Regional airports are increasingly hoping to attract Emirates as the airline prepares to take delivery of new wide-body aircraft next year. Belgrade and Sarajevo are eying operations from one of the world’s busiest international carriers, while Zagreb is aiming to see the company restore flights to Croatia. However, competition is growing with Greece inviting Emirates to consider the possibility of launching flights to Thessaloniki, which would continue to New York. “Residents of Balkan countries prefer to travel abroad through Thessaloniki. The airport currently connects to several cities across the Balkans including Belgrade, Zagreb and Tirana. The potential is great and would contribute to establishing Thessaloniki into a hub for the Balkans”, the Greek government said.
Annual two-way Dubai capacity, 2023
The President of Emirates, Tim Clark, said this June, “In terms of network, when the A350s come in, then Emirates will look to new African, European and American destinations with those aircraft. I have fifteen to twenty new destinations which could come immediately to my mind. It is a good airplane, the A350-900“. Emirates is due to take delivery of its first A350-900 next year, while the much-delayed 777X is expected to come into service in 2025. Emirates' Chief Commercial Officer, Adnan Kazim, noted, "We have a line-up of aircraft that will start to come into the fleet in August 2024. We have an order for fifty A350s, which will start entering the fleet in the next financial year, and the delivery of those will be completed over three-and-a-half years. Those fifty aircraft will be divided into two different sub-fleets. One for regional operations within a range of seven-eight hours and can reach places in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The second sub-fleet of the A350s will head towards destinations that are more than ten hours from Dubai",
The Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brabić, held talks with the Founder and CEO of Emirates, Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, in Dubai both last year and this February. The meetings are said to have been successful with the Emirati carrier previously having studied options of introducing flights to the Serbian capital. On the other hand, Sarajevo Airport previously said that existing operations from Dubai, maintained by hybrid carrier Flydubai, could be further expanded with Emirates’ arrival. “We sincerely hope that a respectable airline such as Emirates will consider and accept our offer in order for us to commence negotiations. There is strong demand and potential between the UAE and our country. Flydubai has been our partner for many years, and we have excellent cooperation with them. In the coming period, we will work to further enhance our partnership”, Sarajevo Airport said. Emirates has also conducted a feasibility study on operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, showing solid, albeit highly seasonal, demand in both the premium and economy cabins.
Emirates discontinued flights to Zagreb in 2020 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the airline said that while it is recovering quickly from the pandemic and capacity should return to pre-Covid levels next year, no final decision has been made concerning its Zagreb flights. “We hope to restart our operations in Zagreb when it is commercially and operationally feasible to do so in the future, and we will make a formal announcement if there are any developments in this regard”, the airline said.
BEG should have a mix od EK and FZ, it would be amazing to have the 777 as a regular.
ReplyDeleteNot many European destinations get both EK and FZ flights.
DeleteBUD and VIE do.
DeleteVIE does not. EK 2 daily.
DeleteBUD, PRG, WAW
DeleteWhat's the point flying to Zagreb? Vienna is 300 km away and do is Budapest
DeleteEmirates has a huge number of aircraft on order and will eventually have to factor in more cities in Eastern Europe into its plans. Hopefully we see more of them at our airports soon.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThat's A LOT of capacity between BEG and DXB.
ReplyDeleteIt's basically a daily B777.
DeleteWhich means that demand is not a problem but probably filling premium cabins on an EK B777, primarily first class.
Delete@anon 09:03 Yup, the thing with the Middle Eastern carriers is that they basically rely mostly on the premium seats, a big reason why QR hasn’t sent it’s wide bodies yet. If the demand for business goes up i’m sure both emirates and QR might potentially send wifebodies
DeleteIf EK is not sure about demand in premium cabins why don't they link two cities? DXB-BEG-SJJ or DXB-ZAG-BEG or DXB-SJJ-ZAG?
DeleteTo add, they have been flying Dubai-Larnaca-Malta for years.
DeleteCould you include capacity to Thessaloniki, Tirana, Sofia, Budapest and Bucharest in the table?
ReplyDeleteI can tell you for Thessaloniki that it is 0. There are no flights between Dubai and Thessaloniki.
DeleteTirana - 61.752
DeleteSofia - 102.037 (Flydubai and Wizz Air during Q1)
Bucharest - 285.974 (Flydubai and Wizz Air)
Budapest - 457.097 (Flydubai, Emirates and Wizz Air)
Wizz is only flying BUD-DXB, Sofia and OTP are AUH
Delete^ not true. They fly Bucharest-Dubai on Tuesdays and Saturdays. And like admin wrote they flew SOF -Dubai during the first quarter.
DeleteFZ will operate to DXB 3 daily I think this winter because of the increasing number of Asian workers in Romania that usually make a transfer via DXB. DXB is quite popular in winter in SOF, Bulgarians bought properties over there according to the media but similar to BEG AUH is getting more popular. TIA will definitely be the star of the Balkans very soon. Impressive growth. BUD airport is growing but a bit more conservatively. It is strange there are no SKG-DXB flights but Arabs usually do not like the beach and prefer places like BiH or crazy for malls and parks and expensive hotels. Just different mentality.
DeleteBEG and SAJ could easily get a few weekly Emirates flights, while ZAG and LJU could maybe work in some kind of exchange way like Monday and Friday to LJU and Wednesday and Sunday to ZAG. And even in SAJ could see one or two Emirates per week
ReplyDeleteSAJ?
DeletePogledaj tabelu gore..vidjeces ....koliki je broj putnika za Sarajevo.
DeleteMa lik se zabunio dva puta, pusti ga, piše se SJJ.
Delete“Residents of Balkan countries prefer to travel abroad through Thessaloniki."
ReplyDeleteLOL. The Greek government is smoking something.
Everybody wants to be a hub for the Balkans
DeleteMy thoughts exactly
DeleteWell if there was a service SKG-NYC by Emirates I would take it in a blink of the eye compared to hassling through Belgrade and depending on Air Serbia superior "delayed" service.
Delete^ You have ATH-NYC with Emirates.
DeleteWhy wait for SKG when you can transfer on numerous other airports now?
Delete@Anon 09:23
DeleteHe is not waiting, he says that if he had the option of flying to NYC with EK from SKG he would prefer it to BEG and JU.
Come on guys don't be mean , this is great for the passengers, they are gonna have more options for flights to New York depending on the price of course .
DeleteIf you had ever been to the SKG, you would know that this is true. I flew in June via Thessaloniki and there were at least 20 passengers from Macedonia on that one flight.
Delete@Anonymous09:13
DeleteYou really didn't think it through. If there was service by EK from SKG to the US, it would mean you would have to buy a ticket on a separate airline to get to Thessaloniki (Air Serbia). You would still have to go to Belgrade, go through the lines, then you would then have to clear immigration in Thessaloniki, pick up your luggage and check in again. On top of that, it is likely that your flight out of Thessaloniki to New York would not connect well on your Air Serbia flight, meaning you would have to wait for hours. And then do it all on the way back too. Yes, truly hassle free experience.
Hahaha Hellenic government said that Balkan people like to travel from SKG and that is why they have flights to the region among which are those to BEG.
DeleteNewsflash: those flights to BEG are operated by JU which is bringing Greek passengers so that Belgrade grows as a hub even more.
Someone please inform the Hellenes that they need to revise their arguments. lolz
And how will you arrive to SKG? Via Belgrade or driving 5+ hours. I suggest taking a donkey ride to avoid any hassle with Belgrade and AirSerbia. Bon voyage !
DeleteAnd why @ anonymous 10:25 should the passengers be Serbians ? SKG has a lot of catchment area to serve for flights to New York . Albania , North Macedonia , Bulgaria and of course the north part of Greece. And they can enjoy a much better product than JU.
DeleteAnon 10.36
DeleteI am speaking about Serbs because the Hellenic government mentioned us, for them Serbs and Serbia are one of if not the key regional market. I am sorry if you dislike that fact.
Also what product that is better than JU? I am asking because we don't know what we should compare JU to? I mean Thessaloniki doesn't have any long-haul flights right now while Belgrade Nikola Tesla is connected to Chicago, New York, Beijing and Tianjin.
Family friend flew from BEG yesterday, passport control took 10 minutes to clear and there were no lines at security. This was during the morning wave. All passport booths were active so the line was moving rather fast.
DeleteObviously that problem has been resolved.
Also please be mindful of the fact that SKG has minimal service and pathetic connectivity in winter months. You need to be competitive the whole year, not just the three months when your flights are filled with Brits looking for a sunny beach to get drunk.
@anonymous 10:43 I was reffering to the great long haul product of Emirates .
DeleteThe Greek govt seems to be hell-bent on selling SKG to EK, but it just doesn't make sense. In order to get to SKG from Belgrade, you either need to board a JU flight or drive 7+ hours. I am pretty sure JU will not be feeding NYC from SKG (they can easily prevent this by tweaking the flight schedule to make it impossible to connect within a reasonable time-frame) and I'm not even gonna mention the diligence of Greek border police officers at land border crossings which can make you miss your flight. Unfeasible.
DeleteThey can try to promote it but I don't think it will happen. There isn't much demand in SKG outside the tourist offer. Just look at how weak winter numbers are and they are even worse if you remove domestic traffic.
DeleteIm afraid that Greeks will do it again and EK will fly to SKG soon..
DeleteCorrect me if I am wrong, but it was my understanding some years ago US regulators were not looking to encourage ME carriers to offer increased numbers of ME-USA flights with a stop in Europe?
DeleteAnd I also believe that SKG will make it . Maybe not with Emirates , it might be with Qatar airways .
DeleteWell it's good that they are focusing more and more on the region which was a black hole for them just 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to see that LJU has already surpassed ZAG in capacity.
ReplyDeleteOnly goes to show how much potential there is in LJU and that more and more airlines will keep on coming. I am sure QR will also come at some point.
DeleteThere are more and more talks anout Etihad coming
DeleteWho is saying anything about Etihad? First time hearing about it
Deleteheard that too!
DeleteAnd I wonder where are you guys hearing this!
DeleteFrom friends working at fraport
DeleteRumor mill in DXB is that EK is starting BEG next year and returning to ZAG. But there is always this similar crew talk so who knows.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand one thing. Zagreb had Emirates service when it had 3 million passengers, and Belgrade still doesn't have it although it'll handle 7 million passengers this year? Vinci, do your homework properly please.
ReplyDeleteThey don't choose destinations based on the number of passengers the airport handles. Anyway, it does seem that they didn't calculate well in Zagreb considering it was their only seasonal service in the network.
DeleteThey are busy hauling buckets through the new terminal to collect rain water after every rain. Also very busy at controlling traffic in the kiss&fly zone so that you spend more than 15 minutes in it.
DeleteZagreb had more premium pax ...
DeleteWhen Emirates was flying to Zagreb they were servicing mainly the Asian market who like to fly Business, so their business offering was almost always full. This is why Emirates has not come back to Zagreb and will likely not until Asia recovers.
DeleteYou have the table above where you can see that LJU has more seats than ZAG to DXB. This is best proof that EK in ZAG survived thanks to Asians and Slovenes.
DeleteNow that Slovenes can fly from LJU there is no reason for them to go into Croatia. EK knows this so both markets will be served by FZ.
And all premium demand from ZAG can enjoy FZ's award winning business class.
^^
DeleteSlovenes constitute small %g of Zagreb's total flights, even on Emirates and now on Qatar, Turkish and other airlines. Slovenes use Zagreb for flights to London, this is most popular route for Slovenes out of Zagreb, followed by Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Dublin. Barcelona and Madrid in summer months. Asian market is still dead atm, recovery is slow and once it recovers Korean Air, Emirates, JAL and others will return. Air Canada is very likely to return in 2024 at the latest in 2025, and high probability one of major 4 US airlines will also come by this point. Croatian passport holders no longer need visa to enter US, which eases things when traveling to US. And therefore more passengers from Croatia and Slovenia could use same service option of catching US/Canadian flights.
Croatian passport holders still need visa for China and few other places, but once that eases, China direct flights will be possible. However Croatian passport have visa free access to Taiwan, all of South East Asia (excp. Burma) Japan, S. Korea, in fact 177 countries across the world.
Is Asian demand really still low? I keep on seeing more and more flights from Asia being added to various European airports. Just the other day Air China resumed PEK-MUC after many years. Asian demand is obviously improving, we need to ask ourselves tough questions like why is Zagreb being overlooked?
DeleteWith Ljubljana having direct Dubai flights and Belgrade having FOUR TIMES Zagreb passengers on Dubai route, it is clear where the sustained demand is. EK to ZAG was supported by tourist promotions.
DeleteEmirates are smart to recognize first class is not needed on aircraft that will serve destinations like Belgrade. With Dreamliner being postponed, once A350s start arriving I expect EK to launch Belgrade before any other EX YU destination.
Anonymous12:16 - yet business class in LJU-DBX is always full ... and its not just about slovens that used to fly from Zagreb, there were many others using Zagreb to reach Slovenia
DeleteYes, a significant number of Slovenes do use Zagreb, not only because of the offer but because for many Slovenes Zagreb is closer than Ljubljana. Even more so now when there are no borders. EK was counting on them and they openly said so when they were first arriving.
DeleteOther than that, the difference between Ljubljana and Zagreb is minimal, despite ZAG having more QR than FZ flights and we all know that both Doha and Dubai are largely transfer points.
With respect to Dubai specifically, the numbers at ZAG are still 50% down compared to 2019.
Once the Asian market recovers properly, EK will likely return to ZAG. Croatia used to have large number of Asian tourists, mostly from China and South Korea and they are yet to return.
Australia has also opened up very recently and the Croatian diaspora is quite large in Australia and New Zealand.
Basically, it's safe to say the only airports in ex yu that will have EK any time soon, are ZAG and BEG.
Its interesting that Zagreb is down almost as much as ljubljana has capacity ...
ReplyDeletewhen flydubai sterted flying to Ljubljana, CEO or someone said their main goal is to bring EK at one point.
DeleteBelgrade is ready for daily 777 flights
ReplyDeleteLjubljana and Zagreb not so much - maybe when 787 arrives 4x weekly to ljubljana and 3x weekly to zagreb in the winter, and the opposite in the summer
Are the EK 787s a sure thing? I know they have an order but I'm not sure how committed they are to it.
DeleteAgree with you
With Emirates not a single order is a sure thing :)
DeleteAs ann 9:41 said - with Emirates not a single order is a sure thing, my gut feeling says that their 777x order will be canceled if Boeing announces another delay, but with 787s, there wasn't much talk about canceling them (whilst there is a lot with 777x) so my best guess is that the order is concrete
DeleteThanks. I guess we will know soon, not too long before they are due to arrive.
Delete787s are due to arrive in 2025, if im not mistaken, and then it takes them at least a year until they are fully operational. My best guess is that the earliest any of our region sees them is in 2027
DeleteThey are expected to announce a major plane order at the Dubai Air Show this Novembe.
Delete@ 9:41
DeleteCare to expand on your comment? Why "With Emirates not a single order is a sure thing" and then a smiley face, as though you're being ironic??
You cannot passively imply that a world-renowned airline (and the world's largest A380 operator) is somehow unreliable without providing more insight. How many orders have they cancelled? Where is this perception of yours (or, perhaps, it was merely a poorly-tasted joke) coming from?
I cannot stand when people throw out a comment, just for the sake of doing so, and tarnish years of reputation without providing any arguments or facts. Your personal perception (which this barely even is!) is not a fact.
@ 9:41 & 9:43
DeleteI would turn your comments around and say: with Airbus or Boeing not a single order is a sure thing. It's them who are unreliable while Boeing, with their 777X, is also grossly incompetent and severely mismanaged.
@10:26
DeleteFirst they cancelled 20 A340-600, then 10 B747-8F, 70 A350 (both -900 and -1000), cancelled 40 B787-10, most of its A380 order in 2019, 40 of A330Neo, reduced B777X from 150 to 126 and then to 115 and switched from -8 to -9. It is no wonder why they are waiting so long for new aircrafts when they cancel/order new planes each 2 years.
Thanks for providing these interesting statistics. Often dispels a lot of myths some people have on here.
ReplyDeleteGulf carriers keep sleeping on SKP, the real and only potential Balkans hub, with their strategic location and the hub of WizzAir and soon Aegean with two turboprops
ReplyDeleteHahaha
DeleteI don't think that you show the proper respect for the second largest metropolitan area of our region! 😁
DeleteOn a serious note, if not mistaken SKP was the first one to be connected to DXB with FZ and at one point both QR and FZ had flights whereas now no connection to the Gulf....
DeleteBelgrade was their first destination in the region when they kicked Jat out of the market, I think it was in 2009.
DeleteIt was November 2011. FZ didn't kick out JU, JU literally handed the route over to them.
DeleteThey literally kicked them out because JU would still fly to Dubai if FZ did not show up with their own nonstop flights.
DeleteFZ didn't kick JU out. JU stopped flying to DXB with the start of the winter 2011/2012 timetable (October 2011) while FZ started almost a month later. DXB was amongst JU's most profitable, if not the most profitable route. JU had an SPA agreement with EK for transfers via DXB, as well as 5th freedoms between both BEY/LCA and DXB. JU had some under the table deal to cancel the route which is why they cancelled it.
DeleteI recommend Pristina
DeleteI think next for Flydubai in ex-Yu will be Pristina or Split.
ReplyDeleteFlydubai is an airline not an collector of rare objects or destinations.
DeleteDon't get all this obsession with EK from Dubai.
ReplyDeleteIt is one the world's most valuable and best known brands. Of course everyone wants them to fly to their airport.
DeleteHaving EK flying to your county is a sign of economical growth and/or tourism potential
Delete^ They flew to Kabul, Afghanistan before the Taliban took over and I don't think it was a sign of growth and/or economical potential.
DeleteI guess that's why they struggled in ZAG. I think FZ is a better option for them for the time being, especially with FZ going crazy in LJU.
DeleteKabul like Mogadishu are high revenue destinations because there aren't that many options to get there so airlines can charge whatever they want, like TK in Russia for example.
DeleteThey have huge networks, so you could basically fly everywhere in the world with just one stop + in my experiences they have much better products in both economy and premium than European carriers (not to mention US ones) and the service in general is also better.
DeleteFood, legroom etc. isn't as good as it was before. Only thing that sets EK apart is their entertainment system. Makes sense as they have a whole bunch of extremely long flights.
Delete@10:30 why only TK in Russia ? Ju is any better with a price of 1300e for a round trip ticket to SVO?
DeleteEK indeed has a huge network with Dubai being a major global hub. Among the world's busiest airports, DBX is currently the busiest non-US one. The first few are American ones as usual.
DeleteEmirates also has a superior product and service compared to European and American carriers, however I prefer QR any day of the week.
It's as good if not better than EK and on top of that, cheaper.
Turkish has also become one of my favorites for sure. They are doing an awesome job, especially considering the prices. Probably the best value for money.
vying? funny admins and their english words.
ReplyDeleteDefinitions from Oxford Languages
Deletevying
adjective. competing; contending:
Unfortunately, it is well known that the former state management of Belgrade Airport sabotaged the opportunity of EK coming. Several years ago EK sent a request to BEG. It is a general request form when an airline is about to request slots. BEG didn't respond to them for months and when they did respond they gave some half ass reply. Why? Because at that time Etihad was very much the favorite at BEG due to its ties with JU and nothing was allowed to jeopardize that. I'm not making this up even though it sounds absurd.
ReplyDeleteI think this was even published online a few years ago actually
DeleteJust raises the question what we miss while protecting dinosaurs...
DeleteI don't think Serbia misses much as we no longer have a dinosaur around.
Deleteex-Yu airports should have offered to Emirates what Greece and Italy has - flights to the US.
ReplyDeleteGreece does not have domestic carrier flying or intending to fly to the USA. Italy on the other hand is huge market with the States. So, none of the examples is similar to Serbia. If anything, we could offer west coast or South America, but that is less interesting I guess.
DeleteObviously I wasn't thinking of BEG considering it has flights. I was thinking of other airports/markets.
DeleteYou never know with EK. Let's see how things develop.
ReplyDeleteEK could fly seasonally to Sarajevo with B777.
ReplyDeleteIf they are prepared to fly seasonally then BEG, SJJ and ZAG could all work for Emirates in peak season.
DeleteWill their A350s have first class?
ReplyDeleteNo. They have announced the A350s will have business, premium economy and economy. No first class.
DeleteThank you! That makes it more likely they could start some ex-Yu route when the A350s arrive.
DeleteEK doesn't only fly to high yielding destinations, they also have flights to Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Denmark, Sweden... all markets with low premium demand.
DeleteDon't forget that before covid one of their first 2 class A380 destination was actually Copenhagen. Nordic people have money but they rarely spend it on premium airfares. That is why their airlines have become trash LCCs.
In the winter 4x times per week and from 18 December till 07 January every day.
DeleteFlyDubai is flying 3x times daily to Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteBut in winter 3 times per week.
DeleteHopefully they start next summer
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, anyone remember when they announced Zagreb which started in June?
DeleteThey announced it on 12 January.
DeleteSo there is still hope :D
DeleteI like their new 3D livery on the tail.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if people have had a look but EK has become extremely expensive since Covid. They are not competitive at all.
ReplyDeleteJust to elaborate, I know all fares have gone up at all airlines, but EK's fares have exploded.
DeletePosting highest ever profits by not being comeptitive, hahah
DeleteSkopje fanboys remain silent today in the comments I see :D
ReplyDeleteLjubljana-Dubai has proven to be a really successful route being relatively new. Will not be surprised if FZ may consider 2 daily flights on some days in the future.
I also expected them to start justifying how DXB-SKP with the A350 makes sense.
DeleteThere are fanboys for every regional airport, so why not for SKP
DeleteBecause SKP fan club tends to be unrealistic in their expectations. I remember how they were saying that flights to New York make sense.
DeleteCan we see some honest comments whySKP failed with the gulf flights? I'm sure there was enough demand with all the Macedonians living in Australia and NZ. And the catchment area from SKP is some 4-5 mil people...so it's not that it's a small catchment area, plus there are quite a few people working in the Gulf, not as much as Serbians but still enough...
Delete11:25 You are a bit over exaggerating there is one someone who once in 3 months over estimate SKP capacity. But most don’t do that. Every month their is a final report and even it looks like SKP is gonna break record you hardly find someone comment about SKP.
DeleteI have also seen people comment that BEG will handle 15 million passengers in 2030 and other unrealistic comments from airports who don’t have ther basic Germany gastarbeiter flights but were already planning flights to Madrid, Barcelona etc
And everyone is anonymous so you don’t know and lets be honest everyone is pushing a bit over limit.
Vinci said that they expect BEG to handle 15 million passengers. Given current passenger numbers in BEG I'd say they are not too far off.
DeleteNot only Vinci only many people in the comment section. This year BEG will get around 8 mil passengers still very far from 15 million
DeleteId rather have FlyDubai two or three daily than Emirates daily from Belgrade. Sue me.
ReplyDeleteEK is superior product to FlyDubai, but yes 3 daily offers more connectivity.
Deletepostoje odredista gde lete i EK i FZ.
DeleteTa odredišta su turističke Meke, kao niko u ex YU. Čak iako bi leteli i EK i FZ bilo bi to 1x dnevno svako, što je manje od 3x dnevno. Nismo dovoljno veliki i bogati za oba.
DeleteIma ljudi koji su rekli da nismo dovoljno bogati za Malagu, daily JFK...
Delete@Anon 11:08. ZAG didn't offer deal to FlyDubai to operate triple daily, they offered a deal to Emirates for just once daily. Sue them for picking 1x EK over 3x FZ.
DeleteThat's great. More capacity in region will probably result in lower fares and better service for customers
ReplyDeleteAs for Tivat, the owner of Emirates/FlyDubai owns half of Tivat...so, he flies on his own. Rumors say that he will build the GA terminal, and that Tivat will become the property of Dubai Airports Company in a direct offer.
ReplyDelete