Qatar Airways eying EX-YU carriers?

Qatar Airways seeking purchases after rejecting Jat, Alitalia and Olympic

The CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, says the airline is again pursuing acquisitions in foreign carriers, admitting it was offered stakes in both Serbia’s Jat Airways and Greece’s Olympic Airlines. The recent statement has fuelled speculation that the Qatari carrier could look into purchasing a minority stake in an airline in the region and follow the example of its Middle Eastern rival Etihad Airways. Mr. Al Baker says the airline is “actively discussing opportunities” with other passenger carriers. “When we see that there are strong synergies between the two carriers we are open to investment”, Mr. Al Baker says.

The CEO has disclosed that Qatar Airways was offered the unprofitable Olympic Airlines, Air Seychelles and “even Air Serbia”, while Alitalia, which has suffered years of losses, has indicated its availability “several times over the past five years”. Alitalia is in the final stages of investment talks with Etihad Airways, which has also taken stakes in Air Serbia and Air Seychelles. “We were offered umpteen airlines that today have either been acquired or are in the process”, Mr. Al Baker said. "Qatar Airways will not be rushed into taking investments in airlines in bits and pieces”, he said, adding that “each airline in our region has a different strategy. We want to make sure that we don’t create a burden on us. We want airlines that we acquire to be complimentary to us, we don’t want to get involved in fixing other people’s problems”.

The statements come in the same year that all the national carriers of the former Yugoslavia, with exception to Air Serbia, are in search of a strategic partner. Adria Airways will begin its privatisation process following a European Commission ruling in June over alleged state aid. Croatia Airlines is also set to resume its privatisation process this summer, while the Montenegrin government has adopted plans to sell its carrier this year as well. The Federation government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been searching for a strategic partner for B&H Airlines ever since Turkish Airlines withdrew from the carrier’s ownership structure.

Middle Eastern airlines have shown interest in EX-YU carrier on several occasions. In 2008 Royal Jordanian Airlines placed a bid to purchase a 49% stake in B&H Airlines while Etihad successfully acquired Jat Airways. Furthermore, the Emirati carrier bought tender documentation for the purchase of a minority stake in Montenegro Airlines in 2012 but never made an offer. Qatar Airways is currently in the process of setting up an offshoot, Al Maha Airways, in Saudi Arabia this November following the Kingdom’s relaxation of its protectionist policies in the aviation sector. Qatar Airways, a Oneworld alliance member, operates eleven weekly flights from Doha to the former Yugoslavia with daily services to Zagreb (via Budapest) and four weekly flights to Belgrade (via Ankara).

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:05

    If they wanna buy a national carrier, Croatia Airlines (besides Air Serbia) is the only one worth buying at the moment, but I highly doubt they would buy any of the regional carriers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aэrologic09:37

      Well, Kucko said it yesterday, Croatia is against that model so they're out of the game. Actually, when you say region in here, you often forget to include many countries. In my opinion, TAROM is their best bet in the region, if not the only.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:40

      Kucko is not the one to decide on privatisation model!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:13

      Tell that to him because he is so Arrogant and has an Ego so big , remember he has to protect his interest and the interest of his friends in Croatia Airlines .I have heard via via that there is one very special that he has to protect and she is allocated in Brussels that works for Croatia Airlines .She's also like him cry baby so they. Both have no interest that Croatia Airlines gets sold to a foreign company as they will be the first to .These two are so unprofessional they wouldn't survive in the real world op business where what counts is your productivity no who are you friends with. So best of luck Croatia Airlines .

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:15

    They have a very unrealistic approach on some ex Yu markets where they need the feeder partner. So They may offer some codeshare coperation and that is it. They know they will have hard time with Etihad when the new airport is ready in Abu Dhabi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interestingly enough, Qatar does get some passengers from Air Serbia's regional network. Most common ones are Sarajevo and Skopje.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:28

      Wonder why JA doesn't codeshare with QR? It would make sense for them (if only they kept the afternoon flight from BEG to SJJ on some days)

      Delete
    3. Anonymous05:22

      Ask them.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:16

    New info, at 1.50 AM new CRJ900NG landed at Ljubljana (S5-AAU).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:22

    I remember there was a very similar article to this several months before EY mentioned buying JU. It was something like EY eyeing Ex-Yu carriers and I thought it was completely unrealistic so this time around I will be more cautious. I guess you can never say never in this crazy part of the world.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Belgrade airport numbers for March have been published.

    March 2014: 282.447 passengers, +28%.

    So far, the airport handled 785.296 passengers, up from 603.724 last year, 30% growth yoy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aэrologic09:39

      Cargo up 39% {thumbs up}.

      Delete
    2. You are right! I totally forgot about cargo. Impressive that it grew by 31% this year. Mail is also interesting, up by 15%.

      Delete
    3. Aэrologic09:49

      The correlation between the increase in operations and pax is good, 35% vs. 28%. Not bad, not bad at all.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:27

      This year, Belgrade airport will handle between 4.200.000 and 4.400.000 passengers.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:13

      Hitting one milion pax in April is wonderful. :)

      Delete
    6. Nikola11:49

      if BEG maintains 30% growth, we can expect 4,6 million passengers (a whole million above 2013). also, if cargo maintains 31% we might have 10.000 tons (which is still far from the 80s)

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:33

      Not necessarily, as Wizzair has just announced that 1 aircraft will be leaving BEG base.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:38

      Air Serbia mainting momentum.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous13:43

      If Wizz is cutting capacity by half, it means ~250.000 passengers less in 2015, or some ~150.000 less in what remains of 2014.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous13:53

      That only applies if those passangers don't fly with another company.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:21

      Having in mind Wizz Air was serving another customer segment - the ones that can't afford traditional carriers' fares, there is no doubt there will be less passengers.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous14:25

      + Wizz withdrawal will result in the increase of fares on those routes. Remember what happened on the BEG-VIE route when Niki started flying... and what happened when they terminated the route?

      Higher fares = less passengers

      Delete
    13. Hmm their second A320 was mostly used during the three summer months. During the rest of the year it spent most of its time parked at the B stands. It's not like they had high fleet utilisation.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous12:21

    Would it be possible for Qatar Airways to buy a minority stake in Air Serbia?
    I mean the government still holds 51 per cent - too much in my opinion.
    As Serbia is not member of the EU like Croatia or Slovenia.
    There is no way that airlines from both those countries could bet bought by an Arab airline!
    But Serbia would do fine...

    Wouldnt it be interesting for Etihad and Qatar to cooperate on Air Serbia with mutual and trilateral benefit?!
    Of course it would!

    In every case it would be extremely ambitious to say at least...


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:29

      Hahaha, yeah, sure, but leave some stake for Emirates, too!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:32

      no. Serbia (or company/companies from EU or Serbia) must have at least 51% because of EU regulations

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:41

      Did you mean 50.1%? If Etihad wants to buy more Air Berlin shares (total 49.9%) that applies to Air Serbia too, to keep airline as European. So, I think 0.9% share are available, but Etihad will be asked first :)

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:43

      Maybe "Avogenex", ha? :)

      Delete
  7. Anonymous13:37

    Anonymous 12.21
    Why not? Look at Alitalia. Of course Arabs can by an EU airline.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous13:41

    OT: Viz er: BG aerodrom preskup za nas

    http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2014&mm=04&dd=02&nav_id=831692

    Izgleda da je Air Serbia dobila lep vetar u leđa.

    Ne čudi me da je počela istraga oko vlasništva..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aэrologic17:07

      Well, why don't they fly to Nis? In Georgia they were happy enough and incredibly grateful to get Kutaisi, they would not even think to shit at the govt. that they didn't give them Tbilisi. KUT-TBS is the same distance as Nis-Belgrade.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:32

      Some time ago Ryanair wanted to fly from Niš or base an aircraft at Niš, but airport was not equipped enough and city had no money to invest in the airport. I wonder if that is the same thing that bothers Wizz. They wanted to base an aircraft a year a ago in INI but they went for some city in Romania instead.

      Considering that flying from Niš would be very cheap for Wizz I don't think it is a bad idea. And some flights from Sofia are far to expensive for this part of Balknas (southern Serbia&Eastern Bulgaria). Having a low cost would be very useful and is the only kind of airline that could fly profitably

      Delete
  9. Anonymous13:55

    It would nice to see Easyjet opening LTN and Basel to finish them of

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous14:24

    Ahhhhh wizz air chased away, the air serbia fanboys must be wetting their pants....

    ReplyDelete
  11. OT: Portoroz airport in Slovenia will be connected with Rome, Catania and Salerno from 1st of May onwards year through with 6 weekly flights (thursdays and sundays three flights per day). The carrier is Minoam Air with a 50 seat Fokker and will be flying for CTM Travelair from Italy. It will be basically a full year charter connection to be operated for at least 5 years. Additionally the airport is planing extending the runway as to welcome larger airplanes. Great news for Portoroz!

    http://www.rtvslo.si/tureavanture/prevozna-sredstva/za-230-evrov-z-letalom-in-nazaj-iz-rima-do-portoroza-za-300-s-sicilije/333579

    ReplyDelete
  12. I have to say that this comes as good/great news, especially since Wizz Air will not be pulling out completely out of Belgrade.
    When the airline established its base at the airport, the government's plan (DS) was to have it replace Jat Airways as the official carrier in Serbia, something similar to what happened in Budapest. From the start they got an unfair deal which enabled them to financially destroy Jat on any route where they competed either directly or indirectly.
    The fact that they are asked to pay the regular price and that it makes them angry is irrelevant. They should not be favoured and most definitely they should not be subsidised. I do not see why airlines such as Norwegian or easyJet should pay one price and Wizz Air another. After all, how many airports did Ryanair abandon simply because it was unhappy with the charges they were asked to pay? This is nothing new.

    Regardless of the fact that I work for Air Serbia, I am happy they are going to be reducing their presence in Belgrade.
    For a long time now they lacked a true strategy when it comes to their Belgrade base. They missed some great opportunities to increase their fleet utilisation in Belgrade. Just look at how aggressive easyJet has been recently. They know what they are doing. Wizz Air has been idle for a few years now and then all of a sudden they are complaining when someone is trying to disturb their state of ineffectiveness.

    One has to also wonder if their decision to suspend these two destinations has to do with increased fares in Belgrade or with the fact that both Air Serbia and Norwegian destroyed them. Oh well... aviation business is ruthless. Let this be a payback for what they did to Malév.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:40

      Hi Nemjee, I was sure you were going to show up with some half-truths tarnishing Wizz Air on this topic. Let's address some of the factually incorrect things you've written above.

      BEG airport has just published a new price scheme starting Apr 1st, tailored to providing subsidies to Air Serbia's projected capacity and preventing any other airline (read Wizz Air) from accessing those subsidies.

      I agree airport taxes are and should be volume based and promoting new destinations and based aircraft, and therein lies the primary reason why airlines with smaller capacity based elsewhere (easyJet, Norwegian) are paying more for their services.

      However, as you are probably well aware, the main issue here is the lack of free and developing market attitude in Serbia, and in particular, Belgrade airport and the governmental direct involvement and conflict of interest in both cases. In other words, you should be keeping quiet and enjoying the deal instead of writing the above. The current AIP does not favor anyone in the mid-to-long run, and Serbian customers the least.

      There's a lot more to be said on the topic, but let's keep civil for now, shall we? Nemjee, I'm looking at you.

      Delete
    2. Well, you anticipated my comment, I anticipated your reply. I love the fact you are posting as Anonymous, how civil of you. ;)

      So what if the airport is going to favour Air Serbia? It's an airline which promises much more than Wizz Air could ever. All airports around the globe are trying to please their biggest operators, especially those who are based at their airport. Do you honestly believe Wizz Air could ever add a third aircraft in Belgrade? No, they could not because they are totally passive and most of their fleet is parked throughout the year, that is if we exclude the three summer months.
      Belgrade airport and the Serbian government is doing well to take a tough stance against Wizz Air. Sure, they handled 480.000 passengers last year, any airline could if they were paying next to nothing. I am happier other airlines are stepping in to fill the voids left by Wizz Air's inactivity. I am specially referring to easyJet which is a fine lowcost airline.

      Also, let's not even start to speak about the ideals of free market. They are an illusion and they never apply to those with deep pockets.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:33

      Too busy to answer properly atm. I'll get back to you, probably tomorrow. In the meantime, you have a connection request on LinkedIn. ;)

      Delete
    4. One of these days people in Serbia are going to have to figure out what they really want -national airline, employing Serbs, paying taxes in Serbia or whole bunch of low-cost airlines, providing competition and low fares. Government and a private entity invested in AS. They’d like to see return on their investment. What’s wrong with that. We complained when they were sitting idle, now that they are pushing hard on all fronts we complain again!!!

      Delete
    5. Aэrologic17:08

      Well, why don't they fly to Nis? In Georgia they were happy enough and incredibly grateful to get Kutaisi, they would not even think to shit at the govt. that they didn't give them Tbilisi. KUT-TBS is the same distance as Nis-Belgrade.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:09

      Wizz will find its way in Belgrade or elsewhere. If the prices up 40% in BEG then the aircraft will go to Riga to earn money there. BEG is not their life or death battleground as it is for Air Serbia, merely on of their 20 bases.

      Delete
    7. Aэrologic17:27

      As Nemjee correctly pointed out, Wizz has been phlegmatic and devoid of any creativity when developing their route-netowork out of Belgrade, with the recent launch of Larnaca being their most Eastern, creative and useful connection for the passengers (previously that was Rome, which they cancelled). All they did for years was copying Jat's established network and trying to undermine it from there. If they tried to do develop their own network, more similar to the one they have in Kiev, i'm sure they would have been far more successful, fees or not, people would have to fly them cause nobody flies there anyway (i'm thinking of Venice, Naples, Barcelona, Madrid, Kutaisi, Baku and Kiev from Belgrade that would be perfect as two weekly along with some other destinations). This is the price they're paying due their own business strategy that made them vulnerable, if you don't expect your business environment to say still in other countries and regions across the globe, why did they expect it in Serbia? I guess Nemjee gave one part of the answers. They felt too safe and secure by the deal DS gave them, thet they're gonna to inherit Jat which was supposed to go bust under the old 'government'. I'm sure now Varadi bites his tie when thinking of Etihad.

      Besides, maybe Wizz Air should start by registering its planes in Serbia just as they had to do in Ukraine and other countries, before claiming any lower fees. They're more than welcome to develop Nis airport and perhaps they'll be smarter this time around.

      Delete
    8. Aэrologic17:40

      @Anonynous 5:09PM

      Judging by their tone, Belgrade was much more important for them than "one of their 20 bases". I'm sure they had their time to shine and reaped the profit they couldn't see elsewhere, so now they feel sorry that the party is over. Recently they had to close their base in Donetsk so this comes as a new setback for Wizz Air, the year is starting bad for them. All their Dubai-routes from Ukraine failed as well, they were cut months after introduction.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous17:51

      1 aircraft here or there out of 46, who cares. Other than the ones whose center of the universe is BEG, obviously. :-) And you saying that Wizz should learn from Air Serbia how to make airline business profitable is only kidding, right?

      Delete
    10. Anonymous17:54

      I don't understand now. First you insist that there are no subventions or privileges to Wizzair in Belgrade, but that Belgrade is the only airport they fly just because of huge demand. You fight here, and who ever say that Belgrade also give subvention and privileges to Wizzair was called hater. Than everybody else said that Wizzair will stop flying in a second as they will not get money. Again we were called haters.

      Now, how can that be? Now, it is true. They did have subvention and privileges, they stop flying after subvention stops. Is it possible that we were right, and not haters?

      The same thing will happened with Etihad deal. When there will be no more Serbian money for leasing and paying costs to Etihad deal will be stopped! And what then? Wizzair will again be nice and good company? Will than they come back?

      Delete
    11. Anonymous20:14

      Correct !
      BEG can not succeed without foreign airlines
      and strong competition.

      Delete
    12. Nope, you are still a bitter hater.
      I never said that they received money for their Belgrade base. I said that they should not be privileged and that they should not be subsidized.
      There is a clear difference between being subsidized and receiving discounts. ;)

      Delete
    13. Anonymous23:07

      I agrree, competition is always needed.
      But it is not a secret that Oslo Torp and Charleroi where weakest links out of all Wizz routes out of BEG, so airport taxes might be a good excuse for Wizz to cut those routes which are not that profitable to them unlike the rest of it.

      Delete
    14. JATBEGMEL04:48

      Interesting that no one has defended JAT for the several years it was paying a significant amount more in BEG than any other carrier. Or how about that fuel provided by NIS in BEG was 50% more expensive. Or the fact that T1 actually belonged to JAT and that Wizz was using the terminal without paying a single cent in fees to JAT. I find that the comments from Wizz are nothing but bitter hate remarks indirect to Air Serbia. The fact that a Hungarian airline has opened base in BEG is remarkable, would Air Serbia be welcome to open a base in BUD? Yet Wizz Air hasnt been kicked out of BEG, it is just being made to pay the same fees as other airlines using BEG do. The same that goes for easyJet, Norweigan, Germanwings....

      Delete
    15. Anonymous06:09

      @nemjee

      "There is a clear difference between being subsidized and receiving discounts. ;)"


      You've got to be kidding, same shit different label!

      Delete
  13. OT Izgleda da ce i ugovor biti uskoro objavljen

    http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2014&mm=04&dd=02&nav_id=831620

    ReplyDelete
  14. Purger16:27

    When Jat was down, and Belgrade was few months even behind Zagreb by number of passengers, than Wizzair was great. Everybody in Serbia has nice words for Wizz. But when Air Serbia start to feed national ego, suddenly Wizz become trash, second class company. Well, it is second class company, but now the loudest one calling them second class are those who were, just few months ago, shout how good Wizzair is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:45

      Wizz is definitely great for promoting competition, but their position shouldn't be based on unfair subsidies.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:45

      ok ok but now just tell me how much LCCs serve ZAG, and why arent there any more of them there?

      Delete
    3. Purger17:08

      Air Croatia: Gothenburg-Landvetter
      EasyJet: London-Gatwick
      Germanwings: Berlin-Tegel, Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg, Stuttgart
      Norwegian Air Shuttle: Copenhagen
      Syphax Airlines: Monastir
      Vueling: Barcelona, Rome-Fiumicino

      So, that is 6 companies with 10 routes

      Belgrade has 8 companies with 18 routes (after those 2 cuts)

      So, what is your point? Where did you read that I thing Zagreb policy is good for passengers and for Zagreb. What more, Zagreb airport said they will allow much more LCC routes in 6 months.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous22:56

      Air Croatia and Syphax are charter flights, mixing apples and pears doesn't make your list longer, Purger.

      Delete
    5. Purger00:19

      Sypax is hibrid airline and Air Croatia precisely point that they will have LCC model on those routes.

      Delete
    6. Purger, I don't think that Air Croatia and Syphax should be included on that list. When talking about LCCs, people generally mean carriers like Wizz, Ryanair, Germanwings, etc with mostly year round service, not charter airlines.

      Delete
    7. Purger09:03

      What people generally mean doesn't have any influence in what something really is.

      However, flag and network service carriers are not the only competitors. Classic charter airlines are also becoming highly aggressive in terms of pricing. Quite often traditional charter airlines like Condor in Germany now sell more than 40% of their seats through the web. But there is also pressure inside the LCC community. Although the expected blood bath has not yet taken place, the battle for passengers is getting tougher due to airlines expanding their fleets, adding new routes or merging.

      How are low cost airlines responding to these challenges?

      Fewer airlines are now sticking to a purely low cost model with point-to-point routes and seat-only business over the internet. Today we are seeing more hybrid models which, in addition to offering low cost, are also beginning to offer networks and connecting flights. Code sharing is being practiced with partners and fixed quotas are being negotiated with tour operators.

      After low-cost airlines, which offer limited comfort for cheaper tickets, the era of the “hybrid” has started in the skies. This new concept is rapidly spreading among companies. Comfort standards are high in this system, but extra services are charged extra. The concept is closely followed by businesspeople, as well as the middle-high income group. Leading the pack are JetBlue and Virgin America in the United States, flybe, Germanwings and bmi Baby in Europe. In long-range flights, Air Asia of Malaysia utilizes the concept successfully.

      As Virgin America does, a passenger could fly first class provided he/she pays the difference. Every seat has personal screens that offer advanced entertainment systems. Watching TV is free. Also, one can choose and listen to songs from an mp3 archive that consists of at least 2,000 to 3,000 songs.

      The key paid service is that the passenger can order food or refreshments from their seat. There is no need for cabin crew to wander around, you can choose the item you would like to have from the screen. Payment is done with a credit card, by using the remote of the entertainment system as a card slip. In two minutes, you receive what you ordered. Starting prices are $5 for sandwiches, $2 for refreshments and $3 for alcoholic beverages, very reasonable. You can also choose from movies and pay by using your credit card. This service is priced at a minimum of $8. The system also offers wireless Internet service, for a price ranging from $8 to $12. One can also connect an iPhone or mp3 player to the entertainment system, watching one’s own movies or listening to one’s own music.

      Hybrid companies that wish to get a share of the pie are signing cooperation agreements with big airlines, widening their networks. These airlines give single-ticket prices for connect flights. Also, with customer loyalty programs, they encourage passengers to fly more and collect miles.

      And for sure Syphax is much more LCC than Virgin America or JetBlue which companies everybody calls LCC.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous16:54

    the only thing that worries me a lot about JU are constant and significant delays...LCA is a champion today; obviously another A319 broke down. It seems that managmnet doesn;t care about fixing the delays issue. Where are all these planes that they promised will be in operations by now...??? someone is fooling us and respecitvely JU as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:37

      WTF are u talking about? Management was already working on getting even larger planes instead of A319 and A320 are arriving in BEG. Why don't you try flying Lufthansa out of FRA or MUC today and let me know how many delays and cancelled LH flights are there today?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:57

      NY Times: Lufthansa cancels 900 flights today:

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/business/international/lufthansa-strike.html

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:26

      Does this mean that air serbia is on strike like lufthansa?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:31

      No, it means trolls are hungry today. Sorry no food for them today.

      Delete
  16. Seriously? You count Syphax Airlines, a charter company that operates out of Monastir and Enfidha as low cost company and lcc destination? You have gotta be kidding me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger00:30

      Syphax is hybrid airline and you can buy tickets on their web page. What more you can make connections on their flights. Prices of the ticket is very low, most of services you have to pay

      Delete
  17. JU520 BEGLAX20:00

    How much influence does EY has on Airport of BEG or Serbian government? Could it be that the new tariffs for Wizzair comes from their door? Or did AP of BEG rise all taxes for all, same level? I doubt that JU EY would accept higher costs at this stage?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous20:11

    Belgrade is becoming more and more unattractive for foreign airlines like Wizzair and Easyjet.
    Easyjet also reduces frequencies to Milan.
    Zagreb,Tuzla,Sarajevo and Skopje will profit from the Serbian stupidity as usual.
    British Airways and Air France also will not reconsider its
    withdrawal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:36

      Noo...easy still has 4x weekly to Milan, and has added Rome and Geneva...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:49

      Anonymous at 8.11pm
      How did you figure that one out forGod's sake?
      Ezy is not reducing in Beg, quite the opposite to ention the one out...
      Pure nonsence.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:21

      Air France and BA do not fly to Belgrade, not sure they've got any plans to fly to Belgrade, at least not for 2014. Air France flies to Slovenia and Croatia only in ex-YU, BA only to Croatia, Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik.

      I think low cost operators at Belgrade have been given some subsidies in the past but with new management comes the new rules.


      OT:

      Ljubljana airport has nice growth in march, 10%, possible 1.5 million pax in 2014, and 1.7 million in 2015 if all goes well.

      Zagreb Airport is also expected to have slight growth on last year or about the same as last year. April is when things should pick up with Easter holidays and especially arrival of new operators at Zagreb.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous21:25

    Wizzair neka ide . Ja bi vole kad bi Fly Emirates leteo. Da barem neko slece sa Sirokotrupcem.
    Sta mislite da li ce neko u sledecoj Godini leteti Sirokotrupcem za Beg.Pozdrav.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:48

      air serbia sa iznajmljenim 330-200 i jednim 330-300 za JFK 6x nedeljno, ORD 4x nedeljno i YYZ 4x nedeljno

      Etihad sa 330-200 u odredjenim danima, u ostalim danima a321

      Turkish, makar jednom nedeljno sa A330-200 putničkim, teretni već ove godine, tačnije od ove nedelje.

      Možda dodje Emirates, i možda Aeroflot širokotrupni odredjenim danima, ostalim A321

      Male šanse ali ipak postoje: Kina i Koreja...

      Moji vlažni snovi - dolazak najbolje svetske kompanije - SINGAPORE AIRLINES, koja kao i Emirates ima samo širokotrupne...

      Delete
  20. Anonymous22:28

    Not sure if it's because of increased airport charges, but Wizz became complacent, expensive and repulsive with charges policy (worse than Ryanair). I bet BEG was a major cash machine for them. At the same time, I don't have any doubt that EY had its hand in BEG's new charges. This may be a start of new protectionist policy, similar to pre-LCC period at BEG. Smells like Dumping 101: 1) promotional prices to attract passengers, 2) weaken/remove competition, 3) increase the prices.

    Let EY have BEG, but open BJY, INI, KVO for LCCs.

    my2cents

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never going to happen. They will just funnel entire Serbia to BEG and heavily subsidize JU there. Until the EU has enough of it and decides to take a closer look into those subsidies. Typical.

      Delete
    2. The EU is already launching an investigation into the Etihad/Air Serbia deal.
      The obvious discrimination of European airlines will only add up to the whole list.
      Do not forget Wizz Airs contribution to MALEVs downfall.
      Lufthansis will be very happy to see this development .

      Delete
  21. Anonymous09:21

    Nobody was talking when BA flew to BEG.....

    ReplyDelete
  22. It's pretty good to know that "Qatar Airways will not be rushed into taking investments in airlines in bits and pieces” Moreover there opt different strategies that vary as per the department. Absolute parking should also be retained through Manchester Parking


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