Air Serbia handled just over 90.000 passengers during the first month of the year, representing an increase of 71% on 2021 when the figure stood at 53.457 travellers. During January, the carrier operated 1.641 scheduled and charter flights. Although the airline did not provide further operational results, the figure indicates Air Serbia’s passenger share at Belgrade Airport was below 50%. During the month, the carrier launched four new routes, including one from Kraljevo, two from Niš, as well as its first domestic service between Belgrade and Niš. Furthermore, it restored operations from the southeast Serbian city to a further two destinations.
Commenting on the results, the airline’s Head of Sales, Boško Rupić, said, “We are extremely pleased to have started this year with growth, which is the result of our adaptation to life with the coronavirus. By increasing the number of passengers carried in January by as much as 71% compared to the same month last year, we have shown that we are ready for the strong expansion we are expecting in the coming period”. He added, “These results also prove that our decisions, as well as our strategy, are on the right track, which we believe will help us to become stronger in the coming months, to the mutual satisfaction of both us and our passengers”.
During January, Air Serbia began the renewal of its turboprop fleet with the arrival of an ATR72-600 aircraft, which will be joined by a further four frames of the same type by the end of the year. The aircraft in question, registered YU-ALY, entered into commercial service yesterday, operating its inaugural flight on behalf of Air Serbia between Belgrade and Tirana. It was then deployed on the airline’s Vienna service later on in the day. Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, recently said, “We are replacing all ATR72-200s, of which we currently have three in the fleet, as well as two ATR72-500 airplanes, with state-of-the-art ATR72-600 during the upcoming period. This will significantly increase our operational efficiency, as well as service provided to passengers. Our ambition is to continue to develop further as a regional leader and the upgraded turboprop fleet is an essential step on this path”.
The ATR looks good. What an improvement from the old ones on the fleet.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGood result
ReplyDeleteWonder how other airlines in the region performed in JAN.
ReplyDeleteYU-ALN is on the first pic?
ReplyDeleteInteresting that in January 2021 their share in BEG was over 50% and this year quite below.
ReplyDeleteWell in January last year BEG handle about the same amount of passengers as Air Serbia did for the whole of this January.
Delete* handled
DeleteWhat is the difference compared to January 2020 ir 2019?
ReplyDelete167% to 2019 and 108% to 2020
DeleteGood result. As Europe starts ending restrictions, Air Serbia is increasing frequencies across the board from next week, so February should be an improvement.
ReplyDeleteThey are increasing Zurich straight away after Switzerland ended all entry requirements including need to show vaccination status.
DeleteSwiss too.
DeleteYes Swiss went to 14 and easyJet increased GVA and BSL. Lot's of capacity right now.
DeleteBTW yesterday;s GVA BEG was sold out five days before the flight!
DeleteNice. Although doesn't seem JU is going back to GVA.
DeleteThey lost the fight against easyjet.
DeleteGVA-BEG seems like a graveyard of airlines that were defeated by easyJet: Swiss, Air Serbia, Etihad Regional.
DeleteLooking at their timetable, they seem to be putting pressure on Wizz Air on BSL-BEG. I think after their defeat on BER-BEG they don't want to take any risks with Switzerland.
Hmm... INI had some 14.000 passengers in January so let's assume half of those flew on JU. I doubt they carried more than 500 passengers from KVO meaning out of BEG, Air Serbia carried some 82.500 passengers.
ReplyDelete82.500 out of 239.000 comes out to be 34.5%.
Is it possible Air Serbia's marketshare at BEG dropped so much?
If my calculation is not wrong then it means that Air Serbia's competition made the most of this organic growth at BEG. Now the real question remains what are those markets that grew and in which JU underpeformed? Could it be Russia? Turkey? Germany?
Luckily Air Serbia has announced a turbo expansion so their marketshare should recover in the coming months ... let's hope their sales and marketing departments do a good job promoting these new services.
I am sure Montenegro Airlines took some passengers from them. Same with Wizz Air which had a large expansion in december/january.
DeleteTrue, we shouldn't forget that Air Serbia was the only airline flying from Belgrade to Montenegro until June last year.
DeleteEither the market share dropped drastically or something is wrong with the numbers we got from the airport.
DeleteSpeaking of marketing, they should really up their game a bit. You can't depend purely on social media to advertise your new routes. There isn't a single billboard or newspaper ad promoting their new routes from BEG.
DeleteNumbers are correct. Why do you think Air Serbia made no mention of their BEG share which they do every time?
DeletePeople forget that last January there was no KLM, no Air Montenegro, Wizz Air was operating fewer routes, Flydubai had fewer flights, all other airlines had much fewer flights...
Plus last January Wizz Air had A320s in Belgrade, now they have A321s plus they operate AUH flights are full from what I heard.
DeleteAll that strategic planning and their market share falls from 50% to 55% to just 35%. I remember when Marek bragged about their high percentage. Strange that he is so quiet now.
DeleteYou are all greately overestimating the number of passengers they had in Nis and Kraljevo. It is 2000 max.
DeleteI think Russia is a market where they are also losing. They just moved one weekly flight to Friday at 23.40 which is great for transfers. Since frequencies are limited it means most local traffic moved to SU which is sending A333 to BEG today.
DeleteI am not surprised. Air Serbia charges €200 one way to Moscow while offering virtually nothing in terms of service. At least with SU you get a good overall experience.
Nordwind also sends A321 as standard equipment and Red Wings announced their return to BEG. Let's see what JU does.
@NEMJEE is so right! And I was wondering this slightly below 50%must not be right. It was way below 50%.
DeleteINI had 14149 passengers and AS had the most flights and destinations. I think they had to have more than half. AS flew to BEG, LJU, IST, HHN and CGN.
DeleteLove all you guys. They handle 70% more passengers but that's no good. When they have share over 50% that's no good because they are monopolists. When they have share under 50% that's no good either.
Delete@11.55
DeleteMost routes did not start until the middle of January and most have an avarage of 50 passengers. The strong result was thanks to Wizz and Ryanair and diaspora travel during New Year and Christmas.
Routes like LJU and BEG from Nis have barely 15-20 passengers. Barely.
DeleteThere is nothing to love or hate, these are raw numbers. If your market experienced rapid organic growth yet your marketshare dropped then you have to start asking questions. I think it's normal for JU to be somewhere between 45% and 55% at BEG. After all, we need Air Serbia to be competitive because like that fares are kept low.
DeleteSomeone posted the other day all the increases foreign carriers are planning at BEG and these January numbers are showing us that in certain markets they failed to remain competitive. I am genuinely curious to know who profited the most from all this newly formed market that was not there last year.
At the end of the day, maybe it's time for Air Serbia to copy LOT and British Airways and to consider improving their product. They could at least offer free drinks on all of their flights.
Anon 11.58
DeleteEven if we place all 90.000 passengers in Belgrade, their marketshare would stand at 37.6%.
Now when market is there a lot will depend on marketing. And JU doesn't do marketing for quite some time now. Going from 1/2 to 1/3 of market in a month, they lost a lot of money, more money in January then what would be needed for a year of advertising campaign. They could save SKG in February with tiny promo, people do fly from Belgrade these days.
DeleteI absolutely agree with you. Look at how well they are doing in Athens but that is because they actually invested in marketing over there. I remember when they had Air Serbia ads on Athens trams and buses.
DeleteSeems like they don't understand how important it is to have a strong brand. Heck, I don't think their brand is that strong in Serbia and these January numbers are a good indicator of that. When competition was limited they were at around 55% marketshare. Now that their competitors return their marketshare plummeted. Let's see what happens in the coming months.
Hopefully they pull their act together especially now when markets are starting to recover.
Could they fly their new ATR to Portoroz?
ReplyDeleteI hope so slovenia is beautiful
DeleteThey can but with serious weight restrictions because of the runway.
DeleteBravo Er Srbijo. Oporavak je ocigledan.
ReplyDeleteOd ove 2022 godine, Er Srbija i Aerodrom Nikola Tesla Beograd bice kapitalne vesti u razvoju
avijacije Srbije i Jugoistocne Evrope.
Novi avioni, koridori, sire terminale i otvaranju svet
Srbiji. Srbiju svetu.
Za dobrodusne dovoljan pocetak u ovom stadiumu razvoja vazdusnog saobracaja u ovom delu Evrope.
Srecno u novoj letnjoj sezoni.
Pri putu za Sydney, Rodney. 😀🛫🌐✈
Idemo drbijaz
DeleteČika Rade, ja sam mislio da ste Vi leti u Kraljevu a zimi u Sydney-u. Kako to da se za Australiju sada spremate?
DeletePostovani Anon 15:11.
DeleteKao sto znamo, Korona nam je poremetila
Letove zbog lockdown pa u prosloj godini sam prvi put u poslednjih 52 godine gledao na nebu.
I ono malo sto ih je letelo. Od penzionisanja zimu provodim u Otadzbini Srbiji. Jesen i zimu takodje provodim na Juznoj Hemisferi. U novoj Domovini Australiji sa devetoro otroka Sidnejskih. Mozda je zanimljiv podatak da mi je ovaj put 87 let za Australiju od daleke 1970 godine. Sa cetiri clana porodice smo ukupno
195 puta sleteli na vazduhoplovni "oltar" Otadzbine Srbije, Aerodrom Nikola Tesla Beograd. Ljubav, trud, vera su sinergija
Iznad svega. Pogotovo u Komercijalnoj Avijaciji.
Mozda me poneko razume. Verovatno je malo koji me shvataju.
Svako Vam dobro na ovom Blogu. I svima koji
su posveceni letovima u podnebesju Gospodnjem.
Blago i uspesno prolece zelim.
😀♥️🇷🇸☦♥️🇦🇺✈🌐🛫
Kraljevo, Beograd i Sydney...
Rodney Marinkovic and Aviation Enthusiast Associate Group. ✈😀
In January they also announced a lot of new routes for the summer. I wonder which one of their planned routes is performing best in terms of sales.
ReplyDeleteAgain no financial results.
ReplyDeleteVery few airlines publish their financial results on a monthly basis.
DeleteWhen will they return the industry tariffs
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean?
DeleteJU cancelled alot of staff travel contracts they had with other airlines. One of the stupidest things they have done honestly.
DeleteAccording to FR24 today they're deploying YU-ALY to Podgorica and Tivat !!!
ReplyDelete320?
DeleteThe new ATR.
DeleteI think at this point ALY will fly all over their network. I am just waiting for it to be deployed to Prague which is their longest ATR route.
DeleteAny room for CAI & HEL back again?
ReplyDeleteI think it is more likely we will see TLV back rather than those two.
DeleteCAI & HEL will be back in summer 2023. TLV will be added from June 2022.
DeleteI'm not even sure that TLV will be added. It's more likely that Israeli carriers will restore the route.
DeleteMeant to say will be announced in June, but beginning in August/September 2022.
DeleteOnce restrictions to their markets are lifted, JU will easily bounce back to 2019 numbers and keep growing.
ReplyDeleteIf it wasnt for pandemics, we would be talking about one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe.
Hands down to AirSERBIA and Belgrade airport…..
My friend I really hope so but at least with all restrictions in place BEG managed to thrive. Now it's JU's turn to do the same and help in boosting passenger numbers.
DeleteDo the new ATRs have free wifi or at least connect to the Air Serbia multimedia platform on mobile?
ReplyDeleteATRs don't have Wifi. I don't think there is a single ATR in the world with a wifi antenna.
DeleteJU never had free wifi. They had an overpriced wifi that wasn't popular, which is probably the reason they haven't bothered installing it on the newer Airbus additions.
DeleteInflight wifi doesn't really work well on the ATR's as they don't fly high enough, it generally starts working above 10,000 ft.
Elevate play was available only on the Airbus fleet. The app wasn't very user friendly and JU didn't (and still doesn't) have charging outlets for devices on the narrowbody fleet so using it is a great way to be without battery on arrival.
Those new seats in the ATR are like flatbeds compared to what they have on the old ATRs.
ReplyDeleteWhere can we see Air Serbia air-to-air photos and video of A330 YU-ARB? There was a chase plane capturing ARB arrival in Belgrade but media was not shown.
ReplyDeleteMost likely at elections TV commercial for a certain party, they just love ads with planes.
DeleteIt does seem that Serbia's provincial airports stealing traffic from Beograd. INI and KVO are already benefitting from the hefty government subsidies and will most likely continue during the upcoming years. We clearly now see that the traffic is no longer concentrated 100% on the capital....
ReplyDeletethis is just out of place
DeleteOr maybe gradual economic recovery in the countryside has generated enough demand for airports like KVO and INI to be more active?
DeleteJust look at how difficult it was for anyone to make INI work yet today the airport can sustain seasonal leisure routes like Corfu or Tivat. Both airports have long-term potential because they are covering an area that is not very close to BEG.
I mean someone from Leskovac or Vranje will rather fly from SKP than travel all the way to BEG to catch a flight. Now they can reach a decent amount of destinations from INI.