Greece's Aegean Airlines will continue to strengthen its network in the former Yugoslavia this winter season, with services to Dubrovnik to operate for the majority of the season, while both Belgrade and Zagreb will see additional flights. The carrier's seasonal service between Athens and Dubrovnik will be extended for most of the winter, with flights to be maintained twice per week up until January 4. Services will then resume at the start of the 2020 summer season in late March of next year. Aegean introduced operations to Dubrovnik in the summer of 2015 and has since maintained the route exclusively on a seasonal basis.
During the upcoming winter season, Aegean will add an extra weekly flight on its service to Zagreb for a total of three. The new rotation will be introduced on Thursdays and will operate on and off throughout the winter. Overall, the Zagreb route, which was launched only last year, will be maintained until January 15, before it goes on a month-long hiatus, and resumes on February 24. Aegean faces no direct competition on its operations to Croatia during the winter. Flights to both Zagreb and Dubrovnik will be run by the airline's regional subsidiary Olympic Air and its 78-seat Bombardier Dash 8 turboprop aircraft.
The Greek carrier will also increase its operations between Athens and Belgrade this coming winter season. It will maintain five weekly flights between the two capital cities, up from three last year. As a result, it will retain its summer frequencies over the winter months. The route will be operated by the Airbus A319 aircraft between Monday and Thursday and the A320 on Fridays. Aegean Airlines codeshares on the service with Air Serbia, which itself plans to maintain daily flights between the two cities during the 2019/20 winter season. The Greek and Serbian national carriers have also expanded their wide-ranging codeshare partnership this summer, with Aegean recently placing its flight number and designator code onto its counterpart's newly launched service between Belgrade and Rijeka.
I think Aegean does really well in Belgrade, the other day they sent A321!
ReplyDeleteAegean increasing winter frequencies to BEG to 5w from 3w is bad news for JU.
DeleteBut you see JU is in a position to compete, unlike some other airlines in the region. And it is competing. It decreased ticket prices during the next winter between Belgrade and Athens. So it's a win for passengers. Not to mention you can buy JU tickets on Aegean website and viceversa.
DeleteThe decrease of ticket prices during the next winter between Belgrade and Athens is bad news for JU.
DeleteI'm sure JU will be just fine.
DeleteJU didn't decrease its prices, they are about the same, they are just having more promotions to fill the seats that were empty last year. ATH is one of the rare regional destinations that remains daily in winter so I am sure it does fine.
DeleteSo Belgrade is the only ex-YU destination to have year-round flights to Greece.
ReplyDeleteNo, Aegean flies to Skopje year round.
DeleteWasn't it written on here that ATH-SKP is a political route because of the name change?
DeleteAnd alll with jets
DeleteMaybe some anonymous wrote that but the route is not political as it was operated before the suspension as well. In fact it operated with more frequencies then now.
DeleteIt is a political route - it not being flown until now was for political reasons.
DeleteIt was flown before. And I don't get your point. You claimed BEG was the only city in ex-Yu with year round flights to Greece and you were wrong.
Delete''And all with jets'
DeleteI suppose you are referring to BEG, not SKP. SKP is operated with subsidiary Olympic Air and their regional turboprop aircraft. OA is used on routes where they need to cut costs or where there is not enough demand.
They can't compete with JU while sending a turboprop.
DeleteI don't think it's about competition, I think loads have improved. Remember they used to send the Q400 for ages before slowly transitioning to Airbus.
DeleteInteresting that they codeshare to Rijeka now. Mark my words they will launch this route in a year. They always did this. They first make cs with JU to a certain destination in Croatia and in a year or two they open it themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis summer they offer two weekly flights via BEG:
DeleteATH-BEG 08.50-09.30
BEG-RJK 13.10-14.30
I know I've read the article. What I'm saying is that usually when they started codesharing on a Croatian destination they launched nonstop flights with their own equipment within a year or two.
DeleteI think it would make sense to first go to Pula and then Rijeka.
DeleteI'm surprised they won't increase SKP in winter. 2 weekly on Dash is quite low. 10 years ago they used to fly 5 weekly I think.
ReplyDeleteThey are a professionally run airline so I am sure they would do it if there was demand. I mean they don't even fly to ZAG the whole winter so I am sure SKP isn't there yet.
DeleteBut they fly to SKP year round.
DeleteMaturity doesn't happen overnight, and 10 years ago SKP had four times less traffic (read competition).
DeleteActually SKP used to be operated daily by Aegean with larger aircraft.
DeleteYes but back then Skopje was barely linked to any other city. Things have changed.
DeleteBack when A3 was flying daily to SKP the road from Athens to Skopje was not as good. Now they have made a great highway connecting Athens with northern Greece.
DeleteSo they are not keeping Sarajevo in winter?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteI travelled from Sarajevo to Athens last Saturday (June 15). The flight was on time, boarding efficient, load factor at around 70-80% with a mix of Greek, locals and expats. The flight path is offering beautiful scenery over Pale, Foca, Drina riverne, Djakovica, Tetovo, Edesa, Volos and Saronic gulf towards El. Venizelos airport. Athens airport now has a new, much larger extra-Schengen arrival passport control hall. Flight time aprox. 90 minutes.
DeleteInteresting. Thanks.
DeleteZAG is actually weak during winter with Aegean
ReplyDeleteOnly 3-4 pw with Dash 8 and not even flying 1,5 months during the winter
They just opened ZAG a year ago or so. Give it time.
DeleteSo? KE pretty much immediately increased capacity. If there is demand then there is demand.
DeleteActually A3 increased ZAG capacity too, and by more percantage than KE.
DeleteCapacity remained the same, they increased the overall numbers of seats.
DeleteMore seats means more capacity.
DeleteI find it odd that OU and A3 don't cooperate and both are Star Alliance companies.
ReplyDeleteNot really, they are blindly faithful to their overloards and shift their passengers via nearby VIE and MUC.
Delete@Anon 9:13 - I highly doubt A3 is under a large LH influence.
DeleteWizz could easily fly SKP-ATH and even more so BEG-ATH.
ReplyDeleteMissed opportunity, especially from Skopje in my opinion.
DeleteIf only they weren't so stubborn.
Deletethey choose Larnaca ^^
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteOU should have flown ZAG-ATH in winter with their Dashes.
ReplyDeleteBut even during summer they fly the route via Dubrovnik.
DeleteZAG-ATH via DBV simply isn't competitive against Aegean's nonstop flight.
DeleteBut still flights are filled all the time and making money.
DeleteHope so.
DeleteDoes anyone know how their new SJJ route is performing?
ReplyDeleteHave there ever been flights between Sarajevo and Athens? Do Bosnians go to Greece for holidays?
DeleteW6 would definitely shake up JU and A3 on this route and I'm sure they would be successful.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly would they shake them up? Both are cheap in winter and anyway it's not like Wizz is cheap anyway.
DeleteBy the way, JU just had an ATH winter sale, return tickets for €66.
Even more FR. They have a big base in ATH. And after abandoning the Greek domestic market to A3 and focusing on international flights BEG would make a lot of sense.
Deletewhats the standard fare from BEG?
Delete66€ is pretty cheap, but i doubt there were more then 5seats per flight :D
DeleteIt was a three hour sale, from 12 to 15 so I doubt they blocked any seats.
DeleteIn winter standard fare to Athens is around €80 to €140 depending on the loads of course.
Their summer coverege in ex-Yu is great but in winter they fly very few routes here. Nice to see them expanding a bit.
ReplyDeleteThey are generally cautious when it comes to expansion.
DeleteBut they are also smart about it. If a route doesn't work they suspend it quickly like Zadar. Same story with Ljubljana.
DeleteI'm surprised they failed on the Ljubljana route. Lots of pax from LJU are currently transiting to get to Greece (not just Athens but to Thessaloniki in particular) and majority uses JU combination. Also, since Aegean is * alliance and a really close partner of Lufthansa I’m sure Adria would codeshare if they restarted the route.
DeleteI did take the direct A3 flight to LJU and back once. LJU-ATH was packed (Greeks, Slovenes and many seemingly transit passengers), while ATH-LJU was 60-70% full. It was in early July.
DeleteAnother great thing about LJU-ATH via BEG is that if there is a delay from LJU then JU can simply rebook those passengers onto Aegean's Athens flight which departs a bit later.
DeleteBEG-ATH 14.35-17.20
Very good news for customers from BEG, DBV and ZAG.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt would be interesting to see the passenger structure on thsee routes. Are they mostly P2P or transfers.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly P2P. Transfers maybe to Greek islands.
DeleteWill Aegean also operating some charters from Dubrovnik to Germany for German tour operators like last year?
ReplyDeleteYes it will. Not only from Germany. Also from other European destinations and now from UK and Ireland as well
DeleteWow what the hell is OU doing? Why is it allowing others to take a piece of its cake.
Delete+1
DeleteHow come the Greeks are able to base aircraft and crew in Dalmatia and fly these charters profitably while OU can not?
SMFH
Actually OU is planned to fly from UK (BHX, MAN and LGW) and Ireland
DeletePity Sarajevo flights will not be in autumn, October. The best time to visit beautiful Greece
ReplyDeleteLet's first see if they will resume Sarajevo next summer.
DeleteWhy all this Sarajevo hate?
DeleteI'm sorry can you point out to me what is hateful towards Sarajevo? I said that we first have to see if they will resume Sarajevo next summer and if they do maybe then they will extend it to winter. It's their usual policy. They didn't return to either Ljubljana or Zadar.
DeleteOf course they are growing, Greece has 20+ million tourists a year plus a strong diaspora.
ReplyDeleteThis development isn't good for Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't good for JU either.
DeleteBut JU is able to compete on this route at least because they actually fly it.
DeleteHow exactly is is a bad development then for OU that an airline is increasing flights on a route that they don't even fly?
DeleteAnd a *A partner at that?
So what if they are Star Alliance? They don't even code-share as A3 doesn't see a point in working with OU. Funny thing is that A3 covers Croatia via BEG and JU which is not even in Star Alliance.
DeleteIt's bad news for OU because A3 is growing stronger and stronger in a market they are ignoring.
Great for DBV and ZAG. It is very important to decrease the seasonality of the tourist season and have visitors coming all year.
ReplyDeleteINI-ATH is heavily underrated as a destination. With the capital of the South now on the rise, it is time for A3 to finally consider launching flights...
ReplyDeletema hajde
DeleteМа хајде шта? Прекините више са тим несносним хејтом.
DeleteVama je svaka rec hejt, stvarno mi niste jasni. Prvo airBelgrade, onda kad krenu da lete iz Nisa ne valja sto lete. Iskreno da se ja pitam, ja bih vam dao 2 leta dnevno za BEG i da pevate "niska banja, topla voda" a ne ovo, posto ocito nista ne valja.
DeleteTK will get some competition in DBV.
ReplyDeleteDBV keeps winning!
DeleteWell it did loose IB.
DeleteWhy is Aegean not flying to Slovenia anymore? Strange that there is not market fro-to there.
ReplyDeleteThey have a good codeshare partnership with JU on all all exyu destinations.
DeleteWinter timetable for Aegean in our region:
ReplyDeleteIST: 20x
OTP: 12x
TIA: 9x
SOF: 8x
BEG: 5x
BUD: 4x
VCE: 3x
ZAG: 3x
DBV: 2x
SKP: 2x
Total: 68 weekly flights or almost 10 a day!
I think they are still behind JU in overall frequencies in winter but they are trying their best to catch up.
IST is in our region?
DeleteI think VIE is closer/more relevant to our region than IST.
DeleteIST is on the Balkan peninsula, VIE isn't so it is more logical to include it.
DeleteYou confused SAW with IST ;)
DeleteIf the criterion is which airports are in the Balkan peninsula, then what are the OTP, VCE, BUD and if we're splitting hairs BEG too, doing on this list? :)
DeleteSeriously though, VIE is certainly way more relevant to the ex yu region than VCE, BUD, OTP or SOF.
Great news. This will somewhat make up for the loss of Iberia at DBV.
ReplyDeleteNeka neka. Ozbiljna aviokompanija koja se brine o putnicima.
ReplyDeletewhat about LJU?
ReplyDelete