easyJet to consider Belgrade expansion


Low cost carrier easyJet has said it will consider introducing additional new services from Belgrade as it prepares to launch its third year-round route to the Serbian capital later this week. The airline noted its decision will be made after it reviews the performance of its new flights from Basel and Berlin. "Since 2014 we have only been flying between Geneva and Belgrade while in 2018 we are introducing two new routes. Therefore, our number of flights to Belgrade has tripled. For starters, we hope that the average cabin load factor on these new routes will be the same as from Geneva, which is 90%. After we achieve this goal, we will consider introducing new routes", easyJet's Head of Marketing for Central Europe, Silvia Herrero, said.

Ms Herrero noted that it was too early to say whether easyJet could open a base in the Serbian capital, noting that the airline will closely monitor the performance of its existing three routes before making such a decision. "Ask me this question in a year's time", Ms Herreo said. The low cost airline previously operated flights from both Rome and Milan to Belgrade, however, both were suspended due to poor demand. Low cost carriers have had little success on flights between Serbia and Italy, with Wizz Air previously cancelling its Belgrade - Rome service, while Air One, which has since merged with Alitalia, discontinued its short-lived Milan - Belgrade flights.

France's VINCI, which is set to take over Belgrade Airport in the coming months, has a close working relationship with easyJet. The concession company notes that developing traffic is primarily a question of partnerships with the airlines. "Aviation marketing, a crucial tool for traffic development, is one of the keys to VINCI Airports' success. The international network of head office experts and local development teams work in close collaboration with more than 250 airline partners to identify potential new routes and encourage sustainable growth of traffic", the company said. It noted, "Forging good relations with the airline companies, based on trust and credibility, is one of the keys to success. VINCI Airports understands their needs and perspectives and provides data, forecasts and analysis to let them make enlightened decisions. VINCI Airports teams work tirelessly to encourage airlines to open up new routes and works with local economic stakeholders and travel companies to guarantee their success".

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    Which routes could they potentially launch? Where do they have bases?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:35

      Paris and London seem as natural choice at this point but there are many more unserved destinations.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:41

      Wizz is already flying both routes.

      Delete
    3. Wizz is flying from Paris Beauvais (1h30 from the center) , AF from CDG (45 min). Both flights are usually full. It would be fantastic if Easyjet could fly from Orly which is about 25 min from the center.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:15

      I think there is a greater chance that we will see Joon start flights from CDG when Vinci takes over. We will see.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:28

      We need daily LCC frequencies for convenient airports in both Paris and London.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous20:18

      Easy would do well to launch a London service - Wizz flies thrice weekly to Luton and not only are the flights invariably packed to the rafters, but the service has greatly deteriorated recently with many serious delays and less convenient flight times. Some competition there would be very welcome I think.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:35

      Good point. Luton, like Basel, has a horrible arrival time which is somewhere around 01.00. Also, tickets have become so expensive on the route!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    From what they are saying, looks like they might announce a base next summer to open in 2020.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      That would be fantastic. And seems realistic with Vinci taking over next month.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:38

      If and when they take over.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:41

      Lol "if". The contract has been signed. But I guess all that is left for you is to hope that they won't take over. Pathetic. So pathetic.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:43

      Don't worry. It's always the same old from the same people. "If and when Etihad takes over Jat", "If and when flights to New York start", "If and when flights from Beijing start" etc.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:21

      Indeed. If and when they secure finances to be able to close a deal. It will probably happen but might take longer to find banks/investment funds willing to finance the project. Or they will go back to talks with government together with banks to negotiate lower upfront payment. It is a serious and complex business.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:52

      "It is a serious and complex business."

      Which is exactly why all hurdles that you mentioned were sorted out well before the signing of the contract.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:34

      We will see. It is an overpriced project. Hope they manage to close the deal. Full details are yet to be seen.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:50

      Doomsday patrol. Always concerned and hoping for the worst outcome.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous13:32

      Hope that government will publish the concession agreement with all the annexes. The devil is always in details and penalties for the state might be huge in various situations. They did undertake to pay a lot for the airport so "if" mentioned by previous commentator is not at all doomsday...

      Delete
    10. Anonymous02:44

      If and when they take over... If and when they secure finances... We will see..

      Јел ово постао њуз.нет или тако нешто? Јел ово престао да буде озбиљан сајт и претворио се у комедију? Ако је тако онда довиђења, вицеве могу да чујем на другим местима.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous10:14

      @anon 2:44
      Calm down. Eat a snickers! :)

      Delete
    12. Anonymous00:42

      Кловн који стално провоцира на исти начин али му се постови не бришу иако су очигледно провокативни и са "intention of creating further argument" како кажу правила. Па није кловн крив.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    Very interested to see who will win on Basel-Belgrade route between easy and Wizz Air. Let’s remember that easy beat Swiss and Etihad Regional on Geneva route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:20

      easy has better schedule and price!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:26

      But W6 is better known.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:30

      I meant in Serbia.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:36

      That is not important. People are now well informed about the Easy route.

      Delete
    5. U2 has better service, lower prices and better flying times. It is correct that among LCC carriers W6 first opened this route, but customers will very quickly recognize the difference between these two

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:05

    BEG is the next LCC battleground.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:06

    Great news. War with Wizz coming?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      If Wizz doesn't wake up in BEG, they will be easily defeated, be it by easy or someone else.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:11

      Wizz is now focusing on western Europe. I doubt we will see much growth from them in BEG soon.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:07

    How come Serbia-Italy flights have performed so poorly for LCCs but are doing well for JU and AZ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      Well there is Bergamo-Nis now with Ryan. Seems to be doing ok.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:11

      I think JU/AZ have quite a lot of transfers from/to US and Canada on these Italy flights.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:24

      When Air Serbia/Alitalia had to give up some slots on flights to Rome because they had the same owner at the time, no other airline applied to fly the route.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:37

      This is a route depending on transfer passengers and Alitalia network in Italy and beyond. The only company that could have the route work is Vueling as they allow for transfers and have extensive network from Rome.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:09

    Bravo Srbija!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:13

    The good thing about easy is that they fly to main airports.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:16

    90% LF on Geneva is ok. I hope Berlin and Basel are as successful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:20

    Nice!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:25

    Most probably LGW, CDG or ORY, HAM and MXP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:29

      They closed their HAM base.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:31

    This might be the reason easy is ignoring Nis. They have bigger plans for BEG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      INI already has key players and entering there will be quite complicated.
      W6, FR and LX will be very competitive with them, unless they don't launch CDG, GVA or MAD.
      I see them also launching INI-BCN or INI-LIS.

      Delete
    2. The reason why everyone is ignoring INI is because it was put on hold by the government o.O

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:41

      I don't think so. INI will inevitably become a LCC hub within 5 years max. Wait and see.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:09

      INI-LIS and INI-BCN?
      its nice to start the week with some humor

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:31

      Well DEB will be connected to BCN in winter, so why not INI? i will be one of the first customers to fly this route and will compare SKP-BCN or SOF-BCN.
      I am confident this route will be of great success.

      Delete
    6. The fact that FR and W6 fly to INI does not mean automatically that each LCC between BEG and INI must decide to fly to INI.
      Some of them (as U2) would rather pay more expensive airport tax in order to fly from bigger airport. It is not always conspiracy behind decision BEG to be chosen prior to INI.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:41

    Great news for Belgrade, not good at all though for ASL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:00

      The biggest loser here is not Air Serbia, it's Wizz Air.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:05

      How exactly?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:19

      Because they are going after the same passenger base.

      Delete
  14. Aэrologic09:50

    Unless a low-cost airline obtains a Serbian AOC and launches say Moscow, Tel Aviv, Agadir...it'll all be more of the same unfortunately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      CAD would never issue a foreign airline a Serbian AOC. They don't won't to let Turkish add 4 extra flights per week so it doesn't affect Air Serbia, let alone give a foreign airline local permit.

      Delete
    2. Aэrologic16:54

      That would also mean them paying taxes. So far LCC airlines weren't good at diverstyfing the route offering from BEG as it happened from so many airports be it BUD, SOF, Vilnius...

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:04

    What puzzles me most is why on earth don't they fly to Romania????
    They once launched OTP-LGW but it was soon stopped. I think the Greek CEO is not so friendly with Romania.
    Last year they launched seasonal flights from both Berlin and Gatwick to VAR and apparently the routes were successful.
    As for BEG, I think the following routes might prove to be successful:

    BEG-HAM
    BEG-CDG
    BEG-MAD
    BEG-LIS
    BEG-SKG
    BEG-RAK
    BEG-LPA
    BEG-TFS
    BEG-BHX
    BEG-DUB
    BEG-PMI
    BEG-FUE
    BEG-LYS
    BEG-KRK
    BEG-JTR
    BEG-SEN
    BEG-OPO
    BEG-FNC

    Additionally, they should try to apply for domestic flights BEG-INI if they managed to create a new brand - easyJet Srbija now that they have easyJet Europe and easyJet Shweiz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:40

      My God....these are getting out of hand

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:18

    Great news for Belgrade. U2 will bring in tourists as well as gastarbeiters.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous10:20

    They will destroy Air Serbia on Berlin route. JU is so expensive and can no longer rely on Air Berlin codeshare.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:25

      They will not destroy JU, but it will hurt their profitability on the route. Like in all other cases - Larnaka, Malta, etc.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:37

      And yet Wizz will be the one that failed in Larnaca.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:39

      Failed? Really? Planes have good loads and schedule is convenient for O/D travellers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:59

      Yet they are cancelling the route.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:45

      AS je razvalila sve svoje takmace. AF, BA WIZZ na Kipru, Izija u Rimu, osim Turkisha u Stambolu.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:52

      AF i BA je "razvalio Jat Airways", ne Air Serbia.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:00

      Tim gore po njih.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:36

      Wizz is making Larnaka seasonal or canceling all together?

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:23

    Is easy operating all of its flights to BEG with A320s?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:35

      yes.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:35

      U2 is reducing the A319s so no surprise.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:23

      They are not reducing anything. GVA is on the 320 from February while BSL and TXL were 319 from the start.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous10:26

    easy has excellent fares on all three of their routes to BEG. Really hoping they add more.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:33

    which other german airport is missing out of belgrade?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:02

      LEJ, FMO, SXF, KSF, BRE and PAD, but JP will soon take it over.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:33

    I hope they will consider Skopje some time in the future :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous10:58

    It will be fun to watch if they start attacking Wizz Air some more like they did in Basel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:13

      lol, Wizz stole the whole ex-yu market from Basel especially since Easyjet has a base there... it took them 6 years to start their second ex-yu route. lol

      Delete
  23. Anonymous11:21

    I hope in the future they choose to serve Paris, Milan and Zurich to break up duopolies. London Gatwick would be nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:52

      If you read the article, it says they tried and failed in Milan. Doubt they would try again.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:37

      It was completely different time and Belgrade was much less touristy than it is now.

      Delete
  24. Anonymous11:26

    BEG is missing Morocco so badly! :(
    No flights to RAK, not even CMN and FEZ + AGA!

    4 airports missing on the BEG map.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:51

      Maybe the market simply isn't there for these flights.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:59

      Look:

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/05/royal-air-maroc-plans-belgrade-service.html

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/01/serbia-and-morocco-finalise-air.html

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/06/royal-air-maroc-considering-belgrade.html

      https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2013&mm=06&dd=07&nav_id=86549

      Maybe Rabat?

      Delete
    3. It is expected soon RAM to open Belgrade route. In order RAM to be successful on that route both countries must first abolish visas.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous12:29

    Belgrade needs more legacy carriers such like BA, AF and SAS. Not more LCCs with gasto routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very, very wrong! Serbian market is well connected to Scandinavian countries and nobody needs SAS.
      BA lost their game in Belgrade and there is nothing they can offer to our market. Connectivity can be very well achieved through LH, AZ, OS, LX, JU, SU etc
      Air France? They have extra ordinary code share agreement with JU and unless Vinci does not intervene it will stay on that way. Maybe Joon...
      LCC are welcome not only because of gastos visiting Serbia but also because of foreigners who could easily explore Serbia / Belgrade and because of local population who can visit european cities for much more affordable price.
      So, yes please more LCC routes, especially U2!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:03

      What BEG really needs is ORY for 3 good reasons:

      1. Already extremely high demand from/to CDG and especially BVA
      2. Good connections with French Overseas Territory destinations (in cooperation with Vinci)
      3. Proximity to Paris centre

      The ideal airline can be either JU or HV.
      But if U2 want, they can too.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:38

      What is this obsession with French overseas territories? lol

      But yes, I agree that BEG-ORY would be a successful route.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:39

      +1 anon 13.03
      + 1 Nebojsa

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:58

      Anon 13:38 - no it's just more prestige for BEG making it a unique airport connected to the 3 Paris hotels. Technically BEG will be part of the French kingdom so having links to FOT is crucial and also via ORY to Dakar, Bamako, Mauritius, etc. The Serbian market needs to grow.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous22:03

      Hotels?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous22:13

      @Anon 12:29

      Evo ga opet komsija "analiticar" sa svojim navijanjem za AF/BA/KL u Beogradu. Dosadio si a pritom si u krivu.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous12:45

    Is O&D demand between BEG and non-diaspora destinations so low that LCCs just don't care? Would be nice to get cheap flights to some holiday destinations on the Mediterranean.
    Also is air traffic between Serbia and Montenegro regulated in favour of their national carriers? Would be great to have Easy or Wizz flying to TIV and TGD.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous13:31

    Let's hope for ORY and LGW!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:41

      It would be lovely to have Easy flying to Nice. We only have Paris flights from Belgrade.
      Belgrade-Montenegro is still governed by bilateral regime do JU/YM are protected. That would be wonderful LCC routes and traffic could triple in short time.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:18

      How about flights to BOD or Tarbes for religious tourism?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:24

      Given that Serbia is Orthodox and Tarbes attracts Catholics, I don't see this route performing well.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous21:37

    According to my info easyJet has good loads to and from BSL already. Tomorrow again 140+ booked on both sectors. Flights operated by A319.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:47

      Lets see who will first withdraw from the route, U2 or W6.
      W6 agressively lower the prices or I won't be surprised if they launch A321 on the Belgrade Nikola Tesla International Airport to EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg International Airport to lower the rates and kick U2 as they traditionally do with FR or Transporturi Aeriene Române TAROM S.A.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:21

      It will be interesting to see what happens. In my opinion there is space for both...easyJet is strong in BSL, 11 planes based there. A lot of pax coming from Zurich area as well. They will generate a lot of new pax on the route and steal some pax from LX as well. Wizz should adjust flight times however. The BSL-BEG is too late in the evening.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:46

      Always good to be optimistic. But when supply exceeds demand, then we have a terrible problem.
      BEG has been a GVA victim in the past with 3 carriers at a time. EY Regional, easy and JU.
      BEG-ZRH is already way too saturated.
      Again, I hope this route remains. W6 BSL-BEG timetable is simply crazy - of course Friday night the prices are always expensive BSL-BEG but Monday? Arriving BEG in the middle of the night in winter....not the coolest thing.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:07

      Why is BEG-ZRH way too saturated? They are adding flights but passenger numbers are growing so there is growing demand.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous06:37

    Great news for BEG.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.