NEWS FLASH
Serbia and the Maldives have signed an Air Service Agreement, which provides the basis for airlines from the two countries to offer international air services for passengers, cargo and mail between their two states. The agreement was signed in Belgrade by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, Abdulla Shahid, and the Serbian Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesić. It comes following an initiative by Air Serbia for the Serbian government to conclude a number of bilateral air agreements in order to enable the carrier to ink codeshare partnerships with other airlines to far-away destinations, including Male, the capital of the Maldives. In 2022, the Maldives saw a total of 5.955 tourists from Serbia entering the country, while between January and April of this year, a total of 3.512 Serbian tourists arrived in the Maldives, up 49.3% on the same period last year.
Replacing Havana with Maldives?
ReplyDelete"It comes following an initiative by Air Serbia for the Serbian government to conclude a number of bilateral air agreements in order to enable the carrier to ink codeshare partnerships with other airlines to far-away destinations, including Male"
Delete...but also direct charter flights by Air Serbia
DeleteInsallah 😃
Deleteinstead of looking at big nations that they can build ties with like brazil, argentina, south africa, where there's more traffic and business. but no they look at Maldives.
DeleteThey don't need an agreement for codeshare to Brazil. If you followed the news, they have started codesharing to Sao Paolo. Also for some of the countries you mentioned there are already ASAs in place. No need to spit straight away on everything.
Delete11:13 +1000000 very good comment!! There is a huge ex-Yugo in Argentina and Chile especially from Croatia and to some extent Serbia. They can make a codeshare with LATAM, Aerolíneas Argentinas and even Mexico which is a huge market. If they ever launch HAV or MIA, codeshares to Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, Santiago de Chile are very important. Some might say, yes but many years have passed but still it is good to restore the links of ex-Yu with South American capitals.
DeleteThe other option is for JU to further boost its MAD presence and launch double daily flights ensuring more connections with Iberia or Air Europa.
@ 11:13
DeleteI think that you are missing the point. It is not a question of which new market to open - there are fairly available data on where our people go to with connecting flights. This is more of a question of what to do with your A330 fleet in the winter. One of the things you can do is do charter flights to leisure destinations. And from that perspective, Maldives fit perfectly, as the best time to visit is November-April.
I can see the flights to the Maldives being full while I struggle to imagine flights to Chile/Brazil/Cuba being full
Deleteyou can see flgihts to maldives being full because of the push to advertise the maldives as a destination.
Deleteif the same effort was given to Latin america, which is bigger and south of the equator allowing for summer holiday during europe winter, in addition could tempt travel from latin america to europe because currently there is no direct flight from eastern euope to south America. closest served airport is Rome, but nothing else.
as well as ability to reconnect diaspora to eastern europe. Large Slavic demographic throughout.
Considering all this. Maldives for 2 way travel makes less sense.
I can see range and ETOPS being a problem with direct flights to south America.
DeleteFor Maldives they can reach them with 332 they have.
Can you please stop with the nonsensical critics and focus how Serbian tourists are foing to have now a direct airlink to Male, one of the most exciting tourist destinations worldwide. Congtatulations to Air Serbia!
DeleteMa idemooo Maleee
ReplyDeleteI think it's about time we see charters to the Maldives!
ReplyDeleteMaldives resorts are more expensive than the likes of Zanzibar so the Maldives customers will be more likely to pay premium for nonstop service. Maldives charters would be profitable for Air Serbia unlike some other leisure destinations.
DeleteAir Serbia CEO Marek talked about leisure long haul opportunities:
“For us leisure destinations will be more opportunistic, and by that, I mean niche destinations, not the strategic ones. For example, there is high demand for Bangkok during winter, however due to overcapacity on that market, we might achieve full flights but not profitable ones due to low yield, as there is strong competition from Middle East carriers. However, we will be looking at winter leisure destinations. Obviously, we would work a lot with tour operators. In the past, we were looking at Mombasa or Zanzibar and some other options, but this will always be in synergy between us and the tour operators. "
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/02/air-serbia-outlines-chicago-china-and.html
Belgrade to Male = 3700 nm. Belgrade to Rio = 5300 nm. These are nontrivial differences in terms of how long an aircraft is occupied for one round trip
DeleteWhat happened to GullivAir? Can any of the Bulgarian readers share or anyone else who has information?
ReplyDeleteI was at SOF about a month ago and I saw their A330 parked on the apron, so I believe they use and operate it, and to leisure destinations
DeleteWelcome 😃
DeleteAn airline with 3 planes and 7 destinations, unsure if making its main hub in Sofia or Bucharest, seems more like a monney loudery scheme than a serious aviation story...
Delete