Return to region possible in new Etihad expansion


Etihad Airways is set to announce “around ten new routes” in November raising hope the carrier could make a comeback to the region, with plenty of opportunities on offer. The Chief Commercial Officer of the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates revealed nine out of the ten routes will be completely new in the airline’s network, while one was previously served. Earlier this month, the carrier unveiled plans to launch flights to Warsaw and Prague. Etihad is charting an ambitious growth path through to 2030, aiming to triple the number of passengers carried to 33 million, double its fleet to 150 planes and increase its available seat kilometres by about 30% annually over the coming five years.

Etihad has only ever served Belgrade within the former Yugoslavia on the back of its equity investment in Air Serbia. Although the Emirati carrier no longer holds a stake in its Serbian counterpart, it recently restored a wide-ranging codeshare partnership with the airline. Etihad last served Belgrade in October 2020. In 2019 It carried 114.256 passengers on the Abu Dhabi - Belgrade route for an average annual load factor of 87.2%. The high loads were partially the result of its cooperation with Air Serbia which saw it funnel a notable number of Europe-bound passengers through Belgrade. Flights between the UAE and the Serbian capitals are now operated by Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. “Serbia is not currently part of our operating network, but it remains an important market for Etihad Airways. We continually review the forward development of the network, and as part of this process will be regularly evaluating the potential to reinstate a connection between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade”, the carrier said.

This summer, Sarajevo was served by eight airlines from the Middle East. Among them is Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, however, Sarajevo Airport has listed the Emirati capital as one of over twenty routes of strategic importance eligible for subsidies in the ongoing public call to airlines issued by the local tourism authority to improve the city’s air connectivity. The tender, which closes next Tuesday, is believed to have generated significant interest among both legacy and low cost carriers. The majority of airlines from the Middle East serving Sarajevo do so over the summer months when demand for travel between the two regions is at its peak.

Skopje Airport is seeking to restore connectivity to the Gulf after both Qatar Airways and Flydubai discontinued operations to the city following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. In late 2020, the Macedonian government said it had reached an agreement with Wizz Air Abu Dhabi to introduce flights to Skopje, however, the service never materialised. The government recently issued a public call for airlines to launch new routes to the country in return for subsidies, which has generated strong interest. Unlike previous such tenders, this one is open to airlines outside of Europe as well. The deadline for the submission of bids has been set for October 7.

Etihad had also previously engaged in talks with Zagreb Airport and the Slovenian government, indicating its interest in the region prior to its restructuring. A renewed focus on seasonal leisure destinations in Europe also put coastal airports in the region with good chances of welcoming Etihad in the future.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    I think there is a good chance of them starting seasonal Sarajevo flights

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    I doubt they will come back to BEG with Wizz Air operating the route.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:06

    Would not be surprised if they plan to come in Zagreb.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:06

    They will fly to Sarajevo. Bravo 🇧🇦

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nemjee09:07

    Persian Gulf carriers as well as TK are massively profiting from the war in Ukraine. It was just announced that from late October Lufthansa will be discontinuing FRA-PEK, flights for next summer are not on sale. Their flight to PEK was 90 minutes longer than Air China's.

    I am sure Etihad, like many others, are also profiting quite nicely from this. When it comes to BEG, things have changed since they flew this route.
    flydubai operates double daily flights, TK added a daily rotation to IST, Hainan launched PEK, China Southern launched CAN, JU will do so tonight and more importantly Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has launched AUH flights.

    I think EY never took BEG seriously and since they left Belgrade the market has moved on. I would love to see them back in BEG but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't do it. Had they remained committed to BEG today they could have easily operated double daily flights with many of them being on a widebody.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:10

      Fully agree. They were short sighted.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:04

      Let's not ignore it. JU is profiting from the war in Ukraine too. JU is the only European airline still flying to Russia and those flights bring in a lot of money. If it wasn't for those Russian passengers, JU would not have that much success in expanding its network.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous07:53

      They’re profiting from the EU shooting itself in the foot. No one is prohibiting them from using the Russian airspace.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:08

    It’s hilarious that they suspended BEG in the first place and now it seems they realized the mistake.

    The Serbia-UAE market rapidly grew even during the pandemic, good luck now EY fighting for your presence on the market.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nemjee09:11

      Indeed. They have to simple choices:

      1. the BA way - return with a modest number of frequencies and hope for the best while your competition is far more competitive.

      2. the KL way - go big or go home. Restore daily flights, invest in marketing and fight to regain lost marketshare. They were quite known here so they have an advantage over their competition. Many used to fly them in the past.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:17

      BEG departures to the east today:

      09.20 IST TK B738
      11.00 CAN CZ B789
      12.15 IST JU A319
      12.40 DOH QR A320
      14.00 DXB FZ B7M8
      15.45 IST TK B738
      16.50 SAW PC A321
      17.35 AUH 5W A321
      20.20 IST TK A320
      23.55 DXB FZ B7M8
      00.20 CAN JU A332
      00.45 IST JU A319

      Good luck to EY if they want to fight all this.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:22

      If JU had a spare aircraft, they could easily start BEG-AUH and fight with W6.
      With wide network that JU is now offering and new codeshare with EY, it could be a different story as it was 10 years ago.

      Delete
    4. Nemjee09:31

      Personally I don't think that would be wise. Air Serbia should focus on building its own hub in BEG. Anything EY can offer so can TK.
      On top of that, flights to IST are shorter, costs are lower and there is incomparably more O&D demand.

      Flights to AUH are long, require detours due to political instability and would occup a plane for many hours. Let Etihad return to BEG and they can profit from JU's growing network. Maybe JU would have more luck with them than with Qatar Airways.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:32

      The Qatar codeshare failure surprisingly didn't give almost any results.

      Delete
    6. Nemjee09:53

      Indeed, it was announced with so much excitement and then we ended up with less flights in summer than we had in winter. Obviously that BEG was not such a strong performer as JU hoped it would be. Qatar Airways obviously had other priorities despite Marek being quite engaged from what I remember.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:40

      @anon 09:17
      On top of that, on other days you have Hainan to PEK, JU to TSN and in couple of months to PVG and it's a matter of time when the third Chinese carrier step in and start PVG, Xiamen or some other China megapolis. Also count FZ double daily flights. And all of that without Aeriflot for two years. Crazy.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:43

      * correction, just saw you already put double daily FZ. Shame on me.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:09

    I feel like Dubrovnik or Split have the best chances. Wizz Air already serves both Belgrade and Sarajevo and the two coastal cities have potential with transfers

    But maybe the Skopje tender is too good to turn down, who knows

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      I also think DBV is a strong possibility.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:12

    My guess is we will see more of Air Arabia Abu Dhabi in the region rather than Etihad but let's wait and see.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:37

      Well they can get some piece of the cake from the tenders why not :))

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:19

    the answer is only one : Sarajevo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:35

      In joking meaning yes it is

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:23

    I would not exclude Ljubljana as the most underserved market in ex-yu.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:31

      That's not true at all

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:30

      Ljubljana 3 times weekly is coming ;)

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:32

      Three more weekly flights to FRA you mean? lol

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:49

      Just like with TAROM flights?

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:04

    It's so atypical that despite all the Middle East routes from Sarajevo, neither Emirates nor Etihad are present there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:10

      And that almost all flights from the Middle East are seasonal

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:11

      Just a matter of time!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:44

      FlyDubai, W6 and Air Arabia have the market covered.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:27

      W6 cancelled the flights over winter

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:33

      Neither emirates of etihad will go in Sarajevo , who believes in that ?

      Delete
  12. Anonymous10:13

    Sarajevo definitely, would be awesome to see both Etihad and Emirates there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:34

      That will never happend , sarajevo is already covered from the other airlines. Wizz,arabia ....

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:08

      16:34 Chances might be low (which they are), but never 0.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous21:19

      18:08 thats true , but do you know how many bigger and better airports in europe are not served from this two airlines ? Doesn't make a sense for me ..

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:09

      I'm 18:08 and I agree tbh.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous10:41

    During all this crisis between Israel and Lebanon EY has continued flying to TLV! 🇦🇪🇮🇱

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:31

      Unbelievable...

      Delete
  14. Anonymous11:12

    Wow Etihad is really back in expansion mode. Another 10 new routes and they already announced 2 a few weeks ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:44

      I guess it's what happens every now and then when an airline is dealing with identity crisis and inferiority complex from DXB/EK

      Delete
  15. Anonymous12:04

    A LJU/ZAG - AUH connection would be great.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous12:28

    Do people really thing Etihad and W6. are conflicting in any way???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:35

      Wizz already cut winter flights from sarajevo. No chance for etihad or emirates , flydubai and arabia doing their job.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:46

      ATH has both W6 and Etihad flying to AUH while Aegean is also starting 3 weekly AUH from November.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:18

      Well it's not W6 but 5W, but sure, go ahead with your fancy lingo.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous12:32

    It has to be BEG (for the returning flight). The codeshare they have with JU makes no sense since it’s mostly 3 stop flights that can easily be two stops.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:56

      I think there is a bigger chance of them announcing return to Sao Paolo than BEG.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:00

      Maybe Minsk.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:14

      I think that BEG is only serious option in former YU. Others are dwarf airports with dwarf numbers Better option would be AS to restore flights to Abu Dhabi with codeshare with Etihad.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:21

      ...or Dubai with A330.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:12

      The list of destinations they no longer serve compared to 2019 is big. I'm assuming they are not talking about some route from 10 years ago so these are the ones that they served in 2019 that they no longer do: Belgrade, Brisbane, Chengdu, Dusseldorf, Sao Paolo, Hong Kong, Katmandu, Los Angeles, Lagos, Madinah, Minsk, Nairobi, Almaty and Rabat. I didn't include Khartoum since the airport is destroyed, Beijing because they now serve Daxing and Sheremetyevo since they switched airports. So I think the chances of them returning to Belgrade are extremely slim since they say just one route was previously operated. If it were some ex-Yu route I think they would have announced it together with Warsaw and Prague. The only destination I see potentially being announced is Dubrovnik as seasonal summer route.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:09

      What you’re missing is that this is about A320/A321 range. You can’t fly to Sao Paolo on a narrow body.
      The only destinations that you can fly on a 320/321 from the listed ones are Minsk, Almaty and Rabat. It’s not gonna be Minsk for obvious reasons.
      They signed a codeshare with JU 6 months ago that makes no sense - since it goes through Athens, Vienna, Rome and Milano and all of those have direct flights to Zagreb, Sarajevo etc that don’t require an additional stop in Belgrade. It makes sense that they make the codeshare realistic w a direct flight to BEG

      Delete
    7. Anonymous19:16

      No one said it will be an A320 destination. So you made that up.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous15:06

    That is a very high load factor for AUH-BEG-AUH, especially since in 2019 they operated double daily flights during the summer.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous15:14

    Would make sense if they started Sarajevo.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous16:31

    Is it possible they apply on the Macedonian tender ? The destinations that currently have been applied are more then 10 , but we dont know them , and also the airlines. Minister couple days ago said couple of them are not low cost airlines.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous18:41

    Could be Zagreb, both countries' foreign ministers met up about a month ago and announced a new Croatian embassy in Abu Dhabi.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous23:24

    Belgrade definitely has extra room for Etihad.
    Qatar Airways is always completely full and has to shy away passengers that want to book with them.
    Thus three to four weekly flights would be a good for the beginning.
    Also Etihad is still in the mind of everyone as a lot of people used to fly them on this route.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous01:20

    Any chance Wizz Air could enter the Australian domestic market and actually survive? The Qantas and Virgin duopoly has been impossible to crack, with both Bonza and Rex promising a lot but ultimately failing. Yeah yeah I know whats this got to do with ex-Yu, well theres a lot of us here to start with, and dont forget, Australia is in Eurovision, dont ask me how or why.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous01:24

    Breaking news, further to the above comment, a new player has reared its head and has plans to succeed in taking on Qantas and Virgin. Meet, Koala Airlines!!!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous02:37

    I hope one day they announce restarting San Francisco and Los Angeles

    ReplyDelete

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