Air Serbia adds five new routes

NEWS FLASH


Air Serbia introduced five new routes from Belgrade over the past ten days, bringing the total number of destinations in its network close to eighty. On May 31, the airline inaugurated operations to Heraklion in Greece, previously served as a summer charter destination. “With the introduction of flights to Heraklion, we have expanded Air Serbia’s presence in the friendly country of Greece. During June, we will start operating services to Rhodes, Corfu, and Chania, enabling passengers to reach these popular leisure destinations quickly and easily”, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Boško Rupić, said. The carrier will compete against Aegean Airlines on the route.



On June 4, the Serbian carrier introduced four weekly flights to Krakow in Poland. It marks the carrier’s return to the Polish market for the first time since 2016 when it served Warsaw, as well as the first time it has operated services to Krakow. “Tourists who love exploring European metropolises will definitely be pleased by our new scheduled flights to Krakow. Now they have the opportunity to arrive in one of the oldest cities in Poland in just two hours on a comfortable Air Serbia flight”, Mr Rupić, said. The carrier faces no competition on the route.





On June 5 Air Serbia commenced flights to Varna in Bulgaria, marking its return to the city after nine years. The carrier will maintain four weekly rotations to the city. Asked why the airline opted to reintroduce Varna following its disappointing run nine years ago, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, told EX-YU Aviation News, “The airline was totally different at that time. We are now putting a lot of emphasis on regional connectivity and the network size which we have built up has become self-sustainable, meaning that whenever you open a new regional destination you have so much to offer that you will create some base load demand. We believe that Varna is a bit of a different leisure destination than the other ones we have opened, because Varna might have some demand from Serbia, but it has a lot of transfer demand. While we have competition via Istanbul, it is backtracking. So, we believe it’s a nice niche via Belgrade”.






Services to the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu were launched on June 8 and 9 respectively. The carrier previously served the two through summer charters. Upgrading a select number of routes from charter to scheduled services is not expected to impact Air Serbia’s overall leisure operations, with the number of charters set to grow by up to 15% this year compared to the record set in 2022.




Comments

  1. Anonymous13:31

    What were the loads?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous13:56

    See no flights to Ohrid. Wonder what happened. Guess Varna might work for them in winter if there is transfer demand. Good thing is Serbia now has an advertising banner on Travel news BG, which is quite a large portal. Belgrade should be promoted as a destination from Eastern Bulgaria in collaboration with Air Serbia especially is the layovers are large. This is what Istanbul does for instance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:04

      Nothing happened. Flights launch in 10 days.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:08

      OHD got pushed back by a week or so

      Delete
    3. Nemjee17:32

      From what I heard Varna performs really well, since day 1. Flights usually have at least 45 passengers. On some days 60+

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:25

      Nemjee, yes heard the same thing from another portal. JU can compete with OS who charge quite high fares from VAR and TK as they currently offer good prices via BEG. Thing is TK recently changed schedule similar to JU to obviously compete with them with morning departures. Hopefully VAR goes year-round similar to OHD.

      Delete
    5. Nemjee21:54

      I think Varna has more potential in winter than Ohrid which struggled in summer to get enough bookings.
      I think JU's advantage over TK is in its more economical plane and a smaller airport so transfers are easier.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous23:44

      Looks like Ohrid already has decent number of passengers. First two flights from Belgrade are currently being sold at 26.270 RSD, which means that flight is nearly full since that is the highest price class.

      Tariffs for Ohrid are the following:
      1. price class: 7.492 RSD
      2. price class: 8.079 RSD
      3. price class: 9.252 RSD
      4. price class: 10.426 RSD
      5. price class: 11.410 RSD
      6. price class: 12.186 RSD
      7. price class: 13.947 RSD
      8. price class: 16.294 RSD
      9. price class: 18.452 RSD
      10. price class: 26.270 RSD

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:39

      Ohrid starts on 19.06

      Delete
  3. Anonymous13:59

    Bravo JU, bravo Feaport (CFU, RHO, VAR), bravo Serbia!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:00

      *Plus CHQ for Fraport!

      Delete
  4. Anonymous14:22

    They seem to have been most excited in Varna with the launch :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Slav.Man15:34

      Probably they exited because Varna is so far from Sofia and Istanbul is to expensive that there is a real opportunity to compete for transfer passengers.
      also its Its great for more connection between Serbia and Bulgaria, opportunity for Leisure and business. Another option for tourist companies to offer from Belgrade.

      i hope its successful for them.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:28

      I hope JU considers BOJ in the future. Prettier and more developed city compared to VAR but VAR is larger in population and metro area.

      Delete
  5. Nemjee14:34

    Lol the Greek postcard for Heraklion has 'for you' instead of 'hello' written in Greek.
    Rhodes has it written correctly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Па можда је намерно.

      Delete
    2. Nemjee18:08

      Не верујем јер се то не уклапа у цео концепт који фурају од прошле године.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous15:35

    I cant believe there will be 4 flights/week to Krakow and only 2 to Brussels

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous15:49

    I am worried about Krakow flights the most, not sure will it work out, hope for the best

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:11

      First when announcement was made I thought that A319 will fly on that route I was kinda scared. But when I saw that they will use ATR I think its alright. Although it could be maybe little bit uncomfortable to sit for 2 h in turboprop.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:14

      I remember when LOT used Dash-8s in Ljubljana - 1.5h flight


      Its was quite ok, and with - 600 used i dont think it will be uncomfortable at all

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:17

      Krakow loads so far have been great.

      Delete
    4. Nemjee17:34

      Yup many flights on the ATR are full. BUD, KRK and VAR were fantastic choices.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:10

      We remember you telling Nemjee how BUD was a horrible and rushed choice 🤔.

      Delete
    6. Nemjee21:56

      And I was obviously wrong, I expected it to fail. I am happy that I was proven wrong in the end. However let's not forget that JU invested a lot in BEG-BUD with ads and other activities. Just goes to show how important PR is.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous22:37

      Good.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous21:54

    Happy to hear new routes from Air Serbia and looking forward to see much more in the upcoming future. Hopefully you will have more direct flights to free destinations on other continents..so e do not need to use other airlines 💙

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous06:26

      Free destinations?
      Blue heart?
      I love it.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous23:35

    Do you agree folks Air Serbia needs 20 ATR-72-600 to fullfill summer season regional demand?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:45

      No. JU needs 10 ATR's to be able to fulfill summer regional demand and transfer demand.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:43

      I would say about 12...if they want (they should) increase freq, then closer to 16 atrs

      Delete

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