SCAT Airlines will introduce flights between Astana and Belgrade, marking the first scheduled air service between Central Asia and Serbia. The Kazakhstani Ministry for Transport has confirmed the carrier will launch two weekly flights to Belgrade, as part of a push to improve the country’s air connectivity with Europe. SCAT Airlines commenced its European expansion last year with services to Prague, while Budapest and Munich will follow at the end of this month. Flights to Vienna and Sofia are also expected to be launched alongside Belgrade, with ticket sales anticipated to commence in the coming weeks.
Discussions over flights between Serbia and Kazakhstan have been ongoing for almost a decade. In 2016, Air Serbia’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the time, Siniša Mali, who is today’s Serbia’s Finance Minister, noted the carrier was considering launching flights between Belgrade and Almaty. However, the route never materialised. The two countries have since signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the aviation sector. Serbian citizens do not require a visa to enter Kazakhstan. Furthermore, Serbia is one of only six European countries that does not require entry visas for Kazakhstani passport holders.
Regionally, Air Astana currently maintains seasonal summer flights from both Astana and Almaty to Podgorica. The service, launched in 2021, is operated between June and mid-September with the 166-seat Airbus A321neo aircraft. The flights take five hours and forty minutes. SCAT Airlines operates a fleet of over thirty aircraft and a network of more than sixty destinations. Its fleet primarily consists of Boeing 737 family jets, including a number of new 737 MAX aircraft.
Flew with them once. Rude staff, aircraft is terrible condition and Kazaks avoiding them. Still a nice addition at Belgrade, just hoped for something else
ReplyDeleteIs it a full service airline?
DeleteWizzier than Wizz :)
DeleteSame like almost all European airlines - hand luggage only included in basic price.
DeleteThank you
DeleteDamn, we're actually getting SCAT Airlines to exyu
ReplyDeleteBravo BEG 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteI'm just wondering what demand there will be for these flights?
ReplyDeleteMe too.
DeleteI would guess almost all current demand is served by TK via IST.
DeleteHuge. So many potential transfers with JU network. Obviously, Kazahstan is poorly connected to Europe since they are starting flights to VIE, BUD, PRG only now. Also, we can expect tourists, because Belgrade is the most European city they can visit without EU visas
DeleteJU should start this route long ago. But, I presume too long turnaround is the problem, not demand. Similar to CAI
DeleteJU could only use the A330 on this route and I think it would be an overkill. That's where MAX or NEO/XLR come to play. They are perfect for these longer, thinner routes where expensive widebody aircraft wouldn't be economical. We will see what becomes of this.
DeleteDefinitely huge, it's an emerging market with a lot of money flow (Kazakhstan is even on the brink of becoming developed)
DeleteCan't they use Embraer?
Delete...or A319.
DeleteA319 can make it without any problems.
DeleteThis route will be primarily for Russians.
DeleteHow long would these flights take?
ReplyDeleteabout 6 hours
DeleteThanks. That's a long flight on the B737
DeleteIt's a bit longer than the flight to Dubai.
DeleteGood to see another destination being served from BEG.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if they codeshared with JU
ReplyDeleteInterestingly they don't seem to have business class cabin. It's all economy.
ReplyDeleteThe name of the airline is wild! 💩
ReplyDeleteI still do not get it how nobody from that company realized what it means in English.
DeleteIt's even funnier that the name is an abbreviation of English words. I always thought it was an abbreviation of some words in local language lol.
Delete+1 hahahhaha i was thinking exactly the same 💩
DeleteThey still fly one ancient B733.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who liked these birds from JAT era could enjoy flying with it to Kazakstan.
And they also have 2 year old MAXs. Actually the MAXs dominate their fleet.
DeleteThey have the same number of B738 and MAX in their fleet
DeleteI'd rather fly on the 733 than the MAX.
DeleteIt’ll be interesting to see which aircraft SCAT deploys on this route. Most likely the 737 MAX.
DeleteSCAT also has some of the latest 757 and passenger 767 produced by Boeing.
DeleteFinally
ReplyDeleteThe more airlines the better.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see Belgrade becoming more connected.
Delete+1
DeleteFantastic news
ReplyDeleteInteresting development, but I wonder how much demand there really is for this route. Hope it succeeds.
ReplyDeleteAstana makes zero sense compared to Shymkent or Almaty. The success of this route will be between poor and medium, unless they schedule good connections to Almaty.
DeleteWill be curious to see the flight times and prices.
ReplyDeleteWhy SCAT and not Air Astana? Would’ve preferred to see a more premium airline operate this first link.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
DeleteSCAT seems to be good enough for Prague, Budapest, Vienna...
DeleteAir Astana would have been a much better choice since AST is their main base and could offer a whole lot more connections to east Asia compared with SCAT.
DeleteWhile for Scat Shymkent would have been the best choice, since they can offer connections to both Astana, Almaty, Asia or nearby Tashkent (1 hour by car).
DeleteA good move
ReplyDeleteBoth countries allowing visa free entry is good and will help this route.
ReplyDeleteHopefully tourism boards on both sides take advantage of this.
Delete+1
DeleteI'm guessing these will be year round?
ReplyDeleteBalkan countries are waking up to the importance of Central Asia. Macedonia and Bosnia should look into doing the same.
ReplyDeleteWhat importance of Central Asia?
DeleteHere comes the hater brigade. Must spit on something this morning. Complements of zama academy.
DeleteAnon 09.51
DeleteWell, ask the EU. They just hosted a major EU-Central Asia summit hoping to boost economic ties. A lot of the -stan countries are trying to position themselves as important economic players. Uzbekistan is especially active.
Only issue with most of these countries is that despite rapid economic development, their purchasing power remains relatively low. That is why, for the time being, they will remain attractive as manufacturing sites for Western companies. However, this is slowly changing so down the road they will eventually become interesting markets for more expensive European goods.
Lots of Europeans do go for holidays over there, especially Uzbekistan which is impressive.
Have you been there?
DeleteNow waiting for Air Serbia to return the gesture and consider flights to Almaty or even Tashkent. Plenty of potential in that region.
ReplyDeleteWhat short of untapped potential exists?
DeleteThanks, but no thanks.
DeleteAs far as we heard even SCAT will be subsidized by Serbian Government to fly to BEG. No need to have more costs than that.
Lot's of transfer potential actually.
DeleteWell, Air Serbia already gave us TBS. That said, if Tbilisi becomes a success then they might easily consider other destinations, especially EVN which is throwing money at airlines right now. Armenia is trying to attract a lot more tourists.
Delete@Nemjee
DeleteAgree. Beside Tbilisi and Yerevan other routes shuld better take their companies. Logical step would be Baku as next destination.
From Prague SCAT flies to Astana, but from Budapest and Munich SCAT flies to Shymkent (CIT), in southern Kazakhstan (close to Tashkent)
ReplyDeleteFrom Shymkent they can offer connections to 4 cities in China. It would have been better if they flew to BEG from CIT and leave Astana to Air Astana.
DeleteWell, the market from BEG to China is not that big and is already covered by other airlines (Hainan, China Southern and Air Serbia). Astana probably has the most P2P demand which is why they went for it.
DeleteAlso, it's worth mentioning that Serbia and Kazakhstan have a free trade in place and there is currently some form of economic exchange.
The business center and most populous city of Kazakhstan is Almaty.
DeleteBut this is an even longer flight than Astana. Probably it needs a widebody aircraft.
It doesn't.
DeleteWow! This becomes more exotic than Sarajevo to Buraidah or whatever the village name is
ReplyDeleteThat 'village' has a population of over half a million and is larger than Sarajevo.
DeleteActually double the size of Sarajevo.
DeleteOMG, I didn't mean it offensive or underestimating way, and didn't mean size but the fact that city/village/whatever is not widely known, not widely connected, and exotic, the same way as SCAT or even Astana. So take a chill pill and relax
DeleteI think you need the chill pill. When you call a destination 'village' we all know what you mean.
DeleteSCAT, so kinky hahaha
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable, to name an airline SCAT. I don't think they've consulted an English speaking PR manager. lol
DeleteWhere is the Shymkent guy now? 🤣
ReplyDeleteHave you read any of the above comments?
DeleteWould've, could've, should've
DeleteYeah, let's talk when the route fails unless they provide good connections from ALA.
DeleteWhat is the start date for this service?
ReplyDeleteI can never take this airline seriously with that name. lol
ReplyDeleteImagine choosing it and keeping it all this time.
Funny to read all the comments.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Kazakhs also think where in gods name is this country called Serbia!
And isnt Belgrade some village in the forgotten mountains?
Now people have the opportunity to discover some really nice new places.
They will be pleasantly surprised!
Who said anything bad about Kazakhstan?
DeleteAt least you can connect with SCAT to cities in Russia !fun fact Air Kazakhstan is a british owned airline and they are not allowed to do so...
ReplyDeleteNow you know why Kazakhstan is called a banana republic.
DeleteThey do not even have control over their own "national airline".
It's a failed state.
Delete