Obviously both routes will be operated by Air Serbia.

The government should divert the entire state budget to establishing flight to any city in Serbia. Wizzair and Ryanair will be very thankful.

This leads me to the conclusion that Air Serbia will lease an additional ATR over winter and it makes sense considering all the increase in traffic they will have from BEG too.

"Great Success!"

The susbidies for Nis and Kraljevo flights which in total on annual basis will be around 6 million euros for 14 routes is less than the PSO subsidies Croatia Airlines gets each year for 6 routes.

Great news. Now people from central and southern Serbia will have flights.

wow

So in the end, Kraljevo will have flights by the end of the year :)

Thessaloniki is interesting, I guess buses and minibuses will be the biggest victims once again.

Maybe Atra could operate SKG flights with their Atrs or with the BAE146.

Well in theory Austrian could apply and operate Vienna-Kraljevo with a Dash :D

Not necessarily, they said they discussed this with various airlines. JU is obviously not in the picture.

LOL The government will subsidize Serbian citizens going to a foreign country to spend their money their instead of getting business traffic into the country. I am cracking up, this stinks so much.

Next stop is to subsidize direct flights from Novi Sad to Hurghada! LOL

Check how much foreign arrivals have boomed in Nis since Air Serbia launched flights from there.

They said the same about Nis.

It seems they know what they are doing when selecting routes. The destinations chosen from Nis, even though some seemed odd, have proven successful.

Vienna is a no brainier. These flights will be full.

^You forget it's fine when others do it. Same with state aid.

Why SKG instead of ATH? Way bigger demand to ATH plus a lot more connecting opportunities with Aegean and other carriers.
Sounds stupid to me.

Per pax is the real metric, not per route.

Only JU will bother to apply. It is just another subsidy.

^Check stats on how many people from Serbia visit Northern Greece. This is for holiday traffic. That's why it's seasonal.

09:10

Correction: since Wizz Air launched flights from there.

Air Serbia and Ryanair didn't want to touch Nis with a stick prior to that.

:)

And these flights will have to be operated with a plane no bigger than 80 seats, so it will be easier to fill than Nis.

You can not compare INI - NUE route and the likes to KRALJEVO - THESSALONIKI. This is 100% one-sided traffic to Greece.

.. have proven successful?

As in, operated a full year with no support?

Oh, you mean operated full during a couple of peak months. I see.

Don't be so sure. Many of you experts were claiming the Nis flights would be empty but it turned out very differently.

I see lots of people triggered already and it hasnt even been 20 minutes. Oh well.

They are visiting Northern Greece by car! Because it is close enough. Athens on the other hand would give people from Kraljevo and the wider region the opportunity to connect to well over 100 destinations from ATH.
Or just a way to visit parts of Greece that are too far to drive to from our country.

Compared to your doom and gloom scenarios of being constantly empty. All you can do is be angry.

Well they will no longer go by car. Now they will go by plane.

INI was different, those were subsidies for a base, these are for a year-round three weekly flight to Vienna and a summer seasonal to Thessaloniki. If this was tailored for JU then they would have made both year-round and there would be more frequencies.

The routes are in the public interest, meaning they are supposed to serve the people living there. Meaning if a large portion go on holidays to Greece, now they have the option to go by plane, so the public interest has been served.

Can Morava airport even handle a320? If so, Ryanair would be perfect for those 2 routes

The problem here is all you can ever discuss in is hyperboles. It's either 'everything' or 'nothing'. It's thundering success or the depths of despair. 100% super profitable full flights or empty ones.

I doubt anyone claimed those flights would be empty, especially at the rate of 100 EUR support per return pax.

Wait some time before claiming success. Same for foretelling doom.

It can in theory with many restrictions, so it definitely won't be any LCC. These flights will be operated by turboprops.

Car is more convenient and cheaper for that distance.
They will go by plane only if the tickets are extremely cheap.

Well they can get OS to fly from VIE and they can get all the connections they need. Thessaloniki is for tourists going to northern Greece, that's why it's seasonal. Similar to JU's INI-TIV.

The whole point of the subsidies is for the tickets to be cheap. Look at the fares from Nis.

Yes, let's ban Serbs from travelling abroad. Let them all go to local lakes and swim there in stead of seaside resorts all around the Mediterranean Sea.

It seems that article from a few days ago about the government opening Uzice Airport and having traffic doesn't seem that unrealistic anymore.

In the end it seems Kraljevo will be connected to Vienna before Ljubljana.

What are the distance from Kraljevo to Nis and Belgrade? Thanks.

There are no subsidies for flights to ATH from Kraljevo for the same reason there are non to ATH from INI.
It would hurt JU loads from BEG to ATH, LCA, MLA, CAI, TLV, BEY.
The routes were chosen based also on what JU would prefer for its network strategy.

This is good. Morava Airport serves several cities, that's why they named it that way because it doesn't serve a particular town although it is closest to Kraljevo but not exactly in Kraljevo. These routes will perform well.

Air Serbia will definitely be the operating carrier. The fact that they start the process to select the airline just 2 months before flights start show this.

Anonymous at 09:25
The whole point of the subsidies is for the government to help ASL.
Fixed!

It most probably is. But even if it wasn't they have already probably discussed and selected an airline, and any tender would just be a formality... like last time.

Elections are coming!

+1

Great. Not only did they help Air Serbia they also helped people get the opportunity to fly at affordable prices.

Namjee, give them holiday coupons for Egypt and Antalya with state money. Makes sense.

Next step is to give them opportunity to go directly to Thailand, this is in public interest.
Since when 0,01% of the population is defined as the public?

Dejan 15 October 2019 at 09:29
+1000

According to stats, last year over a million Serbian people visited Greece.

So many angry people.

@9.31 It is good to see the money used to improve connectivity and not to fix engines and pay suppliers like state aid is used at some other airlines.

Morava Airport doesn't have deicing equipment. They lack basic functions for airport operations and yet first flight is expected in less than two months?

And what is wrong with the government protecting a local business that hires thousands of locals and that contributes greatly to the local economy? Maybe in stead we should subsidize Hungarian Wizz Air so that some people on here can be happy?

Isn't ZAG protecting OU in a similar way? That's also protectionism.

Equipment has been donated by Belgrade Airport.

Why not? Give them coupons so that next year they book holidays without them.

well, imho, there are three possibilities:

- JU leases another ATR and starts BEG-VIE-LYKV-VIE-BEG and BEG-SKG-LYKV-SKG-BEG
- OU starts VIE-LYKV-VIE with their Dash-8 and OA/A3 start SKG-LYKV-SKG with ther Dash-8 (you can transfer via SKG to ATH and islands)
- PE starts VIE-LYKV(-SKG-LYKV)-VIE with their E-170

now, this is only speculation, as we will know details and requirements once GoS announces public call

These subsidies were introduced to develop a flying mentality in a place where most people travelled by bus. How do you expect flights to be profitable?

Yes I'm sure OU will start VIE-KVO-VIE. Are you for real?

In my opinion this is a way for Air Serbia to lease addition ATR which they really need with network this big. They will base it at KVO but considering the fact that there will be only 6 weekly flights, this KVO based ATR will be primarily used for BEG flights.

I don't even think they would base a plane in KVO, they would probably just operate BEG-SKG-KVO-SKG-BEG. But we will see. I agree it's a way for them to get an extra ATR.

Exactly!

I think the same carrier must operate both routes. So we can forget either OS or A3 applying for it.

INI is not complete failure. Talked to many people from both Belgrade and Nis who went for great fares. August flights seemed kind of full while now they are half empty. Seemed as disaster when ticket sale startet with some flights on some days with just 2-3 seats sold (Budapest). Now it seems they will be able to cover part of costs with tickets and use large part of generous 15 subsidy to improve JU finances.

Good and people benefit from it. If you think these flights will stop after the election, you are mistaken.

No one is giving coupons here. The government is investing in changing travel patters among Serbian holidaymakers, that's all. Flying is way safer than driving... especially when driving on Serbian regional roads. I suppose you are not from Serbia as if you were then you would have known how common accidents are and how many people died since the beginning of the year. Just look at the success of INI-TIV route.

Driving from Kraljevo to Thessaloniki takes some 6.5 hours while a flight will take around 45 minutes. Like I wrote above, bus companies will lose the most here.

Kraljevo Airport - BG airport 160km, 2 hrs driving.
Kraljevo Airport - Nis Airport 190km, 2:20 driving

A public call is expected to be launched in the coming weeks to select an operating carrier.

LOL but there is only one and a half month before first flight. If tender is launched by Nov 1, there is only ONE month for airlines to respond, government to review and select the winner and airline to get ready to fly. LOL this is the best joke ever.

well, if it's subsidized, why not? they could use easy cash, plus earn something extra. like I said, we will see what will be in the tender procedure. if it's the same like for INI, then JU will get the flights, and lease additional ATR. if not, every company with plane up to 100 seats can apply

There is no point to base ATR in Kraljevo for just six flights. I suppose JU will serve Kraljevo by operating W shape flights. For Thessaloniki it would probably be in the middle of the night so they get to utilise the plane during hours it spends overnight in Thessaloniki.
For Vienna I am not really sure. They might even go for increasing Belgrade- Vienna to three daily and than perform these Kraljevo flights from Vienna

@9:08: Austrian is doing everything they can to get rid of their Dash as soon as possible. Kraljevo looks like a low yield, low volume destination. I do not see them applying, even if they would get paid for their application... They have different priorities right now.

So many triggered people on here by this news.

Great to see yet another airport getting flights.

I'm happiest because the legend himself Rodney Marinkovic will be able to use these flights :)

Guys you are missing the big picture.

On Friday for example there are 4 departures from Novi Pazar to Vienna. Total travel time is from 14.10 to 17.45. Many of these passengers will switch to flying from Kraljevo.

Kraljevo is above all a subsidized route where loss is not an option. For an airline like OS that's a winning combination.

+1 :)

Is KVO the official IATA code of Kraljevo airport ?
The Amadeus-GDS does not know KVO !
How do make flight reservations on GDS without an IATA code ?
It might be possible to make flight reservations on the webpage of an airline ...

SYD-DXB-VIE-KVO
This aiport needs its codes, is it KVO?

LOL Nemjee! I am sure those subsidies are given to JU in order to improve ...road safety!

Departures from where?

Happy for Kraljevo and central Serbia region. Good news.

He says - Novi Pazar. Google it.

Austrian only flies if there are significant transfer passengers, and wizz, lauda/ryan, and JU will only fly if there is enough p2p traffic. as wizz and lauda operate only big machines from VIE, it is clear that will not even apply

not sure why they alway make that tender fuss if it is clear, that everything is handcrafted to suit only JU?

Love how “tax payers money” and “elections are coming” people crawl out on every Air Serbia news....
This is great news overall. We all remember how INI started and look at it now. Im sure it will reach a million in a very near future.
Would love to see some LCC at Morava. That airport has strategically very good catchment area. Good luck.

Улагања у аеродром Морава је до сада више од 20 милиона евра. Остаје да се изгради цивилна паралелна писта. За путничке и карго авионе до 150 тона укупне тежине. Да порезки обавезника неби плаћали два пореза. Један за издржавање војног дела на источној страни, што јесте нормално. И цивилног дела где је комерционални део аеродрома Морава на северо-западној страни. Што кроз
пет година неће бити нормално. Добит од карго и чартер
саобраћаја ће издржавати особље и трошкове аеродрома.
Будући развој Србије и туризам захтева развој како ауто-путева, тако и развој Аеродроме Србије. Србија је почела озбиљно да развија туризам. Што тек предстоји. Србији су узор Врњачка, Соко бања. Копаоник, Златибор... А не Матарушка, Богутовачка бања... њима слични. И стари прописи и закони од времена Каплара-шлосера. "Само-управне" братије. Па је кочница развоја добра у Србији
Оптерћена много и још увек. Београдски аеродром је не само прича за себе. Већ и правац кретања трансформације.
Сама помисао да је за 56 година се дошло до пет милиона путника на годишњем нивоу на том аеродрому, показује
неспособност управљача у току деценија. То је факт.
Али је и факт инвестиција од једне ипо милијарде евра од
стране Француског ВИНЦИ Интернешенел. За следећих
Десет година ће се повећати до 15 милиона путника.
Да би се уложени новац вратио. Да се нечекју деценије.
Приче, оправдања... После ауто-путева, аеродроми су на другом месту! Због будућности Србије. Ко не схвата, остаје
без разумевања значаја и потребе развоја аеродрома и комерцијалног авио саобраћаја.
У животу све се мења сем камења. Али кроз време и камење
се претвара у прах. Тако и прилаз решавању и мењању начина привређивања у ваздуном саобраћају земље Србије.
До доласка на зимовање и Мораву, са скромним почетком.
Искрени поздрави Србији.
Rodney Marinkovic on sire of W.S. Airport. Sydney, Australia.
✈☺✈✨✈🔆✈👑✈🔅✈💒✈😇✈🌐✈🌏✈🌎✈🌍✈

So much anger and distrust for something which is, esentially, a good news.

How about you read more carefully what I wrote in stead of twisting my words?

State can subsidize JU for domestic traffic with a Do328 class of aircraft - aiming feed to international routes from BEG and INI. and some business P2P travels. Lets say it can connect Uzice, Bor, Kraljevo, in future Sombor...

I just saw I made a typo, I meant OS, not OU

it's not. LYKV still doesn't have IATA code, only ICAO

why use old Do-328 when you have new ATR-42s? also, this kind of flight will only generate transfer traffic

I call it jeaulosy.

KVO will finally have the flghts and hopefully next year UZC as well.

It must really hurt those who used to say with pleasure "Serbia has only one operating airport".

Hehehe there will be 4 soon

I'm extremely bummed that there's no flights to Germany whatsoever. HHN or FKB would be perfectly fine options to be subsidized. Anybody got any news on that?

He has no interest understading your words Nemjee

The Mayor of kraveljvo said this morning that they also proposed several cities in Germany. But it seems they didn't make the cut. Maybe they are added in the future.

ZAG protects OU
Governemt of Croatia protects OU by paying 34 mil EUR against EU rules
PSO funds protect OU
Udruzeno oglasavanje pays foreign carriers to fly there
ZAD pays FR to fly there
RJK pays JU to fly there

...and people are critisizing 6 weekly routes from tiny KVO.

Hilarious!

My guess is because Kraljevo can't handle a plane that would be needed to fly to Germany?

ZAD pays JU as well.

I think that theoretically ATR72 could fly KVO-FKB but it would be long and not very enjoyable flight

It would be a disaster. I think it would have to have weight restrictions so people would either fly from BEG or keep on taking the bus.

Maybe in the future EW launches Kraljevo with their CRJ.

The government has no mandate to spend taxpayers money on such vanity projects...

Rodney legendo :D

Sure, it would be better money to be given to Serbian Railways in order to be even slower (if possible at all).

Поштовани Анон 9:55.
Ваше запажање ме је изненадило...
Летећи у задњих педесет година
широм планете, веровали или не
Аеродром Морава Краљево ће бити
Сто Седамдесет и Седми са којег ћу први пут
Полетети. Ако Бог да и добри људи.
Ускоро долећем у Београд. На зимовање
у Краљево. Четири Аеродрома имам који су ми
у Души. То су Вестерн Сиднеј Аеродром у изградњи.
Аеродром Никола Тесла Београд у изградњи и доградњи. И Кингсфорд Смит Аеродром Сиднеј.
Сви остали су ми у срцу!. Верујем да ме разумете.
Немам баш значајног знања. Али имам скромног сведочења. Са преко седам хиљада сати летења и
Прко милион људи које сам срео по терминалима света. Авионима и млазним цивилним базама.
Ужичке Поникве су следеће! Be happy! ✈
Rodney, Sydney. ✈🌐✈😇✈💒✈☺✈🔆✈🔅✈Morava✈

Kraljevo can handle anything up to 100 seats

It totally does. Connecting Serbia with the world is always the money well spent.

+1000000

Hope Serbian airports don't rely too much on Wizz Air. Their ontime performance is horrible especially for flights from Vienna and Luton.

Podgorica does not have any either.

Nemjee, you really don't make sense. So now you are saying that government should support airlines because roads are bad and cos there are road accidents?
It would be much, much more beneficial esp. in the long run to invest all that money rather into road infrastructre.

Hence really no use for domestic services, not even a BEG feeder.

Hope to be on first flight from Vienna to Kraljevo!

You forgot to add time for ticket sales. I guess two days in advance will be enough ;)

Quote: "The Serbian government has also begun procedures for the construction of a second runway at Morava Airport, which is due to begin some time in 2020."
Why on earth a second runway in KVO? With what money? What for?

Do we know what are the full conditions of this PSO? The article seems very superficial, but perhaps there are no more details known at this point?

To make out a full picture, we have to know at least the following additional info:
- Minimum / Maximum seats of aircraft (suited for JU AT72?)
- Base of aircraft fixed at specific airport (KVO?) or specific country?
- Requirement to operate /not operate on specific days?
- Night time operation possible / forbidden? (On Wiki it states that LYKV is only open during day time on Wednesdays atm)
- Requirement of Serbian speaking crew? At least X flight attendendens must be able to speak language XYZ?
- Requirements of operating airline? Airline to have at least one based plane in Serbia?
- Replacement aircraft requirements? From same country or must be available in X hours?
- Conditions of subsidies payments - flat/all in per flight, or per pax, or more subsidies if bigger plane / or e.g. above 150 pax etc? (Enforcing LCC or effectively ruling them out?)
- Runway condtions at LYKV / can handle aircraft up to 200 seats? Or just up to 100 seats?
- Deadline of application process? Milestones to fullfill? PSO publication date?
- Any other requirements an applicant must meet?

Only when we have these information, we can conclude if this is another tailor made subsidy for a certain airline, or if it is really meant for any operator interested on the free market.
Just my 2 cents.

I can't remember when did OS last introduce a new D8-400 route? That was probably 15 years ago or longer - when the brand was Tyrolean Airlines.

Actually per pax and frequency of routes served.

About 5 years ago I suggested network of small, sub-20 passenger aircraft like Beechcraft B1900 or similar for 2-3 daily feeder flights from airports like Kraljevo, Nis and Banja Luka to Belgrade airport. Those would have to be PSO lines to survive, but would enable great connectivity. No takers.

But that was 5 years ago, better fit for the next 5 will look more like eviation Alice airplane and more flights from more regional airports.

For whom?

Only for people living there who want to travel P2P to VIE and SKG and for foreign tourists/pax wanting to come to SRB very cheaply.

All others are at a loss, including JU routes to VIE and SKG, BEG and INI airport plus potentially Uzice and yes, also the common tax payer in SRB.

You actually have to read the article. If you did it says that tender procedures should begin in next few weeks. Ie. the terms of the tender are unknown at this point.

It's one of the benefits of these investments in aviation. That's all.

one for ATR and one for A320 :-)

Maybe Wizz, Lauda or Ryanair can fly Vienna -Kraljevo -Saloniki -Kraljevo -Vienna .

Or hundreds of millions that are subsidizing Belgrade Citi Bus services. Every government in the past did it too. Those are vanity projects, not flag carrier.

Read the article three times. Do you know what tender procedure means, I doubt it. At that point all criteria must long be defined. Where are these criteria/details? Procedures must be transparent as it is a public tender and therefore all criteria should be accessible to the public.

Is there really a need for 2 new airports in Central Western Serbia? Anyone?

They should make up their minds with which one they want to go.

Exactly - sounds realistic that way :D

I am sure some politicians need money and something needs to be "developed" so state money can go to pockets of some officials. Pure Megalomania and corruption.

Tender terms are published when the tender call is made. The tender call has not been made.

Dude the requirements you listed are published when the tender call or public call is made. It was the same case with Nis. Like it is visible in the text which you called superficial, whatever that means, the tender call has not been made.

@An.11.08
Maybe I am mistaken, but Eurowings does not have CRJ. Their shorter flights are operated by Luftfshrtgesselschaft Walter Q400. Their fleet is A319/320. They had some A330 as well, but even their long-haul from MUC was operated by Sun Express Germany A330. And now they ceased long-haul, I don't know what is happening with A330. But CRJ, first time in life I hear Eurowings operate them. Lufthansa City line, yes, but I believe they are too expensive for Kraljevo

Dragi Rodney, verujem da će Vam biti veliko zadovoljstvo da sletite na Aerodrom Morava. Blizu Vašeg Kraljevo. Dobri ljudi će Vas pustiti da letite, ako platite, a za boga, to niko nezna, al' valjda će i on biti dobre volje.

So now every village in Serbia has to have an aerodrom? Kraljevo, Užice, Jagodina, Bor, Sombor, Kruševac ...

Let's just use the airport as is, who needs corrupt new runwa! A321NEO fully loaded, MTOW 97t, then slam it at MLW at Kraljevo! Who needs a new runway when some Anon at aviation blog says it's just a "megalomania". Experts who have no clue want to make technical decisions if existing runway is okay or not...

Yes, so what?

None of those mentioned above is a village.

You make it sound bad.

INI is not a failure because it became profitable before JU base there and because it had over 300.000 passengers and a lot of cargo movement.

I think Germany will be on W6 or FR when the runway gets expanded.

Same with Purgers blah blah.

Podelice se sada kraljevacki hipsteri na one koji vole da skoknu na kafu u Solun i Bec.

We can all agree that BEG has been making some good money over the past few years, which is why Vinci paid so much for the concession.

Vinci effectively owns BEG for the next 25 years, hence the interest of the government to make a profit out of other airports that have been out of operation (INI, KV) by re-directing some passengers who would otherwise use BEG. Remember though, there is a cap on the number of passengers other airports in Serbia can have annually according to the Vinci concession contract, which is why multiple airports need to be opened.

Belgrade is playing this one smart; it is reinvesting the money from the concession into other airports (including airline subsidies) and setting the foundation for additional routes from smaller airports for eventual long-term. Both the smaller airports and local municipalities in the area will benefit financially.

Despite the protests in Nis against the taking over of INI, it looks like the passenger numbers will give it the highest number of passenger this year in decades. Making it the 3rd busiest airport in Serbia, behind BEG and PRN.

Oh come on. Got to agree the second runway is completely insane. Even an A321 and B757 can depart and land at Skiathos which has a 1630m runway. Kraljevo already has more than 2200m runway length. Just renovate the old existing runway instead of spending 20x as much for an additional second runway.

Zorana has been talking about building a new road Kragujevac-Mrčajevci. If this project works out, Morava will become a lot more accessible to some 200K people of Kragujevac and its surroundings.

Why wouldn`t they build the second rwy? It`s a military airbase.

Great news!
OS would be best solution with eiher Q400 or E195. It would offer connections to the entire Europe and even some North America destinations.
However, we can settle for Air Serbia and 'self transfer'.