Wow that RJK terminal looks spooky from the outside.


Good news for the whole region is that JU will offer connections via BEG even in winter.Who else flies there in winter time?

Is RJK open at night? Maybe they should have one flight at night to offer connections to JFK as well.

YU-ALO :D
I wonder if it also flew to RJK 29 years ago :D

JU has the best Croatian airport coverage in the region. Not even LO or RO are so well connected to Croatia.

Not possibble as it was delivered in October 1990 and the last flight to RJK was in August 1990

JU did a great job by flying to so many destinations in Croatia (DBV, SPU, ZAD, PUY, RJK, ZAG). I suppose OU is not very happy about it...Some years ago they brought to the trial Air Serbia as JU transfers the passengers from other EU countries via BEG.
Does anyone know if it was finished or it is still ongoing?

Not only RO and LO but it's far superior even compared to Turkish Airlines, Alitalia or Aegean.

Retko ce ko u Rijeku putovati iz Srbije avionom to je samo pet sati kolima pre triseset je bilo 10 sati. Ovo sluzi za transfer putnike.

Ja sam sa granicom i 2 pauze putovao 8 sati ... Znam dosta ljudi koji putuju za Zagreb avionom jer im je mrsko da voze, da ne pricam o Rijeci ...

Али онда том логиком нико не би ишао авионом за Загреб или Пулу. Не желе баш сви да се клацкају друмом и да чекају читаву вечност на граници.

I think they gave up as it simply wouldn't work, political ramifications would have been too big.
Anyway, looking at JU's Balkan network it truly is spectacular.

1. LJU
2. PUY
3. RJK
4. ZAG
5. ZAD
6. SPU
7. DBV
8. BNX
9. SJJ
10. TIV
11. TGD
12. TIA
13. ATH
14. SKG
15. SKP
16. SOF
17. OTP

All they are missing is OHD in my opinion.

What was the load factor on the first flight?

Really amazing, thank you for posting it.

There were rumours that BWK wanted Air Serbia to fly there, but I suppose these negotiations were not successful.

From the other side OMO could consider next time to subsidize JU to fly there as RJK did. It would increase the connectivity from that airport significantly

All they are missing is CLJ, IAS, KIV, IST, BUD, OHD amongst other.

Balkans ≠ Ex-Yu.

The water cannon salute is epic on the ATR because of the propellers :D Mind you the trumpet players should really do some more practice :D

Don't know but saw on TV they interviewed some passengers including hoteliers from Belgrade, a local guy from Rijeka who was visiting friends in Belgrade and a German couple transferring from Berlin.

He was talking about Balkan and not about the region.

Balkan countries

http://www.waml.org/ib/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/G-Schedule-23-Balkan-Peninsula.png

KIV and BUD do not belong there.
IST does not work for much bigger fish, so no need JU to fly there. Code share with AtlasGlobal does the work.
OHD was tried and it was not successful.

just 30 pax on arrival flt.

For an ATR on a subsidised route, more than fine... if the number is correct at all

IST works for LO and RO so it might work for JU especially if they can get those tourists to fly with them.

As for the Balkans, by that logic neither is LJU then, nor OTP.

Probably 30 paying passengers while the rest were officials. Same with HEL, 120 passengers but 65 were paying ones.

OU doesn't fly to RJK in winter?! :O

It does. To Munich

I meant from Zagreb. So how does the MUC flight work? ZAG-MUC-PUY-MUC-ZAG?
What about PUY?

JU now flies to 6 airports in Croatia.

I am looking at some fares from RJK for August and they are not bad with most European fares being around €240, even Moscow.

ZAG-MUC-RJK-MUC-ZAG

Well I guess the target are Scandinavians flying from HEL/CPH to Croatia via BEG instead of taking the numerous daily non stop flights.

It is senseless flying to some destination if it does not generate any profit and if there is an estimation the situation won't be changed in the near future.

From one side you have mighty TK that has the biggest number of destinations worldwide and it is pointless starting any fight with them.

From the other side the tourists you are talking about prefer to fly with Turkish companies when they visit some country. It is in their mentallity so therefore AtlasGroup is doing good job working together with Turskish tour operators who bring Turksih tourists to Belgrade and Serbia. At the same time they code share with JU.

For those who like to fly with LCC you have Pegasus.

Let's not forget that companies like Swiss, SAS, Czech Airlines, Austrian(!), Iberia, Al Italia do not fly to IST at all. Taking that in consideration it is not realistic to expect from JU to fly there.

It looks like that Balkan Peninsula geographically is not strictly given as a term. According to the map I found and provided a link both LJU and OTP belong to Balkan. There are also maps showing that Romania does not belong to Balkan but it is for sure that LJU does belong there geographically (all areas southern than rivers Sava and Danube).

That is why JU needs to restart WAW since many tourists from Poland visit Croatia.

Well, that's his fault, he should have talked about the region.

PS: LJU and OTP are Balkan by all definitions.

Well if you are taking Danube as the northern border of the Balkan peninsula then Romania is definitely not in since Danube is the border with Bulgaria.

As for the airlines you listed, OK, OS and AZ are falling apart and are struggling to make ends meet. As for others, TK price dumping chased them away. They can't dump fares and capacity in Serbia due to bilaterals so for JU there is room to enter the market.

As for Turkish tourists, well, if they have no choice then they will fly with whoever is offered since Turkish carriers are blocked from expanding.

Btw JU is considering returning to IST.

Most of those numerous daily flights are sold via tour operators and most flights are not available to the general public. Those few that are are usually extremely expensive.

He should have talked...
LOL!

Balkan region is totally pointless in the aviation to discuss.

There is 'ATR region' and short-haul region, medium-haul region and so on.

ATR region from BEG is this:

http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=&R=539nmi%40beg&MS=wls&MR=180&MX=720x360&PM=*

I said - there are different definitions of Balkan so I am not the expert to say which one is correct. Even some Romanians say that their country belongs to Balkan.

Well, yes OK, OS and AZ are not in good shape but let's not forget that OS belongs to LH and they could make IST work only if they estimate it could be done. From the other side LX is not falling apart, there are many Turks in Switzerland but still they gave up flying to IST.

Could you please explain once again your sentence that due to bilateral they can't dump the prices in BEG? As far as I know bilateral speaks nothing about the prices air carrier will offer...And for many destinations from BEG TK has the best prices meaning BEG route is offered with dumping prices for connecting passengers.

Turkish tourists do have a choice of three Turkish companies flying to BEG, so why would they choose Serbian especially if many of them struggle with English language?

I have not heard that JU planned to re-open IST. Maybe it is true but I do nothink it would be smart move.

You shouldn't post that picture, now you will give ideas to JU to send Atr to Kyiv in winter :D

There is not an invisible mountain high in the air that separates 'Balkan' from the rest of the world.

So that is a totally pointless discussion.

There is the maximum range of regional aircraft then time efficiency.

These places can be reached in under an 1h30 from BEG:

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=krk%0D%0Aist%0D%0Aprg%0D%0Alwo%0D%0Anap%0D%0AATH%0D%0Aclj%0D%0AKIV&R=400nm%40beg&MS=wls&DU=mi

no PUY Nor ZAG. SPU - MUC - RJK - MUC - SPU.

Ok, people, this post has started with Balkan Peninusla topic but it evolved now to another topic about JU flying to IST.

I find it is interesting topic and see no reason discussion to be stopped :-)

I am shocked I have to say that Istra is completely unserved from ZAG in winter. I guess filling LH flights in winter makes more sense than OU's in ZAG.

For Air Serbia to succeed in Istanbul they should have employed Turkish-speaking FA's, put lots of targeted ads in Turkey, offered call-center in Turkish...

The reason is that market is very specific and many people among the traveling public don't speak English or any other foreign language.

Maybe AtlasGlobal is the best combination so far.

Also, Ankara would have been a better option.

Anon 13:08

+100

Why are you shocked? By car is faster than by plane.

Because they could carry transfers, same way OSI flights work.

Biggest Problem of the Balkans is that they dont realize what their true nature is :
They are Southern Europeans !

Andalusia,Southern Italy and especially the Mediteranean islands like Sicily ,Corsica and Sardinia and of course Greece and Turkey - These have a common mentality with the former Yugoslavia,Bulgaria and Albania .

There is an Italian proverb about having similar mentality with Greek people and it would also fit into the whole Southern Europe :
Una fazza, una razza = One face, one people !

Rijeka to Zagreb is 160km by car on modern highways. Are you insinuating that there should by a flight on a relation of 160km?? Considering all current climate debates and the proximity of those two cities on modern highways, it is more than rational both ecologically and economically that there a no flights between the two cities.

Pula and Zagreb are linked on a daily flight throughout the year.

You're talking nonsense and it is regardless irrelevant to aviation.

But there are no ZAG PUY flights in Amadeus for this winter.

Why is it nonsense ? I think he is quite correct, there is a reason why Yugos hang out together in frigid Scandinavia or emotionless Germany.

In Spain there are countless Bulgarians and they perfectly adapt to the local population.
No difference in mentality, very good observation !