Foreign carriers are beginning to respond to Montenegro Airlines' demise with Switzerland's Chair Airlines announcing flights from Zurich to Podgorica starting April 1, 2021. Services will initially run three times per week with the 150-seat Airbus A319 aircraft, increasing to four weekly from May 4. The airline faces no direct competition on the route, which was previously served by the Montenegrin flag carrier. Last year, Montenegro Airlines handled 28.294 passengers between the two cities with an average annual cabin load factor of 59.9%. Chair is present in the region with flights to Pristina, Skopje and Ohrid. It will also commence seasonal operations to Split next summer. Further flight details for the new Podgorica service can be found here.
Budget carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air are both in talks with operator Airports of Montenegro over replacing select routes previously operated by the national airline. Ryanair reported Montenegro Airlines to the European Commission on December 4, 2020 for illegal state aid, which was one of the reasons the Montenegrin government decided to shut down the company. The low cost carrier has been aggressive in recent years on the Montenegrin market. It carried more than 175.000 customers through Podgorica Airport in 2019 with all routes performing strongly prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Montenegro is currently the only market in the former Yugoslavia with more than one Ryanair route, with flights to Serbia temporarily suspended and a single service to Banja Luka, while operations to Croatia are maintained only during the summer. With exception to points in Poland and Dublin, Ryanair serves its entire network out of Podgorica on a year-round basis.
Austrian Airlines, which had temporarily suspended operations between Vienna and Podgorica due to the coronavirus pandemic and was only to operate limited flights over the New Year and Christmas holidays to the Montenegrin capital has now extended services indefinitely. Operations will be maintained twice per week, each Wednesday and Sunday, until the start of the 2021 summer season. As previously reported, Air Serbia has also responded to its counterpart's demise by adding both flights and capacity from Belgrade to Podgorica and Tivat. "In addition to adjusting its schedule and capacities, Air Serbia has engaged additional resources at the airports in Podgorica and Tivat, as well as at its Belgrade hub, in order to serve all passengers under the new circumstances. The Serbian national airline will continue to monitor developments in the coming days and additionally adjust its offering to reflect changes in demand", the Serbian carrier said in a statement.
Customers who had booked with Montenegro Airlines, or hold a travel voucher issued by the carrier for suspended flights due to the pandemic, remain in limbo over potential compensation. Montenegro Airlines has now suspended ticket sales.
As expected market will take care of itself.
ReplyDeleteThis is not even close to replacing YM
DeleteIf it were close to replacing YM in terms of fligts operated, it would not be profitable. There is a reason Ym went bust.
DeleteAnd how you will use connections in ZRH with CHair? When LX will start flying please let me know, till then this is nothing..
Delete“Ryanair reported Montenegro Airlines to the European Commission on December 4, 2020 for illegal state aid”
ReplyDeleteVultures
How dare they expect other airlines on the market to play by the same rules.
DeleteKnowing how many incentives they get everywhere, it's far from true they play by market rules.
DeleteBut they don't get millions from Irish government every year, while continuing to operate at a loss?
DeleteIncentives are different stories, I'm pretty sure YM, JU or any other airline is that would fly regularly to that small French village would get the same incentives.
Ryanair are lowlifes reporting other airlines.
DeleteMost Ryanair routes are subsidised by Airports or regional governments. I can't stand that Airline, the sooner their demise comes, the better for Aviation.
Well, not entirely true regarding help from the Irish government.
DeleteWhile I was working for them, the Irish government was more than happy to let Ryanair get away with their dodgy employment practices (zero hour contracts), while the rest of Europe was conducting raids on pilots homes in search of evidence of tax evasion.
Of course, there is probably more than just that, when it comes to Ryan and the government. Don't forget, they're a huge company and pay their taxes in Ireland so I'm sure their relationships with the government is pretty friendly.
Even legacies use dodgy employment practices...
DeleteMost if not all of LOT pilots are self-employed for example.
You people are so funny - on one side you want low fares and connectivity and on the other you badmouth LLC terms of operation to achieve that in the way they don’t go bust doing it. And I am wondering how many of you all knowing people actually fly at least 10-20 flights in a year to underStand it properly first hand. Make up your mind already, or open your own airline and fly around people on your expense.
DeleteThat LF to Zurich is very low. No surprise Chair is waiting till April.
ReplyDeleteProbably highly seasonal.
DeleteThe biggest win would be if an LCC started flying between Podgorica and Belgrade. It would completely wipe out JU and allow low fares.
ReplyDeleteYou won’t see that happen. Even if it were possible the taxes are high which is why fares are high. When you remove all the taxes, the fare on JU is extremely cheap.
Deletemaybe wizz?
Delete+1 @09:04
DeleteThose are my guesses too. If MNE has 8 FR routes operated with 738,then there is clearly O&D demand.
JU relies on traffic.
GoS won't allow an LCC to fly this route.
DeleteHow much are the taxes?
DeleteSecurity Charge Serbia
DeleteEUR 16
Departure Tax Montenegro
EUR 16
cart.taxes.Q2
EUR 3
CAD Passenger Charge Serbia
EUR 3
Airport Service Charge Serbia
EUR 20
Anon 9.55
DeleteBut for now at BEG there are huge discounts for JU, so the actual costs for beg-mne on JU are much smaller.
20 EUR for carrying your baggage down the stairs at C7 Gate and then wait in crowded bus for 20 minutes. 16 EUR to wait in 200m2 space with 500 other passengers without fresh air. Criminals
Delete^ It's even funnier that Montenegro charges 16 euros for using its airports. And the airports are such that you can't even enter the departures area 45 minutes before the flight because there is no space.
DeleteGood to see JU still being the dominant player in MNE
ReplyDeleteI think Ryanair will overtake it once things calm down and they can resume flights.
DeleteDoubtful, JU has a market of 500.000+ all to itself.
DeleteChair is a Kosovar Albanian owned airline, theyre watching Balkans opportunities closely all the time.
ReplyDeleteSmart
DeletePicking up crumbs where they can.
DeleteChair basically replaced Germania in Macedonia and Kosovo
DeleteFlying chair. Hilarious.
Delete@10.23 it is the former Germania.
Delete@10.26 well it is supposed to be like Ch (Switzerland) air :)
DeleteThe more time they wait with a new airline, the less need there will be for one.
ReplyDeleteIt can't happen over night
DeleteThere goes my hope of Swiss starting flights.
ReplyDeleteBecause they've been so successful in ex-Yu...
DeleteSwiss already failed in most markets in ex-Yu.
DeleteWhat are you talking about?
DeleteSwiss tried Zagreb and failed, tried Podgorica through Edelweiss and failed tried Ljubljana and failed while Adria was still around.
DeleteThey were back in Slovenia after Adrias bakruptcy. And how is 2 airport "most of markets"? They fly to Prishtina, Ohrid, Skopje, Dubrovnik, Split and Pula. I dont see they failed here.
DeleteSince when does Swiss fly to Ohrid and Skopje?
DeleteSince it doesnt? They send Edelweiss usually there, while tickets from these destinations can only be bought via Swiss webpage.
DeleteAustrian Airlines will fly two times weekly between Vienna and Podgorica
ReplyDeleteOS 728 37 TGD VIE 1500 1640 0 17JAN21 03MAR21 E95
What was their precorona frequency?
DeleteIn my memory:
DeleteSummer: OS daily, YM 5 weekly
Winter: OS 4 weekly, YM 3 weekly
Thank you
DeleteGreat news
ReplyDeleteMontenegro keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteYep sure
DeleteHopefully airports do not lower fees for Ryanair, they do not deserve it.
ReplyDeleteWhy not? They bring cheap tickets to the market. They make flying accessible
DeleteIs Chair LCC?
ReplyDeleteThe lines today are blurred between LCC and full fare airlines.
DeleteI would say that they are more or less charter operators.
DeleteAko je MNE sa kapacitetom od 120 mesta imao LF 60%,šta oni da očekuju sa 150 sedišta,pogotovu što će ih JU ubiti sa cenama i flksibilnošću sa po 2-3 leta dnevno.
ReplyDeleteSamo sto JU ne nudi direktne letove izmedu dva grada. I automatski CHair ima nize troskove.
DeleteAm i the only one who doesn't see any rush?
ReplyDeleteIt's not bad at all that in the age of corona and travel restrictions one airline has extended its flights to Montenegro, another has increased frequency and capacity and a third one has announced brand new flights. This all within 5 days of Montenegro Airlines going bankrupt in the middle of the holiday Christmas period in Europe.
DeleteAgree with anon above, I think the market is responding quite well all things considered.
Deletedouble standards ...
DeleteWhat double standards are you talking about.
DeleteGood. No need for new Montenegro airline.
ReplyDeleteThey will create it anyway.
DeleteGood? Do you realize that you don't have any legacy carrier left in TGD? So how you will connect on EU hubs? With Chair or W6?
DeleteThere is Austrian and Air Serbia legacies and Alitalia will come back in March.
DeleteAnd when does OS depart to VIE? We all know that connections out of VIE are not as good as those in FRA/ZRH/MUC/CDG and even those little which they are offering we miss with their flight. JU is ok because there are many flights between BEG and TGD. AZ won't even excist in March, I would not lay to much on them. So do they deserve to rely only to one legacy carrier? I think that's disaster for country like Montenegro.
DeleteSeems many YM routes were light on loads.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is winter. Loads are great in summer but in winter they are quite low.
DeleteI usually wouldn't support closing an airline and leaving people out of work but Montenegro Airlines was not a normal company. It was practically owned by the party, 95% of employees were sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, lovers of the ruling elite. That's why it had to go.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteWhat could be the potential new FR and W6 routes?
ReplyDeleteParis is a must
DeleteParis actually was one of YM's best performing routes. But I don't know if it was because of transfers of what.
DeleteMaybe HOP by Air France could consider Podgorica. They codeshared on the Montenegro Airlines flight anyway.
Deletewhat were their frequencies in general?
Deletenot very impressed at that ZRH LF. ZRH is the cash cow for all southernish Yugo markets
ReplyDeleteSchedule was very poor by YM, one daily flight is simply not enough to make good connections. So actually that flight was mostly used for p2p
DeleteZRH or Switzerland in general is usually mostly O&D thanks to diaspora but have expected a higher LF
DeleteExpect Wizz to start Podgorica - Basel soon
ReplyDeleteThat would be a dream! 😍
DeleteI cannot believe that we cry over Montenegro Airlines and its employees. Jesus people, 5 airplanes and 350 employees. Who cares?!?
ReplyDeleteLet the market self-regulate itself! Ljubljana? Great example! No money-burning national airline? No problems! This is just showing that it was not economically feasible and thats it!
For Montenegro u will have the same! Few additional flights to EU and BEG and all non-tourism market will be covered.
And this story with 2Montenegro is just another Montenegro Airlines but as a money cow for new government
Yes market did a really good job in Ljubljana. You cant even connect at LH hubs with their flights at middle of the day. Thank god we are getting Air Slovenia, hopefuly
DeleteWe did really good, because of no-connectivity we are loosing 100 mio per year because there is no traffic at all. But hey, we have saved those 5 mio per year which we gave to national carrier. Really good business!
Delete"You cant even connect at LH hubs with their flights at middle of the day."
DeleteReally important when you can't travel anyway, right?
Did you know we could travel between october and march?
DeleteHopefully Government of Montenegro will not decide to start new company. It would be far better to offer some limited subsidies for companies to open year round base in Podgorica and summer season base in Tivat. Something similar to what Macedonia did.
ReplyDeleteit already decided to start a new company.
DeleteMacedonia is paying way to much for what it has to offer. It would be much better in terms of connectivity and cheaper for them to have their own carrier.
Delete@18.08 How much do they pay? 5 mio for 3 years? I think Macedonia got away the cheapest of them all. for up to nearly 1.5 mio Wizz passengers in 2019
DeleteOMG!! The prices are insanely expensive. 320 return with luggage included:
ReplyDeleteFlights
19:15
08 May | TGD
Non stop | 01:45
21:00
08 May | ZRH
Flex
€ 178.79
Flight GM651
Fare Rule
13:20
13 May | ZRH
Non stop | 01:45
15:05
13 May | TGD
Flex
€ 174.19
Flight GM650
Fare Rule
Total € 352.98
I will try and be more objective than emotional here. Serbia , Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro,
ReplyDeletein that order with populations of 7.6 million, 4.5 million, 2 million and 679,000 in that order!
Which two are left...you all know the answer. Country pride, nationalism, love of country,
are all great, but do not work in a business model. It is like saying that every city in Europe
with a population of 700,000 or more should have it*s own airline, here in Hungary a country of 10 million, the national airline is called WIZZ !!! The headline in the EX YU post
said there is a RUSH to replace Montenegro Airlines routes, sorry but an Albanian owned airline to Switzerland in the spring, and a few other routes being kept and not cancelled
by Lufthansa group airlines, and talks with the low cost carriers is not exactly breaking
down the doors to enter a market where less than 700,000 people live, and the main route
to Belgrade is already very well served!!
Agree completely - finally some sober thoughts
DeleteChair Airlines(from Switzerland) operates a fleet of three Airbus A319 aircraft with 150 economy class seats each at Zurich Airport. The average age of the aircraft is ten years.
ReplyDeleteFounded in June 2019
Director and owner of airline is Shpendi Ibrahim(Albanian nationality born in,republic of Macedonia)
Number of employees 140 in Switzerland(new 20 employees in Podgorica,Montenegro)
Chair Airlines from Zurich to Podgorica starting April , 2021.
They will hire 20 people in Montnegro? Is not it supposed Fly Montenegro to operate those flights for them in Podgorica?
Delete