Ok... am I missing something here?

On Saturdays the easyJet flight lands in Belgrade at 08.45 yet it departs back to Rome at 17.10. Why?
It doesn't seem like them to add a tag from Belgrade so could they be servicing the aircraft at Jat Tehnika?

i would like to know who are the passangers of these flights? 27 flights per week is a lot... so, tourists? serbian people living in italy? transit passangers? ... comparing with croatia that have 7 weekly links to rome (5 by spo 2 by dbk) this sounds really impressive! congrats belgrade.

Darwin will be flying ZAG - FCO direct.

By my opinion 27 flight per week is too much. So the first airline to drop out of Belgrade will be Alitalia. easyJet will survive with low fares, about Air Serbia we don't have to talk, but Alitalia will cancel flights to Belgrade, and use their code share agreement with Air Serbia.

This is Air Serbia's summer schedule to Rome:

07.00-08.30 // 09.30-11.10 A319
18.35-20.05 // 20.50-22.30 A319

With this kind of schedule they can offer connections to eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East. It seems JU is primarily after this traffic. However, Italy is one of the main foreign investors in Serbia so I am sure they get a good share of business class passengers. I am sure not even Alitalia can compete with Air Serbia when it comes to business class, especially not since they are sending their Embraers now.

Alitalia on the other hand is collecting some O&D and mostly transit passengers which are heading via Rome to northern Africa, Spain, Portugal and so on.

My guess is that easyJet will collect most of the O&D passengers but I hope that they will be more successful than Wizz Air was.

Until a few years ago neither Jat Airways nor Alitalia flew daily to Rome and today we have up to four daily flights. Quite an improvement.

mvd,

the code-share between these two carriers seems to not be in place during the summer season.

Its possible that Etihad Regional could be feeding the JU flights from FCO as well.

But 4 daily is a big boost as mentioned before considering neither AZ nor JU had daily flights a few years ago.

Could we see Croatia Airlines go direct to Rome now that they have competition from Etihad Regional?

We will see... I think that they will decrease ZAG-SPO-FCO from 5x per week to 2-3x per week.
Maybe 4-7 Split, 1-5 Dubrovnik, 2,3,6 Zagreb.

Typo. Fixed.

Once Vueling and Tap start operating from BEG, it would be even harder for Alitalia. The number of serbian pax transfering to Africa would not be enough. But AZ wont retreat, the number of italian investors is huge in Serbia.

I would like to see easyJet having a base here, eventhough Purger said they will open a base in ZAG.

Once Vueling and Tap start operating from BEG, it would be even harder for Alitalia. The number of serbian pax transfering to Africa would not be enough. But AZ wont retreat, the number of italian investors is huge in Serbia.

I would like to see easyJet having a base here, eventhough Purger said they will open a base in ZAG.

everything is ok with beg-fco route, but i am only wondering why airserbia had need to fly double daily to rome? it is not that necessary, isnt it? somehow i dont understand new politics of JU management. both planes are not going to be full. you will see, alitalia is not going to stop flying to beg, but airserbia will reduce its flights to daily only. you will see. except etihad is going to pay empty seats.

In the same time AirSerbia will start to fly to Kiev and Warsaw. If you go to Amadus you will find that AirSerbia have the best offer for Kiev - FCO in both category,price and duration.

Air Serbia's double daily flights are there so as to enable connections in Belgrade. With these new schedules Air Serbia will become very competitive on the Rome-Balkans market. It's not as if they are flying double daily to Rome and relying solely on the O&D market.
Rome can, in a way, be compared to Athens. Air Serbia flies there 10 times per week and the loads are very healthy mostly thanks to connecting passengers.

JU will never make it with 2x daily and they will eventually reduce frequencies to / from FCO Look at today's schedule desaster...10cm of snow and every flight in/out BEG is late by an average hour; who serious will be flying them!!???

Alitalia is in a big crises and they might soon start decreasing their fleet and reducing their destination network. So Air Serbia starts double daily to get transit passengers from other destinations.

It wouldn't surprise me if Air Serbia keeps double daily whole year round. If you go to a flight search site you will see that Air Serbia has the lowest fares for FCO. So Air Serbia made a good move, but now it's not he question will Air Serbia keep it's doube daily, but will Alitalia survive in BEG.

Where do u live. 10 cm snow is affecting every airport. Don t be so critical to JU

And if someone is needed to be criticized,that is BEG not JU. Wizz,Lufthansa,Austrian,Pegauses ,all of them were also late in departure .

Have you ever heard what happens in Heathrow when they have 2 cm of snow?

Its snowing very heavily in BEG,vand in most of Europe, sure many flights would be affected both in/out and it applies to most airlines in BEG today. Hopefully airport machinery will be up to the task!

For years I insist on

1-3-5-- ZAG-FCO
-2---6- ZAG-SPU-FCO
---4--7 ZAG-DBV-FCO
Most of passengers are ZAG-FCO (cca 70% of all passengers on ZAG-DBV/SPU-FCO), and it is more expensive and takes more time to fly that route with 1 stop. 2 frequencies from tourist destinations are more than enough.

Without Etihad Regional in 2010 I suggest to CTN management

123456- ZAG-FCO-SPU/DBV-ZAG in morning
12345-7 ZAG-SPU/DBV-FCO-ZAG in afternoon

that is 12 flights from ZAG, 6 direct, 6 with one stop (4 via SPU, 2 via DBV)

I had 3 hours of delay at Berlin Tegel, and 5-6 hours delay in Frankfurt when I was returning from Berlin with LH (it was Berlin - Frankfurt - Belgrade route).

You people are either really spoiled and expect BEG and JU to be better than Europe's biggest airlines and airports, or you just haven't travelled that much and experienced other airports...

10 cm of show affecting every airport? You are funny! In ZAG we even don't find that there is snow if it is 10 cm. 30 cm makes some problems. Last year even 50 cm did not stop traffic or make some serious problems. Yesterday we had 10 cm and that was nothing!!! There ware few delays of 15 minutes, and just 2 of 30 minutes, but not connected to show in Zagreb.

Even double daily is doable from Zagreb since the route is operate by the Q400, not even the Airbus. I am sure they can fill 150 seats per day, at least during the summer season.
Also, they could get a few passengers from their regional network.

Are there really that small number of pax from ZAG to FCO for OU to sustain a daily direct line even with DH4? Whats the story there?

And reason why yesterday flights ZAG-SPU (OU380,OU656) were late more than half hour are?

Yes but Belgrade handles much more aircraft than Zagreb so naturally the delays are going to be greater.
Just remember what a mess erupted in Istanbul a few months ago when snow fell there. Hundreds of flights were delayed.

I will not mention flights from Zurich and Vienna,more than one hour.

There is also something else we should consider. Alitalia launched flights to Abu Dhabi and so far they have been rather successful. In other words there is a share of the Italian travelling public which has Etihad's mileage programme. For them Air Serbia might be an interesting option especially for flights heading to the Balkans, eastern Europe and the Middle East.

OU368 SKP 50min
OU380 SPU 40min
OU490 LHR 40min
OU662 DUB 30min
LH1415 MUN 1h 27 min
OU4456 BRU 50 min
OU464 ZUR 1h 30 min
LH1715 MUN canceled
OU442 VIE 1h 30 min
OU436 MUN 1h
OU632 ZAD 1h20 min
.........
Great day yesterday

I think some of you guys from Croatia should have a look into your backyard first before starting trashing anyone around. Can't you see how many OU flights were late yesterday? With nearly double less number of operations.
But you can't stop sneaking your nose over neighbours fence first?
Give us a little break, please ;-)

So is easyJet using airbridges in Belgrade?

Also, it will be interesting to see if JU will be using the bus gates once they open. There will be two of them, right?

I guess Austrian Airlines is not complaining... after all, they do have to fill those five daily flights.

JAT's intercontinental services in 1988
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9355/jatintercontinentalserv.jpg

Dude, it's not the snow, it's the below zero temperatures and the ice storm, and all the de-icing that needs to happen. It's affecting only the first flights of the day (those landing in BEG are already "warmed-up"

The Air Serbia FCO flights are relying heavily on transix pax. Every time I fly, it's full of Russians (MOW), or even Italians flying to Cyprus.
It's different people that are using each of these flights. Question is if JU can make a profit out of them.

Ha... Cyprus makes sense since there are no longer any direct flights between the island and Rome. No wonder they are going daily with the A320 to Larnaca. I just wonder what Wizz Air will do there.

I am bit puzzled about 3 weekly TAP dedicated flights to BEG. As far as I know there aren't too many Serbians living there or huge traffic of tourist. On the other hand the geographical position of LIS and the flying times allow reasonable transits on s/Atlantic and Africa routes only. So, what do you think? What are TAPs expectations and who do they target?

This is why routes such as Varna will do wonderfully well with Air Serbia. A July travelling date Varna-Rome via Belgrade.

Air Serbia, £156
connection time in Belgrade going there: 0.55
connection time in Belgrade going back: 01.55

Bulgaria Air, £177
going there: 08.40
going back: 01.25

Austrian Airlines, £258
travelling times are horrible so it's not worth taking into consideration.

The Rome-Bulgaria market is huge and it's nice to see Air Serbia offering swift connections.

@ 1:11 PM:

In fact, guys in IST did their best to minimize the impact of that heavy snowstorm. Aircraft were taking off literally until the last moment possible, with 5cm of snow on tarmac. Only when they got totally overwhelmed, they started cancelling flights. It could have been far worse.

Any busy airport is affected with snow and ice, particularly those who can do only one de-icing at the time. Perhaps BEG could do something about it.

In Croatia we have many airports and many of them have direct flights to Rome so we don't need 27 flights per week like Belgrade because it is only airport in the country. In total there is more than 30 flights from Croatia to Rome per week but not from single airport.

Charter flights do not count, we are talking about scheduled operations. Also, are these flights throughout the year or only during the summer months? ;)

Great that EZY is expanding further from Belgrade in 2014. As soon as W6 left BEG-FCO route last year, both AZ and JU raised the fares a bit. Its always good to have competition for us passwngers, and I amreally glad U2 starts this one as well. I hope they would offer some new route/s from their German bases as well, for example Hamburg or Berlin.
Really glad we'll be seeing more orange birds ithis summer n BEG!

I am talking about scheduled services operated by Easyjet and Vueling from Dubrovnik and Split to Rome. Charters are another story. If we count charters than just Dubrovnik has 20 flights per week.

So give us the breakdown of flights from the coast then, both in winter and summer. If I am not mistaken, doesn't DBV only get flights to Rome via OU?

With such theory(ies) Moscow airports should be closed for over 3 months!))))) While in fact everything works well like a Swiss watch. BEG / JU need to buy a couple of de-icing trucks and then operations will not suffer ...as it is now they are short of them and hence the chaos and delays .... yes in January BEG can expect snow so if it wants to be called "hub" it needs to operate 24hrs/ day and not go belly up every time there is a bit of weather ... shame on the management for both JU and BEG!

Those data about ZAG are not true.

Hmpf... so according to your theory London Heathrow is not a real hub. Makes sense.

Of course not, there are never delays at the only true hub.

They are actually. Go to flight radar, click on Zagreb airport and scroll to yesterdays departures and you will see for yourself.

No, that was not true. There was no delays like that yesterday.

What is your sorce:

Today still snow in ZAG. Just one delay of 10 minutes. Other flights on time or even before!

Source: Zagreb airport arrivals.

Hahaha Flightradar does not lie... Zagreb airport arrivals are fixed by the new management so as to portray the situation as perfect to hide their incompetence.

http://www.flightradar24.com/airport/zag

OU662 ZAG-DBC cancelled today
http://www.airport-dubrovnik.hr/index.php/en/

On http://www.zagreb-airport.hr/ there is nothing....

Wow how professional from the French... really good way to run an airport.

You are full of sense comparing apples and oranges ... great knowledge of the situation on the ground (BEG)!.

Offcourse you can also use http://www.croatiaairlines.com/hr/Planiranje-i-rezervacije/status-leta and put flight number..
OU442 24.01.2014 Flight: 1
ZAGREB - VIENNA
Origin: ZAGREB
Planned: 17:50h
Expected: 19:23h
Destination: VIENNA
Planned: 18:45h
Expected: 20:12h

or

U464 24.01.2014 Flight: 1
ZAGREB - ZURICH
Origin: ZAGREB
Planned: 16:55h
Expected: 18:20h
Destination: ZURICH
Planned: 18:30h
Expected: 19:55h

I hope you realize the cheapest fare for Rome - Moscow as well as to many other of JU's destinations are the cheapest by Air Serbia compared to all of the other airlines.. So these flights should be pretty full..... all of them... keep trying to wish harm with Air Serbia, it won't get you anywhere ;)

And delays have been majorly reduced.... They are working on it... Am bringing this up because of people bitching before..

You can't compare the number of a/c BEG is handling at the moment vs. Zagreb. It's just ridiciculous. Of course there may be more delays.

Now it is obvious that ZAG site with departures/arrivals is totally unreliable and not showing correct data as explained above.
Not to mention that they do not show real times of take off (from the runway, not the gate).
At least we know the real truth now and where to look for the correct times/data.

Easy jet: Dubrovnik - Rome 6x weekly
Easy jet: Split - Rome 7x weekly
Vueling: Dubrovnik - Rome 4x weeky
Vueling: Split - Rome 5 weekly
Total: 22 per week just by low cost airlines from two coastal cities. It is huge number of seats cause Easy jet operates with A319 (156 seats) and Vueling with A320 (180 seats).

Croatia Airlines
Split – Rome 7x weeky (winter 5x)
Dubrovnik – Rome 2 x weeky (winter 2x)
Zagreb – Rome 9x weeky (winter 7x) always via DBV or SPU

@AnonymousJanuary 25, 2014 at 1:20 PM

U do understand that for 3 hours it snowed heavily in Zagreb, visibility was less than 100m, of course there were delays, and number of aircraft operations per day at Zagreb airport is between 50 and 62 depending on days.

So it is natural that some flights had to be delayed and even one flight canceled, any airport would face same problems, even London Heathrow, airport with best infrastructure in place worldwide.

Zagreb airport by far has best infrastructure in ex-YU (not the terminal, I am referring to infrastructure, signalization, vehicles, support and winter service) yet itself could be shut if things get out of control. And btw my statement regarding best infrastructure is not my supposition, it is a fact supported by international agencies including NATO and the EU.

Also, just to ground you a bit Belgrade airport has only few more flights per day than Zagreb, with 24000 landings per year or 48000 landings and take offs, sure you can post the real figures, I don't follow these so I'm sure you can correct me there.

I think the posters are just trying to show Croats how it is when they start their disillusioned rants about Air Serbia delays. ;)

Well, on average every day Zagreb airport and Air Serbia have the same number of departures so I guess that Belgrade has something like 40% more.

Well we know the weather is bad in ZAG as well and there are delays, the point is to stop bashing neighbouring airports for delays while the same thing happens at your own, even with the best infrastructure as you claim.
Hope you got the point.

TAP was making their minds and hesitating almost two years, so I think they have thought it thru.

I think it would work because: 1. Three flights per week is not that much. 2. They have transit pax going to USA (I dont think many of them go to South America though) 3. Prices are afordable, but also not so low (242€ return ticket) so TAP can have good yields. 4. After the summer season, there were rumors that it will either have a stopover in BUD or in BEG, so they could fill the plane. 5. They have connected the two cities first time in HISTORY, many Serbs have never been there...

There is a chance that this route fails, but I think it can have at least two flights per week after the summer, and then around the Christmas holidays back to three per week. Just my oppinion.

I suppose anon at 4:03 and 3:54 is the same guy, and probably 12:54 .

First of all I kind of feel sorry for you, and for your joy over someone else's flights being cancelled or delayed.

Second of all, flight radar does not lie.

Often it is more difficult to cope with the snow the first day (in BEG case night) it fell than the day after. That is why today's flights at ZAG are more or less regular (according to you) than they were yesterday, when the snow started.

In the same time, tomorrow will be much better for BEG than it was today.

Just leave it and mind your own business and airport. Your comments are not made in a good faith.

I think that filling the airplane such as A320 wont be so difficult considering that Lisbon is very well connected with South America and Azores.

I am a Serb living in Portugal and there is quite big number of us here espesialy in Lisbon and Porto. Portugal is beauthiful country and has to offer a lot to turists. TP and JU could make some code share agreement with TP putting its codes on JU`s Balkan network and JU to TP`sSouth America and West Africa destinations. Also there are a lot Ukrainians, Russians, Romanians and Bulgarians over here so maybe some of them could transfer at Belgrade

They'll be flying A319 not A320

Can anyone remember what were the reasons behind Wizzair failure on FCO BEG route? Why would Easyjet be any more successful? Alitalia and AirSerbia will be offering more flights then ever before, offering similar prices, better timings, decent FF programs.

I would like to see this Easyjet route to be a success. I would like all routes out of Belgrade to be profitable. However, three players with the total of four or five flights a day between Belgrade and Rome? It seems a bit excessive, dont you think so? Someone will be "killed off" rather soon.

Yes, they are using airbridges

If I remember correctly, W6 used to have an average LF of around 82% on BEG-FCO route even with the quite bad timings, arriving at FCO before midnight and coming back to BEG after 1 am, but the planes were nearly full everytime I was flying with them...
There explanation was that the route is highly seasonal, and that they can deploy aircraft with better load somewhere else having in mind that LF on other their other routes out of BEG was above 90% or somewhere there...
Easyjet can certainly compete with O&D market and lower fares, but for how long it remains to be seen... Competition on that route is certainly most welcome.
I agree that planned 27 flights per week is a lot, and my wild guest is that AZ could be the weakest link with their 2 dailies... We'll see...
Wish them all good luck :)

Just a small correction, average loadfactor was 77%. :) Rome was their worst performing route and their fares were dirt cheap. I guess they must have bled a lot of money if they did not make it a seasonal route.

I do not know how successful easyJet will be on this market. Back in the day when Wizz Air flew it there was even less competition as Jat Airways flew it six times per week (often with the Atr) while Alitalia flew daily. This time around we have Air Serbia's daily flight and Alitalia's 10 weekly flights.

The only thing that can happen is that Air Serbia might not be as cheap as they have become a transit oriented airline. Some of the O&D could shift to flying with easyJet.
I can't remember seeing Rome as part of their Happy Friday offer, I suppose this route is doing at least ok for them.

You are probably right about LF, Nemjee, I said if I remember well it was around there ;)

Btw anything new about CY and hows market situation and predictions about LCA, and how do you think JU will perform this summer out of there?
Cheers, always like reading your comments.

Hehe well, good memory that's for sure.

Cyprus Airways is a mess. They are still negotiating with Etihad and it's a really good sign that they did not dismiss claims of investing in CY like they did for Lot or airBaltic. Cyprus Airways did sell them their slots (7 out of 14) at Heathrow for €20 million. It was done since the airline desperately needed cash in order to stay afloat and pay their daily bills. A few weeks ago Larnaca airport actually grounded them as they owe them €4 million. The Cypriot government intervened and then the airport authorities backed down. LCA management is made up of idiots and crooks anyway, they have been ripping us off with their taxes for the past 10 years, all with the excuse that they are saving up to build a new terminal... well, the new terminal is here, so what about those high taxes? If Etihad does buy a stake in Cyprus Airways then that should come as bad news for JU and its Middle Eastern aspirations since the O&D market between Cyprus and the neighbouring countries is massive and usually high-yielding. Imagine, even MEA sends their A330-200 to Larnaca very often and they charge €250 for a 20 minute flight...

Regarding Air Serbia and Larnaca I think they will do exceptionally well. Actually, I will go as far as to say that daily A320 might not be enough. Cyprus Airways has been steadily downsizing while several carriers have cut down on their frequencies to the island. Some lowcosts have added flights but they primarily cater for the needs of the O&D market. Currently Europe is served through Aegean via Athens and Austrian Airlines via Vienna. Both are very expensive. I remember that on average I used to pay €450 to fly anywhere in Europe.
People working for Air Serbia are smart since they have immediately started fighting for the Russian passengers. There are 50.000 Russians living permanently on the island and during the summer months CY flies daily to Moscow while Aeroflot has three daily flights. Their morning flight is always on an IL-96, early afternoon flight is either an A330 or B763 and the evening flight is on the A321. The market is huge and Air Serbia is after that as we could have seen through their pricing policy. Other big under-served markets are Ukraine, Poland, Paris and Scandinavia. I am sure they could attract a fair number of Brussels bureaucrats since Cyprus and Slovakia are the only two EU member states to not have a direct flight to Brussels.
Overall, I can see Air Serbia flying double daily to Larnaca with their A320 just like Austrian Airlines does. Their loads so far have been really good, even during the slow winter months. :)

Regards.

@ 3:52 PM:

While I understand the raw, bitter hatred can make someone argue it is airlines who should invest into de-icing equipment, I still don't get the logic by which you spill hundreds of characters of hatred towards BEG and then call on shame on bothe BEG and JU (who have nothing to do with how BEG responds to snow and ice).

I guess you are at the stage of rage where only Xanax may be able to help. Have a check with your pharmacist and good luck.

Where did you get this?
Is there ANY chance we can have this pic in a higher res? Please
Tnx

Thanks a lot, Nemjee for a great insight into Cypriot market, and possible JU's chances there.
Regards from snowy BEG

to Anonymous January 25, 2014 at 5:01 PM
If you count today BEG had 58 and ZAG 28 flights. ALl BEG flights were international, but only 20 ZAG. That shows quite contrary that BEG and ZAG are not in the same category. Nevertheless, wish ZAG prosperity as it will be important to whole region.

No problem, any time. :)

regards to you too from snowy Belgrade.

It's from their inflight magazine

It is not just Q400 that OU fly to FCO, some of the flights in summer is with A319/A320.

In best years there was 10 flights ZAG--SPU/DBV-FCO mostly with A319.

Isn't Suport part of the deal as JU suporting system. So deicing should be one from JU/Suport not from BEG airport.

"The only thing that can happen is that Air Serbia might not be as cheap as they have become a transit oriented airline. Some of the O&D could shift to flying with easyJet."

+1

Air Serbia return promo in January:

Istanbul, Ljubljana 89 EUR
Bucharest, Skopje, Milan, Stuttgart 99 EUR
Thessaloniki 109 EUR
Vienna, Frankfurt 119 EUR
Athens,Copenhagen, Stockholm, Rome 129 EUR
Dusseldorf, Zurich 139 EUR
Berlin, Amsterdam 159 EUR
London 169 EUR
Paris 179 EUR
Larnaca 209 EUR
Tel Aviv 249 EUR
Abu Dhabi 349 EUR

ArtDe, let us know where you found these R/T prices?
AirSerbia website quotes EUR 251 for BEG-LHR-BEG
Or is it Jan 2015 ?

Ha, ha... Su-port does ground handling only for JU, and is renamed to Air Serbia ground handling.
Deicing, etc.is/was always done by the airport like everywhere else

My guess is that these fares only apply during the Happy Friday sale.

I used their flight a lot, and it is always almost sold out..It will just get busier and harder to get on. FYI winter time is challange everywhere, compare to LGA and other NEw York Airports I think they did a great job. New York is always closed when comes to snow..