Turkish Airlines has announced the launch of scheduled flights between its hub in Istanbul and Tivat, its second destination in Montenegro, as the carrier expands its operations across the former Yugoslavia this summer. In a statement, the company said, “Our Board of Directors has decided for the airline to launch flights to Tivat in Montenegro and Bergamo in Italy, depending on market conditions”. As previously reported by EX-YU Aviation News, the carrier will likely commence a four weekly service to the coastal city. Air Montenegro, which itself operates seasonal flights between the two, and plans to increase operations on the route this summer, has strongly objected to Turkish Airlines’ plans and has appealed for the local regulator not to issue a permit to its Turkish counterpart.
Elsewhere in the region, Turkish Airlines has increased operations to Belgrade as of yesterday where it is maintaining three daily rotations, each morning, afternoon and evening. As a result, the company has added an additional seven weekly flights to the Serbian capital, outstripping its pre-pandemic operations. In Sarajevo, the airline is increasing services to up to twenty weekly flights this summer, just one short from its 2019 levels. It is maintaining two daily flights from Istanbul to Podgorica, Pristina, Skopje and Zagreb, as well as ten weekly to Ljubljana. In Dubrovnik, Turkish Airlines’ frequencies will increase from the current two weekly flights to up to seven weekly rotations during the peak summer months.
Turkish Airlines’ lower cost unit, AnadoluJet, will also be operating a number of routes to the former Yugoslavia this summer. It will continue to maintain two weekly flights from Ankara to Belgrade, launched over the winter, and has restored three weekly rotations between Istanbul’s Sabiha Gocken Airport and Pristina as of yesterday, while two weekly services from Bodrum will return on June 18. Furthermore, it will restore flights from Antalya to Sarajevo and Skopje, on April 28 and May 1 respectively. Operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital will run up to nine times per week and to Skopje up to eleven weekly. AnadoluJet will also serve the two capital cities from Bodrum twice per week starting May 12.
They will have a dominating position in many markets.
ReplyDeleteNice addition.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they went for the third daily flight to BEG considering Air Serbia operates a daily afternoon flight which they codeshare. Won't the market become a bit saturated?
ReplyDeleteObviously not.
DeleteThere is enough demand.
DeleteDon't forget that Serbia sees a lot of Turkish tourists. These guys were filling up a lot of the offered seats. TK will have no problem filling their third daily.
DeleteFirst third IST-BEG was almost sold out.
Nice
DeleteThey have really upped their presence through Anadolujet. Well done.
ReplyDeleteWill wee see them sending wide bodies more in the region anytime soon?
ReplyDeleteOr any chance for any ex-Yu city to be permanently upgraded to an A330?
DeleteI doubt it. BEG has a regular one weekly A330 service last summer, but with three daily flights this summer, I doubt they need to send an A330.
DeleteAnd Ljubljana only 10 weekly...
ReplyDeleteWere there ever 2 daily flights by TK to Ljubljana?
DeleteI mean 14 weekly.
DeleteYes there were.
DeleteI don't understand why as Tk was always good market holder in LJU.
DeleteMaybe Flydubai is having an impact?
DeleteLJU wanted to get 14 weekly since demand increased in February buy can't get a plane to fly. So 10 will have to do for this summer.
DeleteWhat do you mean can't get a plane to fly?
DeleteIn other words they lack planes just like Iberia is
DeleteWell they seem to have enough planes to start Tivat...
DeleteLacking planes is just excuse for Fraport and their fanboys.
DeleteI don't buy the fleet shortage argument either. Many airlines still have excess planes because frequencies on many routes are still not near 2019 levels.
DeleteI still think FZ has made a slight impact on TK in LJU. I mean they quickly launched summer flights daily in LJU. FZ offers very good prices and combinations with EK and they cover some airports that TK has not yet reached. It would be interesting if QR penetrates the market as well. I think there is demand to the Gulf and transfers to Asia. For example, Maldives, Zanzibar and Seychelles have been very popular during the last 2 years and will likely remain so in winter now that people have discovered them.
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteWhen will TIV start?
ReplyDeleteProbably in June.
DeleteBEG has definitely become one of the main airports in the Balkans for flights to Turkey.
ReplyDeleteBEG-IST: 28 weekly
BEG-SAW: 4 weekly
BEG-ESB: 2 weekly
Pegasus keeps on requesting more flights but they get turned down each time.
How come they let Turkish fly but not Peagasus?
DeleteAlso many summer charters to Turkish coast.
DeleteTK in Belgrade really has a fantastic timetable.
Delete@9.15 they only reason they are letting Turkish is because they have a codeshare wtih Air Serbia now. Otherwise TK was also blocked many times from introducing third daily flight.
DeleteTK got 14 weekly as a deal to not touch the charter traffic. Last year we saw Anadoujet apply for charters and boom... TK all of a sudden gets the third daily from IST.
DeletePegasus on the other hand doesn't have the political backing TK or JU got.
I still think TK got the better deal. I mean what did JU get in return? Two flights weekly from Kraljevo and Nis to IST?
DeleteFrom what I've heard, the TK codeshares have really helped those two routes and Air Serbia has great loads on INI/KVO-IST flights.
DeleteINI-IST is doing really, really well as there is a lot of O&D demand. Regularly there are over 100 passengers on those flights. KVO is also full very often mostly because of passengers from Pazar.
DeleteBEG-INI has 20 to 30 passengers per flights which is great on the ATR, not so much on A319.
Good to know. Turkey should be very attractive to Serbian passengers at the moment. It is very cheap over there due to lira problems.
DeleteThey are currently probably the number 1 transfer airline in many ex-Yu markets
ReplyDeleteIn Bosnia and Macedonia for sure.
DeleteI wonder if they are number one in Serbia too.
DeleteI think it's Lufthansa, after all they have 4 daily flights, from June 5 when MUC gets the overnight flight.
DeleteThere was an article here in 2020 about the top connecting airline from Belgrade. Turkish Airlines was third. First was Lufthansa, second Aeroflot, third Turkish and fourth Qatar Airways. Adter that Etihad and Alitalia.
Delete*after
DeleteYes but that was for 2019. In 2020 TK became number one. Don't know what was the situation last year.
DeleteTrue
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/12/turkish-airlines-becomes-belgrades-top.html
Any airline growing in the region is good news. Hope they keep increasing frequencies and destinations.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping Anadolujet launched more flights from Ankara to ex-Yu capitals.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo is a no brainer.
DeleteAgree. I'm certain there would be demand.
DeleteVery strange they never consider to fly in SPU. Im pretty sure there is potential for more than seasonal flights there.
ReplyDeleteThey have considered it. I remember reading here how they planned to add SPU and were in discussions with the airport. But then Covid happened.
DeleteCroatia Airlines could have started this route and finally return to Istanbul.
DeleteHahahahahahahaha
DeleteIt would make sense. In my opinion they should have some similar agreement with TK as JU does so Croatia Airlines can fly a mid afternoon flight from Zagreb while TK keeps morning and evening flight. Plus codeshare.
DeleteWell this always was their area of interest.
ReplyDeleteThey are using AnadoluJet more and more in ex-Yu. Hope we get some new destinations with that too.
ReplyDeleteIzmir would be a good addition to all ex-Yu cities. I know Pegasus is starting Skopje, but Anadolujet could begin other cities in the region.
DeleteAnadolujet operates only domestic routes from Izmir.
DeleteThey do actually have seasonal Tehran flights from Izmir.
DeleteIzmir is primarily a Sun Express and Pegasus base. Turkish only flies there from Istanbul.
DeleteAir Montenegro will be toast on this route
ReplyDeleteHow many flights per week will Air Montenegro have between TIV and IST?
Delete4 weekly in April
Delete6 weekly in May
Daily from June
Not bad at all. Let's see how many flights TK does.
DeleteIt says in the article 4 weekly.
DeleteCan two airlines really work on this route?
DeleteI doubt it.
DeleteGood news about Tivat. TK should fly to secondary airports in the region more.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Flights to Split, Mostar or even Nis would be great.
DeleteIt is time for them to offer a second destination in Bosnia. I remember they were considering Mostar at one point.
DeleteTo me this route to Mostar seems a bit more suited for Pegasus.
DeleteThey will probably rather go for Mostar than Split IF they can receive (larger) subsidies at OMO.
DeleteSPU will never offer them any incentives or discounts.
I assume TIV will be seasonal?
ReplyDeleteLet's see. Not necessarily. Dubrovnik is year round.
DeleteGreat news. TK is back on full expansion mode. And I can happily report that TK onboard service (especially in Business class) is now fully back to pre-Covid levels.
ReplyDeleteYep there service is back to pre pandemic which is great.
DeleteTheir fares are reasonable and their service is excellent. Just have to look at the trip reports here.
DeleteOnce TK manages to stay safe and without a major incident or without accident for at least 10 years, then I will again consider flying on one of their aircrafts.
DeleteMany russians using tk from beg
ReplyDeleteNice addition for MNE. Although following the TK logic a bit, they are also focusing on secondary cities in the Balkans and not only their capitals. For instance Constanta flights resumed 4 weekly and Varna is now daily. I hope we see Split, Maribor or Ohrid added to their network soon.
ReplyDeletePegasus should introduce Niš-Istanbul S.Gokcen flight
ReplyDeleteThey can't. Part of the PSO tendering is that no other airline can operate the same route. So, since JU flies to Istanbul, no other airline can.
DeleteThat's convenient for Air Serbia...
DeleteIs TK the foreign airline with the best coverage in ex-Yu?
ReplyDeleteNo, Lufthansa has more destinations, thanks to the Croatian coast. It also flies more routes because it has bases in Frankfurt and Munich.
DeleteIt would be nice to see Anadolujet expand to ZAG and LJU too.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunate they won't be using any widebodies anywhere on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteSo they are (almost) reintroducing 3 daily to Sarajevo after a few years. Last time they did that one of the flights was from Sabiha because of capacity restraints at IST.
ReplyDeleteIn 2019 they planned third daily Skopje flight. They even put it on sale but then removed it. Don't know what happened.
ReplyDeleteThere are not a lot of options left for them - Tivat, Split and secondary airports in Croatia. That's about it. They already serve all the capital cities.
ReplyDeleteOhrid too.
DeleteIs Turkish Cargo still flying to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteGood to hear. Hope they eventually increase LJU too.
ReplyDeletethe Turkish govt funds them on such a mission of global expansion.... lucky for them
ReplyDeleteI really hope they will consider transatlantic flights from an ex-Yu country soon.
ReplyDeleteWe could have seen an even more massive Turkish expansion if it wasnt the fall of the lira.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Tuzla? Any plans for them to fly there?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteTK won the battle for TIV without even starting their operations. Air Mne unfortunately can not compete with TK financially and these are mainly Turkish passengers so they will naturally choose TK before an unknown foreign airline.
ReplyDeleteTivat flights make sense with so many Russians having properties in Montenegro. Belgrade transfer opportunities are limited and might be gone by the beginning of the summer season.
ReplyDelete