Several airports in the former Yugoslavia are seeking nonstop services to the United States, among which are Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Skopje and Pristina. The governments in both Croatia and Macedonia are providing support in securing flights to the US, which they hope could commence in the near future.
The Croatian Ministry for Tourism is aiming for US services to be launched from Zagreb and Dubrovnik on a seasonal summer basis in 2018, before extending the flights to year-round operations in 2019. The government is seeking out a carrier willing to run the service, with airlines from both the US and Europe, including leisure carriers, all in contention. However, Lufthansa's low cost unit Eurowings, which has expanded significantly across Croatia this year and was seen as a potential operator, has temporarily ruled out introducing long haul flights from the country. "For now we are focusing on the German market. Croatia has great potential in the long haul sector, both seasonally to the coast, as well as year-round. We have no plans to expand our long haul network to Croatia at this time, but as the market grows and the demand for point-to-point flying increases, everything is possible in the future. However, currently we are focusing on our priorities", Eurowings' Route Development Manager, Ivan Oreč, told "Avioradar" recently.
Skopje Airport has submitted a joint proposal with the Macedonian government for Turkish Airlines to introduce services to the United States via Skopje. Macedonia and Turkey have an Open Skies Agreement in place with both the United States and Canada, which permits for a Turkish carrier to be issued fifth freedom rights by regulators from all parties involved. Turkish Airlines is currently studying the proposal and has expressed interest in the potential service. "Turkish Airlines is one of the world's leading carriers. We believe that there is a chance that, for the first time, Skopje could have an intercontinental service that would cover the needs of Macedonians living abroad. It would also greatly increase passenger numbers at Alexander the Great Airport and would help turn it into a regional hub", the Macedonian government said in a statement.
New York was the busiest unserved route from Pristina in 2016 for a second year in a row, with passenger numbers from the airport to the United States continuing to grow. Some 15.000 travellers flew from Pristina to New York (JFK and Newark Liberty) last year. Of those, 10.900 were bound for New York's JFK Airport and 4.100 to Newark Liberty Airport. Other routes in North America which saw a notable number of passengers departing Pristina included Chicago, Washington and Toronto. In 2009, Scanderbeg Air, a short-lived tour operator that contracted with Sky King Airlines, introduced two weekly flights between Pristina and New York with a Boeing 767-200ER aircraft. Services were maintained twice per week between June and September. Since then, there have been no flights between the two cities. Pristina Airport's General Manager, Haldun Firat Kokturk, previously said the US city continues to be a target destination. "The airport is focusing on opening new services to destinations not directly served from Pristina. This should have a positive impact in covering more of the countries and catchment areas where our diaspora is located, and will generate additional passengers visiting Kosovo either for leisure or business".
Air Serbia is currently the only carrier in the former Yugoslavia operating services to the United States, with flights to New York launched in June 2016. The airline has captured a significant number of travellers from across the former Yugoslavia for its transatlantic service and has carried over 70.000 passengers on the route during its first year of operations. However, its flights to New York see highly seasonal travel patterns, which would prove a challenge for any airline operating such service to the region. The relative lack of business travel between the former Yugoslavia and the United States would also impact on the seasonality of the flights.
Air Serbia Belgrade - New York - Belgrade average cabin load factor
| Month | Load factor (%) BEG - JFK | Load factor (%) JFK - BEG |
|---|---|---|
| JUN 2016 | 81.0 | 91.5 |
| JUL | 72.8 | 89.4 |
| AUG | 93.9 | 59.3 |
| SEP | 82.3 | 63.3 |
| OCT | 55.4 | 65.8 |
| NOV | 65.2 | 53.3 |
| DEC | 70.3 | 72.3 |
| JAN 2017 | 65.6 | 79.9 |
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the United States
LOT Polish Airlines recently announced the launch of nonstop flights from Budapest to both New York and Chicago in May 2018. The carrier's CEO, Rafał Milczarski, noted that the airline will be focusing on the Baltics and the Balkans region, which could see similar expansion in the future. Notably, emphasis will be put on cities in the area which serve as hubs for Star Alliance member airlines with whom LOT can cooperate. Both Zagreb and Ljubljana are home to national carriers which are part of the alliance, while Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways codeshare on LOT's flights from their respective hubs to Warsaw.
Comments
seems everyone wants to have flights to the US all of a sudden.
Remember this: if one starts, you will see that another will follow too. For example UA (which would make most sense), than AC or others will follow. Its interesting to see how airlines act. It can take time until a dest is launched, but if one enters the market it often attracts others too.
My guess is that Croatia will see UA AC or DL in the next 2 years to come.
Nice would be LOT B788, my personal favor
Enjoy yr day guys. Rgds fm ZRH
Remember EK saying at this point we have no interest for any Exyu services...
I don't know why it is such a disgrace to have a connecting flight to USA. You have a lot of options from a lot of hubs in Europe and you can pick a time of departure and place and time of arrival in the USA, if you go with connecting flights.
Also, are you seriously comparing BEG to SKP? LOL
This is significant for the airport itself as these flights are highly profitable in terms of handling, and the airline operating them, and the connecting pax generated as a result.
All this while the large majority of people can't afford an airplane ticket to the Adriatic coast and a nice 2 week vacation, let along going to the States or anywhere else.
That's why this "we are proud we have a national carrier" logic is completely insane. Ask how many British people feel ashame of their country because BA is not government owned?
I lived in FL for 4 years, the Macedonian community which lives there is quite large with organizations in both Tampa Bay and Palm Beach. I'm not saying there are 100k Macedonians living there, but certainly 10k with Macedonian descent. The number of Macedonians in LA metro area is much larger.
But flight to NYC initially will be sufficient.
Why would "the rest of the region" dream of unprofitable routes?
And don't mention that they make it up in J class, because J class to the US is currently on sale for 1700 USD.
Stop spreading misinformation. They are not planning these flights with the Atrs but with the SAABs as they are faster. :)
Maybe no one complains about LH on here since the portal is called Ex YU aviation news. ;)
- the flights were for 4 months marketed with 'subject to approval' which I am sure put off travelers. We shouldn't forget that Swift Air tried Chicago-Zagreb-Belgrade a couple years back and was denied to allow pax to board last minute due to issues with paperwork, while pax waited at the gate.
- JU isn't able to connect JFK well into its network. Regionally, JU should have an advantage 1) because of local O&D demand, 2) the ATR is a great aircraft for the short hops. However the ATR fleet is small and unreliable.
- There are destinations JU could market and don't. For example, JU's JFK flights fits well onto EY's AUH-BEG flights however that option is not purchasable.
- JU's marketing isn't great and I am sure there is mass that don't know about these flights. The Times Square adds were great, however more could be done. I think JU should get together in more campaigns with tourism boards who would long side advertise JU.
- JU needs to get more active with more interline and codeshare partners. Great that JU flies to JFK, but then what?
Having said that, I think JU needs to alter their fleet a bit. 5-6 ERJ's to replace 2 A320's and 2 A319's would do wonders in adding frequencies which in turn would boost JFK.
DL? UA - is that United airlines and AC, is that Air Canada? DL might be Delta airlines ?
Don't know any airline codes, so you need to pardon my ignorance.
and fyi, LH also doesn't fly to Finnland, Bulgaria and the baltic countries.
LCCs don't really generate revenue for the airport, yet they take valuable slots. Priority for the management atm is to raise the revenue from current €158 million to around €300-320 million and after tax profits from current €5-10 million to around €20-30 million per year.
Hardly possible with LCCs.
And LH flies 5 times daily to Sofija
Also,airports such as ATH, BEG, VIE, PRG, BUD, OTP, SOF, WAW... all have many lowcosts flying there while some don't have long-haul flights. Are you saying they are wrong?
You have no idea. LH flies to all Baltic states (Talinn, Riga and Vilnius), Bulgaria (Sofia) and Finland (Helsinki and Kittila).
Unless Macedonia and SKP can demonstrate appropriate level of security, procedures, etc., there will be no flights to the USA.
And also not big market to serve New York flight. It's much better to introduce flight to these 3 busiest airports in Euorpe where they can travel to US then direct line to.
ZAG have the biggest potential for future US flights.
Ciao
Connecting traffic for airlines NEVER EVER gives them better yields. P2P traffic is significantly better yielding than is connecting traffic.
Think before you write next time, or certainly before you throw condescending remarks to others
ASL has a market but the yields are not there. So what's the point of it if it makes you as much money as the transfer ones? Duh
Also, ASL's connecting passengers are mostly low yielding because its brand is unknown anywhere and its network is rather sad.
If a passenger had a choice between flying on LH for €500 and ASL for €450 who do you think he will chose? A global brand or an airline that has not updated its IFE since the route was launched?
Duuuuuuuh the choice is obvious.
O&D is in theory higher yielding, however, in practice it doesn't have to be so.
Take BEG-JFK as an example. O&D should be bringing in money for ASL but the problem is that both LH and OS sell their own JFK flights from BEG for as little as €450. That means that JU's return fares from BEG can't be much higher otherwise passengers will fly with a one stop in stead of directly.
That means JU must keep return fares to New York similar to those that are offered on the market especially since its onboard product leaves a lot to be desired.
So in theory the O&D should be bringing in the big buck but in this case that's not the case given the market realities. Furthermore, unlike LH or OS, JU doesn't have the kind of passengers that will pay a lot of money to fill the front of the cabin.
So O&D is mostly low yielding while connecting passengers have to be too since they have no real regional network to offer convenient connections to New York, especially when compared to TK, LO, OS, LH, AF...
So basically, JU carries crumbs, leftovers who are only there because they found a cheap last minute deal. ;)
Now, if ASL had a strong brand and a good regional network then the situation would have been much different. Unfortunately it doesn't have a management that's competent enough to make this happen.
You don't get it, JFK is supposed to boost the regional network!
SKP is way behind PRN.
PRN already has direct flights to FRA, LGW, CDG, MUC, ZRH...etc
Pristina absolutely need non-stop flights to US.
SKP doesn't have flights to FRA, CDG, LHR/LGW, MUC...etc
SKP need flights to 3 busiest airports in Europe first later US.
Currently Zagreb has 11+15 single isle slots, however, 2 slots are for cargo airlines, DHL, UPS, FedEx and such on old apron...
And new apron if two or more wide body aircraft land, then there's only 8 slots, so total number of slots is around 20. Once Korean Air with B777 arrives, China Southern A330 + Qatar sending B787, Emirates 777, Air Canada R with A330/B7673 and ANA with B777, you end up with no slots available at the airport, well this is worst case scenario down the line in 3-4 years, but airports need to plan these things way ahead.
LCCs will just take valuable parking slots and they pay nothing. Reason why Zagreb isn't rushing to engage LCCs just yet.
EasyJet, Voltea, Vueling, TransAvia France and Monarch are LCCs, well considered LCCs, as is German Wing, for Zagreb needs that is more then enough I should think.
EasyJet, Voltea, Transavia France all announced their intention of adding Zagreb as destination in 2018, this blog posted news about that. Vueling and German Wings already fly to Zagreb and German Wings has a base in Zagreb, flying to Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Koln/Bonn, Stuttgart and Berlin out of Zagreb.
Also what other airports do, and how they set their strategy of expansion is their business, what Zagreb is doing it trying to increase revenue and traffic at the same time. Airport is managed by a company that priorities profit over pax numbers, they want to see revenue and profits grow so they can pay for obligations towards Croatian state.
The message isn't confusing, you're just too thick and stupid to understand it. Man clearly explains you things, yet you troll him. He shouldn't have bothered to be honest, you're simply too stupid to comprehend.
PRN and SKP at first should attract much more legacy companies and connect to main hub in europe like CDG, AMS and LHR. And also Kosovian and Macedonian citizen will harder get visa to US because of so many people who wants immigrate far away from Macedonia and Kosovo.
Much more opportunity to get US flights is Zagreb - but it will run seasonal, not year round for begging.
Muko moja. Ti koji ostaju su bez ikakvog papira ovdje I mogu pojacati postojecu liniju samo ako ih policija ulovi I posalje prvim letom doma. A ako se itko domogne papira, proci ce 5 do 10 godina. Isto taking, zahvalite toj mladezi koja ostaje na velikom postotku odbijenih za vizu, upravo zbog tih specijalaca koji krse pravila J1 vise