Air Serbia has posted a record operational performance for the first quarter of the year following a strong March. During the January - March period, the Serbian carrier handled 789.101 passengers, representing an increase of 5.5% on last year. In March alone it welcomed 273.705 travellers onboard its aircraft. Air Serbia plans to increase its passenger numbers by approximately 6% in 2025 compared to last year, which would result in the airline carrying over 4.7 million passengers and overtaking the record 4.531.000 customers uplifted by its predecessor JAT Yugoslav Airlines in 1987. The Serbian carrier handled 4.44 million travellers in 2024, representing an increase of 6% on the previous year.
Over the first quarter of the year, Air Serbia had the most available seat capacity on its Moscow service, followed by Podgorica, Paris and Istanbul, with the Turkish city served from Belgrade, Niš and Kraljevo. It was followed by Zurich, Milan, Ljubljana and Amsterdam. The largest volume of flights was operated to Podgorica, followed by Ljubljana, which is served from both Belgrade and Niš. The airline launched its fourth long-haul service, to Shanghai, in January, took delivery of its fourth wide-body aircraft in February and opened a new premium check-in facility at Belgrade Airport in March. The carrier is expected to see the growth trend continue in April with the upcoming Easter holidays selling out flights. It also follows the sale of 168.000 tickets in a single week in February for travel in 2025 during a promotional ticket sale.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “Month after month, we record steady growth, further confirmed by the cabin load factor, which reached 74% in March - an increase of three percentage points compared to the same period last year. The trust our passengers place in us motivates us to continue improving our operations. In June, we will introduce three new destinations to our network and, during the summer season, operate scheduled flights to more than 80 cities worldwide. We always strive to be the first choice for passengers and the airline that offers the best travel opportunities".
Good result. Waiting for them to have 1 million in first quarter one day.
ReplyDeletePossible in 2027 or 2028.
DeleteBravo JU 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
DeleteGood start to the year
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGreat news. I think they can definitely break JAT's passenger record this year.
ReplyDeleteHopefully even though they are below their target growth. Let's hope things pick up especially now when third Bulgaria Air E90 entered service.
DeleteHow are they below? They are at 5.5% during Q1 vs Q1 25 where you had one day more in February and Easter at the end of March.
Delete* vs Q1 24
DeleteBecause their target is 6%
DeleteYes, on an annual level.
DeleteHe is unhappy with 5.5% during the first slowest quarter of the year. Dear god some people here live in some fairy tale land.
DeleteHe judges whole year growth based on Q1 🤣
DeleteAir Serbia plans to add 260,000 passengers this year. They have already added 39,000 during slowest 3 month period of the year. I would say they are on target.
Delete@anon 10:52
DeleteThey are. February promo fares and a 30% discount at Tourist Fair busted numbers further.
Well done.
ReplyDeleteWe will see if they can keep up this growth in Q2
ReplyDeleteYes, they will. Growth will be bigger in Q2 than in Q1 with more flights, Easter and start of new routes.
DeleteWonder which route had most passengers.
ReplyDeleteSVO for sure
DeleteIt's a shame they still don't have enough Embraer pilots so that E95 can fly all the time. Yesterday it only flew to Berlin.
ReplyDeleteThey do have enough pilots for E195. More are on trainings for second E195.
DeleteNope, not enough. That's why it's never flying at night. Then the crew has to have two days off
DeleteI can't blame young pilots not wanting to be type rated on an E-jet when all of Europe is full with A320s and 737s and their pilots are in far higher demand ($$) globally.
DeleteOne Berlin rotation is not enough for one daily shift. It's not a problem with the crews, but in Ejet demand
DeleteThese are used E1 E-jets, not new E2s. The delay in getting more dry leased despite for years having correctly identified that is the most ideal replacement for A319s is frustrating.
DeleteAir Serbia's E195 (YU-ATB) on most days flies 3 rotations throughout the day. That is very good utilization.
DeleteFB E190 LZ-SOF entered JU fleet 2 days ago. Welcome!
DeleteYes the next wet leased one arrives in June
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/03/air-serbia-to-expand-fleet.html
I don't see YU-ATB currently flying any time soon, wonder what happened, hope it's nothing to serious.
DeleteIt has gone for scheduled maintenance.
Delete@13:19 it has already came back from its scheduled maintenance, also sorry about my previous comment at @13:18 I was wrong I just checked and it's flying to Thessaloniki today.
DeleteAnon @13:18
DeleteWhat are you talking about? YU-ATB flies literally every single day!
@13:24, yes you're right I'm sorry, like I said in my most recent comment I was wrong. Sorry about that.
DeleteVery unconfortable plane bulgarian E190..Hopefully flys as less as possible..It will deminish Air Serbia's good cabin experience so far
DeleteI was flying many times Bulgarian E190 and it is much more comfortable than A319.
Delete@07:43 don't talk bu....t please
Deleteit's good to see their load factor growing too.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI think it's mostly thanks to E-jets. If just Marathon was a bit more serious company JU should have a nice fleet of E-jets by now.
DeleteYou can not count anything for sure in aviation from Italians.
DeleteMarathon is a Greek company, not Italian.
DeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to see how many passengers by each route.
ReplyDeleteYou won't see any airline sharing that sort of information.
DeleteWow so that's like 1% more! Not good, not God at all. No wonder they are hiding that fact
ReplyDeleteAn increase of 2604 passengers is impressive!
ReplyDeleteYou realize there was easter in March last year?
ReplyDeleteIt is an extra 84 passengers a day. That is not bad. Not exactly impressive though.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't. Does not fit his narrative of gloom and doom. Don't you see how excited he is because to him the growth they succeeded is not good enough?
ReplyDeleteDude take off your rose tinted glasses and see the reality. It's they grew but this is sad. They need to do a better job with so many planes they have
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing I have to take off. You are yearning to spit at anything unwilling to take any factor into account. At the end of the day, you need help.
ReplyDeleteWhen growth in April is 12% he will say it's not organic because of Easter. Mark my words :D
ReplyDeleteIt is almost one more passenger per flight.
ReplyDeleteOnly here can you find people have a problem with record passenger figures.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly one or two people who would find something to complain about if they added a million passengers. The figure is unimportant to them. The negative must be found. They must complain, spit and make fun of. It's the same on every JU topic, no matter what it is. We are used to it.
ReplyDeleteHow are sales going for the four new routes? Which cities are doing best?
ReplyDeleteBest are doing Alghero and Mykonos as those are leisure routes backed by tourist agencies. Florence is also doing very good on an ATR. For Tbilisi it's way too early to conclude anything, but bookings are promising.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteIt is a healthy and organic growth.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThe result is quite an achievement for an airline of its size serving a market of its size.
ReplyDeleteHow many seats did Air Serbia have available during March of 2024?
ReplyDeleteThey have written the load factor for last March.
DeleteI am looking for capacity they had last March
DeleteYou can calculate it with basic math knowledge. They published LF and passenger numbers for last March, so calculating capacity takes couple seconds only.
DeleteI hope they maintain this momentum
ReplyDeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteIt’s clear Air Serbia is on a solid path.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia’s growth is impressive, but I still wish they’d focus more on customer service.
ReplyDeleteFlew with them recently. Honestly a solid experience. Hope they keep improving the inflight service and punctuality though
DeleteEasyjet flys only twice per week from GVA to BEG in summer(1---5--). Do you think there would be space for JU on the market and try again with this route now with E-jets? There is huge demand from Switzerland and with a good shedule for PTP and transfers it could work really well( --3-5-7).
ReplyDeleteI believe both GVA and MUC are destinations that JU could serve year round.
DeleteThe E-jets are indeed ideal for both routes.
It is interesting that easyJet flies 2 weekly during summer GVA-BEG, but increases to 3 weekly starting from next WITT.
DeleteCrazy!
EasyJet during the summer season needs most of its capacity for flights to Mediterranean destinations.
DeleteGVA would definitely have chance with E190, especially because easyJet is decreasing it.
DeleteMUC, GVA, MRS, MAN, DUB, HEL are all waiting for E-jets. They could also give WAW a try.
DeleteE-jet makes FRA route back in business for JU. It is common on BEG OTP too. I agree for MUC, GVA, WAW and what to hell why not HEL.
DeleteMRS is not likely as they fly to Nice.
DeleteGVA and HEL are smart moves to take with E190.
About MUC it depends if they are able to launch daily flights there, otherwise they would not have any chance because of big competition.
WAW is also possible with E190, but LOT is huge competition and it would have chance only if JU had codeshare with LO since most passengers on BEG-WAW are transfers to LOT's network.
@13:04 fully agree!
DeleteAlso CAI and (if situation improves) BEY would be great additions to be flown with an E-195.
Plus the night flight to ATH would be nice if the E jets took over from the ATR.
CAI and BEY should be on A319 and not during night, rather in split schedule like other longer routes.
DeleteNight flights to ATH will mostly be on E190 this summer.
@13:23 Marseille is not close to Nice
DeleteIt is.
Delete@13:04 I agree about all, but WAW. Ju should not feed their long haul network. Better start WRO and GDN to take over some transfers. 6 Ejets are quite a fleet, hopefully they will start this adventure soon
DeleteJU should acquire more E175, E190 and E195s, like LO did. Perfect choice for feeding its network
Delete@17:42 3 hours with a car, as I recall...With bus more
DeleteThis should increase in summer with extra Embraer and two more wet leased Embraers.
ReplyDeleteWhen is the 2nd dry leased Embraer joining the flight schedule?
DeleteIt was written last week
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/03/air-serbia-to-expand-fleet.html
Idemo dalje ..
ReplyDeleteVery good result...But what is happening with long haul? 4 aircraft, most of them sitting on tarmac and wasting huge amount of money
ReplyDeleteDo you ever get tired of writing the same thing? Their 40 million euro net profit means they obviously know what they are doing.
DeleteThere are 3 available. Summer timetable just started, things are heating up
Delete@15:45 hahaha never, until they start getting it done right..
Deleteyou know how Marcus Porcius Caton older used to close every speach in Senate- and I think Cartage should to be levelled to the ground..
Hahahah, exactly because of you they will change the business mind that brings them profit.
DeleteSome people here...
haha business mind that keeps wide body expensive planes on the ground is very interesting..Since this business model is completely unknown in airline industry, I think AS should ogranize pannels, seminars, and even conferences in order to educate others in this new fantastic idea...Off course, they can make a lot of money teaching others how to do it properly..
Delete^ you have no clue what you are talking about.
DeleteBut you have
DeleteNeki u komšiluku mogu da sanjaju ovakav LF i preko leta. Ako ovako nastave celogodišnji LF trebao bi da bude 80-85%.
ReplyDeleteTacno tako.
DeleteAir Serbia is doing what Croatia Airlines should have done years ago—expand smartly and invest in long-haul potential.
DeleteFantastic news for Air Serbia! Great to see a regional carrier expanding and performing so well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see Ljubljana so high on the list for them.
ReplyDelete