Air Canada rouge temporarily rules out EX-YU flights

Air Canada rouge counts out flights to EX-YU market, for now

Air Canada rouge, Air Canada's leisure carrier, has ruled out launching flights to the former Yugoslavia for the time being. It comes after the airline announced one of its most far-reaching summer schedule expansions, with its first route to Africa and the addition of four European cities from Toronto, including Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Glasgow. These will operate seasonally, with flights to central and eastern Europe to be maintained three times per week with a 280-seat Boeing 767-300ER. In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, Air Canada rouge's Commercial Vice President, Vijay Bathija, said there was no other news to report beyond what has already been announced, but added, "We are continuously looking at all opportunities, including Croatia, and other destinations. Like all airlines, there are a number of considerations involved when we are selecting a destination, including customer demand, airport infrastructure and competition from other carriers".

However, Air Canada rouge has not ruled out the possibility of flights to the former Yugoslav market sometime in the future. "The Air Canada rouge fleet is growing, in 2016 we will take delivery of six additional Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. That fleet growth will power both network and capacity growth. Customers can expect more announcements to come for the summer 2016 season", Mr Bathija said. Canadian-based airlines which have served the former Yugoslav market include Air Canada itself, as well as Skyservice Airlines and, most recently, SkyGreece Airlines which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month.

Canada's other international leisure airline, Air Transat, recently announced the launch of one weekly seasonal flights between Toronto and Zagreb next summer season, commencing on June 14, 2016. Meanwhile, Air Canada began codesharing on a number of Croatia Airlines flights in late July. The Canadian carrier has placed its "AC" designator code and flight numbers onto services from Zagreb to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, London Heathrow, Paris and Zurich. Furthermore, it has begun codesharing from Split to Zurich, Rome, Paris and London, as well as from Dubrovnik to Paris, Rome and Zurich. Croatia Airlines also plans to add its flight numbers onto Air Canada flights. On Tuesday, the Canadian Transportation Agency approved a codeshare permit for the airline. Air Canada's presence in the region is limited. Besides its recent codeshare expansion in Croatia, the airline also has its own flight numbers on Lufthansa-operated services between Germany and Serbia. The codeshare, which came into effect late last October, expires on October 27 next year.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:05

    I'm not surprised. They just started expanding in Europe and ex-yu countries are definitely not going to be in their first round of expansion. Possibly from 2017 or 2018. Being realistic, the only two countries I think they would consider are Croatia and Serbia. I'm not trying to bring down other countries but these are the two biggest markets here. Dubrovnik would be most realistic as I doubt they would go head to head against Air Transat in Zagreb (though they would be affected by direct DBV flights). Also I believe Air Serbia will begin flying to Toronto and another airline on the same route would just saturate the market.

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    1. Anonymous10:18

      Zagreb pokriva i sjevero zapadni dio BiH, Bosansku Krajinu, znaci ako neko zivi ili ide na taj kraj BiH onda moze bez presjedanja ici u Toronto u posjetu ili onaj u Torontu u BiH preko ljeta.

      Moj grad u BiH je 2 sata od Zagreba, a Hrvatska je samo sa druge strane Kozare (brda) i bas su moji roditelji 1991 mogli cuti zvukove bombi i granata na Hrvatskoj strani sa naseg balkona u Prijedoru.

      Lijepo bi bilo kad bi bio neki interkontinentalni let, ali ja zivim u realnost i znam da nikada nece biti kao kad je JAT letio za SAD/Kanada jer nije vise Jugoslavija i nema vise onog standarda sto se tice posla, plati, penzija i primanja i narod u regiji skoro nikako uglavnom nema para za Kanadu jedino ako rodbina u Kanadi plati karte i obezbjedi smjestaj. Ako Air Serbia uvede naprimjer Toronto kao novu destinaciju, taj let ce zavjesiti od transfer putnika izvan regije i dijasporom.

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    2. Anonymous10:58

      Sada svi imaju mnogo vise novca nego u doba JATa i Ante Markovica.

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    3. Anonymous11:19

      But if we use that logic then we can also say that Belgrade covers south-western parts of Romania, especially Timisoara.

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    4. Anonymous12:50

      Timisoara ima aerodrom, i ako mozda nema bas puno letova i kompanija, ali je barem po slikama pravi aerodrom koji zasluzuje sebe zvati aerodromom.

      Bosanska Krajina nema aerodroma, za mene BNX nije aerodrom, barem po zapadnom standardu ne bi se trebao zvati aerodrom. Ali nazalost dole svako mjesto gdje ima pista od asfalta moze sebe zvati "aerodrom", i to jos "international airport" lol.
      Po mom BiH ima samo jedan "international airport" koji i po izgledu i po standardu zasluzuje sebe zvati "international airport" i to je Sarajevo.
      BNX i Tuzla su vojni aerodromi i nisu za medunarodni aerodrom takoder i kompanije koje su tamo prisutne to pokazuju.
      BNX-BEG je politicki let koji postoji jos uvijek zbog subvencije. Republika Srpska placa za sve stolice koje nisu popunjene i taj let je jednostavno politicki da se poveze manjeg entiteta sa Beogradom. Necu reci "glavni grad" Republike Srpske jer je glavni grad tog entiteta... Sarajevo. Vjerujem da to niste znali, ali nije ovo mjesto za tu pricu.
      Tuzla je takoder vojni aerodrom koji ne bi nigdje bio da nije WizzAir dosao tamo, a i ti tu su takse ukinute i ne znam dal mozda i tu neko placa da bi WizzAir obavio letove i da bi bio prisutan u Tuzli?

      Sto se tice Zagrebackog aerodroma, ja mislim da parem jednu 2-300 000 putnika od oni oko 2,5 milijona dolaze u BiH ili iz BiH. Naravno ima tu i hrvatske dijaspore, turista i poslovni putnika ali mislim da BiH putnici dosta znace za ZAG jer je ipak 300 000 putnika (recimo da je toliko) puno ako kroz aerodrom prode oko 2,5 milijona putnika godisnji.

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    5. Anonymous13:03

      Gospodine dali ste vi svesnk koliko provocirate .
      INN-NS

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    6. Anonymous13:18

      Koga provociram sine? Ja ne fantaziram kao ti, ti mislis da je BNX JFK ili FRA hehe, ja sam samo realan a ako tebe to sine provocira tvoja briga. Ja znam da se vecina slaze s time da BNX nije "international airport" ako se ide po zapadnom standardu (ali naravno u istocnoj evropi svaka vukoj*bina moze sebe zvati aerodrom kao naprimjer Urije Airport i Doboj Airport) takoder i Tuzla.
      Nisam letio kroz Tuzlu ali mi rodica kaze da je tako zagusljivo u "terminalu", da ima drveni sto gdje pise "carina" i da "terminal" izgleda kao neki skolski lokal u Prijedoru koji obnovljen od prije Jugoslovenski vremena i od prije rata. Na to sve i miris nije dobar, kad je zagusljiv lokal i kad je masa naroda jedan kraj drugog onda to nije dobro i onog ko ima astmu to moze biti zdravstveno opasno.
      Sto se tice Sarajeva, to je lijep i dobar aerodrom, nije velik i nema puno putnika ali terminal kao terminal ima sve. To je za mene medunarodni aerodrom, kao i BEG, ZAG, LJU i svi ostali koji imaju preko 1 milijon putnika ili barem vise od 400 000 da budem dobar.

      Pozdrav!

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    7. Anonymous13:19

      Koji nije obnovljen*

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    8. Anonymous13:40

      Zagreb pokriva...LMAO. 2.5 million passengers.

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    9. Anonymous13:56

      Timisoara is a shack and it's only slightly better than Tuzla in terms of flights it offers. BEG can attract a lot of passengers from these neigjbouring Romanian provinces regardless fo TSR.

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    10. Anonymous19:14

      @Anon 12:50

      Sve što ste rekli o BNX potpisujem, ali u isto vreme, ako mislite da je TSR mnogo bolji - onda očigledno niste imali to zadovoljstvo da letite odatle. Nedavno (tipa 2010-11) je obnovljen (proširena je check-in area, urađeni su potpuno novi passport control i security, a i departure lounge je potpuno promenjen; arrivals su renovirani, ali po gabaritu su identični i neuslovni). Mentalitet zaposlenih, međutim, jeste kao da su generali u nekoj omanjoj kasarni, a nikakav red ne postoji. Generalno, infrastruktura je užasna. Jedino što taj aerodrom vadi su Wizzovi jeftini letovi, sve ostalo je tačno na nivou BNX, odnosno onoga što bi se tamo dogodilo kada bi kojim slučajem imali 10-20 polazaka dnevno, umesto ovih pola koje imaju sada.

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    11. Anonymous01:30

      Pa vas potpis o BNX mozete da zaboravite nema potrebe da se bacaju pare kad ima potrebnih stvari.
      INN-NS

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  2. Anonymous09:16

    Rouge was approached by Zagreb but in the end Air Transat showed interest.

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  3. Anonymous09:31

    Hardly surprising .... Other than the Croatian coast, everywhere else in ex-yu is low yield VFR market, making it very difficult for all but an extreme long haul LCC to make any money

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    1. Yeah Croatian Coastline is a high yielding.... Also you have to be living on a moon to think that Canadians are just waiting to go to your Dalmatia. Cro diaspora in Canada does not visit that often, and that is why you got no direct flights to Usa or Canada.

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    2. Anonymous10:39

      And that why Zagreb will be the only ex-yu city with flights to Toronto.

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    3. It is pretty much one single weekly flight on a A330 that has 350 seats. Skyservice wanted but could not send it to Zagreb, and the economy was better back than.

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    4. Lets wait for 2015 to end before you get ahead with 2016.

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    5. Anonymous12:11

      Gee - you are such a dick .... You are the one who lives on the moon ... Have you not been reading the info provided here on this very website, re flights and passenger numbers to the Croatian coast this past summer ?

      All those people that visited, were obviously not Cro's - meaning that the Croatian coastline holds huge appeal to a very wide audience as a tourist destination ...

      So yeah, seasonal flights to the Croatian coast from Canada, the US or anywhere else in Europe, make alot of sense - as vindicated by the ever increasing number of tourists and flights year-on-year.

      Anywhere else - ZAG included - is in the VFR space, making it a very difficult prospect to see any money out of ....

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    6. Purger12:58

      Prošle godine u Hrvatskoj je bilo 79.000 Kanadskih turista (od 13.200 u Zagrebu) koji su ostvarili 206.000 noćenja (25.800 noćenja u Zagrebu). 2014. je bilo i 256.000 USA turista (44.000 u Zagrebu) sa 630.000 noćenja (88.000 u Zagrebu). Povećanje dolazaka/noćenja iz Sjeverne Amerike je bilo od 15 do 20% spram 2013.

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    7. Anonymous23:03

      Ja bih se ubio na ovakve podatke ni cele tri noci?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous10:18

    Air Canada Rouge has really brought Air Canada back to life. Probably one of their smarter decision to create a leisure division.

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    1. Beograd na Vodi (sam' što nije)16:40

      Yup. Rouge- amazing airline...

      Take a peek...

      http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/air-canada-rouge/

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    2. Anonymous17:54

      You expect personal butler for that price? RV's financial performance is amazing, not their service.

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  5. Anonymous11:02

    Thank you for contacting these airlines and debunking myths that the entire world is just waiting and ready to fly to ex-yu like many here think.From Emirates to Air Canada.

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    1. Anonymous11:09

      +1 we are talking about a region where an airline like British Airways flies to a single city year-round.

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    2. Anonymous15:05

      +1 with small correction, British Airways flies year-round to both Zagreb and Dubrovnik. Only Split is seasonal destination.

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  6. Дечко Тзар15:32

    Air Canada is unofficial ruler of Canadian skies. Even if it comes with some compromises, being friends (in terms of economic interest) with AC is extremely important and far outweighs any scenario that includes direct competition with grey fedoras.

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  7. Anonymous19:16

    Where are 737 YU-ANJ and YU-ANK? Did they dissapear in Zagreb and Corfu?

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    1. Anonymous20:07

      Weren't they telling a few days ago that Croatia should confiscate ex-JAT planes?

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    2. Anonymous20:18

      Maybe it's because of this?

      http://www.telegraf.rs/vesti/1549639-10-stvari-zbog-kojih-hrvati-obozavaju-srbiju-necete-verovati-kad-vidite-ono-pod-brojem-6-foto-video

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    3. Anonymous20:35

      I just arrived from BEG, both aircrafts were parked in front jat tehnika hangar.

      Delete

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