The number of airlines using wide-body aircraft on flights to and from the former Yugoslav markets has declined compared to the pre-pandemic 2019. This August, there will be 103 flights departing the region on wide-body aircraft down 32% on the same month four years ago when it stood at 152. Total capacity offered by airlines operating wide-bodies to the former Yugoslav markets will decline 38%. Much of the drop is being generated on the Croatian market, which unlike four years ago is no longer served by American Airlines, Air Canada Rouge, Emirates and Korean Air. In August of 2019, Qatar Airways, which back then operated year-round flights to Sarajevo, performed eight services with the 260-seat Airbus A330-200 jet to Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, while Iran’s Mahan Air ran nine flights with its 210-seat A310 jet from Tehran to Belgrade, which it no longer serves.
This August, there will be the most wide-body capacity from Belgrade. Air Serbia will operate a total of 49 flights from the Serbian capital using its two A330-200 jets, one of which has the capacity to seat 268 passengers and the other 257. In addition, Hainan Airlines will be using its A330-300 jets on its nine flights from Beijing to Belgrade. The airline operates the aircraft type in two different configurations due to two different business class products, with one having 281 seats (scheduled on seven flights) and the other 292 (scheduled on two flights). Overall, wide-body flights and capacity have increased 114% and 124% respectively out of Belgrade on the pre-pandemic 2019.
Top five routes with wide-body routes in former Yugoslavia, August 2023
In Zagreb, next month will see two airlines operate wide-body services. These include thirteen flights from Toronto operated by Air Transat and four by Turkish Airlines from Istanbul. The Canadian carrier will deploy its 332-seat A330-200 aircraft on its Zagreb service next month, while Turkish Airlines will operate three flights with its 305-seat A330-300 aircraft and one with its 279-seat A330-200 jet. Due to the absence of Air Canada Rouge, Emirates and Korean Air, overall wide-body flights from the Croatian capital will be down 77%, from 76 four years ago to seventeen. Capacity will decrease 78%. Dubrovnik is the only other city to have scheduled wide-body services in the former Yugoslavia, operated by United and TUI Airways. In August, United Airlines will maintain eighteen weekly flights from Newark to the coastal city with its 203-seat Boeing 767-300, while TUI will deploy the 325-seat Boeing 787-8 from London Gatwick on five services and on another five flights from Manchester. In 2019, Dubrovnik was not served by United but American Airlines maintained operations from Philadelphia. As a result, despite having the same number of wide-body flights, capacity is slightly down.
Well there is your explanation why Zagreb Airport's growth slowed in May and June. Long haul/wide body flights provide a lot of capacity and passengers.
ReplyDeleteShows that airport should have focused more on restoring that segment of traffic. Not only does it bring passengers it also brings much more money then Ryanair.
DeleteThey also provide huge transfer possibilities. Maybe someone should inform OU about it.
DeleteAnd to think ZAG was to get Air Asia X regular charters from Bangkok in 2020. We seem to be a long way from that now.
DeleteEmirates is restoring ZAG operations next year, and starting BEG operations with A350 in August.
DeleteHahahaha good!
DeleteZagreb really had an impressive number of wide body operators before the pandemic, even though they were all seasonal. Hope some of them will return.
ReplyDeleteKE performed really badly, someone posted online that their average LF was 66%. Now we know why they never came back and why they are focusing on BUD and VIE.
DeleteWe had, before pandemic, the situation that EK was flying with B777 daily to Zagreb and now we see FlyDubai with only 5 pw while Belgrade (whole year 14 pw) and Sarajevo (21 pw at this time of the year) have many more flights to DXB.
DeleteTerrible result for ZAG.
Actually Korean performed really well. Emirates struggled in winter.
DeleteVery wrong. Korean was often empty in ZAG during the winter.
DeleteKorean struggled over winter more than EK.
DeleteEK had at least switched their entire product to FlyDubai, including having business class and FZ parking at Terminal 3 in Dubai, as opposed to their usual Terminal 2 position.
Korean wasn't really working out in winter, even in combination with Zurich.
I believe they were planning to turn the route into a seasonal one even before the pandemic hit.
Emirates might return next year, especially since Australia and New Zealand are finally reopening. Properly.
Korean on the other hand...doubtful any time soon, even seasonally because I don't think the Korean tourists are back in significant numbers.
On a positive note, the numbers of Japanese visitors are rising and the two countries have signed an agreement on establishing air traffic between Japan and Croatia just the other day, while the minister of foreign affairs was visiting Japan.
I don't believe there's a commercial interest from Japanese carriers. It was just a political performance from the Croatian government. And the Croatia media was sensationalizing with misleading headlines as if direct flight to Tokyo will be established soon. JAL just announced HND - DOH, they are more keen on feeding PAX to QR network to niche destinations in Europe. ANA hasn't even restored DUS yet and IST, MXP, ARN which were supposed to be launched in 2020. Maybe seasonal flights by Zipair or AirJapan if ZAG provides them with great incentives, but no healthy outbound demands from Croatia to Japan. This is always a problem for long-haul in the Balkans. And Japanese carriers also struggle without tour operators, but there's not enough hotel capacity for the leisure group market in Croatia. And what OU can do with the new A220... or the scammer Pragusa.
DeleteSo wait, a Croatian politician was announcing flights to Tokyo from ZAG? I was under the impression those things never happen in Croatia and only in Serbia. So what gives?
DeleteHe wasn't announcing actual flights and if it happens it'll be more like: from Tokyo to Zagreb, lol!
DeleteDon't know why you would think this happens only in Serbia.
Of course, we're all cynical about it in a; I'll believe it when I see it type of way...but the numbers and more importantly trends, actually do look promising.
They are not competing.
ReplyDeleteWhat?
DeleteI'm surprised that Air Canada didn't come back to Zagreb. They returned almost all European destinations.
ReplyDeleteMost likely due to poor yields, that's the only reason.
DeleteAir Canada Rouge didn't return to any European market because they no longer operate any wide body aircraft.
DeleteAir Canada hasn't restored many of it's flights from before the pandemic. City I live in has connections on AC via Toronto. We use to have 8 flights per day. Now only 2. Their claim is not being able to get parts for aircraft Erich have been idle.
DeleteParts for aircraft which have been idle.Was also told by the AC rep that there still is a shortage of staff.
DeleteAnon at 9:17 is correct. Rouge retired 767 fleet, more than 25 aircraft. Air Transat deal didn't close. Many destinations like ZAG, BUD, OTP were not restored post pandemic. Other seasonal destinations like BCN and ATH are being served by mainline Air Canada.
DeleteAnon 12:52 Things are much better than last year. Issues have been reported with lack of staff for Nav but it takes a long time to get people trained. Toronto Pearson is also getting better from my experience but it's far from perfect with many delays and cancelled flights:
This recent clip of YYZ CEO talking about improvements while camera shows Arrivals board filled with delayed and cancelled flights is an absolute must see:
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/toronto-pearson-airport-boss-says-summer-operations-have-significantly-improved-1.6484257
Air Canada is cutting and reducing many winter flights. I don't see them coming back to Croatia any time soon, demand is getting softer and softer due to inflation.
DeleteAwaiting the Asian traffic to recover...
ReplyDeleteBS
DeleteThere is a very serious possibility that the Asian market will significantly [in Ex-YU terms] expand in the coming years. The first step will be when the 3rd wide body comes into play with JU. If Serbia manages to capitalize on the momentum of the last few years of investments and good relations there could be a massive influx of tourists from China. Given that there are over 1,000 private apartments that can be rented out in Belgrade alone on Airbnb - the effect on the local [personal] economy would be like an additional salary.
Delete+1
DeleteFew observations about my experience with Airbnb in Belgrade and in general. Unless you have big group and availability of lots of beds in Airbnb it makes no sense to get Airbnb. Price wise Hyatt or Hotel Moscow was on par with decent 2 bedroom apartment in Dorćol or Vračar for example. So Airbnb just doesn’t works out if you add all the fees on top of it.
DeleteFew comments about Tesla Airport on the arrival few days ago: everything was smooth, 20 min wait for passport control, luggage was already waiting on arrival. Maybe they should have planned to have 2 exits from parking lot. The one exit they had created bottlenecks and longer wait.
Tomorrow is flight to Split on Air Serbia. Looking forward.
That seems to be case with many destinations nowdays: Airbnb flats are as expensive as hotels on Booking (my recent experiences with Lisbon and Rome)
DeleteAsian market seems to have recovered from Belgrade, that is why there is so much growth on BE-China market.
DeleteWhen will Zagreb FINALLY get flights to US? Conditions are good for the US flights, especially with the US visas being abolished.
ReplyDeleteThe only chance of these US flights happening is for Croatia Airlines to lease a widebody and start it themselves.
DeleteZAG is already the largest Star Alliance hub not to have US bound flights. Time to get those services.
DeleteIt won’t happen
DeleteWe will see.
DeleteThe story og ZAG getting US flights is at least 15 years old.
DeleteNothing will come out of it.
@Anon 09:16, ZAG is a hub?
DeleteYes, to Osijek, Split, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Mostar and Skopje.
DeleteImpressive list of destinations for a hub.
DeleteWhat about Split? Any chance we might see some seasonal long hauls from there?
ReplyDeleteSplit Airport CEO said they are not interested in long hauls.
DeleteProbably because they have nowhere to park those planes. They would earn much more from narrowbody flights.
DeleteI believe in 2019 Transat schedule Split from Toronto but then cancelled after a few months of sales. Don't know why.
DeleteSplit missing Turkish and FlyDubai
DeleteAgree with last anon. And I actually think those might start flights in the next year or two.
DeleteYeah, Split really misses eastern destinations. As for widebody, they have issues with space in SPU, it's not their priority. Dubrovnik should be long haul entry point in Croatia.
Deleteyes great to feed the montenigrien market..
DeleteGood to see overall wide-body growth from BEG. I expect numbers will further grow this winter.
ReplyDeleteWith the arrival of third wide-body in JU fleet it will surely happen.
Delete^ I hope it will arrive this winter so new routes can begin.
DeleteHope T'Way will start flights to ZAG if Korean Air doesn't want to. T'way said they want to fly to ZAG.
ReplyDeleteI think T'way gave up on the idea
DeleteI think it too.
DeleteBelgrade being the world wide hub that it is💪
ReplyDeleteBEG is growing and growing with two A330, more will make it better
ReplyDeleteJU*
DeleteBravo BEG!
ReplyDeleteBEG has good predispositions for more long hauls with a lot of regional links.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of potential for growth.
DeleteWhy isn't Delta returning to Dubrovnik (they flew in 2021)? They were performing well.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they couldn't compete with United?
DeleteThey probably had other more high-yielding routes they needed to redirect their planes too.
DeleteI honestly think that many more airlines should look towards EX-YU, especially Croatia and Serbia.
ReplyDeleteAgree. I think there is a lot of untapped potential in this region.
DeleteQuite interesting that Qatar Airways operated so many A330 flights to Sarajevo in 2019 and now it only flies a few times per week during the summer. What happened?
ReplyDeleteI think it's because all the Gulf airlines started flying to Sarajevo during Covid since they were looking for alternative markets. QR was full with Gulf transfers to Sarajevo but now with airlines from Kuwait, Oman, Saudi, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan all flying to SJJ, there is no need to transfer.
DeleteBut in winter almost none of those fly. Odd they don't fly in winter.
DeleteThey fly in winter
DeleteLast QR flight of the season to Sarajevo is 10 September. They don't even fly for the entire summer. Just June-September.
DeleteShame. People used them to transfer all across Asia, not just Gulf.
DeleteObviously not in big enough numbers.
DeleteI think they had generally average yields on this route which were covered by increased demand in summer. But now with all the extra competition, it probably wasn't worth it.
DeleteI’m really hoping, but not sure how likely it is, that Delta establishes flights from Atlanta to Belgrade. Maybe some kind of cooperation with Air Serbia will be necessary but it’ll improve the connectivity of the entire region with the U.S. market. Again, it’s clear it’s unlikely to happen with the recent codeshare agreement Air Serbia has with another U.S. carrier, but just saying what would be nice ☺️
ReplyDeleteTbh, in terms of US airlines, I think there is the biggest chance for Jet Airways to start flights to Belgrade, out of all the US airlines.
Delete@anon 09:42
DeleteWhat is “Jet Airways?” Are you talking about JetBlue? In that case, it’s not possible, they don’t have the aircraft with the required range to reach BEG
Sorry, yes I meant jetBlue :D Didn't they start getting long range narrowbodies?
DeleteSpeaking of Jet Blue, their General Manager for Europe is Ms Maja Gedosev, Air Serbia's former Corporate Communications Manager :)
Deletewow had no idea. Interesting
DeleteYes, they have A321LR with flight range of 4000 nautical miles while JFK-BEG is 4500 nautical miles.
DeleteSo, not possible.
But they do have the A321XLR on order which has 5000nmi range. Which will start arriving next year.
DeleteEven with a A321XLR it would be tight.
DeleteI’m wondering why US Airlines doesnt flight in BEG
ReplyDeleteNot just BEG, they don't fly anywhere in Eastern Europe. Not even Vienna. I think just before the pandemic, Air Canada made a deal with Austrian to start Vienna flights, while Austrian would begin the flights to Montreal. Someone can correct me, but I don't think any of the US/CA airlines fly to IST either. For a long time, even ATH was out of the picture. However, after the pandemic, the demand to ATH was so huge that they could no longer ignore it. I believe now they have flights to ATH year around. US carriers have joint-venture agreements with their EU partners (LH, AF, BA), so they simply let them cover the region. In general, the whole Balkans, with the exception of Greece is still a big unknown to many Americans. They know very little about the region and the fact that it takes at least three flights to get anywhere in the Balkans, makes it it even harder to come and explore it. I think, if everyone gets US flights, it will be ZAG. Croatia seems to be more and more popular among many tourists and now with no border between CRO and SLO, there are even more opporunities for growth.
DeleteUS airlines do not fly to BEG because it is simple not a tourist destination . Look at ATH and Greece in general . It is a huge tourist destination and that is why US carriers fly there from New York , Philadelphia , Atlanta , Boston , Chicago , Washington DC, Newark NJ in the summer season. Do not forget Air Canada and Sir Transat from Toronto and Montreal . Also Emirates fly from ATH to New York all year around.
DeleteAC flies to Vienna from Toronto and OS serves Montreal from Vienna.
DeleteATH is having a good year, DL extended JFK-ATH to the end of November and UA extended EWR-ATH the same. AC also extended Montreal and Toronto flights to Athens until the end of November. Congratulations to our Greek brothers.
DeleteYou can’t see this situation changing any time soon. With the soon to Lanuch A321 XLR you can imagine companies like Air Canada using aircraft like this to markets in Ex-yu moving forward. On a positive it should mean more long haul flights especially to Belgrade from markets that right now aren’t sustainable and also maybe Zagreb etc..
ReplyDeleteI saw Icelandair being one of the first to receive they would be a welcome addition to Ex-yu markets not just to visit Iceland but most people use them to transfer on to North America.
DeleteInterestingly Icelandair said how demand from Europe is starting to drop off because of inflation. I agree it would eb a good transfer option but they would have to do a hell of a lot of marketing in this region to promote themselves as a transfer carrier.
DeleteZAG listed Reykjavik in its incentives program.
Delete^ So far no takers
DeleteInteresting article. Nice to see BEG grow so much. Pity about Zagreb but I do hope some of those airlines return.
ReplyDeleteZAG said they expect their long haul network to recover by 2025 so I have hope it will.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to them but the issue surrounding airports have recovered their long haul traffic and grown leaving ZAG behind.
DeleteAny chance for American to return to Dubrovnik. I know that before the pandemic they were even considering a second destination, from Chicago.
ReplyDeleteThey said they will consider Dubrovnik when they get more B787s
DeleteCorrect. What is point to display table with top 5 wide-body routs, when there is only six of them in total.
ReplyDeleteNo heart feelings.
There is 9
DeleteBelgrade-New York
Belgrade-Chicago
Belgrade-Tianjin
Beijing-Belgrade
Toronto-Zagreb
Istanbul-Zagreb
Newark-Dubrovnik
London Gatwick-Dubrovnik
Manchester-Dubrovnik
9 routes with wide bodies is not so bad considering how small and unimportant our region is.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is it goes down to 4 in winter from just one airport.
DeleteAlso Edelweiss A340-300 fly from Zurich to/from Pristina 2x twice a week
ReplyDeleteNo. Edelweiss has no A340 flights to Pristina scheduled in August at the moment.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/07/edelweiss-schedules-wide-body-pristina.html?m=1
DeleteYes, but only during July.
Delete"the 314-seat jet will be deployed on the route starting July 16, each Thursday and Saturday until the end of the month"
Deletearticle was published July 5. end of month = end of July.
It says, This is likely to be extended through August as well, no worries will see.
DeleteThey have, look on FlightRadar24 flight WK403 scheduled on the 27th of July.
DeleteWe are talking about August, not July, as does the article.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/ePRHWp3jAoo
DeleteMiss Emirates in Zagreb :(
ReplyDeleteSame. Was this the only airline flying to ex-Yu with first class cabin product?
DeleteYes it was. And likely the only one that ever will.
DeleteEmirati, to se pamti...
DeleteBEG should work on getting more wide body flights and it doesn't even have to be new airlines. I think there is potential for QR to operate widebodies during peak travel period. Flew with them 2 weeks ago. They had overbooking in economy and upgraded 4 pax to business. Returned with them the other day from Doha. Plane was full to the last seat in both cabins. Lots of Chinese passengers and diaspora from Australia.
ReplyDeleteBEG will soon have (other than JFK, ORD, TSN, and PEK) MIA, PVG, CAN, YYZ, and some winter leisure destinations like BKK, HAV, ZNZ, MLE, or DPS.
ReplyDeleteNot one has been formally announced. Air Serbia talked about flying to PVG and CAN once permits are in place but not yet talked about decision to fly to MIA, YYZ or any of the leisure destinations.
DeletePrvih 5 godina novim airline je dozvoljen samo jedan origin u Kini. Nakon toga mogu aplicirat za dodatne.
DeleteI started to be interested in aviation in 2021 and since then i love spotting them. I always liked those bigger ones and since then ZAG had to start falling
ReplyDeleteRegarding this issue, the entire region literally boils down to 3 cities; Belgrade, Zagreb and Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteIt pretty much says it all.
One city if you look at year-round demand. Says enough about local market potential.
DeleteCan someone tell me about the A340 which seems to be parked at Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteJasmin decided to start NYC, hahahahahahahaha
DeleteHe picked the best plane for it lol
Delete