Ukrainian low cost carrier SkyUp Airlines will introduce flights between Kiev and Belgrade this coming winter season. The carrier will run two weekly services between the two capital cities, each Tuesday and Friday, starting October 27. Operations will be maintained with the airline's Boeing 737-700 aircraft, which has the capacity to seat 149 passengers. Tickets are bookable through the company's website. SkyUp will become the first Ukrainian carrier to operate scheduled commercial flights to Belgrade since Aerosvit Airlines ended services between Kiev and the Serbian capital in June 2011 due to "technical reasons". The airline has since filed for bankruptcy.
SkyUp Airlines will fill the void left by Air Serbia which suspended flights to Kiev in March until the summer of 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Serbian carrier has maintained services to the Ukrainian capital on an off and on basis over the past few years. In 2014, Air Serbia cancelled plans to launch daily flights to Kiev due to instability in the country at the time. However, it introduced six weekly rotations between Belgrade and the Ukrainian capital in the summer of 2016, utilising leased equipment from Adria Airways, however, it lasted only a single season. It then rebooted the route in the summer of 2019 which was maintained until the start of Covid-19.
SkyUp Airlines is a privately owned low cost carrier, which has flown seasonally to several coastal cities in the region, primarily to Croatia and Montenegro. It began operating charter flights in 2018 on behalf of tour operators and scheduled services, predominantly to leisure destinations. Since restarting operations on June 26, the LCC has been gradually increasing its operations in Ukraine and internationally. with a number of new routes planned for late October with its fleet of eight B737-700, B737-800 and B737-900ER aircraft. One-way tickets to Belgrade start from 44 dollars without baggage. SkyUp is based at Kiev’s main airport of Boryspil. Further flight details for the new Kiev - Belgrade service can be found here.
Nice surprise!
ReplyDeleteThere was always demand between Belgrade and Ukraine, even in the 1990s. I'm sure SkyUp will do just fine with those dates. They will also stimulate additional demand on the market.
ReplyDeleteNice to see BEG's recovery start.
Very good schedule and ideal for a city break.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, they also fly with a 737-900ER to CMB!
They also have quite a few MAXs on order.
DeleteHow is it ideal for a city break, though? If you're travelling Fri-Tue you need to take two days off, and spend 4 nights in Kyiv. It's decent, but far from ideal.
DeleteYou don't have to take Friday off as the plane leaves in late afternoon.
DeleteThat was unexpected.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, but nice to see.
DeleteThese eastern European airlines seem to be doing fine in BEG. For example today B2 is sending their B735 while their E95 has almost become a regular in BEG. I hope next summer they add more flights to Belgrade and to increase it at least to 4-5 weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteGuess we won't see JU resuming this route.
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. KBP was mostly transfer destination for Air Serbia
DeleteUnfortunately I doubt it now, these guys seem to know what they are doing. They also have fares JU can't compete with.
DeleteIts early to tell. Things are changing daily as airlines rebuild their networks.
DeleteNice addition.
ReplyDeleteLove this, Belgrade is getting such a diverse list of airlines and destinations
ReplyDeleteDo they offer connections?
ReplyDeleteNo, unfortunately.
DeleteYou can always buy two separate tickets. They are fairly cheap.
DeleteBut the flight arrives quite late to Kyiv, are there departures at around midnight?
DeleteThey do. For example they have a flight to Amman at 23.45 (same days as BEG arrival). Or for example Colombo at around the same time.
DeleteColombo could be extremely interesting as I saw many ads around Belgrade. I know some people who went and they flew on FZ. SkyUp could be a nice and probably cheaper alterantive.
DeleteIs an hour enough to self-connect in KBP
DeleteIt's extremely risky. I'd never do connections on separate tickets without at least 5 hours in between.
DeleteSri Lanka is amazing and worth every penny! Go there with no hesitation! Buy BEG-KBP-CMB.
DeleteI hope they will start selling them and to offer yet another option when going between the two countries.
DeleteAbsolutely agree, Sri Lanka is such a wonderful place and for Serbians as affordable as Hurghada or Antalya .
DeleteWhat's interesting is that Sri Lankan has had a codeshare on QR flights for quite a few years now.
DeleteNice to see new routes at this day and age.
ReplyDeleteGood to see this route has found a replacement so quickly.
ReplyDeleteThe fares they are offering are great.
ReplyDeleteAre they a classic LCC?
ReplyDeleteWell the lines are blurred in today's day and age. You have fares with and without luggage. There are hot and cold meals for which you have to pay but can preorder.
DeleteLove that livery.
ReplyDeleteSo if things go to plan, three new routes will start at the beginning of the winter season: Kiev-Belgrade by Skyup, Budapest-Belgrade by LOT and Stuttgart-Belgrade by Eurowings.
ReplyDeleteAnd two of them are former JU routes which didn't work out for them... or ones which they didn't try hard enough.
DeleteWhich is good that those markets found a more competent replacement. Funny how people complain about JU distorting market because of subsidies and then we get news like these lol
Delete@9.25 and then 9 new routes by Wizz next summer.
DeleteIt's really good that BEG is still showing signs of life especially with the airport expansion coming along quite nicely.
Delete@ 09,26
Delete1 is a former JU route as of now (BUD), not 2.
The more new airlines the merrier.
ReplyDeletewho?
ReplyDeleteSkyUp Airlines.
DeleteWow, well this was unexpected. .. Anyone knows more details about this carrier?
ReplyDeleteThey are launching a lot of new routes. Amman, Colombo, Stockholm, Bratislava, Belgrade, Dubai and Istanbul.
ReplyDeleteOnce again Bravo BEG and once again Shame on you ZAG
ReplyDeleteWhy? Windrose announced ZAG long before SkyUp announced BEG. They will come once the EU ban on Ukrainians passes.
DeleteThey will not come to ZAG before November 2020. At least planned so but might be delayed.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/06/windrose-to-launch-kiev-zagreb-service.html
There has been an update since then. It has been cancelled
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/07/windrose-delays-ljubljana-cancels-zagreb.html
Thank you. I missed that.
DeleteIt seems that guy from Rijeka was right.
So which cities in the wider region have scheduled flights to Kiev besdies BEG and BUD?
DeleteSplit and Pula. Both 3 pw seasonal mostly on A321 and sometimes on the brand new ATR 72.
DeleteNo year-round except BUD and BEG?
DeleteWhat happened to those Dnipro flights to Sofia? I think they operated it with E145
DeleteWindrose and Ryanair both fly from Kyiv to Sofia. SkyUp flies from Burgas to several Ukrainian cities.
DeleteWindrose flights to Bucharest, year round.
DeleteSkyUp has scheduled flights to TIA also, seasonal only
DeleteSo it means that from ex-Yu BEG is the only airport to have year-round connection with KBP.
DeleteHopefully it will be used by Ukrainians and locals from Serbia too.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure this will work out long term, especially on a B737-700 but let's see.
ReplyDeleteI think Skyup cooperates with Ukrainian tour operators. So they might be able to get tour groups.
DeleteB737-700 is smaller than B738. Why not?
DeleteA friend of mine flew on Belavia a few weeks ago, packed B733 and about 20 passengers connected to KBP. There seems to be a lot of O&D demand.
DeleteI think B2 profitted greatly from this situation, they were among the first to resume BEG!
DeleteI think Vinci encouraged them to come because they will operate during the quiet period when BEG gives special discounts.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that they are proactive.
DeleteThe cheapest tickets without luggage
ReplyDeleteBEG-KBP 45 EUR
KBP-BEG 39 EUR
That's very decent. For how much did JU sell these tickets?
DeleteReturn was never below €170
DeleteExcellent price. Kudos!
DeleteWhich of their planes can make it to Colombo?
ReplyDeleteB739?
Yep
DeleteHow long is that flight?? Must be uncomfortable in an all economy narrow body to fly from Kiev to Colombo.
DeleteAccording to their website it's 11 hours and 45 minutes. I guess there is a technical stop and a lot of flying around as they can't overly Russia, Crimea included.
DeleteThats insane !
DeleteI can not imagine how they make any profit with that route .
You snooze, you loose Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteI find it surprising JU cancelled this route considering Serbs enter Ukraine and Ukranians can enter Serbia without restrictions.
DeletePeople do not automatically travel somewhere just because there are no entry restrictions. Demand for travel is down generally because many people are A) scared to fly, B) scared of leaving their country and C) scared of having some overnight rule change ruin their holiday. I mean there are no entry restrictions for Mexico but you don't see flights being launched there.
DeleteI remember LWO CEO said that they are looking for flights because there is demand from tour operators. SkyUp is owned by tour operators so who knows, maybe in the future we see BEG-LWO twice a week.
ReplyDeleteWell if it weren't for Covid it would have happened this summer.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/p/air-serbia-belgrade-lviv.html
Somehow I think SkyUp would be more convenient.
DeleteSerbia is also desperately trying to rebuild the tourism sector here after covid. If these guys are backed by tour operators then I am sure they are going to work on bringing Ukrainians to Belgrade. This is something JU has never been good at, sure they carry locals and transfers but bringing tourists requires you to work with different actors and that's where they always fail.
Delete^Air Serbia has not been good at it because that requires actual work on the ground with tour operators. There is a reason the world's major airlines still have representative offices in various markets and not just GSAs who handle another 10 airlines. Surprise surprsie, the only city Air Serbia has an actual representative office is New York and those flights have performed very well in terms of loads and they have excellent cooperation with ethnic tour operators across the US.
DeleteThats it, the tour operators like it or not, are the core of tourism and hospitality services !
DeleteNo way leads around them .
Good to see some new routes.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed all three new routes from BEG for this winter are launched.
DeleteThat is nice news.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant, love it!
ReplyDeleteI just hope this is sustained and not cancelled before it starts.
ReplyDeleteDon't think so.
DeleteUkraine has been posting record numbers of new infections in the past 30 days. If it continues will it affect SkyUp plans?
ReplyDeleteMost European countries have been reporting record infection rates. Should Air France, Iberia, KLM, Brussels Airlines, Aegean all be worried too?
DeleteIt is obvious this virus will come and go in waves. We're going to have to learn to live with it somehow otherwise all industries will go bankrupt.
DeleteIberia, KLM, Brussels Airlines are not serving Belgrade. France is not posting record numbers. Those posting record numbers should be worried, like Ukraine.
DeleteFrance is reporting its biggest numbers in months.
DeleteGermany as well, Italy is back at 600 infections a day, Greece is currently seeing an explosion of corona. I think SkyUp is optimistic as we are soon going to get the Russian vaccine and all will be well.
DeleteEvery major airport in Ukraine offers Covid19 tests upon arrival or departure in case you need it.
Deletethis route has always been unstable with JU. Hope SkyUp has better luck.
ReplyDeleteAs long JU has a monopoly on a route prices are high , the route performs bad and gets canceled .
ReplyDeleteWhen JU gets competition on a route they lower prices, the route performs better and prevails .
Sounds funny but that is just like it is !
That is always the pattern, so competition on the Kyiv route will even help Air Serbia to become more succesful .
For those interested. Their interior seems quite good and modern
ReplyDeletehttps://www.avianews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/skyup_cabine_overview.jpg
I'm assuming they are relying on Ukrainians using these flights but they should also do some promotion in Serbia. No one in Serbia has ever heard of Skyup. I mean ASL Airlines failed from Charles de Gaulle with great prices simply because they had no promotion and no one even knew they existed.
ReplyDeletePromotion should not be a problem at all if one thing is considered :
DeletePromotion has also to be done by tour operators and not only by the airlines themselves .
So you get to know about the airlines even if you dont book with them in the end .
Also the airport could promote itself with presenting the airlines flying to it .
I was surprised in Belgrade about the number of Serbians who told me that they have already been to Ukraine on some kind of a monastery tour. I am sure if the prices of the flights become more and more competitive, there is a market for both SkyUp and Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteMonastary tour - hahaha... please. Once you've been to Ukraine (especially Kiev), any red blooded male will be dying to go back. That aside, it also has a lot to offer for those in Belgrade without 'complexes' about travelling east. SkyUp is well regarded in the Ukraine, so let's wish it luck! I for one will be one of the early passengers
ReplyDeleteIt obviously depends on your circle of friends... :)
ReplyDelete