Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines conclude agreement

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Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines have concluded a Special Prorate Agreement (SPA), signalling the first form of commercial cooperation between the two carriers. Based on the agreement, passengers can purchase Air Serbia tickets from one of its European destinations and fly to Belgrade, from which they can continue with Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and onwards to Antalya, Ankara, Adana, Bodrum, Dalaman, Gaziantep, Gazipasa, Izmir, Kayseri, Trabzon and Konya. The Serbian Ambassador to Turkey, Zoran Marković, noted the deal would lead to a codeshare agreement between the two companies in the foreseeable future. “I expect a draft codeshare agreement from Belgrade to be delivered to their Turkish counterparts and for authorities to push for the deal to be expedited. The new agreement envisages an additional flight from Turkey to Serbia. If Turkish Airlines is not interested, Air Serbia is eager to launch an additional flight between the two countries”, Mr Marković said. Air Serbia currently codeshares with Atlasglobal on services between Belgrade and Turkey.

Comments

  1. Anonymous13:57

    I don't get it, does it mean TK can add another flight to BEG? I thought the ASA limited them?

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    1. Anonymous14:13

      "Under the agreement, each airline must take into consideration how their operations will affect their competitors, while regulators will be able to determine if any increase in capacity or frequencies is justified and in line with market conditions."

      So if Air Serbia says Ok, Serbian CAD will say ok.

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    2. Anonymous14:19

      Hopefully JU returns to IST with a TK codeshare.

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    3. I would prefer that JU flies to IST themselves?.

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    4. Anonymous14:45

      With the codeshare JU can. Without it was a disaster.

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  2. Anonymous14:03

    Istanbul is a megacity of 15 million and welcomes +10 million of tourist every year and a transfer hub in the world and Turks and Serbs don't need visas - so door to door many passengers between those cities.

    It's impossible not to bring profit in Belgrade - Istanbul market! JU has to start flying to Istanbul Grand Airport!

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    1. Anonymous14:06

      +103 million passengers used Istanbul Airports in 2018. Forgot to add that.

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    2. Anonymous14:09

      Turkish arrivals in September rose by 57%!! KK was always A321 so there is definitely room for expansion.

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    3. Anonymous16:15

      Russian arrivals up 24%! Hopefully WZ adds more flights next year

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    4. Anonymous19:22

      Or if this trend continues maybe a fourth by SU?

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  3. Codeshare with Turkish Airlines is the only way to make Air Serbia profitable. New Istanbul Airport is world hub that Abu Dhabi never was.

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  4. Anonymous15:14

    Bravo!

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  5. Anonymous15:22

    Best combination would be daily by JU and widebody by TK like they wanted to.

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    1. Anonymous15:30

      ^I agree.

      I wonder if TK would bring their 787-9 or 777-300ER like they do in Athens.

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    2. That would be cool.

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    3. Anonymous15:43

      When they filed for widebody ops to Belgrade last year (but were rejected by Serbian CAD) they scheduled A330-200s.

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    4. Anonymous16:07

      Actually the second request was for A333! They have A330s in short haul configuration.

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  6. Anonymous18:12

    Ankara flights please !

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    1. Agreed. With all the Turkish investment, tourism, and other exchanges, Istanbul ans Ankara make sense for AS.

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    2. Anonymous19:05

      Actually some years ago TK wanted to introduce two weekly ESB BEG flights but we all know how that went....

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  7. Better devil you know than the devil you don't.

    Istanbul-Belgrade route must remain under scrutiny. Otherwise, TK would crush all other players on the market. Let's not forget TK is the powerhouse of Turkey as an economic power, not the regular, European "let's pretend it is a free market" player.

    What leaves to be open are charters and perhaps flights to secondary Turkish destinations. However, I would be cautious with those as well.

    I am aware that some readers are pro "free-market," but that does not genuinely exist in Europe, let alone in relation to Turkey.

    We need connectivity and decent connections between Istanbul and Belgrade. Of course we do. However, not with double/triple daily TK 332, 333, or 773 with no means on JU side to remain at the same playing field.

    I paid the ticket to Konya via IST on TK, almost the same as I did on LH to Boston. It's not like TK is at a disadvantage here.

    IMHO, AirS erbia should return to Istanbul but only with TK by its side, not head to head against it. Choose battles wisely.

    Same goes for Munich, but that's a different story.

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    1. I generally agree with you. AS needs to play carefully with TK. Precisely because TK does not play fair. But Serbia has surrendered the Turkish market to TK, and other Turkish Airlines. There is room for AS at IST, where if given a reasonable slot time AS could make it work. Ankara could also work 2-3 weekly to start.

      Pretty much the same with LH in MUC, and similar situation with LOT in WAW. These are doable markets for AS, they just need to play carefully.

      Could you expand on this a little more; "Let's not forget TK is the powerhouse of Turkey as an economic power"?

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    2. @Charlie

      When I said, "Let's not forget TK is the powerhouse of Turkey as an economic power," I meant that Turkey uses Turkish Airlines. It uses it in the same manner as certain countries use Etihad, Emirates, Qatar or Lufthansa; to fortify their local hubs as the hubs of choice for as many travelers as possible and to provide seamless connections that would enable business activities to thrive. Turkey has done a great job in opening up to the foreign business, TK has been a tool, a rather excellent one. With the opening of the new Istanbul airport and the comprehensive narrowbody coverage of Europe and Asia/Africa, complemented with a long-haul network most European airlines would die for, Turkey is onto something. They are doing the right thing at the right time. EK, EY, even LH is dealing with their issues at the moment. TK has none of those. Just a lovely new airport to spread their wings from, fully supported by the state (their only bump would be the global 737-MAX debacle. However, they are neither lonely nor helpless in that matter)

      I hope I helped in clarifying my point of view.

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    3. Yes, nicely clarified. Thanks.

      I'm wondering if AS can be the same 'machine' for Serbia. Obviously on a much smaller scale than TK for Turkey. But if AS would increase there daily regional coverage to 2-3 daily to most airports in the Balkan region, combined with greater Euro-N. Africa coverage, they could become a significant player on the Balkan market. They would need to add about five more regional airports, and perhaps ten or so Euro destinations to achieve this. Plus a few more long haul destination. What do you think?

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    4. Anonymous00:11

      Charlie those pointers looks like verbatim copy of Dane Kondic Air Serbia playbook, 2013/2014 vintage. If you remember they did try five more airports in the region like BUD, VAR, OHD, IST (is WAW in the same region?) and more frequencies to exyu airports like BNX but that didn't work out for them. As a result they restrained regional capacity/frequency during 2015/2016. Now I agree with you that growth is the only way forward for Air Serbia but it looks like they want it done in a series of smaller steps. Starting with only 2-3 weekly services like they did on most new routes this year indicates more risk averse approach.

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    5. Hey man didn't Danny started off with the ill fated boutique concept? Bad idea from the start.
      But times have changed somewhat. Some of those destination may work now. LOT is pushing BUD-BEG, and WAW-BEG, so there is potential there.
      Maybe next year we see another wave of new 10 cities. Who would have thought that HEL would work. I think you gotta constantly grow in this game or yo lose out to the competition.
      Turkish, Aegean, LH they can't wait to take the kajmak from the region. ;-()

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  8. Anonymous21:56

    Something is cooking here. Let's not forget JU did its A330 maintenance at Turkish Technic last month.

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    1. Anonymous23:04

      very interesting ...

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    2. Anonymous00:03

      Maybe JU can get its A330 to do IST rotations whenever it's not flying to JFK :)

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  9. Anonymous07:30

    Not sure how this benefits JU on the long term, TK will not bring any additional passengers to JU network with this agreement, nor a 3rd frequency if any.
    JU already connects Istanbul with KK and beyond

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    1. Anonymous08:03

      It will benefit JU because they will finally have access to the TK global network out of IST.

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    2. Anonymous10:16

      Looks beautiful on the map but doesn't bring money to JU's network, you want TK to codeshare on JU's network out of BEG to fill these empty seats.
      But I think this is a great benefit for TK!

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    3. Anonymous14:00

      Great benefit for JU as it will not fly these passengers for free. ;)

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  10. Anonymous14:15

    Is it plausible JU has code-share agreements with TK and KK at the same time ?

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    1. Anonymous15:36

      I think it's possible.

      Turkish Airline's IST - Delhi - IST, IST - Mumbai - IST flights have codeshares with IndiGo and Air India for example.

      Delete

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