Turkish Airlines’ lower cost unit AnadoluJet will commence scheduled flights between Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport and Belgrade starting December 1. The service will be maintained four times per week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with a mix of 186-seat Airbus A320neos, 211-seat A321neos and 189-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft. It will compete directly against Pegasus Airlines’ four weekly flights between the two cities and further builds on the frequencies between the two cities which will peak at fifty weekly flights this winter season if both Istanbul’s main gateway (IST) and Sabiha Gocken Airport are taken into account. The new route complements AnadoluJet’s existing flights from Ankara and Izmir to the Serbian capital.
Air Serbia, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines welcomed close to half a million passengers on flights between Belgrade and Istanbul last year, with the route continuing to grow into 2023 as well. The big increase in passenger numbers, up almost 90% on the pre-pandemic 2019, comes as a result of a revised Air Service Agreement between Serbia and Turkey, favouring the flag carriers, and enabling more frequencies, as well as close cooperation between Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines, which has resulted in a wide-ranging codeshare agreement and a potential joint venture. Furthermore, tourism exchange between the two countries has significantly increased, there is a notable rise in Turkish workers in Serbia, while a larger amount of Russian travellers transferring on the route also generated more traffic. Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines handled a total of 380.004 passengers between Belgrade and Istanbul’s main gateway last year. In addition, Pegasus carried a further 81.730 travellers between its Sabiha Gokcen hub and the Serbian capital for a total of 461.734 passengers between the two cities.
Turkish Airlines aims to complete the certification of AnadoluJet by the 2024 summer season, when the carrier would begin operating as a separate entity. It currently uses the “TK” designator code from its parent company. The Turkish flag carrier incorporated AnadoluJet as a new, wholly-owned subsidiary on August 7, 2023. Until now, AnadoluJet was a division of Turkish Airlines. The group will announce new branding for the carrier as a stand-alone firm in the coming months. AnadoluJet will apply for its own Air Operator's Certificate and Operating Licence shortly, even though the division already operates over seventy aircraft and has its own staff. Turkish Airlines is betting heavily on AnadoluJet, a carrier targeting budget-conscious passengers and ethnic traffic, as an engine for regional growth. It plans to increase the division's fleet to over eighty aircraft by the end of this year, even before it is fully spun off.
Further flight details for the new Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen - Belgrade service can be found here. Tickets are now available for purchase through AnadoluJet's and Turkish Airlines' websites.
wow 50 weekly between Istanbul and Belgrade!
ReplyDeleteBusiest city pair from our region! More than Tivat in summer
DeleteIt’s not more than BEG-TIV in summer. In summer there is 55pw between Belgrade and Tivat.
DeleteBut the capacity between Istanbul and Belgrade is much higher.
DeleteMuch, much, much higher
DeleteWHO flies on the route????
DeleteNice addition
ReplyDeleteBelgrad-Istanbul route is just crazy. Crazy great!
ReplyDeleteShuttle service
DeleteThis is sonething like Belgrade's 28th new route this year.
ReplyDeleteBEG-IST is an impressive route, more than impressive!!!!!! Can anyone tell what the main passengers are?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the article - toruists and workers.
DeleteTurks are officially the biggest tourist group in Serbia
DeleteYeah, but that's crazy! Really cool. Why, for example, are there not so many flights from ZAG, OTP, BUD or SOF? This means that the main passenger flow is not transfers but p2p (Turkish and Serbian tourists). That is, BEG is more of a p2p destination.
DeleteI think it's a mix of e everything and anything, all three airlines are definitely carrying transfers
DeleteTurks don't need a visa for Serbia.
DeleteWhat is the number of Turkish tourists in Serbia?
DeleteAre so many Serbs visiting Istanbul?
DeleteWell it is mostly so because of visa free regime. There is even an agreement that both nationals can cross borders with ID cards, but it’s not in the force yet. Other destinations are in EU, which means you need tourist visa.
DeleteEvery day there are buses to Turkey, it's normal.
DeleteAccording to Serbian Statistical Office, a total number of Turkish tourists in Serbia from January until September was 151.310
DeleteSo 1 of the flights to Belgrade in the day is with tourists. I'd bet most tourists come and go on Pegasus or JU, TK is for transfers.
DeleteYes, but also JU/TK flights from Ankara and Izmir are usually packed with tourists
DeleteI think it depends, TK is better if you are coming from Turkey but JU is better if you are from Serbia. For example on Sundays in the evening TK's 20.20 departure from BEG is better if you are here on holidays. Meanwhile JU's Sunday evening flight at 21.00 from IST is better if you are coming back to BEG. I think both airlines nicely complement each other and that is why the market can grow and expand.
DeleteWhat is impressive is that BEG-IST is growing despite more flights being added to ADB and ESB. Seems like TK is more successful in Turkey since JU seems to be pausing flights to ESB until late December. Definitely a failure on their part, their commercial department should have done more to promote this route.
They return it at the end of December for New Year's tourists. Actually, what would we visit in the Ankara area? I haven't seen any vacations and tour operator ads for this region of Turkey.
DeleteAnkara itself is a boring city without much to see. However, it can be a convenient way to reach Cappadocia. It's roughly 3 hours by road.
DeleteThat said, Ankara is a big and relatively wealthy city. For Serbia it could be a great source of additional Turkish tourists. I guess that is why TK added a 4th flight while JU discontinued flights until the end of December. They failed to attract transfers, especially Turkish gastos traveling back home. I guess O&D (BEG and ESB) prefers to take TK's daytime flights.
The JU CCO should be asked about this failure and why he hasn't done more to support this route. Last year ESB welcomed 6.7 million passengers while their pre-covid numbers stood at 11.4 million.
So far 126k Turks visited Serbia this year and 253k Serbs visited Turkey. The Turkish tourists in Serbia broke their own record, however it seems that there are gonna be a bit less Serbian tourists in Turkey than last year but still a lot and 3 months to go( last year 357k Serbian tourist visited Serbia.
DeleteI think that transfers play a very important role too.
Worth noting that in the first 9 months of 2023 151.310 Turks visited Serbia which represents an increase of 164.8%.
DeleteLet's see if the aviation market between Serbia and China follows the same trend as the one with Turkey. Chinese arrivals grew by 317% this year to 65.929. In September alone they grew by 426% to 10.401.
* should read: Serbian tourists visited Turkey.
DeleteNemjee or other Serbians this is something total off topic. Accroding to the Greek tourist board in 2022 300k less Serbians visited Greece compared to 2019. Do you think that this is due to increased network of JU or that other destanations get more pupulair as Albania or Croatia. https://insete.gr/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/23-9_X-Ray_2019-2022.pdf . It's not only Serbians but also Bulgarians visited Greece less.
DeleteWe had a record season so I think people went to other places like Portugal, Spain, Cyprus...even Wizz boosted Nice.
DeleteAlso INI had charters to Greece, Egypt and Turkey so many went there instead of Greece.
Maybe Greece got a bit lazy in Serbia so other markets profited. :)
Politics aren't allowed here, but while relations are courtly good, the ND government has been making them more sour. This was picked up by Serbian media quite a lot and coupled with COVID bans for Serbian passport holders in 2020 (and tests in 2021) is starting to affect tourism. On top of that, prices in Greece this year have been insane for mediocre accommodation in regions where Serbs most go.
DeleteDo remember that Greece experienced heavy flooding this year in areas where Serbian people actually go on holiday and many were trapped for days. There were also wildfires in Greece in summer and many chose to change their pre booked holidays to Turkey instead.
DeleteINI-CFU was actually increased to 3 weekly this summer so my guess is that the drop was experienced due to those who would normally go by car. Given the rise of charters out of INI I wouldn't be surprised that many who used to drive to Greece actually flew this year to Tunisia, Egypt or Turkey.
DeleteMaybe it's time to consider bringing back charters from INI to HER like Jat Airways used to have.
Anon 23.12
DeleteYou might be correct because from what I heard many who already paid for their holidays when covid hit or when entry requirements were introduced never got their refunds. Greeks just kept it and never gave it back. To make things even worse, some offered them apartments once they could enter Greece but only after they paid the difference in price. I am sure many got irritated and decided to go elsewhere.
Unfortunately INI to Egypt wasn't that successful this year so let's see what will be on offer next summer.
Really amazing news but I’m kinda sad that Pegasus can’t grow anymore because of JU/TK cooperation though.
ReplyDeleteThey can’t even get back to six weekly frequencies which they used to have.
They never had six weekly, they had three and somehow managed to get 4th
DeleteOh, I was convinced that they had more frequencies before Covid outbreak, thank you for the info
DeleteFridays are gonna be wild:
ReplyDeleteBEG-IST
00.40 JU A319
07.10 JU A320
09.00 TK A321
11.35 PC A321 (SAW)
12.15 JU B738
14.35 TK B7M8
18.40 JU A319
19.05 TK B738 (SAW)
20.20 TK B738
This is unreal!!
Delete👍🙌
This is really impressive!
DeleteIndeed especially since flights are nicely spread out throughout the day.
DeleteLiterally at any time of the day, you can travel from Belgrade to Istanbul. This is called good Balkan connectivity. So this winter we can expect more Turkish ski tourists in the winter resorts.
DeleteCertainly, many people come to Serbia by plane for skiing in recent years (Russia, Ukraine (before the war), Israel, Turkey). But I have also seen Italians (as well as in Belgrade).
DeleteEspecially since these flights start early in December meaning they expect good loads even before New Year. Seems like Corendon will have a charter flight from Izmir around New Year, that should be a first.
DeleteAs for TK, will be interesting to see what will be the next step for them on BEG-IST. Will they look to add more flights or to introduce a widebody.
Is Corendon with Serbian tour operators?
DeleteNo idea, that is what beg.aero has listed. They also have Tailwind flight which arrives on 29.12 at 10.10 and then there is a return flight on 01.01 at around 19.00.
DeleteMy guess is that it is bringing and then taking back a Turkish group that is coming here for New Year.
Tailwind maybe will be for russian tourists, as their VKO-IST-TGD flights.
DeleteMaybe they are organising charter for Dragana Mirković concert lmao
DeleteOK, Istanbul, Antalya, Bodrum, Izmir, Dalaman, Gazipasa, it's clear that there is a demand. But what about Ankara? What passengers do we observe there?
ReplyDeleteInbound tourism to Cappadocia, outbound tourism to Belgrade and Balkans via Belgrade + some Bosniak diaspora, business and politics, it's capital city after all.
DeleteGreat potential. So, definitely is expected from TK to introduce widebodies on the route very soon.
ReplyDelete787😁
DeleteThat would be great. Guess likely to happen as they get more of their new planes
DeleteNow only Antalya is missing, I’m pretty sure that both sides will reach some kind of agreement.
ReplyDeleteMaybe TK could do the limited scheduled year round service and JU could still run the charters. Demand is definitely there!
AYT is for JU and tour operators
DeleteThe growth is crazy! Could we see Serbia-Turkey market (both scheduled and charter) come close to 1mil this year?
ReplyDeleteYes, it could. Last year Antalya had over 133,000 passengers. This year we had also Izmir and Ankara scheduled flights, Bodrum charters...
DeleteWhy do they always scheudule flights last minute? They did the same with Anakara
ReplyDelete*Ankara
DeleteCould something like Trabzon work twice per week, at least during season?
ReplyDeleteWhy not.
DeleteTrabzon is one of the largest cities in Turkey, their alternatives to Europe are in the summer season with companies as Sun Express, Pegasus Airlines .
That could be given to Pegasus as compensation for them being blocked in Istanbul.
Delete