Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport anticipates handling some 5.6 million passengers this year after welcoming its millionth traveller for 2018 on April 1. The estimated 5% growth will be generated primarily by foreign carriers as Air Serbia reduces its number of flights, however, the airport's outgoing General Manager, Saša Vlaisaveljvić, said the Serbian carrier will be making a "surprise announcement" during the course of the year. So far, three new foreign carriers have launched flights to Belgrade in 2018, with others increasing capacity and frequencies. Both LOT Polish Airlines and Romania's TAROM have revised their planned growth in operations to the Serbian capital by further adding flights, with LOT to maintain up to twelve weekly services instead of eleven and TAROM operating nine weekly flights instead of the initially planned eight.
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| Turkish Airlines approved for limited A330 service to Belgrade |
Turkish Airlines, which planned to deploy wide-body aircraft on its route to Belgrade this summer but was barred by the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate under a bilateral air agreement between the two countries, has been okayed to operate its Airbus A330-300 jet from Istanbul to Belgrade between May 16 and May 21 as the Serbian capital hosts the FIBA EuroLeague Final Four, which is sponsored by Turkish Airlines. The carrier will deploy the A330 on both its morning and evening service on May 16 and May 21, as well as once per day in between. Meanwhile, both Pegasus Airlines and Atlasglobal will be adding additional services to Belgrade during the championships.
Summer charters are again expected to aid Belgrade Airport in achieving its record results. This summer, Air Serbia has filed schedules to operate leisure flights from Belgrade to Athens, Chania, Cephalonia, Chios, Heraklion, Skiathos, Santorini, Corfu, Rhodes, Zakynthos, Samos and Preveza/Lefkada in Greece; Antalya, Bodrum and Dalaman in Turkey; Alghero, Palermo, Naples and Calabria in Italy, as well as Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Girona in Spain. Foreign carriers operating charters to Belgrade will include Aegean Airlines from Heraklion, AlMasria Universal Airlines from Hurghda, FlyEgypt from Hurghada, SunExpress from Izmir, Tunis Air from Monastir and Turkish Airlines from Ankara and Antalya.
Belgrade Airport's new operator, VINCI, will take over its runnings sometime between September and November.
Comments
I do not sincerely expect any new route e=announcements for this year. Takeover negotiations and prepartions are now a priority. For 2019 I however expect British (or another European oneworld carrier), Air France or HOP, direct flights to China and Canada and winter seasonal services to Thailand, as well as further growth of summer charters.
Funnily enough, initial slots given by the Turks were much better.
So this summer Al Masria, Fly Egypt and Air Cairo are all flying between Hurghada and Belgrade.
So that means 'during the course of the year + 5 seconds', the comments will be here saying how it'll never happen/be a disaster for them/only happening because of political pressure etc. :D
Not sure how the BEG-TXL route is performing but maybe we see a French route or Spanish one.
Belgrade could achieve same numbers.
New huge "brilliant" announcement was prediction that Belgrade Airport will grow to 15 million passengers in just 5 years.
Not sure which slots AirSerbia had but they were unable to be concurrent on the route specially after all things that happened in Turkey. Interest for flying there dramatically dropped and they found solution in synergy with AtlasGlobal.
And BEG benefit would be higher number of passengers that TK would bring with its widebody plane.
No more no less.
5.75 is more realistic taking in consideration all the new destinations and airliners coming to BEG
The fact that W6 already flies from Basel to Belgrade does not mean nobody else should try to offer better service and lower prices.
Tarom offers connecting flights from BEG, but their prices are usually not very competitive.
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/03/ukraine-international-plans-zagreb.html
Why it was not done (demand is surely there) remains a mystery.
Well, that would mean that bully tactics worked (if we correctly understand that there were problems for JU)
It worked from the moment JU decided to stop flying to IST, but I believe it was the main reason JU lost the battle against TK.
Simply, TK offered attractive prices and wide network of connections from BEG - something JU could have not competed with.
From the other side most of the Turks visiting Belgrade as tourists prefer airline from Turkey to bring them here. That is also one of the reasons why KK is more successful in BEG than JU was in IST.
As our friend from Sofia who posts on here informed us, Wizz Air is already reducing some flights and reallocating capacity to some other, larger, markets.
This goes to show that growth of 21.8% in 2016 and 30.3% was far from organic.
BEG on the other hand is in Serbia which has gone through a lot over the past 30 years. Unlike Bulgarians , Serbs simply can't pack up and leave to look for a better future in the West. There are places in Bulgaria that were literally emptied over the past ten years. Though this is sad it does create a lot of demand for air travel.
Over the past five years, BEG's yearly growth was 11% which really isn't that bad.
2013: 5%
2014: 31%
2015: 3%
2016: 3%
2017: 8.5%
Growth in 2014 was impressive but it wasn't organic which is why BEG more or less stagnated in 2015 and 2016. Last year the market stabilized so growth resumed.
Personally, I am impressed by how far Belgrade has come. Let's not forget that just ten years ago the airport had 2.650.048 passengers. Today it's getting close to six million.
Before the boom at SOF, BEG was actually ahead (2015):
BEG: 4.776.110 (+3%)
SOF: 4.088.943 (+7.2%)
Even before Etihad's takeover of Jat Airways, BEG was busier.
(2013)
BEG: 3.543.194 (+5%)
SOF: 3.504.325 (+1.1%)
What I am trying to say is that Sofia outperforming BEG is a relatively new phenomenon. It doesn't mean it will stay like this in the coming years.
But definitliy new era in aviation for Belgrade airport. So promissing. So positive.
Greeting from Sydney
Rod
FRA was scheduled as double daily A319 and A320 but most flights were already upgauged already.
Had they kept the night flights (slots initially given by Turks) then they would have been able to offer ALL of their destinations. Their times would have been similar to the ones they offer to ATH.
JU has no one but itself to blame for failing miserably in Istanbul.
As for 2013, are you seriously implying Jat was a serious player in terms of connections?
Not to forget how funny is when I see now suddenly having less pax how have became something good, while the same people where super happy when BEG have surpassed SOF. lol
Some 10+ years ago we went there. When we were checking Sarajevo and Belgrade agencies, 9/10 packaged vacations were to Sharm actually and consequently the flights too.
Market did not grow naturally. Demand was artificially stimulated.
We will see what happens once dust starts to settle. Growth is already down to 6% this year. Not to mention that FB is on verge of bankruptcy.
Transfer passengers are artificially created but they don't necessarily have to equate a loss on a certain route.
There is zero O&D demand between Belgrade and Beirut yet the route is profitable thanks to transfers.
It all boils down to how much a person is willing to pay. Air Serbia might be earning more per ATH transfer passenger than Wizz Air is earning from an O&D passengers heading to Baden Baden.
Not necessarily, especially not in the markets where they faced them as competition. FR/W6 might just increase their fares so as to increase their yields, especially in markets where they might have been losing money or where their profits were not as satisfactory.
Ryanair and Wizz Air might be fighting for the market but at the end of the day they are still businesses.
In February their LF was 84% while two days ago they sent the E95 that was full both ways.
Besides that, today there are three A321 from IST and four to ZRH where three were on the A320. Tomorrow there are five flights to Zurich!
When Serbia joins the EU, you will see that this is process is inevitable. If by then BEG can sustain both transfer and O&D it would be great!
Departures:
08.55 YM TGD E95
08.55 YM TGD E95
09.15 TK IST A321
09.20 LX ZRH A320
09.20 RO OTP AT42
In the evening it also got better.
19.40 RO OTP AT42
20.15 LX ZRH A320
20.20 TK IST A321
20.25 JU TGD AT72
Two years ago we used to have only TK departing and an occassional LX on the days when they didn't have a double daily flight.
Mahan is also pretty cool as they arrive and depart at around the same time as Vueling. I think they leave at 22.00 just as JU starts to arrive.
Berlin: 4
Geneva: 3
Basel: 3
Wizz Air has not yet published its winter schedule so let's see if they respond to this. They currently fly three times per week from BSL.
I am happy about this because it shows easyJet is serious when it comes to the Serbian market.