Air Serbia to temporarily suspend six routes, reduce Q1 operations


Air Serbia will temporarily suspend six routes from its Belgrade network during the first quarter of 2024 and reduce frequencies on a number of destinations during the three-month period compared to its original plan. From mid-January, the airline will suspend flights from Belgrade to Naples, Izmir, Salzburg, Cologne, Gothenburg and Ankara. Five out of the six destinations were introduced this year. The last flight to Naples prior to the hiatus is scheduled for January 5, after which services will resume on April 1. No other carrier serves the route. Air Serbia will also suspend operations to Izmir following its January 5 flight, with the route to be restored on April 3. Turkish Airlines’ subsidiary AJet will continue to operate between Izmir and Belgrade twice per week.

The final service to Salzburg will run on January 12, with flights resuming on March 31. Air Serbia also suspended the route during the 2022/23 winter season, however, it had planned to run it throughout the ongoing 2023/24 winter. Also on January 12, the airline will operate its last flight to Cologne, before it returns on April 2. Its Ankara operation will be suspended following the January 13 rotation, returning to the company’s schedule from April 1. AJet, which inaugurated flights on the route just over two weeks ago, will continue serving the two cities with a four weekly service. Finally, operations to Gothenburg will end on January 14, with flights resuming on March 31. The route will continue to be served by Wizz Air three times per week.

Air Serbia is also reducing frequencies on a number of routes during the first quarter of the year, most of which come into effect after the holiday travel period from mid-January. The carrier has removed 31 weekly flights in each direction in January, 38 weekly in February, and 44 weekly in March. Despite the reduced operations, the airline will still offer a significantly higher volume of flights and capacity than during the same period this year, as well as on the pre-pandemic 2019. In January the airline will perform 95 weekly flights more (in each direction) than it did in 2023 and offer an extra 12.183 weekly seats (in each direction). In both February and March, it will operate 85 weekly flights more than it did in 2023 and offer just over 11.500 additional weekly seats.

The changes to its network, in addition to six abovementioned routes which have been suspended, can be found below. Changes remain possible.

January network reduction


All other routes remain unaffected. At this point, Air Serbia plans to restore operations to Tel Aviv on January 1, which have been suspended since late October due to the ongoing conflict.

February network reduction


All other routes remain unaffected.

March network reduction


All other routes remain unaffected.

Operations by month after revision




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    Opa!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:38

      miscalculated

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:40

      Suspension is by default temporary.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:05

    Or it's just the slowest part of the year and some routes are reduced. You still have over 30% more flights than last year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    Better than losing money

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vlad09:06

    I understand schedule optimizations (all airlines do it), but not in mid-December, less than three weeks before the changes are supposed to take effect. This just reeks of amateurism.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      Why do you think that these changes have been made now?

      Many of these revisions happened during last month, they are only now announced.

      Delete
    2. The revisions to the timetable for Q1 were made late last week.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:42

      Anon 09:11
      Dude you can't defend even that. Please...

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:00

      @admin

      It is actually not correct.
      Air Serbia does not fly to ESB for min 3 weeks now and reductions for CPH, ARN etc started in week 47/2023.

      Delete
    5. As I have already noted, reduction for Q1, which the article refers to, were made in the system late last week. Flights to all the suspended routes are currently available until the date listed in the article. Air Serbia's next flight to Ankara is on December 21.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:55

      Ok, understood.

      I was talking about current flights and you were talking about Q1. My bad.

      Just for your info at this moment JU had 1 month hiatus with the flights to ESB. Last flight was on 18.11.2023 and the next one will be on 21.12.2023

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:58

      ^ you are showing basic lack of aviation knowledge on an aviation website.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:48

      Now that the election is over, many systems will become a system of a down.

      Are you okay?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous09:53

      14.48
      Please stick to the aviation related topics. TY

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:09

    They do this every single year since 2014.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      You are right, they do revise winter scheduled and in Q1 reduce ops almost every year but they usually don't suspend routes. Then again they never had 80 destinations so suspending 6 for some routes that probably should be seasonal isn't such a big surprise.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:10

    Now I understand why this December they have not announced any new routes for the next Summer season

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      Maybe because so many of them were announced in 2023?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:13

      The only year they announced new routes in December is last year due to the fact that they introduced 20+. And if you remember, they only started announcing them in December, their last set of routes were announced in mid January 23. This time around there will be fewer new routes (which they said multiple times) and it they will most likely be announced next month.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:21

    The government needs to get out of the business of running an airline and privatize JU asap.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:25

      They tried that with EY

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:40

      They should have chosen a better partner than EY but sadly none other was interested.
      And EY got involved only after they were offered a deal so much into their favor that they couldn't refuse.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:12

      The government should STAY in the business of running JU, as it is in the national interest. They can add routes that are loss-making to the company, but help develop local economies of towns that will benefit from flights (i.e. KVO, INI, LYBO, LYVR). In fact, JU vis-a-vis the Government of Serbia should buy JAT Tehnika back so that airplanes can be serviced by homegrown talent.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:28

      Socialism in other words.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:55

      "..Government of Serbia should buy JAT Tehnika back "
      Why? Tell us at least one good reason.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:25

    I think KLM did similar thing. Flew with them earlier this December Belgrade-Amsterdam-Washington and back a week later. Landed in AMS got a message my flight to Washington was cancelled. Ok, I somehow found a solution to get there. Then I get a message a few days later that my flight from Washington to Amsterdam was cancelled as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:25

      How did you get back?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:57

      From Amsterdam to Washington they (really rude and unhelpful staff at AMS) first offered me to spend the night in Amsterdam and then go the next day with KLM via New York and then continue with a US carrier. After I refused I ended up being offered an American Airlines flight to Philadelphia on the same day I was supposed to depart continuing with American to Washington which I accepted.

      On the way back they offered me to go with British Airways via London but I explained the issue with transit visas (I know you don't need one with a US visa but I didn't want to risk it). Then they offered me Air Serbia via New York but it included a 10 hour wait at JFK and meant I had to leave Washington a day earlier than planned. In the end they offered me Turkish Airlines via Istanbul which I took.

      I have to say that at AMS I was only offered the same day option because I went to the transfer desk and at first they didn't even want to let me near the transfer desk (you have to take a number until it is called) saying how I will get a rebooking notice via email. I really want to stress how rude the staff was.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous23:22

      14:57 - I don't blame you for AMS, my friend. DUS experience was even worse. I cannot believe this airport actually exists in "Western" Germany. The rudeness of the staff, the terminal so old and tired. Plus, AMS used to be a good airport. I prefer MAD, BCN or ZRH, 1 million times even if MAD is huge. I don't mind. CDG has shown some improvements. I think Holland is simply overestimated in everything.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:26

    I'm still pleasantly surprised that Budapest is kept at 15 weekly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:48

      Yes, it seems the route is doing much better than most people predicated.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:58

      9:48, admit that I was one of those people having doubts about BUD. Well, good for them. BUD has a large traffic anyway and a large Hungarian diaspora in NYC and CHI if I am not mistaken.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:50

      Budapest is a big success.
      Maybe in summer and if the fleet situation allows it they could fly it with larger aircraft.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:52

      I guess with Embraer?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:04

      That would be ideal 10:52.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:29

    I am surprised about Tianjin, as they had just announced the increase in capacity.
    Will a A332 be going checks/cabin retrofit?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:31

      Yes one a332 will be missing before the summer season

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:35

      Good, it means YU-ARC is getting retrofitted. YU-ARB had major technical check last year so I don't think it's that.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:38

      That's why they needed a 3rd A330 THIS year instead of sometime in the 2nd quarter of 2024.
      Seems like both fleet planning and route planning departments did not do their job well.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:47

      Well they did want to have a third A330 in the fleet as early as June 23. They had a provision deal with the lessor and then they decided to part out the plane as it was worth more money that way.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:57









      You snooze you lose.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:34

    At least it seams that the increased Frankfurt frequency (usually with Embraer) found its clients (like me). Let‘s see how it will it develop when LH goes all in with 3 daily rotations from summer flight plan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      Marek said a few weeks ago in some interview that the Embaers allowed them to increase frequencies to FRA because it's more important for them to have higher frequencies on this route than capacity. I think we will see them increase FRA next summer.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:21

      I already saw this summer a lots of Non-Diaspora passengers using AirSerbia and BEG to travel to Greece. One family told me they saved about EUR 1.000 for two adults and to minors flying with AirSerbia from FRA to a greek island instead of using other airlines. So a higher frequency will boost that business too.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:53

      So JU is selling a ticket for travel between FRA and Greece vis BEG for 250€ cheaper than those flying directly?
      That can't be good.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:04

      FRA-BEG is usually not 250 eur

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:12

      @10.55 I don't want to be rude, but you obviously don't know how pricing for transfers works everywhere in the world. It's exactly like that.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:49

      A250€ difference per ticket for a flight of these duration is huge. Way more than normal. It means the airline is subsidizing connecting passengers travel.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:31

      I would say that in peak times tickets from Frankfurt to specific tourist destinations are skyrocketing as there is no elastic adoption of offered seats, especially because slots in FRA are rare. So imho the way via BEG based on existing slots from YU for FRA is some kind of bypass. Not YU is specifically cheap, the others become very expensive.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:14

      JU has been dumping for two years now. XXX-BEG-YYY can be as much as 60% cheaper than BEG-YYY.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous08:46

      Promo kod Er Srbije takođe ne radi

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:36

    Ouch!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:37

    Obviously the crazy growth has slowed down but overall the demand is still there. Even with all reductions the scheduled capacity has grown over 30%. And yes, some routes are indeed struggling over winter (Cologne, Salzburg etc), if this repeats in the next winter season we could see some year round routes becoming seasonal which is completely ok imo.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous09:45

    Are you saying it came as a surprise to Air Serbia that Q1 is the slowest of the year?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous09:50

    Is this more to do with how difficult it is to source aircraft rather than sales? I know it’s a tough market out there with many airlines looking. I am guessing they have realised they won’t get aircraft in time and thus need to alter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:55

      This isn't 2020 any more but seems that JU management wants to still pay 2020 prices for aircraft leases.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:56

      It's hard to believe that they can't dry lease a couple of aircrafts. The problem is that they want to make a good and cheap deal, without investing a lot and not changing the cabin seats. They found the halfway solution with E95 and might consider different fleet development.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:54

      09:55 and 09:56
      +1000

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:54

    No, but it is highly likely they overestimated the demand for this winter based on the strong demand they had this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous09:54

    Me thinks there is a oversaturation of flights between Turkey and Serbia. Let's also not forget in what shape the Turkish economy really is. Surprised about NAP as it is an important city with year-round demand. SZG is always been a strange airport. Even Wizz did not succeed there, they are relaunching routes in February, lets see. It's just too seasonal and has a specific target, imo. 80% is seasonal.
    It would make logic to quickly research for newer, more potential markets: EVN, GYD or addition of more Russian cities. They covered the main and important European destinations. Also CLJ, POZ or another French city with Serb diaspora. No need for more Turkey and reckon most traffic is for IST and Western Turkey (European side).
    CGN is not a village at all, but also Germany seems to be covered from Serbia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:36

      But for SZG - that is high season there between January and March! Very strange.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous09:55

    This is common practice in the aviation, schedule and than optimise based on sales. Every other business does this, so no reasons to start opening Champaign for the colaps of AirSerbia.
    Beside this, they have some regular maintenance planned in this period and still the delays in delivery and lack of capacity for maintenance and spare parts.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous10:14

    They should also suspend their over-the-top prices for a mediocre service.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:26

      Well if customers are paying that service then why suspend it?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:57

      Seems like a lot of routes can't support these ticket prices.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:20

      Have you read the news today? People are not paying those prices.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous10:23

    For some routes lack of ATRs is showing, DAT one is not operating for them anymore so they lack one, maybe two

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous10:31

    Cancelling flights in January, some 15 days before New Year??? Those people will not have the chance to find replacement flights, at a reasonable price. I'm not even sure that Wizz does this, and they know how to cancel and change the flight schedule

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:33

      Passengers are given an alternative by Air Serbia if your flight is cancelled. You are not asked to find your own flight and that's the difference compared to Wizz Air.

      Delete
  22. Nemjee10:42

    Would be fun if we could make a collage of all statements made by Marek regarding their growth prospects and then put them next to this piece of news. Didn't we read just the other day how they plan on operating a fleet of 50 aircraft? How can you do that if you can't even fly doubly daily to CDG during the slow months with no real competition ... and no, Wizz Air to BVA is no real competitor.

    To make this CDG situation even more tragic, they actually code-share with AF and have access to their entire network. Unlike KL, AF actually cooperates with JU regarding O&D passengers.
    As I wrote countless times before, you can't be a successful airline without a concise and a well defined commercial strategy. I am surprised current CEO did not learn this during his time in OK, MA, AZ... all thriving and successful businesses.

    Key markets need to have at least two daily flights throughout the year. You can't have a mediocre offer in large markets with huge amounts of competition just like you can't suspend GOT while your main competitor keeps on flying there with their high density A321.

    We had a mismanaged summer season with catastrophic delays etc. and now a winter timetable with consecutive network cuts. What does that tell us? It tells us that Air Serbia struggles with the execution of their plans. That is where their commercial department is supposed to shine and thrive. This is something they need to be doing. If Air Serbia decides to launch Ankara flights then they are the ones who need to come up with ideas how to stimulate passengers to book flights with them. Like this they failed on two fronts in ESB: first is with transfers who will keep on flying via IST and then with locals who are higher yielding and who will stick to Ajet. So what strategy does Bosko have in ESB? How will he recapture passengers lost to TK? Or will he just hope for some spillover effect to fill his A319? Why is he cutting flights to Turkey at a time when Serbia is seeing record numbers of Turkish arrivals? These guys are not coming by road or train, they are flying into Serbia. If JU is cutting flights then it can only mean that Turkish Airlines, Ajet and Pegasus are beating them and they are beating them big time.

    I will give you a personal example. At the end of January I am supposed to attend a large international meeting in Paris. Naturally I checked JU first only to realize that on most days they have one flight. So in the end I booked via AF-KL code-share on JU and then return to BEG via AMS with KL in the evening. It's exactly because of similar situations that JU can't dominate in BEG and why they had less than 50% marketshare in BEG last month (November). They are forcing people to fly with their competition either because they tend to be unreasonably expensive or because they don't offer enough flights to key markets.

    Ugly truth is that Air Serbia is profitable because the Serbian market is healthy and can obviously generate healthy yields. Best proaof of this is their competition which is thriving in BEG despite JU's growth. All in all, Air Serbia needs to rethink its approach to doing business and to come up with a new business paradigm.

    As for TSN reduction, I won't even comment on it. Same situation as with Turkey. Pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:00

      Looks like JU has surrendered all Serbia-Turkey traffic to Turkish carriers.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:03

      Nemjee
      +1000

      Delete
    3. Nemjee11:27

      Indeed Anon 11.00 and that is a problem for them because they are aggressive and don't care about anyone else and especially not about small regional carriers such as JU. It's only a matter of time before Ajet starts pushing for AYT-BEG flights. Once that happens JU's cash-cow charter market will be in jeopardy.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:31

      How is one flight per day not enough.

      Delete
    5. Nemjee11:49

      One flight per day to CPH or ARN is enough but it's far from enough to places like Paris, Amsterdam, London, Vienna ... where there is enough O&D demand to fill seats. Add to this thousands of transfer passengers and JU should be able in theory to operate double daily flights to key markets.
      The fact they barely have 50% marketshare in BEG goes to show that they are not meeting the needs of local passengers - others are.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous12:02

      +1000 to NEMJEE , always objective never a cheerleader .

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:24

      Even better example for your theory Nemjee, is London. Look what they did. Jat Airways had better performance, not to mention that it was dominant on that sector

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:20

      Nemjee I would stay away from criticising JU, which is hugely successful despite a few cuts here and there, considering how "accurate" some of your past commentary has been, especially when it comes to geopolitics. Some of us remember your own-goals.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous14:25

      Because those markets care more about product, I guess. JU may be Wizzier than Wizz but that's enough of business for 5 aircrafts in Belgrade, not for 35. The rest has to be filled with some other profile of pax you can't catch with messy product.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:46

      All Nemjee has been doing for a very long time is criticising Air Serbia and praising other carriers at Belgrade airport. How is that objective and not a cheerleader?

      Delete
    11. Nemjee16:16

      Anon 14.20
      Few cuts here and there? Are you aware this is the third or fourth round of cuts since winter timetable started? It only goes to show that something went wrong between the planning stage and the execution stage. Very simple.
      You are more than welcome to point where you disagree with me and I will reply to those points. However I still don't see any valid arguments coming from your side. All you did is give a frivolous comment and attack me personally which says more about you than me.

      Anon 14.46
      Funny how when I am praising JU then I am a fanboy and when I am criticizing it then I am not objective. At the end of the day I am allowed to criticize JU given how much money I leave them each year, both as a customer and a tax payer. From the way you write and the way you personally attack me I have a feeling you might be actually working for JU and feel personally attacked. I am sorry if I hit a nerve, I'll try to be more gentle the next time.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous18:21

      +1 Nemjee

      Delete
    13. Anonymous19:47

      When was the list time Nemjee was a JU fanboy?

      Delete
    14. Anonymous20:21

      You tell us since you know it all

      Delete
    15. Anonymous20:56

      What does this tell us? That the state is terrible at running businesses including airlines

      Delete
    16. Anonymous21:15

      Exactly, unfortunately

      Delete
    17. Anonymous23:14

      It goes to show his statement about being called JU fanboy is untrue. He is 100% against Air Serbia.

      State may be terrible at running other things but they are not running Air Serbia directly. People appointed to run it have grown it over years to 4M+ airline with 80 destinations. Not too bad even for a private enterprise, let alone state owned airline. Compared to Montenegro and Croatia, Air Serbia is doing spectacular.

      Delete
    18. Anonymous23:29

      Actually Anon 20:56 said a very wise thing regarding the state. Yes, 4 million is a serious number, but it needs to be backed by quality now and not only quantity. It is also very vital for JU to invest not only in its brand, but its PEOPLE. Because without them, they will simply move to another company and take advantage of the shortage of personnel due to the unexpected sudden recovery following Covid. Even the A380 is being reintroduced now.
      It might be that JU is experiencing organisational issues similar to many other airlines. The most important thing is not to allow this trend in the spring and summer season.

      Delete
    19. Nemjee06:44

      Anon 23.14

      Who cares about Croatia Airlines and Montenegro Airlines? That comment of yours only goes to show how little you know and understand aviation. The two carriers you mentioned are small, struggling and irrelevant with no prospect of survival. Air Serbia on the other hand decided to move beyond that level and play in the big league. When one decides to do that then he needs to be compared to his peers, not those who are below it.

      Air Serbia needs to be compared to LOT, Austrian Airlines, Aegean ... and its business activity needs to be linked to those of Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France ... all airlines from which JU is trying to steal passengers from. Are you aware that JU failed in all Turkish markets with the exception of IST? Do you realize that they were the ones who pushed for ESB and ABD? Their entry into these markets allowed for TK to further expand its reach into BEG. Fast forward to today JU is in IST while TK has SAW, ESB and ADB. TK now knows that JU is no match for them and as I already wrote, AYT-BEG will be next. Ajet already applied for a permit in the past, I am sure they will do it again.

      They got to 4 million passengers while barely passing 50% marketshare in BEG. What does that tell us? It tells us that they are still struggling to meet the needs of local passengers and until that changes their competition will do well at their home airport.

      Growing for the sake of growing is not a sound business strategy especially if you are operating from a country which is experiencing labor shortages. People, especially those living in Belgrade, have a lot of jobs to choose from. Air Serbia needs to finally understand that. They need to fight for top talent and they need to make themselves appealing to potential high quality applicants. Only like that will they be able to sustain all this growth and not to base their future development on wet-leases and foreign crew.

      We are close to the end of 2023 and 2024 is just around the corner. We will see what will become of summer 2024 and what kind of schedule JU will roll out. You can throw dirt at me all you want but at least, unlike you, I am giving concrete suggestions what they can do so as to remain competitive compared to their competitors.

      Aegean is planning a major expansion from both ATH and SKG. TK ordered over 200 planes, Austrian Airlines has obviously survived the onslaught of LCCs and are fighting back. Lufthansa Group is preparing for a record summer at BEG, BA is doing well in BEG (the other day they even sent A321neo), KLM is resuming double daily flights etc.

      Airlines are gearing up for a fight and Air Serbia needs to be ready. Given the nature of their business their fights are no longer local, they are international because now they have to fight to keep their customers in foreign markets such as KRK, OTP, SOF, ATH, LCA ... without these passengers their network from BEG will become much more modest.

      As a final note, one has to wonder why JU didn't use its political influence to secure slots in PEK or at least ditch TSN in favor of launching PVG or CAN. They are obviously struggling to compete with Hainan which offers a superior product and has the advantage of being the local carrier (most passengers on this route are Chinese). Now they are down to just one weekly flight which isn't much.

      With the Serbian economy doing well and the Sava Centar being open for business, there will be growing O&D demand. Air Serbia needs to find a way to ride this wave so as to secure even more revenue which will lead it to even more profits. You can't shrink yourself into success.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous10:51

    They will be fine. More planes and good news are coming soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:02

      Rose tinted glasses are already here!
      Resources to actually execute long announced and much hyped plans not so much.
      I am not being harsh, just factual.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:20

      You will see.

      Delete
  24. Anonymous11:08

    a lot of bad news coming up right after the elections I guess :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:19

      :D :D :D 4.1 million passengers in 2023 and new routes to be announced soon :D :D :D but glad you will be on a high for 24 hours.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:30

      I also don't get the 11:08 comment. The reduction is based on the original plan, not on last year's traffic or even 2019 traffic. So you still have over 30% more flights and capacity than you did last year. How can that be interpreted as bad?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:17

      You really ask how cuts can be interpreted as bad?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:51

      Is it really cuts when capacity is 80+ percent higher than the same period in 2019???

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:55

      Exactly what anon 14:51 says. The article also says that the reduction is on the ORIGINAL PLAN, not on actual flights last year or 2019, meaning Q1 24 traffic is at a record high.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous21:30

      So who made the original plan and why did they think bookings will be stronger

      Delete
    7. Anonymous23:27

      Airlines make changes all the time. Sarajevo welcomed Wizz only to have them depart, but then Ryan came. Changes happen. Are you afraid of changes?

      Delete
    8. Nemjee06:48

      Are you seriously comparing BEG to SJJ?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:36

      Nope. You are right.
      BG is stellar re other regional airports.

      Delete
    10. Nemjee18:33

      Indeed it is.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous11:20

    * then

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous11:57

    No, it's not a common pratice in aviation to overstrech yourself, wet-lease a bunch of aircraft to cover your ambitions then just cancel/reduce the routes. If you play with your own fleet, ok. But if a sizeable chunk of your fleet is wet-leased, then you just dump money out the window.

    ReplyDelete
  27. TSN got cut down?! Really, these are very desturbing news..After all those praises for chinese route expansion, saying that all TSN are top loaded, and that they can't wait to open new routes to China..What happened now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:32

      It's reduced for a month and a half because YU-ARC will be out of service for maintenance. Don't get too excited.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:42

      TSN has no routes outside Asia. You can't fly Lufthansa, KLM, British, Air France to TSN, only Air Serbia from Europe.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:22

      No, nothing to do with plane going for service. They would not schedule it from the start. Hainan is killing them.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:45

      Not true, Hainan has an opportunity to go three times a week but declined.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous20:46

      Hsinan was never offered 3 pw, that's nonsense

      Delete
    6. Anonymous23:07

      Nonsense is that Hsinan is killing them

      Delete
    7. Nemjee06:49

      Hainan applied for a third weekly which was supposed to start from today but they did not go ahead with the execution of these plans. They are still struggling with capacity and are currently growing in much larger markets: they resumed Boston, boosted Manchester, Brussels...

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:36

      I hope some comentators are right, and that is only due to airplane maintenance..TSN has a good connectivity to South-East Asia through Scoot, and low prices..You could find TSN-SIN, or even CGK, for less than 200 EU round trip in peak season

      Delete
  28. Anonymous12:32

    Lack of staff, pilots retiring, not enough replacement and the end result is this. Or just bad yields and that is understandable too..

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous12:32

    Wizzair is it you? :)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous12:44

    In regards to the Cologne route, it was also very unfortunate that Wizzair moved their Dortmund flights to Cologne at the same time. So there was out of sudden a crazy oversupply of seats on that route. But should be working year round. Flew that route twice on Wizzair and it was always packed full.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous13:20

    With this temp reduction Air Serbia is 80% over 2019 levels. That puts to shame all your airlines.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Slav.Man13:52

    it is worrying that they made these reductions so late in the scheduling, but it does happen from time to time with a lot of airlines.
    but even with the reductions if the data is accurate that there is still a 30% increase over 2023. If JU is able to keep a 30% increase in 2024 for the whole year that will be an additional 1.2 million increase and thats a good result.
    if they do the same every year then they will reach 8 million in 2027. Thats a huge change

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous14:21

    Can someone explain whether this has anything to do with the low staff morale in Air Serbia? Are there staff issues that are causing these cuts?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:26

      There is no shortage of cabin crew at least. Because there are a lot wet-leased aircraft, JU cabin crew have a very quiet winter, working normal hours.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:32

      Allegedly there was even a surplus so some of them ended up in the call center.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:08

      It's more to do with shortage of pilots... Many retirements coming up.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:22

      Pilots left them in large numbers

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:39

      Any actual data? Link?
      Or just usual trolling.

      Delete
  34. Anonymous16:04

    Obviously, too much of ČSA, Malev and AZ strategy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:08

      At least there is no OU strategy.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:23

      OU better strategy then AZ or MA if you know what I mean

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:41

      AZ is through ITA somehow still alive and MA did not have Government support as OU has. Otherwise OU would finish on the same place where MA is. Great strategy.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:56

      So you agree that the strategy is better, thanks.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous21:16

      Yes OU strategy is better

      Delete
    6. Anonymous22:50

      Milk your Government. Amazing strategy!

      Delete
  35. Anonymous16:22

    Anon 11.57, do how do they throw money through the window if they are generating record profits?
    Yes, wet lease is expensive, but AirSerbia has long term and planned wet leases and they are much cheaper than ad hoc wet lease arrangements. If you calculate all the expenses of stuff, insurance, maintenance and lease, deals AirSerbia has are not bad deals at all.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Boris16:47

    Its tough out there. There is virus circulating around called “dekintacija” for some destinations.
    JU was aggressive and that was the right approach but now it has to cut some losses.
    Its good learning lesson.
    High interest rates are killing lots of businesses in the Europe.
    Lots of fake news on TV but economy is circling down the drain. First slowly and then suddenly .
    2024 will be tough year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:54

      The stock market doesn’t seem to think so.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:56

      Only people in the Balkans think so

      Delete
    3. Boris21:02

      Stock market is science fiction.
      Fiat money is science fiction as well.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous21:44

      21:17
      +1000!!!!

      Delete
  37. Anonymous17:48

    I think what that anon meant is that they are generating record profits because 2022-2023 was a wonderful time for aviation and every airline made record results. But what will happen when we go back to normal margins on air fares?

    Nobody knows the exact terms of the wet lease deals. Still in principle this is more expensive than dry leases plus your own crew and maintenance. Specially when one of the advantages of JU (or for example TK) is coming from a cheaper labour country.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous18:23

    Marek dreams of Tokyo and Seoul but is failing in China. Not good guys.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:39

      It is only for one month especially as it is the slowest month in a year. Actually we are talking about in total 4 flight less only!

      Some people here...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:20

      That's 50% of all flights

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:49

      Wow! When we want to avoid using small number of flights reduced we shall turn to percentages!

      Delete
  39. Anonymous18:48

    If they stay profitable, then it is acceptable.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous20:24

    It does not look good. I hope that they will solve the aircraft problem. Why dry-lease is so difficult? Or somebody said stop. Because demand is there, if no for Naples, but for sure for Ankara.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:29

      I agree something seems to be very wrong

      Delete
  41. Anonymous21:08

    Is it a coincidence they announce this the day after the election?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They didn't "announce it". They made the changes in the Global Reservation System late last week. It took a few days to compile the changes and publish it for you today.

      Delete
  42. Anonymous21:18

    Funny how Wizz in Belgrade made the schedule and changed nothing. That's how you do it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:46

      Well Wizz has hundreds of brand new aircraft on order so they don't need to do reductions in their schedule like that.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:05

      Funny how Wizz also made schedule and then made changes in 2023.

      Delete
  43. Anonymous09:13

    Air Serbia expanded far too quickly, now we are seeing the results of that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:41

      That's right approach to run the business.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:16

      The results are the highest profits ever.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:26

      +1

      Delete
  44. Anonymous20:18

    Very good business handling as the ticket i received cancellstjon notice for is still buyable on their website.

    ReplyDelete

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