Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines overlook Middle East markets


The two largest national carriers from the former Yugoslavia will not operate a single scheduled service to anywhere in the Middle East this summer despite growing demand which is being utilised by airlines from that region. Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines have both planned a return to the Middle East this summer with the Serbian carrier to launch operations to Amman and its Croatian counterpart to restore services to Tel Aviv, however, both have now been shelved. The two left the region upon the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and have not returned since, despite most markets in the Middle East being fully reopened now. Although Air Serbia has concluded several code share agreements with its counterparts to offer connections to the Middle East, most recently with Turkish Airlines, the Croatian flag carrier has, for the most part, been absent from the region.

Based on traffic flow data, Belgrade Airport has the most indirect traffic to cities in the Middle East with which it already boasts nonstop flights, primarily Tel Aviv and Tehran, with Dubai following close behind. However, Kuwait City is the busiest unserved route in the Middle East from the Serbian capital, followed by Muscat and Baghdad. Many of the top unserved routes in the region include points in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which are markets in which Serbian construction companies and contractors are particularly active and working on several major projects which has brought about an increase in travel demand to the region. On the other hand, the Omani capital of Muscat was Zagreb’s busiest unserved route in the Middle East, followed by Kuwait City, Tehran and Beirut.

In contrast, the only other remaining flag carrier in the former Yugoslavia, Air Montenegro, has recognised the potential of the Middle East region and has begun operating regular charter services between Podgorica and Tel Aviv, which are being maintained throughout the summer season. The airline is running two weekly flights between the two cities, increasing to three per week from 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. Israel’s largest city has the most indirect traffic with Podgorica from the Middle East. It is followed by Dubai, Beirut, Amman, Abu Dhabi and Doha.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    Tragic. You could establish Middle East - ExYu only airline and have better load factors than OU has now...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:03

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:58

      Fly Bosnia attempted that but it didn't work out :D

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:32

      They tried a lot of things :D

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    Ironic that the smallest of the three can make flights to the Middle East work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      Can Air Montenegro fly further in the Middle East? Does the Embraer have that sort of range?

      Delete
    2. Not 100 % sure but think read somewhereuAir Baltic operates Abu Dhabi or Dubai from Riga

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:49

      They fly RIX-DXB. Almost 7 hours on the A220.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:50

      That must be a very uncomfortable flight.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:03

    JU should consider Belgrade-Kuwait City

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      JU should consider resuming BEY especially since RO, A3 and LO fly there and they seem to be doing quite ok.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:07

      JU should consider flights from BEG to at least 4-5 routes in the Middle East which would substanitally increase its loads on European routes... On the other hand, with such equipment planning they cannot sustain existing flights let alone increase them to other routes

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:11

      Kuwait could be a good choice. There is a large Serbian expat community there, mainly doctors and medical staff who have the means to travel. Also Serbian citizens get visa on arrival in Kuwait.

      Delete
    4. JATBEGMEL14:29

      KWI should definitely be looked at. However, problem with KWI is that the long flight time (roughly 9 hours for the rotation) makes it hard to fit into the current JU waves. Later afternoon/evening rotation most likely would require the crew to layover in KWI, which adds to the expenses of operating the flight.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:03

    Missed opportunities for both

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:05

    It's not a small market to overlook.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:59

      Meanwhile Middle East airlines flying and exploiting their position.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:05

    Is there an official reason as to why Air Serbia didn't start Amman?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      Considering how streched their fleet is this summer, Amman would just add fuel to the fire.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:07

      Amman would operate at night when they barely have any flights. Right now you have LCA once a week and soon Sochi. Other destinations are all served at night with the ATR.

      I think AMM cancellation had to do with their lack of strategy, vision and balls.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:09

      Yes but when delays are accumulated during the day, I wonder if the night flight would leave on time. These have to have a good on time performance so passengers can make the connections on the return flight.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:00

      No, there is no official reason. Air Serbia didn't even acknowledge they removed Amman from their destinations network.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:18

      No one advertises that they have dropped a route.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:24

      I'm surprised there isn't more demand for Jordan from Serbia. It is a great destination. Amman in itself is interesting let alone Petra and Aqaba. Also visa is issued on arrival.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:12

      Jordan is a tourist rip off country,visa on arrival is expensive, Petra entrance is expensive, public transportation is terribly organized, it just sounds like an amazing place for Serbian tourists, however, for that money and effort they can go to Turkey or Greece for a better time.

      Delete
    8. Visa on arrival is 40 JD, or 50 euro, similar to all other visas, maybe even cheaper. Petra entrance is expensive but it's one of 7 wonders so one cannot expect it to be cheap. Jett bus operates minimum dozen premium class air conditioned buses between Amman and Aqaba alone plus services to Petra, Wadi Rum, Dead Sea and Israeli border/ Jerusalem. Yes, Turkey and Greece are generally cheaper but it still doesn't mean one will have better time there, no matter where from he or she is

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:05

    Belgrade is also connected to Ankara which is in the Middle East.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      But it is operated by Anadolujet.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:10

      I know I am adding that it is another connection BEG has to the Middle East in addition to Dubai, Doha, Tehran and Tel Aviv.
      We would also have flights to Cairo if JU hadn't blocked Air Cairo from launching those.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:01

      BEG also has flights to Abu Dhabi through Wizz Air Abu Dhabi.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:08

    JU had the opportunity to start Dubai during the covid and would have performed well, established themselves on the market and could have competed against Flydubai and held up well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      No, they'd rather focus on heavy gasto routes like HAJ and NUE.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:12

      The issue is that JU's mindset is that they can't compete against anyone.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:21

      True. Very rarely have they challenged any airline.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:21

      Unless it is through the Directorate of course :)

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:32

      hahah true, JU's best performing department: CAD

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:08

      It gives the best results lol

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:49

      HAJ will be discontinued again sooner or later. JU didn't make it in HAM, so why should it work here.

      Delete
    8. JATBEGMEL14:37

      @09,08

      Absolutely right. Alot of the Serbian expats were annoyed with FZ during the pandemic for scheduling flights, canceling them, offering vouchers only (no refunds), while the value of the vouchers wasn't sufficient to be used on another flight as people still had to pay the difference for rebooking onto a new flight. FZ was charging as much as 1.000€ for a one way flight to BEG. JU operated repatriation flights for free. It was a great opportunity to use that to promote a DXB route launch, however I don't think EY would of liked that. Really unfortunate.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:21

    Meanwhile TK is killing it with transfers to the Middle East from both BEG and ZAG..

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:23

    OU does not even have a codeshare to anywhere in the Middle East! Absolutely nuts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      And the funny thing is Turkish is part of the same alliance. You would think they would cooperate more closely. It turns out Air Serbia has a better relationship with Turkish than Croatia Airlines.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:26

      Croatia Airlines doesn't codeshare because it would be difficult to sell tickets to the Middle East via Frankfurt or Munich. And Croatia Airlines thinks the entire world revolves around Lufthansa, Frankfurt and Munich. Theirs certainly does.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:38

      OU does not have developed relations with anyone from Star Alliance outside of the Lufthansa Group with exception to United. Look at Aegean. They codeshare with Air Serbia on flights to Croatia instead of Croatia Airlines.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:04

      Crazy!

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:26

    This is a real shame that neither of them is using any potential to the Middle East.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:27

    The Mid East, especially the Gulf, was and is the fastest recovering air travel region from Covid. But OU and JU don't care.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:28

    It is not so easy to fly to the Middle East profitably. These are long flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      hahaha BEY is pretty much as long as OSL, ARN and LHR and shorter than SVO or LED.

      Delete
    2. JATBEGMEL14:39

      DXB was actually one of the most profitable destinations for Jat, which they handed over to FZ back in 2011.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:17

      Problem was that Jat couldn't make it nonstop with the B733. When FZ announced it they knew it was the end.

      Delete
    4. JATBEGMEL19:10

      Problem was that the airline was severely mismanaged at the time. Party member after party member making a bad situation worse. No adequate fleet replacement strategy in place while the Airbus order was expected to be a court case. Jat could of started to slowly lease in B737NG aircraft to replace their Boeing fleet, which would of made the direct flight possible and given them better aircraft reliability, however they ended up taking on 2 B733's from Bulgaria Air later on in 2013 as their fleet wasn't not capable of maintaining even a greatly reduced schedule.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:29

    It makes little sense for either Air Serbia or Croatia Airlines to fly to the Middle East with their current hybrid model

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      Why?? Flydubai has hybrid model but flies successfully

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:30

      And also Wizz is a LCC but flies successfully from Abu Dhabi to Belgrade.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:34

      Service on Flydubai is much better than service on Air Serbia. Business class is incomparable.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:40

      FZ does so well in BEG that today they are adding an extra departure:

      FZ 1746 14.15
      FZ 1480 17.50

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:02

      Nice! They have 10 scheduled flights in total at the moment. When do they add the extra four?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:05

      Later this month

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:08

      Last week of June to be more precise.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:41

      Thanks

      Delete
    9. JATBEGMEL14:49

      @09,29

      This isn't true. There is definitely room for a lower cost alternative for traveling to Europe that JU could of taken advantage of. Alot of Serbs also travel for holiday to Dubai, while a fair amount of travelers from the Gulf are visiting Serbia. Tourism from India is increasing. JU also interlines with EK, and interline agreements could of easily been made with Indian carriers to facilitate connecting pax via DXB to a variety of destinations on the Indian subcontinent (CMB, MLE, BOM, DEL, GOI). Soo much can be spoken on these points alone.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:29

    JU should have restarted CAI, TLV and AMM.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous09:30

    If Air Serbia was smarter and worked on the transfer model they could have had a more active role in the Middle East and Central Asia. Now foreign carriers are eating the cake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      JU should have launched ESB. They didn't so TK is making a killing on this route.
      They still have Antalya and Izmir as options. Let's see if they ignore these so that TK can take it again from them.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:03

      Bilateral agreement with Turkey is the issue with them opening new flights to Turkey.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:24

      That's just an excuse as they still offer fewer frequencies to Turkey than Turkish carriers do. AYT will be launched by TK at some point because they got politics involved. Only question is if JU will rush to launch it with them.

      Delete
    4. JATBEGMEL14:54

      JU should definitely be increasing frequencies to IST. I think soon we might here of TK and JU launching new destinations from/to Turkey, while ESB will be increased.

      @10,24

      Politics has been involved for over a decade in regards to the Serbia-Turkey flights. The only difference now is that TK and JU cooperate.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:18

      Yes but JU is too passive and is losing the fight against TK.

      Delete
    6. JATBEGMEL19:12

      Nothing to lose when TK and JU have formed a duopoly on the market. TK is also selling tickets on the JU flights so there isn't a fight.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous10:03

    Not only has Air Serbia withdrawn from the Middle East but from North Africa too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:08

      Shame

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:15

      Tunisia has lost its popularity in Serbia in recent years but there is a Tunisian diaspora in Serbia and there was a reason flights used to be maintained year round, so it might not be such a bad option for JU.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:15

      Would it make sense for Air Serbia to fly Hurghada as a scheduled destination?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:17

      Well Air Cairo does it on a year round basis quite successfully.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:41

      They seem to do just fine with charters though. Much more profitable than flying it as a scheduled route.

      Delete
    6. JATBEGMEL14:59

      JU should easily be making CAI work. Huge city with a large expat population around Europe. I believe that Italy is home to the largest Egyptian expat community in Europe. Not to mention cargo possibilities.

      As for TUN, it easily fits in the midday wave for JU, definitely something they should look into.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:09

    Well the market doesn't care, exYu - Middle East connections are booming and it's particularly important for the winter season. JU and OU will *never* reduce seasonality without flying to closest hot seas, business hubs and home of all religions (religious tourism to the region is huge).
    However we saw in Belgrade this winter season that both offer and demand for Middle East are solid, so the market didn't suffer from JU's withdrawal but the company did.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous10:17

    I doubt we will be seeing flights to Beirut anytime soon as the situation in Lebanon is dire.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:24

      Yet an airline like Tarom manages to operate there.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:26

      This is true. A friend of mine was just there last week. Money is exchanged on the street, there is no electricity in Beirut, even the traffic lights are not working anywhere. It's a beautiful country but really struggling at the moment. I don't see JU going back there either.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:20

      So how come Beirut is profitable for RO, A3, LO...

      Delete
  20. Anonymous10:31

    Both airlines are struggling with the Middle East while SJJ with no doubt is the best connected city in summer to the Middle East. It can only be compared to Athens.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous10:41

    Hopefully JU brings back AMM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:49

      Fingers crossed for next year.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:48

    It's surprising that Croatia Airlines doesn't even fly charters from Dubrovnik to the Middle East in the summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:50

      They don't fly to some European capitals that are among the visited in the world, let alone have any plans for the Middle East.

      Delete
    2. It's not surprising. Their only care and purpose of existence is to feed LH and make more profits for LH, simultaneously filling pockets of its own corrupted politicians and "managers"

      Delete
    3. Anonymous01:41

      @ 11:23

      I think being a LH feeder proved to be Adria’s downfall, too.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous07:42

      Typical POZDRAV , just empty accusations without any proof !

      Delete
  23. Anonymous10:49

    Disaster

    ReplyDelete
  24. For all those spitting on JAT, from its top days while Yugoslavia was still functional state, and in comparison with today, scheduled North Africa and the Middle East destinations of JAT, were : Algiers, Malta, Tunis, Tripoli, Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Baghdad, Teheran, Kuwait, Dubai

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:30

      And? That means JAT was great thing? No one should now spit it?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:49

      Did the JAT vanity project ever make a profit?

      Delete
    3. thats impressive

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:48

      @anon 11:49
      JAT was profitable during it's days.
      In 1989 it had a 240 million dollars profit for example. Unlike other airlines,JAT invested a lot in it's employees, like free housing, profit share, the the best aviation education systems in the world at that time,etc...
      @Anon 11:30
      You can criticize all you want to be honest ,but there isn't much to criticize.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:03

      Source?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:09

      You can't compare a market of 25 million people that had strong trade links with the Middle East and North Africa and a huge number of students from all those countries studying in Yugoslavia with banana republics of today.

      Delete
    7. JAT Yugoslav Airlines, 1980-1990 was profitable, self sustainable, efficient and worldwide known company. Just for your info, 6 units MD11 order down payment had been executed by sell out and lease-back of 3 DC-10 owned units, out of 5 operated, with Bank commercial loans to follow, paid entirely out of its operational profits. Company which had during that decade on time performance of over 90 percent. The first scheduled european operator of at that time NG state of the art B737-300, partly paid out through joint venture with Prva petoletka Trstenik, the hydraulic systems manufacturer for the entire Boeing production line, B747 included. Company which had its main US office at the Fifth Avenue, Rockfeller Center, NY, just next door to American, Air France and Lufthansa. And so on, and so forth. Then, handfull of chauvinists joined their forces all over ex-yu, destroyed the country for foreign interests, and continuing to do so until the present day. And you, probably being one of them, are most welcome to continue spitting on both JAT and ex-yu. However, it cannot change the fact that what we all had was much much better than what we have today, in aviation, and in general.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:37

      JAT in the eighties was, and for long time will stay, the best aviation story in this part of the world. Proof that exceptional things can be created by our people. And it's dangereous to put that kind of ideas in people's head, they should believe they are third world citizens in constant need of foreign help, they should forget that once all of this was possible.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous15:39

      I love this new generation kids when they ask for a "source"... Lol

      Jat in the 80s was more then s symbol it was something that current JU or OU will never be!

      Delete
    10. Anonymous15:48

      No, please give me a source for that financial information.

      Delete
    11. I am the source. I worked in JAT 1985 - 1991. Now you give me proof JAT was not profitable at the time, which you cannot because it was profitable, and you are brainwashed by same group of people who speak of one type of yoghurt in Yugoslavia and there were 54 types on the market

      Delete
    12. Anonymous18:22

      Give me the source JAT made 240 mil. $ of profit that year in the 80s.

      Why I am brainwashed? Wouldnt brainwashing be beliving someone without credible sources?

      Delete
    13. JATBEGMEL19:33

      @18,22

      What is your idea of a credible source?

      Finding decent info online from the 1990's is difficult enough, and that was the decade when internet began to rise. Obviously you were born well after 1990 to understand what was internet back then and how basic and limited it was, just as was information posted on these sites. Have some fun with web archive just to see how basic it was. Not too sure what, in your opinion, is credible enough. The poster posting the comment has shared quite a fair bit of info on JAT which has been factual information. That was proven again just yesterday when an anonymous poster, just like yourself, decided to be outright disrespectful rather than engage in the conversation and learn something. I'm not sure as to why you would doubt someone who was actively working in the company at that time and has alot of knowledge. Alot of things are debatable from during that time, sure, but common knowledge is that JAT in the 1980's was one of Europe's largest airline companies, one of the better run companies in Yugoslavia and was set for further expansion in the 1990's.

      Delete
    14. His idea is that people must submit to him credible source of JAT profits, but when asked to submit credible source or proof of his claims that JAT was not profitable, he remains silent. Everything perfectly clear. Btw., thanks again @JATBEGMEL, for your nice words about me, and especially for supporting the truth and the facts, which that many here try to forge and twist.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous21:23

      My idea of credible source is source which comes from official document and not just from someones mouth.

      If your are going to discuss about info then you should also be able to prove what are you saying. You can without any problem find info about fleet, locations of ticket selling offices, timetable, but when we are talking about financial results of an airline which doesnt exist anymore thats not a case. So because of that im going to ask for credible sources for these financial informations.

      If someone is disrespectful here that is "pozdrav iz rijeke" who spited on me for no reason but his arrogance. Despite being no member of any political party, having no member of familiy who is a member of any political party, not working at any place in croatian aviation sector and showing no support to any croatian political party I was called with various names from him. Reason for is, as I said above, his arrogance towards anyone who doesnt accept his (a lot of times) subjective opinion. My case was i said long haul should not be priority for OU beacuse significant development can be done without it. I also used a case of Aegean Airlines and presented opinion of then Aegeans CEO who is against having long haul for quite good and rational reasons. For all of this I was called OU uhljeb and that i dont know anything about Aegean. Then I presented a link to that interview and asked for apology which I never recived (i actually recived more spiting on me).

      And yes, I need a source for a claim that JAT in 1989. made a profit todays worth of 500.000.000 USD. It seems not quite right since it had quite small fleet for these results (by comparasion, whole LH Group with 500+ planes made only 1.3 billion euros of net income, AF-KL only 230 mil. euros)

      Delete
    16. Anonymous21:32

      pozdrav iz Rijeke uvek ima strucne i pametne komentare sad sto pojedinim Anonymous-ima smeta istina i ne smeju da koriste neki nick da se zna sta pricaju to je vec vas problem.
      INN-NS

      Delete
    17. Anonymous21:35

      Pozdrav iz Rijeke

      I did not say JAT was not profitable.
      Now it will be nice from you to give credible sources for what are you saying.

      Delete
    18. Anonymous22:10

      Ma ne verdi sa detetom se raspravljati... "Move on" sto kazu Ameri...

      Delete
    19. Niti ja nisam napisao iznos JAT ovog profita. Samo sam rekao da je bio profitabilan i samoodrziv. Ali zato s druge strane imamo : Nisam Adeze Uhljeb i bot, vjerujte mi na rijec, samo svakako moram popljuvati onoga koji javno iznosi da smo lopovi i moram negirati apsolutno sve sto on kaze, ili izmisliti da je rekao, kako bi izgubio na vjerodostojnosti, bez obzira na temu i sadrzaj, a kad se vidi da ne prolazi, panika. Mogla bi veceras i hitna imat posla. Partijski botovi na aparatima!!! LOL!!!

      Delete
    20. Anonymous07:25

      Dobro no imaš li izvore za to?

      Ma daj molim te u kome ti vidiš ikakvog bota ovdje? U meni koji tražim izvpre za očite lažne informacije o profitu od 240 mil. ili u nekom drugom tko se ne slaže s tobom?

      Delete
  25. Anonymous12:03

    Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait, Bahrain, Tehran, Baghdad and Amman. All of those destinations would do wonders for JU network. Most of pax would be transfers anyhow.
    But, they are missing planes. For this type of expansion they need at least 5 additional planes which is not feaseable for now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:48

      Why? If it would make wonders, why not adding 5 planes?

      Delete
  26. Anonymous17:22

    Big miscalculation from both airlines.

    ReplyDelete