Air Serbia will be adding frequencies to several cities in the former Yugoslavia this coming summer season, with Ljubljana, Zagreb and Skopje to see extra flights while the Croatian market will have the most capacity overall. The Serbian carrier will maintain the additional frequencies it introduced to Ljubljana following the collapse of Adria Airways in late September, with the carrier to run seventeen weekly flights between the Serbian and Slovenian capitals, up from twelve for the majority of the 2019 summer season. Operations will be increased to Zagreb as well, with services to operate thirteen times per week, up from eleven. Furthermore, frequencies to Skopje will grow from nine per week last summer to thirteen weekly rotations this year. Sarajevo will also see extra capacity starting June 20 with one of the seven weekly flights to Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital to operate with the ninety-seat Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft instead of the 68-seat ATR72 turboprop
Seasonal flights to Rijeka, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar and Pula in Croatia will all resume in 2020 with the same number of flights, however, services to Rijeka will commence over a month ahead of the rest, in late April. Air Serbia will be offering over 170.000 seats between Belgrade and its Croatian destinations next summer season. In December, the airline said it was “extremely positive, at least for us and our region, that 2020 will be great”. It added, “We are planning an 18% increase in seats and we will announce ten new destinations”. Further afield, the carrier will increase frequencies to Barcelona, Larnaca, Madrid, Tirana and Prague.
The Serbian Minister for Finance, Siniša Mali, who in the past served as the Chairman of the airline’s Supervisory Board, previously said, “Our goal is to eventually fly twice daily to all cities in the region but before we do that we need to connect the last city in the former Yugoslavia that we do not fly to yet - Pristina”. A political and public opinion polling agency, which is said to be close to Serbia’s ruling party, recently started conducting a survey to gage public opinion on the resumption of flights between Belgrade and Pristina. The Serbian government formed a task force for the "normalisation of air travel in the Balkans" in 2017 with its main objective being the resumption of services between the two cities, however, no concrete results have been achieved since.
Some cities are still no served with the same frequnecy as pre consolidation phase. For example ZAG used to be double daily.
ReplyDeleteZagreb is the only one I believe.
DeleteSkopje also used to be double daily.
DeleteSkopje used to be double daily before W6's great expansion that connected SKP with all the major gastarbeiter cities of Europe.
DeleteIt used to be double daily as early as summer 2014. Wizz Air was already present in Skopje.
DeleteSo? It's 13 per week instead of 14. Big deal.
DeleteLet's see if it will be 13. They schedule it as 13 for each summer and then end up flying 9 times per week.
DeleteW6's presence in SKP back in 2014 was much smaller than what it is today.
DeletePlus back then JU was even less interested in things like CASK, RASK than it is today.
My guess is that JU decided to use capacity elsewhere where it can make more money. My guess yields in SKP are not that great compared to LJU, TIA, ZAG, OTP...
DeleteI AS je 2014. imala mnogo manju mrezu nego danas
DeleteIn general they have to do something about SKP. Their reputation is not that great here and their passenger numbers are going down.
Delete@9.04 Banja Luka as well. Used to be daily. I think in summer it is now 5 weekly.
DeleteAnon 10.16
DeleteMy guess is that even with those numbers yields are ok, I doubt JU would be increasing a destination where they were losing money.
I hope this time they follow through with Skopje frequency increase. They announce it every year but always end up with 9 or 10 flights max.
ReplyDeleteI agree. They seem to have a lot of trouble with Skopje in general. Their numbers should improve thanks to Adria's bankruptcy.
DeleteDo they still operate some flights with Airbuses to Skopje in the summer?
DeleteSKP traffic is more and more focused on o&d travelers.
DeleteW6 has direct connections now with almost all destinations that there is demand from Skopje.
Anon at 09:29
Delete+1
BNX is going the same way. No that there are more direct option to travel to Europe traffic to BEG will be mostly locals instead of transfers.
JU at BNX is departing chronically full and around 45% are transfers. JU and QR have an interline agreement so they get Australian passengers as well.
DeleteWhat is the difference between interline and codeshare?
DeleteInterline = you can purchase flights from two unrelated companies on the same ticket, each with its own flight number, and check luggage through to your final destination.
DeleteCodeshare = company A places its own flight number on the flight of company B, company A can sell seats for the flight on company B directly, and vice versa.
So codeshare agreements are expanded/upgraded interline agreements basically.
Thank you very much.
DeleteAs far as I understood for the customer it is the same. You buy one ticket and you check your luggage through to your final destinations in both cases.
Now, the only difference is that on code-share there are flight numbers of one airline on the actual flight of the other.
Probably totally irrelevant for the customer.
PRN would be quite successful.
ReplyDeleteIt would provide great feed for JFK flights.
DeleteFirst thing that needs to happen is for the airport to be renamed. Same way SKP did it before flights to Athens took place.
DeleteNothing to do with the airport name. Prishtina breaks the deal asking too much in return, political-wise.
DeleteI am not saying name is the blocking issue but that it should be one of the requirements.
DeleteI'm surprised by the amount of capacity being offered to Croatia. Well done.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, hard to understand why AS starts flying to the coastal airports that late in the year.
DeleteInteresting that Rijeka will start before Dubrovnik. Is it that popular of a route?
ReplyDeleteRijeka was supposed to run for the entire year then they downgraded it to seasonal.
DeleteI think maintaining Dubrovnik year round with 2 weekly flights in winter could work.
Delete^ I don't see how. Transfers are taken care of by British Airways and Turkish Airlines.
DeleteBoth BA and TK are badly positioned to bring European passengers to DBV.
DeleteLHR and IST include major detour for anyone from continental Europe.
Well if nothing it's well covered by Croatia Airlines with several daily departures to Dubrovnik.
DeleteTransfers can be taken care of by any airline that is proactive and fills the gap.
DeleteOU's winter network is a disaster so I don't see what they can offer so as to be better option than JU. As for RJK, don't forget that there are a lot of Serbs living in that area. I think Zadar could also work in winter on the same principle.
DeleteJU will be offering JFK connections from DBV this summer for the first time
DeleteActually IST is better positioned compared than LHR for DBV when you count the transfers from Russia, Middle East, whole Asia and Africa and even Centreal & Latin America. For North America LHR has a slight advantage but TK seems to be carrying more north american transfers to Ex-YU thanks to price policy on those flights.
DeleteBut for European transfers, I agree both airports are not very well positioned, we could easily say one of them is located in where Europe ends in West and the other in East.
For European transfers BEG as well as ZAG are much better position to serve DBV traffic.
DeleteThe missing city in their regional network is MBX ;)
ReplyDeleteCould it work with 17 weekly flights to Ljubljana?
Deleteor Portoroz :D
DeleteWhat about OMO?
DeleteJU looked at OMO for this summer but there were some issues with pilot training or something.
DeleteIt is possible. OMO suffers from bura wind in and that requires pilots to depart from the other side of the runway over the mountains visually. Therefore pilots need special training.
DeleteThere we go, that was the issue then. OU doesn't have those problems due to its coast so pilots are familiar with it.
DeleteDo you have a source for JU looking at OMO, I have never heard this. That route would be absolutely perfect for me if anybody has any friends there tell them they would have at least one very loyal customer
DeleteThey held talks last year. It was reported here, second paragraph
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/04/air-serbia-eyes-new-regional-routes.html
Mostar, Brac, Ohrid and Pristina are the last four destinations in ex-Yu they should add in my opinion.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteYU
DeleteLooked at brac airport to
YU = Yugoslavia
DeleteJU = Air Serbia
Thank you.
YU is actually EuroAtlantic Airways.
DeletePity they dropped Ohrid. Missed opportunity.
ReplyDeleteIt obviously wasn't working for them financially.
DeleteWell not at the times they had it scheduled. It comes down to fleet shortage.
DeleteAnd in summer timetable 2013 during Jat Airways they had 6 weekly flights to Ohrid.
Deletelol why does the government need a polling agency to question about PRN flights? Stupid.
ReplyDeleteBecause the government is scared that it might be an unpopular move. This government does polls for everything every day. They are obsessed with popularity and then respond in line with the results.
DeleteWeird.
DeleteWhen it eventually starts I wonder what frequency will BEG-PRN be.
DeleteIt's common practice around the world. Not sure what you find strange about it?
DeleteTHANK YOU to Air Serbia for connecting our region that well again. It's good and important for the development and trade of the individual republics to have shortest possible transit times and good air connections.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Tuzla?
ReplyDeleteWhat would be the demand? They can't compete against Wizz Air to west European destinations.
DeleteAgree. There is no P2P demand and western Europe is covered by Wizz Air (even they struggle on some routes). Best Air Serbia could do is get some transfers to Istanbul.
DeleteThey need ATR42s for some routes in ex-Yu to work.
ReplyDeleteIs the ATR42 still in production?
DeleteVery much so.
DeleteWould be perfect for some routes.
DeleteThey dont need it, difference in operating cost are insignificant.
DeleteWhat routes in ex-Yu does JU send Airbuses and not ATRs on a scheduled basis?
ReplyDeleteDubrovnik, Split, Podgorica, Tivat.
DeleteLjubljana
Deletetask force for the "normalisation of air travel in the Balkans"
ReplyDeletewow what a name :D
Great developments overall. BEG is certainly becoming better and better connected not only to ex-YU but to the Balkans and beyond. This summer more exotic destinations will be added thanks to JU such as ROV, LWO, KIV... and these destinations will be accessible from ex-YU thanks to short connections.
ReplyDeleteI am especially glad LJU will stay as 17 weekly. I remember there was a lot of skepticism on here saying how JU will keep them only until LH announces its LJU flights. I guess they were all proven wrong.
LH is very limited in what it offers at the moment in LJU. Small aircraft, low frequencies and poor scheduling. Might improve somewhat with better schedule in summer.
DeleteDon't they have 21 weekly flights from LJU to FRA?
DeleteNo, it is 14 weekly and Munich is 7 weekly.
DeleteOk, it is still 21 weekly by LH to Germany and bbtter than 17 weekly JU flights.
DeleteWhy do you say then that they have low frequencies?
Because they can barely pull off 7 from Munich in a market where they have a loyal fan base. Also don't forget JU has 2 flights from INI so in total 19, just 2 weekly frequencies less than LH. Now look at the size of the two airlines and you will see who has more success in Slovenia.
DeleteJU and LH ca't be compared that is for sure.
DeleteBut still 21 is more than 19 even if you include INI no matter how big the company is.
LH just started flying to LJU so despite the fact that Air Serbia has excellent results in Ljubljana I wouldn't still say JU is more successful than LH.
Let's wait for at least one year and then we can comment it.
LH operates from two hubs so their operations is split. JU is still the busiest airline in LJU in terms of flights between two hubs. LJU-BEG is currently number one in terms of weekly frequencies. I don't see that changing in the future. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if eventually JU goes 21 weekly to LJU.
DeleteNumber of seats is a far more reliable method of comparison.
DeleteOne A320 has 2.5 times the number of seats of an ATR.
You don't make money per plane, you make (or lose) money per seat. It is as simple as that.
DeleteFor example in ZAG or LJU or SKP JU has in many cases higher number of frequences, but lower (compared to other airlines) of total seats. In my view it makes sense: they need frequences to match others, but at least for now they cannot reasonably offer as many seats as others do (they would have no chance to fill them).
On a separate topic: I also wonder how the fact that the flight is at night (the JU night bank in BEG) impacts on the fare, ie what is the discount needed to fill that plane at night.
Well JU could be sending the A320 17 times per week to LJU but they wouldn't be making money. On the other hand they do with the ATR.
DeleteIncreasing capacity is not the solution to every problem. Even TK is bringing back the A319 into their fleet.
LH does not send A320 to LJU but CRJ900 that has only 20 seats more than ATR
DeleteThey need to start INI, they'd get significant number of transfer pax
ReplyDeleteDon't they already fly INI?
DeleteThey fly from INI, there's no BEG-INI
DeleteBut would there be a point to launch BEG-INI now that they have over 10 routes from Nis?
DeleteBEG needs to get a domestic transfer gate for INI to work. Currently all pax have to pass passport control.
DeleteThe same goes for KVO
DeleteThe aircarft comes from BEG, does the VIE rotation and flys empty back to BEG, so why dont thes sell the BEG-KVO-BEG flights, the crew is there anyway and you would only need a few moere water bottles to distribute at the entry, because the flight is to short.
DeleteWill JU fly charters from Banja Luka this year to Greece?
ReplyDeleteYes they will. Athens and Antalya (Turkey) .
DeleteGreat. Thanks for the quick response. Yes, I completely forgot about Antalya. Do you know when these start?
DeleteThere were discussions of Hurgada as well from BNX but I think that will be left for next summer.
DeleteBoth Athens and Antalya start of 5th of June and last until September.
DeleteHonestly, still puzzled why SOF was not increased together with OTP. They are regularly sending A319 and connections via BEG are quite good together as well as prices.
ReplyDeleteLO will have almost the same schedule to BUD as JU but the connections via BUD are still less compared to the ones in BUD.
That said, this summer there will be 11 weekly flights from SOF to BUD.
Places like SOF, OTP, ZAG are where there is a lot of competition by bigger players that offer a wider network and bigger frequences in their hubs. They also fly bigger and therefore more economical planes. So in order to get pax in places like SOF, OTP, ZAG you would have to cut fares even more and that while having a higher cost of fuel. Aparently JU looks more for its chances in places where the routes are really thin and therefore there is less competition. I mean TIV, TGD, TIA, SJJ. Look at how small are frequences by other airlines flying there, and in particular how many mainlines fly there.
DeleteYet JU boosted both OTP and ZAG ;)
DeleteTo anon 13:04
DeleteI was not critising this approach. I was just stating a fact.
And yes it "boosted" both OTP and ZAG, but both the boost and the ultimate presence is very small compared to the market in OTP and ZAG (market share). It cannot be compared with market share of JU in places I named like TIV, TDG or even TIA and SJJ. It clearly show where they concentrate (on purpose or accidentaly).
I think they better think of how to replace the ATR fleet in winter - currently three days of chaos in BEG .huge percentage of cancelled flights because of the fog - two days they were sending flights to Nis (i.e. Ljubljana Tuesday and Wednesday) now they gave up and grounded ATR's and cancelled most of their flights while the others running late (LJU yesterday evening 5h, currently at least 3h)...
ReplyDeleteAnd first Kosava will solve all these problems free of charge
DeleteAnd what happens to London airports the moments an inch of snow falls? Or when there is a thunderstorm in Dubai? Wasn't EK paralyzed for days because it rained. lol
DeleteWeather related issues are common everywhere. Atr is fantastic on short regional flights and it allows them to boost frequencies so as to improve connectivity in BEG, LJU and PRG are fantastic examples of that.
yes, FANTASTIC as long as you are not relying to arrive at certain time to certain point (i.e. business meeting). but yes, fantastic to have some sighseeing of southern serbia, or seeing belgrade by nihgt,....or drinking coffe in the airport ...
DeleteNo one is saying it's "fantastic", but that you are overexaggerating. All airlines face weather-related issues every now and then. I will point you to the commenter above and EK (people here would call it a prestige airlines) who had issues because of rain. Unlike them, we live in an area with 4 distinct seasons and we are doing our best to combat 30+ cm of snow, followed by apocalyptic rains and thick fog and then Dubai-like temperatures in the summer.
DeleteSarajevo nadogradjeno subotom na CR9
ReplyDeletePonovo dolazi CR9?
DeleteReceno je da dolaze 2xATR (jedan odlazi) i 1xA319.
Sa CR9 to bi znacilo da dolaze neto 3 aviona sledeceg leta u flotu
Just checked, it's already in the system, flight time on Saturdays is 45 minutes in stead of 55.
DeleteNobody said that the CRJ wouldn't come because of the arrival of ATR. No one announced another A319.
DeleteCR9 dolazi sigurno i ove god. Vec je ulistan za neke letove Helsinki,hamburg...Za pojacanje flote saznacemo verovatno do kraja meseca kad budu objavljene nove rute.
DeleteI wonder how they will fly to VLC, AMM, ROV, OSL... if they do not add one more A319
DeleteObviously CRJ900 will be used for wider region (SJJ, KBP, SKG etc...) and already leased planes need to cover INI, charters and currently existing European destinations (together with NCE as seasonal destination).
i have heard rumors that they want to replace A320 for 2x319. That would be a grate support. just a rumor at the moment.
Delete1 CRJ was already in fleet last year, so it is not additional airplane if we compare season to season.
DeleteDBV will also get it.
DeleteNice to see Sarajevo with a jet engine plane at least once weekly.
ReplyDeleteSJJ really needs an evening arrival from BEG and a morning departure... I know, I know, airport hours are not good enough for that - but it would still be SO SO SO good to have it.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
DeleteWhich is the route making JU most revenue? ZRH, TGD or Croatian Riviera?
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that JU is expanding in the region - however, they are becoming hugely unreliable for Zagreb and Ljubljana. Every few days they have 2-4 hours delays (today Ljubljana). Business travelers cannot count on them for daily flights, as they are loosing one ATR every now and then, and these two destinations suffer the most. I am chosing to go by car now, as I had 3 three hours delays for ZAG for the past 12 flights.
ReplyDeleteAnd honestly, the visual state of interior of Lima November, Oscar and Papa is sad and below any standard for European aviation. Not sure about Africa, but the parts are literally falling down. I don't think that this actually influence the safety, but the product and passenger experience are 1/10.
ReplyDeleteIs it really so bad?
DeleteWhat about ANI, ANK and AND?
DeleteUnfortunately, it is really bad. Every third reading light is working, you need to smack it to work actually, last time the emergency light cover (with the titles) fell off of the emergency door and wouldn't stay when returned. Number of seats "automatically" reclining when you have an adult seating. State of noise with -200 series is enormous, cannot be compared with -500. The walls colors is yellow/brown, these guys are really tired. I recall last year of Aviogenex' AKD, it was much much better then this.
DeleteFlew with ANK two years ago, it was fair, much better then ATR's.
Apart from the noise it sounds like it could be all easily fixed within couple of days...
DeleteI'm not anon above explaining how does it looks but I can confirm it is very bad. I have a lot of flights with JU ATRs and experience is really bad. I understand that they are economical but anyway...reason like "passengers will fly because they don't have other choice" are for sure true up to some level but on the other side company reputation is ruined that way.
Delete3/6 ATRs are in a bad shape, you should know that if you fly them regularly.
DeleteI would say that those 3 are in disastrous shape, while others are not being exactly stellar. And I'm talking from passenger perspective ie. look, feel & comfort.
DeleteDo you think that average passenger wants to differentiate between -200 & -500 types, or think about airline economics? People will usually remember and talk about their worst experiences.
Agree. Extremely bad, especially -200. And, yes, there is not much choice one some routs, e.g. from LJU to SJJ (due to the lack of LJU VIE flights). I don’t know about Africa. Just returned from Asia, flying Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao and Myanmar operated airlines with ATRs, all in much much better condition.
DeleteZRH...
ReplyDeleteMost profitable route.
DeleteHow many destinations does JU fly to? Seasonal and not. What about weekly frequencies?
ReplyDeleteRim vracen na 7X
ReplyDeleteВероватно опет немају авиона за сва повећања пошто сам чуо да је чартер саобраћај и ове године порастао за неких 15%!
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ReplyDelete