Hybrid carrier Flydubai will expand its presence in the former Yugoslavia in the coming months, with the airline to double its Belgrade operations by introducing a second daily flight. Furthermore, it will maintain services to Zagreb throughout next year, taking over from Emirates. The airline will introduce a second daily rotation between its hub in Dubai and Belgrade from October 31, with an early afternoon and late evening departure from the Serbian capital. Tickets have already been put on sale. However, according to the “Aviatica” portal, the airline will roll out its second daily flight earlier than scheduled with services likely to begin before the end of the summer season. So far, the carrier has scheduled an additional two weekly rotations, for a total of nine weekly, from mid to late August due to strong demand.
In 2020, Flydubai was one of the best performing foreign carriers at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The airline suspended operations in March 2020 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but was amongst the first to restore them, in early June, coinciding with the reopening of Dubai for international tourists. It has since added additional rotations during periods of high demand, while its scheduled operations from October will see it maintain the largest volume of flights to Belgrade since it launched services to the city in 2011. Operations to the Serbian capital are performed with a mix of Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft.
Flydubai has confirmed to EX-YU Aviation News it will be launching flights to Zagreb on September 23 following several delays. The service will run four times per week. The carrier has also opened reservations for flights past the winter season, with four weekly rotations to be maintained until June 2022, after which they will be increased to daily. As a result, the airline will take over summer operations between Dubai and Zagreb, which were maintained by Emirates prior to the global health emergency. Schedule changes at this early stage remain possible. Flights to Zagreb will be operated by the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet. As previously reported, the carrier will introduce three weekly services to Ljubljana from September 24.
Wow great news. They must really be performing well in BEG.
ReplyDeleteEmirates would be a better choice for Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteEmirates is at this moment very far from Zagreb.
DeleteSeeing FZ year round plans BEG is the closest to receive EK flights.
I fully agree, such prestigious airport shouldnt allow these nonpremium airlines to even land on the Zagreb airport runway
DeleteAnonymous 9:22, sense the irony.
DeleteIf this route keeps on maturing like this then I see EK taking over one of these rotations while FZ keeps the other. Mind you, they are performing so well with both China and Australia being closed. Once these key markets open their performance in Belgrade will improve even more.
ReplyDeletePersonally I am happy Wizz Air replaced Etihad on AUH-BEG. EY was extremely expensive and unresponsive to market dynamics. It took them years to upgrade BEG from A319 to A320 and if I remember correctly they only did it because the A319s were being retired.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air has upgraded BEG to 3 weekly a few months after launching this route.
How many Serbs go on holidays to Australia. I mean it is closed so how come they can enter?
DeleteIt would be crazy for Etihad not to return considering that their daily flights had an average loadfactor of 90 percent.
Delete@9.29 (1) Nemjee said their performance will improve once Australia reopens so I don't understand what you are going on about. And it isn't about Serbs going on holiday to Australia it's about Australian Serbs visiting their family in Serbia.
Delete@ 9.29 (2) It won't come back until Australia and China reopen. it made up the majority of their passenger structure. That's why they are gone.
DeleteIt also makes one wonder why they decided to hand over this O&D market to Wizz Air. EY is struggling right now, they withdrew from many markets (Tehran being one of the big ones) and BEG could have been a nice source of income.
DeleteThey requested slots from BEG but never went through with their plans. I guess if they were better managed they wouldn't be in this mess today.
Not surprised. There will be a lot of demand for DXB since there will be Expo and it is certain they will remain an open destination no matter what.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSo EK not coming back to ZAG after all.
ReplyDeleteIt was clear from the beginning.
DeleteThey will be back.
DeleteNot looking likely at the moment. Maybe in 2023.
DeleteCould also be a preempted strike against Air Serbia which has been planning to launch DXB this winter. Doubt they will after this.
ReplyDeleteI don't think FZ is afraid of JU especially now when they sending the MAX to Belgrade. In terms of hard product they are light years ahead of Air Serbia. How can JU compete with them on this 5 hour flight?
DeleteThis has more to do with them doing really well in BEG. They are also sending a message to Wizz Air with this increase so they do not think FZ will just hand them over a large chunk of the market. Mind you, the night flights are also great for tour operators as people can fly out after work. That was not the case before with the 14.00 departure out of BEG.
I'm not saying they are introducing it just because of JU. Obviously the route is performing well, since JU would not consider it. But from what I heard from some JU pilots they were/are thinking of sending A330 to DXB.
DeleteSending the A332 would be the only way for them to be competitive. There is also a lot of cargo demand so that would help as well.
DeleteWow but it they are really planning to schedule their big bird for DXB, then another wide body should join the fleet, right? Or they plan to use it only in the winter when ops to JFK are reduced?
DeleteFlydubai seems to have done quite well in the region, even after Covid they were quick to resume flights.
ReplyDeleteThat has more to do with Dubai which adopted very sensible entry measures (without ridiculous bans or quarantine) while having appropriate safety measures. Many people go to Dubai just to feel a sense of normality.
DeleteAnd not to mention they vaccinated the majority of their population already.
DeleteDubai's hotel occupancy rate was 60% last year, which is amazing by all counts. Their summer June-July-August when no one usually travels there was better in 2020 than pre-Covid.
DeleteImpressive.
DeleteNice to see that the bigger capacity MAX 9 is operating many flights to BEG.
ReplyDeleteParticularly since its capacity is bigger only in business class. So it is being done because of more premium passengers.
DeleteTrue
DeleteMAX 8
Business/ Economy
10 / 156
MAX 9
16 / 156
Interesting
DeleteGreat news.
ReplyDeleteFinally a night time departure from BEG with an 8AM arrival in Dubai. Much better then afternoon flight arriving at 10PM in the evening.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteBut if you are a tourist you will have the same problem. You arrive at the hotel at say 10AM and you can't check in till 3pm. So you will have to book the evening before. Same as if you arrived at 10PM. You can check in straight away and sleep.
DeleteThe night time departure is better because
DeleteA) You can work on the day you are travelling leaving you an extra day for holidays.
B) The return flight is at 4PM meaning you have the most of your last day instead of departing at 9AM.
C) You can ask for early check in or pay half the day.
D) You can wait a few hours before the hotel check in starts.
Exactly. It’s timed perfect for Dubai too. Arrive at hour hotel, ask for early checkin and if no then just go and swim or to the beach. All hotels will have arrangements for you to drop your bags securely, change cloths and wait a few hours for your room to be ready. Why not have lunch, then swim a bit and go and checkin. Ideal.
DeleteEmirates has 787s on order so we might see them fly to certain cities in ex-Yu in the future.
ReplyDeleteIf you theoretically look at this development, EK could start BEG even before the 789s arrive. At twice daily 7M8 ops, you are looking at a total capacity of 332 pax each way. EKs 77Ls for example seat 302 (10 aircraft in fleet) while the 77Ws are a bit of a stretch with 350+ in 3-class and a whopping 428 in two class config. I can't see F Class being too popular on the sector but we do know that FZs J Class is doing very well.
DeleteOn the other hand, the only way that JU could compete on this sector is by deploying the A332 as their A319 product simply does not cut it. Will be interesting to see how QR will respond since their A321s are quite outdated (hard product wise) vs FZs 7M8.
I think EK prefers to have FZ's two daily flights rather than their single one. Improved connectivity makes them more competitive compared to QR and TK. That's why I think we won't see EK until they are able to have their own daily flight plus one on FZ.
DeleteI think they introduced this mix in a few European airports. I believe BUD is like that now.
Didn't they do quite opposite in ZAG?
DeleteFZ was flying there only once daily when EK introduced their fights.
EK desperately needs short haul aircraft.
Delete@10.03 Flydubai actually suspended ZAG before EK started flying and they later said their suspension was not coordinated with EK. Which is weird.
DeleteEK may prefer to fight with frequency over capacity in markets where competitors also push single-aisle products. The moment one of them upgrades to a wide-body, gloves come off. One thing that the pandemic has shown is that there are no rules anymore, each pax is valuable and the plenty of idle capacity is resulting in weird combos and city pairs never seen before.
DeleteI have a feeling that QR will try and swing things their way eventually with 788s to BEG. W6 will carve out their own market niche but will fail to attract the masses as their offer on this longish sector is simply abysmal and many people, having flown intra-Europe on them, refuse to fly with them to the UAE. EY is history on this route...
@10:06
DeleteI really don't believe FZ suspended ZAG without having any deal with EK.
Even EK just few months before launching ZAG stated that they do not see any possibility to start flights in ex-Yu.
Seeing airlines add flights at this time is good.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteMost airline have been adding flights this summer.
DeleteDepends from which airport.
DeleteGood to see them start Ljubljana. It has been a long time coming. I wonder why they were so apprehensive for so long. I'm sure it will be successful.
ReplyDeleteI expect them to go daily soon.
DeleteDaily? We dont have daily to IST, FRA and you expect daily to DXB? Please, some racio. 3x/week will FZ and lets see how TK reacts.
DeleteYou have three daily flights to FRA, and could you please explain how daily flights to DXB could not work? Sure maybe not this winter but next summer it could happen.
DeleteYou need to facto in that 777s were about 60% filled with slovenians in zagreb. Daily dubai would definitely work
DeleteI doubt it was 60%, more like 20-30% from what i heard. And slovenians flying from all other airports, that number of passengers is even larger. So daily LJU-DXB with flydubai b737 max 8 that has 166 seats would work without a problem.
DeletePlus you could also get some passengers from. Zagreb especially if FZ keeps on delaying their return to Zagrab.
DeletePeople from south austria would also use these flights.
DeleteYou have three daily flights to FRA? Yeah sure. Please book me on all three daily flights to FRA! Since JP went bust, we dont even have daily flights to FRA. REALITY CHECH NEEDED
DeleteFrom today: LH flight 1461 at 7:00, LH flight 1463 at 11:50 and LH flight 1459 at 14:25, all for FRA. If there is anyone who needs reality check, it is you.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYou are partly right. Before I poster my last reply i checked the frequency but only for septembre. For august there are days WITH 3 rotations/day, but you are still wrong, because three daily flights means 21 rotations/week and thats not the reality you trying to feing
DeleteStill way closer than your reality with "not even a daily flights"
Deleteyou are right. my mistake.
DeleteZagreb turned out to be a failure for Emirates, flights were downgraded even before the pandemic. I do not see them returning.
ReplyDeleteYeah, agreed. Esp. so with QR's dominance at the ZAG apt. Emirates, at least in the case of the Balkans, could only work with a daily rotation to SJJ in summer schedule.
DeleteIt's because of Australia and SE Asia, similar to SKP. BEG is increased because of Indians and Chinese having easy access. Croatia is an EU member, and it's not the case.
Delete"Indians" aren't the main pax type on FZ flights.
DeleteI read somewhere that main passengers on FZ are to Dubai then to Maldives and Zanzibar. From Belgrade that is.
DeleteFlydubai is a surprisingly good airline. Glad to see them generally expanding in the region.
ReplyDeleteEspecially on the B737MAX.
DeleteI mean they have a very good new product on the max.
DeleteOTP is their best performing route in the region.
DeleteNot true. It's Sarajevo.
DeleteNo Sarajevo isn't because for a route to be the most successful, it can't just work for 3 months in the summer like Sarajevo.
DeleteGood work FZ
ReplyDeleteCould someone list their winter frequencies to other airports in the region like Sofia, Bucharest... thanks
ReplyDeleteSofia is just two weekly at the moment. But will be daily in winter.
DeleteBucharest in winter is double daily except for Saturday and Sunday when it is triple daily.
DeleteBucharest is their best performing route in the region.
DeleteThey seem to be very flexible with TIA, they went from double daily to 5 weekly in the middle of the summer, now they added daily flights for some weeks once again.
DeleteThat's quite odd. Why decrease from 14 weekly to 5 weekly?
DeleteNot sure, they went from 2 weekly, to 5 weekly, to daily, to double daily and back to 5 weekly over the course of 5 months.
DeleteI can see EK eventually flying seasonally to ZAG again, as well as BEG and SJJ.
ReplyDeleteYou can, but they can't!
DeleteWatch EK entering ljubljana before zagreb
ReplyDeleteIf they will have bigger success in LJU, maybe. They will be getting B787-9 which could work.
DeleteSure, with 500k/yr pax in LJU.
DeleteFlyDubai flies 4 times a day to Sarajevo, given the high demand, Emirates could send B777 to Sarajevo and FlyFubai two of its planes a day, instead of now 4
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteAre all of Flydubai's ex-Yu routes now operated by MAX planes?
ReplyDeletei think it only flies in Sarajevo and Belgrade MAX aircraft
DeleteThey will also be flying the MAX to Zagreb and Ljubljana.
DeleteThe MAX operates everywhere now on the usual rotations. The flights added due to seasonal demand can be operated by -800 if/when a MAX is not available. They are adding one MAX every 2 weeks until end of 2022.
Deletewow
DeleteFlydubai taking over ZAG from Emirates next year means EK failed in Zagreb. That must feel like the worst news ever (for those that thought Emirates coming to Zagreb was the best news ever).
ReplyDeleteIt failed in light of Covid with most markets that had strong feed on their ZAG flights to be closed well into 2022.
DeleteOnce Australia opens up, which will be in a long time due to massive vaccination failure EK will be back.
DeleteEmirates handed over market back to Flydubai before Covid. Emirates won't be back in 2022, Flydubai will continue. When Australia opens up, it will be EK+FZ to ZAG.
Delete^ That makes most sense.
Delete