports)-Zurich - 177.684
Zurich-Skopje-Zurich - 172.622
Zurich-Ljubljana-Zurich - 96.641
Zurich-Sarajevo-Zurich - 19.234
Zurich-Podgorica-Zurich - 26.011
Sorry was meant to put Podgorica above Sarajevo.
DeleteWow, considering Zürich-Croatia with SPU, DBV, ZAG and PUY with a lot of tourism, the figures are low compared to BEG and PRN. Is ist because of the proximity of Croatia and Switzerland. So diaspora seems low.
DeleteWow there really isn't that much demand from Croatia to Zurich. The whole country has almost as much as SKP.
DeleteI don't think distance plays such a big role. ZAG and ZRH are not that close, at least not as close as ZAG and VIE are. Also, don't forget that the road goes through the Alps so it's not an easy drive.
DeleteRegarding Croatia, remember that Swiss does not fly to Zagreb while all the other flights from Zurich to Croatia are seasonal and low frequency 1-2 flights per week for 3-4 month period. Unfortunately I don't have a break down for each individual city.
DeleteFor comparison sake here are the 2015 stats.
Zurich-Belgrade-Zurich - 328.884
Zurich-Pristina-Zurich - 260.536
Zurich-Croatia (all airports)-Zurich - 154.717
Zurich-Skopje-Zurich - 148.828
Zurich-Ljubljana-Zurich - 122.627
Zurich-Podgorica-Zurich - 29.550
Zurich-Sarajevo-Zurich - 20.526
Did LX try ZAG?
DeleteJos kada dodamo letove iz Nis ehaj gastosa u Alpama.
Delete@Anonymous December 22, 2017 at 12:46 PM
DeleteYes they did for year from March 2015 to October 2016.
Anon 12.47
DeleteU tom slucaju sigurno bi bilo preko 400.000 putnika! Ipak INI i BEG zajedno imaju 36 letova nedeljno.
Well done JU. Good luck. You will need it. Seriously JU - you are so redundant. Scrambling to find relevance in today’s competitive aviation market and so 3 years ago. In a nut shell. “Boring”
ReplyDeleteTry substantiating your rant with concrete facts.
DeleteWell at least it's a new destination from Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteThe service is launched because they know U2 is dropping it, it cannot be booked on their website starting 23 March. Boring destination, why not Madrid or Lisbon???
ReplyDeleteWho is going to fly to Madrid or Lisbon? TAP flew from Lisbon and failed.
DeleteI don't think easy is ending it (why would they lie to the media about this?). Also Air Serbia is matching easyjet's ticket price and there flight days are different - they don't clash. So I don't think U2 is ending GVA-BEG.
DeleteMAD is the gateway of Europe to South America. It is the best connected airport in Europe to the continent. Just imagine what a HUGE market JU is missing.
DeleteDubrovnik will have 2 daily flight to Madrid next year, SPU will have a daily flight and ZAG 6/7.
DeleteSo? What does that have to do with Air Serbia? I can list you around 10 destinations not served from Zagreb but served from Belgrade.
DeleteOh I just thought this is an EX-YU aviation forum. And the previous remark was about MAD.
DeleteIf this is "enough" high yield route for Easy they will come back after they consolidate their new markets in Germany and from Basel. It will be extremely difficoult to compete with U2.
DeleteMadrid/Spain is the place we have little connections with, transferring us to a continent we have barely any connections with.
DeleteThere is only 20.000 Serbs there, scattered all over the continent. Many of them originate not from Serbia, but from Croatia or Montenegro. So who do you think is going to use that route?
You are right, it's about EX-YU, but it would be nice if you accept the logical conventions and not go to far with argumentation. There will be a chance, when you can express your desire
DeleteI am not sure I understood you ?
DeleteIt will be interesting to see where Air Serbia will deploy the plane that used to fly to Abu Dhabi in the evening. That aircraft is now free from midnight to midday - so around 12 hours.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately if they are looking at Europe for new destinations (which I'm sure are the only ones they are looking it) then there is not much they can do with it until 6AM.
Delete*looking at
DeleteToronto :D :D :D
DeleteI doubt they will have an adequate replacement for the AUH rotation. Was good use of an aircraft that would end up sitting all night in BEG anyway. Those flights did have decent loads, especially during the summer season.
DeleteWhy not BWK ?
ReplyDeleteThey wanted to start flights there 2 years ago. They can't. The Croatian CCAA will not allow them to exapnd. They have decided that Air Serbia is the only airline in Croatia that is not allowed to sell connecting tickets via their hub airport and there is a court case going. Until that is resolved we won't see them add new routes to Croatia. They wanted to start flying to Zadar and Brac.
DeleteIs there any other non-EU airline (or EFTA) selling domestic EU tickets?
DeleteTurkish Airlines, Aeroflot for starters.
DeleteBefore 2 years on sommer plane Bwk was flights from beograd to brac 2 pw and brac zagreb opereted by airserbia..but they never start that flighs.
DeleteBoth carriers operate to the European countries based on bilateral Air Service Agreements, whereas Air Serbia operates to European destinations based on Single European Sky initiative. The problem arises as Air Serbia tries to benefit the initiative fully, while Serbia has not fulfilled the conditions completely.
DeleteNevertheless, the case is not solved yet, therefore there's nothing restricting JU to launch flights to anywhere in Croatia (except commercial purposes).
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/03/air-serbia-croatia-expansion-unlikely.html
DeleteAir Serbia can launch any destination in Croatia anytime.
DeleteAnd why she not start flights for brac and zadar?
DeleteAnd why don't you at least make an effort to learn some English, when you have an urge to post nonsense?
DeleteExcellent, it easily can be upgraded to daily after introduction of Pristina- Beograd.
ReplyDeleteATCO
Seasonal or year-around?
ReplyDeleteJeez guys. You are annoyed when they suspend routes, you are annoyed when they start new routes. No way of pleasing you people.
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteyep. hate is all they know what to do. but still they can only do that a watch AS and BEG advance
DeleteFares are ok. 140 euros return.
ReplyDeleteYes for the customers. Not the airline though.
DeleteThe return ticket on Air Serbia is actually cheaper than easy jet at the moment! And on Air Serbia you get free luggage.
Delete... and still easyJet could not make it work even with full planes!
DeleteHas easyJet told you that?
DeleteI have heard that they will increase it to 4 p/w
ReplyDeleteI think that this move was very smart from Air Serbia. easyJet just left a gap and Air Serbia were fast enough to fill it.
ReplyDeleteRegards from Sofia!
So we have from Belgrade
ReplyDeleteZurich - Air Serbia, Swiss
Basel - Wizz, easyjet
Geneva - Air Serbia, easyjet (maybe)
Yes, but important carriers are still missing: AF, BA, OK, EI, FR.
DeleteSecretly hoping the return of BT and TP.
Kad izbaci i izija vi cete kukati za njima dok er srbija lagano melje konkurenciju.
DeleteSince when are OK and EI important players?
DeleteBA is no better than easyJet in terms of product they offer and they bring no added value to an airport.
BA,AF,SN,OK and EI really do not bring any added value to an airport. No one needs them. Added value can only be achieved by Ryanair and WIZZ.
DeleteAll those airlines with the exception of AF offer the same product (if not worse) than W6 or FR. Just look at BA.
DeleteSo by launching GVA, they are reducing frequencies to other destinations in summer? Is that the reason for this reshuffling? :(
ReplyDeleteIt will get more attention when they introduce Toronto. New York is going up to 6 times per week which means second A330 (YU-ARB?) will join YU-ARA. Big question is where is that A330 coming from and when? Romeo Bravo, where art thou?
ReplyDeleteThe second A330 has disaster written all
Deleteover it. Sure, summer works well, however winter doesnt, and JFK will drop to 2 p/w (Thursday and Saturday) for 2 months (from 29th Jan to 26th March flights on Mondays drops), back to 3 p/w (Mondays) for another 2 months before going 6 p/w in June (daily ex Sunday). If JFK isnt doing amazing in winter, YYZ wouldnt be any better, and both could easily be done on 1 ac. Considering they havnt found a solution to better utilise their ac during the winter months, spending 500.000$ per month for an aircraft to sit in front of the hangar for 4-5 months...no comment.
dont you worry... be patient..
DeleteYYZ will work better then JFK in summer and winter. And JFK is coming along just fine. i was on a flight last week fro. JFK to BEG. economy almost full. probably 90%. in addtion i was suprised to see about 10 people in buisness.. so dont talk like you know everything
Loads were never an issued for JU on JFK, it was the yields. Maybe you are the one who shouldn't speak like he knows everything.
DeleteFull loads dont always equal profitability. Yields is one issue, as well as the fact they under utilise the ac during the winter which isnt good. Afterall, the lease of the A330 isnt cheap considering a couple ATR's could of been leased for the money they burn on the A330.
DeleteWhat if they plan to have 2 aircraft only in the summer?
DeleteOk and why not BEG-GVA-INI-GVA-BEG or the A319 is too big for INI?
ReplyDeleteit would be even better to add Brac to this:
DeleteBEG-GVA-BWK-INI-GVA-BEG
Umm no one is going to give Air Serbia fifth freedom rights to fly between Croatia and Switzerland.
Deletehello, it was a joke
DeleteSo two ex-Yu airline starting Geneva next year - Adria and Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteI have never understood why AirSerbia isnt flying to Munchen. ???
ReplyDeleteWhy should anyone get excited? It's not like they are leasing another plan and adding more flights and destinations. They are cutting frequencies elsewhere. Meh... pathetic decision from an incompetent management.
ReplyDeleteThey should do whatever they think will help their finances and you are not competent to judge. Haters gonna hate.
DeleteIf they were competent then they wouldn't have lost €40 million last year.
DeleteIf you were competent you would figure out they made a profit last year.
DeleteLuckily I am smart enough to know how they managed to be profitable.
DeleteSmart ones already figured out Air Serbia is successful regardless of hate comments.
DeleteSuccessful based on what? By that logic Zelezara in Smederevo was also successful. Anyone can be successful as long as he receives state subsidies.
DeleteThe fact that they are coming up with a business plan #5 in three years only goes to show how Dane is incompetent.
Luzeri opet ovde leče komplekse. Nije tri godine nego više od četiri, i nije peti biznis plan već drugi. Ne možeš ni 2+2 da sabereš a umišljaš da ocenjuješ njihov rad. Koliko još decenija treba da prođe da shvatiš da je tvoje mišljenje totalno nebitno za Er Srbiju?
DeleteGood luck JU on the new route.
ReplyDeleteNice. Welcome to GVA :)
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they have not advertised this new route anywhere. Not even a press release. But sure enough it's on sale and the ticket price is good too.
DeleteAerologic great analysis!
ReplyDeletenice!
ReplyDeleteI actually think it's a good addition to the network. Hope for some more surprises.
ReplyDeleteAerologic great analysis!
ReplyDelete"i proposed to Mr. Kondic in 2013"
ReplyDeleteAnd? Did he marry you eventually?
I think that the new 10 A320NEO is posible that Air Serbia can to fly to Madrid and Barcelona
ReplyDelete