Soon in Belgrade and Zagreb
Spain’s Spanair will commence services from its hub in Barcelona to Belgrade and thus reinstate flights between the 2 cities after almost 20 years. The 3 weekly service will commence on April 15. The airline originally planned to commence flights from Madrid as well, however these plans have been put on hold. The airline is still to receive an operating license from the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate although this formality is expected to be finalized within the next 2 weeks.JAT Yugoslav Airlines’ services to Spain were one of the last European destination expansions it carried out. Flights to Barcelona commenced on March 28, 1986 and were terminated in December 1991. JAT also operated flights to Madrid.
Spanair will conduct the new service using its Airbus A320 aircraft. The airline also announced that it will introduce 3 weekly flights from Barcelona to Zagreb from April 19. It will be in direct competition with Croatia Airlines on the route. All flight details can be found on the right hand side in the new route launches section.
Cool! Since they are a low cost (they have to be since you buy your own food, IFE is not free bla bla) does it mean that they will operate out of terminal one or two?
ReplyDeleteI really do hope that they will launch flights to Madrid, that would be so amazing, seriously it would!!!
Didn't Jat announce some seasonal flights to Spain? Could it mean that they are launching flights to Madrid?
^ According to Amadeus it will be using Terminal 2. As for Jat, it is yet to publish even its preliminary summer timetable.
ReplyDeleteI think Spanair made a good move. There is definetly a market from Spain to Serbia, and since they are the ones to open it, I am sure they are the one who will eventually dominate it, since neighter one of the airlines (Iberia, Jat, Vueling, Air Europa) offer something special, product-wise. Good job! Hope that the route will be served in winter time as well... Maybe we will see MAD-BCN-BEG
ReplyDeleteGreat news! Spain is definitely something which can work out all year around! Good move and good luck! Lets see more different aircraft colors on Ex Yu airports!!!!! Zivjela sloboda kretanja :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat about Canary Islands> has anyone considered to do that, nice weather all year around, beautiful islands,.... Anyone out there...? Come on Ryanair, easyjet....... We are waiting :-)
JAT looses more and more on ground in Belgrade. Checking the departures tomorrow Monday 22FEB, we see that from 41 departures, 23 are made by foreign carriers. LH is probably clearing away the main part of high yield C Class Passengers with its 5 daily flights, scheduled in the most important day times of early morning, midday and late afternoon. At least I see a clear strategy for business passengers to fly on LH to Belgrade. You can depart in the morning to do business in FRA and return same day either thru MUC or FRA.
ReplyDeleteSo no wonder that with the new won freedom for serbian citizents, more and more foreign carriers are taking advantages of JAT´s weakness and set up flights into the serbian capital. Once again lost opportunity for the local aviation economy, on the other side, it always good to see a wide range of different birds and colours at an airport.
So Bienvenido Spanair en Belgrado
I think it would be even more interesting to see for example Iberia on MAD-BEG route, TAP on LIS-BEG and some charters to (any of these) Canary Islands, Mallorca, Malaga, Alicante, Faro!
ReplyDeletePlus MAD has good connections to South America and Mexico... The all year around flights to MAD would certainly do the work...
This is definitely the good news for both ZAG and BEG airports, we have yet to see the prices when the ticket sales start, my hope is that we'll finally be able to reach almost any Iberian destination with single stopover in BCN or, in due time, MAD as well, for a reasonable price. :)
ReplyDeleteThe sale has started on their website and return ticket Beg-BCN-BEg is around 160 euros!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention, price could be better for on low cost company, but hey it is begining I hope..... Anyway just to see more and more companies and destinations is good enough.
ReplyDeleteGreat news that Belgrade and Barcelona will be finally connected directly as well to see an airline from Spain here. I think it will be a good route for them, as Spain is rather sought after destination in Serbia.
ReplyDeleteIt's even better since they offer really good promotions within Spain, remember flying with them a few years ago MAD-BCN for about 30e.
As for the prices, return ticket is 160e, could have been a bit lower, but it's not that bad, cheapest with others used to be 200e+ with a stopover. Plus side is that they don't charge for luggage, booking fees etc, meaning up to 20kg free of charge. Leg room is rather tight, but hey....
Welcome to Spanair!
This is definitely going to be the most exciting year for BEG with all the airlines starting operations there. Of course, it would be great to see KL and SK again, not to mention others who were once regular visitors there (CA, QF, LN, AH...).
ReplyDeleteI've just checked the JK fares to BEG and they are actually great. The lowest is EUR 0.00 one way!!!! Mind you, with EUR 90.00 for taxes you can't expect to fly to BCN for EUR 20.00!
The fact that IB has an extensive route network in central and south america doesn't mean anything, simple because there aren't that many serbs flying down there. Spain is a heavy O&D destination, and the only transit passengers that they can get are those going to spain and maybe portugal. I do hope that this route will stay in winter time as well, and for the sake of fun I hope that Iberia will launch flights from Madrid! It would be way nicer to see two Spanish airlines flying the route, but then again it wouldn't be a bad thing to see Jat fly the route!
ReplyDeleteVueling in summer LJU-BCN twice weekly. On the same route JP also twice a week.
ReplyDeleteSpanair is not low cost, quite the contrary - it's a basket case airline that's struggling for it's life after SAS managed to dump it's stake in the airline.
ReplyDelete€160 BEG-BCN?
Wizz is €70 Timisoara-BCN.
Vueling: Day 2 and 6 BCN-LJU, effective 06/26/2010
ReplyDeleteSat, 26 Jun 10
Flight VY 8156 16:45
18:40 Ljubjana(LJU)
Barcelona(BCN)
Tue, 29 Jun 10
Flight VY 8155 15:20
17:20 Barcelona(BCN)
Ljubjana(LJU)
Isn't it a bit odd that *A would allow two of its members to compete in this way on a route (OU and JK)?
ReplyDeleteThe route to ZAG would be better served with a 717 - great aircraft from a passenger's point of view, and very quiet in the cabin if you're not in the back 3-4 rows...
Good luck to the company for its new flights.
^
ReplyDeleteStar and all the other alliances are marketing alliances, nothing else. If they were to 'not allow' one of their members or if they were to facilitate such behavious in any way on a route where they have not recieved anti-trust immunity, criminal charges would be filed.
160 euros is RETURN ticket, as I have said BEG-BCN-BEG. Considering they don charge extra for the luggage etc it comes even cheaper than Wizzair.....
ReplyDeleteWizz Air from Timisoara:
ReplyDelete(date closest to JK launch flight)
Timisoara »
Barcelona - Terminal 2
date: Fri 16 Apr 10
fareclass: Web
flight: W6 721
departs: TSR 20:30
arrives: BCN 22:15
Barcelona - Terminal 2 »
Timisoara
date: Fri 23 Apr 10
fareclass: Web
flight: W6 722
departs: BCN 22:50
arrives: TSR 02:30
price:
airfare 106.08 EUR + 10 EUR c.card charge + luggage 0-5kg 5 EUR, 5-10kg 30 EUR, 10-20kg 80 EUR + transportation to Timisoara.
Easy to calculate time and money wise.
And everyone is free to choose either of those two or neither, as may like.
^
ReplyDeleteWizz TSR-BCN:
Departing Fri Apr 30, Return Fri May 7
Romanian Leu: 300 including credit card charge = EUR 75.
It wasn't to advocate driving up to Timisoara, merely a comparison to show that Wizz is PROPER low cost, Spanair is a basket-case high cost airline trying to be a LCC.