Air Serbia is further adjusting its route network with the suspension of another three routes for 2020 due to low demand and travel restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier is terminating its seasonal flights to Pula and Zadar for this year and has also dropped plans to restore operations to St Petersburg in September. All three are expected to resume in 2021. It comes after the airline previously announced the suspension of flights to Madrid, Kiev and Nice until next year. Air Serbia continues to fly to Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia and intends on resuming operations to Moscow and Krasnodar in Russia once foreign carriers are permitted to restore flights to the country, which is expected in September.
Despite the further reduction in its network size, Air Serbia plans to increase frequencies on several routes from Belgrade this month. Starting August 17, the airline will grow operations to Athens from the current eight weekly to ten weekly flights, services to Dubrovnik will increase from two to three weekly, while operations to Paris will return to pre-pandemic levels, from the current ten weekly to double daily. Flights to Tirana will also be increased from nine to eleven weekly rotations, to Vienna from five to nine weekly, to Skopje from eight to nine weekly and to Sofia from four to five weekly. Towards the end of the month, from August 24, operations to Larnaca will be increased from two weekly services to three. Changes remain highly likely.
Subject to the relaxation of existing flight bans, Air Serbia plans to restore services to Rome and Milan on August 16 and to Venice on August 31. Following a short break, operations will also resume to Barcelona, Brussels and Bucharest during August. Air Serbia previously indefinitely discontinued its flights to Helsinki, Malta, Cairo, Beirut and Rijeka but launched operations to Oslo. As of this morning, the Serbian carrier serves 27 destinations out of Belgrade and three out of Niš. Services from Kraljevo have been temporarily suspended until September. The carrier offers the most frequencies out of the Serbian capital to Zurich, with eleven weekly rotations as of next week.
Commenting on its current operations, Air Serbia's CEO, Dunvan Naysmith, said, “We are continuously monitoring the situation, and we hope that the travel restrictions will be lifted in due course, as we are unable to operate normally. We remain focused on gradually ramping up operations where possible, whilst protecting the health of customers and employees.
Commenting on its current operations, Air Serbia's CEO, Dunvan Naysmith, said, “We are continuously monitoring the situation, and we hope that the travel restrictions will be lifted in due course, as we are unable to operate normally. We remain focused on gradually ramping up operations where possible, whilst protecting the health of customers and employees.
“As of this morning, the Serbian carrier serves 27 destinations out of Belgrade and three out of Niš.”
ReplyDeleteConsidering the ban on entry into the EU this is not that bad at all.
+1
DeleteHow are the frequencies to New York?
DeleteHope they boost it as I heard loads are good.
Delete@10,04
DeleteCurrently its 4 pw (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) until 19.09, when the wednesday rotation will be removed.
4pw is quite respectable given the circumstances.
DeleteStill zero health control for passenger coming from US?!
DeleteThermal cameras at the airport, that's obviously enough for the time being.
DeleteMOW and KRR resume in September, WZ on 18.08 with five weekly.
ReplyDeleteEnglish please! :D
DeleteMOW is Moscow
DeleteKRR is Krasnodar
WZ is Red Wings
:)
Redwings has no flights on sale to Belgrade
DeleteWhere did you find info for Red Wings?
DeleteI just entered their website from my phone and first flight start on 16.08 which is a Sunday, four weekly flights.
DeleteI’m still surprised by the volume of flights to certain destinations despite the restrictions. Like Athens and Thessaloniki for example.
ReplyDeleteMe too. CDG too.
DeleteIs it possible to visit Greece if you have a recent negative Covid antibodies test?
DeleteNo
DeleteNo but you can enter if (obviously you are Greek), if you are medicinal staff, if you have been living in the EU for a prolonged period, if you work in the transport industry, students studying in Greece, diplomats and if you have family in Greece. Also if you are Serbian and are transferring through Greece you are allowed to fly. But these flights have so many frequencies because there is a considerable number of Greek people working in Belgrade (in Greek owned companies) and because of transfer passengers from European countries.
DeleteThanks for the info Anon 09:37.
DeleteLaunching Oslo turned out to be a good decision. From what I hear loads are respectable.
ReplyDeleteVery good loads in business class, on Sunday there were 6 in business and 120 passengers in economy. Very smart move, their risk has definitely paid off.
DeleteThat's good news
DeleteIn July JU carried out five rotations to OSL, 75 pax per flight on average. For instance, ZRH only 40 pax per flight in July.
DeleteLast Anon, source please? I doubt Oslo had more passengers than Zurich.
DeleteThe load factors and the safety measures needed mean that JU (and probably every other airline right now) loses money on every flight they operate!
DeleteA friend flew from Vienna to Milan on Wizz and they were 6 passengers! I don't think anyone is making money.
DeleteYes, Milan base for W6 so far is doing really bad.
DeleteThere is very little demand to travel to Northern Italy which was Corona epicenter for months.
@anon 09:51 JU accomplished 50 rotations to ZRH in July while only 5 to OSL. Quoted figures are from JU official stats.
DeleteCan we see the official stats? I'm curious
DeleteI flew ZRH on Saturday - LF 25 px economy; 1 business. Nice to roll up to an air bridge. Was surprised to see so many closed stores in Zurich.
DeleteSo bad loads and they are going to add more flights?
DeleteSupposedly bad loads Anon 13.32, still nothing officially on it. If they are adding more flights then it means the overall performance isn't that bad.
DeleteMy wife took the ZRH flight in mid July and also said 20 pax. That being said, her connection from ZRH to YYZ on a huge AC Boeing had around 55 pax, 8 of them were transfer pax from BEG. Low pax loads for all airlines around the world.
DeleteLoads to ZRH collapsed once Swiss introduced restrictions and quarantine.
DeleteLet's hope circumstances will permit for route network to be expanded next year.
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteNot surprised
ReplyDeleteAt least it's food to see charters are picking up. Yesterday they had a flight to Hurghada and two flights to Antalya.
ReplyDeleteThey have another flight to Hurghada this afternoon.
DeleteAnd Antalya tomorrow.
DeleteSuspending Beirut seems to have been the right decision unfortunately :(
ReplyDeleteBeirut was suspended at the start of the covid crisis but according to JU it was suspended because of the financial crisis in Lebanon. Not because of covid itself.
DeleteTrue but it was supposed to be a temporary suspension. Now it has become permanent
DeleteThis is when they temporarily suspended flights, they were supposed to restart in June: https://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/02/air-serbia-temporarily-suspends-beirut.html
BEY is a seasonal destination with lots of competition. There simply wasn't enough demand. LO and RO already operate flights.
DeleteLebanon's financial situation is getting worse and worse.
DeleteAnd that was before Covid.
I don't see them recovering from this, damage is too big and they are broke.
DeleteThere are a LOT of EX YU people working in the UN missions in Lebanon including military contingents. There is a market.
DeleteYou are an airline tycoon.
DeleteHaving in mind the current circumstances this is a respectable network.
ReplyDeleteIt seems mostly seasonal flights have been affected.
ReplyDeleteWell that makes sense.
DeleteCould this have been a chance to open some new routes where there are no restrictions? Could they have launched another city in Turkey maybe?
ReplyDeleteNo they can't open new routes in Turkey over night. Very restrictive bilateral agreement between the two countries.
DeleteOh yes forgot about the bilateral. Shame.
DeleteThey did use the crisis as an opportunity, they launched Oslo pretty much within 2 weeks.
Delete^We can thank Wizz for that.
DeleteThere are no entry restrictions for Mexico and Brazil. They could have considered those ;) :D
DeleteMaybe they could have launched flights to China. One weekly flight by foreign airlines per Chinese city is permitted.
DeleteYou can't launch long haul over night. Also JU would have to get a permit to do that. That's not so easy. Chinese bureaucracy is notorious, especially in aviation. It took them 6 months to get the Hainan codeshare approved.
DeleteI think those A321XLR will come in handy post Corona times... When ever that happens. Thin routes with Point to Point flights... Days of filling up those 380s or 747s seems to be over for a few years at least... Even 330s/777s have a hard time filling up on many oversea routes..
DeleteWhich routes had problems to fill A330s and 777s before corona?
DeleteI said during and post Corona times many airlines are flying empty long haul routes... So smaller 321XLRs will do a better job..
DeleteEven though I personally hate narrow bodies going across the pond:)
IST is currently 5 pw and, as per JU website, will go down to 4pw in november. A return to daily flights would be a good start, perhaps a midnight rotation.
DeleteThey could relaunch MUC. DUB and MAN would be interesting additions.
Pity about that they decided early on to cancel Cairo. Egypt is completely open.
ReplyDeleteCairo relied on transfer passengers, mostly Egyptians. Keep in mind Egyptians can't enter EU either.
Delete''Paris will return to pre-pandemic levels, from the current ten weekly to double daily.''
ReplyDelete''The carrier offers the most frequencies out of the Serbian capital to Zurich, with eleven weekly rotations as of next week.''
''Flights to Tirana will also be increased from nine to eleven weekly rotations.''
I can understand the demand to Paris and Zurich but don't get 11 weekly rotations to Tirana. Are these transfer passengers or is there a real demand from Belgrade to Tirana (and vice versa)? If these are transfer passengers ti seems AS is doing really well there, taking into account the massive expansion that Wizz had there last month. Are there restrictions for albanians to travel to EU at the moment?
Actually it's not surprising at all. The Tirana flights are filled with Albanians and Montenegrins transferring from Air Serbia's New York flights. Also there is increased demand for P2P travel because Albania is open and many Serbians have decided to go there for summer holiday. But the main reason is New York. JFK flights are packed at the moment. A big share of them are Albanians. Yes, Albanians are restricted from entering the EU.
DeleteWould be interesting to see some numbers in terms of how many are transfers and where are they being transferred to. Certainly JFK would play an important role but AS only flies 4 times a week there at the moment. Anyway, overall happy for the performance of AS in the region, not only in Tirana.
DeleteNot only New York.
DeleteTIA is very well scheduled to combine with transfers to Western Europe. Many times I saw in BEG Albanian passport holders flying to FRA
I also noticed TIA was mostly upgraded to A319 which is fantastic
Deletegosh
DeleteEven A320 in some days. Im very glad to see JU being successful in TIA. Of course it won't be very easy with the Wizz expansion, but JU has consolidated its presence here
DeleteLet's see what happens with Wizz plans there, Wizz is bleeding money right now.
DeleteFrom what i ve heard, the loads are quite decent especially considering that Albanians are restricted from entering EU. I doubt they re going anywhere
DeleteActually it is transfer to TIA from wider area not much Albanians.
DeleteWouldnt it be better for them to permanently upgrade TIA to the A319 and avail subsidies TIA offers? Like this, I doubt theyre getting anything.
Delete''The new aircraft should be operated on a scheduled basis throughout the IATA flight period on a minimum of one weekly frequency'' So, they can already get it.
DeleteTIA wasnt a scheduled upgrade for the full period.
DeleteSo, the affected routes are now 8 in total:
ReplyDeleteHEL, MLA, BEY, CAI, RJK, PUY, ZAD, LED
+ MAD, KBP and NCE in 2020.
Total of 11 this year is like 30% of the network. That's significant...
It's not 30%. Air Serbia had more than 35 destinations.
DeleteMore like 40+
DeleteRJK and BEY were cancelled even before the crisis due to poor LF. RJK was the weakest destination in JU network. There were rumours JU was getting financial stimulation to fly there. There is no other way to explain original plans to fly there even during the winter and not to DBV for example.
DeleteNCE, ZAD and PUY were anyhow only seasonal.
And most of these routes are just postponed for 2021.
And OSL as +1
That's significant.
47
DeleteDoes anybody know what was the LF on MAD nad NCE?
ReplyDeleteIs that photo real?! If it is... It's so beautiful and smart!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSerbia is on the green list for entry into Ukraine, meaning there are no restrictions. Why did they cancel it?
ReplyDeleteDemand was very low with Ukrainian tourists now allowed to Croatia or Greece.
DeleteAir traffic between Ukraine and Serbia is not very strong and KBP was mostly there for transfer JU passengers.
DeleteAs Ukraine is not on the EU green list the conclusion is obvious.
Currently you have more flights from UA to Split then in 2019.
DeleteTaking in consideration all the circumstances these JU results are excellent!
ReplyDeleteSMFH
DeleteSYFH further
Deletethey should cancel INI alltogether
ReplyDeleteWhy? It is nice source of cash
DeleteI am still wondering why INI isn't that good in loadfactor. I bet Wizz would have a much better loadfactor, but WizzAir is as well much more known. But it is the same when you compare Air Serbia witz Wizz in Belgrade, for sure Air Serbia is more expensive, but still surprised that the difference is that much. On most routes I guess a smaller plane 90-110 seats would be enough.
Deletetwo third of routes are cancelled for this year. nice source of cash indeed
DeleteSame with SKP, Wizz gets subsidy for new routes even when they don't fly them.
DeleteThe success of OSL surprises me, Norway is closed to Non-EU countries right now. Even some EU couintries are banned, you cant even enter with a PCR
ReplyDeleteThe Serbian diaspora in Norway has grown immensely in the last few years. And being stuck in cool Norway all year is not good for anyone.
DeleteGood picture.
ReplyDeleteIt could be a lot worse. 27 routes from BEG and 3 from INI at a time when most Serbs are not allowed entry anywhere is quite good.
ReplyDeleteplus there are charters to Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada, Bodrum and Antalya.
DeleteSchengen borders will remain closed for Serbian citizens at least until mid September, so further reductions of network are highly likely...
ReplyDeleteAnything is possible at the moment, good thing is that they are looking east with their return to Russia in September, Istanbul being boosted and additional charters to Egypt. When the west makes your life difficult, look east.
Delete