Air Serbia expands Montenegro operations


Air Serbia has started adding flights and has more than doubled its capacity to Montenegro compared to its initial plan over the coming days. It comes amid the collapse of Montenegro Airlines, leaving the Serbian carrier as the sole operator between the two countries, which is the busiest cross-border market in the former Yugoslavia. The Serbian airline has added additional departures to Podgorica following an increase in bookings while capacity has been boosted from the 66-seat ATR72 turboprop aircraft to the 144-seat Airbus A319 jet on December 29 and 30, as well as January 2, 3 and 10. Services to Tivat have also been upgraded from the ATR72 to the A319 over the coming days. The airline has added an additional departure to Podgorica this evening to deal with the increased demand. 

Air Serbia has seen an uptick in transfer passengers originating from Montenegro that were initially scheduled to fly with the Montenegrin carrier. Some forty travellers in total will be transferring today onto various services, primarily Germany, France and Slovenia via Belgrade. Commenting on the matter, Air Serbia said yesterday, “Due to new circumstances and the suspension of Montenegro Airlines flights, Air Serbia will continue to provide strong links between cities in the region, Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as North America, through its hub in Belgrade. The Serbian national airline will carefully monitor possible changes in demand during the next period and adjust its capacity and frequencies to those changes". 

Serbia and Montenegro is the busiest cross-border market among the former Yugoslav states with 548.679 passengers travelling between the two last year. This year was set to be another record breaker. Prior to the pandemic, Air Serbia and Montenegro Airlines planned to jointly operate 103 weekly flights between the two countries at the height of the summer season, with the Serbian carrier scheduling sixty weekly services, while its Montenegrin counterpart 43. Flights between the two were suspended on March 18 due to the pandemic and resumed in mid-August, marking the longest period without operations between the two states in the post-World War Two period. Demand has been slow to recover with Serbian nationals initially restricted from entering Montenegro for the majority of the summer, while PCR test requirements continue to hamper demand on both sides.

Serbia - Montenegro passenger traffic

YearPAX
2016513.162
2017510.466
2018526.174
2019548.679


Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    Bravo to Air Serbia filling in the gap!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    Impressive to see so many transfers to those three destinations. Seems like JU is the biggest winner of JP and YM going down because now they get to handle the market via BEG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      Anyone know how many passengers flew between TGD and LJU? Where is all this demand coming from?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:11

      Anon 9:05 in 2019 around 56k with increase by 13,5% from 2018.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:23

      Will be interesting how many of those switch to JU.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:29

      Probably all of them. I doubt many would fly via IST which is only logical alternative to BEG and JU. Maybe we finally get JU A319 in LJU that's not from INI.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:32

      Anonymous09:05 - probably from people working and living in slovenia.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    So much for predictions they wouldn't react.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:08

    Great news for BEG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      I don't know how it can be good. It lost one of its biggest customers and it is certain that not every single passenger YM had flying via BEG or to BEG will be recouped by JU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:16

      And where will those YM passengers go? JU has not increased fares, they just added flights so those who flew in the past will just change airlines. What changed now is that most non-stop passengers to Europe will go via BEG like those 40 souls today.

      I don't see how this is not good news for BEG.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:42

      They can goo with Austrian, LOT, Turkish...

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:06

      They don't offer nearly the same flexibility like JU does.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:27

      LO won't be back until March and neither will OS after 11.01 so how exactly are they going to be a problem for JU?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:59

      Meanwhile OS is still selling YM flights on their website. I guess they are trying to get any penny they can.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:05

      It has nothing to do with OS. Montenegro Airlines flights are still in global GDS and tickets are being sold everywhere. That's what happens when you shut the airline overnight without warning. Also MGX is still officially in business. It has not filed for bankruptcy.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:17

      So what will happen with those poor people who might be tricked into buy tickets with YM? Will they have a chance of a refund or is that that?

      Delete
    9. JATBEGMEL13:31

      @ anon 9,11am

      YM and JU often had departures at similar times. What used to be on the ATR could just go over to the A319.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:17

    And then there were two.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:38

      Haha, I was the one who wrote that a few days ago.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:20

    Dobro će doći ovaj neplanirani keš za prevazilaženje krize u vazdušnom saobraćaju.Očekivana i brza reakcija JU,bravo.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:28

    And just like that the market started moving on. YM 2.0 will never happen.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:34

    Good to see they reacted quikcly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:48

    Why hasn't Croatia Airlines attempted to launch flights to TGD and offer some connections. They were supposed to start flying this summer anyway. Another missed opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:06

      Because they offer nothing in reality.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:48

      They can offer far more connections to LH hubs.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:50

      Doubt it because they could not offer more than 3 weekly ZAG-TGD meanwhile JU is going crazy from all this demand.
      Also there is OS in TGD which offers like so much more than OU could ever.

      OU should stick to what they know, ZAG to the coast, LH Group hubs and OMO.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:18

      OU had its chance. Look at JU today, 40 passengers to CDG, FRA and LJU all destinations OU could cover. If they had 40/74 on the Q400 it would be a fantastic load.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:27

      Anon 10:50
      + 1000

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:30

      10:50 Anonymous
      Bravo!

      Delete
    7. JATBEGMEL13:33

      It's disappointing to see OU not think outside of the box much, and be as passive as they are. Potential is there.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:41

      With JU rushing to fill the void and with OS and others returning in March what is there that OU can do?

      Delete
    9. @Original poster 09:48
      Instead, actually in addition to TGD, you can put BEG, INI, SOF, PRN, SKG, OHD, BUH earlier, OMO earlier and with more frequencies, ATH nonstop, CAI, BEY, AMM, TEH, IST and all those, and more, just to the east. The same was supposed to be to the west as well, making ZAG hub instead of feeding Mutti. Only big players can survive, we see it day by day, and OU will probably shortly follow YM and JP staying in shape and form it now has. All other ex-republics are either smaller markets, or less developed markets, or with less or no tourism, or with less or no diaspora, or with worse geographical position, or with no EU advantages, or all of those together. Unfortunately, there is no vision, no idea, no strategy, no plan and no will to do anything, except tons of money already pumped in company in order to feed LH

      Delete
  10. Anonymous10:40

    What I don't understand is why haven't they launched special rescue fares for stranded passengers from Montenegro Airlines? They had a code share agreement with them after all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:48

      Flights are selling like hot cakes so why should they? In LJU it was a different situation as they needed to capture a market in which they didn't have a dominant position. It was after that for the first time ever they could fill 17 weekly flights.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:17

      Well, I thought it would be a nice idea and gesture for people, who had already bought their tickets so they could get new once cheaper...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:16

      "hot cakes" its 40 passengers

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:42

      Read more carefully, it's 40 passengers going to FRA, CDG and LJU ONLY. There are other connections as well as local passengers.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:49

    I wonder if we will see some new airline come to TGD. Maybe Lufthansa or Air France.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:52

      AF has really high costs so I think they will serve this market via BEG.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:55

      Once you go on airfrance.com and chose Montenegro as your country it tells you that you will be redirected to their Serbia page. Someone said that you can buy one way tickets for as little as €90 without luggage from CDG to TGD on JU-AF.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous10:50

    Good news considering the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Administrator cut me of yesterday as I moved into politics. So I will not go into that. Just to say that in addition market forces at play, I think there is 'behind the scene' work to tie JU much stronger to MNE than we even expect from powers to be. Anon who wrote something against it, has no true understanding of 'Balkan politics' at all.

    All in all good and expected move by JU. Been to BEG for the first time in months to check something, very, very depressing, empty, sad. Hope we all start the chains moving by late spring, slowly but at least moving.

    This 2020 was truly once in 100 years event like the big pandemic of 1918, the difference was that aviation then was in its 'infant' stage, not like today, hence the major, structural impact on aviation with COVID.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:54

      No one seemed to mind when OU got subsidies to fly empty to OMO so this makes sense.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:39

      Subsidies to OU were given by the Hercegovina-Neretva county and not by Croatian Government.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:42

      Croatian government gives them subsidies for all of their domestic network. On top of that they also get money from the city of Dubrovnik.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous12:13

    Air Serbia, as it was the case in previous cases, reacted very quickly and filled the gap.

    Well done AIr Serbia and all the best!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:18

      and what should they do? Montenegro is one of their core markets

      if they leave others take over Montenegro then they can close as well

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:43

      Well OU ignored JP's bankruptcy so anything is possible. They could have ignored the market and just let existing flights fill out with locals and for transfers to go to OS and VIE.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous12:17

    @admin,

    May I ask you if the Christmas card was intentionally removed this year from your blog or simply more important aviation news were actually more interesting?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:50

      @12:17 are you here on this site to be reading about aviation or greeting cards? Obviously Admin had something more important to communicate this year than bother with the greeting card. Happy holidays anyways!

      Delete
    2. @13:50 , agree with you 100%. Nobody cares to read silly Holiday greetings lol

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:28

      Obviously you have not been following this site for last 10 years!

      Delete
  16. Anonymous15:24

    BEG TGD was sold out today.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous15:29

    What will happen with the TGD-LIS route? ASL does not fly to LIS. Unless this will be launched by FR? Meanwhile, W6 is making huge cuts in their network in 2021 especially in MXP, SZG, BUD, OTP. It seems that 2021 will not be a good year for aviation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:49

      Doubt anyone will worry about it

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:43

      Wizz Air has also announced a large round of cuts in places like SKP, TIA, MXP, BUD, VAR and so on.

      TIA-RHO and TIA-HER are gone for good. :(

      Delete
  18. Anonymous16:07

    No one has yet said that YM's own government's decisions during the pandemic brought their demise. Banning citizens of Serbia from visiting cost them a lot of revenue (Serbia is by far their largest market) and ultimately led to their bankruptcy. No one else to blame but Milo.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Would collapse of YM finally open market for LCC between RS and ME and end of decades of monopoly...? 100€ tickets are rip off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:39

      Out of curiosity, what would be your acceptable price tag for a RT on the route?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:44

      Acceptable ticket is €100 to €120 because taxes are high. Serbia and Srpska suspended a whole list of taxes years ago which is why BEG-BNX is so cheap.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous19:58

      As, Serbia is going to do anything to protect JU, it's unlikely.

      But since it's a fairly short flight, tickets could probably even cheaper at that - if there's enough demand to fill B737/A320.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:59

      They can't be cheaper as there are government taxes that are quite high, nothing to do about protecting JU as they don't get money from these taxes.
      Also people write here as if YM was cheap.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous16:45

    Love this! Love JU!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous16:50

    Some tycoon wanted to buy Monenegro Airlines for 1 eur if government takes care of all debt. In that case can I double up and offer 2 eur?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:00

      :D

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:19

      Not if i win with 3 eur :)

      Delete
  22. So TGD had only two flights today? IST and BEG?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:39

      Three flights, two destinations.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:07

      How is that possible?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous07:08

      OS was supposed to have a flight on Sundays as well but they cancelled it about a month ago so TGD-VIE was down to 4 weekly, 2 on YM and 2 on OS.
      I guess in retrospect they made a huge mistake as they would have profited like JU did.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous21:51

    What will happen to YMs E195s? Isnt it time Air Serbia leased a few E195 and serve destinations with lower demand, now it will take a couple of years for traffic to recover?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:21

      JU would then have 5 aircraft types. ATRs, E jets, A320s, B737s and A330. Too much for a small airline

      Delete
    2. Anonymous02:41

      Lets also see what happens with the sole A330 in May 2021 following the EY divorce. Them JFK slots ain't so cheap...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous07:10

      The lease for the A330 was renewed with a 50% discount so YU-ARA isn't going anywhere, no need to worry about that. :3

      Delete
  24. Anonymous07:17

    Another gift for JU is that from 30.12 until March 2021 Turkey will require negative PCR test even for passengers who are transferring. I can see many walking away from TK as a travel option now.

    ReplyDelete

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