Air Serbia has achieved strong operational results for 2021, which continued to be heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The airline saw improvements in almost all key performance indicators, with its figures above the European industry average. It carried 1.586.665 passengers in 2021, representing an increase of 83% on the year before, with the airline’s average annual cabin load factor standing at 64%. The carrier’s traffic volume grew 39% compared to 2020 but is still down 35% on the pre-pandemic and record-breaking 2019. Its best performing routes in 2021 were New York, Moscow, Tivat, Paris, Podgorica, Zurich, Istanbul, Amsterdam, London and Athens. On flights to New York, Air Serbia reported an average load factor of 71%, growing to 80% during the summer months. The route’s performance almost reached pre-pandemic levels last year. Since launching its sole long haul service in 2016, Air Serbia has carried more than 360.000 passengers between Belgrade and the Big Apple.
Air Serbia’s passenger share at Nikola Tesla Airport hovered around 50% throughout the year, which is an improvement on its pre-Covid figures. During 2021, Air Serbia Cargo registered its best results on record with its performance surpassing the pre-pandemic period by as much as 55%. During the summer season, from mid-April to the end of October of 2021, Air Serbia operated a total of 1.100 round trip charter flights, carrying approximately 140.000 tourists to popular resorts in Turkey, Egypt and Greece. The most popular charter destinations among Serbian travellers last year were Antalya in Turkey and Hurghada in Egypt. In addition, Air Serbia’s Premium Lounge at Belgrade Airport was visited by 29.090 passengers during 2021, marking its second-best result since opening its doors in 2015.
Commenting on the airline’s performance, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “By being flexible, adapting quickly to changes on the market, using sound resource management and constantly embracing innovation, we managed to accomplish satisfactory results during the biggest global crisis in our industry. We are glad that the previous year was better than 2020 and we are prepared for a strong expansion in the coming period”. He added, “The challenges we successfully overcame represent a firm foundation for further development, enabling us to implement the strategy we planned before the pandemic. We are looking forward to a further expansion in markets in Europe and the Middle East, between April and June, when we will be launching flights to as many as twelve destinations from the Serbian capital. We began a stage of continued growth as a regional leader, and we are already on track to meeting the goals initially set for 2023, which is reaching pre-pandemic levels from the record-breaking 2019”.
Good result
ReplyDeleteAnd what about financial results?
DeleteThey are released in July.
DeleteCongrats. The huge demand for holiday flights this summer really helped them as I think their charter performance was better than pre-pandemic years
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to see what the volume of charters will be this year. Will it match 2021?
DeleteIt will probably be above 2021 levels.
DeleteIf they have the aircraft for it.
DeleteHow many passengers did they have in 2019?
ReplyDelete2.8 million
DeleteThanks. Is it possible that they will reach this number this year?
DeleteAnd in 2020 they had 899.000 :/
DeleteDo you know what was the load factor in 2019?
Delete74%
Delete@9.06
DeleteIt all depends on how this Covid virus develops.
The CEO certainly thinks so
Delete"We began a stage of continued growth as a regional leader, and we are already on track to meeting the goals initially set for 2023, which is reaching pre-pandemic levels from the record-breaking 2019”
Well in his statement he doesn't mention what will return to pre-Covid levels ;) It could be anything.
DeleteHow many detitanations will JU have this summer?
ReplyDelete57 by my count.
DeleteThis is scheduled routes, not including charters.
DeleteQuite an improvement as in summer 2021 they had 36.
DeleteAll things considered pretty good.
ReplyDeleteSomebody is doing something right.
DeleteWho would have thought New York would become their best performing route.
ReplyDeleteTime for a second A330 to join the fleet.
DeleteDefinitely not the gentlefolk who were hysterically trying to convince us how this was, from the start, a failed Vucic political project.
Delete^ And those same people are now claiming the same thing that there is talk of a second and third long haul route.
DeletePsi laju, karavan prolazi.
DeleteYou forget that to US was not possible to enter from EU, so this LF doesn't have anything to do with JU strategy.
DeleteOr perhaps it does, because they too could have reduced frequencies but they kept them at pre-pandemic levels and replaced their A330 to get a cheaper lease rate to generate better results.
DeleteThey also renegotiated their landing and service fees in New York and switched terminals. So it certainly seems they had a strategy in place to improve results on their New York route. If they didn't have a strategy they would have done nothing.
DeleteSo the response to "JFK is Vucic's project" is "Vucic said it's profitable". Strong argument.
DeleteIt's hilarious that people do not have a memory to remember the same things repeated every year.. i.e. year 2018: "JFK operations have finally become profitable, whoever claims otherwise is a traitor!", year 2019: "As of this year JFK flights started to make money, this is a result of our vision!", year 2020: "Corona corona...", year 2021: "JFK flights are finally profitable despite(!) corona, whoever claims otherwise is a hater!" It looks like the route is becoming profitable every year for the first time :))
DeleteGo Serbia!
ReplyDeleteNot surprised cargo is performing the best it has. Is there any value in them getting 1 cargo plane?
ReplyDeleteI think maybe a small freighter atr 42 or saab 340 would be OK. But I am not an expert
DeleteI remember Adria used to have a small cargo plane for some years. A Saab I believe. Anyone know what they transported or what was the purpose of it?
DeleteIt will be nice to develop the cargo segment as well.
DeleteThey should have converted those 733 into freighters.
DeleteNicely done JU.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting (and more important) to know what were the financial costs to achieve these operational results.
ReplyDeleteThey publish their financial results in July. Operational results are very important and a good indicator of the health of an airline and the market it serves.
DeleteOne interesting observation: every time positive news are published about Air Serbia there seems to be a number of rookies showing up with questions about Air Serbia financial results. They don't ask questions about Air Serbia fleet, destinations etc but somehow they are unable to find out when is Air Serbia publishing financial results.
DeleteEvery single time. Amazing bunch, aren't they?
It's more like common sense to match operational and financial results to get sense of someone's state of business. Nothing personal.
DeleteNothing personal, but how come it's easy to google things like "Air Serbia fleet" but somehow it's not easy to search for "Air Serbia financial results" ? This exact same question about financial results repeats every single time positive news are published about Air Serbia. Common sense says it's not a coincidence. Some people have a problem with Air Serbia and it shows.
DeleteI see more questions on this portal about JU fleet than about their financial result. Why 1 or 2 questions about JU finances bother you so much?
DeleteIt was already answered. Care to read?
DeleteEncouraging results
ReplyDeleteGood job, many airlines are in a worse off position than Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteThis is more passengers than most capital city airports in ex-yu had in 2021.
ReplyDeleteThe load factor is good considering the situation.
ReplyDeleteAnd then February 2022 came and their whole network absolutely collapsed. Hopefully the situation improves soon.
ReplyDeleteTheir network didn't collapse. There is significantly less demand and there are still many travel restrictions in place. They operated far fewer flights and routes last February. At the end of the day, they are also taking note of their financial results and flying routes that will generate revenue and profit, rather than pleasing aviation fans.
DeleteMarket doesn't seem to be affected with omicron more than in January. JU is cutting way more than others at BEG so that is warning sign
DeleteMarket is very much affected by Omicron. Perhaps you missed the hundreds upon hundreds of cancelled flights by Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Eurowings etc.
DeleteWizz Air alone has suspended over 120 routes between January and March.
Delete120 out of how much? Don't see anyone with quarter of network out of business right now.
DeleteAir Serbia has temporarily suspended total of 3 routes for the month of February. For a network of 39 routes at the moment, that is not a quarter. Work on your maths.
DeleteThey suspended 3 routes but overall cut is one quarter of their January flights
DeleteNo, they did not. Please stop using Purger as a relevant source for anything.
DeleteGood results by Air Serbia as national airline.
ReplyDeleteAs Belgrade Airport fast changing and building
larger Hub in part part of Europe.
Naturally air Serbia will be major on this Airport.
Tako je Čika Rade.
DeleteLoads are solid
ReplyDeleteGood results by Air Serbia as national airline.
ReplyDeleteAs Belgrade Airport fast changing and building
larger Hub in this part of Europe.
Naturally air Serbia will be major operating airline on this Airport. 🛫🌐✈
At the start of summer they forecast they would reach 45% passenger levels in 2021 but they they managed 54%. That's good.
ReplyDeleteThey obviously miscalculated, which was illustrated by them needing to wetlease a plane this summer.
DeleteThat was one expensive miscalculation.
DeleteIt just shows the market will recover much faster than some expected once restrictions are not in the way.
Delete@10,08
DeleteWould you care to share how expensive it was? Or the difference between a 3 month wet lease and long term dry leasing an aircraft that would be barely flying 6 months.
For an airline operating from a country that is not exactly a tourist mecca and whose citizens were unable to enter the EU for over half of 2021, these results are excellent.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd now compare it with neighbouring company and country which is tourist mecca and whose citizens could move freely around EU all the time, and their results
DeleteStvarno si dosadan!
DeletePa ako sam izazvao reakciju kod Vas, mozda izazovem i kod nekoga tko moze nesto promijeniti. Znam da su sanse u promilima, ali dok postoji i jedan promil sanse, nastavljam. A Vas pozivam da ubuduce ne citate ono sto sam napisao ako sam Vam dosadan. I samo jos jedna sitnica : ovaca nemam i nikada ih nisam cuvao, a Vi tikajte one s kojima ste ih cuvali. Postovanje!
DeleteThis is good but still unfortunate they have not resumes several destinations since Covid.
ReplyDeleteHEL, KBP, CAI, TLV. A few, not several.
DeleteIn the mean time they have announced AER, VLC, PMI, TRS, BLQ, AMM, LYS, HAJ, NUE and SZG.
Charters have been Air Serbia's saving grace last summer.
ReplyDeleteIt was a combination of things. Good number of transfer passengers also helped.
DeleteEncouraging results
ReplyDeleteOverall 2021 has turned out relatively well for JU. They managed above average passenger numbers, introduced some new routes, retired their oldest aircraft, repaid the Etihad Partners loan in full.
ReplyDeleteAn alliance now would be very beneficial for them, considering the size of their upcoming summer network. Have they actually ever looked into it?
ReplyDeleteThey should join Oneworld which is currently fishing for new members. Qatar CEO is now leading Oneworld and he said his main priority was significantly expanding the alliance.
DeleteYou need to pau to join an alliance. So it does not come cheap.
DeleteAir Serbia in a tandem with Qatar could do wonders.
Delete@11,07
DeleteQR did amazing with Air Italy...oh wait.
@10,25
JU has next to no partnerships with One World members. In fact, they partner mostly with Sky Team airlines and were at one point invited to join SkyTeam. JU barely fly into One World hubs (LHR, MAD, JFK and soon AMM), one of which is the only European country to request visas for Serbian nationals to even transit the country let alone enter and is insistent on it. LHR has rejected JU additional slots. So why One World?
Maybe they can join Star Cartel, withdraw from JFK, cancel plans for additional long haul, cancel half of the services, phase out all or most of the medium range Airbuses, and start 10 daily to MUC and FRA, for peanuts, of course, making heavy losses, and doing all that, they can sing Danke Deutschland. Sounds familiar?
Deleteok they are struggling as many other airlines. But let's wait and see turnover vs state aid received last year.
ReplyDeleteThey are struggling? Their results are better than most airlines in southeastern Europe.
DeleteGood to see demand returning
ReplyDeleteThey still need to add 1.8 million passengers to return to 2019 levels. I think that will be difficult in 2022 but let's see.
DeleteWow at the number of passengers on charter flights.
ReplyDeleteVery profitable sector for them.
DeleteGood to see New York among top performing routes.
ReplyDeleteIt is the top performing :D although this has been the case for some time.
DeleteTheir fleet will be starched to the limit if they don't get more planes for the summer.
ReplyDeleteStating the obvious here. However, they are not stretched, they are short of aircraft.
DeleteThey are down 2 A319's compared to last summer and 2 additional B737's had to be leased in short term. So far 4 short. Plus the new destinations announced recently.
Additional aircraft have already started to arrive, YU-ALY being the first. We found out here first of their new ATR's before JU released a statement. Patience.
Yes but they will need more A319s. Or maybe they go for something like the CRJ900 like they did in 2019.
DeleteIn 2019 they even had an Etihad A320 operate just to London.
DeleteI thought that A320 from Etihad was just operating on their behalf to keep the slots Etihad bought.
DeleteThey never said they would swap ATRs 1:1. We may witness the arrival of newer ATRs, enlarged ATR fleed over the summer, and only then the retirement of the older aircraft.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do wonder how many A32S they need for the Summer schedule.
Marek said around 2 weeks ago that entire ATR fleet will be replaced with the newer ones coming this year. But he said this will happen until the end of the year so they will have more than 5 in use.
DeleteWell one of the dormant ATRs that has been sitting on the apron since November had a test flight yesterday. So it's coming back into service.
Delete71% lf on BEG-JFK and couple of days ago vučić claimed that this was profitable????!!?!?!!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteAko ti je lakse, i Er Srbija je rekla da je profitabilna. Sad kad smo izbacili politicke ostrascenosti iz price da ukljucimo mozak i pogledamo cinjenice: Nije samo LF vec yield razlog za profitabilnost. JU je bio u situaciji da trazi vecu cenu od pocetka kovida iz ociglednih razloga. Onda je tu povecani kargo promet od pocetka kovida. Dodaj jeftiniji A330 lizing, veci broj mesta u biznis klasi, jeftinije troskove na drugom terminalu na JFK itd.
Delete@Petar
DeleteCLF doesn't really say if a flight is profitable or not. Lots of factors play into this. Ticket prices, business loads, cargo. What you missed in the article is that CLF is also higher in the summer months.
Looking at fares, quick check on google flights, however reliable they are, BEG-JFK return for Y class, prices are on the higher side. JU isn't the cheapest option either to a couple of their common transfer destinations TGD and TIA, with LH group being roughly 85-180€ cheaper, TK around 255€ cheaper. For J class on the other hand, JU is the cheapest with a price difference of roughly 330€ compared to no#2 TK. However, the TGD/TIA-BEG-TGD/TIA sectors are mostly on the ATR with no J class.
Factor in cargo as well, which is in high demand, as well as lower operational costs with a cheaper aircraft and cheaper handling fees in JFK. Perhaps overall it is a profitable route.
Exactly, LF means little. You can sell out all tickets on a plane for 1 euro and have 100% LF while operating with a huge loss.
DeleteLF means a lot, especially on transatlantic routes. And it's not only the LF, but also the fare, in which JU comes the last among competitors.
DeleteBut life is magic, somehow everyone else loses money and JU generates profit.
It's not magic. If you care to read those commnets and research state of transatlantic routes since pandemic you would understand. But you don't care to understand, you are here to hate Air Serbia.
DeleteGood result. Now looking forward to seeing how Croatia Airlines and Air Montenegro performed last year.
ReplyDelete