Air Serbia expects to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023, the airline’s Supervisory Board has said as its passenger performance and the average cabin occupancy index outpaced the industry average in Europe this year. The Chairman of the carrier’s Supervisory Board, Branislav Pejčić, said, “Air Serbia is rapidly recovering and aiming to achieve 2019 pre-pandemic levels by 2023. As a result, it plans to embark onto a phase of continuous growth as the leading regional airline. The carrier is a symbol of national pride and its continuous success is testament to its dedicated workforce, which has played a major role during the pandemic, enabling the sufficient flow of medical material, vaccines and the safe return of stranded citizens around the globe”.
As part of the airline’s planned growth next year, it will launch six new routes of public interest as of next week. Furthermore, it plans to renew its regional fleet with newer generation ATR aircraft. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, crew members have already started training for the incoming aircraft. Furthermore, the airline is considering restoring more destinations and making new additions to its Belgrade network. However, all plans are still contingent on the epidemiological situation. The company’s incoming CEO, Jiri Marek, who was yesterday named as the sixth most powerful foreigner in Serbia on the annual list, previously noted the airline would further develop its hub and spoke model once the company returned to pre-pandemic passenger levels.
Air Serbia carried over 1.5 million passengers from January until December, an improvement of 76% compared to the total number of travellers handled during the whole of 2020 when the figure stood at 899.877. However, passenger levels are still down 43% on the pre-pandemic 2019, which was Air Serbia’s busiest. Back then it welcomed 2.81 million travellers as it added 23 new routes to its network. The airline’s cabin load factor since the start of the year has averaged at 66%, while in 2019, loads stood at 73%. The carrier has not publicised its financial performance so far this year, with its annual financial result for 2021 not expected to be made public before July of next year. In 2020, the airline recorded a 77-million-euro loss.
Sounds promising
ReplyDeleteThis would be ideal. New routes, new aircraft... Hope it happens.
ReplyDeleteBut no long haul expansion it seems.
DeleteThey will probably wait. I think they will first renew the regional fleet, and probably airbuses, and than acquire new a330.
DeleteI doubt we will see long haul expansion until 2023 or even 2024.
DeleteThey would have to add a million passengers next year to reach 2019 levels. Is that really realistic?
ReplyDeleteNo one expected such high numbers for 2020 summer season either, so I think it will not be a problem to reach 2019 numbers.
DeleteYou mean 2021 ;)
DeleteMy bad... Years just fly by nowdays
DeleteGood luck
ReplyDeletesome good news
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Air Serbia
ReplyDeleteGood news, but aren't all airlines in the world aim for full recovery in 2023??!!!
ReplyDeleteNo, most expect it won't happen now until 2025.
Delete@ANONYMOUS 09:10 says that who??!!!
DeleteActually Eurocontrol believes that in the best case scenario, airlines will reach pre-Covid levels in 2024 and exceed them in 2025.
Deletehttps://www.eurocontrol.int/press-release/new-eurocontrol-2021-2027-forecast-expects-traffic-recovery-2019-levels-end-2023
@ANONYMOUS 09:32 just because Eurocontrol says that that does not mean that all airlines will not make their effort for full recovery by 2023 as Air Serbia tries to!
DeleteOk...
DeleteDemand is there, it all depends from political decisions. It can take 5 years, it can take 5 months. No one knows
DeleteRegardless of what happens, it is encouraging that they have had a stronger tan expected year.
ReplyDelete*than
DeleteWhich new routes could we see JU launch?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is another Russian destination, and also possible is Lviv, Tbilisi and Krakow.
DeleteLisbon is a possibility too.
DeleteI think LIS could be a new route. Wizz announced it last year. Air Serbia could try and beat them to it. Plus I remember reading here that Lisbon is the busiest unserved European destination from Belgrade
DeleteThe issue with Lisbon is that it is a rather long rotation and I'm not sure they will have enough aircraft for a plane to be deployed on a route so long.
DeleteI think Vinci will also push for LIS since it is one of their biggest hubs in Europe.
DeleteI think so too and I believe they give some special discount for such routes. Like Belgrade-Lyon a few years ago.
DeleteWhatever new route they decide I hope they try and make it sustainable. There is no point in opening flights just for one season or one year (until the new airport you are flying to is incentivizing your operations).
Delete@09,33
DeleteI think their network is more of a problem rather than aircraft. LIS is an 8 hour rotation. Connecting traffic should focus on destinations east of BEG and this is where the problem starts.
If LIS leaves BEG at 6am, it is too early for the eastern arrival wave while the return is still after the midday wave. 7am gets the eastern arrival pax but arrives after the midday wave. Same with the an early evening departure.
JU isn't an airline to solely focus on O&D pax. It'll have add more flights east to help boost loads for LIS in my opinion.
And which pre-Covid routes still haven't been restarted?
ReplyDeleteI mean the ones that they have not terminated for hood like HEL.
DeleteCairo, Tel Aviv and Madrid.
DeleteThey planned to resume some routes this winter like MAD and TLV but in the end, because of restrictions prolonged for next summer.
DeleteCan someone explain why they restored Barcelona but still haven't resumed Madrid? Madrid has the most relaxed approach to Covid in Spain with few restrictions. Compared to Barcelona which actually has a night time curfew.
DeleteBecause there is more leisure demand for Barcelona. Both in summer and winter. MAD will be back next year.
DeleteThey also haven't restored Venice yet. Wonder if it will come back next year. They haven't said it is being terminated.
DeleteNow the hard work begins for the new CEO. But I am glad he is development oriented and won't shy away from launching new routes if opportunity presents itself.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the new ATRs will completely replace existing ATR fleet or they will keep some older birds complimentary to the new machines.
ReplyDeleteI think it will completely replace existing fleet.
DeleteMaybe the ATR72-500s will be kept. If they want to grow the regional network they will have to keep some.
DeleteA lot will also depend how strong next summer charter season is. This year was phenomenal thanks in part to lots of pent up demand, as well as people having paid for their package holiday last year and being moved to this year.
ReplyDeletePeople will still want to go on holiday next year :)
DeleteLet's hope that this will be reflected in the financial results as well.
ReplyDeleteIf they get new aircraft and expand network we probably won't see some stellar results because a lot of money will be invested in these things.
DeleteAll things considered pretty good. Number of handled passengers exceeded my expectations.
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers could they realistically handle next year on the PSO routes from Nis and Kraljevo?
ReplyDeleteMaybe 100,000 tops.
DeleteDo we know the total offered capacity?
DeleteRoughly 119.000 seats will be offered just on the A319 flights, not including seasonal destinations. Another 41.000 on the ATR, again not including seasonal destinations. If they can get an average load of 60% just on these routes, its 96.000 pax.
DeleteIt just shows the market will recover much faster than some expected once restrictions are slowly lifted.
ReplyDeleteOverall this year has turned out relatively well for JU.
ReplyDeleteHope we see them expand next year.
ReplyDeleteWe will. From next week they start new routes.
DeleteI meant other than PSO routes.
DeleteGood job, many airlines are in worse position than Air Serbia. Somebody is doing something right.
ReplyDeleteLet's see how their new battles with Wizz turn out next year on Rome, Barcelona and Nice flights.
ReplyDeleteSame way they (Jat) did on Rome years ago. But there is no Alitalia now so there is room for both.
DeleteI think they will actually coexist on BCN and FCO routes. Nice is another story and I think Wizz will fly one summer and won't resume it in 2023.
DeleteWhy are they cannibalizing each other though with the same routes? There are still plenty of unserved high performing destinations that could be launched.
DeleteHow can 2 completely different companies "cannibalize" each other?
Delete@Anon 9.43 don't forget that on Barcelona route they also compete against Vueling in the summer.
Delete@ Anonymous10:17
DeleteBecause they will eat into each others passengers. P2P passengers will migrate to Wizz and JU will be left with transfers. No enough for either of them.
It's called "competition" not "cannibalization".
DeleteI'm glad regional fleet renewal is finally on the agenda but I'm wondering what they will do with Airbus fleet. This summer they did not have enough Airbuses in peak season. The Boeings are also gone. Assuming next summer will be better than this one, they will have to do something. I'm assuming wet-leasing planes during peak months isn't their long term solution.
ReplyDeleteBravo Dunkan!
ReplyDeleteGoodness, 2020 was such a disaster. Under 900,000 passengers.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is they will have around 1.6-1.7 million passengers this year.
ReplyDeleteIf they had 1.5 million until the start of December, it is impossible they will have 1.7 by the end of it. Especially since they have under 200,000 seats available in December
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/11/air-serbia-and-croatia-airlines-plan.html
After securing those recent 24 million euros to fly secondary routes, it will be easier to recover. I would not make any plans because of the current volatile worldwide virus situation. The world will never be the same again and so will travel and especially business travel as there is a newborn business norm and protocol.
ReplyDeleteSerbia should focus on leisure, charter and gasto routes from now on....
I don't think JU particularly focused on business travelers. But transfer traffic will continue to exist as was the case up until now and it will be an important segment of JU's business model.
DeleteThey will need more planes next summer, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteThey should consider some new charter destinations as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's up to tour operators not JU.
DeleteMalaga and Catania would be much appreciated.
DeleteThey need extra planes ASAP.
ReplyDeleteThey are getting more planes for next year.
DeleteLet's hope it's not Smartwings wet leased equipment.
DeleteGood to see Air Serbia reacted on that increased demand.
ReplyDeleteWith steady income guaranteed by the state in their back I am looking forward to seeing the results. They will be positive for sure!
ReplyDeleteOnce this crisis is over Air Serbia will grow much more and become much more significant player in wider region.
ReplyDeleteWell as Fly Bosnia is even making a comeback in 2022 with flights to Zurich and Geneva, I'm sure the whole Aviation sector will be recovering quickly. Air Serbia will grow rapidly whilst OU will say it's too early to react.
ReplyDeleteSeems like 2022 will be an exciting year for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest, the only reason why they have so much room for optimism is because the Serbian government understood relatively quickly that any prolonged lockdown would destroy our already fragile economy. Strict curfew lasted less than two months and since then measures have been rather realistic.
ReplyDeleteSerbian economy managed to sail through COVID relatively unscathed which is why demand remained (relatively) high. An extremely strong charter season helped them get access to a lot of healthy capital which further consolidated their operations.
Look at what's going on in the West. They are spinning out of control with constant changes related to entry requirements and whatnot.
On the other hand, Serbia has made sure entry requirements are pretty straightforward with its key markets such as Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Montenegro, Greece ... which is why demand for these destinations has remained high.
Air Serbia and BEG will enter the post-COVID world in a much better shape than most of their competitors. This is a fantastic opportunity for both.
+100
DeletePretty much the situation is the same with many Eastern European countries.
DeleteDo pilots need to be retrained to move from ATR-200/500 to ATR72-600?
ReplyDeleteYes that's why JU crew is already in training. -600 version has glass cockpit.
DeleteI can't wait to see what the cabin will look like. Hopefully they put in slim seats.
DeleteThe big unknown is omicron and how it will impact air travel. At the moment airline are really being hit hard again.
ReplyDeleteIf crew is already in training for new regional props does that mean they are soon coming to Air Serbia?
ReplyDeleteYes, surprisingly soon :)
DeleteI see in the comments that JU ordered ATR72-600 (probably four or five). Honestly that's the most important thing for me, and also they need one more A320 asap !
ReplyDeleteAgree about new ATRs but believe one 321 would be better choice than another 320 taking into account success on charters
DeleteI think that they should lease an A321 by power by the hour, it will most probably be used a lot during the summer season for charters and most probably on only a few flights during the winter. They should get another A320 and 2 extra A319s so they could replace API, APJ and prepare for extra demand.
DeleteLooks like another infinite delay for Air Serbia long haul. Tarom got ATR72 600 but it didn't help them launch long haul. Same outcome is to be expected for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteJU launched long haul with ancient ATR 72-200. Air Serbia > Tarom
DeleteTrue, Air Serbia did launch with 72-200 in the fleet but that's not the point.
DeleteCurrent messaging about Air Serbia focus on replacing prop fleet and expanding regional destinations as part of a wider narrative about Air Serbia getting stronger doesn't sequentially lead to Air Serbia expansion of long haul destinations. Having ATR 72-600 and new regional destinations will not automatically empower Air Serbia to launch Toronto or Chicago. All those other efforts are okay but long haul expansion has to be run as a parallel project, without dependency on ATRs or regional expansion.
And who said that the new ATRs will enable long haul expansion?
DeleteNo need to get all verklempt over Air Serbia switch to newer ATRs. ATR 600 series was already technological underachiever when introduced 14 years ago. At that time design choices were made by manufacturer to minimize spend/risk and maximize returns for key investors. Air Serbia switch to 600 fleet was obvious and long overdue move.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Can't wait for newer props to arrive.
DeleteDo we have any info about the new ATR arrivals?
DeleteRead the article
Delete