Kazakhstan’s first ever Ambassador to Serbia, Gabit Syzdybekov, has said that launching flights between the two countries will be one of his priorities. “In order to strengthen economic cooperation, first of all, we need open nonstop flights between Nur-Sultan and Belgrade”, Mr Syzdybekov said. He added that the meeting of the Kazakh-Serbian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Issues will be held this year, which may result in concrete talks between stakeholders interested in introducing flights between the two countries. In 2016, Air Serbia’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the time, Siniša Mali, said the carrier was considering launching flights between Belgrade and Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. However, the route never materialised. The two countries have already signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the aviation sector. Kazakhstan has designated its national airline, Air Astana, as its operating carrier for flights to Serbia, while Serbia itself selected its own flag carrier. Serbian citizens do not require a visa to enter Kazakhstan. Furthermore, Serbia is one of only six European countries that does not require entry visas for Kazakhstani passport holders.
Paging Mr Air Serbia, paging Mr Air Serbia. Hello?
ReplyDeleteIt would be a questionable route frankly. The transfer market is well covered by TK, SU and others, and it would tie up an airplane for 12 hours just for a return trip.
DeleteWhat about KRR or BEY? Both markets are served by much larger airlines yet JU does well there.
DeletePersonally I would prefer Air Astana as they could offer connections to China, same as Mahan.
It is impossible rotation to be done in 12 hours. More realistic is about 13.5 hours
DeleteHow long would the flight be anyway? I don't think JU's A319 is the most comfortable flight for such a long flight.
DeleteI would like it to happen, but honestly saying I really doubt it will happen.
ReplyDeleteIt is simply too far away = 7 hours flight one way
well they can give it a try, i have a good feeling about this route idk why
DeleteIt would be more like 5:30block time, which is achievable with A319/320.
DeleteSo more or less like AUH rotation. I don't think flight time is an issue, JU's seats are not the most comofrtable for longer flights, especially if they are operated at night.
DeleteIf flights were to start, I'd go with one weekly BEG-ALA-TSE-BEG and one weekly BEG-TSE-ALA-BEG for start (two in total)
ReplyDeleteThey could actually rather link ALA and a place in China.
DeleteGreat news for BEG and Serbia, bad news for TK.
ReplyDeleteI think SU would be the one to be affected more by this.
DeleteKazakh* passport holders, not Kazakhstani
ReplyDeleteCorrection
No, it's Kazakhstani
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstani_passport
"Kazakh" refers to ethnicity
Delete"Kazakhstani" refers to nationality
Some more positive news for Belgrade. From 04.04.2020 Belavia will be upgrading its flights on Saturdays to E75. From May all three weekly flight are increased from CRJ-200 to E-175.
ReplyDeleteSeat capacity:
CRJ-200: 50 seats
E-175: 76 seats
I am sure we will see bigger planes by summer. Just the other day they sent the E95 to BEG. Nice to see them grow in Belgrade.
RO is retiring the AT4 so they will start sending the AT7 though I don't know if they will be able to sell the extra capacity. Then again they carry businessmen who pay higher fares.
DeleteRO is usually more expensive on OTP-BEG then JU. And smaller ATRs were really terrible experience, especially on flight facing turbulence :)
DeleteBut RO has a better schedule so they could afford to charge more. :)
DeleteZa AS bi naj bolja opcija bila da Astana pokrene letove sa codeshar-om
ReplyDeletePerhaps Sunday Airlines could start ALA-BEG? They already have charters to the Mediterranean and the Middle East from Almaty, a low yielding Airline like them might be better if the traffic is more on the P2P end.
ReplyDeleteThat would be nice indeed. Makes perfect sense.
DeleteWonderful news for me as I'm a frequent traveler to Kazakhstan. I really like TK and its in-flight service but having 8 hours transit in IST both ways is a real nightmare! Air Astana's in-flight service is amazing too! Would be a real pearl having them in BEG this year.
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