Air Serbia has recorded its best January passenger performance since relaunching operations under its existing brand in late 2013. The carrier welcomed 269.725 travellers on board its aircraft during the first month of the year, representing an increase of 23% on 2023. The airline added over 50.000 additional customers and an extra 700 flights compared to January last year for a total of 3.457 operations. The busiest destinations within Air Serbia’s network in Western Europe were Zurich, Paris, Vienna, Milan, and Rome. Podgorica and Tivat remained the most popular regional destinations, while Istanbul, Barcelona, and Athens were busiest in the carrier’s wider Euro-Mediterranean network.
Commenting on the strong start to the year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “Last year was one of the most successful years for the national flag carrier since it was founded almost 97 years ago. A total of 4.19 million passengers placed their trust in us, we launched 23 new destinations, strengthened and rejuvenated our fleet, added hundreds of new colleagues to our team, and promoted 23 new captains. We are very proud of what we achieved, but at the same time, we are aware that the aviation industry is a complex system in which success hinges on numerous factors”. He added, “In our day-to-day operations, we choose to focus on the things that are in our control, as evidenced by the January results. By carrying over 50.000 passengers more than in the same month in 2023, we showed that we can always do better. Let’s hope that this positive trend will continue in the coming months as well”.
February, which is considered the slowest month in the aviation industry, is also expected to deliver passenger growth for Air Serbia. This is based on the airline boasting a 22.1% increase in capacity during the month, as well as a 13.5% increase in the number of scheduled flights compared to February 2023. The record numbers are despite the general downsizing of the carrier’s network compared to its original plan. During the ongoing month, Air Serbia will have the most seats available on flights from to Podgorica, followed by Zurich, Istanbul (from Belgrade, Niš and Kraljevo), Paris, Athens, and Amsterdam. The largest volume of flights will be operated to the Montenegrin capital, followed by Ljubljana (from both Belgrade and Niš), and Vienna.
Surprisingly high growth
ReplyDeleteWhy surprisingly? JU has so many new destinations and flights compared to last January. The rise of 20ish percent will continue till the time of LY expansion (June), then it will depend on new routes/frequences.
DeleteThe growth isn't surprising at all and was actually expected. There was an article here a few weeks ago where JU's reductions for January were published and in that same article it said that despite the cuts the number of flights and seats would still be up by quite a bit, That's the difference between a site using actual facts and numbers and some others which read like a trashy tabloid and are full of misinformation. Same about the Vueling ZAG discontinuation the other day. The article didn't make it as if it is a catastrophe that they are ending their flights and mentioned that Spain-ZAG flights would reach record levels in 2024.
DeleteAnd people were predicting absolute gloom.
ReplyDeleteNo, people said they were unrealistic in their planning.
DeleteNo, they were predicting a decline in passengers at both BEG and JU. Furthermore their planning seems to have worked since they carried 20%+ more passengers.
DeleteThose who called Air Serbia planning "unrealistic" turned out to be wrong. Again.
DeleteLook it's good that they carried 20% more passengers but the real question is why did Marek expect more than that when he approved the extremely ambitious initial flight schedule?
DeleteIf I expect 35% growth in January and I get to 20% then I have to ask myself as the CEO where did I go wrong?
Maybe it has something to do with market dynamics which are changing constantly.
DeleteJust to note, JU was quick to respond to market conditions. So they grew a lot when it made sense. The market is changing and they adjust in response to it. The main aim is to produce money and report a profit. That is the only aim any business has.
Delete@anon 09:19 - Marek doesn’t make the decision himself. Different teams and departments are engaged who work out figures and stats based on historical and projected data. Just because he made the announcement you can’t say ‘he’ went wrong. He actually went RIGHT by changing the capacity when the forward loads were not as expected. Had he not done so, that would have been an issue.
DeleteIt is hard to explain to the people dynamics of company. And why was bad idea to make JU boutique airline when a half of young active generation is hipster willing to travel like a flock.
DeleteAnalitičar (more baba Vanga) always predicts a collapse of Air Serbia. Nobody reputable, of course...
DeleteWhen looking for advisor predicting financial markets or airline trends, you always look at previous accuracy and track record of an analyst. So when you see someone who predicted collapse but the actual result was completely opposite with record number of destinations, aircraft, passengers and revenue, you know it is time to ditch that analyst.
DeleteThat baba Vanga tells so many lies that it has turned into a disease. It is constantly written that Zagreb has more tourists than Belgrade, which is, of course, a lie. I sent the official info in a comment and of course he blocks it and continues to lie. I have less nervousness since I don't visit that poisonous place.
Delete@16:57 same happened to me 🙃
DeleteLiterally gave him official data, but just chose to ignore it and not publish it.
Just one more info.
DeleteIt's possible to rate Vanga's place on Google review😉
My guess is BEG's growth will be around 15-18%.
ReplyDeleteSounds realistic
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteGood start to the year
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLast year some people asked: did Air Serbia bite more than they can chew? This is the answer: NO!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteActually they did bite more than they could chew, that is why they cancelled all those flights. What was left was enough for them to swallow.
Delete^ But it was significantly more than last year. And February will be the same.
DeleteNo they didn't, it was airport. But you knew that.
DeleteCancellations by JU had next to nothing to do with BEG.
DeleteKudus for their proactivity, then. We’ve seen and still see too many bitings and chockings in this nick of the woods.
DeleteAirport had baggage equipment failures and failed to provide enough people to handle the growth.
DeleteAnon 09:35 some people still don't have it in them to admit they were dead wrong last year when they blamed Air Serbia for rapid growth.
Delete@anon 09:39 i flew to BEG last year in June before the real chaos started. It’s definitely not JU fault for gridlock. I was met with chaos at passport control where they were slow and only 3 desks operating for 5 flights (737-8 & 319/320). Then on the other side baggage carousels were broken and luggage was everywhere. Because of ask this the flight was 1.5 hours late to/from Istanbul. JU can’t control airport operations and it’s well known that the super knew about their growth plans. So, yes, all of those blaming JU are still struggling to accept it.
DeleteIt’s like W6 in Nis removing 2 flights due to P&W engines, apparently it’s catastrophe and airport failed to secure the flights which are now going to BEG. People are unrealistic with conspiracy theories running rampant out there lol
JU has a record month for January but seeing as they had 440k seats available for January means they achieved only about 62% load for the month. wonder how that will impact their earnings. maybe the well performing routes did really well. and there were some routes that did very poorly. thats what is worrying.
Deletealso interesting to see how the passanger numbers for BEG look.
Capacity stood at around 419.000 in January.
DeleteSlav.man, all the kids in my neighborhood know Q1 is the slowest quarter. Even LCCs struggle to turn profit in Q1. Check LF other airlines in the exyu region have during January.
DeleteIf they report profit with average yearly LF of 72-74%, I'm sure January's 65% fits the plan...
Delete@14:12
DeleteYes everyone knows that the first two months are slow. And to deal with it some airlines secure their profit or lessen the loses by limiting operations or even not flying some aircraft in Feb as it saves money over flying low LF flights or low yielding flights. That's all
And that's exactly what they have done.
DeleteWell done.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how much disruption there was in January with strikes at European airports, weather in BEG and the afternoon when all flights were delayed and some cancelled because of BEG's mistake, this is very good.
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteWhat is the difference compared to 2019?
ReplyDeletex*1.23=269.725
Deletex=?
Actually, it was 23% compared to 2023, an question was about 2019. Taking in count that 2023 was 20%-30% better tan 2019, it can be more than 50% cumulative.
DeleteThat's a strong result for January
ReplyDeleteAny news on the ATRs and A330s? Do we know their MSN?
ReplyDeleteNot yet unfortunately. Although I did see several ATR72-600s from Nordic Aviation Capital head to Toulouse recently. JU has painted some of its ATRs in Toulouse previously so I'm guessing those are for them (since they are leasing them from NAC). But I forgot to write down the MSNs.
DeleteI would like this month can be announced a few new destinations for Summer 2024, Alicante i waiting for you
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. It's time.
DeleteAny idea when OY-GDA will enter into service? That's the latest Embraer. It arrived in BEG 6 days ago.
ReplyDeleteI thought it will be by today, but certainly by the end of the week
DeleteThanks
Deletewell growth is slowing down. last year it was 136%. but this is completely normal.
ReplyDeleteAre you for real? Comparing January 2023 with January 2022 while comparing January 2024 with January 2023 are two completely different things. The reason growth was over 100% in January 2023 to January 2022 was because January 2022 was still imp[acted by Covid and many routes were still not restored, let alone frequencies. But you know that.
Delete@9.31 your comparison is bizarre.
DeleteIt really is bizarre.
DeleteJAN 24 vs JAN 22: (269,725 vs 90,000) = +200%
is it? actually all your answers prove what im saying. growth is slowing down .. yes in 2022 vs 2023 there were many reasons why they had 3 digits growth ... so once we are out of those months growth will drop to probably 10-15%
DeleteNo, they actually prove the exact opposite. Do some basic maths.
Delete@9.51 you do understand that in January 2022 they were operating below 40 destinations in the network. So yes, comparing anything to 2022 is bizarre in this day and age berceuse Covid was the only reason they had 3 digit growth, not "many reasons". But there is just a need to spit at something without actually taking any relevant information into account.
DeleteSome people can't cope with the fact Air Serbia is growing so they try to come up with some fake math. Air Serbia talked about major expansion in 2023 followed by another expansion in 2024 but with smaller number of new destinations. Capacity and frequency is going to get increased as more Embraers, ATRs and A330s enter fleet. Jan and Feb is just the start.
DeleteCan JU reach 5 million passengers this year?
ReplyDeleteWithout new destinations beside long range one, hardly.
DeleteThere will be new short haul destinations. Just be patient.
DeleteI would argue that with launching 2 new China destinations alone would bring that number. It would boost LF across the board on feeder flights.
DeleteYou are as good as "analiticar" in predicting numbers. One airplane can not bring 800000 passengers despite connecting are counted twice.
DeleteThey are getting two not one A330.
DeleteFrom May or June if they come, which equals one plain. Basic math.
DeleteHow is it one, when it is 2 for the third time.
DeleteWizz is cutting for real and prices are sky high. On many routes it's overpriced JU. It would boost JU's numbers further.
ReplyDeleteHope they use this to their advantage.
DeleteThis means BEG will be close to 500k, give or take.
ReplyDeleteWe will now their result next week.
DeleteAny idea what the load factor was like?
ReplyDeleteI believe it was 65% based on their reported capacity in previous articles.
DeleteI am Greek and travel to BEG at least 4 times a year with the early morning flight from ATH .Winter or summer the a319 is always 40% load factor maximum. Maybe it happens only in my flights , don't know....
DeleteThat flight has horrible schedule, if we are talking about that 3 or 4 AM departure from ATH. I guess they only have it because of some high yield transfers, I don't have better explanation.
DeleteIt is primarily there for inbound transfers from Europe via BEG to Athens, which departs BEG at around midnight.
DeleteLove the winglets on the plane n the photo. That must be an Embraer?
ReplyDeleteYes, it's an E195
DeleteThey will be able to
ReplyDeleteAn increase of passengers in January y/y of 23%, while increasing the number of operations in January y/y by 25% and increasing capacity in January y/y probably by around 40%, so the load factor is much down and probably fares as well (as the fares typically follow the LF), but the corporate talk is always about a success.
ReplyDeleteCapacity increased 30% in January as reported by ex-Yu recently. Not 40% as you claim.
DeleteWhere did it say capacity increased 30% in January?
Deleteanon 12:39:
DeleteThere was no report about increase of capacity by JU in January y/y. 29,9% is the increase in capacity for Serbia in 1Q24.
You may see from the article that in February increase in capacity by JU is almost double that of the increase in the number of flights by JU. So a working assumption is that something similar happened in January as they simply have on average bigger planes.
But around 40% increase in capacity with 24% growth in passengers numbers means that the added seats had a little more than 50% LF, which is the price for this "success" and something you do not want to see.
Air Serbia's January capacity was up 30.8% year-on-year.
DeleteThanks ExYu!
DeletePhoto from BEG the other day. Checkin for Tianjin. Chinese New Year travel in full swing
ReplyDeletehttps://ibb.co/RHsSbdD
Makes sense, it's a flight to China...
DeleteOf course it makes sense, that's why he posted it.
DeleteYou know what doesn't make sense? Planning new Chinese launches and don't making it before Lunar New Year, although you got the permits... But hey, Budapest doesn't sleep on new China routes...
DeleteYou already know the answer - 3rd and 4th A330 have not arrived yet. Once the do in a couple of months, and Air Serbia starts PVG and CAN, Belgrade will have the same number of passenger destinations to China (four: PEK, TSN, PVG, CAN) as Budapest (also 4)
DeleteAnd think they shelved the second weekly to Tianjin.
DeleteCould have kept it at least in February.
It si good that capacity is up 22.1% in February despite 9 routes suspended.
ReplyDeleteHowever these routes have not been operated last February, so we shall to see growth in Q2 and Q3. They would benefit from Wizz reduction for sure.
DeleteWe will see if they can keep up this growth in February. Remember that in January much more people travel because of New year and Christmas holidays.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, but the people were travelling back in January 2023 due to the same reason - it was also at that time New Year and Christmas holiday.
DeleteWe understood you just tried to belittle this great JU result.
@Anon 13:24 Everyone knows February is shortest and slowest month of the year for air travel.
DeleteNo one in European aviation makes any conclusion based on February figures, that's for sure. Lucky thing for BEG is the national holiday in mid-Feb which is connected to weekend this year, hope it helps a bit...
DeleteWhen compared to January 2023 it is important to notice that in January 2024 nine routes were operated throughout this month which was not the case in January 2023 and won't be the case in Q1 2024.
Delete"Analitičar" defitivno na aparatima.....
ReplyDelete