Air Serbia has made various adjustments to its 2024/25 winter schedule which began on Sunday and will run until March 29, 2025. Overall, the airline will operate more flights this winter than last. Due to numerous frequency shifts on a monthly basis, the changes in the number of operated flights should be compared on a month-by-month basis. A clear trend in the schedule is that frequencies will decrease in November and December compared to last year, before sharply increasing for the remainder of the winter schedule. This is mainly due to the airline’s operations last winter, when it initially filed an ambitious schedule but was forced to decrease frequencies and suspend several routes from January onwards. Overall, Air Serbia will have nineteen fewer weekly departures from Serbia in November year-on-year, eight fewer in December, while in January it will have 38 additional weekly departures compared to January 2024, 72 additional weekly departures in February, and an extra 71 weekly departures in March.
This winter season, Air Serbia features several routes it did not offer the previous winter. They include services from Belgrade to Nice, Mostar, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Unlike last winter, the airline also plans to operate from Belgrade to Ankara, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hannover and Salzburg throughout the winter season. On the other hand, the carrier will no longer serve Tianjin from Belgrade, while it also no longer features Cairo, Cologne, Izmir and Naples in its schedule from its hub, although these routes were all either suspended or discontinued at some point during the previous winter and did not operate for the entire duration of the season. During the 2024/25 winter season, Air Serbia currently has 17.765 scheduled flights and 2.06 million seats on sale. This represents an increase of 6% and 1.5% respectively.
The carrier will continue to maintain the same frequencies on its Public Service Obligation flights from Niš as last winter. This includes four weekly rotations to Belgrade, as well as two weekly to Cologne, Hahn, Istanbul, and Ljubljana. Similarly, it will continue to maintain two weekly flights between Kraljevo and Istanbul, as was the case the previous winter.
Information in the table below is of an informative nature and subject to change. Air Serbia is prone to making modifications to its network throughout the season. The information below is correct as of the date of publication. Columns marked with “-“ under frequency indicate no change on the previous winter month. Winter season amendments made by Croatia Airlines can be viewed here, while changes made by Air Montenegro can be found here.
Departing Belgrade
Why such a large cut to ZAG?
ReplyDeleteBecause of Ryan.
DeleteThey seem to have shifted those frequencies to Tirana. Probably brings them more money.
DeleteAnonymous 09:08 do you mean that because of FR launching so many flights from ZAG there are fewer local using BEG as a connection point compared with the time when there was no FR base in ZAG?
DeleteIf it were Ryanair related they would not be increasing Tirana where Ryan has significantly more flights than from Zagreb.
Delete@anon 09:33 Yes, that is precisely what I mean.
Delete@Anon 09:37
DeleteDemand for TIA is on fire. It has 322% more seats scheduled for W24/25 compared with 2019.
https://airserviceone.com/europe-set-for-record-winter-but-challenges-loom/
B&H is doing great too!
So it makes perfect sense for JU to get some of that market.
^^^
DeleteInteresting graphic. Germany is doing terribly! 😮
Unfortunately not only in aviation, but generally Germany is a country that can't be recognized anymore.
DeleteAir Serbia recently increased BNX to 3 weekly and soon after decrease to 2 weekly. Two weekly BNX BEG is nothing. Air Serbia should look how Lauda filled 5 weekly A320 to Vienna and Ryanair 7 weekly, on occasions 10 weekly to Memmingen. Air Serbia should fly at least 5 weekly to BNX or three times double daily, in the morning and in the evening.
Delete@9.59 stil comparing it to 2019?
DeleteWhy not Dubrovnik during winter?
ReplyDeleteProbably the same reason almost no one flies from DBV in winter.
Deleteno one except 10 airlines
Delete10?
DeleteOnly following airlines do not fly seasonally to DBV:
- Croatia (FRA and ZAG, ZAG under PSO)
- Trade Air (OSI, RJK, SPU - all PSO)
- Turkish (IST)
- Ryanair (STN, VIE, CRL)
and that's it.
This year Lot is maintaining 2 weekly flights to Warsaw, vueling to Barcelona 2 x weekly, Aer Lingus extended flights to Dublin by 2 months, Iberia will fly 2,5 months to Madrid and EasyJet to London for 2,5 out of 5 months
DeleteNot a single one of them flights to DBV whole year.
Deletewhether you like it or not. The fact is that these airlines fly to Dubrovnik during the winter season. It's best to come to terms with the facts.
DeleteI couldn't care less.
DeleteI am just giving the facts. No more no less.
You try to manipulate the information like your friend from Vrapce.
and Turkish is gone
DeleteCrazy how much their frequencies jump around from month to month.
ReplyDeleteThat's why appreciate we can see month by month change because you would not get accurate information otherwise.
DeleteWhat a great summary and how much work behind all this and this even free of charge. Thank you ex YU for your dedication and passion.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThis is exactly what I waned to write as well. True pleasure to read.
DeleteWhat a difference comparing to some other neighbouring "analyzing".
Thank you admin!
+1
Delete+1
DeleteI just want to add that the admin here is truly a professional, unlike some "analitičar" where the news is more like gossip, where he even argue with readers in the comments. Anyway, the EX-YU aviation is comparable to the biggest aviation news portals. Congratulations to the admin for their success and professionalism.
DeleteLink to the analiticar! I want to see what all the fuss is about!
DeleteAnaliticaru, ti li si?
DeleteCan we stop with these unnecessary comments. We all know that site is trash, move on. Or are we not intelligent enough to not give the site clicks and views further boosting it's rating?
Delete"During the 2024/25 winter season, Air Serbia currently has 17.765 scheduled flights and 2.06 million seats on sale. This represents an increase of 6% and 1.5% respectively."
ReplyDeleteBut an expert said how it will be a disaster. He picked out one week and compared it to the same week last year and made a definitive conclusion on the entire winter.
It is not necessary to contaminate this great report with anything done by "expert".
DeleteShame for Naples - it was a nice destination, and last November they were flying it. Also, a lot of conflicting information from Air Serbia coming. Hard to do long terms plans if things change on an almost weekly basis. The Tianjin example - WOW, came out of nowhere. First saying it was a greatly performing route, starting it in NW24/25 schedule, and then suddenly removing it? Not good for trust building, and for a hub and spoke operating model.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The fact that TSN was even increased to 2 weekly from next summer shows to me it really is about pilots as was written.
DeleteBut the problem with pilots shows that some incompetent people from JU management made the moves which caused this problem.
DeleteIt did not fall from the sky.
Of course, not stating otherwise.
DeleteAlso shows there is lack of communication between route planning and HR.
DeleteWell the shortage is definitely noticable. Ju needs to atract but more importantly retain their current pilot levels. Something needs to be done to improve this negative trend. Obviously money is not a number one issue...
DeleteWell pilots operate in a global market, so they better start paying them the global price, especially for A330 trained pilots who could easily jump onto A350 and A380!
Delete@09:26 exactly, that is the worst thing out of all this situation. Company leadership (and sometimes the president of Serbia) planning new routes and frequencies without first looking if the available resources (crews and aircraft) can support it.
Delete"and sometimes the president of Serbia"
DeleteWhat route that he said has actually launched? Stop making things up.
CAN
DeleteNo, he literally never announced CAN. It was a destination announced by Jiri Marek 2 years ago. Again, stop making things up. It looks petty.
DeleteAnd as early as 2019 Guangzhou is listed as one of the busiest unserved route in Asia from Belgrade
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/03/belgrade-among-top-unserved-shanghai.html
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/03/president-air-serbia-eyeing-seoul.html
DeleteAnon 09:55 I wrote "Company leadership (and sometimes the president of Serbia) planning new routes and frequencies"
DeleteHe announced in July that CAI will be returning within two months for example. Of course it didn't happen and is not happening any time soon.
President: Air Serbia to restore Cairo service
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/07/president-air-serbia-to-restore-cairo.html
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”.
Yes and have you read this sentence "Air Serbia has so far confirmed it plans to introduce flights to both Shanghai and Guangzhou this year." They announced it well before he mentioned it. Again, stop making things up just for the sake of it.
Delete@9.41 The issue is not lack of A330 pilots but lack of A320 pilots and A330 pilots being shifted to A320s to fill that void.
DeleteWhy would an A330 pilot want that. They would rather go to Emirates or Qatar or elsewhere. There is a global pilot shortage.
DeleteAnd why wouldn`t one want that?
DeleteMy point is that they would rather jump across to the ME3 than downgrade to JU’s A319s.
DeleteThey are not downgrading. None of them fly exclusively A330s. They all fly A320-family too. But they need more of them on the A320-family at the moment.
DeleteAnd where are they all going?
Delete11:04 But they need more of them on the A320-family at the moment
DeleteThey need to RETIRE some A319s and REPLACE them with Embraers, as previosly planned. Issues growing E fleet are well-known but if that was done faster, removing just 3-4 A319s by now would free up enough Airbus pilots to meet growing A330 needs.
They have 5-7 wetleases whole year, so they need new planes immediately.
DeleteGuess they are trying to be more competitive against on ZRH route.
ReplyDeleteYes, Swiss has also increased frequencies.
DeleteI just hope that come December they won't decrease all this growth planed for Q1. In Air Serbia's case that's common practice.
ReplyDeleteWell apart from the New Year Orthodox Christmas period, Q1 is pretty quiet. I don't think the Chinese New Year travel in late January and early February is going to get them far given CAN is still a new route.
DeleteWell there is also school holidays and then national holiday in February which also generates additional traffic.
DeleteWhy did they make such big cuts this February and March? Was it because of the Marathon thing?
ReplyDeleteBoth Marathon accident and over ambitious schedule last winter.
DeleteMainly Marathon mess
DeleteIf they don't make any more changes it means it will be a record year based on flights and capacity.
ReplyDeleteWell if they have a pilot shortage, then don't be surprised that they "operationally" cancel flights over the next two months.
Delete@Anonymous 09:37
DeleteHad it not been for the Marathon situation the airline and BEG would have a double digit increase in traffic numbers this year.
How would it have a double digit increase this year? The incident happened this year.
Delete@09:56 what exactly you did not understand from what he wrote?
DeleteMarathon was to operate tens of flights for JU throughout 2024. But after the incident early in the year that plan was cancelled.
Sorry, I misread
DeleteBut they got Bulgaria Air and others in with the same capacity to replace them.
DeleteNot exactly. They had 5 Marathon Embraers of which 4 were E195s. The 2 Bulgaria Air Embraer 190s arrived in summer.
DeleteNo, there was 1 E175, 1 E190 and 2 E195. Last E195 never flew for Marathon, but started few days ago for JU
DeleteA huge downgrade of flights in nov and dec! Removed 80 and added only 47 for both months. What is going on JU, folks?
ReplyDeleteNot enough flight crews and available aircraft. Better strategic planning is needed in the future.
DeleteThey better learn the lessons from TSN which started at so promising. I hope ORD does not go the same way.
Delete+1
DeleteI would much rather see an increase in frequencies on existing long haul routes before launching new ones.
Marek needs to go. He is ultimately responsible for this mess!
Delete^ The 'mess' being a record number of flights this winter. Some of you are detached from reality.
Delete9:48 Removed 80 and added only 47 for both months. What is going on JU, folks?
DeleteWhat's going on is that you are capable of reading only NOV and DEC columns but you are completely unable to read FEB and MAR columns. Science still doesn't have answer how is that possible. But I do, purger.
He can't read. It says in the article
Delete"Overall, Air Serbia will have nineteen fewer weekly departures from Serbia in November year-on-year, eight fewer in December, while in January it will have 38 additional weekly departures compared to January 2024, 72 additional weekly departures in February, and an extra 71 weekly departures in March."
14:53 but you are completely unable to read FEB and MAR columns. Lets see first nov and dec then will see the bright future or not. Hope JU will be able to cover these flight.
DeleteTypical još ćemo videti from you, always the same response when positive announcements are made about Air Serbia. Then you hope and pray it doesn't materialise but in most cases, sooner or later it does. Then you censor comments pointing out how wrong your predictions were.
DeleteI don't get these cuts on the routes operated by ATR, better fly them half empty than sitting on the tarmac...
ReplyDeleteAre they on "power by the hour" contracts?
DeleteNot to mention the poor A330 fleet utilisation which was explainable with having to rest the crew 24 hours in TSN.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that Sochi is decreased.
ReplyDeleteAll the other JU destinations in Russia have either the same number of flights or increased frequencies.
Opportunity for OU to reduce seasonality here. They could launch 6 weekly flights to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteThey are unable to compete against anyone. JU would kill them within one season.
DeleteNice to see SKP getting increased, hopfully they introduce third daily flight next summer. TIA is also getting increased, but whats happening with ZAG?
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view who would take connection flights from Croatia to Europe when for that they need to get out Schengen zone. Onther thing what I noticed when I was buying tickets from my cousins prices went up like 90-120€ for one way and bus/ blabla car is much more economical plus it is 4-5 hours drive
DeleteBetter to have organic growth than exponential growth that can crush. I am sad to see some cuts but I suppose that they need to consolidate themself. In the end Serbian is small like it or not Serbia have 6.5miliom citizens, no Schengen and EU, and life standard is fine but not for everyone one.
ReplyDeleteSo overall this seems fine.
Also not a NATO member.
Deleteand no Advent like ZAG
Deleteyet still double the passengers.
DeleteAlso not so many tourists like in ZAG.
DeleteOh, wait...
Zašto kompleksaši moraju da ubace ZAG na svaki komentar koji JU ili BEG ne kuje u zvezde?
DeleteNišta niste bolji od 'analitičara', ista medalja, samo druga strana.
It seems that their A319 fleet is not completly deployed. Is it cheaper to have lower LF on flight to Athens on your A319 than higher LF on wet leased Bulgaria Air E190? In the summer schedule up to 3 daily flights are planned to Athens, however if we consider demand and Aegean, that schedule, in my opinion, can be profitable with 1-2 ATR daily rotation.
ReplyDeleteThey failed to utilize wide-bodies as 1pw charters to far away places like BKK, HAV, MLE, DPS...
ReplyDeleteThey explained several times that flying to these destinations requires a serious organization by Serbian tour operators which simply does not exist. For them to fly charters, tour operators must buy seats, create groups etc, none of which they are able to do.
DeleteWhere do I write to get AYT added in the summer?
ReplyDeleteThey won't because the route is a cash cow through charters. If they ask for rights to make it scheduled they will have to allow TK to fly it too and they don't want to share profits.
Delete