Great news. I was a bit sceptic when Fraport took over but they seem to be doing a good job.

How's that? To me it seems they are doing absolutely nothing.

Great news! Aegean is a great addition and will offer more choice and competitions to Slovenian passengers to Greece and the Middle East.
Looks like Fraport is attracting new carriers to Ljubljana.
Hopefully the route will do well and they will keep it for winter even with a reduced schedule!

@Anon 9:21
You are probably confusing them with the management of BEG.

Zagreb should also need to attract Aegean. The market is bigger and it could be a year round desalination.

Go LJU!
Bad news for ASL though. BEG was the most convenient connection between Greece and Slovenia but now it will be bypassed.

maybe not, if serbian tax payers continue to finance ASL debt caused by dumping.

Aegean flights to Ljubljana, Dubrovnik and Zagreb (also from next year) will be big blow to Air Serbia as most of their connection passengers were from those airports to Greece and to other east destinations. Also if there will be Croatia Airlines flights to Prague, Sofia and Bucharest, as it was planed from next year (after finish of restructuration), that will be another blow to Air Serbia. Regular flights from Zagreb to Toronto (less connecting passengers to YYZ on BEG-JFK flights) and Seuol (connections from BEG via AUH) for sure will also not be help to Air Serbia.

It will have to be really really cheaper to choose two flights and a long stopover in BEG instead of a direct A320 flight between two Star alliance hubs.
But you are right, I can easily see ASL offering ticket prices under cost to try and keep some market share.

+1
All Air Serbia flights and planned flights to Middle East and rest of Balkans will soon be carrying only BEG originating passengers.

Adria and Aegean should codeshare on this flights since they are both in *A.
Also A3 could codeshare to Adria's flights to the rest of ex-yu and Europe and Adria could codeshare on A3's flights to the rest of Greece and Cyprus.

To Zagreb? How do you know that?

Two new carriers - LOT and Aegean. Both from Star Alliance. And one of those routes is already done by Adria. I still think that it would have been better if they sold it to someone else.

Part of Aegean growth strategy is to open flights to region. Now they fly to Tirana, Sofia, Bucharest, Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Budapest, and they plan to open Ljubljana, Zagreb, Split, Sarajevo and Skopje. In first circle of growing will be Ljubljana and Zagreb.

First of all, I doubt LJU flights will be operated by the A320, most likely by the Q400. Aegean tends to send its Q400 to places like Malta, Alexandria and Venice so Ljubljana should fit perfectly.

Second of all, I doubt JU will be able to match Aegean's direct flights given that they have no-bag-fares which are usually around €80 to €90.
If JU isn't anywhere close to being cheaper on the BEG-ATH market then I doubt it will be here.

I think it will be interesting to see how JU will position itself if Aegean does launch these flights. It will also be interesting to see if they end up offering connections to both SKG and IST, my guess is yes but we will have to wait and see.

And Swiss also

Yes, especially since JU is suspending Larnaca and I don't think they code-share with anyone else to Cyprus. However, I doubt it will change much as most Slovenes who live or visit Cyprus fly on Turkish Airlines from/to Tymvou airport in the occupied north.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for JP to launch ATH flights in cooperation with Aegean. Next summer A3 will have a serious network so it could work, especially when it comes to the eastern Mediterranean as well as Georgia and Armenia.

A3 expanding in the ex-yu and especially to Slovenia and Croatia are bad news for Air Serbia.
Aegean, Adria and Croatian are all Star alliance partners and I can see them cooperating against JU.

ASL management and INN-NS wont be happy with all that ;-)

Aegean's Maribor flights are using A320's. Also for only 3 flights/week I think they can fill an A320 to LJU.

But aren't their Maribor flights charters to some Greek islands? Also, I don't see how Ljubljana could start with an A320 when BEG was upgraded just now and Sofia is still operated by the Q400.
Same with Bucharest, it was upgraded to an A320 just recently.

Correct but all those destinations have much bigger frequencies than LJU.
And it is also what the manager of the airport said to this blog.
Anyway, by the end of this month we will learn details.

Fraport is the biggest *A hub an it would be very suprisingly thaz as the owner of LJU woudn't first invite these members to start fly from it. Could we soon able to se SAS an TAP and others from the aliance?

Antalya is super happy with Fraport and how it developed their airport.
But a market must exist first.

Of course, let's wait and see. Maybe they don't have enough Q400s to launch LJU with, that could also be a reason for going with the larger aircraft.

If I remember correctly, international destinations operated by the Q400 (S15) were: Alexandria, Izmir, Sofia, Tirana, Dubrovnik, Belgrade, Malta and Catania.
Belgrade getting the Airbus could free a Q400 but I am sure they would rather deploy it to some island destination. Who knows what they will do in the end and what schedule we will see- most likely a morning departure around 08.30.

It is very interesting to see how haters link every news from the region with ASL, how they construct doom and gloom for ASL from anything other carriers do, and how they cannot refrain themselves from malicious comments such as "soon all the planes will be empty, ho-ho-ho..."

This is getting seriously pathological. I have never seen something attracting so much raw and blind hatred. If the admin posted the news on Air Kiribati changing their livery there would be some hatred towards ASL in the comments section. You people should really seek some serious help.

You are absolutely wrong, this new has so much to do with JU as A3 is its first and most dangerous competitior. JU had many pax from LJU to ATH so this will impact them, unlike Air Kiribati's livery.

One could also question the sustainability of Aegean's own strategy. Attracting the entire region to transfer via ATH will not really work, which means some of these routes they are opening will not perform well and will be abandoned. Which is of course normal - they try new things and keep those that bring money. But there will be some closures for sure.

JU cheerleaders must think that the passengers that JU is carrying now between ATH and ex-yu will prefer connecting to BEG with ASL instead of flying directly with A3 because ASL will offer wi-fly for 15€.......

From my memory, and I might be wrong, but the only route that was suspended in recent times was the one to Baku which had abysmal loads- we are talking 20 passengers per flight.
Aegean did close their Larnaca base at one point but that was a few years ago, just before the economic meltdown in Greece and while Cyprus Airways was still around.
A few years ago they tried Paphos as well but they failed. Seems like they had more luck this time around, even with Ryanair having a base there.

Don't forget that Athens has massive demand and that pre-crisis numbers were close to 20 million passengers. Most routes currently operated by Aegean have at least some O&D demand. Take Tehran as an example. They are increasing their frequencies next summer which is not surprising given Greece's popularity among Iranian tourists. So in addition to attracting connecting passengers they also have some p2p passengers to fill the seats. Mind you, this summer Mahan Air operated their own flights to Athens with their A340-600!

Well, my thoughts were that maybe it would be better to have a different owner to counter the *A/LH domination.

They should also fly more times from MBX. LF there is just great.

The potential to attract tourists is undisputed. But the exYU routes would not be primarily touristic - off season they would need to attract a lot of transfer passengers to turn profitable. So who will fill the flights from/to LJU over the winter season?

Anon 11:52,

So what? Is ASL supposed to file in for bankruptcy every time A3 or some other competitor opens a new route? ASL's fate is primarily in their own hands, not A3's. And that applies to any carrier out there. If anyone's survival in this industry depended solely on what the competitors do then each and every carrier in this world would go bust 5-6 times a year.

Well, as far as Belgrade goes, the O&D market was always big enough so they had no problem filling those A319/320 flights last winter season, especially once they introduced the new fare system.

Also, regarding LJU, we are talking about three weekly flights here, that's really not a lot, especially if they downgrade it to a Q400 during the winter season. Actually, who knows, maybe LJU ends up being a seasonal route.

Also, don't forget that Aegean might be relying on Greeks visiting Slovenia. Despite the ongoing economic crisis there are still a lot of Greeks who are unaffected by the economic meltdown, especially those who don't have any links to government institutions.

Anon 12:30

Who said that ASL has to file for bankruptcy?
They don't need to, the taxpayers will always pay their losses. Until Serbia becomes a member of the E.U. of course.
Then ASL will either have to operate profitably or close.

You are forgetting something important, JU relies heavily on transfer passengers and their ATH route had a lot of those pax from LJU. So now that they have a direct link fewer passengers will connect in Belgrade or any other city. So yes, it will affect them to a certain degree and its worth talking about here. If Er Serbia had massive local demand then this would not be a problem.

Can someone give actual numbers for the connecting pax from LJU to ATH via BEG? Because frankly I think the percentage is laughable compared to the total number of transit pax.

Yeah, the market between Slovenia and Georgia/Armenia would really explode with those codeshares.

Some people here hopelessly overestimate market sizes in the region...

Aegean had a flight from Larnaka to Skopje this summer carrying some football team ... which was a nice surprise

Yes, I can definitely see joint board meetings of these three airlines to discuss ways to hurt JU...

The stuff one can read on this blog is impressive.

OT: Tehnika delivered ES-ACF, a CRJ 700, to Estonian last Friday (ex D-ACPN)

If you bothered to read what was written above then you would have understood that Armenia and Georgia would be just two of many destinations that could be offered via Athens.

Maybe it is laughable when you look at the total transfer passengers but if you look at the transfer passengers from LJU then it's not so negligible.

Because you know what is being discussed at these board meetings?

Can you give us the source of this news "Croatia Airlines flights to Prague, Sofia and Bucharest, as it was planed from next year (after finish of restructuration"?

Anonymous 1:20

The percentage of transfer passengers from other ex-yu countries that ASL flies from BEG to ATH is quite large.
So far flying to Greece and Cyprus through BEG with ASL was their only option.
When A3 starts these flights from LJU, DBV, ZAG, and probably SKP and SJJ Air Serbia will be left with only Belgrade originating traffic.
Unless of course as others already said starts offering super cheap tickets to get people to connect in BEG instead of flying directly.

The reason that these airline alliances exist is exactly that. To get more passengers flying with them instead with competing alliance airlines.
That is why they can use each other miles programs and lounges.
So for sure star alliance airlines prefer passengers to fly with their partners instead of flying non partners like in this case ASL.

and D-ACPO also to Estonian as ES-ACE

Anon 14.00

Don't forget that JU is suspending LCA this winter season and I am not too sure they will return next summer. Even if they return they will have to compete with A3's numerous daily departures. Given that the island is rather close to unification, soon we will also have Turkish and Pegasus to consider as direct competition when it comes to Cyprus.

What JU needs to do is build up frequencies so as to be as convenient and competitive as it can for its passengers. They should work on building up a loyal group of passengers who would keep on flying with them regardless of competition.

*A airlines for sure cooperate. That happens all over the world.
Here it is absolutely logical for OU, JP and A3 to cooperate and take ASL's passengers.
It is just business.

JU needs to mirror Aegean's actions in their own market. If Aegean is starting to fly LJU, ZAG, DBV, Air Serbia needs to open EVN, TBS, AMM, KBP... Unexpectedly and thaks to Air Serbia's inaction, Aegean is starting to draw itself as the most serious similar-size competitor in the region. The way JU reacts to Aegean's expansion with a lot decide on its own future.

They are not exactly similarly sized. I think A3 is three times larger and are increasing their fleet all the time.

Last anon

+100

I would say that Air Serbia is a small airline while Aegean is somewhere between small and medium sized.

Aэrologic is 100% correct but JU managers are stoping LCA and BUD instead of growing the airline and making BEG a competitive hub.
Wi-fi alone will not stop the competition.

Don't forget all the cuts in frequencies that are being planned for this winter, so it's not only destinations that are being reduced. I mean, imagine how bad BUD is doing when they are not even reducing it to three weekly.

Once you take out Aegean's domestic network, the two airlines are failry similarly sized in regards to the international transfer connectivity which is the market that interests us.

How are they?

Aegean destinations not served by Air Serbia:
Barcelona, Madrid, Marseilles, Toulouse, Lyon, Catania, Manchester, Birmingham, Oslo, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Kiev, Venice, Tbilisi, Paphos, Geneva, Izmir, Yerevan, Amman, Cairo and Alexandria.

JU destinations not flown by Aegean:
Banja Luka, Podgorica, Tivat, Skopje, Abu Dhabi

Quite a difference.

Da veoma je interesantna Slovenija za Grke.

Samo za idiote koji navijaju za ubrzanu propast Adrie, od leta preko Beograda imaju koristi od direktnog nista.

Zasto ne bi bila? Sta lupas.

Za to treba zdrava kompanija a ne umiruca kao Adria koja skuplja zaostatke putnika od LH.

@ Anon 4:04

Why take out the domestic markets? They provide many destinations and millions of passengers to and from the international flights.

Aэrologic daily fail.

Sta na primer? Ljubljanu obidjes za sat i po. Ostalo nije vredno pomena. Posebno Grcima.

Well, Greeks absolutely love mountains and spas, two things Slovenia has to offer. Bulgaria (among other places) is run-over by Greeks the moment the first snow appears. Slovenia can attract a fraction of those and it should be happy.
Anyway, there should be enough O&D demand on both sides to fill at least half of a Q400 three times per week.

Anon 4:19 is right.
Aegean also flies to Bordeaux, Deauville, Metz/Nancy, Nantes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Hamburg, Hanover, Tehran, Pisa, Riyadh.

Also:
A3 2014 revenue: €911.8 million
JU 2014 revenue: €262 million

Anon 4:31
You mean "healthy" like ASL which collects money from EY, BEG and Serbian government to keep flying?
And cant even keep BUD and LCA, two destinations it has been flying for decades?

Очито да никада ниси посетио бугарско скијалиште јер да јеси знао би колико је популарно међу Грцима.
Постоје две групе Грка који скијају у Бугарској. Они који живе на северу и којима је близу и они који иду тамо јер је јефтино.

Што се тиче Алпа, не мораш да ме образујеш јер тамо скијам од своје осме године. Исто тако, имајући у виду где сам одрастао мислим да сам мало боље упућен у то где Грци проводе своје одморе и зашто.
Квалитет твог одговора доказује колико си неупућен и необразован што се тиче ове теме.

Поздрав.

Bansko is full of Greeks every winter.

ASL ce tek doziveti svoj veliki bum zavrsetkom izgradnje "Beograda na vodi"....

> Here it is absolutely logical for OU, JP and A3 to cooperate and take ASL's passengers.
It is just business.

If it’s just business, why is team Junkers actively interfering in aviation in the region, tilting the field in support of *A interests? What is the motivation for the team to have active supporter among commenters?

ASL ce doziveti rast od sledeceg leta prilagodjen prekookeanskim letovima i BW ce samo doprineti tome. Sheraton je potpisao za W Hotel i uskoro ce za St Regis. Kad veliki americki kapital ulaze u BW to je dokaz da je projekat presao point of no return.

"Team Junkers" is in Star Alliance.
It has every interest to cooperate with it's other partners in the region.
Just like "team frog legs and tulips" cooperates with Tarom and team "tea time and warm beer" used to cooperate with Malev.
It is not JP's or OU's fault that JU didn't join a global alliance.

LOL!
ASL can not fly profitably to BUD but somehow will be profitable in JFK......
The stuff that is written here is epic!

Naravno svi su natpisi u kaficima na grckom.

Videcemo koliko ce Grka ici u Ljubljanu da se brcka u toplicama.

JU's status in the Etihad alliance carries infinitely more significance than JP or OU status within Star Alliance.

"Sheraton je potpisao za W Hotel i uskoro ce za St Regis."

Sheraton is a brand within the Starwood Group, like W and St Regis.

JU's status is just above Air Seychelles!
And it does whatever EY tells them.

Tako je, ali za Starwood brend ne zna mnogo ljudi pa su poznatiji po Sheraton brendu. Inace ministarka je objavila da letovi za JFK pocinju krajem marta, znaci sa pocetkom letnje sezone, oko 27 marta. Samo jos 6 i po meseca, yeah! Let's dance:

(•_•)
<) )╯
/ \

(•_•)
<( (>
/ \

hahahah ako je Zoka najavila onda mora da je tako.

Exactly and the best proof of that is that JU has been operating without a chief commercial officer for like two years now. Why do you need one in Belgrade when you have him in the desert.

At the begining of 2013, Aegean wanted to start serving BNX and so was in negotiation with both the BNX and the Government authorities. Neither the Ministry for Communication and transport of the Republic of Srpska nor the BNX Managing Board did what was agreed about so the flights weren't started.

http://www.srna.rs/novosti1/78769/interesovanje-za-uspostavljanje-aviolinije-banjaluka-grcka-.htm

"Team Junkers" is in Star Alliance. - EU's Juncker is in Star Alliance? Is that legal?

"Team Junkers" is in Star Alliance. - EU's Juncker is in Star Alliance? Is that legal?"


What exactly do you mean?

There is no Etihad alliance.

There is Etihad and some subsidiary airlines whom whenever James Hogan tells them to jump they ask "how high?"

+1
There is no comparison between JU and A3.

Will Zoka still be Prime minister next March?

ASL was probably behind that who didn't want any more competition in ex-yu from Aegean.

So...are you all done with +10, +100, +10.000 repeating like perrots each after another without providing anything more than superficial data borrowed from the internet?

If you're done, let me teach you a thing or two. When you look at things, you look in terms of potential and prospect for growth, not just their present state. Greek tourism aside and a healthier O&D market, the room for growth is quite similar if not for JU having a clear advantage simply due to the geo-location of its hub at Belgrade.

Belgrade along with Budapest are the only two cities that can serve as regional hubs in SE Europe. Since Budapest is clearly out of business in that regard, the prospect for growth at BEG is tremendous, yet JU so far wasn't able to fully capitalize on it and that for many reasons i've mentionned before in my "daily fails" hahahah :) The number of big cities reacheable by turboprop from Belgrade is much larger than from Athens, which has a fairly limited connecting possibilities to make those lines and the expansion viable as a whole.

Yet, unlike Air Serbia, Aegean is using its limited transferring potential to its maximum extent, with lines such as Alexandria for example. Time will show which of the strategies will play better but so far i'd put my bet on Aegean.

*JU is having the same problem with extremely low-yields on flights such as AMS-BEG-TLV. Aegean has also entered a phase of agressive dumping to compensate for it with fares as low as 50 Eur. on BEG-IST for example.

There are two Zoka's. Male Zoka is (Croatian) PM you are refferring to, which is in no connection and relevance for the article. Female Zoka is (Serbian) Ministress of Transportation, who usually speaks what (Serbian) PM tells her, and is usually just a list of nice wishes. The Zoka that is discussed here is not the party that gives permissions for the flights to the US and she deserves all hahahhahahhahah's that are written, even more, like all bots here who believe her.

'Greek tourism aside and a healthier O&D market'

Pretty stupid argument.... If you look at it like that then you can compare Aegean to Air Moldova or Air Djibouti. The fact that they have both of those can only be a problem for them because of seasonality, something JU has to a much smaller extent.... So the fact that Aegean has managed to live with that and still build an impressive hub in Athens only means that they are in a whole different league from JU...

Athens' geographical location might not be as convenient as JU's but it's far from a bad one... They can still conveniently link all of Europe with the whole of Middle East, Africa and beyond...
What do you think, that they will stop at Riyadh and Tehran? I don't think so... My guess is that 10 years from now they will be flying to Johannesburg and several points in Asia...
But Aegean didn't have to carry the burden of JAT... or to deal with many incompetent employess... Air Serbia will transform itself and come out even stronger than Aegean... it just needs a year or two more.

I think it would have been much easier if you just admitted that you were wrong...

There is nothing for me to confirm or deny, you've simply shown you're incapable to read between the lines and use some creative thinking. With the right strategy ASL would be able to equal or even surpass A3 in some areas just as EK did with Air India. The location is far more important and crucual than tourist market or O&D cause with the right location and strategy you can cover BOTH from your neibhouring country and take over their market to a large extent, so please show me now who is stupid?

You know, i've been told i have the ability to reflect other people's inner reality and self-image ;)

JU needs to learn from its competitors. It must completely overhaul its fare structure, introduce competitive one-way fares (at 50-60% of the return flights), fares without luggage etc...

Kako lupetas..Asl je pocela sa radom u oktobru 2013..

Yeah... but again your argument is flawed... if Air India was to pull its act together EK would be seriously affected and harmed so your comparison does not stand. You are comparing apples and oranges... As long as Aegean is well run JU will never be able to come close to it...

A good comparison would be Air India (A3) and Oman Air (JU) in terms of market potential.

'JU needs to learn from its competitors.'

JU needs to hire you Aэrologic! :)

JU was actually very close to it and even ahead during the 80's. I don't see why it wouldn't happen again theoretically. Either way, the goal shouldn't be to destroy or reduce Aegean to a regional Air India since it's practically impossible but to get a clear advantage over them in key markets such as Beirut, Tel Aviv all while expanding the network in their own (recently expanded) backyard.

AnonymousOctober 4, 2015 at 9:46 PM

Thank you but that didn't happen yet, i don't have such a rosy history with JU to tell the truth, but all those developments will depend on the current and future managements.

Aerologic,

Oh! What happened? Did you work for Jat or you had some other problems?

I was about to be part of the flight-crew.

Like in Serbia? What Serbia can offer to it's turist.

Ouch! So why you turn it down? Was the pay offered bad?

One word in short: Serbia. I'll let someone else tell the whole story ;)

Good night.

Beograd i nekada je nudila Kopaonik, za to je potrebno da sada proradi Morava ali sa prosirenom pistom. Inace sada u Srbiji imamo vecu i bogatiju pecinu od Postojnske jame, ali ko zna kada ce to biti uredjeno za turiste.

istina je da si ti pisao kako nece dobiti faa cat 1 i da nece dobiti openskies sa amerikom ali sad bezis od istine. isto ce biti kad dot obelodani odobrenje i kad asl pocne da leti, ti ces i dalje bezati od istine i trovati mrznjom protiv asl.

Revenue:
912 million EUR Aegean
262 million EUR Air Serbia

Profit
80 million EUR Aegean
2,7 million EUR Air Serbia

Passengers
10,1 million pax Aegean
2,3 million pax Air Serbia

Number of aircraft
50 Aegean
16 Air Serbia (withou those 737-300 what are spare planes)

LF
78,3 Aegean
67,8 Air Serbia

Destinations
83 Aegean
41 Air Serbia

Hubs and focus cities
3 hubs and 6 focus cities Aegean
1 hub and 0 focus cities Air Serbia

Feeding routes
41 Aegean
18 Aegean

Tourism
Huge Aegean
Non Air Serbia

And still you think Air Serbia has chance???

Of course Air Serbia has a chance to make hub in that small exYu region. But in same time Aegean will take huge taking of potential passengers from them if they open routes to exYu. Sure Air Serbia can attract passengers from ZAG to OTP and SOF but not to ATH any more if Aegean open direct flight. But what if OU open flights to OTP and SOF? Same problem for JU is in LJU.

For sure you can understand Aerologic that potential passenger from exYU can transfer via ATH to TIA, EVN, SOF, LCA, PFO, HBE, CAI, TBS, EFL, CHQ, JKH, CFU, HER, IOA, KLX, KVA, KGS, LXS, JMK, MJT, PVK, RHO, SMI, JTR, SKU, SKG, IKA, TLV, CTA, AMM, BEY, MLA, RUH

And from BEG just to AUH, BEY, OTP, MLA, PRG SVO, SOF, TLV, SKG, VAR.

Not big probelm for ASL no one, even Purger, will not fly LJU-ATH-OTP or DUB-ATH-SOF. I ne mogu oni da ponude sve karte po najnizoj ceni, kad sednes za komp izacice nekad i da je ASL jeftiniji. Vi se jednostavno gubite u mrznji. Pokazi koliko je cena karte BEY-ATH-CDG vs BEY-BEG-CDG.

The very point i've been trying to display here on numerous occasions is that the Ex-Yu passengers shouldn't at all be the focus of Air Serbia, at least not the only one as it is being currently, precisely for the reasons that you yourself mentioned. Air Serbia must be an airline bridging the Middle-East and West, linking Caucasus, Eastern Europe, North America in the case of long-haul flying etc... Linking relatively distant and/or underserved markets with poor connectivity. That's where the only gap is left in order to reap some profit. The most extreme example to illustrate my thinking would be lines to countries such as Kazakhstan.

Of course, decent connections to the region are paramount but only in order to feed those longer flights where:

a) no LCC flies
b) no one flies from the entire region

That is exactly what Aegean has been doing by tapping into those markets. Being similar doesn't mean to transport the same number of passengers or own the same number of aircraft, with the Greek tourist industry and a stronger economy, that won't happen anytime soon. I call them similar in the same way as i'd call Etihad and Emirates, even if one is at least twice bigger than the other simply due to their:

1) function, modus operandi
2) potential to grow and cover markets

Basically, based on their future potential which can be utilized or may be not, or may be to some extent what is often the most plausible outcome.

"There is no Etihad alliance.

There is Etihad and some subsidiary airlines whom whenever James Hogan tells them to jump they ask "how high?""

Well I sure am glad that OU and JP are run completely independently of Mother Lufti.

At least OU's and JP's yield management, scheduling and planning departments are located in their own HQs, something we can't say for JU. ;)

Just a small correction, Aegean has four bases: Athens, Rhodes, Heraklion and Larnaca. Though HER and RHO are mostly seasonal, but still...

Also, I find it interesting that Aegean which is based in a relatively premium-heavy market doesn't have a dedicated business class product while JU does. Really makes you wonder if it was a wise idea in the long-run.

Also, I believe that because Aegean has the much stronger Greek economy and tourism, it will always have an advantage over JU and that the two can't really be compared. Air Serbia can/should be compared to airlines such as Tarom, CSA or even airBaltic which operate out of relatively similar markets with price-sensitive passengers and limited O&D.

The chances of BEG becoming a hub were always small no matter how good ASL was and how well was managed.

A hub needs strong O&D passenger numbers who provide most of the profits to an airline.
Transporting Želimir from BEG to IST is 9 times out of 10 more profitable than transporting Moustafa from IST to Zurich via BEG.
If you have enough Želimirs flying you can afford going after the Mustafas market and still be profitable at the end.

JU is located in a relatively small home market, it has Austrian in the North raiding it, Turkish in the East, Swiss in the North West and to a lesser extent (so far) Alitalia on the West all going after it's core customers.

And from the looks of things Aegean from the south is "attacking" and going after passengers in the ex-yu countries that are essential to JU for it to become a hub airline.

Anon 12:13am
"Vi se jednostavno gubite u mrznji. Pokazi koliko je cena karte BEY-ATH-CDG vs BEY-BEG-CDG"

Because ATH to BEY market is far, far larger compared to BEG to BEY A3has enough O&D passengers on it's flights to go after the transfer market too for CDG and other points in Europe pro-fi-ta-bly!

And because of the already existing large O&D market it can offer double daily frequencies from next March between the two cities.
Flight frequencies are also an important factor in capturing transfer passengers and establishing your company in a market.

Also, in this specific example A now can offer BEY passengers the extra option of connecting through LCA to a number of destinations in Europe and the CIS.

LH has zero shares in OU and JP.
It has zero representatives in their boards.
They used to say the same thing about A3 but A3 is going after LH groups home markets all the time now and gaining market share from LH, OS, LX and SN.
It didn't asked for "permission", it just went and got their passengers.
And it does not stop expanding into their markets.

Oces da mi das cene ili ces da nastavis da i dalje zvalavis?

Actually, Aegean doesn't fly to any destination in the CIS area. They fly to Kiev but Ukraine is an associate country and the schedule is such that no connections are possible. The flight arrives back to Larnaca at around three in the morning. It's mostly there for the locals and the tourists. This summer season, UIA's B763 was not uncommon in LCA.

My guess is that next destinations to be added to Larnaca are Cairo and Erbil but these will happen only once more European destinations are added from Larnaca. Currently they offer connections from Tel Aviv and Beirut to Thessaloniki, Athens, Heraklion, Rhodes, Milan, Munich, Paris and London Heathrow.

Their LCA S16 schedule was not yet published so let's see what happens there. Hopefully Moscow is also added as prices are crazy.

A3 anounced flights to Moscow from LCA I think.

From what I know they haven't announced anything yet. They said that they are interested but they had to wait for Cyprus and Russia to ratify the Open Skies agreement. This happened a bit less than a year ago. Until then the two designated carriers were CY and SU- charter flights were open for everyone.
They wanted to have at least one aircraft registered in Cyprus for flights to Israel, Lebanon, Russia, Egypt... but the diplomatic war was settled (won by Cyprus) and Aegean was allowed to operate with aircraft registered in Greece.

I just checked it out Nemjee, they are already flying to Domodedovo from LCA directly.
I think the flights started in June.

Really? Where did you see that? I just checked their website and all flights are routed through Athens.

You are right, my mistake. I checked it again.

It's cool. I am sure it's high up on their list anyway. :)

Fotke zagrebackog aerodroma

http://www.jutarnji.hr/novi-izgled-zracne-luke-pleso/1431536/?secId=79&foto=1

На Бања Луци, ни министарство саобраћаја и веза РС ни управа аеродрома не желе стране компаније јер би се брзо показало да они не могу опслуживати те компаније у складу са ИАТА стандардима. БХ Аирлинес је гледала кроз прсте Бања Луци а то исто ради и Ер Сербиа. То је радио и ЈАТ.

Нико тамо не жели повећање саобраћаја јер то тражи улаганја те далеко бољу организацију то јест стручне кадрове и рад. Та управа не зна организовати ту фирму, миистарство нема, а никад није ни било вољно дати неке веће паре за довођенје тог аеродрома у ред. Уз то, због силне корупције на свим нивоим ау РС, министарство није у стању изабрати надзорни одбор који ће замијенити управу. И то тако иде годинама. С друге стране, буџет годинама одржава аеродром у животу. Тамо сви лове у мутном, улов им је добар, и сви су задовољни. Наравно да становници те регије нису, јер морају ићи у Сарајево, Загреб а сада и у Тузлу.