Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines will boost operations on a number of routes next month in the lead up to the festive season, however, the ongoing resurgence of Covid-19 across the continent threatens to dampen the recovery in demand. Next month, Air Serbia plans to operate 1.764 scheduled flights, up 116% on the same month last year. The airline will increase frequencies on a number of its routes from mid-December until mid-January and will also restore limited operations to its summer seasonal destination of Rostov-on-Don, on December 24 and December 26. In addition, the carrier will operate charters to Hurghada on December 23 and 29, Sharm el Sheikh on December 24 and 30, as well as to Dubai on December 12, 19 and 26.
Overall, during the month of December, Air Serbia has put 195.926 seats on sale, up 108% on last year. The most capacity has been allocated on flights to Zurich, followed by Podgorica, Paris, Moscow, Tivat, and Istanbul. On the other hand, the most flights will be operated to the Montenegrin capital, then Zurich, Tivat, Vienna and Paris. The Airbus A319 will be the most utilised aircraft in the fleet, operating 55.8% of all flights, followed by the ATR72 turboprops, which have been scheduled on 41.5% of all operations. In addition to Belgrade, the airline will maintain one route each from Niš and Kraljevo.
Top ten Air Serbia destinations by capacity, December 2021
Air Serbia fleet utilisation in December 2021
Croatia Airlines plans to operate 1.409 scheduled flights this December, up 93% on the same month last year. The carrier will increase frequencies on some routes, most notably to Brussels, where the number of flights will grow from six weekly this November to eleven weekly for most of December. Furthermore, Croatia Airlines’ Dash 8 turboprop will be deployed on behalf of MyWings on flights between Zagreb and Pristina three times per week starting December 13. As per tradition, the Croatian national carrier will not be operating any flights on Christmas day on December 25.
Overall, during the month of December, Croatia Airlines has put 148.958 seats on sale, up 115% on last year. The most capacity has been allocated on services to Frankfurt, followed by domestic flights from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and Split, then to Paris, and Munich. Similarly, the most flights will be operated to Frankfurt, then domestic services from Zagreb to Split and Dubrovnik, followed by Munich and Zurich. The Dash 8 turboprops will be the most utilised aircraft in the fleet, operating 58.3% of all flights, followed by the A319s, which have been scheduled on 37.3% of all operations. In addition to Zagreb, the airline will maintain international flights from Split and Osijek.
Top ten Croatia Airlines destinations by capacity, December 2021
Croatia Airlines fleet utilisation in December 2021
Good news for JU is that OS started cancelling flights left and right due to the curfew. Hopefully both them and BEG profit from additional transfer passengers.
ReplyDeleteWinter is coming for everybody!
DeleteI don't think so, I think as time goes by more and more countries will have to find a way to live with the virus. There is a reason why Austria is making the headlines with the lockdown, luckily their move is no longer considered the norm.
DeleteAs OS cuts, hopefully transfer passengers switch to JU.
I agree with Nemjee, the Lockdown in Austria will only affect OS not JU.
DeleteAustria is followed by the Netherlands, Germany and pretty soon Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. France has also begun mass restrictions for weeks now.
DeleteI'm afraid that indeed we are going to again have a very bad winter season for travel and tourism related industries.
I find it really interesting to see the difference in destinations and fleet utilisation between these two airlines. Also interesting to see that one operates charters while the other not really.
ReplyDeleteYes and notably not a single route in Eastern Europe for Croatia Airlines.
DeleteSkopje is OU's most eastern destination.
DeleteIf you look at Palma de Mallorca ex Germany or Switzerland or the UK for example, there is NO single Spanish airline flying. Why? Becaue the market is mostly dominated by the carrier from which the customers come. They "know" their local business and book there. Germans book with EW or LH from Germany, Brits with Easy, BA and FR. And Serbs going on holiday with their local travel agency that is doing business with the local airline. This is how it works unfortunately :(
DeleteTurkey is totally different example.
DeleteMany more Turkish airlines fly charters to Germany while from Germany you have only LH and DE flying to Turkey.
Also from 11 to 14 flights to Zurich from 6th December and from 5 to 7 flights to Copenhagen from 7th December.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming you are referring to Croatia Airlines.
DeleteNot bad all things considered.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if they all stick to these plans considering Covid is going wild across Europe.
ReplyDeleteBravo Serbian and Croatian tax payers!
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteGive it a rest, guys, it's getting really old and tired.
DeleteI guess some people would prefer the flight situation in LJU.
DeleteYou are right, we've all seen how the Slovenian market thrived after JP was shut down.
DeleteThere is a reason why every single country out there is fighting to keep its national carrier. Without it you just end up paying subsidies to foreign carriers like W6 or FR.
The difference in capacity OU has to Frankfurt compared to all other destinations is crazy.
ReplyDeleteAs expected, LH group hubs most frequent.
DeleteWell they have 3 daily to FRA so no surprise.
DeleteHow many does LH have on this route?
Delete11 weekly I believe.
DeleteSo in total 32 weekly flights.
DeleteDon't forget Ryanair which flies to Hahn.
DeleteLH seem to be letting OU to operate more and more flights to FRA and MUC.
DeleteWith new restrictions happening all over Europe due to Covid this winter will be as bad as last year's.
ReplyDeleteLast winter OU cancelled many routes like Vienna, Skopje and Sarajevo while Paris was operating once per week. Hopefully it won't come to that again.
DeleteAll things considered, December network is not bad.
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteWinter is going to be tough
ReplyDeleteLet's see how things turn out. I wish them both good luck.
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain to me the rationale of not operating a single flight on Christmas? I know some other airlines do this too but I highly doubt there is no demand whatsoever for some destinations even on Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThe rational I see is that Croatia being a largely Christian country, it allows all the staff to take a (paid) day off and spend it at home and in church during this Holiday. I don't see any other reason and I think that is really cool.
DeleteEl Al doesn't fly on all Saturdays in a year. We are talking about one day only here. Good for them!
I believe Ryanair does not operate any flights on Christmas either.
DeleteAer Lingus doesn't fly either. Dublin Airport even brings a priest on Christmas day to bless the planes.
DeleteYou can't be serious.
DeleteThose Dashes are really valuable during this winter.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely but I'm surprised by their reliance on them during December when things get a bit busier.
DeleteI'm surprised JU isn't using their ATRs more.
DeleteI guess JU needs to prepare for the 6 new routes they are starting next month as part of PSO.
ReplyDeleteThey first have to win the tender :D
DeleteYes it's really uncertain if they will win....
DeletePity JU is down to just one destination from INI.
DeleteAnonymous 09:32
DeleteLOL, so true!
@10.36 new routes will start in a month and a half.
DeleteJU just boosted Milan to daily starting from next summer.
DeleteI hope they will do the same with FRA.
DeletePlans are one things, reality is another.
ReplyDeleteHow many destinations will each have?
ReplyDeleteZurich... Air Serbia's golden route
ReplyDeleteIt has been the best performed for over 20 years.
DeleteI think another route that is becoming increasingly golden for them is IST. It's impressive that it is daily in winter.
DeleteBut Athens is just one return flight behind IST in terms of capacity next month.
DeleteZRH shows how huge the diaspora there is that it can sustain the flights purely based on them travelling.
DeleteBEG-ATH during the holiday period is always busy.
DeleteATH was always a golden route for JU, now it seems IST is becoming as well.
DeleteWhat are all the Air Serbia destinations that are being increased?
ReplyDeleteThere are many. They do it every year between the middle of December and middle of January.
DeleteSome that I'm aware of are Ljubljana, Zagreb, Rome, New York, Sofia
DeleteZAG is getting night flights for the first time ever.
DeleteWhat do you mean?
Delete2 pw starting 13.12
DeleteJU236 BEG ZAG 0020 0135 AT7
JU237 ZAG BEG 0430 0535 AT7
Interesting. But I think the ship has sailed on attracting more transfer passengers from ZAG, especially with FR around.
DeleteI wonder if they will introduce a similar schedule for Ljubljana too.
DeleteFR doesn't fly everywhere. You cannot reach places like SVO, JFK etc with FR. If you are not flexible with travel, as is the case with millions of travelers, 2-3 per week doesn't work. There are always going to be pros and cons with both LCC and full fare carriers, the good thing is having the choice.
DeleteInteresting is that JU actually have around 3-4% of the ZAG-JFK market with their ZAG schedules not being the best connected to JFK. This new rotation will slightly improve this.
We also need to take into account the O&D demand between the 2 cities. The new timings are good for going to Belgrade on business for the day.
In my opinion this poor fleet utilization and capacity for OU during the month Ryanair bases third plane in Zagreb and open many new routes. No response whatsoever.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI can only imagine how big of a decrease this is compared to same month in 2019.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see TGD, TIA and IST in the top 10 for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade-Istanbul is a busy market with 25 weekly flights: 21 TK, 7 JU and 4 PC.
DeleteTGD is always in the top 5.
DeleteNot surprised for TIA and IST as there are no travel restrictions.
DeleteParis is third. CDG I would say is mostly transfer (both pax transferring via BEG to CDG and BEG based passengers transferring via CDG to US).
DeleteThere is no P2P traffic from TIA to BEG. These flights are full of transit pax.
Delete^ Not true actually. In the summer there are quite a few P2P pax, especially from Serbia going for holiday in Albania.
DeleteThis number of pax flying BEG-TIA is very low in the summer months and not existing in the winter months.
DeleteWe are talking here about the winter. So no P2P.
I'm really wondering how you are so certain.
DeleteI can't tell you the source.
DeleteAround 60-70.000 Serbs visited Albania this year.
Deletehttps://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/albanija-letovanje-popularnost-srbija-/31359894.html
JU this year offered somewhere around 80.000 seats to TIA. A319 replaced the ATR this summer for alot, if not most of the TIA rotations. Even in winter it's not uncommon to see the A319 replace the ATR.
Tours from Albania to Serbia have been increasing, with both governments holding talks to increase demand for travel. Quite a number of Albanian busses and cars were on the streets of Belgrade this summer. Roaming charges were removed in July and an ID card is now only required for travel between the 2 countries. Both countries are part of the Open Balkan project.
Looking at the numbers, conservative figures would be around 4.000 O&D pax. Real number is likely around 10.000.
So, in the best case scenario we have on yearly basis 10% P2P passengers and 90% transfer.
DeleteWhy does it matter? Some routes are primarily P2P some are primarily transfer. What's important is that it is performing well.
DeleteIt's important because you want to know the structure of your passengers. So that you can target marketing, pricing, and promotions more effectively.
DeleteI am sure Air Serbia knows the passenger structure.
DeleteThat's what I said from beginning.
DeleteThere is listed no destination in Germany in the Air Serbia Top 10 list.
ReplyDeleteYes, interesting. I think they fly just one daily to FRA while there are fewer frequencies on other routes.
Deleteto Germany I mean
DeleteThe Germans still won't consider people who did the Sinovac and Sputnik shots as vaccinated.
DeleteIt has nothing to do with that. Their frequencies to Germany are more or less the same as pre pandemic.
DeleteAir Serbia does not fly daily to FRA.
DeleteIt's 5 weekly. Meanwhile Lufthansa flies 12 weekly from Frankfurt.
Delete@11,58
DeleteNot exactly true.
FRA: - 1
DUS: - 3
BER: - 2-3
STR: - 1-3
FRA and STR are the only 2 that dont have around a 50% reduction in frequencies compared to 2019.
STR and BER have been downgraded on a fair few occasions to the ATR.
Out of INI, only HHN has remained out of 5 destinations pre pandemic.
Air Serbia is largely in the realm of SkyTeam, with strong cooperation with Aeroflot, Air France and KLM. So there is no need to have frequent flights to Germany.
DeleteIs this Air Serbia's first winter without the B737s?
ReplyDeleteYep. The last B737 flew for JU in January.
DeleteHopefully Croatia Airlines got a good deal to operate those Pristina flights.
ReplyDeleteFor this route, at least it is good it will be operated by the Dash at the beginning before it moves to the A319.
DeleteParis seems to be an important destination for both airlines.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is. It's Paris!
DeleteCan't believe we are basically down to two serious national airlines in ex-Yu.
ReplyDelete40 years ago, in "communism", "behind iron curtain", in "dark", "poverty", "fear", and "under torture" and "without liberties", including economic, we had 4 companies - JAT, Adria, Aviogenex, and Pan Adria/Transadria. The last one was never too big, but I wouldn't call it joke anyhow, and the first three were serious business, and their fleets comprised over 50 aircraft, almost double than all 3 ex-yu combined today. Impressive how we managed to turn gold into shit!
DeleteHow we turned a single sort of yoghurt into a hundred different sorts of shit, to be exactly ...
Delete😃
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