Air Serbia has finalised its 2022 summer expansion with the introduction of an additional three new routes - Hanover and Nuremberg in Germany, as well as Salzburg in Austria. The airline had previously announced nine new destinations out of Belgrade and a further one each from Niš and Kraljevo. Services to Hanover will be maintained three times per week during the summer and two per week in winter starting June 3. Flights to Nuremberg will run twice per week throughout the year starting from June 6, while operations to Salzburg will be maintained three weekly in summer and two weekly in winter starting June 7. With the announced network expansion, the Serbian national airline will operate flights to as many as eight destinations in Germany - Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg and Hanover from Belgrade, as well as to Hahn and Cologne from Niš, which will make the German market the country with the most Air Serbia destinations in its network.
| Route | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Belgrade - Valencia | APR 21 |
| Belgrade - Amman | JUN 01 |
| Belgrade - Sochi | JUN 02 |
| Belgrade - Trieste | JUN 02 |
| Belgrade - Lyon | JUN 02 |
| Belgrade - Hanover | JUN 03 |
| Belgrade - Bari | JUN 05 |
| Belgrade - Bologna | JUN 06 |
| Belgrade - Nuremberg | JUN 06 |
| Belgrade - Salzburg | JUN 07 |
| Belgrade - Palma | JUN 11 |
| Belgrade - Rijeka | JUN 15 |
| Niš - Athens | JUN 15 |
| Kraljevo - Tivat | JUN 15 |
Click on link for flight details
Commenting on the new additions, Air Serbia’s Head of Network Planning and Scheduling, Bojan Arandjelović, said, “Historically, the German market has been always of a great importance for our airline. By launching routes to Hanover and Nuremberg, Air Serbia will further strengthen its position in Germany, increase the country coverage and complement its already existing services. On the other hand, the introduction of flights to Salzburg confirms our commitment to improve connectivity between Serbia and Austria, which represents a significant market for our country due to the sizeable Serbian diaspora, but also offers great opportunities for city break and skiing holidays”. Air Serbia had previously flown from Niš to Salzburg between June 2019 and March 2020, while Wizz Air all three destinations from Belgrade over the past years.
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| Air Serbia 2022 summer network expansion |
According to global travel data provider OAG, the route with the greatest potential for success out of Air Serbia’s portfolio of new destinations from Belgrade is Bologna, based on pre-pandemic 2019 figures. It is closely followed by Trieste, Valencia, Hanover, Lyon, Nuremberg and Palma. However, these figures are based on point to point traffic and do not take into account the potential of transfer passengers. Data further indicates that Lufthansa was used as the main transfer airline for the majority of these routes out of Belgrade, with exception to Amman where Turkish Airlines handled 30% of passengers between the two capitals in 2019, followed by TAROM with a 26% share and Aegean Airlines, which accounted for 21% of traffic.
Wow congratulations to RO. Never would have thought they did so well here.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know they flew/fly to AMM.
DeleteYup they have flights in the middle of the night. They have been flying there for decades.
DeleteI assume it connected well from the night flights JU had to OTP (they might still have them).
DeleteI think RO used their own flights as before covid they have double daily on workdays. Connections worked like that. I don't think that's the case now with this schedule.
DeleteInteresting. If someone asked me who I thought was the main airline from BEG to AMM I would have guessed TK but the numbers are really close, RO and A3 are just behind, LH nowhere in sight.
DeleteImagine they announce three long haul routes :D :P
ReplyDeletehahaha
DeleteI love how they dragged this out over 2 weeks :D
ReplyDeleteGood PR move
DeleteWhich ones could it be?
ReplyDeleteCologne and Lisbon would be nice
DeleteSomething tells me we will find out today.
DeleteMaybe Hannover since Wizz left that market altogether since they didn't get $$$ from the airport. You can't even chose the city on their website.
DeleteThey announced only one route in Eastern Europe (Sochi).
DeleteMaybe today we shall see some more like KRK, VAR or CLJ.
Krakow would be such a great addition
Deletewild guess: Dublin, Krakow and Lisbon
DeleteI think that DUB and LIS are really not possible. Especially DUB.
DeleteMaybe Lviv, Krakow and Erbil?
DeleteSo that would be 12 new routes by Air Serbia in 2012 in total. Nice!
ReplyDeleteIs there any route they operated last year that they are discontinuing?
DeleteYes, Geneva is out.
DeleteGeneva seems to be the only one cut from last year but at the same time they bring back Madrid, Venice, Nice which did not operate last year.
Delete@anon 09:08
DeleteThe year is 2022.
Lviv makes no sense untill this Ukraine mess ends. But it would be eastern european ATR range destination(s) I think.
Keep them coming
ReplyDeleteWell done
ReplyDeleteIt is clear ZAD is one of them...
ReplyDeleteQuite possible based on their last announcment related to the arrival of ATR72-600.
DeleteThat is going to be one streched fleet this summer.
ReplyDeleteThey said they would retire until the end of this year.
DeleteSo it practically means they might operate this summer all ATR fleet 3X72-200, 2x72-500 and 5x72-600.
It would make sense to have three new routes to the east to stenghten the hub model. Hopefully it is Kishinev
ReplyDeleteExactly! Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria must follow their Italy, Spain and France expansion. Big diaspora over there. My guess are Chisinau, Cluj or Iasi and Burgas.
DeleteBrasov, Ruse, Chisinau.
DeleteWhats with the obsession with Ruse?
DeleteNo obsession whatsoever, it s a new airport in our region, time to take advantage of being first. Same with Brasov.
DeleteSo what if it is a new airport in the region? JU still doesn't operate destinations many destinations in the surrounding countries, what makes Ruse so special? You have OTP 90kms away, which can do with extra frequencies. Kukes is also a new airport in the region, actually has flights operating out of it, yet we don't see comments on an almost daily basis how JU should fly there.
DeleteJust for the sake of it, like LJU base obsession etc.
Delete"Lufthansa was used as the main transfer airline for the majority of these routes out of Belgrade"
ReplyDeleteAll these new routes could affect their BEG performance.
Or they will force LH to be more reasonable with their pricing to these destinations. BEG-BLQ with them was rarely under €300 when I looked.
DeleteFInally JU launches Nuremberg, beautiful Bavarian city, I wonder whz Wizz failed there...
ReplyDeleteGround transport is still strong among our expats in Bavaria. So why JU keeps staying away from MUC? Only LH maintains the route for transfering pax from BEG to long haul.
DeleteSalzburg is for Bavaria and Austria, Lyon for France and Swiss. Everyone can conclude they not follow sexpert Purger's connectivity for business but Wizz tactics.
Delete^ Well...
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/02/air-serbia-to-compete-by-being-wizzier.html
Salzburg, Nuremberg... They are going around Munich like kiša oko Kragujevca
Deletewhy is JU so afraid to launch MUC
DeleteLook like they don't want to čačkaju mečku in MUC and play against Wizz at the same time.
DeleteIt is not easy to compete against LH.
DeleteActually it is very easy. LH is crazy expensive on BEG-MUC direct.
DeleteNice additions. Good to see all are year round!
ReplyDeleteMust say I did not expect these routes. Nice!
ReplyDeleteI am really surprised with new routes.
ReplyDeleteI did not expect they will go to western Europe, especially not to Germany and Austria...
I wonder if they will fly with ATR to NUE?
ReplyDeleteIt is A319
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/p/air-serbia-belgrade-nuremberg.html
It seems to me they are trying to block Wizz Air restarting these routes in the future.
ReplyDeleteBut will they succeed where Wizz failed?
DeleteIn all honesty Salzburg operated just 2 or 3 flights before Austria introduced a flight ban from the Balkans in 2020. So we don't know if it would be successful. Wizz then kind of pulled out of SZG.
DeleteThey should have no problem filling the ATR to Salzburg. Although I wish it was E195.
DeleteThis is very impressive. 14 new routes for summer. This is more routes than the second largest airline in ex-Yu has from its hub in total.
ReplyDeleteprovociraš ...
DeleteIt is obvious this was last minute decision, that is why wondering on systematic approach in JU.
ReplyDeleteNamely, JU itself via social media announced deployment of newly added AT6 on route to ZAD.
However, nothing spectacular in fact of ZAD being dropped.
On the other hand, I have a feeling that east and west of their network is not balanced enough to cater for transfers. Might be that they find existing regional routes supportive enough to feed new additions, especially these 3 newly added is year round.
This is just a comment, since I do not have data, of course.
ZAD will come back but it is not a new route. Wait a bit ;)
DeleteReviving ZAD route does not have sense any more. It is heavily congested with 45 routes of Ryanair, let alone the others. With limited eastward network, JU cannot expect significant transfers through BEG, neither massive P2P to ZAD, having served SPU in close proximity to it... But...
DeleteRyanair is announcing third AC in Zadar base these days
DeleteThis was already known before considering they have announced 12 new routes over past few months all originating from ZAD so...
DeleteWith the exception of RJK, all routes announced are new. It could be possible for them by summer to relaunch destinations canceled due to the pandemic.
DeleteAs for the balance between east and west, there is alot of destinations in the regional/eastern waves, and all have room for growth. TIA seems to be moving towards double daily and A319 ops for example. SOF has this winter started getting night time rotations. No real need to add more destinations in these waves, just increase frequencies to current destinations.
ZAD not back soon enough.
DeleteCongratulations Air Serbia! Well done
ReplyDeleteWhy not Krakow?
ReplyDeleteI think German destinations are also there to provide fear for Amman.
ReplyDeletefeed*
DeleteDefinitely will help
DeleteThey are going big in Germany!
ReplyDeleteAn impressive expansion by all means. My guess is we might see a few more pre-Covid routes restored as well.
ReplyDeleteSalzburg is beautiful. I would definitely recommend people to visit.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Perfect city break.
DeleteLast year I had to fly to VIE and then take a 3-hour ride on board Austrian RailJet train.
It's interesting that they introduced quite a few routes which they flew from Nis until Covid.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they? They got a BEG-INI line so that can be used for transferring to destinations they used to fly from Nis before covid
DeleteIt's an indication for me that these routes performed well from INI and they relized they could do even better from BEG. I remember reading here that CEO of Salzburg airport said that INI performed well above their expectations.
DeleteBravo JU.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is their biggest expansion out of BEG since they launched.
ReplyDeleteTheir network is way disbalanced East vs. West.
ReplyDeleteRepeating same mistake as with 2013 expansion.
Really surprised not to see Cairo, Erbil, Tel Aviv coming back, Baghdad, Kuwait and perhaps some cities in central Europe such as Krakow, Katowice, Wroclaw.
There's at least Amman and Salzburg which were long overdue.
Then there's Bari.
Dude, you need to chillax. Baghdad? Kuwait?
DeleteBaghdad airport got bombed last night. Tel Aviv is coming back this year, it's not canceled. Cairo - yes, it should be relaunched. Central Europe is LOT's playground and Air Serbia decided not to pick another battle when they are poking Lufthanza and blatantly entering Wizz territory. A lot of work in front of JU this year so this is good decission.
DeleteEBL, BGW and KWI are way too long to fit any of the current waves. EBL-BEG, the shortest of the 3, is roughly 4 hours flight time. CAI, which is around 3 hours flight time, barely fit the schedules, missing many connections in BEG.
DeleteKrakow?
DeletePhenomenal growth. Well done
ReplyDeleteThey got reach pre Covid passenger numbers this year with all this growth.
ReplyDelete*could not got
DeleteCapacity wise certainly but passenger wise is very questionable. There is still an ongoing pandemic and many travel restrictions.
DeleteTrue, we will see. Let's hope next winter will be normal.
DeleteDoes any knew what reson is that Munich is not on that list?
ReplyDeleteThere is no point competing against LH.
DeleteFranz Josef in EU is like Pearson in NA, very very expensive. You can land twice in Salzburg for the price of one at MUC. And being very close to Munich, Salzburg is actually Munich South, the distance is the same as to Memmingen, which LCC'S call Munich West. So opening Salzburg, JU will get there lot of passengers from Munich and southern Bayern as well, in addition to ones living in Austria, and for less costs. Good move!
DeleteLong overdue.
DeleteThanks. Best regards to all of you
DeleteOh yes, and thanks for the memories my friends.
DeleteI think some of these routes won't return next year or will become seasonal. They are operating year round during first year because many airports offer this sort of incentive.
ReplyDeleteThe choice of destinations from BEG this year is exceptional.
ReplyDeleteTime for Wizz Air to respond.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly. This phenomenal JU expansion is really putting them at a disadvantage, especially now when they are starting HAJ which W6 terminated.
DeleteThat said, I don't think Wizz Air will respond in any phenomenal manner. I see them maybe launching one new route and boosting a few existing ones. At the end of the day, JU is not the only one that hurting them, other carriers are as well especially now when they are expanding left and right.
They are now in the position where they loose more if don't respond. They can go not just after JU by launching VIE, SKG/RHO, MAD. CDG is no brainer but they can make real mess with Ljubljana or Athens. They will react, hope it doesn't get too nasty.
DeleteIf JU cannot fly profitable to Hamburg then Hannover will be even less successful .
ReplyDeleteI have the same opinion.
DeleteThere's no competition to Hannover unlike to Hamburg, that is huge difference.
Delete