Montenegro to launch charters for Chinese tourists

Montenegro Airlines to start Zadar charters for Chinese tourists

Montenegro Airlines will launch three weekly regular charter flights between Tivat and Zadar, which will cater for Chinese tourists visiting both countries. The Montenegro Tourism Association (CTU) says it is finalising talks with both its Chinese and Croatian partners, which would see travellers from China spend three days in Montenegro. "We are negotiating with our colleagues from Croatia for the national carrier to launch three weekly flights from Zadar to Tivat. This is in line with the demands of Chinese travellers who wish to visit as many countries as possible during their seven to ten day holidays", the CTU said in a statement. Just last week, Montenegro eased visa restrictions for Chinese citizens.

The Tivat - Zadar service, which is expected to launch within a month, will operate until June 1, 2016. Plans for the route are expected to be finalised by September 10. Chinese tour operators have expressed strong interest for their holidaymakers to travel outside of the high season. This way, Montenegro will also address its difficulties with high seasonality. Montenegro Airlines recently said it was preparing for a "smart" winter season in a bid to cut costs. It is looking to put its aircraft to better use during the upcoming slow months. Previously, the airline planned to launch scheduled flights to Zagreb this winter and was considering introducing services to Skopje as well. However, in light of its lacklustre financial performance, these are now under question.

Tivat Airport is also expected to profit from the charter flights. Montenegro's busiest airport has seen its passenger numbers decline 1.1% during the first seven months of the year, as it deals with a sharp downturn in visitors from Ukraine. However, with the prospect of Chinese tourists arriving on a regular basis throughout the winter, and growth from other markets, the airport is expected to handle a record number of passengers this year. On the other hand, Zadar, which has also seen a sharp decline in passenger numbers over the past month, would benefit from the flights as Croatia Airlines is the airport’s sole customer during the winter, maintaining flights only to Zagreb and Pula. In April, Zadar Airport’s Managing Director, Irena Ćosić, said that one weekly charter flights from Chongqing, in China's south-west, to Zadar, would most likely be introduced in September by Hainan Airlines, after plans to launch the route in May were cancelled. However, in a statement to EX-YU Aviation News in July, the Chinese airline ruled out the service.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:08

    Good job MGX. This is quick and easy cash and they will utilise planes during the winter. Smart thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      It's good but I just hope it doesn't end up like the Hanan flights to Zadar.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:38

      Good job indeed. If only they thought of it ahead of the summer season instead of the very end of it...

      Nothing beats the Balkans way of thinking and nothing disputes the Balkans world title in negative selection.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:32

      "good job indeed" ?? Are you serious ?? About the only thing that these people are good for, is making announcements that never eventuate - just like their announcement that Etihad would sign an agreement with them .... They certainly know nothing about running an airline. About the only thing that they are good for is falsifying financial statements

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:51

      +1

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:12

    I herad same thing about sarajevo-split flights for chinese an korean tourists but during summer season

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:15

    Well I hope the people from Finnair are reading. Chinese coming to Croatia, Montenegro, possibly Bosnia. AY said they don't fly to most ex-yu places because of low Asian demand :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:31

    Too bad Croatia Airlines didn't do this job. This would have been great for them as well, just like Monte. I don't understand why they are so shy of charters. I'm not saying they were considered for these flights but generally their charter network is a joke considering the amount of tourists visiting Croatia,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:18

      CEO Kucko doesent think charters are worth it. It's the easiest way to make money but he is the only one that does not think so -.-

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:52

      Both of you are wrong, Croatian flies loads of charters during summer months, in fact all it does is fly charters, OU's fleet is stretched during summer months it can't cope, reason why OU is looking at getting 4 more aircraft next year.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:13

      That is not true. Number of charter routes is simbolic espetialy comparing to foreighn carriers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:55

      At least OU are not in the habit of falsifying their accounts, unlike YM, who seem to make a profession out of this. How can anyone take this airline seriously, when they are run in such a way ?

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:57

    Chinese will come to ZAD/TIV in winter time? shipping from FCO or what?
    that is another story out of the sleeve I think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:19

    Can we believe anything that comes from an airline which intentionally doctored its financial records to hide its poor financial performance ? Worse, not one single person has to date, been prosecuted for this criminal offence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:02

      BTW, whatever happened to their agreement with Etihad ? Probably gone just like their record keeping

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:57

      Who on earth is going to make any agreement with such an airline ?

      Delete
  7. Anonymous12:16

    Good news :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous12:43

    OT: AB to start Split and Dubrovnik Flights from DUS/TXL/VIE from March 2016

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:07

      would be great! source?

      Delete
  9. Anonymous13:29

    OT: Sarajevo Airport August 2015 - 101.307 pax, up 14% :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:42

      BEG? Air Serbia had 7% growth with 320k pax if I'm not wrong. I wonder how BEG did considering growth they had last year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:09

      Wow, that's great!

      Congrats SJJ!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:58

      Correction, Air Serbia +6,5% passengers in August.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:34

      Sorry... I was off by so much

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:52

      What is the source of these numbers ? is it more Air Serbia fanboys trying to create hysteria ?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous23:11

      BEG is struggling to finish August with symbolic growth.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous00:54

      JU is struggling since again facing a shortage of regional planes.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous14:25

    Sorry for Off-Topic, but did Sea Air start fly between Mostar and Osijek yesterday or did It end up in traditional Sea Air way just like all those flights from Osijek to Austria and Germany with daily flights with Boeing 737-300 (daily flights is not"profitabilno" and the aircraft is too big for Osijek)? I looked at Mostar Airport website yesterday and It was no Osijek flights and nothing about any Sea Air flights at all. I think Sea Air is kidding us.

    ReplyDelete
  11. OT: AirSerbia sent their A320 to Skopje today, instead of the planned A319, anyone know why? Loads or something else?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:50

      Two ATRs out of service.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:45

      737 was flying to Prague a few days ago.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:11

      Whats the problem with ALN and ALO?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous23:02

      Two ATRs out of service? Again????

      Delete
  12. Anonymous15:15

    OT: Alitalia / Air Serbia Expands Codeshare Service from late-Oct 2015

    Alitalia starting 25OCT15 will expand codeshare partnership with Air Serbia, as AZ code will appear on following Air Serbia routes. Reservation is now open.

    Alitalia operated by Air Serbia
    Belgrade – Banja Luka
    Belgrade – Bucharest
    Belgrade – Ljubljana
    Belgrade – Prague
    Belgrade – Sarajevo
    Belgrade – Skopje
    Belgrade – Sofia
    Belgrade – Stockholm
    Belgrade – Tivat
    Belgrade – Warsaw
    Belgrade – Zagreb

    Air Serbia has already opened reservation for expanded codeshare service, which sees JU code appears on a number of AZ’s domestic routes.

    Source: http://airlineroute.net/2015/09/01/azju-codeshare-w15/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:28

      I remember reading someone's comment here a few weeks ago saying that JU was such a forgotten entity in the Etihad camp, that "even AZ doesn't want to work with them" .....

      Where is that same person now ?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:35

      In ZG or in Surcin?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:39

      When will they load all these flights onto the website? Let's see if they will be as competitive as the rest of their code-share agreements: Beijing for €1,000+, Barcelona for €650... and so on.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:16

      Kad sam govorio da treba vremena ponovo su rekli da ne znam nista eto i dokaza da znam .
      INN-NS

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:23

      This is for Italians travelling on Air Serbia, not the other way around ....

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:28

      Ako koji put pogodis, super, problem je tvoja arogantnost.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous18:05

      Relax, he is just playing percentages - throw enough BS to the wall and something will eventually stick

      Delete
    8. Anonymous18:19

      Exactly plus he wasn't even involved in the whole discussion on the JU-AZ code-share as it was in the flashnews, a part he rarely visits as it's not available via mobile phones.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous18:43

      Unless you are using Nokia 3310 you'll notice a desktop mode in your browser options...

      Delete
    10. Anonymous19:33

      You don't have to go into Desktop mode. There is a "Home" tab just below the banner, once you select it, you will see that the fourth option down is "News Flash". Once you select it, voila, news flash on mobile platform.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous19:45

      I didn't have that option the last time I was on.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous09:19

      And here is the info from July 15 on JU codes on AZ flights:


      Air Serbia / Alitalia Expands Codeshare Service from late-Oct 2015

      Air Serbia and Alitalia from 26OCT15 plans to expand codeshare partnership, as Air Serbia’s JU code to be placed on a number of domestic Italy routes via Rome. Planned new codeshare routes as follow.

      Rome – Ancona
      Rome – Bari
      Rome – Bologna
      Rome – Brindisi
      Rome – Cagliari
      Rome – Catania
      Rome – Florence
      Rome – Genoa
      Rome – Lamezia Terme
      Rome – Naples
      Rome – Palermo
      Rome – Pisa
      Rome – Reggio di Calabria
      Rome – Trieste
      Rome – Turin
      Rome – Venice
      Rome – Verona

      Source: http://airlineroute.net/2015/07/15/juaz-codeshare-w15/

      Delete
  13. Anonymous20:55

    SU kupijo UN mozda dodju i oni u BEG .
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous01:36

    Every month since April 2013 Belgrade airport had increase in number of passengers yoy. Air Serbia continues to see the increase but it looks like streak is over for the airport. Increase was mostly because of Air Serbia. Management is now fighting concession to keep their jobs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous06:42

      Increase was ALL because of Air Serbia. Airport mgt - with the region's BEST manager in business - have done nothing to attract new airlines to BEG. Infact, less airlines are flying to BEG than at the same time last year. I say - bring on the concession as soon as possible

      Delete
    2. Anonymous08:57

      Air Serbia instruct that, of course. They fight to have less competition. That is OK, of course, but not if they use Airport as tool which doesn't have same conditions to all with discounts designed just for Air Serbia.

      Delete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.