Tianjin has been revealed as Air Serbia’s first destination in China when the carrier launches operations to the country this October, pending necessary government approval. At a ceremony celebrating the launch of Hainan Airlines’ service from Beijing to Belgrade yesterday, which was also attended by Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić, said, “Air Serbia will fly to Tianjin, which is around an hour or less from Beijing, in north-eastern China. This a good outcome, as we will attract a lot more tourists and businesspeople but also bring China closer to Serbia, as I am certain a greater number of Serbian tourists, businesses and officials will use this service”.
The port city of Tianjin, which is Beijing's main maritime gateway, has a population of 13.9 million people. It is the fourth most populous city in China and the twentieth in the world. It is also one of China’s largest trade hubs, with a free trade agreement expected to be signed between Serbia and China towards the end of the year. There has never been a scheduled nonstop service between Belgrade and Tianjin, although several special charters were operated over the past year from the city to transport Chinese workers to Serbia. LOT Polish Airlines is the only European carrier serving Tianjin, with nonstop flights from Warsaw. The service was introduced in 2021. Due to China’s strict Covid-19 restrictions, the flights are currently maintained once per week with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
Tianjin Airport, which is the site of the Airbus A320 final assembly line, is one of the largest in China, handling 23.8 million passengers in the pre-pandemic 2019, of which 3.3 million were on international flights. Other than LOT’s Warsaw service, the airport has no other scheduled passenger flights to Europe, with the bulk of its traffic being domestic services. It serves as a hub for Tianjin Airlines, which is owned by Hainan Airlines’ parent company HNA. Air Serbia will utilise an A330-200 aircraft on its planned new service between Belgrade and Tianjin.
Wow interesting choice
ReplyDeleteThey have the option to acquire 3rd jet and go for Shanghai /Toronto flights.
ReplyDeleteMaybe in 2024?
They do, but probably won’t :(
DeleteSeems the choice of destination is driven by cargo a lot.
ReplyDeleteI mean I guess. I expected Shanghai just because it's more of a hub for air freight and since Hainan already registered for flying from Beijing which is literally nextdoor. But if they think they can make it work then go for it I suppose. I'm going to stay a bit sceptical for a year or two more. Cheers
ReplyDeleteHope it works out
ReplyDeleteShanghai makes much more sense.
ReplyDeleteIt does but they have their reasons and statistics…
DeleteHopefully they get a third widebody sooner or later and launch Shanghai and Toronto?
A330 300 does not have the range with full load
DeleteAre you sure?
DeleteA330-200 does, plus it's 7522km so 333 should be able to reach it too.
DeleteIf they were serious about cargo they should get A330-300.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they think there is ab untapped market considering LOT is the only European airline flying there.
ReplyDelete*an
DeleteCould be, but there is more to it.
DeleteAt least it's not Beijing. This is a smart choice, as the likes of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong would be.
ReplyDeleteThere is no need to go head to head with Hainan.
Shenzhen would be the best choice, as majority of Serbs in China live there.
DeleteHKG is better, since covers both the Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (Shenzhen) markets. Most passengers don't need a visa to Hong Kong, and there are plenty of easy and fast connections between HKG airport and Shenzhen.
DeleteThis is not the case the other way around. If they flew to Shenzhen, they'd be mostly limited to Serbian and Chinese citizens. Due to visa restrictions, going to Shenzhen first and then to Hong Kong is not viable for most passengers.
This is a wierd choice and it won’t work
ReplyDeleteWhy would it not work? Seems to be working for LOT which has been flying there for a year now.
DeleteIf it really does not work out, they could pretty easily change the destination to Shanghai or a different city?
DeleteQuite interesting and not expected. Shall see will it work
ReplyDeleteNobady flies Bejing Tjandjin its about 100 km, would be like flying Belgrade to Novi Sad
DeleteMaybe it wasn't their choice and it was the only option given to them by the Chinese.
ReplyDeleteSo they will fly to from the same city as Hainan - remember that the Hainan service starts in Tianjin and goes via Beijing to Belgrade. That's why it goes via Beijing, because even they can't generate enough point to point traffic. They at last have the right to fly domestically, so they can carry Tianjin-Beijing traffic. Air Serbia on the other hand, has no rights to fly domestically and therefore have to make this flight work on a point to point basis.
I loved the comments from people a few days ago when someone (obviously an insider) posted this news - only to be attacked by the usual negative remarks and hysteria.
Tianjin will take a very long time to make work - if at all. It is not a hub and as such, does not have any significant flights beyond, to allow feed traffic. This will need extremely deep pockets by the Govt to fund, what will be significant losses over many years.
The only hope here is that once we go back into a 'business as usual' post covid environment, the Chinese will allow Air Serbia to switch to a bigger and more well known hub in which to fly to.
Otherwise, this will be very painful financially
Misliš da u Er Srbiji nisu proučili sve mogućnosti i sa razlogom odabrali da lete do ovog grada? Kako LOT leti do tamo, ako već nema nikakvog smisla? Naprotiv, Er Srbija će imati gomilu transfernih putnika baš zato što će biti jedni od retkih koji lete do tamo.
DeleteHainan flight to Belgrade does not start in Tianjin. It starts in Beijing. The plane that arrived in Belgrade yesterday operated scheduled flight from Xi'an to Beijing before PEK-BEG under different flight number.
DeleteYes, before the Belgrade flight the plane operated Beijing-Moscow-Xi'an-Beijing (Xi an is their point of entry to China like Dalian is for Belgrade).
DeleteThey obviously planned everything well, and since they are one of few flying there, it will be very good for European transfers, and then there is Hainan for Chinese transfers. If it really does not work they could try and switch to Shanghai, or another city that might work out better.
DeleteKeep in mind Tianjin airport had 23 mil. passengers last year and Nikola Tesla Airport had a little over 3 million passengers. I think that is a pretty good feeder :) Air China is a major Chinese airline that uses Tianjin for their services. International airlines that use services of this airport: Air France, Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines etc.
DeleteIt could be advertised as "Beijing South-East", in FR style.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Same as Frankfurt-Hahn, which is 2 hours from Frankfurt a. M.
DeleteThere is no need to advertise one of the biggest cities on earth as anything else
DeleteYou are right, but how many people ever heard of it? Have you?
DeleteYes, I have. There have been several charters from Tianjin to Belgrade in the last few years.
DeleteWell, Tianjin is 35 minutes by high speed railway (the first HSR opened in China almost 20 years ago with 350 kph) from Beijing so technically they would not lie :)
DeleteGood choice. There will be lots of cargo, transfer passengers and construction workers.
ReplyDeleteBad news for LOT.
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahaha !
DeleteWhat's funny? Do you think LOT is flying to this city randomly?
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how LOT responds.
DeleteLOT flies to the more prestigious and super modern Daxing airport that building I like so much and not Tianjin which is a more secondary airport or maybe the Daxing slots are expensive for JU for the time being.
DeleteAre you blind or dumb?
Delete"LOT Polish Airlines is the only European carrier serving Tianjin, with nonstop flights from Warsaw. The service was introduced in 2021. Due to China’s strict Covid-19 restrictions, the flights are currently maintained once per week with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft."
@Anon 11:20 Read more carefully next time. They fly to BOTH Daxing AND Tianjin…
DeleteThey don't fly to Beijing.
Delete@Anon 15:03 Yes they do, make sure you know what you say is correct.
DeleteThose are suspended.
DeleteWonder what the schedule will be on these flights.
ReplyDeleteGovt owned, Govt funded - so they can do whatever they want
ReplyDeleteI am glad there are so many experts on here like you anon 10.10.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know what was the indirect passengers traffic from Belgrade to Tianjin ? Thanks .
ReplyDeleteTianjin wasn't even in top 12 of busiest unserved routes. Shenyang was 12th with just 540 passengers in whole year. Now imagine Tianjin.. way more logical would be Shanghai or Guangzhou.
ReplyDeleteDemand can be created. A bit of good advertising and liaising with Chinese travel agencies could work wonders to fill the passenger cabin (cargo being a given on this route). Don't forget that the Chinese will be hungry for travel after COVID and Serbia offers visa-free entry along with a few neighbouring countries. Plus, JU is well positioned as a transfer airline since it offers one-stop travel to most of Western Europe and, unlike LOT, has overfly rights for Russia.
DeleteYes, demand can be created, though the JU team had to have researched everything. Again if it doesn’t work, there is the option of switching to Shanghai or another, better city, and then if another A330 arrives in a few years, they can start Toronto and another, or many, Chinese destination/s?
DeleteThe only logic I see with Tianjin is perhaps cargo and the city's proximity to Beijing. Most of the cargo flights to China were heading to PEK. I don't think that Tianjin will remain as a destination, I am sure it'll be replaced the moment China eases their covid restrictions.
DeleteIt is not a point of "choosing the weird destination" it is a point of "taking what chinese gives you". JU applied for both Beijing airports but, as Hainan applied firdt, Hainan got the "covid" rights to fly from Beijing jurisdictial airports to Serbia and, as covid rules apply, no more than one airline can serve the same area. That means tgat JU had to choose Tianjin.
DeleteFor chinese not a big deal, high speed railway from Beijing to Tianjin is 35 minutes
Then why start Tianjin in the first place? Why promote it, spend time and money on the logistics needed to service these flights only to replace it with Beijing or Shanghai in the near future. Why not just wait for these two cities to re-open in the coming months?
DeleteThey probably think that it would still work out?
DeleteWell, it could actually work, like Krasnodar worked for JU. Tijanjin is like 3rd or 4th largest city in China, large port, very close to Beijing and with hi-speed railway. Yet, with very limited Euro connections. Why not give it a chance.
DeleteHow you mean why to advertise it? Because people from Beijing are ALSO going to use this flight to reach Belgrade! Capacity is very very limited (Hainan can fly only 160 people per flight due to Covid restrictions) so having one additional flight just 35 minutes train ride from Beijing will and can work.
DeleteIf only it were Daxing Airport instead. It would've been awesome!
ReplyDeleteNo chance. Hainan took covid rights for Beijing "municipality" so JU had to go somewhere nearby. Tianjin is logical choice as it is 35 minutes train ride from Beijing
DeleteNice! What about Melbourne and Sydney via Singapore?
ReplyDeleteWe wait for OU to offer it.
DeleteTianjin is a weird typo. Surely they meant Toronto?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they secured incentives from the government to go for a secondary airport and improve their European connectivity. Don’t think they would get any support for launching well connected hubs like Shanghai/Beijing. Might work but I’m rather skeptical.
ReplyDeleteIt's afterall a VERY big city.
DeleteI guess slots at PVG could have been an issue too. I remember negotiations with another carrier trying to get slots at PVG and got no good ones, so they decided to operate to CAN, where they are still today. CAN is their only dest in China
DeleteTianjin is a nice city, by train just 30 min fm Beijing and quickest train to Shanghai takes just 4h03min
Greatwall is near Tianjin. Dalian is also not too far. Lets wait and see how all develops, especially with Covid and all the Great Reset agenda
There must be some wiered logics behing this decision. If it is for passengers, point to point, people from Serbia fly mosty to Beijing and Shanghai. For transfers, maybe they want to try to feed the whole regional network with the generally underserved big Chinese city (along with LOT). If it was only for cargo, the route wouldn’t have any sense. We will see, there is also a
ReplyDeleteCovid element here - maybe they will switch at some point.
Look, I used "old" Beijing airport and to reach downtown it takes you between 45-85 minutes. You can take direcr bus line or train+subway. Both ways are time consuming. Did not try Daxing but it is even more far away. So, using Tianjin airport and going with subway to Tianjin main train station, then 35 minutes train ride and one additional subway ride in Beijing does not sound much more time consuming. You have ONE additional subway ride and you still reach Beijing. It is funny how high speed railway makes distance places nearby :) i mean, Tianjin is 170 km from Beijing and airport gate-Beijing hotel is not more than 90 minutes :)
DeleteAbsolutely disappointing choice .
ReplyDeleteShanghai would be even better than Beijing, but Tianjin ?
As far as my insiders told me, as soon as they get "right" to open additional routes they will go for Shanghai. In total Hainan+Air Serbia+Air China should serve 5 different (?!?!) routes from Mainland China with up to 14pw flights
DeleteAir China will come too?
Delete@anon 20:26- yes. Demand is exploding on China-Serbia market mostly by rotations of chinese workers and chinese tourists. All three applied to chinese directorate, Air China applied on Friday for Shanghai and Guangzhou, lets see the answer.
DeleteProblem is still very strict covid policy regarding entry/exit to China. As soon as measures are more relaxed flights should go to 14pw for all destinations. In general, JU did a calculation and SWOT and they could dry lease up to 3 A330 only for chinese market! However, still too big fish to fry for them, but third A330 is coming very soon after the second goes into service.
Nice to see Belgrade airport adding new routes and growing. How many passengers Belgrade had in June?
ReplyDeleteTSN 2X
ReplyDeleteORD 3X
JFK 1X
Ovo bi mogle biti rotacije novog A330.
TSN (4,6)
DeleteORD (1,3,5)
JFK (7)
Can't be done. ORD will be 2pw.
DeleteDok traje C check prvog A330 rotacije ce biti 2xJFK i 2xTSN. Kad prvi A330 dodje sa checka rotacije sa dva A330 idu - JFK 7pw i 8pw kad je high season, ORD 2 pw i TSN 1 pw. To je scheduling za sad isplanirao. Sta ce se jos dodati i na kokim ce evropskim linijama A330 da se koristi videcemo. Ali od SS23 interkonti idu 11pw sa dva A330. Kada dodje treci A330 ide se na jacanje Cikaga na 6-7 pw i jos jedna kineska destinacija.
DeleteE da, i pored jos jednog A320 dolaze jos tri nova ATR do SS23 da bi imali 8 novih ATR
DeleteVerujte mi, ovo je vise pritisak Vincija nego zelja JU Vinci zahteva od JU minimum 5 (?!?!) long-haul aviona da bi se sto brze povratila investicija.
DeleteDva dnevna leta za NY wow
DeleteInteresantno, nadam se da ce sve to ostvariti
DeleteBravo Hrvatska! Gledajte i sramite se : Vlada, OU, ZAG, Agencija, Turisticka zajednica, i svi lopovi koji ste zbog malih sitnih osobnih interesa propustili priliku jos pred 10 godina ovo napraviti u Hrvatskoj, koja sa Kanadom, Korejom, Japanom, i naravno SAD i Kinom ima vise potencijala za ovako nesto od Srbije. A JU, BEG, Vinci i svi ostali koji ovo radite, sesir dole i naklon do poda! I nadam se da cete dobar dio putnika sa long haula voziti i u Hrvatsku, koja bolje od ovog sto ima i ne zasluzuje
Delete@Anon 23:02 So they don’t plan Toronto/YYZ? And can’t they do ORD 5 pw at most considering TSN is 1pw?
Delete@Anon 23:02 Ako će TSN 1, a ORD 2, šta će biti naredna tri dana? Zar nemože ORD maksimalno 5 nedeljno?
DeleteNema smisla TSN sa jednim nedeljnim letom,neće privući ni jednog transfernog putnika.
ReplyDeleteThis is not some business decisionsć, but simply restriction imposed by the government, so noone has more then 1 flight per week. In this sense, transfers will be impacted with low frequency for AirSerbia the same way like they will be for any other company.
DeleteSorry to hear that. I was hoping for Shanghai. So I stay with Qatar Airways.
ReplyDeleteShanghai will come sooner or later, I am sure.
DeleteIn the same time i am happy to see some "different" destinations that do not have many alternatives like Shanghai does.
I think China has a potential for at least 5 routes from Serbia in the next 5-10 years, so exciting time is ahead of us.
With many Chinese cities populations larger than most European countries, any city you fly to will be a bigger market than you think. Plus the majority of leisure travel is group travel, so the airport you fly from is less important. For many Chinese travelling to Serbia is a new experience due to the positive exposure the Chines government pushes compared to Western Eurorpean nations at the moment
ReplyDelete