Air Serbia reaches 57% of pre-pandemic passenger levels


Air Serbia carried over 1.5 million passengers from January up until the end of last week, an improvement of 76% compared to the total number of travellers handled during the whole of 2020 when the figure stood at 899.877. However, the passenger levels are still down 43% on the pre-pandemic 2019, which was Air Serbia’s busiest. Back then it welcomed 2.81 million travellers as it added 23 new routes to its network. The airline’s cabin load factor since the start of the year has averaged at 66%, which is above the European norm. In 2019, loads stood at 73%. The airline’s passenger share at Belgrade Airport now amounts to 51%, up from 45.6% two years ago.

Air Serbia has scheduled its busiest December since 2019, despite travel restrictions and worries over the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The carrier has scheduled some 1.764 flights this month, up 116% on December of last year. It will increase frequencies on a number of its routes from mid-December until mid-January and will also restore limited operations to its summer seasonal destination of Rostov-on-Don, on December 24 and December 26, as well as the first week of January. In addition, this month, Air Serbia will operate charters to Hurghada on December 23 and 29, Sharm el Sheikh on December 24 and 30, as well as to Dubai on December 12, 19 and 26.

Commenting on the airline’s operational results, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, said, “We are proud of the results we have achieved, despite the changing travel restrictions. This year was more successful than the last, and let’s hope this trend continues in the future as well. Our goal is to fully recover and get back to 2019 levels, and we are on a good path in this regard. Still, we are aware that the situation with the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse, and we are cautiously planning for the upcoming period, relying primarily on our flexibility and ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances on the market”.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:08

    I wonder if next year there will be such interest in Egypt and Turkey again?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      These are like regular flights :)))

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    2. Anonymous09:11

      Definitely

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:11

    Good result. Quite surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:11

    For now they are the best flag carrier in Ex Yugoslavia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      Most serious one at the moment, that's for sure.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:37

      Croatia Airlines are equally as good and are members of an Alliance.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:41

      So what if they are part of an alliance? It has done them very little favours in the past years. And I don't think they are equally as impressive. They have barely launched any new routes in past two years. They operate almost no charters despite coming from a tourist country, their fleet is getting older and older and they haven't located anything east of Skopje on the map of Europe.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:45

      Likely to soon be the only flag carrier left in ex-YU.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:53

      It's humorous to compare OU to YU. Perhaps a few years ago yes, but not anymore. And regarding the "alliance", it's alway been about a one way stream towards mutti. Ironically, part of OU's overall problem and their gradual decline can be partially attributed to being part of that alliance. Nothing glamorous there.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:14

    Congrats. The huge demand for holiday flights this summer really helped them as I think their charter performance was better than pre-pandemic years

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      Charters were very strong. Around 10% of all passengers came from charters this year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:31

      That's a big share of charter passengers. Good on them.

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    3. Anonymous09:34

      Charters have been Air Serbia's saving grace this summer.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:58

      This is the best way to make money.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:03

      Good for them, with this extra revenue they will get extra cash and there will be less of a burden on taxpayers.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous23:09

      Let's see how they manage next year when they have gotten rid of so many planes.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:14

    Maybe soon they will launch exotic charters to Maldives,Zanzibar,Cuba,Mexico,Thailand!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:20

      This is Air Serbia we are talking about so I highly doubt it.

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    2. Anonymous09:47

      Anonymous09:20

      Air Serbia is anything but intransigent, so I'm not quite sure what you are alluding to?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:15

      Exactly my thoughts!
      Havana and (at least) one more Caribbean destination during the winter times (Punta Cana, Willemstad/Kralendijk, Bridgetown, St. Martin) would do miracles for transfer numbers and P2P!
      For Havana and Punta Cana we do not even need visas (Dominican Republic visa issued on arrival 5 USD), so at least during winter times they would work well.
      I mean, 5 days per week A330 idles on tarmac in Belgrade! Make that bi*ch work!!!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:15

    Goodness, 2020 was such a disaster. Under 900,000 passengers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:20

      Well the world stopped for 2 months.

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    2. Anonymous09:28

      I know. It's just an observation at how big the initial covid blow was.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:16

    Super!
    Now they have over 50 destinations (Wikipedia shows)!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:17

      They don't have over 50 destinations.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:28

      More like 36/37 at the moment.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:17

    Good news is that Serbia is receiving 1.000 units of the oral anti-covid drug this month. It should lower hospitalizations and death rates which is great. With covid numbers going down and with drug almost here, hopefully it will slowly help in aviation recovery. This year was already very good. I am sure 2022 will be the same.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:31

      The early covid wave in Serbia will still negatively impact JU because it had to deal with early Covid wave in September, October and part of November and now has to deal with the wave in rest of Europe for another two months even though situation in Serbia is rather good.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:18

    All things considered pretty good. My guess is they could handle around 1.6 million passengers this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:41

      Somebody is doing something right.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:19

    Impressive

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:23

    Nicely done JU.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:32

    It would be interesting (and more important) to know what were the financial costs to achieve these operational results.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:34

    JU performed well because our government didn't put us in an endless and costly lockdown.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous09:34

    Time for a second A330 to join the fleet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:57

      Yes a 2nd A330 should join.. start other USA markets and Toronto, Asia expansion.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:35

    Encouraging results

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous09:36

    Hope we see them expand even more next year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:42

      They will launch the 10 new PSO routes. Plus maybe they start one or two new routes from BEG.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:04

      If an opportunity presents itself I'm sure they will.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:08

      They will need more planes next summer, that's for sure.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous09:37

    Good joob, many airlines are in a worse off position than Air Serbia. 

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      Generating this result in the middle of a pandemic is an achievement.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous09:45

    Are all JU aircraft operational at the moment?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous09:45

    Congratulations

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous09:46

    This would mean BEG has surpassed 3 million passengers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:46

      That isn't bad at all.

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    2. Anonymous10:05

      Their goal was 2.9 million so it's good.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous09:47

    Impressive. This is more passengers than some capital city airports in ex-yu have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:48

      More then most ex-Yu airports actually.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:52

      *than

      Delete
  22. Anonymous09:51

    The load factor is good considering the situation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:52

      Just a few points behind 2019!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:06

      I'm surprised with the LF. Not too far off in 2019 levels.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:07

      Keep in mind they had much more capacity in 2019.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:20

      LF is not bad when you take the charter service into account and it helps in pushing the numbers however the LF is quite poor on regular service. Remember one Y tube video where 8 (or 11) passengers are flying TIA - BEG on a A319. Flight was quite full going to TIA but overall it is around +/- 40%

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:58

      ^you really can't judge load factor on a route based on a single flight.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:58

      In the rest of Europe the LF among airlines is even worse.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous23:08

      What is the EU avarage?

      Delete
  23. Anonymous09:53

    Those are great numbers regarding the general situation

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous09:56

    Good news is coming on a daily basis from JU. It is good to see how well they maintain their network and increase frequencies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:07

      Some increase but some decrease too.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous09:58

    As they managed to get charters to pre-pandemic levels, lets see how fast they can restore regular flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:42

      Most have been restored.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous09:59

    Loads are solid

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous09:59

    Montenegro Airlines' bankruptcy certainly helped.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:00

      On the Montenegro-Serbia flights they certainly did

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:55

      Others too.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:45

      Yes, several other of JU's routes benefited from YM's demise. Especially Russian market.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous10:00

    Keep up the good work

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous10:10

    Both BEG and JU had a good year. I wonder how cargo did. I noticed DHL upgraded BEG from B734 to B752 and flights operate to Italy in stead of Austria.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous10:11

    At the start of summer they forecast they would reach 45% passenger levels in 2021 but they are up to 57%. That's good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:54

      They obviously miscalculated, which was illustrated by them needing to wetlease a plane this summet.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:06

      It was an expensive miscalculation.

      Delete
  31. Anonymous10:14

    They should consider some new charter destinations. 

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:15

      It's up to tour operators not JU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:18

      Time to think about long haul charters

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:53

      It's already been discussed before. JU said the costs would be too high for this type of charter.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:38

      The tour operators would also have to lobby for the airline to start these flights and they are just as unimaginative and lazy as Air Serbia.

      Delete
  32. Anonymous10:15

    Good job.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous11:04

    It will be nice to develop the cargo segment as well.
    They are the leader of everything in Serbia. Regular, charter, regional, intercontinental flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:51

      BEG also has the most cargo traffic in ex-Yu.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:37

      This is true.

      2020 statistics:

      BEG: 20,064 tons
      LJU: 10,559 tons
      ZAG: 9,852 tons

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:44

      Thank you for the list

      Delete
  34. Anonymous11:09

    It is interesting that Belgrade is ahead of Sofia this year, which shows that despite the pandemic, Serbia has not suffered so much. Sofia served 7 million passengers in 2019, there is a decline in Varna and Burgas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:35

      And this despite Bulgarians not being banned from entering the EU for the better half of the year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:06

      I think LCCs reduced operations out of Sofia heavily.

      Delete
  35. Anonymous14:29

    So hopefully we could expect around 2 million passengers next year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:34

      I think they can do even better than that.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:44

      It all depends on how this Covid virus develops.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous23:05

      Jury is still out on the latest vafiant.

      Delete
  36. Anonymous16:44

    For me, the only disappointment with JU is their fleet which is old, some of the planes are literally falling apart inside. The rest of the airline seems to function rather well.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I expect disasterous year for whole air bussiness.... ramps will be everywhere

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:05

      We will see. This will have to end at one point.

      Delete

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