More airlines cancel, defer new EX-YU routes


Airlines are further delaying the launch or completely cancelling new routes to cities across the former Yugoslavia, which were to commence between March and mid-June, as a result of the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. At this point, only LOT Polish Airlines is still keeping the original dates it scheduled for new service launches in the region. These include flights from Budapest to Belgrade and Dubrovnik, as well as from Warsaw to Rijeka and Rzeszow to Zadar, although they are likely to be changed. The carrier has suspended all flights until May 15. Air Serbia, which has kept the original launch dates for some of its new routes from Belgrade, has again delayed the introduction of its new service between Kraljevo and Thessaloniki. It has now rescheduled the flights for May 9, although it remains unclear how it will perform these operations with commercial services from Serbia not to resume at least before May 18.

RouteOriginal dateNew date
Vienna - Zadar (Austrian)MAR 29 MAY 18
Vienna - DubrovnikMAR 29MAY 10
Vienna - Zadar (Lauda)MAR 30MAY 08
Paris - DubrovnikMAR 30JUN 01
London Luton - LjubljanaMAR 30MAY 07
Poznan - PodgoricaMAR 30MAY 18
Gdansk - ZadarMAR 31CANCELLED
Kraljevo - ThessalonikiMAR 31MAY 09
Stockholm - TivatAPR 01JUN 03
Dublin - PodgoricaAPR 02MAY 17
Vienna - Banja LukaAPR 03MAY 08
Hahn - RijekaAPR 04MAY 16
Paris Orly - PulaAPR 04JUN 06
Nantes - DubrovnikAPR 11JUN 06
Athens - SplitAPR 19JUL 08
Brussels - PulaAPR 25JUN 10
London Luton - PulaAPR 28MAY 07
Kiev - LjubljanaAPR 30JUN 04

Norwegian Air Shuttle, which is to commence a new seasonal service from Stockholm to Tivat, is likely to suspend all of its routes in the former Yugoslavia if a key shareholders meeting on May 4 is successful. If it survives the crisis, Norwegian has warned that the bulk of its fleet would likely remain grounded over the next twelve months and that a full recovery would not take place until 2022, laying bare the scale of the crisis engulfing the airline industry. As part of a planned 1.2 billion US dollar debt-for-equity swap to try to ensure the low cost airline’s survival, Norwegian would suspend all short haul European routes, with exception to domestic flights within Norway, until April 2021.

RouteOriginal dateNew date
Zagreb - SofiaMAY 01 JUN 01
Wroclaw - ZadarMAY 01CANCELLED
Frankfurt - TivatMAY 01MAY 22
Paris - PodgoricaMAY 01JUN 05
Vilnius - DubrovnikMAY 02CANCELLED
Zadar - RigaMAY 03CANCELLED
Zadar - CorkMAY 03CANCELLED
Zagreb - PodgoricaMAY 03JUN 02
Beuvais - ZadarMAY 06CANCELLED
Zadar - KaunasMAY 06CANCELLED
Zadar - BremenMAY 07CANCELLED
Vilnius - RijekaMAY 07CANCELLED
Zadar - LiverpoolMAY 10CANCELLED
Zadar - MaastrichtMAY 11CANCELLED
Zadar - AarhusMAY 15CANCELLED
Zadar - HamburgMAY 15CANCELLED
Zadar - ToulouseMAY 16CANCELLED
Doha - DubrovnikMAY 18CANCELLED
Manchester - TivatMAY 21JUN 18
London Stansted - TivatMAY 21JUN 18
Stuttgart - BelgradeMAY 21JUN 02
Izmir - SkopjeMAY 23CANCELLED
Tel Aviv - LjubljanaMAY 23JUN 02
London Stansted - ZadarMAY 24JUN 17
Manchester - ZadarMAY 24JUN 17
Qassim - SarajevoMAY 25MAY 27
Monastir - ZagrebMAY 27JUN 24
Malmo - SplitMAY 30CANCELLED
Dubrovnik - MykonosMAY 30JUL 08

Without widespread testing for the coronavirus or a vaccine, airline travel is not expected to return to normal for months, or even years, to come. The new reality will likely be fewer flights on slimmed-down airlines that have laid off numerous employees and cut ties to many contractors. In addition, travellers may be required to have new documentation and health checks to board. The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) recently released the results of a survey in which 40% of recent passengers said they may wait at least six months after the outbreak is contained to travel again. Almost 70% said they may hold off on traveling until their personal finances have improved.

RouteOriginal dateNew date
Kiev - ZagrebJUN 02 JUL 21
Belgrade - Amman JUN 01JUN 04
Belgrade - ChisinauJUN 01JUN 07
Belgrade - LvivJUN 01JUN 08
Belgrade - Rostov-on-DonJUN 02JUN 05
Brussels - OhridJUN 06JUN 13
Kuwait City - SarajevoJUN 11JUL 25
Podgorica - LisbonJUN 22JUL 06
Vienna - PodgoricaJUL 03JUL 20

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    "Norwegian is likely to suspend all of its routes in the former Yugoslavia if a key shareholders meeting on May 4 is successful"

    This is quite big. It will leave a huge vacuum and perhaps a chance for ex-Yu airlines to improve their performance on the Scandinavian market.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      It's a real shame. Norwegian is an excellent LCC.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:12

      JU and OU have quite a soft performance in Scandinavia so maybe it will help. Also JU should not have given up on launching OSL. They wouldn't have had any competition.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:43

      Nordics are not densely populated and the population is spread out across a wide area. I am sure JU will launch Oslo to compensate for the loss of DY.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:44

      Well it's not like they will continue flying those routes if the meeting is unsuccessful.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:56

      Yep these routes will be cut either way. The question is just if it will be forever or until 2021. But I think even if Norwegian survives for a year it will go bankrupt afterwards.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:57

      Same with other airlines in Europe. The world will never be the same after this artificially created virus.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:18

      Plus artificially created panic.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:32

      haha here they are

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:33

      Exactly, never have we seen such a well coordinated media campaign before. But don't worry an expensive vaccine is coming, chips as well.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous10:37

      I think this is the largest misinformation campaign in history.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous10:52

      Bergamo

      Delete
    12. Anonymous10:59

      The world will be exactly the same or even worse. Except maybe for airlines... at first only.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous12:10

      @10.52
      Huh?

      Delete
    14. Could admin please remove these flat earth, conspiracy theories posts? Thank you.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous15:38

      But why? We did not break any rules of the blog and the discussion has been more than civil. So the only reason why it would be removed is because you don't like it and that's mean and intolerant.

      Delete
    16. Let's talk about witches and horoscope then while we're at it.

      Delete
    17. Anonymous15:53

      Always a pleasure to read frishki comments <3 <3

      Delete
    18. Anonymous23:55

      Speaking of conspiracy theories, one of them says virus was created by enemies of airline blogs. As airlines stay grounded for a long time because of the virus, airline blogs will have nothing to write about so they will either shut down or start writing about oher topics like conspiracy theories. This is a ridiculous theory but to my surprise there are some sad examples things are moving in that direction.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:05

    I really don't understand what Air Serbia is playing at. They are now selling all tickets from May 9 knowing full well they can't fly before May 18.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      I believe next week the government will bring forward airport reopening, in full coordination with Air Serbia so JU can fly for 10 days without any other airline. The government passed the measure that they can open the airport at any point from 1st of May.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:46

      Any fool buying such tickets helps the company to overcome the liquidity crisis. And governments allow this fraud otherwise they have to inject direct money to keep these companies alive.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:06

    All of these will be cancelled in the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      Maybe not all but 90% for sure.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      doesnt look like that JU ll cancel them

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:44

      ZAG SOF is not happening this year, it will be officially removed from the system in ten days. IT sector here is overwhelmed.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:45

      ^ What about TGD?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:10

      TGD is going ahead because they can't terminate it without penalties ;)

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:12

      Oh I see :) thanks

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:22

      what penalties? o_0

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:25

      It's obviously subsidized by Podgorica.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:33

      yes but these are different times and i dont see a reason not to cancel that contract if there ever was one

      Delete
    10. Anonymous10:33

      Yup for marketing purposes, whatever that means.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:25

      I work at BEG and from what I heard OU got a sum of money from the airport the same way JU got from VCE, for marketing and promotion of the route. That said, VCE never paid JU directly but they rather used that money for ad campaigns around Veneto. Mestre was full of JU billboards the first 12 months of JU in VCE. Seems like it paid off since the route was boosted last winter.

      Now let's see if someone sees an OU billboard around TGD like they had them in BEG for example.

      Someone asked about construction at BEG, work is out of the foundation, work is progressing much faster now. I think terminal will be ready for the winter season.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:19

      Didn't a Croatian minister or something go to Montenegro to negotiate these flights? Or am I confusing it with something. I wonder what's the point of throwing money at OU when there is no O&D demand and OU doesn't offer any connections on the way back.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:06

    Something tells me Dubrovnik - Mykonos ain't happening this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      Well it seems Volotea still believes it's going to happen. They did move the launch by two months though.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:12

      But it's a flight for people arriving on cruisers. And that definitely isn't happening this summer.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:08

    Pity Kuwait Airways delayed their flights by over a month to Sarajevo. It means they will be flying to SJJ for just a month and a half.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      At least they didn't cancel it altogether.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:44

      FlyBosnia will start flying on the Sarajevo - Kuwait City route from May 25th. This delay is a good thing for them. But I hope that next summer, Kuwait Airways will fly from May to October.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:13

    So Easy Jet rescheduled Luton - Ljubljana fro 7th of May even though airport will be closed until at least the 12th.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:28

      People have to realize that airlines need liquidity and need to sell tickets, even if they have to cancel those flights. They will compensate you in some months but they need money right now.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:11

      Kiev - Ljubljana June 4th?
      Of course impossible.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:14

    Love that Austrian isn't giving up on Vienna - Zadar. And still plans to fly it daily.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:23

      The route will probably (unfortunately) be gone once they publish their preliminary flight resumption schedule.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:45

      There are bigger chances of OS going bankrupt than that route being flown.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:23

    Don't get why Wizz moved VIE-TGD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      Maybe they don't see the demand before that date?

      Delete
  9. Anonymous10:41

    Thanks for the updates. Good way of keeping on top of what's still scheduled and not, at least on paper.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:10

      +1

      Delete
    2. Just informed by British Airways that LJU to Heathrow cancelled in first part of June. August Heathrow to LJU flight still showing and still booking as at today.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous15:18

    LH, LX and OS have cancelled all flights to BEG during May.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous15:24

    I would like to place this here so that all those who attack ex-YU politicians for making comments about aviation can see. Now we have the same happening in highly developed, rich and fancy Austria. Vienna is going to throw billions at the rotting corpse that is Austrian Airlines. Politics and aviaiton go hand in hand everywhere, not only ex-YU.

    https://www.airliners.de/haben-interessen-kurz-lufthansa-verhandlungen-fokus-wien/55128

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:02

      Why always the extreme OS / Austria bashing? Same is done by Holland, France, Germany, UK and Switzerland. Plus probably dozens of more countries that I don't know of at the moment.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous15:35

    My flight with BA from LJU to LHR in June has just been cancelled. I guess they won't be flying to LJU this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:56

      What will you do? Take U2 instead?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:04

      Unfortunately, schedule of the article is already outdated.

      Air Dolomiti and Austrian Airlines have cancelled all services until 31st May. Announced 1 hour ago.

      Delete
  13. There is a strong and growing movement in Scandinavian countries against flying. Green lobbyists v emissions/pollution. Already last summer i met a tour operator from Finland that changed to road travel by coach from Helsinki to Croatian coast area rather than fly. Uk tour operators are quoting surveys mentioning " perhaps avoiding so much air travel"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:17

      Switching from flying to bus on such a long distance is borderline idiotic and there is still pollution in terms of gases and MUCH more noise pollution, not to mention littering along the way.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:09

      Scandinavia is not Balkana, amigo.
      They have rail, boat, ferry, electric cars.....no bus or car mentality like the Balkana.
      Air demand is lowering in Scandinavia and this might be just the beginning as people will use boats and not aeroplanes even to go to Amerika.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous20:32

    It's game over basically. Croatia stoped talking about border reopening in May (except perhaps for Slovenians who own a property here), other Eur countries are not saying anything or they are hoping for July. Austrian, Brussels, Tui, Easyjet, Emirates, Etihad, Turkish...None are flying before June. Aeroflot is the only one who had balls and said we won't resume flights before August. Most of the others are just f*cking us with postpoing everything biweekly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:46

      I hope you're wrong and will get some flights from Podgorica in June... At least 10 %.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:48

      Greece invited tourists today to come but I guess that means only flights from BEG since other ex-YU airports barely have any air links with Greece.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:47

      Yeah, but from when? I am afraid not before July

      Delete
    4. Anonymous07:27

      From what I heard second half of June, beginning of July. It's something at least. Yesterday they mayor of Dubrovnik basically warned Zagreb that without international flights at DBV they are going to be in deep trouble. If tourism season collapses the government will have to spend billions it doesn't have. Then we will get even more debt, which we already have too much here in Croatia.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous22:45

    Just checked Ryanair/Lauda, ZD-Vienna postponed for another week...

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous23:47

    Correction- it's available again.

    ReplyDelete

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