Air Serbia could commence operations between Belgrade and Baku in Azerbaijan by the end of the year on a trial basis. Following the meeting of the Azerbaijan - Serbia Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Baku last week, its co-chair, Nikola Selaković, said the two sides will hold talks over the service launch in the coming days. “As the national airline, Air Serbia plans to expand its operations to the Caucasus region. The first destination will be Baku, considering the overall importance of air transport for international connections between states and individuals, coupled with the fact that the flow of people between Serbia and Azerbaijan is no longer burdened by visas, that establishing nonstop flights is one of the prerequisites for the development of the economy and tourism, and that both Belgrade and Baku can serve as bridges for our people to other destinations”, Mr Selaković said.
Following the Intergovernmental Commission, Mr Selaković noted he was upbeat about the service launch before the end of 2024, but conceded that the duration of the flights between the two capitals would put a strain on capacity. “Most of Serbia's neighbours already have nonstop flights with Azerbaijan, but there is none between Serbia and Azerbaijan”, he said, adding that Air Serbia is open to cooperating with Azeri carriers on the route. Discussions over flights between the two countries have been ongoing for years. The two states have boosted economic ties recently, after Serbia signed a deal with Azerbaijan for the supply of 400 million cubic meters of gas annually, pending the completion of a pipeline interconnector with Bulgaria. As a result, Azerbaijan will become only Serbia’s second gas supplier.
Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, recently said flights to the Caucasus were imminent. “The next destination in the short-haul segment will most likely be around the Central Asia/Caucasus region. We have been looking at it and if we did not have the capacity constraints something would have already been launched”, Mr Marek said last month. He added, “For these, Belgrade would be a good option for connecting to Europe”. Up until the end of March of this year, Air Serbia codeshared on Qatar Airways’ service between Doha and Baku, however, the codeshare on this particular route is no longer applicable.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteGood news they are considering Caucasus region, but personally I would love to see Tbilisi rather then Baku. :)
DeleteMe too Tbilisi much much cooler city
DeleteGreat; could maybe E195s make it?
ReplyDeleteYes, it can make it without an issue.
DeleteThe E195 is ideal for launching new routes
Delete+1
DeleteHow long does the entire rotation take for a plane on this route?
ReplyDeleteBlock time per flight should be 4h, so the whole rotation should take around 9 hours.
DeleteHuh, that's like than 2 standard European rotations
DeleteThanks. So that's too long for the flight to take off in the midnight wave and make it in time for passenger to connect to the morning wave.
DeleteYes, the flight must cover two waves.
DeleteThey need to develop the 10.20 for routes like GYD to work.
DeleteIt could leave BEG at midnight and be back at 08.30/09.00
They need to provide convenient connections from Baku to both Western/Northern and Eastern/Southern Europe. Therefore, the flight BEG-GYD should leave around 13:30 and return around 22:30, as well as around 07:00 and return around 16:00.
DeleteI agree. Instead of constantly saying that these routes are too long and don't fit into their existing waves, they should come up with a solution and perhaps move the existing waves to better fit future expansions that would include future destinations such as CAI, DXB, AMM, GYD, TBS, BGW, IKA, RUH, JED, etc. JU used to fly to many of those on the past. Whey they can't replicate the schedule they used to have?
DeleteThese flights are overdue. Hope it will be part of JU's winter expansion.
ReplyDeleteWinter season might not be good time to start this route.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteIf it’s on a trial basis, might not be too much tourists for a start. And trial might not show full potential in the winter
DeleteThis route will need massive marketing to work.
DeleteAzeris are like Turks, they LOVE to fly with their own flag carrier, even if it overcharges them by 2-3 times.
Fall/winter is good, as you don't want to go to Azerbaijan in summer. I went in July a few years back and it was extremely hot.
DeleteAzerbaijan is not extremly hot in summer, its same like Serbia..Winter is cold and windy in Baku, very bad time to visit..I lived in Azerbaijan for several years...9 hours with E195 would be kinda tight
DeleteI believe A319 would be needed during summer season
Delete9 hours?
DeleteAround 9 hours would be round trip BEG-GYD-BEG.
Delete"even if it overcharges them by 2-3 times."
DeleteWhat are you even on about? No one willingly pays more unless it's a huge jump up in quality....granted we're talking about airserbia...
"Azerbaijan is not extremly hot in summer, its same like Serbia."
DeleteSerbia is insanely hot in summer with little relief, what are you on about?
Na žalost kako ne guraju da postave političku vezu sa Gruzijom i je Jermeniju. Da bi tamo leteli već
ReplyDeleteAli dobro. Barem gledaju da rastu
Is that the fuselage of the A330 on the photo?
ReplyDeleteIt is. Number 3 coming soon
DeleteWon't happen, we've already been there in the past plus JU doesn't have the planes for it.
ReplyDeleteBeen there in the past how?
DeleteFlights BEG-GYD are planned at least once every two years. There are even articles on here
DeleteAir Serbia has literally said it is their next short haul destination.
DeleteHow many things they have said and never happened.
DeleteIf I had to put a bet I'd say no
DeleteI’d say yes.
DeleteI have to admit that, as living there recently, for a few years, haven't seen much of people from Serbia flying to Baku or Azeris coming here..I was literaly flying every month on route GYD-BEG and flew once on twice with somebody from Serbia, out of almost 30 round trip flights I did ( so 60 in total)..Although I think that BEG could be good transfer point for ordinary Azeris ( not the rich ones) if Air Serbia offers good deals for Germany
DeleteIt would be more p2p if the direct route would start
Delete"Won't happen, we've already been there in the past plus JU doesn't have the planes for it."
DeleteWho are these people talking as if they know anything? You know nothing man. You're anonymous, no one to impress.
Makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia will announce new destinations as the aircraft join the fleet. Two Embraers should join the fleet soon
ReplyDeleteShould be in 3 days
DeleteEmbraers join the fleet on August 19th.
DeleteDCV is on a vacation? Both planes are at BEG longer than a month
DeleteVisas finally abolished for Serbian citizens to enter Azerbaijan?
ReplyDeleteYes but even before it was an evisa. It was just a formality. You fill out your name and surname and hotel address online and you automatically get the visa.
DeleteLiterally. Entering is very easy for almost everyone. They are making a big push on tourism. I spent 7days there this spring. Baku is lovely! The reatnof the country not as interesting as rural Georgia, but they have invested a HUGE amount on hotels and new roads.
DeleteYes that visa issue was to looong story from Azeri side, since Serbia abolished visas in 2018 for them, and we were waiting for 5 years for Azeri to do the same.. They finally abolished visas in 2023, before that they introduced evisas for us, running aproximately 1 year..Entering Azerbaijan was not that easy , now its fine, at least for us..
DeleteBtw, huge amount of money is invested in downtown Baku, for instance you have whole blocks that are copy-pasted from Paris ( White city ), and its very nice..But if you go a bit out of downtown, you can experience real turkish cultural herritige, in a way of building houses and streets as well.
Unfortunatelly, for the most beautiful regions in valleys bellow Caucasus is only one very bad and dangerous road..Up to Shamaxi is great highway, and than stops..The most beautiful region is Gabale region, Sheki and Agdash, and also Langkaran on south, close to Iranian border, where is subtropic climate and totaly different from other parts of Azerbaijan..There is good road to that place, and highway south-east that goes to Gendze...
Would be a nice addition
ReplyDeletegood connecting points for Russian transfers.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the pre-Covid plans are back!
ReplyDeleteOfc it’s not Yerevan or Tbilisi, we have the Azeri president‘s statue in one of the nicest parks in Belgrade…
ReplyDeleteAnd so? They sponsored the reconstruction off Tašmajdan park which costed millions of euros. The political and economic ties between Serbia and Azerbaijan are on a very high level. That said, both Georgia and Armenia are also friendly counties that support territorial sovereignty integrity of Serbia, although the economic tires are not as big as with Azerbaijan. Ultimately, Tbilisi will a definitely the next in line. Would love to see the entire Transcaucasian region linked to Belgrade.
DeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteVerovatno će krenuti sa 2 nedeljna leta. S obzirom da će let trajati oko 4,5h mislim da bi naj idealnije bilo da jedan let kreće u jutarnjem talasu i tako pokriju noćni i treći talas za transferne putnike, a drugi u noćnom talasu i tako pokriju treći i drugi talas ka istoku.
ReplyDeleteFlight is 4h long, therefore the schedule should be similar to Porto/Lisbon route.
DeleteI think it would be the best to rotate it during the night, just like CAI was. So start around 23:30, return about 8:30
DeleteThe flight wont be 4.5 hours. Thats too long. 3.5h max or maybe 3:15 minutes.
DeleteBut then you miss all Europe connections on the way back. Could it depart in the afternoon wave between 5-6pm and be back in Belgrade between 4-5 am? That way it gets Europe transfers in both directions.
DeleteNema razlike ako kreće u prvom i trećem talasu. U oba slučaja dobija transferne putnike sa istoka ka zapadu.
DeleteHow long would it be for JU to fly to Tenerife?
DeleteAround 5 hours.
DeleteThanks.
DeleteBeen in Azerbaijan, Baku is a nice city but other than that nothing special there, in my opinion Georgia and Armenia would be much more suited for tourists (Orthodox countries with plenty of churches, Kavkaz mountains, gorgeous valleys) than Azerbaijan and also they have much smaller national airlines so transfers would do better from these countries. Baku will be just another political route.
ReplyDeleteI've been to Baku and I wouldn't agree with you. It's a really nice city and there are plenty of things to see. People are also really nice too and the country is very secular.
Delete"just another political route" yes, all of Air Serbia's routes are political. Actually, according to some here all routes from Belgrade are either for migrants or political.
I think Azerbaijan has a lot stronger economy than Georgia and Armenia, so we can expect more tourists from there
DeleteAnon @09:51 Most important is that you do not agree with me but we both agree that Baku is a nice city! ))) I meant the rest of Azerbaijan is nothing special, the coast is not comparable to Greece, Montenegro etc. People are nice but are often tricky, that is in their mentality so a doze of reserve and caution should be applied in all dealings.
DeleteUltimately they should be flying to all three cities, or at least two of three.
Delete@anon 09:51
DeleteAnd routes for Russians and Chinese workers, political too.
Probably not as first choice for swimming but Batumi in Georgia is a respectable resort town on the coast while Azerbaijan doesn't have any. My 20+ years of work with Azeris probably gave me a good insight of their mentality; try dealing business with them... Good luck!
DeleteThey're similar to Turks.
DeleteTheir relationship to Turks is something like Serbs and Russians.
DeleteAnon 10:29
DeleteYou're right about Azeri business mentality..I lived in Azerbaijan for several years, and I experienced it many times..One day you make a strong deal, and tomorrow -like nothing happened haha..But you have to get used to it, words doesn't mean much, it counts only when action starts ..Also they are very slow in business way..On the other hand, very nice, calm, and peaceful people, respectful towards others..
It's interesting that Azeri national carrier introduced two weekly services to both SOF and OTP, there were also talks that BEG might be introduced, but nothing happened.
ReplyDeleteI also think that demand is pretty limited, otherwise it wouldn't take so long to establish flights. Why JU ignores a huge transfer market, EVN?
Because they are ignorant about the potential of EVN and the Armenian diaspora living in the West. The Armenian economy is not so great but people travel and Armenia almost has no national carrier so Turkish and others are taking advantage. Would be much better than GYD.
DeleteOn the Embraer’s - reading the FT interview with the CEO, they will be clearly needing to build out capacity due to demand. A good political play is if Air Serbia see Embraers as part of their future then why not look to tr to bring some production for them to Serbia. High skilled jobs in a growing industry and company.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete“Most of Serbia's neighbours already have nonstop flights with Azerbaijan" ...
ReplyDeleteAnd who is that??!
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Montenegro.
DeleteReally?
DeleteOn a scheduled or charter basis?
All scheduled
DeleteSofia is seasonal and Montenegro also i believe.
Deletewizz and azal fly regularly.
DeleteI just booked a flight from Baku to Belgrade for next month. The choices are pretty dismal. The cheapest option was via Warsaw with a 6 hour layover. The one way ticket came to about €350 so direct flights will really come in useful.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised TK doesn't offer good connections.
DeleteThey are so so, but price was about €400 per person.
Deletewizz to BUD wasnt an option for you?
DeleteThe cheapest option is with Wizzair via Abu Dhabi...Wizz is flying to Baku on daily basis from AUH, and to BEG Wizz flys 3-4 times a week..Sometimes I was paying round trip Baku-Beg via Abu Dhabi for less then 150 euros
DeleteThe QR codeshare to Baku was useless. QR has around 10 flights per week to Baku but one flight is in the morning and the other in late afternoon. QR232 from Belgrade to Doha lands after the afternoon Baku flight departs, while flying with the morning option means you have a transfer time of over 12 hours.
ReplyDeleteWho would fly Belgrade-Doha-Baku anyway? It's major backtracking.
DeleteYes, I don't think anyone used this combination. Not to mention the ticket price.
DeleteWell, as soon as they get 6 Embraers, 6 ATRs and 4 A320 that they are currently actively looking for (on top of current fleet expansion with Embraers and 4 additional A330s) they will have all capacity in the world to establish these flights
ReplyDeleteUntil EXPO, I hope
DeleteSince when are they looking for another 6 ATRs?
DeleteAll these comments are true to some extent. But Serbia not hot in the summer?
ReplyDeleteExtremely. But summer season also includes Spring and Autumn months, which are the best for city tourism
DeleteHaha my thoughts too..
DeleteExcellent news. Look forward to seeing these flights.
ReplyDelete