Air Serbia has suspended ticket sales on its flights between Belgrade and Tianjin past November 5. Passengers who booked tickets past this date have received notification of their flights being cancelled. The airline closed reservations past the first week of November this Thursday. EX-YU Aviation News reached out to Air Serbia about the matter on Friday morning but did not receive a response by the close of business. However, according to sources familiar with the matter, the airline opted for the move recently with staffing playing an important role in its decision. At this point, it is unclear if and when sales will be restored. The last flight out of Belgrade is currently scheduled for November 5, and the return service from Tianjin on November 6.
The development comes as Air Serbia continues to expand into China. Following the launch of its two weekly service to Guangzhou last month, the carrier is set to inaugurate two weekly operations to Shanghai on January 11. Air Serbia claimed as early as this month that it would continue to serve Tianjin, emphasising the route has been profitable since the day it launched in December 2022. Based on passenger figures over its first year of operations, the route did perform well with a high average cabin load factor. However, the airline only maintained a one weekly flight between the two cities, with exception to November and December of 2023 when the route was operated twice per week. Due to the one weekly frequency, Air Serbia’s aircraft stays in Tianjin over 24 hours upon arrival, in order to enable the same crew to operate the return service after rest. As a result, the entire rotation lasts three days.
Earlier this year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said the airline would not hesitate to discontinue any long-haul service that failed to perform. However, on the same occasion he noted that Tianjin had been a successful route. Air Serbia launched flights to Tianjin while coronavirus-related restrictions were in place in China. At the time, foreign carriers were restricted to where they could fly to in the country. As a result, the carrier was unable to introduce services to Beijing, which is located just over 100 kilometres from Tianjin. The two cities are linked by high-speed rail. After restrictions were lifted, the Serbian carrier said it would stick with Tianjin instead of transferring operations to Beijing as the route was performing well. Air Serbia faces no direct competition on the Tianjin service, although Hainan Airlines maintains two weekly rotations from nearby Beijing.
That doesn't sound very professional.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the people who were claiming that JU doesn't have enough pilots and flight attendants were right.
Flight attendants are not the issue, pilots are.
DeleteIf pilots are the real issue, how they managed to operate all long haul flights during summer, but fail to do that with less frequencies in winter, it doesn’t make any sense.
DeleteAre there enough A330 typerated flight attendants?
Delete@9.08 because pilots leave
DeleteWhy would they leave JU and their life in Belgrade?
DeleteBecause there are many better places in Europe to live and work
DeleteNo need for A330 pilots in Ex Yu and anywhere in Eastern Europe
DeleteIs cheaper to fly crew or use high speed train from Shanghai to Tianjin, instead of letting the aircraft be on the ground for 24 hours.
Delete9:15 there are many better places in Europe to live and work, but compare the cost of relocating a family of 3-4 and cost of living at places like ZRH or GVA with Belgrade.
Delete@10:04
DeleteExactly BUT if I was making a pilot's salary I would much rather live in Belgrade than Switzerland where everything is closed after 9 pm.
Dont forget that this summer JU had two A330s, now they have three and soon four of them.
DeletePupin is about to be serviced and get a cabin update that will take a lot of time.
DeleteAnd anyway the airline knew that it will need more flight crews, why didn't they made sure they were ready for the launghaul expansion?
Because pilots are constantly leaving them. They don't have as many as they did a few weeks ago.
DeleteThere is shortage of pilots worldwide after COVID and boomers going to retirement.
DeleteYes there is a shortage but not in all places. In the US you have the exact opposite situation. United for example froze hiring for like a year.
Delete
Delete@Anonymous 12:44
There is only a shortage of pilots for airlines not willing to offer competitive pay and benefits.
Those airlines that do offer them have long lists of pilot CVs wanting to be hired by them.
Some airlines in today's market are willing to pay costs for candidates that never flew - without even PPL let alone ATPL. Not just for kids but professional adults wanting to switch careers. After commencing the work status, pilot is required to stay for a number of years at that airline.
DeletePilots are leaving Air Serbia because:
Delete1. Salary
2. Working roster. Working roster is so bad that pilots basically just sleep at home. Duties are usually 10-11 hours, 4 sector days, 6 days in a row. Awful.
It was a huge mistake that they didn’t proceed with codeshare agreement with Hainan and launched PEK, just like they made a deal in CAN.
ReplyDeleteExacy!
DeleteThere is still no deal with China Southern. From what I understood only a MoU was signed, similar to what they signed with TK some time ago.
Delete^^^
DeleteThat is bad.
Well, an MoU is the first step. Now it's up to both carriers to make sure what is agreed in that document is turned into reality. Will happen? No one knows, only time will tell.
DeleteDamn, that was unexpected. Hope they don't fully cancel the route
ReplyDeleteIf there are staffing issues the launch of CAI that the president himself had announced will probably be delayed. 😢
ReplyDeleteNot just that, who knows what will happen to plans for Miami, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul 🤷♂️
DeleteShanghai is not a plan, but reality starting from next year.
DeleteIncreasing TSN to 2 in a few months was also a plan but Marek killed it. Let's see what happens with PVG.
DeleteBig loss of face if they're really discontinuing the route 10 days in advance.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteResults must be horrible
DeleteStill don' t understand why stop a route that performs well even once a week , unless they are lying about this success story !
ReplyDeleteGood question.
DeleteWell it obviously isn't performing very well.
DeleteDreaming of Tokyo, Seoul while can't maintain regular 1pw operation to TSN. Our friend from 400 km westbound office will burn them alive.
ReplyDeleteWell it’s expected that they’re struggling in the secondary city with minimum demand to Europe. The real question is why are they being blocked for PEK slots.
DeleteWith all western airlines leaving, PEK is half empty and it should be no longer a problem to get slots. Still PEK does not give subsidies. TSN gives.
DeleteAnd why are they cancelling flight only 10 days in advance
DeleteI wonder that too.
DeleteHope they are moving to PEK or PKX
DeleteI don't think they are moving to PEK or PKX.
DeleteThe Chinese want to serve Europe with their own airlines.
JU being sent to TSN in the first place was part of that long term strategy and they used a lame excuse about COVID to sent them there.
Literally nothing is stopping JU from moving to Beijing. Just like no one stopped them from launching CAN and PVG.
DeleteSince they didn't launch Beijing, something is stopping them. Something that didn't stop Chinese carrier to do so. May be just a wrong management decision but it's a stop too.
DeleteI think the airline was asked to leave the greater Peking market so that Hainan can face no competition.
ReplyDeleteThat would be ok only if JU wouldn’t face any competition in PVG as well.
DeleteDifferent market, different airline.
DeleteLong term retention of talent in almost any competitive industry has proven solutions. That's not rocket science.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the airline doesn't want to pay them more and offer better working conditions.
DeleteIt's the attitude: ако он неће, има ко хоће.
DeleteBetter pay is not the solution for long term retention. Bonuses and payouts after certain time periods are.
Delete@Nemjee
DeleteTaj rigidan stav lako im može doći glave. Ispada da nema dovoljno pilota ni za Embraere a pitanje je i za ATR kako stoje stvari.
S druge strane, možda je ovo pritisak kompanije da Neko Ko Sve Kontroliše da odobrenje da se plate ljudi koliko treba inače ode sve u tri lepe. Nadam se.
Плате су повећане у пар наврата и опет људи одлазе. Ок, разумем да неки као Арапи нуде нереалне плате али опет нас доводи на размишљање да можда није све само до пара? Можда постоје и други разлози зашто људи одлазе из ЈУ?
DeleteЕр Србија мора бити опрезна да јој младе посаде не остану само док не скупе довољно сати. Да би остали дугорочно морају постати добар послодавац.
I wrote last year that just in 1 day, think it was June, 10 pilots resigned and left in one day, after one meeting with airline expert Mr. Malovic..People here were calling me a l liar for spreading fake news..Some people are just not ready to go beyond certain limits in business manners and attitude of senior management towards employees that are literally essential to carry out the business..I fully understand them
DeleteI heard Malovic is a problem
DeleteWhich Malovic ? There are 2 of them.
DeleteMr Milan Malovic is captain and not a politician. The problem is other Malovic - Mr Branislav Malovic, the politician.
DeleteCould not even imagine what pilots and other employees are sufering from that guy. Pilots especially. They worked hard to become what they are and then some guy that just came out from cave is "palamuditi" to them..
DeleteJust look at him. Thats enough of a punishment..
🤣🤣🤣
DeleteLooks like future reservations didn’t look promising…
ReplyDeleteGotta find capacity for Seoul 😜
ReplyDeleteYes, which will start in 10 days!
DeleteMaybe this move is done so that JU can start Tokyo and Seoul as much as per Vucic request!?
ReplyDeleteAre you serious?
DeleteStart of Tokyo or Seoul from BEG in a month is not like starting Cluj or Oradea as terciary locations.
Who said in one month? President is pushing now for Tokyo/ Seoul because voters already forgot Tiansin so now need something new.
DeleteI can guarantee you that 99% of voters have no clue that Air Serbia flies long haul nor have they ever heard of Tianjin.
DeleteMost voters know they fly to New York, Chicago and China. There was lot of talk about it in the media.
DeleteI said it before and I will say it again. I think it's high time for the government to have a serious chat with Marek. There are simply too many things which are not working out since he took over.
ReplyDelete1. Employee dissatisfaction has reached an all time high, especially at HQ.
2. Pilots are leaving the airline which indicates that they are not happy with work conditions.
3. He pioneered the code-share agreement with Qatar Airways and nothing seems to have come out of it. QR did not upgrade capacity to BEG and they did not operate night flights in summer. In addition to that, Air Serbia did not launch BEG-DOH so as to profit from their alliance partner's massive network. It seems all of this was a pure PR stunt.
4. Turkey and Turkish Airlines. We all remember all sorts of plans Marek had with Turkish Airlines, from JV to an MRO. They allowed for TK to upgrade BEG from 14 to 21 weekly while Anadolou (which at that time was their business) launched ESB and ADB and later on SAW. Meanwhile, JU was butchered in ESB and ADB while their presence in IST keeps on becoming more and more modest. Who pioneered this? Marek did. By opening the doors for TK he put JU in a precarious position and they were eventually overrun by them. Like I already wrote once before, did he really think TK, a global airline, really wanted to share the market with JU? This is a global carrier which is fighting with Delta, American Airlines, Emirates, Qantas etc. Air Serbia was a tiny blip on their radar and they blew them off the moment they got additional access to BEG. So what gives? What commercial benefit did JU get from this deal? I was looking at some flights to Asia for January and I noticed that TK doesn't sell connections with JU. One has to wonder if we reached the lowest point in the JU-TK relationship? If JU had any balls they would have signed a codeshare agreement with Pegasus and would have lobbied for them to get extra flights to BEG. Why? Well to punish TK which tricked them...превели их жедне преко воде.
5. It was during his time as the CEO that both Air France and KLM terminated sales for O&D/local passengers flying between BEG, AMS and CDG. This winter KLM is upgrading BEG from a CityHopper to a Mainline destination. Next summer both flights will be operated by the B73W. On the other hand, shortly after terminating point to point sales with JU, Air France introduced ORY-BEG via their LCC brand Transavia.
To sum up their international cooperation we have a stagnant relationship with QR which doesn't seem to be going anywhere. TK is becoming increasingly hostile towards Air Serbia and they are constantly trying to push them out of the market. Then we finally have AF-KL which just like TK is trying to consolidate their position in BEG by having minimal reliance on JU.
So what was JU's strategy with all these carriers? Who will be left as their partner? B6? We can't even list ITA as the other one since Lufthansa is slowly taking over.
Now all eyes are on China Southern, let's see what becomes of this announced partnership.
6. Termination of TSN and the absolute collapse of ORD. We read on here that ORD will be reduced to just one weekly flight during certain periods of the winter season. Why is that? What went wrong with ORD? There should be enough O&D demand to fill at least two weekly flights and especially once you factor in transfers. They might not be as many as in summer but they are still there. Almost all airlines reduce their presence in Chicago in winter but I don't know any that operate TATL flights from there with 1 weekly flight. I think JFK was also slightly reduced this winter. They offer most regional connections with the ATR, their costs are low so they can afford to have aggressive pricing.
Delete7. We are still waiting on those loyalty programs both for companies and for regular travelers. It's been a while since anything was mentioned though we did hear that they planed on becoming members of TK's or AF's programs. Would they still want JU given the way they are treating them in BEG? Somehow I doubt it.
8. What happened to the announced IFE app they wanted to introduce onboard? They also mentioned new cabins a while ago but we didn't hear anything about it since. That said, we did hear about the state of the cabins and especially on Pupin. Some of the older A319s could also use a cabin refresh.
These are the main 8 points which stand out. Remains to be see what will happen in the coming months and what he as the CEO does to navigate these turbulent waters through which JU is sailing right now. We are still waiting to see what Wizz Air does next year. If they start growing then JU will have a hard time preserving their strong position at BEG. KLM, Lufthansa, Austrian Airilines, Aegean... have all announced increases for BEG. Some of them from this winter while some others for next summer. Starting from April, Lufthansa alone will operate six daily flights to BEG.
Is Air Serbia ready for all this? Winter season is here so I guess TSN termination is the exciting surprise Marek had for us.
Good points Nemjee!
DeleteNemjee. Fully agreed! Great questions.
DeleteI am first in line to defend and support JU. I always fly with them and am super proud of our national ariline. Wish them all the best.
Can not stand the hate from people and "analiticar".
But I must say that the way you, Nemjee wrote all of this and many others, you should consider having a site or portal of your own.
Just my thought.
Nemjee,
DeleteSad but truth. Funny thing is that market is alive and rising. While they are trying to play long haul games with pair of scrap planes and insufficient staf others will take their short haul passangers away.
JU management needs to understand something, there is a major shortage of high quality workforce in Serbia. Someone mentioned that retaining those will be key to their long-term success. I read a recent report that said that last year local companies increased their employees' salaries at the expensve of their profits. Maybe Air Serbia should do the same.
DeleteHyperproducing PR fluff pieces seems to be the only constant at JU.
I'll give you another brilliant example. A few weeks ago our company needed to move two boxes from a European destination to Serbia. So I contacted JU cargo department and a few hours later I got the following reply:
Ukljucujem kolege iz prodaje @Cargo AirSERBIA
No hello, no good morning, no thank you for showing interest in working with us... just this bland, impolite reply to my email. Later on another guy took over the convesation and he gave me the contact of their rep in that European country. I contacted them only to be informed that they do not handle cargo business but just sales of passenger tickets. Finally he was kind enough to give me the contact of a local company which, among other things, handles airline cargo. We arranged with them everything and goods were booked on Air Serbia to Belgrade.
How many companies would have dealt with this level of unprofessionalism? They would have put the two boxes on a truck and voila. End of the story. I insisted because I wanted them to fly with Air Serbia. 99.9% of people out there would not care.
These are the thngs JU needs to make sure are working flawlessly. They can't give out false information to their customers. Also, their employees can't be so rude and unprofessional when handling new customers.
I like Air Serbia and I have been defending them whenever possible. However, at this point they are not making it an easy job to do.
on points 3 & 4 - I'm not sure that QR & TK were Marek PR stunts, to me they more look like stunts from government officials where Air Serbia needed to follow...
Delete@11:12 that is my understanding also.
DeleteBut the airline management should have warned the government that TK will just take over the Serbia-Turkey market and explain to them why this is bad for JU and its finances.
Unfortunately both were JU stunts, I know that for a fact. Air Serbia did lobby the government to push TK to sign a code-share. However it seems that TK wanted extra access to the Serbian market in order for that to happen. TK got what they wanted, did JU?
DeleteAlso, let's not forget TK Cargo which also boosted BEG flights this year.
+1
Deletewow Nemjee you seem very frustrated with JU... bad take from you as always
DeleteHey buddy Anon 13.29, thank you for your comment. I am frustrated by the fact that someone who is not up for the job is in that position. Aren't you?
DeleteAlso, could you share some facts to show where I went wrong in my analysis? Constructive criticism is always a good thing.
@Anonymous 13:29
Deleteyou seem willing to make excuses about every single decision JU management makes.
Regarding TK, it's nothing unexpected. It only few companies in the world that may compete with TK, regarding quality, quantity, routes etc. So, JU can only pickup some crumbs in this business. Anyway, most of the regular flight passengers are from Turkey, so no big loss on Serbian side. As opposite, most of the summer charters have Serbian passengers, so JU is redeeming in that way.
DeleteDoha have too long rotation, so I don't think that JU is capable to enter that battle now.
As I already wrote, ORD is doing bad because diaspora people rather choose 50-100usd cheaper transfer flights, than their homeland company. Not much you can do, except making more short haul feeding routes. If you relay mostly on diaspora, that's how it goes. Same would be with YYZ I think
You never explained how is that not affecting JFK but only ORD diaspora?????
Delete@nemjee
DeleteYou make excellent points. However...
Regarding the Turkish market, JU was extremely quick to react to the KK bankruptcy. They went from 0 flights to practicality four daily from 3 airports in a quick amount of time. It seems they have settled with 2 daily from BEG and the PSO routes from INI and KVO. Other European carriers don't do much better in IST in comparison to TK. Lets take CDG as an example, AF has the 1 daily evening rotation to IST on an A220 while TK has 6 daily throwing in everything from A321 to B777. Then we also have ESB and ADB as extra routes that previously were not there and seem to be holding up fairly well, so I wouldn't say they were butchered. We all remember the previous annual tensions between Turkey and Serbia over flights, honestly I see this as some sort of progress rather than something negative.
MRO is definitely a big problem for JU and I would think that that would have high priority. The fact that JU no longer has adequate maintenance at their hub exactly shows the incompetence of our government who have thrown important companies to foreigners with 0 regard as to how that would pan out. BEG being another example. Those ferry flights I imagine aren't cheap either. It's a shame that no word has come regarding this, either them opening their own facility or the deal with TK.
As for CDG, JU seem to have handled competition quite well on the route. AF pulled out, ASL also pulled out. JU finally added capacity this summer going from double daily to 16 pw with plans for 22 pw next summer starting as early as April 2025 which is fairly impressive. The 2 pw planned by Transavia isn't competitive and I don't see it holding up compared to the 22 pw JU flights and 4 pw Wizz Air flights to BVA.
AMS is where JU has fallen behind on the competition. To be fair, KLM went in with smaller aircraft in comparison to JU which only had the A319, distributing capacity over higher frequency which has paid off. JU has seen the effects of this during the summer when FRA went from 7 pw A319 to 13 pw on the ERJ, with regular upgrades to the A319. It will be interesting to see how JU reacts now that the ERJ's have finally entered the fleet with more to come.
Moving on to the loyalty program, this was mentioned as something that will happen within a 2 year period. The expectation that it will be announced today active tomorrow is quite unrealistic. They announced some ideas they had, just as you mentioned, however they've seemed to have made a choice to go it alone and all seems to be going within their announced timeframe. Lets wait and see what they come up with before judging it.
15:39 I emphasized mostly diaspora routes, which JFK isn't. First 6 years it was and it was unprofitable. Today is mostly transfer route, thanks to new short haul routes JU started in region and Europe recently. Now it need more for ORD
DeleteNemjeee, hats off for your comment, absolutely correct.
DeleteId also add in a point about JUs uneven expansion. No new winter surprises as announced by Marek, ATR fleet is very underutilised right now, still massive seasonality in the European network...and then JU is surprised when they can only fly 2pw to JFK and 1pw to ORD during winter...
Except for higher frequency and different schedule, both JFK and ORD have access to same JU destination network. How will addition of new destinations such as Nice and potential new destinations such as Cluj-Napoca and Cairo help with transfers to ORD? Air Serbia is not going to get many transfers to ORD from those airports.
DeleteThe only way for Air Serbia to get new transfer passengers to ORD in substantial numbers is to open routes targeting Chicago diaspora markets such as Poland, but that's not on Air Serbia roadmap.
I am not referring only to Cluj/Cairo, but a lot of different possible short haul missing destinations in region, Europe, northern Africa, Middle East.
DeleteAir Serbia could pick up Chicago transfer passengers by opening new destination in the Middle East? That's funny.
DeleteI think Nemjee is saying that JU was protected by the bilateral. They didn't have to go crazy with TK but allow them 3 more flights from ist, not 7.
DeleteAlso TK already asked for AYT.
JFK and ORD don't really have access to the same connections, especially considering the frequencies on JFK.
DeleteORD has a weird schedule and is connected twice weekly to the region outbound, once weekly inbound. JFK on the other hand 3 weekly outbound, 4 inbound. The morning TGD rotation also works in JFK's favour adding further transfer connectivity.
ORD needs either more frequencies (~5 pw) to offer better connectivity to the region or JU needs more frequencies to core destinations in the region. Additional frequencies in the region are already loaded in the system (OTP, ATH, DBV and SJJ) for summer 2025, perhaps additional flights to SKG, SPU and Sicily could work in JU's favour for ORD. Polish transfers would be harder to attract considering LOT already offers ORD from both WAW (5-9 pw) and KRK (1-4 pw).
Another interesting thing to note is that alot of people assume that JFK is flown exclusively by Tesla and ORD exclusively by Pupin, which may have put people off flying JU from ORD.
20:05
Deleteit is funny to pick up USA transfer pax from Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Egypt? I presume you have happy life and lot of things are funny for you. Keep laughing my friend…
Add Caucaus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, 2-3 more Russian destinations and you surely have full 3-5pw ORD year around. And MIA/LAX also
DeleteCan't blame the non-loyal price sensitive Serbian diaspora in Tianjin for this one!
Delete🤣🤣🤣🤣
DeleteTime to hear explanation directly from Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteWe are going to only hear BS excuses instead of actual explanation and a plan to correct course.
DeleteCorrect course? I'm sorry but I'm not a cheerleader or bot or whatever you label people you disagree with but having a meltdown because of 1 weekly flight is a bit too much.
DeleteI never understood Tianjin post COVID. PEK or PKX are the Chinese prestige destinations.
ReplyDeleteChinese didn't alowed JU to fly to PEK. TSN was take it or leave it, I think.
DeleteRestriction was during covid.
DeleteCovid is gone and so is the restriction.
PKX was very empty post COVID
DeleteThis is the "winter surprise" Marek was talking about 😀
ReplyDeleteYup!
DeleteThis is really not good. They need to stop being Wizzier than Wizz! We had enough!
ReplyDeleteWizz with their massive capacity cuts is the worst possible airline for comparison.
DeleteHe is referring to a statement made by Marek when he said JU will complete with W6 by being Wizzier than Wizz
DeleteI love all the panic. I don't think it's a "katastrofa" that Air Serbia cancelled one of their 85 destinations. It wasn't a daily service and it might just be short term anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd even if it is permanent people need to look at the big picture.air Serbia has many new and exciting long distance destinations planned in the next few years.
It's not the cutting of the route that raises alarms, but the seemingly ad-hoc nature of the decision without any public statement whatsoever. I'm not saying it's the end-times, but it is a major red flag.
DeleteWhich company releases a public statement when they cancel a route?
DeleteCancelling the route without statement is not the issue. Doing it on a such a short notice is.
DeleteWell, cancelling long haul route is not the same as cancelling NCE or FLR - they have only 4 of them.
DeletePlus they cancelled it just as they got another 330
DeleteTime to get your act together. No one is flying with only one pilot.
ReplyDeleteYes that is why they got the new 330- to park it until they find pilots
DeleteWizz 2. Great plans, big PR, last minute cuts.
ReplyDeleteHainan LF for PEK is 79%. What was JU LF for TSN for the first half of 2024? We have been told that cargo to TSN was significant and that JU would fly to TSN if it was profitable. How come that after 3 months it is not? I think that Chinese did not pressure them to quit TSN. It is completly irresponsible to quit flights in 10 days. This is a major issue that has to be properly adressed. What about 2 to 3 seasonal routes that will go a year around and new routes? Also Naples was announced and then dissapeared.
ReplyDeleteAlso wanted to add a little bit on the customer service response I’ve received first hand, since I was booked to fly from Tianjin to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteThe call center refused to rebook me on the Hainan Airlines flight from Beijing to Belgrade, stating they had no obligation to do so. Furthermore, they also refused rebooking me onto a connecting flight from Tianjin to Guangzhou (to fly on JU from there instead).
They told me my only options were to request a refund or pay for my own transport to Guangzhou. This is highly illogical, because now I will either be forced to pay 2-3x what I paid for due to the short notice of having to rebook via another airline, or I will be forced to pay for my own flight to Guangzhou AND the dates for those flights don’t align well with my travel needs either.
Basically, they are leaving every single ticketed passenger out to dry here, knowing that there are few alternative options in a long-haul situations, especially for those of us with smaller, more niche, Balkan destinations.
Very huge red flag for me, even as someone who has always cheered for Air Serbia and always flown with them when possible. I think they way they are treating ticketed passengers is highly unprofessional, and honestly is a huge part of this story — to cancel a route is okay, but you have a moral obligation to help those who have trusted you and paid you to get from A to B.
Unfortunately for you, 15 days prior notice falls according to EU regulations, they don`t have obligation to book you on another flight. Its just up to them..They decided not to do so...If it was less than 15 days, they would`ve had to transfer you to another flight..Luckily for you, South China Airlines tickets are quite cheap, so you may even end up paying cheaper money the the cost of original ticket...It will not be direct to Tianjin though...
DeleteJU knew exactly what it was doing here. My question is who actually runs the company Marek or Vucic? let see when CAI, NRT and ICN appear in the schedules.
Delete@Treshnja Yep, that is unfortunately the case because my flight falls outside of the legally mandated 15 days.
DeleteI guess my point is that unlike short haul routes with many alternatives, Air Serbia is being very careless with their image because they know the passengers have little alternatives.
I myself am flying to a smaller Balkan market, connecting in Belgrade, and thus cannot take advantage of alternative airlines like China Southern. This means that passengers to destinations like Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Skopje, Tirana, or Podgorica are out of luck — unless they want to pay much higher fares or self-connect.
And in my opinion this will definitely harm them in the long term as these smaller Balkan markets are their bread and butter. These are the people that have been flying JAT / Air Serbia for decades, and thus these are the people that JU should look to not alienate. Even despite cancellations and schedule changes I’ve endured with them in the past — it is this episode and lack of accountability with this event that has made me think twice next time Air Serbia shows up as an option. Once again, perfectly legal, but not a smart move.
Isn’t there an IATA rule around involuntary rerouting, especially given that you have already started your journey?
DeleteAlso take it up with your bank. Visa and Mastercard have clear rules where services are not provided that a full refund has to be given back to the customer. If you paid for a return ticket and they only provided one way flights to Tianjin, then they need to refund the full return ticket as they did not provide a return service. Then buy a ticket back with Hainan or China Southern or someone else like Qatar or Emirates or Turkish.
DeleteAlso JU has a codeshare from PEK with Air China, can they put you onto that codeshare via Vienna?
DeleteRe: the codeshare with Air China, I asked that exact question, but they said that they could only rebook flights on Air Serbia metal — thus even airlines JU has codeshares with, were off limits.
DeleteInteresting.
DeleteWhat is the attitude towards all employees, and I'm not surprised by that? People are leaving their positions en masse, not just pilots and flight attendants. Even the most loyal of over 10 years of track are leaving. Last week, they announced a pay rise, but that's only an increase in how much the minimum wage has increased, because most non-flight staff receive the minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteWhat a professional decision.
ReplyDeleteThey should have stopped at the beginning of winter, made the announcement months ago and reaccommodated all booked passengers onto other airlines like they would have had their plane had technical issues. Can you imagine if the JFK route was cancelled like that and they left all their passengers stranded in the US? CAN is not that close to TSN for passengers to make their own way. It is a 3hr 15min flight in the wrong direction to BEG!
DeleteLet me tell you why the diaspora is not flying JU from ORD to be BEG.
ReplyDelete1st: Scheduling. JU flies 2pw which interferes with traveler's schedule.
2nd: Cost. JU is often $200-250 more expensive than alternatives. Considering that diaspora usually travels as a family, $200-250 per passenger adds up to a lot of money. Older generation is mostly on fixed retirement income, $200 is a lot for 2 hours travel difference.
3rd: In-flight service. JU flight attendants are terribly rude. They are only employable at JU no other airline would tolerate their behavior. In flight entertainment is almost non existing.
4th:. Some of us are business travellers and have very large benefit balances with UA or AA which are not redeemable on JU.
5th: JU is almost never on time
6th: most people from the Chicagoland area fly with Turkish, Swiss, or Lufthansa
Dejan
I would not agree with the part about cabin crew at all especially about them being "incredibly" rude. Most are really nice.
Delete1:Air Serbia operates 3 times per week during summer when most people fly. Three weekly might not be ideal for business traveller but is fine for families you mentioned.
Delete2: When talking about prices for nonstop vs one stop, you might look smart to your friends but you look exact opposite on aviation site. Your UA offers ORD-FRA return in Nov for $984 but Air Lingus via DUB will cost you only $700, a savings of $1,136 for a party of 4.
3: FAs are not rude. Looks like you are not travelling with JU.
4: Same as with most airlines around the world that are not in the same JV or alliance.
5: that would be a problem if you are connecting but you are flying as a family to BEG, so no major issue for most people.
6: Most ORD-BEG O&D passengers don't fly with TK. Those that suffer extra 3 hours to IST and back to BEG are in the minority.
Air Serbia crew was always very nice and professional, flew multiple times both economy and business, departed on time every flight. In the business class, they are extremely polite and professional compared to LH, KLM, AF crew, not to mention AlItalia crew and service. To me, it is not that important that IFE has the latest movies. Airlines are moving to "stream on your own device" platforms anyway. Tesla and Pupin will have cabins renovated. We are making every attempt to use Air Serbia to Belgrade from Chicago. Direct flights are no comparison to connected flights, regardless of what kind of loyalty points, IFE content you get.
Delete@dejan
DeleteThat's exactly reason why JU should not start YYZ. Everyone's crying about the route and then they will use it once and find 1000 complaints, which they will not even notice flying with Turkish, Swiss, or Lufthansa. Typically ex-yugoslavian...
Exact opposite - that's exactly the reason YYZ should be started as a seasonal route and filling it with those who will pay premium to fly direct. With optimistic 85% LF or approx 220 pax on 2pw schedule for say, generous 20-week season, JU would have only 17.600 two-way seats available. That doesn't even meet 50% of YYZ-BEG O&D demand. Others will have no other choice but to save a few hundred bucks flying 1 or 2 stop alternatives.
DeleteFYI this year alone I have traveled twice with JU between ORD and BEG and twice with Swiss Air. Cabin crew is defacto rude, read the reviews on google from non serbian passengers.
ReplyDeleteThey were only fly twice per week from ORD, next season 3 times. For my family when scheduling allows we do prefer flying direct cost is not an issue. However for cost cautious passengers the difference between why you and others in the season represents a significant savings.
Price difference between nonstop and 1-stop exists for all fights on all airlines to all destinations. How many times do you need examples and repeating this well known fact?
DeleteWhy would I trust google reviews instead of my own experiences? Every time I flew Air Serbia I had at least a decent service. Not once did I experience rude crew, same for my close friends and family, and that's a lot of combined flights. So no, Air Serbia crew is not rude.
They were only fly twice per week from ORD? This summer they were flying Mon, Wed and Sat. Looks like you have some issues.
@18:48 your experiences are anecdotal. As are each individual persons, which is why we look at averages. The same way scientific theories are tested many times and not once to take a single result.
DeleteLOL Air Serbia google "reviews" are certainly not independently-reviewed, consensus of experts confirmed and scientifically proven! But science says people are more likely to post negative experiences than positive ones, which is why internet reviews are mostly skewed towards negative side.
DeleteWell JU could choose to respond to the specific reviews if they wanted to, to ask for additional details or to contact the customer for more information etc.
Deleteor not...
DeleteDoes anyone know what the actual reason for the suspension is? I seem to read a lot of gossip on here. I think it makes sense for lack of staff
ReplyDeleteIt is written in the article.
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