Air Serbia has announced its second set of new routes for the 2023 summer season with the addition of four cities in Europe. The carrier will add Cologne, Gothenburg, Hamburg and Marseille. The four new routes will all be served three times per week with the exception to Marseille, its third destination in France, which will run two times per week. It will mark the first time Belgrade has been linked to the French city with a scheduled air service. The new additions to the network are in line with the carrier’s strategy to expand its operations with a focus on connectivity and leisure.
| Destination | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Hamburg | 15.05.2023 |
| Gothenburg | 18.05.2023 |
| Cologne | 18.05.2023 |
| Marseille | 20.05.2023 |
Air Serbia will resume operations to Hamburg for the first time since 2019. It initially launched flights to the German city on a year-round basis in 2016 but later downgraded the service to summer seasonal operations. It will compete directly against Wizz Air, which has since launched operations between the two city. Air Serbia will resume services between Belgrade and Gothenburg for the first time since it was rebranded in 2013. Up until then, Jat Airways maintained flights between the two. It will compete against Wizz Air on the route. The Serbian carrier briefly served the Swedish city from Niš in 2019. On the other hand, Cologne is one of Belgrade Airport's busiest unserved destinations and is operated from Niš. In addition to the abovementioned new routes, Air Serbia has previously announced the addition of Chicago, Catania, Palermo, Naples and Florence to its network in the summer of 2023. More new routes are set to be announced in the coming days.
Air Serbia has registered a strong performance during the penultimate month of the year, with the carrier handling over 200.000 passengers in November, while the average cabin load factor exceeded 80% for the most part. Considered one of the slowest months in the aviation industry, the Serbian carrier operated 2.536 flights, up 10% on the pre-pandemic 2019, while passenger numbers grew 15% on the same year. Its busiest routes during the month were Paris, New York, Zurich, London, Istanbul, Podgorica and Amsterdam. During the January - November period, Air Serbia handled over 2.5 million travellers, reaching 96% of its 2019 passenger levels.
Speaking at the CAPA Aviation Summit in Gibraltar, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “This year we really capitalised on the things we prepared during Covid such as cost optimalisation. We managed to bring our costs down by 25% and we completely changed our focus for the summer season where we put an emphasis on leisure and diaspora routes. We opened almost twenty new routes this year, which, for an airline of our size, is pretty aggressive growth and it performed well. Today we are in profit, both operational and net profit. In September we were a bit worried about the rest of the year, but we saw that the season was extended quite nicely, and we didn’t see the typical drop in demand, like the one we had in 2019. October was as good as September and during the first two weeks in November the load factor was over 80% which never happened to us before. At the moment, we will end the year with operational and net profit”.
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Ma bravoo!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a good result. Having LFs of over 80% is uncommon for most European airlines.
ReplyDeleteSo passenger numbers back to 96% of 2019 while the first 3 months of this year was almost completely loss due to travel restrictions.
ReplyDeleteWonder if the difference could be even smaller in December.
DeleteStrong comeback.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Its busiest routes during the month were Paris, New York, Zurich, London, Istanbul, Podgorica and Amsterdam."
Moscow?
I think they purposely don't want to mention it because of the bad publicity it will bring.
DeleteDefinitely. It's probably their best performing route in terms of yields. As it was reported in the article yesterday, they are send the A330 to SVO throughout November and December.
DeleteMoscow is not a busiest but over busiest.
DeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteI wonder what capacity they would need to fill the demand.
DeleteMy guess is 2-3 daily on A330.
For now the A330 scheduled on once per week from middle of December until the end of January. All on YU-ARC.
DeleteBecause the insurer does not let YU-ARB fly to Russia.
DeleteIt's scheduled 3-4 per week.
DeleteOthers have been sold out.
Not a good idea to send A330 YU-ARC to Moscow even if lessor allows it. Aircraft might get stuck in AOG situation. Will lessor/Airbus approve repairs? Using A330 is too risky.
DeleteI had a same question , Moskva ?
DeleteWait, so I'm reading comments by people here how the fares are so high and no one wants to travel yet their LF in the deadest month of the year is at 80%.
ReplyDeleteArmchair experts.
Delete@09,12
DeleteI've previously been quite critical of their fares but admit that lately they've had some great deals. They've also had some promo campaigns the past few months, just recently the Black Friday deals, also special fares from SJJ and OTP. More direct routes makes O&D travel alot easier. Short connecting times in BEG allows JU to be quite competitive on many routes which is also an advantage for them.
If they start replacing A319s with A320s then they are going to have more room for special fares. At this point, they need to start with the transition especially on busy routes such as Barcelona, Istanbul, Paris and so on.
Delete"At the moment, we will end the year with operational and net profit”.
ReplyDeleteMost important part.
Surprising considering the number of new routes they introduced and fleet renewal.
DeleteYes but remember most of the ATRs they replaced were owned by JU.
DeleteI'm sure they made some nice money from those new Tianjin flights. They have sold all of them out until the middle of January.
DeleteTianjin income will be in the books in respective months, not in November.
DeleteYeah, but those ATRs were so old the maintenance cost must have been sky high.
Delete@09,22
DeleteDC9's and B727's were also owned by them, it doesn't mean they should of kept them forever just because they were owned. It comes to a point where maintenance becomes costly. Fuel consumption would also be higher driving up the cost per flight. The older ATR's are in need of a new cabin which isn't cheap either. It's cheaper to go with new leases, which also have a higher capacity. The new ATR's seat 6 extra pax compared to the older ATR's allowing them to spread costs over more seats. Besides, the older ATR's are likely going for conversion to cargo aircraft.
Any chance they might load the four new routes today?
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed.
DeleteThey are here!
DeleteThat's more than some big european carriers. Kudos to JU!
ReplyDeleteAs a Slovenian, I wana say how much I envy Serbian people about this one.
ReplyDeleteI know it probably doesn't mean a lot to people who don't fly often, but to have a prosperous airline is something that I dearly miss in slovenia
+100 Agree!
DeleteWow Marseille is a nice addition!
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is going really hard on Wizz Air. If Wizz fights back that would be great for pax fares.
ReplyDeleteWe saw that Wizz can fight back, e.g. NCE.
DeleteI hope that JU will be more cautious about HAM and GOT this time because of a W6.
For NCE wasn't any fight, when Wizz enter JU cancelled flights immediately, without any announcement.
DeleteI would love to see new regional routes for the next set of announcements!
ReplyDeleteSo proud! Well done Air Serbia!!!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how will CGN and DUS work all together because they’re close to each other. Hopefully at least they offered different time schedule!
ReplyDeleteIt won't be the first case of routes operating in close proximity. TIV/DBV, TRS/PUY/LJU, ZAG/LJU, BLQ/NAP...
DeleteBLQ/NAP?
DeleteYou mean BLQ/FLR?
@13,47
DeleteHaha yes. Thanks for the correction:)
Finally flights to Cologne. Been waiting for years.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly Wizz announced BEG-CGN in their 2020 expansion that never materialized.
DeleteLet's hope Lisbon will be another destination from the Wizz expansion that never happened that Air Serbia picks up :D
DeleteThey are going after Wizz!
ReplyDeleteSeems like they want to chase them out of BEG.
DeleteWizzair want to expand in BEG, but...the reasons are now very obvious
DeleteThey are attacking each other all the time. Luckily the market is growing so there is room for everyone.
DeleteMaybe W6 wants to expand in BEG, but they just don't know how to do it...
DeleteMaybe they are also being limited...
DeleteI LOVE how you are here every other day to peddle this conspiracy. They can start flights to any airport inside the EU + Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
DeleteLimited...yes...in finding ways how to expand...
DeleteI wish they didn’t make the “100 routes by 100 years” commitment. It just opens the door for suboptimal decision making in order to not break their promise. They could have had the same internal goal but not make it public until the anniversary
ReplyDeleteWhy, its a nice goal and shows the airline is committed to having a go at being successful. I wish OU would commit to 40 routes by 40th anniversary.
Delete*why?
DeleteSo Belgrade now has flights to Paris, Lyon, Nice and Marseille in France. Nice!
ReplyDeleteYes and Paris is CDG and BVA.
Deleteyou forgot Mulhouse!
DeleteThey are growing like crazy.
ReplyDeleteInteresting additions. Mostly diaspora oriented this time.
ReplyDeleteExcept for Marseille.
DeleteWhich one?
DeleteRomanian
DeleteAccording to the Serbian government there live 200k Serbians in France. Mainly in Paris and southern parts of France in the area of Lyon. According to the city council of Marseile there live 524 Serbians in Marseile and 3300 Romainians. But Ryanair has already a flight from Bucharest to Marseile so they probably won't serve the Romanian diaspora. They will serve probably the Serbian diaspora in Marseile and southern France and ofcourse leisure travel between the two cities.
DeleteMaybe for turks if they offer cheap connections
DeleteIt can be also a transfer for Arabs if they restore Beirut and Cairo. Lots of Armenians live in France as well, so hopefully they're considering EVN.
DeleteLet's see how many of these will stick by summer 2024.
ReplyDeleteAre you the same guy who said it for BLQ, VLC, BCN, NUE, LYS etc...and guess what?
DeleteThey are still here.
Who cares if they don't all "stick". Some might not, but others will and they will continue to grow their profile to a point where they could all "stick" again in the future.
DeleteSo with those additions from the other day, they have new routes starting in April, May and June.
ReplyDeleteMajority in May for now, which is a nice change. They used to launch new summer routes almost exclusively in June.
DeleteLook at the 'new route launches' tab on the right between 15th and 20th of May :D
DeleteIt's a good way to reduce seasonality. It's been killing them for years now. Like this they are reducing it by a bit.
DeleteHeheh and I said yesterday GOT, CGN and MRS (after being corrected for NCE)!
ReplyDeleteI could open fortune teller agency :)
So Marek didn't lie when he told us the timeframe for new announcements. Nice to see the CEO bring so engaging and informing the media in advance!
ReplyDeleteWizz Air is doing really well on the BEG-HAM route with the A321. Let's see how they respond to this,
ReplyDeleteExactly! Flights are always packed - I was wondering why AS is sleeping on it!
DeleteWell like the text says JU did fly there until 2019 and failed. After 2016 route became seasonal.
DeleteGothenburg will do well with transfers to Croatian coast, Montenegro, Greece and Turkey in the summer.
ReplyDeleteMiddle East transfers too, when Middle East routes are announced ;)
DeleteTaking in consideration they opened MRS they must start now ALG :)
Deletehahaha ALG :DDDDDDDDDDD
Delete"Taking in consideration they opened MRS they must start now ALG :)"
DeleteI think two destinations in North Africa would be too much.
Tunis and Cairo only make sense for JU.
DeleteAlgiers makes sense if they can time it to offer connections to China. It's a huge market. Also, don't forget that Algeria and Russia are very cozy and Air Algerie flies to Moscow. Maybe it's not a massive market for them to exploit but there are things they can work around.
DeleteFor me Algiers makes more sense than Tunis.
Tunisia has traditionally very good relations with Serbia.
Deletewow so JU so far for summer 2023:
ReplyDeleteBelgrade-Catania - 14 April
Belgrade-Hamburg - 15 May
Belgrade-Chicago - 17 May
Belgrade-Gothenburg - 18 May
Belgrade-Cologne - 18 May
Belgrade-Naples - 19 May
Belgrade-Florence - 20 May
Belgrade-Marseille - 20 May
How many more new routes can we expect?
DeleteAnother 4 to 5 + some resumptions.
DeleteMeh, I was hoping for something more exotic than Gothenburg and Hamburg, but never mind
ReplyDeleteMRS, CTA, FLR, PMO, NAP… yes, that’s not exotic. Plus MLA and AGP.
DeleteMRS is quite exotic.
DeleteYeah but I was hoping for something like Lisabon, Caucasus, maybe a new Spanish route or something and in this round 3/4 routes are gastro routes out of which two are already operated by Wizz... Dont get me wrong, competition is great, but when you have such a strong and exotic start like four new Italian routes, you kinda hope that every next one will be new and exotic..
DeleteThey also added Malta, Malaga, Palermo, Catania
DeleteHow many aircraft will they have next year to sustain this network?
ReplyDeleteTradeAir will have a busy summer next year.
DeleteUnfortunate that they didn't go after Yerevan or Baku ...that would add a lot of transfers from Russia as well.
ReplyDelete* routes
DeleteIf they go for these, they will announce them together. Yerevan, Tbilisi and Baku all have great potential
DeleteAll 3 airports have good potential from Belgrade. Baku business, Yerevan transfers, Tbilisi turism. There are also many Russians moving around all 4 cities
DeleteIt would be nice to see Yerevan as an addition to the network
DeletePerhaps next Friday the last routes to announce?If they are 4 or 5 which cities will be ?
ReplyDeleteCairo, Tel Aviv, Beirut and Amman maybe??
DeleteThis Friday they launch Tianjin so I don't think they are going to announce them then. Probably next Monday.
DeleteThey said that in the next announcement they'll have "favorite summer destinations"
DeleteProbably meaning Greece. Following the principle applied to Italy, they should launch 4-5 Greek islands and discontinue charters to them in the summer
DeleteQuite disappointed I would’ve preferred Ryanair on these routes + PMO, CTA, NAP
ReplyDeleteYou are dissapointed with an airline expanding and adding routes. Ok...
DeleteTroll.
DeleteNice to see that unlike previous years these routes are all 3 weekly, except MRS.
ReplyDeleteI think that MRS might stay on seasonal basis and other routes will be reduced to 2x weekly throughout the winter.
DeleteI'm trying to figure out which one of these will be seasonal and which ones year round.
ReplyDeleteIs Belgrade airport well prepared for such a huge expansion especially when it comes to transfers?
ReplyDeleteI don't see any news about future aircraft orders and no, don't tell me "they still have time" and what about the pilot shortage in the industry? Are there enough pilots?
For small airlines with such huge expansions, things usually do not end up quite well. We all saw what happened with Blue Air.
Few probably remember how Vueling did the exact thing a couple of years ago and even Barcelona, which is a much more advanced airport had HUGE delays and cancellations and they were forced to cancel more than half of the new destinations.
I find this massive, sudden expansion with 20 aircraft, 7 of which are turboprops (nothing wrong, but they are just slower and smaller) very strange.
It makes perfect sense if Air Serbia was a huge airline such as Ryanair, who obviously can allow themselves such massive operations.
And the critical moment is July and August and it's when many people travel and they cannot allow themselves any significant delays. What about replacement aircraft?
For me, the most crucial part is the real preparation of a small airport such as BEG to cope with all this and don't forget about the existing routes, which are already successful.
As Russians say, Поживём, увидим.
I am not too worried because you have examples where a small airline made it. Look how A3 or BT started and where they are today. Furthermore, they are doing well on the financial front and that's what matters the most.
DeleteNow they just need to improve working conditions so that their employees (especially crew) stop quitting in large numbers.
I was expecting a comparison with BT and A3 but those airlines have twice as large number of aircraft. You still didn't reply to the most important parts: is Belgrade as an airport prepared for such a big expansion and where are the aircraft orders and pilot hiring? In case of missed flights or cancellation or whatever the reason is, the airport even lacks an airport hotel to accommodate the affected.
DeleteBelgrade Airport's expansion will be complete by summer with capacity to handle 15 million passengers. You think this expansion isn't being coordinated with them? Look at the archive. 2 years ago JU announced that when BEG expansion is complete they will announce a big expansion.
DeleteAs for hotel. Many airports don't have them. JU accommodates passengers with missed connections at Crowne Plaza which is less than 15 minutes from the airport.
DeleteAnd you think both A3 and BT started out with such large fleets? Of course not, they grew over 20 years to be where they are today. JU is following in their footsteps.
DeleteA gates are rapidly being renovated and by summer they should be ready. BEG added a lot of additional gates (airbridges and bus gates) so they will handle it without a problem.
Bigger problem is if they are going to find enough staff to handle all this traffic.
They are looking for employees in India. I guess they are about the last ones who are willing to work for them.
@11:50
DeleteSorry, but what kind of pathetic excuse is that?? Not only someone's flight has been delayed or canceled but they also have to travel to the city hotel and have to worry about if they'll miss their new flight again or not?
Belgrade has a horrible traffic during rush hours. Honestly that's so stressful and complete waste of time. I would personally reject the hotel and stay at terminal if there's no hotel across the terminal building.
Imagine no checked in baggage, middle of the night, I have only a passport and wallet with me, being a complete stranger traveling 15 min in the city area - that is simply unacceptable.
If BEG wants to develop their strategy and hub model, the hotel, supermarket and other services outside of terminal are a must, period!
You should really calm down.
DeleteI can never calm down with the Serbian way of thinking and with the method kako cemo, lako cemo, eno idite u hotel u gradu. We should think in favour of passengers and their comfort, not in JU's favour, remember that!
DeleteWell if heading to downtown is a traumatic experience for you then you can stay at the In Hotel that is just next to the Belgrade Arena. The airport is not more than 15 minutes from there.
DeleteThere are also hotels and air bnb's on the opposite side of the airport as well in Ledine. Public transport will get you there as well (bus line 72).
DeleteRegarding terminal capacity, prior to the massive renovation works by Vinci, capacity was around 7 million. Next year, capacity will more than double. And this is the first phase. The biggest problem BEG has is getting adequate and quality staff, however the salaries and working conditions make working at BEG really unattractive. Recently they have been trying to take on workers in Delhi to work in BEG as they struggle to find local workers.
@nemjee
I agree about your comment regarding crew retention. JU definitely need to work on keeping crew, especially those who have come from Middle Eastern carriers which could be quite valuable to JU.
Dear NEMJEE there is a big difference between A3 and JU . A3 is based in a major worldwide tourist destination while JU is not . That says it all. JU has a long -long way to be considered a "tough" player.
DeleteNemjee, a quick check online shows that even Riga, which is way much smaller than Belgrade has 2 airport hotels, one of which is Hilton.
DeleteMind you, their traffic is almost identical to that one in Belgrade as well:
https://www.riga-airport.com/uploads/statistika/10_RIX_Statistics_OCT2022.pdf
BEG - 4,696,126
RIX - 4,487,644
It's not normal to have hotels at protected mountain peaks and not at the region's busiest airport. Not normal, not usual, not sensible.
DeleteThey can always wet lease if needed. Not worried. Again, Im sure their marketing and sales team works closely with flight scheduling and ground operations and i’m pretty sure they know what they are doing. All these “educated” people in the comments are funny basing their opinions on really nothing.
DeleteHe started with insults and now he is complaining about getting some in return.
DeleteIf you call for argumented discussion, that you should be ready to accept other arguments and I saw some. You don't have to agree with them, but acting so furiously is exactly what you complain about.
Regarding aéroport, if I am not wrong, JU offers a transfer to the hotel (Crown Plaza), not just accomodation, so I don't see the reason for such a rage on AirSerbia (and Serbian "way of thinking"). Certainly missing a flight is not pleasant, but it's not like you are left alone in the middle of Surčin fields surrounding the airport.
And, whether Stadium is gonna be only a political pamflet we'll see, but claiming it is that right now when noone can give any counterargument (same like you cannot make any for your theory) is rather ignorant and , sorry to say but stupid!
Koliko exyu aerodroma ima hotel i supermarket? 0. Drama queen.
DeleteBut VINCI itself said that they will invest in retail area on the land between highway and terminal and restaurant instead of old ATC, hotel chain is also about to come. Sadly no one knows when will that happen.
DeleteI actually agree that a small hotel just outside of the airport to accommodate only delayed transfer passengers would be a great addition. It can operate under BEG umbrella and provide service to all airlines for a reasonable fee that would be less than what a remote chain hotel charges per night. As for its size / number of rooms, it would have to be part of analysis and operational projections. Offsite hotel is totally acceptable when there is an airport train link, and unfortunately, nobody in Serbia sees the need for it.
Delete21:37 The point here is not about "attacking". If you are going to build a hub, you will need the basics. Well trained on-ground personnel, effective and fast solutions for transfers and come on, even Tirana which is not ex-Yu has its own airport hotel. This is a basic fundamentality. It is strange a big, European city such as Belgrade does not have it. Let alone a railway or metro connection.
DeleteWell, I am sure that Vinci will first finish the expansion of the terminal before committing to a hotel. I don't think they need more construction especially now when they closed the roundabout in front of Terminal 1.It's pretty chaotic as is.
DeleteYou can't do everything at once. Large infrastructure projects take time to complete and everyone knows that. I am sure a hotel will be built at some point but downtown isn't so far away for it to be a necessity or a top priority.
By the way, most passengers who miss their connection arrive on the evening flights when there are no jams. If you miss a flight during the day then you are just rebooked on another flight via another airport.
Anon 00.42
DeleteWell, in order to have a metro connection to the airport your city first needs to have a metro system, something Belgrade doesn't. Also, I don't think having a hotel at the airport is a basic fundamentality. It's a good thing to have but it's far from being something fundamental.
But a hotel would improve on the services offered at BEG.
DeleteNo doubt about that and I am sure it's coming as soon as the airport's basic infrastructure is upgraded.
DeleteI am sure Vinci would build a hotel before terminal and runaway if they estimated it to be that big problem and such a priority. I agree it is important asset to the airport, but with 6 milion passengers a year, connection traffic still being minor part of total traffic, and even less of those who missed their connection, this is not essential.
DeleteIn this moment it would be nice if they offer some shower for the onew waiting too long and who don't have lounge passes. The closer they go towards 10 million the need for the hotel will grow and I am sure we'll see one in next 5 years.
By the looks of it, next expansion is going to be Poland, Hungary, Romania, then one regional one (Portoroz, Brac, Greece islands), and one in the middle east.
ReplyDeleteSo we could be seeing additional 12 or so routes yet to be announced.
Absolute massive expansion, they will need 30ish plane fleet for it
And interestingly who will operate the existing charters? Possible scenario is to find some old 737s.
DeleteIf they are smart they will take bluejets 737s
Delete@11,55
DeleteIf they are smart they won't take their B737's. Mixing aircraft types with a small fleet is really inefficient. Besides, LOT is taking their B737MAX's.
@11,47
Marek mentioned a few months back that they will be bringing in more A320's as the lease rates are quite favourable.
@11,26
It is a massive expansion but with low frequencies. They will need around 25 aircraft to maintain ops.
All eyes on Wizz. Will be interesting to see how they respond to all this. JU might be attacking them but so far they've managed to fight them off and defend their positions.
ReplyDeleteI would not be surprised if they expand their base by brining a 4th plane (A320/321).
However we have to see how BEG's growth impacts other airports that are in the same catchment area. Helps that BUD is struggling.
I do agree with you, but to be honest I do not see that (except for LIS) W6 could introduce any other destination that is already not covered by JU :)
DeleteLet's not forget that W6 is P2P company meaning they can't open some Romanian village to connect it with BEG while JU can do it due to the transfer passengers.
I really wonder which P2P destination remained in Europe for Wizz that could work - of course we are not talking here about some Finnish villages they tried to activate. Maybe only VIE, but they would have to fight heavily there against JU and OS...
Wizz can boost existing destinations as they are planning to do next year. They can launch Berlin, Milan, Athens, Seville, Vienna...
DeleteThat's why it remains to be seen how all this growth impacts other airports in the region.
Wizz launched BCN after JU so I don't see JU launching some flight as obstacle for Wizz. Quite the contrary, maybe they'll wait for JU to promote the destination and then just try to take it over. I guess with BEG fees they can't invest much in destination marketing so they'll wait JU to do that job, explain the people how Malaga/Naples are great and then offer them for 49 eur. We'll see.
DeleteIn Berlin U2 already lost against JU and I do not think there are so many passengers taking in consideration most of our diaspora is in Western Germany.
DeleteAlso they cancelled MXP once already and I do not think they would start it again (same like JU and HEL).
ATH - the same like VIE - difficult fight with A3 and JU, but less passengers than on BEG-VIE route.
Seville - too exotic for them. Let's not forget how cautious they were to start flying even to BCN before JU did it.
Maybe some Greek island during the summer, but what about the rest of the year...
Well they will have to expand sooner rather than later. Also with the 4th A321 they might come close to those major discounts offered by BEG. It's not unimaginable especially if they start attracting more and more passengers from the region (Bosnia, Romania, southern Hungary, eastern Croatia...).
DeleteHow will CGN align with DUS flights?
ReplyDeleteFrom the side view. It is now clear that JU management is aggressive and see opportunity to become regional powerhouse. I am not saying they will succeed but the fact they are proactive and not static is positive. They also seem to be fast in decision making process leading me to believe that the state is not interfering to that extent. There is a chance with a bit of macro/global developments luck that JU could slowly built (albeit micro version) of what LOT has done. It still amazes me how OU (i.e. western, progressive, EU competitor) is actually turning into less effective, mismanaged, old socialist style airline vs. current JU. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt not strange at all. Air Serbia policy is state oriented while OU is Eu oriented(Lufthansa)
DeleteIt will never be a micro-version of LOT.
DeleteSo it isn't today.
LO has approximately 2.5 more passengers which ain't HUGE.
Lot will certainly feel Air Serbia's expansion in places like Chicago and others that are coming.
I think Austrian Airlines will be the first to feel it. They will have just 3 weekly to JFK. They are obviously focusing on EWR where they have a partner. This shows that they are struggling at JFK.
DeleteSwiss will suffer most of ORD launch, they transfer every fourth person on BEG-ORD. Lufti the same but they'll cope.
DeleteI think they have 5 or 7 to EWR, can't remember now.
DeleteAir Serbia is not inspired by LO but OS. In the 70's and 80's Jat was bigger than Austrian and BEG had more passengers than VIE. Sanctions against JU and the country enabled OS to grow and took over JU transfer passengers from ex-Yu. Ironically, forcing Serbs to live in separate countries is now partially driving Air Serbia growth: links from BEG to ex-Yu region such as Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia etc. Diaspora in EU, US etc is also fueling Air Serbia growth. Air Serbia is taking back part of transfer passengers from OS and LH Group.
DeleteIndeed, I think OS has the most to lose over here and in my opinion there are several reason for that:
Delete1. Both JU and OS are fighting for the same market and their respective hubs are close to each other.
2. There is a lot of O&D demand between the two cities and JU is not giving up as we've seen by their recent boosting of BEG-VIE from 14 to 18 weekly flights.
3. OS is the bastard child of Lufthansa Group. Vienna's proximity to Munich is also making it harder for them to improve their relevance within the groupation. To make matters even worse, LH seems to be focusing on Munich especially now when their A380 and A350 fleet seems to be growing there.
4. Unlike LX, OS is not profitable and Lufthansa doesn't feel like investing a lot in their modernization. It's only now that they started receiving A320neos while still relying on very old B777 and B767 for their long-haul flights.
5. MUC, ZRH and even FRA have a relatively low LCC presence. Meanwhile VIE has turned into an LCC Central putting additional pressure on OS' yields. JU on the other hand has 'only' Wizz Air to worry about and since they are forced to pay regular fees they have lost their traditional advantage compared to their competition. BEG leveled the playing field.
6. BEG is modernizing itself and will be able to cope with all this growth. I was at the airport yesterday and it's starting to look really nice. A gates are progressing nicely and they are actively working on C15-C18.
7. Air Serbia is slowly starting to turn a profit and the strong local demand is helping with that. On the other hand, Austrian Airlines manages to post a profit but only before taxes and other charges.
I have a feeling that Vienna and Austrian Airlines will suffer long-term because of many different factors and some of them being the growth of LO and JU, proximity to MUC and even ZRH and the growing LCC presence at the airport.
VIE tried to be something to everyone and that's not possible. Someone has to lose in the end and at the moment it seems to be OS. We will see their results at the end of 2022, that will be very indicative of the direction in which they are heading. Personally I have a feeling LH is trying to cut as many long-haul flights out of VIE as possible. After all, let's not forget that Lufthansa already tried to replace OS with EW in VIE and the only reason why they didn't do it was because the Austrian government intervened.
+1
DeleteWell said Nemja.
Delete@Nemjee
DeleteExcellent!!!
Svaka čast!
Which destinations in Romania except of Cluj would have good potential? Iasi perhaps?
ReplyDeleteNot so sure if even Cluj has potential. Cluj has been mostly hyped here among the commentators. They should focus for now on OTP and increase frequencies.
DeleteCluj and Iasi in Romanis, Kishinev in Moldova. Those are short enough routes for an ATR meaning low expenses that allows for a lessser degree of O&D pax and and focus solely on transfers. Especially after the bankrupcies of airlines on Romanis it should be their priority to position themselves in those market, even though it might not bring instant profit
DeleteIasi and Suceava.
DeleteWe already discussed that there wont'be new routes to KIV because of aviation authority restrictions. The war zone in Ukraine is too close to KIV.
DeleteAny chances for KRK?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteStay tuned.
KRK and BUD might make a comeback next summer!
DeleteHope that they will return HEL… HAM and GOT are quite borring
DeleteI have heard the same for HEL...
DeleteKRK & BUD make sense, not many large markets left.
DeleteWhat about HEL?
DeleteIssue with HEL is that it's too far away, it was very difficult to schedule it efficiently so that it catches all connections. Also, unlike Oslo, there aren't that many Serbs over there to help boost yields.
DeleteThey should look at Bergen and Billund. I know Wizz tried Billund and failed but their loads were between 100 and 140 which would be decent for the A319. Add to that all the transfers they would carry and you could have a successful operation.
What the HEL?
DeleteStill nobody flies from Belgrad to any city in Finland or Estonia, is it possible there is no demand for it...
ReplyDeleteThere will be flights to Latvia starting from May next year.
DeleteThere is, airBaltic is stepping in from May, JU will codeshare flights to HEL.
DeleteMaybe BUD, KRK, RIX in the next round :)
DeleteNo RIX.
DeleteGiven the huge number of Serbian tourists on Brac I saw this year, I would not be surprised if they start with BWK.
ReplyDeletePerhaps daily flights to SPU and moving the start from late May to late March would be a good start. Having SPU as a year round route as well I see happening before BWK is launched.
DeleteIt's insane that SPU is not year-round yet. They could easily fill an ATR twice weekly.
DeleteThis is how my ideal JU`s regional network should look like next summer :)
ReplyDeleteI really hope I am right!
https://ibb.co/93QdkZp
Онда треба додати PVK, JSI и VOL.
DeleteMany things are right in-here except the too many Greek islands, absence of Ioannina and Suceava.
DeleteAlso Krakow and Kosice should be looked at.
Thanks for the map.
Greek island were added based on the 2021 charter network in Greece.
DeleteKrakow and Kosice were not part of the "reguon" bt definitely possible additions
Well, regional = reachable by Atr.
DeleteWhat about VIE & SZG on the map?
DeleteAnd GRZ
DeleteAnd IST, if we talk'in 'bout regional coverage.
DeleteAt this point, JU has announced 12 new routes, starting with Tianjin and Malaga. With all upcoming announcements and hopefully some positive developments in China, the number might even go up to 30
ReplyDeleteChina did announce that it was planning on relaxing some covid measures. With their international orders collapsing, I don't think Chinese industry can handle this global isolation for much longer. If they start opening up once again then hopefully JU can quickly respond before Hainan steps up their game.
DeleteYes, Egypt is so interesting. Getting scammed and harassed for money all the f time. Polluted, overcrowded and commercialised people.
ReplyDeleteEgypt has degraded a lot.
DeleteWas there 2005. Never again.
Delete200+ comments, impressive! Congrats for the author.
ReplyDelete