Air Serbia’s passenger growth exceeds 75% in February
Air Serbia has continued to see its passenger numbers soar during February, which is traditionally the aviation industry’s slowest month of the year. The Serbian carrier welcomed 108.545 passengers on board its aircraft, an increase of 77.1% compared to the same month last year. In February, the average cabin load factor stood at 63.4%, up four points on 2013. The highest load factor was recorded on flights from Belgrade to Paris, Sarajevo to Belgrade and Belgrade to London. So far this year, the Serbian carrier handled 235.977 passengers, up 69.5% on the same period last year. Overall, Air Serbia accounted for 46.7% of all passengers passing through Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport last month, a significant boost compared to 2013.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 127.432 | ▲ 63.5 |
| FEB | 108.545 | ▲ 77.1 |
Last February, Jat Airways was forced to cut down on its frequencies and routes due to a fleet shortage. The number of operated flights decreased by 9% compared to February 2012. However, last month’s results represent a major improvement when compared to the past few years as well. Jat’s passenger numbers continued to decline until July 2013. Figures again dipped from September until Air Serbia’s launch in late October.
As the 2014 summer season approaches at the end of the month, Air Serbia will launch two new routes - Budapest and Sofia. Several destinations will also see a significant boost in frequencies. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, flights to Varna, which were to launch on March 30, have been postponed by a month. The service will now be inaugurated on May Day and will run three times per week before increasing to daily on June 16. The airline is expected to announce the new launch date soon. Previously, the airline moved the launch of its Beirut service from late March to June 1. Services to Warsaw and Kiev will be inaugurated on May 29.
Load factor is still not great, but at least this should shut up all those trolls!
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is becoming a very good airline. Look at all these positive reviews on Skytrax:
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/jat.htm
For the past two months, there have been nothing but great reviews, with every reviewer recommending the airline! This is great news. I posted some of the highlights:
4 March 2014 by A White (UK)
I've flown with JAT (what Air Serbia used to be called). It was a very basic experience to put it mildly. I was flying from London Heathrow to Belgrade yesterday. A great experience, there are some bugs to iron out but this isn't first class, it's biz class. Firstly, the seats were new - they reclined back and the foot part lifted up. You got a big pillow for your back or head and a blanket. We had two stewardesses between 6 of us but I think that is because one of them was training the other. Both women were very friendly and attentive and offered refills throughout the 2hrs 45min flight. The food. Well, anyone who has flown with JAT will know the food was something you literally did not bother with. It was sub par. Now I had a 3 course meal with a choice of wines and champagne (or local Serbian brandy if I wanted). The meal was delicious - it was well presented and hot and not overcooked. It was served with fresh bread rolls. I am fussy with things and I couldn't fault it. The cabin was clean. The cutlery was metal. I was offered an iPad but I had my own tablet to watch a film on. A very positive experience indeed.
13 February 2014 by Alex Boddroz (Egypt)
JU 311, 12 Dec and JU 314, to Paris on 15 Dec. Friendly and professional crew, very comfortable seats, plenty of leg room, stylish pillows and blankets, excellent selection of wine and drinks and delicious meal. When the flight attendant handed me the menu, I thought there must be a fee attached. I got a hot meal free. Excellent experience. On a way back was the same. I came to Belgrade airport, ground support staff were smiling, professional and accommodating. On the flight back, the same good service and experience. Have just bought another ticket with Air Serbia to Thessaloniki!
The LF is fantastic considering the amount of aircraft and flights added. It performed better than JU last year with 6 planes.
ReplyDeleteDoslo je vreme da avioni Srpske avio kompanije ne lete da bih se samo videla zastava drzava na trupu. Tako neka ostane. Rod. Son & Co.
DeleteKraljevo / Sydney-Griffith
Waiting for haters...
ReplyDeleteBasically, Air Serbia alone is handling as much passengers as a whole Zagreb airport, nice.
ReplyDeleteNow, tell me, how 132.000 pax in ZAG in February can be same as 108.000 Air Serbia made?
DeleteSame strange nationalistically colored logic?
OMG wow... whole 24.000 passenger difference. There is nothing nationalistic about his comment, it's facts, black on white.
Delete24.000 is 1/4 of JU number! Take it down and you will have last year JU February result.
DeleteOr use 108.000 and then add toit the numbers of BEG and it will make the situation even more depressing for our EU cousins. :)
DeleteI'm flying every week at least once with AirSerbia and can say they really improved since the take over. Especially on the flights the planes, treatment, service and food.
ReplyDeleteCurrently from my perspective following things are making problems
1. every time there is a long queue at economic check-in on Friday's afternoon. They need to make this faster AND they need a online check-in. For me it is not acceptable to wait every week so long in the queue.
This worries me especially for summer.
2. The last flights seem to me mostly a bit delayed, I suppose this is because they have a tight schedule during the day and every small delay sums up at the end of the day.
This site had info on Air Serbia online and mobile phone check-in starting in early June so they will have it before summer.
DeleteThis is good LF if we take into consideration that previously Jat Airways had a year average LF of about 55-69% and this is almost like that % in February alone. I can not wait to see the summer months. Best regards from Frankfurt.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anna.aero/2012/02/29/jat-airways-growing-in-spite-of-financial-troubles/
DeleteI have forgotten the link with LF :)
Only 54% in 2009. My god that was bad
DeleteI wanna buy tickets on WAW-BEG-WAW route but the tickets are more expensive than LOT :( Tell them to lower their prices and I'll become a frequent customer
ReplyDeleteService will start in 2.5 months from now. Both LOT and Air Serbia can make changes to fares and frequency as we get into summer season. Once summer is over, I expect LOT to drop off and codeshare with JU, similar to what happened on BEG-LJU route but not as quickly.
Delete63,4% is good LF for February. Excellent would be 75%, very good 70%, but this is more than OK.
ReplyDeleteKorean will start Seoul-Zagreb on 10th May (Saturdays). First two flights will be with 747, and after that 777.
Great to have KE back again. Any info on JL? Do they fly again to LJU DBV ZAG?
DeleteI don't have information jet about Japan frequencies but there would be flights to Japan during summer. Newcomer is Air Europa with charters to Zaragoza during July and August (Wednesdays).
DeleteGreat news! Still dont get hows Zagreb, Madrid and Munich not in near future plans? Is it a lack of planes? IMO very important routes for the region....
ReplyDeleteLooking at things as they are now, I think March will be great as well.
ReplyDeleteThe party starts this June when the airline will operate a total of 20 aircraft.
JU needs more ATR's. When will they get them finally. I am abit worried about a summer season with only 5 ATR's and also they need them for expansion.
ReplyDeletewith those 5 we should be happy for now - It is 15 daily rotations. I think if they see that thay lack one, they can e.g. put Boing or A319 to Prague and Tivat (in season, that would be realistic) and they will have more ATR rotations. JU have enough organization worries besides ATRs; I hope they will successfully put in operation all those A319/320 and new routes. And probably in March 2015 we will see a few new ATRs with more accent on local expansion (Croatia, Albania). For now, I am pretty satisfied as the thing goes on.
DeleteDear ex-yu can you please inform what is the number of aircrafts used for calculation of CLF average?
ReplyDeleteThat's irrelevant - CLF should be equal to the sum of revenue passengers divided by the sum of seats offered, for all flights opperated in a period.
DeleteDear MD, should you be more shrewd you'd figure that the number of operational seats offered is exactly what I'm interested in. But obviously I'll be left without answer which again raises my eyebrows on the accuracy of these CLF numbers. Nevertheless, JAT CLF is still far beyond say WZZ. On the other hand, the incoming moths shall show how many carriers will JAT and state drive off from BEG.
DeleteOT: Czech Airlines cancelling Geneva from 10 June 2014.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the routes with the lowest LF appart from BNX at the moment? Are there improvements on BRU, AUH, ARN routes?
ReplyDeleteI think that BRU should get growing once they begin codesharing with 9W to Newark and Toronto.
DeleteI agree with you.
DeleteI know that 9W has consistently best prices out of YYZ for any European city. If they time the connection well it's going to be a winner for sure.
Banja Luka is the only destination that is either doing meh or bad.
DeleteBrussels and Stockholm have been performing really nicely lately. From the top of my head, the average load for both routes is around 70%. Connecting passengers are also on the rise. For example, this evening, 48% of all booked passengers were connecting ones.
Interestingly enough, Air Serbia started selling tickets to North America via its website. From what I could see they are cooperating with Virgin Atlantic and Air Berlin. The former being much cheaper.
They are now offering to a number of Middle East and Africa cities, too. I wonder when the codeshares for the Far East destinations will begin?
DeleteDoes anyone know when YU-APA and the A320's are arriving?
ReplyDeleteOne A320 is supposed to join in March, and the other one in July.
DeleteTwo A319 should join in April, and one in May.
All planes will come until the end of the April...last flight of B733 is scheduled for 28th of April.
DeletePax increase is good news. Too bad that the yields are lower than they were a year ago... hopefully that part of the business improves as well.
ReplyDeleteCan you give us some numbers to back up this claim? I'm super curious about the JU financial results...
Deleteany idea an pax in BNX?
ReplyDeleteLast week there were reports regarding the loads on BNX-BEG. After some math work I think the conclusion we made was that the LF in Dec, Jan and Feb was between 25-30%
Deletewhy is LF on BNX flights so important? it's heavily subsidised flight, so it's profitable
DeleteWell, it's important because they can't subsidise these flights forever. At some point it would be nice if Air Serbia could fill a flight and actually make some money off of it.
Deleteoh, Dodik and co. will pay as long as they're the government. they'll find money
DeleteGreat news, next few months are shaping up to be the best in BEG history. Even tourists have more reason to visit, Huffington Post listed Belgrade as one of the "Top 10 European Cities at Spring":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/fodors/top-10-european-cities-at_b_4942072.html
The growth is impressive. Especially when you remember that the new business model started only four months ago.
ReplyDelete