February is traditionally the slowest month of the year for commercial airlines with the coronavirus pandemic making it even more challenging. Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines are adjusting their operations for the coming month with the Serbian carrier planning to operate 775 flights (return service included), while its Croatian counterpart has so far scheduled 415 flights. As a result, Air Serbia will decrease its operations by 64.8% on last year, while its capacity will be down 63.8% to 86.966 seats. It will offer the most capacity to Podgorica, followed by Zurich, Paris, Istanbul and Tirana. Unlike in January, the airline will not be operating flights to Prague and Sofia. The two destinations were restored only during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
Overall, Air Serbia will maintain flights from Belgrade to 26 destinations. They include Banja Luka, Skopje, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Tivat, Ljubljana, Tirana, Zagreb, Brussels, Paris, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Berlin, Amsterdam, Zurich, London Heathrow, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, New York, Athens, Vienna, Moscow, Istanbul and Larnaca. It will also continue to run flights between Niš and Hahn. During the month, the majority of its operations, 55.6%, will be operated by its Airbus A320-family aircraft, 39.7% by the ATR, 2.6% by the Boeing 737-300 and 2.1% by the A330-300.
On the other hand, Croatia Airlines’ operations will decrease 74.2% on the same month last year. It is offering 44.286 seats on sale, which is also down 74.2%. Unlike during the first half of January, the airline has suspended it operations from Zagreb to Sarajevo and Vienna until at least March. The carrier will maintain operations from Zagreb to Skopje, Split, Dubrovnik, Pula, Zadar, Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, Copenhagen and London Heathrow, as well as from Split to Rome, Frankfurt and Munich. Croatia Airlines will slightly ease its reliance on the Dash 8 Q400 turboprop in February compared to January with the aircraft type to be utilised 62.1% of the time, followed by the Airbus A320-family which will used for the remaining 37.9% of flights. It will place the most capacity on flights from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, Split, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussels.
Those are steep declines
ReplyDeleteAt least we will see some growth in coming months :)
DeleteStill less than Wizz Air or Ryanair in the region.
DeleteWizz Air again cut SKP-TKU after covid infections arrived by plane.
DeleteIt would help if JU made some flights to the main transfer hubs. Only LH goes to Frankfurt and the flight yesterday had a LF of at least 65%, I noticed a lot of the passengers had transfers to other locations with AC etc...
DeleteJust goes to show how dire the situation is at the moment.
ReplyDeleteMontenegro will be a wonderful gift for JU.
ReplyDeleteCapacity and flights still down by over 60%.
DeleteYes but MNE seems to be performing well. They boosted TIV to daily yesterday.
DeleteWhat do you expect in pandemic? Flights to grow?
DeleteIt is surely very positive for JU that YM does not fly and there is no doubt they will use that chance.
LCA is also performing ok in February, so far on average there are 80 passengers. Good thing is that Serbia and Cyprus signed an agreement where CY agreed not to close its borders for Serbs.
DeleteEven to Montenegro the number of flights is down over 30%.
DeleteWell that's because of YM.
Delete^ I'm talking about JU's operations only.
DeleteAnd you compare it with? Last year?
DeleteYes I compare it with last year since people here are saying how it's doing amazing. Completely detached from reality.
DeleteI think you have problem with reality as you compare the traffic in the time where there was no pandemic with this year's traffic.
DeleteAnd if the fall is only 30% it is excellent result.
You can't compare the situation before covid and now. 30% drop is tiny in these circumstances. Look at major airports around Europe, on average the drop is between 70% and 80%!!!!
DeleteBTW two days ago TIV was upgraded to A319, there were 90 and 130 passengers. Good business for JU.
JU 26 destinations from BEG
ReplyDeleteOU 12 destinations from ZAG
And then we listen here that "OU network is good"
Give me one airline which has "good" network during the pandemic.
DeleteComparing to OU network from ZAG Air Serbia's network from BEG is excellent including even TATL flights even in these difficult times.
DeleteExcellent? If JU has "excellent" network by same logic OUs network should be decribed as "good".
DeleteHaving less than 50% of JU network from its hub including domestic PSO routes?
DeleteSure. More than good :-)
OU suspended SJJ yesterday despite having massive O&D demand.
DeleteAnon 09:28
DeleteYes, by your logic. Or you are going to ignore that.
It was irony , anon 09:32
Delete"JU's excellent network" - 3 flights today.
DeleteNetwork means the number of destinations.
DeleteFrequency means number of flights.
Basic aviation knowledge.
Anon 10:39
DeleteI wonder why you haven't counted yesterday number of JU flights...Any particular reason? :-))
FYI ==> JU had 22 arrivals yesterday.
Ouch.
Great. There is little point of having a network over 20 destinations if you fly to those cities once per week.
DeleteI counted today because today is today. I didn't know I had to search for a particular day in the week that suits you.
DeleteInstead of it you searched what fits you.
DeleteStill facts are the facts
JU 26 destinations from BEG
OU 12 destinations from ZAG
Anon 11:18
DeleteOk and? JU has "excellent" network with 60 routes during no crisis and 26 in crisis? And please, remember literally ZAG is not only airport in Croatia. OU operates and 3 routes out of SPU.
Yes and JU operates 1 route out of INI so you come to
DeleteJU 27 destinations including only 1 PSO route
OU 15 destinations including all domestic PSO routes
Incomparable
If it is "incomparable" why are you then comparing it? And you never answer why by your oppinion JU has "excellent" network.
DeleteGiven the circumstances JU's network is fantastic because they manage to operate non-major destinations. OU can't. I mean they don't even fly to places like Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Athens or Istanbul!
DeleteAnd all of it with EU travel ban for Serbian citizens!
DeleteIt is more than excellent in these circumstances!
Who cares abour current circumstances. How is network of 60 routes excellent? And what does mean non-major? Another useless term made by fanboys?
DeleteFor the country the size of Serbia number of 60 destinations its national carrier covers is excellent.
DeleteUnfortunately we can't say that for your national airline even in the times before the pandemic. They were constanly keep losing their market share especially on the coast.
But Croatia is smaller then Serbia no? And Air Serbia did not even flew to Munich, Lisbon, Dublin and Manchester which are basics so i dont no how is that excellent network.
DeleteYes and Croatia has long sea coast which Serbia doesn't.
DeleteManchester and Lisbon basics? Where? In UEFA cup? Surely not in aviation world.
Are you really sure you wish to play that game of comparing international routes of OU and JU?
Really, really sure?
Did i ever mention OU in this comment section? I did not so i really do not understand what you want? Ok, you have larger airline, happy now?
DeleteMy point was that JUs network cannot be excellent when in doesnt even fly to, imagine this, Munich. And JU is balkan airline. And yes, i would consider them as basics for many airlines. Same as Dusseldorf, Kiev, Oslo, Geneva... I really dont think JUs network can be considered to be excellent, when by original commentator is considered as not even "good" or "solid".
*OUs network.
DeleteTopic of the day was Croatia Airlines. It is irrelevant if you mentioned it or not.
DeleteTo base your arguments on few more or less important airports where JU did not fly is not serious. Especially for a city in Germany, country where JU had the most destinations.
Have you forgotten that in 2019 LH was flying three times daily MUC-BEG? Why would they compete here against bigger company if they had no chance to be successful? Pointless.
Having in its network, among all capitals of ex-yu republics, also cities like KBP, HEL, OSL, CAI, KRR, MAD, BCN, TLV, LCA, TIA, JFK is the best proof JU had excellent network for ex-yu region.
What happened to JU flights to Thessaloniki?
ReplyDeleteSerbian citizens are not allowed in the EU.
DeleteIt was suspended a few months ago. There was an article here about it.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/11/air-serbia-suspends-thessaloniki-service.html
DeleteSerbs can enter Bulgaria, Cyprus and Slovakia so we are not banned from all of EU.
DeleteYet there are flights only to Cyprus.
DeleteBetter launch flights to Slovakia then!
DeleteLogical.
DeleteBulgaria can easily be entered by car and flight to SOF were mostly for connecting passengers.
BTS was never connected to BEG as it is so close to VIE.
And who is going to go to Slovakia? No one. Just because entry is allowed somewhere doesn't mean people want to travel there.
DeleteAnon 09.21 you are obviously not from Serbia so maybe ask questions before making silly statements. There are many Serbs in Slovakia, estimates are that they are around 5.000. It's mostly people from the south who are working in construction there. That's why FR rushed to open BTS-INI.
DeleteI am from Serbia. But you obviously are not aware of the situation. Ryanair "rushed" (love the adjectives) and it has now permanently terminated the route and did not "rush" to restart it. Like I said, lifting entry restrictions from countries that can be counted on one hand means nothing.
DeleteSilly statements :-)
DeleteWas there any air connection BEG-BTS in the past? Now you see.
Have you asked yourself why? Let me help you. As I have already stated VIE is too close to BTS that was used mostly for LCC's. Not even LH before pandemic flew to BTS from FRA or MUC and Germans surely have much more business with Slovakia than Serbia.
Driving from Belgrade to Slovakia takes in average 5 hours. And exactly these workers you mentioned use the possibility of driving to Slovakia and not flying.
FR opened INI-BTS because of people living in Austria and not Slovakia.
Exactly. So them lifting entry ban means absolutely nothing for aviation in Serbia, as I have said from the start.
DeleteSlovakia only recently lifted the ban. Companies which are sending workers are only starting to make arrangements now. These people will need to find a way to reach Slovakia. If there are no flights soon then they will have to go by road since Hungary allows transit through its country.
DeleteAnd absolutely no one will start flights. As you will see. Some of you people live in a fairyland and think that because some workers they will launch a new year round service. And you think this while reading they have reduced capacity and flights by over 60%. Wake up.
DeleteAlso impacting on demand are the expensive PCR tests needed. In Serbia it now cost 75 euros. Imagine that for a family of 3 or 4. Also everyone has to get retested when they come back to Serbia. So it's very expensive.
DeletePCR tests for workers are covered by companies that are sending workers there, not the individuals. Yes some people might be overly optimistic but I am more disgusted by the extreme negativity by some on here. Better to be unrealistically optimistic than to be pathetically negative all the time.
DeleteGreat, then we await double daily flights from Belgrade to Bratislava by Air Serbia, Ryanair, maybe even Wizz to handle the "rush" in demand since entry is allowed.
DeleteSome people here are truly detached from reality
DeleteIn which EU countries Croatian passport holders are banned to entry due to pandemic?
ReplyDeleteNone.
DeleteThank you.
DeleteIt just shows the conditions for comparison with BEG aren't the same.
Not exactly. Croatia like the ret of the EU is banning travelers from dozens of countries to enter.
DeleteThat is not the case with Serbia.
Yes and foreigners are coming in their thousands to Serbia.... You realize most of EU is banning all non essential travel to any country, particularly those outside of the EU?
DeleteBut Croatia does not ban entry from EU countries.
DeleteThat is the main point.
No it isn't. Not only EU citizens "count" but everybody. And banning tourists from the US, Canada, Russia, Turkey, Israel, China, etc. etc. is pretty serious.
DeleteTourists from China, tourists from Russia, tourists from Israel, tourists from Canada????? Do you hear yourself??? Chinese citizens can't leave China, Canadian citizens can't leave Canada. Russian citizens can go to 15 countries and Croatia is not one of them. Israelis can travel to 3 countries, none of them in Europe. What sort of tourism are you talking about for heaven's sake???
DeleteLike I said above. Most people here live in a parallel universe where they still haven't heard of corona, huge decline in demand for air travel, entry restriction, exit restrictions, government regulating where you can go, quarantines upon arrival and quarantines upon return. That's why you get comments like these with airlines "rushing" to open routes and "huge" interest from Chinese tourist who are unable to leave their country for the past year.
DeleteWell, we're down to only two carriers.
ReplyDeleteIt would be convenient for ASL to operate mainly cargo and charter flights in February. Those are the 2 most secure and safe zones. Send ARA to do cargo operations or warm winter destinations such as Zanzibar, Maldives or Dominican Republic.
ReplyDeleteSad
ReplyDeleteEven this is too optimistic. Come February many more flights will be cancelled.
ReplyDeleteMost probably.
DeleteConsidering the situation, it's good these 2 airlines are still standing.
ReplyDeleteSince both got 100 million from their respective governments, it's no surprise they are still standing.
DeleteSome like OS or LX have gotten so much already and they still struggle big time.
DeleteZurich... Air Serbia's golden route
ReplyDeleteI would add Crna Gora and Moscow. Those usually are the routes with most demand. Russia remains a very important market in Serbia with more flights to Moscow.
DeleteAs you can see neither Moscow or Tivat are in the top 5 in terms of capacity.
DeleteIST as well.
DeleteNext couple of months will be very difficult.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the virus situation improves somewhat by then.
DeleteI don't see any light at the end of the tunnel at the moment unfortunately.
DeleteGood luck to both of them.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia has a total of three flights today. Disastrous.
ReplyDeleteHow many does OU have?
DeleteJU 22 flights yesterday
DeleteAnd today it has 3.
DeleteSo?
DeleteAnd tomorrow? The day after? Fluctuations in frequencies exist always, even in normal circumstances, so I think those comments are malicious.
DeleteIt is indeed bad to have 3 flight a day, but question is what is daily average in this week or month.
I think the only correct way is to count weekly.
This week, Air Serbia has 85 departures from Belgrade and 1 from Nis
DeleteCroatia Airlines has 60 departures from Zagreb and 5 from Split (I have excluded the flights from Split to Zagreb as these are return flights that originate in Zagreb which I have included in the Zagreb tally).
The 3 JU departures today are:
DeleteFCO - A319
IST - AT7
TGD - A319
Total departures in BEG today are 6 including FZ, LH and TK.
JU has 4 departures today.
DeleteThee i also Madrid.
is*
DeleteRome and Madrid? Lol
DeleteDon't know what people above are smoking. The three JU fights are Paris, Istanbul and Podgorica. As is already known Tuesday is the weakest day for both JU and BEG since this pandemic started.
DeleteMadrid was yesterday.
DeleteThere is an arrival from Madrid and it's not a passenger flight it's for Red Star basketball team players who played against Real Madrid last night
DeleteGood troll
DeleteSo anyway, it's a flight to Madrid.
DeleteJU 775 weekly flights
ReplyDeleteOU 415 weekly flights
That's monthly, not weekly.
DeleteYou are coorrect. Sorry
DeleteJU and OU combined is still tiny. If you merge 2019 JU and OU that would still be a small airline with minimal chances of long term survival against large LCC and other big EU airlines.
DeleteCountries are small, markets are small and living standards are low. It does not mean people should not fly to Serbia and Croatia.
DeleteIt is not realistic JU and OU to be compared with much bigger and wealthier countries and ther companies, but they can be comparable between themselves. And in that category JU is far ahead from OU.
True but i woudnt say "far ahead". Far ahead from OU would be LO, OY or LX, not JU which has only 600.000 passengers more and 7 aircrafts more in a fleet. Rather i would use term "ahead".
DeleteAnon 14.30 say that to BT.
DeleteHaving 50% more planes in a fleet is surely "far ahead".
DeleteIf it would be 10-20% more planes we could say "ahead"
But whats with comparasion to OS? I wouldnt say that its "far ahead" having just 7 planes more.
DeleteNobody is talking here about OS as it does not belong to ex-Yu.
DeleteYou just want to create relativization of whole topic trying to ignore that JU has 50% more planes in fleet.
For the airline that has 13 planes in a fleet 7 planes is huge quantity.
I wonder why you did not mention Delta or AA. It would meaningless as much as comparison with OS.
No point.
OS doesnt belong to ex-yu and? That doesnt mean JU is the only airline with OU in the world. There are many airlines which are truly far ahead of OU and have far bigger fleets and networks. What means there are airlines like AA and DL which are tottaly far ahead OU. And JU isnt one of them definitly. Like 600.000 passengers more, 7 aircrafts, same loses, similar number of routes isnt something that i would say is "far ahead". Of course this depends on personal opinion because there is no definition for "far ahead" in aviation.
DeleteAnd?
DeleteIf you haven't seen this ex-yu blog. OS does not belong here.
Similiar number of routes between Ju and OU? You are really very far from realistical point of view.
Enjoy your day
Oh i see now. You are losing an argument so you only want OU be compared to JU which is bigger then OU.
DeleteSo if OS is an airline in a country which was not part of Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia it should not be compared with any airline which has a home in a former Yugoslav republic? I do not understand you at all.
DeleteSimilar number of routes? Go check 2019. summer timetable of JU and OU.
No, it should not. On the same way you can compare it to Greece, Germany, Sweden etc and this is ex-yu blog.
DeleteEx-Yu means the market of the former country with all these similarities, advanatages and disadvanatages. OS surely does not belong here as it had nothing to do with former Yugoslavia (except having border with it).
Even in pandemic times with a ban for Serbian citizens to enter the biggest market (EU) JU has more than double destinations from its hub that OU has.
And do not forget that JU should have introduced 6 new routes in summer 2020 (reasons why it has not been done are obvious) plus 9 introduced in 2019 plus all INI routes.
So, not even close to OU if we talk about number of routes.
Ok and? That means JU is far ahead OU because it is only airlinw which should be compared because this blogs name is ex-yu aviation?
DeleteAnd yes, number of routes was simmilar in 2019., i think it was even a tie.
If you refuse to accept the facts it is your problem and really not mine.
DeleteBahahah pa koji idiot ce placati 400 eur povratnu da leti po Europi sa Croatijom u najnizoj sezoni. Neka propadnu
ReplyDelete