The majority of airports across the former Yugoslavia are currently closed for commercial traffic, while numerous airlines across the world have grounded their fleets. However, the handful of carriers from the Gulf that serve the region have outlined their tentative resumption of operations and schedules for the upcoming period. Additional changes remain highly possible.
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways is currently the only major Middle Eastern carrier still operating commercial flights and has positioned itself as an option for travellers abroad attempting to get home. The airline initially cancelled its service from Doha to Zagreb from April, only to reinstate a full schedule before finally settling for a four weekly rotation between the two cities from April 1 until May 31 using its Airbus A320 aircraft, after which flights are expected to increase to double daily. Operations to Belgrade have been suspended and are scheduled to resume on June 1. Services will operate five times per week until June 30 with its Airbus A321 aircraft, before increasing to ten weekly from July 1. The carrier will reintroduce operations to Sarajevo on June 1 with a three weekly schedule, instead of the planned four weekly, while services to Skopje will also run three times per week, a reduction from four last year, starting June 1. Both routes will be served by the A320 jet. The airline’s new seasonal service to Dubrovnik, which was to launch in mid-May has been cancelled and moved to 2021.
Emirates
Emirates plans to resume its service to Zagreb on May 1 with its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Initially, flights will operate three instead of seven times per week in May, increasing to daily from June 1.
Flydubai
Flydubai plans to resume daily operations to Belgrade on May 23. This will be followed by the reintroduction of daily Sarajevo flights on May 25. Although the carrier maintained up to three daily rotations to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital during the peak summer travel period last year, these are not planned for 2020, however, the reduction was scheduled prior to the coronavirus crisis. The Dubai-based airline intends on returning to Skopje from May 25 with two weekly flights. Seasonal services to Dubrovnik and Tivat resume May 21 and June 26, respectively.
Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways will reintroduce daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade from May 1.
Kuwait Airways, Air Arabia and Flynas
Saudi Arabia’s Flynas plans to resume operations between Jeddah, Riyadh and Sarajevo on May 21. Its new seasonal service from Qassim to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital will be pushed back a few days and launch on May 27. Kuwait Airways will go ahead with its planned new seasonal route to Sarajevo starting June 9. Air Arabia will resume its seasonal operations from Sharjah to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital from June 25.
These dates seem optimistic
ReplyDeleteStarting to look like it :(
DeleteFlydubai resuming flights towards the end of May and Qatar in June is too optimistic? I don't think so. By the end of this month things are going to start getting much better and if they don't airlines will have to start resuming flights otherwise everyone will go bankrupt.
Deletefingers crossed
Deleteif the bans on operations are then still ongoing, the airlines can do do somersaults and they still won't operate in the area.
DeleteI believe that by late May the bans will be eased. Otherwise most airlines won't exist by then anyway.
DeleteI would not be surprised if FZ turns Skopje into a seasonal route. Twice weekly in summer is quite low.
ReplyDeleteI find it surprising. Obviously Qatar launching flights had an impact but then again Qatar has also decreased Skopje over the years.
DeleteThe best solution would be for Wizz Air Abu Dhabi to launch AUH.
DeleteI'm not so sure. FZ and QR see mostly transfer passengers, something Wizz Abu Shabi can't count on.
Deleteyou wish. fly had +20% in Q4 19 reaching almost 98% of the Q3 numbers.
DeleteWhy do you think I would wish? I'm just giving an observation and my thoughts based on their decreasing frequencies. Obviously I don't have their numbers.
Deleteobviously Wizz Abu Dhabi will cater to completely different set of passangers. They are offering flights to Duvai from Sofia for as less then 30€. Go and figure out. Im not saying that Qatar didnt have impact on FlyDubai, it did but they are improving lately.
Delete2 weekly to Dubai, 3 weekly to Qatar, 2 weekly low cost to Abu Dhabi. Fine with me!
Deletethe reasons for flyDubai reductions across it network is the grounding of their MAx8
Delete"Flydubai, the second-biggest customer for Boeing Co.’s grounded 737 Max jetliner, warned that its operations will shrink to 2014 levels if the model doesn’t return to service soon."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-30/flydubai-posts-loss-as-737-max-grounding-takes-its-toll
Question of the month. What will happen first - corona ends or MAX 8 issues are fixed?
DeleteCorona ends. It will be most likely finished at June, but MAX will not be in are before September.
DeleteI don't know if you are virology expert but I know that Spanish Fly and SARS had couple of waves after the first one. Some experts say there will be at least a second wave after a couple of months.
DeleteSome experts think Boeing will announce ending of all 737 production this year. Not just current temporary halt.
Kada će se početi normalno letjeti nemoguće je reći. Pije par dana je Michael O'Leary, CEO Ryanair Grupe izjavio da nitko ne može znati kada će pandemija stati i kada će se krenuti sa normalnijim operacijama. A kao najveća europska kompanija i 5. u svijetu Ryanair zasigurno ima najbolje informacije i angažirao je najveće stručnjake, poglavito što mu je to egzistencijalno za business, a o bilo kakvoj realnoj procjeni ovise mu stotine milijuna EUR. Ryanair je prizemljio 95% svojih kapaciteta.
DeleteNeke kompanije su ekstremne restrikcije stavile do sredine travnja (aprila), no većina do kraja travnja i početka svibnja (maja), među njima i Ryanair, Aegean, United idr. No, to ne znači da neće produžiti redukcije i tijekom svibnja, već je samo jasno da u travnju (aprilu) situacija neće biti ništa bolja nego krajem ožujka (marta), tj. da će oko 95% svjetskih kapaciteta, linija i frekvencija ostati prizemljeno, a većina manjih zračnih luka zatvorenih.
Prema izjavama zdravstvenih stručnjaka optimističke prognoze su da će se koronavirus suzbiti dolaskom toplog vremena, dakle sredinom svibnja (maja) kao što je to uobičajena situacija sa većinom viroza. No, ovo naglo zahlađenje i pad temperatura na nulu tome svakako neće pomoći, a ni primjeri južne polutke gdje je tijekom naše zime bile ljeto, a bolest se širila, svakako ne ulijevaju optimizam. Većina zdravstvenih stručnjaka smatra da bi ovakvo stanje moglo potrajati do kraja lipnja (juna). Oni pesimističniji tvrde da je moguće da isto potraje do prosinca (decembra). Prva generacija koronavirusa, poznatiji kao SARS trajao je od studenog (novembra) 2002. do srpnja (jula) 2003. iako je većina epidemije stala u lipnju (junu) sa toplim vremenom. Ptičja gripa je pak trajala cijelu 2007. godinu, od siječnja (januara) do prosinca (decembra) 2007, dok je svinjska gripa trajala do ljeta, od siječnja do kolovoza (augusta) 2010. Najcrnije prognoze dala je američka zdravstvena služba predsjedniku Trumpu koja je rekla da bi se moglo desiti da pandemija potraje i 18 mjeseci uz valove smanjenja i ponovnog povećanja zaraženih, pri čemu će se zaraziti do 70% populacije. Oni naglašavaju da ovaj scenarij nije najvjerojatniji, ali da je moguć.
Kina, koja je izvor zaraze (otkrivena u prosincu 2019.), je 23.1.2020. grad Wuhan stavila u karantenu te je isti dan zatvorila Aerodrom Wuhan (24,5 milijuna putnika u 2018.) za sav civilni promet, nakon samo dva i pol mjeseca, 8.4 otvara aerodrom za sav civilni promet. U Kini je pandemija prekinuta. Ukupno su imali 81.218 zaraženih, samo 47 je novih slučajeva koronavirusa (od kojih je dobar dio došao iz inozemstva), od čega je umrlo 3.281, a izliječeno 73.650. U ovom momentu je ostalo još samo 4.287 oboljelih. Iz bolnica se otpušta bitno više izliječenih nego se prima oboljelih. Napominjem da je Kina sve vrijeme zaraze imala otvorenu većinu aerodroma (zatvoreno je bilo samo 16 od 243 aerodroma) iako je većina aerodroma imala restrikcije i ekstremne kontrole putnika.
Good to see QR keeps flying
ReplyDeleteIf the airports didn't close they would have been flying to all ex-yu cities they normally fly to.
DeleteThey did cancel Sarajevo and Belgrade before it was closed for commercial traffic.
DeleteNot true as Belgrade was operating up until the day the airport was closed and there were flights afterwards that were scheduled. My flight on the following Monday was cancelled on Sunday evening.
DeleteCorrect. QR had to divert a plane from Budapest to pick up crew in BEG the next day as the airport closed and flights had to be cancelled.
DeleteWhy do people like to intentionally spread false information here?
DeleteWhat false information?
DeleteI meant they announce Belgrade cancellation of flights one week before Belgrade was closed. So if Belgrade was not closed they will still cancel flights to Belgrade.
Delete@anon 10:52
Delete"They did cancel Sarajevo and Belgrade before it was closed for commercial traffic."
Where was this announcement exactly?
DeleteIt's normal that Zagreb was kept as it is a city in the EU (meaning most EU travel is still permitted) and an airline (Croatia Airlines) is still operating from there. It means people can buy an onward flight. Even Flydubai was allowed to operate one flight to ZAG after it was grounded so UK passengers could leave Dubai (connecting onto OU flight). Most EU countries have banned air travel altogether.
DeleteWhat would have been the point of keeping Belgrade (even if the airport was still open) when Serbia introduced a complete ban on foreigners entering the country and introduced a curfew.
Using this situation to prove whether a certain route has more demand is completely silly.
It was nice to see Etihad send a passenger B777 to Belgrade a few days ago to transport medical aid. Hopefully we see it again under better circumstances.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mod.gov.rs/multimedia/image/2020/Mart/29/15810/jov_1852_1585453780.JPG
Deletehttp://www.mod.gov.rs/multimedia/fotogalerija/foto/jov_1724_1585453293.JPG
There was a passenger B777 from Etihad that arrived this morning in Belgrade too.
DeleteYes, it was the plane with the same registration actually.
DeleteThis is good information and really helpful for us who are still stuck and can't get home.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that ZAG is the only destination that can work for QR in ex-YU.
ReplyDeleteIt is the only airport that is still open.
Delete@anon 09:21
DeleteAfter years of frustrations made by the success of Serbian aviation please let him believe it.
It is not human at this moment to destroy his hopes and wishes.
The real question is if the airlines will come back at all if the crisis continues...
ReplyDeletesorry but this could be said for every airline
DeleteCan't wait to see these airlines back at our airports :)
ReplyDeleteIs the echeduled Etihad cargo flight to BEG still operating?
ReplyDelete*scheduled
DeleteTurkish cargo is operating normally too
DeleteThere was an Alitalia A332 in BEG yesterday. Anyone know why it was there? Is Serbia sending some supplies to Italy?
DeleteRepatriation flight via VIE
DeletePity about DBV being cancelled.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I think the summer tourist season is dead for the most part.
DeleteQatar cancelled DBV for all season.
ReplyDeleteFrom where did you get information of Emirates resuming on 01.May?
ReplyDeleteYou can buy tickets from Emirates to Zagreb from 1st May. It's not thay difficult to check.
DeleteYes flights are available from 1.5 but something tells me this will be pushed back. We will see.
DeleteFor those interested in EY Belgrade flights you can search for flight history of Etihad aircraft A6-ETF
ReplyDelete( 777-300ER ) on Flightradar24 .