Air Serbia will resume commercial flights to four destinations in Central and Western Europe as of next Thursday and will restart regional flights, as well as it long haul service to New York, from May 29 onwards. Until June 15, the airline will operate one weekly flight to Frankfurt and Zurich from May 21, one weekly service to Vienna and London Heathrow from May 24, two weekly operations to Ljubljana starting May 29, up to five weekly flights to Podgorica from June 1, up to four weekly services to Tivat from June 1, two weekly rotations to Sarajevo and Banja Luka from June 4 and June 5 respectively, two weekly to Skopje from June 5 and one weekly flight to New York from June 6. The remainder of its network is due to restart on June 15, pushed back from the initially planned June 1.
May 18 - June 15 operations (correct as of May 14)
| Destination | Resumption date |
|---|---|
| Frankfurt, Zurich | May 21 |
| Vienna, London | May 24 |
| Ljubljana | May 29 |
| Podgorica, Tivat | June 1 |
| Sarajevo | June 4 |
| Banja Luka | June 5 |
| Skopje | June 5 |
| New York | June 6 |
Air Serbia has said it is exploring new opportunities in the region. “Air Serbia is closely monitoring the possible re-opening of the region and is ready to prioritise regional flying and adjust to new opportunities and returning demand within the region”. Commenting on its planned operations, Air Serbia’s CEO, Duncan Naysmith, said, “Our fleet and our staff are ready to resume scheduled passenger services at any time. The start and scope of our services, however, depend not only on us but on the decisions and guidelines of national, foreign, and international bodies and civil aviation authorities, and on the changes in the travel restrictions valid in the countries we serve”. He added, “We are closely following the decisions of competent authorities, while adjusting our operation and plans to present conditions”.
The Serbian government has adopted a protocol for the entry of Serbian citizens and foreign nationals into Serbia. Serbian citizens and foreign residents can enter the country and move without restrictions with a negative Covid-19 [PCR] test not older than 72 hours. If they do not have the test, all citizens will be required to self-isolate at home for fourteen days or they may undertake testing in Serbia. Foreign nationals can enter Serbia under two conditions - a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours and a permit issued by a commission consisting of representatives from the Ministry for Health, Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior. This permit will be issued by the Serbian Embassy or Consulate in the country from which the foreign national is arriving. According to the government, the permit will be a formality issued within minutes of the request. This permit will not be required for nationals from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.
Good, we are ready to support JU as well.
ReplyDeleteHopefully SJJ, BNX, TGD, TIV, SKP and TIA can launch before the 15th of june
ReplyDeleteInteresting Tirana is planned as 14/week.
DeleteIs there any indication of when those airports may open?
DeleteThey should launch other destinations in the regions.
DeleteSuch as?
DeleteCluj
DeleteOHD & INI
DeleteWhat is the point to point demand on those routes? I always thought they cater for transfer pax.
DeleteTill Tuesday (6 days before first flight) there was every day flights to Frankfurt, London and Zurich and two daily flights to Vienna in system from 18th May, but now there are just 4 flights a week. So, system is not good source.
DeleteYes, that's because they had the pre corona summer schedule loaded in the system until yesterday.
DeleteAustrian Airlines has extended its grounding until June 7 and this might be moved even more. It's a good thing JU resumed VIE flights.
DeleteThey would increase loads to VIE, ZRH, LHR and FRA if they started these regional flights earlier. I'm sure there would be people willing to connect to get home.
ReplyDelete"to prioritise regional flying and adjust to new opportunities "
ReplyDeleteInteresting
TIA had so many frequencies only due to the passengers with connecting flights. Almost nobody flies only TIA-BEG.
Delete^ I think you misplaced your comment
Delete"...and a permit issued by a commission consisting of representatives from the Ministry for Health, Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior. This permit will be issued by the Serbian Embassy or Consulate in the country from which the foreign national is arriving."
DeleteCouldn't they have just gone with the test?
Just a way to create useless bureaucracy.
DeleteIn Kazakhstan it was a scandal when they asked people to pay 50 Eur. for the test, they then lowered it to 20 Eur. before removing it completely for internal flights.
DeleteMost of the countries, including Croatia, does not ask for test. So it is not "World" just a smaller part of it, few countries, that get med.
DeleteA 72 hours old test ist not of any use. I mean you can do the test- get out and on the way the airport get infected or at the airport itself. Then you enter and spread the virus. The only way to do it is upon arrival. All else is pseudo safety.
DeleteWhy in the world don't they allow transfers?
DeleteJust please everyone be careful, you all saw what happened to Croatia airlines.
ReplyDeleteSo, it can happen also in bus, train, public transportation. In same time Croatia has less than 10 new cases per day for weeks now.
DeleteWell it were passengers arriving from Sweden on a Lufthansa flight to FRA. So people at the borading gates in Sweden, Lufthansa personnel and the whole chain might get infected.
DeleteFingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteFor me, as leisure traveler having to go somewhere first to take a test plus having to pay for this, and probably all kinds of procedures at an airport before I board is definitely a major deterrent to flying.
ReplyDeleteIs Wizzair still going to fly from 18th of May? I see there are news circulating this morning that air traffic will be postponed from 18th of May until 15th of June in Serbia.
ReplyDeleteDid you even bother to read today's article? You would get your answer.
DeleteMakes sense. Fly where opportunities present themselves.
ReplyDeleteOpportunities?
DeleteThey should try and actually load flights some time in advance and not like these LHR, VIE, ZRH and FRA which they just loaded last night whileselling tickets from May 18 for all destinations for a long time. Screwed many people over.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI believe they will start BNX and SJJ straight away if the airports open there on June 1.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that it is quite certain that Tivat will start from the start of June.
DeleteYep, now they have been scheduled :)
DeleteMakes sense if borders will open
ReplyDeleteWill Serbia allow transfer passengers?
ReplyDeleteThey seem to constantly be changing their plans
ReplyDeleteWell the situation is such that it is understandable.
DeleteThey should definitely make a decision before issuing a press release. They make one decision, issue a press release and then change everything the next day.
DeleteAgree with last anon. They could also fix the date of their latest "schedule news" on their website It says April 13 instead of May 13.
DeleteIn all fairness they did say from the start they will add routes if circumstances permit. The boarder reopening with four countries definitely helps.
Delete@12.41 Not only that but the headline to the "news" on their official site is misleading. It says they are delaying the resumption of scheduled flights and then in the first sentence it says they are resuming scheduled flights as planned. idiots. The headline on this site yesterday was much more on point "Air Serbia delays broader service resumption".
DeleteYay!
ReplyDeleteAnd then some people say how ex-Yu countries aren't still interconnected to some point. First flights resuming between ex-yu states, first borders in Serbia opening with ex-yu states, first border in Croatia opening with ex-yu state (Slovenia)...
ReplyDeleteVery good. JU just now officially confirmed the regional resumption :)
ReplyDeleteNew York is quite optimistic with US borders closed and BA carrying 20 pax on average on their NY flights out of LHR these days.
ReplyDeleteWell their PR person just said that flights could be cancelled if there is not enough demand. The thing is that there are around 1000 Serbian people that have requested from the Serbian Embassy in the US to come home. One would expect they would book this flight.
DeleteIf New York operates once weekly what will crew do? Come back to Belgrade on the return flight as off-duty or stay in New York for 7 days?
DeleteMost likely they come straight back but I'm not sure.
DeleteThey come back as passengers.
DeleteWith JU resuming operations in BEG, what will its competitor TSR do? The airport is NOT closed and even has flights to Spain. JU did not include BCN in the list!
ReplyDeleteI really don't think they care what TSR is doing at the moment and why would Air Serbia fly to Barcelona at the moment exactly? It's understandable for there to be flights from Romania considering 670.000 Romanians live in Span.
DeleteBecause both MAD and BCN were successful since their launch. There is a huge risk for JU to lose the Iberian destinations in favour to W6. TSR-BCN is currently 3 weekly.
DeleteYou might want to look around what's happening in the world. Risk from who? No Serbian person can enter the EU and neither can foreigners transit through Belgrade.
DeleteThe risks are actually 2:
Delete1. VY resuming flights in July
2. W6 might increase its capacity on the TSR-BCN route
Both will hurt the performance of the route.
TSR might as well be on the moon. The land border between Romania and Serbia is CLOSED!
DeletePeople who always promote TSR on here have actually never driven to there. Road in Banat is not the best but it gets so bad once you cross into Romania. It's like driving through catacombs.
DeleteGuys, I have some fantastic news for all of us ex-YU avgeeks! I heard on the radio that starting from today Serbia has launched an ad campaign in China (Alibaba's tourism platform) where they are promoting the country as a popular tourist destination and one of the things the promote is that Serbia was among the first in Europe to remove visas for Chinese! I guess those flights to China reported on here might happen after all.
ReplyDeleteWith all this promotion I think many airlines flying into Belgrade should do well. Things are definitely looking up for BEG and Serbian tourism and aviation!
Do you know for when they are advertising?
Deletewow so these flights might really happen :D
Deleteits on Bloomberg as well
Deleteshorturl.at/dkru0
What's on Bloomberg? That link takes you to Spotify.
Deletemaybe this works
Deletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-14/chinese-tourists-lured-to-save-summer-in-beijing-s-european-ally
Thank you, it really is a nice article and shows the benefits of having good ties with China. What people forget is that growing number of Chinese tourists is not the foundation of a solid partnership but its crown. Beijing has really stood by Serbia not only in economic matters but political as well. The West doesn't like this of course but that's their problem and maybe a new approach is needed towards Belgrade if they want to defeat China here.
DeleteFor us in Serbia, growing number of Chinese tourists is a healthy way to boost local economy. Much better than getting expensive loans from the West or subsidizing their companies here. More Chinese tourists in Serbia means more flights to Belgrade meaning more taxes from the aviation sector. In the end everyone wins.
Now all we need is for JU to launch those PVG flights.
So two weeks just 4 flights per week
ReplyDeleteAnother two weeks 22 flights per week
That is 52 flights in a month or less then 2 flights per day
Croatia in same month will have more than 300 flights what is 10 flights per day.
Let me just remind you there is zero tourist in Croatia. Can you now see benefits of EU?
300 flights? Really wonder how you got that equation. There is one daily flight from Zagreb to Frankfirt - 31 flights for the entire month. And for 20 days there are 4 daily domestic flights. So 80 + 31 is how much? Not to mention there is far less capacity. Give me a break.
DeleteWe speak about 18.5. till 15.6, not last month (in which Air Serbia did not have any flights). In that period Croatia will have 28 flights to Frankfurt + 102 to Split and Dubrovnik + more routes that will be announced from 25.5. and much more from 1.6.
DeleteAnd what? From 15.6 Croatia Airlines will have half the network Air Serbia has. If you have to clutch to a global pandemic so you can brag then something seriously isn't ok with your airline, or you for that matter.
DeleteYou went from "over 300 flights" in your first comment to 130 flights in total, but that your crystal ball knows there will be over 300.
DeleteAll of this is very questionable as Croatia Airlines is already cancelling many Dubrovnik and Split flights. Some are completely cancelled, some are combined.
DeleteDon't know if 300 in one month is real, but on 25th May Croatia starts daily flights to Amsterdam and daily flights to Paris. From 1st June many more routes will be added.
DeleteSo what? Is there a gold medal for most ex yu passengers or flights during this month? Numbers for the past two months and probably next two are not relevant at all except to some amateur obsessed with charts and desperate to show airport or airline in his city as finally busiest in the region.
DeleteSome routes are relaunched from ZAG but many will be cut from there as well as the coast. This is just putting make up on the pig.
DeleteOnce you get in EU everything counts different!
ReplyDeletePrice of return ticket BEG-LHR 24./31.May is 900€, Economy Light ie. without hold bagage.
ReplyDeleteIt's pobably full because they transferred all passengers from the cancelled flights during that week
DeleteOr it could be that they still haven't loaded the actual fares for these flights.
Delete"Foreign nationals can enter Serbia under two conditions - a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours and a permit issued by a commission consisting of representatives from the Ministry for Health, Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior. This permit will be issued by the Serbian Embassy or Consulate in the country from which the foreign national is arriving."
ReplyDeleteThis simply is not true. I called the Serbian Embassy in Washington DC and I was informed they were not in charge for the permit. Foreign citizens should call embassies of their respective countries in Serbia. That was a note from the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I called the US Embassy in Belgrade in order to find out they were still waiting for the instructions. There is a beautiful Serbian saying that explains current situation in Serbia.