Asia’s largest carrier and the world’s sixth largest by capacity, China Southern Airlines, has inaugurated flights between Guangzhou and Belgrade, linking the two cities with a scheduled air service for the very first time. The carrier’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft landed at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport this morning with a full load of 296 passengers on board. The carrier’s Dreamliner jet features 28 seats in business class and the remaining 268 in economy. The airline will maintain a total of two weekly rotations between the two cities, on Wednesdays and Sundays. It becomes Belgrade’s second Chinese operator after Hainan Airlines and the first to utilise the Dreamliner aircraft on a regular basis to the city.
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| China Southern Airlines at Belgrade Airport |
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| Routing for China Southern's inaugural Guangzhou - Belgrade service |
As EX-YU Aviation News learns, China Southern Airlines and Air Serbia are working on establishing a closer partnership. The two already boast an interline baggage and ticketing agreement, enabling passengers to connect onto flights between the two without having to gather their bags or check-in again. The new flights give travellers access to connect through Guangzhou onto China Southern’s vast network of destinations. Guangzhou became China’s busiest after Beijing opened its second airport in Daxing. Guangzhou is a large trading city and a major centre for manufacturing and commerce. It is also home to one of the largest trade fairs in the world. It is strategically located on the Pearl River, about 120 kilometres northwest of Hong Kong, 130 kilometres northwest of Shenzhen and 145 kilometres north of Macau.
Belgrade is now linked with a scheduled to air service to three cities in China - Beijing, Guangzhou and Tianjin. The Serbian government recently initiated talks with Xiamen Air over a possible service to Xiamen. During the January - July period, a total of 79.761 Chinese tourists visited Serbia, representing an increase of 72% on the same period last year. This coming Monday, Air Serbia will launch its own flights to Guangzhou, also operating twice per week, on Mondays and Fridays. This will be followed by the introduction of flights to Shanghai, expected to start in the coming months. The Serbian carrier has recently been engaging with Chinese tour operators with a roadshow throughout the country (pictured).
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| Air Serbia workshop in China |
Bravo BEG 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteWelcome China Southern Airlines!
ReplyDeleteCan't believe we're having 2 airlines launch the same long haul in the same weekly period. Impressive
ReplyDeleteExcellent to hear that the flight was full
ReplyDeleteWhy does the article say there's only a business and economy class? First 4 rows of economy are premium economy, no? That's what the seat map looks like
ReplyDeleteThere is no premium economy sold on this flight. The airline uses its 2-class B787-9 on this route. You are right that the image showed the seat map with the 789 version with premium economy.
DeleteAh, I see, thanks for the explanation
DeleteThis is great news but I do wonder how Air Serbia will compete with them with an inconsistent onboard product. I now the upcoming A330-200 will be good but it will be a gamble which of the three/four A330s you will get.
ReplyDeleteAgree. CZ operated its inaugural with 5 year old Dreamliner. Air Serbia will operate its inaugural to Guangzhou with 13 year old A330 in bad shape (YU-ARC)
DeleteAre they really using YU-ARC for the inaugural?
DeleteYes!
DeleteWhat can they do, send in instead to JFK?
DeleteI would think for the first flight they could have done that
DeleteFirst JU flight from CAN is almost sold out, I think there is definitely more room for both carriers. Once the code-share is signed there will be even more options for travel.
DeleteUnfortunately we all know what JU's code-shares look like and how generally useless they are so I am not holding my breath.
There is definitely room to grow. Flights being sold out from CAN to BEG on both airline indicates this is primarily leisure traffic from China at the moment. When you add transfers which will grow a lot, I think it will be a very successful route.
DeleteThis is the beauty of staying political independent as much as you can - you get flights to places where even big counties don't get. This is how BEG will become massively important hub in SEE.
DeleteFantastic. Hope we get more new wide body and long haul operators at BEG.
ReplyDeleteNice. If you told me a few months ago that China Southern would be flying to BEG I really would not have believed it :D
ReplyDeleteIt seems that forward bookings from CAN to BEG are strong.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteCZ and JU should conclude a codeshare agreement.
ReplyDeleteThey will
DeleteWhat difference would it bring to passengers? You can already buy tickets on Air Serbia connecting flights on China Southern website
DeleteAdmin,
DeleteCould you please explain us if there is any difference for passengers if they are on codeshare or on interline flight?
Codeshares are a deeper form of partnership than interlines since they involve joint marketing, revenue sharing etc, while interlines are primarily about operational cooperation (ticketing and baggage handling or one or the other depending on the interline agreement). In terms of passenger benefits, they are similar. Codeshare agreements often provide more benefits in terms of frequent flyer miles, schedule coordination, and a more seamless customer experience but in terms of baggage and ticketing they are the same.
DeleteThank you very much!
DeleteAny photos?
ReplyDeleteThe carrier opted not to have the media welcome it on arrival. However, it is likely to release some photos during the day.
DeletePity. Why wouldn't they want to promote the new route?
DeleteCommunist habits die hard.
DeleteSo that's why there is no media coverage about it here in Serbia. Sad :(
DeleteActually on Weibo, Chinese aviation enthusiasts are also surprised there was nothing organised at CAN. Maybe they are waiting for JU to launch their flights to have some kind of joint promotion?
DeleteHow long is the flight?
ReplyDeleteThe inaugural took 12 hours and 5 minutes.
DeleteLong flight! Thank you.
DeleteIt's a bit shorter on the way back.
DeleteThat's super long, considering it's going through Russian airspace. It takes 12h from HKG to HEL and it's going through southern route.
DeleteUsually it would take around an hour and a half less. Maybe weather related?
DeleteOr maybe they had to fly slower due to airspace congesting over China.
DeleteChinese military is very strict when it comes to granting overfly rights to commercial aircraft. That's why the corridor from Beijing to South Korea is such a major mess with constant delays.
I was following the plane when it departed. In the beginning when they took off and a for a good 3 hours after, their expected arrival time was 6.30AM, around 1h30 minutes ahead of schedule. But over night that changed and they landed after 8.00.
DeleteI tracked it as well and noticed the same thing happen. It can only indicate that they had to reduce their airspeed at some point or that they encountered some wids. Who knows.
DeleteThis is true success for BEG! Well done!
ReplyDeleteThat is a tremendous achievement for Serbian aviation connectivity.
ReplyDeleteGreat load on the outbound. Any data for the inbound?
ReplyDeleteLove it. Also good to see JU being active on the Chinese market and doing roadshows.
ReplyDeleteSerbian Tourism Organization has been very active in China lately too.
DeleteGood
DeleteIt's a shame they are not more proactive. They were also busy in Turkey and look at the result. They should really consider promoting Serbia at some Western European markets.
DeleteOr heck team up with Jokic to promote Serbia over there in the US ... or at least in Denver then we might get UA to launch DEN-BEG. (kidding of course)
Do you think anyone at the tourism organization would ever think of something like that? None of them could care less.
DeleteI wonder why they decided on flying so far North.
ReplyDeleteCrazy. It took at least 3 hours more than needed
DeleteMaybe they wanted to avoid certain areas in the Middle East, who knows why they opted for this routing. We will see in a bit what they do with the flight back.
DeleteBecause meridians are closer the more North you go hence the travel time is reduced.
Delete@anon 11:30
DeleteThat doesn't explain the routing, look at what it would normally look like:
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=CAN-BEG
So nowhere near Scandinavia.
Zasto treba Vladu i slicnima crtati da je prostor iznad Ukrajine i dobrog dela Rusije zatvoren?
Delete@anon 11:50
DeleteWe know, there's no reason to be snarky. What I was saying is that the reason for flying so far north wasn't geography. The real question (as raised by Nemjee) is why fly so far north over Russia instead of taking the shorter route to the south of the no-fly zone.
Look Turkish fly Moskva Istambul THY3CE.
DeleteWhat are the fares like?
ReplyDeleteCheck their website.
DeleteWhat is the load on the oitbound flight?
ReplyDeleteThis unlocks huge opportunities for connections to the Far East and beyond. And hopefully more competition will have a knock-on effect on QR/FZ fares too. CZ is a fantastic new alternative for Australia flights, for example.
ReplyDelete(Speaking of which, Analiticar was trying to convince people on his blog that flying BEG-CAN-SYD is much longer than flying BEG-DXB-SYD. When I posted proof that the distance is almost identical, he refused to publish the comment 😂 Not visiting that website again for sure.)
Typical analiticar behaviour
DeleteЕ мој пријатељу, колико пута мени није објавио коментаре, а један је о томе да је пад раста БЕГ због смањења од 25% Визза. По њему је распад система крив за смањење раста.
DeleteHe never publishes comment that proved him wrong.
DeletePathetic.
Finally a big player in BEG. Exciting times.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Qatar, Lufthansa and Swiss can be considered big players too.
DeleteTurkish as well.
DeleteI meant a new big player. The ones you stated are flying to BEG for a very long time.
DeleteWishing them many safe landings
ReplyDeleteInterestingly Lufthansa has now said it is considering cancelling its Frankfurt - Beijing flights due to high costs.
ReplyDeleteThey are not considering it; they are cancelling it.
DeleteOh interesting. Didn't see the update. Thanks
DeleteAnd British airways or Virgin Atlantic are cancelling Hong Kong flights due to unfair competition If I am
DeleteNot mistaken :D
Does anybody know why is the airplane making a detour above Poland and Baltic Sea, instead to overfly Baltic countries and enter Russian airspace earlier. Is that a standard flight path?
ReplyDeleteThe map shows the outbound flight, so it's reverse of what you're describing. But anyway, my guess is this detour could either be due to weather or other technical reasons, or due to congestion in the Baltic states' airspace, because that area has a few bottle necks now due to sanctions.
DeleteI was looking at the departing flight on FR, it's the same route again, it could be also some Russian regulation to enter their space on some northern vector, who knows
Delete@13:09
DeleteMy thougjts too. I think JU is also entering RU air space from Baltic states.
Yes, JU avoids Belarus, but flies through Baltics. So the route of China Southern is definitely weird.
Deletehttps://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/yu-apm#37402910
What's I don't understand at all, is why some airlines avoid western border of Belarus, but then fly through Northern Belarus anyway.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/tc-joa#3741e281
Nobody feels comfortable to overfly Belarus since that hijack incident.
Delete@ Anon 15:06, they probably want to stay further away from Ukraine, in case of stray missiles. Similarly, no one flies over Russian areas close to Ukraine, not even Russians.
Delete@ Anon 17:48, I don't think the Chinese are afraid their plane will be hijacked by Belarus :)
Welcome CZ. We bought tickets with them Belgrade-Guangzhou-Osaka for end of October. Can't wait. And they were cheap too!
ReplyDeleteCongratulatons. Belgrade now has five long-haul destinations: New York, Beijing, Tianjin, Chicago and Guangzhou. All are year-round. Five destinations is more than all other long-haul destinations combined in the Ex Yu region. With Shanghai later this year and Miami/Toronto expected to be announced next year, Belgrade airport is far ahead, growing from regional hub to becoming long-haul hub.
ReplyDeleteYou forget that Serbia has the biggest population of all exYu nations and Belgrade is the biggest metropolitan area out of all exYu nations. That plays in huge combined with good relationship with China, their massive disapora in USA and Canada and elsewhere in Europe. If Slovenia would have 3x as many people and Ljubljana 4x as many then I'm sure there'd be some long haul routes from LJU as well, even with VCE proximity.
DeleteLJU used to have long haul flights by two different airlines. Ironically, it even wasn't the capital city of the country back then.
DeleteCongrats Belgrade. This is a big win in my opinion which would be further solidified with Xiamen Air launching flights,
ReplyDeleteNice job, especially on the 100% LF. That is impressive for the first flight.
ReplyDelete