Italy’s new national carrier, currently known as ITA, plans to commence services between Rome and Belgrade next year. According to the airline, flights to the Serbian capital will be launched next August. At this point it will be the only city from the former Yugoslavia to be introduced in 2022. ITA will officially replace Alitalia as Italy’s flag carrier from October 15. The company is vying to purchase its predecessor’s brand name. Alitalia discontinued services to Belgrade in March 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In the former Yugoslavia it also operated year-round flights to Podgorica and seasonal operations to Dubrovnik and Split.
Belgrade - Rome - Belgrade passenger traffic
| Year | PAX |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 161.012 |
| 2018 | 157.273 |
| 2019 | 153.726 |
ITA will be introducing new routes throughout next year. In addition to Belgrade, next August will see the launch of flights to Algieri, Amsterdam, Athens and Barcelona. Italy is one of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport’s biggest markets. Based on OAG data, in the pre-pandemic 2019, 55.487 passengers flew indirectly between the two, even though the Serbian capital boasted flights to Rome, Milan and Venice at the time, while Niš offered services to Rome, Bergamo and Bologna. The coronavirus pandemic decimated travel between the two nations, with Italy banning the entry of almost all Serbian citizens and residents for a year. Strict rules prohibited passengers from even transferring to a third country within 24 hours of entering Italy and flights from Serbia were also banned. However, with travel restrictions eased, Air Serbia has restored operations from Belgrade to Rome and Milan.
A number of unserved cities in Italy saw healthy indirect traffic from Belgrade in the pre-pandemic era. In 2019, Bologna had the most passengers from the Serbian capital. It was followed by the border town of Trieste, as well as Catania. In the years leading up to the pandemic, Serbian tour operators began organising leisure flights to the Italian coast. In 2019, 15.000 passengers used Air Serbia’s charter flights to Italy. Furthermore, the Serbian diaspora in Italy is estimated at 70.000, more than 55% of which live in the country’s north.
Busiest unserved routes between Italy and Belgrade in 2019
Air Serbia planned to introduce flights between Belgrade and Florence in the summer of 2020. However, Covid-19 forced the carrier to cancel them. Both the Serbian and Italian national carriers had a wide-ranging mutual codeshare partnership in place, which will come to an end on October 14. “Italy represents an extremely important market for us, and our goal is to provide continued and strong connections between Belgrade and Italy, as well as other destinations in Air Serbia’s network”, Air Serbia said. It added, “We have established a solid presence in the Italian market and will continue to work with our tourism and trade partners to make our Italian network a success”.
Will they have a new livery?
ReplyDeleteI think that's the least of their worries.
DeleteHope they don't remove that classic livery. The name is iconic too. Would be a shame to rename it.
DeleteHow many weekly flights did Alitalia have to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteDaily flights .
DeleteHopefully same frequencies will return.
DeleteNot only that, they started with daily E90 and soon after increased it to daily A320.
DeleteGreat news
ReplyDeleteLet's see if Air Serbia does a codeshare deal with the new airline too.
ReplyDeleteIt would be beneficial for both.
Deletesmartwings would be better
DeleteCatania all the way, Sicily is Italy at its finest !
ReplyDeleteCatania is an Easyjet base.
DeleteThey would be the perfect choice for that route.
LCCs seem to have had a lot of issue on Belgrade-Italy market. Easyjet, Wizz Air and Air One all failed. I don't know why.
DeleteFor some reason LCCs never succeeded on flights from Italy to Belgrade (neither Wizz or easyjet). It is possible that is because there are a lot of transfer passengers on these flights.
DeleteCircumstances have changed. Maybe W6 could work between Rome and Belgrade now.
DeleteW6 used to have a horrible schedule on this route. Plane would arrive in BEG after midnight.
DeleteDid Wizz fly from Fiumicino?
DeleteNo, Ciampino
DeleteDidn't the EU offer a third airline slots to fly BEG-FCO because Etihad owned Air Serbia and Alitalia?
DeleteYes they did and no one applied.
DeleteSmall correction: AirOne wasnt an LCC, and in its latter years was absorbed by AZ. Them pulling out of BEG was just AZ firmly taking over all flights
DeleteDoes JU plan to resume Venice?
ReplyDeleteEventually when there are no more travel restrictions. Although Venice was popular with Russian transfers.
DeleteNext year
DeleteFingers crossed.
DeleteI find it interesting that Bologna has quite a bit of traffic from Belgrade but they decided to launch it from Nis.
ReplyDeleteProbably because the majority of those passengers came from Nis.
DeleteYes a lot of the Serbian diaspora in Italy is actually from eastern Serbia.
DeleteThank God that they remembered to start fixing the road from Nis to Knjazevac. It was in horrible state. It's also the main road that links Nis with places like Zajecar and Negotin.
DeleteFantastic news.
ReplyDeleteBad news for JU though.
Something tells me JU will be just fine and offer more frequencies and better transfer options than the new Alitalia.
DeleteJU will be losing even more money with the new competition.
Delete^ give it a rest
DeleteThe comments are unfair towards JU to say that they will lose even more money .... more to truth is that BOTH JU AND the new ITA will continue to lose money and be a drain on their respective taxpayers
DeleteHow come your crystal ball shows bleak future for ITA and Air Serbia but fails to predict others like Croatia Airlines being bankrupt in a couple of years? Strange crystal ball you have.
DeleteAbout time
ReplyDeleteI wonder if someone like Wizz Air might eventually try to operate Trieste flights from Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteJU could start Trieste with ATR
DeleteI doubt it Nemjee since Wizz Air does not even fly to Trieste.
DeleteThe way things are going, don't be surprised to see Smartwings launch this route.
DeleteThis 50th reincarnation of Alitalia will be unsuccessful just as the other ones.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if there has ever been a time that Alitalia hasn't been on its deathbed throughout history.
DeleteAnd they somehow pull through each and every time.
DeleteThis new company is another dead man walking
DeleteWe will be reading about the Italian government bailing out in 2-3 years.
DeleteI wonder if to Belgrade they will use the A319/A320 or the A220s they just ordered yesterday.
ReplyDeleteWhich equipment did they used to use?
DeleteA320
DeleteA319 to be exact! BEG was a consistent A319 flight.
DeleteIm guessing they will launch with the A220-300. Its a closer fit to the A319s capacity. We might se A320Ns maybe during the summer season
I don't think they will get the A220 (or any of the newly ordered aircraft) straight away, but will start with used Alitalia aircraft. They won't find any crew trained on A220, so it's not the fastest aircraft to introduce anyway.
DeleteThere is no doubt BEG-FCO market has good potential,
ReplyDeleteOf course with over 150,000 passengers per year.
DeleteI never understood why Alitalia didn't expand more in the region.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago they announced how they would launch ZAG, PRN and even SJJ. But nothing happened. By that time they were purchased by Etihad and all of those plans were cancelled.
DeleteThey usually had 4 routes. To SPU, BEG, TGD and DBV.
DeleteThey used to fly to Skopje too, but they suspended it a few years ago.
DeleteWizz Air killed them on the route.
DeleteBecause Alitalia had strong position in TIA they used to fly 3 daily pre pandemic and I think that covered most of the region.
DeleteThey didn't. Wizz started Rome after Alitalia flights ended.
DeleteAlitalia flew to Zagreb too once upon a time.
DeleteBefore corona happened they said they may launch flights to Zagreb and Pristina.
DeleteAlitalia flew to Zagreb until late 2008, twice daily from Milan. They endedZagreb flights cause of recession in early 2009 and as Alitalia was facing major financial difficulties at the time.
DeleteThey also used to fly Milan - Skopje and then moved the flights to Rome - Skopje.
Wizz Air should start flights from Rome to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteThey used to fly it and failed.
DeleteIn summer 2020 Wizz announced Belgrade-Milan flights. They cancelled it along with the entire expansion but there is a possibility it is on the cards for them.
DeleteTrue, and with A321 no more no less.
DeleteI'm interested to see what their fares will be like. Next March they start US flights so they may be a good transfer option. We will see.
ReplyDeleteAlitalia wasn't a bad airline at all. They were a great alternative to JU on the FCO route. Their prices were good are competitive, they didn't charge for luggage and they had some sort of service on board even on short haul flights.
DeleteAnd in its latter years, AZ was always on time on the route. Meanwhile, out of the 4 times i ended up flying ASL on the route, they were always at least 90mins late
DeleteTrue. They really improved. Also with handling luggage. Some 10-15 years ago they would constantly loose bags because the airport in Rome was a mess but they improved a lot.
DeleteAnyone know the current loads for BEG-FCO and BEG-MXP?
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in this, furthermore does anyone has information about expension of BEG - MXP service?
DeleteI doubt loads are great in current circumstances considering Italy's quarantine requirements.
DeleteAnd they are buying 28 new airbuses and 31 on lease.
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me they won't go back to TGD.
ReplyDeleteI think they will. Especially since Air Montenegro isn't flying to Rome either.
DeleteWizz Air flies Milan and Ryanair Bologna. So they have taken over the Montenegro-Italy market. One of them can start Rome.
DeleteSo, ti be more precise, 10 Airbus A330neo, 7 Airbus A220 e 11 A320neo, and that is 28 new. Plus 31 on lease.
ReplyDeleteGood fleet.
DeletePlus on lease:
Delete-15 A220s
-2 A320neos
-10 A321neos
-5 A339s
-a few more A359s from undisclosed lessors
Idk why BEG has fewer connections to Italy compared to the rest of the capitals. No more Venice, no Siciliy, no Bologna, no Naples and not even Bergamo or Ciampino...
ReplyDeleteVenice is temporarily suspended because of Covid. Entry restriction for Serbian citizens were some of the harshest for Italy. If you read the text, you would see even transfers were not allowed.
DeleteSo JU has until August of next year to really try and capture the Italian market. I would do a lot of work until then to try and launch new routes to Italy and offer good transfer options.
ReplyDeleteDoubt they will do that but it would be smart to capture Alitalia's absence (as ITA will be much smaller to start with) and offer good connections to the East. Especially Russia, considering they are growing their network there.
DeleteThat will have a very small network next year.
ReplyDeleteBetter something than nothing.
DeleteJudging by their fleet order, it will grow significantly over the years.
DeleteSo it should, it's a huge market.
DeleteThis is the info on their official website:
ReplyDeleteEUROPE, NORTH AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
Algeri, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Belgrade⁴, Brussels, Cairo, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, London Heathrow, Luxembourg¹, Madrid, Malaga², Malta, Marseille³, Munich, Nice, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Sofia⁴, Stuttgart¹, Tirana, Tel Aviv, Tunis, Valencia³, Zurich
REST OF THE WORLD
Boston, Buenos Aires¹, Sao Paulo¹, Tokyo Haneda, Washington¹, New York, Los Angeles¹, Miami
¹ Destinations available from March 2022
² Destinations available from June 2022
³ Destinations available from July 2022
⁴ Destinations available from August 2022
It is quite strange not seeing PRG, BUD, WAW for instance but rather BEG, SOF and TIA in the list. I guess they are heading at destinations with low competition although TIA and SOF are well connected to Rome and its other airport.
TIA strange? Albania has a huge diaspora in Italy, current Alitalia flies there 2x daily currently.
DeleteWhat about their domestic network?
DeleteThey're heading to destinations with huge O&D.
DeleteBtw they have competition on their route to BEG.
BEG is so far ahead of BUD in terms of passengers this year.
When BEG to BGY ? Waiting since years
ReplyDeleteFor now you have BGY-INI.
DeleteCan't believe Alitalia only flew to Belgrade and Podgorica in ex-Yu. I think years ago they had a much more substantial network.
ReplyDeleteNew Italian airline would be great addition to SJJ. Every time I flew there the plane was full of pilgrims to Medjugorje. Considering that fact, it might even work for them. They should also see some transfer passengers from North America if the flights are decently coordinated.
DeleteGood at least that they plan to come back to BEG.
ReplyDeleteWhy did passenger numbers on Rome route fall in 2018 and 2019?
ReplyDeleteKao i Alitalija Vizer planira dodatne letove oko Nove godine:
ReplyDeleteIsto tako Wizz povecava BEG-HAM sa 2 na 3 oko Nove godine.
Memingen sa 3 na 5 oko Nove godine.
Malta sa 2 na 3 oko Nove godine.
Eindhoven sa 3 na 4 oko Nove godine.
Geteburg sa 2 na 4 oko Nove godine.
Malme sa 2 na 5 oko Nove godine a ostaje 3 do leta.
Stokholm sa 3 na 4 oko Nove godine.
Luton sa 3 na 4 u decembru i onda tako ostaje do leta.
Heraklion i Santorini su pusteni u prodaju za sledece leto.
Huge vesti za Beograd. Izgleda da ce solidno iskoristiti treci avion u Beogradu.
Tarife jos nisu unete za cetvrti AUH-BEG ali evo ga raspored:
DeleteNedeljom
AUH-BEG 13.55-16.40
BEG-AUG 17.15-01.30