Russia's Red Wings Airlines, which will commence flights between Moscow and Belgrade next Tuesday, is confident it will successfully end the duopoly held by Air Serbia and Aeroflot on the route. In the past, several carriers have tried and failed to do so, however, Red Wings plans to operate daily flights between the two capitals as early as next year. "Flights to Belgrade will commence on June 26 and will initially operate twice per week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, from Domodedovo Airport. Following the completion of the 2018 World Cup, we plan to add another flight on Saturdays. In 2019, Red Wings will run daily services to Belgrade", the airline's CEO, Evgeny Klyucharev, said.
Red Wings, which has become Russia's fastest growing carrier, having enjoyed spectacular passenger growth of over 200% so far this year, said services to Belgrade will be maintained with the 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft, although the first flights will be operated by its 220-seat A321s. "The tourist flow between our states is rather weak, although it could be much greater, given our warm relations. We hope that Red Wings will become another bridge in improving our relations", the Serbian Ambassador to Russia, Slavenko Terzić, said. The two countries maintain visa free travel for each others' nationals. A total of 49.857 Russian tourists visited Serbia in 2017, which was up 14% on the previous year.
Russia continues to be one of Belgrade Airport's biggest markets. Both Air Serbia and Aeroflot have a wide-ranging codeshare agreement in place. The two airlines operate a total of 24 weekly flights between the Serbian and Russian capitals, making it the fifth most frequent route based on the number of departures this summer. Red Wings Airlines has maintained charter services to Serbia in the past, most recently from Kaluga, some 150 kilometres southwest of Moscow, to Niš in January 2016. Within the former Yugoslavia, the airline maintains seasonal operations to Tivat and Pula. "Our growth is the result of our fleet expansion program that was implemented throughout 2017 and 2018. We expect handling anywhere between 2.8 and 2.9 million passengers this year", Mr Klyucharev said.
I hope they manage but I'm not sure they will be able to repel SU and JU. That said, their prices are very cheap for this route which is a welcome change to the expensive competition.
ReplyDeleteI agree, JU and SU are just too strong. But good luck to them.
DeleteThis will mostly affect JU. There do not seem able to fix their fares and adapt. Hope Red wings will bring more opportunities for us to travel!
DeleteRed Wings will also affect SU because they will offer connections to domestic flights. A monopoly SU enjoyed for almost two decades.
DeleteSU will be fine. Not only it can rely on Moscow region traffic but also on its vast network to the rest of Russia, the CIS countries and Asia.
DeleteJust my2cents
Russian airlines should be banned to fly in Europe
ReplyDelete?!
DeleteAlong with American ones, then.
DeleteBanned for what? Why? Are you CNN brainwashed?
DeleteTo crash a plane with 300 civilians (MH17), walk away like nothing has happened, 4 years later you organize a World cup and party like there's the end of the world?! That's called brainless and brainwashed.
DeleteNice to see they are already increasing from 2 to 3 per week.
ReplyDeleteand plan daily flights.
DeleteAnd they are already sending the A321 which is good news.
DeleteHope they will promote the route properly. Prices in Moscow have generally fallen and with affordable tickets it will be attractive for more people to visit. Also other way around.
DeleteI wish them success, but I am not that optimistic. One carrier already tried to break that duopoly some time go and gave up.
ReplyDeleteIs there any route out of BEG being operated by more than 2 carriers? I think not
True that. I didn't realise there is no route from BEG with more than two airlines. There used to be Geneva with Etihad regional, Swiss and easyJet but only easy survived.
DeleteTLV, IKA for example.
DeleteWe can also add Istanbul to the list with Turkish Airlines, Pegasus and Atlasjet all flying from the same city.
DeleteAnother example of a city served by three airlines from two airports is Stockholm with Air Serbia, Norwegian and Wizz Air.
So there are examples!
DeleteGreat news for BEG, bad news for JU.
ReplyDeleteWhat about SU? Or is everything bad news for JU these days?
DeleteLOL dude, SU is 20 times larger airline than JU!
DeleteSo what? Just because they are larger they are immune to competition? That's an odd statement.
DeleteWho said that. Straw man arguments again?
DeleteSU can respond to competition a whole lot better than JU can. It is a huge airline.
SU is the one offering great transfer options to the whole Asia. They will always fill their plane first before paying anything to code share partner. On the other hand JU is transferring Russians to Adriatic but that is going down as well. Si many direct flights and competition.
DeleteAnonymous at 9:57 AM
Delete+1000
And how about we speak about Red Wings creating a new market in stead of immediately predicting doom and gloom scenarios?
Delete@Anonymous June 24, 2018 at 10:09 AM
DeleteI seriously doubt that Red Wings will only carry passengers who would otherwise have not traveled between Serbija and Russia.
And also I seriously doubt that Red Wing offering flights will not affect the pricing strategy of SU and JU on this route.
You can believe that this would be the case thought. :D :D :D
Well market potential is massive and I am sure they will work on bringing more tourists to Belgrade like they did from Kaluga to Nish.
DeleteAlso by lowering prices they will stimulate the market where those who travelled twice before will do it three times and so on.
@anon 10:19
DeleteThat is true. So we should see some growth there. Same happened with all Wizz routes
JU and SU are rarely cheaper than €300!
Delete300 eur for something that is really a regular (maybe bit longer) European flight. Hope this will bring some competition and prices below 200.
DeletePRG?
ReplyDelete*PRG operated by 3 carriers.
DeletePrague is two if I'm not missing anyone - Hainan and Air Serbia.
DeleteHow so? There is Hainan and JU. Who is the thrid?
DeleteIST-SAW.
DeleteAre they an LCC?
ReplyDeleteGreat the more the merrier.
ReplyDeleteImportant to note that Red Wings and Nordavia are in the process of merging so it will be an important player on the Russian market,
ReplyDeleteAnd they also have CS300s on order.
DeleteThey will fail. Market between Serbia and Moscow is very small. They need transfer passengers to make this work. Maybe if Serbia one day becomes a tourist destination.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me? You're clueless. There are up to FOUR DAILY flights to Moscow right now and the demand is only increasing. What are you even talking about? There is plenty of room for them to grow. Check your data
DeleteSU carries mostly Chinese passengers and some Serbian workers to Siberia. JU mostly carries Russian tourists to Montenegro. That is why is failing in Moscow and always reducing flights.
DeleteSU really has good prices in their comfort class (premium economy) but generally in all classes to Asia. Plus it is more convenient to fly with them rather than European carriers with detour to the West.
DeleteJU seems to be in trouble. My colleague just both one way early July ticket Moscow-Tivat with Pobeda and it was around 100 eur. 15 days in advance, summer season and tickets are very affordable. I do not see JU making money on this route any more.
AnonymousJune 24, 2018 at 12:04 PM
DeleteThat is not true, SU on their flights have only 30-35 Chinese tourists. Оther passengers are mostly O&D(tourists, Russians who lives in Serbia, Russians who works in Serbia, Serbian tourists, Serbian workers in Russia) Same is with JU, but they don't have many Chinese tourists on their flights. Only 10-15
BEG - SVO 4 daily(5 daily on some days after Red Wings announcement)
+
BEG - LED 4 weekly
Chinese now have a direct flight to Beijing (with stop over) and there might even be a Shanghai flight so that will have some effect.
DeleteEconomy is not improving in Serbia neither in Russia so we should not expect tourist numbers to go up significantly unless tickets become cheap.
Russia has business links with Serbia.
DeleteMany Russian companies operate in Serbia.
Talk what you want but reality is that we have 4 daily flights. Demand is here.
There was always demand for two or three daily flights. Even in 90es.
DeleteJU will operate 9 charter flights today. I think it's safe to assume Serbs have enough money to go and visit Moskva.
DeleteThat is true, more people goes to vacation with plane.
DeleteThis summer there will be a new record of some 700.000 Serbs flying on charter flights!
Delete"This summer there will be a new record of some 700.000 Serbs flying on charter flights!"
DeleteThat is around 350.000 return passengers which means less than 5% of population.
Don't forget regular lines from Belgrade to Athens, Thessaloniki(whole Olympic region and Halkidiki), Antalya(i don't include charters),Kushadasi and Izmir(many tourists use conections in Istanbul),Split, Dubrovnik, Pula, Tivat and Podgorica. Rome too, conections to Sardinia where more and more toursist from Serbia goes.
DeleteAll these flights are full of Serbian toursits.
AnonymousJune 24, 2018 at 3:52 PM
DeleteYes, but how many tourists goes with own car to Greece, Montenegro,Bulgaria,Croatia...
Serbs flying on Tunis Air or Air Cairo don't count as these are scheduled flights, same with Aegean, Croatia Airlines, Montenegro Airlines or Vueling. I think the actual number is over 1.000.000!
DeleteOh, I forgot them! Hurghada(5 weekly flights, 4 during the winter), Tunis, Monastir, Barcelona(whole Costa Brava), Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza. In Italy, Lamezia Terme, Callgari, Rimini...
DeleteFew days ago, Al Masria was used their A330 from Belgrade to Hurghada, for the first time ever.
I think that was teh first time there was a passenger widebody sent from Egypt to Belgrade. TU used to send their A300-600 in the past.
DeleteCharters plus regular trafic.
DeleteAll in all some 5% of population go on charter flight holidays and some 15% (estimated around million) go for summer holiday abroad, which includes Montenegro. Still lots of room for growth if economy starts improving. For our area of interest, the biggest challenge is lack of elderly/pensioners and young/students as huge travel groups. They would make charter businesses sustainable.
Don't forget something else, for many, driving to northern Greece is much easier than flying from BEG. There are more than 500.000 Serbs who go to Greece alone.
DeleteFor many flying is not convenient regardless if the can afford it or not.
Indeed, 50% now vacation in Greece. Northern Greece is quite inconvenient without car. So if you fly you either rent a car or you are stuck in a village where you are staying. Undeveloped bus network and very few taxis.
DeleteBefore all this JU Thessaloniki transfer madness, I remember half of plane ending up in rent a car hall when we land.
OU flight to BEG is charter according to OU. Therefore there is no onlline check in for BEG-SPU. This information has been received directly from OU
DeleteGood to see more and more airlines who arrives/departs out of rush hours in Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteTuesday and Saturday flights are convenient.
ReplyDeleteThursday flight is schedules 00:40 – 02:30 with return from Belgrade 03:30 – 07:30
Not that convenient!
Why not? It's important to have good connectivity with destination whole day(24h)
DeleteMight be convenient for some people, not for many.
DeleteI have checked their prices in early August and it is actually higher than JU or SU!
For how long did Ural fly to BEG? Why did they stop the flights¿
ReplyDeleteSix months, sales were weak.
DeleteI suppose Red Wings is having good sales as they are asking 350 for return in August.
DeleteThey are probably relying on tourists, same was as KK.
DeleteRed Wings is a no thrills airline but their tickets are not cheaper than JU or SU. in addition they are selling a lot of capacity to cater charters and they are quite often delayed quite a bit so do not get very high expectations.
ReplyDeleteWOW so they are no thrills? What you describe is that they are all about thrills.
DeleteOT: Al Masria Universal Airlines će i 26. juna i 29. juna iz Hurgade za Beograd leteti sa A330. Izleda da je upgrade aviona :) popunjenost odlična.
ReplyDeleteDa, i na sajtu aerodroma u redu letenja se vidi. Bravo!
DeleteŠto nema više letova za Sharm el sheik?
DeleteSrbi hrle u Hurgadu :)
DeleteAll inclusive i carter za manje od 500 eur.
Sarm, tamo iko vise ide?
Ово је невероватно феноменална вест. Баш ми је драго да се Египат опоравља а и да је велика потражња из Београда. Није ни чудо што ЈУ поново враћа летове.
DeleteLetece oni i druge dane sa A330, nego na flightrafaru se moze videti samo do 29.juna.
DeleteZasto da ne, za te pare dobije se hotel od 4 zvezdice koji bi u HR ili GR kostao 1500evra a usluga je odlicna.Hoteli u GR su jako skupi i nemaju neki luksuz, tacnije imaju ali precenjen.Egipat privlaci turiste niskim cenama bas kao Turska,a more je prelepo. Treba iskoristiti. Znamo, jeftino je zbog bezbednosti ali tamo je situacija mirna i nije bilo problema. A povecan je broj gostiju iz Engleske, Rusije, Nemacke. Ne hrle samo Srbi.
ReplyDeleteUprkos tome i ove godine Grcka rastura, pogotovo ostrva.
DeleteМогли сте вала за Ниш.
ReplyDelete