Air Serbia is considering launching flights between Belgrade and Beijing next summer to replace its recently discontinued service to Tianjin. Boško Rupić, the carrier’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, said, “Next summer, we anticipate operating fifteen weekly long-haul flights. This includes a daily service to New York, three weekly flights to Chicago, two weekly flights each to Guangzhou and Shanghai, and an additional destination we’re evaluating. This could be an expansion into Beijing or an increase in frequencies on our current China routes”. He added, “We launched Tianjin during the Covid period, which made sense then. This winter, there are already eight weekly flights between Serbia and China, and from January 11, we’ll begin two weekly services between Belgrade and Shanghai”.
Hainan Airlines currently operates two weekly rotations between Beijing Capital Airport and Belgrade with its Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Beijing is also home to Daxing Airport, which was opened in late 2019. Air Serbia will operate its final service to Tianjin today after just under two years of operations. Ticket sales for the route were suspended just over a week ago with little prior warning. Beijing is located just over 100 kilometres from Tianjin with the two cities connect via high-speed rail.
Commenting on the carrier’s new service to Guangzhou, launched on September 30, Mr Rupić said, “Guangzhou has proven as a good performer. Our average cabin load factor on this route through the end of the year now exceeds 75%, which is a solid outcome for a long-haul service, especially considering the typically softer demand during this part of the season. China is a key market for us, and we’re particularly encouraged by the significant number of transfer passengers on this route, with customers traveling from Western Europe to China via Belgrade”.
Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, recently emphasized the strong performance of the Guangzhou service. Mr. Marek noted, “The Guangzhou route has delivered exceptional results since its launch, with high load factors and a diverse mix of business and leisure travellers. Serbia has emerged as a popular destination for Chinese tourists, and we look forward to our continued cooperation with the Civil Aviation Administration of China and relevant departments such as the China Tourism and Culture Bureau. Together, we aim to advance the connectivity agreement signed by our two governments in May, strengthening ties between China and Belt and Road countries. Air Serbia has confidence in the resilience of the Chinese economy and the government’s ongoing efforts to promote economic recovery. With China’s economic rebound, we anticipate a thriving future for its civil aviation sector, and through our joint efforts, Air Serbia expects to achieve even greater success in the Chinese market”.
Can they compete against Hainan?
ReplyDeleteThey could fly to Daxing
DeleteARD and ARE have a much more competitive product.. In fact, they have the same seats as on Hainan's A330s
Delete^ Soon YU-ARC too.
DeleteIs YU-ARD now in regular service?
Delete@09:24
DeleteHow soon will that be? Have they talked about their fleet refurbishment schedule?
Many thanks for any info.
@9.25
DeleteYes
@9.27
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/08/air-serbia-eyes-fleet-wide-cabin.html
@9.27
DeleteThanks for the reply. Unfortunately Marek's statement is very vague on the timeframe.
Also why exactly it will take that long for Pupin to be upgraded?
"As soon as we have the engineering and design done, which takes six to seven months, YU-ARC [Mihajlo Pupin] will go for a full cabin retrofit and feature the same new cabins."
Hainan already flies the route, and two weekly flights aren’t going to compete against major carriers with better fleets and reputations.
DeleteHonestly, Tianjin made more sense because it's less crowded than Beijing, and we didn’t have to compete with major carriers. Now they’re jumping into a competitive market without a clear plan for how they’ll succeed
DeleteWell LGW is less crowded than LHR but JU flies to LHR. You don't fly to airports that are less crowded cause usually they're less crowded for a reason. The very same reason that now made JU to cancel the route.
DeleteBravo Air Serbia, none of European or Chinese carriers are flying to Europe from TSN. Air Serbia from PKX has a possibility of code share with any of three major Chinese carriers. TSN made sense in the past, not anymore!
DeleteReality check: Air Serbia didn't announce launch of Daxing service.
DeleteThe route needs to be at least 2 weekly to have any chance. These one weekly flights don't make sense.
ReplyDelete2 or 3 weekly.
DeleteWould it not be better to increase CAN and PVG?
DeleteAnd fly empty? 75% load factor with 2pw
Delete^ a month into a new long haul route in the slowest month of the year is actually quite good.
Delete75% load factor = empty. Graduate of Vrapce university.
DeleteNo, but with 3 pw LF would be 50%. Simple mathematics. It takes some time route to mature. What is Vrapce university?
DeleteAha so load factor will never ever increase. It will stay exactly the same as it is in the month of November a month into their new route. Got it.
DeleteHigher frequencies also means that more passengers will choose to fly with JU instead of opting for flying Hainan or connecting in IST, DXB, DOH etc.
DeleteLol cause the additional flight wouldn't mean additional sales. How stupid is that.
Delete@09:33 He is just grasping at straws to justify any decision taken by the airline.
DeleteWell, very small percentage, because you are forgetting two more flights by China Southern. So few percent maximum. Passengers are already well covered on daily basis
DeleteIf there is extra demand, CS would already add more flights
DeleteThey just started last month. Some of you people..
DeleteNo no let them be. Tell them they are right and that there is NO demand, planes are EMPTY, the few passengers that fly these routes are paid actors, it's all political, the statistics of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia are made up and like with most flights to Belgrade there is absolutely no interest. Now, they should be ok
DeleteYou forgot that these routs are for Chinese workers only.
DeleteYes, if all of you weren't blind, you would see that I wrote that new route needs time to mature.
DeleteGood to see Guangzhou working out.
ReplyDeleteAnd they have to compete against China Southern.
DeleteMaybe there will be CS.
DeleteThat's the plan
DeleteYou can t know if CAN is working or not in short operating time.
DeleteOnly 15 weekly flights with 4 aircraft? Why so few?
ReplyDeleteIt will be 15 weekly with 3. It was written months ago that one that is on a power by the hour agreement will mostly be used as a reserve aircraft
DeleteLack of crew = long turnover times = fewer flights
Delete"Despite recent media reports suggesting an increase in long-haul flight frequencies next summer, EX-YU Aviation News learns the airline plans to maintain its existing schedule as it will to optimise the usage of its A330 fleet,"
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/09/air-serbia-to-optimise-wide-body-fleet.html
Having 15 flights with 4 planes is everything but optimization. They could have increased PVG to 3 weekly and still launch another destination with at least 3 weekly flights, and stil have a lot of slack in the schedule. They would need more pilots for that, so that's the problem.
Delete@Anon 09:17 I think the company PR department needs to look up the meaning of the word optimization.
DeleteThey are using it completely wrong. In fact 15 weekly flights from 4 widebody aircraft is the exact opposite of optimization.
Just my2cents
They could have used it to Havana LOL
DeleteI really cannot believe that someone would keep 8 flights during winter, and 14-15 flights during summer on 3 or 4 planes..It does sound completely incopentent in my opinion..Why did they rent all those planes at first? What would be the utilization % of those planes? They either have to open new route during winter already..
DeleteNext winter it seems they could operate 2x CAN, 2x PVG, 2x ORD, 3x JFK. That's only 9 flights a week with a fleet of 4 A330s. Even if they launch Miami 2-3pw that's still extremely low fleet utilization.
DeletePlanning for half of widebody fleet sitting idle during winter makes Marek's excuses for not launching Toronto due to seasonality even more laughable. Seasonality is obviously not a concern for other Air Serbia destinations _except_ for Toronto, that one is the only straw that will break the camel's back :)))))
DeleteThey said 15 long haul flights, not that those 4 place will fly 15 flights. The difference is huge, as they may be using those plane for chargers or other busy destinations during the summer.
DeleteNonsense.
DeleteNot buying that the reason for them stopping Tianjin was related to them starting Guangzhou. Nor am I buying that they discontinued it because of poor sales. If the sales were poor they would not have kept it on sale until just 10 days ago nor would they have scheduled an increase from next summer just a month ago. It implies to me that they indeed have a issue with crew. That's why the suspension was so sudden and immediate.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+100
DeleteBoth the pilot and cabin crew situation is far, far from ideal at JU.
+101
DeleteI've noticed that service is being hit and miss lately. It seems to be because of the cabin crew. Something has profoundly changed in later years. I can't put my finger on what... but it has, slightly and overwhelmingly for the worse. However, I have to admit I have had some pretty awesome flights recently. Hence the high visibility of some of the bad ones.
DeleteConsidering the number of European airlines that have suspended Beijing, they could have a look into it. Might get quite a few transfers.
ReplyDeleteExactly! But with a maximum of 2 weekly frequencies these passengers will choose to fly TK or one of the ME3 instead of JU.
Delete“Next summer, we anticipate operating fifteen weekly long-haul flights. This includes a daily service to New York, three weekly flights to Chicago, two weekly flights each to Guangzhou and Shanghai, and an additional destination we’re evaluating."
ReplyDeleteThat's 14/15. So no MIA on the radar.
It's 14 but they say they will either increase CAN or PVG or add PEK. So it will be 15
DeleteWhat do you guys think? Would they serve Capital or Daxing Airport if they start Beijing?
ReplyDeleteNice
ReplyDeleteI always thought Tianjin was an interesting choice, but Beijing makes a lot more sense strategically.
ReplyDeleteThis feels like overreach. Air Serbia barely established itself with Tianjin, and now they’re planning for Beijing? The market is saturated with existing carriers like Hainan.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s a smart shift. Tianjin was a good start, but Beijing has way more potential in the long term. Plus, don't forget that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia keeps growing and growing so demand is there.
DeleteSaturated?
DeleteYou call twice per week saturated?
There are 8 weekly to China from January, not 2 weekly
DeleteWe're talking about Beining.
Delete* Beijing
DeleteSta ste navalili sa Tjansin ili Pekingom kad se, spremaju ljudi za Tokyo.
DeleteBeijing would only strengthen their position in Asia.
ReplyDeleteSeoul and Singapore even more!
DeleteWith the strong performance they’re seeing in other China routes, I’m optimistic about Beijing. They’re clearly doing something right if load factors are good.
ReplyDeleteThey have just cancelled one route, so there are no "other China routes", there's only one operated by JU at the moment.
DeleteAnd there is another starting 11 January.
DeleteTrue but the topic was "strong performance of other routes". That one is still not performing so there's only one: Guangzhou, which lasts extremely short to call it strong performance. Even Tianjin was called a strong performing route till recently and look at it now.
DeleteI appreciate Air Serbia's efforts to expand in Asia, but I really think they should be focusing more on North America. There’s a big Serbian diaspora in Canada, and more demand for direct flights to places like Toronto and other US cities. New York and Chicago are a great start, but North America has so much untapped potential. Expanding here could serve the diaspora but also attract some North American tourists to Serbia and handle transfer traffic to more established tourist markets like Greece and Croatia.
ReplyDeleteCanada is death trap.
DeleteAnon 10:42 They should. As for transfers, Croatia objected to Air Serbia transferring US codeshare passengers. Anon 11:40 what stops you from moving out?
DeleteThey can object to whatever they want, the airline carries many transfers to/ from Croatia on their own flights
DeleteI believe it was stated why Toronto is not the frontrunner at all cost when it comes to North American expansion. They need more bidirectional transfers. Toronto is "all aboard to Europe" in July and "all aboad back to Canada" in August. Unless they ofset some of the seasonality with additional destinations in the Middle East, it is tricky to imagine them being successful on the route.
DeleteHow is the US any different. Serbian citizens still need visas for the US too and the two diaspora communities in Ontario and in mid-west US are very culturally connected. You are not thinking about the non-Serbian citizens who perhaps don’t need a visa?
DeleteNekima izgleda treba nacrtati da je 75% LF minimum, jer sa svakom prodatim kartom u naredna 2 meseca taj procenat raste. Ovo je i više nego dobro.
ReplyDeleteBolje nego dobro, bolje nego dobro...
DeleteOne would think something like Chengdu/Urumqi would make more sense than competing with a domestic flagship carrier
ReplyDeleteIt's easier to do business with West so that's where (Air) Serbia should be looking. Furthermore that's where diaspora&private business streams flow and that's where competition (still) doesn't consider Belgrade. Total China operations will not exceed single JFK route in the near future. It's OK to have them for Chinese diaspora but that's not a priority. Please remember JU still doesn't fly Munich and we are talking about Tianjin. That's not serious.
ReplyDeleteThe number of visitors from China actually exceeds number of visitors from US
DeleteDon't know about tourism: Broj dolazaka turista u Srbiji u septembru je u odnosu na septembar prošle godine bio manji za 5,1 odsto, a broj noćenja bio je manji za 12,2 odsto, objavio je danas Republički zavod za statistiku (RZS).
DeleteHowever, I'm sure the Chinese are coming with organized tours, through their operators and carriers...
So you picked out one month? Have you actually looked at the number of tourists by country? No
DeleteIn September, number of Chinese tourists grew 77% y-o-y. January-September 71%.
DeleteYou forgot about Serbian tourists in Asia during winter months...The cheapest and fastest route now for entire Asia is via CAN with China Southern, tickets from Beg around 530 euros round trip to any place in Asia, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Bali, SGN, you name it..800 for SYD, 450 for Tokyo...There are many Serbian tourists in Asia during winter, 10 thousand visit only Thailand during 4 winter months, and where are the rest of destinations..
DeleteHow long does it take to educate A320 pilots for A330?
ReplyDeleteA330 pilots are not an issue. There was news just 2 months ago how many have been promoted to A330. The issue is that they don't have A320 pilots now. So the A330 pilots which can all also fly A320s are needed on A320s so they can sustain their core operations.
DeleteWhy don't they have A320 pilots now? It's not like they suddenly doubled A319/320 fleet, in fact narrowbody Airbus fleet was constant for a long time. Obviously some Airbus pilots retired or left the company, so it boils down to Air Serbia not having enough Airbus pilots.
DeleteWell yes that is the issue. A320-family pilots left the company. And that's why they have a shortage. Starting from the fact that Wizz pilots in Belgrade are paid more.
DeleteReally?
Deleteyes, and it is actually notably more
DeleteIt's easy to track where pilots moved and if it was to a number of different airlines or simply being poached by one airline.
DeleteAlso they keep choosing cadets as they don’t cost as much as experienced pilots. Plus they can keep them in line indoc for eternity since pilots are not payed until they pass a line check which can be up to a year. Told that to a friend of mine and he was 100% sure that I am screwing with him. Show me an experienced pilot who will work for free several months? Outrageous!
DeleteMarek talked about evaluating Beijing for a long time. They had more than enough time to evaluate it. If they wanted to switch from Tianjin to Beijing, Air Serbia would have announced close of one at the same time as opening of another, with passengers with Tianjin tickets being able to rebook on Beijing flights at no charge.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia didn't do this, so it's either another Air Serbia PR failure, or not wanting to launch Beijing at all.
Decent point.
Delete100% agree and not left passengers stranded in Tianjin because they could have offered them a return via PKX or PEK.
DeleteI think people are missing the point. Tianjin was always a temporary destination. Air Serbia always wanted Beijing but it was not possible earlier.
ReplyDeleteThere is no need for Air Serbia to provide a reason for cancelling Tianjin. Other airlines certainly don't provide explanations. It was just a business decision.
Yeah, and who cares about the people who booked Tianjin and now they have to make other arrangements. Often much more expensive,
Deleteand with only two weeks notice.
Do you really think that all those people are going to Tianjin??
DeleteThat’s not what the experts here were saying here consistently when I raised the performance of Tianjin. Everyone kept saying how well the route was performing and they found their niche that no other European carrier managed to think of!
DeleteAnd no, no other carrier strands their passengers permanently with 2 weeks notice. One-off perhaps. Look at how much time BA gave when it terminated BEG
DeleteRoute being discontinued in this case has nothing to do with perfornance but serious staffing issues, for which management should be held accountable.
DeleteJu should buy Chinese airplanes for this route. That way it can fly over Russia.
ReplyDeleteПо могућности Ј20 једно 2 ескадриле.
DeleteWhat planes? Comac?
DeleteIt seems that Beijing was just mentioned. I am afraid that Tijanin situation could happen to Guangzhou in two year time. I know that there is competition, however Hong Kong would might work. If that route is politically possible at all.
ReplyDeleteOpening direct flights to Toronto and Vancouver would be huge for the BEG Nikola Tesla airport. So many Balkan countries citizens live there. BEG airport could be a hub for passengers of entire Balkan (connected flights to Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, even Hungary.). For that, AirSerbia needs a bigger airport. And that cost.
ReplyDeletePiloti na A320 imaju preko 400.000 mesečno, kapetani nekih 50% više.
ReplyDeleteWizz plaća oko 2500€, tako da ne- nisu bolje plate u Wizzu
Ako je neko dobro plaćen u AirSerbiji to su piloti.
Čak i type rating školovanje ne moraju da plate ako ostanu u kompaniji određeno vreme.
Wizz oduzima to od plate
Daxing is a Star Alliance hub. Moreover, it is almost as far from downtown Beijing as is TSN.
ReplyDelete