The one-way travel bubble between Israel and Serbia, which saw a record number of flights between the two countries, has ended after mandatory quarantine was reintroduced for Israeli nationals returning from Belgrade as of this Monday. However, El Al will continue to maintain its service between Tel Aviv and the Serbian capital, introduced ten days ago. Frequencies will be reduced from the initially planned six weekly flights to two per week, each Thursday and Sunday. They will continue to operate with the Boeing 737-900 aircraft. Israir and Arkia, which also maintained flights between the two cities will temporarily suspend their operations, although both have tentatively scheduled their return to the city from next month.
Israeli carriers expect for travel restrictions to ease by mid-December. At this point, Israir plans to restore its operations to Belgrade on December 9 with five weekly rotations, with Arkia expected to follow suite. Air Serbia does not plan to resume flights between the two cities until March 29, 2021, which have been scheduled to run twice per week. Entry into Israel is not permitted to foreigners at the moment. Israeli citizens are now required to quarantine upon their return from most countries across the world, although Serbia remains one of the few not requiring quarantine or a negative PCR test for the majority of foreigners crossing its boarders.
This October saw a record number of flights between Israel and Serbia, with Belgrade being among the top ten most frequent destinations out of Tel Aviv, behind destinations in Greece. Similarly, it was the eighth most frequent route out of Belgrade, behind only Zurich, Podgorica, Tivat, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Paris. In order to return all its nationals before the introduction of new quarantine rules, the three Israeli carriers operated a total of eight flights to Belgrade this past Saturday.
Great to see El Al is sticking with the flights.
ReplyDeleteIt was good while it lasted. But still nice to see flights will continue.
ReplyDeleteDo Serbian tour operators sell Israel packages (in normal non covid times).
ReplyDeleteThey do but it's mostly to visit Jerusalem. It's not one of those leisure summer tours.
DeleteThey should try Eilat.
DeleteThis is great news. El Al keeps its flights.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade Airport must have felt more like Tel Aviv on Saturday with 8 fights!
ReplyDeleteThere was one day when there were ten flights!
DeleteProbably the only city in the world with so many TLV flights at the time.
DeleteI thought they didn't fly on Saturday/shabbat?
DeleteEl Al doesn't fly during the day on Saturday. It flies from sundown (which it did on Saturday from BEG). Other Israeli airlines fly normally.
DeleteAnd just to add there was huge pressure on El Al, as national airline not to fly during sabbath. The airline is really against this.
DeleteReally crazy decision. Poor El Al.
DeleteDon't cry for them. They get huge state funding.
DeleteGood development despite the end of the bubble.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see a high profile, legacy carrier committed to Belgrade. Only shows the true potential of the Serbian market and why Vinci is going ahead with the massive expansion plans!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good job. Especially in these difficult times.
DeleteWill they keep these flights in summer?
ReplyDeleteHopefully. I wonder what happens when Air Serbia resumes the flights.
DeleteI don't see JU returning with all this competition.
DeleteJU caters for different sort of passengers. There was a considerable amount of transfers from/to Tel Aviv and also all Serbian tour operators book with JU.
DeleteI don't think JU will return either. The other airlines have a much superior level of service.
DeleteLOL I can guarantee you have never flown any of the said Israeli carriers. Or Air Serbia for that matter.
DeleteArkia and Israir offer less service than JU. El Al on the other hand offers a full hot meal service in economy (free of charge)
DeleteTheir business class and service seems quite good on the B737-900
Deletehttps://thepointsguy.co.uk/reviews/el-al-737-business-class/
^ Looks very good. Definitely ahead of JU on this route.
DeleteI think in BEG, JU is ahead in terms of onboard product only from Wizz Air, Pegasus and easyJet.
DeleteOS is terrible from BEG and I always fly rather with JU than with OS. Transavia also offers zero as well as Norwegian.
DeleteStarting from March this year TK offers only water.
So JU is far better in service comparing to all above mentioned airlines.
Really? You compare service on LCCs with legacies?
DeleteYes, really because their prices are very much comparable from BEG.
DeleteW6 keeps terrible prices to GVA although they fly to secondary airport and JU decreased prices to BER and AMS as soon as U2 opened BEG from BER and Transavia opened BEG from AMS.
So, the answer on your question: Yes, very much.
LCCs have lower prices then legacies in theory. If Wizz has higher prices out of BEG that doesnt mean they always have. Thats why LCCs and legacies are not comparable in service. On other way, if JU has LCC style prices with 50€ one way, it is obviously they are losing money.
DeleteIt shows the importance of keeping borders open. If you needed a PCR test for entry they wouldn't keep the flights.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteHow many seats does the B739 have?
ReplyDeleteEl Al's have 175 seats.
DeleteThanks
Delete16 in business, 159 in economy.
DeleteFares are quite reasonable.
ReplyDeleteYes, they would be very competitive against JU.
DeleteAgree, prices are very good.
DeleteThis was the expected when it became clear Wizz and Ryan cancelled their flights to many cities in November and postponed to December.
ReplyDeleteEilat has long disappeared from the Wizz network as well. I really doubt flights to Israel will be fully operational until March. Plus, if this route will be operated by 3+ carriers, it will become saturated.
It was operated by 3 airlines without issue up until corona.
DeleteTrue and Arkia even operated scheduled flights which you could freely book.
DeleteBecause Serbia was the few countries open for travel, hence this boom.
DeleteIt's a bit misleading to say that Serbia was only popular because of corona. Remember that Israeli tourists started arriving some 7-8 years ago and numbers have been stable since. This boom happened because of corona but not demand itself.
DeleteIt is much easier to accept the fact Serbia has so many direct flights with Isreal if you comfort yourself that it is only becase of pandemic.
DeleteNo matter it's wrong.
Well, these are some quite unusual circumstances that enable us to test validity of certain claim.
DeleteIn this case, there is a very clear evidence (no. of flights and pax before, during and after the bubble) that support the claim that this temporary pick up is due to the fact that Israelis were free to enter Serbia and were also not made to isolate upon return.
I mean, this is really self evident and not really something that we should be arguing about, but people in this blog are really super defensive and local patriotic most of the times that they will even support the narrative that it's not that surprising that BEG had 10 flights to Tel Aviv on a single day.
If it weren't for Covid then how come suddenly TLV became the most popular destination for a month? If LY wanted to launch BEG they could have done that a long time ago. They fly to all surrounding capitals for decades now. Which is again, a good thing.
DeleteTime will show how mature this destination will become as time goes by.
Since when have they been flying to Sarajevo, Podgorica Pristina, Skopje?
DeleteOf course they don't fly to all surroundig capitals.
DeleteIt is easily forgotten here that Arkia and Israir for years have been flying to Belgrade and that many, many months before pandemic they kept increasing their number of flights to BEG.
Now, seeing it LY just wanted to get some piece of that cake. Logical.
Was the pandemic also the excuse for Arkia and Israir in 2019 and earlier to keep increasing their frequencies to BEG? Following the logic of some people here, there is no doubt!
Unbelievable how some people can't accept the fact Serbian capital can be attractive for tourists fom rich countries, but they will simply have to live with it.
So sorry.
lol ... its quite simple - before in 2019 growth was organic due to normal demand and in 2020 this demand grew due to very well known facts. if you think that its normal to have such a growth in such short period you are simply naive. nobody is saying that Serbian capital cant be attractive but Belgrade as a product didn't change that much since last year to generate such a demand for flights. But on the other hand global travel circumstances did. and if you are right and i am wrong, than after this pandemic, we will see again 8-10 flights a day from israel. but i think this wont be the case.
DeleteLast year there were 90.000 passengers between BEG and TLV, it was hardly a tiny market. Corona slightly boosted the numbers which were already there.
Delete15:40 Dude, how old are you?
DeleteNobody is saying that BEG is not growing as a destination. The subject today is Tel Aviv. Arkia or Israir have flown to BEG but like quite thoroughly and we went from lets say 4-6 weekly flights to 4 or 5 times as much in a couple of months.
Again, I suggest you look YouTube and realise that Serbia was one of the very few countries open for travel to Europe during the pandemic for many non-EU and especially North American visitors.
Remember JU success with JFK recently? Well, the reason is the same.
So, grow up. Covid brought positive stuff for Serbia because of the closure of BUD, EU-US restrictions and so on.
Hhehe, talking about age. Don't. Simply don't. Better for you.
DeleteSo, "dude", it is obvious you really have a big problem with El Al flying to BEG at the time when all the other airlines close their destinations especially in your country.
So, I tried to explain you that they want to have some piece of the cake called BEG at the time when Israir and Arkia only had it for themselves. Nobody is saying that openess Serbia has with other countries does not help but it is for sure not the main reason why El Al decided to fly to BEG.
After all, all these passengers returning from Serbia need to stay 14 days in quarantine after they return to Israel and they would not surely do it for some city break destination they simply visit as they have no where else to go.
I am sorry, "dude", but you will have to cure your frustrations about BEG somewhere else.
Don't know if many people are aware but El Al has been considering Belgrade for years. They even publicly stated so in 2017. So it's good that it finally launched. Who would have thought it would happen during the biggest downturn in aviation.
ReplyDeleteThis week it will be 3 flights (they had one yesterday), from next 2 weekly.
ReplyDeleteDid Arkia use the A321neos to BEG?
ReplyDeleteYep all of their flights were on the neo, plus on some days they had a second daily flight with the Embraer.
DeleteGood. Hope they keep flying.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Israir and Arkia, you can actually book flights on El Al.
ReplyDeleteYou could on Arkia but before covid
DeleteHopefully JU won't be discouraged from the competition and they actually resume TLV.
ReplyDeleteThat was unexpected. Nice to see
ReplyDeleteWill JU codeshare on these El Al flights?
ReplyDeleteThey are not at the moment.
DeleteBut El Al codeshares on Air Serbia flight.
DeleteHope they stay after covid too.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably best indication that they will.
DeleteI'm surprised El Al never flew to BEG before.
ReplyDeleteThere have been problems with the bilateral air agreement for years. When that was resolved in 2017 Israeli airlines started flying to BEG and tourism between the two countries started to take off.
DeleteI believe they flew for a few months in 1991/1992.
DeleteCan someone clear up for me is Israir owned by El Al?
ReplyDeleteNo, they don't own Israir.
DeleteSo no more 24 hour downtime at BEG for El Al's B737?
ReplyDeleteI took a pic of it last weekend
Deletehttps://i.ibb.co/28b1Vqf/20201107-112131.jpg
And no, with Thursday, Sunday schedule there is no need for it any more
Delete@10.01 nice
DeleteScheduled days are perfect for a short citybreak
ReplyDeleteOnly issue you have to go to quarantine when you come back...
DeleteSo the real question is who are they carrying now on these flights? Are there maybe some people who don't mind going into quarantine when they are back in Israel?
DeleteI think it is that. There are almost no countries they can go to without quarantine back home. Plus Serbia is one of few that has no entry restrictions.
DeleteNice to see more airlines at BEG.
ReplyDeleteAre any foreign airlines still flying to TLV?
ReplyDeleteYes of course
Delete"Similarly, it was the eighth most frequent route out of Belgrade, behind only Zurich, Podgorica, Tivat, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Paris."
ReplyDelete@EX-YU could you tell us what was the 9th and 10th in October?
Tirana was ninth and Skopje and Larnaca were tied at tenth.
DeleteThis is great to see in these difficult times.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia should have used this opportunity to get transfer passengers from Tel Aviv to LHR, CDG, AMS, BRU and others reasonable fares.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Air Serbia waiting for? Why don't they launch flights?
DeleteSamo treba pročitati dalje od naslova.
DeleteI guess JU thought, like their neighbors, that it's too early to react.
DeleteJU has been the only carrier in our region to adequately react to anything. We also saw Wizz with their grand expansion announced from BEG, which ended up magically getting delayed for next year. Meanwhile, JU relaunched OSL. There is only so much airlines can do in these times, as we have seen with many route cancellations.
Delete+1 @JATBEGMEL
DeleteGood luck with the new flights
ReplyDeleteNice development.
ReplyDeleteUnexpected money for belgrade tourism. Leaving open borders was good move of our govermant
ReplyDelete+1
Delete