Air Serbia handled over 140.000 travellers on charter flights this summer season, accounting for around 10% of its total passenger count this year. It comes following a strong performance in its leisure operations, which have hovered around pre-pandemic levels, as the global health emergency forced many holidaymakers to cancel their plans last year, resulting in pent-up demand. Between mid-April and late October, the Serbian carrier operated 1.100 roundtrip charters. Turkey was the most popular destination, accounting for nearly half the total number of leisure flights. Due to increased demand and no entry restrictions for Serbian nationals into Turkey and Egypt, Air Serbia increased frequencies to Antalya and Hurghada multiple times during the summer. The airline operated up to six daily flights to the Turkish resort city and up to eight daily rotations to Hurghada on select days over the peak travel period. In addition to Turkey and Egypt, the Serbian carrier also maintained operations to the Greek islands. Furthermore, this year saw Air Serbia run charters from Niš to Turkey.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s Head of Sales, Boško Rupić, said, “We are glad that, despite the difficult conditions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, we can be proud of a successful summer season. We have noticed that charter flights no longer have strong seasonality as was the case in previous years. Although the peak travel period is still in June, July, August, and mid-September, in the last few years we have also seen growth in charter services during April, May, October, and November”. He added, “In cooperation with our travel agent partners, we have committed all available resources to ensuring that as many passengers as possible reach their desired destinations in safety and comfort, to enjoy a well-deserved vacation. We are equally proud of the significant number of non-tourist charter flights we have operated during peak season”.
Aiding Air Serbia’s performance this summer were fewer foreign charter operators. This summer only saw Nouvelair from Tunisia and Aegean Airlines from Greece run regular charter flights to Belgrade. However, the Serbian carrier is seeing increased competition from foreign carriers running scheduled flights to popular leisure destinations, including Wizz Air. The Serbian national airline is maintaining charters throughout this month to meet demand during the school holidays in the country and will continue to do so in late December and early January for the New Year and Christmas holidays. “Air Serbia will continue to operate charter flights to Hurghada in November and is planning New Year flight offers in partnership with travel agencies”, the company said.
Impressive!
ReplyDeletePerhaps they should invest more in their charter product? Open a dedicated tour operator like Jat had Air Lift?
ReplyDeleteAdria Airways and cover charter traffic from the region
DeleteSay what?
DeleteNo thanks, they should focus on the Serbian market
DeleteBringing back Adria would be idiotic. If someone from the region wants to organize a charter they can do it with Air Serbia.
DeleteSo you are trying to say adria wasn't good charter airline?
DeleteAdria was one of the best charter airlines back in the days. Sadly we lost her.
If she was that good then she wouldn't have gone bankrupt
DeleteAdria went bankrupt because of corrupt politicians. The same as Montenegro. And the same can happen to both Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia. As long as rotten thieves are in charge of our lives, everything can turn upside down overnight. It has absolutely nothing to do with being good or bad.
Delete@09,07
DeleteWhat charter product? Why open a dedicated tour operator only to compete with companies filling your aircraft?
Adria didn't go bankrupt because of corruption but because of a tiny market which has too many airports around it. JP tried to expand elsewhere but it had a lot of baggage from the past.
DeleteAll of the airports around were for the entire or almost entire existence of Adria. Market of 20 million of Yugoslavia was changed for 500 million market of the EU - anything but tiny. For decades, Adria was succesfull, taking any opportunity on any market possible, thinking out of the box and being profitable. Until top positions were taken by thieves, blessed by politicians, off shore accounts filled and company destroyed, similar to what is happening in Croatia Airlines. So, no, baggage from the past was containing golden bars, but that buggage was lost enroute, because of crime and corruption
DeleteAnon 15:37 Adria DID go bankrupt because of corruption and incompetent management.
DeleteThey should consider some new charter destinations. Trade Air did Ljubljana-Zanzibar.
ReplyDeleteIt's up to tour operators not JU.
DeleteIt's better to start thinking that some of these charter routes should become scheduled services or they will lose it like Crete and Santorini this summer. Next is probably Rhodes
ReplyDeleteThere is also Air Cairo running scheduled flights.
ReplyDeleteGood job.
ReplyDeleteOne would think OU would have the most charter traffic. But they don't seem to care
ReplyDeleteYou snooze you lose. Let's see if they even manage to survive until next summer season.
DeleteIt seems that Air Serbia has stopped operating the Dubai charters
ReplyDeleteNo they will operate them until the 26th of March except on weeks when there is no presentation by Serbian business people.
DeleteWell I'm not surprised considering there was no one else flying charters to Turkey except for them this year.
ReplyDeleteGenerating this result in the middle of a pandemic is an achievement, with or without competition.
DeleteTime to think about long haul charters.
ReplyDeleteThey already ruled those out years ago. Too expensive.
DeleteSo they last considered this idea in 2016/17 and never again? Things change, markets change. I think they should have really considered this option again.
DeleteIt's JU we are talking about...
DeleteWhat does the 'strategic plan' say ??
Delete@11,23
DeleteYou are correct. Things have changed, but for the worst. Airlines can't predict what will happen a month in advance yet an airline struggling to get their finances stabilised should go into expensive long haul charters? While long haul destinations are becoming more popular, the demand isn't there just yet for dedicated A330 charters.
Besides, when YU-ARB is not operating JFK it's often flying out to PEK, PVG and SVO on cargo ops.
@12,59
Care to elaborate more?
Why have 9 charters per day to Hurghada when it would be easier to send the A330 twice?
ReplyDeleteIt took them 5 years to realize they can send the A330 to other destinations and not just New York so this year they finally used it on occasion to Moscow and Podgorica. It will probably take them another 5 years to realize that they can use the bird on charters.
DeleteWhat would you do with business class? Do you also sell it, just at a higher rate or only economy is used?
DeleteYou sell it at a higher rate. But it onky makes sense for long haul charters. Of course, not for short haul and more price-sensitive holiday destinations like Hurghada.
Deleteit's just too expensive to operate the A330 on shorter routes. TGD is an exception becuse flight is full and tickets very expensive for such short flight.
DeleteLOT used 787 to fly to Greek islands this summer.
Delete@10,30
DeleteThe A330 is operating 5-6 pw to JFK when charters are the busiest which doesnt leave much room for charter ops. This summer, besides JFK, it was doing cargo ops as well. 1 of the SVO cargo rotations caused JU to cancel a JFK rotation this summer.
@11,28
LOT has around 20 B787's. They have to fly somewhere. Demand increased where markets were open and LOT saw a large increase in demand to Greece. JU on the other hand has 1 A330 which is busy in the summer months.
Coming from Croatia in my opinion this is something Croatia Airlines should have done years ago. Lease or invest in 2 planes for the summer and operate charters all over Europe. If Air Serbia gets 100,000+ passengers per year, I'm sure a OU charter brand could match those figures or even more. In my opinion it is a smart move by JU management.
ReplyDeleteGood to see charter demand gowing strong.
ReplyDeleteAnd there being demand in winter too.
DeleteI still think there is room to expand charters, especially in winter to destinations such as Canary Islands, south Israel and Tanzania.
ReplyDeleteMorocco too
DeleteIt is not Air Serbia that picks the charter destinations. It's tour operators.
Deletetour operators of Serbia are inert and all they know is schedule Hurgada and Antalya, in early Sept they still didn' t have a schedule for October so long haul planning for them is almost mission impossible.
DeleteIt's easy for them now, when the government destroyed Aviogenex on puropose (declined 4 binding bids) and relieved them of local competition.
ReplyDeleteSmart way to get quick and clean cash through charters.
ReplyDeleteMust say I'm surprised by the demand during Covid.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see there is a tradition of holidaying abroad and demand for outbound travel.
DeleteWill charters from Niš return next year?
ReplyDeleteFar the best airline in ex-yu.
ReplyDelete