Three carriers from Russia, including Aeroflot, Rossiya and S7 Airlines, have received approval from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency - Rosaviatsiya - to launch new flights to Belgrade. It comes as Air Serbia begins to expand its operations in Russia today with the introduction of flights to Rostov-on-Don and the resumption of services to St Petersburg and Krasnodar, while Nordwind Airlines readies to launch its second route to the Serbian capital, from St Petersburg, next week. Furthermore, Russia’s national carrier has started operating all of its Belgrade flights with wide-body Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Aeroflot has now received approval to commence up to seven weekly flights from St Petersburg to Belgrade, while Rossiya Airlines, which is part of the Aeroflot Group, has also been granted approval by Russian authorities for the same route with the same number of frequencies.
S7 Airlines, which was blocked by the Serbian regulator from introducing services between Moscow and Belgrade last month, has now filed plans to commence up to 24 weekly rotations to the Serbian capital from a range of cities. These include Kazan, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Ufa, Saratov, Perm and Nizhniy Novgorod. All of S7’s permit requests have been filed for up to three services per week. However, all three carriers must now seek and receive approval from the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate in order to be able to introduce these flights. Furthermore, the airlines themselves can decide against launching any of the routes they initially received approval to launch.
Russia is one of Belgrade Airport’s biggest markets and despite the coronavirus pandemic has continued to perform well. Demand in recent months has been driven primarily by Russian tour operators selling packages to Serbian mountain resorts. With numerous markets still closed off to Russian travellers, relaxed entry rules into Serbia and visa free travel have made the country a popular choice. “Serbia has never been in such demand before. The most popular destination is the Kopaonik mountain resort, which accounts for about 70% of all sales to Serbia”, tour operator TUI Russia said. Serbian nationals are also permitted entry into Russia.
Two-way indirect traffic between Serbian and Russia in 2019
wow
ReplyDeleteNot so sure S7 will get a permit for all of those but I don't think they will be able to block Aeroflot.
ReplyDeleteI can not believe there is such a crazy demand for Serbia among Russians. I guess very bad relations between the EU and Russia has a lot to do with Serbia being a popular destination for Russians.
ReplyDeleteIt has most to do that Russians cannot enter any EU market since corona started.
DeleteThey can enter Cyprus, they even accept the Sputnik vaccine. I flew on JU880 yesterday and right behind us was a SU B77W.
DeleteThat's one out of how many markets
DeleteIt was written that they can't enter any market which is wrong.
Delete@Nemjee keep in mid that Russia has vaccinated just 7% of its population so it limits the number of people that can travel. I assume that Aeroflot's flights to Cyprus are full but this can also be down to the fact that many Russians have residency permits in Cyprus or even citizenship. Most of the traditional markets where Russians go for holiday are in fact closed for them.
DeleteGood for then
DeleteEmm, they can enter Croatia too, they are already flying to DBV and ZAG...
DeleteAnd Turkey, also a popular destination choice… They can enter Greece too, but the numbers are capped.
DeleteAll passenger flights between Russia and Turkey are currently banned.
DeletePula yesterday: https://www.glasistre.hr/pula/u-pulsku-zracnu-luku-sletio-zrakoplov-aeroflota-iz-moskve-sa-145-putnika-725561
DeleteWho knew Covid would create so much demand.
ReplyDeleteIt had created some completely new markets or new interest for certain markets, that's for sure.
DeleteHoly cow! WTF???
ReplyDeleteI think Serbia will have to grant them all because they risk JU being punished especially now when Russia is being unpredictable.
ReplyDelete+100
Delete
DeleteI hope these flights will be approved by Serbia
I doubt all of them will but some might
DeleteReally interesting that none of requests relate to INI, having in mind the most popular destination for Russians - Kopaonik, according to article... It`s proximity to Kopaonik and Stara Planina, as well as to Spa`s, as well as pax taxes at INI is incomparable to BEG...
ReplyDeleteIt would probably involve INI airport and its management actually doing something. You can't just sit on your hands waiting for someone to come to you. They had a very proactive management a few years ago that brought Ryanair, Wizz Air and Swiss. Then they fell out of favor with the ruling party, they were replaced and now you have what you have.
DeleteYou are right, but DCV, JU, INI (read it Airports of Serbia), are now the same page. Diverting Russian airlines to INI can spare JU in BEG, which is interest of JU, which cannot be blamed being passive, for true. Certainly, JU itself may launch INI to Russia...
DeleteActually, Kraljevo is the best option for the Kopaonik mountin, but there are those runway restrictions...
DeleteIt would be in the interest of the Serbian government to encourage some of these flights to INI, simply because it is still owned by the state - thus profits - while BEG is under that concession with Vinci.
DeleteIt would require major work with the tourism associations in Nis, Sokobanja, Kopaonik, Vranje etc.
A few years ago Nis really upped its game - with great AirBnb, hotel and restaurant offers to accommodate all those Wizz Air weekend tourists.
This is main problem. Because of crisis caused by pandemic madness, government need to allow more operations in BEG, in order to give opportunity to Vinci Airports to get some money. Otherwise, part of cake which depends of BEG income will never get to government budget. In case of INI, main reason why government took it, is to CONTROL moneyflow. So we will see some redirections (few S7 not more) on INI just in case if people from Nish (who else) will start to react.
DeleteKoji moneyflow? Three euro per passenger is less than needed to operate the airport. There is not much cash and no profit to control.
DeleteBanja Luka management also got Wizz and Ryan plus Air Serbia and Air Montenegro, so what's so special about previous INI management?
€3 was enough once the airport got close to 500.000 passengers. Don't forget that the airport doesn't just live from that tax but from shops, restaurants, parking.... Before Airports of Serbia was created INI published its own financial report and the last year they were profitable.
DeleteFYI INI gets a lot of cargo traffic which is a nice source of income.
DeleteThis would be great for BEG traffic.
ReplyDeleteAnd the tourism industry
DeleteAbsolutely
DeleteIt will help with the recovery.
DeleteLet's see how many of these flights become a reality.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is the Rossiya and Aeroflot application are on purpose so they can decide which of the two to send. I don't think they will operate simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteBEG lists SU from LED from 22.06. I guess that will be operated by Rossiya.
ReplyDeleteGreat. That means they have already applies for slots at BEG.
DeleteN4 seems to have applied for three weekly from LED. Now we wait for S7.
DeleteBravo Rusija!
ReplyDeleteBravo Srbija!!!
Great. It would have nice to have some secondary Russian cities served from BEG.
ReplyDeleteIt would be better to have secondary Serbian cities served from Russia.
DeleteROV & KRR are secondary cities.
DeleteThis is great news. Does anyone know what is the load today for Air Serbia's new Rostov flight?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't depart till 1.40pm
DeleteReturn was 3-117 when I checked a few days ago.
DeleteFull on the return, just shows the size of demand to Serbia from Russia
DeleteThis is all great, unless the Serbian CAD blocks it all.
ReplyDeletePurchased tkt SVO-BEG SVO yesterday on SU for October for about 235e (economy light), interesting that JU increased their fare for luggage to 30e per segment. On some days they are more expensive than SU.
ReplyDeleteWell, that was ... unexpected
ReplyDeleteLet's hope they launch.
ReplyDeleteIf those S7 flights start, they will basically cover all of the main points in Russia.
ReplyDeleteAlmost every week we get good news about new airlines/routes in Belgrade :) nice
ReplyDeleteEven in the normal times it would be extra ordinary and especially in these crazy circumstances.
Deletegood ties should be utilized as much as possible :)
ReplyDeleteSome of these routes I'm not sure will work. Based on the data in the article they don't have that many point to point passengers.
ReplyDeleteThey work with tour operators and obviously there is completely new demand compared to what there was in 2019 before the pandemic.
DeleteDemand can be created especially in the cases when there is no direct competition on the particular routes.
DeleteThose are point to point passengers, doesn't include transfers JU would carry.
DeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteWell done Belgrade
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see that they are no longer one weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteWell it says they applied UP TO 7 weekly and 3 weekly. So it means they can launch between 0 and 7 or 0 and 3. Up to the airline. Of course if they get approval from Serbian CAD.
DeleteJU should have perhaps made LED year round.
ReplyDeleteLED probably will go year round once Covid passes.
DeleteWill Red Wings resume flights?
ReplyDeleteThis is quite impressive if you ask me
ReplyDeleteGood. The more foreign visitors the merrier.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good if Wizz Air could launch LED-BEG as well. At least the prices would be affordable.
ReplyDeleteAs an EU carrier they can't operate this flight.
DeleteThey can to LED
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/12/european-carriers-get-russia-access.html
Doesn't mean they would get access from BEG.
DeleteI think that flights to Russia have great potential.
ReplyDeleteS7 seems to think so too :D
Delete+1000
DeleteThis is significant in these difficult times. Let's just hope they launch.
ReplyDeleteNice development. Hope these routes start and can be sustained.
ReplyDeleteWith these new routes BEG will have very good coverage in Russia.
ReplyDeleteToday's JU loads to Russia:
ReplyDeleteBEGSVO JU650 104-2
SVOBEG JU651 159-12
BEGSVO JU654 132-5
SVOBEG JU655 157-11
BEGROV JU676 26-2
ROVBEG JU677 134-2
That's very good. Not surprised about the low load from BEG though. Shows that for the time being these flights will be used by tourists rather than transfers.
DeleteThese are good loads but considering that SU is flying A333 and is full on every flight that means that ASL has room for improvement.
DeleteI do not see any room for improvement for SVO as JU is sending A320 and it is maxed out... Only thing would be to increase frequencies both with all other flights I do not know if they have enough equipment to deploy for another daily SVO
DeleteI also wonder if they have enough equipment. SVO is not such a short rotation.
DeleteSpeaking of JU and loads this Saturday they have 5 flights to Hurghada.
DeleteDon't forget JU has an extra weekly flight compared to SU.
DeleteGreat to see
ReplyDeleteLove it
ReplyDeleteI can see Moscow-KVO flights in the future since its closer to mountain resorts which were popular with Russians this winter.
ReplyDeleteOnly if the runway gets extended or a new one is built.
DeleteThey will build a new one.
DeleteGreat news for Belgrade
ReplyDeletePerm and Ufa are not that close to BEG. How long would these flights take?
ReplyDeleteAround 3 hours 50 minutes. Yekaterinburg is furthest away from the destinations they plane. Around 4 hrs 15 minutes
DeleteInteresting. Thank you
DeleteLet's hope this will drive down prices, the prices between Belgrade and Moscow are scandalous
ReplyDeleteI am actually considering traveling to Moscow by car in July for the MAKS airshow as I am not willing to pay €500 for a return ticket (last time I looked). Sure it´s a long drive, but hey, the drive itself is part of the adventure isn´t it?
DeleteHalf the fun is getting there. Good luck.
DeleteSure. Have you bought BTR vehicle already? Free advice, when car drives 110+ kmh wheels start to overfly quite deep holes, so just keep speed 😂
DeleteWondering if JU could have grabed a bit more of this kolač.
ReplyDeleteMaybe yes but only once they start flying on time. Every time the flight is full there is no chance to turn it around in 45 min on the ground. SVO JU late every day while SU is flying ahead of schedule.
DeleteSU has one of the best on time performances in the world because they have extremely long turnaround times in Moscow for all their flights.
DeleteThat means JU needs to change the handling company in Moscow.
DeleteJU needs to greatly improve their on time performance, and renew their fleet, and expand their network. They have a chance now to be real leaders in the region.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this have to do with Russian airlines starting flights to Belgrade. Besides, they have been introducing new routes - 3 new routes in 10 months and a fourth one launching next month. Regarding fleet they have started renewing it. They took two younger A319s last autumn.
DeleteThis should help BEG with its recovery.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is the first new route Aeroflot has introduced to BEG since the collapse of the USSR no?
ReplyDelete