Air Serbia to boost winter operations


Air Serbia will boost its operations to a number of destinations this winter season in contrast to last year when its network sustained significant cuts. The frequency upgrades are targeted at destinations which feed into the airline's flights to New York, as well as popular routes in western Europe which offer transfer options in cooperation with Etihad Airways Partner airlines. The Serbian carrier will boost services to Berlin, Milan, Tirana and Tel Aviv, and will offer flights to Hamburg, Larnaca and New York, which were not operated last winter season. Other destinations will be maintained in line with last year's timetable, with exception to Warsaw which will be terminated.

Flights from Tirana, Tel Aviv and Larnaca have proved popular with transfer passengers heading to and from the United States, which is why the carrier will be boosting operations to both Albania and Israel, while Larnaca will be maintained throughout the winter after it was downgraded to a seasonal summer route last year. In late July, Serbia's Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić, noted, "We have a significant number of Albanians using the service [to New York] and we will look to capitalise on this. Establishing direct Air Serbia flights between Belgrade and Pristina is also among our priorities". The Serbian carrier also plans to shift around a number of departure and arrival times on regional routes in order for them to better connect onto its transatlantic service.

Last winter season, Air Serbia made significant reductions to its network, which had a knock-on effect on its hub in Belgrade and saw the airline's passenger numbers decline over Air Serbia to up frequencies on a number of routes this winter season.6% during the first quarter of the year. The carrier's CEO, Dane Kondić, defended the decision, saying in an earlier interview, "Flying empty aircraft over the winter just to keep a schedule is crazy. So, last winter we had two years of experience behind us, meaning to say that we had two summers and two winters, and therefore we knew exactly where the pain points were in the network. As we have progressed on our journey, what has been critical has been focus on profitable operations. The prime goal was to take out capacity to therefore boost our load factors". The 2016/17 winter season begins on October 30 and lasts until March 25, 2017.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    Good news. Hopefully this means that BEG will also continue growing during the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    With New York it was to be expected that there would not be a repeat of last year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I still think LED should be year-round.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      Apparently they will fly there in December and January but I agree.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:11

    Disaster!

    I can understand that last winter they had some cuts as there was no USA flights, but this year if they think they can support JFK flights with 4 weekly flights to Thessaloniki, 7 weekly flights to Skopje, 7 weekly flights to Athens etc. No way!!!!

    Their European connectivity was hardly compromised, because of that there was huge decline in number of passengers and today BEG is still not even on number of passengers it was last July (it is 38.000 less). All of that because of those devastating connectivity.

    If you want to make hub in BEG, you can not compromise your connectivity so much. If you want to make JFK flights profitable there is no way that you can cut so much.

    Exempt Tirana, Tel Aviv and Larnaca all other feeding routes will be like last year winter time table and that CAN NOT SUPPORT JFK flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nemjee09:18

      Air Serbia tends to take its time when it comes to publishing the final version of the timetable. Maybe they will still add night flights to ATH and SKG. I mean, it makes little sense to have night flights to SKP or TIA but not to Greece.

      As for LCA, I don't see how JU is competitive to JFK when the waiting time on the way back is around 10 hours.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      When the airfare is so low people sit and wait for 10 hours at the airport. LCA has been doing surprisingly well filling JFK and vv.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:41

      Check your facts again cause Belgrade is in first 7 months down 1267 passengers (way less than yours 38000...) And I don’t really get why it matters any more cause it is only related do reduction in winter season 2015/2016. We can already see that there are more frequencies this winter season then last so the growth will continue till next march for sure...

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:45

      Whatever Air Serbia does it will always be a 'disaster' for him.

      Delete
    5. Nemjee10:07

      Anon 09.19

      True but it's not sustainable to keep on selling LCA-JFK for €512 as they did recently. If they introduced an additional two flights in the morning then it could work really well. Let's say a 07.45 departure like the one to TLV.

      But still, a night flight to Athens should be of higher priority than night flights to LCA.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:21

      Anonymous 9:41
      We are speaking of 12 months,not 7, and in that period it is -38.000 passengers.

      It is not just because of reduction of winter season 2015/16, as there was minus in period of April-June what is after winter time-table.

      But it is not just about if there will be more passengers in BEG this year, and it will be some 30.000 maybe even 50.000 passengers more. It is about connectivity that will be like last winter and can not support JFK flights and for sure is not good for connectivity and consistence in potential passengers habit to use BEG as hub.

      Nemjee:
      What night flight in SKP, there was no night flights last winter time table, just 7 flights per day, nothing more. So, if nothing change...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:22

      Skopje schedule is being moved around so there will be night flights this winter.

      Delete
    8. Nemjee10:45

      Anon 10.21

      The revised schedule has been available for quite some time now. Just like OTP and SOF, TIA and SKP will keep the same number of frequencies but the times will change.

      I still think it's a shame they can't operate double daily flights on the Atr to SOF and OTP. Two relatively large markets where there is more than enough potential.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:49

      Not in april - june but just in april... And wasn’t catholic Easter in march and orthodox in may... do a little analysis

      Delete
    10. Anonymous11:33

      You should check you data.

      April -16.067
      May +10.201
      June -1.470

      So two out of three first months of summer time table were negative. All together it was -7336 passengers less than April-June 2015.

      Delete
    11. Koje neistine se ovde pišu to je da ne poveruje čovek..Za vas koji umirete od ljubomore u Julu smo ostvarili rekordi broj putnika u BEG a tako će da bude i ovoga meseca..znači ni u zlatno doba JATa nije bio ovako veliki obim putnika.E da mnoge boli da su JFK letovi ne samo puni nego neke dane ih i preprodaju pa se putnici sa loyalti karticama prebacuju u biznis klasu koja jedino nikada nije 100% puna ali svaki let pokazuje da ima više putnika koji koriste i tu uslugu. Zimski red je već mnogo bolji ali možemo očekivati još nekoliko korekcija koje će uvećati popunjenost kabine.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous12:59

      Samo napred ASL!

      Delete
    13. Anonymous13:03

      Ne pricaj gluposti covece, biznis zvrji prazan. Pogledaj u sistemu vec ako radi ovde kod nas. Sto se tice ekonomske, da ona je dupke puna ali ne toliko sto se tice advanced booking-a. ;)

      Delete
    14. Anonymous15:34

      Kiev and St. Petersburg should have been year round.
      It is beyond stupid stopping this two routes.
      Also improving the connection times to Greece and Eastern Mediterranean is a must.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous16:26

      Hot line, vidi nije sporno da je BEG postigao za 3,8% bolji rezultat u julu ove godine nego jula prošle godine,

      - ali i sa time je još uvijek kratak 38.000 putnika u usporedbi sa prošlih 12 mjeseci (možda će to staviti na nulu u augustu)

      - daleko je iza regije koja je imala bitno viči porast u julu kako u postocima, tako i u realnim brojkama

      Pa još jednom za tvoju informaciju

      - BEG je u zadnjih 10 mjeseci kratak za 38.000 putnika uključujući i jul, istovremeno ZAG je postigao 165.000 dodatnih putnika u posljednjih 12 mjeseci. Razlika između ZAG i BEG je manja za preko 200.000 putnika nego u isto vrijeme prošle godine

      - ista je stvar i sa SKP, PRN, SOF i drugim aerodromima, samo naravno ne 200.000 nego manje, ali još uvijek u koristi tih aerodroma

      Beograd stagnira (u stvari ni ne stagnira nego je ozbiljno pao) u prošlih godinu dana (bez obzira na rekordan Jul i maleno povečanje), ostali rastu dvoznamenkastom brojkom.

      Nadam se da ti je sada malo jasnije? Ili misliš da će BEG sa jednim/dva/tri mjeseca uspjeti anulirati ukupnu stagnaciju posljednjih 12 mjeseci?

      Delete
    16. Anonymous16:31

      Anonymous August 10, 2016 at 1:03 PM
      +1

      Delete
    17. Anonymous16:41

      +1 i još što je više linija i putnika iz tih aerodroma koji su do sada punili Beograd (Niš, Skopje, Priština, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Sofija, Atina), to će manje putnika biti za Beograd kao hub.

      Delete
    18. Anonymous16:41

      Dok nacrtas budalama da je bolje finansijski imat malo manje putnika nego leteti polupraznim avionom sto su poceli prve godine dotle mozes da batalis Montenegro Airlines Adriju i CTN. Wait!

      Delete
    19. Anonymous16:47

      Vrlo lijep riječnik. Nekome reči da je budala a niti ga ne poznati. No, nemamo svi sreće biti odgojeni.

      Znate li vi sponu između konektiranosti i broja putnika? Pa ako Air Serbija ne može održati svoju minimalnu konektiranost nešto mora promijeniti. Koncerpt broja valova, koncept regionalnog huba, broja ili uopće letova za JFK tijekom zime...

      Jer ovako forsira sustav koji se ne može održati i istovremeno ga uništava, on se iznutra urušava. Prošlih godinu dana i skoro 40.000 putnika manje je najbolji dokaz za to.

      Delete
    20. Anonymous16:53

      Ne lupetaj jedina konekcija im treba za Tel Aviv i Bejrut tu vuku najvise transfer putnika. Ne znas Beogradski aerodrom i mani se corava posla. CTN je sledeci u nizu propalih firmi brini o tome pojedose vas charteri.

      Delete
    21. Anonymous19:39

      Vidim i tebi nedostaje kućnog odgoja. Lupetam? E blago siromašnima duhom (da ne kažem neku drugu riječ) jel oni ni neznaju da su glu... pardon siromašni duhom.

      E da... baš ne znam situciju u Beogradu. Hahahahaha.... E baš si pogodio!

      Gledaj, rasprava između tebe i mene prestaje. Jer ja na takvom nivou ne mogu raspravljati. Treba bar nešto znati o sustavima zračnog prometa da bi se mogla voditi debata. Onog momenta kada ti kažeš da su dovoljne dvije linije od kojih jedna ima nekoliko direktnih dnevnih letova za JFK, ti stvarno nemaš najmanjeg pojma.

      Delete
    22. Hahaha...ovaj gore sa idejom da im jedino treba bolja konekcija sa Bejrutom i Tel Avivom je baš dobra komedija od lika!! Libanon ne treba ni spominjati, ta priča je ad acta što se tiče USA. A Ben Gurion je mega aerodrom, koji u samo jednom danu ima skoro jednaki broj direktnih letova za NYC kao Beograd u tjedan dana. Ma naravno...dobro da nije rekao da će putnici iz Dubaija koristiti Beograd kao hub za presjedanje za NY, hahahaha!!!!
      I normalno, nemoguće je pročitati išta ovdje, bez fantazija o propasti CTN. E pa gospodo, taj film nećete gledati. Prvenstveno zato što OU nema namjeru to bite off more than they van chew. Kao neki iz susjedstva.
      Naravno, ima načina i da se ne bih spuštao na razinu nacionalista; želim ASL i Beogradskom aerodromu sve najbolje.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:32

    It's a bit of the shame none of the seasonal routes are being kept, except for Hamburg. Kiev does extremely well in feeding JFK too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:52

      So which of seasonal routes do you suggest to be maintained during winter ?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:38

      Kiev and St Petersburg.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:06

      I can't believe Kiev can't be maintained at least three weekly.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:23

      I think the problem is a lack of aircraft for this route.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:38

      Anonymous at 12:23 PM
      No, they have aircraft to fly there during Summer but not during winter?
      Of course not.
      It is just management shooting themselves in the leg again...

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:23

      Don't you notice with only HAM being kept that JU is after yields. They are keeping the route to a higher yielding destination / Western Europe. Let's assume all new European routes have about same LF then it seems safe to assume HAM makes highest revenue/profit. Rather fly half empty with gd yields to HAM than support money losing NYC (particularly in winter) with money losing low yielding eastern European routes. Why would JU be this crazy to willingly make double losses? Just for "prestige"?

      Delete
  6. OT: Eurowings Europe will inaugurate VIE-ZAD from summer 2017

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:45

    Nice to see growth back on the agenda for them during the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:47

    The article on the same topic, but with the broader set of information couple of days ago.

    http://www.aviatica.rs/od-beograda-sankt-peterburga-tokom-zimskih-praznika/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:58

    Good news.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:24

      Good news???? To have disaster connectivity like last year on top of JFK flights which should be supported?

      If you can say that is a good news you are blind of cheering.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:31

      Tone down your hate. You are not a policeman here to tell people how they should react.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:14

      Anonymous August 10, 2016 at 10:24 AM

      How many times have you mentioned the word "disaster" today. You are so disgustingly negative.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:15

      +1

      Delete
  10. Anonymous11:35

    JFK se moze pet puta nedeljno puniti samo od srpskih putnika da ih pola izabere druge prevoznike. Bolje je da ne lete prazni. Disaster ne placa ni porez u Srbiji zasto se on buni?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:03

      if it were like that us-airlines would have started BEG (and ZAG) centuries ago. dream on! isti si ko disaster!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:23

      Vidis duplo vise ljudi iz same Srbije leti za NYC, sa cenom od 400 do 600 jura niko nema zasta da se mlati preko Amsterdama ili Beca ili Frankfurta po tim istim cena mnogo je lakse i lepse bez presedanja to dobro znas i zato pizdis. Za Amerikanjce je cena visa. Delta se opekla sa Budimpestom gde su imali dobar promet 3-4 meseca ali ostatak je isao slabo bilo je previse letova cena im je bila visa nego sa Al Italiom preko Milana. Nema im vise ni Maleva. Otada lete samo sezonski Atinu. Sa pet letova nedeljno su na konju sa NYC treba da gledaju da razvijaju druge daleke linije.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:31

      Ni Austria koja je kudikamo veća i daleko bogatija ne može sama da napuni letove do Amerike, nego mora da ima konekcije, a kamoli to može jedna Srbija.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:49

      ExYu molim te obrisi ovu tesku budaletinu Ostrijan drzi nekoliko linija letova do Amerike ne pet nedeljno na jednoj liniji.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:27

      Ne zaboravimo da OS leti i za Aziju ;)

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:50

      Bogami mnogo vas je koje majka odgojila nije. Čestitam i modu koji dozvoljava da se krše njegova pravila foruma jer eto normalno je da netko nekoga naziva budalama, budaletinama, da lupaju... Tako civiliziranu raspravu ne treba sankcionirati. Ne znam, ali u mom širem okruženju to se smatra krajnje nekulturnim i neprimjerenim.

      OS ima flotu od 81 aviona, godišnje preveze 11,3 milijuna putnika. Dakle 4-5 puta je veći od Air Serbije. Baza mu je aerodrom sa 23 milijuna putnika. I ima 5 linija prema Sjevernoj Americi u dvije prema Dalekom Istoku, dakle u korelaciji sa brojem putnika i nemaju bitno više linija nego Air Serbija.

      No, broj linija apsolutno ne igra ulogu u tome trebaš li konektirane linije ili ne. Imaš li jednu liniju ili 10 trebaš konektirane linije. Imaš li ih 10 moraš imati više konektiranih linija, i da Austrijan ima bitno više feeding linija. Ali reči da kompanija 4 puta manja, sa jednom linijom ne treba imati konektiranih linija da bi punila interkontinentalnu liniju je u najmanju ruku smješno.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous19:53

      A ti izgleda mozes da budes ovde policajac i da trazis da se brise ako je neko napisao "dobra vest".

      Delete
    8. Anonymous21:21

      Anon. 7.50. Ne slažem se sa tvojom kritikom BEG. Uzorak je selektivan, potpuno ignoriše astronomski rast koji je prethodio i smanjivanje letova ASL u zimu prošle godine. Ipak, slažem se s tobom 100% što se tiče neprihvatljivosti prostačkog uličarskog rečnika i odsustva bazičnog poštovanja sagovornika. Tu si u pravu potpuno.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous21:51

      U kom momentu sam ja nekome zabranio da kaže "dobra vest"? Molim te da mi citiraš samo jednu redinu reč gde sam ja to zabranio.

      To što se s nekim ne slažeš i kontriraš mu argumetnima, ne znači da mu nešto braniš. To se zove demokratija.

      Niko ne osporava astronomski rast, on je činjenica. I niko nije reagirao u prvi par meseci pada. Ali nakon 12 meseci vidljiv je trend. I on jest činjenica koja treba da brine.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous14:16

    I am still interested to see whether they will bring in a second A330 to the fleet over the winter though if they do it will definitely be towards the end of the season.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:30

      I doubt that new long haul destinations would be launched during the winter season. Probably not until next summer.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous14:17

    They should first boost frequencies, then make seasonal routes work year-round and then they consider new destinations.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous14:22

    Which one of the new routes is doing the best for them? St. Peterburg, Kiev or Hamburg?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous14:23

    Will they finally get additional regional jets? I don't understand what's stopping them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:27

      Money.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:41

      They don't have to buy them, they can lease them.
      Lease rates are at a 5 year low.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:07

      So what! They don't even have the money to lease them!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:11

      Is the financial situation of JU that bad Anon 5:07?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:14

      Yeah I'm sure he knows Air Serbia's financial situation. All the way from Austria. Croatia's INN-NS.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous14:29

    Ocekivano. Dobre vesti.

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  16. Anonymous14:31

    It will be interesting too se how things will develop for them in the future. Long haul makret could also influence its inter-European network.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:58

      Long haul will simply ruin them.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous14:43

    Let's see how they intend to keep the JFK flight full once the winter hits and the fog plagues down BEG airport. Remember that all the ATR's are going to be diverted ... it is going to be interesting how they do!...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:58

      That is easy. Like they have done each previous winter with the same ATRs.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:33

      Today JU501 from New York landed at Belgrade with 113 passengers on board. Not many ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:44

      Anonymous 3:33 PM that is a horrible load for the middle of August!

      Delete
    4. Stefan15:46

      And you trust anyone that writes whatever here behind anonymous nick names? You are right. Disaster! Distaster!

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:54

      Stefan you know otherwise?
      What was the number of passengers on today's JU501?

      Delete
  18. Anonymous16:49

    114 was the official number

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:50

      Since it is the official number where can we see it?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:26

      In the documents handled by ASGS that we work for. It's also in the system, it's not so hard to get the information.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous17:54

    5x weekly New York in winter will be desastrous - and the money that is lost will be not available for more important things next summer.
    3x would be more than sufficient.

    Also big problem for Air Serbia is lack of aircraft.
    Thats the reason for discontinuing Kiev and Saint Peterburg.
    And frequencies can also not grow - especially not regionally.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:14

      +1 on keeping JFK 5x weekly. Its going yo be half empty planes.
      BUT lack of aircraft during winter does not sound very convincing to me.
      Their flight schedule will be much lighter than the present.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:16

      More changes are to come. These are just the first ones.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous18:57

    Ot: http://www.anna.aero/2016/08/10/wizz-air-launches-wonderful-seven/

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous20:24

    ...."Flights from Tirana, Tel Aviv and Larnaca have proved popular with transfer passengers heading to and from the United States"...

    Administrator, where did you get this information from ? Is really Air Serbia the source ? Or is it only your impression ? Regarding
    Tirana, yes, you are right, but regarding Larnaca predominantly not , and regarding Tel Aviv absolutely not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:07

      I guess for TLV it makes sense since connections are available only once a week, on Sabbath. lol

      Delete