Etihad Airways has said it is evaluating the possibility of resuming flights between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade which were terminated as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, the Emirati national carrier said, “Serbia is not currently part of our operating network, but it remains an important market for Etihad Airways. We continually review the forward development of the network, and as part of this process will be regularly evaluating the potential to reinstate a connection between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade”. Since Etihad’s withdrawal from the route, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has commenced flights between the two cities with its Airbus A321 aircraft and currently maintains three weekly rotations.
Etihad Airways' Belgrade - Abu Dhabi v.v. passenger performance
| Year | PAX |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 120.367 |
| 2017 | 121.583 |
| 2018 | 88.220 |
| 2019 | 114.256 |
| 2020 | 20.485 |
Etihad Airways handled 114.256 passengers between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade in 2019 on its daily flights. Its average annual cabin load factor stood at an extremely high 90.9%. However, the service relied heavily on transfer passengers, primarily to China and Australia. Its top five feeders for the Belgrade service in 2019 were Shanghai, Beijing, Sydney, Hong Kong and Melbourne, based on OAG data. Both the Australian and Chinese markets remain closed for most inbound and outbound travel with China recently announcing it plans to reopen to international passengers in 2023 while Australia’s boarders are expected to fully reopen in mid-2022. Air Serbia, Etihad’s equity partner, indicated last year that the Emirati airline has not terminated its Belgrade service for good, but will return once circumstances permit.
Etihad Airways' top O&D destinations to/from Belgrade in 2019
Etihad resumed flights to Belgrade following the global lockdowns in the spring of 2020, restoring services in June that year. They were maintained until October when operations were discontinued again. In December that year, Etihad reduced its ownership stake in Air Serbia from 49% to 18%. However, the two airlines expanded their codeshare partnership in February of last year. Air Serbia now has its designator code and flight numbers on Etihad’s services from Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, while it has extended its codeshare on Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi to Manama, Bangkok, Colombo, Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah, Seoul, Karachi, Lahore, Kuwait, Muscat, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne. The agreement now counts over thirty routes. However, that same year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, conceded there may be less demand for these flights as they require transferring via a point in Europe. “We recently renewed our codeshare agreement [with Etihad] and basically we are maintaining connectivity via the main Etihad gateways in Europe. Being a smaller regional player, any codeshare agreement is important to us because it gives us access to a more global network and also gives us extra feed for our regional network. So, we are maintaining strong cooperation with Etihad. The codeshare has been quite expanded but, of course, there will most likely be less demand since the direct flights is, let’s say, currently suspended. We are developing other codeshare partnerships to cover that part of the world”, Mr Marek said at the time.
I think their ship has sailed with the arrival of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Obviously they had a lot of transfer passengers. The route will likely reopen when China and Australia open.
DeleteExcuse me, @ex-yu aviation, would you mind telling me why my post is erased, placed around noon, at this place exactly, saying I believe once covid scam is over both Etihad and Emirates will return to BEG and ZAG respectively?
DeleteIt would be great to see them back at BEG.
ReplyDeleteAverage annual load factor of 90% is amazing!
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised. Flew with them 4-5 times a year before the pandemic and it was always packed.
DeleteOh and also always felt like on a flight to China since 90% of passengers were Chinese.
DeleteTrue. I have flown with them every year since 2013 up until 2020 and the planes were always full to the last seat (and I flew in off peak periods). Even more surprising is the number of European destined passengers that used these flights from Abu Dhabi and then connected onto JU and I'm talking about destinations offered from AUH like Amsterdam and Rome.
DeleteI'm surprised by the P2P demand between Belgrade and Abu Dhabi considering Wizz Air is doing really well on this route.
ReplyDeleteMany of my friends have used these (cheap) flights already to go to Dubai
DeleteEtihad was filled with transfer passengers. But in recent years many migrated over to Qatar because of better prices, service, product and bigger destination network.
ReplyDeleteWould it be realistic for JU to try AUH again?
ReplyDeleteThey lose on AUH route one plane for too long time. Better to make 2 European routes
DeleteThey tried and failed in AUH.
DeleteThey could not compete against Wizz Air because they offer more or less the same service at higher prices.
DeleteLast anon is right. JU by its accumulating debt that it cannot stand a ground against Wizz Air.
DeleteDon't forget something else, both flydubai and Wizz Air are using the latest equipment on the route (MAX and neo). Air Serbia would be using older generation A319 with less comfort (compared to FZ) and less efficiency (compared to both).
DeleteOnly way this could work is if JU could get decent slots in Dubai which they would launch with the A330. Naturally this can't happen until they expand their widebody fleet as they wouldn't have the spare capacity in summer when JFK goes to 6 weekly.
They will reinstate it when China and Australia reopens.
ReplyDeleteGulf carriers, Etihad included, could benefit from the increased demand from India to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteQatar Airways already has in a big way and to a lesser extent Flydubai. And they are doing very well at the moment with daily flight reinstated from January 1 (they were operating 5 weekly in November and December).
DeleteQR even sent Dreamliner on one occasion during the summer because they were full. It was at the height of Indian quarantine travel to Serbia.
DeleteTrue forgot about that
DeletePlus don't forget about TK being perpetually blocked from expanding in India. This is a great opportunity for Gulf carriers. I don't see this changing as Indian carriers are profiting much more from the Gulf market than the Turkish one. They want to keep Arab airlines happy with TK being handicapped in India.
DeleteWhy is TK blocked in India?
DeleteThere is a very restrictive bilateral in place. Turkey has been pushing for its revision but India has been reluctant partly because of Ankara's attitude towards Pakistan. I think TK is allowed 14 weekly flights into India.
DeleteHah that's interesting. Didn't know that
DeleteWhat I don't get is that they restored this route after the lockdowns. Between June and October 2020 and they actually operated each and every flight. Didn't cancel anything.
ReplyDeleteTheir route to Abu Dhabi had so many airlines codesharing. Air Serbia, Montenegro Airlines, Virgin Australia, Oman Air, SriLankan Airlines, Kuwait Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines.
ReplyDeleteSri Lankan and Oman Air have since started codesharing on Qatar's flights to Belgrade.
DeleteWould be nice to see Oman, Kuwait or Saudia launch flights to BEG.
DeleteThere is talk two new Gulf airlines will start flying to Belgrade in the summer. Maybe it's one of them.
DeleteHope they come back eventually
ReplyDeleteThey will :)
DeleteThose are some interesting feeder routes although none are really a surprise.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit surprised by Hong Kong.
DeleteWhy was their such a dip in passenger numbers in 2018? Did they reduce flights?
ReplyDeleteThey didn't reduce flights, they decimated their network as this was the time of the height of Etihad's cost cutting and it reflected across their network. The following year they rescheduled their outbound departure time from Abu Dhabi from 2AM to 9AM and got a lot more connecting traffic (plus their plane no longer sat in Belgrade for 8 hours for nothing) .
DeleteThank you. Makes sense.
DeleteJU network was also decimated that year so there were fewer feeders routes from Belgrade.
Deleteinteresting what a big impact all of that had on the numbers.
DeleteGreat news. Hope to see them back soon.
ReplyDeleteI think they will wait for a bit longer to see how efficient Air Arabia is at competing with Wizz Air. If they can put up a fight and actually beat them in certain markets then I could see them launch Belgrade flights.
ReplyDeleteThen again, there used to be quite a lot of premium demand and since then the market between BEG and the UAE has only grown. They could go the other way and actually schedule their own flights and rely on feed on both ends. Their A321 has 'only' 8 business class seats so it could be the perfect match for this route.
I think they will be back, it's only a matter of time. I expect it will happen once China opens up.
I still think EY mainline would be the best option for them in order to compete against Wizz Abu Dhabi.
DeleteSame here though I don't know what kind of onboard product they have now. I remember seeing a trip report for their LAX-AUH flight and it was horror in economy class. I think they only offered a small snack on a 16 hour flight. If that's still the case then they might as well send Air Arabia.
DeleteThey have improved their service. They hit rock bottom just before covid which is when they used to serve a sandwich on ultra long haul flights. It kind of reminds me of what happened with JU when they discontinued all catering service in economy and started serving salad boxes in business but then I guess realized how extreme this was and brought back proper service in business and free snacks in economy.
DeleteTo be honest I would rather Air Arabia starts flights from Sharjah so that way we are linked to three cities in the UAE (and it is a great alternative to Dubai since Dubai Airport is practically the point from which Sharjah begins) so it is much closer than Abu Dhabi.
DeleteAir Arabia almost started flights from Sharjah. They even put tickets on sale but it seems sales were not going great and they discontinued.
DeleteThe other version is that they backed down from the route because a day after they suspended sales it was announced they are forming a partnership with Etihad.
DeleteI also think it had to do with the EY deal. Demand to the UAE/Dubai seems to be very high so introducing Sharjah kind of made sense. Also Air Arabia has very low costs so they could be competitive in terms of pricing which is very important for our market.
DeleteThose are really good passenger numbers especially considering you had them competing against Qatar and Flydubai.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI'm glad to see they haven't completely given up on the route.
ReplyDeleteSounds a bit more reassuring than EK's statement yesterday.
ReplyDeleteIn the end both will resume their respective flights.
DeleteThat would be the best :)
DeleteWhich year did Etihad start flying to Belgrade?
ReplyDelete2013
DeleteWere the flights daily from the start?
DeleteThe flights began on 15th June 2013 and were daily from the very beginning.
DeleteBut the flights were first ooerated by A319 and then they upgauged them to A320 a year or so later.
DeleteDidn't they have double daily flights one summer?
DeleteNo, one year during July and August they had 10 weekly flights.
DeleteThis was the schedule
DeleteEY071 AUH0205 – 0545BEG 32A D
EY069 AUH0805 – 1145BEG 32A 146
EY072 BEG1300 – 2020AUH 32A D
EY070 BEG1135 – 1855AUH 32A 146
Later they adopted the timing of their EY69 flight for the outbound daily and EY72 for the inbound daily.
DeleteQR must have benefited the most from them leaving.
ReplyDeleteOn a recent QR flight from Belgrade a man sitting next to me struck a conversation. He works in Riyadh and told me he knows fly QR since Etihad stopped Belgrade. I assume there are many others too.
DeleteThe end of the blockade has certainly helped them.
DeleteQuite honestly I think they miscalculated and should have kept their flights by putting a focus on P2P which they could have captured, especially since EY offers complimentary transfer to Dubai. But for that they needed someone monitoring the local market or a local representative which they don't have. That's why they have failed in so many markets across the world. A computer program can't do all your networking and scheduling.
ReplyDeleteAnd just to add, their fares between Belgrade and Abu Dhabi were very affordable. Around 400 euros or even less sometimes, making them competitive against Flydubai.
DeleteIm always buying cheaper tickets. Dont care about unnecessary service.
ReplyDeleteThe more airline the better.
ReplyDelete* airlines
DeleteI hope they are back sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteIf they ever come back...
DeleteCan EY and W6 coexist on the same route?
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I think no. Once the virus situation is over, I think they could as they target different passenger types.
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteDoes Wizz Air Abu Dhabi offer transfer options via AUH?
ReplyDeleteNo, same like in Europe.
DeleteThat's a shame
DeleteA bit unexpected. I thought they were done with BEG for good. Good to see there is still some chance.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity have they resumed flights to Minsk?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteSuch an odd destnation for them though
DeleteIt performed rather well.
DeleteBelarus is a market of nine million people, thats a lot.
DeleteWith Wizz Air on the route thats not gonna work . Serbians will choose the cheap option and nowadays there isn't enough demand for both of them to operate , unlike Athens for example where both airlines operate the ATH-AUH route.
ReplyDeleteYou missed that Etihad was heavily used by transfer passengers.
DeleteI guess it was even over 90% transfers ..
DeleteWhen does the new Midfield terminal in AUH open - haven't heard anything about it all for the past couple of years. Last time I flew through there at the end of 2019 you could see it largely finished (from the outside)
ReplyDeleteNo one knows but it is badly needed. The current airport is horrible.
DeleteI believe it is mostly completed.
DeleteConditions for Etihad seem to be perfect.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air is purely O&D and EY is in overwhelming majority transfers.
There is just a bit of a problem called Covid 19 and closed borders.
DeleteIs Etihad Cargo still operating to Belgrade? They used to have 2 weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteNope
Delete"We are developing other codeshare partnerships to cover that part of the world”
ReplyDeleteThey seem to have done that with TK.
FU Etihad...the worst company in the world...
ReplyDeleteGood news.
ReplyDeleteMany believed that cooperation with JU was over. Fortunately it was not true.
It exists only on paper.
DeleteThey say the Serbian market is important to them yet they don't have an office in BEG anymore
ReplyDeleteAn office means nothing. People buy tickets online today. There are GSA's which further reduce costs. Also, there are much much more passengers from China and Australia buying tickets there to BEG, then the other way round. I wrote the same yesterday when someone claimed Emirates is not coming back to ZAG because they don't have office in Zagreb at the moment. Once covid scam is over we will see again both Etihad in BEG and Emirates in ZAG. Even with no office.
DeleteYou snooze you loose. The market has moved on from Etihad. Qatar has taken over all their passengers.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I bought a return ticket to AUH for just 20€ (10€ per flight).
ReplyDeleteWith Wizz Abu Dhabi ?
DeleteYes
Delete10 eur is below what it costs for a 5 hour flight. Wizz lost at least 200 eur on your return flight.
Deletedo u think they can postpone Belgrad and consider Skopje instead?
ReplyDeleteAt the moment you can't book a return flight from Australia to Belgrade on Etihad site, even with an extra stop, the codeshare doesn't seem to work at all.
ReplyDelete