Air Serbia cancels hundreds of flights


Air Serbia has cancelled almost 300 flights since Monday through to May 25 as the airline deals with an unprecedented decline in demand resulting from the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak. Under the orders of the Serbian government, the carrier has been forced to suspend all of its operations to two key markets - Italy and Switzerland, from which the bulk of the cancellations come from. Furthermore, the airline has suspended services to Beirut until early June. Other destinations to have sustained select flight cancellations include Thessaloniki, Prague, Helsinki, Ljubljana, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Sofia, Bucharest and Kiev, although more are expected. It is unclear at this point whether the United States’ decision to temporarily ban arrivals from Schengen Zone countries will impact on the carrier’s New York route. So far, it has cancelled one return service between Belgrade and New York, in mid-April.

Late last week, the airline acknowledged it was experiencing a slowdown in bookings as a result of Covid-19. “Somewhat lower demand has been recorded for March and April, similar to other airlines. Air Serbia will continue adjusting its capacities based on demand and new circumstances on the market, following the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and national authorities, while the safety of our passengers and crew members remain our utmost priority”, the company said. At the same time, the Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency said it had registered a 10% decline in overflights between March 1 and 10 when compared to last year, following record figures in January and February.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled worldwide as airlines struggle to cope with a slump in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Ryanair will stop services to and from Italy from Friday until April 8. Norwegian Air Shuttle has also said it will cut about 3.000 flights in the next three months, about 15% of its capacity, while the Lufthansa Group has cancelled a total of 23.000 services during April alone. Alan Joyce, Qantas’ Chief Executive Officer, said, “I think this will be a survival of the fittest”, as the Australian carrier outlined drastic cost cutting measures that include suspending almost a quarter of all international flights, asking staff to take unpaid leave and sacrificing his own salary for the next three months. “We know we can ride this out but not all airlines around the world will”, Mr Joyce said.




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    Sad :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:10

      It is sad, like I said yesterday, this will affect all airlines and all airports!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:24

      JU 501 /12MAR
      JFK4 BEG2 1540 0520+1E0/332 8:40
      J7 C7 D7 W4 I1 X0 Y7
      B7 H7 K7 M7 Q7 L7 V7 U0 E0 T0 P0 R0 O0 Z0 G0 S0

      well, this is not really ful...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:51

      Flybosnia just cancelled my flight From LTN to SJJ on April 7th and

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    Good luck Air Serbia!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:03

    I wonder if they will cancel those fleet expansion plans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      And the new destinations too...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:11

      June Is still too far away... If the outbreak lasts for another month or so, I Guess we will see such changes to their network.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:19

      China is starting to recover already so I'm sure the worst is behind them and Asia will be on the positive path from now on. That's good for the global economy..

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:32

      China is probably keeping quiet. Same as Turkey.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:14

      Actually domestic capacity in China is rebounding really fast. Over 2 million seats added to the market this week. More next week.

      Delete
    6. Some travel commentator on Bloomberg business channel said European summer bookings have not seen any major effect yet but things are changing quickly.

      My June Qantas flight to the UK has been canceled (originally via Singapore) and I was just told I would be notified of alternatives in the coming week. Options is to go via Perth where they are increasing capacity or a partner carrier.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:03

    Interesting that Kuwait has completely suspended international flights, nothing is landing or taking off except cargo flights. Crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:04

    This will be a massacre of airlines... Smallest comfort Is that it came during the slowest period of the year. Nonetheless, it will impact entire 2020 figures.

    BEG was hoping for 7 mil pax, but it Is not possible this year...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      I think we will be lucky if numbers are able to be the same as last year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:06

      It will depend how long this will go on for but JU obviously thinks it will last until the end of May at least.

      Delete
    3. as for the figures....people wake up. BEG 5,5 mil at best, ZAG "lucky" if it reaches 3,0 mil.
      LJU - probably not going to break 1,3 mil. It's going to be a bloodbath this year. It's quite possible that DBV nor SPU reach even 2 mil.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:21

      Truth be told I think Belgrade will be around 5.4 million while Zagreb will be close to 2.5 especially since they had a bad start of the year

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:31

      Things are going to be bad for all airports everywhere in Europe.
      Especially for airports that have a lot of tourists.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:49

      VIE reported that they are at -30% at the moment for March. MUC at least -20%

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:07

      It is a blood bath everywhere!
      And with the US ban all the major EU hubs are going to have even larger drops in traffic.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:24

      I am not surprised about Vienna, even before the virus they created a bubble which just burst. Now let's see if Lauda, Austrian Airlines and Wizz Air use this as an excuse to scale back and reduce losses there.

      Delete
    9. Will all depend on how we are talking about Corona in the coming weeks. But as I mentioned the other day, corona has likely caused a global recession which will have a longer lasting impact than the virus itself.

      Last year the Croatian economy just reached pre-GFC levels (took that long to recover) and now it going to take another huge blow.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous18:58

      @Q40012 March 2020 at 13:03

      Recession is inevitable, but won't be long one, well it depends on US economy how it goes, due to their flawed financial system, corruption and fraud present throughout their financial system. However 2020-2021, might be years of recessions due to effects of covid and subsequent financial collapse in US and China.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:04

    This situation will have a big impact on aviation industry in the region. I think many airlines will disappear. In Air Serbia's case I think it is in a good position due to the government willing to do anything to protect it but as for others...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:23

      Serbia will pump in millions to save it.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:39

      As they rightly should. Serbia shouldn't allow JU to go under.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:14

      What's funny Anon 10.06? Look at what's going on with corona these days. Galenika and Hemofarm have been sold to foreigners who have more or less shut down production in Serbia and only pack most products that are sold here.
      Now that we have a pandemic the government can't get local producers to manufacture what they need but have to rely on companies abroad to do it which puts everyone at risk.

      So no, giving up on the national airline is not the solution.

      Delete
    5. If they can keep NY flights going, they could charge and arm and a leg and they will be full!! Not a terrible position to be in but there expansion plans for the year (along with OUs) are in tatters.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:04

    That is bad news.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Is Serbia exempt from the travel ban to the US that Trump announced yesterday?
    If only the Schengen countries are banned JU could get a lot of extra traffic to the US from those banned countries!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      It is exempt but I don't see how JU can profit because, as far as I'm aware, people who have been to Scengen countries in last 2 weeks are banned from entry. Airlines themselves are not banned.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:10

      TK too. It's almost impossible to find a seat for any American destinations of TK for the next two days, seems like flights are %100 full.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:15

      Seems there are seats on Air Serbia's flight from New York to Belgrade today.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:22

      I don't think JU will be affected much by this ban on JFK flights. The majority of their passengers on the New York flights are traveling from outside the Schengen zone anyway. What might be problematic is for the crew? Although if they do European turnarounds then they haven't actually entered another country right?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:26

      Of course TK is sold out, they have been dumping cheap fares on the market for a while now. They lost transfer passengers from Iran and soon Israel so that harmed them big time.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:34

      But surprisingly TK still didn't ground any aircrafts although it cancelled all flights to China (for almost 40 days), Italy and Iran (for 20 days) and reduced Israel service(which the biggest foreign carrier in Israel).

      All of those countries are key destinations of TK. First MAX issue and now this corona shit. I am worried about all airlines. :(

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:39

      TK didn't have to ground any aircraft because it was already suffering a shortage due to MAX grounding.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:26

      And even if it does, you'll hear it later, like the corona :)

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:04

      They will ban flights from whole Europe soon.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous12:02

      JU can benefit from this situation on the way that all the people from non Schengen countries who intended to fly to USA with LH, AF, OS, LX, LO, IB etc now need to knock on JU doors.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous12:25

      List was published and Serbia is not on the banned list. Air Serbia BEG-JFK took off this morning and is currently in the air over Atlantic.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous22:53

      Fantastic to hear JFK won't be disconnected!

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:09

    This is all going from bad to worse.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:10

    Is there any end in sight. When could we expect things to improve??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:16

      No one knows. Considering that things improved in China after a month, and with the warmer weather, the guess is things should start improving some time in April.

      Delete
    2. Petar09:16

      Probably when a vaccine is found. But that can be 18 months away.
      And the virus might have mutated by then.
      For sure this year non essential air travel (tourism and diaspora visiting) will be reduced significantly everywhere.
      A lot of non state owned airlines, cruise ship companies, hotels, travel agencies etc. will shut down.
      Millions of workers will be affected.
      And all because the Chinese absolutely HAVE TO eat every creature that moves!
      Whether it is a bat, a snake, an ant eater, a lizard, etc. etc.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:24

      Thanks for the clarifications Nostradamus

      Delete
    4. Petar09:29

      Anon @09:24
      Economic reality is hard. Better stay in your bed and dream about sunny skies and pink clouds.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:31

      I heard this started because imbeciles at the Wuhan wet market kept live animals next to dead ones so virus jumped from the live ones onto the dead ones. So someone ate infected bat soup and the global economy collapsed.

      Delete
    6. Petar09:34

      Anon @09:31
      +1

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:07

      No, it won't last 18 months, get real people. If the virus won't disappear with warm temperatures, it will when 50-60% of the population of a country is infected. After that the virus weakens since the population develops antibodies against it.

      Delete
    8. When people start acting rationally. At this time we are being very irrational and the media is not helping. Once people realise/notice that there fellow citizens are not dropping dead left, right and center even though they are in a Corona effected region and for most cases, corona is just a mild or bad cold.

      But if I'm wrong.... could take years.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:15

    Air Serbia is particularly affected as they operate a hub. If Israel closes its borders to foreigners like the USA now, Air Serbia loses feed on all its flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      It won't be the end of the world, don't forget that LH suspended all Israel flights

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      Israel now puts on quarantine everyone coming from abroad.
      So anyone who intends to visit it should make alternative plans.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:24

      Not of the world, but certainly that of some airlines...

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:16

    When I said a month ago when China was still scrambling with Corona virus fight, that this will have major global effect on aviation, some of you said that it is too early for conspiracy theories and that I should have a coffee in the morning:)

    A week ago I said that this virus is setting the stage for something else, like global economic meltdown, I was ignored and told to drink coffee again.

    I've been in this industry since 2001. Went through couple rough times myself and got laid off twice. I was hoping that this will just blow over but I'm shocked how fast the events are spriling down hill...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:23

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:27

      This is going to imapct ALL sectors of life worldwide... Meltwown to certain degree, yes for sure, but free fall - hope not.

      Delete
    3. Its a meltdown driven by fear. But it has also exposed the weakness in major economies and has become the excuse for the recession and market correction we had to have. A major market correction was supposed to happen in 2018/2019. Corona was the catalyst which finally set it off.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous22:55

      Q400 exactly so let's see who not only survives the virus but also the first six months that come after.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:23

    That list of cancelled flights is becoming longer and longer :(

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous09:32

    I wonder what this might mean for airlines like Wizz Air or even Norwegian which was struggling even before the crisis. I hope they make it out alive. Lufthansa is also badly affected by this as they lost a lot of feed from places like Iran, Israel and now the rest of Europe. Grounding all of their north American flights will create a financial meltdown.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:09

      Wizz had the best % margin in Europe before the crisis. Along with Ryanair, they have the highest % of costs tied up in variable ones, so if anyone's left standing it will be the two of them.

      Norwegian, on the other hand..

      Delete
    2. Next year might be a good time to start an airline. Planes will be cheap!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:56

      DY is firing 50% of its staff, time to plan your future fleet around B738 and B789 lol

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:33

    Anyone know what routes Wizz cut from ex-YU? What about YM and OU? How are they coping with this situation? Are they sending workers for unpaid leave? I read EL AL is sending 80% of its workforce for unpaid leave.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      YM and OU have so far cancelled only Rome.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:38

      Wow really? No reductions elsewhere?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:39

      So far, no.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:48

      Wizz is cutting (have to cut) Italy in March. SKP affected with 3 routes, OHD with 1

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:20

      Austrian has cut a lot of flights from VIE to ZAG, yesterday out of three flights only one operated. I think today either one or two are cancelled as well. I guess it's the same as with FRA, they can just move passengers onto OU.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:40

    The funniest thing for me that is while global aviation is melting down, Etihad decided to launch Vienna flights from late May. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:49

      Yes and they announced they are bringing back the A380 on their second daily Sydney service and moving to Daxing Airport in Beijing. They are living in their own world :D

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:26

      You gotta love Etihad, their situation is probably that bad that this corona thing doesn't impact them.

      Delete
    3. lol at 10:26!!!

      Delete
  17. Anonymous09:48

    Depressing times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:55

      Yes, it has unfortunately become depressing reading the news here :(

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:56

      Well you know what they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. Things will get better.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:20

      Things are going to get worst before starting to improve.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:02

    It's a real shame for Air Serbia. This would have been a great year for them with so many additional frequencies and new routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:16

      Truth be told, JU won't go bankrupt, that's for sure however the same can't be said about some of their competitors. This means that once corona f***s off there will be fewer airlines around to compete with

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:21

      I hope the airline has a way of getting out of the leases for additional aircraft.
      Surely they won't be needed.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:24

      Interestingly the lease for 1 ATR and 1 A320 is expiring soon and they were to be replaced with these new leases. I wonder if they will just decide to cancel the new lease for 4 aircraft and let the 2 whose lease is expiring exit the fleet.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:34

      Actually as is JU is adding only one A319 and one ATR which will come in handy in summer when they didn't plan on having any spare capacity laying around. So overall it's not bad, fewer delays.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous10:07

    I know it's not really important but I'm wondering is Air Serbia going ahead with launching Kraljevo-Thessaloniki at the end of March as planned?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:12

      It will go ahead if there any passengers willing to travel.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:27

      Border crossing in Kraljevo has been closed, so no KVO flights

      Delete
  20. Anonymous10:11

    A godina pocela tako dobro,steta...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:35

      Надајмо се да ће се добро завршити, сва срећа па је ЈУ имао велики раст у прва два месеца те ће колико толико ублажити овај хорор.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:12

    The way this is going, Europe will close down its airspace in the end.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous10:25

    This situation will cause great losses to all airlines, Air Serbia included. Imagine, who will cover this loss ? The Government with taxpayer's money. And this money could be used more for development, new infrastructure, economic growth. It will have enormous impact on whole societies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:25

      And you think if the government let's JU go that all of a sudden you will get new schools, roads and so on? Wake up and smell the roses. Every year our government spends 4 billion Dinars on keeping a dead mine (Ресавица) working and is paying their employees salaries while there is literally nothing left to do since the mine is finished. So why close JU from which the country benefits but keep idiotic, loss-making government companies working? What about Гоша? Those are the real problem, not JU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:14

      All such "government projects" are a big problem everywhere, but JU is no exception !

      Delete
  23. Anonymous11:15

    I flew Beg-SVO yesterday 11.03. on SU2097 and I came to the airport early to avoid the Beg rush hour traffic collapse. The airport was virtually empty at around 16:15 - 17:00. Our SU flight had about 40 passengers onboard which is quite less than the norm. No transit to China. I can imagine the 2 SVO flights (SU and JU) departing Beg both around 23:30 they must have been quite empty too. Sad days for aviation.

    ReplyDelete
  24. notLufthansa11:42

    this is capitalism at its best, what did you expect? Its not only capital and goods that are moving fast across the globe, viruses follow the same path...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can check out Venezuela and see socialism at its best

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:13

      Both systems are so disgusting and vile that I don't have words for it. With all our human ingenuity, we are unable to invent a system that goes beyond greed and oppression.

      Delete
    3. We had it in SFRJ. That's why Rotschild 's & and co destroyed it

      Delete
    4. This is supposed to be a troll?

      Delete
  25. JU can capitalize on the EU zone flight ban to the US. JU can still fly and needs to increase loads/capacity frequency asap and premium prices and cash in. Etihad - get some more big (unmarked) planes over to BEG ASAP!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:35

      Yea sure, dream on

      Delete
  26. Anonymous15:24

    Good luck Air Serbia. Hope you manage to pull through.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous18:09

    Air Serbia will fly to ZRH tomorrow, JU370 and JU374. Interesting !

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous18:14

    Air Serbia will fly to ZRH two times tomorrow, JU370 and JU374. How interesting !

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous21:07

    Flight from NYC is full though. Taking off...

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous23:38

    Eurowings A330 diverted to BEG

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.