Air Serbia is beginning to increase its operations and continues to rebuild its network after recovery efforts stalled in July and the first half of August. According to the European air service provider Eurocontrol, Air Serbia saw its operations grow 8% at the end of last week compared to late August, with the airline restoring flights to Podgorica, Tivat and Brussels over the past few weeks. Furthermore, as of yesterday, the carrier doubled its operations to Zurich to two daily flights after Switzerland lifted quarantine requirements for incoming passengers from Serbia. In addition, the airline has increased capacity on select routes such as Tivat and Tirana and ramped up charter flights to Turkey due to growing demand.
Travel restrictions remain an obstacle for the carrier as the majority of European Union member states, in most cases, do not permit Serbian nationals from entering their country. However, there is growing indication the bloc will advise its members to reopen their borders for Serbian citizens at a meeting on September 15. Although each country makes its own final decision on entry requirements, the advisory has a significant impact on member states. In the coming weeks, Montenegro is also expected to lift its requirement for all passengers from Serbia to be in possession of a negative PCR coronavirus test, which would further boost travel between the two countries.
Air Serbia currently maintains scheduled flights to thirty destinations from Belgrade and four from Niš. It plans to increase frequencies to Istanbul to daily from September 19, outstripping the number of flights operated on the route prior to the coronavirus pandemic. It will also resume services to Rome and Milan from September 25, although changes remain possible. The carrier has said, “We continue to closely monitor developments and will constantly adjust operations to possible changes in travel restrictions and demand”. According to Serbian travel agents, the strongest demand is currently being registered for flights to New York. Air Serbia also recently said that the Big Apple and Zurich are its two most successful routes at the moment. As a result, Air Serbia will be boosting frequencies to New York next month.
Good to see slowly some positive developments.
ReplyDeleteThem flying to 30 destinations from BEG in these circumstances is not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteAgree. I''m quite surprised.
DeleteFrom BEG they fly at the moment: Amsterdam, Athens, Banja Luka, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Larnaca, Ljubljana, London Heathrow, New York JFK, Oslo, Paris, Podgorica, Prague, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Tirana, Tivat, Vienna, Zagreb, Zürich, Dubrovnik, Split.
DeleteWell done JU!
DeleteWhat matters is that a total collapse of air traffic was avoided. Kudos to all parties involved.
DeleteConsidering the situation, we should be happy with this
DeleteI for one am happy.
DeleteI was saying in another article several days ago that, while some airlines will take a few years to recover, JU could possibly be back to 2019 capacity as early as next summer.
DeleteWell that is one of the good things at smaller airlines. JU, OU and YM will recover faster then LH, LO or TK.
DeleteI wonder if the new routes they had planned for this year will ever launch in the future.
DeleteSome probably will
DeleteI wonder if this winter we night see JU add a morning or an evening departure to Istanbul. This would be mostly for locals than tourists. Demand seems to be growing by the day.
ReplyDeleteI see that the A320 is scheduled to Istanbul today again. Loads must be fantastic.
DeleteSuch great news that Serbs and Turks remained reasonable in this whole messy situation. This can be fantastic news for local economy especially hotels in Belgrade which suffered greatly.
DeleteThere is no IST JU flight today and the 320 is going to SVO on a charter.
DeleteI think they were referring to tomorrow's flight
DeleteIstanbul Airport JU 803 A320 17:20 Air Serbia
Yes, tomorrow, sorry.
DeleteNot surprised about New York. My friend is moving back to France this month. He told me that people are leaving the city in masses every year because of high taxes or moving to other sunnier states. That said, JU will benefit quite a lot bringing people back to not only France but other Europeans too. The trend is likely to continue even during the winter as this downtrend has been ongoing for a number of years.
ReplyDeleteThe odds of a pandemic and the strange fate of the Big Apple, which JU will benefit quite a lot...
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/residents-leaving-new-york-city-in-droves-moving-companies-report
The flights from New York are currently packed.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow, there are only 2 seats left in economy.
DeleteSaturday flights to New York are always the busiest. Almost always sold out. For this Saturday there are just 5 seats left in economy and 1 in business. And it will be sold by then.
DeleteNice
DeleteFInally JFK pays off.
DeleteI am surprised they didn't increase it.
DeleteThey already fly it 4 times per week...
DeleteIs everybody here work in Air Serbia and know all this information?!!
DeleteO think he meant five
DeleteYou don't have to work in Air Serbia to know that information. You can work in a travel agent. You can even look at their site.
DeleteWell here we go. They are increasing New York next month :)
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/09/air-serbia-further-boosts-new-york.html
Let's nag and bitch about them not increasing something else, maybe it works like it did for JFK :D
DeleteVindication for JFK service. Finally being the top route of the network.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhat are the routes that still haven't resumed? And I'm not talking about the ones that they said the won't restart.
ReplyDeleteMoscow, Krasnodar, Rome, Milan, Venice, Barcelona and Bucharest.
DeleteMoscow and Krasnodar resume on October 27, Milan and Rome on September 25, Bucharest on October 1.
DeleteAnon 10:10 Moscow resumed already 4 times but in reality it didn't resume so do not bet on Oct 25-27th resumption either.
DeleteIt's not related to Air Serbia. No foreign airlines are currently allowed into Moscow.
DeleteKiev.
DeleteKiev was already announced as suspended until next summer season.
DeleteWith Sky Up being the new sheriff on the UA-RS market I don't see them coming back.
DeleteJU was carrying transfers.
DeleteAir Serbia should launch LWO.
Let's hope the EU borders are reopened next week and they can spread their wings further.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey plan to resume Italy flights on 25th of September. There is currently a flight ban for flights from Western Balkans to Italy. What I don't understand is how is Montenegro Airlines operating a one weekly flight to Rome even with the flight ban?
ReplyDeleteNoticed that too and not sure how they are operating those flights.
DeleteThey probably got a special permit of some kind. Unless they schedule it as a charter every week
DeleteThey operated just one flight to Rome and they got special permission for it (it was most probably organized for the elections). There are no longer MGX flights to Rome.
DeleteAh ok makes sense now.
DeleteThe charters to Antalya and Hurghada must be helping them somewhat.
ReplyDeleteBodrum as well there are days with three flights
DeleteI am just surprised they do not fly DLM. It is also a big touristic area. BJV and AYT flights are packed for sure, a good thing in today aviation
DeleteIt's not up to them but Serbian tour operators. I'm guessing they don't have any deals with hotels.
Deleteyeah, I know, and that is interesting, that they do not have any deals. But i do not know if there were DLM flights las year, I know there were 2 years ago
DeleteThose are the more affordable destinations. Something like Chalkidiki and Kusadasi or Monastir.
DeleteThey had Dalaman flights last year, not many but a few each week.
DeleteThese things change. I remember once upon a time Sharm el Sheikh and Monastir used to be the most popular tourist destinations but not anymore. Aqaba also used to be a popular charter destinations but I don't think there have been any flights to there in years.
DeleteI think RJ flew to Aqaba in 2004 for one season and that was about it. It was an early morning arrival, at around 04.30.
DeleteJat Airways flew to Aqaba afterwards. Until 2011 or 2012.
DeleteI think Aviogenex also flew to Aqaba.
DeleteWhy are there no charters from INI with JU?
DeleteBecause there is not enough demand to fill a plane from Nis to a charter destination. Or the risk is too great for local tour operators to pre purchase a certain number of seats on each flight.
DeletePlus northern Greece is very close so most end up going there. INI has TIV which basically carries the same kind of clientele a charter flight would. It was reported yesterday that Budva is saved by tourists from Serbia and Srpska. Such a shame that the ban wasn't lifted earlier.
DeleteThis is good as it shows that JU is not sleeping despite all the challanges.
ReplyDeleteThey have been very proactive in the last year or so in responding to market conditions and competition.
DeleteMaybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for them to launch Munich.
ReplyDeleteI doubt they could compete against LH.
DeleteInterestingly enough, today is the first time after covid started that LH is sending A319 from MUC.
Delete^ What were they sending up to now?
DeleteCRJ
DeleteGood upgrade then
DeleteI also think they should retry MUC, especially now LH is down on frequencies.
DeleteI never understood why JU did not launch flights to MUC. Currently all flights from MUC to the region are operated by Star Alliance or LH group.
DeleteGood news
ReplyDeleteGood to see some growth but it's a drop in the ocean.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's a drop in the ocean. But this is a comparison to what we had a few weeks ago. Comparing to last year makes no sense at the moment.
Delete8% growth at JU is not really a drop but rather a step in the right direction.
DeleteWhat is Air Serbia's largest market?
ReplyDeleteZurich
DeleteSwitzerland without doubt.
DeleteI would say Germany does the best for them when you factor in all the destinations they fly to.
Deleteincrease JFK if it's going so well.
ReplyDeleteThey are flying 4 times per week at the moment.
DeleteThey are increasing it next month
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/09/air-serbia-further-boosts-new-york.html
Fantastic news
DeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see some growth. I hope that by the start of winter more routes can be reestablished.
ReplyDeleteJU flights to Istanbul even has more capacity now compared to before pandemic when you consider JU sends A320 recently. Before it was just A319 daily.
ReplyDeleteAnd Pegasus sends A321NEO today.
TK last week sent A330 and apart from that, always sends A321 or A321Neo.
Istanbul must have the highest capacity out of Belgrade by far.
Serbia should give Pegasus daily flights as we can only profit from more Turkish tourists.
DeleteLuckily they can send the A321neo which has 239 seats! Like that they have enough seats to compensate for one weekly flight. I still think they should be allowed daily flights to BEG.
DeleteI think the situation will improve this and next month.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blic.rs/vesti/drustvo/srbi-se-masovno-spremaju-za-letovanje-u-septembru-ali-bi-trebalo-da-znaju-da-korona/w057q48
Hope so
DeleteAnd in the mean time, Slovenia without a national carrier, has less and less connections. Well done!
ReplyDeleteNational carrier brings its benefits but each market is specific.
DeleteSo what you're saying is, Slovenia doesn't have a market, yet some would be more than happy to heavily subsidise foreign carriers but not a national carrier? Where's the logic in that?
DeleteI just noticed that Pegasus will send the A321neo on the next flight on Thursday as well. I hope JU adds more flights as demand seems to be booming right now.
ReplyDeleteThursday, Friday and Sunday actually.
DeleteThere were 2 A321NEO's in BEG today and it belongs to TK and Pegasus.
DeleteSince Zurich is performing well why not go ahead and launch Geneva as planned. Might be good, especially now when Easyjet will be temporarily suspending flights.
ReplyDeleteBut if easyjet can't make it work with diminished demand at the moment, how will JU?
DeleteWith transfer pax.
Delete