Air Serbia has delayed the launch of several new routes planned for June 1 and June 2, however, all are scheduled to go ahead and have not been scrapped at this point. The services have been delayed only by several days, although further changes remain likely. The inaugural flights from Belgrade to Amman, Chisinau, Lviv and Rostov-on-Don have been moved, while services to Geneva and Florence, to be introduced on June 1 and June 6, are to go ahead as planned. At this point, the airline has retained the same frequencies on all the new routes as initially set. Services between Kraljevo and Thessaloniki, which were to launch on March 31, have been moved for May 2.
| Route | Original date | New date |
|---|---|---|
| Belgrade - Amman | JUN 01 | JUN 04 |
| Belgrade - Chisinau | JUN 01 | JUN 07 |
| Belgrade - Lviv | JUN 01 | JUN 08 |
| Belgrade - Rostov-on-Don | JUN 02 | JUN 05 |
The Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić, yesterday reiterated the country’s plans to provide aid for its national carrier, labelling the company as one of the pillars of its economy. “I don’t want to talk too much about it now, during this crisis, and will be speaking more about it in two weeks. We saw how important Air Serbia has been for us during this situation. Imagine what we would have done without Air Serbia. Would anything be possible without Air Serbia? How long would we have to wait for aid and how long would it take to repatriate our nationals? We are doing it for free. The government pays for it, unlike in some other countries. We were able to do this because we saved our national carrier several years ago. And we will strengthen it even more. We have a very ambitious program planned”.
Air Serbia has suspended its commercial operations until at least May 1. The carrier has been running a number of repatriation flights and will continue to do so over the coming days. Over the weekend, it operated services to bring back stranded citizens from Dubai and Vienna. This week, flights are also planned to Malta, Bratislava, Prague, Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Frankfurt and Paris. Serbia has signalled it may relax some measures introduced to combat the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic in late April or early May, which would include the lifting of the existing state of emergency.
Comments
Same thing for the whole of Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, UK, France, Turkey where the spread of the disease is massive.
Vucic said that he expects the state of emergency to be lifted either in April or early in May. My money is on 10.05 after Djurdjevdan/Ђурђевдан
Not any more. The massive fall in traffic means that extra space won't be needed for the next two-three years at least.
I guess you don't fly from BEG that much. Are you even Serbian? Thing is that once this expansion happens BEG can close gates A6-A10 for renovation without disrupting the traffic. BEG's current capacity is 7 million, by closing these old gates it would drop to around 4.5 which won't be enough even with the corona related drop.
So yes, this expansion is very much needed for practical reasons. I guess since you are not Serbian you did not fly from BEG when A gates were reconstructed and what a mess that was.
I guess you were asleep for the last two moths. Air traffic will take years to rebound to the pre COVID-19 levels. Everywhere on the planet. Including our country.
So please, go back to sleep.
Prepare to receive your Nobel prize for economics.
Why would AUT want to save Lauda or Level when they also operate a lot of routes solely outside the country or Wizz that employs mostly Hungarians and Slovakians and all taxes for these employees go to to those foreign countries?
but the PR campaign of lauda fo the last days is rediculous to say the least: they tryed to bend so much regulations to get subsidies after the shutdown; (they were quiet until all papersgot signed and now they are getting aggressive again)
now they are talking about taxes that they are suposed to be paying; there is no indication that lauda as a company payed taxes in any significant amount in austria (or in any country for that matter; the whole lauda operation is structured in a way produce losses for the time beeing to keep the preassure high for avoiding any labour unions; even in austria nobody pays taxes on losses; and to explain how the employee wages/benefits/social contributions/taxes is handled is not even according to the very low ryanair standards)
there is not a single operator in vienna that will benefit the society when it is kept alive by further subsidies
If you read today's ariticle you would know that Air Serbia will have government support: "we saved our national carrier several years ago. And we will strengthen it even more. We have a very ambitious program planned."
That statement and ongoing construction at Belgrade airport is bigger boost of consumer confidence than any CEO saying "we will be back to normal in July"
Once restrictions are lifted, no airline will pick up where they left before the pandemic.
JU also needs to replace quite a number of ac, up to 40% of the fleet (3 ATR's, 3 B733's and 2 A320's), so JU can afford to reduce some frequencies for the short term. The B733's alone represents about 14% of the fleet. 1 A320 (YU-APG) is due to leace the fleet to be replaced with an A319 (smaller seat count and cheaper lease). I dont think the situation is that bad for them, in fact it might help them attain cheaper rates for an eventual fleet renewal.
I think the new destinations will go ahead, but maybe not many of the upgrades in frequencies as well as the increases for charter flights.
- Extend the lease, however renegotiate the contract ie cheaper rate.
- Replace the aircraft with another at a cheaper rate.
- Cancel JFK and return the aircraft.
I dont see JFK being cancelled. The government has boasted about it too much to allow it to be cancelled. After 4 years, the route is seeing much better results, with them experiencing limitations with 1 route 1 ac in the winter, which eats more of their profits made over the summer.
Its been interesting to watch JU the past year. They quickly reacted to the collapses of JU and KK, launching IST and boosting frequencies in their slowest period, which was unexpected, however successful.
I think 1 of 3 scenarios would be good for them:
- Launch YYZ in december at the start of the christmas holiday season at 2 pw when JFK is down to 4 pw. Boost JFK to daily and YYZ to 4/5 pw in May with the delivery of a second ac.
- Launch YYZ in late march, early april while JFK is at 3 pw, again, as above increasing frequencies in may as above.
- Launch YYZ in June when a second aircraft is delivered, and boost JFK to daily.
Overall, I think itll be JU who will launch the route first and not AC/RV.
In most European countries you pay tax where you work first and then top up in your residence country, if required.
Hard to travel in an airplane and go to the beach when all the restaurants are closed and you have to be 2m away from other people.
Air Serbia is one of the best things happened to Serbia in the last 10 years.
Once this chaos is finished JU will kick in like never before.
There are some good years ahead for Serbian aviation...
BEG will most likely recover its traffic by 2024 When the terminal opens.
Many crew will even live in Bratislava or Gyor and just drive half an hour over the border to VIE airport to fly from there, you have very good direct motorway connections. Living costs are a fraction in SVK, HUN - they would be stupid to live in Austria/Vienna, from where you will also need almost half an hour to the airport.
Anon 14:23: You seem to know not too much about Lauda. They alreday have bases in DUS, VIE, PMI, STR and were to open another "small" one in ZAD (Small meaning "only" 3 planes). Vienna is just one out of those 5 bases.
Next summer will already be business as usual. There will be no massive economic recession, just a correction of the markets.
Have a blessed day.