Greece’s Aegean Airlines is increasing frequencies on a select number of destinations in the former Yugoslavia next year. The carrier will operate more flights from its home in Athens to Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Skopje and Split, and will bring forward the resumption of its seasonal service to Ljubljana, launched this year. Furthermore, the carrier is expected to continue operating its seventh-freedom flights between Skopje and Sarajevo. “We continue to look for new connectivity in the Balkan region. With our high-quality services, we will contribute to interstate mobility and contribute to trade relationships”, Aegean ‘s Chief Commercial Officer, Roland Jaggi, said.
Commencing June 1, Aegean is boosting frequencies between Athens and Belgrade from four to six weekly, with new departures added on Thursdays and Saturdays. All flights will be maintained with the Airbus A320 aircraft. To Dubrovnik, the Greek carrier will also operate six instead of four weekly flights during the peak summer travel period. New departures have been added on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with the airline to deploy its A320s on the route. Split will see an additional weekly rotation with three instead of two weekly flights. A new service will be added on Mondays with the A320 fleet.
The airline will maintain six weekly rotations between Athens and Skopje, up from three weekly which was maintained for most of the 2023 summer. In addition, its newly launched service between Skopje and Sarajevo will continue to operate three times per week, although tickets are yet to go on sale for next summer. Seasonal flights to Ljubljana will be restored on April 5, 2024 and will continue to run two times per week. There have been no changes to the airline’s planned operations to Zagreb and Podgorica, which will be maintained three and two times per week respectively. Aegean Airlines is yet to unveil new destinations for 2024, giving hope to other cities in the former Yugoslavia still pursuing connectivity with Athens that they may be included in Aegean’s line-up of routes.
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Sarajevo-Athens when?
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed next year
DeleteIt’s coming 2024!!!!
DeleteI hope they continue with BNX ATH flights during summer. Last summer they had weekly charter flights
DeleteAth - SJJ 3 times a week since 3rd of October. I will be flying next week! Looking very forward actually!
DeleteSo they are boosting DBV and SPU but not ZAG and then people wonder why OU is also focusing on the coast? I suppose now they should see why, that's where the money is.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete-1
DeleteEven during Yugoslavia, JAT was flying DAILY B727 DBV-ATH, and had NO flights ZAG-ATH. This service is predominantly for foreign, mostly US tourists visiting multiple most known tourist destinations in Europe. This service might have been operated by OU as well, if OU had hub in ZAG with US services and developed regional network, both from ZAG and the coast. This sevice(s) show nothing but failed feeder concept of OU with hundreds of missed opportunities
As a former JAT's cabin crew, in 1985, I'm assuring you there was a scheduled service ZAG- ATH on B727.
DeleteI can't recall it, but if you are sure about it, thanks for correction. Everyone can make mistake here and there. But even if it was the case, it does not change the fact that OU today has smaller network from ZAG, actually not just smaller, much much smaller, then JAT had 1985-1990, which clearly proves my point of OU as a total failure
DeletePoint is that new hubs have since emerged and the traffic that used to flow through ZAG was redirected to places like VIE, MUC etc.
DeleteSerbia put BEG on the map of hubs but they also had to invest billions in it. If Croatia wants to do the same then the first step has to be made by politicians. I fear there is no political will do so. Croatia would have to resist pressures from Austria, Switzerland and Germany and I think that is where everything would come to an end.
Civil aviation and politics go hand in hand. Croatia made its decision to allow foreigners to profit from all this at the expense of having a strong and stable OU.
I am sure Croats are super annoyed from having 20 million tourists a year.
DeleteImpressive to see ATH-DBV 6weekly while ATH-SPU on the same level with ATH-ZAG on 3 weekly... looks like ZAG is doing something wrong. If SPU performs so well (which apparently does) in summer 2025 it can get 4 or 5 weekly flights while ZAG struggles to maintain those 3 weekly flights.
DeleteDo you think that Aegean interest in OU would have helped OU is those plans really did happen?
DeleteI think the government is too busy going over Garuda's offer. Maybe if nothing becomes of it they will talk with A3.
DeleteJokes aside I think Aegean could change OU as much as possible.
DeleteTruth be told anyone remotely competent could change OU for the better since it can't get much worse than this. Only question is if any potential investor thinks it's worth it. Personally I think the A3 ship has long sailed and that Aegean is no longer interested.
DeleteIt also doesn't help that ZAG has FR, OS to the north and then JU to the east. All these are making OU far more expensive in terms of how much needs to be invested in order to turn them into a semi functional business.
Of course they're not interested anymore but I think they would change OU as they know well what seasonality and summer tourism mean.
DeleteOU does not need A3 or any other foreign know-how to become better and bigger. With amount of money being pumped into OU, there are people in Croatia who could make it bigger, better, more competitive, more responsive, less inert, maybe even profitable or at least less loss making. But as @Nemjee correctly said, Misetic handed over market to LHG, and current Brussels aparatchiks have no will, interest or motivation to change it.
DeleteBEG was supposed to be daily, that's how it was in the system. I wonder why they reduced it to 6 weekly.
ReplyDeleteIt was 6 weekly from the very start.
DeleteSorry, actually you are right. It was scheduled as daily before.
DeleteProbably need aircraft elsewhere. Aegean is taking over a few domestic routes previously operated by Olympic Air.
DeleteDo JU and A3 coeshare with each other?
DeleteYes they do
DeleteThey do but as usual those code-shares are useless and expensive. I would say that neither airline is really interested in cooperating but unfortunately that illogical pricing policy seems to be the norm at JU.
DeleteI don't think Aegean really needs JU to make BEG-ATH work. They have their own thing and are after a different kind of clientele. That is why JU's growth on this market has not impacted them.
That said, ATH is turning into a zoo and that will be Aegean's biggest problem down the road. They desperately need to expand their terminal capacity as it's becoming extremely chaotic.
What is happening with plans to expand ATH? I know they have some grand expansion planned just before Covid hit and now nothing is happening.
DeleteFrom what I remember those plans were made by the old concessionaire. Once the contract expired new guys came in and they have been silent since. My guess is that they are happy as things are now since the airport is operating at full capacity - they are maximizing profits.
DeleteThey made some minor adjustments but none of that is enough for the surge in passenger numbers. Even long-haul is performing extremely well. Carriers such as Delta, Air Canada... for the first time ever extended flights into the winter, that is until the end of November.
Aegean has a phenomenal commercial strategy and that is why they manage to do so well despite facing such massive amount of competition. They are building a very nice hub in Athens.
By the way, their advance sales for winter were so good that they had to revise their winter network and to introduce considerable increases. If we exclude OA, they currently operate a fleet of 60 aircraft with another 18 on order. My guess is that these older planes might be eventually moved to the island airports to shuttle tourists while newer planes are stationed in Athens as a form of competitive advantage. Their A320neo/321neo are fantastic to fly on.
Thanks for the info Nemjee. I'm very glad Aegean is doing well. Deservedly so.
DeleteI would also like to add that in September ATH welcomed 3.006.870 passengers which is 11.8% more than they did in 2019.
DeleteSo far ATH welcome 21.678.000 passengers in 2023. That's almost as much as VIE which so far has 22.495.000.
You are welcome Anon 09.47, me too.
DeleteHello NEMJEE , just your opinion : Do you think Aegean airlines gonna have close to 16 million passengers at the end of this year ?
DeleteNemjee 09:40
DeleteATH is looking to expand, the new south expansion gave some new space for check ins, baggage claim, new lounges (Aegean new lounge) and more shops. They plan to expand to the north side too this year while they are increasing aircraft parking lots every year. This year they added +6.Also a new second hotel is getting ready to be built as Sofitel gets crowded too.
The master plan for ATH expansion is a mirror terminal from the other side of the current one while in the middle there will be hotels and parking buildings. Moreover the master plan includes 8 satellite terminals, 4 on each side. So there is room for expansion and they are planning to expand because they're welcoming more and more passengers every year.
Also Air Canada and Delta operated to ATH till November since 2019 so it's not the first time. Delta is now operating almost year-round JFK-ATH with flights ending in January and resuming in March. What is happening for the first time is United extending ATH to November.
Could be, anything is possible especially now when they are experiencing a surge in winter bookings.
DeleteThey are launching 18 new routes this winter. From Athens these include:
Chios
Chisinau
Dubai
Kavala
Kefalonia
Lemnos
Luxor
Samos
Innsbruck
Bratislava
Baku
Luxor
Sharm el-Sheikh
From Thessaloniki they are launching Cairo flights.
I know that some of these are old OA routes but now they are going to be operated by A3 metal and those passengers will count as their own.
Their Baku flights offer perfect connections to/from Western Europe:
ATH-GYD 23.10-04.20
GYD-BEG 05.20-06.50
This is their second attempt at serving Baku but this time around they have a much stronger network. This is where JU needs to be extremely careful. GYD, TBS, EVN... are positioned in such a way that both ATH and BEG are conveniently positioned to act as hubs. Seems like Aegean is focusing on the Caucuses while JU is growing in Turkey. Both are sound strategies but down the road they will clash in this region. Add to this flights by OS and LO and we will see a very interesting fight between these airlines.
Anon 12.22
DeleteI never said there was no room to expand, I said very little was done to do so. The mirror terminal was talked about for years now but next to nothing was done to actually build it. Old concessionaire was promising so much but very little was actually done.
Passenger experience at ATH is becoming a problem. Adding remote stands and adding more arrivals and departures won't help. Non-Schengen zone is an overcrowded zoo most of the time. The extra space that was added was simply not enough to cope with growing passenger numbers.
With Aegean growing its transfer network, ATH will have to make sure passengers with a connecting flight have a pleasant experience. So far that's not the case.
Those flights are gonna be operated again by OA but will have the flight number of Aegean.
DeleteKeep in mind that GYD is operating all year-round too while EVN is daily with A321neo. Those Egypt routes are also almost year-round with a pause in summer and they resume in September again. Also Aegean is not focusing on Turkey because they're not allowed too. The biterral agreement allows Aegean to fly from ATH and SKG to IST and ADB while TK is allowed to fly from IST and ADB to ATH and SKG too. That's why both TK and A3 have limited flights despite the big demand(TK sending B777 to ATH while A3 has 3 daily to IST). Once the agreement gets renewed which is something they plan I expect Aegean to fly to Ankara, Trabzon, Antalya etc. TK will expand too.
I thought they had an Open Skies Agreement with Turkey like most EU countries do. My bad. Then it's good JU is growing and expanding in Turkey so they can position themselves before Aegean shows up.
DeleteAs for ATH-EVN, there is also a considerable O&D demand from Athens. Lot's of Armenians living there. I know Aegean also planned SKG-EVN but don't know if those flights materialized.
No its different between Greece and Turkey but I read somewhere that they plan to change it. Demand between Turkey and Greece is big. Exactly JU is doing good focusing on Turkey before Aegean comes. Also Aegean has a strong Middle East network something that JU doesn't they have flights to TUN, KWI, RAK, RUH, JED, DMM, AMM, TLV, HBE, CAI, and this winter to SSH, LXR, DXB. JU should focus more in Middle East if they want to catch up on Aegean.
DeleteEVN is different in Greece that in Serbia exactly, huge Armenian diaspora in Greece while those flights are also used by Russians to get to Greece or Cyprus too. Also lots of Greeks travel to Yerevan. EVN-SKG introduced this summer with 3 weekly flights and ended in late September but seems they performed good because next year SKG will again be linked with EVN and TBS with Aegean.
True though let's be honest, Aegean has a massive advantage and that is a much larger O&D demand. That helps them fill seats when they launch any new route. Naturally having a more competent and higher quality management also gives them a clear advantage over JU.
DeleteJU is ahead when it comes to having a better hub infrastructure and a more favorable geographical location.
Hoping Ljubljana finally becomes year-round.
ReplyDeleteYes from next year
DeleteI'm really hoping that Sarajevo and Banja Luka are introduced next year.
ReplyDeleteAgree. It makes no sense that they don't cover Bosnia.
DeleteThey just launched Skopje-Sarajevo.
DeleteI meant nonstop Greece-Bosnia. The inbound flights on the Skopje-Sarajevo route is a poor connection to Athens.
DeleteZadar too!
DeleteIt's promising to hear that Aegean Airlines may consider adding new destinations in the future
ReplyDeleteThey always do
DeleteI wonder what their most popular transfer destinations are from each ex-Yu market.
ReplyDeleteI remember in the past it was written that it is the Greek islands and Italian destinations. But that has probably changes now. I also remember that Tel Aviv was high up for SKP.
Deleteyes but that was one of the rare transfer options with the previous schedule ;)
DeleteCyprus and the Middle East have probably a lot of transfer traffic apart from the Greek islands.
DeleteExcellent news. I'm sure they will add some more routes too.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed they just announced Dubai with daily flights
DeleteAegean's NEOs have the Pratt engines.
ReplyDeleteThey are keeping more CEOs around than originally anticipated to cover for the lengthy engine overhauls that from the beginning of next year will be needed for the Pratt NEOs that were built before 2021. Those engines are problematic.
So I guess their expansion in our region and elsewhere is going to be a lot smaller that anticipated because of that.
Only 4 aircraft’s of Aegean are impacted
DeleteAnon 11:34
DeleteThat is good news!
Let’s hope that return to ZAD
ReplyDeleteDid you fly from Zadar to Athens?
DeleteNot really surprised it did not come back for a second season. Flew end of July and the plane was only a quarter full.
DeleteDoes anyone know if Aegean is continuing with their Rhodes and Heraklion seasonal services out of Belgrade in 2024? I cannot see any flights loaded in the system. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAt this moment you can't book BEG-RHO,HER and they are not on the system but Aegean hasn't announced their full flight summer program yet and new destinations have not been uploaded yet. so we must wait!
DeleteGood to know. Thank you!
DeleteGood! Wonder if Sky Express would consider expanding further in the Balkans. They seem to have a quite decent product similar to Aegean as well. In the region, they compete with their 5 weekly service to SOF with A3 and surprised they don't fly to OTP yet. The average age of their Airbuses is barely 4 years while their ATRs are around 9. Still, they have a nice logo and branding but for some strange reason low rating on SkyTrax and TripAdvisor.
ReplyDeleteSky Express needs to invest in the customer support departments. If something goes wrong with your booking or your luggage it is very difficult to talk to someone and resolve it.
DeleteSky Express also announced WAW where Aegean also operates.I would love to see Sky Express's livery in BEG or OTP but my opinion is that they should expand where Aegean doesn't operate. Secondary cities like CLJ, IAS, WRO, GDN, LEJ and in the region INI, OHD, SJJ, BNX, TIV, ZAD. That way they don't compete with the 'monster' Aegean and they getting passengers from everywhere.
DeleteIf we ever get a third player on the BEG-ATH market then I hope it will be Wizz Air. They are far more committed to the Serbian market and have a much stronger brand awareness. Also, they seem to be doing quite ok when it comes to leisure markets out of BEG. They could easily run 3 weekly flights on a summer seasonal basis.
DeleteI prefer the third carrier to be Sky Express WizzAir is not an airline you trust.
DeleteWell they do have their flaws and personally I don't fly with them but they have been pretty committed to the Serbian market. I think BEG-ATH is pretty high on their list, not many large markets left unserved.
DeleteSky would be a good option because of their connections to other destinations in Greece. After all, they're tagline is "We are Islanders" :)
DeleteRight they have more connections to the Greek islands than Aegean too.
DeleteSince we are talking about Sky Express , it is rumored they will add another 4 a320/321 neo . 2 in 2024 and another 2 in 2025 . Information from a friend working in Sky Express . Who knows , let's wait and see .
DeleteApparently Sky express is going to have 4.5 million pax this year.
DeleteIf they got 4 more planes I think BEG and OTP will be started.
DeleteSky Express is aggressive and definitely not afraid to pick a fight. So far they have won all of them. They seem to know what they are doing.
DeleteI think distance is one of the main reasons why they stayed away from BEG. They don't have enough A320s to launch it (there are other destinations that are of higher priority) while they would get butchered if they dispatched the ATR. BEG-ATH is too far for passengers to tolerate the ATR when there are jet engine alternatives. Even JU stopped sending the ATR there, night flights included.
That's one of the reasons why JU gets away with the ATR on routes such as Prague, Venice or Bologna. Lack of competition means that they can afford to use them until routes mature so that they can efficiently deploy a jet aircraft.
If Wizz Air launches BEG-PRG then I am certain the ATR would be history on this route within an hour. ATR are competitive on shorter routes up to one hour twenty, thirty.
Nemjee, BEG-ATH with ATR is not that bad. The distance is 824km, which is normal for the ATR. Plus, if Sky Express becomes a 3rd player between both cities, the prices will go down. But, Wizzair is also a good option though it might be tricky to fill an A321, maybe an A320 for a start. However, like someone mentioned above, Sky Express have great connections to the rest of the islands.
DeleteI just checked and A3976's average flight time is 01 hour and 17 minutes so the ATR would take at least another 20 minutes to make it.
DeleteFrom what I remember INI-ATH on the ATR is around 01 hour and 20 minutes so the flight to BEG would be close to 2 hours. Compared to the competition I don't think that would be extremely competitive, especially now when JU can respond with Embraers.
That's why I think Sky Express isn't rushing to launch BEG as they know it wouldn't be that easy breaking through JU's and A3's defenses. Personally, I think Sky Express should look at HER-INI before launching BEG. FR does really well from CFU so there is obviously some demand for leisure travel. Given the fact that there is virtually no competition, they can even operate these INI flights with the ATR.
I think Wizz Air could easily fill the A321 in summer. Demand is there but don't forget that ATH is a very expensive airport so it's unrealistic to expect there to be low fares. Airlines simply can't afford it.
TIV as summer seasonal is now missing since TGD is doing so well. INI or KVO from ATH with their ATRs could be a good idea too as the Serbian market is doing well too. SJJ need to be reintroduced for sure as back in 2019 they planned to increase frequencies to SJJ to 4 weekly. OHD could work too with their smaller ATRs while secondary cities in Bulgaria like VAR, BOJ could do something too. Then I think the EX-Yu market will be completely covered from Aegean.
ReplyDeleteActually TIV, ZAD, BOJ and PRN are available on their website but only bookable via Aegean Beyond. But maybe they're showing they're indenting to fly there?
DeleteIs the ATH-SKP increase to 6x due to ATH-SKP-SRJ or are those 3 seperate and therefore 9x ATH-SKP?
ReplyDeleteSix in total, the times are the same for all six flights. The 3 flights SKP-SJJ is just a tag on and is actually operating under a completely different flight number than the 6 SKP-ATH-SKP flights.
DeletePoor OU with that 1 weekly SPU-ATH...
ReplyDeleteDBV-ATH looks like a really powerful route , 3 airlines , Aegean with 6 weekly flights , Croatia with 3 weekly flights and Volotea with 4 weekly flights! Apparently in the deep summer DBV will have approximately 2 daily flights to ATH!! Wouldn't be surprised if we see EasyJet or Wizz starting ATH too.
ReplyDeleteWill that stupid airline ever fly daily to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteI doubt it..
lol
DeleteI don’t think Aegean is stupid my friend..
DeleteWell, not stupid but they definitely have no idea what to do with its operations to Belgrade.
DeleteReminds me about when Flydubai came to Belgrade and saw that many Macedonians were using that new service.
They rushed to open Skopje and forgot Belgrade the next years completely.
^ FZ flies double daily to Belgrade
DeleteThey're gonna operate 6 weekly flights next summer almost daily.
Delete^ Double daily after at least a decade with lousy frequencies.
DeleteThey were practically comatose.
It only changed when Etihad left the scene.
Qatar Airways also has the same frequency as ten years ago.
You're comparing Aegean with Qatar?
DeleteAegean don't have the fleet to operate daily or double daily to all those destinations they have. They have an amazing network with plenty of destinations with the fleet they have although they need to fix the frequencies. If they do they can be a perfect airline!
DeleteA3 is a-w-e-s-o-m-e, but JU is not naive at all.
DeleteWhen OA was around they used to operate the route with the ATR42/72. Now that was a fun experience especially in winter ... not.
DeleteHowever when visas were abolished they boosted BEG from 7 to 10 weekly. Then they were forced to leave the market as Aegean lobbied the government to make them the designated carrier. Back then they flew to BEG with the AVROs and I think it was 5 weekly flights. Their loads were not great as they were hoovering around 50%.
Aegean then left BEG and I think OA returned but it was very close to their end so A3 was back once again. If we compare where they are today compared to where they were a decade ago we can see that their presence has actually grown. Next summer they will have 6 weekly flights with the 174 seat A320 on top of offering flights from Heraklion and occasionally from Rhodes. From what I noticed, their A321 is not an uncommon sight in Belgrade. They sent it I think two weeks ago.
Aegean is growing slowly but steadily.