Air Serbia handled 480.507 passengers in September, representing an increase of 0.8% on the same month last year. The figure was achieved despite a double-digit decline in passengers on charter services, with increased demand on scheduled operations managing to offset weaker charter flows. The average passenger load factor during the month stood at 79%, an improvement of 1.3 points on 2024. During the first three quarters, Air Serbia handled 3.591.492 travellers. The airline is on track to surpass its predecessor JAT Yugoslav Airlines’ 1987 record of 4.5 million passengers, with Air Serbia aiming to handle 4.7 million this year.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s CEO. Jiri Marek, said. “Since the start of the year, we have carried over 3.5 million passengers, and the past month has been recorded as the best September in Air Serbia’s history. September proved to be an exceptionally popular month for holidays and travel, which further contributed to the positive results. Although we still see a double-digit decline in charter traffic, our scheduled operations have grown, and the total number of passengers and flights have exceeded last year’s. These results provide a strong incentive to continue expanding our network of destinations and continuously improving our service for our passengers”.
During the month, Air Serbia’s busiest routes regionally were Tivat, Podgorica and Ljubljana, while Paris, Zurich and Frankfurt were most popular in Western Europe. In the wider Europe-Mediterranean zone, the busiest destinations were Athens, Istanbul, Barcelona and Larnaca, while New York was the most popular long-haul destination. The Serbian carrier expects to welcome its four-millionth passenger of the year in early November.
So what all the extra aircraft that the airline has now compared with last year been doing? 🤷♂️
ReplyDeletethey spent too much time on the ground parked compared with most other airlines in Europe because there aren't enough aircrews to have every narrowbody fly 5 sectors a day.
DeleteThis is the reason for so much wet leasing year round.
Famous mantra "Ako neces ti za te pare, ima ko hoce", bit them back and every single company in Serbia.
DeleteIts one thing when you have deficite of local employees and completly other when you import african or asian people just because you're too greedy to increase base salary.
@10:04
DeleteAbsolutely!
They have been flying scheduled passengers. The results mean number of passengers on scheduled flights increased sharply for them to manage offset double digit decline in charters.
DeleteUtter nonsense. JU have more than 250 pilots, which is more than enough for 28 planes in fleet
Delete^ How many of these pilots are actually available to fly? Or not on leave, training or something else?
DeleteStop spreading nonsenseness. That is 9 pilots per plane, which requires two daily shifts(4 pilots), which means more than enough crews. There are no canceled flights, so airline is holding the schedule
DeleteWho said 'they are not holding the schedule'? They are merely saying that their fleet is underutilized due to staffing shortages.
Delete@11:25 That's not enough for one plane, and not always only two sets of pilots are needed per day. Some aircraft make 6 sectors per day and all of them are longer which means 3 sets of pilots are needed. Also JU operates long haul, so pilots also have layovers. Some of them also need to be on stand by. I don't know the exact number of pilots JU have and if they need more like people are spreading here, but if the number is 250 then it's not enough. If an A320 needs 5 sets of cabin crew, then it also needs 5 sets of pilots.
DeleteDon't forget that after they fly at night they are off the next day.
DeleteOne shift is 9-12 hours, so it's not needed 3 shifts a day. And not many aircrafts are utilised 24 hours a day. At the end, many aircrafts goes for maintenance, scheduled or unscheduled. If they need extra crews, they would hire them so far.
DeleteThough, they do need Ejet type rated pilots, they have 15 of them for two planes which is barely enough for now. But more planes are expected very soon, so this number have to be a lot higher.
First of all, there isn't such thing as a "shift" in the aviation, at least for the crew. The number of sectors ( flights ) per day is limited to 4 for pilots and cabin crew. If those 4 are BEG-CPH-BEG-CDG-BEG then the same crew can not operate the schedule. Therefor two different sets of crew are operating to CPH and then another one to CDG, and third one for the last 2 sectors of the day, lets say ZRH, or an evening rotation to ATH. It also depends from which time of the day the crew started its duty, if it is between 22:00-04:00 in the morning. Also the maximum hours a crew can be on duty is 13, sometimes even 14 according to EASA. And of course it can be less then 9 hours, sometimes its only 4. Yes all planes are not flying all the time and at the same time, maybe because of the lack of pilots, who knows.
DeleteAlso forgot to mention that the duty time of the crew does not start at the scheduled departure time of the flight, but minimum 60 minutes before that, often even more. It also doesn't end immediately after the actual arrival time, it ends 10-15 minutes after that. All of these should be considered when the roster for the crew is made. Even the ATRs which make 5 rotations per day, 4 during the day and one last evening rotation to SOF lets say, that's already a third set of crew for the plane that day. So yes, three different sets of crew are needed, not for all planes as there are some which only do 4 sectors per day as u say, for example one A319 flew to Madrid today and now to LED.
DeleteЕ95s do not fly that much so 15 is absolutely not enough for them. They also need more ATR pilots
DeleteThis discussion is not relevant. It is far more expensive to lease planes than hire the crews. If they lease plane, they have to have enough crews for them. Lack of utilisation of planes (frequencies and new routes) are far more dependent of demand than technical conditions.
DeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteAll in all there is no growth anymore. The political crisis in the country obviously reflected weak results in the charter services.
ReplyDeleteWe need more foreign visitors to compensate for it.
DeleteForeign airlines have much higher passenger increase than JU does because they are far less dependent on local travelers.
What do you guys think?
Charter services are weaker because
Delete1) fewer people went to Egypt because of Middle East crisis (despite myths how Ssrbian people like to holiday near war zones)
2) Turkey collapsed due to higher prices
3) Air Serbia turned more charter routes into scheduled ones
BEG is growing so demand is there, it's just travellers preferring other airlines like Wizz Air.
DeleteGrowth of 1% in Spetember, 4% year on year, guy goes "There is no more growth"...
DeleteIt's 0.8% growth, not 1%
Delete^ lol
DeleteI guess we lowered our standards so much that now some are celebrating growth of 0.8%
DeleteNo one is celebrating. Falsely claiming it's not growth is something else.
DeleteEven if it was 15% growth it would be full of negative comments because I remember when it was 15% growth and more 2 years ago comments went like this
Delete"Numbers are made up"
"Not organic growth"
"Think of the taxpayers"
Etc
I disagree. Usually comments are positive when JU reports good results. Only time when they were negative was when they were experiencing operational meltdowns.
DeleteI think there are too many people on here how are too sensitive when it comes to JU.
@9.32
DeleteDon't forget the one when they were complaining it's transfers lol.
Any statistics for NIS? No results so far in 2025.
ReplyDeleteGrowth of over 5% y-o-y
DeleteINI grew by 10% in September
DeleteIdemo dalje...
ReplyDeleteGood load factor actually
ReplyDeleteWhat we'll expect for next year?
ReplyDelete5-6 new routes in summer
DeleteThat's will be great 👍
DeleteI mean Ibiza is one of them.
5-6 new routes on a maximum two weekly frequency...
DeleteCharters are fewer because the business has changed, airlines are working in close relations with tour operators, because the market is consolidating. Now they are on scheduled (de facto charters nowadays).Not because Serbs don't travel. These statements are simply not true.
ReplyDeleteUnderwhelming result, that's for sure. Now we have to wait for BEG numbers to see what the market looked like.
ReplyDeleteIf there is modest growth at BEG then JU's results will be in line with market dynamics. If we see growth over 5% then it means people have voted with their wallets and chose other airlines.
If the latter happens then JU needs to ask itself why is that. Personally I think they are still struggling because they have not added adequate frequencies to key European markets. It's cool to keep on adding new destinations left and right, but only as long as you are densifying your network. They need to work hard to boost key destinations to at least double daily flights.
+100
DeleteSeems like a wrong planning before summer timetable. They left too many capacity for charters, (expecting similar or even growth comparing to last summer), instead of growing frequencies or opening new routes on scheduled routes. The reasons for lighter charter demand are different
DeleteCould be but charters are booked months in advance. I believe they could have adjusted their schedule ahead of the summer season.
DeleteLet's see what their network looks like this winter. Let's hope they perform well so that they can be competitive in the future.
Financial results will telm the story. For example, fares are very pricey on LHR route. They may not have the highest load factor but I'm sure they are minting gold on that route.
DeleteTrue but they also need to be careful. Look at what happened in CDG. They got too comfortable there, enjoyed a combination of high loads and high yields and now they have easyJet to deal with. I am not saying they will lose the battle, but they made it easy for easyJet to choose CDG as their next destination from BEG.
DeletePersonally I think the best is yet to come when it comes to BEG. I mean, Serbia is not exactly a rich country and we still manage to pull off 9 million. As the standard of living keeps on improving it's reasonable to expect more traffic.
Actually, Belgrade is quite rich, and that's where the airport is.
Delete@ Nemjee 12:32 Yes, but summer timetable is made even earlier, at the middle of the winter season.
DeleteOne thing I do not understand - long haul on JU.
ReplyDeleteThey have FOUR long haul aircrafts that should generate at least 500 pax each per day (transfers from short haul network+their own pax).
Clearly it is not happening. What went wrong?
Because your math is way off to begin with. And they said a million times that 3 wide bodies are being utilized and one is back up, which has proven to actually be a very good decision this summer. otherwise they would have had to wet lease a wide body aircraft for two months this summer after a ground handling vehicle hit and damaged one of their A330s.
DeleteLufthansa Group next year is retiring 8 A330-200. 3 from Discover and 5 from ITA.
DeleteI can see MIA, PEK, YYZ, NRT and possibly DEL as potential new destinations.
DEL would provide a lot of connecting traffic to the US and Canada too.
JU doesn't know what to do with the A330s it already has and you want them to lease even more?
DeleteMore long haul should start. Washington DC, Miami, Xian, Tokyo, Chengdu, Chongqing, Mumbai, Delhi, Toronto
DeleteLos Angeles, Seoul, Singapore and many long haul leisure destinations
DeleteWill u fly on any of those or the idea that JU will have all of those long-haul routes will make u happy? Btw they were saying that they will start MIA in 2025, so far nothing is confirmed. They were even considering Seoul and Tokyo for 2026 which is three months away, same with Beijing.
Delete^ but all of what you wrote is a fabrication.
Delete- JU has never issued any date or year regarding MIA. They said this June it is under consideration.
- MIA has said they hope ticket sales will begin by the end of 2025 or early 2026.
- JU has never given any dates or years regarding ICN or TYO. They said it will happen AFTER US expansion and that it is part of their LONG TERM plans
- JU has never given any date regarding Beijing. They said they MAY introduce it but that it is more likely they will densify existing China routes.
So please don't make things up for no reason.
@14:03 and please don't make stoey of back up aircraft..Yes, Air Serbia did say that, but even them are not that stupid to constantly keep 1 out of 4 as back up..At the moment, all 4 are flying every week, they are just underutilized big time..
Delete@13.57 is a prime example of a person who comments here and presents made up things as fact
Delete@21.58 YU-ARC was used as a back up for almost the entire summer and it turned out to be a smart decision.
@23:07
DeleteYU-ARC was making regular scheduled flights almost exclusively to China all summer (PVG primarily). No specific aircraft was used as back up, all 4 were underutilised.
Hopefully JU's performance will greatly increase during the last three months of the year and BEG will have over 9 million passengers.
ReplyDeleteJU has dragged its feet with Yerevan and Wizz opening their base there now.
ReplyDeleteThat will not affect JU. Yerevan is dominantly transfer route for JU, which W6 can not provide.
DeleteWell, Turkish Airlines applied to operate flights. It's a shame JU didn't launch EVN before TK did.
DeleteIf W6 opens a base in Erevan it's not to fly to Belgrade....
DeleteThey will fly directly to the cities that are at the end of the route from EVN, so it will reduce transfer pax through BEG for JU....
Regarding lesser demand for Turkey and Egypt for charter flights, JU results (especially yields) are astonishing. Not many national airlines are profitable today. Both JU and BEG are making money which is great.
ReplyDeleteWhat fascinates the most is the fact that both BEG/INI and AirSERBIA havent even scratched their full potential. Densifying European markets, densifying new long hole routes and yet opening markets to Middle Eastern, North African/African, Far Eastern, Gulf regions is still awaiting.
The only airline worth mentioning between Wienna and Athens…..
Proud.
+100
Delete+1
Delete+1
Delete" The only airline worth mentioning between Vienna and Athens " Sorry but this excitement made you forget Aegean . Starting New Delhi in march and Mumbai in may . Also with the arrival of the LR'S in late 2026 to 2027 they are planning Nairobi , Lagos , Antis Abeba , Muscat . And to mention all 4 LR and 2 XLR with lie flat beds in business class .
DeleteYou have lie flat beds on all JU A330s
Delete@13.37 you are comparing Greek and Serbian market? Why on earth should JU fly to India? There is almost no point to point traffic (it only existed during Covid when Indians were using Serbia as a quarantine stop). The number of Indians entering Serbia is minimal (check tourist data) and Indians need visa to enter Serbia. So why should they fly to India? For 40 low yielding transfer passengers to the US?
DeleteObviously for transfers, that's why they should fly to India. Duuh
DeleteSo you want them to fly to India for 40 low yielding transfer passengers to the US per week? Where they compete with Qatar, Emirates. Etihad, Air India etc with multiple daily departures to all parts of the US? Great plan.
DeleteExcuse me anon 14:08 I'm anon 13:37 , and where did I write that I want JU to fly to India ??? I only said that Air Serbia is not the only airline worth mentioned from Vienna to Athens with facts concerning Aegean .
DeleteHe said from Vienna to Athens precisely because he includes Austrian and Aegean in airlines worth mentioning. But between those two there is none other than JU and he is right.
DeleteJU could collect transfers to Great Britain, Canada, USA and rest of western Europe from India surely. They should start Manchester, Birmingham, Dublin, Toronto also. Indians do not need visas for transferring flights. That could be successful story.
DeleteSure, they should start flights to a country with 0 P2P demand just to serve as a transfer point to destinations with multiple daily flights to India. And good luck getting desired slots at any major airport in India.
Delete20:00 Do not underestimate the power of India. It's one of top 10 touristic destinations is the world. Also, it's a main resource of manpower of all profiles for the western economies. Thirdly, India economy is booming rapidly, so a lot of business trips are expected. At the end, why Aegian is starting aggressively, before US, Canada or Australia, full of Greek diaspora?
DeleteBecause Greece is a tourist powerhouse with many Indian tourists visiting Greece (have a look at the statistics) and there are 35,000 people from India living in Greece. So unlike JU, Aegean can rely on high paying P2P passengers, while JU will rely on low paying transfers, who will then take a seat on an intra European leg that could have been sold at good price to a P2P passenger rather than for peanuts to a transfer passenger from India. And A3 is starting aggressively to India so they can actually compete against the likes of Emirates and Qatar. But hey, you don't seem to be the only one that thinks JU should fly 10 weekly from one of Europe's poorest markets to shuttle Indian transfers at rock bottom prices and think it would be an amazing win for the airline.
DeleteSorry, high paying p2p passengers??!? India average salary is 300 Euro. I didn't bother to read any further...
DeleteI think that yeld is more important than increased number of passengers.
ReplyDelete