Air Serbia hopes to commence sales for its planned new services from Belgrade to Shanghai and Guangzhou this month, with both routes to “definitely” launch in the fourth quarter of this year. Speaking to “Aviation Week”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We believe we will be able to open sales in June and one destination will start in October and one destination will start in December. Depending on the slot clarification, we are still deciding which will go first, but both Shanghai and Guangzhou will definitely start this year”. The two new destinations will complement Tianjin, which will reman part of the airline’s network and has been scheduled twice per week over the winter months.
Mr Marek noted that China and Serbia have a visa-free agreement, which is helping drive leisure demand, and added that there is also a strong labour flow thanks to Chinese investment into Serbian infrastructure projects. A new free trade agreement will also be introduced on July 1, which will generate additional cargo demand between the two countries. “China is a nice counterbalance to the North Atlantic. It’s such a big market and there is obviously a big opportunity to grow, perhaps not in the number of destinations, but in densifying the frequencies. We are starting with a low number of frequencies because we don’t want to take any risks. We want to stay as a profitable airline. Beyond that, I think in two- or three-years’ time [we will look into] the South Korea and Japan markets”, the CEO said.
Air Serbia is set to take delivery of its third A330-200 aircraft next month with a fourth to follow by the end of the year, which will enable it to expand its long-haul network and effectively double its wide-body fleet. “If everything goes well and there are no issues with spare parts ... we expect the first aircraft to arrive at the end of July or beginning of August. The second will be in October”, Mr Marek said. According to the CEO, the lease agreement for both jets has been signed and they are now undergoing maintenance.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteSo 1-2 weekly departures to each destination, any plans to increase Tianjin route?
ReplyDeleteTianjin will increase to 2 weekly.
DeleteI'll believe it when I see it.
DeleteWell it's in the system.
DeleteStill only 1 weekly available on the website.
DeleteTSN was 2 pw last winter, and 1 pw last summer. Nothing has changed. Winter schedule isn't fully loaded in the system.
DeleteWill PVG cannibalise TSN?
DeleteWhy?
DeleteBecause people only fly to TSN to get to Shanghai. If they can fly direct, why would they go via a second rate airport in China 7th largest city when the partner airlines don't really properly serve PVG or CAN.
DeleteTianjin is China's version of Zrenjanin.
DeleteZrenjanin? You for real? City with almost 20 million people, the highest GDP in China, part of Jing-Jin-Ji megalopolis...and someone call it Zrenjanin. For real?
DeleteYes...its NOT the most famous city in China but it works well for JU
Zrenjanin is Serbia’s 7th largest city. Tianjin is 7th largest. So in rankings yes. Every village in China is as big as Belgrade
DeleteAnon 12:48 Do you even know how far Shanghai and Tianjin are? You probably meant Beijing.
DeleteYou do realise there are high speed train lines throughout China as well as domestic airlines which will connect you from TSN to Shanghai. See earlier posts. The train takes 4 hours to Shanghai and a plane about an hour and a half.
DeleteAny idea in which departure wave these flights could be in?
ReplyDeleteProbably mid-afternoon departure like Tianjin.
DeleteFinally
ReplyDeleteLet's see which one starts first, Guangzhou or Shanghai.
ReplyDeleteProbably Shanghai. This is busiest unserved route from Belgrade generatin around 80.000 pasengers per year. And thanks god there is no more "diaspora" stories and Toronto and other Nort American routes talks for this year. China is our biggest market end we shall go for it!
DeleteWell it's not related to demand. They are launching both within 2 months of each other. It says in the article it depends on slot allocation and that they still haven't decided.
DeleteMost Chinese in Serbia come from a town south of Shanghai. In fact, I understand the whole town moved to Blok 70.
Delete>thanks god there is no more "diaspora" stories
DeleteDiaspora is the backbone of Air Serbia network. From Podgorica to Germany to Chicago.
And yet no diaspora in China. How will they succeed given China is also facing an economic crunch?
DeleteBravo Anonymous14:29! :D
DeleteAnons 14:29 and 14:58 please read with understanding. Air Serbia destinations like Porto, Budapest or Malaga are not primarily diaspora routes. Many Air Serbia diaspora routes are BACKBONE of their network but it doesn't mean EVERY route is just for diaspora.
DeleteShanghai is unserved destination, and by far with most demand from Belgrade. There is no other airport in the world without nonstop BEG service with more indirect passengers. There is also significant cargo demand.Those are basic building blocks to make sure BEG-PVG service will succeed.
Shanghai is also for diaspora, just not ours.
Delete14:29 Economic crunch in China??? OMG...
DeleteAtta boy...who cares about 100'sK serbs in canada...
DeleteAll they need is western union so they can send "as much as they can" to their family which is always in "desperate needs "
Hope the fares will be competative.
ReplyDeleteThey need a codeshare partner in China
ReplyDeleteThey have one. It's Air China
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/08/air-china-expands-air-serbia-cooperation.html
But Air China is not based in either of PVG or CAN or TSN. PVG is China Eastern's hub and CAN is China Southern's hub. So it is a bit silly signing an agreement with Air China when you don't fly to PEK to have domestic feed from them.
DeleteTianjin is a focus city for Air China from which they fly around 20 domestic destinations, so it makes sense for TSN.
DeleteBut it is a Tianjin Airways hub (part of Hainan), so why not codeshare with Hainan. Also, if Air China is their partner, why can’t they get traffic rights to PEK given that JAT operated there until 1992 and then after 2000 until 2002?
DeleteHow are JAT operations from 20-30 years ago relevant? They could not launch Beijing during Covid. Now they don't want to compete with Hainan on the same route as Tianjin is working for them
DeleteThe point is that they had traffic rights to PEK. They only flew to TSN because of the quarantine requirements imposed. Now that is over, why keep flying there. It would be like flying to Bratislava but you really want to go to Vienna, or Rotterdam but you want Amsterdam.
DeleteBecause they probably can't compete against local airline Hainan on the route, which is doing well from what I can hear. At the same time, TSN worked for them financially so why risk it.
DeleteYou fly to both TSN and PEK and if PEK performs better with CA feed, you drop TSN
DeleteThere is nothing wrong with serving Tianjin over Beijing. There is a population of ~14 million there so having an international flight instead of doing domestic connections in China could work for some.
DeleteBut Beijing is the crown jewel with a metropolis the size of 25 million and the centre of Government and industry. Tianjin is the port.
DeleteTianjin is something like Rotterdam of China.
DeleteHIgh speed trains in China has made most secondary cities the choice travel option over planes, Plus TSN is only a hour from Beijing, you would probably get into the city from TSN quicker by train than from Beijing by car
DeleteThere are trains from PEK to Beijing city centre as well.
DeleteAnd why not Beijing Daxing PKX which is meant to be fantastic as well and a hub for CA. Leave Hainan in PEK
DeletePKX is also situated in-between Beijing and Tianjin, if that is what you are going for. That's where QR, EY and SU fly to now instead of PEK.
DeleteExcellent news. Good luck JU.
ReplyDeleteNext phase of expansion begins :)
ReplyDeleteA very positive development for BEG and JU. I hope this route will stay long-term
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSome good news. This should also help with with transfer passengers a bit also, and then see Miami launched early 2025.
ReplyDeleteI hope they're looking for the 5th A330 already and not sitting around drinking coffee, so it can be as soon as possible.
They may expand with 4 planes already, if they want. There is a room for another 2-3pw destination at least
Deletewhat about smoking cigarettes?
Deletecigarettes?
DeleteCigars?
DeleteMarek said in couple of interviews that JU won't sale tickets for any new destination until the new planes are in Belgrade... I would wait for the planes to come,than sell the tickets...but ok,I suppose Marek knows better
ReplyDeleteYes, he probably does know better.
DeleteThere are rumors there won't be any special livery on one of the planes, besides the Expo one.
DeleteThe second phase of long haul expansion was rather quick. Just a year and a half since the last one. For a small airline that is good
ReplyDeleteExciting times
DeleteHope both will be at least 2 weekly.
ReplyDeleteWe will find out soon enough.
DeleteFrom previous articles, they only got 1 weekly to PVG and 2 weekly to CAN. So no 2 weekly to PVG and which means they will probably leave the plane there for 24 hours like they do in TSN.
DeleteAny idea how long these flights will take time wise?
ReplyDeleteBEG-TSN is 10 hours and TSN-BEG 11.5 hours. So add 1 hour to PVG and 1.5 hours to CAN approx.
DeleteAnd that is because of Russian sanctions which prevent Air Serbia leased and insured planes flying over Russian airspace. Chinese, Russian and most Asian airlines don't apply those rules (eg Singapore, Air India) so routes are shorter for those airlines.
DeleteFirst winter where A330s will be fully utilised.
ReplyDeleteWith the extra wide bodies, I wonder of we will see some long haul leisure routes.
Delete^ no, if we were to see that this winter tour operators would already have packages on sale. The problem are tour operators.
DeleteI Believe that in the future Air Serbia will stop Tianjin flights .
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia said the exact opposite. They said they are keeping it because it is working well and if you read the article you will see that they are increasing frequency this winter.
DeleteThey increased frequency and this winter, and then cut to one. So what they say, plan and conduct in reality is quite different story.
Delete^ ok, well good thing you know they will stop flights.
DeleteI remember exact same comments when they started New York flight. And here we are 8 years later.
DeleteYeah TSN is working out so well for them that they brought it down to a symbollic one weekly flight.
DeleteIt was one weekly to begin with.
DeleteThey are still capped at 1 weekly for TSN which means they have to leave the plane unused in TSN for 24 hours.
DeleteTSN has always been 2 pw in the winter and 1 pw in the summer.
DeleteBy always, you mean 1 winter season 2023-2024 without the opening of direct flights to PVG where most Chinese want to fly from.
DeleteI am surprised that TSN could not get up to 2 or 3 weekly for summer.
DeleteAir Serbia has a huge potential here
ReplyDeleteOn paper it looks like a good opportunity for JU
DeleteHope this also means long haul product improvement.
ReplyDeleteDid JAT used to fly to Shanghai?
ReplyDeleteNo, only Beijing in China.
DeleteCargo will probably bring in more money than the sale of tickets.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSo South Korea and Japan definitely planned in a few years. Nice!
ReplyDeleteHopefully they have a good partner there who can help them cover domestic market as well as regional destinations.
ReplyDeleteEr Srbija se postepeno utvrdjuje u intercontinentalnom saobracaju. Bilo bi dobro kada bi letove prema Australiji i Novom Zelandu vezivali preko Sangaja i Cantona.
ReplyDeleteUkoliko posle povezivanja sa Seulom ne odluce da preko Seula bude Australijska konekcija. To bi bllo pozeljno za iseljenike koji dolaze u Beograd i region.
🇷🇸✈🌐🛬
Njih nije briga za Australiju
DeleteSome sort of interline or code share should be a thing to think about in three to five years.
DeleteThey codeshare with Qatar through Doha but the airfares are triple the normal price
DeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteFifth A330 will be needed soon.
ReplyDeleteNot for another 2 years probably.
DeleteAir Serbia’s blessing is that Aeroflot can no longer fly to BEG. They were the main transfer airline for Chinese passengers.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThat's why they had three daily flights between SVO and BEG.
DeleteI wonder if JU starting these flights will have any impact on airlines that have a lot of transfers from China to BEG, like for example Qatar.
DeleteQR will still probably be cheaper than nonstop.
DeleteQR offers a daily route suitable for business and premium passengers. JU will offer 1 weekly suitable for tourists, you just cannot compete with 1 weekly against daily connections.
DeleteAnd you get QSuites to DOH from China, the best business class in the world.
DeleteCan some new 1-2pw launch in Tivat affect JU's numerous daily operations to Tivat? Maybe a bit, but not to the level of jeopardizing the operations. It's the same with Qatar - China is just one thing they offer and they offer it each day. They'll be just fine.
DeleteYup. QR has incredibly affordable prices and amazing service. In Zagreb they're significantly cheaper the Emirates, despite the fact that the first leg of the journey is operated by FlyDubai.
DeleteWhat's a normal QR business class ticket from BEG to East Asia, or Eastern Australia and New Zealand?
Last year, I paid slightly over $2.5k for business class from Zagreb to Auckland - one way, booked only a month in advance. On the way back to Europe I was flying to Copenhagen, again with QR and that was more expensive but not insanely more expensive. That flight was also covered by my company so I didn't care about the price as much.
*significantly cheaper than the Emirates
DeleteHow old are the two A330s that are coming?
ReplyDelete10,1 and 10,5 years
DeleteWhat are they going to do with the third A330 when it arrived end of next month or early August until late October when the first new China route will start? Will it sit on the ground or will they actually use it?
ReplyDeleteThey will use it as back up and avoid short-term wet lease if any plane goes tech. Like what happened last summer.
DeleteThanks
DeleteI am afraid it's too expensive to pay leasing for the plane on the ground. It will be probably utilized on the short haul routes with high demand, until new routes start
DeleteIt usually takes at least a couple of months more than announced for a plane to show up in Belgrade so I think it will not come before October.
DeleteAnon @10:22 Or as it happens with OU every year.
DeleteHow is OU relevant to this discussion
DeleteThey need to do some actual promotion and PR for these routes.
ReplyDeleteFor a change
DeleteWasn't Shanghai meant to be three weekly from the start?
ReplyDeleteA maximum of 2 weekly approved for PVG and 3 for CAN by Chinese Government. However, this is dependant on slots.
DeleteIt is extremely strange that Marek is being so shy about the number of frequencies.
ReplyDeleteBUD has 5 weekly to Shanghai, after starting with 3. With the increased cargo and visa free regime, there certainly is a market for more than 1-2 weekly flights. Especially if you want to offer transfers from the rest of Europe.
However you forget that is by Chinese carriers.
DeleteMarek said that JU would have 50 aircrafts. We are speaking on China and Miami for than a year. What is next? To change A319s with A320s, ok, however they need more A320s and cannot erase A319s in short term because they need them. More Embraers needed but they have less seats than A319s. JU could have a lot of demand for transfers, for new routes and increased frequencies. So new dry leased aircrafts are needed in short term. I think that watch and wait strategy would be wrong.
DeleteBulgarian E190 LZ-VAR started operations on behalf of Air Serbia today. Welcome!
DeleteBUD has daily flights to PVG, and 4 weekly from next week to CAN
DeleteBEG will have nonstop China flights to PEK, TSN, PVG and CAN by the end of the year.
DeleteThose are all passenger flights. BUD has passengers flights to PEK, PVG, NGB and CKG, so BEG and BUD will have the same number of destinations for passengers flights to China - four. Not too bad for growing Belgrade market!
DeleteBUD has this summer flights to PEK, PVG, CKG, NGB, CAN, XIY, and maybe SZX will start
DeletePASSENGER FLIGHTS to only 4 destinations.
DeleteThose cities are the passenger flights
DeleteBudapest only has passenger flights to 4 destinations in China: PEK, PVG, NGB and CKG. Other flights are Cargo only, no passengers. If you don't know, learn first and then comment.
DeleteBUD-CAN with China Southern 787-9 from June 27th
DeleteBUD-XIY with Shanghai Airlines 787-9 from June 29th
If you don't know, learn first and then comment.
People seem to forget that there are so many cities with 5 million inhabitants in China, more than Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Montenegro, Slovenia and Macedonia combined. There are also people who want to travel and when they get the opportunity to fly, they will fly. Also, somewhere in China, information appeared that the Chinese carrier Xiamen Air is interested in launching one or two routes to Belgrade, from the cities of Xiamen (XMN) and Hangzhou (HGH). Serbia and China have a very good cooperation that is growing every year, and I think that Serbs should overtake Hungary by 2030 in terms of the number of passengers from China. It is possible and faster to achieve this. Then in East Asia, India and Thailand remain, perhaps Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines as seasonal lines. Personally, I would like to see more destinations in America, primarily Cuba, Mexico and Brazil, but slowly step by step, who would have thought ten years ago that we would have this today
ReplyDeleteCuba, Mexico and Brazil! They won’t even fly to Canada, Dubai or Australia. Why would they fly to such highly touristic and low yield destinations?
DeleteOh we all know why...
DeleteWhy?
DeleteDoes anyone know registrations for the two upcoming A330s? Are they basic 238 tonne MTOW or increased 242 metric tonne MTOW Airbus introduced in 2012? Those 242 ones should have range extended by 350nm.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.planespotters.net/airline/Air-Serbia
DeleteAir Serbia can operate to Los Angeles with current A332s. Qantas operates flight QF16 distance of 6,223 nm so LAX is not be the problem from BEG at 5,584 nm. MIA and LAX, both AA hubs, far more attractive for internet influencers than YYZ.
DeleteLos Angeles could be added only when they find some additional traffic elsewhere. I believe the Los Angeles area has the largest Armenian population in the United States, half a mil or so. So LAX could work with EVN also operated on the other side... and probably TLV.
DeleteLeaving aside Armenians in LA who are usually not from Armenia proper but from Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, it is also the second largest Serbian American population centre with San Diego.
DeleteAll Chinese routes are cargo heavy to ofset the passengers fluctuations. Chinese passengers prefer national airlines, especially tourists. I am working for a huge Chinese conglomerate and it is painfully obvious. A colleague has been arriving from Harbin via Guangzhou and Amsterdam on China Southern as this connection was preferred by their local search engines at that time, never mind much more convenient options on various European airlines. You would not believe the itineraries they use.
ReplyDeleteWell, before the Covid, Aeroflot flights were fully packed with Chinese tourists 3 times a day in Belgrade. Literary few Russians and few Serbs on a flight and all others were Chinese
Delete+1
DeleteChinese tourists prefer Chinese airlines because they speak Mandarin. Will ASL hire Chinese speaking crew for the flights?
DeleteAir Serbia will also fly to Guangzhou where Cantonese is dominant.
DeleteBut Mandarin is the official language. Cantonese is looked down upon.
DeleteManila is close to Hong Kong.
ReplyDeleteFlying to China to reach Filipino nearby Market?
Lol who is flying these routes. Guangzhou and not Toronto, really?
ReplyDelete