NEWS FLASH
Low cost carrier easyJet has introduced the first of its two new routes to Belgrade Airport this summer season. The airline commenced three weekly flights from Basel to the Serbian capital this morning, which will be followed by the launch of four weekly services from Berlin next month. Both routes will be maintained on a year-round basis. The airline anticipates carrying some 11.000 passengers between Basel and Belgrade this summer. Speaking at a press conference in the Serbian capital, easyJet's Head of Marketing for Central Europe, Silvia Herrero, said, "We are excited to launch two new routes from Belgrade. We are certain that these new services to Basel and Berlin will be very popular with passengers from Belgrade and will cater for the arrival of a large number of tourists to Serbia, which will further aid the local economy. As Europe's leading airline, we are delighted to be adding these two new routes to further improve Belgrade's destination network. We believe that these new flights, in addition to the existing ones, will be popular, providing us with long-term stability on the market, and offering passenger a greater number of destinations at affordable prices". easyJet will directly compete against Wizz Air on the Basel service and Air Serbia on flights to Berlin.
Will be fun to watch what Wizz does. Their BSL returns at 00.25 which is quite horrible.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling ORY is next.
Feel sorry to Air Serbia will loose profit to/from Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteBy Air Serbia I suppose you mean Wizz Air.
DeleteSpecially Air Serbia!
DeleteWizz Air is low cost airline no problem.
So what if it's a low cost carrier? Are they somehow immune to competition?
DeleteSo JU which doesn't even fly into BSL will be affected but W6 that does won't.
Sure. I guess that's why they are increasing ZRH to 17.
BEG needs to be connected to SXF and not TGL, as JU already flies there.
DeleteAlso BEG at least 2 more London airports! LTN or SEN!
Maybe BRS and MAN too.
My guess, however, will be another German destination: PAD, FKB or maybe CGN?
BEG is already connected to LTN by Wizz Air.
DeleteFunnily enough, BEG was the smallest ex-YU market from BSL last year.
Delete1. PRN - 133.303 (119.210 in 2016)
2. SKP - 96.129 (79.467)
3. OHD - 49.577 (44.297)
4. TZL - 49.503 (38.388)
5. INI - 38.009 (31.394)
6. BEG - 33.527 (32.247)
thanks for the numbers. It says "Easyjet debakl" written all over it. They only fly to PRN.
Deletefun fact: Air Serbia is doing few charters Basel-Ohrid this summer but god knows for which familia Reisebüro
No problem. That said, BEG-ZRH is massive with close to 360.000 passengers if I remember correctly.
DeleteI think Wizz Air never truly committed to BEG-BSL. They added OSI to the mix so now the plane arrives after midnight making it unattractive for locals. After all, ZRH is just 90 km away. I wouldn't be surprised if many opted for Zurich instead of Basel especially with JU's convenient schedule.
Here are the ZRH numbers for our region:
Delete1. BEG - 368.815 (364.435)
2. PRN - 321.486 (332.321)
3. BUD - 222.946 (186.778)
4. SKP - 154.863 (161.627)
5. ZAG - 110.295 (112.625)
6. LJU - 107.754 (96.631)
7. OTP - 87.264
What's interesting is that some airports like PRN and SKP actually saw their numbers fall. Maybe passengers shifted to BSL. It could be an indication that the market is getting saturated.
Nemjee, did you know that ZRH and Switzerland in general are one of the worst performers in SOF?
DeleteW6 is not flying from SOF to BSL this winter. LX used to fly only 3 times per week and they switched to INI instead. Only FB flies to ZRH 4 weekly.
Only connection still alive is SOF-GVA but who knows until when.
That said, U2 is doing extremely well in SOF especially in winter. 5 UK destinations this winter, because of the ski season.
Thank you for that, I didn't know the market was that limited. Do FB and LX code-share? I suppose they use their Embraer on the route?
DeleteCyprus also does really well from Sofia and Varna. Seems like LCA-VAR was a true surprise for many.
Nope, they don't. Yes, FB mainly uses the Embraer jet on the route. Unlike BEG and rest of ex-Yu, Switzerland was never an attractive destination from Bulgaria.
DeleteLCA is very successful, yes. Even in winter. Lots of Bulgarians emigrated there after communism. But SOF-PFO didn't do well with FR. Remains seasonal, I guess.
True about VAR-LCA. Big surprise indeed. Btw, here is a very cool link of both BOJ and VAR real traffic and pax. Hope you enjoy!
http://boj.free.bg/arr.html
http://var.free.bg/arr.html
The guy who created this lives in the coast I think, so sadly not available for SOF.
By the way, I was looking at the SOF statistics and I noticed LHR had a large drop. Did BA reduce its flights or was it because of more competition?
DeleteLHR remained the same for a long time. BA fly daily and for the very first time this winter adding an additional Saturday evening flight.
DeleteFB flies 5-6 weekly. Busiest days: Saturday and Sunday early morning flights as they have a special agreement with Virgin Atlantic + United.
W6 dropped its flights a bit to LTN.
FR agressive on Saturdays to STN.
U2 now attacking with successful LGW and new SEN.
If ASL had a bit more aircraft, they can try early morning BEG-LHR departures too.
jeeeez. BOJ is impressive...!
DeleteYes, traffic is very similar to SPU. This year it will expect more than 3 million pax for the very first time.
DeleteVAR is expected to exceed 2 million.
It’s crazy though as there are some days that LX flies 3x a day to BEG from ZRH. Then double daily the other days. JU daily. Plus all the LCC. Who would have thought that CH would have such demand for BEG!
DeleteAnon 22.59
DeleteInteresting, thanks. I guess BA felt the competition so they added more flights to remain relevant on the market. How many flights did Wizz Air reduce to LTN? When did they do it, from the summer or winter season?
As for JU, they would add more flights but there are no slots available. In winter they fly daily and in summer 9 weekly. They have really good loads, in summer they can easily fill an A320.
Anon 00.46
In summer, and now in winter, JU will also operate triple daily flights three times per week. We will still have to see what LX does in W18.
W6 reduced LTN by 2 weekly and introduced AGP instead on Saturdays and Tuesdays where there are many flights to London. So 16 weekly.
DeleteBA regularly send their A321 in summer.
As for JU, the LHR hours are really good making excellent connections. Do they have an agreement with bigger airlines?
They have an interline with Virgin Atlantic for certain North American destinations where LAX and MIA are the most popular in summer. JFK used to be number one until JU launched its own flights. That said, this flight mostly relies on local demand, on both ends which is why yields are really good.
DeleteGood to know, Nemjee.
DeleteI bet JU deploys mainly the A320 as this route is quite popular. Those LHR slots are really worth it.I checked that the code-share agreement with KL is also excellent.
I think both airlines have their similarities. Maybe the biggest difference is excellent JU Scandinavia coverage vs FB Spanish one and JU not operating domestic flights compared to FB having VAR.
Anyway, good that the EY cooperation was extended. Looking forward to some new destinations or metal birds.
We are definitely not speaking/flying the same route. Outside school breaks BEG-LHR is always comfortably empty.
DeleteI am referring to official statistics for the route. BEG-LHR is only 'comfortably empty' during Q1 when, on average, there are 86 passenger per flight. On an A319 that comes out to be a LF of 60% which isn't that bad.
DeleteWizz in MK cannot stop LOL-ing at Easy for letting them to milk the Basel cash-cow ... 10 weekly (incl. 7x A321)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's ok, that's probably the one route that can have more than daily flights.
Delete@16.19 facepalm.
Delete(now we know where da hater is coming from)
DeleteThere was a market for Easy which they just let go, stubborn Stellios
easyJet doesn't even fly to ZAG, get over yourselves. SKP is a small market there is no room for more than one big player.
Deletebecause ZAG is a heaven for Lcc's oh einstein
Deletethere were times when Wizz flew twice weekly BSL-SKP...
until ZAG lower fees, EZY wont be back, they said it more than once that ZAG is too expensive.
DeleteI saw it departed only 3 minutes after scheduled time. Loads was very bad.
ReplyDeleteActually it wasn't... 145 inbound, 136 outbound, so not bad for 1st flight
DeleteHow many seats does it have? Isn't it 144 like JU?
DeleteA319 - 156
DeleteA320 - 180 or 186
Two days ago bought a ticket for 55 CHF... for my mother in law. Very good prices. I will continue to fly with air serbia because I am really satisfied with them and I fly a lot. I think Wizzair will have a bigger issue with them.
ReplyDeleteOne way or return? I
DeleteReturn! It‘s less than return train tickets to Zurich from my place
DeleteWell known "analyst" from the neighbourhood shared a vision of Easyjet possibly becoming number 1 carrier at BEG because of "big partnership" with Vinci and presence at their other airports. If his thinking is correct, that must be also true for concessionaire ADP at ZAG! ADP is involved with many large airports like ORY and even AMS. Both airports have large combined presence from LCCs like Easyjet, Transavia, Vueling and others. Using the same logic it must be that ADP used "big partnership" with those airlines at other airports in the past couple of years to bring or expand those LCCs to ZAG. Not at all, as ZAG has no Easyjet, no Transavia and just one seasonal Vueling route, and not even a single route from other LCCs like Ryanair and Wizzair. Analyst's thinking is clearly completely wrong. His vision of airport route development based on a "link" between concessionaire and LCCs failed at his own airport.
ReplyDeleteforgot the link to analyst's vision:
Deletehttp://rs.n1info.com/a408348/Biznis/Izidzet-uveo-nove-letove-iz-Beograda.html
Analitičar navijač.
DeleteOnce JU goes bankrupt it would be nice for easyJet to become a leading carrier from Belgrade.
DeleteThat's exactly what he is hoping for, but packaged in something he calls an "analysis".
DeleteWelcome back EZY! I loved flying them to MXP and FCO, as I hope they will make an expansion out of Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteOT time, does anyone know how does Red Wings perform on Belgrade route?