Air Serbia is increasing operations to a number of destinations in the coming period as countries begin lifting entry requirements for Serbian citizens. The airline is boosting flights to Switzerland, Cyprus, Turkey and the United States, with frequencies in some cases outstripping pre-pandemic levels. Services to Ljubljana are also likely to grow in the coming weeks after the Slovenian government placed Serbia on its green list today, lifting all entry requirements. Air Serbia will be adding extra frequencies between Belgrade and Zurich for a total of nineteen per week, equaling the number of rotations to those operated last summer. Similarly, its competitor, Swiss, is also increasing its frequencies on the route to twelve per week.
Just days after the Cypriot government lifted entry requirements for Serbian citizens, Air Serbia is doubling its operations to Larnaca to four per week. In response, Wizz Air has brought forward the resumption of its flights between Belgrade and the Cypriot city, which will now be restored on October 15 rather than October 28. Last week, the Serbian carrier increased its frequencies to Istanbul from five to seven weekly, outstripping pre-pandemic levels, and will maintain five weekly flights to New York in October, up from two per week the same month last year. The airline recently announced it would also extend charter flights to Turkey into October and to Egypt throughout November due to strong demand.
Air Serbia has previously said that its recovery will largely depend on ongoing entry restrictions and requirements for Serbian nationals. “The challenge for us at the moment are the closed borders and travel restrictions in our main markets in Western Europe, which greatly restricts the movement of people, and so our flights, too”, the carrier’s Head of Trade and Corporate Sales, Boško Rupić, said. Borders to most European Union member states are currently closed to most Serbian citizens, with the block to discuss the possibility of reopening them at a meeting this week. However, some EU member states have eased or removed all travel restrictions over the past month, including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania and Italy.
Finally some positive news
ReplyDeleteYesssssss !! Glad to see the JU 320s more often in ZRH again
DeleteIt goes to show how much these uncoordinated travel restrictions are impacting travel.
ReplyDeleteMuch more than fear.
DeleteGood news for AS but particularly for people who need to travel.
ReplyDeleteLast night's LCA departed with 12 passengers in business and 158 in economy. Several other flights were upgraded to the A320.
ReplyDeleteWow those are fantastic loads.
DeleteWOW! Full A320! We didnt have that long time!
DeleteWizz Air is also doing well. First flight on the 18th is selling for 10.529 one way. War between the two is starting now.
DeleteWere those transfer passengers?
DeleteYes but next flight is selling for 2.000 :D
DeleteWhat about other foreign airlines besides LX? I see B2 is sending B733 today.
ReplyDeleteI noticed many FRA LH flights are on A320, not A319. I don't know if this is from technical reasons or demand. I know you can't fly into the US from BEG on them but you can in the other way, from the US to BEG.
DeleteLH is resuming its second daily flight to BEG from Frankfurt (the morning flight) from 2nd of October.
DeleteBelavia actually is the only airline that links European countries to Russia .
DeleteAren't foreigners banned from entering Russia? Hopefully they get a stronger brand recoginition in Serbia which will help them later on, after covid.
DeleteIt is not foreigners taking the flights but Russians. There are barely any flights to Russia and many are using BEG as a transfer point because they can enter the country without any restrictions and then check in again (it's not just Russians doing this actually).
DeleteThat's interesting, thank you.
DeleteLH is not resuming second daily flight to BEG on all days. They will be flying 10 pw to BEG but unfortunately LH does not fly anymore MUC-BEG.
DeleteI guess Wizz Air is celebrating as it will perform better to Memmingen. I think LH Group is struggling big time, advance bookings are very weak. In August LH's North American flights had an average LF of just 30%! I think only LX does well in BEG from the group. Austrian Airlines might also decrease BEG, they reduce ZAG to just four weekly in October.
DeleteInteresting that both JU and OS will have the same number of flights to ZAG.
DeleteWizz added two extra departures from BEG to FMM on 21 and 28 October.
DeleteGreat news about JFK! Makes me really happy.
ReplyDeleteIt is good, but this is all thanks to the EU ban. Serbia and the Western Balkans allow US citizens to enter. US Youtubers are currently making trips and mentioning that. Besides, it seems the EU is not really in a hurry to reopen to the US. So, in this case Corona helped JU with the situation.
DeleteWell thanks to the EU, most of Serbia's main markets and flights have been impacted because Serbian citizens can't enter. I really don't think youtubers and filling Air Serbia's flights to New York. It is also a question whather airline can materialize on something, and Air Serbia obviously did by adding flights. I mean, there are no entry restrictions for Ukrainians to the US either but neither is UIA flying there nor will it until December and even then with B737.
DeleteWell political circumstances always help different airlines. Collapse of YU and old JU helped MA and OS position themselves here in the market and promote BUD and VIE as main hubs. So now it's JU using political situation to capture a market. Business is like that, things always change, all the time.
DeleteExpect even more demand from the US to Belgrade. The prestigeus US International Development Finance Corporation opened its offices in Belgrade. This will no doubt boost travel between Belgrade and DC. That said, I am sure LH Group will profit the most from it.
DeleteOh no..... word "prestigeous" is here again.
DeleteAre you implying this institution isn't?
DeleteThis actually isnt high status institution. It is opened 1 year ago and they are here because of Serbian-Kosovo relationship. It is not some big cooporation which can boost economy significantly.
DeleteCheck out articles online to see that they are coming to exactly boost the local economy. $4 billion in investment is being prepared.
DeleteWe should avoid jumping into conclusion and restrain from wishful thinking.
DeleteAustrian Airlines will not just decide to die because it feels it is about to rain. Vienna is way too important city for Lufthansa Group, so it will protect that market in one way or another, with one brand or another.
Air Serbia will remain squeezed in between LH Group and Turkish Airlines in the years to come (Both LH&Co and TK are heavily supported by their home countries, and post-covid times will allow them to continue to do so). EU will complain a lot less on government funding in the months ahead. Even Aeroflot was aggressive in these markets. Serbia will simply have to match it, with funds, management, politics, with whatever weapon they have. Air Serbia is doing okay, they jump in wherever they can, react quickly and their pricing seems reasonable. We will see if this trend will continue.
Luckily they have somewhat tamed TK in Serbia which was forced to sign a codeshare agreement in the end.
DeleteJU must focus much more on charters and not only on Egypt and Turkey.
ReplyDeleteMorocco, Tenerife/Fuerteventura, Jordan, Ras ElKheimah. Those 319s are fit for the job.
The future is all about charters now.
But Serbian citizens can't enter any of those at the moment.
DeleteIf there is a demand for these flights they will operate them.
DeleteMorocco charters were planned for this year, but then corona happened.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/12/air-serbia-to-commence-morocco-charters.html
DeleteI see, shame it didn't materialize.
DeleteAir Serbia should fly charters year round .
ReplyDeleteMany destinations in Northern Africa and Israel/Jordan are especially attractive because they dont have winters as we know it .
Egypt temperatures in winter for example are more suited for tourism than summer .
August for example can be 50° while January has "only" 30°Celsius ...
Air Serbia flies charters where tour operators organise trips. There is much less demand for holiday destinations in October and November in general. This year is an exception because most people didn't go on holiday.
DeleteWell, then tour operators should organise more trips in wintertime .
DeleteIf there are offers from december to march, demand will follow automatically .
Many LCA flights are already sold out starting with the flight on 04.10.
DeleteThis will probably result in more LJU flights too.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what JU does with LJU. At least some positive news for Ljubljana, it was a very depressing period. I hope for daily flights.
ReplyDeleteHopefully LJU-INI comes back.
DeleteHow many times a week does JU currently fly to Ljubljana?
Delete4 weekly
DeleteI have a feeling it will be increased to 4 or 5.
Delete^ It is already 4 weekly.
DeleteIt will probably increase to 6 weekly or daily.
DeleteGod daily would be fantastic! Hopefully they have those noon flights so that they can offer connections.
DeleteLet's see what EU does with travel ban this week. Hopefully they lift it.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately they wont .
DeleteSerbia will be one of those countries whose travel bans get lifted last .
Does it even matter? I mean Cyprus, Bulgaria and Slovenia are all in the EU. They lifted the ban on their own without the green light from Brussels. Italy also eased entry requirements for Serbs. In the end individual countries make the final call.
DeleteIt matters because a lot of countries automatically align their boarder reopening purely based on the EU recommendation and nothing else.
DeleteAnon 09:30
DeleteAny insider information or just speculation?
I will remind you that on the beginning of July Serbia was not among the other countries which were on red EU list until we saw the consequencies of football matches and elections.
+1
DeleteGood luck. Hope there is more good news soon.
ReplyDeleteThere will be :D I'm certain as early as tomorrow. Let's wait and see.
DeleteThe positive thing in all this is that Air Serbia is reacting very quickly to these changing conditions on the market which is very important in circumstances like these.
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteit shows that JU is not sleeping despite all the challenges.
DeleteThey have been very proactive in the last year or so in responding to market conditions and competition.
DeleteGood thing is BEG started recovering from corona. Hopefully more airports follow.
ReplyDeleteGood to see slowly some positive developments.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the EU borders are reopened next week and they can spread their wings further.
ReplyDeleteHope so
DeleteGood to see some growth but it's a drop in the ocean.
ReplyDeleteIt's a start :)
DeleteI hope that by the start of winter more routes can be reestablished.
ReplyDeleteThe main markets that should be restablished are Russia and Italy but Russia is still closed and Italy has only lifted restrictions minimally.
DeleteRussia is open for some 15 countries, I am afraid Serbia will not being considered anytime soon.
DeleteI'm afraid you don't really know that at all.
DeleteThey should have launched Geneva as planned.
ReplyDeleteCan someone post a source where it says that serbian citizens can enter Italy without restrictions? I can't find any info.
ReplyDeleteThis info I found says it's still not completely free but only for certain cases
https://ambbelgrado.esteri.it/ambasciata_belgrado/sr/ambasciata/news/dall-ambasciata/2020/09/cambia-la-disciplina-degli-ingressi.html
No one said that Serbian citizens can enter Italy without restrictions. The article just says that some entry restrictions have been eased. Until 2 weeks ago no one could enter Italy from Serbia under any circumstance.
DeleteSo 30 weekly flights between Zurich and Belgrade in total. Not bad.
ReplyDeleteIs this the most frequent route from Belgrade at the moment? Or is TGD/TIV?
DeleteIt is. TIV has 28 weekly flights.
DeleteInteresting. Although ZRH was always among the top frequent so not surprised.
DeleteBEG-ZRH has been the busiest market last year with over 400.000 passengers.
DeleteYou are all much too optimistic .
ReplyDeleteThey will have to extend charter season into winter if they want to make it .
What are you on about?
DeleteNow that Aegean airlines pulled out over winter, does anybody know the Air Serbia frequency to Athens for this period of the year? Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think it will depend on the travel restrictions. Greece indicated last week they will lift Serbian entry ban on 30.9. As we see with Cyprus they adjust frequency based on demand. Last week they had 1 weekly fight planed, then 2 and now they schedule 4 weekly to Larnaca.
DeleteAthens is currently planned daily in winter with extra frequencies from mid-Decenber to mid-January.
DeleteJU is well positioned to take advantage of the situation by competing on frequency, and offering better connectivity, thanks to AT7 fleet.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I'm surprised that JU's only 2 flights to London are scheduled on same days as the only 2 weekly flights to London by Wizz.
Because Monday/Friday are good days for travel. But seems Wizz got the point and will fly Tuesday/Saturday instead from Oct. 13.
DeleteHopefully they get more transfers as well on these routes that are increasing.
ReplyDeleteNice to see frequencies are returning and in some cases exceeding last year!
ReplyDeleteWill Oslo be kept during winter?
ReplyDeleteYes, twice per week. Thursdays and Sundays.
DeleteGreat! Thanks for the quick response!
DeleteGood news is that today we had only 30 new cases! Hopefully this leads more countries to consider lifting the entry ban for Serbs!
ReplyDeleteBoth weekly and two weekly avarage is currently the lowest in Europe.
DeleteAS was not profitable w/out Covid crisis ,now loss is huge for all airlines so opening flights does not mean profit!
ReplyDeleteIt means smaller loss
DeleteIt means smaller loss
DeleteAnon at 18:34, read and learn: Air Serbia registers €9.5 million profit in 2019
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/08/air-serbia-registers-95-million-profit.html
Just because the airline is losing money overall doesn't mean it's losing money on all routes, LCA included. Mali was on tv tonight and he said, and repeated a few times, that JU on its own paid €52 million in EY debt.
DeleteAnd here he comes again Anon 20:38..... which does not understad that JU get 19.7 million in aid in 2019.
DeleteAnd here comes again Anon @18:34 who does not understand that every Air Serbia news does not have to include discussion about profitability.
DeleteYou don'g get it, it's not about that but it's about mentioning something negative when a positive news is published. That's the whole point of the comment. I mean JU finally gets another market that's recovering and they come around writing hateful nonsense. At the end of the day what matters the most is that JU is recovering.
DeleteLove this.
ReplyDelete