Qatar Airways to “expand and improve” Belgrade operations

Qatar Airways has said it is looking to strengthen its Belgrade operations in the coming period after forging closer ties with Air Serbia through a wide-ranging codeshare agreement, which is yet to be officially unveiled. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, the Qatari carrier said, “Belgrade is an important route for Qatar Airways, and the partnership with Air Serbia will definitely expand and improve our presence in the market in the near future and hopefully lead to more capacity. At this point we are still considering whether we will increase frequencies to Belgrade”. The company currently operates five weekly flights between Doha and the Serbian capital with the Airbus A320 aircraft, increasing to daily from March 26. Last week, Qatar Airways slightly shifted its arrival and departure times in Belgrade for the coming summer to enable better feed onto Air Serbia’s operations.

The codeshare agreement is significant primarily because it publicly illustrates a major shift in Air Serbia’s relations with Qatari rival Etihad Airways, which, up until 2019, codeshared on most of Air Serbia’s flights. Although the agreement between the Serbian and Qatari carrier is yet to be revealed, Qatar Airways will place its codes onto Air Serbia’s services from Belgrade to Niš, Podgorica, Tivat, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Ljubljana, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Hanover, Nuremberg, Salzburg, Bologna, Venice and St Petersburg. More routes are to follow. On the other hand, Air Serbia will also be placing its codes on its counterpart’s services between Belgrade and Doha, as well as numerous points beyond the Qatari capital. The deal comes ahead of the unveiling of Air Serbia’s codeshare partner in the United States.

Qatar Airways launched its service between Doha and Belgrade in late 2012 and despite strong competition from other Gulf rivals vying mainly for transfer passengers, it saw the fastest passenger growth on the Serbian market up until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Since Covid, it has benefited from Etihad Airways’ departure from Belgrade. The airline’s passenger growth in Serbia (57.082 travellers in 2017, 81.397 in 2018 and 97.815 customers in 2019) has followed the evolution of its service over the years. Qatar Airways initially launched four weekly flights from Doha to Belgrade with a stop in Ankara. However, the airline was not issued fifth freedom rights to sell tickets between the Turkish and Serbian capitals. In 2015, the Qatari carrier moved its stopover to Sofia and boosted services to daily flights. Despite applying for fifth freedom traffic rights between Sofia and Belgrade, it was again denied permission by Serbian authorities to sell tickets between the two cities. In 2016, flights were brought back to four weekly but became nonstop with the A320. Eventually, the airline increased frequencies to daily and began utilising its larger 182-seat A321 aircraft. In 2019, the carrier introduced an additional three weekly flights, for a total of ten (seven flights with A321 and three with A320), during the peak summer months. The coronavirus brought the carrier’s growth to a halt. Flights were suspended in March 2020 but resumed in July, with the A321 no longer used as the airline has only one left in its fleet with its imminent retirement expected.

Key to the airline’s growth strategy in Belgrade has been offering competitive transfer fares via Doha, as well as good cooperation with local tour operators for far-away markets. The airline has become the number one carrier with ethnic Serbian transfer passengers from Australia who visit friends and family back home. It pulled ahead of Etihad Airways in 2019 when the Emirati carrier significantly reduced its presence on the Australian market, downgraded its overall product and altered its departure times to Belgrade, eventually exiting the Serbian market in September 2020.