NEWS FLASH
Serbia and Turkey concluded an inflexible Air Service Agreement four years ago which has now officially come into force after it was finally adopted by Turkey’s parliamentary committee last week. The deal, which has been in use in principle over the past few years, designates Air Serbia as Serbia’s operating carrier, while Turkey has nominated Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines and Atlasglobal. These four airlines will be able to maintain flights between the two countries with limitations in the number of operated flights and capacity. Atlasglobal was only able to introduce services between Istanbul and Belgrade due to Air Serbia’s withdrawal from the route which freed up pre-determined frequencies. The new agreement does not regulate charter operations between the two countries, which has been a contentious issue on several occasions. Acting in line with the agreement, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate turned down Turkish Airlines’ request last year to deploy wide-body Airbus A330-200s on flights between Istanbul and Belgrade on a regular basis and later refused to allow the Turkish carrier to add an additional three weekly frequencies, for a total of seventeen, between the two cities. Under the agreement, each airline must take into consideration how their operations will affect their competitors, while regulators will be able to determine if any increase in capacity or frequencies is justified and in line with market conditions. Serbia’s parliament adopted the Air Service Agreement in 2016.
It's weird, I as hoping for a free competition in Serbia, this looks like anti competitive measures and could explain why flying with Turkish cost more from Belgrade than from Budapest...
ReplyDeleteYes, and especially strange is how the Turkish side would agree to such an restrictive agreement without any benefits .
DeleteRestrictive ?? What the hell are you talking about ? Did you notice that the agreement explicitly allowed for 3 TURKISH carriers and only 1 Serbian carrier ? WHat if hypothetically a new carrier was established in Serbia ? It would automatically be locked out while ever this agreement remains in force.
DeleteSo, far from being restrictive, it is actually all in favour of Turkish carriers - so they have a very very good deal out of this ... that's why they have accepted such "benefits"
Actually in the previous one (from 1947) TK was the only designated Turkish carrier. Now they revised it.
DeleteEven if this agreement would allow ten thousand turkish carriers to fly the route the frequencies and capacity would still be same as now.
DeleteSo in the end the Turks have won not much.
And Sarajevo with only 15 percent of the traffic of Belgrade will be better connected with Turkey than Serbia.
Actually if anything, this agreement (for now) protects KK. Without TK being restrictions they would have never made it on the Serbian market for so long. Didn't KK fail in SJJ?
DeleteAs long as capacity is not increased it has no difference whether it has one designated carrier or ten Airlines are designated. What is needed for people to fly cheaper between istanbul and Belgrade and beyond Istanbul is that the limitations in the number of flgihts must be removed
DeleteNo available frequency for Kraljevo - Istanbul route?
ReplyDeleteMaybe AirSerbia should introduce it with ATR three times weekly as PSO and get 1 mil subsidy for that :D
DeleteAnon at 21:29, did you try to think for at least one second before you typed your comment? It has absolutely nothing to do with the question. So sad.
Deletelets hope for a belgrat-izmir route...waiting for long now..
ReplyDeleteWe always threw rocks at our "gentlemen". However, now it is obvious that this rigidity fits Turkey's and TK's agenda perfectly.
ReplyDeleteIstanbul is a place where a lot of other carriers show flimsy results. It is a TK Fortress, far better protected than even German main airports. The rest is left to other Turkish carriers.
We should just watch and learn.
Funny to read how many on here support this shortsighted stupidity.
DeleteNarrowmindedness will never succeed in anything.
Canim Anon 04.16, why do you say that?
Delete