EX-YU airline race

The national carriers from the former Yugoslavia handled over 2.7 million passengers during the first half of the year. Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, Adria Airways and Montenegro Airlines have all recorded passenger growth during the January - June period, while the grounded B&H Airlines saw its figures plunge.


Air Serbia positioned itself as the busiest in the former Yugoslavia, handling 1.114.396 travellers during the first half of the year, an increase of 15.5% compared to the same period in 2014. The carrier’s passenger share at its hub airport in Belgrade grew from 48.5% last year to 53.5% during the first six months in 2015. Paris proved to be Air Serbia’s most popular route, followed by Zurich, Podgorica, Moscow and Amsterdam. Among its top five busiest destinations, Amsterdam saw the biggest jump in numbers, as the airline handled 48.936 passengers, an improvement of 49.2% compared to last year.


Croatia Airlines handled 802.559 travellers during the six-month period, an increase of 0.2% on 2014. Of those, 205.824 travelled on domestic flights, representing a decrease of 3%, while 574.729 passengers boarded scheduled international services, up 1% on 2014. The remaining 22.000 passenger flew on charter flights, an increase of 1%. The average cabin load factor stood at 64.3%, down 0.4% on the same period last year. Overall, Croatia Airlines saw its passenger numbers improve on flights to and from France (+21.8%), the Netherlands (+19.3%), the United Kingdom (+4%), Italy (+2.1%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (+2%) and Switzerland (+0.5%). On the other hand, the carrier recorded weaker results on services to and from Austria (-7.8%), Germany (-4.8%), Macedonia (-2.2%) and Belgium (-0.8%). Passenger numbers on other markets remained unchanged.


Adria Airways also recorded strong passenger growth during the first half of the year. The Slovenian carrier handled 549.272 passengers during the six-month period, an increase of 15% on last year. Adria welcomed 470.397 passengers on scheduled services, up 13%, and a further 78.875 travellers on charter flights, an increase of 27%. The encouraging figures continued into July as well, as the airline handled another 32.350 travellers. This year, Adria’s sales improved the most in the United Kingdom and Italy, while figures plunged in Russia, which has been hit by economic sanctions and a volatile Rouble.


Montenegro Airlines handled 231.164 passengers over the first six months, an increase of 5%. Of those 113.166 travelled on its flights to and from Belgrade, up 6%. Other markets also improved. Passenger numbers on services to Paris, with one additional weekly service compared to last year, and Dusseldorf, with the same amount of flights, grew 50%. Copenhagen, which is served three times per week (an extra two flights compared to 2014) recorded a 40% increase in passenger numbers. Services to Frankfurt improved 15%, London Gatwick was up 14% and Zurich saw a 5% increase in passenger numbers. On the other hand, flights to Russia have been hit by a passenger decline.


B&H Airlines, which has been grounded since June and has its Air Operator’s Certificate temporarily suspended, handled 3.604 travellers during the first three months of the year, down 41.8% compared to the same period in 2014. Of those, 3.152 passengers were carried on scheduled services, while the other 452 on charter flights. Full data for the first half of the year is still unavailable. Financial problems, network cuts and bad publicity took their toll on the carrier. Furthermore, B&H suspended its flights to Belgrade and Copenhagen during the first quarter and was grounded for several weeks due to financial issues and blocked bank accounts.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:13

    Top JU routes, number of pax in H1 2015 (growth vs H1 2014):

    1) Paris: 79.442 (+7%)
    2) Zurich: 76.618 (+18%)
    3) Podgorica: 59.711 (+7%)
    4) Moscow: 58.304 (+0%)
    5) Amsterdam: 48.938 (+49%)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice graphics, Ex-YU.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:57

    Really good figures for JU, considering flights operations didn't increase much this summer. Interesting for MGX that almost 50% of their passengers either depart or land from/to Belgrade. Happy that Adria is performing well. Croatia Airlines is a bit disappointing this year. Hopefully things will improve when the restructuring is over.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Duboko verujem da ce AIR SERBIA, sa uvodjenjem letova za USA I Kanadu, otpoceti uspesno provoditi prosirenje mreze. Verujem da Er Srbijo nedostaju manji prop. avioni za lokalni saobracaj. Izmedju 30 i 50 sedista. ATR koje ima nisu dovoljno fleksibilni za neke linije. Pa je to delimicno limitirajuci factor za maksimalnu kaptivizaciju trzista, sa letovima sa vise sekundarnih aerodroma Srbije i susedstva... Dodro je sto postoji dosta konkurencije. Sa time dobijaju putnici. Nova Krila Evrope✈AIR SERBIA, sigurno, za sada uspesno plove. Za Krila ostalih, ostali se brinu. Nadam se uspesno. Nebo je iznad svih. Pa ko dokle stigne. O fleksebilnosti flote I frekfrenciji jeste imerativ podrske za kontinuirani napredak razvoja putnicke avijacije Srbije. Neki u jugo istocnoj Evropi su poceli. Koliko uspesno? To je stvar strategije, sposobnosti ljudi koji vode fader avio kompanije. Fleksibilnost flote, broja zaposljenih... Sa fokusom na Er Srbiju, siguran sam da je svesna svih okolnosti i razvija saobracaj za uvecavanje broja svojih gostiju, Kargo saobracaj i drugih usluga za licno uvecanje i razvoj. Sa zeljom za uspeh svima, ali u ovom delu sveta, uvek i na prvom mestu jeste i uvek ce biti, AIR SERBIA-Nova Krila Evrope. Rodney😊✈ Kraljevo✈Sydney.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:19

      English please Rodney.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous11:24

    If we exclude BH Airlines it would be four carriers with 2.7M pax in 6 months. JU and OU together ~2 million. I think this is what they call cripple fight. A sad indicator of how bad is the overall situation in the entire region.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:30

      Air Serbia may be crippled due to slow home market but it will certainly grow in future. Croatia Airlines can make huge numbers if they get some aircraft for charter only + Croatian government might try to attract more flying tourists instead of caravan haulers and backpackers.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:44

      Exactly anon 11:24.
      During the same period Aegean operating out of bunkrupt Greece had 5 million passengers....
      Cripple fight is the most accurate description of the ex-Yu airlines situation.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:45

      It is interesting that Air Serbia's flights to Moscow didn't reflect any impact or decrease in passengers.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous11:30

    OT: i just looked all EX-YU airlines web pages and I found this. Amazing fleet design on Adria's page https://www.adria.si/en/flights-and-destinations/fleet/ really awesome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:34

      can't see anything amazing

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:52

      It's nice indeed, the author is some Mniha Zidar.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous11:43

    it's not amazing but it's nice if you look all other fleets on exyu websides

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:55

    Steta za asl. Cifra bi trebalo biti u najmanju ruku 2,5 mil u prvoj polovini. Ali nadajmo se da ce biti i vise u narednim godinama. Asl ne sme dozvoliti velika uvecanja samo za ams, svo, tgd i cdg. Sada kada je sama na Waw i Mxp kao jakim linijama, mora povecati procenat putnika. Isto tako se mora pojacati Cph i Arn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:28

      Jesi li ti normalan? Odakle im flota za tako nešto?

      Delete
    2. Aэrologic13:17

      On the flight last week to Warsaw (full) most of the passengers were transferring further on LOT's network to Scandinavia, N. America, Asia. A more detailed review to come.

      https://pp.vk.me/c625728/v625728496/466e3/jvziFKjwQ-o.jpg

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:36

      I remember once that LOTs routes to north america were very popular in Belgrade, especially the routes where 787 flew.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:53

      Odakle im flota??

      E pa to je ono o cemo sam govorio. Treba biti hrabar i uzeti rizik nekad na sebe, ako hoces da uspes. Jer samo zamenom stare za "novu" flotu nisi nista uradio.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous12:04

    It is really sad that all mentioned companies are still alive only and I repeat only due to illegal support (one way or another) of their governments. nobody pays full amount of fees (very often nothing at all) to local airports nor ANS provision, fuel, VAT, etc ...
    It is not only case with ASL, look at MGX and even ADR. Do not forget CTN story which is nick name for political influence

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:54

      That's the same if you'd say that the only reason why bus companies are alive is because government is building roads for them and the car manufacturers are profitable also cause they aren't financing in any way the roads their cars are gonna use. Either way you take it, you are the one who pays for all that either through taxes or directly from your salary.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:58

      iz ASL se osipa kvalitetan kadar. Verovatno je to slucaj i sirom ex yu ose. Sada je jasno i zasto.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:10

      You are clearly wrong Anon 1:54.
      All the other European Union airlines do not have their countries tax payers cover their airport charges, VAT, insurance contributions for their workers or fuel bills!
      Nor do they receive any subsidies from their finance ministry.
      And somehow they operate and most of them are profitable!
      There were some state owned dinosaurs (Swissair, Sabena, Malev, Balkan, Cyprus, Alitalia, CSA) that operated like the ex-yu airlines but they either went bankrupt or they were privatized completely and started operating like normal businesses.

      Delete
    4. You can make that argument about ALL airlines the world over!

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:26

      Lufthansa and daughter airlines created this in the ex yu region. Airline business in the region would flourish if LH influence is diminished. FRA would never become a hub if Americans didn't allow it to happen, FRA was just a provincial civil airport attached to a US military airport. (West) Germany should not forget to thank Americans for allowing them to become dominant in the Balkans. Don't forget JAT was bigger than Austrian in the 1980's when geopolitical playing field was tilted differently. Getting friendly with America is also a way to keep LH negative influence at distance.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous12:09

    What about Trade Air, ECA and Limitless Airways. They all are Croatian carriers with scheduled and charter flights. Is it possible to know their numbers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:43

      That would ideed be interesting to know. Though Admin stated: "The national carriers...". But in general it's sad for a big airline blog from the region to report only very rarely about non-national carriers.

      Delete
  11. Postovani Anon 10:19 AM.
    Zasto molite da pisem na engleskom?.
    Na ovom forumu koji je pristupacan u Srbiji, pisem srpski oko 90% mojeg obracanja. Neznam da li ste Vi Editor? Nije mi poznato da je zabranjeno upotrebljavati srpski jezik na forumima, blogovima, vazduhoplovnim krugovima Srbije... Po mojoj slobodnoj volji odlucujem kada cu pisati na engleskom. Na vazduhoplovnim portalima obracam se iskljucivo na engleskom. Ukljucujuci korespodenciju sa Airbus-om i Boeing-om. Ovde na ovom blogu dosta ljudi razumeju moj srpski jezik. Koliki procenat? nemam mogucnosti da znam. Comentare uglavnom salju pod ''Anon''. Tajnoviti. To je njihov izbor. Isto sto je i nacin na koji biram jezik. Ako neko ko nerazume sta sam napisao je zaintrigiran, neka mi se obrati imenom. Da ne folira da me nerazume. Nisam ljubitelj ''melting pot-a''. Medju Anglosaksonskim stanovnistvom zivim srecno blazu 50 godina. Srpski sa putnickom avijacijom su deo mojeg Trojstva. Pravo na izbor jeste moje opredeljenje. A to je srpski jezik, ako tako procenim u okolnostima. Drugacije moze biti zabrana pisanja na srpskom. Ili ako me odstrane sa foruma-bloga. Za sada ovako ostaje kao I u proslih pola veka. Vi pisite na engleskom. to je Vas izbor, zelja... All the best. Lot of greetings.
    ✈Rodney, Son & Team😊❇✈. Kraljevo✈Sydney.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:47

      Why? Because many readers here don't understand Serbian (or rarely Bosnian and Croatian)! No offense, but by writing in an Ex-Yu language you prove to be ignorant and unfairly exclude a lot of readers in this very good blog.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:12

      Can you right that in English too Radovan Marinkovic?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:14

      Ajde oladite shabani.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:56

      leave the man alone. If he chose to write in what ever EXYU language, that's he's personal choice. You can either learn the language or use google translate. It's really easy, you should try it ;)

      Delete
    5. Hi Anon 2:47 PM.
      For start I do not writing in as you say ''ex yu language''. No. Serbian is my basic language. English is my adopted... If same one not able to understand, he or she ken looking to next story. That apply to me all ways. Still I am not Shure you do understand me? Primary language in this country to me is Serbian. And will be. English using hire only to people in direct communication. Or in correspondence. High summer. Enjoy, and don't worry about my choice and way of expression... 😊✈Rodney😊✈🌏

      .

      Delete
  12. Anonymous13:40

    I would attribute to Air Serbia the negative figures OU is recording on the flights to Austria and Germany i.e its main feeder hubs. That becomes even more evident if taking the fact that ZAG recorded barely any increase. So at the end of the day the one who is 'suffering' isn't OU but Austrian and Lufthansa, while the one who gained the most is the Croatian traveller.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:50

      I don't think LH and OS are particularly suffering as they are operating a lot of flights on their own to Croatia. OU then is codesharing on the LH and OS flights.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:14

      Suffering under huge comas. The point is - it isn't OU that was affected in any way by Air Serbia, it is it's grand poulains LH and OS, same in Belgrade.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous14:20

    Jako mi je drago sto je ASL imao jako dobar rast i solidan LF kao sto sam ja pisao a zlobni jezici svaki put smanjivali LF tako da se vidi ponovo ko je upravu.
    I jako mi je drago sto mnogo putnika ima iz regiona jedva cekam kako ce da eksplodira rast kad dodje A332.
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:52

      Svaka čast za ASL.. a ti, bolje nas ne vuci za jezik pametnjakovicu.
      Ignor INN.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:53

      super je A332 u floti ASL. Pitanje je da li ce to opravdati troskove od pola miliona + na mesecnom nivou

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:07

      Vec sam se uplasio =D
      Naravno da ce opravdati trosak posto ce biti konfiguracija od 262 sedista najverovatnije kao kod EY.
      INN-NS

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:33

      nije problem u konfiguraciji vec u LF i ceni koja ne bi smela ici preko 550 eur u proseku

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:38

      Pa nece ni ici a letovi ce biti svakodnevni i cena ce biti normalna .
      I bice jako dosta stranih putnika .
      INN-NS

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:42

      ...or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. So admin please delete this provocation...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous20:05

      A jeli, odakle vam ta racunica koliko karta mora max da bude? Evo ja cu vam dati primer da moji rodjaci trenutno pokusavaju da kupe kartu iz YYZ za BEG u oktobru i cena je oko $1150 kanadjana!! (800eur) To je znatno vise od 550eur. Verujte mi da ce ljudi platiti barem jos 100$ na tu cenu samo da ne moraju da se prebijaju po raznim cekaonicama Evropskih aerodroma, nego da dolete dirketno za BEG. A nadam se da ASL marketnig ce znati ovo dobro da promovise kako bi privukao sto vise ljudi iz regiona.

      I sto kaze ovaj mali gore, nece ici za JFK,YYZ svaki dan, nego verovatno 3-4/nedeljno, sto je sasvim ok da bi odrzao LF i cena. Pozdrav!

      Delete
    8. JATBEGMEL21:16

      No point in discussing ticket prices. Many factors go into ticket pricing, such as supply and demand.

      BEG-AUH for example can be 350€ return or as I saw recently 850€ one way, just to show an example.

      In regards to marketing, JU seem to be active on social media which is great. But good marketing is being spoilt with poor quality of BEG customers have to use and the slow efforts made to change this, which wont change anytime soon unfortunately. After all, transit traffic (pax and cargo) is being and will be sought after to boost loads and yields.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous14:41

    737 to BUD yesterday, demand or another lack of equipment?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:10

      ALP is still out of service, or was it ALN.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:21

      It seems with Budapest out of line the current Atr fleet will finally become sufficient.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:41

      ...or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. So admin please delete this provocation...

      Delete
  15. Anonymous15:26

    JU official cfl in 2015 month by month : JAN 57%, FEB 57%, MAR 61%, APR 68%, MAY 69%, JUN 72%, JUL 81%. JU official number of passengers on the first half of 2015 : 1.122.000

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:51

      Admin why didn't you write the correct number of passingers?

      Delete
    2. The figure provided in the article is the official data published by Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The airline itself has not provided an official number.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:29

      The title is Ex Yu AIRLINE race... So I don't think you should be getting your numbers from airport data. What if they had passingers outside the Belgrade Airport? Please correct the mistake.

      Delete
    4. All Air Serbia flights depart and/or terminate at Belgrade Airport. Unless someone parachuted themselves off the plane mid-flight the statistc provided by the airport is correct (as it has been in the past as well) The statistic an anonymous commentator provided is not official.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:36

      Kad ti neko pise da su ti gosti na blogu budaletine ti ga brises. Vidis kakvi su to manijaci sve oni znaju.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:39

      lol just ignore him admin. He is obviously a bit soar. Here, I say the official JU number was 1,121,698. I hope Anonymous 3:51 will now advocate for this figure in the article. lol.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous16:48

      Oh boy AnonymousAugust 15, 2015 at 4:29 PM you have a lot to learn. Even if they had passengers who did not either board or disembark in BEG, which they didn't, that would mean their official stat would be even higher than the one written in the article. Go back to school.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous17:33

      As an example, today JU is operating route Belgrade-Ohrid-Basle-Belgrade with the first and third segment ferry flights.Also, they had operated Belgrade-Sarajevo- Malta-Belgrade route etc. Secondly, airlines count "commercial" passengers, while airports count "boarded" passengers. So airlines' figures must be lower than airlines'. Belgrade airport published the figure around 1.144.000 for Air Serbia, so here is quoted false figure.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous18:37

      Exactly! Wrong numbers were reported and we would apriciate if admin corrected them.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous20:10

      The difference is 1,122,000 vs 1,114,000. Are you guys that picky!? Really? Give me a break! lol

      Delete
  16. Anonymous17:32

    Why are the results published in mid August?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous18:40

    I hardly understand that so many of forumers here are so ignorant and respod in their native language...ex yu used to to be undwrstand by serbian or criatian...but times have changed...and so we have. Pls do show some respect to others...i can not understand that some of you even use cyrlic. I have nothing against that....but some of us can not read it therfore not to understand the post. Besides serbian an croatian ex yu consist slovenes, macedonians and albanians as well as bosniak too... cheers from Ljubljana...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:43

      +1, yesterday I said the same thing and I was basically accused of being anti-Serbian even thought I myself am Serbian. Now I am expecting comments about how I am ashamed of my heritage and so on haha

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:49

      I use Google Translate and it works well in most cases. One of the cases where it failed miserably:

      original:

      Бре ово је само прив. док не крену сами да лете а Мајами остаје и после тога. Чисто да се види ко је вера а ко невера, ко ће се буни и што. Кад касније траже аусвајз за директне летове да знају де су цаке.


      google tranlation:

      Bre This is just priv . unless they are themselves to fly a Miami remains after that. Just to see who is the faith and who never, who will rebel and you . When later seek ausvajz for direct flights to know the de cake .

      Delete
    3. Of course everyone can write in any language he/she prefers. Though I thought that this blog is English and therefore would be appropriate to write only in English so everyone can participate. I am from Slovenia and I do understand all versions of what used to be called serbo-croatian language, including cyrilic alphabet. But many Slovenes don't, especially younger generations. And also, it is matter of culture od each participant. Greetings to all ex yu aviation fans.

      Delete