NEWS FLASH
Malaysia's Malindo Air, which is part of the Indonesian Lion Air group, has said it is seeking to conclude an interline agreement with Air Serbia. The Kuala Lumpur-based airline, which is in the process of rebranding into Batik Air Malaysia, said it expects to clinch a deal with the Serbian carrier in order to tap into new markets, as well as enable passengers to find easier connections when travelling between Asia and Europe. It recently inked similar agreements with Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways, and also has one in place with Etihad. An interline allows passengers to travel with the two carriers under a single ticket. Furthermore, both airlines agree to publish a fare from the origin to the final destination and then internally divide the revenue between them. The deal also covers baggage transfers and liability. Malindo is a full service airline and operates a fleet of 42 aircraft, with a further fourteen on order.
Nice. Great news for JU as it will enable them to tap into new markets.
ReplyDeleteNice livery. Would be good if they do it, but Serbia-Malaysia market is almost non-existent now when Australia is accessible one-stop.
ReplyDeleteSeems nice for connections to Asia, but AirSerbia and Malindo don't fly to even a single common airport.
ReplyDeleteIs AirSerbia planning to start a Delhi or Mumbai route? Then it would make sense.
Malindo flies to Beijing so who knows....
DeleteEtihad could be the common denominator. One ticket from various places in Asia-KL-AUH-BEG-various places in Europe.
DeleteNot the most practical solution, however, possible.
Rgds, Eight
It's always nice to have more options for the stray traveler. As long as this kind of arrangements don't distract the AS management from coming up with a clear overall strategy.
ReplyDeleteJust returned from New Zealand and Bali. While at Bali, went 26 January to Surabaya in morning with Citiline, coming back to Bali 19.45 LT, with Lion Air Indonesia, member of the Lion group. Morning flight with Citilink ok, some 20 min delayed. But thanks God I arrived to Surabaya airport 2 and a half hours before my evening flight, as only then I realised that my flight was cancelled. No information from Lion, no mail, no sms, no phone call, no nothing, and next flight to Bali on 27 January, the next day. I was accepted for the flight 18.00 to Bali, the last of that day. I just wander what if I arrived to airport one hour and a half before departure, after the last plane of the day to Bali departed. No way to do business, sorry.
ReplyDeleteAnd already writing of my trip, just to share the data for passengers on Flydubai. Jan 12, ZAG-DXB, 90 passengers, 4 in premium class. Today, Feb 1, DXB-ZAG , premium 7, economy FULL HOUSE up to the last seat. Passengers about 40% Croatian, about 10% Slovenian, about 40% Far Eastern, mixture of Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and about 10% others, African, Indian and Arab. 90%of passengers transit through DXB, about 10% P2P. Cheers!
You are brave to have flown on Lion Air. I wouldn't fly on them no matter what.
DeleteHey Nemjee!
DeleteYou see I flew Citilink one way to SUB :) Also I flew EK Dubai - Jakarta and Bali-Auckland (return Auckland-Bali - Dubai), and segment Jakarta-Bali I flew Garuda. Flydubai Zagreb-Dubai vv. and AKL-WLG-CHC-AKL with Air New Zealand. I just flew one leg Surabaya to Bali with Lion knowing they are on EU black list and all what was happening lately, but just wanted to add another airline to the list of airlines I flew on, which list now stands on 120. Brgd!
I know but all it takes is one flight... :D
DeleteHow was the flying experience with them? Was it similar to flying on Wizz Air and Ryanair?
Well, I had no luggage as it was for 1 day only. They had no service at all as flight time is 40 min only. You can self check-in on machine/kiosk (which I couldn't as my flight was cancelled so I had to use check-in counter ). Plane was 737-900 (was surprised to have - 900 on 40 min) and it looked ok both from outside and inside. Cabin crew did safety part of their job properly, and actually flight itself was not bad at all , I expected it to be worse :)
DeleteFunny how even after Hainan left, Chinese tourist arrivals kept on growing. In December there were 3.895 (+39%) while in whole 2018 total number was 102.351 (+91%).
ReplyDeleteI remember how many mocked Serbia when it was reported that more than 100.000 Chinese would visit Serbia. I expect around 150.000 next year. I guess we know why Aeroflot added the third flight.
Here are some other numbers for 2018:
Bosnia - 121.384 (+12%)
China - 102.351 (+98%)
Bulgaria - 99.527 (+6%)
Turkey - 97.084 (-2%)
Croatia - 93.953 (+13%)
Slovenia - 86.897 (+11%)
Romania - 76.779 (+15%)
Greece - 71.359 (+6%)
Poland - 57.074 (+26%)
Russia - 49.765 (-0.2%)
USA - 39.020 (+14%)
France - 34.400 (+18%)
Netherlands - 24.513 (+17%)
Swiss - 17.743 (+8%)
Spain - 13.227 (+19%)
Ukraine - 13.027 (+25%)
Finland - 3.648 (+12%)
Now we see how much bilateral restrictions are hurting Serbian tourism. With no extra flights Turkish arrivals are stagnating. Finland and Spain grew nicely even before more flights were added. Let's see now what happens in summer.
Belarus was around 3.500 for 2018 which means that Belavia carries a lot of tourists to BEG.
Foreign arrivals:
December 2018: 120.870 (+9%)
Year 2018: 1.710.514 (+14%)
Belgrade:
December 2018: 87.586 (+8%)
Year 2018: 1.160.582 (+12%)
Year 2018:
Novi Sad - 214.321 (+9%)
Nis - 122.839 (+15%)
Spas: 596.884 (+15%)