Montenegro Airlines to add more flights, eyes Tel Aviv service


Montenegro Airlines is continuing to rebuild its network after resuming commercial operations on June 12. So far, the carrier has restored flights from Podgorica to Ljubljana, Frankfurt, Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen and Dusseldorf, while three weekly operations to Paris will start today. “The flights to France are dependent on the epidemiological situation in Montenegro. We have to stay within the limits issued by the European Union to continue these flights after two weeks”, the carrier’s CEO, Vlastimir Ristić, said, referring to the European Union’s recommendation for member states to reopen their borders to several non-block nations, including Montenegro, which will be reviewed every two weeks.

During the second half of July, Montenegro Airlines plans to resume services to Rome and is considering charter flights to Tel Aviv. “There is considerable interest for these flights, and we hope they will commence on August 1. This would be an important milestone for us since it would be our longest route. It is very useful to have charters to far-away destinations”, Mr Ristić said. He added that services to Russia are unlikely to start before August at the earliest, while the airline’s planned new route to Lisbon has been cancelled. “It is unrealistic to think we will manage to do anything with the Russian market during the peak summer season. However, we hope that, if the weather holds up, we will be able to attract some passengers in the post-season period and achieve sound results”.

Montenegro Airlines is still banned from operating to its most profitable and busiest market – Serbia. Similarly, Serbian citizens cannot enter Montenegro. Mr Ristić previously said his company’s survival is at stake as a result of the ban. “We can’t rush things and we have to be patient and wait for the epidemiological situation to stabilise and then resume flights. We are eagerly awaiting that moment because it is the most important route in the region, not just for us but also for Air Serbia”, the CEO noted. He added that the airline’s finances have been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic and noted the government’s decision last year to provide 150 million euros in state aid over a six-year period has been put on hold and is being reviewed by the country’s competition watchdog.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    Hmm at this point and given the numbers, ATH and IST are becoming as important for JU as MNE is/was. So I wouldn't really agree with the CEO. Unlike YM, JU's survival isn't tied to a single market.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:08

    Good luck MGX.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:16

      They need more than luck, they need a miracle.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:21

      The only thing they need is continued government subsidies.
      Just like the rest of the exyu airlines.
      Nothing more and nothing less.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:33

      What do other ex-YU airline have to do with today's topic? Please stick to this discussion. Also you might have missed the news that MNE is going bankrupt without tourism.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:01

      Government will continue to support them.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:11

    The longer they are kept out of Serbia the worse it will be for them. If they don't get access to BEG soon they might not make it to summer 2021. There are rumors going around that without tourism MNE will have money until October. I doubt they will be able to finance YM this winter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:02

      YM wants to go back. If you asked the top management of the airline they would all tell you that.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:12

    This new CEO seems quite reasonable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:02

      Did he work for the airline before? Is he from the aviation sector?

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:18

    Do Israir or Arkia fly to Montenegro?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:02

      Yes they do during the summer but I don't know what will happen this year.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:19

    Montenegro keeps winning!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:23

    charter flight are negotiated MONTHS in advance!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:27

      It's a very different works at the moment.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:34

      Of course it's different because now they can't operate 15 daily flights to BEG.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:38

      I wanted to say that rules that you have to arrange something months in advance don't really apply anymore. Look at all the new routes for this summer. They were scheduled and put on sale barely a month in advance.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:40

      So they are keeping Serbs away because of corona but they are looking at Israel which is currently recording record new infections? Just the other day they had 900 new ones, so far 28.055 cases were confirmed. This just shows the politics behind MNE's decision to not allow Serbs in.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:45

      not that I'm trying to defend anyone but its a bit different when you border each other and have a massive volume of people coming in that you can't control and when you have a plane with 120 people coming in once per week.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:52

      Yes but without Serbs it's a disastrous summer season, arrivals in Budva are down by over 90%!

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:58

      9:40, Perhaps ME is looking into richer tourists with steeper pockets hence looking into Israel, Poland, Spain and UK.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:07

      @9.58 i bet you are the "keeps winning" guy

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:09

      If they are then those richer countries are obviously not interested in MNE ;)

      Delete
    10. Anonymous10:10

      I would have understood if they tried their luck with scheduled flights but charter flights on a short notice? gimme a break

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:03

      There are obviously Israeli tour agencies that have customers and need a carrier considering Israeli airlines are not very reliable at the moment. I'm sure MGX didn't just randomly remember the Israeli market.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:15

      well LIS looked more then random. there is a ban to TLV for all

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:26

    One of the few remaining proper, full-service legacy carriers. Well done, YM!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:43

    Have they resumed some flifghts from Tivat?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:44

      * flights sorry

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:08

      Yes they have.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:12

      Just a few destinations in Germany, all once per week. They were supposed to start them 2 weeks ago but moved it until just a few days ago.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous12:20

    Тешко ће они опстати без линије за Београд. Велике губитке су ту имали. Како се прича, новца нема а могли би ставити катанац већ следеће године.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:42

      Ма биће чудо да доживе пролеће 2021. године. Прича се да држава има пара до септембра-октобра после чега или мора да се задужује или да прогласи банкрот. Плашим се да после избора када Мило изгуби нова власт неће баш благонаклоно гледати на ову фирму.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:38

      A ko ti to prica i ko te to laze da mi je znati :)

      Delete
  11. Anonymous13:59

    Pity about Lisbon.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous13:59

    The state aid is "under review" because Montenegro just opened the EU chapter on competition. Handing them 150 million euros right now would be a very bad look.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:16

      ironically most dangerous thing for MGX is MNE entering EU

      Delete
  13. Anonymous14:00

    Whatever happened to the concession of Montenegro's airports? They started the process and then just stopped (this was well before corona). I ask because Montenegro Airlines' future depends a lot on what happens with the airports.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous14:00

    the government will fight to keep them alive

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:04

      The government needs money to do that.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous14:04

    They should do as many charters as possible at the moment. It is easy money.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Taking money out from country....

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous18:51

    Rumour is that Vinci wants Montenegro Airlines to pay outstanding debt before resuming flights .

    Dont forget that MGX abandoned Skopje and Prishtina airports because their Turkish concessors no longer tolerated the outstanding payments ...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous19:20

    ^ actually thats not a rumour but a badly hidden fact.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous10:23

    End is near thanks to Milo Đukanović

    ReplyDelete
  20. Why you don't write about new Luxair line LUXEMBOURG - TIVAT

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.