Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has seen its charter traffic soar this year with passenger numbers up 30% in this segment, helping it achieve its overall record results. The holiday season, which usually runs from June until the end of August, has been extended until late September, with charters to Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia to run until mid-October. The Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, Egyptian and Tunisian markets continue to generate the greatest demand for charter flights from the Serbian capital. This summer alone, some 120.000 passengers were carried on leisure services from Belgrade to twelve destinations in Greece. A further 38.000 travelled to Turkey, while it is estimated that by the end of the summer season some 30.000 passengers will be carried to Egypt, 24.000 to Tunisia, 13.000 to Spain and 12.500 travellers will have flown to Italy.
There is also growing demand for charter flights to Belgrade from foreign markets. In a statement, Belgrade Airport, said, "This year has seen a significant rise in the number of foreigners travelling to Belgrade and Serbia on charter flights. Israeli carriers Israir and Arkia Israeli Airlines handled some 55.000 travellers by the end of August. The majority of these passengers booked their holidays through tour operators. During the summer, there was also a series of charters from Turkey run by SunExpress, bringing Turkish holidaymakers to Belgrade, while Iran's Qeshm Air recently commenced charter flights from Tehran". Besides these, other airlines maintaining charter services to and from Belgrade this year include Air Serbia, Tunisair, Aegean Airlines and Ellinair.
Air Serbia itself has recorded strong travel demand for its Aviolet charter flights this summer, with the airline operating well over 600 return charter services to popular destinations during the holiday season, in comparison to roughly 530 last year. Passenger numbers on Air Serbia's dedicated charter brand have grown over the years and now handle over 90.000 passengers annually. The Aviolet network has expanded to 23 cities across five countries this year, including Spain, Greece, Italy, Turkey and Tunisia. The total number of services continues to increase further as tour operators book additional charter flights to cater to the travel requirements of holidaymakers in Serbia. All of the airline's charter flights are maintained with a fleet of three Boeing 737-300 aircraft which have the capacity to seat 144 passengers.
Great news for Serbia! Glad to see that tourism is developing nicely
ReplyDeleteSo around 300,000+ pax on charter flights only. Impressive.
ReplyDeleteEven today there are charters to Hurghada and Antalya and its 1st October!
ReplyDeleteIt's impressive how much more demand there was this year. I guess it has to do with the economy stabilizing and unemployment falling. I can only imagine what we will see next summer.
DeleteMy guess is that we will see double the flights to Egypt and Tunis.
And hopefully Toronto, at least seasonal
DeleteI hope next winter (or summer) FZ and QR add more flights. Seems like both are on a roll in Belgrade. Maybe flydubai could add a late night departure with a morning arrival to Dubai. This could be good for locals.
DeleteVery good reply to so called experts providing all the time information how Serbian market is poor and especially those who asked what Belgrade / Serbia can offer to foreign tourists.
DeleteAbove article gives them the best possible answer.
NEO has come to BEG once again today thanks to Pegasus. :)
DeleteLH is also sending its NEO tonight. :)
DeleteD-AINH
Wondering how many passengers BEG will manage this year.
ReplyDelete5,3 or 5.4 million.
DeleteAll depends how September performs. I think October and November will be rather strong because of all the extra capacity.
DeleteI just looked at LH on BEG and interesting, they seem to have a lot of capacity on offer these days
DeleteMUC
Saturday A319 2x
Today A319, CRJ900
Monday A319
FRA
Saturday A320 2x
Today A320 2x
Monday A320 2x
A320 168 seats
A319 138 seats
CRJ900 90 seats
I remember someone on here saying how LH won't be reducing BEG this winter which is also great.
DeleteEllinair also introduced 'charter' flights from SKG this summer. Given how strong Mouzenidis has become I wouldn't be surprised if we see some more destinations next summer.
ReplyDeleteIt was announced but it was not flying SKG this summer, just HER two time per week as regular flight.
DeleteWas the SKG flight cancelled? I remember it was supposed to operate every 10 days.
DeleteI know JU had charters to SKG this summer.
DeleteATH too.
DeleteDobri rezultati ulivaju nadu...
ReplyDeleteWas there a strong demand for Ohrid flights by the serbian people (holiday)? or just transit passangers?
ReplyDeleteGo SRB!
OHD was JU's worst performing route this summer, LF was around 42%. I think they moved it to the night so as to offer more connections.
DeleteWill Aviolet be around next year and will they keep flying 737s?
ReplyDeleteNo, AND and ANJ are leaving the fleet soon. Don't know about the other two.
DeleteFinally !!! I hope they (733) all gone . It's so annoying when you expect to fly with an airbus and oops ! you get those old 733 ! They can easyly schedule their charters with the airbuses they have .
DeleteWhat about a scenario where you are supposed to fly on an Atr but you get Aviolet? :D
DeleteSome days ago we were supposed to fly on a full Atr but ended up flying in ANJ. The plane inside looked quite nice and I was surprised how comfortable it was.
if it is so, they need five more airbuses for summer season !
DeleteI personally like very much to fly on JU B733 and I am always glad to see B733 will replace some a bit boring A319
Delete@Anon 10:23
DeleteThe same for me :)
I also like very much to fly on JU B733, those are machines of my childhood :) To bad to hear about AND and ANJ, because cabin of these two are in better condition than ANK and ANI
Delete+1
DeleteWell the neos start coming next year.
DeleteThat's still a big if
DeleteSince we are talking about extra capacity in Belgrade, we were informed that LO will be increasing its capacity this winter.
ReplyDeleteDaily flights but on days 2-3-6 they will be operated by the E75.
From 18.12.2017 Monday flights will also get it.
Last year they were all scheduled as E70. I am certain we will see some E95s this winter in BEG.
Good to see Belgrade Airport growing in all areas this year - scheduled traffic, charters, flight operations, cargo.
ReplyDeleteI flew in this morning from Abu Dhabi with Etihad. LF was 100% including 16/16 in business class, most of which were Middle Eastern and Indian passengers. As our flight was delayed by about an hour in Abu Dhabi when we arrived at BEG there were Air Serbia staff waiting for transfer passengers. There were transfers to Prague, Podgorica and Vienna, which I thought was interesting.
As for Etihad, pretty good service. Announcements were also made in Serbian, menus also in Serbian version. Overall good.
A lot of EY staff coming to BEG fly business so they might not have been fully paying passengers.
DeleteMaybe but not on this flight since I was in business. There were a total of 3 Serbian passengers, myself included and an older Australian couple which I assume were of Serbian origin although they spoke in English among them and I saw they were carrying Australian passports. I know this because we were all in the same bus going to the plane in Abu Dhabi. The rest were all Middle Eastern and 3 Indian passengers (I was sitting next to one and he was going to Podgorica). I can guarantee you they were not EY staff. I assume there is more and more business travel because there are a lot of UAE companies now doing business in Serbia.
DeleteThat's great to hear, I am still hoping EY will respond by at least adding another 2 weekly flights to counter QR and FZ. I don't understand EY, the loads are there and i am sure yields are not bad either.
DeleteHow was the service onboard?
Service was great. Nice and attentive staff who did a good job. Breakfast was also nice, there are 4 choices plus the side menu with some snacks. Crew introduced itself, addressed everyone by name. One of the crew members was Serbian.
Delete10 days ago I flew the BEG-AUH leg which was also full. Also full in business class but most passengers on that leg (in business) were Serbian so whether there were EY staff among them, maybe.
Cool, thanks.
DeleteGreat work BEG. Anyone know how many passengers they had in September?
ReplyDeleteI guess we'll know tomorrow but I guess 10% more.
DeleteCharter traffic is doing amazing this year. Well done.
ReplyDeleteWhat is driving this growth? Disposable income must be growing in Serbia?
DeleteThe economy has been slowly recovering and there is more FDI. For example, industrial output grew by 7.2% in August.
DeleteIt's also good to see inbound charters increasing.
ReplyDeleteBali, Sri Lanka charters with JU instead of useless JFK flights in winter.
ReplyDeleteJU doesn't organise charters, tour operators do. So if there is no interest from Serbian tour operators to undertake long haul charters, then JU will no doubt continue with their "useless JFK flights in winter".
DeleteRemember, it is a HUGE risk for any tour operator to commit to charter and fill an aircraft with 254 seats. Especially when it has to fly and sit on the ground for 7 or so days in Bali, Sri Lanka or whatever other exotic location you can think of.
The cost of a block seat reservation on a scheduled airline costs significantly less and is much less of a risk for the tour operator and much easier to sell.
There is a rumour going around that another airline will announce flights to BEG in a week or two. Not major but not bad either. Let's wait and see.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree let's wait and see but I am not holding my breath. There isn't really a candidate that would make sense.
DeleteAir Arabia je u pitanju-uspostavljaju let za Beograd.
DeleteDoubt it, what would they do in BEG?
DeleteSumnjao ti, ili ne sumnjao-oni uspostavljaju letove..
DeleteWhen? Sounds to me like it's one of those predictions made about ZAG. lol
Delete7:20
DeleteGood one :D
Yes, it is confirmed information. Their representative organizes the meeting in Belgrade in day or two
DeleteWhat exactly would they do in BEG? I doubt there is a market to Sharjah.
DeletePa mozda nije Er Arabija UAE, mozda he Er Arabija Maroko, i letovi za Kazablanku, sto je vec najavljivano od strane Vlade i ANT/BEG, a potpisan je i sporazum. Vise logike ima da bude Kazablanka, nego Sarza gde vec let Etihad za Abudabi I Flajdubaj za Dubaj
DeleteТо би било лепо, баш би било фино да се реализује. Иако нису нешто супер као компанија, опет су бољи од РАМ-а.
DeleteZagreb sada nije tema, Beograd ide korak po korak-Njujork, Peking, sledeće godine Kazablanka i neki indijski grad. A ako Kinezi dobiju koncesiju-na redu je Šangaj.
ReplyDeleteПостоји могућност да Air China уведе лет за Шангај 2 пута недељно крајем 2018.
DeleteDa ne bude i ova mogucnost kao ona onomad da Rouge dolazi u BEG, pa da bude na kraju Air China i Sangaj iz Zagreba
DeletePa naravno da će biti letova izmedju Beograda i Toronta-još uvek traju pregovori o sporazumu o vazdušnom saobraćaju sa Kanadom, tako da je uspostavljanje sezonskih letova 2019. vrlo verovatno, pošto je za sledeću godinu možda već kasno. Inače 2 leta nedeljno u sezoni bi se lako popunila..I čemu više poredjenja sa Zagrebom? Oni bi sa tolikim turizmom morali odavno da budu povezani sa većim delom sveta direktnim linijama makar u sezoni, a oni se ovamo takmiče sa kontinentalnom Srbijom. Mi već imamo celogodišnje letove za Njujork i Peking što je za ovako malu zemlju bez jakog turizma ogroman uspeh. Samo tako treba nastaviti i širiti mrežu sa Tesle. Sa koncesionarima Kinezima, ili Koreancima sve će biti mnogo lakše.
Delete*Корејцима
DeleteСа свим се осталим слажем, посебно са тиме да не треба поредити та два града јер је динамика скроз другачија. На крају крајева то се и види из данашњег текста. Искрен да будем мени је драже што се код нас развија саобраћај на основу домаће потражње јер је ту динамика и понуда увек боља.
Шта је код српског тржишта јако занимљиво је то да сваке зиме имамо све више седишта у понуди ка истоку. Ако се испостави да Ер Арабија долази онда ће флајдубаи добити озбиљну конкуренцију за локалце којих има баш доста. Процењује се да око 15.000 Срба живи доле.
Исто тако, Београд нема толико осцилација што се тиче броја летова лети и зими. Ту је углавном кривац Ер Србија али сви знамо зашто то раде и ко им води фирму.
Šta radi YU-ARA u Abu Dabiju?
ReplyDeletePlanirani tehnicki servis
Delete"The airline has planned a temporary stop-in-service between the two cities from October 1 to October 13 due to scheduled heavy maintenance of its sole Airbus A330-200 aircraft, with flights to resume as per normal from October 14."
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/05/air-serbia-to-maintain-long-haul.html
A ko leti JFK za JU od 1.do 13.oktobra?
DeleteNiko, nema letova
DeleteI see all over posters promoting package tours to North Korea and China. I guess Hainan has also stimulated some demand from Belgrade.
ReplyDelete11 days for €1.990 which isn't bad. It's organized by Jungle Travel which are extremely popular over here.