Air Serbia recorded its busiest August since its rebranding in October 2013. It marks the second consecutive month the airline handled over 400.000 travellers. The carrier saw its passenger figures increase 38% on August of last year and 2% on the record-breaking pre-pandemic 2019. Some 22% of Air Serbia’s customers last month were handled on charter flights. “Charter flights saw good results, with almost 90.000 passengers carried. In addition to charters, in August, there was also major movement of the diaspora from Serbia and the region, resulting in an increase in the total number of passengers carried on routes to Western Europe”, the airline said. The largest growth on last year was registered on services to Rome, followed by Milan, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and London Heathrow.
Commenting on its performance, Air Serbia’s Head of Revenue Management, Maša Vasović, said, “Last month we achieved first place in the Balkan region in terms of the number of operated flights on a weekly level. Passengers recognise the benefits offered by our network of destinations and the high number of frequencies during the summer season as they continue to put their trust in us, for which we are immensely grateful”. She added, “We are convinced that the growth trend in passenger numbers will continue in the coming period as well. These results motivate us to continue improving our offer, by expanding it with new, attractive destinations”.
Air Serbia is expected to hold a 55% passenger share at its Belgrade Airport hub in August. “This summer, the national airline operates flights from fifteen airports in countries of the former Yugoslavia, which was previously only the case with its predecessor, JAT. The largest number of frequencies in the region were operated to Tivat and Podgorica, followed by Ljubljana and Skopje, while fewer flights were maintained to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The growth in passenger traffic, compared to the same month last year, was also observed on flights to Sofia (172%) and Bucharest (80%)”, the carrier said. It added, “The Balkan region, as well as connecting Balkan countries and improving the mobility of their citizens, are of exceptional importance to Air Serbia. In line with this, the national airline actively participated in the recent event in Belgrade organised as a part of the “Open Balkan” initiative”.
.gif)
Good result
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia has just added capacity on flights to OTP. A319 has already been added for this Saturday. A319 was substituted for ATR on 12, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 22.09.
Deletewow very strong demand for charters.
ReplyDeleteThe huge demand for holiday flights and healthy local demand really helps them
Deletecharters rule
DeleteThis year they will be charter flights well into October.
DeleteIsn't that usually the case?
DeleteDoes JU have year round charters to Turkey and Egypt?
DeleteNo.
DeleteWhat is the average load factor?
ReplyDeleteAmazing! Air Serbia is bigger than Aegean! What an outstanding result.
ReplyDelete"Last month we achieved first place in the Balkan region"
My thoughts exactly, bigger than Ryanair, Wizz Air and Turkish Airlines. Congratulations to JU!
DeleteOf course she must be wrong ! Even skyexpress of Greece is bigger than Air Serbia in terms of the number of operated flughts on a weekly level !
DeleteDon't they have some PR person there who checks what they are going to say in public? I mean with such statements she comes across as let's say silly.
Delete@ Anonymous09:11
DeleteSo tell us how many flights does Skyexpress have and how many does Air Serbia have.since you know for sure.
No way. First in ex-YU, not on Balkans.
Delete@anonymous 09:16 well for today they have 64 departures from athens airport don't mention the departures ( non return to ATH ) from thessaloniki or Heraklion or Rhodes.
DeleteAnd Air Serbia has 60 departures from BEG (non return to BEG). As well as additional flights from Nis and Kraljevo. What's your point? We are talking about August. As you are so convinced I just asked you to give us the number of flights they had in August and the number of flights Air Serbia had.
DeleteTypical Balkan grandstanding. Air Serbia is doing really well but they shouldn’t exaggerate their results like this. It makes the actual success less important.
Delete@anonymous 09:42 , skyexpress has 64 scheduled departures today from ATH , (charters are not included ) , so imagine how big the gap between skyexpress and Air Serbia in August in term of weekly flights number would be in favor of skyexpress !
Delete*Would be= was
DeleteLOL you can't even compare Aegean with Air Serbia come on..
DeleteLovely results. They might just survive September without heavy subsidies. :)
DeleteUnlike other ex yu government owned airlines.
DeleteMasa dear, are you implying you had more departures than Aegean and Turkish Airlines since you were supposedly number one in the Balkans. lol
ReplyDeleteI also have my doubts they had more weekly departures than Wizz Air. But hey, at least she made a good PR statement regardless if it's true or not.
“Last month we achieved first place in the Balkan region in terms of the number of operated flights on a weekly level. Passengers recognise the benefits offered by our network of destinations and the high number of frequencies during the summer season as they continue to put their trust in us, for which we are immensely grateful”.
Well I guess you had to latch onto something since their result did not go down well for you.
DeleteSo you want to say anyone who doesnt agree with lies is JU hater?
DeleteI'm saying that out of everything a clumsy statement, probably lost in translation, was most important to you. I'm not saying you are a JU hater, the hate is much wider than JU :)
DeleteWell, I wouldn't be surprised if she was completely unaware of how big Aegean is or how large of a presence both Wizz Air and Ryanair have throughout the Balkans.
DeleteAnyway, personally I am more bothered by how out of place her comment is. Why is someone from revenue management talking about frequencies, network and passenger satisfaction in stead of her own stuff like how much their revenue increased, what their short term and then long term strategies are, she could mention their Russian market and how big of a role it plays overall, booming demand to IST and what their position is like compared to Turkish Airlines and Pegasus, how they are coping with competition in BEG etc.
Revenue management's perspective would be really interesting to know on all these matters as they would present it through their own paradigm, that is through money. Mind you, revenue management can play a crucial role in reducing seasonality by adapting a more flexible and realistic approach to forming the fare structure.
In stead she decided to speak about something she is obviously not qualified enough to do.
She was also head of revenue in Jat Airways. Hm.
DeleteIssue is probably in definition of "Balkan" :)
DeleteWas thinking the same, she probably defines Balkans as ex-yu and maybe Albania.
DeleteNever mind. Her statement will sound great in the central news on national TV.
DeleteI think that is what Marek and the PR team are after. They need to make a splashy statement that will go down well with the masses.
DeleteThis was an unfortunate statement by a high ranking JU official, this is unacceptable, it's tabloid level knowledge of aviation and geography.
DeleteSo we don't know the exact number just that it's over 400.000? So BEG was around 730.000 again in August.
ReplyDeleteIt also shows other airlines seem to be doing quite ok in BEG which is great to hear.
DeleteIt's interesting that their routes with the largest growth are those which had competition from low-cost carriers, such as Rome (Wizz Air), Stuttgart and Dusseldorf (Eurowings).
ReplyDeleteAur Serbia needs to consider Lagos. It is mega size city from mega size country. Lately I am doing up to 4 flights per month to Lagos with Lufhansa or KLM and ever single flight every single time is full. There is never an empty seat on the plane in both Economy and Business class. At the begining of pandemic I would fly to Singapore with 20 people on board but even than Lagos was full to the top!
ReplyDeleteThere is a bit of a difference between flying from Lagos to Amsterdam and from Lagos to Belgrade.
DeleteWho cares about your trip to Lagos, stop trolling already !
DeleteSame story with the Maribor guy. Just because you guys travel to the certain destination, doesn't mean JU will consider it just to fullfil your personal wishes, it's irrelevant for decision-making.
Nigeria is projected to be inhabited by between 500 mil and 1 bn people in the year 2100, so there will be flights to Lagos, once:)
DeleteIndi has over 1.3 billion inhabitants but there are still no flights to BEG.
Delete*india
DeleteKeep up the good work
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers could handle this year?
ReplyDeleteAround 1.7
Delete^ It will be much higher than 1.7 million. I really don't know how you made up that number since it would mean they would be at just 60% of 2019 levels while they will actually be at around 90-95%.
DeleteThey will have between 2.5 million and 2.6 million passengers this year.
DeleteI am more than confident that the airline will pass 3 million next year.
DeleteNicely done JU.
ReplyDeleteEncouraging results ahead of long haul expansion.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt's interesting to see LHR doing so well with strong growth especially considering flights are being capped because of the airport management's incompetence.
ReplyDeleteYes but keep in mind these are changes compared to last year when I think LHR was around 4 per week and there were numerous entry restrictions.
Delete55% market share is quite good.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what it will be like by the end of the year. I think they will settle between 48%-50%.
DeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteObviously they are doing something right, despite all the negativity from some commentators here.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI wonder what the all time August record is. It is obviously from JAT era.
ReplyDeleteWell in the old Yugoslavia JU must certainly have had more than 400.000. Marketing bullshit..
Delete^ try reading the article, at least the first sentence.
DeleteIt is interesting to see that Air Serbia has become bigger than Air Baltic.
ReplyDelete"During August 2022, Latvian airline airBaltic has carried 386 500 passengers or by 38% more than during the same period last year."
They had more passengers than Air Baltic in July too.
DeleteBT is more concerned with sending political messages than trying to improve their business. On average they are bailed out every other year to avoid bankruptcy.
DeleteTheir operations are highly impacted by the war in Ukraine. But I do agree that while they put on a good PR show, their finances are terrible
DeleteStill, BT earns money. They have planes leased to Swiss and Eurowings. Fat money.
DeleteBoth BT and AY are heading for a very difficult period. Since it's obvious that the political situation won't stabilize anytime soon both will have to resize and to adapt to the new reality. Finnair already announced that they need to shrink by 15% compared to 2019.
DeleteIt also doesn't help that AY's long-haul experiment from ARN didn't work out since they are terminating all flights and redirecting most of their capacity to DOH.
That is why it's good that JU is making the most of this situation. Additional healthy revenue will help them in further consolidating their hub in BEG which will allow them to grow in the future. They gambled some months ago and they won. They set up a decent network which will be further sustained by healthy local demand which seems to be getting larger year after year. Personally I can't wait for the A320s to start arriving so that JU can have a more competitive CASM.
Market seems to be recovering fast.
ReplyDeleteCharter market for sure but regular market not as fast as you think, it's still below 2019 levels.
DeleteVery good result
ReplyDeleteAgree. Good growth and exciting new route dimension opening up next year. Step by step, JU in continuing to transform into the dominant ex-YU regional player, with expected new markets and growth in volumes.
DeleteHope this upward trajectory continues into 2023. It will be necessary if they hope to be successful with longhaul flights.
ReplyDeleteGood but they should also show if they had a profit or loss.
ReplyDeleteThey show it once per year. They are not obligated it to show it more than that.
Delete15 airports in ex-Yu. Good work
ReplyDeleteThey should really keep SPU route in winter timetable....even if only twice a week.
DeleteI think it is highly seasonal for them. Who would they carry in say November.
DeleteIt could work
DeleteNice!
ReplyDelete90,000 pax on charter flight in August alone is HUGE. That means they will probably have 200,000 pax on charters this year.
ReplyDeleteIt will probably be more than 200,000 on charters.
DeleteThey also had a great charter season from INI.
DeleteGreat job operationally, let's see how they did financially.
ReplyDeleteFares have never been higher across Europe, so I'm sure it will be their best year so far as well.
DeleteCosts too.
DeleteNot really. The only significantly increased cost I can think of is fuel, and we don't know what kind of arrangement they have with NIS.
DeleteCongratulations Air Serbia. It has been a very tough few years but they are on the right path.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteCould you please add many delays was in August ?
ReplyDeleteYou should have a look at other airlines too and then see where they stand.
DeleteThey speak about busiest august and july on record, but when they have to return salaries before COVID-19to employees they: say we haven't yet reached pre COVID-19 levels... To whom are they lying...
ReplyDeleteI'm all for sallary increase but they reached 2019 levels only in 2 summer months.
DeleteIts not a salary increase its giving back old salaries, and dont fotget they laid of more than 25% of working force.
DeleteWhich means 75% of people isworkin thae same job it used before COVID-19 and more. Does that seem fair to you?Besides including inflation and everything its pathetic... Air Serbia has most underpaid employees in region in all categories, management not included... People wtih diplomas work for 500e and less... A lot of overtime not paid... Lack of manpower is astonishing
There are ways how to get fair salaries #lufthansa
DeleteThey can't go on strike when half of them got their jobs through the Party.
DeleteIt's true for management but operations, pilots mechanics are not from party. When you mention Lufthansa its go on the street... Lies how air serbia is thrid beat company for employees its a complete lie... More and more educated people are living company... But they are even preventing people from leaving, you are prevented from lraving air serbia to for example MTU you are not allowed MTU wont hire you...
DeleteMajority of them are replacements.
ReplyDelete2 atrs are replacements, two airbus jets (a320 & a330) are expansion. 50-50.
ReplyDeleteZnači već sada imapo potencijalne destibacije koje su kandidati za povećanje frekfencija za sledeće leto.Samo bih ja tu dodao još JFK,CDG i VIE.
ReplyDelete