Photo by Adam Radosavljević
The resumption of commercial flights to and from Serbia has been delayed until May 18, the country's coronavirus taskforce has confirmed. "Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport will be open on May 18 and that is when flights will resume", the taskforce said. Initially, the government announced services would restart "around May 1". Yesterday, it adopted a draft decision to enable operations from May 1 onwards but noted that a final decision on the opening of the country's airports would be made in consultation with doctors. In the Official Gazette, the revised measures note that commercial flights can resume as of May 1 if airports and all of their supporting infrastructure are completely sanitised, while all staff will be required to wear masks and gloves.
All incoming and outgoing passengers will have their temperatures checked, while the country’s coronavirus taskforce has adopted a decision for all incoming passengers to be tested for Covid-19 within 24 hours of their arrival, however, it hasn’t been outlined in which manner the tests will be conducted. In March, all passengers arriving on repatriation flights were transported to state-run facilities where they were tested for the virus and kept there until they received the all clear, usually within three days. The practice was halted in April with all incoming travellers ordered to self-isolate at home for a period of 28 days.
Air Serbia has been selling tickets for flights across its network from May 1. The airline itself has so far not commented on when it plans on resuming commercial flights. The carrier has been operating repatriation services for stranded citizens since mid-March until last Friday. No more flights of the sort are planned in the near future. A significant number of Serbian nationals are still believed to be stranded across the world. In Germany alone, 1.000 Serbian citizens are still waiting to travel back to their home country, according to the Serbian Embassy in Germany.
Air Serbia's silence on when they plan to resume flights (while selling tickets for them in just three days time) is crazy.
ReplyDeleteDitto. Same with this lack of clarity on rules for incoming passengers which they keep changing.
DeleteNot crazy, it's irresponsible and dangerous. People who are buying tickets but don't know if they are going to fly will experience a lot of stress and maybe even a mental breakdown. This is really not nice of JU.
DeleteThey don't care.
DeleteLots of airlines do that.
DeleteAgree. Instead of sharing pictures from the millionth repatriation flight, the company's PR could at least give some sort of statement on when flights will resume. It is obvious they will resume in the next week but at least give a clear list of destinations.
Delete@9.08 No they don't. Most airlines cancel the flights more than a week before they are supposed to start. Especially in these situations it's not difficult. I mean you are selling tickets for example Belgrade-Skopje for 1st of May, knowing full well Skopje at least won't be open on that date.
DeleteIt goes to show they are in desperate need of liquidity.
DeleteJU is running out of money fast. I saw at the airport the other day that more than half of their fleet is at Jat Tehnika placed in long term storage. I doubt they will use more than 4-5 planes until the end of the year. There is simply no demand especially now when Serbian economy is about to collapse from the quarantine.
Deletetickets for LJU are on sell from 1.5 despite ban of commercial aviation til 12.5
DeleteThis is not the way of dealing with people. If you are not ready to fly, just don't do it. For example, FR will start flying around 12 May, which is a more realistic date. If ju doesn't have money then they can ask the government to inject more dough as they've been doing since 2013. Very simple.
DeleteThe transport or justice ministries should have stepped in long ago and ban that practice. It is shameful!
Delete+10000 anon 10:57
DeleteAs anon 9:32 said, LJU is on sale when the airport is closed until 12th May!
Стоимость поездки
Туда
07:40, on 05 May 2020
Белград(BEG)
Любляна(LJU)
Продолжительность: 1 hr 25 mins
Без остановок
Economy Light
Air SerbiaJU190Выполняется Air Serbia
Обратно
09:10, on 07 May 2020
Любляна(LJU)
Белград(BEG)
Продолжительность: 1 hr 20 minsБез остановок
Economy Light
Air SerbiaJU191Выполняется Air Serbia
Взрослый x 1
RUB 4,485
Итоговая стоимость поездки
RUB 13,673
Well they need money to come in so they sell them and rebook the passenger.
DeleteAirlines need a cash flow. This is one way to get the cash they need. If the flights do not materialize refunds will not be given. 9nly vouchers for future travel.
Delete55 pax for now on Luton-Belgrade on 1st of May
ReplyDeleteThey will obviously open the airport. I doubt Wizz would be selling tickets to BEG 3 days before the flight is supposed to operate, especially since in the past they have cancelled flights way in advance. If nothing they probably have contacted authorities.
DeleteProbably. They would't randomly bring it forward.
Deletelol Wizz sells tickets for everything and everywhere . so does Ryanair
DeleteNot really. You can't buy tickets for any other route from BEG until 1st of June.
DeleteMy WIZZ ticket to Eindhoven for 4 May was cancelled 10 days ago. Same happened to my friend for his flight on 19 May.
DeleteThe total lockdown on May 1 may be partially lifted. They will announce this morning.
ReplyDelete"In Germany alone, 1.000 Serbian citizens are still waiting to travel back to their home country, according to the Serbian Embassy in Germany."
ReplyDeleteWell those repatriation flights sure were successful then...
Well they were free of charge for the passengers so it's not like the government could bring them all, they are not a tour operator.
DeleteRoughly 13.000 Serbian nationals were brought home on the JU repatriation flights alone. All free of charge. More could of been brought home, however there were cases of no shows on these repatriation flights. More goes behind organising these flights than just scheduling them.
Deletehow can they not know if they will open the airport in 3 days. I have no words really
ReplyDeleteAll of you who do not work in Aviation need to stop talking. 1. Airlines must act upon government rules. 2. Not all Airlines cancel flights weeks in advance apparently you have not been in the U.S.A! Where many flights are cancelled 24 hours before scheduled departure. If you are not buying a ticket then sit your ass down and shut up!
ReplyDelete+1000
Delete1. Airlines must act upon government rules.
DeleteThen the likes of JU should not be selling tickets to places like LJU on 1st of May which announced a week ago that it will be closed until at least 12th of May.
Wow, what an arrogant comment. There are a lot of goodwill attitude across airline industry in this extraordinary situation. And, no, airlines do not sell ticket 24 before flights for routes where the airports are closed with government orders with known dates of closure, like Anon 09:36 just said.
Delete@9:36 - how dare you to comment when Danny strictly prohibited anyone who's not buying a ticket from commenting?
DeleteFrankfurt airport had 30000 Pax last week. If Fraport can do it Beg can get at least 15000.
DeleteI adore people who dare to compare FRA with any of ex-yu airports, even the busiest one, corona time or not.
DeleteLOL good point pozdrav iz Rijeke! <3
DeleteAnd oh my anon 9:56....comparing BEG to FRA :D :D :D FRA has monthly traffic that BEG achieves in 6 months. So, relax momko.
Anon 10.22
DeleteYou just couldn't resist attacking Belgrade despite your comment not having any value to the discussion.
If saying the truth is an attack, then sorry. All what is not inline with BEG is an attack. This is not the case, mon ami. FRA remains the one of the busiest airports in the world with more connections even compared to ATL.
DeleteI am aware of only one person in the whole aviation amateur analyst world who considers number of connections available at the airport as a top criterion for airport ranking. Shows how skewed his understanding is when everyone else looks at something else yet you insist on connections.
DeleteDo not worry mein freund, Lufthansa is about to be nationalized with the German government assuming total control of the airline, Even though they will have less than half the shares they will have veto power! Imagine that. I expect full and proper Balkanization of LH Group with flights being launched from every dorf as a promise from the local politician.
DeleteSorry last anon, but who shouldn't worry and how does that relate to todays topic?
DeleteThe worldwide competition in pumping money into businesses will always be won by Germany, so no need to rejoice.
Well just now Lufthansa has turned down government aid and will most likely apply for bankruptcy protection. This is just bad and I think this is the beginning of the end for this pioneer of European aviation :(
DeleteGermany will not allow any scenario that will not be advantageous for them. Aparently they have an insolvency regulation that is very debtor friendly.
DeleteHow can Air Serbia profit from this? Germany has a deep pocket and huge capacity to incur cheap debt. Serbia is nowhere there. Germany will pump in each business double amount of its covid losses, while most other countries only a fraction of covid losses. This will be a totally Germany ruled world.
Well if the government gets its claws into LH then LH will be mismanaged and JU and others will profit from that. I can already imagine the first meeting with the government. It will go something like this: Lufthansa since you are retiring so many planes and don't have where to use them, here launch Berlin to New York!
DeleteSo they will be forced to fly from all random places and their CEO spoke against that.
Why would LH being partially government owned be managed worse than partially/wholly government owned JU, BT, TAP, LO.
DeleteBecause all those airlines are the definition of well run businesses. 😁
DeleteAnon 18h58 - you mean like a government here in the region ordering an airline to start flying to New York and get an overpriced new airplane for that just for some prestige and major additional yearly losses?
DeleteIt's incredible that people are still so salty about the BEG-JFK route after so many years. The jealousy must be running deep.
DeleteReally deep
DeleteFinally we are getting some movement at the airport. I can't wait, this is exciting.
ReplyDelete*grabs popcprn
DeleteHope flights start on Friday
ReplyDelete"Covid" gallery updated - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GVHd-tzegtgd9Y_XCDb_-vftcIz7WX-V?usp=sharing
ReplyDeleteBR,
Dejan
very nice pictures, thanks a lot!
DeleteDo you have pictures with packed up aircrafts in BEG?
Thanks Dejan, great photos! Do you know, by any chance, whose Globemaster was that? I can't find any markings.
Delete
DeleteWow huge thnx Dejan!
You are all welcome. C17 United Arab Emirates - Air Force.
DeleteGreat photos Dejan. Thank you!
DeleteThank you. Any updated/more recent picture of the BEG terminal expansion? How far have the works come?
DeleteWorks are continuing on the C gates extension. They are not going to be ready for this summer but there is no need for extra capacity this year. At current pace it will be ready in time for summer of 2021 when traffic is expected to recover and grow.
DeleteI know all that but I was just wondering if someone had more concrete information on how far works have come. A month ago they started putting concrete foundation.
DeleteThe government changes their minds every 2 days. First they said between 4th May and 11th of May, then they said 1st of May, now they say 18th of May
ReplyDeleteBecause their only guidance is what Air Serbia wants and they want to start flights first. They are not ready to start before on the first of May.
DeleteIt's the same with schools. One day they say they will start in June, the next that there will be no schools at all.
DeleteSrpska posla
DeleteWhat they need to focus on first of all, is how to handle people in an opening of borders, first by foot, car or train to surrounding countries which most of them are EU borders....then they can declare the airport open and hand over the air traffic related issues to Eurocontrol https://twitter.com/eurocontrolDG/status/1254770274840399872
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make any sense to declare that AirSerbia is flying from Belgrade when the receiving airport is not opened.
May 1 was not realistic. Even 18th does not look cast in stone and it depends on how situation evolves in other countries as well. I would still consider June 1 as a start date if you want to be on the safe side.
ReplyDeleteThey could start to fly from the 4.may to ZRH, airport is open, big diaspora, no restrictions!
ReplyDeleteRestriction prolonged for all May long. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteIf airlines aren't able to refund money in a reasonable amount of time, then people just make a chargeback with their credit card provider
ReplyDeleteHow come Air Serbia has no announcement? Only in the last hour have they moved ticket sales from 1.5 to 9.5 .... and for ALL flights.
ReplyDeleteI understand they need time to create a new schedule but their communication has been way off.. I love air Serbia as my national airline and am expecting to be on their first flight from Vienna to Beograd, but this is just kind-blowing. Let’s sell flights now from 9.5 even though we know we can’t fly til 18.5... instead of moving all flights to 18.5 and for now while urgently* creating a new schedule for the flights which will launch on the 18th
Also want to add for me for exp. I am not buying any tickets until they announce CLEARLY and with strategy the day when flights will resume. Until now they don't have my confidence.
DeleteAustrian Airlines is more expensive and I would like to fly with my national airline (JU) but they are ONLY selling tickets from 18.5. Although I don't believe all those 3-4 daily flights will take place, at least at the beginning.
I am asking myself, why 9.5... haha
Must say TODAY IS NIKOLA TESLA AIRPORT'S BIRTHDAY
ReplyDeleteHappy birtday to Serbian airport Nikola Tesla!
Delete✈🌐✈🌎✈🌍✈🌏✈😇✈☺✈
Uopste ne sumnjam da ce vlada promeniti odluku da letovi pocnu 11.05. i tako omoguci ErSrbiji da jedina leti prvih nedelju dana. Svi koji su rezervisali karte od 01.05. pomerice putovanje za 10-ak dana i to je to.Neki letovi su prilicno popunjeni a za TLV je jedan cak i rasprodat.
ReplyDeleteDo you know when will the borders be opened for all without the need for being in quarentine? Thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone say if wizz air will be resuming flights from BG to London Luton from 01,05 and / or next week as widely reported in the media? My wife is in Srbija and needs to get back to London. Many thanks, Dejan
ReplyDeleteThey won't since the ban on commercial flights has been extended to May 18. Book flights to London after that date. They will take place for sure then.
DeleteThey are easing restrictions on many things from Monday so they probably feared aviation was too much with the rest. People already started protesting against lockdowns yesterday at around 20.00. Police was helpless, they just kept on repeating to go home. Government knows this situation needs to end and that life must return to normal, it's imperative.
DeleteThank you guys for clarifying that. I’ll follow your advice and look to book a flight for shortly after the 18,05. I appreciate your responses. All the best, Dejan
Delete