Serbian regulator blocks Ural Airlines flights


The Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate has failed to issue Russia’s Ural Airlines a permit to commence flights between Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and Belgrade, which were to launch tomorrow. The carrier has now suspended ticket sales on the route. Flights were initially planned to operate once per week with the Airbus A320 aircraft. It is the second Russian carrier after S7 Airlines not to be issued a permit on the route. Serbia and Russia have a stringent bilateral air service agreement in place. Although revised in 2013 to allow airlines other than Aeroflot and Air Serbia to maintain operations between the two countries, it still heavily favours the two national carriers.

Russia is one of Belgrade Airport’s biggest markets and despite the coronavirus pandemic has continued to perform well. Currently, Air Serbia, Aeroflot and Nordwind Airlines maintain flights between Belgrade and Moscow with frequencies limited to sixteen per week by Russian authorities due to the pandemic. Nordwind itself inaugurated operations to the Serbian capital in January but has also faced permit issues with the Serbian regulator. Last month, both Aeroflot and Nordwind introduced flights from St Petersburg to Belgrade, while Air Serbia restored operations to Krasnodar and St Petersburg, as well as launched operations to Rostov-on-Don. Due to existing limitations, both Aeroflot and Air Serbia have often been deploying wide-body aircraft on flights between the two capital cities so far this year, including the Airbus A330 and the Boeing 777 jet, with the Russian carrier almost exclusively maintaining operations with its A330-200 aircraft.

Commenting on its Russia operations, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, recently said, “The Russian Federation represents a strategically extremely important market for us. Despite travel restrictions, we have managed to increase the number of flights to Moscow, recommence services to Saint Petersburg and Krasnodar, and even introduce a completely new route to Rostov-on-Don. Great demand and passenger load factor on the new route showed us that it was a good business decision. We will continue to monitor demand and adapt to the circumstances on the market quickly”. Earlier this year, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate also blocked Turkey’s AnadoluJet from commencing operations from Antalya, which is served by Air Serbia with multiple daily departures across most days of the week.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    Surprise surprise

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    Funny how Air Serbia is petrified from any competition

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    The title should read "Air Serbia blocks Ural Airlines". Everyone kbows it's their phone call to the directorate that leads to airlines being blocked

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      That's why Karma is doing it's thing elsewhere

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      If they had their own way, the only airlines flying from BEG would be Air Serbia and airlines they codeshare with. You would basically have JU and 5 foreign airlines.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:19

      Basically BEG until 2009.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:06

    CAD is out of control

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:07

    How are those 16 weekly flights distributed among the airlines

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      8 flights by Air Serbia
      7 flights by Aeroflot
      1 flight by Nordwind

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      Thank you. Do you know if Moscow will increase the frequency caps anytime soon?

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:09

    :(

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:10

    In a year they should be accepting any airline they could get to accelerate recovery, they are blocking airlines left and right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:26

      We would have much more flights from Russia. Remember Ural and S7 both planned flights from several cities in Russia, not just Moscow.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:37

      So far they blocked 3 airlines that we know of - Anadolujet, S7 Airlines and Ural.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:19

      Rossiya from LED

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:01

      Cham Wings from Damascus

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:10

    Feel sorry for the people that bought tickets

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:25

      Ural shouldn't have started getting tickets before getting government approval.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:28

      I'm assuming anyone that booked with Ural will be rebooked on another airline? Or they will just be issued compensation.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:12

    Love these PR fluff pieces by Marek. Like they are only doing well in Russia because they are shielded from competition. Look at what's happening in AMS, IST, FRA...
    Even Aegean is putting pressure on them this year so the difference is only two weekly flights.

    Today JU sent the ATR to STR while EW sent the A319. I wish Marek would love to block them as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      Same with Moscow really. They are sending A319 while Aeroflot sends A330-300

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:22

      Exactly, they don't dare block SU so they have to suck it up. Just like SU launched LED and they couldn't do anything about it.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:20

      pa mora da se malo stiti, ne moze kus sa rogatim! Mora ovom prvom da se pomogne malo iako ne valja.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:22

    This has got to stop

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:23

    Why does this not surprise me in the slightest

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:25

    How come they didn't block Red Wings in the past? Weren't they more of a thret considering they are an LCC?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      Well they obviously let one more airline just for show. Now it's Nordwind.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:45

      There were no caps and restrictions before covid. They were introduced lady year.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:26

    Expected, Moscow became Aeroflot and Air Serbia's playground, at least I hope we get to see Red Wings because they already used to fly to BEG so maybe their comeback won't be blocked. This is such an unfair decision, first S7 and now Ural. Serbia should use any possibility to attract new tourists, I highly doubt that those people who got tricked will consider flying to Serbia again....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:28

      The prices between Moscow and Belgrade are out of control.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:27

    Trying to understand how 1 weekly flight on an A320 could have hurt anyone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      Air Serbia was probably thinking long term when they rung the directorate.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:37

      Obviously they don't wanna take any risk.

      Back in 90's nobody thought LCC would have imposed any threat to Lufthansa, Air France etc.

      By saying it I surely do not support this CAD blocking.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:36

    Shame. It would have been nice to have another airline in BEG.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous09:37

    A message for other Russian airlines not to even try.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous09:37

    I'm going to say it again, thank goodness we have open skies with the EU otherwise the CAD would be blocking all flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:40

      +100
      they actually tried to block easyJet from flying in 2013 I believe. But all hell broke loose. Went to the top of the government and of course they had to let them.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous09:40

    Why is it so difficult to reach an agreement with Russia, preferably one without limitations?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:41

      Because it would not suit the interests of either Aeroflot or Air Serbia.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous09:48

    What's next, blocking other carriers for the BEG-TIV route? oh wait...

    ReplyDelete
  20. This is indeed ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous10:09

    Unbelievable. Sounds like in the 90s.
    This ASL protectionism is insane.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous10:39

    Why are you all mentioning JU and not SU? Also, Russia is free to start renegotiations and get a new agreement signed and ratified so all of its airlines can fly freely to Serbia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:13

      Because they were blocked by the Serbian CAD, Russians gave the green light.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:31

      But they would also block any other serbian carrier (if we had another one).

      Delete
  23. Anonymous11:00

    Stupid, stupid, stupid...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous11:36

    Since Serbia is not a part of EU, , open sky agreement should be revised for it benefits large foreign airlines.
    After the pandemic new rules will almost certain apply in many countries, national carriers will be seen as resource not liability.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous11:38

    Why?
    More people people flying from/to Russia to Serbia is good for other sectors too.
    There is enough space for both because there is demand for.
    Once more:
    why?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous11:43

    Would they stop other airlines trying to fly to Belgrade from other cities in Russia too?

    (I know: Moscow is the main hub and a perfect destination and transit airport.)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous11:49

    I remember the statement of JAT pilots back in some year after 2000 saying that "Serbian sky is national treasure and it should not be allowed for anyone to use it".

    It seems the same mentality is stil in CAD.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous12:16

    Air Serbia is loosing on all fronts with regards to competition and SVO. First their prices are often higher than SU, second their onboard product is not pair to SU, third they are constantly late departing SVO (average 25-45 minutes) and counting to catch up a tail wind, fourth they are handled by SVO airport and have 2 counters open for check in so the queue is quite long depending on the load. I fly often between Moscow and Belgrade but honestly I am not bothering anymore buying JU tickets and flying them. One advantage they have is that you can match ticket classes and buy one way as luggage free and then buy the return in a different class. For me this one advantage is not sufficient to make up for the negatives.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous13:13

    Here's a different perspective:
    Airserbia was a troubled airline for a long time, even before it became Airserbia. Unlike Russian airlines, we have a small and poor market, which definitely doesn't help. It takes time to improve and grow, but having a national airline proved to be important. So, why not protect it? Just look at China and what they do politically and economically. It's all about protectionism over there. Yes, we all want growth, but Airserbia simply can't compete with Aeroflot or whoever. There's nothing wrong about it. I feel like many people here are being unrealistic. You all complain about them being protected against Turkish + it's subsidiaries and Aeroflot, which are massive.
    Besides that, both countries, Russia and Turkey, have odd rules and agreements with Serbia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:47

      Sure but of you want to force people to fly on JU make sure they are not ripped off like paying €500 to fly to Moscow.

      Delete
  30. Anonymous13:41

    I'm really pissed off with CAD decisions lately and their continues protection of the "National Carrier" which doesn't have resources, interest nor intention flying to these destinations! CAD is a group of idiots who still believe Tito & JAT are still alive, so viva bureaucracy!
    I believe it is in everybody's interest to have open skies with each and every country which will certainly have good impact on Serbian economy, bringing prosperity in tourism & aviation industry as well!
    Such a shame!

    ReplyDelete
  31. I wonder if they would be blocked from flying to INI ?

    ReplyDelete
  32. As I am a lawyer and I keep reading about supposedly problematic decisions of CAD regarding permits for flights from/to Russia I checked "zakon o vazdušnom saobracaju" and its article 91. CAD has to follow the rules set in the law. And if the bilateral agreement between Serbia and Russia sets rules for the number of airlines which can fly on a particular route, the number of frequencies, the capacity, or it favours national carriers, CAD has very little to do. Bilateral agreements are concluded between the gov and often ratified in the Parliament, so CAD has no (formal) power to change it. And as long as the agreement is so rigid, the CAD will keep rejecting the permit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:49

      Yet they ignored the law and allowed Nordwind to operate. This is JU's doing.

      Delete
  33. scared of some competition

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous17:00

    How many negative comments and I dare say hate to AirSerbia. I think they are true Serbian treasure and worth of protection, although this decision has something else to do then AirSerbia protection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:00

      Then what is the reason? Please enlighten us.

      Delete
  35. Anonymous18:08

    The duopoly on Belgrade-Moscow flights inflates prices a lot.
    Obviously many people are turned off by high prices and fly to other destinations.
    That is why Aeroflot has decreased capacity from daily A333 and now on many days is only sending the A321.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On 09.07.2021. SU A333 had cca 25 % load on BEG-SVO. Price SVO-BEG-SVO cca 800 EUR bought 1 week before...
      Meanwhile, Wizz BUD-VKO-BUD cca 90 EUR no lugage.
      Insane..

      Delete
  36. Anonymous22:08

    Purchasrd tkt mow- beg- mow for 25 Dec, fare without luggage was 260e this is about 60-70 e more expensive than prior to covid farce

    ReplyDelete
  37. Nobody buys airline tickets one week prior to flight. Of course the price is going to be high. Try purchasing tickets a month or two out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nobody?
      You've never heard of last minute booking, or emergency need to fly somewhere?
      C'mon NY man.

      Delete
  38. Anonymous23:44

    I just noticed that there are people looking out of the windows!

    ahahahah ....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous03:21

      funny

      Delete
    2. There was flight to DME on Saturday by Ural....

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:01

      Not from Belgrade.

      Delete
    4. Flight radar says there was, it was 1,5 h late...

      Delete
    5. That is 2,5 h...

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:51

      They got a one way charter permit for today because they were selling tickets until 48 hours ago and have actually sold them. Don't think they will be having any more flights unless they get a charter permit but in that case they won't be able to sell tickets online (this is what the directorate tried to do with Nordwind but back then Russia said it would restrict Air Serbia flights so they backed off).

      Delete
    7. If it's so, how those pax will go back?

      Delete
  39. Anonymous20:45

    By the law they should be able to make exemptions under circumstances of national interest.
    Belgrade airport being succesful and paying taxes definitely is of national interest!

    ReplyDelete

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