Air Serbia will this week announce a second set of new routes from Belgrade for the 2023 summer season. A total of four new destinations are to be unveiled, some of which have been served by the carrier in the past. The airline is expected to add over a dozen new routes next summer season, which begins on March 26. Its CEO, Jiri Marek, recently noted that route launches will be announced at an interval of around three days, up until mid-December when all of the new destinations will be on sale for the summer of 2023.
Air Serbia has so far announced the launch of new flights to Chicago, Catania, Palermo, Naples and Florence for next year. The carrier will also be increasing frequencies to the likes of Barcelona, Rome, Vienna, Milan, Bologna, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf. Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Boško Rupić, said, “We are continuing the trend of introducing new destinations in the summer season. This is just the beginning, you can expect more good news from Air Serbia in the coming days”. The airline has previously noted the focus of next year’s expansion will be driven by connectivity and leisure, with the majority of new destinations to be in Europe.
This winter season, Air Serbia has also introduced a number of new destinations to its network, including Malta, Tianjin and Malaga, with the latter two to commence over the coming two weeks. The carrier will also operate seasonal winter holiday flights from Belgrade to Pula, as well as between Niš and Zurich. Air Serbia will debut the latest addition to its wide-body fleet, an Airbus A330-200, this month. Based on the Global Distribution System, the jet will be used for the first time between Belgrade and Moscow on December 12, however, changes remain likely.
.gif)
Great to see them keeping the growth momentum.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that Marek is giving us a heads-up when the new routes are being launched. Makes it easier to follow their developments.
ReplyDeleteAny guesses how many planes they will have next summer? Is it realistic to expect 25?
too much, maybe 22-23 tops
DeleteGuys has anyone else noticed that BEG-BLQ is sold out for the whole month of December?!
ReplyDeleteSeems like people can't get enough of JU. Shame they are only increasing it go 4.
Yes .
DeleteLots of transfer passengers before holidays.
DeleteThere are no holiday transfers this early in December
DeleteA lot of passengers are making use of the non-working days in northern Italy 7-11 Dec.
DeleteCan't wait to find out which ones are going to be added.
ReplyDeleteSo how many destinations will Air Serbia have next year? Approximately
ReplyDeleteAre these new 4 going to be again in the same region like it was the case wth Italy last week?
ReplyDeleteNope. 1+2+1.
DeleteScandinavia, Germany and south of France.
DeleteOk, thanks.
DeleteInteresting.
GOT, NCE and CGN :)
DeleteXaxa. Nope. Something different from NCE.
DeleteMRS? That would be exotic.
DeleteI like that we always have some inside info here on EX-YU :D
DeleteYes but then we who work for the airline have problem every time. Would be good to delete this info please for which routes
DeleteI wonder why you from company have not published it yet.
DeleteMy guess is...
DeleteScandinavia: either HEL, GOT or BGO.
Germany: seems decently covered but CGN and BRE would be my guess.
France: MRS
Maybe Sardinia in France? I have no idea about Scandinavia but in Germany it has to be CGN.
DeleteCorsica, my bad, not Sardinia in France :D
DeleteMUC at last?
Delete@JATBEGMEL
DeleteOut of those three in Scandinavia, only HEL makes sense to me. While Bergen and Gothenburg are second busiest in their countries, HEL is an airport with nearly 22 mil passengers in 2019. There are no flights from Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Albania to Helsinki, so I think Air Serbia could take advantage from that and pick up some decent transfer traffic considering that all of those destinations go in midnight wave, while HEL would go in the morning one.
In Germany, I would go with Hamburg. North Germany is not served from Belgrade.
France is the hardest one to guess, it could be Nice, Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse, Bordeaux. Since they have flown to Nice and have planned it last year, I would go with Nice in the south France.
Aegean flies to HEL from Athens while Finnair flies to many Greek islands during summer
Delete@20,33
DeleteJU tried HEL but quickly discontinued the route. Although the pandemic could be a fair reason to justify terminating the route, I think the route is more suitable for a regional jet with the A319 being too big to fill. When HEL launched, they had a CRJ on lease that was operating on the route. All those markets were on offer as well prior to the pandemic and I think they were satisfied more with the route while the CRJ was operating. Perhaps it will be the same scenario as was KBP when they tried it a 2nd time. Wizz also announced TKU and never launched it interestingly enough. Bergen came to mind, not only being high on the list of pax numbers in Scandinavia but because of the success JU has had in OSL. I mentioned GOT as it was a former JU route, but with Wizz also on the route it'll be interesting to see who will last.
For North Germany, they tried HAM twice and failed. Interestingly, both attempts were successful while on the CRJ but didn't go well when put on the A319. Wizz has taken over in the meantime, with the A321, and seem happy with the route. JU also relaunched HAJ in the meantime, perhaps additional frequencies on that route would be sufficient.
NCE was tried twice, the second try was barely an attempt, Wizz took over and now it would be another battle with Wizz which might be a bit too much for them. MRS, BOD and TLS would perhaps be better alternatives for now in my opinion, with MRS being the likely candidate.
I don't get it. Do they have enough aircraft? And why is this huge sudden expansion in 2016 where many airlines worldwide are resuming operations gradually or growing very conservatively.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Vueling, which announced so many routes and ended up with many delays and chaos.
2016?
DeleteI meant Vueling in 2016.
DeleteThey are not going to fly tomorrow on these routes but next summer.
DeleteIt means they have more than enough time to get the planes.
They wouldn't announce routes if they did not have enough planes, obviously. I don't know where you're getting info that airlines worldwide are resuming operations conservatively, for example here in Canada, all airlines have ramped up their operations in record amount of time, they went within months to almost 80% of pre-pandemic levels, especially Air Canada, which is causing labor shortages across the industry, same is happening with KLM as AMS is restricting ticket sales and flight slots etc.
DeleteI hope Ohrid will be one of the destinations announced...
ReplyDeleteNot today.
DeleteOHD is slowly dieing and nobody seems to care:
Deletehttps://balkaninsight.com/2022/12/02/fact-check-as-unesco-deadline-looms-what-is-north-macedonia-doing-to-protect-ohrid/
Only 1 new route. No expansions. Most flights are frozen in winter. And JU failed miserably there.
JU failed miserably because the market is not there as you pointed out in terms of new routes and destinations.
DeleteJU failed miserably there because their departure times have always been horrendous
DeleteNonsense, JU had similar times to SKP, TIA, SOF, SKG...and they all worked like a charm. Point is that the market is not there especially now when Serbian holidaymakers are moving away from ex-YU region and switching to more elite destinations in Spain, Italy, Tanzania, Greece and so on. Why go to Ohrid when you can go to Malaga or Valencia.
DeleteAgreed with 09:47. Serbians just discovered Italy and Spain those recent 2 years. Ohrid seems like an outdated destination for many. Plus, the service is not very good. One can easily see the destinations served from their airport. Mainly gasto, similar to SKP.
DeleteIf their 4 AM flights worked like a charm, they would not have struggled to fill a miserable ATR and never upgrade capacity, but sure it's all about the elite destinations that Serbian holidaymakers strive for :)
DeleteTransfer passengers were the reason for 4.00 AM flights.
DeleteIf there were enough P2P passengers from BEG to OHD flying times would be better, but as someone noticed OHD does not seem to be attractive for Serbian tourists anymore.
9:26 That has actually to do with appartments,houses and hotels that are being built next to lake. And for example cutting grass to make place for a beach. Hopefully they will manage to preserve the lake, but there is not reallly a connection between your news article and JU failing Ohrid. Ohrid actually already reached it's 2018 figures and it will be close this year to it's 2019 so it's in recovery. Even though there were Serbian tourists(carplates) this year in Ohrid I think a flight will not work becasue most prefer to go by car and I am not sure if the amount is big enough. But I undertsand that Serbians who have money to go to Spain or Tanzania will not come to Ohrid.
DeleteThere were day/afternoon flights to Ohrid.
DeleteWhat nonsense are you talking about?
Anon 10:33 is actually very right. Just checked their original schedule:
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/p/air-serbia-belgrade-ohrid.html?m=1
The JU flights were indeed in the afternoon.
There was obviously no demand even from the rest of ex-Yu.
I don't know if Romanians go there. It's a big market after all.
Also, according to the latest data, Albania was visited by more than 6 million tourists!
@9.26 the usual toxic comments you serve here everytime a macedonian airport is mentioned
Deleteoutdated? lol number of serbian tourists in this year in Ohrid according official statistics more then doubled then 2019
DeleteOHD flights were initially in the afternoon wave when launched in 2016, but were moved over to the midnight wave in the summer of 2017 and increased to 4pw. OHD was cut at the end of the summer 2017 season when AUH was also cut, which is where the bulk of their transfers were coming from (Australia). QR launcing DOH-SKP made things harder as well.
DeleteJU168 BEG OHD 0020 0140
JU169 OHD BEG 0410 0535
If there was demand, JU would've restored the Ohrid route very quickly. There is no demand for this destination.
DeleteIn my opinión today or Next days will announce Málaga for summer (now only is for winter) and i hope one or two new Spanish destinations more like Alicante
ReplyDeleteMalaga was announced as a year round destination, not as a winter seasonal route.
DeleteYou are right yesterday i looked again and they have 1 week in summer.It was my wrong
DeleteAnnouncing new routes while at the same time not being capable to enter some existing ones in the summer schedule to enable sales; very strange filozophy!
ReplyDeleteWhich one?
Delete
DeleteFilozophy?
SVO for example
DeleteSVO they can't put on sale until Russia grants permits and they usually do that very late.
DeleteI mean...you really found the destination.
DeleteNobody knows what will happen with flights to SVO due to the political situation so among many other "normal" destinations you found the problematic one.
To the same group belong LED and KZN.
And what is wrong with the destination? one of the best performing for JU at the moment!
DeleteIt has been explained to you.
Delete@09:36 I am not so sure that Russia is delaying the flying permits. As you recall when Aeroflot stopped flying we had a temporary surge in number of flights to Moscow until A Vucic decided otherwise as he was pressed by the West. So they didn't need any additional permits. Of course not having a representative office on the ground does not help them in resolving issues promptly.
DeleteIt did need permits for the extra flights and received them on a month by month basis.
DeleteAir Serbia is a company with affordable prices if the tickets are purchased on time and almost always have more attractive prices than competition in BEG including LCC.
ReplyDeleteAnd now if someone wants to fly tomorrow to CDG and to pay 120 EUR for return ticket means that that person is not realistic.
+100
DeleteMeanwhile JU just published that in November they carried over 200.000 passengers which is the highest number since November 2013.
Delete115% compared to November 2019 and more than twice compared to the same period last year.
Now we wait for BEG to do the same. Hopefully they managed to cross the 400.000 passenger mark.
that’s great. Once they manage to finish the airport’s reconstruction, that will be a real boost.
DeleteSevilja, marsej/tuluz, lisabon, kluž
DeleteSomeone said one of them will be from Scandinavia and another one from Germany.
DeleteWhy nor announce all the new routes at once? I mean, what's the point of this?
ReplyDeleteFree marketing and media presence.
DeleteMight as well put them on sale ASAP.
DeleteFew days mean nothing for sales in next SUTT and for marketing it means a lot.
DeleteSUUT?
DeleteSUTT means Summer TimeTable.
DeleteMalo macku govedja glava.
ReplyDeleteLisbon?
ReplyDeleteSicily is very cheap, it would be new discovery best value destination.
Lisbon is cool, but sadly pretty run down lately. Maybe the other parts of PT are worth while.
DeleteSpanish cities are much cleaner, well developed and very tourism friendly.
Sevilla, Málaga, Córdoba, Granada are all very interesting and cool destinations. Cádiz is a jewel destination. Very historic. You also have Tarifa, which is a hippie destination with rastas and weed people.
But the Cádiz beaches are simply superb.
I have heard that there are / were problems with slots at LIS and that it is not easy to get new ones.
DeleteI would expect that Vinci would pish it through since it runs both BEG and LIS.
DeleteSlots at LIS isn't too hard to get. There is limitations as to how long aircraft can stay on ground, which shouldn't be a problem for JU as their turn around times are within the limits imposed by LIS.
DeleteBiggest problem I see with LIS is the long flight time making it awkward to fit into their waves. It's also interesting to note how new flights are not scheduled by the standard that was set previously. VIE, FCO, NAP, MAD in the midday wave, LCA at 10am, IST at 5pm. They are definitely setting things up for those longer rotations.
LIS could definitely not fit into standard wave. However, many routes are now going in some mid-wave around 10am. LIS could be flown is such wave. Block time would be 4h. For example: BEG 12:15- 15:15 LIS, LIS 16:00 - 21:00 BEG. In that way they would offer good connections to regional flights.
DeleteCome on JU, just tell us the rest :D
ReplyDeleteOne question. Are Serbians preferring Western European destinations? Sudden rise in Italy and Spain, right?
ReplyDeleteWhat happens with Greece and Turkey?
Locals are looking for new destinations.
DeleteYes, this is normal. But this sudden rise is not normal. Especially after 2021.
DeleteSalaries are growing significantly, for some professions even more than average, traveling in general is more affordable, Serbs are not wanted in most most of Croatia, Montenegro is too small, Greece already seen in past 30 years... So, yes, people want something new
DeleteAnd you hear no bad news nor experiences in Spain, so people are ready to give it a try.
What is new there? Drunken Brits and Huns.
Delete@13,02
DeleteFrom personal experience, Serbs are more than welcome in Croatia. Split and the surrounding areas in fact have alot of Serbs working in hotels and restaurants, not to mention that this has been the case in Istria for years. This year, there were noticeably more Serbian number plates in Dalmatia when I visited. Billboards advertising Advent in Zagreb and Istria are all over Belgrade currently. This summer, JU's Rijeka flights were promoted on billboards across Belgrade together with businesses from Rijeka, where even influencers were invited onto the inaugural flight. Croatia becoming increasingly expensive is another story. Go visit and have a good time is my recommendation. Dalmatians are wonderful hosts.
I don't think in year of 2022 with more than 100.000 Serbian tourists in Croatia each year we have to use these arguments. If you don't believe it, fine, live in your shell and have a nice time there. We'll travel to Croatia and have great time, people, see, food... And yes, it becomes too pricey even for European standards so that's more problematic issue.
DeleteWith Croatia getting the Euro currency it will become even more expensive ...
Deletehuh?
ReplyDeleteThey already said numerous times that if covid restrictions are lifted they will start Beijing and Shanghai. I assume this will happen next year.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that YU-ARB arrived in winter so they could use it to SVO.
ReplyDeleteSmart
DeleteAh... so they won't be announced today?
ReplyDeleteThey will
DeleteProbably tomorrow.
DeleteToday or tomorrow? 🤷♂️
DeleteIs there really any difference?
DeleteToday is until 23:59. If they reveal it from North America they also get the time difference. It is 15:20 in Belgrade but only 6:20 in the morning in Los Angeles :)))
DeleteWill be announced in next few mins. They are updating list on web page. Cause announcement from last week is not visible on web page atm
DeleteWhat do you mean that announcemnts from last week are not visible?
DeleteI can see all promotional prices for all 4 new routes introduced last week.
Will they start to fly to Armenia, Azerbaijan or Georgia? Please, Armenia...
ReplyDeleteSoon!
DeleteDoes anyone know if there will be any new destinations to Greece ?
ReplyDeleteYes, there will.
DeleteWondering which destinations they can add in Greece
DeleteSto predigra duza to maca vlaznija.
ReplyDeleteTrue!
DeleteThis comment def made my day hahaha
DeleteOvo su povećanja koja su za sada ulistana za sledeće leto?
ReplyDeleteAmsterdam 10 (1,1,2,3,3,4,5,5,6,7) +3
Barselona 9 (1,2,3,4,5,5,6,6,7) +5
Beč 18 (1,1,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,5,5,5,6,6,7,7,7) +4
Bolonja 4 (1,3,5,7) +1
Diseldorf 7 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) +2
Frankfurt 7 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) +1
Istanbul 21 (1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,6,6,7,7,7) +11
Ljubljana 14 (1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7) +2
Pariz 14 (1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7) +2
Rim 12 (1,1,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,7,7) +5
Soči 2 (1,5,7) +1
Sigurno će ih biti još Atina ,Tirana,London,Bukurešt,Split,Dubrovnik,Larnaka,Madrid,Valensija,Oslo,Prag,Skoplje,Študgart i naravno Ruske rute u zavisnosti od bezbednosne situacije.
If they don't add mbx/pow, lju will be 17x
DeleteI am not sure if Istanbul will play that way. It all depends on the visa regime of Serbia. It seems that Serbia will reintroduce visas for Indian nationals, so there will be much less traffic coming from there (which mostly affects IST)
DeleteThe increase in flights to Istanbul has nothing to do with Indians.
DeleteNothing depends from visa regime of Serbia. It is nothing but an illusion.
DeleteFrankfurt je bio i proslog leta 7x nedeljno.
DeleteBio je 6X,nije bilo leta Utorkom.
Delete@18,03
DeleteUAE-Belgrade flights tend to be where the Indians are typically coming from. Police for years have been meeting all arriving flights from the UAE to check passenger passports prior to allowing passengers to exit the gate area. IST was a popular route for Burundians but visas were last month reintroduced. In the mean time JU increased frequencies.
@18,14
Either the admin of this site is making false claims or you are.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/05/kish-airlines-to-launch-belgrade.html?m=1
In the 9 months visas were removed for Iranian nationals, Mahan, Iran Air and Qeshm Air all launched flights to Belgrade from Tehran, while Kish Air was set to launch Shiraz - Belgrade. Why did all of them immediately leave the moment visas were reinstated?
Police is meeting all arriving flights from Istanbul as well as from UAE. Every single time couple passengers are denied boarding in IST and couple of them are returned from BEG after arrival. Serbia is serious with this topic.
Deleteanonymous15:52
DeleteIs number 1 on the numeric calendar Sunday or Monday. I think there are some discrepancies between Europe and Noth America when the flight schedule is presented in this weekly format. Thanks a lot.
It's weird that Kazan is still missing on their list of destinations on the website, while Rostov and Krasnodar remain, even though there haven't been any flights in a long time and won't be in the foreseeable future. Maybe they just forgot to add Kazan or is it because its Russia, to not cause negative headlines?
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia has never announced flights to Kazan. It was to avoid reactions. For the same reason they do not list it as their destination, although they fly there twice weekly.
DeleteThe thing with Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don is that they are listed as suspended, not terminated. KRR and ROV will likely be flown again as soon as airports reopen.
They should put it on the website though, it is the only destination missing there
DeleteActually, Hahn is missing also. I'm sure Kazan will be put there as soon as war ends. They need to be careful with every move related to Russia. They are not publishing anything about Russia and it's better to stay like that because bots are always ready. Smart way is to keep things low.
DeleteChicago is cool but the first set of announcements was...yawn, boring, all 4 in Italy. Joy.... Latvia is coming but overall, be more interesting, go to Asia, Middle East and Africa.
ReplyDeleteWho are you to judge if those destinations are "boring"? Apparently, not only Serbia is connected to many Italian airports but many in the region. If they launched an Italian wave, it is because obviously there is demand. If you are really 27, then you are still a kiddo to understand what is boring and what is not. Now, go to the nearest bar and gather with people your age. You are no aviation expert. Besides, your sentence doesn't make any sense. If you think Malaysia or Brunei are "not boring" then, good for you.
DeleteThe airline routes selection is not based on "boring" or "fun" philosophy. There is a whole marketing and sales team behind this, professionals who actually go to school and have vast amount of experience, do research, multiple meetings with travel agents, governmental and international travel organizations meetings, etc. They also co-ordinate decisions with the finance department, airline operations department, technical and maintenance departments, basically the entire airline is involved in these decisions as they all affect each other. Who the hell would go to Africa (LOS, NBO etc.) from BEG and why, other than seasonal charters that JU already does...? Go back to your school classroom and pick up some reading on the airline's marketing and sales strategies.
DeleteWhat is happening with new routes
ReplyDeleteIf I was a CEO I would be firing people at this point...
ReplyDeleteHe made a public statement that JU will unveil new routes every three days, created a hype and then failed to deliver. It is a loss of credibility which they didnt need. It might be a meaningless thing but it shows the attitude in the company
no, but it shows YOUR attitude.
DeleteThat I value my word and my credibility? Yup, you are right. I am sorry that these values dont reflect your attitude
DeleteHe said every 3 to 4 days. Stop being a drama queen.
Delete21:46 Literally, the guy is acting as if the whole week passed LOL
DeleteHopefully Toronto since AV announced it, elections are coming again so... hopefully he will keep his word lol
ReplyDeleteHopefully Toronto is in the mix since it was "unofficially" announced already
ReplyDeleteI love the hype JU made with this, look at all the envious guys refreshing and going crazy over when are new routes going to be announced:D
ReplyDeleteAnd you waited for midnight to type your comment and look smart.
DeletePathetic.
Today announce new routes?
ReplyDeleteDa.
Delete