Air Serbia is terminating its Belgrade - Lyon service after just over three years of operations. The route, launched in June 2022, was initially set to transition into a seasonal summer service this year but has now been permanently withdrawn. The airline has stopped ticket sales for 2026, when flights were originally scheduled to resume in March. In addition, Air Serbia has scrapped plans to operate a limited number of services between the two cities during the upcoming holiday period in late December and early January.
The development follows the airline’s launch of flights to Geneva this summer, with the Swiss city located approximately 180 kilometres from Lyon. In addition, Wizz Air will introduce a limited seasonal winter service between Belgrade and Grenoble in January, situated just 110 kilometres away. Air Serbia becomes the second carrier to discontinue operations between Belgrade and Lyon, following Wizz Air’s short-lived service between the two cities from June to October 2019. The Serbian airline will continue to maintain flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Nice, having also briefly operated to Marseille between May and September 2023.
France remains one of Belgrade Airport’s busiest markets. During the first half of the year, Air Serbia handled 94.226 passengers on its Paris Charles de Gaulle service, while an additional 38.977 travellers flew with Wizz Air on the Belgrade - Beauvais route. Air Serbia also carried 32.543 passengers on its flights to Nice. Later this month, easyJet will become the newest airline to enter the Serbia–France market with the launch of its Paris Charles de Gaulle - Belgrade service. Over the past two years, two other carriers - Air France and ASL Airlines France - have also attempted to compete on routes between the two countries. On the other hand, Transavia France had planned to operate flights between Paris Orly and Belgrade this summer but withdrew before the launch due to issues related to Belgrade Airport’s fuel supplier at the time.
LYS and GVA overlap too much and most passengers from that region can easily drive to Geneva.
ReplyDeleteNot even drive, but take the train. Saves you huge parking costs.
DeletePity
ReplyDeletebut logical.
DeleteThey should’ve focused on building Lyon as a summer leisure route
ReplyDeleteBut who wants to go to Lyon in the summer ??? Even the residents of Lyon if they want to travel to leisure destinations in summer , they can choose between Easy jet , Volotea and Transavia , and ofcourse much cheaper than transit to BEG with Air Serbia .
DeleteWizz can now extend Grenoble to year round.
ReplyDeleteTruly doubt.
DeleteBut who goes to Grenoble in the summer?
DeleteEvery single route from Grenoble operates only during the winter. There isn't a single commercial flights in the summer.
Delete^ interesting. Didn't know that
DeleteGrenoble and Chambery are the gateways for French alps ski resorts.
DeleteVery busy from December to early April then these airports are sleepy.
One funny thing is that Chambery is sharing the ground handling equipment with Toulon which is busy in summer. So twice a year everything is trucked between the mountains and the seaside....
With Wizz flying to Grenoble and easyJet soon launching Paris, Air Serbia is facing real competition in France.
ReplyDeleteThe CDG route will be interesting to watch with easyjet starting flights.
DeleteGrenoble wont affect JU in the slightest, while the new easyJet flights between CDG and BEG I doubt will last long. What the new easyJet flights have done is to push JU to reinstate the extra frequencies they had last year.
DeleteI also think that at 3 weekly flights and literally no marketing easyjet won't have any impact (except for short term reduction in prices). I was talking to my best friend the other day who has been living in Paris for the past 10 years and he had no clue easyjet was starting BEG. Mind you he said the planned Transavia flights would have been great and said ORY is much more convenient than CDG.
DeleteFor P2P yes, but AS flight is a feeder flight to AF longhaul network, so connecting passangers will stay with AS.
DeleteWell that`s what hurts the most, the O&Ds.
Delete@Anon 10:13
DeleteORY is definitely more convenient for Parisians, but CDG is way better for those who take trains to the airport. TGV stops right under Terminal 2 at "CDG T2 Train Station convenient if you're coming from any major city to Paris. Some airlines such as Air France but also Etihad sell combined tickets called "TGV Air" in which train segment is considered as a flight leg with a proper flight number I'd be one of those interested in that if JU starts doing that too.
Based on those numbers, 165,746 passengers on CDG, BVA and NCE routes in first six months. Not bad
ReplyDeleteAny data on how many passengers on Lyon service?
DeleteThree years isn’t a failure. Air Serbia tested the market, gained some experience and now reallocates capacity to better performing routes. That’s what serious airlines do.
ReplyDeleteWell they lasted longer than Wizz on the route.
DeleteIf this route lasted three years, that’s already longer than half of Wizz Air’s destinations out of Belgrade lol
DeleteIt isn't a success either. Other than tweaking capacity, JU really hasn't invested much in the route. Loads were fairly decent nonetheless. Perhaps an extra frequency or 2 could of made the route more attractive. 2 pw isn't really attractive for passengers flying on legacy carriers, especially transit pax.
DeleteLyon is not some backwater village in the middle of nowhere. It's a major French city which is not small and which is very rich. There is a reason why JU launched it, they obviously saw potential in flying there.
DeleteReal question is what went wrong and why are so many others doing well there but not JU.
Seems to me they are just shifting all focus to geneva (ita close to lyon) and trying to squeze out easyjet once for all! Maybe when easyjet withdraw they will start lyon again 2pw.
DeleteToo bad, I used this flight several times to visit family.
ReplyDeleteHow many flights per week did they have?
ReplyDelete2x weekly
DeleteDid they mostly use Embraers or Airbuses?
DeleteIn 2023 and 2024 it was mostly Airbuses. This summer it was Embraers.
DeleteThank you.
DeleteSo it seems they tried to keep the route with smaller aircraft but it didn't work.
DeleteThey could’ve tried making it a summer seasonal route instead of giving up completely. At least give it a chance for diaspora traffic in June–August.
DeleteE75 is needed for Lyon and Marseille
ReplyDeleteno airline can fly everywhere.
Delete@09:39
DeleteMaybe an aviation blog is not for you if you unable to handle people discussing potential routes.
It is not a potential route, as flying 70-seater jets has not been sustainable for quite some time. It could be used to fill the gaps within schedule - maintain frequencies with a lower cost than if larger bird is used - but to base a route solely upon E70 makes no sense in terms of airline economics these days.
Delete:(
ReplyDeleteI’m a bit disappointed. It was a convenient option to go directly to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteEasyJet will probably do well on Paris–Belgrade. Their brand is stronger in France, and they can attract both leisure and VFR traffic.
ReplyDeleteDo well with 3pw?? Come on...
DeleteAs a P2P passenger, I have no incentive whatsoever to choose U2 instead of JU on CDG-BEG. JU offers a lot more flexibility in terms of schedule, and the prices aren't radically different when compared to U2 fares including "speedy boarding". TO from ORY would have been a different story.
DeleteThis is part of Air Serbia’s pattern: open routes fast, close quietly. They really need a more stable medium-term strategy.
ReplyDeleteThey haven't closed many new routes in many years.
DeleteEvery airline experiments. Even Lufthansa, Turkish and Ryanair open and close routes every season. This is normal optimisation.
DeleteLet's hope there won't be more.
DeleteSo what if there are more?
DeleteHonestly looking at their network, it's not such a big loss.
ReplyDeleteAgree.
DeleteWell, terminating a route to a wealthy market such as LYS is never a good thing for any business.
DeleteGeneva is much more logical for us in western Switzerland. Lyon was always too far. Air Serbia did the right thing focusing on Geneva.
ReplyDeleteThere's some issue with French routes from Belgrade, beside Paris (and maybe Nice). Most probably p2p demand is not that strong to fill all the seats while transfers are not that attractive given that those airports should be well connected?
ReplyDeleteNot only BEG, but from INI too. Every logic says INI needs a Paris route, but...
DeleteMaybe it's about origin, not destination, concerning p2p. Vast majority of diaspora/ethnic traffic for France originating from Southern Serbia, meaning INI, not BEG. Maybe few weekly frequencies should be swaped with Nis.
DeleteHaha 10.39, we just wrote the same thing at the same time 🙂 Cheers!
DeleteFrance lost its momentum as an attractive country for new Balkan gastarbeiters. Younger people who live there are usually second or third generation of Yugoslavia's immigrants.
Delete@10:43
DeleteI am anon 10:39
A complimentary sandwich for both of us on behalf of INI.
All in all the Yugo diaspora in France is small compared to the size of the French population. It is much, much bigger in Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, Austria and Switzerland.
Delete@12.19
Delete10.43 here again: Com'n mate, don't make me disappointed now. I vote for niški roštilj instead of sandwich. Even if it's not complimentary 🙂
So with the aircraft freeing up from these rotations, maybe they open something new.
ReplyDeleteOr add frequencies on existing route
DeleteOr add frequencies on existing route
DeleteMaybe they bring back Marseille
DeleteDoubt Marseille would be returned
DeleteI didn’t even know Air Serbia flew to Lyon. That says everything about their marketing.
ReplyDeleteI mean what are they supposed to do, advertise every route individually? And if you aren't personally exposed to the ad it says everything? So over the top for no reason
DeleteFew people really check Air Serbia's website because most assume (correctly) that the prices are going to be a rip off. When planning trips people just go to Wizz/Ryanair's website and look at available destinations.
DeleteOnly gastos/VFR would really be aware of this route
That's absolute nonsense, Air Serbia is very competitive across most of its network, with a few outliers.
DeleteFor flight only I go thorugh skyscanner. If I need a bundle I go through Expedia.
DeleteNever a problem, always great deals. Most of the times when flying out of BEG, Air Serbia is the first or the second choice so it IS competitive
Lyon had potential as a connecting point for North Africa and southern France. But the lack of code shares or interline partners made it too weak. It’s all about feed.
ReplyDeleteJU had codeshare with AF on BEG-LYS route.
DeleteYou win some you loose some.
ReplyDeleteIs there potential for some other routes in France? What about Toulouse?
ReplyDeleteToulouse is actually one of the more promising secondary markets Air Serbia could consider in the medium term, depending on its fleet flexibility
DeleteThey have tried all the ones that could actually work. I don't see much else that could start. Toulouse would probably have the best chance. Maybe Bordeaux but I doubt it would work.
Delete"Flight 222 to Tolouse" :-D
Delete@Anon 1127....LH operates a flight 2222 MUC TLS every evening... !-)
DeleteI hear Bordeaux has some newer Serbian diaspora, don't know the numbers. It's a great wine&touristic region as well but I'm not sure about the popularity here...
Delete@Anon 1127 That was the point. Most enthusiasts know this.
DeleteFor anon 1127 - great brain, thanks for the laught
DeleteAir Serbia should focus on strengthening their Western Europe base. Not just Paris and Zurich but also Milan, Madrid, Brussels.... There’s still room to grow.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteIt’s a business decision. Better to cut one underperforming route than lose money across the board. Let’s see what replaces those slots next summer.
ReplyDeleteThey could start summer seasonal to Luxembourg.
DeleteIt’s not a good decision. You are fighting GVA with EZ and loose another destination on same account. Prices to GVA are a lot cheaper than it was to LYS
DeleteYou can't just keep on cutting. At some point you need to stop and ask yourself the tough question: why are we in this situation.
DeleteIdemo dalje...
ReplyDeleteI was lucky to fly to LYS and liked Lyon a lot. I understand the business side of the decision, but I believe it's a big loss for travelers.
ReplyDeleteAnd diaspora also. Lyon is second largest Serbian city in France, after Paris
DeleteJU should densify it's offer on key routes instead od flying 2pw there then 2 pw here.
ReplyDeleteSo closing LYS is probably for getting more capacity available for densifying some other routes.
May be they close the route now for better restarting it in a few seasons.
You are right but I don't see that network densification happening so far in the announced schedule for 2026.
DeleteI see stagnation of AS past couple of years. Literally, the number of new routes is almost the same with ceased ones. So no new routes basically. So we can see soon new airlines like Royal Jordanian etc.
ReplyDeleteIn 2022, Air Serbia had 59 destinations in its network from Belgrade
DeleteIn 2025, Air Serbia had 82 destinations in its network from Belgrade
The airline has added 23 destinations to its network within 3 years.
Touché! 🙂
DeleteHas seat capacity increased noticeably between 2024 and 2025?
DeleteHow is 2026 looking so far?
Many thanks for the interesting info.
I know that seat capacity increase for ASL from 2023 to 2025 is very small.
Delete^ picking years until you find something that suits your argument 😂
Delete@EX- YU Aviation, what a classy way to annihilate the hater! Thank you!
DeleteNo surprise here. This has Cairo written all over it. Lyon was doomed to fail the moment they thought they were going to be successful with just two weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteFor example when LO resumed LYS in 2024, they immediately scheduled it as six weekly. You can't enter a highly competitive market with two, three weekly flights operated in a split schedule with a regional jet.
In 2024, LYS welcomed 10.5 million passengers. It's not a gigantic market but it's not a small one either. This is a route that needed transfers to survive. You can't get those without a frequent flyer program, a corporate program or a high number of frequencies. What was Air Serbia offering compared to their competitors (Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France...)? From what I can see the only way they could have been competitive is the price. This is never a sound business strategy.
I still think JU needs a new commercial strategy. They need to start working on building a loyal client base and to be useful to those who pay more for their flights - corporate clients. People should look at JU's corporate program.. it screams welcome to 1995 starting with the fact that you can only book flights via call center.
Winter is almost here and they are still cutting their network. Let's wait and see what we have in the end.
Very stupid from JU to cancel a route that never had a chance to prove itself.
ReplyDeleteTwice a week is just a glorified charter and shold get increased to 3-4 times a week as soon as possible.
As already pointed out here on the blog many times JUs biggest weakness is too little frequencies.