Air Serbia will maintain scheduled flights to a total of 77 destinations this summer season, which begins today and runs until October 26. Direct comparisons in frequency variations to the previous summer are difficult, due to the airline’s numerous shifts in the number of weekly flights from month to month, which was especially enforced last summer due to issues with the fleet and ground operations at its hub in Belgrade. However, as previously reported, unlike last summer, the airline will not maintain services from the Serbian capital to Cairo, Cologne, Florence, Marseille, and Tel Aviv. The carrier will also have a more static timetable with fewer frequency variations on a month-by-month basis. While peak summer frequencies on select routes were higher last summer than this year, in many cases they were maintained just for a month before being reduced.
This summer, Air Serbia will introduce flights between Belgrade and Mostar, restoring operations between the two cities after 33 years. It will also run services to Dubrovnik until the end of the summer season in late October, unlike previous years, when they would end on October 1. Flights to London Heathrow will operate nine times per week from the very start of the summer season, compared to last year when they increased from seven to nine weekly in May. On the other hand, operations on some routes have been reduced compared to last year, particularly between Belgrade and Istanbul which has sustained the largest cuts. Air Serbia will operate a number of charters this summer. Furthermore, as of today, it has revised its flight numbers on most routes, restoring the historical flight numbers previously used by JAT. This summer, the Belgrade - Sarajevo route will be the airline's shortest by distance, while Belgrade - Chicago will be the longest.
Please note that the weekly frequencies listed below are preliminary and based on current availability in the GDS (Global Distribution System). Air Serbia is prone to making additional changes to its network mid-way through the season. The table below displays the peak weekly frequency on each route during the course of the summer season. Increases in frequencies on select destinations do not come into effect until later in the summer season. You can also review the summer season network that will be operated by Croatia Airlines here, as well as the one planned by Air Montenegro here.
Departing Belgrade
Departing Niš
Departing Kraljevo
Surprising that London is at 9 weekly straight away. I notice that there are 2 flights today
ReplyDeleteMaybe to better compete against BA?
DeleteThey have to whether they want to or not. Now they have BA which is a direct competitor to LHR. I noticed that on some days they even scheduled the A321neo.
DeleteImaju letnji slot, zato lete 9 puta nedeljno.
DeleteThey had a summer slot in the past too but didn't use it until May.
DeleteConsidering all that happen in the recent past, I'll take it. Regroup, consolidate and prepare for 2025...
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd privatize ASAP
DeleteNot as many cuts as I expected actually. And some destinations are increasing.
ReplyDeleteIstanbul seems to have faired the worst.
DeleteThey seem to be surrendering the market to TK.
DeleteOr maybe the number of flights was unnecessary....
DeleteUnnecessary for JU obviously. TK didn't mind adding more flights just this time around from SAW.
DeleteIt's still 13 weekly. Just compare to two years ago.
DeleteWe can but it's relatively pointless because since then they went as high as 19 weekly. We need to ask ourselves why did they add so many flights only to cancel them. Yes, they have less planes now but cuts to their Turkish network started long before the Marathon accident.
DeleteSurprising how many flights they have to Croatia and to Montenegro. the most by far. 38 weekly to croatia is huge.
DeleteAnd they will have the same frequency to SOF as to LHR. thats a real great sign of improvement between Serbia and Bulgaria.
Slav Man, Bulgaria is currently finalising its highway connecting Serbia and Thessaloniki. There is also FlixBus and train. The connectivity between SOF and BEG has generally improved and the distance with a non turboprop is approx. 45-55min. VAR is a clever choice, because many Russians own properties over there and currently BEG is the very few places in Europe where Russians can actually reach Europe. Again, distance between BEG and SOF is approx. 6h by car, which is not that much. It also seems borders are quite relaxed, but not for the Turkish TIRs. BEG appeared on a famous Bulgarian travel portal for NY 2023 last December 2023 promoting it, but still the market is small. However, SOF and VAR are bigger cities. JU can safely try Burgas, even if it highly seasonal like ZAD it will have more than 85 destinations this summer After all, the airport handled more than 1,8 million last year, the same figure as VAR.
DeleteHave you crossed the border in summer? It takes between 3 and 9 hours, it's gonna get worse now with Schengen. Problem is that JU is expensive. Who wants to pay €150 to fly for 55 minutes.
Deleteyes its expensive flights but the bus ticket from BEG to SOF will be about 30 euro total but its a whole day of traveling to get to SOF at 8pm or 9pm. in comparison a 45-55 minute flight is so much less stress.
Deletepoint great that there is enough demand for 9 weekly flights with people that can afford it. its not the cheap routes that are impressive its the expensive ones that still have demand filled for more than daily flights. thats the sign of progress.
The question is not "Who wants to pay €150 to fly for 55 minutes" -- no one wants to pay anything to fly for any amount of time -- but "who wants to pay €150 to get from Belgrade to Sofia in 1-2 rather than 8 hours (including the border crossing)". At 25 Euro per hour saved it is not an unreasonable proposition -- sure, not for everyone, but there are plenty of people whose time is worth more than 25 Euro per hour
DeleteIt costs the same if you`re driving alone.
Delete77 destinations is quite amazing from a regional airline.
ReplyDeleteThis timetable reflects major fleet shortcomings as persistent. They might reconsider the fleet renewal strategy as its now hitting against them. I believe after this summer season wet leases will be abandoned and they might think of procuring some newer aircraft too.
ReplyDeleteGreat work by Air Serbia even after going through some tough times. I wonder which routes the embraers will be used on and when they are entering service
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/03/air-serbia-schedules-embraer-aircraft.html
DeleteThank you!
DeleteWhh not OSI or TSR especially now that they got Embraers?
Delete'particularly between Belgrade and Istanbul'
ReplyDeleteLike I already wrote before, Marek's Turkey strategy has completely collapsed.
IST -6
ESB 2 weekly until July
ADB 2 weekly
Meanwhile Turkish Airlines has completely taken over the market with flights from both Istanbul airports, Ankara and Izmir. Air Serbia's failure to position itself on this massive market with a huge amount of O&D traffic will leave them vulnerable in the future. I expect TK to seek once again the permit for AYT-BEG flights.
I remember all the fanfare when the code-share was signed and when they spoke about the joint venture, joining their mileage program, setting up a joint MRO etc.
TK wisely played along until JU (more specifically Marek) removed any and all restrictions which were put in place and which limited their expansion on the Serbian market.
Air Serbia won't even have double daily flights to IST, meanwhile TK will operate the following flights every Sunday this summer.
09.20 BEG-IST
14.35 BEG-SAW
14.55 BEG-ADB
15.45 BEG-IST
19.25 BEG-ESB
20.20 BEG-IST
That's six flights each Sunday alone! Like I already wrote, BEG is an important market for TK because of massive O&D demand. Add to that the fact that the flight is just over an hour means operating costs are relatively low. Good yields mixed with low costs are something every airlines hopes to get. Turkish Airlines' considerable presence in BEG is best proof of that. I glanced at their code-share and JU is double compared to TK (on TK's website). Even there they have limited their cooperation. How can JU cut so much their IST operations when they have a code-share partner there and have access to their global network?! What went wrong?
I honestly don't know what JU was thinking. Did they really think a global carriers such as TK which is taking on carriers such as EK, QR, LH, BA, AA, DL etc. will just coexist with JU?
Air Serbia retreating from this market will only lead to TK further consolidating their position on the growing BEG-Turkey market.
By the way, Turkish arrivals keep on increasing. In the first two months of 2024, there were 16.137 Turkish tourists which is an increase of 41.3%! So how come arrivals are growing so much yet JU's presence in Turkey is getting smaller?
Any good CEO/manager would have seen this coming - TK management did and that is why they requested to operate BEG-SAW at a time when JU started to struggle in Turkey (late 2023).
JU is somewhat lucky that this summer airlines such as Lufthansa or Wizz Air can't put even more pressure on them.That said others such as Swiss, Aegean, Austrian Airlines ... will keep the pressure.
TK је превео JU као жедног преко воде. The fight for Turkey is over, TK won, JU lost.
+100
DeleteVery true. Good analysis
DeleteOnly explanation that comes to mind is that serbian passengers choose by price and time while turkish passengers fly with turkish no matter what. If that is the case the state should intervene .
DeleteWell, I might be wrong, but if the fleet is limited and they are chasing profits, those six flights cut in IST (which probably isn't with high profit margins due to all the competition) are redistributed towards Moscow/Russia where they make huge profits. It seems to me like they chose profits over market share, no?
DeleteWell, don't forget that in theory TK is their partner so those six flights should also help in filling flights out of BEG. These kind of partnerships need to be a two way street. Now it's obvious that it was a one way street from the start. On top of that, fares to IST are anything but low so yields are not trash. Look at how cheaper fares are to Rome where they face Wizz Air. At least here they have TK which is not known to be cheap for O&D traffic - just ask any Turk living in Istanbul. Pegasus is also limited so they can't pose a direct threat.
DeleteIncreasing capacity to Moscow makes sense but that doesn't justify their situation on the Turkish market. Turkey is a country of almost 80 million people. Air Serbia needs to find a way to remain competitive when faced with fierce competition.
Air Serbia poked the bear too many times. They kept on provoking Wizz Air which retaliated by boosting BEG both in terms of fleet and capacity. They poked TK which brought us to where we are today. Now they are boosting FRA (which in theory is a good move) but it will annoy LH even more and so on.
This is where a strong commercial strategy decides who wins and who doesn't. Since day 1 Air Serbia failed to set up a sustainable, efficient and effective commercial policy. That is why they struggled in so many markets.
Look at the debacle in Cairo. When they announced it I wrote on here that they will struggle given the low number of frequencies they offered. In those markets you need to go big or go home. JU went small and was forced out. I wrote that their main challenge will be to remain competitive when faced with a double Star Alliance wall. First being MS-TK in IST and the second MS-A3 in ATH.
These are Sunday departures from CAI to IST and ATH.
00.30 IST MS A320
04.00 ATH A3 A321
04.35 IST TK A333
10.05 IST TK A321
10.10 ATH A3 A321
10.10 ATH MS B738
10.40 IST MS B738
15.15 IST MS A320
16.35 ATH MS B738
20.15 ATH MS A320
21.40 IST TK A321
These three Star Alliance members will offer a total of 11 DAILY flights from CAI to IST and ATH every Sunday. Did Air Serbia really think that with three weekly flights they will manage to remain competitive? Of course not. In order to position yourself in such major markets you need to prepare yourself for a long and expensive war with your competition.
In 2023 CAI welcomed 26 million passengers and it had a total of 65 airlines flying there. This is a market worth fighting for. JU should have scheduled daily flights from the start with a mix of daytime and nighttime flights.
Sorry, maybe they had 4 weekly to CAI, can't remember now.
DeleteNejmee completely right. but TK has not only taken over the Serbia routes but also to all of the JUG nations. Im guessing this was part of their plan which will be important with TK planned expansion to Austrailia and the demand they will get from the JUG diaspora will be important.
DeleteAs for Marek, JU and the government what they were thinking in their cooperation with TK, no one knows. Only can asssume that they were bribed/paid off by TK or just completely lost their minds to work with TK.
Those flights to CAI was fully booked. Something else is the problem with that route. Maybe too long flight time
DeleteSame people now complaining about JU and TK are the same who were bullish on praising their partnership 4 years ago!
DeleteJU had nothing to gain partnering with a carrier 10x-15x its size, but they were greedy even before Atlasglobal's collapse. Wonder how many pax TK is bringing to JU's network nowadays? Which destination does JU fly and TK doesn't?
Shame on you JU because of Cairo.
DeleteNe vidim čemu tolika drama oko IST zbog 5 izrezanih letova i to zbog nedostatka aviona jer su morali da oteraju Grke. Do pre par godina nisu leteli ni jedan let za IST a sada lete 16X iz BEG + INI i KVO po 2X. Ovo im je bilo naj bezbolnije rešenje a da npr, CPH,OSLDUS... ostanu svakodnevni.
DeleteI da, s obzirom da su dosta letova planirali na E95 a da će sada leteti sa A319,320,B738 broj raspoloživih mesta će biti i veći.
DeleteAko ne vidis cemu drama i u cemu je problem onda mozda ponovo procitaj sta je sve gore napisano. To sto pre par godina nisu leteli nista ne znaci, poenta je da su usli, otvorili vrata TK koji ih je izmasakrirao.
DeleteDecko nema dovoljno aviona da se pokriju E95. Si svestan da B738 uskoro odlaze iz flote?!
DeleteToliko ih je izmasakrirao da od sutrašnjih 6 letova na 3 su karte preko 500e na jednom 300 a na tri preko 200e, na dva leta biznis rasprosat. Meni su činjenice ipak najbitnije,
DeleteKao cinjenica da je sada Uskrs na zapadu i da se turski gastosi vracaju kuci? Mislis na te cinjenice? Po tebi skoro daily smanjenje nije velika stvar. Zapravo to je sigurno povecanje!
DeleteNiti sam rekao da nisu smanjili frekfencije niti da je JU jača od TK na liniji, naprotiv,ne mogu da se porede, već samo da mnogo dramite i da JU sigurno uzima svoj deo kolača na ovoj liniji.
DeleteDruze koji deo kolaca, mislis mrve. TK je skoro pojeo celu tortu. Pogledaj samo Ankaru. JU jedva 2x navuce a TK cepa 4 cele godine! JU gubi bitku za Taj kolac o kom prichash.
DeleteDa,da 16 nedeljnih letova su mrve, 😂😂😂
DeleteA šta ćemo sa 5-6 dnevnih čartera JU za Tursku preko leta, genocid?
DeleteNista, trziste cartera nije liberalizovano tako da samo JU moze da vozi. Vrlo jednostavno Tako da ne znam o cemu pricas. JU izmasakrira IST I ukine EsB & ADB preko zime plus pomeri 4x za ESB na jul a vi ovde pricate o nekoj JU dominaciji. Resetujte se aman.
DeleteYou are missing the point. The fact they will have 13 weekly flights is relatively irrelevant. They tried to make inroads into the Turkish market and failed. The reason for this outcome is what we should focus on. In stead of operating 19 weekly to IST, 4 to ESB and 2 to ADB most of the year they will have roughly 14 weekly to IST so what gives? Don't forget that they discontinued both ESB and ADB for most of winter.
DeleteFinally DBV until the end of winter. Now time to move forward its start from the start of summer.
ReplyDeleteUntil the end of summer, not winter.
DeleteThat's a lot of growth to Russia. St Petersburg +2 and Moscow +5.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the options to and from Russia are limited, but what kind of passengers are there on board to fill all those planes? Point-to-point passengers between the friendly nations Serbia and Russia? Transfer passengers to the rest of Europe? If so, are Russians granted EU visas? Or are they dual citizens living in EU, visiting family in Russia?
It's all combined. Flights are full and prices are extremely high. It seems they obviously got approval to add 7 weekly flights to Russia.
DeleteSince the war started many Russian companies have moved to Belgrade. For example, Yandex has some 250.000m2 of office space in Belgrade. Almost all of K district is leased by them. About two months ago they leased, I think, 10 floors in the Belgrade Skyline. All this has created an O&D market which did not exist before. These guys are traveling between Belgrade and Russia on a regular basis.
DeleteAdd to that transfers on both ends and you get the need for so many flights.
It is mostly for the hundreds of thousands of Russians now living in Serbia.
DeleteNice!
DeleteTonight they have two flights to SVO departing within one hour of each other. Makes you wonder if A330 would have been more useful to deploy.
DeleteA330 is going to Zurich tonight which is good because YU-APO is not flying right now.
DeleteThanks, Nemjee. I was unaware of that, but that's interesting to learn. /Anonymous 09:56
DeleteNice to see those old flight numbers back :D
ReplyDeleteThis summer will be much smoother operationally, and then I expect another push for growth.
ReplyDeleteI notice that Zeljko Samardzic is promoting their new Mostar flights haha it seems like the president might be on the inaugural flight.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how these flights are going to perform. I have booked a flight for June.
DeleteMakes sense.
DeleteMostar is his home town.
If the third A330 is arriving in July, why are long haul lines the same frequency as before with JFK daily, ORD 3x and TSN just once a week? Why have they not announce new China destination by now as July is just over 3 months away? Timetable is preliminary but there is no trace of confidence A330s are arriving. Well the Curse of Toronto seems to be ongoing.
ReplyDeleteNeko je napisao ovde da treci nece biti za rast
DeleteBecause they will start the new routes from winter 2024/25.
DeleteIf third A330 is for frequency growth, why it doesn't say for example Chicago 4x weekly from July 30 or JFK 9x from some date in July?
DeleteNeko je spominjao 330 kargo verziju? Da li je moguće da to bude ovaj 3.koji dolazi?
DeleteNe vec je objavljeno koji dolaze. Oba su ex Etihad ex Air Belgium. Oba su putnicka.
DeleteAnon 11:50 So third A330 will just sit on the tarmac in Belgrade from July until Nov so Air Serbia could launch flights during winter 2024/2025? Very funny.
DeleteWhy not just read the news that was published about this rather than wildly speculating?
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/03/air-serbia-outlines-a330-rollout.html
Plan is July but there is always delays with these things
DeleteMarek said in recent Aerotime interview that they will launch PVG or CAN depending on a permission they get. That means they still don't have all permissions!
DeleteLjudi moji dragi rekoh vam da nece biti povecanja, aman. Mene su ovde napadali ali evo i drugi su poceli da primecuju.
Delete11:48
Delete+1
@Ex-Yu Aviation
ReplyDeleteOhrid is missing on the table
Thank you, it is in the table now.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteSo they will have just 2 weekly rotations less then last year, in total there are 38 weekly flights which are cut and 36 weekly flights which are added on different routes.
ReplyDeleteI counted 1 weekly rotation less only.
DeleteYes, based on the preliminary schedule at the moment, they will have 2% more flights (excludes charters) for the duration of the summer compared to last year.
DeleteWell thats awesome! Its not like many people commented here that they will have huge cuts now.
DeleteThat's because those 2% more flights will start from July when E95 start arriving.
DeleteSve ovo lepo izgleda na papiru, ko garantuje da će se ostvariti zamišljeni red letenja? :) Opet postoje problemi sa flotom, radnici ground handlinga gunđaju, nezadovoljni su ponudom Menziesa, nije isključeno da se u turističkoj sezoni ponovi situacija od prošlog leta.
ReplyDeletePade mi na pamet ideja da organizujemo internu kladionicu na exyu, ajde da pogađamo koliko će biti kašnjenja i otkazivanja letova u špicu sezone... :-)
Moj tip je sledeći.
15-20% letova će otići na vreme ili u minimalnom kašnjenju 15-20 minuta
35-40% letova će kasniti do sat vremena
25-30% će kasniti 1- 2 sata
15-20% će kasniti više od 2 sata
5-6% otkazanih letova
And at other carriers 100% of the flights are on time. Stupidity
DeleteKada ce Marek apdejtovati svoj LinkedIn na Open to work?
DeleteVery impressive network for such a small airline
ReplyDeleteIn European terms JU is officially a micro carrier.
DeleteLooking at the map, I am amazed how well they covered the Iberian peninsula. Well done.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don’t see the usage of 3 new ATRs. No new local flights to use them and no sagnificant frequency rising to justify their presence? Even Florence is cut from last year and Trieste from year before.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they are scheduling any additional flights until the new arriving planes land. Also maybe they keep one as reseve.
Delete* reserve
DeleteA lot of routes were scheduled on E-jets. Now that they are out of the picture (3 of them), ATR is back as the backbone of the fleet.
DeleteGood to see Paris up. Did JU ever operate it more than 2 daily?
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Spain has experienced quite a lot of cuts from the originally planned for this summer..As I recall well, they planned 12 weely for Barcelona, ended with 9 like last summer. Thry cut Malaga and Valencia for 1 each, 2 flights per week is not much in summer season..They did plan 5 weekly for Palma and kept it, and they did add 1 extra to Madrid from originally planned..
ReplyDeleteSummer holidays is bread& butter hence Croatia, Montenegro plus bussiness Russia. So profit over frequencies and shortage of planes hence the schedule as it is for the summer.
ReplyDeleteTel Aviv is interesting, no flights now, drop from 4 weekly. Wonder why.
ReplyDeleteMaybe just because of ongoing war
DeleteCancelling Cairo is a joke, they really need to start making a dent in the African market.
ReplyDeleteI like to see 77 destination. Said to see that some destinaions will
ReplyDeleteHave decrease in no of flights but 17 rotation to Budapest. Is real that so many people flying between two cities?