Air Serbia will further expand its network out of Belgrade after unveiling its initial set of new destinations for the summer of 2022, which include Valencia, Bari, Palma de Mallorca and Rijeka. The carrier has announced it will commence operations from Belgrade to Trieste and Bologna in Italy, bringing its total number of destinations in the country to six. Services to Trieste will be inaugurated on June 2, while Bologna will follow on June 6. Both will be maintained three times per week with the ATR72 aircraft. In 2019, Air Serbia operated flights between Niš and Bologna two times per week, while its predecessor Jat Airways maintained operations between Belgrade and Trieste, three times per week, until May 2011.
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Commenting on the latest additions to its network, Air Serbia’s Head of Network Planning and Scheduling, Bojan Arandjelović, said, “The decision to introduce new destinations in Italy is the result of the strategic importance of renewing and strengthening our presence in one of the most visited countries in the world. Italy represents an extremely important market, both for our airline and for Serbia, due to close economic ties between our two countries. We are especially glad to commence direct flights to Trieste, the city with the biggest Serbian diaspora in Italy, while services to Bologna will furthermore contribute to strengthen our cultural and economic relations with Italy”.
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| Air Serbia's new routes in summer 2022 |
Air Serbia is expected to announce additional new destinations to its network over the coming weeks, complementing the abovementioned routes, as well as the carrier’s new seasonal services from Niš to Athens, and from Kraljevo to Tivat, which are to be launched this June. “In the following period, we will continue to develop in that direction, and we look forward to introducing more new routes”, Air Serbia’s Head of Sales, Boško Rupić, said this week. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019, Lisbon was Belgrade Airport’s busiest unserved route on the continent, followed by Cologne, Manchester, Bologna, Trieste, Malaga, Krakow, Valencia, Dublin, Luxembourg, Catania, and Vilnius. Since then, services to Luxembourg have been introduced by Luxair and are codeshared by its Serbian counterpart, while services to Valencia, Trieste and Bologna will be launched by Air Serbia in April and June respectively. The Serbian carrier has also outlined it will resume operations from Belgrade to Madrid, Venice and Nice, which have been suspended since the start of the pandemic, as well as increase its frequencies to Rome and Milan to pre-pandemic levels. In addition, it plans to restore seasonal services to Rostov-on-Don introduced last year.
Good news is that starting from tomorrow Switzerland is suspending testing for those who have been vaccinated. Hopefully we see some recovery on flights from BEG to GVA, BLS and GVA.
ReplyDeleteCyprus has announced the same starting from March 1st and I saw several other countries doing the same. At this point it's obvious that Omicron is the last song being sung by COVID. Good thing is that JU is planning ahead and preparing itself for a post-covid world.
Sweden is also suspending testing for vaccinated (and they recognize all WHO vaccines)
DeleteNice about Sweden. Do you know when this will come into force? I think they are only now accepting WHO vaccines, I don't remember them accepting Sinopharm in the past? Or am I wrong?
DeleteIt starts today. They have actually recognized Sinopharm since it was listed on WHO list.
DeleteThe EU countries that accept Sinopharm are: Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. The second China opens, all will accept it.
DeleteOh and Slovenia I believe too.
DeleteThat's very good.
DeleteAlso France accepts the option of 2 Sinopharm +1 Pfizer booster
DeleteCroatia accepts the Chinese vaccines too!
DeleteFlorence, please!
ReplyDeleteAnd/or Bologna
In your opinion, which destinations can start?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Varna, Geneva (again), Helsinki, Cluj, Zadar (again), Naples, Bologna!
Varna would also be again since they flew there a couple of years ago :D
DeleteI would definitely start Chisinau, and aim for good connections to Italy, France and Spain.
DeleteVarna would be good to resume but they will have to compete with Wizzair, Austrian and Turkish airlines. If they secure good prices via Belgrade to Russia and Germany and even Spain now then can definitely succeed.
DeleteSince Marek mentioned Poland I think Krakow should be their top priority followed by Wroclaw.
DeleteLooking at Krakow, no airport, besides VIE to a certain extent, offers a fast and convenient connection with the Balkans and The Middle East. Air Serbia could be a good option for many.
Wroclaw could also work out because it's a rich area with a lot of economic activity.
Both airports could easily be reached with the ATR.
Nemjee, you forgot about transfers in WAW.
DeleteI didn't, WAW requires quite a bit of backtrack from Krakow and Wroclaw to the Balkans.
DeleteAccording to rumors some of the new routes will be Bologna and Amman.
ReplyDeleteThese would be nice additions.
DeleteI see Bologna as a real possibility since Nis-Bologna performed better than expected pre pandemic but it has not been restored.
Deletewow great news so those were not the only new destinations we will be getting.
ReplyDeleteIt is best to develop flights in Western Europe. Then enrich the transfer destinations
ReplyDeleteDestinations reach over 60 (+ charters)!
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be one busy summer for Air Serbia. Already 6 new routes scheduled and more to come.
ReplyDeleteIt's looking like a busy summer for Belgrade in general. Good thing is that they are opening the terminal extension in April just ahead of the busy period.
DeleteI noticed KL has loaded the E2 into the system for the summer so they are being optimistic about their double daily operation. I wish them all the best as they are finally offering a decent alternative to the Star Alliance cartel in Belgrade.
Now if only AF would schedule their fantastic A220 to BEG. :D
Better start recalling laid off employees and also start advertising open positions for new staff.
DeleteGood luck to them in that case. From what I heard BEG and even JU are struggling to bring back laid off employees because they found employment elsewhere. Actually Serbia is starting to experience a shortage of workforce. Many who drive Glovo or Wolt are from Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan and so on. BEG and JU will have to improve their work conditions (especially BEG) if they want to attract new employees.
DeleteThey should start Cologne. One of the busiest non served routes from BEG and Wizz Air wanted to start it in 2020, meaning it's on their radar.
ReplyDeleteEurowings will start it eventually if neither of these two do.
DeleteEurowings, back when it was Germanwings, started the route, and pulled out.
DeleteI know it won't happen but I would love to see Lisbon in the network and even potentially a codeshare with TAP to offer good connections to South America.
ReplyDeleteMe too..Lisbon is a must for Air Serbia
DeleteIf they don't start it Wizz Air will. They wanted to launch it in 2020.
DeleteIt is too long rotation for JU.
DeleteBetter W6 to start it and JU to use their plane for some closer destination. It looks like they are anyhow going to need more planes for this SUTT.
Once JU has a morning wave to the region destinations like LIS could work out. It could leave BEG around 19.00 and come back in the morning around 05.00 with the night bank. Like that it would connect to two different waves of departures to the region.
DeleteIs there any chance they will bring Helsinki back? Entry is permitted into Finland, they recognise the WHO vaccines including Sinopharm which is what most have been vaccinated with in Serbia, and they could enjoy transfer traffic.
ReplyDeleteI believe the main issue with HEL is that they don't have a suitable enough aircraft. The A319 is too big. They need something like the CRJ900 for it.
DeleteTrue. In 2019 they were operating the route with the wet leased CRJ900 aircraft but than in winter had to use their own A319.
DeleteI guess there is a reason Finnair is only present in the region with seasonal flights.
DeleteSo, still hope for long haul expansion?
ReplyDeleteI seriously doubt for this year.
DeleteIn 2023.
DeleteAccording to my opinion they should not start yet Chicago, Beijing or Toronto. This European network needs first to show its results and once proven to be successful new wide body routes to be introduced.
DeleteAfter all the new routes are revealed for 2022, my guess is the next expansion will be long haul. They will probably get a second A330 which will allow them to open two routes. My guess is Toronto and Beijing/Shanghai.
DeleteThis is exciting. I'm glad we will see even more new routes!
ReplyDelete“Prior to the pandemic, we announced Lviv as a new destination in our network. We are carefully looking at potential routes in Bulgaria and Romania. Prior to Covid-19, Chisinau was also considered, so we will continue this regional development”
ReplyDeleteOh well, they have some work there: CLJ, VAR, IAS, PDV - they just launched new flights to Ireland and UK. ROU - new flights from SOF are expected to be announced in spring.
https://www.novinite.com/articles/212403/Two-Way+Flight+Sofia-Ruse+for+BGN+60-70+after+February+2022
BRV new airport is expected to be launched any moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcpBOnse2FU
I think ASL has a lot of new potential in the region
I'm a bit confused by their focus on Italy which is the only European country still completely closed for Serbian citizens and it has been that way for almost 2 years with exception to short one month period last summer.
ReplyDeleteThey are after transfers plus flights start in June so restrictions will be probably lifted by then.
DeleteThey shall rather plan increase of frequencies on many existing routes. That would attract many business travelers. In this light, flying DUS every day would be a better option than adding CGN from BEG.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we will see frequencies increased on many routes.
DeleteI am glad we are seeing some good development from JU.
ReplyDeleteRestoring Tel Aviv is a must.
ReplyDeleteI believe TLV will be restored. Israel has now completely reopened for foreigners.
DeleteCairo would be nice too.
DeleteNow that's what I call a post-Covid strategy :)
ReplyDeleteNo, you are wrong. They should have hired "consultants", preferably BCG, that's the only way to do wonders LOL
DeletePromising signs for the future. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThe new routes they announced this week took my by surprise. I'm even happier that there will be more to come but I think emphasis will be on year round routes in the next announcement.
ReplyDeleteCurious to see what they announce
ReplyDeleteLooks as if it will be a good year for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteHonestly it's nice to see an ex-Yu airline expanding, adding new routes and growing its fleet. There is too much stagnation in the region, virus or no virus.
DeleteI'm hoping they return Ohrid. There are no entry restrictions, people are going there more and more on holiday and they could get some transfer traffic too.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. Focusing on transfers will be the best thing to defend yourselves from LCCs.
ReplyDeleteFleet renewal and new routes. Good way to start 2022 :)
ReplyDeleteThey could consider MBX.
ReplyDeleteNew routes announced this weeks have been good picks so far.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Good luck JU. Glad to see them back in Spain. I think those routes are justified.
DeleteCongratulations Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that they don't have a 100 seater AC option available that would make it much easier to start some new routes.
ReplyDeleteThis is massive expansion, Air Serbia is getting back on the original plans from 2020 of making Belgrade regional hub, but this time more carefully, with more balanced approach.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is going to bring a lot of transfer passengers to Adriatic coast. Taking in consideration JU flies to TIV, DBV, SPU, PUY and RJK it is obvious Air Serbia is using its potential to make successful business based on airports in Croatia and Montenegro.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to see SPU and DBV operating longer, at least a full summer season. One of the 2 should finally go year round.
DeleteI don't think DBV has the demand for year-round flights. It would be either SPU or ZAD due to a larger Serbian community living there, more O&D.
DeleteWe all remember RJK in winter which was an epic failure with 20 passengers on a good day.
After covid is there a plan to restart some summer charters to POW? BEG-POW?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they ever operated summer charters to POW.
DeleteJat Airways was flying to POW. They even asked SLO Government to give them approval to fly to Italy from POW.
DeleteI even believe they got it, but flights never happened.
Why operate with restrictions in POW when TRS is down the road?
DeleteThey need to start HER , RHO and CFU or else Aegean will take every customer. Besides that JU could also expand in Greece to new markets such as Kavala (KVA), Volos (VOL), Kalamata (KLX) and many more. Greece has a big potential , hope Air Serbia will understand that soon.
ReplyDeleteFrom mentioned airports they should start only CFU and maybe KVA.
DeleteI see no point fighting against A321 on A3 routes if there are so many other possibilities in Greece.
I don't think that would be wise. Don't forget that Aegean is not a joke and they are extremely competitive. After all, last year JU didn't manage to considerably outperform them on BEG-ATH route. Actually Aegean managed to boost Belgrade to 5 weekly with the A320 while JU operated the route (I think) daily with the A319.
DeleteIf they start attacking Aegean then they might retaliate by launching SKG-BEG with the Q400. That means JU would have to downgrade the route to ATR which would mess up connections in BEG.
Now the hard work begins in making all these new routes sustainable.
ReplyDelete2022 will be a great year for BEG recovery.
ReplyDeleteNo need for other new destinations except Lviv with Atr.. First they should increase frequencies and restore pre Covid routes.
ReplyDeleteNice to see them growing
ReplyDeleteI hope they will be able to handle 2 million passengers this year.
ReplyDeleteWas there official announcment of restoring the flights to MAD and VCE?
ReplyDeleteI see them in JU system, but I do not remeber seeing that piece of information here.
Yes
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/12/air-serbia-to-restore-venice-and-madrid.html
Air Serbia also advertised on its social media it was resuming these routes.
Thank you very much. I missed that article.
DeleteIf the restrictive measures are lifted in the world there is a real possibility that BEG will have higher than 2019 numbers.
ReplyDeleteBravo Air Serbia. Keep growing
ReplyDeleteWell done Air Serbia!
ReplyDeleteI just wonder why they decided to start BLQ and not FLR as it was the case in spring 2020.
Will they be year round or seasonal?
ReplyDeleteGraz or Maribor pls!!!!
ReplyDeleteШта сте запели за тај Марибор аман више.....
Deleteodavde je sve daleko
DeleteMBX for the win!
Deleteto nasi doktori gastarbajteri vape za domovinom :-)
DeleteFlorence or Pisa! Maybe from Nis
ReplyDeleteYess!!
DeleteThis is promising and good news for JU but by the look of the selected new destinations added it seems that they are not going to retire the old ATR's anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteObzirom da Er Srbija leti sa praznim ATR-om sredom i subotom BEG - KVO i posle povratka sa medjunarodnog leta iz Istanbula, opet prazan leti na domacem sektoru KVO - BEG. Zasto nebih ovaj i buduci satl letovi izmedju Kraljeva i Beograda se ne konverzuju u domaci saobracaj? Da li potencijalni putnici sa prtljagom, kupovinom karte nebi pokrili ni potroseno gorivo. Ili Kraljevacki aerodrom nema prolaz za potencijalne domace putnike?
ReplyDeleteNisam ubedjen da bi imalo dovoljno putnika na ovoj liniji, ali prazan avion leti. Ipak kada se ovaj aerodrom prosiri i opremi, bice i domaceg i medjunarodnog saobracaja...
Vreme ce potvrditi.
✈🇷🇸🛫🌐✈
Could be a fuelling issue. I'm not sure if KVO has fuelling, which means fuel needs to be carried from BEG and IST. Additional pax and cargo between BEG and KVO would burn the limited fuel they have for the shuttle. Just my guess.
DeleteTo Vam je dobra ideja.
DeleteNetwork Planning:
ReplyDelete-Pick a letter
-B
-City that starts with a B...ok pick Beijing or Bologna
-Bologna
-Pick another letter
-T
-City that starts with a T...ok pick Trieste or Toronto?
-Trieste
-That's it, we are launching Bologna and Trieste
They actually throw darts on a map to pick their next destinations. Sometimes they blind fold their employees, spin them around and get them to point at places on a map.
DeleteC'mon JATBEGMEL they don't do that! That can't be true!
DeleteIf they did, someone would hit America, Canada or China once in a while.
He didn't say it's World map. It's map of Europe 😃
DeleteIs Venice coming back?
ReplyDeleteCan't remember how it performed.
It says in the article...
DeleteJust realized that Venice was only suspended.
DeleteBut wouldn't Trieste hurt their Venice flights?
They are far enough apart that it should not effect either destination.
DeleteSicily would be great destination also
ReplyDeletePalermo or Catania, both os good 4 tourism
Delete^ I like that
ReplyDeleteBravo Air Serbia !
ReplyDeleteSerbia keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteSomeone said Air Serbia needed more regional and Europe destinations before launching additional long haul services. New EU routes are here but I am not sure how many passengers will backtrack from Valencia, Palma, Bologna, Trieste etc to transfer onto JU flights to JFK, ORD or YYZ. Some will backtrack for hours if it saves them some money but not too many. Therefore places like VLC and PMI are tourist destinations, not long haul transfer sources for JU.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand JU long haul expansion could be focused on China instead of North America. There might be some China transfer potential for places like Trieste, Bari and Rijeka but those are fairly small markets. Overall it doesn't seem this this expansion announcement is designed to feed any future JU long haul expansion.
Wait and see. More expansion is planned both regionally and Euro-Mediterranean. So if Covid is brought under control in the next few months, and if these new routes mature, then in 2023 we could see long haul expansion.
DeleteChicago & Toronto will definitely be successful. 2-4 weekly in summer season, and 2 weekly in winter.
First thing first, let's not rush them into really expensive adventure. I do believe in long haul from Belgrade but we can't pretend JU is ready for it, financial and network wise. If JU lacks only vision to make it, then we can say the same for others: there's no queue of airlines at Vinci's doors waiting to launch long haul from Belgrade.
DeleteThe question is not whether there is a "queue of airlines at Vinci's doors waiting to launch long haul from Belgrade" but rather, can Air Serbia expand into other long haul destinations before the competition does. Be it from VIE, OTP, SOF or any other of the usual suspects.
DeleteIn Chicago & Toronto there are hundreds of thousands of 1st & 2nd generations people from the Balkans. Air Serbia should try to capitalize on this market relatively fast. There will always be connections to N. America from LH group, AF/KLM and others. But at a reasonable price, and good connection times from Balkan cities AS can really take a good share of this market.
Wait and see and Let's not rush them sounded reasonable in 2017 or 2018. Not in 2019, not in early 2020 and certainly not now. Waiting is sensible if they are blocked by bilaterals, slots and other bureaucratic reasons but that's not the case any more. Waiting can be justified if Air Serbia is developing their network to feed more long haul but they are not doing it. Waiting is fine if A330 lease rates are expected to drop even further but they are not. Waiting for corona to pass did not deter them from opening a bunch of new short haul lines so why wait for corona to pass for long haul expansion? Waiting until they took care of Etihad loans and retirement of Boeings and old ATRs is over, so why wait longer?
DeleteI hear you bro I would start YYZ, ORD 2x this summer as test run.
DeleteWaiting to get positive financial result would be enough.
DeleteWhy didn't you wait for positive results to launch this batch - Valencia, Trieste, Bologna etc? Double standards. No arguments left standing against long haul expansion.
DeleteYou go girl!
Delete-there's no queue of airlines at Vinci's doors waiting to launch long haul from Belgrade
ReplyDeleteBe as it may, in that case Air Serbia should publicly step aside and let others try. Over the next 1-2 years ZAG, DBV, SJJ and PRN will likely see widebodies of various sorts and arrangements. Vinci is more than capable of outdoing them all if publicly given free reign for Belgrade long haul development.
They likely might, but most likely will not, with exception to DBV - a destination JU doesn't really connect well with JFK.
DeleteZAG has been said to be getting an American airline 'next year' the past decade. SJJ doesn't really have much to offer a major carrier to begin ops. PRN had a short lived charter airline offering 1 weekly flights to the US over a decade ago.
JU isnt the reason why other airlines haven't launched long haul from BEG. Canadian government has limited flights between Canada and Serbia to 2 pw. Seems as if even AC isn't even happy with that. Skyservice was serving YYZ-BEG prior to them going bankrupt, JU back then didn't stop them. Hainan came and went. Open skies agreement was signed with the US and its only JU with JFK operating the past 6 years. Indian carriers were sending narrow bodies on charter flights for quarantine tourism. Lets be realistic, there isn't a line up of long haul carriers waiting to serve our region.
No reason for JU to publicly step aside, noone does it. But there is a reason for unbiased look at long haul development.
DeleteIf we are to spend millions in order to enable 500 people weekly to have direct flight to Toronto/Beijing, we need to be sure (or make sure) the investment will harvest genuine return in defined timeframe. Otherwise it will impact complete JU business in a bad bad way. I'm totally for numbers to speak when it comes to investments of this size.
You are already spending millions to have Air Serbia fly from INI and KVO (less than 500 people weekly in KVO) without being sure investment will have genuine returns so why would that be a problem with routes to YYZ or PEK? You have no arguments left.
DeleteEvery management/season change brings new sets of routesto Air Serbia that have launched! No strategy, no research and no expertise behind of those acts, just spending the money of tax payers for nothing! There is also an illness of Balkans that numerical majority is not the proof of success all the time, especially about the number airline routes. Air Serbie goes no where with that mind and no chance then bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous16:14 seems you continue have issues with JU success and everything they do . Jealousy won't get you far in life . Ju is doing a fantastic job and most of us proud of what tgey have done during pandemic wjole others just storage their aircrafts and waiting for better times.
DeleteThank God I am not management because I would go for all region double daily and introduction of Lisbon, Sochi, Tbilisi, Yerevan and Baku ASAP.
ReplyDeleteWith that influence of flights there is a high chance of great TATL routes - Chicago, Toronto and maybe even Havana?
So yeah, better don't give me a chance to decide :) i would either grow JU to big regional company or put it in grave very fast :)
Yes, if corona bs ramps in the west stay down, east is only logical option
DeleteWe need Florence or Pisa, at least during the summer, once a week. Even though I think twice a week all year round would be optimal.
ReplyDelete