Qatar Airways unveils plans for EX-YU network


Qatar Airways anticipates returning to all markets it previously served in the former Yugoslavia but says an ongoing review of its network is being conducted in line with market conditions. The airline has resumed operations to both Belgrade and Zagreb since the global-wide lockdowns, while services to Sarajevo and Skopje have been suspended until March 28, 2021. “Qatar Airways recently announced our winter schedule in line with passenger and cargo demand and the continued relaxation of entry restrictions around the world. We are seeing positive signs, there is a demand for travel. We believe that travel will steadily return, limited by entry restrictions rather than customer confidence. People will want to travel again, experience the world, and meet friends and family, as well as business travel restarting”, the carrier said.

As of this week, the airline is increasing frequencies between Doha and Belgrade from three to four per week. Although it initially scheduled to run today’s service with a widebody Boeing 777 aircraft, it has reverted equipment back to its usual Airbus A320 but has instead scheduled a B787 Dreamliner for next Monday’s flight, on a one-off basis. The carrier plans to upgrade its usual equipment on the route from the A320 to the A321 from December 15. On the other hand, services to Zagreb will operate three times per week from October 26, increasing to four weekly from December 14. Flights will run with the A320 jet. “Our focus is not only on restarting destinations, but also operating as many frequencies as possible to provide our passengers the flexibility to travel when they want. We are regularly reviewing and expanding our network in line with market demand and the relaxation of entry restrictions around the world”, Qatar Airways said. 

The airline noted it is better positioned to serve the markets in Croatia and Serbia compared to its competitors, such as Emirates, which has terminated operations to Zagreb, or Etihad Airways, which has suspended flights to Belgrade for over a month, due to its fleet structure. “Qatar Airways’ mix of modern fuel-efficient aircraft helped us to develop a sustainable and adapted solution, allowing us to continue flying routes with less overall demand as we have a variety of aircraft we can select from to offer the right capacity in each market. Our operations are not dependent on any specific aircraft type. We will maintain our flights to Zagreb and Belgrade through to the end of winter”, the carrier noted. 

Qatar Airways said that many routes it previously served, among which are Sarajevo and Skopje, remain commercially unviable. “Due to the global crisis, we suspended our routes to Sarajevo and Skopje along with many others, the routes remain suspended during the winter but we hope to resume scheduled operations in the summer. We have advised all impacted passengers and are working closely with them to offer alternative travel options to other destinations in our network or full refunds in line with our unrivalled “Travel With Confidence” flexible travel policy”, the airline said. It added, “We understand how important it is for many of our passengers to have access to flights and we want to reassure them we remain committed to operating as many flights as possible. An ongoing review is being conducted and the intention is to reinstate flights in line with a return to regular conditions and market demand”.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    I really hope thy resume SKP and SJJ but something tells me they may not come back for a while.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:04

      There is a greater chance of them resuming flights then many other airlines that have suspended them. There is also the World Cup in 2022 in Doha and they want to fly to as many destinations as possible.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:15

      They will return eventually but I also don't think it will be March next year. Fingers crossed though.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:23

      The immediate post covid period will be crucial for airlines. Those that come back first will be able to capitalise on it. Wait too long and you will loose the market.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:35

      But is that market of such an importance ?
      I doubt about Skopje and Sarajevo .

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:42

      Sarajevo would be great for them if the blockade ends. They could have transfers from Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain... There are some signs the blockade may lift in the next few months

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:45

      Well that would benefit all the markets they fly to, not just SJJ

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:53

      Yes, but you know as well as I how big the demand from KSA, Kuwait and UAE to Bosnia is during the summer. I mean FZ flew 4 daily in peak summer to Sarajevo!

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:43

      That really is crazy.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:44

      I mean the 4 daily FZ flights.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous12:40

      3 daily .
      Dont make things up .

      Delete
    11. Anonymous12:57

      mr notorious? I am sure it will return

      Delete
    12. Anonymous13:41

      @Anon 9:42 "There are some signs the blockade may lift in the next few months"

      Dude, why would the countries that just made friends with Israel all of a sudden make up with Erdogan's sponsor? I was working for QR for 5 years, and the story of the blockade ending "any day now" has been going around since the day the blockade started!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    I'm surprised they have some demand to BEG and ZAG too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      They tweak frequencies based on demand. They have been flying to Zagreb once a week for the past few weeks.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      The ZAG flight demand is tourism driven so it's understandable.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:25

      Before pandemic they were flying 14 pw to ZAG and 10 pw to BEG. Now BEG will have more capacity than ZAG taking in consideration that BEGwill get A321. Interesting

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:04

      Belgrade will probably not getting A321 .
      You sjhould know that they usually downgrade their capacity .

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:40

      Guys don't forget that in BEG they have the interline with JU. I know they have it with OU as well but OU offers next to nothing to them. That's why they shifted focus elsewhere.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:22

      Pegasus offers them more then JU and OU together. they had 700.000 pax in 2019 DOH-SAW (both PG and Qatar)

      Delete
    7. Anonymous18:31

      In terms of Balkan connectivity they do not, please do some research before writing comments.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    What happened with their supposed use of the 777-200LR for todays flight ?
    It was claimed this upgrade has been because of bigger demand ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      It was scheduled until yesterday afternoon

      https://i.ibb.co/C5Ng7SF/0-1.jpg

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:09

      So why did it fall through ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:14

      It could be a range of reasons. When I looked on Friday evening , there were more passengers booked on the flight than are currently flying to Belgrade. Could be some passengers were rerouted, some flight from which passengers were supposed to come from was cancelled... But I don't the exact reason.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:16

      *I don't know the exact reason.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:22

      What a disappointment .

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:15

      I guess their dreamliner flight will also not happen .

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:16

      For now, it is scheduled to.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:41

      It's overly ambitious, they came back to their senses.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous15:24

      ^ Why overly ambitious ?
      If they can fly 777s with 40 pax for a ten hours flight, then they can easily fly a dreamliner with at leat 130 pax for a four hour flight .

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:08

    Best airline

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:44

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:40

      + 2
      :)
      Pozdrav iz Srbije

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:11

    I think they could benefit in Belgrade from Etihad being out of action for a month (will probably turn out more). Most people flying from Australia (in normal times) have already migrated from Etihad due to their shrinking route network in Aus and decline in service levels. QR now offers better connections, better service and much better fares. They also seem to be capturing the Chinese from the region.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      They are using it by increasing from 3 to 4 in winter and then adding capacity in December.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:22

      When is Etihad supposed to return?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:30

      25.11

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/10/etihad-to-temporarily-suspend-belgrade.html

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:09

      ^09:22
      NEVER ...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:45

      ^yeah ok

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:14

      It Etihad was smart enough, they would after investing in JU launch daily widebody flights and on that way take majority of regional passangers to Asia and Australia via BEG.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:28

      In these times twice a week should be sufficient .
      But yeah, with a brand new jet they would set themselves apart from their competitors .
      My bet would be on the 787 .
      When the Covid situation improves they still can increase frequencies .

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:11

    They should use the opportunity of Emirates leaving Zagreb and Flydubai's return being highly questionable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:46

      If they are flying once per week it means there is no demand. At least they kept it and didn't cut the route like EK.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:16

    If they only would use bigger aircraft !
    Their planes are often full to the brink, it is like flying in a sardine can .
    No thanks .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:44

      No social distancing at all on this flight .
      I also flew AUS to BEG and after coming to Doha with an half full 777 from Bangkok, i was shocked to see that many pax on my Belgrade leg .

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:47

      How did you fly from Australia when you came from Bangkok ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:57

      I am Australian but live most of the year in Thailand .
      Before flying to Europe i have been visiting family down under .

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:27

      Isn't it forbidden to AUS citizens to leave their country except if they have special aproval from their Government?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:01

      You answered your own question ...

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:47

      You all seem to be the same person, when I see your punctuation, spaces between full stops and style.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:55

      Thats it,
      he seems to be an Turkish Airlines Bot .
      His mission is to smear the competition !
      But we know better .

      Delete
    8. Anonymous12:01

      Erdogan personally, fighting for every passenger ..

      Delete
    9. Anonymous12:03

      Keep talking to yourself...

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:20

    I noticed several tour operators selling BEG to Maldives and Zanzibar packages in November with QR.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:20

      New Year as well

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      I noticed that too. And they are surprisingly cheap. 10 day stays for 1200 euros with air fares and hotel accommodation. They must have got good fares from QR.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:27

      Or really bad accommodation :D

      Delete
    4. Petar09:30

      Qatar doesn't need to worry about losses, the Emir covers billions of them every year. So they are usually the cheapest option for travel agencies to book packages. Not just here but everywhere in Europe.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:31

      @9.27
      That might be true. It was a 3 star hotel in the Maldives haha

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:46

      @Petar if they dont carried about losses they would have resumed the whole network and fly empty ...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:03

      Unless you want to stay at a really de luxe hotel in Zanzibar (and Maledives) the prices are pretty reasonable in 4* resorts + now , due to Corona most of them also offer discounts.
      QR fares to Zanzibar and Maledives were also pretty cheap even before Corona, and they also offer discounts to tour agencies when they book more seats, so this price seems just about right to me.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:12

      That's interesting. Thanks

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:17

      I think the Maldives remains open to the public. There will be an organised charter from SOF to MLE this Christmas and QR dropped the prices to this route as it became quite popular in winter:

      https://www.aquatour.bg/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%B0/%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B0-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B8-%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD-%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D1%8A%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82-%D0%BE%D1%82-%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%8F/219

      Delete
    10. Anonymous11:49

      Yes Maldives is open to everyone. You just need a negative PCR test before arrival. Despote this, hotel occupancy is very low. Hovering around 20%.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:26

    Winter is coming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:27

      And spring and summer after that

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:28

      Not if the white walkers win.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:00

      reminds me of the movie
      Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
      <3

      Spring will prevail at the end dudes and dudettes

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:33

    Now with Etihad leaving the market i would prefer Air Serbia to work more closely with Qatar .
    They should do a codeshare and bring in feed from the region .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:35

      At the moment they are getting quite a few passengers from them. QR has rerouted a lot of pax from cancelled flights through BEG

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:43

      Same. I don't see JU getting any more advantages from EY. They should work more closely with QR as their gulf partner.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:59

      But how do they reroute pax to Belgrade ?
      Do they put them in busses or let them take Air Serbia flights ?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:01

      They put them on Air Serbia flights. You can see from the trip report yesterday that some people from the QR flight went to the transfer desk at BEG to get boarding cards for their onward flight.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:05

      they reroute them (balkan passangers) also through Sabiha Gökcen and Vienna

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:50

      It depends on the day which flight is scheduled.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:55

      They are re-routing passengers via BEG as well, they had transfers on JU even before corona.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous18:32

      BEG is doing quite ok, in September the airport handled more passengers than Helsinki... by some 10.000.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:42

    I think both BEG and ZAG will eventually be upgraded to Dreamliners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:14

      ZAG?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:16

      Yes, it used to operate double daily before covid. I think they may reduce frequnecies but deploy a larger plane.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:45

    Emirates and Qatar CEO'S told us in seperate interviews that all intercontinental routes at the moment survive mainly because of cargo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:51

      But EK CEO was much more upbeat about the future though.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:38

      Well Dubai is far more popular than Doha so it makes sense that traffic will recover faster.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:46

    It's interesting what they say and that is that demand would return much quicker, even with the virus risk, if it weren't for travel restrictions.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous09:52

    I'm guessing those planned seasonal flights to Dubrovnik are off the table?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:57

      Yes. They cancelled those back in April and they don't plan to start it next year either.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:59

      it would be quite a stretch to plan flights in April assuming that corona will disappear just like that....

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:06

    What were QR's frequencies to SJJ and SKP before corona?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:11

      SKP was 3 per week

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:11

      And SJJ 4 pw

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:15

      That's the Corona frequency in some cities now.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:30

    Under such circumstances Qatar is in no way competition to Turkish Airlines .
    Who in gods name wants to sit squeezed for many hours into a tiny plane when you can fly widebody from Istanbul after only a short hop ?!

    Especially now in time of Covid19 .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:37

      What are you talking about?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:43

      ^Ever heard of social distancing ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:48

      I'm referring to your claim that TK uses widebodies while QR doesn't.

      Also social distancing does not work on planes. In order to have 1.5/2 metre distance between you and others, you would not only have to have free seats next to you but also two rows of free seats in front of you. Unless the plane is empty, that's impossible.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:53

      Besides TK offers no service at present so your comment is ridiculous.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:54

      Please !
      There is plenty of room on all international flights that use widebodies .
      Have you read about Qatars flight to Belgrade that was 99% full ?
      If i have the choice between a flight that is full 75 % against one that is 99% full, you can be assured i will prefer the first one .

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:32

      Hahaha i flew TK widebody last week. Plane was 100% full. Social distancing my ....

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:06

      Which destination was it ?
      Because full TK widebodies are an exemption .

      Delete
    8. Anonymous18:15

      IST-WAW

      Delete
  17. Anonymous11:49

    If we learn anything from this whole crisis then it is, that the strategies of the Gulf carriers to the Ex Yu market have been utterly desastrous failures since their beginning .
    And instead of learning to come up with better solutions they either stick to failed concepts like Qatar/Flydubai or even throwing the towel like Etihad in Belgrade or Emirates/Flydubai in Zagreb .

    - Why does Qatar not stick to its biggest markets Zagreb and Belgrade instead of flying to every village cannibalizing their own network ?
    The same goes for Flydubai, another failure .
    - Why did Emirates open flights to only the second biggest market in ExYu and not the biggest ?
    The Croatian market does only generate good inbound but miserable outbound .
    - How do they expect Flydubai to replace them when they fail to fill daily flights, not only in Zagreb but in Belgrade too .
    - Etihad did good in the beginning, claiming its Belgrade flights were some of the more profitable in their network ? They at one time increase to double daily before suddenly reverting .
    Something obviously went very wrong .
    - Air Arabia after choosing destinations with dart arrows finally wanted to open Belgrade flights before giving up for unknown reasons .

    The whole ExYu market has less inhabitants than Poland, but still only Warsaw gets flights and with widebodies .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:09

      It is partially true what you are saying and it once again highlights the economic absurdity of the collapse of Yugoslavia into these micro-states.

      Actually, to be more precise, Romania has the population size of Ex-Yu yet no single wide-body flights.

      True, they have no tourism and diaspora but it is indicative of what you're saying.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:25

      @11.49 TK 100% supports your theory

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:00

      @ 16:25 Istanbul is just an hour flying away from every village in the Balkans ...

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:39

      @17.00 and what you want to say with that?

      Delete
  18. Anonymous12:18

    Ouch, winter is coming ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:30

      Televisa presenta...

      Delete
  19. Anonymous12:43

    Actually i think that Qatar Airways does not have a plan at all .
    Just my opinion .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:29

      Nobody has.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:07

      But i have a plan :
      Skip all destinations except Belgrade and Zagreb,
      minimize frequencies but improve product by upgrading capacity to 787 .
      Increase frequencies when Covid situation improves .

      The same also applies for Etihad in Belgrade .

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:15

      So about Etihad will be skip all destinations in the region (BEG) except BEG?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:50

      That plan sounds good, EY fell behind when they decided to get rid of IFE on their Belgrade flights .
      By upgrading to the 787 they will have an advantage, question is if they already have the 787 in their fleet .

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:53

      ^ They do have the 787 - 30 of them !

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:59

      Coincidentally Qatar Airways has also thirty 787s , but of the type 787-8 which has less seats than the 787-9 version of Etihad .

      Thus Qatar is even in a better situation than its competitor Etihad .

      Delete
  20. Anonymous14:49

    A missed opportunity for SKP. When QR used to operate the route they could have negotiated a DOH-SKP-JFK route and this way also compete with JU. This will also attract the TIA and PRN passengers. Therefore this will no longer be a possibility.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:59

      In that case a Doha to JFK flight with stopover in Zagreb would make more sense .
      Still Zagreb lacks the regional connections that Belgrade has .

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:38

      Even Doha-LJU-JFK would make more sense - at least Ljubjana had nonstop flights when it was Yougoslavia ...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:56

      Yeah, when it was Yugoslavia .
      But thats thirty years ago ...

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:06

      DOH-SKP-JFK.... Is this a joke?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:06

      Biggest failure of the ME3 was to compete with Turkish in the Balkans .

      Actually Istanbul is a Balkan city and not four or five hours away like Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai .

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:33

      @17:06 why a joke? SKP will automatically be the catchment area for the whole region especially Kosovar community in USA. QR can negotiate this with TAV and operate 4 weekly nonstop flights DOH-SKP and 3 weekly service DOH-SKP-JFK.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous20:40

      ok great leave the whole market to the Turks ^^ SMFH. i sense a TK fanboy here ...

      Delete
    8. Anonymous00:12

      Yeah, it's the same guy.

      Delete

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