NEWS FLASH
Hainan Airlines will introduce a second weekly flight between Beijing and Belgrade this coming summer season. The additional weekly frequency will commence on Tuesday April 18, complementing its Saturday rotation. All flights will be maintained by the 292-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft. China will resume outbound group tours for Chinese citizens to another forty countries on top of the twenty initially announced last month. Among those is Serbia. Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, recently told EX-YU Aviation News the carrier was working on securing a codeshare agreement with Hainan Airlines. The Serbian carrier plans to launch its own flights to Beijing and Shanghai this year, to complement its existing Tianjin service, although operations are unlikely to commence before the fourth quarter due to the slow pace of gaining necessary permissions for flights from the Chinese regulator.
Excellent. Good to see them growing in BEG.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!!!!
ReplyDeleteSLAY
ReplyDeleteYass
DeleteHappy to see the number of frequencies grow. But why can Hainan get a license so quickly, whereas Air Serbia has to wait for months to get even one weekly frequency to Beijing? Where is reciprocity when it's needed?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Hainan has it easy because they are requesting to operate flights to Serbia meaning they are dealing with the Serbian Directorate.
DeleteJU on the other hand is requesting flights to China so they have to deal with them.
At the end of the day, these flights are there to bring Chinese tourists to Serbia so it suits us that at least one of them can get these permits relatively fast.
China relaxed its entry requirements in January and in that first month there were a total of 3.663 Chinese tourists which is 203.6% more than the same month last year.
Another benefit we have is that with Hainan's growth in Belgrade, we are getting access to a new hub in a new geographical area. Like this we are getting access to the Chinese domestic market. I was randomly looking at PVG flights with them and a return ticket is around €940 which isn't bad.
This will also open the possibility of increased trade between China/Serbia. I'm guessing berries.
ReplyDeleteWatched thier 330 approach over Belgrade from the Ada Bridge this Saturday and I can say if does look great.
ReplyDelete940€ is expensive. If firm pay fine. Anyway huge plane - 300 ppl. Luckily its not Boeing MAX.
ReplyDeleteIt's a flight that lasts over ten hours and which has to pay Siberian overflight rights. I read somewhere that a weekly frequency costs €1 million per year.
Delete3500 $ per flight..... by google search...
DeleteThat would be $400.000 per year for one weekly flight.
DeleteIt also depends on how big your plane is
DeleteAll Serbia need is more Chinese
ReplyDelete