Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport handled some 283.000 passengers during the first three months of the year, representing a decrease of 69% compared to the same period last year, or 72.6% on Q1 2019. The figure is below the average rate of decline recorded at airports in the European Union. Airport operator VINCI noted that entry restrictions to most European markets continue to hamper Belgrade’s recovery. “Travel restrictions applying to some European countries dampened traffic, but flights to and from Istanbul and Frankfurt remained comparatively steady. Serbia has been making very rapid progress on its vaccination campaign, which could spur traffic by the summer. Air Serbia started up twice-weekly services to Geneva in March and is planning to double the number of services to New York this summer”, VINCI said.
So far this year, four routes have been launched from the Serbian capital, including Geneva by Air Serbia, Moscow by Nordwind Airlines, Kiev by SkyUp Airlines and Hamburg by Wizz Air. The low cost airline also plans to introduce services to Sandefjord, Abu Dhabi, Heraklion and Santorini. Other carriers which are set to introduce operations to Belgrade Airport in the coming period include KLM from Amsterdam, Eurowings from Stuttgart, as well as Luxair from Luxembourg. More announcements are expected in the coming period. Airlines that have restored their operations to the Serbian capital so far this year include easyJet, LOT Polish Airlines, Israir Airlines and Arkia Israeli Airlines.
Based on existing schedules, Air Serbia will remain the dominant carrier at Belgrade Airport this summer season, with the airline holding a 49.4% traffic share. It is followed by Wizz Air with a 9.3% share, Lufthansa with 7% and Austrian Airlines with a 5.8% share of traffic. The largest number of frequencies will be offered between Belgrade and Zurich, which will this month see the trial of IATA travel pass on Air Serbia flights. It is followed by Vienna, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Podgorica. In terms of capacity, the most seats will be available on flights to Switzerland’s largest city, followed by Istanbul, Frankfurt, Vienna, Paris and Moscow.
All things considered could be worse
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see that more and more EU markets are reopening. Greece from next week, Cyprus has reopened I believe and Malta from June.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Air Serbia attempt some markets that have reopened that could provide traffic and perhaps they could work with tour operators. For example Jordan has reopened for tourists. You do a test at the airport on arrival and get the result in an hour and then you are free. I know Air Serbia planned to launch Amman in 2020.
ReplyDeleteBecause it would require thinking outside of the box which is something JU rarely does.
DeleteThey also could have launched Dubai months ago which has been doing really well from BEG. And saying that Flydubai flies the route is stupid. Many European airlines have launched DXB in the last month including Belavia and Air Baltic.
DeleteAir Serbia is busy profiting from Putin's ban of flights to Turkey. :D
DeleteTomorrow morning full A320 to SVO in both directions.
Saying that JU management is not active is really far from truth.
DeleteWe have many examples showing that JU reacted promptly, but in the cases where reaction was necessary and not in the cases where aviation enthusiasts believe something should be done.
I agree that they should have explored some new markets during this pandemic period. Many airlines have and have launched a lot of new routes. I mean even Iberia just announced they are launching Madrid-Maldives just for point to point traffic.
DeleteJordan has had lockdowns on weekends for ages. And they introduced them again recently plus there are other restrictions.
DeleteThere are lockdowns across Turkey and a curfew but that hasn't stopped them flying to Istanbul.
DeleteThey could have also looked into one off charters to the Maldives, Mexico and Central America, Zanzibar (all wide open) with A330. But hey, better to hand over passengers to Flydubai, Qatar Airways and others.
DeletePlease be realistic
DeleteI don't see why it is unrealistic?
DeleteTaking in consideration that pandemic started in March last year these results are good.
ReplyDeleteAs BEG was closed for 1,5 months in second quarter last year we can expect to see growth here as well as in all remaining quarters due to vaccination campaign in Serbia.
April should help as there were only repatriation flights. I think first foreign carrier to resume BEG was Belavia on 18.05 I think. They resumed flights even before Wizz Air did.
DeleteI believe that we did not have so many repatriation flights that could be successfully compared to the situation we have now
DeleteI mentioned repatriation flights in the sense that there were barely any passengers in April... and in the first half of May. This year airport's performance should be good in that period.
DeleteI say this is a very good result and quite unexpected. I mean Croats could travel more or less anywhere in the EU and numbers in ZAG were pretty slim:
ReplyDeleteQ1
BEG 283.000
ZAG 113.328
Hopefully Greece lifting the entry ban these days for Serbs will help fill seats to ATH. They are also allowing flights to Serbia to land at other airports and it's funny that Santorini is one of them. :D
Ratio between ZAG and BEG before pandemic was 1.8 and now we see 2.5!
DeleteThings will change when Ryanair starts flights.
DeleteWill it though? AF suspended its second daily to ZAG for the summer, TP delayed its resumption and so did FZ and many others. Can FR help recover so much loss? Also we don't know if FR will create a new market or if they will take from others.
DeleteThere is also no LH from MUC, last year they had something like 2-3 daily flights.
DeleteIberia delayed Zagreb, FlyDubai delayed Zagreb, Tunisair cancelled Zagreb, LH cancelled MUC-ZAG...
DeleteMany airlines delayed BEG flights as well, you just didn't list them. Eurowings today delayed BEG for the 5th time. I'm not comparing the two, I just said that Ryanair's arrival will significantly help with 12 new routes from September and the gap will be reduced next year.
DeleteAir France delayed BEG, Eurowings delayed BEG, Aegean delayed BEG, Redwings delayed BEG, Norwegian delayed BEG, TAROM delayed BEG.
DeleteSo comments like these are really pointless.
Interesting that even though those airlines delayed BEG, BEG has one or two airlines already flying at a reasonable number of weekly flights.
DeleteAlso, please do not forget that Serbian nationals are banned from entering the EU. This has been a major handicap.
p.s. Red Wings did not delay BEG, they did not receive the necessary permit from the Russian government due to covid related restrictions. I would appreciate it if you would be mindful of such facts. Thank you for your cooperation.
I see Belavia is back with its E95 which is cool. I am happy to see them do well in BEG.
DeleteMore importantly BEG had more passengers than SKG and BUD in Q1.
DeleteBEG: 283.000
BUD: 183.000
SKG: 153.832
Hope people understand now why Vinci paid so much money.
DeleteElaborate.
DeleteThe question is why people have to travel to BEG more than to BUD etc.? In the middle of the pandemic?
Delete“Travel restrictions applying to some European countries dampened traffic, but flights to and from Istanbul and Frankfurt remained comparatively steady...''
ReplyDeleteI noticed many night flights on LH are on A320 now.
Well tour operators around Europe are selling vaccination packages to Serbia. This Italian agency from Bologna is bringing people for €500 which includes an air ticket as well. I guess they are going on LH.
Deletehttp://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/477080/Ponuda-italijanske-agencije-vakcina-i-cetiri-dana-u-Srbiji-za-500-evra
Lufthansa is listed as an official partner on their website. Funnily enough, when you enter the website the first thing that pops out is the form for a covid vaccination trip to Serbia.
Deletehttps://www.viaggisalvadori.it/#work
Airport is busy bringing new operators even during pandemic. Great job!
ReplyDeleteExcept for long haul. Vinci promised new long haul destinations but didn't deliver.
I think their long haul flights mostly depended on Air Serbia...
DeleteSome ex yu airports offered joint advertising and similar incentives to long haul airlines. Did Vinci offer something like that to Air Serbia for overseas routes?
DeleteI don't know, you will have to ask Vinci.
DeleteWhy would Vinci team up with anyone when they can do it on their own just fine?
DeleteVinci does not own long haul aircraft. They can't do it on their own in that regard. Either with Air Serbia or other airline. So far no luck in that segment.
DeleteProbably long haul is not a priority at the moment. Most expects that short haul flights will recover first and quicker.
DeleteNumbers could have been worse. A good sign is that Air Serbia crew which were furloughed are being called back to work.
ReplyDeleteAnd we would have anadolujet as new arrival if they were not blocked by Serbian CAD.
ReplyDeleteAnadolujet is the same like TK
DeletePersonally I wouldn't consider that the end of the world. I mean Turkish carriers are dominant in Serbia for 8 months in the year. I don't see why JU can't have charters to Turkey for a few summer months. After all, those people are already going to Turkey to spend their money there.
DeleteLet's cry now.
DeleteHow about the state doesn't choose for you who you should fly with or choose for tour operators who they should work with or choose for the airport who they should have as customers?
DeleteWell, they do not do that in places where there is an Open Skies Agreement which is not the case with Turkey. Personally Turks have a gigantic trade surplus with Serbia, there are more Serbian tourists going there than Turks coming here and I won't even mention all the subsidies their companies received here. So if JU is supposed to dominate ONE market for four months then so be it.
DeleteI agree with Nemjee ... let's not forget - these are Serbian citizens travelling to Turkey to spend their money in Turkish hotels/resorts. So 100% of pax are Serbians and in the charter space anywhere across the world, home registered carriers (unfortunately in Serbia, there is only one option) need to have first bite at satisfying the demand from tour operators. Where the demand is greater than what any Serbian carrier is able to provide, then an EU registered carrier should have a go (due to Serbia's membership of the ECAA) and only then, should a Turkish carrier be able to pick up any unsatisfied demand.
DeleteCharter traffic is usually dealt with outside of an air services agreement which normally covers pax and cargo scheduled flights.
For local tour operators to have a real choice, it would be great to have an alternative to JU but at the moment, that isn't the case.
Why is JU a problem for tour operators? I mean many use them to Greece, Spain, Italy... where they can make a deal with foreign airlines.
DeleteAnd what about AirCairo? They have charter flights to Egypt, and they arw not serbian company?
DeleteBecause they are owned by Egyptair and blocking them would result in JU losing its licence as well. Al Masria was a few other Egyptian charters were blocked.
DeleteA huge down
ReplyDeleteYou might want to have a look at other airports.
DeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteWell at least Q2 will be good across Europe :D
ReplyDeleteThe list of new routes being introduced by airlines is quite good.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see legacy airlines such as KLM and Luxair starting up flights.
DeleteSo glad about KLM.
DeleteIt just showed how BEG matured even in these difficult times.
Is the Eurowings flight seasonal or year round?
ReplyDeleteYear round
DeleteReopening of Greece will be a relief for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important summer markets.
DeleteAnyone know how Heraklion and Santorini are performing?
DeleteThey haven't launched yet. It starts in June.
DeleteSorry, I meant if anyone know how sales are going
DeleteConsidering that all the lowest fare tickets have been sold out for Santorini, I would say it's going well.
DeleteI am happy about Santorini. Really nice addition from Belgrade.
DeleteRussian market would also perform excellently if more flights were allowed.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how SkyUp is performing on the new route?
ReplyDeleteI think airlines are confident in Serbia especially now the first vile of Sputnik was filled in Belgrade. That means that Serbian travelers will have constant access to protection against covid. Btw only two countries in Europe outside of Russia will make it, Serbia and Italy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this will push cargo demand out of BEG. Bahrain announced that they want to buy the Russian vaccine and they seem to be getting cozy with Belgrade. I wonder if they might get the Serbian manufactured one.
DeleteI don't think cargo is a priority for them which is shown by the fact that they don't have any plans to development additional cargo infrastructure.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/08/inside-belgrade-airports-multi-million.html
Cargo development
The airport has made a plan to further develop cargo traffic at the airport, however the existing infrastructure and cargo terminal are expected to meet VINCI’s needs. “We believe we can cope with the current infrastructure for a certain period of time. With the additional apron, we can serve additional cargo aircraft. We will build some new racks to place containers in order to make more space. Here it is more of an improvement for operations rather than big investment in infrastructure for the time being”, Mr Brousse explained.
Vaccines can be carried on regular flights, no need for special cargo flights.
DeleteIt is good to see that some new routes launching.
ReplyDeleteIf you consider there is travel ban into the EU this isn't all that bad.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Aegean will also move their flights to resume earlier than expected considering Greece is reopening next week.
ReplyDeleteThey haven't so far so I doubt they will.
DeleteGreece will most likely announce tomorrow that fully vaccinated visitors from the EU + 5 other countries (Serbia, UK, USA, UAE, Israel) will be able to enter the country without a need for quarantine/self isolation. But I doubt the influx of family members and homeowners will be enough to sustain extra flights - JU already has the market covered.
DeleteDoes anyone have data about the number of passengers by months for BEG. THX
ReplyDelete