All markets in the former Yugoslavia have seen growing demand for flights to Saudi Arabia in the past year, as the Kingdom relaxes its visa entry requirements and opens up to tourism. The Saudi market, which counts over thirty million people, is also seeking new travel opportunities, with the Balkans proving popular with holidaymakers. Bosnia and Herzegovina has capitalised on these trends, with low cost carrier Flynas maintaining year-round operations from both Riyadh and Jeddah to Sarajevo. More recently, the budget carrier commenced seasonal services between Riyadh and Podgorica, with frequencies quickly growing due to strong demand. The airline is now considering introducing flights to Tivat next summer season.
Flynas also planned to launch seasonal operations between Riyadh and Belgrade this summer, requesting slots for flights between May and late September. However, due to staffing shortages, it cancelled the planned service along with several others. Saudi Arabia is one of Belgrade’s largest unserved markets in the Middle East, with Riyadh having the most indirect passengers between the two countries according to the global travel data provider OAG. It is followed by Dammam, Jeddah and Buraidah. Saudi Arabian Airlines had previously offered connections to the Serbian market through its codeshare on Eithad Airways’ service between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade, however, those were dropped once the Emirati carriers discontinued services between the two capitals in 2020.
On the other hand, Dammam saw the most indirect traffic with Croatia, followed by Riyadh and Jeddah. Earlier this year, the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, met with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, where the two expressed their readiness to boost cooperation in tourism and organise a Croatian - Saudi business forum. Saudi carriers have expressed interest in serving the Croatian coast. Riyadh was the most popular Saudi destination to and from Ljubljana, however, indirect traffic flow has been generally low, with a number of unserved Gulf markets from Slovenia well ahead of Saudi Arabia. An obstacle for travel to both Croatia and Slovenia remain visa requirements for Saudi citizens, which have been relaxed by both Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Saudi Arabia has begun offering financial incentives to airlines in exchange for operating unprofitable routes. The incentives are available to any airline, with funding coming from the country’s Public Investment Fund. The initiative forms part of the government’s Air Connectivity Program, which aims to better connect Saudi Arabia with the world, in a bid to boost tourist arrivals. The country wants to see over 100 million visitors by 2030, up from a projected twelve million this year. Under the program, a deal has already been made with Saudia to operate flights to Zurich and Barcelona.
Low cost carrier Wizz Air yesterday announced twenty new routes to Saudi Arabia, to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, from a number of European markets, with the airline to offer over one million seats to the Kingdom next year. Services from nearby Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary will be launched.
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Shame Wizz Air doesn't consider flights from any ex-Yu airport to Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteIf there would be open skies agreement they would.
DeleteAs an EU airline, they don't need anything to launch flights from Croatia or Slovenia to the Gulf.
DeleteFirst of all they would need a base in one of those countries.
DeleteI'm surprised there are no flights to the Croatian coast.
ReplyDeleteSaudis are not so interested in the sea and swimming on beaches. They prefer forests and greenery along the rivers, which they don't have in their country
DeleteIn B&H they are not even interested in history and will rather chose to go to Kravice or some another place with river, instead of Mostar Bridge.
DeleteIf Zurich and Barcelona are listed as unprofitable routes, I can only imagine what ex-yu routes are like.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Flynas will start BEG flights next year
ReplyDeleteBased on what?
DeleteBased on the fact that they planned to start them this year. Read the text.
DeleteWhy don't Flynas consider Ljubljana? I think there is potential for them on the route.
ReplyDeleteYou expect flights from Riyadh to Ljubljana when it took over 10 years to negotiate Flydubai's flight from Dubai... Reality check please.
DeleteI actually think tourists from the Gulf would enjoy what Slovenia has to offer. Both in summer and winter.
Delete@ 9:11
DeleteUndoubtedly. It's a huge difference to what they have at home and that's always interesting.
Did you read the article? Jeez
DeleteIt's interesting how Montenegro is managing to attract these exotic airlines. Air Astana last year, Flynas this year.
ReplyDeleteWell they have the coast and they are willing to relax visa entry rules.
DeleteDubrovnik would be a perfect match for these flights.
ReplyDeleteIn summer
DeleteIs it my impression or Wizz has announced no new routes from any ex-Yu airports this month (besides PGD-LTN)? They usually have done this in early August previously.
ReplyDeleteWhat does it have to do with flights to Saudi Arabia?
DeleteWizz announced DMM (which is actually in Saudi) to TIA yesterday and included no ex-Yu airport. Additionally, it has announced no new routes from any ex-YU base.
DeleteEventually more ex-Yu cities will get flights to Saudi as Saudi Arabia opens up for tourism. For now all these routes in Europe they are opening up are purely for Saudis to travel.
ReplyDeleteIt is a massive market that is slowly opening up and their citizens want to travel.
DeleteInterestingly Montenegrins don't need a visa to visit Saudi Arabia since they started their drive to open up the the world. But Serbs, Macedonians and Bosnians do.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Croatian, Slovenian citizens?
DeleteYes, it's visa-free for them too.
DeleteAll EU countries plus Norway, UK, Switzerland, Montenegro and Ukraine can enter Saudi Arabia visa free
DeleteNice although wondering how Montenegro got on that visa free list :D
DeleteMeanwhile Saudis need visas to enter all European countries.
DeleteNo, they don't need it for Georgia and Belarus. Also Montenegro gives visa on arrival (during summer) and I'm pretty sure it's the same case in Albania.
DeleteBosnia used to offer visa free travel to Saudis. But they revoked it. Don't know why?
DeleteHDZ party blocked that in B&H parliament.
DeleteEverybody apart GCC citizens needs visa to enter KSA. The visa is called evisa and can be obtained online for EU citizens, US, UK, Japan , Montenegro+ few other countries. Citizens of other countries need to apply in the nearest embassy. This is what it said at the KSA embassy website.
DeleteWho flies on these routes, especially from ZAG/BEG to Saudi Arabia? Is there business demand?
ReplyDeleteYes there is some business demand. Mainly by construction and development companies that win infrastructure projects there.
DeleteIn my opinion, if JU was to start operating flights (with feeders, so let's say at around midday) they could cover a few cities in KSA, Bahrain etc. But it's unrealistic for me thinking about FlyNas having flights to Zagreb for example
ReplyDeleteAnd JU could get subsidies from the Saudi government
Delete+1
DeleteThey would need 2 more a320, but it's viable
How long would the flights take?
DeleteFrom BEG to RUH, it should be around 5 hours as it is closer compared to DXB.
Delete6h ish? Depending om destination in KSA
DeleteThat would be a rather long rotation for JU standards. Don't see them doing it.
DeleteIt's perfectly viable of they want to do it, maybe pit back the old business class on 2 a320s and then do those more premium longer haul routes. The demand is there, especially with feeder flights
DeleteSome cooperation between Air Serbia and Saudi Arabian Airlines would be good.
DeleteGood to see there is some progress here. Hope we will see more flights soon.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that there are more passengers from Dammam to ZAG and LJU than from Riyadh and Jeddah.
ReplyDeleteRiyadh has more demand to LJU than Damman. Its a mistake. EX-YU even posted the numbers and Riyadh ones were bigger.
DeleteDoes anyone know how many frequencies are there between Tirana and KSA?
ReplyDeleteI believe Flynas had 5 weekly during peak summer season and I think Wizz announced 2 weekly flights from TIA to Dammam yesterday for next year.
DeleteNot bad at all
DeleteAnon 09:26 Wrong, during peak summer season it's daily RUH flights and 2x weekly from JED.
DeleteWhat about Macedonia? Why not consider Ohrid?
ReplyDeleteMissed opportunity.
DeleteIf TAV got off it a** instead of relying on Wizz Air for everything, maybe there would be flights.
DeleteFirst let's make flights to Dubai work first before we think about Saudi Arabia.
Delete^ True that
DeleteHave there ever been scheduled flights between Serbia and Saudi Arabia?
ReplyDeleteNo. They only established diplomatic relations 10 years ago.
DeleteSerbia opened an embassy in Saudi Arabia just a few years ago. Saudi Arabia is expected to open an embassy in Belgrade next year. Saudi Arabia also recently approved the import all sorts of fruit, vegetables and meats from Serbia.
DeleteInteresting. Thanks
DeleteI didn't even know we had an embassy in Saudi Arabia.
DeleteSince 2015.
DeleteWell if Plenkovic promised flights...
ReplyDelete... OU will start JED, RUH and DMM double daily starting next timetable hahahahahaha
DeleteHad they been smart they would have started DXB a long long time ago before the likes of Flydubai or Emirates were even on the horizon.
DeleteMy cousin who works in Riyadh used to constantly use Etihad connection to get to BEG. Since they stopped flying he has migrated to Qatar and says almost the entire community there flies with either TK or Qatar to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the recent incentives for new routes by Belgrade Airport that were published here recently will encourage some airline to launch these flights.
DeleteWould be great to have flights to Saudi Arabia. There is a growing Serbian community in Saudi, particularly working in the oil and aviation sectors. Also Energoprojekt has several ongoing projects in Saudi. I think these flights would also attract Saudi Arabian tourists to visit Serbia..
DeleteIdk about Riyadh, but heard that Jeddah is quite a beautiful coastal city. Interestingly, BUD for instance will be connected to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bulgaria, Kuwaitis usually visit Varna for some reason.
OTP should work for as it is a huge market.
Is the demand for the Budapest flights coming from the Saudi side or the Hungarian side?
DeleteWonder if all these new Wizz routes will work. Let's wait and see. Wizz has become notoruious for scheduling and then cancelling flights.
ReplyDeleteOut of 20 at least 10 will work and stay.
DeleteThey don't have the best track record.
DeleteWhy don't ex-Yu airlines consider flying to more Gulf states?
ReplyDeleteThey don't need to make their losses even bigger.
DeleteLosses on these routes would be covered by Saudi Arabia, as it says in the article.
DeleteIn the end, PRN will be the only major ex-Yu airport without Gulf flights.
ReplyDeleteSKP doesn't have them either.
DeletePRN should have used the opportunity to attract Gulf airlines now that they are not flying to Skopje.
DeleteThere is simply no demand. There was barely any to Skopje either.
DeleteThere is definitely demand for at least seasonal flights from KSA. So many of the tourists that arrive in TIA from RUH and JED continue on to Kosovo.
DeleteReally?
DeleteYes, really.
DeleteSKP is not in Kosovo last I checked. If so many Saudis are using TIA to reach Kosovo, then it makes sense for there to be flights to PRN, not SKP. You're making it sound like there is no airport in Kosovo.
DeleteIgnore comment above, I misread it.
DeleteSaudi Arabia is a huge market. Surely there is potential for these flights. Looking forward to their launch.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAirports in ex-Yu have to do something to attract these airlines. ex-Yu is mostly completely unknown in Saudi Arabia.
DeleteAbolishing visas for Saudi citizens will get you immediate flights from there.
ReplyDeleteThere is probably a reason why there are visas enforced.
DeleteActually the EU is looking to abolish visas for Saudi citizens.
DeleteHere is news about it just from last month:
Patrick Simonnet, the EU’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, has revealed that the bloc is working on a system that aims at visa-free travelling for citizens of Gulf countries. In addition, the ambassador has revealed that a new plan that aims at facilitating the visa process for Saudi citizens to be granted multiple visas is in the making and will soon be announced.
That's interesting. Perhaps we could see flights to the Croatian coast soon.
DeleteDubrovnik could work for Flynas especially looking at the new routes they launched this summer like Santorini.
ReplyDeleteA market Air Serbia should consider
ReplyDeleteI doubt there would be sufficient demand at this point.
DeleteSaudi Arabia is already a major tourist destination, which attracts way more travellers than Croatia or Greece. But it is not people who go to sea holidays or city break.
ReplyDeleteIt is not tourism, it is pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.
DeleteHahahahahahahaha, Saudi started issuing tourist visas year ago, till than there was no possibility to apply for tourist visa at all. One could have entered only on business, visiting relatives and for the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Maccah. Major tourist destination and more travellers than GR or HR I can just say big LOL
DeleteFlynas should add Belgrade at latest next year .
ReplyDeleteFrom the Serbian side, unfortunately you cannot expect any moves as they have come to a standstill .
I can remember the time when it was the opposite and they lifted visas fror Indians and Iranians ..
Saudi Arabia is untapped opportunity for Ex- YU in the area of knowledge transfer in several industries: oil & gas, IT, food production. It would be enormously mutually beneficial. Tourism should not be on top of the list of priorities for the sake of Saudis. Economic relationship that they had with West since 1971 and removal of US$ from Gold backing had very negative consequences for development of local knowledge based resources. In my opinion Saudis and Gulf countries and Ex-Yu countries would have huge synergies to develop mutually beneficial relationship.
ReplyDeleteYes you are right .
DeleteBut you know, its too early to do it ...
Lets do it next year .
Or the year after next year .
+1 Boris
DeleteI would love to see Saudia actually launch flights rather than Flynas.
ReplyDelete