Air Serbia handled over 100.000 passengers last month, marking its busiest since February 2020. The average cabin load factor across its network stood at 62%, well above the European industry average. The busiest destinations from Belgrade during May were Tivat, Podgorica, Paris, Moscow, New York, Zurich, Istanbul, Athens, Amsterdam and Berlin. The airline maintained flights to a total of thirty destinations during the month. Air Serbia also saw an uptick in the number of passengers utilising its premium business class lounge at Belgrade Airport, setting an all time record for the month of May with 2.329 passengers using the facility, compared to 1.915 in May 2018 and 2.052 travellers in May of last year.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, said, “Given the obvious changes in demand, we can say the situation is developing in a positive direction. We are optimistic regarding the recovery of air traffic in the coming months, with a dose of caution, of course, as there are still numerous uncertainties”. He added, “Thanks to our flexibility and quick reactions to changes on the market, we have managed to achieve results that are above the industry average, even in current circumstances. We are focused on the possibilities and we are trying to seize every opportunity that presents itself”.
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.
Congratulations
ReplyDelete62% load factor is really good in these circumstances.
ReplyDeleteGood news: Loads are solid and things are returning to normal.
ReplyDeleteBad news: no more excuses for Toronto expansion.
I think the best option is to wait until next summer season for everything to get back to normal and then start Toronto and possibly another long-haul destination.
DeleteI think that depends more on Canada and its psychotic covid policy. Also I think China is a bigger priority than Canada.
DeleteMore bad news for Air Serbia Toronto service procrastinators: calls for easing of Canada quarantine rules are increasing and rules are expected to be changed soon; vaccination rates are now almost the same in Serbia and Canada; Toronto starts reopening in about a week.
DeleteHow is that bad news for JU?
DeleteChina will not open up nearly as fast as Canada. Option "to wait one more year" didn't work for OU and sure as **** is not going to work for JU. Bonus kick in the groin for procrastinators: Air Canada is no longer tied down by domestic and EU restrictions mentioned during Air Transat merger and is expected to come back with a vengeance to leisure destinations in Europe from next spring. Budapest is expected to be served by three class A333. Does JU really want to wait to compete against it in BEG?
DeleteAC is anything but competitive especially when you take into consideration their shitty product and nasty relationship with the passengers. There is a reason why the government is protecting AC so much. JU will be fine.
DeleteAlso I don't think you can compare JU and OU.
Anon 9:52 you may need an update. Rouge 767s are gone from passenger service for good. Those A330-300 are mainline Air Canada brand, in a great shape and configuration.
DeleteLol their onboard product is a disaster.
DeleteWho gives a damn if their on board service is not great. My friend, people from greater Toronto area are dying for that direct service for over 3 decades now... Do you really think they will give a s**t if their crappy chicken is or beaf is tasty, if you give them a 8hr non stop service!? Especially old grannies and grandpas who speak no English and just want to arrive to their families without taking the dreaded connection through Fra, Lhr or CDG??
DeleteYou are out of touch buddy.. But that's ok, i don't mind AC flying to BEG. They have more then one 330 if s**t hits the fan and goes mechanical.
Apsolutely agree with you above...
DeletePeople that have been waiting for decades for direct flight to Toronto do not care about the product...Just the flights. when they do start the flights it will be amazing for so many.
Of course, I will prefer Air Serbia.
But Canadian travel restrictions are unreal and idiotic.. The pressure on the government to change this , but they still dont even talk about it...
Direct flights will also help expand Serbian business I'm Canada.
DeleteAssuming the demand to/from Canada is strong, the rules that they have in place are the same for many countries around the world. Australia’s has limited inbound capacity and ash arrivals must have a negative PCR test, plus stay in hotel quarantine for 14 days. Australia has also been extremely slow with the vaccine rollout, but there is hope that vaccinated travelers will be allowed out of the country in the next 6-8 weeks. We can only wait and see how that progresses.
DeleteVery good news. Interesting that Air Serbia yesterday operated 5 charters to Hurghada
ReplyDeleteWhy do they allow AirCairo to fly charter flihjts, but they didnt allow AnadoluJet to fly charters to Antalya?
DeleteAir Cairo is not a charter. It's a scheduled year round service. On top of that bilateral air agreements with Egypt and Turkey are completely different.
DeleteFinally some good news and positive developments.
ReplyDeleteGood to see New York among top performing routes.
ReplyDeleteIt's been like that for a while.
DeleteBEG-ROV 80 pax
ReplyDeleteROV-BEG 140 pax
That's the flight tonight.
Very good loads for a brand new route in middle of a pandemic.
DeleteWe are no longer in the middle of a pandemic but rather at its end.
DeleteThe aviation industry would not agree with you. Global air travel is still way down.
DeleteAnd Serbian aviation would disagree with you. It's great results show that recovery has long begun.
DeleteSerbian market is doing quite ok. Luxair launched flights, KL is upgrading many flights to B737-700 and LH is sending more and more E95 from MUC. All that with travel restrictions from the EU.
DeleteThis is a great result. I expect June will perform even better.
ReplyDeleteEvery single airline in Europe saw its busiest month since the start of the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteNot true actually.
DeleteAnd not with such high LF.
DeleteLoad factor really is good.
ReplyDeleteMarek said a few weeks ago that their LF on New York flight in May was 90%
DeleteHow come Paris is doing so well for them considering all the restrictions?
ReplyDeleteTransfers probably
DeleteNo Air France, they surrendered the whole market to Air Serbia.
DeleteCould we see any more new routes?
ReplyDeleteIf an opportunity presents itself I'm sure they woll.
Delete*will
DeleteI can think of a few opportunities they have not used.
DeleteWhen will we get the financial results?
ReplyDeleteIn July for last year.
Delete^ Like every year
DeleteNot surprised their lounge had record visits since they made deals with Qatar and Flydubai and now they let priority pass too. Don't understand they didn't do this years ago.
ReplyDeleteBankrot Motenegra im je u mnogome doprineo biljim rezultatima. Evo ga A330 danas leti za TGD.
ReplyDeleteTehran and Amman are so obvious that is hurts my eyes when I see that JU does not even try there two babies.
ReplyDeleteAmman was in their plans, but have no idea why they just don't go with it already? And Tehran? It is so obvious that they must have it on their "to-do list" for long time now.
Maybe too long rotation times? Lower yields per rotation time comparing to, lets say, Tivat?
I mean, yeah, you can do 6 rotations to Tivat with A320 for the time of one rotation to Tehran, but sometimes I get a feeling that being so tightly connected to Montenegrian market gives to JU two "obstacles" - feeling of being in power over so smaller market and feelling of not wanting to expand as they have so many "hot cakes" so close to BEG.
I am not sure, but lets see.
Also as people mentioned - Toronto, Shanghai and one additional US route are a must in the nearby future.
Just do more midnight flights to transfer markets - include to Athens, Thesalloniki, Tirana, Skopje and Larnaka also Bucarest, Sofia, Zagreb, Cluj, Cisinau, Heraklion and Constanca maybe.
Yerevan, Tbilisi and Baku are the first trio that should be introduced as soon as Covid relax a bit more.
ReplyDeleteLisbon flights with TAP code share to their South America destinations
Madrid flightd with Iberia code share to their Central America destinations
Additional one A330 (or even 2 in 2023?) with adding of Toronto, Vancouver/LAX, Atlanta/MIA on the west and Beijing, Shanghai/Seoul/Tokyo to the east.
During winter times do chartes to Maldives, Cuba, Sanya, Canaries, Dominican Republic, Aruba/Bonaire/Curacao. Pick your choice.
But if their plan (and the plan for Vinci) is to be a part of airport with 15 million paxs, they will need to start working on it ASAP.
How I see JU fleet in 2030?
7 A330
10 A320
10 A319
15 ATRs
Quite optimistic with the 7 A330s.
DeleteRealistically, Future long haul:
Americas - Toronto, Chicago
Asia - Beijing, Shanghai
For this you need 3 A330s. And if this can be done be 2024, puna kapa.
3 je malo za 5 dugolinijskih ruta,4 bi završila posao.
DeleteDa li neko slucajno ima neku informaciju, da li su vraceni najmladji piloti na posao?
ReplyDeleteDa
DeleteTbilisi, Baku and Yerevan can work. Start 2PW with connections to JFK and see where it ends up. Also Amman as already mentioned in comments.
ReplyDeleteRegarding West Europe-Dublin, Manchester, Stavanger, Lisbon and Madrid.