Air Serbia resuming Niš and Kraljevo operations


Air Serbia will partially resume operations from its secondary base in Niš, as well as Kraljevo, from June 16 and June 30 respectively, after the carrier received approval from the Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure. Between June 16 and June 30, the carrier will recommence services from Niš to Hahn and Nuremberg, while flights to Hannover, Salzburg and Tivat will be reinstated from July 1. Other destinations served from the city, including Bologna, Friedrichshafen, Gothenburg, Baden Baden, Ljubljana and Rome are under review and will restart following “careful monitoring of the situation and consideration of all factors”. Flights between Kraljevo and Vienna will resume on June 30. No mention has been made of the airline’s planned new service from Morava Airport to Thessaloniki, which was initially due to commence on March 27. Tickets for the route are currently available for booking from August 1. The exact flight schedule and weekly frequencies for the abovementioned services will be announced shortly.

Commenting on the resumption of flights from Niš and Kraljevo, Air Serbia’s CEO, Duncan Naysmith, said, “Conditions have been met for the gradual recommencement of flights from Niš and Kraljevo. This is great news for our passengers from south and south-western Serbia, who have eagerly awaited this development. During the past two and a half months, we have been inundated with questions about when we will be restarting flights from these two cities. For all of us at Air Serbia, it is a great pleasure that I can confirm that we will recommence flying from Niš on June 16 and from Kraljevo on June 30. Families and friends will be able to see each other again, and this will certainly be followed by businesspeople and tourists”.

Niš Airport reopened for commercial traffic last Friday with Wizz Air resuming operations to the city. On the other hand, Air Serbia is Kraljevo Airport’s only customer. All of Air Serbia’s flights operated from the two cities are state subsidised. Air Serbia is gradually rebuilding its network out of Belgrade and recently outlined its preliminary schedule up to June 21, which will see it serve 32 destinations. The airline is due to resume operations from the Serbian capital to Paris and Amsterdam today, followed by Sarajevo next Thursday and Banja Luka next Friday. Long haul operations to New York will recommence next Saturday.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:04

    JU should have launched ATH from Kraljevo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      Demand and connection opportunities would be much bigger than SKG.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:28

      The SKG route is seasonal and there for tourists and primarily tour operators who would buy up seats on the plane.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:33

      Buses and cars take a lot of the potential passengers away from a plane route to northern Greece. But in ATH they have a ton more options both for tourism, connections to other flights or taking the boat to the islands.

      Delete
    4. Nemjee10:24

      Actually I hope Wizz Air considers AUH flights from either BEG or INI, depending who gives them a better deal.

      flydubai is doing well in Belgrade:

      2016: 46.202
      2017: 62.044
      2018: 86.281

      It's a growing market and more flights would further stimulate demand especially now when Etihad isn't planning on growing in BEG.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:00

      Do you have qr and ey numbers nemjee

      Delete
    6. Nemjee11:20

      Sure.

      BEG-AUH

      2016: 120.637
      2017: 121.583
      2018: 88.220

      BEG-DOH

      2017: 57.082
      2018: 81.397

      Q1+Q2

      AUH-BEG

      2017: 63.673
      2018: 38.830
      2019: 48.866

      DOH-BEG

      2017: 21.493
      2018: 38.344
      2019: 43.333

      Seems like both QR and FZ have eaten a large piece of EY's cake. They probably lost a lot of appeal once JU suspended AUH which impacted their connectivity.

      Delete
    7. JATBEGMEL14:05

      The JU800/801 rotation complemented the EY waves in AUH well. Its no surprise that there was a large drop in pax to fail for EY in my opinion.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:09

      Didn't EY also change their BEG departure in 2019? Now they leave in the morning similar to QR?

      Delete
    9. JATBEGMEL14:11

      Sorry for the bad reply, parts of the message got deleted while posting.

      The JU800/801 complemented the EY waves well.

      The new EY71/72 rotation that came when JU pulled out of AUH meant 2 flights departed BEG at similar times.

      JU pulling out of AUH, in my opinion, is a fail for EY.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:14

      I hope JU will be back but don't know if it will make sense since EY cut many flights from AUH.

      Delete
    11. JATBEGMEL14:22

      @ 14,09

      They added a second daily to BEG, departing AUH with a similar schedule as JU801 had. Now that they pulled back to daily, they cancelled the EY69 rotation.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous14:29

      What year and month did QR add extra three flights? Is that source of growth?

      Delete
    13. Anonymous14:31

      They added it last year from July until mid September. Their main source of growth are good fares, good service and much better network than EY. EY has become a hybrid airline serving fewer and fewer cities each year.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous14:33

      Nice so all this jump in passenger numbers came with their 5 (or 7?) weekly flights?

      Delete
    15. Anonymous14:34

      7

      Delete
    16. JATBEGMEL14:37

      I believe that QR upgraded from the A320 to A321 at that time too. BEG was also delinked from SOF.

      Delete
    17. Anonymous14:40

      ^ that happened years ago. Not in 2018 or 2018. They have been flying nonstop to Belgrade since 2015.

      Delete
    18. JATBEGMEL14:46

      Nope.

      QR launched DOH-ESB-BEG in late 2012.

      In March 2015 the flight went via SOF.

      15th March 2016 is when it was delinked with SOF and went direct 4 pw (mondays, wednesdays, fridays and saturdays) with the A320.

      Delete
    19. Anonymous14:51

      These numbers clearly show how nicely BEG market is growing and that EY is the one that's losing. Big question is who most passengers are, it can't be only Serbs from Australia.

      Delete
    20. Anonymous15:48

      Shame Corona happened maybe QR would finally send widebody.

      Delete
    21. JATBEGMEL17:46

      @ 14,51

      There are many Serbs that vacation in places around Asia and Africa, some O&D pax, as well as tourists coming to Serbia.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:09

    It's good that they are slowly restarting their flights, they need to start flying before people can gain confidence into travelling again. Today is the first day of a remotely normal schedule out of BEG with JU operating 7 departures. Tomorrow they will fly to FRA but we will also have B2 from MSQ and Wizz Air to/from FMM, NYO, LTN, EIN and BSL.

    With Wizz Air massively downsizing around Serbia (BUD losing 2 planes, TSR 1) JU in BEG must position itself as a convenient and good option for flying.

    I am also very happy KVO-INI is coming back. That route was a great performer before corona!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      There was no KVO-INI route..

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      I think he meant KVO-VIE and you knew that.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:23

      No I didn't, sorry.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:29


      I am the Anon 09.09 and I made a mistake, I meant VIE. Anon 09.23 stop trolling

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:30

      I said I didn't know that you meant KVO-VIE. You don't have to attack me because of a misunderstanding.

      Delete
    6. Nemjee10:49

      It's interesting that BEG-VIE grew last year even with all these flights being added from INI and KVO. That only goes to show that these extra flights from the regions are either killing bus companies or are stimulating demand.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:21

    I wonder how they will regulate the subsidies this year considering JU will operate barely any flights from INI and KVO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:31

      They will get so much state aid this year that the PSO contracts really won't be all that important.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:34

      The same as OU did for PSO flights they didn't operate

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:08

      OU did not get any money for PSO they did not operate. That is impossible by EU law.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:17

      Laws are meant to be broken and these PSO funds were already assigned and paid last year, so... ;)

      Delete
    5. Anonymous08:58

      Anon @12:08

      Funny that you still belive in fairytales

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:25

    This is a good indication which routes performed well for them from Nis and which didn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      Hahn is by far the best performing route from Nis but stil way behind when we compare with LF on JU's BEG routes.

      Delete
    2. Nemjee10:50

      Well, for starters BEG is a much bigger market and JU also relies on transfers to fill their seats.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:55

      I can't understand why they don't move that flight from Hahn to FRA since they already have operations there and Hahn is horrendously inconvenient. Now having said that, the tender does specify HHN but surely GOS could make a change for their beloved JU here.

      Delete
    4. Hahn is much cheaper than FRA.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:26

      I used HHN a couple of years ago and cannot believe it is in Germany. So small, so retro and such a village airport. The only thing that saves it is being somehow close to FRA and LUX.
      Germany must make use of those important secondary airports the same way UK does to generate more benefit. HHN can be Frankfurt's real second aiport, FMM second Munich one, etc. 95% of the Ryanair destinations are leisure or to secondary or even tertiary destinations.

      Delete
    6. You make excellent points.

      Secondary airports in ex-YU are used very well.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:27

    Good that they will bring back Salzburg since they will now be competing on this route against Wizz from BEG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:47

      It's going to be much more difficult to sustain that route now.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:35

    Glad to see JU is coming back before the others

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:46

      No a lot of other available from Kraljevo :D

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:36

    They should really not bother with FDH anymore imho and use the aircraft for a Belgrade rotation to somewhere else

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:40

      Do you know LF on INI-FDH route?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:54

      yes, but its been posted here already so check older threads pls

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:08

      Those loads were not catastrophic from what I remember so obviously there is some potential.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:06

      Jan: 19.1% , Feb 46,7%, March 28.6% (6 flights) one way D->RS according german statistics.

      Delete
    5. Nemjee11:21

      Almost half-full planes in February is a good indicator that there is potential.

      Delete
  8. Aэrologic10:07

    Air Serbia has shown total dilettantism and unprofessionalism in their managing of INI base or more specifically their response to the recent Wizz Air developments.

    Wizz Air a few days ago announced three routes from Salzburg to the near-by region, namely Belgrade, Skopje and Tuzla, two out of which directly overlap with their own service from INI that was serving both Belgrade and everything South of it.

    At the moment of their announcement, Air Serbia had two weekly scheduled flights from INI:

    - INI Thursdays afternoon/return Thursday evening
    - INI Sunday morning/return during the day

    (the original schedule has been removed so i don't have access to exact times)

    While the Sunday morning departure was debatable, it certainly did offer people the option to spend a weekend in their homeland (or for tourist purposes) and come back home on-time.

    That's when Wizz Air announces the 'corrected' Air Serbia's schedule from BEG on the same days, yet Sunday evening instead of Sunday morning.

    BEG 18.10 - 19.35 SZG ---4--7
    SZG 20.10 - 21.35 BEG ---4--7

    Instead of moving their own Sunday departure to an evening one and make it more appealing (despite the fact Air Serbia has an obvious advantage on the route due to flying to INI directly and fighting for its portion of Skopje-bound pax), it instantly relinquished the slots to Wizz Air and moved their own flights to a completely unappealing schedule:

    INI 16:25 - 18:10 SZG --3----
    INI 06:30 - 08:15 SZG ----5--

    https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/08/salzburg-airport-surprised-by-nis-demand.html

    That is the third change of schedule and so far the worst one. The new schedule is pointless and basically gifts the majority of pax to Wizz Air, be it from BEG, SKP or INI.

    To make things worse, Wizz Air applied in SKP what would have been the ideal Air Serbia's response by launching flights on Friday and Monday evening. Only Tuzla (with also the potential take away some BEG pax) has a lackluster but complementary schedule to BEG (morning and mid-day departures), so one can basically land in Tuzla and departs from BEG and vice-versa.

    What is Air Serbia smoking exactly?

    There were three options, in order of preference:

    1. Move the Sunday departure to an evening one and leave the rest of schedule unchanged
    2. Change the flights to Monday and Friday so they won't overlap with Wizz Air in BEG, offer people better options and an alternative to Wizz Air own flights from SKP
    3. Do nothing (you have clear advantage on the route and not such a bad schedule)

    Instead they choose absolutely the worst of all options by taking all the jokers (advantages) out of their hand.

    This requires scrutiny and a completely different 'modus operandi' in dealing with Wizz Air and other airlines in the future where "retreat and screw up your own schedule" certainly doesn't work and isn't the path to success.

    Similarly, there were words of cancelling Geneva even before Corona started simply because of EasyJet increasing frequencies in winter, there again denying their own advantage on the route which are transfers both from the region and beyond.

    Last but not least, such a route (SZG) should have originally been served from BEG 4-5 times a week where Wizz Air wouldn't be sniffing now around them as a vulture.

    At the end of the day, Air Serbia often does not do justice to the Eagle's on its tail, only playing the role of prey itself.

    Only a proactive stance can take a business forward, not panic retreating.

    It's time to wake up.

    Greetings and have a nice Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:35

      +1000

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:46

      Air Serbia doesn't care much about its flights from Nis. They are all subsidised and they only reason they, together with the government, came up with the idea to fly them was - A: to get subsidies, B: to block some LCCs which might have launched some of those routes.

      Delete
    3. Nemjee10:48

      Their base in INI was premature and didn't fit their core business model, it was a political decision. Unfortunately that base was launched at a time when they had a desperate need for extra capacity in BEG.
      INI flights should have happened only once their BEG operations have been fully developed and consolidated. In other words, INI should not have happened before 2025 and only in case Serbian government fully and completely fixed various fleet issues and shortages. INI base would have made sense if JU had Embraers in their fleet. However, sending one A319 there and forcing JU to use B733s on scheduled flights from BEG was a very unwise decision.

      Delete
    4. Very good arguments, Aэrologic. Trust me, W6 is indeed like a vulture when it is interested in "stealing" a route from the competition. What they usually do is pick the same days and time of the competition, they then deploy a bigger plane on the route allowing them to slash the fares and thus becoming cheaper. They have been doing this with many LCC or non LCC airlines.
      As for GVA, the U2 increase from 3 to 5 weekly in winter will definitely make it tough for JU as you say.

      Delete
    5. Nemjee10:54

      I would like to add something else, if JU does terminate extra flights from INI, it will be indeed a good sign because it would show to all of us that politics is not behind the wheel of civil aviation in Serbia but that aviation experts are being listened to and their words have weight. Nice to see them terminate unprofitable and empty routes like they did with Budapest some months ago.

      Delete
    6. Aэrologic11:00

      INI should have been ATR from BEG and Salzburg (as well as many other destinations, possibly Innsbruck) served from BEG as well with all the network-wide transfers.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:07

      God bless you, why not? Atr us great indeed.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:51

      The original Salzburg schedule:

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/p/air-serbia-nis-salzburg.html

      Delete
    9. JATBEGMEL13:29

      Serbian government messed up alot with the INI tender. The way it was placed, the changes since, while destinations could of been better selected.

      To start, INI could of done with a couple more hubs ie ATH, SVO, FRA, CDG, somewhere JU could count not only on O&D pax, but transfer from partners, while complementing their BEG operations.

      A BEG-INI flight would at least allow better rotation of aircraft, crew and allow catering to be loaded from BEG for INI, while again expanding the offer from INI via BEG.

      @ nemjee

      W6 and FR is making routes to INI work, with larger capacities, so not necessarily do they need regional jets to make INI work. JU has a tendency to poorly implement products and services. Together with the government, a poorly announced tender brought a mediocre network to INI while JU had issues in BEG.

      @ aerologic

      Considering the amount of Serbs living in Austria alone, and JU having done next to nothing in that market speaks volumes.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:09

      That's the Etihad DNA in them.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:10

      FR and W6 don't have a base in INI like JU does. JU could operate some route three times in stead of 2 with A319.

      Delete
    12. JATBEGMEL14:42

      JU is getting the subsidies exactly for that reason - to further stimulate the demand.

      @ 14,09

      The INI decision was from the government. Just like in many other aspects, they make many poor choices and dont really think things through.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous15:32

      Old habits die hard.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous11:53

    now its the perfect time (or excuse = Corona) to move one aircraft back from INI to BEG

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:18

      There is one plane in INI

      Delete
  10. Anonymous15:36

    Any info about KVO runway expansion?
    INI tower and terminal renewal and expansion?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:40

      No, but here you can see the first JU flight KVO-VIE in December 2019. Terminal looking decent. This can be the next LCC airport of Szerbia.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crmtfZ5hTqE

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:44

      Tender for INI terminal expansion is taking place at the moment.

      Delete

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