The 2025/26 winter season begins tomorrow and runs until March 28, with the region’s two largest flag carriers set to offer the highest number of scheduled winter flights and capacity in their history.
Air Serbia has placed 2.048.030 seats on sale for the upcoming five-month winter period, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year. It marks the first time the airline will surpass two million seats on scheduled services during the winter season. This growth comes despite the replacement of wet-leased Airbus A320s from GetJet Airlines, used last winter, with smaller A220 aircraft from airBaltic. However, offsetting this reduction, Air Serbia has doubled the size of its wet-leased Embraer E190 fleet from two to four aircraft. The airline plans 18.338 scheduled flights over the winter, up 9.5% year-on-year. Moscow, Paris, Podgorica and Zurich will offer the most capacity and flights across the network during the season.
Croatia Airlines will grow its winter capacity as it advances its transition to an all-Airbus A220 fleet. The carrier plans to offer 1.173.768 seats over the 2025/26 winter season, up 20.7% on the previous year. It will also mark the first time in seventeen years, since the 2008/09 winter, that the airline exceeds one million seats during the season. A total of 9.658 flights are scheduled, an increase of 6%. The strong capacity growth is being driven by the ongoing fleet renewal. Croatia Airlines currently operates seven A220s, with further deliveries to follow. The airline will retire its last remaining A320 in February next year and continue phasing out its Dash 8 Q400 turboprops as part of its fleet transition strategy. This winter, Croatia Airlines will offer the most international capacity and flights on services to Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels and Skopje.
Good luck to both. Hope the passenger numbers match
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIf they merged they would be one of the busiest airlines in Europe
DeleteNo they would not. Not even close.
DeleteAh, but will both of them make money?
ReplyDeleteSo this means even in winter time from SKP we will still fly on the A220 , well done OU ✈️👏🥳
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteNot sure why people cheer A220s. Guess it's an upgrade compared to turboprops. I'm normal weight for a 182cm person and I find it very uncofortable. Narrow, hard seats, small cabin. (my experience with Airbaltic)
DeleteOU seats are a significant improvement over AirBaltic ones, and even bigger improvement from their a320 ironing boards.
DeleteBut yes, the plane still feels a bit narrow and tight overall
09:26 turboprops and the A220 and difference between earth and the sky , if I can choose I will always use A220 then any other smaller aircraft
Delete@anon 09:26 I'm 193 cm and seats are better than in 319/320 from OU. I have been mre than 20 flights up too now, in front and inj back. please dont be hater.
DeleteSkopje beeing the fourth busiest route of OU from ZAG this winter tells you everything.
ReplyDeleteThats amazing news , SKP showing its potential in winter too💪🇲🇰🇭🇷
DeleteWith 50% LF in H1.
DeleteWith 70% LF in H1 2026
DeleteWhat this tells me is that OU is a regional carrier and it flies where it can make money
DeleteLod factor during first half of the year on the Skopje flights was 49.6%
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/09/zagrebs-ex-yu-capital-city-routes.html
I don't know what people are on about. Capacity to SKP is up because they no longer have the amount of smaller aircraft they had last winter. Number of flights has not changed. You will see this happen on many routes where Q400s were predominately used in the winter period.
Delete@Anonymous 09:05
DeleteTGD is BEG's busiest route, what should this piece of info tell us exactly?
A220 is flying to SKP because of the crazy amount of cargo.
Delete@09:25 This peace of info tells you that their managment is a disaster considering that SKP is their fourth busiest route BY CAPACITY this winger with average LF of 49% for first half of this year. Why are you mixing TGD-BEG which is the busiest route by PAX NUMBERS? Maybe, instead of being arogant and write a comment you could have used that time to understand what i said?
Delete^ You are saying that JU management is a disaster because out of all destinations in Europe they get most of their p[ax from TGD???
Deleteunderestimating SKP is a common hobby here :)
Deleteas for OU they said its all over when LH will launch their SKP flights but they will have slightly more pax than before these flight, plus there is now LJU-SKP
^ Slightly more? Passenger numbers in first half of the year are 10.6% below 2019. How is that slightly up? Why make things up?
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/09/zagrebs-ex-yu-capital-city-routes.html
@11:11 I suggest u to read the comment again.
Delete@11:51
DeleteYou are saying that JU's busiest route is not TGD out of all the places it flies???
It isn't. Look at the statistics published here just the other day.
Delete@12:13 I dont understand u. Nobody is speaking about JU here, but the route pair TGD-BEG. You were the one who mentioned it in the first place. I was talking that the managment of OU is disaster for making SKP fourth busiest route with 49% LF, not the managment of JU.
DeleteAnd yes TGD is not the busiest route of JU out of all the places it flies.
TGD is by far the route where JU has the most flights.
DeleteIn 2025, Podgorica has the second most flights in its network and is third by capacity levels.
DeleteWhich has the most?
DeleteTIV probably.
DeleteOU flying lots of fresh air this winter like most seasons.
ReplyDeleteFresh air on a aeroplane? More like stale air.
DeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteWasn't JU at 10% some months ago?
ReplyDeleteNope.
DeleteYup before the cuts
DeleteAs thy often do, almost every year they first announce an ambitious winter schedule and in Autumn they start cancelling frequencies and routes.
DeleteOh JU ...you rascal
DeleteAnd the problem is how many of these seats will be filled . If it's 70 to 75 % they should be happy !
ReplyDeleteWe will know that after the winter , nobody can answer you this now...
DeleteWe can look at last winter though. No?
Delete"Air Serbia has placed 2.048.030 seats on sale for the upcoming five-month winter period, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year."
ReplyDeleteDidn't we hear here that JU made terrible winter policy only because comparing with previous winter they cancelled Lyon and reduced Porto?
Some people....
zamaGirl people.
DeleteThey also reduced ESB and a few other destinations like BUD. JU was over 10% growth about two months ago.
DeleteMore cuts are possible soon.
5.6% extra seats in winter means 2-3% growth, beat case scenario since they won't fly100% full.
DeleteNo, it does not mean it as last year they were also not 100% full.
DeleteThis is the comparison of seat capacities comparing to the previous winter and not to number of passengers.
So, if LF remains the same this will mean 5.6% more passengers.
ESB was reduced last winter as well so it is not any new moment.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeletePlethora of numbers for each side to pick and choose to fit their own narrative. For example, OU will increase capacity by 20.7%, JU by 5.9%. On the other hand, OU will increase number of flights by 6%, JU by 9%.
ReplyDeleteI just hope both teams have fun.
Delete@09:39
DeleteThat means that JU will operate a lot more flights with smaller capacity aircraft while OU is doing the opposite.
Happy landings to all.
When is JU expected to receive their third E95? Wasn't it suppose to arrive by the end of September when YU-APK was retired?
ReplyDeleteNo it was not. No need to make things up
DeleteSpeaking to EX-YU Aviation News earlier this summer, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, the two E195s are due for delivery in “November or December. Timeline is still subject to change. As you know, even with commitments from lessors, there are dependencies on MRO slots, and delays are quite common. That said, we’ve structured our winter schedule so that we’re not reliant on those aircraft during that period. Whenever they do arrive, they’ll be more than welcome additions to the fleet”.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/09/air-serbias-third-e195-prepares-for.html
JU needs to get a serious maintenance department and facilities so that is dependent on other only for D-checks.
DeleteSo he said something without saying nothing. It might come in October. It might come in November or it might not come then at all.
DeleteOctober is almost gone so let's see.
^ He said that you fabricated that it was announced to arrive "by the end of September "
DeleteHow did November/December become September or October?
DeleteYU-ATA is already painted in the full JU livery with pre delivery maintenance almost done. The aircraft had a test flight on the 15th so not sure how you came to the conclusion that the aircraft might not come.
Their imagination is endless.
DeleteWill AirSerbia surpass JAT@1987 overall and JAT@1988 for intercontinental? It would be nice to decompose numbers for both airlines (regional+domestic/EMEA/intercontinental, in case for AorSerbia and domestic/EMEA/intercontinental for JAT).
ReplyDeleteOverall, possible. Intercontinental definitely not. JAT at its peak had 5 units DC-10 with 280 seats, which is much more than today. Load factor was one of the highest in aviation. Legs/sectors were shorter, with 5th freedom on most of them. Most of the services were year-round, and there had been up to 22 weekly departures in top season, which is much more than today
DeleteAir Serbia should receive 4 or 5 extra planes this winter. I wonder what they will do with them until summer 2026? Will they sit as replacements or will they announce new increases and destinations to start in winter 2025/2026?
ReplyDeleteI miss YU-APK
OU will never fill these larger planes with the yield management they operate and the lack of waves at ZAG. But I guess Jasmin knows best...
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing this argument with waves. I understand that any transfer pax is good but from where and to where would they be transferred. Beside the national destinations SPU DBV for which OU might have an advantage, who else would target market for OU for transfers?
Delete+1 those days have passed for OU given the huge degree of point to pont flying in Europe.
DeleteTransfer traffic is low hanging fruit, but with such an awful LF OU need to sort something out.
Delete