A month in from launching its first transatlantic service, Air Serbia has recorded solid results on the route so far. According to Serbia's Prime Minister, the carrier has registered an average cabin load factor of 84.1% on the 254-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft, which is utlised five time per week to New York. Air Serbia's CEO, Dane Kondić, conceded that, as a newcomer, it is difficult to establish brand awareness on the crowded transatlantic travel market. Speaking to "Travel Weekly" recently, Mr Kondić said, "Flying as a young brand is no easy feat, but we're lucky in that we have a fairly sizable diaspora in the US. There are 200.000 people who are Serbian and of Serbian descent coupled with just as many people who are from the remainder of the former Yugoslav federation". The airline has run a number of promotional campaigns to attract new passengers to the service, particularly in the former Yugoslav markets.
Local travel agents in the United States, who specialise in sales to the former Yugoslavia, have told EX-YU Aviation News that ticket sales and interest in flights from New York to Belgrade have considerably increased in the lead-up to the service launch and spiked some thirty days ago when the route was inaugurated. According to the airline's CEO, Air Serbia also plans to attract more tourists from the United States but also lure travellers heading to the Adriatic coast. "As Serbia grows as a leisure destination, we hope to draw more passengers. Read many publications; they will tell you Serbia is a great destination to go out and see. We are positioning Belgrade as a gateway into the Adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro".
However, solid passenger numbers do not necessarily translate into profitability. According to Serbia's Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić, the route will turn a profit in three year's time. "We have a significant number of Albanians using the service and we will look to capitalise on this", Mr Vučić said, hinting at the possibility of the resumption of flights between Belgrade and Pristina. "The target is to reach an average cabin load factor of 90% in the foreseeable future", he added. On the other hand, the President and CEO of the Etihad Aviation Group, which Air Serbia is a member of, James Hogan, has said the financial investment in launching the flights was minimal due to the support of other group members. Another way in which Air Serbia is looking to increase revenues on the route is by carrying a larger share of freight. The carrier's A330 has a belly-hold cargo capacity of fifteen tonnes or forty square metres per flight. “Since launching the flights, we have seen strong demand from postal services for carrying mail across the Atlantic, including from authorities in Serbia, as well as Slovenia and Bulgaria, and the United States Postal Service", Mr Kondić said. He added, "We are also now transporting freight to the United States from Serbia and all over the region, including Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Turkey, showing that our new flight is already enabling significant economic activity and trade growth”.
Good luck JU :) Last week I bought a ticket for 450 euros return from Belgrade to New York in mid December and early January return. Interesting that the same dates were more expensive had the journey started in New York.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they will be able to fill planes during the winter.
ReplyDeleteI am honestly plesently surprised how well is JFK flight doing. I was looking at tge advance bookings for the winter time and I can tell you guys even that time of the year flights are getting solid bookings. Nobody in AS or EY expected such a good and positive results in such a short time. Cargo is booked almost to capacity which is awesome as well.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear. I guess that's why they are keeping 5 p/w during the winter.
DeleteCould these sort of results potentially influence on their decision to bring forward leasing a second A330 and launching another US destination?
Deletenew destination hardly, but frequency upgrade possibly
DeleteJa ne znam o kojoj popunjenosti ti pricas, baci pogled na novembar pa ce ti sve biti jasno. Posle u decembru se vec po malo poboljsava situacija. Koliko vidim oko praznika popunjenost ce biti oko 100%. Van sezone je relativno tuzno, posebno u biznisu.
DeleteAny idea how business class is selling? If they are seeing similar results here than this has been hugely successful!
Delete@anon 12:29
DeleteBusiness class pax rarely book this far in advance.
Around 2 pax per flight.
Delete^is it actually that bad? Can somebody else confirm this. I remember that fist few flights had loads in C from 2 to 16 pax.
DeleteEvo gledam od oktobra do januara i izgleda dosta dobro.ako pogledaš oktobar decembar januar dosta letova je već rasprodato a pošto je to tradicionalno slabije popunjen deo godine mislim da je prodaja više nego dobra. Sta se tiče biznis klase ona se uglavnom prodaje najkasnije tako da je o tome prerano pričati.
DeleteJa ti pricam o biznis klasi sada tokom leta kada uglavnom zvrji prazna, baci pogled u sistem pa ces videti.
DeleteA sto se tice letova tokom spore sezone, baci pogled jos jednom. ;) Ili cek... da li sam propustio direktivu kada moramo pisati bajno cak i kada nije tako?
U februaru i novembru lose je kod Lot-a i Austrijana, to je normalno.
DeleteI don't think product would be much devaluated if they would offer upgrade at check in for a reasonable amount of money. Or offer an op-up to a frequent flyer from time to time, especially with C so empty.
DeleteThey actually ran a promo, don't know if it's still there, $1700 r/t from JFK to Europe (Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, etc.) - with BEG as origin/destination, prices remained as high as they originally were. But this $1700 is dirt cheap, especially for Greece!
We need those PRN flights. We just need them. SKP can't be enough for the albanian diaspora.
ReplyDeleteI think it was up to JU the flights would have started long ago. But bureaucratic issues have to be resolved first in Brussels.
DeleteYou are absolutely right. They need to solve this asap. Would be so awesome if we had those flights.
DeleteOT: http://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/pogled-na-zavrsenu-zracnu-luku-franjo-tudman-spreman-za-tehnicki-sedam-mjeseci-prije-roka/4555391/
ReplyDeleteDidn't know it will change it's name Pleso...
Deleteyes it will
DeleteIt wasn't called Pleso before the change. It was Zračna luka Zagreb. Pleso is the village on the outskirts of Zagreb (closer to VG really), where the Airport is located. It has been the unofficial name of the airport for ages and I don't think that'll change any time soon.
DeleteI can't believe they named it after Franjo
DeleteI was actually surprised that it was Milanovic and the SDP party that named the airport Franjo, not HDZ!
DeleteSadly it is true. Leftist parties in exyu were trying to play to nationalists, only to discover for billionth time that the voters who prefer nationalists prefer the raw original.
DeleteVucic, Vucic everywhere. Very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when they speak of the Adriatic coast my guess is that they are referring to Tivat since these flights do not connect to anywhere else.
Without night flight to Athens it will become a challenge to fill these flights especially since most foreign passengers on this route are Greeks.
Apparently their sales have been performing best from Montenegro (outside US and Serbia of course).
DeleteSorry to inform you but we Greek people travel to new york in the winter too.So I don't understand why they cut the early morning flight to belgrade in the winter timetable. I think AirSerbia is wrong this time.
DeleteATH will be 10 p/w this winter. 3 night flights will remain. SKG will remain daily.
DeleteNo. It will be 10 weekly only during the Christmas period. Night flights only return in April with three weekyl flights. ;)
DeleteWhy not check before posting?
Until 18 sept - 2 x daily
Delete19.09 - 27.10 - 10 p/w
28.10 - 18.12 - 1 x daily
19.12 - 12.01 - 10 p/w
13.01 - 20.01 - 9 p/w
21.01 - 27.03 - 1 x daily
Night flights return 28.03.2017.
I checked :)
Thank you JATBEGMEL for this accurate and valuable info I'm the anonymous 25 july 2:41 PM.
DeleteIs it just me or is the cargo capacity a bit small? Or is this standard for A330?
ReplyDeleteNope it's typical payload for A330.
DeleteHere in ZAG there are Air Serbia billboards with New York advertisement. In my opinion a very smart move to start flights now and try and establish your brand before any possible competition in the region.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading reviews on various websites of foreigners taking these flights are the comments are very favorable and the price is more than good.
ReplyDeleteAnd there were so many skeptics about this and how it would destroy JU. That's the benefit of having an owner with deep pockets. You can do stuff like this and pass off mostly unscathed. With the current price of oil and relatively low competition in the immediate region it was probably the best time to start flights.
ReplyDelete84,1% is impressive result for JFK flight. Respect!
ReplyDeleteI have info for BEG-JFK part from Friday (LF about 72%) and Saturday (LF about 95%), so average from those two is close to that.
Deletelepo, a sad je pravo vreme za poboljsanje flote za naredno leto. naravno mislim na odluku o uvodjenju rj flote, umesto vremesnih atr-ova i svakako penzinisanje boinga.
DeleteNema se para za poboljsanje flote. Da ima nabavili bi barem jos jedan Atr da zamene koliko toliko one matore krseve sto su nasledili od jata.
DeleteIma se ima se... Stizu dva a320 do polovine oktobra. Svima je cudno pa i meni zasto bas tako veliki avioni, ali ocigledno se ide u tom smeru...
DeleteAha... kada slete onda mozemo da pricamo o tome, do tada nema se, nema se
Deletekoliko cujem, iskustva sa CRJ900 su vrlo dobra-mogli bi razmisljanja o buducoj floti skrenuti i na tu stranu.
Delete@anon 3:37
DeleteTako su ljudi pričali i za A330...
CLF could even be enough to have the flights running profit for now. Its a good average for the first month.
DeleteI don't want to be a party pooper but the fares are so low it was to be expected that the LF would be good. Don't get me wrong I'm happy prices are affordable and hope it all works out for Air Serbia but like the article says, high LF does not necessarily mean profitability. You can hand out tickets for free and have 100% LF every day.
ReplyDeleteOh and to add a pricing war has started thanks to JU flights to JFK. KLM, Air France plus * alliance group have reduced their fares from BEG to JFK significantly over the past few weeks.
DeleteIf you read carefully, you will find place where it is written that Air Serbia needs three years to make JFK route profitable. KLM and AF have very favorable code-shares with ASL, they are not feeling threatened. Star Alliance is hit by ASL. Their response is price war. Luckily, their crappy service is no match for what you get on ASL flights for the same money. The real challenge for ASL is to get better slots at JFK some time in the future.
DeleteHuh? Star Alliance and others offer a comparable service to JU. The only difference is that JU is not as good when it comes to the business class experience.
DeleteI highly doubt OS or LH are losing any sleep over JU's five weekly JFK flights.
I think JU allows more baggage in the economy and that can be quite significant factor.
DeleteOf course Lufty and the family do not lose any sleep over JU's flights to JFK, but then again, why did they adjust their prices if they care zero?
They did not adjust anything, €450 to JFK was the norm for a few years now. Check LH's fares to JFK in December and you will see that they are not that cheap.
DeleteWhat service is crap on Star Alliance flights? Have you seen transatlantic service on OS, TK, LH? And JU is better where? Only thing that is good with JU are the fares. A330 is not state of the art A/C, slots are terrible when not traveling just point to point... And when has 450EUR became a norm for JFK flights? Guys, I know you are sometimes in love with JU, don't get me wrong, I like it to, but be serious...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteLufthansa's and Austrian's economy classes are as good as JU's. Seems like you've never flown on either.
DeleteOk, JU's food might be better but they are not better than OS.
To administration. Why do we have to put up with people like Guess Who at 102 with the swearing.Sorry very inappropriate and immature.
DeleteI flew with them,and they are pretty much garbage if you ask me.But SADLY EVERYONE HAS OWN OPINION
DeleteFood on OS flights? Hahahah... Hahahah... Please make a photo of this "food" next time you travel to Vienna and post it for us to see. I am flying with them each fortnight and I never saw it. True, on transatlantic they are forced to feed their passengers because everyone else does and out of fear that some would collapse and than sue them. Otherwise, they will gladly let you starve. After you pay for your piece of luggage. And your seat. Famous Star Alliance LCC service. With ASL ticket, everything is already included. Plus warm meal. Plus an additional piece of luggage on transatlantic flights.
DeleteASL is really better in that sector.OS even with new cabin is garbage
Delete@anon 12:06
DeleteJU business class is far superior to *A, especially LH and their footsie seats. I had the misfortune to fly them twice (to PVG and back) and I haven't booked LH since.
ASL cabin is really garbage not a boutique airline. They have lot of broken seats as well as LH. It is shame what all are doing in economy class.
DeleteAnon. 1.59 Sour grapes...
DeleteOS was one of the first airlines to introduce an onboard chef, something JU can only dream of.
DeleteAlso, we are speaking of long-haul flying Anon 13.41, you might want to double check before posting. In that regard both OS and LH, not to mention LX, are way superior.
JU is comparable to KL in its long-haul premium service. Quite ok but nothing to write home about. Also, read some trip reports from JU's business class experience and you will see that it's far from wow.
This should put an end to the discussion:
Deletehttp://www.worldairlineawards.com/Awards/best_business_class_airlines.html
8. Turkish Airlines
10. Lufthansa
In conclusion, LH's premium product is superior to JU's.
Best business class catering:
3. Austrian Airlines
Best Business Class Seat:
10. Swiss
Like I said before; guys I know you are in love with JU..but again, please be realistic. I didn't say that the service is bad, I said it is average. And it is. I didn't speak about service from VIE to BEG, I spoke about transatlantic JFK product. Every airline serves hot meal on that route, this is not something new and shocking.
DeleteAnd some more awards to continue the previous guy post:
Best Business Class Airline Catering:
1 Turkish Airlines
3 Austrian
World's Best Economy Class Airlines
7 Turkish Airlines
Best Economy Class Airline Catering:
3 Turkish Airlines
10 Austrian
And one more thing; I didn't see any award for "Best boutique airline".. But what I did see was this:
Best Regional Airlines : Europe
1 Aegean Airlines
2 Air Nostrum
3 Air Malta
4 S7 Airlines
5 Luxair
6 CSA Czech Airlines
7 Air Serbia
8 Adria Airways
9 Olympic Air
10 Aigle Azur
So, enough already...
Ohh, and this:
DeleteThe Best Airlines in Europe
1 Turkish Airlines
2 Lufthansa
3 Air France
4 Swiss Int'l Air Lines
5 Austrian
6 KLM
7 British Airways
8 Finnair
9 Virgin Atlantic
10 Norwegian
The Best Airlines in Eastern Europe
1 Aeroflot Russian Airlines
2 LOT Polish
3 S7 Airlines
4 Croatia Airlines
5 CSA Czech Airlines
6 Wizz Air
7 Air Serbia
8 Adria Airways
9 Tarom
10 Pobeda
Anonymous July 25, 2016 at 4:37 PM
DeleteI think the regional airline ratings are pretty accurate judging from my personal experience.
Why are we suddenly discussing business class? Change of subject, eh? Economy class of Lufthansa and its satellite companies is bad, particularly in Europe. Austrian was much better company before LH took over and degraded it completely, so much that you can hardly notice a difference between OS and a LCC any more, other than the Austrian is much, much more expensive. Please, please, post a photo of OS economy "food" on European flights!
DeleteAnonymous at 12:59
DeleteA330 ne valja a koriste ga LH i TK .
A i kad vec plujete ASL treba da znate da su 767 od OS duplo stariji od ASL A330.
INN-NS
Lufthansa is so not noticing Air Serbia that it filed a formal complaint to European Commission against Air Serbia and... lost.
DeleteAnonymous July 25, 2016 at 5:23 PM
DeleteWhy are we suddenly discussing European flights instead of flights to North America? Change of subject, eh?
Economy class of Lufthansa and its satellite companies is better to North America than ASL's offering.
It has better IFE, hard and soft product. It has way more options for passengers and can far more easily reschedule them in case something goes wrong.
;)
Some people on here are forgetting that we are speaking about both economy and business class product on LONGHAUL flights, not short-haul.
DeleteBut since some mentioned short-haul, let's not forget that JU downgraded its short-haul product which is a shame since it was quite innovative and nice.
They have a lot of catching up to do as far as JFK goes but I am sure they will dos omething by next summer.
..." in case something goes wrong"
DeleteI have never ever heard of anyone making a choice of airline based on something going wrong.
Now with all due respect, OS economy longhaul service is subpar. Even when hard product looks competitive on paper, experience is disappointing. OS cabin crew is cold and marginally helpful at best based on many personal experiences. Air Serbia should have no problems getting ahead of Austrian in ratings for 2016 and beyond.
"in case something goes wrong"
DeleteSuch as a strike every two months?
Regarding the fares, people have been complaining that the fares are too high, even on the JU facebook page. JU intially had higher fares which brang lower ticket sales.
DeleteI have flown with OS on their B767's before and after the cabin renewal. I expected better with the change to be honest. Crew is ok, mostly disintrested in their pax. Coming to the galley for a glass of water I said 'Hi' to one crew who said 'IM BUSY' while pointing to a bottle of water and cups that was left on tve galley top while she read her magazine. Catering on their longer sectors (DXB) are nothing special, ok, but nothing more. OS is the first legacy carrier I saw charge pax for emergency exit row seats!!! Their J class cabin looks like an internet cafe. OS had no wifi or gsm service available.
LH is great, flown them heaps with various types (A333, A343, A346, B733, ERJ's, CRJ's and Avro). Crew are ok, on all my flights they did their job and thats it. One of my worst flights was with LH where the purser was shouting and behaving hysterical wih pax over cabin baggage, even shouting over the PA. Flight was MUC-BEG. LH left me stranded in SPU due to their strikes a couple years back.
As for TK, the catering and the hard product (new planes, cabin interior) is the only good thing with them. IST is a zoo, ground staff make transfer as difficult as possible. I only had 1 flight (out of 5) where I saw a crew member smile. A small medical emergency (fainting pax) brang panic amongst the crew, including the purser which is absolutely unacceptable. Lately with the poor safety focus (lapsus in security searches, runway excursions, writing off brand new aircraft) it doesnt paint the best image for them, and doesnt help that Turkey is becoming less safe.
JU has a very good short haul product and I think is very underrated, especially for what it is. However, its not a good thing sending those A319's to AUH. Sure, its better now with the Elevate Play app, but it has a lot to improve on. Wifi is too expensive and word is not many people use it. JU catering from BEG is one of the best (from AUH not soo much), unless you have one of those sandwhiches where even Jat did ALOT better (Jat had those soft rolls and served chocolate covered plums). JU crew are absolutely great and one of their biggest pluses (both ground and air), although I did have a couple of pursers that were unprofessional with their crew (peeking through curtains during service times to 'observe' the crew, giving crew feedback in the aisles, forcing pax out of the galley, one was making all attendant calls the whole flight). I hope that JU cabin in the neo's will be better with cloth seats and seat back IFE's. wifi is outrageously expensive considering there are airlines offering it for free or for a small price (EK has 500mb for 1$US - JU has 90mb for 16€!).
JU regional service has gone down the drain since they removed the bags. Now it's pathetic, no different than LH really when they hand out the cookie, cake or sandwich.
DeleteI flew to Rome recently and we were just given a small cake and a juice. So what's so great about that? We used to get more from Jat. lol
Its the regional flights with the bags.
DeleteUp to 1h - Bag
1h - 2h - sandwhich in hand + bar service
2h+ - hot meal + bar service
I agree that JU needs to improve the first 2 services. On AUH they could fit a second small service.
Oh dear. I asked you to send photo of "food" on Austrian European flights in the economy class. Please, please send us that photo if you dare.
DeleteThe photos are old, and the one from LH from back 12 years ago. Even JU catering has changed a lot in this time let alone all the above carriers.
DeleteA plus from OS is the warm bread and the various rounds they offer however they go rock hard if not eaten quickly.
JU 2006 / DXB-BEY
https://flic.kr/p/g9CXbX
On my flickr page you will see various pics from QR, EY, EK and JU (ASL).
JU / BEG-AUH
https://flic.kr/p/rtDy6p
Again, we are not talking about short haul products here!!
DeleteGood news for JU, but it will be hard to make a profit with limited potential for connections beyond the Balkans. Connecting from EU mostly requires backtracking (and long layover) which is very tiring and meaningful only if it comes with low fares. It reminds me of TK and their low fares to US west coast (always 200-300USD cheaper than the competition for peak travel times) - I did it once and will not do it again (I was connecting from Switzerland).
ReplyDeleteI honestly hope I'm wrong and these flights and broader US network indeed become profitable in 2-3 years
You are right, this is a challenge. What some people don't get that price is not everything and that many passengers are not prepared to undergo everything to save few bucks. It is possible that an eastern expansion, opening more flights to Greece and eastern Mediterranean or to Iran would improve passenger numbers.
DeleteJU doesnt seem to offer connections from Western Europe via BEG for JFK, as its not bookable. Even AUH-BEG-JFK was not bookable regardless that the flights connected well. JU needs to open the options for pax to decide if they want to back track or not.
DeleteGood to see sales picked up in the US. People were quite apprehensive at first.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere i read that oil price is so low this and also next year that airlines in this time should not really have to care about profitability.
DeleteNumbers would be much better had they secured a codeshare inside the US.
ReplyDeleteWell they don't have codeshares but connections with JetBlue are dirt cheap, even to Caribbeans
DeleteJetblue....you have to be kidding. Tried them twice and never again. Long delays on both occasions and lost luggage.
DeleteJetBlue is far above crappy airlines like Ryan and Wizz. Their Mint service is divine. You can lose luggage with any airline in the world and long delays are the norm for any airline at JFK. But where is the interline between JetBlue and Air Serbia, what destinations out of JFK are offered?
Delete"the route will turn a profit in three year's time" is too long IMHO.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt doesnt mean it will take 3 years to be profitable, it means theyve planned to make it profitable within 3 years. Vucic as usual has speech issues.
DeleteTo be very quick response to these comments above, I have flown on a lot better and I have flown on a lot worse. Just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteI am honestly plesently surprised how well is JFK flight doing. I was looking at tge advance bookings for the winter time and I can tell you guys even that time of the year flights are getting solid bookings. Nobody in AS or EY expected such a good and positive results in such a short time. Cargo is booked almost to capacity which is awesome as well.
ReplyDeleteWhy did you post this for a second time? The comment is at the top.
DeleteHot Lane, you are posting an identical comment for the third time.
DeleteHot Lane I hope you realize that literally anyone can have "solid" loadfactors and full cargo space IF he is willing to dump prices.
DeleteIt is difficult for some to understand but the name of the game is not load factor but yields!
It was not me re-posting the same comment,it was the server issues. It does not matter if they offer discounts as they are going to make the profit even is up to 52 % bellow average market price.It is very important for AS to advertise the service and give the opportunity for possible future custumers to try out the service at the reasonable price.
DeleteNadam se da ce LF biti jos bolji. I mislim da bi bilo bolje da sledeci A330 leteti za PEK posto bi to moglo znatno da popravi LF prema JFK .
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
hahahah neko ce iz PEK da leti za JFK preko celog sveta hahahaha genijalno. Ovo ti je jedna od najjacih izjava ikada.
DeleteDa to postoji vec preko FRA i jos nekoliko Aerodroma u Evropi ali vi ne znate za to nije nista cudno.
DeleteINN-NS
HAHAAHHAHAAH pa zasto bi leteli tih 13 sati ka JFK kada mogu 22, 23 preko BEG-a.
DeleteLF je takav kakav je zbog prazne biznis klase.
DeletePeople who don't value their lives fly the crazy route. Truly no logic to travel 10 extra hours to save a bit. My zest for life is more important than filling the pockets os some airline ceo.
DeleteMa koje su to kompanije?
DeleteDirect flights from Bejing to New York JFK and Newark
DeleteAir China (to JFK and to Newark)
United (Newark)
But still someone will travel to New York via BEG???
Nisam rekao da ce da popravi znatno LF ali bice veci broj . I znatno ce popraviti Regionalne linije .
DeleteINN-NS
Huge amount of people travel that way via DOH/DXB and SVO so why wouldn't they via BEG? That's on what the Gulf3 made their fortune after all.
DeleteMost don't fly from Peking, Seoul and Tokyo via the Gulf or Europe to the US. Even those airlines are not after that market.
DeleteEven the few that do fly via the Gulf do it coz the fares are dirt cheap.
JU has a good product in the sky (read once in the sky) but on time performance is a major issue to still be corrected. JFK service is not too bad as the scheduling department obviously didn't know the length of the flights so arrivals are more or less on time....departures however from JFK are avearge 40-75 after scheduled ETA. European services are a joke!!! I do not remember once that BEY, AMS or CDG (many more to list!) flights returned back to Beg on time.. Of course many experts will say hat they have a 90% on time performance but reality is different. Delays of 30 min are routine and no one sems to care...
ReplyDeleteThat's impossible to avoid and a delay of 30 minutes is not even a delay.
Delete"scheduling department obviously didn't know the length of the flights so arrivals are more or less on time"
DeleteWow what an idiot, to think they don't know how long it takes! Departures from JFK being late 40-75 minutes during rush hour are completely normal for ALL airlines!
"I do not remember once that BEY, AMS or CDG (many more to list!) flights returned back to Beg on time"
Flight records are available online. CDG-BEG JU315, AMS-BEG JU361 and BEY-BEG JU827 all combined in the past week: no flights longer than 1 hour delay, only two longer than 45 minutes delay, most on time or within 20 minutes! WTF, did you think people would not check your nonsense claims?
"departures however from JFK are avearge 40-75 after scheduled ETA"
DeleteI don't remember if I have ever been on an intercontinental service that has departed on time. Ever. On any airline. And there were many!
That's why the blocks actually allow for these delays, which are perfectly normal (it can take more than an hour from doors closed to takeoff!), not to translate into delays on arrival. Actually, on time performance on arrival for JU, and many others, if perfectly fine, even though their TATL flight depart with a delay.
I have been vocal about JU's OTP before but they have been good the past year for me, and I travel with them alot. JFK flights have come in over 1 hour early, soo not sure what youre complaining about. The only time they struggled was recently with the bad weather (thunderstorms and strong winds) where it diverted flights disrupting the waves.
Delete