Air Serbia becomes one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines


Air Serbia has positioned itself as one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines this summer in terms of added flights and capacity compared to the pre-pandemic 2019. During the upcoming third quarter (July - September) the Serbian carrier has 1.734.156 seats on sale, up 50% on the same period in 2019, which was its busiest to date. It will operate 14.239 flights, an increase of 42.9%. Its Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) - a measure of an airline's carrying capacity to generate revenue, taken from multiplying the available seats on any given aircraft by the number of kilometres flown, will amount to 2.131.143.013, up 55.6%.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, Air Serbia has launched over forty routes. Destinations which the carrier served back in 2019 but does not do so today include Beirut, Helsinki and Nice from Belgrade, as well as the airports in Kiev and Krasnodar, which are closed due to the war in Ukraine. Out of Niš, the airline no longer serves Bologna, Budapest, Rome, Friedrichshafen, Baden Baden, Gothenburg, Hanover, Salzburg and Nuremberg. Out of the cities it served in Q3 2019, the airline has increased capacity the most on its Belgrade - Tivat route adding a whopping 61.928 seats between the two cities during the three-month period this year. It is followed by Barcelona with an extra 30.472 seats and Larnaca with an additional 29.020 seats.

During the busiest part of the year, the airline has put the most capacity on its Tivat service. Serving the coastal city from Belgrade, Niš and Kraljevo, the carrier has a total of 152.524 seats on the route in the third quarter, followed by Istanbul with 87.056 and Zurich with 79.464 seats. On the other hand, the biggest decline in capacity (excluding discontinued routes) is on its London Heathrow service, with 25.276 fewer seats. Four years ago, in addition to its regular Heathrow flights, Air Serbia operated an additional daily scheduled service to London with Etihad Airways equipment in order for the Emirati carrier to retain ownership of the slots which it inherited from its former equity partner Jet Airways, which went into liquidation. This resulted in Air Serbia maintaining sixteen weekly flights between the two cities during the height of summer. The operational costs of the second daily flight was paid for by Etihad Airways.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:00

    Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:14

      Any plans for Toronto, seasonal or all year around? It will be great addition to Air Serbia, lots of people from Balkans
      Go Air Serbia 🙏👍

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:25

      Soon amigo, soon.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous02:36

      Air Serbia plane was almost in Toronto this afternoon, just 10km away. On a flight from Chicago to Belgrade 35,000 ft above 401.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous07:25

      Almost....

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    So proud of Air Serbia!

    Only 10 years ago we still had terrible Jat Airways and now we can say we have one of the best companoies in the region!

    Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In terms of growth, development and vision, not one of the best, it's the best, and not only in the region but even wider. In terms of quality, things could be improved, but still ok and not bad at all

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:02

      It isn't as good as OU in terms of connectivity. They need to join an Alliance of some kind, preferably Skyteam.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:37

      @pozdrav iz Rijeke

      Still better than Air Croatia in any aspect

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:56

      Every airline is better than Air Croatia as they haven't flown since 2015.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous20:12

      "It isn't as good as OU in terms of connectivity."

      OU doesn't have connectivity. It's LH that has connectivity thanks to OU.

      Delete
    6. Slav.Man00:18

      Air Serbia's vision is okay for the tiny size. But if their vision and planning was the best it could be then instead of North America they would have worked on a route to Sydney and Melbourne that's the grea one. There's just as many Yugo's there as Chicago if not more, plus all the Greek.

      Delete
    7. @Pozdrav iz Rijeke
      In terms of quality, yes, AirSerbia must improve many things.
      For me, personally, the key problem is that AirSerbia does not have a frequent flyer program that I can use.
      However, I think that even now AirSerbia offers better quality/value when compared to LH for a significant number of passengers from Ex-Yu that travel between the US and Ex-Yu.
      AirSerbia allows 2*23kg per passenger, LH nothing without paying extra in the economy. I used LH too many times from the US to Serbia. I experienced so many issues that most would find it hard to believe that LH can have such problems.
      Say, I wanted to pay for an additional bag over their website. I was not able to. I tried cards issued in Serbia and the US.
      Then I spent about three hours waiting on the phone to get a chance to speak with their customer agent.
      They managed to charge me for the additional bag. However, when I got to the airport, it was not in their system, so they charged me again!

      I do not know if you agree, but I would say that the quality of service offered by many European airlines has gone down. So that will enable AirSerbia to get away with many things.
      I think that so long as AirSerbia gets through peak season without major problems (e.g. two or three airplanes being out of service at the same time) it will be OK.

      I believe that they will manage to improve quality, after the summer.
      I'm still a bit skeptic about the ability of AirSerba to have a good frequent flyer program.
      Do you think they will be able to develop a good one?

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    Very proud and hope that AirSERBIA continues to grow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is very wrong what Air Serbia is doing. They should bring Jasmin for CEO. That's the only way to have successful and profitable company with adequate fleet and steady growth 😃😃😃😃😃
    And now for real : Congratulations Air Serbia, wish you go full speed ahead!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      Haha true

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:16

      Jasmin.... Knows.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:04

      Mock him all you want Pozdrav but Jasmin is a well educated businessman and his plan will work long-term. Air Serbia is growing too quickly and it will only take a small downturn for things to go sour in Belgrade.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:36

      He is an educated businessman whose company has been producing record losses year on year despite millions in government aid.

      Delete
    5. JATBEGMEL13:12

      @12,04

      JU had a big downturn with the pandemic, just like every other airline in the world. However, for JU, it has worked in their favour, which is why we are seeing this growth. JU currently has the flexibility with their fleet to cut capacity instantaneously if needed. We saw this flexibility with the pandemic as they were able to finally retire the B733's and send back a couple of their Airbus narrowbodies, a luxury alot of airlines didn't have. JU has the past couple of years jumped onto every opportunity presented to them the moment it arised. JU also has Wizz lately expanding in both capacity and destinations, while JU has taken upon it to compete rather than complain. JU jumped into OSL, SZG and LIS the moment Wizz announced it, they have returned to HAM and GOT, increased capacity to BER, BCN, LCA, MXP and FCO.

      OU for way too long has had the wrong strategy of doing nothing while opportunity upon opportunity has presented itself. Its market share in Croatia continues to be reduced despite growing numbers. Competition has increased while the only reaction was to complain. OU has been talking about TGD and SOF for the past couple of years, while it is now being served by FR. A few airlines have gone bankrupt around OU and all they've done so far was ignore it, Adria being the biggest one they've ignored considering it is right on their door step. OU isn't even codesharing with their Star Alliance partner UA on the EWR-DBV route. This isn't encouraging for further long haul growth for other airports in Croatia, notably ZAG which hasn't had direct US flights since JAT. New aircraft, if they ever arrive considering that order has been there for close to 20 years in various forms, will not change much, if anything could make their financial situation worse. OU has deferred loan repayments as they are unable to pay them.

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/01/croatia-airlines-defers-337-million.html?m=1

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/11/state-to-inject-392-million-into.html?m=1

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/09/too-early-for-croatia-airlines-to-enter.html?m=1

      Currently we don't see this "educated businessman" doing much in benefit for OU, Croatian tourism and Croatian connectivity.

      Delete
    6. @12.04
      LOL!!!! 😃

      @JATBEGMEL
      I sign under every single word. But the guy is obviously here on Party duty. Maybe it's even Jasmin himself 😃

      Delete
    7. Anonymous17:05

      I would say it is a bot.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous17:38

      I think JU management is very well aware of growing too fast and they try to stay away from ordering new jets. Instead they are focus getting cash on hands which would position them for more stability in future expansion, growth and competition.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:24

    A shame for London, but it is kinda understandable given strict visa rules even for transfers. I would personally never bother to obtain a transit visa, I would just go for another European hub

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:57

      You don't need a transit visa if travelling to US with a US visa, as far as I know. Most LHR transfer pax are travlling to the US. For other parts of the world I agree, why would anyone go through LHR when they can use MAD, CDG, FRA, AMS etc.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:03

      The London decrease is not a natural decrease. It is the result of JU operating "ghost flights" basically empty flights for Etihad in summer 2019.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:08

      For US you can also use many other airports like CDG, MUC, FRA, WAW, MAD, FCO, AMS, VIE etc.

      LHR is actually not needed for transfer. Of course it would be nice to have but it is surely not a must.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:26

    Web expecting new destinations nex winter 2023and summer 2024 but difficult to know where ,winter perhaps Tenerife

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:02

      It is way too early to announce new routes for winter and even more for next stummer. There will be new routes but they will be announced in time.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:06

      For winter is not too far but i like to dream with new destinations so my favorite new route is Tenerife

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:13

      Almost no European airline has announced their network plans for the winter.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:22

      We will have new long haul routes this winter and arrival of third A330.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:29

      "There are still a couple of routes we are looking at in Europe, but I would not disclose them just yet. As a hint, the new routes might be outside of our current bank structures so we might start to create additional banks, for example like our flight to London, within this wave of departures. The routes we are looking into involve longer flying time. Maybe some of them will come as early as next year. However, I would not rule out even earlier introduction”, Mr Marek concluded.

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/03/air-serbia-outlines-route-development.html

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:30

      Another 20 routes incoming for next year :D

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:38

      More destinations in UK and Ireland needed.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:39

      They are not since you need visas for both and it is not easy to get one.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:41

      JU could start by opening their full network for sale for this upcoming winter. ORD for example is not yet loaded in the system.

      As for winter routes, MLA was announced in late September, AGP early November. I guess it'll be the same for this year, that is new routes announced during this period.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous17:10

      On LH web site one can buy already tickets for April next year and on JU site not even for 5 months from now.

      I think they should be more efficient in that case.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous18:37

      LH has been operating ORD forever. Air Serbia on the other hand just launched the service and needs some time to gauge interest esp for off season.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous20:29

      @18,37

      It's got nothing to do with ORD being a new route. Their full timetable is always published much later than it should or last minute. This summers timetable I believe was completed 3 weeks before its implementation.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous02:27

      ...and yet they have solid bookings and good LF. Give them a bit of time. Patience is a virtue.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:36

    So JU will have 1.7 million seats in one quarter while OU will have 1.8 in the whole 2023.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:38

      OU is sooo miserable.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:06

      OU is 1.8 million for summer season 2023 not the entire year.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:11

      If you want to compare, compare by quarter

      JU Q3 - 1.734.156
      OU Q3 - 813.368

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/05/croatia-airlines-to-reach-pre-covid.html

      Delete
    4. Absolutely agree with @09.38. OU is miserable pathetic humiliated irrelevant servant and feeder in the country with the biggest market and the biggest potential in ex-yu and wider. They are disgrace and shame for the country and their results and performance equal treason.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  8. Blago Aerodromu Beeograd kod toliko letova Er Srbije sa njegovih gejtova. Veoma raduje ovako jak saobracaj. Bice jos veci. Pogotovo u dugolinijskom saobracaju.
    Mnogo uspeha. 🛫🇷🇸✈🌐🛫

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:21

      Bravo rođo, svako dobro.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous10:08

    Impressive

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:09

    I'm not surprised that Tivat will have big capacity growth considering Air Montenegro has completely retreated on the route but I'm positively surprised about Barcelona and Larnaca.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:12

      Both have seen big increase in flights. Barcelona going from 2 weekly in 2019 to 9 weekly in 2023 and Larnaca from daily to double daily.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:15

      Not surprised. All their Spanish routes are performing really well.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:17

      Spain has become very popular with Serbian tourists.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:41

      If i !m not wrong in Europe event routes celebrated in Lodz, Air Serbia had meeting with a few delegations from Spanish airports to open routes there

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:09

      ALC, SVQ and TFS I think will be the next new routes, along with increases to MAD, VLC and AGP.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:09

      ALC os only 150 km from VLC and SVQ 200 km from AGP

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:52

      Dusseldorf - Cologne 45 km
      Tivat - Dubrovnik 70 km
      Pula - Rijeka 110 km
      Hamburg - Hannover 160 km
      Frankfurt - Cologne 190 km
      Zagreb - Ljubljana 140 km
      Zagreb - Rijeka 165 km
      Bologna - Florence 115 km

      Whats the point you are making?

      Delete
    8. Anonymous15:35

      Its posible but now in Spain like new route only see TFN ,but perhaps SVQ and ALC too ,North of Spain i cant!y see because is not warm región and no atractive for Serbians

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:09

    Capacity and flight numbers are great

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous10:09

    It would be interesting to see which route is best performing. Both passengers wise and financially.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:11

      It was published for 2021. Hope we will get it for 2022 too. In terms of yields Montenegro market was best performing back then.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:18

      It is usually Zurich, Podgorica/Tivat and Paris at this time of year.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:14

      I believe this year Moscow and all Russian routes will be among the best performing financially.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:16

      Of course.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:16

      They need A321s ASAP.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous21:12

      I think they may lease some A321

      Delete
  13. Anonymous10:14

    Nice pic of YU-ARB landing in Chicago there :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10:15

    I think they could reach up to 3.5 million passengers this year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      So far they are on track.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:20

      hopefully they will be on track for 4 million next year.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:25

      Yes, taking the current passenger flow into consideration, BEG should easily reach 7 million this year and JU 3.5 million.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:39

      At this rate, they might overtake JAT's passenger record from 1987 by 2025/2026!

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:15

    Great. Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous10:15

    Nicely done JU.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous10:19

    Not surprised considering the number of new routes they added.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous10:19

    I'm surprised their capacity is so high vs 2019.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:26

      Well they have more aircraft compared to back then. Also they have an extra A330.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous10:23

    Excellent. Good luck, JU. It seems you’re on the right track.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:25

    Hopefully they will consider growing out of Nis and Kraljevo in the near future too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:30

      Not so much demand there for legacy carrier.

      Swiss is the best proof for it.

      Delete
    2. I would also very much like flights from Niš to Zurich. I fly that route like five times per year and when it was still on Swiss, flights were packed. At least always in one direction.
      It was actually always my assumption the stopped mostly because of corona and the problems swiss has because of the that still with planes, maintenance and having enough crew.I can’t know this, but I would be surprised if that route didn’t work for Swiss.
      Right now, I travel to Basel to fly WizzAir to Niš - for business. I would much rather pay a bit more (flying when I need it with baggage is anyway not cheap with Wizz. Paying like CHF 300 usually for a return flight) for a direct flight from Zurich. The option to fly via Belgrade with Air Serbia usually does not work. The flights from Belgrade are at really really inconvenient times. They are often at night, two flights per day on some days then many days without any flights.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:27

    Would be interesting to see which other European airlines are among fastest growing. Aegean?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, it must be Croatia Airlines. After all, they have Jasmin leading them to new wins and bright future....

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:56

      Hahaha bravo!!!

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:37

    They are really on a roll

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous10:39

    The pace they are going at, they will have 100 destinations much earlier than the 100 year anniversary in 2027.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous10:39

    +1

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous10:56

    Pozdrav can not let go of OU even when topic is JU....:) I mean I get it, he is actually patriotic and can not believe that OU is turning in such a shi.hole in a country that should be a star attraction in the world. But still, Pozdrav you have to let it go, no point in obsessing about something you can not change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean famous "Hrvatska sutnja" ? No pasaran with me. Not stopping unless they are all jailed. And if you really believe nothing can't be changed, something is very very very wrong in the society, and I will fight against it in all possible ways, writing here included

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:42

      Big warrior

      Delete
    3. In any case better than mutava piz.a

      Delete
  26. Anonymous11:09

    Please add something new in western France. For example Nantes or Rennes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:43

      Secondary routes in France don't seem to be performing as well as other markets. While JU looks at a third daily CDG, LYS has been doing ok, Wizz hasn't really touched NCE while boosting capacity on all other routes, Wizz will also drop 1 weekly frequency to BVA for a total of 4 pw, MRS is probably amongst the worst performing routes JU has launched this year. I think at best we might see an extra frequency to both NCE and LYS from BEG next year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:57

      At least 18 pw to CDG is MUST.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:00

      They would have introduced it this summer but they don't have enough aircraft.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:56

      And they could add flights to Valencia, Tel Aviv (from 2 to 3), Malaga, Madrid, Oslo (from 5 to 6) but they couldn't to Paris?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:03

      @15,56

      Have you noticed the timings of all these routes you listed? CDG is in every single bank for the routes you listed. JU needs a 3rd Western Europe bank (which they have mentioned they intend to create) which is where the addition frequencies for CDG will most likely go (~10am). Or were you expecting 2 flights to depart in the same hour?

      Delete
  27. Anonymous11:38

    Could BEG reach close to 8mil this year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:21

      7.6-7.7m max.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:18

      But 9 mil in 2024 fo šurs.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous12:31

    Will Air serbia still offer tickets at promotional prices for the summer? usually they started with promotions most at that time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:14

      They've had a couple of promo fares this year already. BER currently has promo fares.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous13:07

    I am wondering if they have not overstretched themselves… too many new routes, lack of airplanes , strikes all over europe and the lack of personell in the european air traffic control. Thanks god I do not plan to fly to BEG this summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:15

      How are strikes in Europe and air traffic control their fault exactly?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:17

      Who cares? The taxpayers will foot the bill if it all fails, and it will be the next governments problem

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:27

      So far with 9 million euro profit in the slowest 3 months of the year and 178 million euros on their account, they seem to have made the very right choice in their expansion. If a certain airline can't expand and its biggest achievement is the addition of 6 weekly flights on a total of 5 new routes, it does not mean others can't. While other airlines hired over 120 new cabin crew, some are cancelling flights because they can't cover their schedule when one person calls in sick.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:28

      I think it is too early to tell. Peak season hasn't started just yet. They seem to be playing with fire in that regard. They seem to pull off a successful expansion overall year after year. Their biggest problem seems to be it's internal organisation and staff moral which might come back to bite them if they are not careful. Ambitious schedules isn't leaving much room for flexibility either. BEG may also present to be a big issue for them as they are under reconstruction, under staffed and not the most efficient.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:40

      Anonymous13:17
      Currently there are no direct incentives for JU that come from the taxpayers, even if the taxpayers pay for the coverage of their operations, it is much better than not to have an airline at all. BEG is well connected to almost all parts of the continent, Mediterranean and via hubs and 3 long haul routes to the rest of the world. Most of that would not be possible without JU doing what they are doing. BEG has been operation without major issues so far (minor issues caused by poor planning of the security and construction workers did occur) so there is no need to worry about BEG itself.
      Furthermore, so far JU has been operating flight relatively OK, but everyone expects problems during high season, and that's what almost every other airline expects because some of the things (the ones mentioned before) are out of their hands.
      JU might not be the best airline in Europe, but considering they have a hub in one of the poorest countries in Europe you have to give them credit, their results are far from disappointing, and they seem to be growing properly. Although well protected by the government and the fact BEG is pretty much restricting LCC to fly there, having JU is much better than having no national airline at all. We saw what happened in Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, how PRN is extremely dependent on foreign planes and gasto routes etc.
      Having all in mind, I have to say I am pretty proud of our national airline.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:14

      @Anon 13:07: "too many new routes"

      Says who? Certainly not passengers, they LOVE new routes and competition that makes flying more affordable. Certainly not taxpayers, they are not footing the bill. Certainly not professional aviation experts, they praised Air Serbia growth.

      That leaves two categories: competitor airline or jelaous amateur analysts.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:33

      @13,40

      - JU is getting direct funding from the budget in the form of PSO subsidies for their routes out of INI and KVO.
      - BEG currently is understaffed and there is a need to watch out for that. This could become a problem for JU which has ambitious plans for further growth. Passport control at departures during peak hours is currently overwhelmed and the peak summer season is yet to start. BEG will in the next couple of years again have issues with gate space so further expansion will be necessary. JU's plans to enlarge their smaller banks, notably at 10am will relieve that pressure.
      - BEG, that is, Serbia cannot restrict EU LCC's from expanding into Serbia due to the Open Skies treaty in place. BEG doesn't need to offer massive incentives to LCC's for their growth as we have seen with a couple of neighbouring airports. Growth currently is amongst the highest in Europe. BEG has 2 carriers based at the airport which have been growing both destinations and capacity, which is more than adequate for an airport of its size. Offering further incentives to stimulate growth could create problems for them.
      - JU have been having quite a bit of capacity issues. Quite a number of flights have been cancelled or severely delayed due to inadequate capacity. BUD, VIE, ZAG, LJU are usual targets. Flights bumped up to the A319 as they are short of ATR capacity. Their 6th ATR, which was supposed to arrive in May has only recently gone for painting. I don't think it will be operating before the last week of June, which is really late.

      Other than that, I agree. They've done quite well for themselves. Better to have a national carrier than to not have one. They lack adequate internal organisation, and if they can sort that out, they'll become quite the player in this part of Europe. Their expansion the past couple of years along with upgrades to their services have been great. It'll be interesting to watch them the next couple of years.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous15:44

      Call centre has been very easy to reach lately. I had to call twice in the last 2 weeks and got through within seconds (immediately after the prerecorded message was played). I think the situation has greatly improved since they opened the Nis call centre which is the reason it was easy to reach them.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous16:13

      Anonymous15:33

      Regarding the KVO and INI incentives...what is the difference between that and governments paying foreign airlines to fly to SJJ, SKP and LJU. Personally, I see that as a good way of improving air travel in Serbia and also improving local economy knowing that a national airline is the one getting money, eventually putting that very same money to the budget itself.
      Serbia (or BEG) itself cannot restrict EU based airlines to fly to its airports, however, for a long time BEG has not been providing incentives for new routes and costs of flying to BEG are pretty high making it unreasonable for other LCC to fly to BEG. Why would FR for example pay 35 euros for just the airport tax per passenger? Wizz is based in Belgrade, and it was based on ruins of terminal 1 making the travel experience super nasty and rather unpleasant and their growth has been pretty limited in the past years, some routes were closed, some introduced but we will see what will happen. We shall see what will happen in the future.
      Regarding the fact that BEG is short staffed, true that and it is a potential problem however that is unfortunately a common issue at most of major European airports so if an issue does not occur at BEG it may occur somewhere else making it hard for JU to cope with the current schedule.
      I am aware of the possible issues, but also, I am aware that these results are amazing.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous16:27

      JU have been having quite a bit of capacity issues but so does Wizz at Belgrade, they reduced/postponed some routes for the same reason. Other airlines and airports will this summer also face staff shortage, aircraft maintenance issues, likely some strikes as well.

      BEG and JU could end up being better than average in those areas while delivering stronger growth than most other airlines and airports in Europe.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous18:51

      @16,13

      I've got nothing against the PSO subsidies, don't get me wrong, perhaps maybe that it is on the higher side than it should be, but glad to see it go to the domestic carrier rather than a foreign one. But to say that they don't get anything from the budget is not exactly true, which was what I was saying.

      Regarding incentives at BEG, from 01.04.2023 there has been an incentive program put in place for new routes, both short (4.000 km or less) and long haul (4.000 km or more), airlines using BEG for transit or transfer, airlines increasing frequencies, extra subsidies for new winter operations and more. The information is on the BEG website in full detail.

      https://beg.aero/cir/poslovno/cenovnici

      It's up to the airlines to decide if it works for them or not. Despite 2 base airlines growing, BEG still has had a couple of new entrants, recently Air Baltic, soon Jazeera, also Lux Air, Hainan is again increasing frequencies, KLM returned replacing Transavia with more frequencies, TK with more frequencies to IST as well as the addition of ESB and ADB, Nouvelair is back with seasonal Tunisia flights, flyDubai doubled their frequencies, while Aegean added 2 seasonal routes to Belgrade last summer. It's not bad for an airport of its size. You can't force airlines to fly to Belgrade if they don't want to, while Belgrade isn't desperate for airlines to jump in for growth.

      SKP needs to subsidise airlines as it has no national carrier and relies solely on foreign carriers for growth. ZAG has OU which has done next to nothing from there, where it is Ryan Air fueling its growth. SOF too needs foreign carriers to stimulate growth as FB isn't growing. Slovenia is the worst performing market in Europe since losing JP and needs to subsidise carriers to bring back some connectivity it lost. TIA subsidised new carriers to stimulate traffic as the domestic carriers have made next to no growth despite the market growing the fastest in Europe. BEG is nowhere near these situations where it needs large incentives for growth.

      As for FR, if they want to be in BEG they would be. They fly to a number of major European airports such as MAD, BRU, MXP, FCO, ATH, MAN, CPH, I dont think BEG is that prohibitive for them. There are quite a few routes I think would work well for them. Again, its up to them to come to Belgrade.

      Delete
  30. Anonymous13:30

    Поносан на Ер Србију. Следећа експанзија би морала ићи из Ниша и Краљева, као и из Подгорице, Бањалуке…. Још увек неистражени златни рудник.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:15

      Ha ha

      Златни рудник 😂

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:29

      Zlatna koka.

      Delete
  31. Miroslav NY14:37

    It's time to stop comparing Air Serbia with Croatia Airlines. They are not in the same league. And Jasmin can start drinking iced coffee. It's almost summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:59

      +1000

      Delete
    2. Hahahahahahahaha, you made my day 😃 Glad to see people participating 😃

      Delete
  32. Anonymous15:05

    Is there anything known about the a321?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:47

      Plenty of info on airbus site.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:10

      Dont mind the smart ass reply.

      Marek said that ita being looked at and that it might join the fleet this summer.

      Delete
  33. Anonymous18:26

    And nobody talks about how Air Montenegro handed Air Serbia the very profitable Tivat route over on a silver tray ..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:03

      I supported the new company because i thought they would be a successful business and not one that hands over its most profitable route to the competition .
      It makes me really angry .

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:16

      Well give them time, they will eventually ruin themselves.

      Delete
  34. Anonymous20:20

    Hey guys, just a question. Would AirSerbia be able to run triangle flights Belgrade-Banjaluka-Tivat-Belgrade (or the other way around) during the summer?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous20:51

    Possible, but they would have to get certain special permits, 5th freedom etc.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous21:06

    JU's growth is great! However, they need to take the Winter in order to regroup before they overstretch themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Ivan22:47

    Good for them,but company should fix their poor support. They avoid to reply on email, and answer to regular questions of their passenger

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:14

      Had similar experience with them. Be persistent, it will take time, long time, but you will get your claim.

      Delete
  38. Casablanca please

    ReplyDelete
  39. Jelena22:48

    Hopefully the service won't worsen... Customer service is not good enough and I can't even imagine how it can be even worse now with this growth. Lost baggage, bad customer service... let's hope Air Serbia becomes better with this growth, maybe then I'll be able to fly with Air Serbia since I always avoided this airline.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.