NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia will introduce charter flights between Belgrade and Morocco for the first time next year. Charter services to Fes will commence on March 19, 2020, while the return flights will operate from Marrakesh. "The increase in the number of tourists from Serbia to Morocco is our utmost goal, and in this sense, strengthening Morocco's air connectivity and its accessibility is at the heart of our concerns. The cooperation agreement in the air transport sector signed between Morocco and Serbia is the perfect illustration of that, as it demonstrates our determination to open up to this strategic region”, the Moroccan Ambassador to Serbia, Mohammed Amine Belhaj, said recently. Air Serbia will operate the charter flights on behalf of the Kon Tiki Travel tour operator.
Amazing!
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia spreads its wings and covers more and more destinations.
Amazing indeed! some agencies chartered a plane for few rotations and it is a great success of JU. Come on people!
DeleteBtw, nice that people won't be forced to transfer but have direct flights. Bravo Serbian tour operators.
Well they could charter RAM or Air Arabia but they went for JU so it is indeed good for them. Why wouldn't it be?
DeleteI see some are annoyed by the fact JU will be flying to Morocco.
DeleteVery annoyed. But, it is nothing but their problem.
DeleteWow so something did finally become of all those discussions and negotiations. Nice to see JU react since Air Arabia and RAM didn't do anything.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that BEG is getting Morocco charters now that FR terminated their flights from BUD. I am sure Kon Tiki used to sell Morocco with them.
Мароко данас, Истанбул сутра ... 7 милиона прекосутра. :D
ReplyDeleteAll hail BEG.
DeleteIt would be really good visa regime to be abolished
ReplyDeleteExactly. Maybe Morocco is insisting on reciprocity, but Moroccans would probably do the same thing Iranians did, abuse visa free travel, so I do not see Serbia lifting visas for Moroccan nationals.
DeleteI don't know, Morocco is not a rich country so it's in their interest to remove the visa regime. I mean imagine the number of flights JU could operate if there were no visas.
DeleteI'm trying to imagine...but I don't receive the "waves"....what can you see? :)
DeleteHaha I am trying to imagine because it would be just too nice :D I wonder if JU could actually operate scheduled flights, two times per week.
DeleteI estimate it would be 1/3 of success Egypt destinations have in Serbia
DeleteOf course since Egypt is closer and has a more developed tourist industry. Morocco will take time to develop, this is just the beginning.
DeleteAnd Egypt has visa free regime with Serbia
DeleteSo true. Tunis is as well and TU flies the whole year to Belgrade.
DeleteAnon 13:29 not correct. Serbian nationals indeed need a visa to visit Egypt.
DeleteIt is nothing but formality at the Egyptian airport.
DeleteNot like in the case of Morocco where the visa needs to be obtained in their consulate In Belgrade.
Comparing to it Egypt is reallly visa (problem) free
They (Moroccans) are usually not insisting on reciprocity. Just look at the fact that Russia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, China... all can enter Morocco without visas. It's basically ex-YU, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova that can't (of the countries geographically in Europe).
DeleteNiiiiice! This is fantastic! So next year Belgrade will have flights to Tunis, Egypt, Morocco and Egypt in north Africa.
ReplyDeleteAlgeria and Lybia are missing, JAT was flying to those destinations
DeleteEven Jat Airways flew to Libya until the war there started.
DeleteTrue. Unfortunately no foreign airlines flies to Lybia on schedule basis now, and situation is unlikely to change any time soon.
DeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteDid BEG ever have flights to Morocco?
ReplyDeleteNo. Relations between old Yugoslavia and Morocco were very bad because of West Sahara so JAT never flew there.
DeleteSo nice. But Air Serbia so much needs A321 in all eco configurations for charter flights... There is no sense to send two A319s at same time for example at Bodrum or somewhere like last summer.
ReplyDeleteOr AYT when they had 10 flights in a single day.
DeleteAlMasria Universal Airlines had ful A332 for Hurghada... and there was Air Cairo and Aviolet too. So... my opinion is that they need few 321 for summer.
DeleteSerbia keeps winning.
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteIt is around 4h flight
ReplyDeleteHow about flights to RAK???
ReplyDeleteOnly 3 flights?
ReplyDeleteWe caltulate trips on 120 pax so boing and a319 are fine.
ReplyDeleteOn 12/15march for the first time YU-ARA will be chartered to Genova and stay there for 4 days. 2 touroperators signed contract. Since plane is too big to sell only one trip they will do Cote Azur, Toscany and Genova and maybe one more trip since location of Genova airport is great.
Fine? Whay then they send two planes at same time on same destination last summer? Pax demand for summer charters are more than 120 pax per some destination.
DeleteIts fine for Marocco.
DeleteWhen they send 2 or 3 planes those are for different touroperators. It has nothing to do with air srb. In 2018 air srb made chaos in Catania and 2019 Mallorca by forcing touroperators to fly the same date and time. So we had 2 planes in one day and then no flight next 10 days. This we try to avoid. We call each other to set up the dates in order to have 2-5 days difference. For Antalia and Hurghada there is too much demand so it is ok to fly the same day. Bigger plane does not mean we will cooperate. Only Hurgada had so high demand that Argus tours could fill Al-Masra big.plane. for all others 144 pax was perfect.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about Argus, thank you for that. I heard we are in for another great summer season. Let's see what happens. Btw how come tour operators don't cooperate with foreign charter airlines from the EU?
DeleteI wonder if we might see charters to Jordan like we had some 10, 15 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI believe YU-ANP was flying often to Jordan
DeleteRoyal Jordanian flew those charters with their daughter company, I remember they had some horrible time of arrival like 05.00
DeleteDuring the season there wasnt free seats on flights for two months in advance ,it is obvious that all tur operator needs planes with higher capacity for carters....
DeleteAs someone who works as travel agent and I organize this things. It is not only about plane. We pay full-empty beds in hotels in Spain, Greece, Italy for 90-100 days. Yes planes are full in high season. But we can not sell easy june september. Also we pay first and last flight where plane goes empty 1 direction. We can not take 250 beds in july and 100 in june. For example my agancy had full plane all 9 rotations for one destination. And we lost 4.000 eur. Because lot of packeges were last minute. Full plane is not always good season.
DeleteWhy did you lose 4.000? I don't get it?
DeleteSo which agency is chartering the A332? Nice to see such tours using planes in stead of buses like it was the case until now.
ReplyDeleteYes because busses were regularly used to Hurghada...
DeleteWhat a stupid comment last Anon, I was referring to ARA flying to Italy. Not Al Masria charters.
DeleteViva Travel and Filip travel will took Yu-Ara. They have most chance to sell this kind of trips.
DeleteFilip has a lot of ads around Belgrade, they seem very popular.
DeleteCan someone explain how this will work from a logistical stand point?
ReplyDelete"Charter services to Fes will commence on March 19, 2020, while the return flights will operate from Marrakesh."
Planes will fly empty in one direction, Kon Tiki is paying for it.
DeleteThanks man.
DeleteSo, AS flies full from BEG to FEZ and then empty back to BEG for the first time. In the future, after laning in FEZ they would fly empty to RAK, to pick up the returning pax, and then full back to BEG.
Is that right?
Yup that's it. :)
DeleteYou da man.
DeleteThis is so expensive. I just checked Kon Tiki offer, and the price is mad. It is much cheaper if you plan out trip by yourself.
ReplyDeleteIt is cheaper flying BEG to NRT with Etihad, including the accommodation.
I saw that they charge €860 which isn't that much, it's more or less what you pay for your summer holiday in a 4 star hotel in Greece.
DeleteHopefully this turns into a scheduled destination as well as much as I question how sustainable the route will be and whether there are better opportunities out there than Morocco. Charters are a good way to test this I suppose so hopefully it works out.
ReplyDelete