Low cost carrier easyJet is planning on introducing flights between London Stansted and Belgrade this coming winter season. The carrier has been granted requested slots for the new route but is yet to put tickets on sale. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, the airline had initially considered launching flights from Manchester, which is one of Belgrade’s busiest unserved routes in Europe, however, it ultimately opted for Stansted instead. The carrier still reserves the right to utilise the approved slots on another route, meaning it is not bound to launching the flights if it finds better use for the slot pairs.
easyJet plans on maintaining two weekly rotations between London Stansted and Belgrade during the 2024/25 winter season. If its plans materialise, it will become the first time two low cost carriers have maintained flights between London and Belgrade, albeit from different airports with Wizz Air operating from Luton. In addition, Air Serbia maintains flights to London Heathrow. British Airways is suspending operations from Heathrow to the Serbian capital from September. easyJet’s new service will also mark the first time Belgrade will be linked to Stansted Airport, northeast of central London. During the first four months of this year, a total of 74.099 passengers flew between Belgrade and London’s Heathrow and Luton airports, up over 30% on the same period in 2023.
easyJet currently maintains a single service to Belgrade, from Geneva. Over the years it has launched and discontinued a number of routes from the Serbian capital. It initially entered the Serbian market in 2013 with a service from Milan Malpensa. It subsequently also operated flights from Rome Fiumicino, Basel, and Berlin, all of which have since been discontinued. This coming winter season Wizz Air has scheduled daily flights between the Serbian capital and Luton Airport, while Air Serbia will also run daily services between Belgrade and Heathrow this winter.
Somehow I don't see this working out. I hope I'm wrong but....
ReplyDeleteThat said, interesting how their flights from Milan and Berlin failed yet Wizz does fine on both routes.
easyjet has one of the highest average cost per passenger out of the LCCs. So they have to make more money than Wizz to be successful on any given route.
DeleteYes and their costs are probably similar to those of JU which also does well in these two markets. I think their main problem is lack of commitment to BEG as a market.
DeleteTrue but JU can rely on transfers and different types of passengers. Also Easyjet is well known for asking for money from airports in smaller markets, which might be one of the issues with BEG because I somehow doubt BEG is interested in giving them any.
DeleteTrue, at the end of the day we are lucky enough to have alternatives.
DeleteIronically, they managed to outlast Air Serbia, Etihad Regional and Swiss on the Geneva route.
DeleteI guess because they are too strong there. If I am not wrong they ended up shutting down their Berlin base.
DeleteI never understood they could not make it from BSL to BEG.
DeleteThe market is obviously there as W6 increases their frequuency to daily in next winter season.
And after all to try the route where Serbian citizens need visas, where 2 airlines already operate flights and where third gave up is not logical to me.
I believe they would have better chances to succeed if they went for Manchester or at least Gatwick.
DeleteThis is fantastic news and something very preducrable following BA’s withdrawal. We just need a Gatwick service now too.
DeleteMeant to write Predictable
DeleteRyanair flies to SJJ triple weekly + Wizz double weekly from Luton. Wizz LF is around 80%. Ryanair doesn't fly routes where they don't make money. Ppl here said no way it can work. It works. Why wouldn't young Brits come to Belgrade for bachelor's party instead of Budapest for example? New routes generate completely new pax. I am happy to see that Balkan aviation is not fully dependant on diaspora.
Delete^ yes, and how many times has Sarajevo said that both routes are subsidized?
DeleteSubsidies are good. And BEG is not JU.
DeleteWe will see how good they are when financial results come out. ZAG as a Ryanair hub has just reported a net loss of 5 million euros for 2023. And subsidies may be good for some airports while not for others. Obviously it is needed in SJJ which until yesterday barely had 4-5 European routes.
DeleteBut it is the multiplier effect that works. Because extra visitors spend money on cafes, restaurants, hotels, taxis, sightseeing etc
DeleteOk, Belgrade currently has 12 weekly flights to Heathrow and 7 weekly to Luton. Soon easyjet will replace British Airways. So in total 26 weekly flights to London this summer. I don't see the issue.
Delete@anon 13:08
DeleteCould you please provide a link where it is stated that ZAG has a loss of 5 mil EUR?
Thanks.
There you go. They also sacked their board.
Deletehttps://www.companywall.hr/tvrtka/zracna-luka-zagreb-doo/MM117ZfR
@13:50 how did you get 26? 12+7+2=19 pw
Delete21pw
DeleteAre you assuming EZ goes daily?
DeleteWe need more flights to Paris, not London guys.
DeleteOk, so no more flights to London guys.
Delete@13:53 That's not Zagreb Airport. Zagreb Airport is MZLZ. What you sent through as your big discovery is a different company.
DeleteBravo BEG 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteThey should have gone for MAN instead.
ReplyDeleteSure.
DeleteWell it is BEG's most popular unserved route in Europe. Probably would have generated more demand than another London airport.
DeleteI think LGW would be a better choice.
DeleteProbably the slots there though are more valuable for U2 and are utilizing them elsewhere.
I agree about MAN.
DeleteDefinitely MAN could work with 2pw. At London, they are not competitive with that frequency
DeleteYeap, even worse than BA to LHR.
DeleteIf it wasn't for the Visa requirement JU would have launched MAN.
DeleteAnd it would have been very successful both for O&M pax as well as transfers from BEG to the rest of JU's network.
What does O&M pax mean?
DeleteP2P
DeleteThanks. O stands for origin, but what about the M?
DeleteOrigin and Migration.
DeleteBA888
DeleteWhich airport in London is most convenient for use?
ReplyDeleteLTN.
DeleteLondon city :)
DeleteGetvik
DeleteIt depends on the purpose of your trip, LHR for sure if you transfer to another flight. Luton and Stanseed + LHR all have decent connections to central London so not much of a differentiator which one you use.
DeleteIt really depends on which part of London you're traveling to/from.
DeleteLHR is by far the most convenient airport, as it is fully integrated into London Transport system- TfL and within Greater London metropolitan limits and has gigantic destinations offer. London City is much smaller airport for business people in the City as the name suggests with limited offer. The other three are well connected, but miles away from central London. Broadly Luton is more convenient for people heading to NW London, Stansted NE and Gatwick to the south Londoners. That said, if the ticket price is right and destination offered, you'd go on any of them if in London.
DeleteLuton is not convenient. LGW after LHR because of train then LCY then STN then LTN.
DeleteLondon City airport - easy to get into and out, rent-a-car offices are right in front of the airport entrance.
DeletePlus excellent Egg Benedict/Royal :)
LCY is easily accessible with good fares from BEG with KLM and Swiss.
DeleteKL sells flights for less than 20.000 RSD. It's a bargain.
Anon 12:33 Luton is convenient if you live in Watford or Harrow, much more then Gatwick. It really boils down to where you live in London and how many options for your destination you have. London is huge and sometimes it takes much more to get to the airport then to your final destination.
DeleteI give them one year until they withdraw. It is easy after all.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid you are right.
DeleteWishing them luck, but with this visa regime...also with BA leaving BEG for the second time. Serbia is not doing anything to promote Brits and the prices are very high. Come on, lets be real. So many European capitals have at least London airports connections......
ReplyDeleteAnd what should Serbia do promote Brits in your opinion? Do they promote Serbia at all? Not in a good way anyhow!
DeleteThere are SO MANY British tourists in Sarajevo since Ryan opened the Stanstead route, I dont see why they wouldnt go to Belgrade either?
DeleteSerbia should promote itself as a tourist destination. And Belgrade as a city break.
DeleteLet's be honest and say that BA failed in BEG.
DeleteThey started it with only 3 weekly rotations knowing Serbian citizens need visas to UK even transit ones if they do not continue to USA or Canada afterwards.
At the same time we have FRA, MUC, CDG, AMS, VIE, ZRH, WAW, IST where the frequencies of flying are from 10 weekly (WAW) to more than 40 weekly (IST) and where SRB citizens do not need any kind of visas.
BA should have started BEG at least with daily flights at the same time lobbying to UK Government to remove visas at least for transit passengers.
^^^
Delete+1000
The visa situation is shameful and purely political. We should lobby the new British government to change the regime and make it similar to other non EU member European countries.
Agreed. As a British citizen i've written to them already..but lets see.. :(
DeleteWell Riga managed to keep its BA flights and take the BEG slots to go daily. Maybe we should learn from them.
DeleteRiga publically stated they are subsidizing the route from the winter season.
DeleteAnd they do not have visa regime with UK.
DeleteAnd yet Riga has a flag carrier called Air Baltic. Funny that!
DeleteYes and Belgrade has Air Serbia which also flies nonstop to New York and Chicago while BA was hoping to get transfers to these destinations with 3 weekly flights. Some airports are not willing to pay others for routes that already served. Others are.
DeleteMy point is Riga did not care to protect Air Baltic and according to you is subsizing the competition. This has nothing to do with JU flying two overpriced transatlantic flights catering to non-Serbian travellers.
Delete^ your issues with Serbia and JU are very visible so there is little point in arguing. I guess they protected Wizz Air and soon easyjet too. BEG has no need to pay other airlines to fly. Some other airports do.
DeleteI have no issues with Serbia and I am Serbian. I have issues in being overcharged for a direct flight whilst others get to pay a third of the price because they don’t have the pleasure of terminating in BEG.
DeletePerhaps your issues should be with the local BA team which scheduled 3 weekly flights to Belgrade with its main aim being transfer passengers while obviously doing little to no research of the market as Air Serbia flies to both New York and Chicago, while Lufthansa offers 5 daily flights from Belgrade with convenient onwards connections to the US. And if you don't believe me that US transfers were their number one priority, check what their representative said at the inaugural. That literally US transfers are their one and only aim. In any case, since you have the pleasure of terminating in Belgrade, you can use low cost carrier Wizz Air and soon low cost carrier easyjet from London.
DeleteJU surely does not have high prices.
DeleteSomething totally different is that you want to fly in next 14 days during the peak summer season for peanuts.
I did say that before. I don’t understand how they managed daily BA888 flights before and only 3 weekly now. Totally stuffed up by local BA management.
DeleteNot serious by BA at all.
DeleteBT doesn't fly to LHR, JU does. If BA drops Heathrow then Riga loses the connection to this airport. If BA leave BEG then we still have lovely JU
DeleteI am sure that kind of thinking is what BA considered. Not.
DeleteIf they do go for these flights the good thing is that there will be 3 different London airports on offer from BEG.
ReplyDeleteWith 2 weekly flights, they really can't be competitive against JU and W6/W9 which both have daily flights.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIn summer JU flies 9 pw to LHR.
DeleteForgot all the destinations they tried (and failed) in BEG.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can rememeber these were Basel, Milan, Rome, Berlin.
DeleteAll these Wizz is doing well on nowadays goes to show success is not about the routes but the airline that launches them
DeleteWill be fun to watch what Wizz does.
ReplyDeleteIn 2018 it was predicted by some they would be BEG's number 1 airline :D
ReplyDelete„Izidžet ima daleko najviše linija prema Vansijevim aerodromima, a odmah nakon toga par linija manje ima Rajaner. S obziom na to da oni imaju izuzetne odnose sa Izidžetom i Rajanerom, svakako je za očekivati dolazak mnogo većeg broja tih kompanija, a ja i ovo gledam u tom kontekstu – mislim da su ovo neke preliminarne radnje za daleko veću količinu Izidžet-ovih aviona. Sklon sam verovanju da će prerasti Viz er, a mogu da postanu i broj jedan avio prevoznik u Beogradu“, kaže Šćurić.
https://n1info.rs/biznis/a408348-izidzet-uveo-nove-letove-iz-beograda/
lol
DeleteAnaliticar + N1, what a desinformational combination
DeleteThanks for finding it.
DeleteIt is amazing how many times he missed in his predictions.
"Expert".
This seems like it was before he fully embraced his doom and gloom attitude to any development in Serbia
Deletehe embraced it when he realized he couldn't get any job there.
Delete@09:57 Bravo!!!
DeleteFully agree.
DeleteLol hilarious
DeleteI loved flying them to MXP and FCO, as I hope they will make an expansion out of Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteHow come Serbia-Italy flights have performed so poorly for LCCs but are doing well for JU?
DeleteWell, W6 still flies to Bergamo and Rome.
DeletePlus Wizz seems to be doing fine. I guess it's a market that doesn't mind paying a bit more to fly with JU.
DeleteSerbs enjoy flying on JU.
Don't forget that Wizz initially also failed with Rome CIA. I think that the demand for LCC to Italy grew a bit later than what they expected. I think that poor marketing contributed the most.
DeleteI hope this happens. Because as soon as BA pulled away from the winter season, ASL shot their prices back up to the roof.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhat about AMS?
ReplyDeleteShould have launched STN-LJU. Proven route with on average 100k passengers a year. But Fraport is not interested.
ReplyDeleteGreat news. War with Wizz coming?
ReplyDeleteNice
ReplyDeleteWish them luck, but I believe JU and W6 have the market covered and will successfully defend it. Not many ties between the two countries and coupled with the visa regime their flights are bound to fail sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteLuton is inferior and EZ will do better because of STN (which has long haul flights, eg EK) and its service being way better than W6's.
DeleteI heard EZY wanted to fly from.LGW to BEG but B would not accept..stringer competition from them. Hope it works
ReplyDeleteYou heard wrong, especially since "B" can't accept or not accept which route an airline wants to launch.
DeleteLGW would gave been a killer of W6. I always expected FR to start STN but not EZ.
Deleteyou heard wrong, there are not enough slots at LGW.
DeleteBut LGW and BEG are both run by Vinci. Could something not been done?
Deletenema slotova za sve
DeleteWhere? In BEG? As far as I am aware LGW still has slots available.
DeleteEither be serious about Belgrade or stay away. This is no serious behavior.
ReplyDeleteEasy Jet is quite a decent airline. I wish they had more flights to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteMilan worked well, few empty seats.
ReplyDeleteI asked stewardess for what reason they won’t fly anymore to beg, she didn’t know.
She says, “ It is always full aircraft, no idea”.
Now, they are talking from London.
It is strange.
Air Serbia also interested in Stansted.
So they want to fly to a FR hub? Bizarre.
DeleteTwice a week is very basic.
ReplyDeleteStill better than nothing.
For the begin twice a week is okay.
ReplyDeleteThere definitely is demand for more London flights.