Air Serbia plans network expansion once all components in place


Air Serbia intends to resume its efforts for broader network expansion once it resolves all outstanding issues, prioritising smooth growth and mitigating the challenges encountered in the previous summer season. The carrier’s CEO, Jiri Marek, recently told the “AeroTime” portal that the priority this year will be to consolidate and make sure all elements, including the supply chain, are ready for its renewed push for growth. Compared to last year, when the airline added over twenty new routes to its network, this summer sees the addition of one new service, to Mostar. The airline still plans to serve 100 destinations by the 100th anniversary of commercial aviation in Serbia, which will be marked in June 2027.

This summer, the carrier is serving close to eighty destinations on a scheduled basis, as well as a further thirteen cities as regular charters. “We are very positive towards the future. We have reached the critical mass that allows us to think about further growth”, Mr Marek said. Air Serbia sees the upcoming specialised EXPO 2027, to be held in Belgrade, as a big opportunity but also a challenge considering the amount of people expected to visit the city. “It is estimated there will be over three million visitors at EXPO, which puts extreme pressure on us, the airport and everyone else”, Mr Marek previously said.

Air Serbia has been criticised for growing too quickly at the cost of its operational performance and customer service. Last summer saw the airline register poor on-time performance, caused by fleet issues, an ambitious and dense network, operational problems at its hub in Belgrade and severe weather throughout the peak summer months. The start of the 2024 summer season has also not gone without a hitch due to unexpected fleet issues. However, the carrier has maintained that it needed to take up network opportunities last year before they were seized on by the competition, which ultimately led the carrier to post a record net profit of 40.5 million euros and revenue exceeding half a billion euros. It has acknowledged the need to improve passenger service. “The intensive growth in 2022 and 2023 was inevitable for us to meet the increased demand and achieve the critical mass and market presence necessary for further business development, in line with our strategy. We will work on further operation stabilisation, network expansion, and improving the services provided to passengers”, Mr Marek said recently

The airline has noted that long haul expansion will mark the second decade of operations under its new name, which it marked the start of last October. The carrier is due to take delivery of an additional two Airbus A330-200 aircraft this year. The extra wide-body capacity will be primarily utilised on new flights to Shanghai and Guangzhou, while officials have also announced services to Miami in the near future. Serbia’s President, Aleksandar VučiΔ‡, has said focus will afterwards shift to Far East Asia, with operations to Seoul most likely, which coincides with Mr Marek’s previous remarks.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:07

    Basically Marek said a lot without saying anything.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:10

    The product is poor in a way that I now totally avoid JU whenever I can. I prefer to fly in business and it’s a total roulette whether you will get Air Serbia’s plane on route or of some of its wet lessors. The second question is whether there will be some curtains to separate business after t/o. Also, their, once really one of the best lounges is now totally full, practically overcrowded. At the end, you never know whether you will face a huge delay, as it happens so often. If they want to re-atract some of their once loyal passengers, they should do a lot to improve their service and its predictability and uniformity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nemjee09:18

      I noticed that many flights to Paris are operated with leased equipment, this summer the Lithuanian A320 is also planned on many flights. I remember reading Marek's statement on here how these will also feature a business class product. Seems like nothing became of it, I wonder what went wrong. I guess supply chain issues... lol

      What I don't get it is how come they don't offer business class to one of the world's top premium markets? To make matters worse they are the sole carrier left on BEG-CDG.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:45

      Exactly

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:27

      I ja planiram troΕ‘iti jednom kad zaradim.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:08

      @9.44 they are getting a new lounge with windows overlooking the tarmac.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:10

      You have info about lounge here
      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/03/air-serbia-outlines-a330-rollout.html

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:57

      JU has a business class divider (curtains) on almost all of their dry leases. 2 or 3 don't. YU-APO has the proper business class cabin.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous21:22

      people who claim they fly business class usually, in reality, fly LCCs

      Delete
    8. Anonymous21:35

      Anon 21.22 like you?

      YU-APO doesn't have a curtain between business and economy. Just the wall.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous00:01

      There is so much inconsistencies between the planes.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous00:02

      I mean the product you get on the planes

      Delete
    11. Anonymous23:22

      How come curtains are so big factor for some people that they are ready to avoid carrier because of it? πŸ˜‚

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:43

    Tianjin was announced 3,5 months ahead of launch. We are 3 months away from July when next A330 will arrive. Why they don't formally announce China destinations now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:47

      Probably the Chinese haven't given the necessary permits yet.
      Also they do not know for sure when the new A330 will have its service check (hopefully it doesn't need a D-check soon) and be ready to join the schedule.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:48

      Guys there won't be China flights this summer. Maybe in winter.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:11

      It was reported here months ago that all permits are sorted so it's not about that: https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/07/air-serbia-issued-guangzhou-flight.html

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:00

      Check the interview mentioned in the article. Marek says it will be PVG or CAN depending on a permission they get. They don't have them yet.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:29

      I believe he is referring to slots

      Delete
    6. Anonymous14:35

      Whatever it is, they don't have all the paperwork ready to fly, even if they had third aircraft. From grandiose China expansion plans mentioned in 2022 to Beijing and Shanghai to just one weekly service to a city that has no other flights outside of Asia. Believe what you want but Curse of Toronto is strong.

      Delete
    7. Boris17:39

      China has tough period for the last 2 years. Speculative part the of economy is crashing: eg real estate, banking
      There are problems stimulating domestic consumption,
      There are increased costs in shipping due to avoidance of Red sea, Suez canal
      My feeling is there is decision at the top on restructuring economy from speculative practices and further finacilazation of economy

      Delete
    8. Anonymous17:46

      @Boris None of that prevents China from issuing all required paperwork to Air Serbia.

      Delete
    9. Boris20:39

      We dont know what direction China is going, same as Serbia. World is at tipping point.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous21:35

      At this point we need to take with reserve anything Marek says.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:44

    I have a question for Mr Marek CEO. If you are constantly bragging about record profits, how come you did not increase anyone's salaries except the pilots? If you are making so much money why not reward your employees who got you there? An airlines needs more than the pilots to operate?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:48

      The pilots are the most difficult to replace and are in high demand globally.
      On the other hand there will always be 1000s of young women who dream of becoming a flight attendant.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:53

      And what about people working in HQ? Maintenance division etc.
      Also you can find new talent for cabin crew but you need to select what's good and what's not. Good cabin crew upgrade themselves to working for W6, EK, QR... after a year or two at JU.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:17

      JU can not afford to pay Emiraty or EU level wages to its stuff.
      It is a problem when workers can change companies and countries easily for the companies of relative poorer countries cause they will always be at a disadvantage.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:19

      Well they can’t find maintenace guys and at the same they do nothing to prevent them from leaving and new batch of guys is going to leave soon how the things are standing at the moment

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:20

      With record profits you can afford at least EU level wages...

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:33

      Exactly and I am sure Marek's salary which is probably well over €10.000 did not get any cuts over time. It's disgusting that they are bragging like this while paying people less than the average in Belgrade (€1.000 in January).

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:46

      @Anon 10:20
      No you can't. EU level wages mean more than 100% wage increase for the stuff. No airline in the region can pay that without going bankrupt.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:49

      How much do JU cabin crew make?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous12:08

      Anon 9:48: You do realize that men are also flight attendants?

      Delete
    10. Anonymous12:29

      When one can't tell the difference between stuff and staff, yet they feel stuff they must share...

      Delete
    11. Anonymous13:13

      Yet it is Lufthansa Group crew on strike every week.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:39

      Because LH crew doesn't just want to pack up and leave, they want to stay in Germany and fight for a better tomorrow. Many JU crew have the option of moving to Wizz Air, that is why they don't struggle with crew.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous15:42

      haha you obviously don't know the situation at Wizz Air if you just wrote that. Wizz Air struggles for crew very much at its Belgrade base. Last summer there were delays because of insufficient crew numbers, there have been 4 Wizz cabin crew recruitment events in Belgrade in less than one year. Pay is actually less than in Air Serbia for crew and your monthly wage depends on how many duty free products and snacks you sell on the flight. Please don't comment something you know nothing about.

      Delete
    14. Boris17:49

      Capitalisam is always predatory. It pits labour against capital. Capital always wins hence globalization.
      It is what it is and people should not waste energy over that.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous08:44

      I don’t see that Air Serbia is selling tickets below their EU competitors prices. So why they can’t pay their people well, even on EU level?

      Delete
    16. Anonymous07:59

      Can't have the sausage (profit) and eat the sausage.
      Also, there's always more days than sausages...

      Delete
    17. Anonymous13:14

      @08:44

      Exactly. If they’re charging EU prices but paying staff half the salary, why are they barely profitable even with all the support from GoS? Seems like the company is terribly mismanaged.

      It’s a political pet project masquerading as an airline.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous11:04

    If EXPO is too much pressure, then let the other airlines fly those people, just don't complain please. And it's in 3 years, better find the metal for the season that has just started.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:14

      We all know it's going to be a huge mess as everything in this country

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:12

      @11.04 who is preventing other airlines? Have you seen any airline increase BEG this year? No.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:13

      No one said they were being prevented.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:16

      Biggest issue with expo is BEG. It’s a complete mess, they better get their s**t together by 2027

      Delete
  6. They should have one of the new A330 planes earmarked only for Canada and name the plane Mulroney.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:26

      They will fly to Caracas or Kinshasa before flying to Toronto...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:53

      Canada not happening any time soon but some nice US announcement coming soon.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous11:30

    I wish Summer 2025 will be added few Europeans routes.This year only Mostar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:28

      The Marathon situation plus the staffing issues made impossible to add new destinations this summer.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous12:06

    Are there airlines which plan for no expansion?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:07

      OU for about 10 years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:11

      Well with JU at least we know what their target is and when they plan to reach it.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous13:07

    So they have to add around 20 routes till 2027. That's doable in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:13

      Which destinations are likely to be launched? Any ideas? They obviously won't all be long haul.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:16

      Why bring them back if they didn't work and didn't bring money?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:18

      I think a few of them were removed due to fleet constraints rather than demand or yield.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:25

      They need better coverage of North Africa and Middle East.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:30

      True. They no longer have any destinations in Asia or Africa.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:34

      Dublin, Manchester, Cluj. Chisinau, Amman, Cairo, Alicante or Tenerife are some of the ones I can think of.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:21

      I don't think there is enough demand for either Dublin or Manchester

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:31

      Why Amman and not Beirut?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous14:49

      That area should be avoided for the time being.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:54

      Munich, Tripoli (TK just resumed flights there), and Kuwait have potential.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous15:48

      Munich is still a mystery for me. Why don't they fly there I do not understand.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:54

      Maybe Brac will be next...

      Delete
    13. Anonymous16:51

      They will definitely need more Balkan and Italian destinations when new ATR’s arrive soon. Otherwise, they will be pointless

      Delete
    14. Anonymous23:53

      More Italian? They serve so many cities in Italy already.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous01:08

      long hault they neeed is south africa, brazil, korea or japan and canada. LA in usa. thats at least 5 or 6 out of the 20 then destination in india, warsaw, georgia, armenia, ireland, manchester, cairo. so there are good options for the next 20.

      Delete
    16. Anonymous01:57

      Well, besides Balkan, Italy is only within the reach of ATRs. Maybe somewhere in Austria, Czech or Slovakia, but I think that's well covered

      Delete
    17. Anonymous08:05

      @13:13 Bali (DPS) would be nice...

      Delete
  10. Anonymous13:11

    Has their schedule stabilised after Monday?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:14

      Yes

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:17

      So what happened?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:24

      Few planes went tech on Monday. Things were ok the next day

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:29

      Somewhat but still a lot of up to 45-60 min delays across the board and main season is not there yet!

      Delete
  11. Anonymous13:17

    Do they count those 100 destinations with charter destinations or just scheduled ones?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:23

      Just scheduled

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:25

      Thank you

      Delete
  12. Anonymous14:29

    They really need to imporve their service. They are becoming a 2 star airline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:32

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:37

      Well the good thing is that they are obviously aware of their shortcomings since they are adressing these issues.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous23:54

      Those shortcomings have been ongoing for year and they have done nothing about it.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous14:31

    They need to order neo planes, add Embraers and add more ATRs to the fleet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:39

      First thing they should do is get regional jets.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:39

      ^ they are getting those soon.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:42

      The main thing they need to get rid of are those wet leases. Not a single person I know that flew with them likes them.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous14:32

    100 destinations in 2027 would be nice and symbolic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:53

      They will need a lot more, due to Expo 2027

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:54

      I think this expo is being blown way out of proportion.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous02:00

      Government estimates 3 million tourists in 3 months, which is overblown, of course. But if only 1 million arrives, it would be a huge impact on current network

      Delete
  15. Anonymous14:33

    They need to find a way to improve their sales so that their summer seasonal routes can survive the whole year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:38

      They don't have so many seasonal summer routes. And most of them that are seasonal really don't make sense to fly in winter like Heraklion and Pula.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous14:36

    Good for ASL! I'm hoping for some expansion news for next winter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:48

      Well we already know China expansion will happen next winter.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:55

      and US

      Delete
  17. Anonymous14:37

    Josh Cahil flew the upcoming a330 from Air Belgium. Check out the interior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_07thnidfZQ&ab_channel=JoshCahill

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:38

      It's the Etihad A330 interior, just with different seat cover color. JU already said it would be Etihad cabins and they plan to have the same cabins on the existing two A330s.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous15:58

    Are these aerobridges in the photo like that in BEG?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:02

      Yes C air bridges have Air Serbia branding.

      Delete
  19. Verujem da ce Er Srbija pripremom proslave svoje prve stogodisnjice ostvariti i stotu destinaciju. U 2027 godini posebno bi pohvalno bio bar jedan carter let na kontinente gde se nalazi iseljenistvo Srbije. U koliko je prihvatljivo Er Srbiji. To u prvom redu mislim na nase iseljenike u Australiji. Obzirom da duze od tri decenije ne postoje direktni letovi iz Beograda.
    Za peti kontinent. Zahvalno bi bilo da Er Srbija po prvi put sleti ispod sazvezdja Juznog Krsta. Jos da sleti na novi Western Sydney Airport... Bilo bi to dvostruko slavlje. Prvi kontakt novog Sidnejskog aerodroma i slavljenika stogodisnjice od svojeg postojanja, Er Srbije.
    Lako je nekom Rodniju dobra zeleti. Ipak komercijalna avijacija ne pociva na mojoj prici.
    Mozda. Srecni dolazeci Vaskrsnji praznici.
    Za ostalo kako se ostvari... πŸ˜€πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έ✈πŸ‡¦πŸ‡ΊπŸ›¬πŸŒ✈

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous20:56

    Is it true new US - Serbia route will be announced by the end of this month?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:55

      Yes

      Delete
    2. Anonymous01:22

      One can hope for American Airlines Boeing 787-8 LAX-BEG

      Delete
  21. Anonymous00:00

    100 destinations is possible by 2027 if most of the new destinations are low frequency. Permanent fleet has to grow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:56

      No need to chase 100 destinations by 2027.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous04:09

      But what about Toronto and Lagos?

      Delete

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