Air Serbia handled over 3.2 million passengers during the first three quarters of the year. In September alone, the airline welcomed 456.790 travellers on scheduled and charter flights, representing an increase of 43% compared to the same month last year and a 40% jump on the pre-pandemic 2019. The national airline operated a total of 4.628 flights during the month, up 33% and 29% on September 2022 and September 2019 respectively. Regionally, the most popular destinations in September 2023 were Tivat and Podgorica. In Western Europe, passengers travelled the most to Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome, while in the broader Euro-Mediterranean region, the most sought-after Air Serbia flights were to Istanbul, Larnaca, Athens, and Barcelona. Among long-haul destinations, New York ranks within the top fifteen destinations in terms of passengers carried.
Air Serbia routes with highest frequencies and capacity, September 2023
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “In the year in which we are celebrating a decade of operations under the Air Serbia name, we have set high goals for ourselves. Month by month, we have successfully achieved and exceeded our records in terms of passenger numbers and operated flights. This trend continued in September when, for the first time in the history of Air Serbia, we surpassed three million passengers in one year”. He added, “We will continue at the same pace in the months ahead, and in addition to strengthening our capacity, our biggest focus is to constantly raise our quality of service. Last weekend, we opened a new office in the Galerija Shopping Mall [in Belgrade], and we have prepared a series of activities for the upcoming period, which we believe will delight our passengers”.
During the first day of October, the Serbian carrier opened its new retail store [pictured below], making it its fourth in Belgrade. Those who purchased a ticket at the store on the day received a 30% discount, which generated significant public interest as demonstrated by the queues. In addition, the store sells Air Serbia model airplanes, luggage covers, key chains and other keepsakes. “The entire interior is designed to give you the feeling of being on an aircraft. We have integrated well-known Air Serbia symbols into a modern, aerodynamically shaped space. At the entrance, just like on a plane, passengers are greeted by a flight attendant, except in the retail shop, she is a hologram. We believe that visitors will enjoy the pleasant atmosphere, first in the retail shop, and then on our flights”, the airline’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Boško Rupić, said.
That's a strong result for September
ReplyDeletePuno premalo. Da su slusali analiticara, verovatno bi imali jos milion vise i vise od toga :D
DeleteA tek da su slusali analiticarevog bota imali bi celih 50%...manje.
DeleteBrate dosadan si sa ovim analitičarem.
DeleteIt is good to see that their new route to Porto is doing well. Just a week after they started sales flights around New Year are sold out!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear :) Lisbon has also been a big success this year.
DeletePortugal was overlooked as a market for far too long.
DeleteSame as Spain before them
DeleteInterestingly many tried to develop the Serbia-Italy market but they failed while so many ignored Spain.
DeleteFrom Italy we had Wizz Air which failed in Rome, Air One from Milan, that random airline from Forli, easyJet from both Rome and Milan etc.
However, in recent times this market seems to have matured with both JU and W6 considerably expanding their presence there.
Will be interesting to see if a third player tries to launch flights between Italy and Serbia.
I really do not know why easyJet is so passive in Belgrade.
DeleteWell they would have to invest a lot of money in a fight against Air Serbia and Wizz Air. I guess when they evaluated potential revenue they would get from Serbia they realized it wasn't worth it.
DeleteMaybe one day when the visa regime with the UK is suspended they could launch LGW-BEG. Paris is another market they could test especially since JU has been rather conservative when it comes to growth on BEG-CDG.
ATH performing so well needs to go double daily and beat Aegean.
ReplyDeleteAegean needs to provide better times and connections.
DeleteAegean goes daily from next summer and I’m pretty sure they will maintain daily service in Winter 2024/25 too.
DeleteThey tried to beat Aegean but they failed. A3 is becoming stronger and stronger in Belgrade each year. Let's see what they do with Greek islands next year.
DeleteHow did they fail when they fly double the frequency of Aegean to Athens. They also serve Thessaloniki and several Greek islands. If anyone has failed it is Aegean.
DeleteAegean can put an A321 on the route with 220 seats daily each way and lower its trip cost per pax. And thus be able to offer cheaper tickets.
DeleteAir Serbia completely dominates the Serbia-Greece market. Some people really need to look at numbers and facts before making statements detached from reality because they feel bitter towards JU.
DeleteJU is also getting A321's.
DeleteI think the poster was referring to BEG-ATH.
DeleteTruth be told, Aegean has been more than resilient despite JU being so aggressive on the market. Personally I am happy they are doing well in Belgrade because Aegean is a very good airline with a very pleasant onboard product.
I only wish Air Serbia would be more like them.
@anon 11:09
DeleteConmectivity wise, JU is better with double daily.
Actually Aegean has better timings. Don't forget that one of 2 JU flights is in the middle of the night when there is no metro. Aegean has those spiffing evening flights people love so much.
DeleteNow it is without doubt that they will have over 4 million passengers this year.
ReplyDeleteIt will be close or just over. My guess is October could be around 300,000, November 250,000 and December around 350,000
DeleteHandling over 4 million passengers would really be an impressive achievement.
DeleteHow many passengers did they have last year?
Delete2.76 million
DeleteThanks. Did they have 3 million in 2019?
DeleteNo they had 2.81 million in 2019
DeleteThank you. Yes, this year's result is really something
DeleteMy guess is that next year they will overtake JAT's 1987 result when it handled 4.5 million passengers.
Delete5 million in 2024 😇
DeleteCrazy that it took 37 years!
DeleteWell, it used to be somewhat of a bigger country, with 22 million people, Adriatic coast... They were larger a company than Turkish, or Austrian.
DeleteYes but it was also a time of bilateral agreements and before deragulation, meaning you could not fly everywhere daily or more.
DeleteIf they start BEG - PRN then we can expect double daily flights to JFK on weekends.
DeleteJU should not even consider flying to PRN until they change the airport's name.
DeleteAs for North American feed, for Air Serbia focusing on markets such as Greece, Cyprus and Turkey should be a much higher priority. They have larger demand and better yields.
Slots at TLV are a problem but this is a market which could be a cash-cow for them.
You could fly as often as you wanted inside the country, and there were plenty of places to fly domestically. That 4.5 million passengers figure includes domestic services, of which JAT had a lot
DeleteOf course you could fly as often as you wanted as long as you bought a ticket you could fly.
DeleteDon't understand what you meant to say.
Airlines, nor airports themselves, have a say about the airports' names. That's the matter of politics, something JU (or any other business) shouldn't be involved in. I guess Zagreb name is not according to everyone's taste too, but JU flies doubly daily. Focusing on Greek and Turkish market for US flights is not good strategy, because these markets already have direct flights and many great transfer options for US.
DeleteThe airports in the region are very mature. One is named after a war criminal and the other after a terrorist. Imagine if Serbia did the same. It would have been bombed by now.
DeleteOh I like those souvenirs at the store.
ReplyDeleteMe too. You can also buy those at the airport in the Air Serbia lounge
DeleteI wonder which route makes them the most money.
ReplyDeleteTivat and Podgorica
DeleteRussia flights for sure yield the best profits. If you look at ticket prices for a <3hrs flight then you notice that they are mega profit producers.
DeleteCongratulations. Excellent result!
ReplyDeleteSo my guess that based on these numbers, BEG had around 830,000 passengers in September
ReplyDeleteGood result
ReplyDeleteThese are some really encouraging results
ReplyDeleteNow all we need is financial results.
ReplyDeleteThey publish them from time to time (in addition to the annual result they publish). They made a profit of over 20 million euros in the first half of the year so I'm sure July and August did well financially too.
DeleteWhat was their passenger share at BEG in September?
ReplyDeleteWe will know when BEG published their result.
DeleteWhen does BEG publish its results for September?
Delete"Belgrade Airport’s September passenger performance will be published on October 12."
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/09/belgrade-handles-close-to-million.html
Obviously they are doing something right, despite all the negativity from some commentators here.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAs if 'all the negativity' could impact on results.
DeleteMan, the comments you read here.
Hope this upward trajectory continues into 2024.
ReplyDeleteFo sures it will.
DeleteLooks like the new routes they chose to launch this year were the right ones.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat
DeleteNice. Looking forward to see which destinations will be added next year.
ReplyDeleteIt looks as if they will have more passengers this year than airbaltic!
ReplyDeleteNot bad considering air Baltic is double the size.
Deletewow
DeleteWowza
DeleteKeep up the good work
ReplyDeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteGreat job operationally, let's see how they did financially.
ReplyDeletethey should do well
DeleteThey would do better if Oil hadn't gone to 95$ a barrel.
DeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteLove the store. Well done, Serbia.
ReplyDeleteLove the store but one should question the need for it when all airlines are closing their town offices and when everything is going online. My bet is that they got the directive from the government that they need to be present in BW to support the BW project.
DeleteGood, another conspiracy theorist. And your statement is not true at all. Singapore Airlines opened its new city retail store last year, Emirates opened its new store just a few months ago in Dubai. If you pass by Air Serbia's store in Bulevar at any time of day you will see it is always full of people.
DeleteThey should reopen the Novi Sad store. It was somewhat of a landmark.
DeleteAnd do the have a retail location in Niš?
Judging by dozens of people cueing there last Saturday, I guess it somewhat justified its existence...
DeleteThey handled more passengers than the other two ex-yu national airlines combined.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity what are those two national carriers (one is OU but what is other, Montenegro?)
DeleteWhat do you think?
DeleteAny idea what the load factor was in September?
ReplyDeleteThree more weeks until 10 year from rebranding. Expecting good news and special announcements on that date.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is more destinations for 2024, reveal of the third A330 and launch of more China routes.
DeleteExcellent guess. Let's hope so. Plus something totally unexpected.
DeleteGreat. I have two flights with them this month so will contribute to their overall passenger numbers :)
ReplyDeleteWhere are you flying if it's not a secret?
DeleteIstanbul and Stockholm
DeleteNice.
DeleteIt's going to be a disappointment if they don't reach 4.000.000 in 2024
ReplyDeleteThey will reach it without doubt.
DeleteThey are close to reach that number in 2023, let alone 2024.
DeleteThey talk about rising quality but the passenger experience is becoming worse and worse by the day.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. They really need to up their game.
DeleteIn my opinion, first and foremost the business class lounge should be open until midnight and not until 8pm as is the case now.
Cabins need to be uniformed across the fleet.
Buisness class product on wide bodies have to be imporved
hopefully they get it sorted to create a unified product in their fleet with better quality. Personally i hate those white paper things stuck to the headrest with the Air Serbia brand on them. they look so cheap and ghetto.
Deletenow that they have dedicated ground handling staff, hopefully the company is good then Air Serbia can go through the other problems one by one now.
now that the airport is nearly finished also. that should improve things
That's because they don't have anyone in the airline who will take care of the quality and standards. They just keep on growing and growing with random planes and new crew each season.
DeleteThat 8PM thing is ridiculous.
DeleteI agree, especially since they have a whole wave of departures at midnight!
DeleteIt closes at 8 because they can't find people to work there. All the cooks in the lounge are from India.
DeleteI took 4 flights with JU so far this year and everything was excellent. From chek-in, boarding , inflight crew was awesome and professional. Planes are very clean and pilits are always very informative during the flight. At the same time I took KLM last week BEG AMS and it was an older 737-700 and not a great service compare tu JU.
DeleteHow can KLM's service be inferior to JU's when they literally beat them on every level:
Delete1. KL's crew is always friendly and polite
2. KL offers you a snack and two rounds of drinks, JU provides you with a Noblica and a small bottle of water
3. KL has a competitive mileage program (both for passengers and businesses)
I would understand if you wrote that for Austrian Airlines or Lufthansa but not for KLM.
Air Serbia offers a very basic product. Nothing great, they are average in terms of today's European standards.
Unfortunately their crew seem to be the biggest problem these days. They are no longer as friendly or polite. When Air Serbia was launched they had some of the best crew in Europe. They were well groomed, extremely pleasant and professional. As time went by their standards deteriorated.
I fly with JU when I can because I like to support our national airline. However in terms of onboard product they leave a lot to be desired and they should work on improving their overall passenger experience.
Slav.Man completely agree.
DeleteI like Aegean's headrests on their NEO fleet, very stylish.
https://youtu.be/L_xueUwL3Vo?si=xBUOMDdQuifSaN2L&t=85
I flew 4 times with AS in January, 2x in Economy and 2x in Business.
DeleteI really liked their business product - i had a very friendly and professional crew... i was lucky to fly on YU-APO on one flight, so i had 'real' business seats.. on the second flight i had the free middle seat - which unfortunately became the european standard, so i can't complain...
the economy product was also decent - most airlines don't offer free catering anymore..
the only thing that I didn't like is that every aircraft has different seats, but that is something that can be improved later on, because it is more IMHO it is more important to be reliable and able to realise the daily ops without major disruptions when 1 aircraft goes tech than to have the same cabin in every aircraft - plenty of time to get that sorted out when the peak is over...
I think AS is in a unique position with its rapid growth in a very short time period.. so it does take some time to adjust to the new situation... let's see what will happen now
i am very proud of what air serbia has become - a true achievment!
The numbers woud have been even better if they had enough aircraft and were able to launch things they planned like extra Paris flights, Sarajevo flights, resume Trieste etc
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteWith which crews exactly would they fly those extra planes with?
DeleteWell that is something they should have addressed.
Deletevery true. Air Serbia needs to diversify their routes. and they should organise better with staffing and equipment to do it.
Deletebut they did manage very good result despite all the issues.
Diversify their routes? They fly to 80 destinations. Where do you want them to go? The moon?
DeleteWell, regarding the fleet, JU is desperately trying to find three more A330s but they are not available on the market (for the price JU is willing to pay).
DeleteFor their short to mid-term expansion they want 5 A330s.
Go into any store and compare prices with what was two years ago. A330 are also more expensive.
DeleteIf they had 100 planes, you would be like ... why dont they have 150 planes? The growth has to be natural and controlled, otherwise everything could fall apart. JU is already one of the fastest growing airlines in central and eastern Europe. People need a reality check
Delete@10:44, diversify would mean to increase capacity and frequency to more destinations. Montengro is 40% of their operations. if something happens to affect those routes then Air Serbia might be close to collapse. the rest is mainly istanbul/ zurich and paris.
Deleteso air serbia needs to reduce risk and diversify their operations.
hopefully they they look more to Africa and Asia.
Flights to Montenegro were banned most of 2020 due to political reasons and Air Serbia didn't collapse. Please don't write nonsense you know nothing about. It is more likely they would collapse with your network proposal.
Deletesorry not 40% of operations, but still too large. they rely on this route too much and carries to much risk.
DeleteGod what is he talking about ? AIrSerbia to collapse if operation to Montenegro gets challenging? Honestly people on here have 0 airline knowledge.
DeleteJU has something like 44 flights from BEG to TGD and TIV every week. if they lost that market or it became halved what would they do with those planes, where exactly would those planes fly instead?
DeleteYour way of thinking is very wrong.
DeleteAir Serbia had 478 rotations last week and to Montenegro only 40.
DeleteIt means that flights to TIV and TGD present only 8,3% of all Air Serbia flights.
@12:09 you are correct nearly 10% just ot MNE.
Deletebut also now calculate the impact that has on the rest of JU operations since many of those passangers from PGD and TIV use BEG as a transfer airport. consider how would the rest of the routes perform without those transfer passangers.
its great they have such frequcy to MNE but just try match that to others also. skopje, ohrid, sarajevo, banja luka.
The market of 600.000 potential pax could decide JU's faith? How yes no.
DeleteSlav.Man you are really talking absolute nonsense. You are suggesting they should have 40 weekly flights to Ohrid and Skopje to match frequencies to Montenegro. The reason there are so many flights to Montenegro is because there is DEMAND. There is demand because there is a huge amount of people from Montenegro living in Serbia, because there is a huge amount of people from each country with family in the other, because Serbia is Montenegro's largest trade partner, because Serbs go on holiday in Montenegro in huge numbers, because many own property in Montenegro, because based on official census 33% of Montenegro's population declared themselves as Serbs. And you want Air Serbia to fly empty planes 20 times per week to Ohrid. I really hope you are a young child because I don't understand how a grown up could make a comment like this.
Delete@14:26
Deletethanks for showing how manny people still dont understand diversification and risk reduction. as to why state the obvious about there being demand to MNE, no one knows. since no one was questioning if there was demand to PGD and TIV. completeley unnecessary comment.
ow and making things up to post a comment with no sense. I never claimed to fly empty planes, only to focus more on those routes.
let me give you can example. Air Serbia made it a priority to fly to JFK and when they launched the route, did you know they lost money for 5 years stright? and only after 5 years turned a profit from that route. why did they do this? because it was of interest to the future success of the airline. they saw the big picture and planned ahead, not just for immediate profit.
^ thank goodness you don't wotk for them.
DeleteThe slava.guy didn't have his turska kafe yet. Just wait, he'll be back with, i didn't mean it like that....
DeleteBoze savuvaj sto covjek napisa u oba komentara. Od sad cu njegove komentare malo pazljivije pratiti, mozda dodjem do nekih novih uvida
DeleteWith this huge expansion, BEG will reach at least 7.8 this year. I wonder if in 2024 we can expect 9 million.
ReplyDeleteCould 10m be possible in 2025?!
DeleteWhy not
DeleteFingers crossed for Tenerife?
ReplyDeleteI want more Spain.
DeleteI would like to see more Balkan coverage.
DeleteMaribor
Mostar
Cluj
Constanța
Iași
Pristina
Burgas
With these cities they would dominate the Balkans.
Nobody flies to Maribor. There is a reason for that. Why would Air Serbia do?
DeleteAir Serbia is negotiating flights to Mostar.
Air Serbia will probably open Cluj next year.
Nobody would fly to Constanta from Belgrade.
Air Serbia will probably open Iasi next year.
Air Serbia cannot fly to Pristina because of obvious reasons.
There is no market to Burgas, Varna is better choice.
In my opinion good new offers are Tenerife, Manchester, Dublin, Helsinki, Amman, Beirut, Baku, Alicante, Seville, Ibiza, Menorca.
DeleteWizz Air will fly from Bucharest and Tirana. Something tells me that JU will move to LEJ in the spring
DeleteLeipzig
DeleteMunich
Return to Amman, Beirut, Helsinki.
Manchester
Dublin
Alicante
Tenerife
Baku, Tbilisi or Yerevan.
Seville.
Bilbao.
Greek routes.
....Geneva
DeleteWhy Leipzig??? BER is <2h from LEJ.
DeleteFor Wastern Germany
DeleteEastern*
DeleteThey just have to increase frequencies.
ReplyDeleteLike for example Madrid.
They will.
DeleteI wonder how many of the travelers to Montenegro are actually tourists. Because looking at the schedule( at BEG, JU and other airlines there are over 15 tourist flights per day, even OTP doesn't have that many. Impressive.
ReplyDeleteI've flown with getjet on air serbia route, is this long term? It was probably the worst flight ive ever been on
ReplyDeleteI think it is for a short time, even the contract must have ended. GetJet is usually praised on social media 😆
DeleteWhat weren't you happy with?
DeleteInteresting note about the store in a mall...I don't understand spendig effort to put that together 🤔 maybe something that was done in time before the internet
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteI suppose they believe there are still people (esepcially older generations) who prefer to buy ticket from a person.
Delete@14:02 in that case you go to the office near St Mark's church and not to the middle of nowhere (i.e. Belgrade Waterfront).
DeleteWell Galerija has a problem because there is many empty stores. I guess Air Serbia got some money to open this store.
DeleteFor all people from New Belgrade Galeria is closer and easier to park.
Delete@15.42 There is roughly between 5 and 10 times more people that visit Galerija mall then the ones that walk by St. Marks church...
Delete* than
DeleteMy guess is that most people who go to Galerija don't need a JU office to buy tickets. I suppose for most buying plane models as well as other JU related things might be of greater interest.
DeleteThen it's an expensive investment plus a worker's salary to open something like that for the sake of selling model airplanes.
DeleteIts a prestige thing. I mean they will have 50+ mil profit this year, they can afford it.
DeleteIn first three quarters JU had 3.21 million passengers, with a 40% growth 2019/2023...
ReplyDeleteIn Q4 of 2019, JU had following passengers:
- October 2019 - 240.696
- November 2019 - 178.000 (Couldnt find the exact number, only reference was that in Nov 2022 it was just over 200.000 that represented 15% growth over 2019)
- December 2019 - 195.000
Total for Q4 2019: 613.696
If we apply 40% growth 2019/2023 that was experienced in first three quarters we get 859.174 pax for Q4 2023 for a total estimate for 2023 being 4.069.000 passengers.
In essence, JU needs to grow more than 29% in Q4 2023 over 2019 to be able to reach 4 million mark.
+1
DeleteIf anything, % growth will be higher this winter compared to 2019 than it was during summer. This winter is the first winter in JU’s history that is gonna be properly strong
DeleteBased on the analysis, as long as they go above 30%, which they probably should, they will surpass the 4 million pax numbers
DeleteI think October should do well. Loads seem to be really strong. For example this morning all dawn arrivals are full. Hopefully their sales remain strong.
DeleteHopefully once they sort out their fleet issues they can focus on enhancing their onboard product.
Unbeleavable, AirSerbia is using 31-32 planes in October:
Delete10 a319,
3 a320,
2 a330
7 ATR,
and wet-leased:
3 Embraerer (Marathon),
3 b737-300 (Klasjet),
1 ATR (DAT),
3 DanAir (YR-DSE just weekend)
So, October numbers could be huge.