Norwegian is considering introducing seasonal flights between Helsinki and Belgrade this coming summer. The low cost carrier has filed an inventory listing meaning it has indicated its intention to launch the route but is not necessarily certain it will go ahead at this point in time, thus ticket sales have not started yet. Based on the listing, the airline plans to operate flights between the Finnish and Serbian capitals once per week, each Saturday, starting June 5. The service would be operated by the Boeing 737-800 jet. Norwegian has scheduled and put on sale its flights from Oslo and Stockholm to Belgrade for next summer, with the latter to be restored after a year-long hiatus. It faces direct competition on both routes from Air Serbia.
If launched, the new service from Helsinki would replace Air Serbia, which launched year-round operations between Belgrade and Helsinki in the summer of 2019. The route was discontinued in March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. During 2019, Air Serbia operated 164 flights (return service included) between the two and offered 18.992 seats. Despite its plans, Norwegian faces an uncertain future. The carrier went into the crisis as one of Europe’s weakest due to a high level of debt built up through an aggressive expansion plan, including low cost long haul flights.
The Norwegian state said last week it was ready to offer aid to Norwegian, after the ailing low cost airline presented a new plan to survive its Covid-induced crisis. Hit hard by the pandemic’s impact on travel, having already been in financial trouble before, the budget airline presented a series of proposals on January 14, including an end to its long haul flights in favour of a refocusing on Europe, and a massive debt reduction target coupled with raising new capital. The government was asked to support the plan and has now signalled its willingness. The company plans to reduce debt and put some fifty aircraft back into operation this year, followed by about seventy more in 2022. At this point, only six jets are being actively used.
How did this route perform for JU?
ReplyDeleteI believe it was one of their weaker routes. The problem was that the A319 was too large.
DeleteAgain the issue of not having a 100 seater plane in the fleet.
DeleteIn summer it performed really well, many CRJ flights were increased to A319. In winter the problem was that there weren't enough connecting opportunities both ways. For example the return flight at night would only have KRR as an onward connection so naturally loads were extremely weak. BEG-HEL usually had 65 to 100 passengers.
DeleteSo, Nemjee, it practically means that HEL woul d work fine from BEG if there would be better onward connections?
DeleteIs it so difficult to adjust it?
Well, yes. Long-term JU needs to work on making sure night flights (especially to destinations operated by the ATR) can work on a year-round basis.
DeleteTIA is a great example how transfer passengers can help out in making sure many destinations are sustainable.
Consolidating their position in markets with large transfer potential should be their top priority in a post-covid world. Unfortunately I am not sure JU's marketing department is up for the challenge. They have not been doing a good job so far.
Finnair should stop playing around and launch BEG. There is obviously local demand if both DY and W6 considered launching flights and they could also rely on transfers to the Nordics, Russia and Asia. They have the right plane for the route: E95!
ReplyDeleteIt won't happen until flights to far East Asia and travel restrictions are dropped.
DeleteOf course but given the rapid vaccination rate in Serbia I expect travel restrictions to be on the horizon. Greece is also opening its doors to Serbs from March.
DeleteAt the moment there's still no hard evidence that vaccination prevents contracting and/or spreading the virus. So I don't think mass vaccination will have such an immediate effect on travel. Maybe just in time for summer, and even that's a big if.
DeleteIsrael is reporting reduced infections even after the first dose.
DeleteAs expected. But it will take much more than initial reports to drop the restrictions. That's why I'm warning that it's delusional to expect any kind of normalcy this spring.
DeleteCan work as seasonal in peak summer.
ReplyDeleteAnother new route would be a great addition.
ReplyDeleteHEL is a notoriously challenging and expensive airport compared to CPH for instance. No wonder why ULCC's avoid it.
ReplyDeleteHa I never realised none of the major LCCs fly there except Norwegian.
DeleteWizz used to fly there
DeleteDo you remember which destinations?
DeleteTo be fair, CPH has a much large catchment area as it also serves southern Sweden.
DeleteWell, You are right, although Tallin is two hours by boat from Helsinki.
DeleteAren't there like a million people in Estonia? Also there is no bridge between Finland and Eesti like there is between Copenhagen and Sweden.
Deletefor now. They are planning a tunnel.
DeleteThere must be some interest if Air Serbia tried it, Norwegian is considering it and Wizz Air wanted to fly to Turku. All these airlines must be making these decisions based on some data.
ReplyDeleteThis would be great!
ReplyDeleteI think DY is looking at picking up diaspora travel during the summer. Same thing they are doing with this route in PRN.
ReplyDeleteLets see how Norwegian performs in the future.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade airport receives good news these days.
ReplyDeleteGood job!
Very good.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed it happens. Would be very useful for us living in Finland!
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised. Norweigan has quite good coverage from Helsinki with nonstop flights to Tivat, Pristina, Split and Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteAll are seasonal of course.
DeleteYes but they are not that active on the ex-Yu markets compared to their competitors
DeleteIn Croatia usually they were more active then Wizz.
DeleteThat's true
DeleteI think this airline will eventually collapse.
ReplyDeleteIt's already on the brink.
DeleteLong haul was their big mistake.
DeleteTrue
DeleteWhy this bad wish?
DeleteIt's not a bad wish. Just commenting on the state the airline is in.
DeleteThey were already on the brink before the pandemic, but somehow they're still standing today. All that consolidation might give them a chance
DeleteThey are a dead men walking, just waiting for the last person to switch off the lights.
DeleteThey have an enormous amount of debt and absolutely no way of paying it back, even with leasing companies giving them aircraft for free (pay per flight hour only).
Looking at the map of Nordics, all that's missing is KEF. I wonder if FI could make BEG work with their B757 at least two times per week. Enough passengers for Canada and the US.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bit of a stretch.
DeleteIf they can make Anchorage work then I don't see why BEG is a stretch.
DeleteAlthough Iceland is very expensive it is very worth visiting!
DeleteDirect connection between BEG and KEF would help Serbians to "discover" Iceland, but also to offer good connections to N.America
There are also around 500 Serbs there so that should help as well.
DeleteEven if all of them were to decide to visit Serbia once during the year it would barely fill two planes. Definitely not profitable.
DeleteWho said that route would rely on them alone? They would help boost yields on the route.
DeleteThat route would not work definitly.
DeleteOf course it wouldn't. Wishful thinking.
DeleteAnd W6 keeps BUD-KEF
DeleteProbably because it is not profitable :-)
W6 keeps it because Budapest is a big tourism destination and Hungarians travel a lot.
DeleteHungarians travel a lot?
DeleteNot if to judge by recent developments.
Still, there is no potential for such routes.
DeleteI like this logic. Because there were flights from KEF to Budapest and Anchorage, there must be flights to BEG as well.
DeleteI like the logic- no matter what BEG has no potential for some exotic flights.
DeleteFYI - BEG has the biggest potential of all ex-yu airports.
Like it or not.
Who said it doesn't? Does it mean Icelandair will fly there? Is that how it goes?
DeleteOver 60% of FI's passengers are transfers. BEG is a massive source of transfer passengers ergo FI could do well here with passengers going to Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago and so on.
DeleteYes it has biggest passanger numbers in ex-yu but that doesnt mean demand for flights to anywhere. And i dont see airport who doesnt even have basics in Europe like SN, KL, IB, BA, OY and SK to somehow get and have demand for unusual airline for this part of europe like FI.
DeleteKEF barely has 4-5 daily pax flights nowadays. God knows when they will be able to return their pre-Covid network. But if you insist, then im waiting for FI's announcement :)
DeleteI hope i will be alive when they annonce to fly anywhere in thd region.
DeleteNo one said they wi fly tomorrow but in the future. Belgrade already has a decent lineup of airlines and like someone wrote, if they can make Anchorage and some other places work then why not BEG. Feed to the US alone would be enough to fill two weekly flights.
DeleteIn reality Belgrade doesn't have many of those 'basic' airlines simply because it's almost the only country in the region which has a competitive home carrier that flies to those places.
DeleteSame like in IST.
How many European airlines fly to Istanbul?
Among those listed above, none.
DeleteKL and BA don't fly to Istanbul?
DeleteFI cannot even make year round 2 weakly flights to Madrid so i dont know what are you talking about.
DeleteSo just because they can't make MAD work BEG can't either? By that logic some other destinations in their network shouldn't work either.
DeleteAs for IST, over the past years they lost many legacy carriers starting with Delta, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Alitalia and even Lufthansa from Munich.
So just because they can make Anchorage work does that mean BEG will work too?
DeleteGood. We need all the routes we can get in this sort of situation.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhat happened to that rumor that they chose Belgrade as their primary hub in the Balkans for future expansion. Remember someone writing about it in the comments here.
ReplyDeletewhat does a "primary hub for future expansion" mean anyway?
DeleteIt was dropped because it was the same time as Wizz Air's massive expansion in the region. They eventually went to other places like London and Barcelona where they lost millions.
DeleteYes please!
ReplyDeleteI have never tried them but a lot of people that have said they are a good airline.
ReplyDeleteI thought I heard their service was awful ...
DeleteGreat service, good leg room and free WiFi on board.
DeleteNorwegian is one of the friendliest low-cost airlines I've used. Can't even start comparing it with Wizz air, whose standards resemble Nis Ekspres.
DeleteWell you certainly can't compare them to any European LCC financially, as most of them were making big profits before Covid.
DeleteI guess to make a profit you pretty much have to have no service at all.
DeleteSo new routes for this summer:
ReplyDeleteWizz Air: Hamburg, Oslo (Torp)
Eurowings: Stuttgart
Air Serbia: Geneva
SkyUp: Kiev
Luxair: Luxembourg
Norwegian: Helsinki (possible)
Airlines that didn't fly in the summer in the past: Windrose (Kiev) and Nordwind (Moscow).
Not bad for a pandemic year.
That is impressive. Well done.
DeleteTaking in consideration all the circumstances this is amazing!
DeleteSeems like Wizz Air might add BEG-MXP, the route is still listed on the website despite all others being dropped. It would make sense since no other airport in north-western Italy is offered from BEG.
DeleteWould be fun if FR launched BEG-BGY
Let's see if and what launches out of those.
Delete@9.57 where do you see Milan listed on its website when you select Belgrade? I don't.
DeleteUnfortunately MXP-BEG was removed last night. Seems like they decided against it. Good news is that from today PCR tests might be removed for those coming from Hungary. Let's hope more tourists come for a visit and why not, some might fly from BEG now that BUD is almost dead with no flights.
DeleteDuring the summer quite a few Hungarian passengers flew out of Belgrade. Same the other way around when there were very few flights and people were still trying to get home.
DeleteThat's actually very true especially from places like Szeged which is less than 3 hours away from BEG. BEG has a large catchment area and it should profit from it like someone mentioned CPH above.
DeleteBUD is "dead" because of the borders being closed. Even so, it still remained to receive 4 million passengers in 2020 compared to 1,9 in Belgrade.
DeleteMeaning that Belgrade managed to narrow the gap. Numbers before covid were more than double so at least the trend is encouraging.
DeleteUhh, BEG and Serbia borders were closed for about 10 years.
DeleteThat's how BUD managed to get that far ahead in the first place.
Of course, just not because Budapest is twice the size of Belgrade and an European touristic hotspot
DeleteNot only. There is a large student community and business EU capital. Lets not forget the various connections to China and Northern America as well as the extensive leisure destination connections.
DeleteHungary has a headstart compared to Belgrade as they didn't have the same experience in the 1990s and early 2000s like we did. What matters is that BEG is developing nicely and unlike BUD, we have a local airline that's offering connections. Little by little the gap will be cloesd. You are not that illusioned to think BEG peaked at 6 million?
DeleteNo, you are illusioned to think BEG will ever surpass BUD
DeleteOk, people also said the same about BEG getting JFK flights or EY buying JU yet here we are.
DeleteExcellent. Good news
ReplyDeleteHope this happens but I would be happier if Pegasus could increase flights to BEG
ReplyDeleteWhy Pegasus in particular?
DeleteBecause they are right now the most handicapped
DeleteBut I though IST flights from Belgrade were performing well. The amount of capacity would indicate so.
DeleteThey are. Not sure what anon @10.56 is talking about.
DeleteJU je nedavno revidirao red letenja. Helsinki je zadržan u prvom delu destinacija gde se nalaze direktni letovi tako da je vrlo moguće da i oni objave početak letova.
ReplyDeleteWhen will we know their decision?
ReplyDeleteIt was announced today that Putin gave the green light for the production of Sputnik in Serbia. This is big news as it means the country will have a constant supply of vaccines meaning aviation should be more stable in the future. Another 2 million doses were confirmed in the next two months which is also fantastic news.
ReplyDeleteIt’s good and sad news. I’d rather keep Air Serbia on the route. Norwe has lot of problems and they are not the best one what comes to customer satisfaction.
ReplyDelete