British Airways has confirmed it will suspend flights between London Heathrow and Belgrade from late September, less than a year after launching operations between the two cities on October 31, 2023. In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, the carrier said, “We regularly review our schedule, and due to commercial reasons, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our flights to Belgrade from September 29, 2024. We're contacting affected customers to apologise and offer them alternative options, including rebooking or a full refund”. The Oneworld alliance member said it would review the possibility of restoring flights between the two cities next summer.
British Airways only returned to Belgrade last winter season, following a thirteen-year hiatus. At the time, the airline said, “We have taken one of the best slots at Heathrow for this flight, catering for both point-to-point passengers but also transfer passengers, particularly the East Coast of the United States, Canada, and Australia. We offer seamless connectivity to these regions, especially New York and Miami, which are very popular out of Belgrade". British Airways currently maintains three weekly services to the Serbian capital with its A320-family fleet. It faces direct competition from Air Serbia, as well as indirect competition from Wizz Air, which runs flights out of London Luton.
Both Air Serbia and Wizz Air have responded to British Airways’ arrival on the Serbian market. This summer, the Serbian flag carrier is maintaining nine weekly flights to Heathrow for the entirety of the summer season, whereas last year it introduced its eighth and ninth weekly rotation in May. Wizz Air is operating daily flights between the two capitals, up from six weekly last summer season. Both carriers have also reduced their fares on the two respective routes since British Airways launched operations to Belgrade. During the first quarter of this year, a total of 51.508 passengers flew between Belgrade and London Heathrow and Luton airports, up 31.8% on the same period in 2023.
No loss here. Very uncompetitive prices and very limited service.
ReplyDeleteThere is always loss when BA suspend operations
DeleteObviously but in this case loss is not that big given BA's bad performance and low number of frequencies on this route. I mean did they really expect to do well in a relatively small market with just three weekly flights compared to JU's 9 and W6's 7?
DeleteThey truly gave it their best though:
Delete1. The slots were fantastic and they were Terminal 5 slots unlike Ljubljana, Zagreb, Pula and Split which are all Terminal 3 slots.
2. The fares were exceptionally good, with BEG-LHR flights being the cheapest in British Airways' route network for all of January-March, surpassing JER and LUX by a significant margin.
The fact that they are cutting the route early is very telling.
One less legacy carrier, no BA, no AF, no IB…
Delete^ Yet 120 destinations served nonstop.
DeleteSimply no demand
DeleteI mean even when AF couldn't succeed in BEG, we shouldn't be surprised about BA.
DeleteWhat is this obsession with counting legacies vs LCCs? What matters is not who operates the route but the number of frequencies they offer and how competitive their pricing is. Yes it would be better to have a hundred different carriers but reality is such that ex-YU is still a relatively small and poor market. Given all this BEG's offer is more than satisfactory.
DeleteI am quite surprised and flew this route a lot and always full planes. The early flight from London Heathrow was very welcome. I am guessing the yield per passenger though wasn’t very high, which can be seen in the prices. I expect them to shoot up now with this competition gone an air serbia having the monopoly at Heathrow.
DeleteMaybe it's about what legacy carriers signify vs LCC. Legacy carrier means your economy is better. They provide better connections since they fly to better airports and LCC is only for point to point travel to basically ghetto airports with ghetto passengers.
DeleteIt's a loss for BEG since BA made JU and Wizz be more competitive and lower prices slightly. And yes the timing of the BA flight was much better in terms of going from London to BEG.
JU does have a decent service. But for the interest of the economy and growth of the country they do need more growth yo support it
Quite surprised to be honest.
DeleteBA is very competitive in Zagreb, you can get return tickets London Htrw - Zagreb for £110 return, not as cheap as Ryan air, but then you have to add cost of traveling from Standsted to London, return is another £30 for that privilege.
DeleteI fly woth BA from PDX to BEG and EU at least 7 times a year in business class. Since covid Flight attendant quality deteriorated on transatlantic flights. Now days u get better service in club Europe class. Even with BA flying lhr to beg, BA would always offer me netter price for beg to lhr on JU and onto BA to PDX. Interline works great with baggage always properly checked . ALSO BA prefers selling business class with AA routing, like pdx to dfw to lhr to beg. And BA service in ecconomy is abysmal. So i would never fly them unless at minimum premium ecconomy or WTP. And to connect in LHR is really horrible as they are not a part of one stop security. Even passengers from usa go to anothe4 security checks. I still fly them as it's one stop from pdx to beg but even condor nowadays in business class transatlantic offers wonderful and superior service
DeleteVery disappointed. Having been ripped off by Air Serbia for 10 years charging £300, BA’s. £150 was much more realistic. Watch Air Serbias’s prices go up again in October.
DeleteBA didn't really advertise the renewed route to BEG, so that's mainly why is it gonna be cancelled. I bet that 40% of frequent flyers from BEG to LHR haven't got any clue about BA's flights to BEG. Tbh BA has very generous fairs for a very good price. I could get from BEG to LHR for £100 with one checked-in bag, compared to AS's £250 arrangement. Would your rather pay £100 to fly to LHR with BA, or pay £300 to fly with your shitty national carrier? Really hoping BA's gonna come back to BEG! <3
DeleteCommercial or political?
ReplyDeleteCommercial of course. Weak demand and that is it
DeleteWhy would it be a political decision?? What the hell?
DeleteHow can demand be weak when JU and W6 combined have 16 weekly flights? Demand might not be high or crazy but it's definitely not weak. Market is there, BA just failed to capture it.
Delete@NEMJEE: "Market is there BA just failed to capture it" . Well I guess that BEG market is very poor with low load factors . Why they have 3 daily to ATH in winter ??? Because the market there is much much stronger ! Simple as that .
DeleteYou comparing Athens and Belgrade? LOL. Next you will compare Belgrade and New York.
DeleteThe hysteria. Goodness. :)
DeleteHaha Political!! Did you really think that. BA is a commercial organisation and the British Government have no influence over BA’s thinking rather shareholders. British politicians struggle to influence anything, its why they have gone for an election so they dont have to implement a long list of laws and saves them debating and more time for summer holidays!!
DeleteBritish politicians struggle to influence anything, its why they have gone for an election so they dont have to implement a long list of laws and saves them debating and more time for summer holidays. Svasta za procitati ovde.
DeleteBritish Airways is also owned by a Spanish company which is owned by Qatar.
Delete@ 10:19
DeleteThe UK general election was due anyway.
Politics would have nothing to do with the BA decision otherwise they wouldn't have started flights last year.
DeleteThe Visa situation on the other hand is purely political.
ATH-LON market is unfair to compare with BEG.
It is a global destination so it is normal for BA to be 5 daily in Summer to LHR and Aegean 4 daily.
We are comparing apples and oranges here.
You only need a visa for P2P traffic.
DeleteNo that is not true. You need a transit visa for any destination, with exception to US and Canada since you will hold a valid US or Canadian visa.
DeleteThat’s my point. If you have a US, Canadian, Australian or NZ visa (assuming you are travelling on Serbian passport), which the Serbian diaspora don’t as they are dual citizens, then you don’t need a UK transit visa. No rational person would travel from Serbia to EU via LHR on a Serbian passport because of backtracking
DeleteAnd why would you not travel via LHR if price is right. Many fly with Turkish Airlines to European destinations despite backtracking. Furthermore, people don't just travel to North America and Europe. Requiring a transfer visa looses any competitive advantage.
DeleteOn top of that UK custom officers are not very well informed of the rules. As a tour operator I had quite a high ranking business delegation from Belgrade travelling to the United States - 7 of them. All had valid US visas. They were harassed by the customs officer at LHR who insisted they needed a transit visa. It took two hours and a call from my clients to get things sorted out after we contacted the UK embassy in Belgrade.
Just to add, it wasn't one customs officer but an entire group of them who insisted they needed transit visas. Needless to say I will not be putting any clients to transfer via London anymore.
DeleteWere those guys customs, or maybe Border Force? Why do all folks in Serbia think customs put stamp on your passport, when in fact police do that?
DeleteOk border force, I used the wrong terminology.
DeleteTo be honest I am not that surprised.
ReplyDelete1. The destination that British Airways was hoping to get the most transfer passengers to from Belgrade (New York) is served nonstop from Belgrade with daily flights in peak summer. Chicago is also served nonstop from BEG, making transferring less necessary.
2. Transferring through Heathrow is not that easy because of its various terminals and BA also sells connecting flights from Belgrade to US via differing London airports, ie you arrive at Heathrow but your onward flights is from Gatwick.
3. P2P passengers are already served by Air Serbia and particularly Wizz Air. Serbian citizens need visas to enter the UK, which are difficult and expensive to obtain, making it less appealing for any sort of city break visits.
4. Transferring to any other destination other than the US and Canada through Heathrow means you have to obtain a transit visa, which is again costly and completely pointless if you can transfer via Frankfurt, Vienna, Zurich, Paris or any other European city without any transfer visa.
5. There was literally no promotion of British Airways anywhere in Belgrade or Serbia, be it online or in any other sort of media.
Actually BEG was given truly prime slots, and they were at T5. The timings and the terminal were as good as you can get for USA transfers. None of the other Ex-Yu airports have been given T5 slots by British Airways and they are all Terminal 3.
DeleteSo JU and W6 can make it with the visa regime yet BA cannot?
DeleteSerbs are loyal to their national airline. The price sensitive ones have Wizz. There was no room in the market for BA
DeleteYes, there is a limit as to how much capacity there can be. If there were no visas, or if it was easy to get one, there would certainly be more demand. Not to mention you need a TRANSIT VISA just to change planes at Heathrow.
DeleteYeah that transit visa is so silly and definitely I am sure impacts the BA flights.
DeleteNot sure comment on connecting flights and other airports. BA’s focus especially for long haul is Heathrow and with Belgrade flight being terminal 5 most of the flights if not all US are from Terminal 5. This is a story about Serbia not promoting tourism that well in the UK, if at all and a long outdated UK policy on visas.
Actually I have looked at purchasing BA ticket a few times to New York and was offered connections via Gatwick (arriving at Heathrow, departing from Gatwick).
DeleteBizarre
DeleteThat is because New York is such a busy route that flights depart from both LHR and LGW. They even used to depart LCY.
DeleteVisa points are incorrect. No transit visa is needed if transitting to US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
DeleteYes, it is correct, it is needed to transit to over 100 countries.
DeleteFor those other countries fly Lufty group. LHR is a transatlantic hub (read US and Canada), why would you go there to travel to Asia, South America, Africa or Australia?
DeleteBecause of pricing which is in many cases good, especially to South America and Africa. In any case, requiring a transfer visa to over 100 countries in the world severely limits the appeal of being a transfer hub.
DeleteThe UK used to be much more flexible. In the 1990s during all the sanctions and limitations British Airways, which flew to Gatwick on the Belgrade route lobbied the UK government to suspend transit visas for Yugoslav passport holders so they can transfer to London Heathrow. And there was a special bus for passengers on the Belgrade flight which took them straight to Heathrow. Worked well for many years.
Gatwick was the better airport for low yield traffic like BEG. I would rather have BA flying to LGW than them not flying to BEG at all.
DeleteI wonder if Ryanair will now launch London Stansted with all the trouble Wizz has been having with its PW powered neo fleet.
DeleteThere is also one posibility that many people don't know. People who hold US visa can transfer on LHR ( only on this airport in UK) even if traveling to other final destination than USA, but they have to leave the airport in the same calendar day, which means till 23:59..Also flights have to be on one ticket, so no luggage to be collecred..I personally used this option flying several times from BKK, I was not able to arrive to BEG as final destination, hance there was no code share with AS and BA, but I was traveling to other cities, mostly to Madrid..Now with arrival of BA, people had this option to fly anywhere via LHR, witout having UK transit visa, only if having USA valid visa
DeleteActually it is the 23:59 hours you are allowed to stay. The rule states that pssenger needs to leave by midnight the following day. You can even spend a night but ticket needs to be connected. My parents do it often when visiting me in PDX.
DeleteBWI76 you didn't read the post..I'm referring to people who possess USA visa, but the don't fly to USA..People who fly to USA can stay up to 48 h, up to 23:59 on the following day, and they can also leave the airport and spend day outside, in London for instance
DeleteWhat was to happen, happened.
ReplyDeleteBye Bye BA
DeleteWelcome again overpriced JU
DeleteSo?
DeleteFor you it is "so", but for us, regular pax, it is not "so"..Why would I pay double price for one service, if I paid twice less for the same service just few months earlier? Because of lack of competition..And where is benefit for pax there, who are final users of the service? You you write somethong like this, you should think twice..
DeleteYelds must have been trash. No room for third player in JU-W6 duopoly. What was the LF?
ReplyDeleteLondon was never a busy destination from BEG so it makes sense that there is no room for a third player. Personally I think other markets such as Frankfurt, Vienna or Barcelona are more mature for a third player than London is.
DeleteI don't know what transfers they are talking about. Every time I looked for connections to North America with them they gave me an option with JU/AA via CDG etc.
They simply could not compete with Lufthansa Group or even AF-KL.
Go big or go home. BA didn't want to go big so they are forced to pack their stuff and go home.
@Nemjee
Delete+1
KL example: From zero to hero. They have been persistant and committed to the market.
Exactly, KLM understood this very well and that is why they wasted no time boosting BEG to double daily in summer. That's how you do it if you want to be competitive especially when LH Group has 10 to 12 daily flights to BEG.
DeleteI wouldn't say that FRA is mature for a third carrier just yet. Wizz tried with HHN and failed. JU going double daily doesn't help a third carrier.
DeleteVIE definitely is mature however without decent frequencies JU and OS would just dump fares until the carrier pulled out.
BCN I see FR being the third carrier when they finally decide to add BEG to their route map.
I am surprised that JU never launched MUC. Stuttgart and Nuremburg are just too far to serve the Munich metro area
DeleteJU last flew to MUC in 2008, so it's not as if they never served MUC. JU is going to need decent frequencies from the start to make MUC work and this is where I see the ERJ's being handy.
DeleteI agree. I think they last flew to MUC with an ATR72 which was not competitive against LH’s 737s and A320s
DeleteEverything east of MUC can actually be served through SZG
DeleteWait they mention Miami is popular from BEG but what I've read in the comments from experts here is that there is no demand for Miami. Interestingly he did not mention Toronto...
ReplyDeleteYeah, not a single person travels to Toronto and London is the only transfer hub in the world lol...
DeleteDidn't say that, but it is interesting that they mentioned Miami. We were told by some that there is no demand for Miami.
DeleteYes and they also said the route to BEG is uncommercial and that is why they are cutting flights to Belgrade. That is, being popular does not mean being profitable. Otherwise, they would gave kept the BEG route.
DeleteYou wonder what their planning department is doing. They either completely miscalculated the potential of the market and launched a new route with all the associated start up costs for nothing or they did absolutely nothing to make the route successful. You can't just schedule flights in a relatively competitive market and expect passengers to flock to you.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time British Airways is cutting a non-seasonal route within a year of launching operations, since 2008. They simply do not do this normally. In rare occasions they do not renew a seasonal route like they did with TER last year, but they never cut a new route within a IATA season like they did here with October flights being cancelled in May.
DeleteBA never experienced such fleet shortage so they have to adapt and cut routes and destinations where they simply failed to capture the market.
DeleteLHR is heavily slot constrained and they simply need the slots for more profitable routes.
DeleteSo many excuses. I guess BEG’s potential is still limited, after all.
Delete^ at least you got your soul food for the day.
DeletePrior ops which ended a decade or so ago were daily and also from T5. Not sure why people feel T5 is so premium though if you are then bussed to your plane, most other airlines operate from T3 and T4 and operating to T3 would have enabled more connections to many other non-BA airlines such as AA, QF, DL, VS etc which is more convenient than JU’s T4 connections.
DeleteYou can't connect onto most of the ones you mentioned unless it's a self-transfer. Why would anyone do that.
DeleteYou can connect onto AA and QF.
Delete@14.20 for cost reasons. Plenty of people travel of multiple tickets as long as they leave the connection time long enough. VS and BA also interline if an agent was to ticket it correctly, BA is obliged to send baggage onto a VS flight. Do you think JU connections in LHR are any better? Same deal.
DeleteThe service on BA is worse then Ryanair and the company is completely woke, not to mention sky high prices and lack of customer care, old Aircraft. Air Serbia and Wizz both offer much better service and newer Aircraft.
ReplyDeleteWhy were the comments so positive when the route launched last year?
DeleteWhat kind of service do Air Serbia and Wizz offer? Ok with Air Serbia you more or less know that your flight will be delayed, with Wizz there is a 50:50 chance. Other than that none of them offers anything close to what is called service. In addition JU cabins do not look fresh and clean, rather the opposite.
DeleteAlways good getting these insightful comments from someone who heard from a friend of a friend but didnt know what to add so added a throw away comment on a company they have no knowledge of
DeleteBA and JU both offer pretty abysmal service on short haul, whilst their long haul isn't exactly great ever. British likely thought they could successfully capture the transfer market to North America and in the end, it failed
DeleteMaybe a BA and JU codeshare is in the works given JU’s friendship with AA, QR and B6. BA and B6 just announced a transatlantic codeshare arrangement.
DeleteI've traveled with AS 7 round trips since beginning of New Year, so that's 14 flights..They were never on time..Once they were only 30 min. late
DeleteOuch!
ReplyDeleteNot suspend but cancelled
ReplyDeleteWell BA said they suspended the route. Maybe read.
Delete“We regularly review our schedule, and due to commercial reasons, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our flights to Belgrade from September 29, 2024.
Deletewait for them to restart
DeleteDon't hold your breath
DeleteIf they restart or not is a different question. Certainly an anonymous poster in the comments section is not more relevant than the airline.
DeleteYep, they also suspended flights 15 years ago. Suspension in PR talk means cancellation. Perhaps they should start the route from LGW to cater more to the P2P market. BA’s flights from the 1990s to mid naughties use to go to LGW. There is less pressure to perform because slots are more easier to get and I think it is a better airport to fly into than Heathrow. An alternative is LCY. For example, all of ITA’s flights to London now go to LCY. They abandoned LHR.
DeleteThey clearly state they will consider restoring flights in S25.
DeleteBut from where Heathrow or Gatwick and what frequency? 3 weekly is not enough. Look at the KL model. Daily launch followed by double daily follow up. The other thing which people need to remember is you don’t need a British visa if you are Serbian citizen transiting to the US or Canada.
DeleteKLM is more successful as they used smaller capacity when launching BEG, together with decent frequencies from the get go. JU and KLM have quite decent cooperation (codeshare and interline) providing transfers on both sides. Serbian citizens also don't need visas for the Schengen zone. AMS also serves also a wider region, with convenient train accessibility to cities in neighbouring countries (Antwerp, Brussels, Paris). Not to mention the much larger diaspora in that area that gravitates in the vicinity of BEG or easily reached via BEG.
DeleteBA on the other hand is limited due to visa restrictions affecting O&D and transit demand, limited cooperation with JU, limited transfer potential via BEG due to schedules, mediocre transportation options to other UK cities while a number of carriers offer multiple daily options via EU hubs to cities across the UK. I don't see BA coming back next summer.
I don't think the transit visas were the problem. The 3 weekly frequency made it really hard to coordinate flights, especially for business customers. Business people expect to be able to go and sometimes fly back the same day, not camp out in a BEG hotel for 3 days waiting for a return flight
DeleteJust shows that BEG isn't mature enough for some extra competition on the market, still price sensitive and oriented towards national carrier
ReplyDeleteIt has a strong national carrier. Makes sense.
DeleteYeah the strongest in Europe
DeleteThat's not a bad thing, but having no other legacy carrier on the important market means you have to use national career, whether you like them or not.
DeleteThe strongest in the universe!
DeleteI didn't say it is the strongest in the universe. I said it is a strong national airline, which I believe it is. It has always quickly responded to competition, be it by decreasing prices or increasing frequencies. Try to contain your excitement and look at things rationally.
Delete@9:29 "oriented towards national carrier": as it should be.
DeleteBA returned to BEG with 3 weekly flights while in similar markets like ATH they operate 5 daily flights with way more competition. How do they expect this to work?
DeleteWhat would be the point of flying multiple daily empty flights to BEG when they can't make three weekly work
DeleteYou are comparing Belgrade and Athens, seriously? Apart from Athens being one of the most visited cities in the world, being used as a transfer point to Greek islands, UK having a large Greek diaspora, Greece having a sizable UK diaspora....
DeleteNo demand, BEG reached its top limits and that's it
DeleteAir Serbia does not agree 🤣
DeleteYou are posting way too many comments, and they can be distinguished by your hysterical anti-JU/anti-BEG tone.
DeleteHilarious how an aviation forum is so negative about everything in rrga
DeleteEverything in regards to aviation*
DeleteIf we have to be honest, Serbia is not popular at all in the UK. Ok, people will say visas, but UK citizens may enter Serbia. The current JU LHR flights are mainly transfers and the LTN ones probably serve the small Serbian diaspora. The prices were always very expensive. You could always fly from ZAG or TSR for much cheaper options.
ReplyDeletePrices to Belgrade are not that expensive in comparison with thr past.
DeleteThe Serbian diaspora in the UK isnt small btw. Its a real shame they are cancelling the flights. I suggest its time to start lobbying the incoming Labour governement to move to abolish visas..
Actually the cheapest way to get from ZAG to LHR is with JU via BEG
DeleteAnonymous 09:49 what makes you think a Labour government is incoming? We haven't had an election yet, and I can assure you many loyal Labour supporters don't like the current leader of the party!
DeleteThe Polls...so we can predict finally the god-awful Tories will be out and we can hope for a new slightly more pro-european government to replace the Brexit loons who have done such damage to the UK in the past 14years
DeleteAlways amused to read the comments for such news, regardless of which country it concerns and the glee and excitement some are showing.
ReplyDeleteIt's like soulfood for some :D
DeleteIt's ok, those same people are punished each time JU and BEG publish their numbers. Just like many were hoping BEG numbers would start falling due to many cuts over the past few months. They were tragically disappointed when BEG kept on recording growing numbers.
DeleteПси лају, каравани пролазе.
+100
DeletePunished?? Nice mindset Nemjee ;)
DeleteNemjee, the internet does not forget. We remember your comments from 2022.
DeleteI don't remember how many times I have read "end of the world" comments about Belgrade Airport. Yet, it will have over 8 million passengers this year and another record.
DeleteAnon 11.08
DeleteI wish you would stop hiding behind anonymity so that we can start remembering your comments...if they are even worth remembering.
No way BEG will build a hub without top European carriers. This is shame, not a huge loss in terms of pax though. It's impossible to launch new route where JU and Wizz already fly, they have fat discounts which make their cost structure more favorable.
ReplyDeleteIt can happen. Some major hubs, particularly Middle Eastern ones, have formed entirely on the backs of a single flag carrier
DeleteGood luck with that.
DeleteNo luck needed, just hard work.
DeleteObviously BEG does not generate enough demand for London flights.
ReplyDeleteIt has 16 weekly flights to London without these British Airways flights. You are writing as if there will be no flights anymore.
DeleteGiven slot constraints at LHR, I wonder whether JU or U2 should look at LGW for extra flights to London
DeleteJat used to serve LGW, it could be a nice option for extra capacity into London. With ERJ's now in the fleet, LCY could be an interesting option as well.
DeleteBut I see JU going after other cities in the UK rather than increasing capacity to London.
I always get surprised when people are pleased to see an airline leave one of our countries. Like people in Serbia like using Air Serbia, many people in the UK like BA. We have some great hotels now in Belgrade and a growing tourism scene which creates jobs and not to mention further across Serbia. So more airlines hopefully leads to more people coming. Also BA has a huge loyalty programme and many people do points/tier runs etc..I want them to visit and then want to tell people about the Balkan’s whether for work or tourism and then come back and experience more of the region.
ReplyDeleteSorry, who is pleased? Almost all the comments on this article are anti-BA and bashing the airline for not making it work in BEG.
DeleteSpeaking about national airlines: as a very frequent flyer, in my humble opinion, the only real, quality national airlines in Europe nowadays are Turkish (leading, by far), Air France (impressive improvements over the last few years), Aegean and ITA Airways (impressive fleet renewal ongoing, not to mention how much Rome Fiumicino airport has improved). Maybe (maybe) KLM. Full stop.
ReplyDeleteI've flown with Finnair and SWISS before on long haul (iirc to Beijing and LA) and imo, their service is incredible, definitely in the 5-star category. Shame how Finnair is bleeding due to the ongoing war
DeleteThere is absolutely nothing impressive about LX service nowadays.
DeleteLow yields.
ReplyDeleteExpected to see BA prices significantly higher than JU and W6.
DeleteThey expected to capture some transfer traffic but failed. Nobody from the Balkans likes to transfer through London. And nobody definitely decides to go on vacation there.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is why all London airports are empty as there are no transfers and London has zero tourism.
DeleteHe is talking about Serbian passport holders. No need to act dumb, you understand full well what he wrote.
DeleteSure because Balkans=Serbia
DeleteThere are loads of Serbs living in London.
DeleteAnonymous 14:20 either Balkan people or Europeans, the fact is a lot of Balkans transfer through London. It's indisputably
DeleteI'm sorry because BA is leaving, because they could've had successful business here, especially because huge transfer options on LHR..They just faild to promote transfers better...Serbian citizens just didn't have a habit of transfering at UK airports, due to transfer visa issues, but yet you could transfer on LHR to any country in the world , if holding USA visa and if leaving the airport within the same calendar day..And many Serbs hold USA visa..BA should have promoted transfer option better, that's where they failed..Because they have quite good prices and connections for many regions in the world, South East, East and South Asia especiallly, but Africa is also quite good.
DeleteWell, Balkans is in fact equal to Serbia, as the same rules apply to all other non-EU Balkan nations. And those EU Balkan nations prefer to think of themselves as non-Balkan, therefore...
DeleteAnyway, even with the visas, BA just couldn't compete with three weekly flights. It takes A LOT of flexibility to adjust your schedule to three weeklies, and I know for sure business travellers simply do not care about that. Leisure travellers do, on the other hand, but they are faced with visa restrictions.
I had a ticket for November cancelledd - there are no rebooking options, as there are no BA flights to BEG.
ReplyDeleteThey are meant to rebook you onto other flights like JU at no extra charge as they still serve the route
DeleteFly with BA from Belgrade to Edinburgh, flight from BEG was semi full 75 perfect full. I am disappointed that BA decided to scrap Belgrade service less than and year of operating the service. Personality I still using a lot Budapest airport for travel. As objecting supporting German economy LF.
ReplyDeleteOne has to feel sorry for them.
ReplyDeleteLike do it all wrong, from the beginning, stay convinced of it and shut it down blaming fate.
Poor fools.
Simples. Serbs need a visa to travel to the UK.
ReplyDeleteA i oni su slepci kad pokreću liniju pa je ukidaju posle manje od godinu dana
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame. We found BA's prices more competitive than JU, they offer a far bette service and their luggage rules are way ahead. The flight slots were absolutely fantastic. Three flights per week was fine. I hope they return to this route!
ReplyDeleteNo big loss. BA is now a second rate airline with lousy service and overpriced. Plus Heathrow is one of the worst airports to travel through in the world.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how you always find a reason to justify your failure and glorify someone else's...
DeleteThis is BA failure.
DeleteThis is BEG failure.
DeleteI can say that I am a JU fan in terms that I really like having so many destinations served from my hometown and having a very decent national airline. Also, when able to choose, I go an extra mile to fly with JU (vs. any other carrier serving BEG) just because I want to be supportive of the company.
DeleteHowever, I would never say BA's departure is good news or would be indifferent to it, although I would always choose JU on the route - competition pushed everyone forward and pax benefit from better prices. JU is not immune to exploiting a monopoly - on the contrary. I love when they face competition and these are my favourite routes.
With transfer visa they are really not competitive. They should focus on other markets and leave London - Belgrade route to JU and LCCs
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia should really think about flying also to Gatwick airport.
ReplyDeleteThey could start three times a week and increase frequencies if needed.
British Airways may have failed but they still proved that there is a market with growth rates of 30 percent.
100%. Gatwick Express train is so convenient and they could use it to grow O&D. Leave LHR JU for people who want to connect to transatlantic flights.
DeleteHeathrow definitely needs a third runway or BA needs a secondary hub at MAN otherwise BA will be far behind KLM, Lufthansa and Air France within 10 years.
ReplyDeleteDisappointed
ReplyDelete12may flight full
Could it be that without the tourist visas for the UK, there would be more passengers from Serbia Flying to London?
ReplyDeleteSo far i have travelled BAto BEG lots of times and flights were always full. No doubt about it . How is flights to Ljubljana and Zagreb kept and BEG not any more is beyond me . Visa makes no differance to this route . Plane was always predominately occupied by British not Serbs vs AIR Serbia where it was vice versa . Politically guided decision .
ReplyDeleteFlying to London? Never ever!
ReplyDeleteObtaining GB visa is humiliating experience, even if you have rock solid reasons.
My experience: was the Director of London based comp. The Boss. Had to manage bank account in London. Had full support of GB based crew.
Result- rejected for the visa. Reason - Serbian citizens can't be GB based business, even it WAS the case. They completely lost their mind.
True story.
If you jave to pay 250€ in total for UK visa, being one of just several European countries that need it for the UK, what do you expect? To pay 300€ for a flight? Everyone would use alternative conpanies such as ones flying to Lutonn, Gatwick or Stantsted for reasonable amount of money. My return flight costed barely 60€ and service was good. Additional transport cost to go and back to my final destination in London were 24€ including tube. All in total 84€. If i booked earlier could have been even much less. So why paying 300€ for a company with arrogant attitude that had flight for Pristina which is as we all know political line? Spare us excuises, you could brainwas those that do not have capacity to think independently.
ReplyDeleteClassic political decision. Every time i was flying plane was full. We do know how UK functiones and how politically loyal companies behave. This BA story could only be bought (most likely) from UK citizens that watch BBC and think that they watch objective point of view. In the UK everything is about politics, so is this decision. ;)
ReplyDeleteHahaha, yeah right! I love the sarcastic mockery of paranoid conspiracy theorists. 😆
DeleteLooking from distance unfortunately the departure of BA is not so much a commercial decision but also generated by the Visa hurdle which has also political background. Whatever happens there will be a portion politics in every decision. The departure of BA is a medium/small loss because of the low frequency.
ReplyDeleteKoga nema bez njega se može!
ReplyDeleteI am shocked and saddened by this news. Flew a couple of times LHR-BEG-LHR in the past six months, flights were always busy/full and on one occasion I witnessed passengers being denied at the gate due to oversales. Having used the same service pre-2012 I hate the idea of having to fork out £300 (that is, if I am lucky) on Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the 16 return flights from BEG. Sorry, I don`t consider Stanstead a London airport. If you live in south or west London, or God forbid outside the M25, the distance to Stansted is 60-70 miles. Heathrow is well connected to London via underground, HEX and now Elizabeth Line. Stansted may be good for tourists if they don`t mind wasting half a day getting there or landing at stupid hrs, midnight etc. Competition would be nice on this route and seeing how busy flights were it doesn`t make sense it`s being suspended. I suspect BA has made some sort of an agreement with JU behind the scenes. And if I remember correctly only a few months ago they were recruiting for a BEG Station Manager.
Without any deeper knowledge about profits BA is expected to have on this route, I simply cannot guess LON -ZAGREB flights makes more passengers and better profit than BEG flights …flown since Oct 23 more than 10 times and plane was always nearly full
ReplyDeleteThe problem was poor marketing. None of the flights appeared in the search engine. I had to go to the BA website to find these flights! I want the BA back. X
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia immediately whacked their prices up again. Cheaper to fly to NY and back than to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting practices.
Poor strategy focussing on connecting flights when Air Serbia does NY direct. The flight from London was too early. Otherwise I would have used it more often...its a shame tbh. Air Serbia is perpetually late. Never had a lift off on time in the past 2 years.
ReplyDelete