Air Serbia to downsize winter operations

Air Serbia will rationalise its destination network during the upcoming 2017/18 winter season when compared to last year in line with its ongoing cost cutting measures aimed at increasing cost effectiveness and adapting to the needs of the market. This winter, the airline will discontinue its daily flights between Belgrade and Abu Dhabi, exactly four years since the route's launch. Furthermore, its Hamburg and Larnaca service, which ran on a year-round basis last year, will now have limited operations during the winter season. Flights to Hamburg will be maintained only between December 18 and January 8, while services to Larnaca will be suspended between November 15 and December 19, and then again from January 23 until March 16.

Several destinations within Air Serbia's network will sustain frequency cuts, mostly once per week. Services to Beirut, Berlin, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Tel Aviv and Tivat will have one flight less compared to last winter, while services to Banja Luka will be reduced from three to two per week from November 21 until mid-December and then again from February until March. Flights to Ljubljana and Zagreb will also be reduced by two per week for a total of ten weekly services. Previously, Air Serbia's CEO, Dane Kondić, noted, "You don't solve seasonality by flying three or four new routes to various places. What we should be doing is growing our load factors with what we have. That's how you make a company stronger. There is still much more room to grow within what we have. The focus is going to be on internal consolidation and strengthening the business before we go on to any major further growth. We have to get better returns on what we have".

On the other hand, Air Serbia will extend its newly launched seasonal summer service to Venice throughout the year, which will be maintain four times per week over the winter. Furthermore, its Zurich operations will be boosted by one weekly flight for a total of two daily services. Operations on the airline's flagship service to New York will remain unchanged with three flights per week, as well as an additional fourth weekly service between December 15 and January 12. It should be noted that, as per usual, Air Serbia will increase frequencies on the majority of its routes during the busy holiday period between mid-December and mid-January. The Serbian carrier has previously noted it plans to lease out one of its Airbus A319 aircraft during the winter season.