Air Serbia has scheduled its wide-body Airbus A330-200 on select short-haul flights throughout the rest of the month, as well as in January and February. Initially, the airline deployed the aircraft between Belgrade and Zurich last Sunday, carrying a total of 260 passengers to the Swiss city. On November 13 and 16 it will utilise the jet to Rome, while on November 19 and 23 the twin-aisle aircraft will operate flights to Paris. Furthermore, from January 16 to February 6, it will maintain services with the A330 between Belgrade and Rome each Thursday for a total of four return flights. Equipment changes remain possible. The information in the table below is correct as of the date of publication.
Air Serbia A330-200 deployment
Air Serbia anticipates the arrival of its fourth A330-200 aircraft at the end of the month or in December. The jet has been in Dusseldorf for some time undergoing maintenance as it prepares to enter into service. Similar to its third A330, Air Serbia’s fourth wide-body jet is ten years old and most recently operated for Air Belgium. It will also feature the Etihad Airways cabins which will be installed on the remaining two A330s as well. Cabin retrofitting for one of them, registered YU-ARC, is set to begin next year, while another A330, registered YU-ARB, will undergo the cabin overhaul either next year or in 2026. YU-ARB is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance in Chateauroux.
Apart from utilising the wide-body aircraft on a select number of short-haul flights, the airline continues to deploy the jets on its long-haul services to New York, Chicago, Guangzhou, as well as Shanghai from January next year. Commenting on the wide-body fleet, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said last month”, “Recently we received our third Airbus A330, with the fourth aircraft set to come at the end of November. We recently launched flights to Guangzhou in China and announced the start of Shanghai at the beginning of next year. We expect the next step will be frequency densification rather than new destinations”. The airline previously noted that under its five-year plan it could utilise up to eight of the A330-200s.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteFull A330 this time of the year just goes to show that demand is higher than supply. That is why fares as astronomical from BEG.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air is the biggest problem here but also JU which cut winter network. I wish BEG management wasn't so useless, they need to work on helping other airlines increase flights if JU and W6 don't want to.
+1
DeleteCome to Canada to see what expensive airfare it is. Here you take flight Toronto Montreal and pay from 600 to 1200 dollars in economy. Flights from BEG are super cheap and afordable. JU has amazing sale prices as long as you watch what goes on sale and when.
Delete+1
DeleteToronto-Montreal-Toronto,
Delete1-5.12. 19014 RSD Westjet (some 160 eur)
What's the average salary in Serbia and what is it in Canada?
DeleteWhen they said A330 is for overseas I wasn't expecting Rome...
ReplyDelete😂
DeleteThey should have a special flight to INI with it too!
DeleteYes, so 50 passengers can fly in A330...
DeleteAirline business is not a charity.
Delete^^^
DeleteIt's marketing, not charity.
It is charity because flying an empty A330 from Nis costs money
DeleteAnd it's not overseas. So Rome makes much more sense.
DeleteSo they cut FCO just to upgrade it to wide body. I'm really curious to see frequencies increase from the next summer, because the fares have skyrocketed for many leisure destinations. Just take a look at BCN, minimum fare is double the price than it used to be. So far, JU is not really taking advantage of W6 cuts on the market.
ReplyDeleteJU doesn't have the recourses to take advantage of W6 issues. It needs more flight crews and short haul aircraft.
DeleteAircraft shortage, hence using larger jets on short haul routes
DeleteA330neo is particularly good at this (JU doesn't have it, unfortunately), as it's designed to handle short haul as well
Maybe in 15-20 years time JU will get some A330neos.
DeleteProblem is that tour operators are starting to snatch seats on those flights. For example if agencies take 100/144 seats on flights to BCN regular passengers are forced to pay €200 one way fares. JU should either lower their fares or add more flights.
DeleteLike this they are just frustrating potential customers.
From personal experience of traveling between BCN and BEG often, JU is taking advantage of Wizz cuts, just that it isn't to the advantage of the passenger, but they are probably making more money. Wizz is ridiculously expensive so JU really has no reason to keep lower fares and they seem to hover around the same price and come one top with better comfort, luggage timing and frequency. There's crazy demand on the route and if anyone should be taking advantage it's the likes of Ryanair or Vueling by not introducing flights
DeleteThe situation with BCN is especially tragic as both JU and W6 are full so fares are crazy high.
DeleteBEG management is way too passive in my opinion. They need to encourage VY to come back as there is room for them. That said, they should not provide them with discounts if they use the horrible schedule they had in the past.
I don't know what presence easyJet has over there but maybe they could give it a try.
@Anon 9:38
DeleteDo you actually think the A330s will fly to FCO due to demand? As you said it yourself it was cut, because JU no longer had money to burn fighting Wizz on the route.
These A330 flights to FCO are exclusively for crew training purposes, same as the BEG-ZAG A330 flights we had in 2016
Well they had 260 passengers to Zurich last week on the A330. And there was just one flight to Zagreb on A330 in 2016 and it was to promote the new JFK route. Not for crew training.
DeleteGreat news. On the days they are operating A330s on these routes tickets are in some cases half price.
ReplyDeleteMore capacity and fares go down :)
DeleteFor those that want to try out the A330, the Paris flights are the perfect one to choose since you can get back in the same day as they have 2 flights.
ReplyDeleteI would love to go on their Expo plane to see what it's like. Have flown both Tesla and Pupin so far
DeleteSame. Has anyone had the chance to fly it so far?
DeleteI'm pretty sure they will extend these in December too
ReplyDeleteThe wide body utilization is really poor this winter
ReplyDeleteIt's poor every winter
DeleteIt's shame agencies didn't find interest for winter leisure charters to Bali, Cuba, Maldives or some other resort
DeleteVenezuela is a cheap and wonderful winter destination. Much more beautiful than Cuba or Bali.
DeleteVenezuela is definitely not close enough to be as beautiful as Cuba. I done both and Cuba"s beaches and culture is at the top 3 in that region.
DeleteThis sounds totally American when they visit "Europe". Cuba and Venezuela are not the same region (some will argue they're the same continent)
DeleteRealistically, which JU shirt haul routes could see A330s on a more common basis in summer?
ReplyDeleteMoscow, Barcelona, Zurich and Paris are my guesses. Moscow unlikely due to restrictions from leasing companies
DeleteNovi A330 su iznajmljeni od Etihada koji i sam leti za Moskvu, Možda neće imati zabranu.
DeleteNisu iznajmljeni od Etihada vec od lizing kuce. Etihad je samo bivši korisnik tih aviona.
Delete@11:33 Short haul routes are not to be operated by long haul aircrafts ( wide body aircrafts)..its called common sense... no airline company in the world does that
DeleteCompletely untrue. In Europe alone Turkish operates many short haul routes with widebodies. All Gulf carriers operate short hauls with wodebodies, on many flights in China and across southeast Asia short hauls are operated with widebodies.
DeleteNot on regular basis..give us some examples of those routes and type of plane...Besides that, no one in Europe does that, something to do with costs, right? How much is plane flyover in Europe, and in Asia? Airport taxes as well..
DeleteYes on regular basis TK uses widebodies from Istanbul to:
Delete- Izmir
- Malaga
- Amsterdam
- Athens
- Antalya
- Barcelona
- Berlin
- Bodrum
- Brussels
- Paris
- Marsin
- Dalaman
- Dusseldorf
- Ercan
- Rome
- Frankfurt
- Geneva
- Madrid
- Milan
- Munich
- Bucharest
- Prague
- Vienna
- Zurich
and this is just in November
Iberia uses widebody from Madrid to
- London Heathrow
Lufthansa uses widebody from Frankfurt to
- Munich
SAS uses widebody from Copenhagen to
- Stockholm
- Oslo
And there are many other European ones that do but are not on regular basis. For example TAP has over 20 wide body flights on European destinations this month.
In Asia
Emirates uses widebodies on all flights including 1 hour hops like Kuwait City, Bahrain, Riyadh, Jeddah, Muscat etc
Qatar Airways uses widebodies from Doha to
- Dubai (multiple times per day)
- Amman
- Basra
- Dammam
- Jeddah
- Kuwait City
- Muscat
- Madinah
I'm not going to list them all for you as there are thousands of flights. Singapore Airlines uses A350 on almost all regional flights to places like Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta etc mutliple times per day. Some of these flights are under 45 minutes
Thai uses widebodies on many short haul routes. Korean Air too etc.
To claim airlines don't use wide bodies on short haul flights is absolutely bizarre
DeleteIberia flies its A350 and A330 to London Heathrow every single day from Madrid. Treshnja you really are talking nonsense and I would stop while I'm ahead if I were you.
DeleteFinnair also uses A330 and A350 once or twice a day to LHR.
DeleteI fly MAD-LHR on a regular basis with Iberia, never flew with wide body....So you wanna say that Air Serbia rented 2 wide body planes to fly fromm Belgrade to Rome with wide body, and thats perfectly fine for you? And you compare airlines that have- how many planes in their fleet? 300-400 planes, over 100 wide body aircrafts, and you compare with Air Serbia with how many planes? 30 in total, including 10 ATR..They fly with wide body on short haul, because they can. They can cover up..Air Serbia cannot...You are twisting everything, and trying to defend something that cannot be defended..Airline company that barely has enough narrow body aircrafts to cover its short haul flights rents 2 expensive wide body aircrafts in order to fly them on short haul routes? This is not infantile, its ridiculous what you want to prove and defend...
DeleteI don't cate if you fly MAD-LHR on regular basis. Go on their website and book a ticket. There is one flight EACH DAY operated by either A350 (most flights) and A330 (some) however there is one flight per day operated by wide body every single day. I'm purely responding to your falsehood that there are no short hauls operated by long haul aircraft on a regular basis anywhere in the world.
DeleteSome 20 to 25 years ago, having widebodies in Europe was quite common. You had many European carriers which operated the B763, A300-600, A310... on intra-European routes.
DeleteThe A300-600 was ideal for high volume, short-haul routes. That's why Lufthansa used to operate them from FRA to places such as LCA, FCO, BCN and even BEG. However, neither Airbus not Boeing invested in newer generation of such planes. They did roll out the B737NG, A320neo and later on the B737MAX.
Simply put, many routes which were operated by the A300-600 or the B763 are now operated by the A321neo.
Naturally there are still intra-European flights with widebodies but this is a fraction of what we used to have. Many years ago you could also catch a ride on LAN Chile's A340 between FRA and I think MAD. There was also KE which operated 5th freedom flights between AMS and MAD.
Btw there is also Icelandair which operates many European flights with the B767. There is also EK's LCA-MLA.
DeleteI think Ethiopian also operates some widebody flights on intra-European routes (VIE-BRU used to be one of them).
Ok. I was wrong that there are no wide body deployed on short haul in europe, even though that is not done often, but that`s not the point at all... Exactly what this kind of brainers are doing all the time- twisting the essence of problem, and using secondary and non-important info to cover up the real thing...And the real problem is- why Air Serbia needs 4 wide body aircrafts to perform 8 long haul flights during winter, 14 or 15 during summer? And does anybody really think that can persuade any person with IQ 90 and above that Air Serbia actually acquired all those planes in order to fly them on routes such as Rome, Paris or Moscow...
DeleteNo, you claimed it's not used anywhere in the WORLD, let alone Europe. In actual fact there is considerable use of widebodies on short haul routes across the world.
Deletethis is not considerable use, you know how many flights are performed daily in the world...
Delete230 seat a321ceo is much better option than 260seat a330
DeleteYU should get two a321 for this short flights high demand routes
Tresnja is a typical example of people who comments on the internet when they're wrong. First she claims that there are no widebody flights intra Europe and when it's presented that there are many of them she's like NE MENJA POENTU. Well, it does. Secondly if it's economically viable for Air Serbia to deploy A330 on short haul routes and there is a high demand then why not? I'm not saying that it should be on a regular basis at this point but you have to start it sometimes if you want to make a progress at that sector
Delete@ Vladimir no I`m not wrong, there cannot be economical reason that Air Serbia deploys A330-200 on short haul on regular basis...Wide bodies are not rented to fly short haul routes, and any employee of Air Serbia can tell you that....They can use them once in a while only to cover up, not to keep those planes sitting on ground, and that`s it.....But they need to open new long haul route, at least one, in order all those planes not to sit around for the whole winter...Flying them to Rome , once you had cut number of flights from 11 to 6 during winter , because of lack of pax, is not the solution
DeleteWhat airport is that on the photo?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is Zurich
DeleteZurich, I’d say.
DeleteYes it's ZRH 100%
DeleteIt's definitely not Miami
DeleteI'm pretty sure these A330 flights will be extended into December too.
ReplyDeleteI am considering sof-beg-rom and A332 on the second leg. But the planes are not brand new, old technology with minor interior changes. Will see.
ReplyDeleteI think flying wide body is always nicer than narrow regardless of age :)
DeleteDefine "flying". Yes, those 60min of effective flying to Rome is much better experience but everything before and after will take much more time with 250+ pax...
DeleteSomeone woke up on the wrong foot.
DeleteThis is ridiculous..Why they need 4 wide body aircrafts? To fly to Rome? They will have 4 planes in a month, and considering their long haul schedule, they barely need even 2..This is enormous waste of money,,,I really don`t understand these commentators cheering this move, do they think that we all have IQ 62?
ReplyDeleteMost of their widebody fleet is on power by the hour lease contracts.
DeletePilot training. Don't need IQ of 162 for that.
Delete@16:08 source about that?
Delete16:47 For some fruits need more then 162.
Delete@16:47 pilot training ok, but for what? Which routes, Rome, Paris, Moscow with wide body? With the total number of flights scheduled for winter, 1 and 1/5 of the plane is enough..for summer 2 planes...You can say whatever you want, but no excuse can beat pure facts- number of flights to be performed on long haul routes, and number of wide bodies they have in acquisition- 4 planes for 14 flights weekly during summer, 4 ( or 3) planes for 8 flights during winter...incredible utilization, right?
DeleteYou just claimed above how no airline flies widebodies on short haul flights on scheduled basis. I really don't think you are in a position to say you are writing "facts"
DeleteSo you wanna say that those facts I wrote above are not true? There is not 8 flights planned during winter, and 14 during summer? And Air Serbia has not rented 4 wide body aircrafts? You say that`s not true? And how many aircrafts are enough to perform 8 flights a week, in your opinion? I would keep silent if I were you
DeleteYou lied, you got called out. End of story.
Deletehahaha is that your truth? Answer the question, if you dare
DeleteYou lied by claiming no airline operates short haul flights with wide body aircraft. After that 'fact' that you presented I really stopped reading any of your other 'facts'
DeleteI really don`t care what you read, and since you keep replying , that means that you do read...So you lie.....But what I care is that people who read this article see the waste of public money for renting all those wide body planes that are not gonna be used for the flights they are rented for, and that is - long haul flights.. and that almost no one is using those kind of planes for short haul flights, especially not smaller companies that don`t have resources to cover up possible losses....so however you guys try to divert and mislead, you won`t succeed, because truth is so obvious...Off course, if Air Serbia decides to properly utilize all these planes, that would be different story...But so far they didn`t come up with any solution...Good solution is definitely not Rome or Paris, or Moscow...For training yes, but only for that...
Delete0002
DeleteJust stop it
"But what I care is that people who read this article see the waste of public money for renting all those wide body planes..."
DeleteThis is utter nonsence. JU does not receive single cent from Government for these planes.
Treshnja do not get upset with people here. I know what you are talking about. 4 wide bodies for 8 winter flights...
DeleteThats ridiculous
BUT -
A. JU ckuld not figure out WHEN 3rd and 4th A330 will arrive and they arrive NOW so bad luck
B. JU currently has 15 summer flights with wide bodies, will add 8 more until summer starts
So, for SS25 wide bodies will be properly utilized
Pozdrav Anal liticar lepo ime ovde... voćno!
Delete@ Anon 09:56 I hear you...You`re probably right, they didn`t know exactly when those 2 planes would arrive, and this was bad luck...But they should quickly come up with some solution, those planes ( 3, if JU ARC goes on retrofitting in february) could be used on some additional route, since they cut Tianjin, which was obviously not performing well `cause they cut it with such a short note, and especially now when they have so many wide bodies....I understand that new long haul route is not easy to organize in short time, but it is manageable...especially to some leisure destinations, or even as charter as the last solution...Anyways, they should start preparing new route asap, whether would be MIA, NRT or Beijing or BOM...I hope you`re right about adding 8 additional flights by summer start, by mid summer YU ARC will have arrived back , and they would need around 23-24 flights weekly for 4 wide bodies...
DeleteČitam i odlučih da se uključim. Boško Rupić je pre par dana rekao da će na leto imati 14 letova a planiraju još jedan, ili za Peking ili povećanje jedne od postojećih linija za Kinu. Ako anon 9:56 ima podatke o tih 8 koje Rupić nema, neka ih objavi ovde.
DeleteAir Serbia needs to start thinking what the upcoming Trump presidency will mean for their presence in Russia.
ReplyDeleteIf a US-Russia detente really does take place then we could potentially see the removal of certain sanctions. I am sure air travel will be pretty high on the list.
What will this mean for their presence over there especially if SU starts restoring flights to Europe. Maybe it's time to further boost flights and lower ticket prices.
I personally believe it's time to start thinking and preparing for this moment. Then again, strategic thinking was never something they excelled at.
A321 to Moscow? Prices for one way are around 600 euros.
ReplyDeleteWith more seats, less cost?
Not ideal for heavy a330-200s, each flight adds to the cycles on these airframes. I am sure the lessors won't be happy. They are not like A300s which were designed for short-haul flying.
ReplyDeleteFools are fun. Quick search shows tons of all kinds of widebodies in regular use on short distance routes by large airlines around the world. But fools ask funny questions without thinking about checking the facts first.
Delete@Anon 14:42 All you know is to insult, you probably learned that in some "Academy", they should`ve thought you how to swich on your common sense, if you don`t have knowledge...Anon 12:00 is right, A330-200 is not designed for short haul....
DeleteJust because it's not designed, it doesn't mean airlines are not using it en masse on sgort distances. There is an ongoing discussion about it on a.net but fools don't follow it.
Delete