Airlines and airports shift to winter operations


The 2017/18 winter season begins today and will run until March 25 of next year, signalling changes for both the national carriers of the former Yugoslavia, as well as airports across the region.

Adria Airways will operate a total of 196 scheduled weekly flights, serving seventeen destinations. The carrier will inaugurate operations to Kiev this evening, which it will serve three times per week. In comparison to the previous winter, Adria has increased the number of flights from Ljubljana to Copenhagen, Moscow, Paris, Podgorica, Prague, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Tirana, Vienna, and Zurich. The airline said, "The new timetable means that passengers can now travel to various European destinations via Ljubljana in almost the same amount of time that a direct flight would take". Apart from the new Kiev service, Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport will also boast Transavia flights to Amsterdam, which were launched this summer. The airline will double frequencies on the route next February. Ukraine's Windrose Airlines has also scheduled the launch of its Kiev - Ljubljana service in mid-December, however, the flights are yet to be put on sale. On the other hand, VLM Airlines, which is based at Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport, has delayed plans to introduce flights to Belgrade and Zurich.
Air Serbia will today suspend operations between Belgrade and Abu Dhabi and will make several frequency cuts across its network. However, it will also maintain four weekly flights to Venice, which were launched this summer. Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport will see a 3.6% increase in the numbers of operated flights, with a total of 910 return services planned during the height of the winter season. Airlines which will be increasing their operations to the Serbian capital when compared to last winter include Flydubai, Qatar Airways, TAROM Romanian Airlines, easyJet and Wizz Air, while Aegean Airlines, Alitalia and LOT Polish Airlines will boost capacity. Airlines that launched services to Belgrade over the summer and will maintain operations during the winter season include Atlasglobal, Hainan Airlines and Transavia. Niš Constantine the Great Airport will bid farewell to Germania Flug, which will terminate its service from Zurich, however, Swiss International Air Lines will continue to maintain flights between the two cities this winter. Furthermore, Ryanair will introduce flights from Stockholm Skavsta to Niš next Tuesday.

Croatia Airlines will be offering more flights than last winter, with additional departures from Zagreb to Copenhagen, and services to Barcelona and Lisbon, which will be maintained for part of the season. However, it will reduce its operations to London Heathrow. Zagreb Airport will see Eurowings, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Lufthansa and LOT Polish Airlines increase their operations when compared to last winter. Emirates, which launched flights to the Croatian capital this summer, will maintain operations throughout the winter, while Brussels Airlines and ČSA Czech Airlines will halt their services to the city until next summer season. Meanwhile, Dubrovnik Airport will boast flights to both Barcelona and Rome this winter with Vueling extending its seasonal operations to year-round flights. In addition, Turkish Airlines will increase frequencies on its Istanbul - Dubrovnik service.

Sarajevo Airport will welcome a new four weekly service from Doha operated by Qatar Airways this winter season. Furthermore, both Adria, Flydubai and Turkish Airlines will boost frequencies on their flights to the Bosnian capital. Flydubai will also commence seasonal operations from Sarajevo to Podgorica, in addition to its existing service from Dubai. Atlasglobal, Wizz Air and Wataniya Airways, which launched services to Sarajevo this summer, will maintain their flights over the winter months. On the other hand, Austrian Airlines plans to reduce its flight offering to the city. This winter, Skopje Alexander the Great Airport will offer new flights launched by Wizz Air earlier this year. Furthermore, Adria Airways will increase its frequencies on services between the Slovenian and Macedonian capitals. Pristina Airport, meanwhile, is not expecting new arrivals this season, although Adria will boost frequencies to Ljubljana, while Turkish Airlines will operate an additional weekly flight from Istanbul for a total of eleven.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:05

    I'm very interested to see how Adria's Ljubljana - Kiev flights will perform. Good luck to them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      Does anyone know how advanced bookings have been performing on this route?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:08

      Or maybe what are the loads on tonight's inaugural flight?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:03

      I heard from a friend that 12 going and 51 coming back.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:44

      The return load is not bad.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:49

      todey last info. of pax first flight LJU->KBP 42 pax
      KBP->LJU 74 pax
      which is really not bad at all

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    So BEG will see 3,6% increase in flights despite the Air Serbia cuts. Pretty good. I think passenger wise it should have a strong winter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      Don't forget the second Wizz A320.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:38

      The increase of flights t BEG from foreign airlines is truly big compared with last winter season!
      They more than compensate for JU's reduction by 44 weekly frequencies compared with Winter 2016/17.
      On the other hand this means that Ju is losing a lot of market share in BEG.

      Delete
    3. ASL and EY chose to drastically cut down on their capacity just as demand for air travel from both Serbs and foreign visitors reaches record levels!
      SMFH.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:28

      There is no change to EY's schedule.

      What are you talking about ?

      Delete
    5. Dejan15:47

      EY was supposed to pick up the capacity reduction from JU cutting AUH.
      7 weekly A320 flights less!
      At the same time QR is increasing capacity and taking JU/EY business to ME, Asia, Australia.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:52

      JU operated A319 not A320.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous20:58

      WOW, A319 instead of A320?
      That capacity difference is huge!

      Delete
    8. Anonymous21:21

      144 vs 174. Not such a small difference.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:07

    Barcelona - Dubrovnik in winter? So there must be demand for these flights. Good on DBV for trying to get some traffic over the dead period of the year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:09

    I don't understand why Turkish has not increased Zagreb. Last winter they reduced ZAG, SJJ and PRN but SJJ and PRN are getting one flight back this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:12

      Competition. There have to be some effects to double daily Qatar flights and Emirates flights.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:22

      On the upside they will be operating more flights to Dubrovnik.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:25

      Interestingly they have kept two daily to LJU while ZAG was reduced.

      I guess winter demand isn't that large.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:31

      Yes, with LJU having Emirates and Qatar...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:52

      Well a large share of EK passengers in ZAG are from over here, so...

      Delete
    6. Yeah, sure. The demand isn't there. There are three major airlines flying east, but I guess that's not enough of a demand.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous12:29

      Two of those (TK and EK) have reduced their operations in winter.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:10

    Cudos to Sarajevo. Four new airlines this winter plus new routes.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:23

    Smart move from Fly Dubai to fly Dubai-Sarajevo-Podgorica-Sarajevo-Dubai.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:24

    How is Tarom increasing BEG when it shows 8 weekly flights, same as last winter?

    Also, isn't Germania flying around Christmas holidays?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:29

      There were 7 flights for most of last winter.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:34

    još jedna dosadna zima, kad usporedimo ljetne i zimske redove letenja u našim zračnim lukama, tu mislim na cijelu ex-yu. Još postoji velika velika razlika između ta dva reda letenja, no sezonalnost nam je stvarnost svima.

    Jedino što veseli u zimskom redu letenja su najave za S2018, pa se nadam da ćemo čitati puno novosti upravo o tome za naše zračne luke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:58

      Kad usporedis zivot, dodje ti na isto.

      Delete
    2. Nemjee09:58

      I can't talk about other airports but the situation in BEG is stabilizing, slowly, but we are getting there.

      For example, last February easyJet increased BEG to three weekly A320 (up from A319). This February Transavia will be doubling its own flights while JU will keep AMS to at least daily.

      Wizz Air will be keeping some frequencies it added in summer.
      Lufthansa will not be reducing BEG by as much. SU, TK and AZ are keeping the same number of flights. LO will be offering some 25% more seats... Qatar and flydubai will be increasing to daily flights.

      On top of that winter months are seeing more and more passengers. What would be interesting is if someone had the time to compare BEG this year with the number after JU's additional cuts last year.

      Like I said, I can't really speak about other airports but Belgrade isn't doing so badly.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:43

      ma rast je u ex-yu i zimi, eto i u ZAG sa BCN i LIS, Emiratesom, LOT-om i Lufthansom, ali ni Beograd ni Zagreb neće drastično smanjiti tu sezonalnost koju imaju ove zime, nažalost. Sezonalnost će uvijek biti tu, ali mislim da se ona tako brzo neće smanjiti, barem ne još 5 ili više godina

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:43

      Also Aegean I think will have 3 weekly flights with A320 series aircraft instead of 4 flights with Q400 last year.
      That is a very big increase in seats.
      BEG seems to now generate strong demand to most destinations. Shame that ASL cant get a larger share of that.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous07:29

      Another interesting thing is that airlines are reducing/suspending flights much later this year. Before they would do it with the first day of winter but now they are doing it in mid-November (ASL LCA, SKG, SKP night flights. Wizz to NUE...).

      This is also another positive sign.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:49

    Good luck to all airlines/airports. Hope some records will be broken.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:20

    Hopefully many new route next summer.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous10:21

    Why doesn't OU operate a few weekly flights this winter from Dubrovnik and Split to Belgrade? They could code-share and cooperate! Dubrovnik did try to get Air Serbia to fly there in winter time... shame they turned them down.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:23

      JU offered a code-share agreement, OU turned them down. OU is a government institution so I don't think there is political will to cooperate.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:24

      I think it was more of a Kucko thing rather than some government order. Maybe things will change with the new CEO.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:59

      That would not make sense for OU commercially. Why supporting JU in shuttling transfers via BEG when they can do it self-controlled via own flights (where they can also fully control prices/revenue on all segments) on one of their several daily flights to respectively via ZAG.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:31

      Because OU flies virtually nowhere in the east while JU does. Also, like JP, OU could be selling tickets between Belgrade and Zagreb. There is a big enough market otherwise JU wouldn't be keeping 10 weekly flights.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:24

      And you think OU could control that JU doesn't sell tickets via BEG to a OU/LH/OS/LX destination?

      Even if OU gave JU such a condition they would lose interest to cooperate.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:01

      So are you implying that OU is smarter than all those airlines JU is code-sharing with?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous21:46

      No, that is nonsense.
      I am not implying anything but clearly stating the obvious - that is that OU would lose much more than it can win with such cooperation. That isn't the case with other existing code share partners of JU. If you cannot accept it, fine, try to convince the CEO of OU of the opposite.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous07:28

      You mean Kucko who openly attacked JU any chance he got?
      What exactly would OU lose by placing its code on ZAG-BEG? It could only benefit from it as it could sell connections to the coast. It could boost the numbers there.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous10:24

    Good luck to all ex-yu airlines and airports during winter 2017/18. Hope to see many new routes and more passengers for ex-yu carriers during next summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:35

      I still hope we will see more cooperation between not only ex-YU airlines but Balkan ones.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:09

      Will never happen...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:09

      ... They are all direct competitors.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous11:08

    Nice new design, admin!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:13

      Agree! Love it!

      Delete
    2. I also like it! But it would be nice to see all the previous top banners in some gallery. Admin, would it be possible?

      Delete
  14. Anonymous11:12

    What will Eurowings announce for Croatia on Tuesday? Can't wait, hopefully some new routes from ZAG, since the coast is well covered.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:09

      One based plane in ZAG and flights to BWK from Germany and Austria.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:56

      + two A330 based in ZAG and 4pw to Las Vegas, 2pw to Seattle, 4pw to Miami and 1pw to Orlando ;)

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:18

      OMG, Anon 12:56, that's hilarious...not!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:01

      Come on, it kind of is funny when you remember all the speculation on here. That guy even mentioned LAX as a future destination. :D

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:12

      well if you look at the visitors projections until 2099, LAX is quite possible :D

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:25

      No LAX guyz, LAS ;)

      Delete
    7. Anonymous19:13

      Does someone know what time is the press conference on Tuesday?

      Delete
  15. Anonymous11:12

    Nothing major or exciting among the local carriers but its nice to see some big names flying to ex-Yu this winter like Emirates and Hainan :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous15:03

    OT: Adria Airways Swiss will fly for SkyWork Airline which lost its AOC. Two Saabs will be stationed in Bern via Uporabna stran

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://www.adria.si/en/news/2017/airways-ensures-important-flight-connections-from-swiss-capital-bern/

      Delete
  17. Anonymous15:54

    I noticed YM is absent from this article though it's also an exyu national airline. No news regarding them for the whole winter season I guess...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:05

      The reason is probably because there are absolutely no changes in their schedule. There was an article about their W17/18 timetable a few weeks ago.

      Delete

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