Air Canada has expressed interest in introducing flights between Toronto and Belgrade. According to the “Aviatica” portal, the Canadian carrier said, “We are still reviewing our network schedule for certain destinations, including Belgrade. We are looking into it at this moment”. It comes a week after Air Canada scheduled seasonal flights between Toronto and Zagreb starting next June. Just last month, the Canadian Ambassador to Serbia, Giles Norman, said bureaucratic conditions for the launch of flights between Belgrade and Toronto have been met and that it is now up to the carriers to decide whether they will launch the transatlantic service.
Air Serbia has been interested in commencing operations to Canada for several years and has previously held talks with Toronto Pearson Airport. “The introduction of a direct flight between Canada and Serbia would be highly welcomed by the large Serbian and regional diaspora in Canada, as well as by businesses from both countries as it would encourage the further expansion of growing economic ties between the two nations”, Mr Norman said. He added, “Certainly, in the Southern Ontario area around Toronto there is a large Serbian diaspora. We don’t have exact figures, but it is over 100.000 people. So, it is very vibrant and economically active. It would be a good route. The diaspora is very active, and flights would facilitate the commercial and people-to-people ties between our two countries”.
Canada is one of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport’s largest unserved markets, with 61.232 indirect passengers traveling between the two on a single ticket in the pre-pandemic 2019, based on OAG data. Flights between Belgrade and Toronto were the busiest citypair between the two countries. In 2019, Toronto was Belgrade Airport’s third busiest unserved route after Shanghai and Beijing, as well as the busiest in North America. Overall, there were 40.856 passengers travelling between the two cities. The majority of travellers flew in combination with Air Canada and Air Serbia, with passengers shuttled by the latter to several European points such as London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Zurich and then continued their journey with Canada’s national carrier. They were followed by LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa and Air France. The single most used feeder airport to and from Toronto was Warsaw with around 19% of passengers traveling on the route with LOT Polish Airlines through its hub.
If the mammoth that is AC manages to launch this flight before JU, then it will truly be a massive lost opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThis would be great. Air Serbia has dragged its feet for too long.
ReplyDeleteDoes Air Canada have a codeshare with anyone to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteOn Lufthansa from Munich and Frankfurt.
DeleteAC 9166/9167
AC 9334/9335
Thanks
DeleteTrue they are Star Alliance.
DeleteIt would be a better option than Air Serbia because they would provide inter-Canada connections.
ReplyDeletenot only to Canada but to the U.S. as well.
DeleteSerbian nationals still require a transit visa for Canada, though.
DeleteWell, the market is certainly there.. It it just the matter of Canada lifting those idiotic measures...but once that happens, it will be a great opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI hope this materializes. It would be fantastic to be linked with Canada in addition to USA.
ReplyDeleteI think this will happen as AC knows JU is sniffing around Toronto. I think they want to launch these flights before JU does. If they do it then JU will most definitely give up and hopefully focus on ORD instead.
ReplyDeleteThere are no indications Air Serbia will focus on ORD. Keep in mind they negotiated USA flights back in 2015 and could have started ORD back then or at any time after. There were no frequency limitations as far as I remember. Nothing was stopping them, yet Air Serbia didn't want to start ORD, so why would they now?
DeleteIt doesn't even matter. Air Serbia has only one wide-body aircraft which is already in full service. As long as Air Serbia won't acquire a second wide-body, there will not be any more long-haul destinations.
DeleteI would lease another A330 and start
ReplyDeleteBEG - PEK - BEG 1 p/w
BEG - PVG - BEG 1 p/w
BEG - YYZ - BEG 1 p/w
BEG - YUL - BEG 1 p/w
BEG - OED - BEG 1 p/w
BEG - MIA - BEG 1 p/w
and then see how they perform.
Lease another A330 and operate 3 weekly YYZ and 3 weekly PVG.
DeleteOne weekly flights are extremely inefficient. Better to focus your attention on larger markets and to further boost JFK to 10 next summer.
DeleteSerbia - Canada bilateral agreement allows maximum 2 flights p/w (per airline) between them.
DeleteActully it allows more but it's based on reciprocity in other words if AC wants 3 then JU has to get 3 as well. Best way forward would be for JU and AC to sit down and agree to join forces on BEG-YYZ.
DeleteIn this new age of open skies and liberalisation we have an ASA that restricts access to direct flights to only two carriers, JU and AC. Shame on the Canadian government for agreeing to this. They're a sufficiently forward thinking country to know better.
DeleteAre they really forward thinking like that? They have extremely restrictive ASAs with many countries starting with the UAE, Turkey and Qatar.
Delete@Uros:
DeleteWhich airport is OED?
Do you mean ORD?
OED is Rogue Valley in Oregon. I guess there must be a Balkan community there JU could be carrying.
DeleteThere’s too much at stake for AC if air Serbia picked up this route. They have tried year over year and AC is staining in the way.
DeleteWith yyz-beg you are not looking at BEG only, but rather seamless connectivity to all of the Balkan cities as well as the Middle East.
At would loose big $$
It will be either AC or nothing.
Full code share between AC & AS would be beneficial for both airlines for Euro-Med, and N. America connectivity.
DeleteOf course this could not happen as *A would not allow it.
@Anonymous 15:53 : I meant ORD (Chicago) not OED. Sorry, it was typo.
DeleteShame on Canadian government? What are you taking about? Governments around the world protect their own interests. Air Serbia should have started 2 per week service. True, two weekly is not very efficient. To increase utilization of the second A330, Air Serbia could have planned to increase JFK service to 10-11pw (6pw with 1st A330 and 3-4 with a 2nd A330), or to introduce ORD at 4pw.
DeleteCouple of months later Air Serbia could have used actual numbers to propose increase in frequency to 3 or 4pw, next year to 5pw etc. Keep in mind SkyGreece started YYZ-ZAG with just one per week service back in 2015. It then grew to two with Air Transat, then going to 3pw, then Air Canada Rouge joined and by 2019 there were 7 weekly YYZ-ZAG services combined AT+AC. Air Serbia should have learned from that.
Serbia-Canada market is big enough to justify non stop flights. AC has a wide network and they could offer connections beyond major domestic destinations such as Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal... I could see this going as 4 weekly in summer with the A330.
ReplyDeleteThey have an interline with JU via various European airport and they already cooperate with the loyalty program. Hopefully they would also cooperate with JU in BEG.
+1
DeleteI agree partly. Serbian, market, same as Croatian one, is big enough to justify nonstop flights. In summer. In winter, combining these two markets, no matter which airline, or which way, linked flights or transfers, could and can work fine as well. Since Croatia Airlines is total failure, and Air Serbia obviously not going for the second long haul service, Air Canada will probably spread its Balkans network adding BEG, and operating YYZ to ZAG nonstop and to BEG nonstop during the summer, and then link flights and operate YYZ-ZAG-BEG in winter, either triangle or via ZAG both ways. Like JAT, real JAT did, long long time ago
DeleteDoes AC even offer triangle flights anywhere? It's a public secret that JU will be getting a second A330 next year. They can easily launch this as two weekly and mess up AC's plans to dominate on the market.
DeleteIt is not a public secret JU will be getting a second A330 in 2022. However it is a fact that every year since 2015 when Air Serbia announced New York service, many comments here said that JU would get a second A330 "next year". It is also a fact Air Serbia didn't get a second A330 in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and so far in 2021. They had enough chances.
DeleteTriangle to santiago and buenos aires...
DeletePlot twist:
ReplyDeleteWestjet launches 2 weekly YYZ-BEG!
Then you would have a similar situation like with SU and N4. :D
West jet, but from calgary
DeleteOmg please asap
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that LOT has so many transfer pax on this route.
ReplyDeleteLowest prices
DeleteFinally. I think it's just a matter of time before AC or JU start these flights.
ReplyDeleteOr both 2-3x per week
Deleteand a codeshare would be good.
DeleteJU and AC have an interline agreement to my knowledge.
DeleteYes please!
ReplyDeleteI dont think that AC will serve Belgrade ever .
ReplyDeleteWhy should they fly to two neighbouring destinations at the same time ?
But i hope JU get its act together, lease their second A332 and start Belgrade-Toronto 3x a week and also Belgrade-Chicago 3x a week .
Huh? So what if they are neighboring destinations? Do you honestly think anyone will drive 4 hours to ZAG to catch a flight when there are so many one stop options?
DeleteSomehow I don't see the Canadians just handing over the market to Air Serbia. Maybe both Air Serbia and Air Canada will launch flights, two flights each?
ReplyDeleteJU does not have the possibility now as they are focusing on their business model in Europe and rest of the short haul destinations.
DeleteJU does not have the possibility now? Now that the lease rates more than halved? Now that the pent-up demand is set to explode?
DeleteAir Serbia "lack of long haul expansion" apologists are relentless. Dane Kondic would have launched Toronto long time ago unlike current "managers".
It's Air Canada's turn.
I didn't realize there were turns.
DeleteAir Serbia management has the same problem. They don't realize a lot of things.
DeleteI actually think Toronto will perform better than NY.
ReplyDeleteMe too. Much bigger diaspora.
DeleteAgree. Toronto has true potential
Deletehuge balkan diaspora in the greater toronto area. in the range of 300,000+.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteCool. Hope it happens
ReplyDeleteThis would be really good news for BEG.
ReplyDeleteI really hope flights meaterialise sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteIt will benefit the Serbian diaspora.
ReplyDeleteThis route would be good for cargo too.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually quite interesting how the region is moving once again with the long hauls.
ReplyDeleteNot just Serbian diaspora that will benefit but also other ex YU republics.
ReplyDeleteNobody traveling to Canada.hotel jail awaits you.at a huge cost.
ReplyDeleteThis would obviously start next year.
DeleteCanada announced WEEKS AGO that they are removing "Hotel Jail" for fully vaccinated people. A problem will be that Serbian vaccination rates are still incredibly low (only 39% have had one vaccination vs almost 70% for Canada) PLUS the majority of Serbian people are vaccinated with vaccines that haven't been approved in Canada and probably won't be (Chinese, Russian). As a Canadian, I would love to see these flights happen and I think they would do incredibly will with not only the large Serbian population in Toronto, but I think these would be amazing for Macedonians that have to take 3 flights if they don't want to deal with the price gauging using Turkish
DeleteYour data is completely wrong or out of date. Over 50% of Serbian population has had one dose
DeleteSerbian ministry of health reported that 48.3% of the population is fully vaccinated.
DeleteCanada has a huge issue with vaccine. He is talking about the first dose, FYI a single dose is not good for travel, plus due to shortage of vaccine in Canada they are mixing vaccines which creates issues for travelers. Serbia is way ahead od Canada with the full vaccinated people. Also Canada restrictions are still in place for foreigners, nobody can enter plus if you are travelling with kids and you are fully vaccinated, kids are still to go to 14 days quarantine. Most terrible restrictions in the World . To my knowledge there was lots of talk between AC JU and Canadian authorities, aperently AC is demanding high ticket prices if JU is to start the route ( which is not sustainable for JU). Also crew issues as per current agreement they are able to operate 2x a week , which means they have to hire up to 4 new crew for 330. A huge expense for JU .
DeleteHow else can AS fly a new route on a new A330 without hiring/training additional crew?
DeleteI was talking about the additional crew on the top of regular one if was to operate 2x a week .
DeleteBut they can't ask for any of that since the bilateral doesn't allow them to. Best AC can do is restrict JU to two weekly. They can't ask for high fares or extra crew.
DeleteYeah, Canada dropped the ball with Vaccination. It is still not allowed to enter for non-essential. Rules are vague, confused. Utter disaster. I know perception is that West has house in order but this is complete confusion. Deer in the headlights attitude.
DeleteLaneHotLane, that's just a lot of hot air. If Air Serbia wants to launch a new service it needs another A330. To fly both A330s at the same time they would need additional crew, that's common sense. But before that they would need another A330. Air Serbia just made a horrible mistake not leasing another A330 when they leased YU-ARB.
DeletePricing discussion could potentially occur related to codesharing on YYZ-BEG. Looking at codeshare history between Air Canada and non-StarAlliance carriers from Europe, probability of JU-AC codeshare from day 1 of YYZ-BEG service is very low.
Current vaccination rates have almost no impact on this discussion. AC recently announced return to ZAG in 2022 and vaccination rates are expected to be much higher by then.
If AC does fly to BEG it will be a HUGE loss to JU on it's flights to FRA/CDG and a host of other routes. I'm flying from YYZ to BEG today via LHR and hate it because of the 5 hour layover. As much as I love flying JU there is no way I would ever fly again with layovers if there is a direct line.
ReplyDeleteI think LH Group will lose much more than JU.
DeleteJU would definitely lose some pax to European cities where there are connecting flights to North America.
DeleteAs I have mentioned before the new way of doing airlines business on transatlantic routes.
ReplyDeleteIt will be certain City pairs with significant diaspora and attractive leisure markets.
It will be very interesting that downside would be on LH, BA, KLM, AF
I see upside on LOT, Turkish, JU on Transatlantic routes.
The reason for stall is that the pre-Covid model is getting revamped
What is the new way of doing airlines business on transatlantic routes?
DeleteWhat was the pre-Covid model?
He obviously means the hub-model ..
DeleteThere's nothing new about the hub model.
DeleteAir Serbia wasted many opportunities to start Toronto flights. It is Air Canada's turn now.
ReplyDeleteBoth airlines could have started flights in the last ten years. So not sure who's turn it is now.
DeleteIf was published here many times: ASA change was initiated by Serbia, not Canada. Air Serbia talked to Pearson airport couple of years ago. It was Air Serbia, not Air Canada, that made steps needed to launch a service. They never made an official commitment. It is AC's turn now.
DeleteAir Transat didn't publish firm list of destinations in the wider area for 2022. Are they coming back to Venice, Prague, Zagreb and Athens? If they are, how is that affecting Air Canada plans for next summer? Is Air Transat looking to expand destinations including Belgrade? What will be the impact of the bilateral if both TS and AC want to fly to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteAccording to some reports, Air Canada has listed preliminary schedules for 2022 flights to Budapest, Zagreb, Athens, Venice and Bucharest in the wider Ex Yu area. Prague is one notable exception. Is it possible BEG and PRG are being considered as the next destination?