Air Serbia plans to reduce frequencies on several of its Belgrade routes in September and October in the lead-up to the start of the 2025/26 winter season on October 26. The airline has brought forward the seasonal suspension of its three weekly Belgrade - Ankara service to September 20. It had initially planned to run flights until late October. The route will be restored on December 18 and will be maintained three times per week over the holiday period until January 8 with the Embraer E190 aircraft. Air Serbia competes against AJet on the route, which maintains year-round flights between the two capitals.
Starting September 6, Air Serbia will reduce flights on its flagship Belgrade - New York service from the initially planned daily rotation to six weekly. However, this is still the same number of flights it operated during the same period last year. From September 29, frequencies will decrease to four weekly, down from the planned five weekly rotations, but still an increase on three weekly services maintained during the same period in 2024. Elsewhere in September, the airline will decrease operations between Belgrade and Zurich from the initially planned eighteen to seventeen weekly, while services to Budapest will be reduced from the planned twelve weekly to ten.
During the month of October, Air Serbia will decrease frequencies on the Belgrade – Ohrid service from the planned two weekly to one weekly rotation until the seasonal route concludes on October 15, reflecting the same volume of flights as last year. Despite the frequency adjustments on some routes, the Serbian carrier will still have 2.2% more scheduled flights in September compared to last year, while services will be up 5.6% in October.
They don't seem able to compete with AJet on Ankara rpute.
ReplyDeleteIzmir is also questionable since Anadoloujet operated it last winter while JU retreated. Year-round market seems to be there. I am surprised JU failed to capture it even with Embraer jets.
DeleteMaybe it's more about yields than demand.
DeleteNothing strange here. Majority of pax are Turkish tourists and they prefer their own companies. Actually, even seasonal routes are great for JU
DeleteWhat exactly are we basing that statement on? So are you implying that JU only carriers Serbs on their flights to Turkey? So who are all those transfers that fly with them? Are they also Serbs or Westerners?
DeleteTurks, especially the younger generation, will fly with whoever offers them a better deal and a more convenient schedule. Air Serbia's schedule to these destinations is suited for transfers, Anadoloujet's towards the O&D market.
Anadoloujet captured the local market while Air Serbia failed to get enough transfers outside the busy summer months.
Do you really think that JU can capture more transfers on Turkish market than TK?? Even this so far is more than great. Maybe when JU add more short and long haul routes in the network
DeleteWhy then give free access to TK and the other Turkish carriers to BEG if JU can't compete?
DeleteWhat was the point? For us, for the Turks it is obvious.
Anon 09.32
DeleteAre you implying they can't get enough transfers (on top of some O&D they might get) in order to operate 2 to 3 weekly flights in winter? I sure think they can if they actually fought for those passengers the same way TK did some 15-20 years ago when they were a new kid on the bloc.
Before their transformation, Turkish Airlines was basically the Oriental version of Jat Airways.
Former Ankara resident here. I flew the route a lot to visit family, and would always go with AJet because of their flight times. JU flies the route at night, and if the price is lower, it's about a 20 EUR difference
Delete@admin Were these cuts included in yesterday's article about capacity levels for September?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteGreat thank you.
DeleteWould Belgrade-Nis-Ohrid would work as summer seasonal rotation?
ReplyDeleteWhy when BEG-OHD works fine? There is simply less demand in October for Ohrid. That's why the number of flights has been reverted to the same level as last year for those 2 weeks.
DeleteBEG-OHD works fine , nothing wrong with that,Octomber month is not season in Ohrid and thats normal to be reduced. My questiin is adding Nis as an opnion to get more tourists from that part of Serbia...
Delete09.03
DeleteYes. With Niš Ekspres. Može i Lasta.
BEG-OHD-INI-OHD-BEG perhaps?
Delete11:45 anyway would be nice addition
DeleteI find it especially odd that they are struggling in Ankara. After all, don't they have a strong partner in Turkey? I thought they were planning a joint venture with TK, an MRO, using their mileage program etc.
ReplyDeleteSo what where did it all go wrong? Have they ever invested in marketing and in promoting themselves in Ankara? I know the government did some promotion of Serbia in Anatolia some years ago but it seems Anadoloujet profited more than Air Serbia did.
Stop being always dramatic Nemjee. By saying "where everything went wrong", displays your poor knowledge about this subject. It is nothing wrong, just the very simple answer: general population do not travel as much from Sep to Nov. JU seems to be extremely proactive and flexible when comes to flight schedules modification based on advance bookings. They are profitable for tge right reason.
DeleteIf you are asking me to stop being dramatic then it's only fair for me to ask you to stop justifying all the failures of the current management.
DeleteWhen it comes to the knowledge on this matter then you are obviously not familiar with how Turkish Airlines and Anadoloujet got all this access to the Serbian market. It was JU under Marek's leadership that promised a Renaissance on the Serbia-Turkey market but in the end we got Turkish carriers' domination on this market. What happened to all those promises that were made back then? How come TK got their third daily on IST-BEG while Anadoloujet became king on BEG-ESB/ADB on top of getting the permit to operate SAW-BEG.
What exactly did JU get in return? A three month access to Ankara and Izmir while their plans to operate 21 weekly to Istanbul never materialized.
Once winter comes, there is less demand but it's still there. That's what differentiates a healthy business from an unhealthy one. A healthy business will use marketing (among other tools) to reduce seasonality and to position themselves as a reliable carrier on a year-round basis.
An unhealthy business will simply cut a route the moment flights don't fill on their own. I am glad you mentioned their profitability which is why it makes me wonder why they haven't used some of those millions to fix their cabins or the livery which is starting to fade or peel off from their planes? If not on this then they can use those millions to actually invest in marketing especially in those underperforming markets.
The joint venture with TK, the MRO and the mileage program cooperation were all vague promises made by the Turks in order to change the previous bilateral and gain free access to our market. And we fall for it.
DeleteI think its better to use this capacity on other more potential markets. JU can’t compete with TK in their backyard. Actually, nobody can
Delete^ They why give Turkey free access to our yard?
DeleteThat is the point you guys refuse to answer.
What was the point for the new bilateral if it is only going to benefit Turkish carriers and take away passengers from JU?
*Then
DeleteAnon 09.32
DeleteMarek spoke of all those things at the height of their bromance with TK. So if anyone fell for their promises then it's him.
If he was more competent or experienced (I think this was his first CEO job) then he would have granted them access bit by bit. He would have conditioned their expansion into Serbia which he clearly didn't do. He opened the doors to the Serbian market and we all know what happened.
But het, maybe subsidized routes to IST from KVO and INI are fair compensation for JU. Who knows.
Anon 09.36
Sure, fair point. So where will they redirect this capacity then? What routes are being increased in winter as compensation for these cuts?
If they didn't change the bilateral JU would be unable to fly the frequencies it has to IST, to fly to Izmir, to fly to Ankara at all.
DeleteJU was able to fly seasonal charters there.
DeleteNow with this fantastic bilateral we negotiated it flies seasonal scheduled E-jets.
While the Turks have swept our market!
Trying to defend the indefensible is wild.
The only route that is seasonal is in fact Ankara. Having a meltdown about it is wild. You do not know what kind of earnings they have from Turkey flights.
DeleteYou are getting real desperate now dude! You are about to say that getting swamped by Turkish carriers and letting them get the vast majority of our market PLUS the ability to undercut JU on all flights to the Middle East with the exception of Cyprus is a good thing for us!
DeleteIt really hasn't crossed your mind why this bilateral makes it more difficult for JU to return to the ME with the Turkish carriers now able to offer cheap connections instead?
I'm getting desperate by poiting out that Ankara is the only seasonal route?
DeleteTurkish carriers have been flooding the region for years (not just BEG), and yet Air Serbia has not only held its ground but expanded into long haul, Europe and regional markets. The bilateral made Belgrade-Istanbul one of JU’s strongest routes, with consistently high loads and JU has proven it can compete head on with TK and Pegasus there.
JU has never tried to be everything to everyone. Its strength lies in smartly focusing on markets where it has a natural edge: Balkan diaspora, regional connectivity, niche leisure routes and selective long haul. That’s why they’ve managed to expand to places like China, the US and niche leisure destinations, even with Turkish competition all around.
Rather than “getting swamped" JU is showing adaptability. The Turkish giants may dominate in sheer size, but JU plays a different game and so far, they’ve managed to build a solid and growing network despite those same competitors already being in the picture.
TK would fly from Antalya if the market is open for them, but it's not
DeleteAnon 10.33
DeleteYour points are wrong and here is why.
1. What has JU long-haul got to do with this discussion? Please stick to the topic being discussed. Also, do you have a source to back your claim that JU has had a consistently high LF to IST? You are aware that JU sends their E90 and ATR to IST as well? Maybe that is why loads are high, that is when they replace the scheduled A319 with the E90/ATR.
2. How can you say that they are efficiently competing with Pegasus when all of their requests for additional flights have been turned down? Meanwhile TK has faced no such obstacles thanks to JU. At the end of the day, it's that same TK that has forced them to reduce IST and to turn ESB and ADB into summer seasonal flights. Both of these were planned as year-round when they were launched. I might be wrong but this winter they will have even less flights than last year since Ankara is being terminated early, no?
As for the rest of your post, let's wait and see what their winter network will look like and that is when we will see how valid your arguments are. So far they are experience a 2% growth in September which is more or less stagnation.
If you want to speak of a success story then use the examples of Aegean and LOT. Both made it despite facing ten times more competition than JU ever will. Despite all that they managed to considerably grow their network, order new planes, record massive profits etc.
Facts are simple. Marek pioneered this Turkish adventurism and it massively backfired. The initial plan was to grow their operations to IST with morning and evening flights. To launch year-round flights to Ankara and Izmir and to sign a series of agreements with TK.
Fast forward to today we see that IST is back to the number of flights they had before the agreement was revised, in summer they operate ESB with mostly E90s while ADB seems to do well in summer which is no surprise given the fact it's a seaside destination.
So where exactly is the win from all this? Your comments seems like something written by the JU PR team for one of the local newspapers to show how great they are. Keep in mind this is an aviation forum so you will have to try harder.
p.s. I wouldn't really use their argument for long-haul given the extremely mediocre onboard product, damaged cabins etc. Also please read the article again, they are downsizing their long-haul in the coming months compared to what they initially planned. So why the revision if they are as successful as you claim? Your arguments don't seem to match the reality we live in.
Just to add regarding your adaptability argument. It would be appropriate if JU was shifting capacity from underperforming markets to those which are doing well. Are they actually doing it? Are they adapting or are they merely cutting these routes without shifting capacity to markets that are performing well?
DeleteAntalya is literally the last line of defense for JU.
DeleteNemjee's points and arguments on JU-TK relationship are becoming a reality. Unfortunately JU paid the high price and must be satisfied with smaller portion of market share. This would be a great opportunity to negotiate joint venture with TK, but something tells me it will never happen.
Sure, it's not a big deal to cut flights during slowest months, but just to remind you, the same thing keeps happening three years in a row. And we're not talking about gastro routes to mid cities like Gothenburg or Hannover, we're talking about huge cities with metropolitan areas of at least 4 or 5 million people.
Since seasonality issue is obviously a huge blocker in winter, it might be a good idea to consider full jet engines fleet and replace ATR72 with E175.
Hallo, anybody there? Turkish market is nothing less than 13x LARGER than Serbian. Also, stop comparing with Aegian and LOT with 5-6x larger EU markets. Regarding the situation, JU is doing a good job. Could it be better? Sure! Could it be worse? Oh, yes, look at the neighborhood.
DeleteMarek or JU doesn’t sign bilateral contracts. Governments do.
Wast majority of passengers between Turkey and Serbia are Turkish citizens. Minority are Serbian and most on leisure charters held exclusively by JU. Rest of the traffic is approximately held by 60-40% in Turkish companies favor. Nevertheless, pax rate is probably 75/80%-20/25% for Turkish citizens. So, JU is actually in very good position, counting charters also
Do you have a source to back your argument regarding the ethnicity of travellers or is it one of those 'trust me bro' moments?
DeleteObviously JU and Marek don't sign the bilaterals but airlines have a lot of say in those matters. That is why Pegasus was blocked from adding any more flights between BEG and SAW. This is despite Anadoloujet getting the permit to launch their own. How do you explain that? Why did the Serbian government block Pegasus but not Anadoloujet?
As for JU's performance in Turkey, please read again the earlier discussion. There is no point in repeating the same arguments and facts all over.
Sure, there are a lot of arguments. Turkish are number one tourists in Serbia, while Serbians are nowhere on the list in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir. As I wrote, wast majority of Serbian tourists in Turkey use JU charterers to Antalia and Bodrum.
DeleteHow could I know about bilateral and Pegasus/Ajet? But surely is not supporting that. On the other side, Serbian government do, because they are bringing Turkish tourists to Serbia. And there are a lot, even in off season. I work in tourism, so I know about that a lot.
* But surely JU is not supporting that.
DeleteWhen it comes to aviation, the Serbian government listens to Air Serbia. Just like JU used the Serbian government to lobby for them to get their slots at the old IST. Back then the Serbian government mildly threatened TK so slots were found in no time. That is when JU moved their operations from SAW to IST.
DeleteBack then the bilateral was strictly enforced and the Turks kept on complaining all the time. This all changed when Marek showed up and when opened the doors, not to Turkish carriers in general, but to Turkish Airlines and Anadoloujet.
If the Serbian government really cared about more Turks coming as tourists then they would have signed an Open Skies Agreement with Turkey. That would have benefited them the most. JU on the other hand not so much.
Btw there was an article on here some ten years ago reporting how Air Serbia was unhappy with the night time slots they got from the old IST. I tried to find it but I couldn't.
DeleteBack then JU had the cojones to stand up to the Turks.
Yes, they had 'cojones'. They were relegated to Sabiha Gockan, it was a complete failure and they didn't fly to Istnabul for the next 5 years.
DeleteYou misunderstood the comment. Please read what I wrote once again, more carefully!
DeleteSo, you are implying that Marek, JU and Serbian government are plotting against JU herself, in favor of TK and VF??? Sorry, this is far beyond my understandings
DeleteThis guy Nemjee is really compering TK And JU market . Like dude your statement are very wrong and you seem to have some personal issues with JU and their management. You keep accusing their msnagment to preform poorly, meanwhile they are very profitable as well most of thst fly with them regularly can confirm that the loads are high and planes are running to capacity.
DeleteAnon 21.43
DeleteOnce again you should read my comments more carefully before commenting. Please go back to the discussion and read what I wrote regarding this matter.
Anon 00.02
No. I am comparing JU and TK on the Serbia-Turkey market which is a more than a valid and appropriate thing to do.
Of course I have an issue with the current management, that's no secret. By the way, Air Serbia has been profitable long before current management took over, so we can argue they just continued where others left off. Like I wrote before if they have so much money then it makes no sense not to make investments in order to modernize their operations. Let's wait and see what this visionary management your praising so much gives us this winter and what they will do in order to reduce seasonality.
Seems that the latest bilateral arrangement with Turkey that commenced in 2021was a huge gift to the Turkish carriers.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIf they didn't change the bilateral JU would be unable to fly the frequencies it has to IST, to fly to Izmir, to fly to Ankara at all.
DeleteJU was able to fly seasonal charters there.
DeleteNow with this fantastic bilateral we negotiated it flies seasonal scheduled E-jets.
While the Turks have swept our market!
Trying to defend the indefensible is wild.
So what? There should be a free market everywhere, or as free as possible.
DeleteGuys, JU is not doing great vs Turks but it's still in the game. One could say it's a failure. But on the other hand there are other markets where JU is dominant vs competition. Spain, Italy, Ex-YU, even in Germany JU has strong market. Also a large part of leisure traffic from BEG. Not to mention long haul, Russia etc. All of them are fantastic. So if they are passive in Turkey, OK, it's not the end of the world.
DeleteProblem is that JU keeps failing in Turkey three winters in a row.
DeleteNo, it’s not. As I wrote, it bears more traffic than it should, regarding ethnicity of passengers. Who doesn’t believe, should go to the airport and take a look of passengers exiting JU’s plane from Turkey. At least 70% of passengers are Turkish.
DeleteHuh? JU has more traffic than it should? What kind of statement is that? I am sure carriers such as airBaltic, Qatar Airways or Icelandair would disagree with that statement. By your logic they also carry more traffic than they should.
DeleteThere is no limit to your growth when you are after transfer passengers. Carriers such as TK, KL, FI, QR, EK... have proven that in the sense that they successfully redirected global passenger flows via their hubs. JU tried to do that in Turkey and they had mixed success.
Ok, I put that wrong. JU is carrying more passengers than the ethnicity of Serbian pax is. Of course, goal is to carry them all, but it is kinda tricky when you are competing against the best European carrier. And I also mentioned that Turkish passengers prefer home companies. Why? Because most of them don’t speak foreign languages and never went abroad, so they prefer familiar companies with Turkish speaking crews.
DeleteYes but Turkey is a market of some 80 million people. Add to that their diaspora and tourism from all over Europe and you come to a huge number of potential passengers. If Turks prefer their own carriers then go for their diaspora which was either born in Europe or has been living there for decades. They don't care about Turkish carriers.
DeleteAnkara is a rich and large market. With the E90 they should have no problem maintaining 2 to 3 weekly flights in winter. Not everyone wants to connect at IST, not to mention that in recent months TK has hiked their fares. If they really don't want to fight for transfers, then why not use the E90 and change the schedule to better suit the O&D market? In the end they just decided to give up and to fly there when there is spillover from other carriers (high season). Seems that when it comes to Ankara, Air Serbia would rather collect leftover crumbs.
What are passengers of Anadolujet on ESB route? In JU are transfers.
ReplyDeleteI see Antalya and Bodrum maybe and Adana with AnadoluJet in the future.
ReplyDeleteI see in a couple of years Turkish carriers controlling 90% plus of the Serbia-Turkey market the way things are going.
DeleteIt could be even sooner than that.
Delete+1
Delete+1
Bilateral?
Delete9:39. Well, you see wrong. If that could be possible, it would happen so far. But it’s not, sorry
DeleteHow is the LF for the route to Ohrid and by chance what are transfers vs P2P
ReplyDeleteThis is transfer destination with small numbers p2p. I know that LF is good.
DeleteI thought it was more of a P2P. If it's actually a transfer destination, would it work well as a year-round destination?
DeleteIf Air Serbia is reducing selected routes, hopefully Air Serbia should be increasing other selected routes in the winter period.
ReplyDeleteSome more business oriented high yield routes should get more frequencies and passengers.
Otherwise the winter might be very harsh.
Winter won't be harsh for BEG because W6 is now able to grow again. And other European and Turkish carriers are adding capacity. But JU looks like will have issues utilizing all of its fleet.
DeleteMaybe they should reduce wet leases, at least during Winter 25/26.
For business travellers the Lufthansa morning departure and the evening arrival to BEG is king.
DeleteJU operates a split schedule to Western Europe and very few destinations have double daily flights. This makes it a bit difficult to plan your trip.
For sure people traveling for business will continue to choose LHG airlines.
DeleteJU has to try selected winter long haul destinations with warmer weather. Not charters. Regular flights.
DeleteMiami, Santo Domingo/La Romana or Havana.
Each flight should generate around 1000 pax return (transfers+p2p - 200 from transfers+300 (200 trans+100 p2p) per long haul flight. I still have no idea why JU does not start Cuba or Dom.Republic, for those two Caribbean destinations Serbian passports do not need visa
@14:06 Serbian cotizens do need visas for Cuba , since recently when Serbia introduced visas for Cubans..Besides that, Cuba and Domonican republic are not as popular destinations amongst people from Balkans ( and Serbia) in order to justify those flights..Caribbian regionis popular in general, hence flights to MIA should commence asap..
Deleteah Treshnjo .... Serbians, Macedonians, Montenegrians dont need visa to Cuba for visit up to 90 days. check Timatic next time
DeleteSerbian MFA website says that they do,
Deletehttps://www.mfa.gov.rs/en/citizens/travel-abroad/visas-and-states-travel-advisory/cuba
So from beginning of october we will have: Chicago 2x, NYC 4x, CAN x2, PVG x2..Total is 10 flights..Only for the period of 3 months Air Serbia's had 14 flights in total..With 4 long haul aircraft
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about St. Louis in generally? TWA did a lot of flights from Lambert Airport to Europe, including Athens. Today, no International flights from St. Louis, since TWA was overtaken by AA. It’s 300 miles away from Chicago. It’s just strange from so many flights to Europe, nothing happens these days. Thx
ReplyDeleteI don't think anything about it
Delete