The President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, has said the country’s state-owned flag carrier will resume flights between Belgrade and the Egyptian capital of Cairo shortly. The announcement came after Serbia and Egypt inked a Free Trade Agreement earlier this week aimed at boosting economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. According to Mr Vučić, “Many people have complained over the lack of flights between Serbia and Egypt. Air Serbia will resume its flights between Belgrade and Cairo as soon as possible. When I say as soon as possible, this will happen within the next two month, no later than that. As a result, we will once again establish even better connectivity between Egypt and Serbia”.
Air Serbia itself has not commented on the matter. The airline commenced services between Belgrade and Cairo in the summer of 2019, but the flights were suspended following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. It then restored the overnight service last summer, however, the route was suspended in February 2024 amid capacity restraints and has so far failed to make a return to its network. The halt of the airline’s Cairo service also marked the end of Air Serbia’s scheduled flights to North Africa, although the airline maintains a busy charter network to Hurghada, Marsa Matruh, and Marsa Alam in Egypt, as well as Monastir in Tunisia. During the summer of 2023, Air Serbia saw significant transfer traffic on its Cairo service, primarily to and from Germany, Italy, France, and Scandinavian markets.
The only scheduled flights between Belgrade and Egypt are currently maintained by Air Cairo, which runs year-round operations between Hurghada and the Serbian capital. The new Free Trade Agreement between Serbia and Egypt is expected to boost business travel between the two countries, as well as cargo demand. Trade exchange between Egypt and Serbia reached $120.4 million in 2023, compared to $104.7 million in 2022, an increase of 15%. Egypt's main exports to Serbia in 2023 were vegetables and fruits, fertilisers, and plastics. On the other hand, Serbia's main exports to Egypt included tobacco, grains, machines, electrical appliances, mechanical devices and tools, as well as rubber.
Can the E195 do a Cairo rotation over night? I mean, does it have the range?
ReplyDeleteOS used to send the E95 to KRR so it can do BEG-CAI without problems. LO sends their Embraers to the Middle East quite often.
DeleteYes it has. Air Cairo sends E195 to Banja Luka From Hurgada
DeleteYes it has. Air Cairo send E jet to Banja Luka From Hurgada. But don't think that is right plane for those flights.
DeleteThanks, true, I forgot Air Cairo sends the E195 on some of the flights in the region. This could be an option for JU maybe. I think none of the ERJs are deployed over night based on their planned schedule.
DeleteIt does, but there is demand for A319 because of both cargo and pax.
DeleteI don't think JU had an issue with loads on these flights. It might have been yields that they stopped the flights or not enough aircraft (or staff)
DeleteThe issue with these flights is duration. If you want the plane to arrive in Belgrade from Cairo to catch all the morning connections, it has to leave Belgrade for Cairo prior to most of the connecting flights arriving from Europe in the evening wave. Also your turnaround time in Cairo needs to be short. Around 45 minutes, which is usually enough time but at an airport like Cairo, far from it.
DeleteThat's also not a problem, split schedule could catch transfer passengers in different waves
DeleteBut the rotation is extremely long. So only overnight flight can work becauae they need planes during the day for Europe flights.
DeleteVucic making all the announcements for them
ReplyDeleteHe made a passing comment while signing the FTA. Calm down.
DeleteA passing comment would be that the flights should or will happen. He specified the flights would happen very soon, within a 2-month period. That is NOT a passing comment. Change my mind.
DeleteNo one cares about your political campaigning. Get over it.
DeleteI did not make the original post
DeleteCould very well be that this route despite high load factor had lower yields due to majority being transfers.
ReplyDeleteMost likely
DeleteQueue comments about how president shouldn’t be announcing new routes. But it is very likely that Air Serbia has plans to resume these flights in 2024/25 winter. Remember they said they won’t announce new routes until they get the planes. So perhaps they are waiting for the Embraers to come.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteMiddle East is a place for JU to focus more.. That’s for sure. Look at Aegean’s Middle East network.
ReplyDeleteAgree completely. They completely pulled out of the Middle East and North Africa which is a shame.
DeleteMarek mentioned at one point that yields are lower on flights like Beirut because it is all transfer. So a passenger from Beirut continues to Paris but he could sell a seat from Belgrade to Paris for double the price but it is taken by a passenger who paid a much lower price originating from Beirut.
DeleteThat is a problem to be solved by AirSerbia "planning" team.
DeletePut price for those originating from Beirut higher and if the tickets go fown than it wasn't worth from the beginning..
Aegean managed to have a pretty good Middle East network. Yesterday they announced Abu Dhabi and Gran Canaria joining their network. JU should fix that too I’m sure CAI, BEY, AMM can all work out.
DeleteYou are comparing apples and oranges.
Delete9:27 JU will have to start these routes in order to expand. Marek clearly said that all p2p routes are already served, so they will expand to transfer routes. And those routes should be included
DeleteQuestion is, is this Vucic just shooting his mouth or was he actually told about these flights by JU. There have been examples of both in the past.
ReplyDeleteIt is totally irrelevant who placed the comment.
DeleteThe point is that we shall have again flights to CAI and that is the most important fact.
If there was such a demand why does the Egyptian side not send EgyptAir?
ReplyDeleteEgypt Air has been expanding lately. In the last few weeks they started Prague, Zurich and Lisbon. So you never know.
DeleteI think Egypt Air codeshares on Aegean's flights from Athens to Belgrade.
DeleteAnd they operate 3 daily flights to ATH:’( just send some flights to BEG too..
DeleteDidn't MS also start Budapest recently?
DeleteNo, they have been flying to BUD for several years.
DeleteWhat equipment are they using on these new European routes?
DeleteMix of B737-800s and A320neo
DeleteEgyptair is a pretty terrible airline. Wouldn't wish on anyone to fly with them.
DeleteFlew with them recently and they were great.
DeleteThey actually have a big European network. When they add Lisbon at the end of the month they will have 25 destinations in Europe. They also offer affordable transfer options and unlike European airlines fly at normal time to/from Europe.
DeleteTLV should be also restored asap. Don't know if they're still planning AMM, it would be a nice addition.
ReplyDeleteThey scheduled Amman flights in 2022 and then quietly removed it from sale before it started.
DeleteTLV is a must!
DeleteI'm surprised they have not resumed Cairo so far. I wonder what is the reason.
ReplyDeleteFleet and personnel shortage.
DeleteShould have been restored this summer.
ReplyDeleteThey don't have the aircraft for it.
DeleteInteresting how European destinations are biggest transfer markets for the CAI flights.
ReplyDeleteI believe Italy was the biggest.
DeleteInteresting. I think ITA resumed Cairo flights since.
DeleteFlew this flights twice in summer 2023. Packed every single time (in business class too). But always late because we were always waiting for transfers (or are plane was delayed as it was arriving late from another destination).
ReplyDeleteEspecially in summer 2023 which was a disaster for JU in terms of punctuality.
DeleteDoes JU even have enough planes for this? CAI is not exactly a quick turnaround.
ReplyDeleteIt has 2 plane sitting as "reserve" if other planes go tech.
Delete* planes
DeleteIt has 2 ATR idle more or less but these can't make it to CAI
DeleteHow long is the BEG-CAI flight? Some 3hrs?
DeleteAt least 7.5 to 8 hour turnaround. not very efficient unless in the dead of night.
DeleteThat is why almost all flights from Europe (by European airlines) arrive into Cairo at 3AM.
DeleteYes I know.
DeleteThese flights will likely start in winter season when there is much fewer flights so they will have aircraft.
DeleteLast year, BEG-CAI sector was scheduled at 2h55minutes and CAI-BEG 3h00minutes
DeleteCairo is a rising Airport Hub for Arab countries. JU should fly there.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
DeleteJU was very expensive on the Cairo route.
ReplyDeleteReally?
DeleteIt wasn't
DeleteDuring the summer of 2024, Air Serbia saw significant transfer traffic on its Cairo service,
ReplyDeleteAdmin, I think you have typo. Should be 2023 instead of 2024
How many weekly flights were there to Cairo?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the article - 3 weekly.
DeleteMissed that, thanks
DeleteAfter Cairo, JU should consider Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is literally giving airlines money to fly there through the Saudi Air Connectivity Program. There is some P2P demand because there are Serbian construction companies working in Saudi but JU could also get transfer traffic.
ReplyDeleteSerbs cannot enter Saudi Arabia as tourists.
DeleteI don't think the flights would cater for Serbian tourists even if they could.
DeleteUAE would make much more sense given the Serbian tourist and business demand there.
DeleteI mentioned Saudi Arabia because there is no risk in terms of costs, while to the UAE you would either have to compete against 2 daily Flydubai flights or 4-5 weekly Wizz Air Abu Dhabi.
DeleteWell going against FlyDubai and Emirates does not make sense but against Wizz in AUH or perhaps flying to DWC makes sense given the demand and the fact there are no visas.
DeleteMaybe south Africa would be a better consideration. There's more point to point demand and would be great for more long haul in their hub and spoke model. Or even a closer African state since Africa is so poorly connected especially to thr balkans
DeleteSaudi Arabia dosn't allowSerbian entering as tourust..Relying just on transfers and few companies would be rediculous..Better option would be Sri Lanka , there is tourist potential, and could be good for transfers for other far east destinations
DeleteYou can enter Saudi as a tourist if you have a valid American visa. Of course that doesn't mean much. Also visa on arrival is 150 euros.
Delete^Crazy
DeleteBack in 2022 he said Air Serbia next destinations will be China and Toronto. Toronto didn't happen. So much for his track record.
ReplyDeleteHe said China would be launched and it did. He said Miami would be launched and it will in less than a year.
DeleteNot sure if anyone had heard or commented but EU is cracking down on Chinese airlines because overflying Russia is giving them a competitive advantage over EU airlines. As a result, Austria just banned China Eastern from launching PVG-Vienna. Perhaps they will now come to BEG instead?
Delete@11:13 you're right and that's what's known as the fanaticism of eu politics. China doesn't have an unfair advantage. The eu made their own problem now complain for China
DeleteHe also said that JU should start flying to Azerbeijan and India…
DeleteHe said flights should be established, not that they will.
DeleteFrom Ex Yu Aviation:
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/10/president-air-serbia-plans-toronto-as.html
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has said Air Serbia will introduce flights to Toronto as its third destination in North America after services to Chicago are inaugurated in April of next year.
Yes and they will start MIA instead of YYZ. Big deal. You are spending too much time obsessing about him all day. I'm not his suppprter but if it was not for him you wouldn't have a national airline today and could only dream about nonstop flights to Miami and Toronto. Grow up and move on.
DeleteGood luck restarting Cairo in two months.
Delete^ why?
DeleteI think JU will soon announce their new winter routes and Cairo will probably be among them.
ReplyDeleteHope so
DeleteEmbraers enter fleet on 1 August so I hope that during August they will announce new routes for winter
DeleteWill 2 Embraers really resolve the capacity constraints?
DeleteYes
DeleteWonder if there was any feed from the Cairo flights onto US flights.
ReplyDeleteThe flights didn't have a convenient connection from US.
DeleteTransferred at Cairo a few days ago. And even in the early hours of the night the airport was busy, a little chaotic, but still organized. My outgoing EgyptAir flight left on time.
ReplyDeleteWould be great addition to Air Serbia's network.
Nice. Where were you travelling to?
DeleteToronto from Serbia.
DeleteLong way around to YYZ!
ReplyDeleteFo sures.
DeleteThey should focus on avoiding 3-6h delays first.
ReplyDelete