Hybrid carrier Flydubai has registered strong passenger growth on its flights between its hub in the United Arab Emirates and Belgrade in 2018. The airline saw its figures increase 35% on services from Dubai to the Serbian capital in 2018. At the same time, its numbers grew 56% in Bulgaria, 45% in Romania, 42% in Russia and 2% in Ukraine. The carrier did not report its growth margins for other markets in the former Yugoslavia to which it operates to including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The airline previously said, "Following our codeshare partnership with Emirates, we have seen an increase in demand on our flights to Belgrade".
In March Flydubai introduced its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on the Belgrade route, which has slightly less capacity than the previously operated B737-800. Furthermore, this winter season the carrier reduced its operations to Belgrade from daily to five weekly. Due to the upcoming southern runway repair at Dubai Airport, between April 16 and May 30, Flydubai will slash its operations across its network. Flights to Belgrade will be maintained four times per week, increasing to five weekly from June 1 and daily from June 30.
Flydubai shifted its Belgrade departures and arrivals in Dubai from its dedicated Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 used by Emirates as of last December, allowing for more seamless transfer options. The Serbian capital was selected along with another nine destinations which were moved at the time. This summer, the airline will face additional competition from its local competitors on the Belgrade service, with Etihad Airways to operate double daily flights from Abu Dhabi, while the Sharjah-based Air Arabia will launch four weekly operations to the Serbian capital. Overall, Flydubai registered a loss of 43.5 million US dollars last year. Its performance in 2018 was impacted by growing fuel costs, rising interest rates and unfavourable currency exchange movements.
Comments
That is a reason Air Arabia introduced Belgrade
IST 21
AUH 14
TLV 9
DXB 7
DOH 7
BEY 5
SAW 4
SHJ 4
CAI 2
FZ is far more fitting to our market and compete better with EY, TK and QR on price.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Middle_Eastern_countries_by_population
Can't wait to see Purger's spreadsheets and diagrams about it comparing ex-Yu countries with flights to MENA
Qantas at BEG https://i.imgur.com/I7QVYgo.jpg
UAE government plane at BEG https://i.imgur.com/gtTNEXd.jpg
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/01/air-arabia-eyes-belgrade-success.html
For example thanks to Belavia for the first time ever Serbia started getting Belorussian tourists. Chinese arrivals remain impressive, in December there were 3.895 (+39%) while in the whole year it was 102.351 or 98% more. I remember when some people on here mocked us when we said more than 100.000 Chinese will visit Serbia. This number explains why Aeroflot introduced third daily and why Qatar sends its A321. I am sure FZ also profited from this.
Unfortunately Turkish arrivals have stagnated and I blame CAD for it as they are restricting TK from adding more flights. Hopefully KK pulls its act together and increases flights next winter as well. Serbia should not be victim of their incompetence.
Will the CIA come to your home and arrest you for writing anonymously which airline will be sending a widebody to BEG?
SMFH
What is the breakdown of those 9 weekly flights?
Thanks for all info!
Is the duration of stay increasing? This is for me the more important metric.
JU x7
W6 x2
No Aviolet charters to Cyprus, there never were. Aviogenex used to fly some back in 2012 or 2011.
EK wise, my feeling is until the A330neo arrives, very small chance of it stepping in, unless they decide to put BEG on the 77L (777-200LR). Etihad wise, at best an upgrade to A321 twice daily.
It's not a massive drop, maybe 3% per month or so.
Anon 10.14
Sure, it's the official website of the bureau for statistics:
http://www.stat.gov.rs/sr-Cyrl/oblasti/ugostiteljstvo-i-turizam/turizam
1 EUR = 3.78 TRY
Aug 2018
1 EUR = 7.85 EUR
Feb 2019
1 EUR = 6.04 TRY
I READ HERE as well about FZ serious problems in ZAG with LF, and then I had flight ZAG-DXB on Jan 12, and DXB-ZAG on Feb 1, and there were 90 passengers in economy and 4 in premium to Dubai, and 7 premium and ECONOMY FULL UP TO THE LAST SEAT on the flight back to Zagreb. I know two flights are not enough to make any conclusions, however I doubt the stories about FZ flying empty to ZAG are true. If it was like that, they would have simply stop flying to ZAG. And it's not what I saw when flying.
It flew with 50% LF on the day you took the flight.
If they have half of the flights in winter that are full and half of them that have 50% LF (as in your case) it is still terrible LF for the company as FZ is.
They need to have LF of 90% to keep some route profitable.
Not to mention that the code-shares with EK are even less profitable for FZ than P2P routes meanining 50% LF where not all passengers are P2P is actually a disaster.
Larnaca is always daily in summer, it's in winter that flights go down to 1,2 or 3 weekly. Already from next month JU is increasing LCA to 3 weekly which is great.
Also Flydubai probably had infinite growth on the Croatian market since they launched Dubrovnik in 2018 but they were not flying to Croatia in 2017 at all. So what were they supposed to compare it to? 0 passengers in 2017?
You better call CEO of Emirates and explain him how to run a company and how to redistribute the planes.
Yes, there is the reason why ZAG is not included. I saw it as passenger on FZ flights. ZAG is NOT LISTED AT ALL as FZ destination, shown on their maps and IFE system. It is not listed because it is EMIRATES destination. I was continuing the flights to Indonesia and New Zealand, and unlike on FZ flights, ZAG was on all maps and info on EK flights. Flydubai is just operating on behalf of Emirates during low winter season. EK is back in ZAG in one month, but people here usually just look for any reason to spit on everything, be it JU, JP, YM, OU, BEG, ZAG, SPU, SJJ, SKP, PRN, LJU, MBX, BNX, INI...........