NEWS FLASH
Austrian Airlines flight OS769 en route from Vienna to Pristina made an emergency landing in Belgrade last night after a loud bang was reported by passengers while the Fokker 100 aircraft was flying over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The jet landed in the Serbian capital late in the evening. Albanian media have reported that many passengers who were solely Kosovan passport holders were unable to disembark the jet, while passengers with Kosovan ID cards were allowed to leave. However, these reports have not been confirmed by Serbian authorities or the airport itself. Under a freedom of movement agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, Kosovan passport holders can transfer through Belgrade Airport onto other flights, although the implementation of the deal remains patchy. According to various unconfirmed reports, travellers who disembarked the aircraft left Belgrade this morning on a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul after which they were flown to Pristina. Others are still believed to be in Belgrade. Austrian confirmed its aircraft suffered a technical problem. This is the latest incident to have involved an Austrian Airlines aircraft diverting to Belgrade in the last few weeks. On October 21, a flight from Larnaca to Vienna made an emergency landing in Belgrade due to a cracked windshield, while on October 31 a flight from Vienna to Tel Aviv was forced to land in the Serbian capital due to a technical fault.
Austrian Airlines is such a joke of an airline! They don't even service their aircraft as they should.
ReplyDeleteGood to know that everyone is well and safe. I do wonder if it would be cheaper to fly them on JU to SKP and then just bus them to PRN.
Turkish is Star Alliance so I assume that's why they were put onto the flight to IST.
DeleteSerbian authorities did not allow passengers with Kosovar passports to leave the airport to find other travel alternatives.Serbian Government dos not recognise Kosovar Passports, allowed to leave only those who have been equipped with Kosovar IDs.
DeleteThis proves that the Serbian authorities in tragic circumstances do not respect and do not allow the free movement of citizens, in this case Kosovo.
Oh come on. Circumstances are far from tragic. Nobody died, nothing happened. They remained in the transit zone and waited for the next flight. It's an airport, not a prison.
DeleteExact same thing happened to me couple of months ago in AUH, didn't hold an UAE visa, couldn't go to a hotel, had to stay for 20 hours in the terminal - after medical emergency!
If holders of the so called Kosovo passports have a problem then they should contact OS which decided to land in BEG and not in OSI or anywhere else.
DeleteBelgrade has no obligation to accept these passports.
"This proves that the Serbian authorities in tragic circumstances do not respect and do not allow the free movement of citizens, in this case Kosovo."
DeleteGet your facts straight before writing nonsense. Free movement of which citizens? All of them are citizens of Serbia, so have the right to free movement, provided they are in possession of legal travel documents issued by Serbia.
Yes, stupid people. They should fly JU with those brand new 31 years old 737-300s or 26 years old ATR72-200s.
ReplyDeleteMost of Fokkers are newer than JU's ATR and I'm sure Austrian's maintanance is spot on.
Austrian Fokker/ Dash fleet is museum-worthy! At least JU uses the old B733 as back-up. When I compare OU's Dash and Austrian, the latter seem also very uncomfortable due to their age.
ReplyDeleteI would not be surprised if maintenance is also an issue considering Austrian employs the 'scrap metal' only on Eastern/ South Eastern Europe flights. I would always choose Croatia/ Adria/ Air Serbia over Austrian for West Europe- exYU bound travels due to these concerns, but also recently the onboard product, such as Air Serbia, is at least one class ahead of Austrian.
Questions: Do you know anything at all about OS? You are so premature! Have you ever flown in any OS q8-400? Do you know they fly to Germany too - or is that also "Balkan" for you?
DeleteOh, yes I have, many times. Hence my comment! Towards the Balkans, Austrian offers overpriced service in 'scrap metal' old tins like Fokker 70/100 and Dash. It's true, and everyone who's used them knows it's true
DeleteTotal nonsense. If I compare the OS E195 new planes and FK fleet, FK is much more comfortable and generally better. And I know people with same opinion. Of course feel free to have a different opinion but I am sure outside of Serbia you will not find many people who support your thesis of JU being classes (or even one milimeter) better than OS.
DeleteOh and BTW, Austrian Technik (BTS) and Tyronean Technik (INN) have very good names in whole Europe - so much about your knowledge about aviation apart from being a JU cheerleader.
But yes, mostly I also find OS quite expensive on short flights to Vienna but that is solely because of many monopolies and duopolies on these routes. Eg. I would love that HG still flew to BEG, prices also for JU would drop massively but I ain't dreaming. Fact is generally OS is light-years ahead of JU and I honestly doubt this could ever change.
@Anonymus 10:18: Apparently you tend to praise Austrian, but you don't rebut my arguments. I am not Serbian, and I don't live in Serbia, and I have criticized JU many times here.
DeleteI never claimed to be an expert, but I do travel very often on the regional routes to the Balkans to have an informed opinion. Of course, you are entitled to your own, I just think that you don't provide any evidence to the contrary of my thesis that OS's old tins are exploited heavily on the routes to the Balkans and Eastern Europe. I never said there weren't operational reasons to do so, but merely stating my observation that on the Balkans and East routes Austrian routinely dispatches their old tin. I enjoy travelling JU recently, and I do think they are making an effort.
OS avioni su u jako lošem stanju i ovo me ne iznenađuje.Često letim sa njima preko Beča za Toronto i ne znam da li je Foker ili 767 gori..svi su katastrofa
ReplyDeleteOS avioni su u jako lošem stanju i ovo me ne iznenađuje.Često letim sa njima preko Beča za Toronto i ne znam da li je Foker ili 767 gori..svi su katastrofa
ReplyDeleteJednom sam se prevario pa sam leteo interkontinentalno sa njima... Ex Lauda 767. Nikad više. Oni su jedina kompanija za koju sam doneo takvu odluku - to nisam uradio čak ni nakon Aeroflotovog Tupoljeva do Moskve.
DeleteSada ce budaletine da hvale OS, a u stvari su to sve zaposleni Tyrolean Airwaysa koga su u mahinacijama ukinuli. Jos jedan raspali clan LH grupacije. LH jede svoju decu.
ReplyDeleteObrni okreni Tyrolean danas ne bi postojao jer jednostavno ne bi preziveli. Ovako je barem ime delimicno prezivelo.
DeleteAustrian should start taking these concerns very seriously.
ReplyDeleteBased on the statement given by OS's PR to N1 TV only 6 out of 72 passengers were not allowed to leave BEG apt. 66 of them were taken to a hotel and all 72 pax have left BEG on an OS 772 back to VIE
ReplyDeleteThese political nonsense between Serbia and Kosovo is so ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time there ware an Austrian A320 flying VIE-SJJ that also turned around back to VIE. It happend near Derventa (VOR-DME) "DER" is the nearst navigation point. I saw it on the FlightRadar24
ReplyDeleteThe Dash Q400 Series had its first flight in 1998 so how should they be older than JUs oldest ATRs? Furthermore there are some 320s at OS and LH which are actually older than the Q400s.
ReplyDeletePersonally I prefer the F70/100 as they have more comfortable seats than their 320s...and since the Q400 have received the new interior they are far better than JUs ATRs in my opinion.
And the reason why they operate a high number of routes to CEE by Q400s and F70s is not because they think that this market does not "deserve" more comfortable planes but simply because of demand.
koha.net is not Albanian but South Serbian Province based website.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be done and in what order?
ReplyDelete