My guess is they will fly this route twice per week and Iran Air will maintain two weekly flights. Both will codeshare.

Smart move, although they probably should have done it a bit earlier before all the Iranian airlines started flying to BEG and before all the European airlines started flying to Tehran.

Quite impressive that Iran Air is already sending widebodies. Mahan Air also plans to operate this route with A310 right?

Midnight flight?

Yes

Would be nice if they send their A340-300 or A340-600 on occasion.

I think that's the only time they will have aircraft available - but after the charter season. Not before. Planes are now flying 24/7.

I hope that Air Serbia will have many transfer passengers from Ex YU. Good alternative to Austrian

What is the demand for travel to Iran from Serbia and the Balkans? Anyone have any idea?

When would the flight arrive in Iran, local time?

If they want the return flight to catch the morning wave they would have to depart much earlier then midnight from Belgrade. If it departed at midnight, it would arrive around 6AM in Tehran.

True dat. Missed out on establishing themselves on the Iranian market early.

Local time?

Who exactly is using these flights?

Yes. Iran has weird timezone.

Well I was just about to grab the popcorn for the barrage of insulting comments about migrants. But hats off to you sir for starting it off for the day.

When would the return flight arrive in BEG, local time?

Same people who use Alitalia, Austrian, Aegean, British Airways, Bulgaria Air, KLM and Lufthansa from Tehran.

After 7AM so it would not work.

Agree. A lot of European airlines with superior transfer options already fly to IKA.

My impression would be businesses travelers, growing to tourism both ways, connecting flights.

but not so good alternative to TK (in general) and Pegasus (pricewise)

Nice one anon @9:05.

Thanks. So actual flight time is roughly six hours?

Flight time is 3.45 but Iran is 2 and a half hours ahead.

@ anon. 9.05:
ok so transfer passengers?

From Serbia its more now than from the UK or Germany with huge Iranian communities :)

AS should try to time the return flight to better connect to a wave of departing flights. JFK maybe?

Among others.

Yes, among others like on the ten or so other European airlines flying to Tehran.

As usual, we can expect many nasty and vile comments regarding the increasing presence of Iranian carriers in Belgrade.

Reality is quite different. Serbia was designed by the Iranian government as a key partner in Europe. As a result of that a free trade agreement will be signed later on this year. Iran informed the Serbian government that it's ready to purchase billions worth of trains from Gosha. They even said that they are willing to wait until Belgrade fixes the situation there. This would be fantastic as it would bring a giant government company back on its feet.

During the meeting, the Iranian trade minister read the list of Serbian imports after which has stated that Iran can provide us with all this for a much cheaper price. Their plan is start undercutting mostly western European countries in this segment.

Iran has also expressed interest to be part of the infrastructure revitalization process.

More importantly a new Serbian-Iranian conglomerate will be formed where businesses on both sides will be shareholders. This organization will act as a bridge between businessmen and both governments.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed the Iranian embassy in Belgrade to issue multi-entry visas for Serbian businessmen. Initially it will be for six months while there is a motion that will extend it to a year.

The biggest and most fundamental difference between Iran and the rest is that they are proposing a two way partnership. They are not here just to sell their own stuff, they are also planning on importing from us. Their agriculture ministry was in Serbia a few months ago as they were trying to arrange for the export of raspberries. Unfortunately we couldn't meet their demands.

Overall, more and more flights will be added in the future as economic ties develop. This will no doubt increase the need for cargo flights at BEG. So far there is Etihad and Turkish Airlines, don't know what happened with the Qatar flights.

As for Air Serbia, my guess is that they are being pushed by local tour agencies. JU is neither adventurous nor creative enough to launch IKA on its own. Serbian agencies can't cooperate with their Iranian partners because there are still no banking ties. By having JU fly to IKA they could at least sort out the issue of flights and tickets.

Overall, I am sure there will be so much more to come in the future.

Not exactly. People primary go for price, followed by timing and finally comfort. Any new entrant with good qualities may seize a good share of (transfer) market. Only issue here is whether we end up with yet another destination where we subsidise foreign travellers while having costly direct tickets from Belgrade.

Is it truth even Iranian buy return ticket they actually use only one way to Belgrade then try to immigrate to any western EU country? Guess that is wise politics how to make national airline stronger and profitable

kako pa da ne

yeh right with the US embargo. dream on

What has the embargo got to do with absolutely anything?

Anon @9:20, no need for your cynicism.

No, not true. It's all propaganda.

How are TLV and BEY performing lately?

@anon 8:52
Please to do not exaggerate. Planes are not flying 24/7. They have enough capacity for all 300 weekly departures plus some 40-50 charters.

Thanks for the the report Nemjee. What is your source?

Will ASL rehire again Mrs Gambler? I think it would be great marketing stunt for both sides and it will surely boost passenger numbers and improve like ya know everything. I am puzzled they are waitin` so much on this someone can be faster and snap `er in front of ASL nose.

Turizam..Ukinute su vize, Beograd je prepun iranskih turista, pogledajte komentare na tripadvisor-u. I ne-nisu to nikakvi migranti, već ozbiljni ljudi željni da vide malo sveta posle toliko godina pod sankcijama.

Who is Gambler?

Thank you. All of this was mentioned during the meeting with the ambassador as well as during previous meetings between Serbia and Iran.

Sorry, meant minister, not ambassador.

Hahaha-zloba i bes ti kroz uši izbija..Ma da-svi hrle u raj na zemlji-EU..

Great news for BEG.

I'm still wondering if those neos will be coming for Air Serbia. It would be a good aircraft for this route.

Agree. I think 5.6 is very achievable. Maybe even over.

Definitely more, BEG would be at 5.45 with the growth it had before the summer months.

Mahan returns to Belgrade tomorrow with the A313.

09.30 W5 133 arr. 09.30 (A310-300)
10.30 QB 2206 arr. 10.30 (A320)

I guess Mahan will operate three weekly flights on the Airbus A310.

That means BEG handles the following widebodies now:

6x JU A332
3x W5 A313
2x HA A333
2x UJ A332
2x IR A313/300

Total: 15 weekly flights.

Nice. Still don't get they refused Turkish.

I mean Turkish with the two daily A330.

Actually it's true. Most are real tourists, but there are many asylum seekers as well.
You can read it in the EU Frontex report, as well as check numbers of Iranian asylum seekers in Serbia, and their increase. Even our Government declared that they are in touch with Iranian government to conclude a re-admission agreement.

Iran is a wonderful country to visit. I hope there will be more affordable tours very soon.

If Air Serbia launches these flights it will make Iran more affordable and accessible. While it is great having these Iranian carriers fly, they are extremely expensive out of Belgrade. Return tickets are between 500-1000 euros.

I suppose Etihad may have blocked Tehran flights. Better late than never.

When did Air Serbia launch a new route the last time?

Re-admission agreement is really needed, if they want to have a visa free regime with Iran. It is a sad fact, but more and more people will try to use this route to get closer to the EU. On the other hand, having in mind human rights situation in the country, many people will objectively qualify for asylum protection.

I agree with you last anon but unfortunately with the new hybrid model, I don't think Air Serbia has much to offer the market in terms of service and prices compared to the competition.

Probably well as prices are competitive.

Because it is not good for Atlas global who is JU partner on the route.

I don't think Etihad was the problem here. Although relations between UAE and Iran are strained there is a lot of traffic between the two, at least for Emirates and Iran Air. Etihad cancelled flights because they failed on the route.

The main issue was that there was no air service agreement which safeguards JU for a lot of things. If they started flights without it, it would be way too risky.

Actually Air Serbia offers very competitive prices for transfer passengers (not for point to point). Same thing with Qatar Airways. Transfer flights are cheap as chips. Point to point (to/from Doha) is expensive as hell.

Venice last summer.

I would not count on it but who knows. I don't think even they do.

Hope so. When you come to think of it many new airlines launched flights this year to BEG.

Very good to here about Tehran. And we can also expect Toronto to be announced.

The Us "embargo" does not ban Iranian nationals living in the US to visit their home country.

People also forget that JU will most probably launch YYZ and there is a big Iranian community in Canada too.

Tehran is really a good news, many transfer passengers could be attracted.

Ma strašno su ugrožena ljudska prava u Iranu-je l' to kažu SAD I Eu? A u Saudijskoj Arabiji, koja je pojam države sa obespravljenim stanovništvom, pogotovu ženama, cvetaju ruže? Ali ne, Arabija je saveznica iste te Amerike, pa im nije do zameranja..haha.

Bravo Srbija!!! Uskoro ide objava i za Toronto i Šangaj, a krajem godine za Maroko i Indiju.

IKA should have been introduced long time ago, but obviously people in JU (or EY) did not have enough courage to do it. They were simply afraid if it was going to work or not and decided not to give a try.

From the other side we need also to be fair enough and to say that at the time when JU was thinking about opening BEG-IKA visa free regime between Serbia and Iran was not introduced. JU would have probably had transfer passengers on that route, but almost no P2P pax.

Now, when Iranians do not need anymore visas for Serbia JU saw that Iranian air carriers collect nice cash on route to BEG and obviously they want to take its piece of the cake.

There is also a possibility IKA will be introduced as JU destination due to the fact that new routes will be again planned in Belgrade and not in Abu Dhabi.

Finally, JU cannot be blamed anymore that they are only cutting the list of destinations. IKA and YYZ would be a nice addition.

Honestly I never would have thought these flights to/from Iran would take off in such a way. I mean two airlines operating widebodies on the route, three airlines flying in total and another 2 planning to start flights Crazy.

How many times per week does Aegean fly to Tehran?

Sve Iranke agencije imaju otvorene racune u Dubaiju, takodje najveci turoperater iz Irana ima svoje predstavnsitvo u Helsinkiju i sa njim saradjuju Srpske agencije koje vode ljude tamo

Wow nice classics there with the A300/310. Remember flying the A300 from Belgrade to Monastir on Tunisair a couple of years ago. It was ancient but still a nice experience. Plane was packed but they sent the large bird because they had to cancel two previous flights (they were on strike).

Seems like it's 3x weekly.

Ne zaboravimo cuveni Gvantanamo.

Exactly. There is no reason to offer 450 return between Beirut and Paris while charging your own citizens the same to fly to Paris. It would be ok for private self funded company but this one is far from that.

Vas antiamerianizam iz fotelje nece pomoci obespravljenim zenama ni u Iranu ni u Saudijskoj Arabiji.

That is ridiculous!

It is possible to find for around 400 with SU.

Huge market, extremely hard to get visas, people eager to travel.

Esfahan and Shiraz should also be considered.

EY's idea was that the IKA market should be served via AUH.

Also it would make life a whole lot harder for JU on any Middle-East destinations it tries to launch such as IKA.

A ko je rekao da im treba tvoja pomoc?

An often overlooked problem even if not entirely aviation-related.

FYI Iran has the correct time-zone. It can't be more correct. It is rather Serbia among few other CEE countries that has a weird time zone aligned with the West.

Iranians calculated their time-zone sun rise/sun-set precisely and set it accordingly. The same was done in India among few other countries leading to uneven hours.

Serbia has the same time-zone as France which is 2.000km away that is why in Belgrade in winter there is virtually no sun after 4PM.

Among Ex-Yu countries following separation only Macedonia adopted the right time-zone.

I was thinking more in the context of Etihad wanted to carry passengers themselves via Abu Dhabi. Lack of Air Service agreemenr didn't stop Iranian carriers from starting flights.

Perhaps it is never too late for JU to start IKA but in essence it should have already been done 2 years ago!

I like our time zone, makes us very western unlike these flights to IKA.

W5 2 weekly, not 3

Hey hater, it was recently increased to three weekly. The extra frequency was granted early in June.

Ako je Grinic na O njihova zona je do 7.5 stepeni a onda je CET do 22.5 stepeni a Pirot je na 22.35 stepeni istocne gd. Pariz i Madrid se ubauju u CET a ne Srbija.

U ponedjeljak (prekjučer) oko 18:30 sam na naplatnim kućicama u Beogradu u smjeru prema Hrvatskoj (tamo gdje se inače samo uzimaju kartice) čekao preko 5 minuta jel je djelatnik naplatnih kućica zaustavio autobus ispred mene i nudio mu da primi veću grupu izbjeglica i prebaci ih bliže granici za novac. Bilo ih je 40-tak, oni tamnoputi tipični Arapi, one zamotane. Nakon čekanja sam izašao i zatražio da se maknu da mi možemo proći pa neka se cjenkaju sa strane.

Vrlo neoubičajno i čudno. Kako su oni stajali na samom rubu autoputa, nimalo se ne skrivavši, upravo suprotno, a dio miškaraca je zaustavljao autobuse na kućicama, dok istovremeno samo par metara dalje postoji kontejner sa policijom (uzgled policija nije bila izvan kontejnera, a gotovo uvijek jest), moram priznati da se ne mogu oteti dojmu da ih u "najmanju ruku" toleriraju.

@6:03 - Is that irony?

Isn't increased. Directorate rejected third weekly flight. You can see that on BEG airport web site (seasonal timetable)

Alen Šćuric Purger
Znači li to da hoćeš da kažeš da su ti migranti Iranci jer policija ne reaguje?
Dobar pokušaj. Ali makar u Srbiji ne pucaju na njih kao u HR ;)

TLV is doing really bad, last couple of days not more then 30Y

Nope, just isn't updated.

Ni ne moraju jer ih jednostavno samo puste.

Are you stupid?

'Your' citizens cans till take LH or Swiss and fly for 200 Eur. to Paris.

A direct flight is always more expensive than O&D while transfer passengers can help fill the gaps in the network.

Please, next time write to EK or PS/LO and tell them how their strategy is stupid and unjust to their own citizens.

Kakve li veze imaju migranti na auto putu sa avijacijom? Jel to avion hteo da sleti na auto put pa mu migranti nisu dali?
Ovo treba da se brise

What? Are you serious? TLV is good, more than 100 on every flight. Three airlines have flights between TLV and BEG. Demand is big and tickets are too expensive.

AnonymousJune 27, 2018 at 10:28 PM
Ma pusti, na sve načine pokušavaju da predstave letove iz Irana kao liniju za migrante. Ne prašta se uspeh izgleda.

I would not care a bit if we were not throwing money on that company.

Haha, baš si im ti rekao da se pomaknu i baš ti si zatekao zle migrante kako nadiru u Hr? Zar se ti ne voziš avionom?Eto, imaš sad materijal za novu kolumnu i za nadanje kako će se ukinuti letovi do zlog Irana..Kao što rekoše-uspeh se ne prašta..

Kakve crne veze ovo ima sa "uspehom"? Da Madžarska ili Portugal mogu skinuti vizni režim, misliš da ne bi poslali avione u tim pravcima?