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| Serbian Prime Minister announces five weekly Belgrade - New York flights for 2016 |
The Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić, announced yesterday that the country's national carrier, Air Serbia, will launch flights from Belgrade to New York next year which will operate five times per week. The comments were made following a meeting of the airline's Supervisory Board, the PM said. In a statement to the "B92" network, Mr Vučić noted, "It is very important that we held a meeting of the Air Serbia Supervisory Board, and that, in addition to the excellent results which have made it the leading carrier in the region, we concluded that we will fly to New York five times per week next year". He added, "Even from Athens there are no flights to New York despite the city being double the size of Belgrade. From Belgrade there will be flights to New York, not to mention that we already have on board Wi-Fi and other services which set our airline apart from other carriers in the region". Athens is in fact served seasonally from New York by Delta Air Lines.
Air Serbia itself has not committed to any dates or frequencies to the United States. However, in February, the airline's CEO, Dane Kondić, told "The Australian" daily that he hoped to realise transatlantic flights within the next twelve to fourteen months, but noted, "In terms of Belgrade and Serbia re-emerging in the world, it’s a natural ambition for the country to want to reconnect to many of the markets and places that they used to fly but Air Serbia has no aspirations to fly all over the world the way Jat Airways used to". Later on, in May, the airline said it was studying potential flights to the US but that no decision has been made.
In August, Air Serbia applied for a permit from the United States Department of Transportation (DoT), stating, "While Air Serbia initially proposes to provide scheduled air service from Belgrade to New York, Chicago and Miami pursuant to a codeshare arrangement with Air Berlin, Serbia's recent achievement of Category 1 status under the FAA's International Air Safety Assessment Program makes it possible for Air Serbia eventually to provide its own service to the United States”. Caitlin Harvey, from the DoT, recently told EX-YU Aviation News that Air Serbia's application is "under active Department consideration", adding that the processing time for applications varies from case to case. According to the Serbian government, an Airbus A330-200 will be leased for the flights, at a cost of 500.000 USD per month. Last September, the President and CEO of Etihad Airways and Vice Chairman of Air Serbia, James Hogan, said the jet could be transferred to the Serbian airline from the Etihad Airways group.
Comments
Having said that, you ignore the fact that I did say 46 routes are all year from Athens, not many more than what JU has, considering both are growing.
Comparing a couple of destinations ex ATH and BEG:
FRA - 7 JU / 7 A3
TXL - 7 JU / 5 A3
BRU - 7 JU / 14 A3
WAW - 7 JU / 5 A3
CDG - 14 JU / 21 A3
ZRH - 14 JU / 7 A3
MXP - 7 JU / 12 A3
There were alot of transit pax for BRU on my flight from ATH, whilst 3 airlines fly ATH-BRU direct. Quite a number of transit pax were for CDG as well.
As for RO, they lack a fleet commonality and are unhappy with the A318. The A310 is ready for retirement. Their only exYU destination is BEG and dont really focus on transit pax, so I dont see how they harm JU. They have the past 7 years increased losses, decreased employees. Saying that, JU is not profitable either (depending on what you read) but has increased its fleet, flights, destinations, employees, upgraded product and offering.
JU in its first round of expansion increased pax numbers by over 1 million adding roughly 10 destinations.
The only reason I said the above in my previous comment because I was expecting a wider list to come to speculate on since we were speculating.
You mention KWI. The airport a few years back sent JU and BEG their study of pax numbers between the 2 airports as well as in the region. The summer sees ALOT of Kuwaitis coming to Serbia and Bosnia. Kuwaitis come looking to enjoy the nature as well as look at getting property on the cheap. KU has a poor European network which JU could easily take a slice of. This is without NA flights. Distance allows for a turn around, reducing cost of crew staying in Kuwait.
TBS and EVN is another that could work for both NA and EU transfer.
I see good potential for LCA going year round if NA routes can connect to it. O&D is there as well as some form of transit pax, but JU has been unsuccessful in breaking into the Cypriot market, something nemjee made an interesting comment on it previously.
@ nemjee
JU has started to increase its cooperation with both EY partners and other airlines. Recently we have seen AZ and LO, it cooperates well with RO, A3 has increased its codeshare with JU. I think JU can only do as much as bilaterals allow it to do, something not really an issue with A3. Comparing the past 2 years, it is a big step forward and takes time. As you noted, A3 is a star member and is working well with them as well as other airlines. EY alliance is still structuring itself.