Montenegro Airlines will be making changes to its summer network, which begins on March 25, with the carrier to put a greater focus on its operations from Tivat, as well as charter flights. From Podgorica, the airline will maintain a similar number of services to that of last summer, however, it will no longer run seasonal flights from the Montenegrin capital to Moscow. Instead, it will add an extra weekly departure to Dusseldorf, Lyon and Zurich, with the latter to operate daily. Services to Paris will be reduced from eight to five per week, as the airline faces stiff competition on flights to France from TUIfly, which will this year introduce services from Paris, Lyon, Lille and Nantes to Podgorica.
In addition to its scheduled flights, Montenegro Airlines will be operating a number of charters from Podgorica. These include services to Tehran and Tel Aviv, which commence on March 19 and May 2 respectively. Furthermore, the carrier will run charters from Podgorica to Amman, Helsinki, Oslo, Bari, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Napoli, Bratislava, Linz, Salzburg, Kosice and Ostrava. From Tivat, Montenegro Airlines will boost almost all of its operations. An additional one weekly flight will be added on seasonal services to London Gatwick and St Petersburg, while Moscow will be strengthened with an extra two weekly departures, for a total of seventeen per week. In addition, the carrier will operate new seasonal services from Tivat to Leipzig, Munich and Copenhagen.
Over the peak summer months, from June until the end September, Montenegro Airlines plans to handle some 360.000 travellers, while it is targeting 620.000 passengers this year overall. Please note that the changes listed below are preliminary and based on current availability in the Global Distribution System (GDS). Furthermore, the table below displays the peak weekly frequency on each route during the course of the summer season. Increases in frequencies, particularly on flights from Tivat to Belgrade and Moscow, do not come into effect until later on in the summer. EX-YU Aviation News will bring you summer season changes for each national carrier from the former Yugoslavia over the coming weeks. The 2018 summer season runs until October 27.
Departing Podgorica
| Destination | Frequency S2017 | Frequency S2018 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | 14 | 14 | - | - |
| Copenhagen | 2 | 2 | - | resumes MAY05 |
| Dusseldorf | 2 | 3 | ▲ 1 | resumes APR07 |
| Frankfurt | 5 | 5 | - | - |
| Ljubljana | 3 | 3 | - | - |
| Lyon | 1 | 2 | ▲ 1 | resumes APR14 |
| Moscow | 1 | 0 | ▼ 1 | - |
| Paris | 8 | 5 | ▼ 3 | - |
| Rome | 4 | 4 | - | - |
| Vienna | 5 | 5 | - | - |
| Zurich | 6 | 7 | ▲ 1 | - |
Departing Tivat
| Destination | Frequency S2017 | Frequency S2018 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | 21 | 21 | - | - |
| Copenhagen | 0 | 1 | ▲ 1 | starts JUN15 |
| Leipzig | 0 | 2 | ▲ 2 | starts MAY03 |
| Moscow | 15 | 17 | ▲ 2 | - |
| Munich | 0 | 2 | ▲ 2 | starts MAY03 |
| London Gatwick | 3 | 4 | ▲ 1 | resumes APR25 |
| St. Petersburg | 2 | 3 | ▲ 1 | resumes JUN05 ends SEP29 |
Not bad actually.
ReplyDeleteWith the amount of aircraft they have and the dual hub system I agree it is an ok network.
DeleteIt is very challenging to operate from two airports with just 5/6 aircrafts. The schedule seems right for their current situation.
DeleteWill they have an extra plane this summer?
ReplyDeleteNo. But utilization will be better.
DeleteNice to see 3 new routes plus new charters. Good work.
ReplyDeleteSurprised they will no longer fly TGD-Moscow. Although Pobeda will start this route too.
ReplyDeleteBut MGX will have more flights overall to Moscow since they are adding another 2 weekly from Tivat.
DeleteMGX will publish that they fly 18 times per week between Podgorica and Moscow like last year because in their press release they include codeshare flights :D
DeleteThey do this a lot. They always include "codeshare passenger traffic" in their passenger number results. I mean since when was that a relevant metric.
DeleteInteresting issue. Are there IATA standards on (non)including codeshare passengers in overall numbers for a company? After all, the company is having seat on disposal and selling it.
DeleteThey will be crushed on the BEG-TGD by JU. Air Serbia will offer three daily:
ReplyDeleteBEG-TGD 07.00-08.00 Atr-72
BEG-TGD 13.45-14.35 A320
BEG-TGD 20.25-21.25 Atr-72
YM's schedule is all over the place.
+1
DeleteOne morning flight is operated by the A319/320 that rotates to LHR. Other three flights come from the TLV rotation and three other will come from a plane that sits in BEG for regular maintenance.
This has been the case each year.
DeleteYes but YM has given up the fight two years ago and since then JU has dominated on the market.
DeleteAnother route they will be crushed on is LJU-TGD.
DeleteAdria will operate 11 weekly flights! YM just 3. And to think just 2 years ago, Adria was barely present on this route.
No wonder JP ended its codeshare with YM on this route.
DeleteWell they will still have two flight to Belgrade with 200-240 seats on offer. Plus thet codeshare with AirSerbia who is offering 300-400.
DeleteInteresting how massive the market between Serbia and Montenegro is. As far as I remember JU also operated charters to Tivat last summer in addition to the scheduled flights.
DeleteIt is massive even though Montenegro is small country. Many family and business ties. Plus it is very hard to travel by road/rail as both are in bad state. Flights to Tivat nowadays are nothing compared to 90es when we had sanctions and mostly vacationed in Montenegro. There were 15+ flights a day in summer. Sometimes JU even deployed DC 10!
DeleteTUIfly is not really the reason why Montenegro airlines is reducing flights from Paris. TUIfly flights from France are „only“ charterflights
ReplyDeleteYes but those 'charters' are carrying tourists that flew on YM last year.
DeleteAlso you can actually buy tickets for some of these routes online on their website.
DeleteBut on TUIfly.be TGD is not listed
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAll things considered, their timetable is alright.
ReplyDelete+1 the most important thing is that they are growing.
DeleteFirst time they will be serving Copenhagen from Podgorica and Tivat. Nice.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Air France could consider its own fights to Podgorica. Seems like the only destinations performing well for YM besides Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteAir France is quite happy just codesharing on Montenegro Airlines' flights on this route.
DeleteThey don't fly to BEG, SJJ, PRN, SKP so I doubt TGD is the top of their priorities in the region.
DeleteAs long as they have JU and YM happy to fill their planes for good price there will be no (re)opening of flights.
Deletefeed*
DeleteThey should have considered some new regional destinations like Nis, Skopje and Pristina.
ReplyDeleteThey used to fly all three at one point.
DeleteI think there are opportunities in Bulgaria and Romania too.
DeleteOnly a turboprop would make those routes viable.
DeleteSKP and PRN ended because MGX owed a lot of money to both airports. Last year they finally settled their debt to both.
DeleteAt one point Podgorica actually had flights to all ex-Yu capital cities. Now only Belgrade and Ljubljana.
DeleteWhen did MGX fly to Zagreb and Sarajevo?
DeleteMontenegro Airlines didn't but Croatia Airlines and B&H Airlines did.
DeleteDoes anybody know if turbo props were ever considered by YM management?
DeleteUnfortunately they haven't. Now they are deciding between Boeing and Embraers for fleet for 2019 and beyond.
DeleteIs there any news article on their fleet renewal? I suppose it would be very expensive to have three types of aircraft - turboprop/Embraer/Boeing.
DeleteThere is info about their fleet renewal plans here
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/11/montenegro-airlines-mulls-boeing-jets.html
Most of western Europe covered. They need to work on Scandinavia though.
ReplyDeleteScandinavia is served by MGX charters to Oslo and Helsinki. At the moment, I don't think there is demand for anything more than that.
DeleteWhat happened to TIV-VIE, now again no-one serves that relation?
ReplyDeleteIf charters are included that's 28 destinations this summer.
ReplyDeleteRespectable network for 5 planes.
ReplyDeleteWith 5 planes Wizz Air would be serving 35 destinations at least.
DeleteWith 5 planes they could have 120-130 rotations per week. For summer 2018 they fly 18 city pairs and have 98 weekly rotations scheduled for the height of the season. You also need to factor in some charters. Two Falkers are now 25+ and need a bit more care, so high probability to have one aircraft out of service. Not bad given the fleet available.
DeleteNice crew :D
ReplyDeleteIf an LCC were to base a plane in Podgorica Montenegro Airlines would be wiped out in a matter of months.
ReplyDeleteMontenegro is heavily subsides company as we all know. It would be hardly hit by more low cost competition. However, there are markets where Montenegro can still make money - Belgrade, Russia, potentially Iran, UAE and other Gulf countries, charters.
Delete+1 last anon.
DeleteIs it possible to purchase tickets for the Iran charters in Montenegro or is it only available for Iranians.
ReplyDeleteOnly Iranians through local tour operator.
DeleteBut you can now purchase tickets via Iran Air's website for Belgrade-Tehran. They started sales a few days ago.
Do they support credit cards?
DeleteGood to see new routes being launched. I think they are on their way to recovery.
ReplyDeleteAdding 2 routes does not indicate recovery. In fact I think they are a long way from recovery.
DeleteDobar potez sto su krenuli sa letovima za CPH , trebali su jos letova prema Skandinaviji da uvedu.
ReplyDeleteBice zanimljivo videte kako ce se snaci ove Godine na liniji za LYBE.
INN-NS
Pitty INI was not on the list for TIV flights! Seasonal flights would work 100%
ReplyDeleteIf you sell every seat for €20, then yes
DeleteWell they could probably attract the combination of O&D vacationers and some transfers to Moscow/London/Munich during busiest summer months.
Delete@Anon10: 08 AM
ReplyDeleteSo what? You think is not profitable on 30 mintures flight? Come on, FR is profitable with 9 EUR fares to Germany, Sweden etc.. The MGX is not for such a short flight! This is why FR is profitable and MGX is not! Simply as that..