Air France has confirmed it is discontinuing its seasonal flights between Paris and Belgrade. The carrier had initially planned to maintain two weekly rotations between the two capitals this summer for a month and a half, between July and late August, with a mix of Embraer E170 and E190 aircraft. However, the airline has now said it will redeploy capacity elsewhere with the Belgrade service covered through its wide-ranging codeshare partnership with Air Serbia. At this point, the Serbian carrier has scheduled two daily flights to the French capital this summer, although its CEO, Jiri Marek, recently noted in an interview for EX-YU Aviation News that the carrier was “looking at” increasing Paris to eighteen weekly or even triple daily flights.
Air France introduced services to Belgrade in 2019 following a ten-year hiatus. The route was initially to operate on a year-round basis but was downgraded to a seasonal service in its first year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Air France did not fly to Belgrade in 2020 but returned in both 2021 and 2022, each year shortening the length of its seasonal operations. Flights were previously maintained four times per week with the A320-family fleet. Mr Marek recently said that Air Serbia can fly between Belgrade and Paris at a lower cost than its French counterpart. “You have to bring the costs closer to those of low cost carriers but offer passengers better service for which you can charge a fee. We see this, for example, on the route to Paris, where we fly twice a day and Air France only four times per week [seasonally]. We have a codeshare agreement with the French, and we are able to bring passengers to Paris cheaper than them, which is beneficial for everyone”, Mr Marek said.
Paris is one of Air Serbia’s busiest routes. In addition to the Serbian carrier, Wizz Air serves Beauvais near Paris, on which it has steadily increased frequencies over the years. This summer, the budget carrier will operate five weekly rotations on the route. This year marks the centenary since commercial flights were established between Belgrade and Paris, operated at the time by one of Air France’s predecessors, CFRNA. Within the former Yugoslavia, Air France will maintain scheduled flights to Ljubljana, Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Split this summer, although the carrier has shelved plans to introduce a second daily service to the Croatian capital.
Two flights per week for a bit over a month of flying with Embraer… there really wasn’t a point for them to operate this route.
ReplyDeleteWho needs Air France?
DeleteThose who travel.
DeleteYou can connect onto the AF network with JU flights, so no real loss here.
DeleteYou can connect on selected routes, not onto network.
DeleteWill JU have enough planes to increase CDG?
ReplyDeleteThey are probably not sure either. That's why they said they are considering it.
DeleteThey can't make a profit with their current cost structure.
ReplyDeleteSame as with SOF for the very first time. No AF flights this summer. Perhaps no demand or more P2P demand to BVA and less transfer via CDG or less personnel similar to LH in MUC with the reduced flights.
ReplyDeleteWow. Who else flies this route from SOF?
DeleteBulgaria Air daily with A319,320.
DeleteWizz Air, Ryanair with NEO and MAX.
Thanks. They obviously couldn't compete.
DeleteYes, it looks like they are cancelling flights to avoid chaos. They cancelled the second daily Zagreb flight too.
DeleteSeems like the only place they are not cutting is Ljubljana.
Deletein the region I mean.
DeleteWell not surprising considering that so little airlines fly to LJU.
DeleteWell, I think they are also cutting down in LJU (at least my evening flight CDG-LJU in July was cancelled and I was rebooked on the afternoon flight)
DeleteI can't say I'm sad or surprised. Their flights with made no sense against JU's.
ReplyDelete* their flights made no sense against JU's.
DeleteThey had good connections with their afternoon wave of flights. I flew AF in October, connecting to Toulouse through CDG and it was a lovely service. The load factor was pretty good on that flight as well
DeleteBravo JU !
ReplyDelete+100!
DeleteI find it very funny how AF,LH,SN,LX,OS were considered the best airlines 10-15 years ago.
DeleteNow Ryanair, Wizz Air, easy jet or other traditional airlines like JU are crushing them.
Lovehansa....🤦♂️
The product that Air Serbia offers is much better, both in terms of service and price.
DeleteIn which parallel universe Ryan, Wizz and JU rank better than AF, LH, OS? Please guide me to that list. Or that's just imagination?
DeleteNo demand, it's a small market.
ReplyDelete"Paris is one of Air Serbia’s busiest routes"
Delete"the carrier was “looking at” increasing Paris to eighteen weekly or even triple daily flights."
No demand for Paris? With 14 CDG+5 BVA weekly? You must be kidding.
DeleteWinter is coming!
ReplyDelete😄
DeleteThe only reason they resumed this route in the first place is because of VINCI.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteOne less prestigious airline at BEG.
ReplyDeleteWe will survive, don't worry.
DeleteAnd more and more passenger, sounds good.
DeleteDon't worry, we are happy with the 24 new routes from BEG this summer.
DeleteSo @anonymous 9:43 for all of you Air Serbia funboys the ideal will be all the airlines leave BEG airport to Air Serbia alone ???
DeleteI simply said that I'm happy that there are 24 new routes (not all of them are being launched by Air Serbia) and that Air France's 2 weekly flights operating for a month and a half make little difference to the airport's business, in response to your bizarre comment about "prestigious" airlines, like you constantly comment ZAG is a "prestigious" airport serving as a Ryanair base.
Delete@Ano 09:56
DeleteYou probably missed that in Belgrade there is a lot of new companies and many old are still there. Loss of AF in these moment does not mean nothing bad because there is 2 AS flights daily and probably there will be third in season with code share with AF. So i cant understend why you worry, except if you are a big fan of self-proclaimed anaLitičar. Whatever dont be worried, everything is gonna be OK.
Anonymous 09:56
DeleteNo, it is better to ruined AS to CA level, than you will see a lot of prestigious companies! No thank you, it is your path and we wish you a good luck.
Not to mention that you can fly from Belgrade nonstop to 4 cities in France, increasing to 5 cities this summer.
DeleteHow come that there is no news how JU is the busiest foreign airline on Istanbul Airport???
DeletePeople, thats HUGE!
The first is Turkish...the second is Air Serbia
The second is Aeroflot, third is JU
DeleteThe yields could not cover the costs.
ReplyDeleteHow many times today are you gonna express your wild dream of showing something positive in a negative light (more likely just your own jealousy), across numerous comments?
DeleteHe probably means with all the cheaper competition and AS planning triple daily.
DeleteYou really can't have a normal customer base with so few rotations.
You should finally introduce Paris (CDG, Orly, BVA, whatever) from INI !!!
ReplyDeleteHow yes no. 😂
DeleteWizz could work
DeleteMore like INY-Lyon.
DeleteIs that where most of Serbian diaspora from south Serbia lives in France?
DeleteOf course not. It’s nonsense.
DeleteOk, wise people, would you be so kind and explain how LJU comes first over CDG from INI?
DeleteJust asking, since you are so wise...
Costs of operating to Ljubljana are much lower than to Paris.
DeleteWith that logic they should fly from Nis to Sofia and Skopje and that's it. Lower costs of operating.
DeleteThis is the fourth time Air France has left BEG.
ReplyDeleteMeaning they will come back sooner or later :D
DeleteProbably
DeleteFor sure. Summer 2023 will be very crucial and we all have to see how things develop. Germany and UK are in recessions. France increased the pension age because of the ageing population. Portugal and Greece are becoming older. Not very good stats so far.
DeleteThe UK isn't in recession!
DeleteFrance is increasing pension age to 64 with many difficulties and resistance, we're at 65 for quite some time now. Nor Germany or UK are in recession. Both, together with Italy, are in the risk of mild recession in this year. It seems people have extremely high expectations of west economies and societies, I don't know why. I'm not very old and I do remember civil war in western countries like UK or Spain. Cool down.
DeleteIt's a shame because it was a good airline to have in the airport's porfolio.
ReplyDeleteportfolio *
DeleteBEG really needs to do more to attract key legacy carriers - ITA, BA, SAS, Iberia...
ReplyDeleteOther than seasonal flights to Croatian coast, SAS doesn't fly anywhere in the wider region.
DeleteI think the selection of European legacy airlines isn't bad at all - KLM, Luxair, Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Air Baltic, Aegean Airlines, Air Montenegro, LOT, TAROM and Turkish if you consider them European.
DeleteIberia is not really needed. Serbia is becoming more and more well connected to Spain. Maybe the really missing destination is Mallorca and Alicante.
DeleteBA maybe if the visas are finally lifted. More London airports need to be connected especially Gatwick. Dublin is also a good possibility.
JU may eventually launch Dublin.
DeleteI wonder how Iberia did not recognize Serbian market taking in consideration that JU successfully flies to 5 destinations in Spain.
DeleteJU flies to Mallorca.
Do remember that Air Serbia is easily able to fill seats on many Spanish destinations due to their cooperation with tour operators.
DeleteOne of the benefits back in the old days of having airline representative offices is that you could develop and nurture business relationships like that. Having a work shop once every 2 years doesn't cut it.
So how do you explain AS success in España?
DeleteBecause they work with tour operators in Serbia. The majority of the demand is coming from Serbia. Plus they have transfers too.
DeleteI agree with 12:41 Spanish market has been a real hit in Serbia especially Barcelona. There seems to be a lot of potential. I think Serbs are slowly shifting from Greece to Spain.
DeleteI heard from one tour operator that Greece booking is booming, with season starting as early as Easter this year. Don't know who'll suffer due to many new Spanish and Italian destinations but I don't think is gonna be Greece.
Delete@Anonymous09:52. SAS scheduled flts to TIV(A32N),for S23.So, Cro and Mne is in their flt schedule for S23.
DeleteSerbs are really picking up travelling lately and the busy winter shows us. It's good to see Italy and Spain as higher end markets improving, also Greece, Turkey or Egypt don't shows signs of slowing down, so don't think we'll see any of them suffering
DeleteFlew to Malaga from BEG in February. Very good load factor, A320 on return flight. I can imagine LF in high season.
DeleteGreat idea from Air France, get Air Serbia to fly your transfer passengers at a loss! The exact same as what Lufthansa does with OU in Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteDid you even read the article?
Delete“You have to bring the costs closer to those of low cost carriers but offer passengers better service for which you can charge a fee. We see this, for example, on the route to Paris, where we fly twice a day and Air France only four times per week [seasonally]. We have a codeshare agreement with the French, and we are able to bring passengers to Paris cheaper than them, which is beneficial for everyone”, Mr Marek said.
The thing is Air Serbia isn't flying at a loss and it was Air France that was flying at a loss, which is why they ended flights. CDG is one of Air Serbia's busiest and profitable routes. There was an article about highest yielding JU routes a couple of months ago and Paris is among them. A few days ago it was published that Marek said they don't want to start routes likes Beirut yet because they don't want seats on routes like Paris taken up by lower yielding pax.
DeleteCan confirm the LF is crazy high on the CDG route, I travel to Paris a couple of times per year for business and both business class and economy are chock full of passengers, both directions. JU is definitely making crazy good money on that route, as it should. Adding a third daily, even only in summer would make my life way easier because the morning wave is a bit too early for me, I'd wager others would love it too.
DeleteHigh LF doesn't necessarily equal high yields. CDG is an expensive airport.
DeleteIt was reported a few months ago which JU routes are highest yielding and CDG is one of them.
DeleteExactly. CDG is an expensive airport but that doesn't mean you can't have high yields, quite the contrary. The destination is simply wanted, both for tourism and business, plus there's a decent diaspora in the region. Mid-day flight can only improve the situation further since the demand is definitely there.
DeleteMarek claiming that Air Serbia has a superior product compared to AF is a bit of a stretch. As far as I am aware they still serve a sandwich and full beverage service.
DeleteI don't think that's what he means. I understood it as him saying that they have similar service but JU does it a lower cost than AF.
DeleteBe as it may, the CDG route is very profitable for JU. I guess some people will find it hard to cope with this information, but that's OK, life ain't fair anyway.
DeleteWhat was the initial number of frequencies AF had when they started flying in 2019?
ReplyDelete6 weekly
DeleteSo from 6 weekly down to a planned 2 :/
DeleteThere goes my hope of them adding more routes in the region.
ReplyDeleteWhen will we finally see flights from SKP-CDG? :( Air France please consider.
DeleteConsidering that Skopje is one of the codeshare routes with Air Serbia, I don't think they will be adding SKP soon.
DeleteIf BEG didn't work for them, I doubt Skopje will.
DeleteNot surprised. Got to say Wizz Air is really expensive on Paris BVA route.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great is JU goes 3x daily to CDG. That would improve connectivity to the Americas.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that this summer there will be a record number of flights between Belgrade and France - Paris Charles de Gaulle, Beauvais, Nice, Lyon, Marseille.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Air France was so weak in Belgrade. Seems like they threw away the whole market to Lufthansa group for transfers and JU for P2P travel. A shame, but they will be back.
ReplyDeleteJU code shares on AF flights to the Americas.
DeleteCDG is a horrible airport. I dunno how people are fond of it and especially from a country like France. Madrid Barajas or Zurich are 100 times better. Transfers via CDG are a nightmare as well.
ReplyDeleteIt just grew historically, most large hubs somehow suck. Look at FRA, LHR... In MUC they were lucky to relocate the airport in 92. In Madrid they also constructed a new terminal. ZRH is Swiss perfection.
DeleteMadrid airport is way too huge.
DeleteAnonymous12:18 100% true!
DeleteCurious that LJU can be successful with AF but not BEG. Also considering the Paris and France have a large Serbian diaspora and Slovenia does not.
ReplyDeleteHave you checked how many airlines fly to Ljubljana?
DeleteWhat has that got to do with what I wrote?
DeleteAbsolutely everything. Air France can make it work out of Ljubljana because there are few other options and very little connectivity (in fact the worst connectivity for a capital city airport in 2022 according to ACI). So people will transfer via Paris in larger numbers to or from Spain, Netherlands, UK, Belgium etc. In Belgrade, for starters, you have another airline operating double daily flights on the same route, which already feeds your transfer passengers, you have a low cost airline operating several times a week to Paris and the city is connected to almost all European capital cities. That's what it has to do with what you wrote.
DeleteAnd to add to that, you also have 5 cities in France served from Belgrade so not all your traffic to France is being concentrated through Paris and you even have flights to New York and soon Chicago, eliminating the need for many to transfer via Paris or another European city
DeleteIntroducing third flight to CDG is necessary, ideal flight time would be 10am-11am departure for all pax who can not adapt to rigid schedule to Lyon or Marseille.
ReplyDeleteRigid schedule to LYS and MRS?
DeleteMarek mentioned an additional wave around the LHR departure. Would fit in there and could connect onto the evening wave.
DeleteIf ITA goes to Lufthansa (and maybe Air Europa), it will be important for JU to maintain and strengthen this code share.
ReplyDeleteAir Europa under IAG is a done deal as it was planned already before pandemic.
DeleteNobody can compete against JU, the Tiger!!
ReplyDeleteJoš kad bi JU dobila podnevne slotove koje je imao AF... Vreme poletanja oko 16h koje su imali pre pandemije je očajno.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia simply increase to three daily and Wizz to daily ...
ReplyDelete