China’s Xiamen Air has said it is launching a feasibility study into the potential introduction of flights between its hub in Xiamen and Belgrade. The SkyTeam alliance member, which is China’s sixth-largest carrier by available seat capacity, said it has been encouraged to commence operations between the two cities following a meeting between the carrier’s Chairman and the Serbian Minister for Economy earlier this month. “We engaged in thorough discussions on the potential of establishing nonstop flights between Fujian Province and Serbia, with a focus on operations, passenger traffic, and cargo capacity at Belgrade Airport", the carrier said.
Xiamen Air further added, “We agreed to expand our communication with the goal of growing cooperation between Fujian and Serbia in trade, tourism and other fields. We will conduct a detailed assessment on the feasibility of opening nonstop flights and continue to promote exchanges between our two airlines and airports”. Currently, Xiamen Air’s only destinations in Europe are Amsterdam and Paris, with the carrier also a joint venture partner with both Air France and KLM. China Southern Airlines, which is the country’s largest carrier, and launched its own flights to Belgrade earlier this week, is a majority stakeholder in Xiamen Air.
With a fleet of 170 aircraft and 100 destinations, the carrier operates an extensive network in Far East and southeast Asia. In addition to its two European destinations, it also serves Doha in the Middle East, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, as well as New York, Los Angeles and Montreal in North America. Besides Xiamen, in has a base in Fujian’s capital of Fuzhou. Fujian Province, of which Xiamen is also a part of, is home to Zijin Mining and Zijin Copper, which are Serbia’s two largest exporting companies, operating mines in the country. Out of the 21 European states that boast flights to mainland China, Serbia will next month be ranked sixteenth in terms of available seat capacity to the country, ahead of Poland, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Ireland and Luxembourg. Russia, Germany and Italy continue to have the most capacity to China on the continent.
Wow
ReplyDeleteConsidering it's a Chinese carrier I would not be surprised if flights start next summer season.
ReplyDeleteConsidering it's a Chinese carrier it would be possible by Chinese New Year.
DeleteFirst their feasibility has to show there is a business case in launching these flights.
DeleteYes true. We will see
DeleteConsidering it's a Chinese carrier it wouldn't surprise me if they launch flights in two months. lol
DeleteExactly. And put tickets on sale on their website 5 days before they start flights and magically have a 100% load factor. It seems like a common trend with Chinese airlines.
DeleteBecause they do sales differently in China. And then again it is a massive market. I think with right marketing any flight can work from China.
DeleteOur company works with several factories in China. I was impressed by how many of them texted us that they were watching Djokovic play. Serbia has received a lot of positive PR over there and has even reached the status of a friendly nation for the Chinese.
DeleteAfter all, during his last visit to Serbia, Xi even mentioned that Chinese relationship with Serbia goes beyond a traditional and classical partnership.
When you have both governments working in turbo mode to improve their relationship then positive results usually follow.
I think we reached that point when selling Serbia in China is no longer a challenge. Now we just need the air connectivity to improve so that there can be an easier flow of people and goods.
It's a good thing that this approach is well-balanced between Air Serbia and Chinese carriers.
real missed opportunity for the Chinese to be partners in BEG or in JU. french running of BEG is poor.
DeleteNo Chinese airport operator participated in the tender.
DeleteThat's why the contract should have been awarded to ICN.
DeleteAbsolutely right! Serbia will become the chinese gate to Europe, so we have to be clear that in 5 years Belgrade and Serbia will be overcrowded with Chinese people. Our tourism is going to expand a lot!
DeleteEvery coin has two sides- what about coming of chinese workers and damping even further (akready low) wages?
DeleteThere aren't enough workers in Serbia and their salaries are already very high (construction workers).
DeletePrices and general cost of living is too high, not workers wages.
Delete@Anon 11:10
DeleteAn average Chinese factory worker has a higher salary than an average Serbian factory worker. Look it up.
@Vlad….average chinese worker won’t come; like always, poorest people are trying their luck elsewhere, not average…
DeleteThat’s not a problem. Migrations is normal everywhere, so in Serbia. If a employer has cheaper worker, he will hire it, no matter which nationality he is. Quite ordinary for civilized world
DeleteIt would be great if JU would join SkyTeam and have an extensive codeshare and/or revenue sharing with Xiamen for China and beyond.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWith China Eastern too and offer connections to Chinese pax from BEG to the rest of Europe.
DeleteI wish/hope the subject of JU joining Skyteam was mentioned during Macron's visit.
Let's first get a (good) codeshare agreement with China Southern so that we can be linked with a Chinese hub with a decent number of flights. Just look at how limited connectivity is with Hainan via PEK. Sure you can connected onto their domestic network but anything beyond that is an issue. You need to be extremely flexible when flying with them.
DeleteIf BEG-CAN goes 4 weekly with a code-share then it will be a whole different matter.
What is happening with JU-CZ codeshare?
DeleteI guess they are working on it. It's a shame that the much anticipated code-share with QR yielded next to no results. JU did not launch DOH and QR did not boost BEG.
DeleteGenerally speaking, JU code-shares are expensive and have extremely long layovers.
It is always more expensive to book a QR operated flight via airserbia.com than through a travel agency, online or traditional.
DeleteI don't know why they do that.
It's usually double the price than on qatar airways itself.
DeleteIt can only mean that no one in QR cared enough for this deal to be competitive in the long run. My guess is that their growth in BEG is based exclusively on their own activities, independent of Air Serbia.
DeleteIf this was a serious deal then JU would have considered or would have launched DOH flights, the same way they launched AUH back in 2013.
This is really happening. Hope for a positive outcome.
ReplyDeleteShows what a little initiative from the government can do. Even if they don't launch flights, at least they tried.
ReplyDeleteI believe that China Southern starting flights definitely has some impact. It makes other airlines in China at least take note.
DeleteWell especially since it is their parent company.
DeleteIf they do start operations, would it be with B787?
ReplyDeleteYes, they only have B787-9s for widebodies.
DeleteAnd -8.
DeleteInteresting their -8 version has a first class cabin too.
DeleteThey actually use the 787-8 on their Europe and North America flights. First class is a small cabin with one row and 4 suites.
DeleteInteresting. Unfortunately can't find pics of the first class
DeleteThere are. I wouldn't really call it a suite, even though Xiamen Air advertises it like that. Unless they have upgraded it since this is a photo from 2014.
Deletehttps://www.airlinereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Xiamen-787-5-640x426.jpg
Didn't know they were actually owned by China Eastern
ReplyDelete* they are
DeleteThey are owned by Southern, not Eastern.
DeleteYes sorry Southern.
DeleteThis would be exciting. I think fares to Far East Asia and southeast Asia would plummet with another option and I believe that others like Qatar Airways would really have to up their game.
ReplyDeleteIf they launch flights they would be the fourth wide body operator from BEG right?
ReplyDeleteYes after Air Serbia, Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines
DeleteJU, CZ, HU, sometimes TK and QR also send their big birds
DeleteTK hasn't sent a widebody to BEG in ages. I think it must have been a year and a half or even two years since it happened.
DeleteWell they really don't have to with 3 daily flights.
DeleteYet there was a time when there was such a need despite all those scheduled flights. That said I was on one of those A332 flights and we were 170 passengers onboard. Later on I found out that it was upgraded due to cargo demand.
DeleteI think TK Cargo has since boosted BEG to three weekly so there is no need for goods to fly on commercial flights anymore.
Now they need Chongqing abd Urumqi...
ReplyDeleteUrumqi only has flights to IST in Europe.
DeleteI hope you are joking...
^ and those flights to IST started just this month.
Delete...and Tbilisi.
Delete@09:18
DeleteFights are there not only for O&D but for transfer markets.
CZ could serve whole of China through Urumqi.
CZ could serve whole of China through Urumqi from any destination in Europe but chose not to.
DeleteAny city with 10+ mil within metropolitan area could lunch flight. And there are at least 15 cities like that in China
DeleteFor the past 40 years, China has undergone tremendous transformation. Just like New York and Los Angeles do not represent all of the US, the same way Shanghai and Beijing do not represent all of China.
ReplyDeleteOther cities have developed over the years and have created a large number of people who can afford to travel abroad. Many secondary and tertiary markets in China will start generating outbound tourist demand. Only question is who will profit from it the most. Serbia seems to be pushing it way through the crowd and securing additional flights and improving connectivity should be a national priority - which it seems like it is anyway.
Since they are owned by China Southern it could be a sign that so far they are satisfied with how CAN-BEG is performing.
+1
DeleteDoes China Southern owns more companies like Xiamen Air?
DeleteThis would be impressive and respectable.
ReplyDeleteGood thing BEG is on the ball with their 3 gate expansion by 2027. Visionary.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing BEG needs is a new business class lounge to cater for these airlines with large premium cabins. The current (non JU) one is a complete disgrace.
DeleteThey will move to the current Air Serbia lounge when Air Serbia relocates to its new lounge.
DeleteThat 3 gate expansion by 2027 will be tremendously useful for serving the EXPO traffic! 😂
DeleteYupp, it is a serious underinvestment. As a last resort, they might move Wizz to Batajnica.
DeleteExpo or not BEG is already ready for expansion especially when it comes to remote stands and bus gates. Very often OS, LH & KL park at night on remote stands.
DeleteWhere could they locate more jet bridge gates?
DeleteOn the other side of the C wing
DeleteSo making walking/transferring from there even longer?
DeleteIt is too long as it is.
What was meant was having gates on both sides of the C wing rather than to one side. Plenty of room for such an expansion. You effectively get double the gate space without further extending the terminal in length potentially shortening transfer times. 10 additional gates for narrowbodies could therefore be added with ease rather than the 3 currently planned. A larger remote gate space could therefore be made on the lower level.
DeleteCurrently, there isn't enough remote stand gates for all of JU's ATR's during peak waves, let alone for other airlines, and with JU further expanding, this isn't going to get any better. Factor in that JU intend to replace 10 A319's with up to 15 ERJ's plus additional A320's plus an additional 4 A330's (up to 8), and this isn't touching on foreign carriers and additional widebody growth.
They could move the cargo building which would allow them to add at least 4 air-bridges. There are already plans to extend C terminal. If you look at how gates are assigned, you would notice that JU flights as well as those airlines they cooperate with are grouped and are not spread out all over the terminal building. It's extremely rare to see a JU plane parked at anything beyond A04. So transfering in BEG does not require a lot of walking, at least not more than what is the case at other airports around the world.
DeleteDon't forget that as BEG numbers keep on growing, they will have to adapt their terminal facilities to accommodate all of them. With this trend, BEG as a small airport will slowly become a thing of the past.
Xiamen Air is really cheap. They have the lowest fares out of the bigger Chinese airlines.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense purely based on the fact that Zijin HQ is there, let alone anything else.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I'm certain JU will be at least parity bought by a Chinese carrier - and if that's the case, this would be the best outcome for them
ReplyDeleteWhy should we privatize a profitable company that contributes to the state revenues?
DeleteDon’t know when was the last time i heard bad news about BEG. Svaka cast!
ReplyDeleteJust go to certain expert blog, you will find plenty. On every good news for JU or BEG, bots start writing how they were stuck somewhere because JU flight were canceled or late 12-24 hours and nobody informed them nothing. Or that BEG toilets are smelly or they waited for 25 minutes for passport control. Same old story
Delete