Domestic flights in Serbia, which are to be introduced next month for the first time since the disintegration of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, will primarily cater for international transfers rather than point to point traffic, officials have said. The service between Niš and Belgrade is one of ten routes deemed to be of public interest that will be subsidised by the central government. A tender to select the operating carrier, widely anticipated to be Air Serbia, is set to close this Friday, with the results expected to be published shortly after and ticket sales to begin within ten days of the announcement.
Commenting on the new flights, the General Manager of operator Airports of Serbia, Mihajlo Zdravković, told Euronews Serbia, “This service is primarily scheduled to connect onto other European and global destinations through Belgrade. The aim here is for passengers to transfer onto the morning peak of flights from Belgrade without having to pick up their luggage or check in again. This is similar to the flights offered between Niš and Podgorica awhile back, which provided connections via the Montenegrin capital”. Mr Zdravković added, “Passenger will be able to fly point to point between Niš and Belgrade as well, but we don’t expect there to be significant demand, considering the time it will take for pre- and post-flight procedures”.
Services between Niš and Belgrade will run four times per week. Two of the flights are to be operated by jet-engine aircraft with the capacity to seat up to 140 passengers, while the remaining two weekly rotations are to be maintained with smaller planes with the ability to welcome up to 65 travellers on board. The domestic service will be subsidised to the tune of three million euros over a two-year period, until December 31, 2023. In addition to Belgrade, Niš will also be getting subsidised year-round flights to Hahn, Cologne, Ljubljana, and Istanbul, as well as seasonal services to Athens and Tivat.
Could they be anymore obvious as to who will win the tender? I mean which airline has a morning wave of flights from Belgrade??
ReplyDeleteThey could at least pretend not to know and that the tender is transparent...
DeleteLiterally no one meets the criteria of the tender other than Air Serbia. This time they didn't put weird conditions like having to have call center agents from Serbia. They simply grouped all the destinations together with Kraljevo. And you can't fly from Kraljevo unless you have a turboprop in your fleet, which anyone that could be remotely interested in some of these flights (like Air Montenegro for Tivat flights or any Turkish airline for Istanbul flights) can't meet.
DeleteSo you think that it makes more sense to give Serbian tax money for Serbian subsidized routes to companies like Air Montenegro or Turkish Airlines when you have your own government owned airline that can do the job?
DeleteWhat is the point of the farsical tender then. They should have just given the money to Air Serbia and put tickets on sale a month in advance at least.
DeleteBecause they still have to somehow justify it. I don't see anything wrong with that. It's one way of supporting your local economy. Swiss has proven to be highly unreliable when it comes to INI so now JU will move in an offer connections via BEG the whole year. You are making southern, central and eastern Serbia much more accessible like this.
Delete@Anonymous "they still have to somehow justify it. I don't see anything wrong with that. " - This doesn't make any sense... The whole country is corupted, and here you can clearly see it. At the end we all know, but we are "pretending" it's all transparent. I'm also happy for AS to have it, but be honest, this is coruption...
DeleteMore money wasted on some scheme that it actual intention is to subsidize JU.
ReplyDeleteAnd who should they subsidize? Lufthansa?
DeleteNobody. This routes are useless. They are just a scheme to help cover JU loses.
DeleteDo they seriously think they can fill 404 seats each way between Nis and Belgrade per week?
ReplyDeleteI think they can if tickets are free! ;)
DeleteI think they can if flights connect to/from JFK.
DeleteThis could be also useful for passengers from Skopje.
DeletePrices will in any case be very cheap. I assume return flights point to point will be something like 5000 RSD. If transferring onto other flight, it will probably cost nothing on this segment.
DeleteI also expect for flights to be cheap but they still won't be able to compete against Nis Express :)
DeleteOut of curiosity, how much does a return ticket on Nis Express cost?
DeleteTo/from Belgrade obviously.
DeleteI just checked on their site for tomorrow. It is 1,866.00 RSD haha
DeleteAnd tomorrow they have 17 departures from Belgrade to Nis. And that is just Nis Ekspres. There are other bus companies also driving between the two cities.
DeleteYes, 17 departures but how many of those are non-stop and how many are stopping along the way? I think there are some that don't even take the highway. Many stop in Jagodina, Paracin, Aleksinac and so on. Minimum travel time (express bus) is 2.5 hours.
DeleteAlso traveling on Nis Express can be quite a nightmare since they no longer assign seats.
@9.33 you are not for real
DeleteDoes that mean we can expect the plane to depart Niš at around 5AM?
ReplyDeleteIn that case I would assume the inbound flight would arrive the evening before. Probably depart Belgrade at around midnight so passengers arriving from European flights at about 10-11PM would be able to connect.
DeleteSo flight crew would stay at Nis airport during the nigh? Or go to a hotel for a few hours?
DeleteThat would be mean that flights from Niš will be night flights. I think that that would be in operational terms very difficult for JU
Delete@9.10 Yes but I doubt the same crew would operate the return flight. They would probably stay and operate other flights from Nis that day. There is already JU crew using hotel in Nis.
Delete@9.11 It will probably be a split schedule. The pure fact that they have ordered 2 flights with A319 while 2 with ATR72 would indicate so.
DeleteA319 will probably continue to IST as I think ATR will be operated to ATH.
DeleteMaybe they will put an ATR on the Ljubljana flights this time around as well.
DeleteI think it will have a similar schedule to the one Skopje flights have.
Delete^ Yes, that makes most sense.
DeleteI wonder who will win this tender! :D :D :D
ReplyDeleteThey don't even act as if the tender is open to everyone.
DeleteIt's public money so it should be spent on a local company, don't see what is so odd about it. Why pay foreigners if your Serbian company can do the job?
Delete^^ lol true
DeleteComments like this have been said at least 10 times for each article about AirSerbia (same goes for Croatia) and I don't see the point of it anymore. The best would be of we just start ignoring stupid and pointless comments such as "Bravo!", "How much money has been put in JU/OU?!", "I wander who will get this tender?!" Etc.
DeleteSo the main point of this route is to stop people from Nis from flying with Swiss and connecting onto their flights?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Swiss is mainly used by point to point passengers.
DeleteHow many times per week will Swiss fly to Nis next summer?
DeleteThe point of this route is to find yet another way to give ASL subventions.
Delete@9.09 two per week
DeleteSwiss will start flying on 27th March but only for few weeks because of Easter. Then they stop and then they return at the end of May.
DeleteSimilar to this year no? They flew around Easter and then peak summer.
DeleteIf airports and company that will be flying route do not simplify procedures of course that the time for pre- and post-flight procedures will be enormous. I can't believe what the CEO is saying.
ReplyDeleteI don't see what is there to simplify. I mean you go to check in and you go to the gate...
DeleteIn any case they shouldn't demotivate people from flying P2P even before the flights have begun.
DeleteDefinitely. I actually think there will be many willing to take these flights as P2P, especially if the prices are affordable. I would rather arrive a bit earlier at the airport than sit in a full bus that will encounter traffic the second it enters into Belgrade.
DeleteI don't understand why they are doing everything in such a rush? They could have started tender in early November, finished it at the start of December and put tickets on sale at least 4 weeks before flights start. What is the point of putting tickets on sale days before the first flight? Who is going to fill those seats in the first few weeks?
ReplyDeleteAlso this way they miss flying period for holidays when many would actually choose to fly.
DeleteBecause this is run by politicians, not by businessmen.
DeleteIf businessmen were in charge then they would first start the whole process by leasing an additional second hand ATR for the flights in stead of stretching thin an overextended fleet.
At least they could have put Hahn tickets on sale. A route Air Serbia currently flies. Many from diaspora can book inbound flight but can't book outbound because tickets are not on sale because they have to officially "win" the tender. People will simply choose another way to come to Nis because they can't book return flight.
DeleteIt goes to show that this purely to provide money for Air Serbia.
DeleteBut it doesn't. I mean that money is used to cover the costs of the route. The emptier the flight the bigger the cost will be, but it is not as if Air Serbia is receiving more than the operational costs of the route. So they aren't exactly making money from the subsidies.
DeleteJU has commented that alot, if not most passengers are booking within 10 days of traveling due to the pandemic. There was an article on this site literally 2 days ago highlighting this. Booking in advance doesn't mean you will travel anymore, while traveling on the outbound flight might mean a change in procedure for your return, as we saw with British citizens being stranded in Montenegro a couple of months back.
Delete@09,23
Why lease additional aircraft now when they dont need it? Take tomorrow for example. The morning wave has the most departures and still doesn't require the whole fleet to operate all rotations. By the evening wave, 2/3 of the fleet is sitting in Belgrade. I will add that tomorrow has more departures than today. JU most likely will not need additional aircraft until March or even April the earliest.
Let's see if these will work or if they will cut them after a few weeks like they did Nis-Budapest.
ReplyDeleteLet's be negative immediately! It's cool and we'll feel smart!
DeleteBUD was the only destination cut prior to the pandemic. 4 of the destinations from the last tender is returning, which obviously means that those were the flights that performed the best.
DeleteI was under the impression that these flights will simply be used for positioning purposes and then they decided to just put tickets on sale because you might as well. But if they will go after transfer and schedule flights like that it doesn't seem so.
ReplyDeleteIt still may be used. If a plane departs Belgrade at around midnight it could be used at Nis the entire day before being returned to Belgrade the following morning on Nis-Belgrade flight.
DeleteI'm interested to see if any of the Nis flights will operate in W rotation with flights from Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. They didn't do it for any existing or previous Nis or Kraljevo flight.
DeleteThey don't do that because their Belgrade flights are tightly scheduled to connect onto the waves which would be mucked up if they had a flight to Nis in between. Plus they don't even fly to Hahn for example from Belgrade.
DeleteAlso all their Kraljevo flights will be operated by ATR72, while from Belgrade they fly to all destinations that will be flown from Kraljevo with Airbus planes.
DeleteTechnically W operations could happen.
DeleteATH and IST do have alot of O&D pax, which is where I see these 2 potentials for W rotations.
Eg:
BEG ATH 0730 1000
ATG INI 1040 1120
INI ATH 1200 1410
ATH BEG 1450 1530
This would allow ATH for JU512/513 rotation to be pushed forward 1 hour so that it recieves 100% of the midday European arrival traffic. The later departure then allows it arrive closer to the departures at 20:30 (ROV, TGD). The new departure above allows arriving traffic from the midnight wave and JFK to connect perfectly to ATH, while the later arrival in BEG perfect for the early evening wave.
Very interesting idea JATBEGMEL. This would be also perfect time for additional BEG flight to Athens, because now flights arriving to Athens at 5 pm or in 2 am, and it is not perfect for leisure and business travelers.
DeleteWhy didn't they also offer a domestic flight from Kraljevo to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteThe assumption probably is that much more people travel out of Nis than Kraljevo.
DeleteBecause in Nis there is actual competition from Swiss, Ryanair and Wizz Air while in Kraljevo they have none.
DeleteAlso don't forget that Milos Veliki (highway to western Serbia) merges with the Belgrade ring close to the airport. On the other hand, the ring from Bubanj Potok is still not completed so people coming from that direction still have to take the highway through the city where there can be a lot of traffic.
DeleteI believe KVO doesn't have fuelling capabilities so it is done in BEG. Carrying pax and cargo would burn extra fuel. INI does have fuelling capabilities.
DeleteMakes sense
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where the domestic arrivals and departures will be located at BEG and how the passport control would be circumvented?
ReplyDeleteA lot of people ask this but why do they need to avoid passport control? I mean you arrive at passport control, you present them with your boarding card, and they just wave you in without scanning your passport.
DeleteApparently BEG has already made a passage to the ground level gate from the check-in area.
DeleteWhen can we expect for these flights to start?
ReplyDeleteThe contract for the routes that will operate during the entire year starts on 1st January 2022. That's when the flights are supposed to be introduced.
DeleteSo in 17 days?
DeleteYes
DeleteAnd when can we expect ticket sales to begin?
DeleteBest case scenario - next Monday.
DeleteThat's crazy
DeleteCan't wait for these flights to start.
ReplyDeleteNot long to go now.
DeleteDoes Air Serbia have enough aircraft to start 6 new routes in a few weeks?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteI just don't know what they are going to do in the middle of summer.
DeleteThey will have to lease more planes during the summer. It is more than obvious with these flights.
DeleteI can't wait to see the fares for this domestic flight.
ReplyDeleteAerodrom Morava sa gradnjom nove piste i Kargo-logistickog Centra uz zavrsetak Moravskog i Gruzanskog koridora postace odrzivi aerodrom.
ReplyDeleteKragujevac, Kraljevo, Cacak i Krusevac sa okolinom
Bice dovoljni. Razvojem privrednih klastera izmedju ovih gradova i kargo saobracajem, ova centralna luka
Srbije tada bice samoodrziva. Do tada ATR je jedino sto moze sleteti na pistu koja nije pravljena za putnicke avione. Ulozeno je do sada oko 4 milijarde dinara u civilni deo aerodroma. To nemoze biti promasena investicija. Drzava Srbija je na potezu.
Buducnost je izvesna! ✈🌐🛫😀
According to Flightradar these flights, which go empty between Nis and Kraljevo to Belgrade, are already happening since months .
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is better to make some bucks with allowing pax instead of flying the planes empty .
Prior to the pandemic, there was an A319 stationed in INI and I believe the aircraft was swapped in FCO and TIV to allow the aircraft to return to BEG on a commercial sector for maintenance.
Deletenext project: Kozmodrom Kraljevo and bullet train between Niš and Belgrade terminal 1
DeleteDesignated gate, check in, passport control, baggage drop of or drop on desk, fast boarding, fast disembarking, shuttle service to Belgrade and Nis center are some of solutions to motivate P2P passengers with lower ticket price, off course.
DeleteDesignated gate, check in, passport control, baggage drop of or drop on desk, fast boarding, fast disembarking, shuttle service to Belgrade and Nis center are some of solutions to motivate P2P passengers with lower ticket price, off course.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteCheck in at city retail office could help as well. I believe Air Serbia still has a representative office in downtown Nis.
DeleteI think they closed all retail offices outside of Belgrade in 2018 when they were cost cutting in every single sector.
DeleteThey should have included both Banja Luka and Nis in this PSO/Tender. Short transfer times to main destinations and affordable pricing would make it work.
ReplyDeleteBNX is already supported as all handling and landing fees are waived at the airport.
DeleteBravo Air Serbia!
ReplyDeleteSerbia keeps winning!
ReplyDelete