Turkish Airlines became the main transfer carrier out of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport last year, overtaking both Lufthansa and Aeroflot which were in front in the pre-pandemic 2019. Turkish Airlines resumed operations to the Serbian capital in June 2020 following the global lockdowns. In August, a wide-ranging codeshare agreement with Air Serbia came into force, allowing even greater connectivity via the carrier’s Istanbul hub. An entry ban for the majority of Serbian citizens and residents to many European markets throughout most of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with an entry ban into the United States if transferring via a European Union or Schengen Zone member state, also saw more people opt to fly with Turkish Airlines to their final destination compared to its competitors. Overall, it held a 16% share of the transfer market to and from Belgrade.
Top transfer carriers at Belgrade Airport in 2020
According to OAG data, Turkish’s most popular origin and destination points on its Belgrade flights last year included the resort town of Antalya, the country’s capital of Ankara, as well as Chicago, Moscow, Miami, Tel Aviv, Izmir, Los Angeles, Tunis, Hong Kong and San Francisco. These figures also take into account the first two and a half months of last year, during which travel was restriction-free. In response, Turkish Airlines’ lower cost unit, AnadoluJet, will introduce a two weekly service from Ankara to Belgrade on December 23. It will complement Turkish Airlines’ double daily flights from Istanbul to the Serbian capital, which match pre-pandemic operations. AnadoluJet also planned to operate scheduled services from Antalya during the 2020 summer season, but did not receive approval from the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate.
Top Turkish Airlines origin and destination points on Belgrade flights in 2020
Turkish Airlines is currently among Belgrade Airport’s busiest carriers. Due to strong demand, particularly from connecting traffic, the airline utilised its wide-body Airbus A330-300 jet on one of its weekly services to the Serbian capital from June until late September. Turkish has also benefited from strong point-point demand between the two countries. "We mutually recognise Covid-19 vaccine certificates to enable easy travel for citizens. Soon, people from both countries should be able to travel passport-free with their identity cards. We will continue to work on this together and I believe we will reach an agreement”, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said recently.
One reason BEG to have flights to Ankara.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the codeshare and cooperation with Air Serbia brought them some benefits.
ReplyDeleteFor JU as well.
DeleteOne thing that helped them a lot if JU's inability to secure a decent partner in JFK. Sure they have an interline with AA and B6 but connections are still bad.
DeleteFor example it's next to impossible to fly to ORD with JU via JFK and I think that's one of their biggest missed opportunities.
That is a disaster, yupp. Maybe they should introduce some triangular flights, like BEG-ORD-BOS, or so, to make it up for those markets. BEG-ATL-MIA, or even BEG-LAX-SFO.
Delete(I know, that`s not the way the air traffic operates these days, but still, the`re missing much in The States).
No, triangle flights no longer make sense. Since they are incapable of getting a partner over there then they should focus on improving their sales on the other end. It's not the end of the world but it does show that BEG needs to work on bringing a North American carrier who can offer swift connections to primary, secondary and tertiary destinations.
DeleteHow is it a missed opportunity ? After 5 years, don't you think that they would have wanted to secure a codeshare partner in the US ? of course they do. BUT, you can't force a US carrier to codeshare with you if they see no benefit in doing so and that sadly, is the reality. Transatlantic flying is tied to JV's within the alliance blocks and that is nothing that JU can do anything about. Perhaps one day, if they join one of the 3 alliances, they might be able to find a way forward. But until then, they will only be able to do things with the likes of TK or others
DeleteIf there is a commercial interest US carriers will sign a codeshare agreement. After all, it was DL's CEO who said some time ago that the era of alliances is slowly coming to an end and that a new concept needs to be developed.
DeleteAlso, what stopped them from deepening ties with B6? They just started flying to Europe, they are the smallest of the big players and they are quite an important player in New York. They don't have any JVs.
What JU needed to do is to make a pitch to them as I am sure they would love to receive a daily, full A330 filled with transfer passengers especially to Chicago where they are very weak.
However main problem is that JU can't operate more than 2 to 3 weekly flights in winter. Why? Because they still haven't positioned themselves on the Balkan market as a serious player. For that you need a lot of marketing to build a brand.
Could they, perheaps, pay a small airline to fly purely connecting flights from NYC to ORD, with a small tiny aircraft? The way Pan am used to reach Belgrade from Frankfurt, but of course, in a much smaller scale and as an outsourced business? I know that`s not what`s being done nowadays - just like the triangular flights - but if the US carriers don`t want to cooperate, well, you need to be innovative.
DeleteSo, maybe they could fill 20 seats to Chicago at a price deacent enough to justify paying, say, Beach 1900 flying NYC'-ORD. Or maybe not...
Nemjee - what stopped them deepening ties with B6 is B6 themselves. They don't need a plane full of low yielding pax from the Balkans because they can fill their flights from JFK to ORD with much higher yielding US domestic traffic. It's as simple as that. The US domestic market is booming. They only have access to higher yield booking classes within their existing interline agreement. Moreover, they have recently moved terminals, which makes it even more uncompetitive for pax to interline. Things look very different when you are looking at it from the outside. It isn't as straight forward as you make it out to be. There are many things to criticize them on, but this is not one of them.
DeleteYes, you need a lot of marketing to build a brand to position yourself in the market. But this takes ALOT of money over a long period - something which JU simply doesn't have resources for
DeleteNemjee, you hit the nail on the head - if there was commercial interest, the US carriers would sign a codeshare deal. The fact that not one has done so, answers your own question
DeleteNot quite. jetBlue is a publicly traded company which means that the price of their share is dictated by how well they perform as a company. JU could considerably boost both their revenue and profits and with it their stock value.
DeleteWhat JU needed to do is to reach out to them and actually to propose all the benefits they would have from a code-share.
B6 isn't doing that well on JFK-ORD because flights from LGA are much more popular. If I remember correctly, 2/4 daily flights they operate are with the smallest plane in their fleet (E90). With dozens of transfers from JU they could easily boost capacity to a much more comfortable A320.
Commercial interest is there. Unfortunately JU couldn't sell themselves as a partner to B6.
Sure Nemjee, you know exactly who they met with and what was discussed because you were there, right ?
DeleteDon't have to be there to know. It's enough to realize that after all those years in NYC they failed to get a partner.
DeleteYou need to change your moniker from Nemjee to Wikipeadia - heaps more fit for purpose
DeleteAt least we know who you work for. Lol
DeleteOfcoz you do - bcoz you know everything !
DeleteWho needs Google when we have you !!
:)
I honestly can't argue with that! <3
DeleteNo surprise. But I wonder if Lufthansa manages to regain top spot this year, with US transfers now possible.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Aeroflot was second in 2019. I'm surprised they had so many transfer passengers, then again they were one of the main airlines for China transfers.
ReplyDeleteWell they were supposed to add a third daily flight to Belgrade in summer 2020, before corona hit. So they had many passengers. Not surprising really.
DeleteSU had triple daily to BEG from SVO, I think those were introduced in summer 2019.
DeleteMy bad then, I thought they were supposed to introduce the third daily. Plus let's not forget Air Serbia's flights to Moscow, which also feed Aeroflot flights considering the codeshare. And now they added Seoul to the list.
DeleteWhat was unexpected is that they extended the third daily into winter 2019. I don't think anyone expected that back then.
DeleteThey are also the most convenient option to the ex-USSR market where many Serbs even today live and work. Add to that China and the rest of Asia and voila, you have your three, four daily flights on BEG-SVO.
It helps that they are a good airline and have good service.
DeleteCongratulations to TK.
ReplyDeleteWill we see TK back with the A330 next summer in Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteHad the Serbian CAD not blocked them, in 2019 they were planning for one of their two daily flights to be operating with A330 year round.
DeleteFares to ESB are very good now, they are at around €60 one way without luggage. Turkish tourists are returning to Serbia and hopefully these Ankara flights attract even more of them. I wouldn't be surprised if they add a third one when summer comes.
ReplyDeleteJU's IST flight offers fantastic connections via IST, especially on the way to Belgrade from North America. Lufthansa and its minions have been rather aggressive in Belgrade so it will be interesting to see how things play out in 2022.
It's interesting that the likes of Austrian and Swiss are not in the top 5. Less than 10 years ago these were the main airlines in Belgrade. I'm guessing they have been impacted generally by Air Serbia being around and offering more flights and destinations.
DeleteI am not surprised by OS as they kept a high number of frequencies but capacity has been rather low. Most flights were upgraded from Q400 to E95 and Airbuses are rarely used. It also has to do with them competing with JU both for locals and transfers.
DeleteSwiss on the other hand is a mystery to me as they tend to be quite cheap for transfers, especially to the US. What I think happened is that their growth in BEG was mostly centered around the growing O&D market, both in terms of diaspora and business. In a way this makes sense since yields are higher when it comes to these two groups.
Just to add something else, this year they revised their ZRH-BEG flights to match those offered by JU. This shows that they put up a fight for the O&D traffic.
DeleteYes I think LX's main target on Belgrade flights are point to point considering the size of that market. I don't think they are after transfers too much.
DeleteAs for OS, they have really declined. Not just in BEG but across Eastern Europe. During the 90s and first decade of 2000s they were so called Eastern European specialist. They were practically flying to villages too. An airline that benefited the most from the collapse of communism.
DeleteIndeed and the current situation in Austria isn't helping them rebuild their network. Then again what can we do, times change and we must change with them. OS needs to find a way to cope with the rise of MUC, WAW and to a certain extent BEG.
DeleteBEG might be small but JU did redirect a certain number of ex-YU passengers away from VIE. This was especially the case in places like Montenegro and I would even dare say Tirana.
Austrian Airlines also needs to put up a fight against LCCs in Vienna. So overall they will have a tough time and their finances have been rather bad for a long time now.
OS also retired three B767 so we wll have to see what they plan for next summer as their long-haul fleet shrunk quite a bit since covid started.
DeleteTrue OS is being hit on all sides. Although I think their decline began long before Covid.
DeleteIndeed, I think it started with the rise of LO and with LCCs moving into VIE.
DeleteBasically they want to start the first two destinations on the list nonstop. Anadolujet was supposed to fly Antalya scheduled as well.
ReplyDeleteIzmir is a lost JU opportunity, dunno what they're waiting for...
ReplyDeleteSeems like Chicago too.
DeleteI honestly hope they fix their regional fleet and network before they even think of ORD. Since JFK is 6 weekly in summer, they would need a second A330 and they are not ready for that. Sure, in summer they could fill it without a problem but then it would be a disaster once winter comes.
DeleteUntil they have a decent winter regional network they should not think of expanding their widebody fleet.
From a passenger's point of view, it would be much better if UA launches ORD or AC YYZ so that they could offer one stop connections to a massive list of North American destinations. We've seen that JU can't secure that so better to work on the alternative. This is something both the Serbian economy and diaspora need.
Nemjee is right. ORD is very seasonal, as is YYZ and launching both by leasing in additional aircraft would be great for 3 or 4 mths of summer, but would be an unmitigated disaster over the winter. They should think about wet leasing some long haul capacity for 3 mths of summer for a few years to test the market and build volumes
DeletePerhaps a new CEO will bring some fresh thinking on fleet and how to strengthen their regional network. Time will tell
DeleteI prefer flying to ORD via european hubs, because I have to do emmigration stuff at JFK if I'm flying with JU and after that I'm flying to ORD as a domestic passenger. It's much comfortable to transfer in Europe than here in US. JU has to find transfers at european/middle-eastern side.
Delete@Nemjee
Delete"hope they fix their regional fleet and network before they even think of ORD"
They have been fixin' regional fleet and network since 2013 and will have to continue doing that for many years. At that time it was talks about Q400, then leasing more ATRs, then replacement with -600 series, then 2016 experiment with Adria's CRJ-900 etc. Network fixes are too many to mention.
"Until they have a decent winter regional network they should not think of expanding their widebody fleet."
People said the same thing before they launched JFK. Dane said in 2014 they need to have twice daily services in the region before expanding. That approach was abandoned long time ago. More long haul destinations would actually boost regional destination traffic as there would be more transfers. If JFK sometimes draws enough transfers from TIA to get A319 instead of ATR, imagine what would JFK, YYZ and ORD do?
"in summer they could fill it without a problem but then it would be a disaster once winter comes."
Same was said about JFK but they made it work. Actually two widebodies are better for Air Serbia than one. With two they could operate JFK, ORD and/or YYZ in the summer, and use just one busy A330 in the winter to operate 3xJFK and say 2xYYZ, with second A330 leased to another airline.
Yes and like that when winter comes they will burn all of their summer profits. You first build a regional network and only then do you start expanding your long-haul flights. After all, do you start building your house from the roof?
DeleteDane was right about that. They should have worked harder on having double daily flights to the whole region. They need that in general, not only for their long-haul flights.
"when winter comes they will burn all of their summer profits"
DeleteUmm, did you read my post? That's what they are doing right now, flying 5-6 times per week to JFK and keeping A330 on the ground for 5 days a week in the winter.
What I proposed instead was to keep two A330 busy 6 days a week each in the summer season flying to JFK, ORD and YYZ and (once services are established) will be making more money than currently by serving only JFK.
In the winter, one of those 2 A330 would have to be leased out (even for peanuts) to some other airline, still making more money than just sitting idle 5 days a week in Surcin. Second A330 would be utilized far more than current A330, by flying 5 days a week in the winter (3pw for JFK, 2pw to ORD for example). Five pw is more than current 2pw, right? That way Air Serbia would be making more in the summer and lose less in the winter, plus they would draw more pax on key regional lines feeding those long haul destinations.
They don't need more regional destinations to start more long haul services. TGD and TIA are already great feeders for JFK and would also make great feeders for YYZ and ORD. Just switch TIA/TGD from ATRs to A319 or adjust a frequency/timeslot and that's it. That's your building foundation, Air Serbia already has it. Then add a roof by expanding to KIV and other destinations later, but you can't possibly argue JU doesn't already have a foundation of regional destinations to expand long haul in 2022. Foundation is the same as for JFK.
Well we'll have to agree to disagree I guess.
DeleteVery interesting to see no New York on the list. It means that JU takes most of the passengers on their nonstop flights.
ReplyDeleteNo, it does not mean at all. That just mean that JFK pax are dispersed on many other carriers from BEG.
DeleteWhat are the top transfer destinations of Aeroflot? And also what kind of passengers travel on the BEG-SVO route(point to point )? Tourists to Serbia?
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming its Shanghai (unless it's some Russian destination). They are heavily used by Chinese passengers to/from BEG. At the moment I assume it's point to point. Many tourists use it, especially Russians, as well as business people considering the business cooperation. Also many are using to transfer onto JU to reach Montenegro since there have been no flights between Russia and Montenegro for almost 2 years now.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteAll kinds of passengers, virtualy. From tourists, to construction workers and business people.
DeleteVirtually?
DeleteYes, virtually, meaning practically.
DeleteLittle bit of a stretch, but I will give it to you bro.
DeleteThanks for the info! No surprises on the list of transfer destinations. My assumption is Moscow made it because A) prices are so expensive on nonstop flights, B) I think it took some time for flights to resume between Russia and Serbia. They started in September I think.
ReplyDeleteThe only surprise is Tel Aviv.
TLV is not surprising although it would be interesting to see if it was a one off in 2020 because of pandemic or it is generally high on the list. Remember there was a massive travel boom from Israel to Serbia in 2020. TK has great fares and I assume many flew with them.
DeleteWell there were up to 7 daily flights between TLV and BEG in August/September/October last year so TK certainly got a piece of the cake.
DeleteIstanbul was used as transfer point for many months last year to Moscow. Since flights between BEG and SVO were limited, they introduced IST as transfer point that would be free of quarantine because for many months you had to quarantine if you flew to Russia on a flight that was not nonstop.
DeleteI see they are going to send B737-900 to BEG around New Year. I was hoping for A330. What is the capacity of the 737-900?
ReplyDelete150 seats. Twice per day, that's 300 seats each way which I think is sufficient. But they could always modify it. We will see.
DeleteLufthansa's transfers will continue to decline. They now charge for alcoholic beverages on long haul flights, some of their wide bodies still don't have PTVs in seats, on short haul they now serve just a bottle of water in economy while business class service has now become a joke. I don't know why they have such a good reputation, especially in Serbia.
ReplyDeleteBecause people think because it's German it must be best. Also historically, it was one of the few foreign carriers to fly to Belgrade for a long period of time.
DeleteSuch an overhyped airline.
DeleteI'd also add that LH started charging for snacks as well on long-haul flights.
DeleteMeanwhile KLM CEO said that they don't want to go down that road because it will damage their brand. I guess they should profit the most in BEG.
Seriously?? They charge for that too. Wow. Do you all remember that short period when Air Serbia only offered a bottle of water and everyone went wild here. Now LH does exactly the same and there is no fuss whatsoever.
DeleteYes, I read about it some days ago. LH is transitioning into a woke LCC with very high costs. This will be a disaster because others are not willing to follow them in this regard starting with AF and KL. Also now that Alex Cruz left BA, they also started rolling out improvements in terms of onboard product.
DeleteIn the end LH will lose customers because they will be charging the same as AF, KL... while offering much less in return. In Belgrade they are already feeling this since they operate 11 weekly to FRA and they are down to double daily CRJ/E95 from MUC. Meanwhile AF is present via JU while KLM operates 12 flights in winter, their first winter in BEG after like three decades. If that doesn't indicate LHG is in trouble in BEG then I don't know what does.
They will loose many passengers.
DeleteI don't understand what was the point of Eurowings Discover then. I mean they turning into Eurowings.
DeleteThe point is to offer cheap and worse off contracts to pilots and crew.
Deletelol true unfortunately.
DeleteThanks ex-Yu. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the list for this year. I'm particularly interested to see where KLM will rank.
ReplyDeleteKLM will do extremely well with transfers. They introduced second daily flight to Belgrade within 3 months of launching flights. They did it mainly because of transfers. They will get a huge share of passengers to US and Canada, as well as many European countries, particularly UK.
DeleteInterestingly this summer they were used a lot by Chinese people (those living in Serbia and Chinese workers in Serbia). Seems like they had good fares as I don't see the point of backtracking.
DeleteThere are very limited and few options to reach Europe from China at the moment and vice versa so I'm not surprised.
DeleteKLM was also lucky with its timing and got a huge share of Indian passengers trying to reach Canada.
DeleteI mean the ones that quarantined in Belgrade.
DeleteWell deserved.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised to be honest, congratulations to Turkish. Their onboard service can be hit-and-miss but their product remains FAR superior to any other European carrier. Plus, they keep expanding like crazy: just yesterday, they announced Cebu, Philippines, as a new destination.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Their crew can be friendly some time but most often then not they are quite cold. One thing I'm not a big fan of is Istanbul Airport. Yes, it is nice looking but it is all so disorganized. Connections are too short on many flights, people running, unable to pass huge security lines on time. At least this was my experience on previous 3 trips through IST. So I recommend people have 2 hours between flights.
DeleteAlso don't forget the idiots make you go through security control even if you are a transit pax {facepalm}.
DeleteWell a bomb exploded at the airport a few years ago so I can understand.
DeleteAnon@12:30 FRA does the same
DeleteQR seem to be doing very well with transfers too.
ReplyDelete98% of their passengers are transfers so.. :D
DeleteI know but they still did very well in a corona year when Asia (where majority of the transfers are from) was (and still is for the most part) completely closed.
DeleteThey were one of the few that stayed very loyal to the market. Resumes flights quickly and kept at it. They also didn't have much competition other than TK which had quite bad service for most of 2020 due to covid measures.
DeleteGood on TK. No AF?
ReplyDeleteI don't think AF flew to Belgrade last year. They were supposed to resume in March but then there was corona and I think they never came back. They restarted this March.
DeleteInteresting there are no Chinese destinations in their top O&D routes.
ReplyDeleteWell China has been closed since February last year. And many airlines did not resume very limited operations until late last year.
DeleteChicago, LA, Miami... They seem to be in big demand for transferring to the US.
ReplyDeleteI remember there was a TK trip report here recently and the person wrote that most passengers in the cabin were continuing to US destinations.
DeleteHere it is
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/10/trip-report-turkish-airlines-belgrade.html
Interesting. Thanks
DeleteGreat we have a good link with the worlds largest airport IST and worlds #1 airline in the terms of international connections TK
ReplyDeleteGoodness I'm old. I remember when Turkish Airlines was such a small and insignificant airline. Look at them now
ReplyDeleteThey have managed to grow so much because they have endless financial support from the government.
DeleteAmazing what state support can do for an airline
DeleteSame goes for the Gulf airlines.
DeleteWell it's not all just about state support. I mean of course they get it, but so do JU and OU and we see where they are compared to TK.
DeleteSeriously ??? You are comparing the size of TK with OU and JU and then saying that the degree of state support is comparative and that both of these airlines should be titans in their respective domains ? C'mon, get real .....
DeleteI'm surprised that Ankara is so popular.
ReplyDeleteI suppose can be for Turkish people (for other foreigners way less), but for Serbs for sure not.
I remember it was written here that it is one of BEG's top unnerved route.
Delete* unserved obviously :D
DeleteOdd there are not too many Izmir charters in summer. There seems to be demand via IST.
ReplyDeleteTK is sending A333 to BEG this Saturday (morning)
ReplyDelete