Qatar Airways has shelved plans to resume operations from Doha to both Sarajevo and Skopje at the start of the 2020/2021 winter season in late October. Services to both cities were suspended in March and were to be restored on October 25. However, all ticket sales have now been halted until the start of the 2021 summer season from March 28. The Qatari carrier is instead offering one-stop connections to the capitals of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia via Zagreb, Vienna and Istanbul in cooperation with Croatia Airlines, Austrian Airlines and Pegasus Airlines throughout the winter.
The carrier first introduced services to both Sarajevo and Skopje back in 2017 and has maintained them continuously with its Airbus A320 fleet until the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Flydubai will continue to link Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia with the Middle East this winter. The hybrid carrier, which has already resumed flights to Sarajevo, will serve the city three times per week past October 25, while services to Skopje resume on October 26 and will run twice per week. Qatar Airways handled 25. 856 passengers on flights to and from the Macedonian capital last year.
Services to the Qatari airline’s two other remaining destinations in the former Yugoslavia – Belgrade and Zagreb – will continue to operate into the winter as well, following their resumption in July. Services to Belgrade will run four times per week with the A320 jet until December 14, after which will increase to daily and be replaced with the larger A321. On the other hand, flights to Zagreb will run three times per week until December 14, after which it will increase to four weekly. All operations to the Croatian capital will run with the A320 aircraft. At this point, changes remain possible.
Qatar Airways continues to lead the aviation industry offering more global connectivity than any other airline. With the carrier’s network never falling below thirty destinations since the onset of the pandemic, its number of destinations will more than triple in size by mid-October, totalling over ninety. According to the latest IATA data, Qatar Airways became the largest international carrier between April to July.
Wow that is unfortunate
ReplyDeleteA good indication of which routes perform well for them in the region.
ReplyDeleteIt's down to demand. QR suspended ZAG for most of August for example, and BEG has until this week seen one cancellation per week too.
DeleteWho currently flies into SJJ and SKP? Which airlines?
ReplyDeleteSJJ - Austrian, Turkish, Croatia Airlines (although just 1 weekly flight), Air Serbia, Pegasus, Flydubai.
DeleteSKP - Wizz Air, Croatia Airlines, Air Serbia, Turkish, Austrian, Edelweiss, Pegasus.
+ Sun Express, Correndon
DeleteI'm also very surprised that there OTP and SOF flights have been combined. They fly Doha- Sofia - Bucharest now.
ReplyDeleteMany airlines are linking destinations. Austrian Airlines announced that it will merge Leipzig and Nuremberg this winter season. Airline already announced that its advance bookings are horrible for the whole of winter season. To be honest I don't know how OS will survive the winter especially with travel restrictions imposed by Switzerland and Germany.
DeleteIt would have been nice if QR linked SKP and SJJ. At least we would have the flights over winter.
DeleteFrom winter, both cities will be unlinked and flown separately. Traditionally, there is more traffic in winter to the Middle East and beyond, especially from SOF.
DeleteThey are not being unlinked and flown separately in winter. Check their website.
DeleteThey are staying linked, 4 times per week, A320. It goes daily from mid December.
This is sad news because QR at the moment has one of the biggest networks.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIs there any chance SKP and SJJ might resume before this date?
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. They have stuck to all the dates they have announced in the past few months.
DeleteThe advanced bookings must have been poor.
ReplyDeletewe waited for your comment all morning
DeleteThis is an opportunity for Flydubai to better position itself in SKP and SJJ.
ReplyDeleteHow if the market is just not there. Many secondary destinations in Europe will suffer this winter and many simply won't get flights afterwards as airlines won't be able to afford it. Look at the cuts EK made the other day. I saw on Instagram that two days ago EY had 4 passengers out of ZRH while EK had 50.
DeletePlanes might be flying but passengers are just not there.
Or a chance for Wizz Air Abu Dhabi :D
DeleteI don't think so. Wizz Abu Dhabi has already announced its routes and it has delayed its launch for a second time in weeks. It's now scheduled from the middle of November.
DeleteThat was a huge mistake especially in a market like Alexandria. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi launched the route a few weeks ago and now Wizz Air lost the competitive advantage. Air Arabia has a good cost structure, stronger brand and connections on EY.
DeleteNot surprised at all. These two routes are one of the few they launched with low frequencies and never increased them.
ReplyDeleteWhy do they offer connections via ZAG, when there are more frequencies via BEG?
ReplyDeleteBecause they have an interline agreement with OU.
DeleteActually there are usually more frequencies on SJJ-ZAG and SKP-ZAG routes then from BEG to these airports.
DeleteIt was written below that there are many more connections via BEG & IST.
DeleteHave you actually read the comment above yours?
DeleteRegardless of the number of frequencies (post- Corona), QR offers more connections via BEG.
DeleteI just love how bothered some people are in trying to prove how great their airport is haha. So pointless.
DeleteI agree. It's comical. Who even cares. I don't think there will be more than 1 passenger connecting through any of these cities to SJJ or SKP.
DeleteThe other day there were 20 pax connecting onto BEG from BNX.
DeleteTo where? Qatar? I wouldn't be surprised after all BEG wasn't suspended for a long time now
DeleteYes.
DeleteKudos to them for flying to so many cities.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, most connections in the region Qatar offers are through:
ReplyDelete1. Istanbul (Pegasus)
2. Belgrade (Air Serbia)
3. Vienna (Austrian Airlines)
4. Frankfurt (Lufthansa) from Sarajevo
5. Zagreb (Croatia Airlines)
In Sarajevo Austrian has more connections, while Air Serbia has way more in Skopje.
Zagreb is rarely seen.
Lufthansa offers connections only out of Sarajevo.
It's not about who offers more connections, it's about who Qatar Airways has agreements with so they can sell you flights with a stop somewhere on a single ticket with your baggage checked through to the final destination.
DeleteWell, they are selling the most to these destinations.
DeleteDuring the summer they rerouted one of my friends from SKP to ZAG, because Thessaloniki was also suspended. But if you don't like the connection they rerouted you on you can choose any airport within 500 miles of your final destination (that they fly to of course).
DeleteJU and QR have an interline.
DeleteWinter is coming!
ReplyDeleteI hope they return back in summer as planned.
ReplyDeleteIt's really unfortunate because this is the only oneworld airline operating to Sarajevo and Skopje. Hope we see them back sooner than March.
ReplyDeleteVery unfortunate! SJJ - Doha was very important for Bosnia, since Doha is a major hub for entire Asia.
ReplyDeleteThere are still connections via Dubai
DeleteHow many flights per day do these airports have? On average that is.
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeletei doubt they will fly daily to BEG after Dec as planned
ReplyDeleteYou may doubt.
DeleteThey have upgraded the route to a larger aircraft and with more frequencies.
Deleteif Moscow is reduced from 3 to 1 daily you can see how low demand is.
ReplyDeletedaily Birmingham cancelled amongst the many
They also offer connections via BEG to SJJ using Air Serbia. This is how I booked my flights from Melbourne :)
ReplyDeleteThose flights never made sense in the first place, especially Skopje.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteThe market is not big and TK is just too strong.
DeleteLittle demand.
DeleteIf Qatar in winter flies at least twice a week to Belgrade then i am more than happy .
ReplyDeleteI guess winter will be more troublesome than we all anticipate .
Depends on entry restrictions. In winter QR used to do good business in Belgrade with transfers to warm places in Asia. If Serbs can enter those countries then QR will somewhat profit from it.
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