Air Montenegro plans to introduce regular charter flights between Podgorica and Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, as well as Cairo in Egypt next month. The flights to Saudi Arabia, which are subject to government approval, are to commence on July 18. “We are in the process of signing an agreement with Hejozati Travel and Tourism [tour operator] from Dubai to perform charters between Podgorica and Riyadh this year. We expect to soon receive all the necessary permits and we hope to connect Montenegro with this important market”, the carrier told the “Vijesti” daily. Air Montenegro will act as a replacement for Saudi Arabia’s Flynas which was to launch operators to the region this summer but has delayed its plans due to a fleet and staff shortage.
In addition to Riyadh, Air Montenegro will link Podgorica with Cairo for the very first time. Regular charter operations will be launched on July 19. The flights will be run on behalf of an Egyptian tour operator. Air Montenegro will maintain services to both Riyadh and Cairo with a 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft wet-leased from Croatia’s Trade Air. The Montenegrin government has temporarily lifted visa requirements for both Saudi and Egyptian nationals until September 30 in a bid to lure tourists from these two markets. Although the services will cater for inbound toruism, Montenegrin nationals are one the few outside of the European Union to have been facilitated visa on arrival in the Saudi kingdom.
Air Montenegro is the only national carrier from the former Yugoslavia maintaining operations to the Middle East this summer in some form. In addition to its new services to Riyadh and Cairo, the Montenegrin carrier maintains two weekly charter operations between Podgorica and Tel Aviv, which will increase to three weekly next month. “We expect to be able to maintain scheduled year-round flights to Israel in the near future”, Air Montenegro’s Sales Manager, Dejan Pižurica, said recently. In addition, the airline also maintains a presence in the Caucasus, with two weekly charter flights being maintained to the Armenian capital of Yerevan until mid-September.
Very nice. Well done Air Montenegro
ReplyDeleteIndeed a very interesting news. Sounds surprising to have visitors from Egypt, but very nice news.
DeleteTirana was full of Egyptians last year. There were like 4-5 weekly charters from CAI and even HBE. Not very surprising.
DeleteThis again shows the importance of having a national airline.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does as these flights wouldn't have happened otherwise.
DeleteIt hardly justified throwing a gazillion euros at it each year.
DeleteThey may have some transfers frome these destinations to Belgrade, too.
ReplyDeleteWhen Montenegro Airports start thinking about having proper infrasctructure regarding transfer passegers, then maybe AM can think about that. Unfortunately.
DeleteThey do not offer tranfer flights at all.
DeleteI know they will wet lease an A320 but I'm assuming Embraer can't make it to Riyadh?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so.
DeleteI believe A320 is much better when it comes to both price and seats offered to agencies.
DeleteSmart move
ReplyDeleteI just wish they became part of IATA so they could become a serious airline and make codeshare agreements.
ReplyDeleteWhat does an airline need to do to be part of IATA?
DeleteIt's quite a process. Here it is explained (it's a PDF document) https://www.iata.org/contentassets/4d47f6bdd293422fafdc2266a02b3941/iata-membership-application-procedure.pdf
DeleteIt's not that dificult obtaining IATA code, but they are obviosly waiting for this whole charade with YM to be over with.
DeleteI see. Thank you. What is the main issue with YM bankruptcy?
DeleteCan you please explain a bit more... what is the current situation with YM bankruptcy? I haven't been following that. Thanks.
DeleteI don't pretend to have a full picture, but at this point in time, YM-story is not stalled due to chage of goverment (not that something was going well during previous one). The man who was in charge of the bankruptcy, Mr. Zejak, has been arrested and there is no one to bring this to the end - not to mention the above mentioned gentlemen had no plan to finish this.
DeleteUnexpected but nice
ReplyDeleteReally happy to see them growing and not shying away from exotic destinations.
ReplyDeleteWhy are they classifying flights as charters if they are operating seasonaly with a set timetable like TLV? Why not also offer tickets on sale to the general public?
ReplyDeleteBecause Montenegro doesn't have bilateral agreements with these countries for regular operations.
DeleteThey should get an A220.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they have the finances for something like that.
DeleteIt would be the perfect aircraft for them though.
DeleteI'm sure they have money for it....
DeleteI know they don't but still I think it is exactly what they need. Bigger than the Embraer but not overly huge that it can't be used in winter.
DeleteIt's not that bigger compared to Embraer capacity. The main point is that Embrear is owned by the company and they would need to (wet?) lease A220 which is a huge cost. AM needs A320 or A321 during summer only.
DeleteGreat news. They are building a nice little network.
ReplyDeleteThis is little compensation for the loss of the Russian market.
ReplyDeleteThey never flew to Russia. So they are not compensating anything.
DeleteIf they didn't fly for Russia, that doesn't mean they are at loss, buddy. You think AM didn't think operating Russia and Ukraine in their plans??
Delete*not at loss....a typo
DeleteWould love to see some of these become scheduled.
ReplyDeleteIn order to do so, Montenegro govt. must first sign bilateral agreements with a lot of other countries, beside mentioned in the article.
DeleteThey should start doing that
DeleteThey should, absolutely.
DeleteWell done Air Montenegro! OU and JU should watch and learn.
ReplyDeletelol!
DeleteWhat's funny?
DeleteJU has over a 1000 charters per year...
DeleteWhat does JU 1000 charter to do with this news? You can't compare Serbia and Montenegro, as the first one is emmiting market while Montenegro is purely inbound leisure market only during summer.
DeleteAlways good to see a local airline exanding.
ReplyDeleteHope they get the necessary permits.
ReplyDeleteThey perform flights with we leased jet while middle east agencies are selling the tickets. In other words: foreign planes with foreign crews are flying this and tickets are even not sold by AirMontenegro but by some travel agencies. Which part of the operation is actually done by Air Montenegro?
ReplyDeleteThe best one: money taking
DeleteWhat an obscure explanation. 'Foreign plane' was leased, therefore for the leased period, that aircraft is Air Montenegros. Secondly - not sure if you understand the meaning of 'charter' operations - agencies and tour operators are filling those planes. They are not selling these as tickets only, but as a package with mostly hotels.
DeleteI mean.... if you are wet leasing, that means it has nothing do to with your company? Jeez...
Montenegro keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why Croatia Airlines doesn't do more charters like this
ReplyDeleteBecause foreign tour operators found foreign airlines to fly to Croatia.
DeleteShame they don't put some seats on these flights for general sale.
ReplyDeleteThey can't because of bilateral agreements. Same thing is with their charter flights for Tel Aviv and Yerevan.
DeleteDo the Saudis need a visa to visit Montenegro
ReplyDeleteIt says in the article
Delete"Montenegrin government has temporarily lifted visa requirements for both Saudi and Egyptian nationals until September 30 in a bid to lure tourists from these two markets."
How many passengers were flying indirect Podgorica-Riyadh and Podgorica-Cairo in 2019? Was it at least 500 each?
ReplyDelete