Flights between the Gulf and the former Yugoslav markets will reach record levels this summer, exceeding their previous best result set during the summer of 2019. This is despite the Macedonian market losing its connectivity to the region and Emirates’ absence in Zagreb, the latter maintaining flights to the city with its wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft. During the 2024 summer season, there are a total of 952.316 seats between the Gulf and the former Yugoslavia, up 11.8% on the same period in 2019. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is popular with tourists from the region during the summer months, will account for almost half of that total capacity, with an increase in operations from Saudi Arabia being one of the main drivers of the growth.
The busiest route based on the amount of available seat capacity this summer will be Dubai –-Belgrade, operated twice per day throughout the summer, followed by the carrier’s service to Sarajevo, which will reach up to three daily rotations between mid-July and September, but has fewer operations outside of the summer peak. Overall, Flydubai has become the largest airline from the Gulf serving the former Yugoslavia. Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, it was the second largest behind Qatar Airways, which now takes second position. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is the third largest carrier, a title which in 2019 belonged to Emirates with its sole Zagreb service.
Ten busiest Gulf - EX-YU routes by available seat capacity, summer 2024
This summer there are several new routes from the Gulf to the region, however, all are to Sarajevo, despite plans for new services to Tivat and Dubrovnik, which have not materialised. Saudi Arabia’s Flyadeal enters the Bosnia and Herzegovina market from June by introducing seasonal services from both Riyadh and Jeddah. The carrier had also initially announced plans to commence operations to Tivat but never scheduled flights. Furthermore, Air Arabia will restore services between Sharjah and Sarajevo after two years. Saudi Arabia’s Flynas has held talks with Dubrovnik Airport over potential operations this year, but it has not scheduled any services at this point.
Largest Gulf carriers in EX-YU by seat capacity, summer 2024
Crazy how much capacity there is from Bosnia to Gulf in summer but then in winter there is almost none.
ReplyDeleteWell during the winter we have flyDubai, flynas and Wizz (some months) so it's not nothing, but I agree it could be more.
DeleteI think there is potential for flights from Saudi to the region down the line
ReplyDeleteWe could definitely see flights to Jeddah or Doha in LJU during winter
DeleteJeddah?
DeleteArab tourists love winter destinations in the Alps and Jeddah is a major population and economic centre in the Middle East. Probably the most potent p2p route left for Slovenia in the Middle East
DeleteHopefully when the new Saudi Flag Carriers Riyadh Air launches next year, we will see them launch to some airports in the region.
DeleteDoha yes but why Jeddah?
DeleteConsidering the tourism potential, I am surprised there are not more flights from Gulf region to Croatia.
ReplyDeleteVisas are an issue
DeleteThey are an issue for south of France or Spain too but Gulf carriers have a lot of flights there in the summer.
DeleteVisas are not issue. Arabs in Bosnia are just visiting mountains, lakes, and rivers. They don't like to be in old towns like Mostar, where it is too hot. They escape from summer there to spend summer in Bosnia in the mountains. Why would they go to Croatia?
DeleteFirstly, their covered women are not interested in the sea, and the people who will judge them because they are covered at the sea.
TAV Macedonia really needs to work on this
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey are always in talks but nothing more, as usual.
DeleteTrue now, but as a reminder, before the pandemics, they managed to have both FZ and QR flying to SKP
DeleteWow that Emirates with just one route was third largest in 2019. Power of the widebody
ReplyDeleteWish they came back
DeleteHope FZ considers Dreamliners to BEG when they get them
ReplyDeleteIsn't ot better to have double daily flights?
Delete*it
DeleteOr maybe EK comes :)
DeleteThat would be nice
DeleteDreamliner? Jeez, look at the recent news
DeleteAlmost a million seats. Not bad.
ReplyDeleteAnd no JU, OU or 4O anywhere in that region.
ReplyDeleteFlights are too long. All 3 airlines barely have enough aircrft for Europe ops.
DeleteOU and 40 don't have aircraft that can fly economically on a 6 hour long route. Air Serbia is looking to establish itself as a hub, so they fly to cities with high demand and low connectivity
DeleteIt's too late now but OU should have launched flights to Dubai years ago. It has the plane and could have run the flight during the night (simmilar to how Air Serbia used to fly to AUH). I'm sure they would have done well. Now its very difficult to enter the market.
Delete@10.02 if JU failed in AUH how can OU do better in DXB
DeleteAbu Dhabi is OU's only real hope if they wanted to but this will require them to have a codeshare agreement with Etihad. Doubt they have the appetite for either.
DeleteInteresting stats!
ReplyDeleteMassive market for SJJ!
ReplyDeleteThey should do more to keep flights in winter.
DeleteLike what?
DeleteOffer incentives during winter.
DeleteYeah, Bosnia used to have developed winter tourism. Sarajevo hosted Winter Olympics in 1984.
DeleteI'm sure if they redeveloped the infrastructure the Arabs would come, as they already prefer Bosnia so much over every other ex yu country.
Also I'm sure that skiing down the real mountain slopes is preferable to indoor mall skiing.
Kuwaor Airways should broaden horizons in the region
ReplyDeleteThat is supposed to be *Kuwait Airways
DeleteWhat is the problem with SKP, why the flights are not successful there and every other capital in the region has connections to the middle east. I know many people from Macedonia which are living and working in UAE and Qatar, plus the connections to Australia, isn't that enough to have 2-3 flights per week?
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, Turkish is expanding into Australia, so they have tranafer opportunities there
DeleteQR also has a fleet shortage with small aircraft so it's not so easy for them to add new routes
DeleteBut Flydubai is a mystery to me.
DeleteThey planed to return to SKP several times but the flights didnt materialise. I know that when we had flights to DXB, travel agencies offerd tours for Dubai with a direct flight, now, the offers are with a flight from SOF or TIA.
DeleteSimply put there isn't enough demand for SKP. I mean SKP-BCN failed and you think Middle East destinations will be a success.
DeleteSKP-BCN had good LF, just like SKP-LCA, HAJ and TKU. Wizz Air is ending routes here and there just like they did with BSL-OHD. So your comment is nonsense
DeleteYes, they cut BCN, LCA, HAJ because routes performed well. The things you will read on here.
DeleteOnly one I can understand is Turku.
They ended all routes from HAJ, so much you know @10.40
DeleteDid they also end all routes to BCN and LCA
Deleteno and?
DeleteWhich means BCN and LCA failed from SKP because of low demand and bad yields. They focused more on gasto routes, those seem to work best from SKP.
Deleteboth ended during pandemic
DeleteI think competing with Turkish is the biggest headwind. I would imagine a lot of the traffic to ME is connecting (SKP-DXB-XXX). Travelers don't care if they are connecting in IST, DXB, or DOH and I'm assuming Turkish provides better frequency and connectivity. Even if there's a lot of O/D traffic between MK and ME, how much of a premium can FlyDubai realistically get vs. the Turkish 1-stop option?
DeleteRespect 🇧🇦 🇧🇦 🇧🇦
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the Saudi- Dubrovnik flights
ReplyDeleteSaudi airlines have big issues due to neo engines. Theynare wet leasing many planes. I assume same reason Flyeadeal is not starting Tivat.
DeleteThanks
DeleteLet's see if Riyadh Air launches flights to the region.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. Not in the first years at least.
DeleteThey only place in the region that Riyadh Air will fly is ATH whether you can call ATH is in the region or not.
DeleteWould EK possibly fly DXB-BEG-ZAG?
ReplyDeleteThey have a lot of fifth freedom flights. Would be interesting
DeleteThey can't compete with JU's triple daily flights to ZAG.
DeleteThey would never get rights for fifth freedom on BEG-ZAG.
DeleteUAE has open sky with both Croatia and Serbia. So they would have no problem flying between the two. That is how Flydubai was able to fly Sarajevo-Podgorica a few years ago without issue.
Delete@13.05 you are mixing up something
DeleteUnless Croatia gets a new huge influx of Asian tourists who are keen to pay for a premium product, I would say Belgrade has a lot more chance now seeing an Emirates service in the near future.
DeleteI think Emirates should start flying to Ljubljana.It would cover Slovenia, Croatia, South Austria and some part of Italy.
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteThat part of Italy that you are talking about is already covered by Emirates with flights to Venice.
DeleteNow you understand that a lot of people from SLO do not fly from Venice.
DeleteThe above comment is quite delusional. Nothing personal buddy
Delete@11:16 is right. Slovenes never use other airports because they do not travel. And most if not all passengers at LJU are from other countries.
DeletePity Sarajevo didn't retain Salam Air and Gulf Air which had flights.
ReplyDeleteAny chance Qatar may return to year round to Sarajevo?
ReplyDeleteWould be nice. At least they increased frequencies this summer.
DeleteCould JU go for some of this business? It is big and growing bigger.
ReplyDeleteNo planes... or imagination. They couldn't make Cairo work
DeleteToo long rotation. Price would not be competitive against Gulf airlines.
DeleteDon't forget that there is also Beirut, they failed on almost all Middle Eastern destinations. TLV is the last one and I don't think they'll be back if EL AL resumes BEG.
DeleteHave you been living under a rock? They didn't fail in Tel Aviv. Have you seen what is happening in Israel? Even Ryanair has not returned to Israel. Some of you are devoid of reality.
DeleteHow about you read what I wrote. I wrote that I see them cutting TLV in case EL AL resumes BEG. I didn't mean now I meant once Israel is done with their invasion.
DeleteWhen that happens I don't think JU can compete with Arkia and EL AL. It would be too much for them. They already failed once in this market so they might fail again.
From where did you get that El Al will start BEG?
DeleteIt was reported here and then when fighting broke out they delayed their flights. I expect them to remain committed to BEG. These flights are supposed to be operated by their subsidiary Sun D'Or.
DeleteWe need a stable and reliable carrier to TLV. JU is unpredictable, truly Wizzier than Wizz as Marek would say.
No that wasn't reported here at all. El Al subsidiary Sun d'Or scheduled flights to Belgrade in January this year and cancelled them last month along with a bunch of routes due to fleet shortage
DeleteMy good old Anonymous friend, Sun d'Or doesn't sell flights on their own website, everything goes through EL AL. That's like saying Lufthansa doesn't fly to the region because they send CityLine.
DeleteI fear and I hope those fears are not real but JU can't compete with a major carrier such as LY. They only managed to beat AF by begging them to suspend the route.
I have flown QR many times this year. BEG-DOH-BEG is always full including business. Lots of transfers from Australia and China and also more exotic destinations like Thailand and southeast Asia
ReplyDeleteQR needs to get rid of the recliner A320s on Belgrade route.
DeleteWould be nice if they made the B787 permanent on this route. Not just occasional.
DeleteMy guess is that yields are low in Belgrade and that is why they are not increasing flights. If yield was good they would keep night flights or sent something bigger.
DeleteNight flights were there because of seasonal growth in demand for Southeast Asia that is not there in European summer. Commenting as someone who collaborates with Qatar Airways on Serbian market.
DeleteSame here, I fly very often on QR in BC and it's regularly full. They do use the 320H's (recliner A320s) as they have more economy seats than flatbed 320, and while recliners are fine for ~5h day flight it's annoying not to have flatbeds on all A320 aircraft. The QR233/234 used to be mostly flatbeds (it was a night flight though so recliners would have sucked)
DeleteI was on a night flight in January when they did a last minute swap to recliners. It was quite horrible.
DeleteAnd to add cabin was FULL.
DeleteSOF, BEG and Bucarest could have used a 321 for Doha, but I think they don't have them anymore? Or they never had them in the fleet?
DeleteThey don't have them anymore. Until pandemic QR flew daily to Belgrade with A321.
DeleteLjubljana is getting Doha and Jeddah flights IMMINENTLY
ReplyDeleteWhere is this coming from?
DeleteIt's a shame Qatar reduced BEG to daily this summer.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't reduce it. Flights are up on first half of last summer and the same during second half.
DeleteHe probably means reduced from daily + 3x a week night flights. Unfortunately those night flights were scheduled just for winter but I hope we'll see them come back.
DeleteQR has a single aisle fleet shortage. In summer they have to put planes on other routes. Local QR team in BEG also manages SJJ and is trying to move flights to B787 on BEG route. This year the extra capacity they were given went to SJJ.
DeleteA decade ago BEG had ME flights with Air Serbia, Etihad, Flydubai and Qatar. Two dropped off, Wizz started a new one but without transfers. Qatar is the loser here. They are the only one offering single-airline transfer options, had a wide open opportunity but were unable to grow demand to justify widebody service. I hope Emirates will start 787 service to Belgrade in the next two years and show Qatar how it's done.
DeleteWow, well done Bosnia and Sarajevo, respect!
ReplyDelete🇧🇦👏
DeleteImpressive statistics from Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteQatar in Belgrade is a promise that never materializes!
ReplyDeleteSince how long do they have maximum daily flights, ten years?
Market in Ex Yu is extremely fragmented benefitting absolutely nobody.
Belgrade is Flydubais darling, Zagreb is Qatars darling, Turkish sends its widebodies to Ljubljana and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait fly only to muslim majority places which is so boringly conservative but expected.
Well and Skopje gets nothing!
But most outstanding is Air Astana with its A321neo to Podgorica.
Podgorica definitely won the Ex Yu lottery!
It won the ex-Yu lottery because of 2 months a year of Air Astana ops?
Delete^Haha,so much on point!
Delete:P
@17.37 :D
DeleteIn Texas we have the same problem.
DeleteHouston and Dallas-Fort Worth compete for the same passengers and airlines.
Dallas always is second choice.
I guess Sydney and Melbourne in Australia are similar.
That phenomen is called cannibalisation.
Deletethey (gulf tourists) have not heard yet of Skopje's Old Bazaar area it seems ...
ReplyDelete