Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Air Serbia and LOT Polish Airlines have signed a new codeshare agreement, the terms of which were arranged in Miami during IATA's Annual General Meeting by the CEO's of the two partnering airlines. As a result, Air Serbia will place its code on LOT’s services from Warsaw to Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga. In return, LOT will place its flight numbers and designator code onto Air Serbia’s flights from Belgrade to Podgorica and Tivat, as well as its daily service to Abu Dhabi. Air Serbia’s CEO, Dane Kondić, said, "Codeshare agreements are an important pillar of our strategy to continuously offer our guests greater choice and flexibility to key destinations, and our commercial partnership with LOT is a crucial step in further enhancing our presence in Northern Europe via Warsaw. We are now able to boost our business and leisure travel offering between Serbia and the Baltic states, and onwards to other endpoints throughout this strategically important European region". He adds, "We are equally pleased to welcome our guests from Poland and to provide them with a convenient gateway to the Balkans, the Middle East and beyond, through our hub in Belgrade". Sebastian Mikosz, LOT's CEO, said, “We are very happy, that together with Air Serbia we are now able to offer our passengers new exciting destinations and extend even more travel opportunities. Passengers travelling from Warsaw gain the possibility to reach the capital city of UAE, and two major cities in Montenegro. On the other hand we are constantly enhancing our connectivity via Warsaw. Air Serbia passengers will be now able to take advantage of LOT’s convenient hub on their way to Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga”. The new codeshares will come into effect upon regulatory approval.
LOT, which operates flights to Belgrade, will temporarily suspend its operations to the Serbian capital, from July until January 2, 2016 as a result of restructuring.
I hope (think) LO will never return to Belgrade, certainly not in the middle of the winter.
ReplyDeleteOnly an Air Serbia fan boy could be celebrating kicking out another airline from Belgrade. Those Air Serbia 320 euro fares to Warsaw at the end of June look very appealing. It seems the less choice you have and the more expensive the tickets the happier you are.
DeleteYou know, Warsaw has been one of JU's cheapest routes since its introduction. Same goes for BRU and FCO. But, of course, as Wizz left Charleroi and Fiumicino, prices went up. The same will obviously happen here. Good for the airline, bad for the (Serbian) passengers, and connecting pax price is determined having in mind offers in their home market.
DeleteBut, is this any better or worse than JU/OS cartel on the VIE route?
And what a long and mutually beneficial cartel it is...
DeleteOh yea baby I will be back!
DeleteThis is a big win for Air Serbia
ReplyDeleteAre LO and JU codesharing on Belgrade - Warsaw route?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteFrom now on you can buy again a ticket from YYZ to BEG via Warsaw due to the code share. Happy to see that this option is still here
ReplyDeleteYou mean even from July until Jan next year, with LOT flying YYZ-WAW and ASL flying WAW-BEG. LOT had great connection timing for YYZ flights, not sure if ASL will be as convenient.
DeleteAir Serbia should try to get in touch with those YYZ passengers. If price is no object, greet those Toronto passengers at Belgrade apron with Porsche Cayenne (kidding!) if passengers provide their verifyable contact info! Every single one of those passengers will be potential Air Serbia guest on their YYZ flights, so ASL should try to reach out to them, offer Etihad Guest membership, 10% off coupon for future ASL YYZ service and other perks to switch them over to ASL once they start. Know your (future) customer!
Yap.
Delete