Air Serbia carried 145.610 passengers on its flights to and from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport during the month of February, representing an increase of 28% compared to 2019. It added an extra 39.000 travellers. The figure marks the airline’s best February performance since it relaunched under the Air Serbia brand in October 2013. Air Serbia’s average cabin load factor on its Belgrade flights grew by eight points to 66%. Compared to February 2019, the carrier operated flights to an additional seven destinations for a total of 41 from Nikola Tesla Airport. During the month, the sale of ancillary services such as advance seat reservation, excess baggage, priority baggage tagging, on board wi-fi, pre-paid meals, extra seat reservation and others increased by 38% year-on-year.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, said, “We are happy that constant investments into improving our offer and services are providing results, which is evidenced by the data showing continuous growth in the number of passengers. Excellent operating results, continuing on the success from 2019 and the first month of this year, show that we are well on the way of accomplishing the ambitious goals we have set for the upcoming period”. During the first two months of the year, Air Serbia handled a total of 314.468 passengers to and from Belgrade. This excludes travellers on its Niš and Kraljevo flights.
The strong operational results were achieved despite the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak starting to affect European carriers in the last week of February. Air Serbia has said it has seen a slow-down in bookings for March and April and has adjusted its schedule accordingly. The airline yesterday announced it would reduce its operations from Belgrade to Italy, and suspended services from Niš to the southern European country. In addition, the carrier has also cancelled select flights to Ljubljana, Bucharest, Tel Aviv, Prague, Thessaloniki and New York. The full list of cancellations can be viewed here. In a statement, the company said, “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”.
Good result. Especially for February.
ReplyDeletewow so their LF in February 2019 was just 59%?! :O
ReplyDelete66%-8%=58% :)
Delete58%
DeleteVery good performance this year then. Especially since they had more capacity than in 2019.
DeleteLets see numbers for next three to four months and COVID-19.
ReplyDeleteMany will go under...
It is obvious that all the companies will have decrease in next few months so JU is not going to be any kind of exception here.
DeleteHowever, February results show that corona did not affect ex-yu so strongly in that month.
Well done Air Serbia
Only privately owned airlines will go under. Not state owned who get subsidies to cover loss of revenue.
DeleteRight now as a passenger you are more secure booking a ticket with JU than LH or W6.
The chances that JU will still be flying no matter how bad the COVID-19 situation gets are higher than LH or Wizz.
@9.12
DeleteNot necessarily ex-Yu, since we don't know how Croatia Airlines or Montenegro Airlines performed in February.
But we know that virus was not that spreaded (almost not spreaded at all) in ex-yu in February and that any bad results that could come (as ZAG result in February) would have nothing to do with corona.
DeleteIt will be seen statrting from March
Corona is not the issue. Are we heading for a prolonged global downturn/recession??
DeleteWell market data shows that we are going into recession,but no one knows when will the stock market collapse...
DeleteJust like in 1929 or 2007/8
The SSjs can not come soon enough!
ReplyDeleteTo Mongolia
Delete@09:10
DeleteWhy do you hate Mongolia?
What did they ever do to you? :D
If they achieve any growth in March and April it would be close to a miracle :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Air Serbia
ReplyDeleteVery good result, specially given the coronavirus situation.
ReplyDeleteStill it means losses must have materially increased during February. At 66% LF it is not possible to fly profitably, unless it is something like Swiss on Geneva-New York, with a huge business class product and insane fares.
Pls keep in mind that most of the costs are proportional to the offered capacity. With the owned planes fully amortised, the only costs that are not proportinal are the overhead costs and the leasing costs and obviously only for those planes that are leased and not owned. For JU it means just a small portion of the costs. Personel costs, fuel etc. are all proportional to the increase in capacity. And that increase in capacity and therefore increase in costs, happened against a background of 66% LF.
Noone can make profit in February.
DeleteDid I say otherwise?
DeleteYou did.
DeleteReading with comprehension is apparently very difficult.
DeleteFeb is always the worst month for aviation in this hemisphere and nobody can make a profit on its entire network (despite making profit on certain routes). Still some are obviously closer to making profit than others.
JU got closer to it this year though.
DeleteI will try to explain once more.
DeleteWhat we know is that in February they increased offering (capacity) in pax numbers by 12.5% and that they filled 66% of the old and of the new seats (new meaning coming from increased capacity). It means less burden on the old seats (instead of 58% LF now 66% LF), but additional burden from new seats (only 66% LF on those). And I understand 66% LF in February is not bad, but it is not profit making.
With higher LF they may have a negative % margin lower now, but the turnover was higher, so the overall loss could be higher.
And it's all speculation, because we don't know the ASK, RASK and CASK. And to make myself clear: as they are not a listed company I don't expect to see those, but I only note that the data disclosed don't really tell us that much.
If you want to compare look at Air Baltic data disclosed quarterly due to their loan notes issue.
It's the financial results that are important.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry they will come
DeleteSigurno da je jedan dan vise u februaeu doprineo ovim rezultatima ali su isti odlicni.Steta zbog virusa,sigurno ce usporiti rast u martu i aprilu.Ako naredna dva meseca izguraju brz znacajnijeg pada LF,nadam se da ce na kraju godine dostici famoznih 80%
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, ASL LF in March has dropped to 54% by now, and is tending to go down.
DeleteI doubt it's the only one. Many airlines are operating empty flights, especially because the EU stubbornly refuses to remove the slot keeping rules.
DeleteAccording to some articles on the net. The top ten most effected airlines at the moment are:
Delete1. China Southern
2. China Eastern
3. Hainan Airlines
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Singapore Airlines
6. ANA and JAL
7. Korean Air and Asiana
8. Lufthansa
9. British Airways
10. United
54% is perfect.
DeleteAZ has 30%
Interestingly no Middle Eastern carriers among those.
DeleteAZ will have 0% soon.
DeleteDo you have a link?
DeleteAre they the most affected in % terms or in absolute terms?
LH had a huge share of travel from/to northern Italy via MUC.
Middle Eastern carriers and TK didn't publish LF results for the period.
DeleteIncrease in offering in pax numbers of 12,5%. Increase in ancillary services per pax of 8% (although we don't know the absolute value of the services sold per pax).
ReplyDeleteNice to have some good news in this era of doom and gloom for the aviation industry.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSomething tells me February will be the last month that they report their results this year.
ReplyDeleteNot due to their fault
DeleteActually Anon 08:33 NOT publishing LF results after February WILL definitely be their fault.
DeleteI wonder what the figures are with INI and KVO included.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit frustrating that they don't include those.
DeleteI don't understand why do they do that?
DeleteBecause they didn't fly from Nis until July and from Kraljevo until December. It would be pointless then to compare the numbers to last year.
DeleteIt's really not. This is showing real picture of their commercial business.
DeleteINI & KVO are subsidized, so math over there is completely different, they even sell different type of tickets, etc.
I do understand wish to know data for those routes, I would like to know them, but it definitely makes sense to treat them as 2 separate business units and publish separated results.
They could publish the results as is and then include a statement of the toal number of passengers with INI and KVO included (they don't have to give them as separate if they don't want to).
DeleteIf there BEG growth slows or even declines now because of the virus, I'm guessing they will start including Kraljevo and Nis in total number :)
DeleteI think JU will still see a small increase in traffic in March and April despite the outbreak, thanks primarily to all the new routes they introduced.
ReplyDeleteI hope so but I'm not so sure. You have to remember that most of JU's routes are dependent on transfer passengers and many people and countries have been affected by this virus.
DeleteWe'll have to wait and see.
DeleteGreat result all things considered.
ReplyDeleteAnyone have the idea which ancillary service sells the most?
ReplyDeleteThe one which brings the most money is "Plusgrade" - bidding service for upgrading from economy to business class, then additional luggage, then seat selection.
DeleteThanks! Very interesting.
DeleteWay to go, Serbia!
ReplyDeleteWell I remember they said in late February that they haven't seen a major decrease in bookings or cancellations. So it started to affect JU in March. Let's wait and see the results for that month.
ReplyDeleteI think they will cancel Tel Aviv completely considering the new 14 day quarantine rule Israel has announced for all incoming arrivals.
ReplyDeleteThey are still one of the rare airlines that hasn't discontinued flights to Milan. This is an indication to me that they actually have some passengers on those flights. The fact that they haven't made any cuts to Rome shows that Alitalia's suspension to Belgrade has actually benefited them.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone will soon suspend flights to Italy. Norwegian has canceled all flights to Italy now.
DeleteFriend flew MXP BEG the other day and they were 90 passengers onboard
DeleteAll things considered, that not bad at all.
DeleteThat's huge for MXP these days
DeleteI wonder if they will delay the start of their new routes. I know they don't start until June but I assume booking aren't exactly doing well and many have probably differed any travel until later on in the year.
ReplyDeleteI doubt they will. Let's wait and see but June is still 3 months away.
Deleteregardless of what happens, it is encouraging that they have had a strong January and especially February which is the slowest month of the year.
ReplyDeleteNot bad
ReplyDeleteGood to see operational results improving
ReplyDeleteMost positive news Is the increase in LF even with a increase in capacity.
ReplyDeleteIncrease in connectivity has helped fill seats on existing flights.
DeleteGreat news
ReplyDeleteI see that AF and LH allowed money return or free rebooking if you planned to fly with them until 31.5.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Air Serbia?
Air Serbia introduced that weeks ago.
DeleteCan you please provide a link?
DeleteI can't find it anywhere
You could have started with the basics, by looking on their website.
Deletehttps://www.airserbia.com/footer_menu/kompanija/novosti/novosti?id=372
"Putnici Er Srbije koji moraju da otkažu svoj put usled situacije uzrokovane korona virusom, moći će da promene datum putovanja i/ili destinaciju, bez plaćanja penala za promenu*.
Thank you.
DeleteHowever it is only until 31.3.
I hope it will be extended if necessary ( and I hope it won't be necessary!).
I really wonder how their only long haul route is being affected by covid and whether it could be used as an explanation for its termination during the year.
ReplyDeleteHmm didn't think about New York. I don't think it will discontinued. Let's see if they decrease frequencies in summer.
DeleteThey only cancelled one return flight, in mid April.
DeleteNow the hard work begins. Surviving covid and making some sort of success out of this year.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that this will be reflected in the financial results as well.
ReplyDeleteamazing results for JU, but where are the statistics for BEG though ?!!
ReplyDeleteThey always come after quarter's end.
DeleteSo we might see them in April
Ex-Yu usually publishes BEG results around two months behind. So we can expect January results soon.
DeleteDon't think they will manage to sustain such growth in light of the current situation.
ReplyDeleteSale of ancillary services luke plusgrade are growing faster than growth of passengers. What is the typical one-way upgrade offer that gets economy passenger into business class on JFK service if anyone here tried it?
ReplyDeleteOn European flights minimum for one way upgrade (does not include luggage weight upgrade) is 65 EUR.
DeleteSorry but don't know about JFK
for Intra Europe flights it starts from 40€, check here:
Deletehttps://www.airserbia.com/en/information/ancillary-services/excess-baggage-charges
JU just cancelled a lot of flights, March is gonna be rough for all airlines. There is a special website where you can see all cancelled flights https://www.airserbia.com/sr_latin/informacije/letovi/list-otkazanih-letova
ReplyDeleteSomeone might want to tell them that Venice is not Valencia. Idiots.
DeleteThey didn't "just" cancel a lot of flights. All of these were announced yesterday. Only exception is a flight or two to LJU, PRG, JFK and SKG.
DeleteIt's in the article...
DeleteI suppose some flight have actually nothing to do with corona like
DeleteBEG-SKG
BEG-OTP
BEG-PRG
BEG-SOF
BEG-JFK
Like I sad earlier today the opportunity has been used empty flights to be cancelled by using corona excuse
Last anon, that is not true. Even though Sofia Belgrade might not have something to do with Corona directly, you do realize that most of those passengers are transferring to the rest of Europe where travel ban has been imposed?? Not to mention that a huge number tourist cancelled travel plans even to countries where pandemic has not been announced yet. It is all connected.
Delete&10 March 2020 at 13:55
DeleteJU has cancelled many flights from BEG to SKG and OTP; RO to OTP as well.
@13.55 Don't spread FAKE NEWS. None of the routes you listed are cancelled. They only cancelled a certain flight. That means the overall frequency is reduced, not the actual route. And most frequencies that have been cancelled are on routes that were supposed to be increased in frequencies compared to last year.
Delete@13.55
DeleteFirst of all you have to realise that routes such as SOF and OTP have a lot of transfer passengers to Italy.
Second of all you have to realise that some destinations are reduced (not cancelled as you falsely claim) due to a general drop in demand for travel, regardless of whether the person was planning to travel to Italy or a country with no covid cases.
Thirdly you have to realise that Air Serbia runs some routes with more than one daily flight. So BEG-SKG isn't cancelled. They just cancelled a select number of flights, like the article says. That means that not all BEG-SKG flights are cancelled (same goes for others). BEG-JFK isn't cancelled. They just cancelled 1 flight over 2 month period.
Who said that the routes have been cancelled?
DeleteI said clearly the flights and I did not say all the flights but empty flights.
Fligh JU522 today to SKG has been cancelled and not reduced.
It's been cancelled because many people have stopped flying, if you haven't been following the news lately.
DeleteAir Serbia has canceled all flights to Rome, Milan and Zurich till March,15th inclusive.
ReplyDeleteBecause Serbia has banned entry from those countries.
DeleteProbably the last good result of the year unfortunately :(
ReplyDeleteThe only good news is that the Serbian government will do everything to protect JU.
DeleteIsn't that normal?
DeleteOther airlines are asking for government help.
Delete