Air Serbia is continuing to expand its network amid recovering demand with the airline to add more routes and frequencies. Furthermore, the carrier operated sixteen charters yesterday, including eight flights to Hurghada, five to Antalya, two to Bodrum and one to Chania. Over the coming weeks, the Serbian airline will restore operations to Milan and Barcelona, and will also increase frequencies to Paris, London and Ljubljana. From June 28, operations to the French capital will grow to twelve per week, while services to Heathrow will increase to four weekly rotations starting July 1. In addition, From June 21, frequencies to Ljubljana will grow to six weekly, increasing to daily from July 2.
Commenting on its operations, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, said, “Given that demand for air travel is on the rise, we have decided to introduce additional flights to several popular destinations in our network and provide passengers with even better connectivity. We are very pleased with the increased demand and we are proud of the fact that we are currently the only airline that connects Belgrade with Ljubljana, as well as with Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport”. He added, “We remain focused on every opportunity that presents itself on the market, in order to be able to continue producing good results and to be able to offer our passengers the greatest possible selection of destinations during the vacation season”.
Last month, the carrier said it was “cautiously optimistic” about the upcoming peak summer travel period. At the time, Mr Marek noted, “We would like to position ourselves, and we are positioning ourselves, as a regional leader in the wider Balkan region, or let’s say the majority of ex-Yugoslavia. We have multiple scenarios which we are constantly developing and finetuning to be ready for the market opportunities to enter the niches and secure our strong position in the region”. This June, Air Serbia will operate over 1.650 scheduled flight operations, making it the biggest airline operating out of any single former Yugoslav market.
9 flights to Hurghada in one day :O
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine what it will be like in a week when school holidays start.
DeleteAnd on top of that Air Cairo had its regular Hurghada flight yesterday. So in total there were 10.
DeleteI think it was nine, JU 8 and 1 on Air Cairo.
DeleteGood to see demand returning
ReplyDeleteGood to see Air Serbia reacted on that increased demand.
DeleteFinally more flights to LJU! That airport needs all the love it can get. Hopefully we get back those noon flights soon.
ReplyDeleteNew opportunity: Canada removed strict entry restrictions for residents. Air Serbia was waiting for this. Can we expect Toronto announcement soon?
ReplyDeleteHopefully they launch it by Christmas holidays. Also I can't wait for the US to remove the ban on transfers in Schengen zone.
DeleteWhy Christmas? Demand is now, not in the fall. Air Serbia is not waiting until Christmas to introduce Barcelona and other services.
DeleteBecause you can't demand today for tomorrow, you gotta give the route some time to get the sales first.
DeleteBCN is an existing route that can be operated with an A319 twice a week. YYZ would be a new long-haul route with much, much higher costs.
DeleteWhen Air Serbia replaced first A330 many were asking why they didn't get the second one. Second one could have flown Hurgada charters, flights to Moscow and Podgorica until Canada reopened. Air Serbia is flexible and able to pivot, right?
DeleteIn theory it seemed like it but in reality they decided against it. I think they should have used it to launch a 2 weekly ORD. With the USA open for Serbs and a Schengen travel ban it would have made a lot of sense.
DeleteToronto could have been announced earlier. Someone should have followed dropping case numbers and calls for relaxing entry restrictions. Canada has now administered more doses per 100 people than Serbia. Signs and trends were there all along.
DeleteTook Canada a while to start administering more doses than Serbia. That's why their fight against covid is so much behind Serbia and why we are with almost no restrictions for a while now.
DeleteYYZ will be introduced, either by JU or anyone else. BEG is performing well above expectations which means the potential is higher than anyone anticipated. Here are some examples:
1. Aegean boosted BEG in July to 4 weekly.
2. LOT boosts BEG to 6x in July with two weekly departures at 08.20 from WAW.
3. SU adds LED at the end of the month.
4. N4 added LED and boosted SVO to A321 most of the days.
5. Wizz brought the A321 and is launching several destinations.
6. KLM upgraded Belgrade to mostly B737/738 and is now flying daily.
7. Luxair launched Belgrade and is doing fine.
8. In July Lufthansa is boosting FRA-BEG to 14 and BEG-MUC to 13.
What I am trying to say is that BEG's growth is not just because of JU, charters or transfers. Everyone seems to be doing fine and I am sure US and Canadian carriers are noticing all this.
AF is also resuming Belgrade
DeleteDo we know what is Luxair LF on their first couple of flights to BEG?
DeleteI am really interested to know it.
So glad about KLM.
Don't know about Luxair but KLM was 75% last month.
DeleteGreat to see positive news after so much doom and gloom this last few months. Hope we see them expand even more.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWith so many flights to Hurghada, I simply don't understand that they didn't bring back Cairo.
ReplyDeleteBecause people want to go to the sea and the beach and Cairo doesn't offer that. That said it would be nice to get MS in BEG, they have the C-series now.
DeleteThere is a scheduled flight from Cairo on Egypt Air and it's an a330, today.
DeleteI think that's cargo.
DeleteSerbian market is recovering quite nicely, you can see that from the number of daily departures. Here's today:
ReplyDeleteOTP: 105
BEG: 61
SKG: 56
BUD: 51
SOF: 47
TIA: 34
ZAG: 33
How many of those are with the turboprops?
DeleteFor which airport? I think ZAG and OTP have the highest number due to OU and RO.
DeleteOU is turboprops queen.
DeleteTurboprops are much more present in OTP, BEG and ZAG.
DeleteBesides JU don't know anyone else who operates flights on the turboprop. OS is mix of E95 and Airbus, Aegean A320 and so on.
DeleteOU.
DeleteMassive.
Huge!
DeleteTomorrow Aegean will have three flights out of Belgrade: HER, RHO and ATH.
DeleteAll on A320.
Any chance they will bring back Madrid too?
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed
DeleteJU should have used this crisis to hit Lufti and launch Munich .... pre-covid LH was too entrenched and the pandemic was the event that levelled the playing field ... shame
ReplyDeleteIt depends a lot what is the passenger structure of those LH flights. If it's mostly transfers there would be no point for JU to start it.
DeleteDon't forget Wizz also flies to FMM and they seem to be doing well.
DeleteNegde sam pročitao da su Nemci tokom korone uštedeli 1,5 biliona evra,jer nisu imali na šta da troše novac.To je slučaj u svim zemljama naravno u mnogo manjoj meri,tako da će se putovanja obnoviti mnogo brže nego što se mislilo.
ReplyDeleteI hope that AS will bring back Madrid before Iberia spot chance. Also, we might see Etihad again in BEG, on airport site flights are listed from July 1st.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as vaccinated Serbian citizens can enter Spain without even a PCR test, it would be nice theyr bring MAD back.
DeleteBCN was always a better performer but I do hope MAD come back
DeleteThey should also consider Lisbon.
DeleteWizz announced LIS last year, hope they bring it back.
DeleteHope they bring 3rd plane back.
DeleteIberia does not fly east of Croatia ...
DeleteGood work Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised LHR is increasing despite the mandatory quarantine
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the busiest airports in the world with a lot of transfer options.
DeleteUsing which airline could JU passengers transfer through LHR?
DeleteNone, unless they book separate itineraries which no one is doing. It's all P2P.
DeleteJU has an interline with Virgin.
DeleteAC as well
DeleteLJU must be doing well if it's increasing to daily.
ReplyDeleteDoes Air France come back this summer and if they do when will it happen ?
ReplyDeleteThey return at the end of the month. In July they will have five weekly, one A320 and four A319.
DeleteThat would be wonderful !
DeleteTo be honest i am even happy if they will serve Belgrade with the Embraers .
As much as i like JU but a route like this should have more than just one airline flying it .
There is W6 to BVA.
Delete^ He obviously meant from CDG
DeleteToronto please please
ReplyDeleteGood news are coming on a daily basis to exyuaviation from JU. Really surprusid how well they maintain their network and how they increase frequencies and add new/old routes in this pandemic times.
ReplyDeleteRostov, Krasnodar, Pulkovo and Moscow are a great example of how "niche" can work fine.
For sure other russian cities could work for them, but for now JU acts great.
My humble opinion about further expansion during the summer - Madrid, Valencia, Helsinki, additional russian cities, Yerevan, Baku, Tbilisi and Amman
Helsinki, Stavanger/Bergen/Tromso, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca/Ibiza, Valencia, Kukes, Ohrid, Amman, Kazan, Niznhy Novgorod and of course holy grail of Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan.
ReplyDeleteFrom winter 21/22 Toronto and Shanghai
Kharkiv and Minsk come to my mind ..
ReplyDeletePlease, bring back Belgrade - Florence this summer. It was just launched and then Covid started, never happened. It would be HIT destination as Italy opens for vaccinated people.
ReplyDeleteAlso very good for Russian travelers who could reach Florence through BBelgrade