Air Serbia plans to keep thirteen destinations it launched this summer season into next winter, which begins on October 29 in the aviation calendar this year. The Serbian carrier will continue to operate services from Belgrade to Tel Aviv, Chicago, Marseille, Lisbon, Krakow, Izmir, Hamburg, Gothenburg, Florence, Ankara, Cologne, Cairo and Budapest. Routes that were introduced this summer but are being marketed as seasonal flights only include Catania, Naples, Palermo, Heraklion, Rhodes, Corfu, Chania, Varna and Ohrid. Changes still remain possible as the airline is yet to finalise its 2023/24 winter season network. According to Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, the carrier continues to review its network on an “almost daily” basis.
The Serbian flag carrier has said the new routes launched this summer have all proven successful. “We are very satisfied with all the steps taken so far and the newly launched routes. All are performing well. Of course, some better than others. When you plan for a new destination, it takes some time for it to develop. However, we are noticing a new trend, especially in the post-Covid period, where every new route starts working from day one. We have many examples of new routes being completely sold out within a few weeks of going on sale”, the airline said last month.
Air Serbia is adjusting to new demand patterns among customers. Mr Marek told the “Flight Global” magazine, “One of the most significant changes we have seen is the typically strong days such as Monday, Friday and Sunday, it doesn’t work that way anymore. Now, for example, our strongest day is Thursday. A lot of people work from home more, so it doesn’t really matter where your home is, so we see a flattening of the deviation during the weekdays. We also see that seasonality is getting much more extended. We had a very successful and profitable winter, which was never happening before”. He added, “The changes that will hopefully not stay are these last-minute booking windows. It’s destination by destination, but still the majority of bookings are happening at the last minute. There have also been shifts in the types of passengers travelling, notably towards the premium leisure segment. I would call it ‘high-end leisure’ - it’s travelling more than before”. However, while demand for flights continues to be strong, he cautioned that “it’s also artificially driven because there is a limited supply in terms of capacity”.
Comments
I'm not for serbia and i avoid AS in summer months but let's stop spreading BS around just for the sake of it
Every single airline will in this case try to minimize its cost and to convince you to take first available flight with them but you are surely not obliged to accept that offer. There are many other airlines that fly to KRK and only if you called Air Serbia they would have arranged for you some transfer flight on that day (LO, LH, OS, KL, TK...)
+1
Considering that many passengers are intercontinental (US) connecting from this region through BEG and the ATR don't have that capacity there are many cases for late baggage - even that it has arrived at OHD after the passengers are back in USA after 2-3 weeks.And then complaints about ASL call center and e-mail no response...Then they choose TK from SKP over ASL.
As some other commentors said, either they offer you alternative flight on the same day or they cover extra expenses. If you stay at your home or friends place of course you cannot get compensation, but if you have to pay the hotel, they will pay you back.
Same is if you would take a train to some other city to catch the flight on the same day.
Can you tell which one is bigger than JU? Who else serves so many destinations and has such a large fleet?
OK buddy, keep telling yourself that, because unless you work here, you don't have a clue what went on here in the past few months...
Even KLM cut it from daily to 1pw during the winter.
Leisure? SPU has in February 30.000 passengers mostly driven by domestic demand and PSO routes. So, no profit here.
I truly doubt JU should waste their money on the destination almost no foreign airline wants to fly during the winter.
I am sure airBaltic, British, Aegean, Aer Lingus, Austrian, Brussels, easyJet, Finnair, Iberia, ITA, LOT, Lufthansa, Ryanair, SAS, Vueling and Wizzair have excellent reasons not to fly to SPU during the winter.
So thanks, but no thanks.
You simply need to be patient and wait someone to answer on your call.
If you were close to KRK airport you could have gone there and look for their counter where you could have finished all the details. How long before the flights have they informed you about the cancellation and what was a reason given?
And after all I do not see why flying with small baby on transfer flight is something special? I have done it many times. Better to fly throuh WAW, FRA or VIE during one day than to stay extra 2 days on destination.
14+ pw:
TGD, TIV, BUD, VIE, IST
7-14 pw:
ZAG, LJU, OTP, SKP, TIA, ATH, SKG
Plan for LJU is 4 daily, so I guess the midday flight will be coming back in the next 6-12 months.
ZAG I see getting a third daily soon.
BNX could do with an increase, perhaps 4 pw rather than the 2 currently.
Hopefully SPU and DBV go at least daily next summer. It would be good to see both starting earlier, and SPU getting winter flights.
SJJ will go double daily at some point in the next 6-12 months. They pulled off the midnight flights due to a lack of aircraft, which shouldn't be a problem once YU-ASC joins the fleet.
There is somewhat of O&D demand between both, plus JU could easily pick up a fair few transfers currently going with OU as JU has the better network.
Not to mention that JU has the ATR which it could easily use to SPU.
Of course it is the matter of profit. That is a reason nobody of them including JU does not fly to SPU during the winter.
JU's ATR could be much better used on some other regional airport that would generate many more winter passengers like CLJ.
Btw seems like FRA is back to its old self.I saw videos of luggage piling up at the airport. Seems like they didn't learn their lesson from last summer.
Then again after their failed adventure with night flights to ZAG and winter flights to PUY and RJK I don't see them coming back.
Same could be done with SPU. A couple of flights a week during the peak winter period (perhaps early December to mid January). It would help in some small way to reduce seasonality in their network. I think it could work.
Lot’s of things depends and how Split as a city gets developed. Either gets Dubrovnik route as mainly summer destination or survives as year around working city with other industries like Barcelona.
On my JU flight from Split to Belgrade there was a lot of Australian transfers through Istanbul. So JU has a lots if potential on that route
You have more than enough time to change flight schedule and get organized but you are still coming here with some claims.