NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, has said services to India are not on the airline’s radar in the short-term. Speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Belgrade, the carrier’s CEO noted, “During Covid there was an extreme inflow of tourism from India. This was a result of a travel bubble during the pandemic. It was a niche that worked during Covid, and some airlines were influenced to increase flights to Belgrade as a result of that demand but at the moment it is not on our radar for the next couple of years”. The Serbian government had previously said it would be willing to subsidise flights between the two countries.
BEG would be a great stopover for flights on the way to YYZ from India. 4.5 million Indians live in Canada.
ReplyDeleteI don't think India or the Indian subcontinent is on anyone's mind in the Balkans. For business or pleasure, it's a dead end. Good move Marek.
ReplyDeleteYes because the Balkan peninsula is a fine example by which we should measure success.
DeleteIn my opinion India should be on their radar. It's the most populous country in the world, their economy is booming and Indians today have a lot of disposable income. They don't have to consider DEL which might be challenging due to geopolitical risks. However, Hyderabad could be a good choice for them given the economic development in the region.
Also don't forget that TK is blocked from expanding in India and so are the MEB3. BEG is also quite a bit to the south so it doesn't have to overfly that many war zones.
That could work if visa regime would go down. For now, no chance
DeleteWhy not? JU and BEG could be a convenient transfer option to the mega hubs out there.
DeleteThe Government should subsidize JU flight to New Delhi instead of SCAT airlines to Kazakhstan!
DeleteWith 4 A330s and very few frequencies to China and ORD the capacity is available. Crews are another matter...
As I recently read ATH is looking for opportunities in India and new direct flights there. With Turkey having limited frequencies ATH could be the transfer point.
DeleteAegean is looking at India with their A321XLR, I think they are getting five of them. That said, they have a major flaw and that is ATH. Without an expansion they simply can't be competitive. Non-Schengen zone is unbearable in summer, even with the slight remodeling and expansion they had.
DeleteATH needs to expand ASAP, they should have done this already pre-covid.
Have logic. Only how I could see that this rout would work is to have major part of passengers connecting in Belgrade to continue there travels to Germany, or Italy because there is big diaspora in these two countries
ReplyDeleteIf they do not plan India, do they plan Africa, maybe?
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia cannot send A332 to India, there is no enough demand. However, Indian LCCs, such as IndiGo, could launch flight to Belgrade. They have and will have smaller planes such as A321XLR which they can use for BEG route.
ReplyDeleteI still think JU has more of a chance because they can rely on transfers to the West. This is a much bigger market than the one 6E would rely on (transfers from Serbia going east).
DeleteIndia's economy is booming so this is definitely not a market to be ignored.