Air Serbia has put on sale tickets for its long-anticipated service between Belgrade and Toronto. As previously reported, the seasonal summer flights will be maintained twice per week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting May 23 and running until late September. Further flight details are available here. The airline restores operations between the two cities exactly 34 years to the day the last flight was operated by its predecessor JAT Yugoslav Airlines.
Commenting on the new route launch, the Canadian Embassy in Serbia said, “This long-anticipated route is finally taking off, connecting two vibrant cities, two strong communities, and opening new horizons for travel, business, culture, and people ties. No more layovers. No more detours. Just a straight path across the Atlantic, bringing Canada and Serbia closer than ever before”.
Toronto becomes Air Serbia’s fifth long-haul service and third in North America.
Only two hours layover. That means that another crew will be resting in Toronto for 3-days a week?
ReplyDeleteNot exactly the best long stopover destination. Cold and expensive
DeleteCould they shuttle the crew from New York or Chicago?
Delete3 day stop over is nothing unheard of. Why on earth would they shuttle crew to New York and Chicago.
DeleteThey have even longer layovers for their crew. Chicago layover time is pretty much similar to Toronto, at least in summer schedule. And in Shanghai, much longer layover time is starting soon as plane will not stay on ground for the same crew to operate flight back to Belgrade.
DeleteAnon 9:32 Cold and expensive? Serbian dinar is now stronger against CAD than couple of years ago.
DeleteToronto has hot and humid summers, making summer "feels like" temperatures frequently higher than Belgrade. Crew will have plenty to explore, from Niagara Falls to busy nightlife
@09:32
DeleteHow cold could be during May-September period?
Especially on Bloor and Young intercestion
DeleteReferring to short layover / long crew hotel accommodation there are few options available and companies are using different options; if hotel is more expensive they can shuttle crew either through JU flight JFK or ORD or dead head crew (DHC) through different airlines as fares are zero in such case - if DHC has to do return flight on Thursday they could be sent on Wednesday through LH, KL or else to YYZ and spend one night there before return flight etc. Also airlines have very favourable contracts with hotels.....by the way that is just one of the many reason why long-haul traffic is very expensive and needs good planing before it gets into operation.
DeleteJasmineee!!! Jel'se ispila kahva? Kacemo za Vrankvurt i Minken?
ReplyDeleteAlways a good laugh....
DeleteVrankvurt i Minken is getting really boring.
DeleteAgreed. Very boring. Especially for uhljebs and Središnjica fanboys 🙂
DeleteLove it!!!!!🙂🙂🙂
ReplyDeleteFormer sceptic is now a customer. All the best with sales, hope tickets will sellout quickly.
ReplyDeleteYes, hope is all we have at this point.
DeleteWhat are you going to say when reports inevitably come in saying certain dates are sold out?
DeleteAnon 11:13 Some were hoping Air Serbia would not get A330 in 2016 to start long-haul operations but history proved them wrong. Massive summer demand makes Toronto route a safe bet.
DeleteReally good to see the flights loaded. From a customer's perspective this is great news in terms of options. I did a test booking BG-Toronto-BG for June (10th - 20th) and JU's direct flights come in at around 100-120 euros more expensive than Lufthansa's various options. For some people this would might be make or break (along with the A350/A330 comfort difference), for others not. It will be interesting to see what having the option for direct flights does to overall pricing as the route develops, but based on this quick look pricing appears solid for connecting destinations such as ZG.
ReplyDeleteYield management will adjust prices.
DeleteThe important thing is that on the day of departure the flight is full with the best yield possible.
LH is doing the same and they are probably putting the BEG YYZ cheaper to undermine the JU flights, normal ans usual commercial tricks.
Indeed. Which is great news for passengers.
Deletegreat news passengers 💯
DeleteWith more competition, the customer isn't as screwed since companies lower prices and tend to provide better service
Most LH 350s are in a rough shape . I flew with them last Thursday from Munich to Toronto and I could not believe my eyes: worn out and dirty. City line 319 from Belgrade was not much better.
DeleteHow are JU's a330 in comparison? I've never been on one.
DeleteI agree i did the same trip back in August and city line 319 indeed seemed much cleaner and in better shape than the a350
DeleteIf Lufthansa offering cheaper transfer flights didn't stop Air Serbia direct service to New York and Chicago, it also won't be able to stop Air Serbia Toronto service. Good news for passengers is not LH offering cheaper transfer fares, it is Air Serbia offering passengers to cut dependency on LH Group and other StarAlliance carriers when flying between Belgrade and Toronto.
DeleteDon't bother. Let them keep their worries another few months. LH, LO and LX are their last hopes. Then reality will speak for itself
DeleteAmazing what Air Serbia did!
ReplyDeleteWell done Marek! The best CEO since JAT passed away.
You want Nemanja to die from heart attack?
DeleteI don't care about his unrealistic opinion.
DeleteResults speaks for themselves. Next destinations might be Yerevan and/or Baku - the destinations together with Tbilisi where JU has never been flying to.
With so many passengers, with so many destinations, with so many planes in fleet (no matter if in wet or dry lease) with profitable result at the end of the year ... only unrealistic person could not be satisified.
+1000
DeleteSign under every single word
Marek is that you? ;)
DeleteOn a more serious note, what kind of Informer style comments are those? My opinion on this matter was voiced several times and there is no point in writing the same thing over and over again. That said, you know what's the difference between you and I? The fact that you are a JU keyboard warrior who probably flies once every two years with JU while I on the other hand am a regular on their flights. That makes my opinion far more valid and relevant.
As a final note, if you think JU isn't facing serious internal challenges then I recommend you do some research. Like I wrote the other day, BEG grew by 6% while JU by 1%. Паметном довољно.
Nemjee is one of the few commentators writing with his own name unlike 90% of us anon people who can write till their heart's content, respect for that first of all.
DeleteBeing objective and having your own opinion, taking a critical stance on certain topics, is not always welcome here, especially among fanboys. A culture of debate is something that's missing on this blog. Instead we have to read such toxic cringe replies as having an heart attack, you hate JU, zama graduate or whatever etc.
A small suggestion for @Admin, you should introduce a required registration for all commentators, in order to know with whom one would like to engage in discussion in the comments section and whom one should avoid. Some kind of update in moderation is needed, because many childish guys can't think outside of their bubble and bring down other commentators almost on a daily basis for whatever reason.
I think we are all passionate aviation lovers and enjoy indulging in this blog and following it regularly. Let's show each other more respect instead of constantly mocking one another.
Nemjee,
DeleteI won't reply on your ridicilous claims except saying that I am unlike you, FF with JU.
So much about "flying once in 2 years".
We all remember your "reliable sources within JU" very quickly proven wrong.
Sapienti sat.
+100
DeleteStvarno mi je muka vise od ovih pausalnih ocena da je neko odmah "informer style" cim se drzne da ima suprotno misljenje od Nemanjinog a pogotovo jer su u pitanju neosporne cinjenice o velicini flote, broju putnika, destinacija itd i pored svog kafanskog recnika te cinjenice nece biti promenjene.
Dakle, ima mnogo onih kojima uspesna JU smeta, nazalost i medju sopstvenim narodom.
Tuzno.
@22.03 the most ironic thing in your comment and your demands is that you are writing as an anonymous user criticising others for doing the same. lol
DeleteSorry, what is the difference between Nemanja, Mika, Pera, Zika and Anonymous?? Everyone have their nicknames. Or not. It’s still anonymous
DeleteFully agree.
DeleteCouldn’t book this morning. Looks like they have issues with the payment processor online. May 23 is too early anyway I’ll probably aim for September.
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteWell done. Bring on Miami! Can't wait to see the red, blue, and white flying over the Florida beaches!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIdemo dalje...
ReplyDeleteBangkok is a all year round goal, not Toronto,
ReplyDeleteGenerally, I agree. But, with frequent Guangzhou operated by China Southern as well, I'm afraid Bangkok ship had sailed
DeleteSo the flights operate on Wed and Sat. Am I reading the schedule correctly but is the last flight from Belgrade on Sep 12?
ReplyDeleteYes, Sep 12 is a Saturday. It is the last flight.
DeleteI called to AS contact centre, and they have not fully loaded the flights . I booked May 23 to June 10 740 Euros with 2 bags included . Good deal in my opinion. Fares keeps going up today, which indicates that the booking are doing well for the first day. Super curious ti find out how many seats they were able to sale in the last 12 hrs.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen was the last flight flown to Australia by JAT? AS seems to be keen on this dates.
ReplyDeleteDuring the last week of May in 1992. The last JAT flight arriving from Australia landed in Belgrade on June 1. UN Security Council sanctions came into effect as the DC-10 was overflying Cyprus on it's way from Dubai to Belgrade.
DeleteSvaka cast Admin!
DeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteI think that arrival time to Toronto for flights on Wednesdays is bad.
ReplyDeleteBEG 17:30 YYZ 21:35.
Considering that it takes time to clear customs and border control, it reduces transfer options to a connecting fight.
Not that many flights after 22:30 to destinations in Canada/US to connect to.
I'm sure that at AirSerbia they know this.
I wonder why they scheduled flights on Wednesdays to arrive at 21:35.
Similar issue with flights to Chicago.
Most LH flights to Chicago arrive between 12:00 and 17:00 and thus passengers have many flights to transfer to.
Not with AirSerbia.
Anyway, I hope that flights will be a success!
Two possible options coming to my mind : first if YYZ is slot restricted they offered what works for them and the other one is that JU's schedule is set like that and as they do not have many wide body airplanes they need to juggle.
DeleteMaybe they do not target transfer passengers from YYZ in this case, but from JU European network to YYZ.
DeleteAnd P2P of course.