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| Belgrade Airport hit by 10% passenger decline on charter flights |
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has seen passenger numbers decline on charter services after the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate, on orders from the Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, refused to grant permits to several foreign leisure airlines seeking to operate flights to Belgrade this summer season. The Directorate declined to issue a license to Freebird Airlines from Turkey, as well as Nesma Airlines from Egypt, while Corendon Airlines was approved just 25 out of 95 planned flights. In addition, Air Cairo, which runs a scheduled year-round service, was denied an additional weekly flight from Hurghada. As a result, Belgrade Airport handled 10% fewer passengers on charter flights up to September 1, which also impacted its August figures when the airport recorded its first passenger decline in 27 months. Air Serbia's dedicated charter brand, Aviolet, increased its number of flights slightly when compared to last year.
In a statement, Belgrade Airport said, "Since permits were not issued to some charter operators for the summer of 2015, the number of these flights decreased compared to last year, which will impact on revenue generated from flight operations". This summer, charters to Greek holiday hotspots such as Crete, Corfu and Rhodes were most popular, while services to Antalya recorded the highest growth rate when compared to last year, exceeding 80%. Only three foreign national carriers secured rights to operate charter flights between their respective countries and Belgrade. They included Turkish Airlines, which ran charter services from Antalya, Aegean Airlines from Heraklion, Rhodes and Corfu, and Tunis Air from Monastir, although the latter was cancelled mid-way through the season due to the Sousse beach attacks.
Earlier this summer, the Ministry for Transport said Serbia's national carrier had previously maintained an 80% passenger share on flights to Turkey, which would have been under threat this year were all requested permits issued. Furthermore, the ministry maintained that Turkish carriers were creating unfair competition on the market and insisted that Air Serbia should be the primary carrier for Serbian holidaymakers. In addition, the Ministry accused Turkish charter carriers of trying to put pressure on the Ministry through Serbian tour operators and other diplomatic channels. Foreign carriers have been increasingly dissatisfied with their treatment by Belgrade Airport and the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate.
Instead of giving people a choice they limited their options. Protectionism usually bites you back at some point.
ReplyDeleteThanks for destroying a 27 month streak you bozos.
ReplyDeleteKako Vučko kaže.
ReplyDelete10% charter decline is nothing compared to the deserved slap they faced and hopefully from next year the tour operators won't conclude deals with airlines other than Air Serbia, especially those not having their license issued. A worthy lesson.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
DeleteHuh? It's a common practice to conclude deals with airlines before they are issued a permit, same applies for JU. They are arranging deals with tour operators even before they get the necessary permits from other countries.
DeleteThe issue here is that SNS wants to impose a protectionist policy towards Air Serbia. What's totally idiotic is that JU is unable to pull its act together and ensure that these flight materialise without any disruptions. Let's not forget that Boeing birds are extensively being used on regular flight. This morning alone they flew to Dusseldorf, Brussels, Podgorica and Vienna!!!
If JU wants to be competitive then they better make sure that tour operators want to work with them. I would ask myself why do so many local operators avoid using JU? Hm...
What will happen next year if the Boeing birds are apparently being retired? Was Avillet a 2-year stint? We all know JU management was against charters until these so-called foreign experts were explained the money these sort of flights bring.
DeleteI can't imagine the Boeing birds being retired any time soon, they will keep them just in case, as a replacement as the Airbus fleet is spread thin. The thing is that JU will need at least another three Airbus aircraft before the next summer season if they want to keep the current schedule.
DeleteGiven the shaky financial situation I highly doubt it will happen.
Eventually a time will come when the 733s will need heavy checks, I don't think they will be retired until then.
Deleteto have them "just in case" is more than stupid and cost huge amount of money, not just to make those birds flying but also to have crew "just in case". Those are not Airbus crew that you can change them between new planes and old, but to have Boings just in case you must pay crew for just in case to seat and wait.
DeleteWell, that's what happens now and it has been happening for several months now. A few weeks ago, one of the crew planners scheduled the wrong plane (a Boeing in stead of the Airbus) and it caused a massive delay as they had to bring new crew from home, change the catering, change the registration and aircraft in the system... so the airline experiences issues as it is now.
DeleteIt should be noted that Air Serbia didn't actually ask them for protection, not on charters at least. It was an initiative by the ministry, presumably to get into the airline's (or PMs) good books. They have that saying "veci katolik od pape". I think that's what they were going for.
ReplyDeleteOh this was not created by accident. Zoran Ilic has a vested interest in all of this. Lets just say he has a share in a certain major tour operator and he wanted to see another major tour operator destroyed.
DeleteI wonder how this will play out next year. I remember Zoran Ilic, assistant minister (former security boss at BEG who created this entire mess) saying how if you are a tour operator and not with Air Serbia you are against the state. Moron.
ReplyDelete..."Air Serbia's dedicated charter brand, Aviolet, increased its number of flights by 8% compared to last year."....
ReplyDeleteAdmin, this is false information. By the end of the summer season Aviolet will have performed 470 tourist tour-operators' charter flights which will be only 1% more in comparison with summer 2014.
...verujte mi na reč.
Deletewow this is like in North Korea.
ReplyDeleteOno, ako si pijan sa bajle, jeste...
DeleteI guess you meant like Canada? Cause it's also somewhere North...
DeleteNorth Korea of the Balkans LOL
DeleteIt cannot be that just because of 3 companies and few less charter flights number decline so much. In that case more potential passengers will fly with other charters, some of those agencies use Aviolet at the end of the day, some passengers used regular routes. It is just and excuse. Problem is combination of protectionism, old, unstable and inadequate Aviolet fleet with lot of delays why agencies doesn't want to use those planes, less leisure passengers in Serbia and bad charter system in Air Serbia where they don't use their only advantage and give possibility to passengers to use regular flights to feed charters from Belgrade (especially on connection routes from TGD, TIV, SJJ, SKP, BNX) unlike Croatia Airlines where for addition of 20-30 EUR you can make charter flights from PUY, ZAD, SPU, DBV, OSI, SJJ via ZAG.
ReplyDeleteZato trebaju kupiti CA da im radi cartere. Pre ili kasnije dodjete na moje ideje. He he
DeleteZAG doesn't have many charters, just a few occasional ones. Last year there was atleast a lot of antalya ones, and this year none so far. And airport is closed during the night, from 12 to 6 oclock. That doesn't help either.
DeleteZAG is not closed from 12 to 6. It works 24 hours.
DeleteCharters:
Croatia Airlines: Antalya, Tel Aviv
El Al: Tel Aviv
Air Europa: Zaragoza
Iberia: Valencia
Korean Air: Seoul-Incheon
Onur Air: Antalya
Tunisair: Monastir
and for ad hoc charters (for example football championship you can always connect for 20-30 EUR from DBV, SPU, ZAD, PUY, OSI, SJJ, even SKP.
Airport leadership is fighting to keep their jobs with this statement. They were not present for opening of Premium lounge and did not publish any news about lounge opening on their site. It is not normal for an airport to ignore opening of a new lounge.
ReplyDeletenote how vucic has said sod all regarding transatlantic flights following his return from washington.
ReplyDeletewhat is "said sod"
Deletesod all = nothing
Deletehttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sod+all
It would be more fun to note just how many times the word 'Vucic' will be used in pure-daily-politics-and-nothing-to-do-with-aviation posts on this blog. It really amazes me that some people consider this small oasis for enthusiasts a good playground for daily political activism.
DeleteOT: tomorow EL AL in LJU with B772 ;)
ReplyDeletekoliko dana ce proci do objave istine o intercontinentalnim letovima ?
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to assume that nothing will become of it. There are some rumours that the crew preparations for these flights were also dropped.
DeleteWe all know the story. Meeting was cancelled. Dane doesn't want to fly to USA. Vucic has ordered for the flights to start. At the end of the day Dane will have to listen to Vucic.
DeleteYeah but that's a disastrous outcome, we all know those flight to NA would be disastrous (at this stage).
DeleteDogovorite se koliko im vekova treba za taj let.
DeleteDane Kondic je insistirao da se letovi za SAD odloze, pa je samim tim i cela buka odlozena...
DeleteThey asked for codeshare with Air Berlin. If codeshare is approved it makes sense to start codeshare with AB. One step at a time.
DeleteKako to da INN-(S)NS vec nije obavesten da je Kordic inzistirao na odgadjanju JU letova za USA? Ili pak zna, pa mu je tesko prihvatiti tu cinjenicu? Mogu li Etihat ili Rojal Jordan ili Kuwajt uvesti medzu-sletanja u Beogradu na letovima za/iz USA, kao nekada Uzbehistan?
DeleteI'm curious about the comments that Dane doesn't want the flights to the US. Flights are yet to be announced, so how can he be against something which doesn't even exist ?
DeleteSve bih mogao da razumem, ali zasto je AIR CAIRO odbijen da leti 5 puta nedeljno? Taj prevoznik je imao dozvolu direktorata, ali je trazio prosirenje, tj dozvolu za dodatne letove i nije je dobio.
ReplyDeleteZanimljivo je da su nakon toga aranzmani za Egipat/HURGADU poskupeli za nekih 30-40 posto.
Btw, Aviolet executed only 10 charter flights to Egyptian resorts this summer, the last one back on August,12th. All other flights were cancelled. Nesma Airlines was planning to fly around 60 charters, but its application was rejected.
DeleteUpravo to. Razumeo bih da je Aviolet leteo 50 puta, ovako svi Srbi u otadzbinu u Antalijsku regiju :)
DeleteBas su imali potrebu za prosirenjem posto im avioni lete skoro prazni..
DeleteJat Airways je imao skoro svakodnevno letove za HRG, SSH, nekad i vise letova dnevno tj.uglavnom nocu, a ponekad je leteo i za Tabu.
ReplyDeleteOT: u subotu su bila dva ATR 42 ruskog Nordstar Airlines parkirana ispred JAT Tehnike.
ReplyDeleteDrzava je pravilno postupila .
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
Admin, could you please delete this provocative and useless comment before another wave of pointless bickering starts.
DeletePlease ignore INN-NS. He has never been with a woman and the palm of his hand is the only company he has.
DeleteOT: Akcija Croatia Airlines, 50000 povratnih karata po 129 eura (iz Zagreba i neke iz Splita te Dubrovnik-Rim)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.croatiaairlines.com/hr/Prodaja-aviokarte/Ponude-letova/50-000-sjedala-vec-od-129-EUR/
When will they have their own business lounge and onboard wi-fi ?
DeleteWhen they have enough money to throw around.
DeleteOvo je čist damping!
DeleteA sta cemo na leto 2016 ako stara flota B 737 bude povucena iz putnickog saobracaja (redovnog i carter) ? Koja je sudbina brenda Aviolet ? Koriscenje airbus flote za cartere bi iz perspektive turista bilo pozeljno, ali pitanje je koliko je to realno obzirom na aktuelne probleme sa nedovoljnim brojem aviona za redovan, a kamoli za carter saobracaj. Mozda je resenje u kratkorocnom lizingu novih airbusova za period jun-septembar ili angazovanje dodatnih turbo-prop masina u cilju oslobadjana airbusova sa regionalnih linija sa slabijim LF,
ReplyDeletePrijatelju, pusti da o floti za leto 2016. razmisljaju oni koji su za to debelo placeni...
Delete