Belgrade Airport believes there is sufficient demand for flights between the Serbian capital and Krakow to be launched as World Routes, the leading platform for global airline and airport route development, begins in Milan today. Air Serbia has also said Krakow is one of its potential new destinations, with both the Serbian carrier and its hub present at the three-day event. “Poland and Central European markets play an important role in our current route development strategy. Before the pandemic, LOT Polish Airlines operated two daily flights between Belgrade and Warsaw, which is indeed an important destination for our passengers. In the short-term, we see great potential for the launch of a new route to Krakow. In 2019, there were nearly 56.000 visitors from Poland and since 2015 the average increase in the number of Polish tourists has amounted to approximately 7.9% per year”, Belgrade Airport’s Chief Commercial Officer, Miodrag Mirković, said.
Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, who recently noted the airline will put a greater emphasis onto Central European markets, said, “The route from Warsaw to Belgrade is currently operated by LOT, we cooperate on this service and we have a good partnership. We always try to seek out cooperation agreements with a partner, when it contributes to the development of the route and brings mutual benefits, primarily for the passengers”. He added, “When it comes to Poland, we would most likely be interested in opening our own flights from Belgrade to one of the airports in the south of the country, perhaps to Krakow”. Air Serbia considered introducing flights to Poland’s second largest city as early back as 2014.
Krakow is one of Belgrade Airport’s busiest unserved routes in Europe, coming in at number eleven during the pre-pandemic era. In 2019, a total of 6.199 passengers flew indirectly between the two cities on a single itinerary. According to OAG data, LOT handled 62.2% of all Krakow transfers to and from Belgrade. As Poland’s second largest city, Krakow has witnessed the introduction of numerous nonstop flights to the region, fuelled primarily by low cost carriers. Ryanair operates a year-round service from the city to Podgorica, as well as seasonal operations to Zadar, while Wizz Air serves Split on a seasonal basis. Furthermore, LOT Polish Airlines maintains summer flights to Dubrovnik, as well as Tirana.
Over 6,000 passengers before nonstop flights or market being stimulated is surprising on such a route. Never would have thought.
ReplyDeleteI am almost certain they are going to negotiate with LO during the event. I think they have a decent relationship with the airline. Don't forget that LO planned on introducing BUD-BEG before covid on top of boosting BEG operations to double daily from WAW.
DeleteI think they could easily operate 2 or 3 weekly flights from Krakow to Belgrade.
Zero probability, unless the route gets subsidies. In principle outside its hub in WAW LOT flies only with very low frequences (one or two weekly), but with bigger planes. Frequences do not matter here, only low cost per seat. These flights are for tourists and not for business.
DeleteIt is for JU to open BEG-KRK.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's zero probability, especially not now in covid era when there are no rules. Before covid Krakow was on LO's radar and they were expanding their network from there with flights to Budapest and more frequencies to places like New York. We will have to see if anyone launches these.
DeletePersonally I'd prefer JU because they would offer connections in BEG but I don't see it happening unless they expand their fleet next year.
Who is flying between these two cities?
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what the passenger structure is here too
DeleteI know that people before pandemic used to fly to Krakow for city break and for business conferences which were held a lot in Krakow. Mostly they used FR
DeleteEconomic ties between Serbia and Poland are booming. Poland has positioned itself as the manufacturing hub of Europe and they stepped in when many European companies got frustrated with the lack of quality standards in India. That's why some joke that Poland has become Europe's Hyderabad. This economic development has stimulated a great deal of business travel not only to Warsaw but to other regional airports such as Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw and so on. By investing in manufacturing, Poland has gotten access to massive amounts of foreign capital. That is why the country is developing so fast.
DeleteHere I am speaking from personal experience as we moved our contract manufacturing from Germany to Poland. They are very efficient and professional and we are extremely satisfied with the switch. They are based just outside of Wroclaw and there are only two options when visiting them: LH or LO.
That is why LO sees such strong demand from BEG for its domestic network. Air Serbia should have paid closer attention to these economic trends. Launching secondary destinations in Poland should have become their top priority after getting totally massacred in Warsaw.
In 2020, trade between the two countries amounted to €1.328 billion! Import was valued at €765 million while exports stood at €562 million.
This shows that there is a fine balance between the two.
Looking at these numbers, it's crazy to think that JU ignored Poland for so long especially since KRK and WRO could easily be operated by their ATRs.
Unfortunately they are not going where the money is. If LO launches KRK on top of WAW then their only remaining market could be WRO. Remains to be seen what JU does ... if they do anything in the end.
Didn't know Poland was on fire like that.
DeleteYup, in 2019 top five airports in Poland welcomed 41.038.915 passengers.
DeleteThat's just over their population of 38m. Similar to Serbia in proportion, BEG & INI had around 7m passengers in 2019, which is the same as Serbia's population.
DeleteBEG and INI had together 6.5 million. Also, 38 million passengers were handled by the top five airports in Poland. If we add all of them together we get 49,069,042 passengers.
DeleteBy the time Air Serbia makes up its mind LOT will start the route.
ReplyDeleteOr FR.
DeleteOr smartwings
DeleteDon't understand some people's obsession with Smartwings here as if they have a base in BEG with 20 planes. They will fly a one weekly charter in winter that they won a contract for, along with 6 other cities.
DeleteOr Wizz Air
DeleteAnon 09.13
DeleteSeems like you missed the fact that last week Smartwings operated a BEG-TLV charter with their B738. Marek has opened the doors to the Serbian market for them.
It was a flight operated on behalf of JU to transport Red Star baks team.
Delete*basketball
DeleteThat is even more catastrophic. In that cow cash segment, charter, especially those sport charters, you are wet leasing.
DeleteThey had no aircraft available to operate it.
DeleteFlight wasn't operate by or for Air Serbia, it carried Smrtwings code. JU had nothing to do with that. It means that Red Star directly communicated with the Czechs.
DeleteAs for fleet shortages, now we see how clueless Marek was when he terminated leases for those planes and for not replacing the retired YU-API.
That plane operated a test flight so hopefully it is brought back into the fleet.
Article is about potential Krakow flights though, not your personal grudge against Marek. Would be nice if you respected that.
DeleteMarek is the airline's CCO and one of his responsibilities is the fleet. How can JU introduce Krakow flights if he isn't doing his job and the fleet is falling apart? It's very much related to today's topic. I guess you work for JU and don't want to see any criticism.
DeleteI don't work for JU, I just see you constantly writing the same thing in most JU topics and that you have inundated this one with your grudge feelings too.
DeleteActually I am not the only one who wrote things against him. Also you are more than welcome to point out arguments which go against what various people wrote on here. However what you write is just bravado with no facts to back it up. Their fleet falling apart these days is his fault. Had he kept the A320 and the extra ATR the situation would be much better today. But hey, he can brag about their successes in Russia where he used the CAD to block his competition.
Delete
DeleteI see that under all the posts against Marek is signitured "Anonymous" - so, yes, it's only you all the time!
What a stupid post Nenad, anyone can sign themselves as Anonymous just like we don't know your real name is Nenad. You could be Marek for all we know. Still you didn't give any arguments just venom.
Deletemaybe this is part of his strategic planning ?
DeleteYes, I can be Marek himself. But I would really not bother myself to change nickname every time I want to post. So, if you want to be able to say that it's not only you - feel free to choose some nick and stick to it. Untill then, you are the same anonymous all the time, searching for any possible oportunity to mention how Marek is pure evil.
DeleteYour post contains literally no arguments related to today's topic not have you presented any arguments to counter what others have written.
Delete@ 09,38
DeleteYU-API was one of those EY leases. The infamous aircraft that EY used to rip off JU. Just with YU-ARA, it is possible that there was no deal in negotiating down the price of the lease.
@ 09,52
For years JU was barely flying the A320's during the winter months. Why keep an aircraft they barely use half the year? Besides, YU-APG was replaced with YU-APL and YU-APM.
Two A319s were retired, two were brought in but 3 B737s were retired plus one ATR. So they are still down in terms of capacity.
DeleteA320 makes sense because they can make crazy money with it in summer to compensate for less flying in winter. Also as they add destinations and grow their network key destinations like Paris or Zurich will require additional seats. YU-APH is flying every day so obviously there are routes that need the A320.
Krakow would be successful story for both ways, and I think that there is space for more destinations in Central Europe, especially in leisure, city break segment. Mr. Marek somehow forget to mention that Air Serbia used to fly to Warsaw and we still do not know why stopped flying.
ReplyDeleteIt stopped flying because it can't compete against LOT.
DeleteYes that is a fact, but instead of that we get strategic story from Mr. Marek that JU is in cooperation and partnership with LOT bla bla bla. Probably the same partnership like JU had with KLM, and we can see what happened. Do not we??
DeleteJU and KL have been cooperating and had a codeshare years and years before Marek even came to Air Serbia (and preceeds even Air Serbia). I understand you don't like him but writing about him in every comment really makes me think he fired you or something.
DeleteYou are right that KLM had code share before Mr Marek, but it was stopped in his time, and now KLM took dominant position on the market where JU was the boss. And no, I do not have any relation with Air Serbia, just I am sick of this strategic PR stories, without any proof in reality. Just that.
DeleteLast Anon +100
DeleteJU and KL were partners since 2009 and Jat/Air Serbia profited from it. When Marek came not only did KL refuse to sign a codeshare on non stop flights but they also became extremely aggressive in Belgrade and hostile towards JU. This summer their AMS-BEG flights used to depart within 20 minutes from JU's.
Their flights are scheduled like that so they can connect for incoming US arrivals. Same way they are scheduled in Zagreb for example and many other European cities. Has nothing to do with JU.
DeleteHow come it doesn't when they no longer need JU to feed their North American flights? They replaced JU with their own metal for the first time after 13 years.
DeletePersonally I am happy KLM returned to Belgrade, regardless of its impact on JU. They are providing us with a nice alternative to LH and its stepchildren when traveling to the US and Canada. They've put a nice dent in the Star Alliance fortress in Belgrade.
DeleteYes, agree and I am not against KLM or LoT or JU, I like to see healthy competition. But what I am trying to say that is really really bad that anyone from JU's management trying to present like a good thing partnership with LOT but we know that LOT put out JU from Warsaw and JU had lost a money on that route. That is a fact. Nothing personal.
DeleteAbsolutely. On top of everything, LOT has been aggressively expanding in the region, just look at their presence in Romania, Bulgaria, ex-YU... Meanwhile JU has not returned the favor in any way. They have completely ignored the massive Polish market where yields are no longer trash.
DeleteLO is a predator and I doubt they even consider JU as a threat.
Gosh, how quickly things change. Remember not so long ago when LO withdrew from BEG and codeshared with JU and they had the route all to themselves ? They should never have taken their foot off the accelerator.
DeleteDane was running the show back then. Now we have guys like Naysmith and Marek and their strategic planning.
DeleteLOT stopped flying to BEG only because it was forced to do so by the European Commission as a prerequirement for approval of state aid LOT got in 2012. Immediately after these restrictions expired they resumed this route. There was no other reason, including it was totally unrelated to JU.
DeleteJU had more O&D passengers than LOT. Goal for LOT was to offer new 787 product for long haul transfers to BEG passengers but Boeing had early 787 issues in 2012 and 2013 that postponed LOT service entry.
Delete^ like anon 18.36 said route was suspended due to restructuring, not JU
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2015/05/lot-temporarily-suspends-belgrade-and.html
And that's the point - no matter what the reasons or circumstances as to why an airline withdraws from a route, you should take advantage of that window to shut them out or make it very difficult for them to return. In this instance, not only have LO come back, but have eliminated JU from the equation. How did that happen ?
DeleteSo LOT already handle over 60% of the traffic to Krakow. I actually would have thought they would have more. I wonder who the other airlines are that handle this traffic.
ReplyDeletePerfect route for LOT actually. They were supposed to start BUD-BEG but then corona started. So they already planned to expand flights to BEG. This is a good alternative.
ReplyDeleteConsidering LOT seems to have ads on this site they are obviously reading it haha so you never know.
Deleteanon 9:27
DeleteThis is like Google ads work. You write/read about some company and then Google learns you may be interested and you automatically get tailored ads.
It's not a tailored ad obviously. It is a banner in every main article every day like thr banner for the company undernrath it. Since you obviously see it, I see it and everyone else does.
DeleteInteresting thing with that ad is that they seem to be flying to TIA also outside the summer season. This is absolute novelty.
DeleteNovelty? Last year Poland was in top 5 biggest markets from TIA. It was only a matter of time. At some days this summer there were up to 3 daily flights from WAW just from LO.
DeleteDo any other airlines fly TIA-WAW?
DeleteYes, Enter Air and Smartwings fly summer charters. Without mentioning other Polish cities.
DeleteCrazy to see Marek say that they have a good relationship with LO when LO suspended many code-share flights they had with JU to the Balkan region. Obviously LO doesn't see them as a relevant partner in a region they are starting to consider as their playground.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Marek should first focus on his fleet which is falling apart these days. Both ATRs and A319s are experiencing technical faults. Massive delays for few days now, the other day ROV was delayed by three hours, SKP, TIA and so on were also late and Milan is regularly downgraded to ATR because they don't have spare A319s.
This morning AMS was late by 90 minutes, SKP delay is planned today by 20 minutes, TIA 2 hours and 10 minutes and VIE tonight is planned for 19.10 in stead of 18.35. If they don't fix the planes by the departure then tonight there will be a mess with the night wave to KRR, LCA, SKP and TIA.
Yet this man wants to embark on a major central and eastern European expansion. I would laugh if it wasn't tragic.
Why so much negativity towards Marek ? He is only the CCO. In other words, he has a boss who is the CEO. That is where your comments need to be directed. What is he doing ? What does he even actually do ? He is the last line of defense that needs to set things right when things don't seem to going right or moving in the direction that it needs to be.
DeleteSo my question is this - where is Naysmith in all of this ? Is he even on the job, or still travelling to London every week ?
As far as I can see, whole top management of AS is useless. They did a good with JFK route (only because there is no competition for direct flight) and Russian Market (mostly because CAD is blocking all competition). In all other segments they are failing hard. Fleet is old and falling apart and they cancel A320Neo aircrafts (they could have taken atleast few aircrafts if not whole order).
DeleteLove this:
Delete"needs to set things right when things don't seem to going right or moving in the direction that it needs to be".
Marek runs the commercial department which is a disaster. It's not the job of the CEO to micromanage that department. Marek should be fired in my humble opinion
DeleteSure he runs the commercial dept. BUT, the commercial dept ultimately reports to the CEO. So what is the CEO there to do ? The buck stops with the CEO
DeleteI guess getting rid of aircraft (A320 and Atr72) helps their bottom line in the meaning of what they can show to the government.
DeleteThe fact that the fleet is falling apart and that they can't open new destinations doesn't reach the reports.
So you are saying that it's CEO's job to micromanage the commercial department and to fix Marek's mistakes? I guess this professional job from Marek comes from his experince at well run airlines like CSA, Malev and so on. LOL!
DeleteGive them couple of months to launch more long haul routes and expand other destinations. Failing that, fire them all.
DeleteInteresting route. Definitely potential for several airlines that could start it.
ReplyDeletePlease let it be LO or W6. We need competitive fares and reliable service.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air might launch it. Varadi needs Wizz Air to grow annually by 20% for the next five years otherwise he won't get his 100 million Pound bonus.
Deletehttps://www-trend-at.translate.goog/wirtschaft/wizz-air-ceo-wuensche-airline-ceo-12236054?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=sr&_x_tr_pto=nui
Could Krakow work from SKP with an e-195?
ReplyDeleteOfc it would. Beg-Waw works with E170/E190 fam.
DeleteWe hear vile complaints about fleet management a lot. I would really like to see the numbers substantiating the comments.
ReplyDeleteTo put it simple, certain amount of money available provides limited number of leased aicraft, which could be deployed on definite number of routes. Every flight has certain cost and revenue ration and eventhough this must be the business secret, there are the parameters we need to consider before we praise or curse someone.
I am not pro/contra, I would just like to see the digits and where all those people are making such huge mistakes. Numbers do tell the story.
# 8 - no need to see the numbers .... the No. 1 issue is that facts tell the story - no new regional aircraft now for how many years ?? Where have you been all this time ?
DeleteJust look at delays and problems their fleet is causing them. You think it doesn't cost them money when like the other day when the ATR died so they had to send A319 to ZAG with 30-something passengers? Or when ROV is delayed by three hours and it makes a mess when it is back in Belgrade and transfers are late? Those are enough numbers for you my good old friend Eight.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMany people on this forum have set their sights on Marek, but responsibility for keeping the fleet in the air and on time is Grozdanic, the COO. What has this guy been doing and why does he not get the due criticism that should come his way ?
DeleteBoth he and Marek report to the CEO, who ultimately is accountable not only for new fleet decisions, but also in keeping the current fleet air worthy and flying
I wonder if any of them bother to read JU's reviews online.
DeleteNemjee - I don't know about the 2 foreigners, but Grozdanic struggles to string together a sentence in English, let alone being able to comprehend any of the comments on this blog.
DeleteMarek is due his fair share of criticism, but the operational issues around fleet are solely Grozdanic's responsibility. So everyone should direct their comments to the right person.
His job is to ensure a fleet that can fly and a fleet that is on time - Marek's job is to build a network, schedule the flights and sell the seats to make money
I believe fleet management is also one of Marek's responsibilities. Grozdanic is probably only responsible for the safety and technical aspect of the fleet Marek creates. They each have their own share of responsibilities.
DeleteFleet falling apart? Good one! I guess other airlines don't experience mechanical failure. AS is doing just fine considering COVID is still rampant and it's obvious AS will be adding new planes to the fleet. How else will they fly to China, Yekaterinburg, Krakow, and all the other planned new destinations?
ReplyDelete@ mehanicar
Deletepoor maintenance from Jat Tehnika is not what lost them their license? Apparently JU is sending its aircraft to Romania as Jat Tehnika still hasn't gotten back it's licence?
Also, plural of aircraft is aircraft, not aircrafts.
So all these delays is not because of their fleet falling apart? I guess it's because they do it for fun.
Delete@JatBegMel
DeleteJat Tehnika is completely other story. Maintenance representatives for AS reject to replace part that are almost out of resource during heavy maintenance checks, because they still can be used for a few flights. Then aircraft are sent back to fly and parts are changed when resources are completely used. Or they just delay replacement until aircraft are completely dead. And Jat was forced by state to release aircraft like that from heavy maintenance. Not that I am defending Jat, they are yet another rotten apple in Serbian aviation sector.
Actually it is bad news that they now eye Krakow.
ReplyDeleteIt just means that they have lost interest in Lviv.
Lviv and Krakow are like twins, JU must think the one of them can be replaced by the other.
Unfortunately this is not a clever strategy but just another missed opportunity.
JU should fly to LWO and LO from Krakow.
DeleteJU should do both!
DeleteBoth cities are short hops with the Atrs.
No excuses.
Stop this twin nonsense. The catchment areas of both airports are very different.
DeleteLO is in deep crisis and need to secure financing for next year. They need to keep connections which are cash positive from the very beginning. Is new, secondary Poland airport connection to Belgrade is on their priority list? I doubt. So maybe this is option for JU.
ReplyDelete