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Air Serbia plans to launch flights to Central Asia and the Middle East as part of its expansion drive next year which will involve the introduction of up to a dozen new routes. The carrier’s CEO, Jiri Marek, told “Aerotelegraph”, “We already have quite a number of destinations in Europe. So, we will rather increase frequencies there than launch new routes. We are looking at Central Asia, countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, for which Belgrade would be a good option for connecting to Europe. We also have the Middle East on our radar. Furthermore, we want to grow our long haul operations”.
The Serbian carrier has been absent from the Middle East since March 2020, by discontinuing its scheduled flights to Beirut, suspending operations to Cairo and Tel Aviv, as well as shelving plans to serve Amman in Jordan this summer. It has already indicated the resumption of flights to Cairo next summer, while plans to serve Jordan are likely to be restored. On the other hand, Belgrade Airport has seen growing demand for flights from the main gateways in the Caucuses, which combined with transfer traffic to and from Western Europe and North America, could provide healthy loads on nonstop flights. Out of the three main Caucasus nations - Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia - Belgrade saw the highest volume of point-to-point traffic with Yerevan, followed by Tbilisi and Baku. Late last year, Georgian authorities held talks with airlines over the potential introduction of flights between Belgrade and Tbilisi.
Mr Marek noted that serving 100 destinations by the airline’s jubilee in 2027 remains a target. “When we celebrated our 95th anniversary, I said that we want to fly to 100 destinations by the 100th anniversary. This surprised many, but it can be done. This year we opened more than ten new destinations. For next year we are planning more or less the same number”. He added, “We already fly to fifteen destinations in the region, more than any other airline. And we will continue to increase frequencies in the Balkans as it offers our guests opportunities to connect onto other flights, especially on long haul routes. In August, we became number one in the Balkan region in terms of weekly flight frequencies”.
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This will either flop badly or grew ASL to one of the biggest carriers in EU - similar to LOT
ReplyDeleteMy worry is the world is going into a downturn and recession. This could be the wrong time for expansion. I hope it is successful for Air Serbia , but it could prove a costly mistake!
DeleteBetter to try and fail than to be OU.
DeleteAir Serbia will never ever be one of the biggest airlines in the EU. Because it is not in the EU, and even if it was, not gonna happen.
DeleteI would rather say the EU is going into recession, not so much the world. Even manufacturing in the US showed signs of improvement.
DeleteAmazing how Air Serbia developed its network and it is really great to see their plans for the future.
DeleteAccording to Marek we should be getting in average 7 new destinations each year in next 5 years.
Respect!
@ 9:11
DeleteThere has NEVER, ever in human history been more wealth on this planet, than there is today. In my opinion, the words “downturn” and “recession” are for politicians to scare people into not demanding more (or at least some!) of this wealth for themselves. We’re in recovery? Oh no, you mustn’t ask for anything or you’ll ruin it. We’re in a recession? Oh you mustn’t ask for anything now! I say good on Air Serbia for recognising the untapped potential to travel and develop, especially in our region. I think it’s doing a phenomenal job so I say good luck and godspeed.
Win or fail that's what we'll see. I strongly believe that they will succeed.
DeleteAnyway, crisis is exactly the moment for expansion unless you are in crisis of course. Economically speaking neither AirSerbia nor Serbia are in economical crisis at the moment and they should both capitalise the situation. Again, whether they succeed or not, we'll see.
"ASLwill grow to be one of the biggest carriers in EU"
DeleteLOL dude!
@An.09.16
Delete+1000
The first one
DeleteNo, the second one.
DeleteTurkish Airlines and Pegasus are not going to be happy about this.
ReplyDeleteI think TK is too busy with their network collapsing on a daily basis. Delays are not as bad but they are still a regular occurrence.
DeleteAir Serbia delays are even worst ...look at yesterday's performance in and out of Belgrade. In the evening only KLM arrived on time while the entire network of Air Serbia had massive delays across the board.
DeleteNEMJEE are you for real ? My flight to ljubljana three days ago had 4 hours delay ! And not only my flight ! You had to be there and see in your own eyes how angry and frustrated the passengers were ! And this is bad for Air Serbia reputation .
DeleteTK long-haul flights had 7-8 hour delays on some days.
DeleteI wouldn't care much about angry and frustrated passengers as they would anyway be dissatisfied. Most of people understand the situation globally, they are patient and they are the one to focus on to convert them from neutral to ambasadors of the company.... And, believe it or not, many of us are proud of AirSerbia and promote it.
DeleteAnonymous 10:03 , have you ever traveled lately from BEG espesialy in the evening departure wave of Air Serbia ??!!! Whenever you do please remind us again all those that you said and tell those things to the passengers that are angry and frustrated. I recommend take some protection first !
Delete@09,45
DeleteDelays are everywhere in Europe, and not just a JU specific thing. JU this summer is also one of the European carriers with the least amount of cancelations. That number would be even lower if it wasn't for AMS and LHR imposing thrir restrictions. For an airline their size, they've done an awesome job this summer. Sure, some things could of been done better but thats another topic for discussion.
Again today there is yet another strike in LH, which has cancelled hundreds of flights. I believe this is the second strike affecting LH ops this season.
You also had Wizz which abandoned passengers in Rome, where the Serbian embassy had to intervene and send pax back to Belgrade by bus. LH abandoned passengers in FRA recently and were trying to reroute BEG bound pax to TSR, ZAG and SJJ rather than to BEG. 4 hour delay doesn't sound that bad. Not to mention that Wizz regularly delays AUH-BEG by 3 hours, thats if they don't cancel the flight or move it to another date.
Some people expect world is going around them.
DeleteI would like to see AirSerbia improve the communication, but delays are gonna happen always and angry and frustrated would always be angry and frustrated because they search someone to blame for own failures.
@ JATBEGMEL + @10:51 I don't understand you honestly in trying to always find an excuse for ASL poor performance. Every single flight almost is delayed and that was the case the whole summer....to name a few today: any particular slot time prevented them today AM to take off on time to TIV with A320 (JU186) that is only doing that route for several days in a raw? KLM yesterday evening arrived on time does it have Eurocontrol, congested AMS airport to deal with as well? Today ASL departure to London delayed 2+ hrs; Milan +1 1/2hrs ...etc. These are serious delays in my opinion although you consider 4 hrs delay a not so great deal.
DeleteAnything under 3 hours cannot be considered a "serious" delay. Even the EC 261 regulations agree. Of course no one likes to waste time at an airport, but it's been part of summer travel since time immemorial and the pandemic only made it worse. At least JU will eventually get you there, unlike LH which has to rebook 130 THOUSAND passengers today due to their overentitled pilots going on another strike.
Delete" They search someone to blame for own failures " I think I am in the twilight zone ! It is passengers fault for Air Serbia delays !!!
DeleteVLAD : Would you say the same thing if JU pilots went on strike ??!!!
DeleteYes, sometimes it is passengers fault. They get late for boarding, slot is missed, sometimes is ground handling, sometimes weather, enroute or at the airports, sometimes technical issues where everything is OK but must be checked additionaly or systems restarted, so lot of factors which cause delays. Company is usually the one with least reasons or no reasons at all when it comes to delays, especially today. Not advocating Air Serbia, speaking in general, about all airlines
Delete@10,54
DeleteI would side with your argument alot more if delays this summer were a thing exclusive to JU. However, that isn't the case. I don't work in JU ops to know every single reason for their delays. Yesterday's delays were a good deal due to the weather in Belgrade, where you saw even foreign carriers arriving on time to Belgrade and departing with delays over an hour. Just as an example, yesterday's TK1082 departure left with a delay of 3 hours even though it landed early into BEG. Is that JU's fault as well? That was the first flight I pulled out, more on that list can be given and just for BEG.
JU crew this summer has been stretched to more than their limits to ensure that the flights actually departs. That can't be said for a number of airlines in Europe. As mentioned, again LH is facing strikes this summer where tens of thousands will be stranded. Wizz abandoned passengers in Rome to fend for themselves. This hasn't been the case with JU.
Where JU could of done better is to have hired more crew and to have had 1 extra dry lease A319/A320 in the fleet. But considering everything, they've held their operations quite ok and have been fast to react (for example the 4th wet lease). It's not about finding excuses its about looking at the situation and understanding it.
"VLAD : Would you say the same thing if JU pilots went on strike ??!!!"
DeleteNo, because JU pilots are not among the best paid in the world. It's tone-deaf and unnecessary, even the cabin crew are unhappy with the decision.
Passengers can come late but check-in has cut off time which does not depend on late pax - they are no-shows for airline...so late pax could not be reason for delay.
DeleteThere are passengers who are checked in, have luggage but are late for boarding. In that case it's easier for the airline to wait for them than to go looking for their luggage especially if the cargo doors have already been closed. Naturally this scenario can't delay it by 2 hours but it can have a domino effect especially if the plane is heading to a destination whose airport is a chaos and where delays are common (CDG, AMS and so on).
DeleteCaucuses would be a good region for Air Serbia to get transfers.
ReplyDeleteThese routes is more then adequately covered by Turkish/Pegasus via Istanbul.
DeleteTurkish and Pegasus also cover Dubai but you still have flights from Belgrade...
DeleteAnd they are actually both expensive on these routes.
Delete@09,27
DeleteTK don't fly to Armenia.
TK and PC also fly to a large number of destinations in Europe and yet JU has transfers on their IST flights.
Waiting now in IST, both of my TK flights delayed 3 hrs and 5 hrs. So many people sleeping at the airport on the chairs
DeleteI am not surprised when it comes to Yerevan. Serbia and Armenia have suspended their visa regimes and both countries have a free trade agreement. Naturally trade is extremely modest at this point but with nonstop flights this could change.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be an Armenian community in Serbia and they even had their church in Novi Sad, right in downtown. In 1963 that church was destroyed so as to make room for the construction of the Marshall Tito Boulevard. After WW2 there were no more Armenians left in NS.
EVN could be a great source for transfer passengers to Paris, Italy and Germany. At this point JU needs to consider either boost capacity or flights to Paris.
Marek mentioned that they are looking to acquire more A320's rather than A319's. JU also wanted to increase CDG to 15 or 16 pw with a 4pm departure from BEG back in 2020 prior to the pandemic. I think we will see both extra capacity and frequencies in regards to CDG.
DeleteOr they can schedule it to leave BEG at 10.20 same time as LHR so that it can offer connections from regional flights that depart in the morning, it's the same they did with LCA. On those days LJU and ZAG used to (don't know if they still do) return to BEG earlier than on other days.
DeleteAnother option is for their alliance department to secure better fares from AF so that transfers could be more competitive.
I think we will see more flights departing around the 10-11am time frame. As you mentioned, LCA was added during that period, as well as PUY and BNX. Departures at that time would be perfect for those longer rotations that JU can't fit in their current waves. I wouldn't be surprised to see ZRH around that time too.
DeleteI also think there is room for a couple more regional flights to arrive by 10am such as SJJ, DBV, SPU.
Let's see what happens with LYS in the future and especially this winter. A friend of mine is flying LYS-BEG-LCA today and she told me that they are maybe 90 passengers onboard. Given that it's still summer this is not a great result. Hopefully they start investing in marketing before adding more destinations. They need destinations such as Lyon to feed their eastern expansion.
DeleteBtw on the way there they were maybe 60-70.
It's defenitly not gonna be easy for Air Serbia to take transfer pax to Yeravan. If you take for example Paris than airlines as Austrian and Lufthansa who fly daily to Yeravan and 4-5 times a day to Paris are more likely to be chosen than Air Serbia because they will offer more convinient times. Besides airlines as LOT and Pegasus offer really competitive prices. But with the absence from Russia who was number one player for traffic between Europe and Armenia there will be room for Air Serbia but they need to plan the flights perfectly. And ofcourse a growing demand between Serbia- Armenia and a lot of Russians in Armenia will help this route
DeleteThat could be one of the reasons why JU isn't thriving in Lyon. Local demand isn't big enough to fill those flights as was the case with PMI or VLC, GVA is down the road and there is next to no marketing, not even online which tends to be cheaper. I honestly don't know why they don't take their worst performing new route and just invest in digital marketing. Putting your ads on popular online magazines could help push sales.
DeleteI think one of the main issues with EVN will be the flight time. It can't go and come back in time for the night wave. I fear that in one direction connections will be good while in the other there is going to be a 4 to 5 hour wait, similar to what they did with ROV. We all know how well that worked out for them. They need to boost that 10.20 bank so that longer flights that depart at 00.30 have something to connect onto when they return between 08.00 and 09.00. They could do the same thing with BEY. Put it at 00.30 and then just have it sit there for a bit longer so that on the way back it can connect onto the later wave of departures.In the past BEY used to create chaos for them, much like AER is these days.
How long would BEG-EVN flight take?
ReplyDeleteI think flying time is around 02.50 so block would be 03.10.
DeleteBEG-IKA was 03.40 flying time.
Two and a half hours.
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteWould be a nice addition. I see JU operating BEG-TBS.
ReplyDeleteIt would be awesome if they launched BEG-TBS. Georgia is a beautiful country. It would be great to see Serbian travel agencies offering packages to Georgia.
DeleteI see flights to any destination in Central Asia operating over night and arriving in BEG for the morning wave.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised there is more demand for Tbilisi than Baku.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteGeorgia is a tourist destination without complex visa policy. Makes sense.
DeleteSerbians don't need visas for Georgia. It's a very affordable and sought after destination.
DeleteAzerbaijan is still closed to all non vaccinated travelers so flying to Armenia would be better.
DeleteI think this is going to be another hit for Air Serbia's transfer business.
ReplyDeleteGood decision - makes both economic and tourism sense.
ReplyDeleteA route to either Yerevan, Tbilisi or Baku would have to be sustained by connecting traffic on either end
ReplyDeleteMore good news for BEG.
ReplyDeleteThey just need more planes to start these routes.
ReplyDeleteAnyone have an idea whether they will launch some completely new route in the Middle East or will they just restore Tel Aviv, Cairo and Amman?
ReplyDeleteHope they look into some new destinations
DeleteIt is literally mentioned in the first paragraph that they're looking into destinations in the Middle East.
DeleteTLV, CAI and AMM will be amongst the first to return.
What is the situation with entry regulations in Israel now?
DeleteI remember that there were some information this spring that JU can't start flying to TLV due to covid restrictions, but I don't know if they have been removed or not...
The guy who is always asking for Caucuses routes must be happy. 😊
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd the guy blaming Marek for all the disasters of this world must be very sad today.
Delete@9:40 .... chill bro ...
Delete^ oh good you are here :D
DeleteLet's hope this materializes.
ReplyDeleteThey are too ambitious about the Caucasus. The Turkish carriers are very aggressive over there. They need more frequencies.
ReplyDeleteLike someone said, Turkish does not fly to Yerevan.
DeleteBut Pegasus does.
Delete@10,04
DeleteThank goodness for PC operating to EVN and covering 110% of the market.
Also JU never operates to anywhere where Turkish carriers fly to...except for AER, KZN, SVO, LED, IST, ATH, SKG, SOF, OTP, SJJ, ZAG, TIV, TIA, TGD, VIE....
Markets never grow as well. Tourism doesn't grow either. Those numbers where you see growth in travel are all a big conspiracy by the media run by the lizard people to make the people believe that more and more people are traveling.
I wonder which destination they will choose in Caucuses. Out of the three I'm guessing they will only go for one.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is Georgia. Great tourist potential. Their economy doing ok. Lot of Russians live their now so flights to Serbia will be window to the west for them.
DeleteWhy would Serbia be a window to the West for them when you can fly out of Georgia wherever you want without restrictions.
DeleteBecause they have flights only for Amsterdam, Warsawa, Munich, Athens, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Riga, Paris, Vienna not on daily base. Ticket price for BEG-TBS-BEG Via IST was to 1000$/€. TBS-BEG via IST is over 500$/€.
Delete''Only for'' That's actually a pretty good coverage.
DeleteActually it's not that great when you think about it.
DeleteI mean, it's not even in Europe. That's better than what SJJ, TGD, PRN, SKP have.
DeleteThey should consider returning to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, look into Saudi Arabia and finally start Aman.
ReplyDeleteGood points
DeleteW6 is already in AUH with A321 but not with great flying times.
DeleteMy opinion is that they should first cover AMM, CAI,TLV, BEY and Caucuses region as the rotations are shorter and they could have better fleet utilisation.
After they cover these regions they might be thinking about further destinations in ME.
I think Wizz from AUH is the flight with the worst on time performance in Europe. I think almost every flight is late.
DeleteAll summed up I think there is no worst than Air Serbia in terms of time performance.
Deletelol yeah sure.
DeleteJust as we spoke here. Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi will be huge success, mark my words. Just like Russian destinations, 90% transfers. Great job JU
ReplyDeleteAgree. Think it will work really well for JU.
DeleteProbably trying to pick up passengers that flew thru Russia.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea to pick up new markets that have opened do to recent events.
+1
DeleteExpansion into Caucuses and return to middle east as I predicted a few months ago. There is no doubt a third A330 is in the works next year, as well as as few destinations in far east outside of China.
ReplyDeleteCaucasus
DeleteI tought central asia was Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan not Armenia and Georgia
ReplyDeleteYou're 100% right! When I saw the heading I thought they must be launching Kazakhstan! After the Havana announcement, nothing is off the table anymore hehe
DeleteWould Minsk work? No one is flying there now except Russian, Asian, and Turkish airlines.
ReplyDeleteSerbia has imposed sanctions onto Belarus as well as flight ban. So no flights are possible.
DeleteAre the sanctions related to the Ryan Air flight forced to land in Minsk last year?
DeleteIs there the political will to remote these sanctions?
They won't be removing them any time soon.
Delete@16:18 a big shame on our Serbian government fro doing so since Belorusia was one of the rare countries to be sending us aid during the 1999 war with Nato.
DeleteWell, Serbia did not forced any passanger plane to land and basicly kidnaped one of the passangers. There was a no-fly zone over Serbia, anyway.
DeleteTbilisi, Baku, I would add Tehran, Astana
ReplyDeleteBasically what is happening is development and tapping into new economic post pandemic corridors North - South, East - West in the Central Asia & Caucuses
No more then 5 years this area will gain tremendous economic development
They should approach other unserved airports in the region that would benefit from this as well ...first thinking of Ljubljana, Sarajevo
Agreed that this part of Asia is growing economically. LJU & SJJ would be lnked via BEG.
DeleteCaucasus is not Central Asia !
DeleteWhile Tbilisi and Yerevan would work, Baku definitely wouldnt .
Lots of Armenian emigrants worldwide and Georgian emigrants in Europe .
But virtually no Azerbaijani diaspora anywhere except of course Russia .
Start Lagos asap!!
ReplyDeleteI am traveling to Lagos 3 times per month with Lufthansa, KLM or Turkish and every single time every single seat is sold out!!
3x per month???
DeleteYes. 3 or 4 times per month. Every single flight is sold out. Can make huge money on transfer pax.
DeleteNext AirSerbia destinations...Izmir, Zanzibar, Bankgok, Bali, Maldives, Miami and Sidney.
ReplyDeleteGood job Air Serbia !
ReplyDelete