easyJet is increasing operations between Geneva and Belgrade to counter Air Serbia’s new service and maintain its market share. The low cost carrier plans to double frequencies between the two cities to four weekly during the peak summer travel period, after initially reducing flights from three to two weekly. The increase also represents a boost on the initially planned three weekly rotations before services were reduced just a month ago. Air Serbia will introduce flights between the two cities on June 23 with three weekly rotations planned.
easyJet handled 51.842 passengers between Belgrade and Geneva in 2024. Its average annual cabin load factor on the route stood at 87.6%, with the carrier exclusively utilising its A320s between the two cities. easyJet has so far been the only airline able to sustain flights between Belgrade and Geneva. Etihad Regional maintained the route for five months in 2014, while Swiss also tried its luck in 2014 and 2015. Air Serbia previously served Geneva for seven months in 2021. Ultimately, only easyJet prevailed, which has been flying between the two cities since January 2014.
easyJet entered the Serbian market in April 2013 with flights between Milan Malpensa and Belgrade. The following year, it added services from Geneva and Rome Fiumicino. However, by 2015, the Swiss city was its only remaining service. In 2018, the carrier introduced operations from Basel and Berlin, with both discontinued in 2023. easyJet’s operations to Belgrade peaked in 2019 with 990 flights and over 168.000 seats that year. Last year, the budget carrier applied for slots at London Stansted Airport for the introduction of flights to Belgrade, but did not proceed with the launch.
I think JU is winning this one, purely with the fact that their connections are great for the flight
ReplyDeleteOne thing is to offer connections and it's another to actually sell them. Look at LYS which is just down the road. They were stuck at 2-3 weekly flights since the route was launched.
DeleteAnd what do you, as an "expert", suggest?
DeleteMy expert opinion is to actually invest in marketing and in promoting themselves as an option out there. Also, with 2-3 weekly flights they can't be competitive, they need to make sure they offer enough flexibility to their customers. That's what others are doing.
DeleteEasyPeasy has been profitable with 3 weekly, so why wouldn’t JU? Some price dumping initially to squeeze them out and that’s about it.
DeleteBecause the point of sale is most likely in GVA where easyJet is much stronger than JU is. That could be one of the reasons why they (so far) defeated anyone who challenged them. We will see how successful JU will be this time around.
DeleteOne thing is certain, it's good that easyJet is not giving up without a fight.
Adding two frequencies in the middle of the summer is hardly "putting up a fight" for an airline the size of easyJet.
DeleteI think it is given the size of the market.
DeleteBEG-GVA is far from being a high volume route.
Game on
ReplyDeleteAt least it's good to see they're not just giving up.
ReplyDeleteFinally, easyJet woke up!
ReplyDeleteEasyJet is really obsessed about Geneva.
DeleteIt's one of their biggest bases.
DeleteI would be great if they restored some of the old destinations. They are able to fight with W6 and JU
ReplyDeleteI think they terminated Berlin to Belgrade flights after they closed their base over there. Loads were decent, only thing that was off was their schedule.
DeleteWhy did they terminate Basel? The demand is obviously there as W6 flies this route 5x weekly.
DeleteYields were probably trash since Wizz Air has a much lower cost structure. Also, GVA as a market is far more affluent than BSL is.
DeleteAlso, JU isn't known to engage in prolonged price wars.
Not sure about Basel's price sensitivity, given that both Roche and Novartis are based there...
DeleteAnd now I googled it, and Basel is by far the wealthiest city in Switzerland, with 210.000 CHF per capita.
DeleteYes and that is why easyJet has a considerable operation over there. However, here we are talking about BSL-BEG. I highly doubt most of the passengers on this route are researchers, managers or executives working for Roche and Novartis.
DeleteEven though many of them aren't, they still earn good enough not to worry if the price is 150 or 170 EUR.
DeleteHowever, W6 kicked their a.. on BSL-BEG. Unfortunately.
Which is why they might be more price sensitive than we though. I do find it interesting though... good for Wizz Air I guess.
DeleteData listed in the article shows that they reduced BEG because they thought they were safe. Great demand coupled with less flights usually results in improved yield. Air Serbia messed with their plans so they rushed to find spare capacity... which they did within a month or so.
ReplyDeleteSeems like they are not ready to give up on GVA just yet. Would be great for consumers if this provocation actually woke them up and reminded them there is room for them in BEG as well.
They will. JU will win with smaller plane and similar prices. When their LF fall below 85%, which will happen very soon, they will give up
DeleteIt all depends what the CASM is like for both airlines. That will be a decisive factor for both. That is why JU needs to focus on attracting transfers as a bonus on this market.
DeleteeasyJet won't fight for BEG in Geneva for long. Look at the prices it charges for flights to Belgrade and compare it to Mediterranean destination routes.
DeleteŽao mi je što su ukinuli liniju za Berlin. Leteo sam 2018, i bila je baš dobra. Kad bi to vratili...
ReplyDeletePored JU i W6 nema potrebe.
DeleteУвек има потребе за већом конкуренцојом јер то спушта цене карата. Ако се добро сећам укинули су Београд када су значајно смањили број летелица у Берлину.
DeleteБерлин-Београд сигурно није била high volume, high yield линија.
We will have an average of one flight per day to GVA. Punopreviše!
ReplyDeleteHahaha!
DeleteIt would be funny if this move by Air Serbia actually triggers easyJet to start thinking about Belgrade again, and start adding new routes. Air Serbia would regret their appetite for Geneva :)
ReplyDeleteI think JU can compete against them. They have shown they can compete against Wizz Air.
DeleteYes but they also lost against Wizz.
DeleteWhat did they loose against Wizz? They fly 85 destinations from Belgrade. Up from 40 in 2019.
DeleteSo? They lost against them in NCE and MLA. JU resumed both destinations and they still are not performing well there. NCE has 40 to 70 pax per flight.
DeleteJU has 85 destinations and only 50% marketshare in BEG. What does that tell you?
How exactly do you know that they are not performing well in Nice or Malta? They phoned you and informed you?
DeleteHe knows because he is the graduate of the ZAMA academy of aviation.
Delete+1. točno!
DeleteAt this point it's not who defeated who where but more where one failed to push the other one out. Wizz Air failed to push JU out of NCE and MLA while JU failed to pushed Wizz Air out of LCA, FCO, MXP, BCN etc.
DeleteWizz Air putting up a fight in LCA this summer with 6 weekly flights and a Sunday afternoon departure. At the end of the day it's the consumers that will profit from increased competition.
Both struggled with equipment and pilot shortage but that is slowly changing since both carriers are growing once again.
No one should be pushed out of nowhere. It's great thing that JU and W6 coexist on many destinations. It also shows that O&D market has grown enough to sustain both of them.
DeleteIt would be nice if we see Easyjet minimum during summer season to launch some flights to Serbia ìfrom Italy, where they have bases in Milan, Naples, and Rome, or from Spain and Portugal
ReplyDeleteCould not agree more. I would like to see them flying from Belgrade, but also, I see room for them to fly from INI to Milan, Rome, or some destinations in Spain.
DeleteItaly is saturated enough by JU and W6. They better start some routes from their British bases, like Manchester, Birmingham, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow or Liverpool
DeleteI think BEG rather needs Ryanair to some summer seasonal destinations. Their cost structure is more suited for our market. Naturally I doubt we will see FR in BEG any time soon.
DeleteAs someone in the know, I can tell you the only reason easyjet is not adding more routes from/to Belgrade is because they are asking the airport for considerbly more funds than the incentive program provides.
ReplyDeleteZnaci potrebna je konkurencija da bi se probudili
ReplyDeleteSo far, JU's Wednesday flights are not so popular as those on Mondays and Fridays. Also, seats on sector GVA-BEG are being sold much faster than BEG-GVA sector.
ReplyDeleteI could see eventually JU reducing GVA to 2x weekly during winter. This will be very similar to NCE, both airlines will stay with low frequencies and fight for their market share. Thank God JU has now E195 which is much more flexible in terms of capacity and profitability.
Some comments on here are just absurd. Of course a diaspora route like this one will sell more ex-CH than ex-Serbia to begin with at the start of the school summer holidays in Switzerland.
DeleteMy intention was not to make it sound like a bad or "absurd" thing, just wanted to point that out. Why are you so triggered for God's sake?
DeleteYou're the one who sounds triggered
DeleteBecause there is a certain group of people on here which can't stand any negativity towards JU.
DeleteNothing to unpack here. Belgrade was underserved market 7-8 years ago. Easyjet didn't seize the opportunity but Air Serbia and Wizzair did by adding dozens of new destinations. Fate of one destination is not of significant relevance.
ReplyDelete