Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, has said the carrier will begin unveiling additional new destinations in late November and early December, following last week’s announcement of flights to Toronto, for which sales have started off strongly. The airline previously indicated it plans to launch between five and six new routes in 2026. Speaking to the “Prva” television network, Mr Marek noted, “Yes, there will be new destinations next year. We expect to announce something by the end of November or the beginning of December. We always like to keep some of them as a surprise. We announced Toronto early because for long haul destinations it is better to start sales sooner”.
Mr Marek hinted that one of the upcoming routes could be in the Caucasus, following the strong performance of Air Serbia’s recently launched service between Belgrade and Tbilisi. Introduced in June, the route has maintained an average monthly cabin load factor of over 90%. “All the new destinations are performing very well. I would like to highlight Tbilisi in particular. We are extremely satisfied with the results. We are continuing the service throughout the winter, and it may be an indication that some of our next destinations will come from that region as well”, Mr Marek said.
Commenting on the upcoming Toronto service, Mr Marek described it as a historic moment for the airline, noting that ticket sales in the first few days have exceeded expectations. “Although it has only been a short period since sales opened, I can already say there has been significantly more interest than when we launched Chicago. Demand for early bookings is currently twice as high as it was for Chicago”, he said.
The CEO noted that the carrier is satisfied with its performance this summer; however, overall passenger growth has slowed due to underperforming charter flights to destinations such as Turkey and Egypt. Mr Marek said there were several contributing factors, including higher prices in Turkey.
They could operate Baku or Yerevan with the same schedule as Tbilisi.
ReplyDeleteThere was A320 to Tbilisi last week.
DeleteHappy to hear about YYZ sales. Hope they will turn the route year round.
ReplyDeleteSales are better than for Chicago yet they didn't want to launch Toronto for years.
DeleteSame as Tbilisi. They launched APP (ako prodje-prodje) and now they are delighted with performance
DeleteSo true lol
DeleteHold your horses people. Enough with criticism for JU. Yes, not everything is perf
DeleteSkipped, continuing...
DeleteNot everything perfect but the growth is impressive and there are much more good developments than those deserving criticism. Pozdrav iz Rijeke
One can applaud the good things and criticize the bad ones. I hope it's still considered common sense.
DeleteAbsolutely agreed. After being firmly determined what's good and what's bad, based on data and facts, not based on opinions and subjective judgings
DeleteSerbian national air carrier has never been in btter situation but still some accuse Marek of being bad CEO.
DeleteWhat to say except...Serbs.
Let's see if they will finally return to the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteTLV most likely.
DeleteVery difficult to get appropriate slots at TLV.
DeleteNo it is not, what are you thinking? 😄
DeleteYes it is. Tel Aviv is highly slot restricted. Your laugh emoji highlights your ignorance.
DeleteThat was the issue after Covid too. It's true.
DeleteMy guess:
ReplyDelete- Baku
- Ibiza
- Tel Aviv
- Helsinki
These would be good
DeleteYerevan too.
DeleteIs it realistic that both Baku and Yerevan would be launched?
DeleteIbiza is waiting slots. That is last year’s destination and it will be starting only when slots are available
DeleteI vote for Baku. Increasing business ties and tourism potential.
DeleteDefinitely. Azerbeijan have better standard than Armenia
DeleteMiami, some of the secondary airports in Slovakia and Poland that were mentioned before (Košice and Gdansk if am not mistaking), Kluž, Cairo, maybe something new in France, now that Lyon is out...Manchester and Dublin would be great, but I am not sure if they are realistic at the moment
DeleteArmenia has higher GDP per capita than Azeris but AZ has bigger population.
DeleteOn the other hand there are a lot of Russians living in Armenia and a lot of flights to Russia that are used by Russians to fly via Yerevan to the West.
People thinking GDP is some major indicator of anything.
DeleteIt is a huge indicator for a whole lot of things. Airlines do not fly us for free.
DeleteAzerbaijan is without doubt much richer than Armenia. Current boom in traffic from Armenia is being generated by Russians. Same with Georgia.
DeleteHaven't been to Yerevan (want to visit) but Baku is beautiful. Lots of things to see and the people are amazing too. It's also quite interesting to see such a secular country in that part of the world, something I imagine Turkey was like in the 90s. The airport is also fantastic.
Delete@Branko
DeleteBaku, Ibiza, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, agreed.
Miami missing
I agree with the comment on Baku being interesting. The Airport is fantastic too! Thick lush carpet in the arrivals area and stunning design throughout. The old terminal is great fun too. I've travelled all around Azerbaijan, and outside of Baku the country is distinctly less approachable for visitors unless one is really into that region. It is however still very interesting in the more remote regions. Tourists from the Middle East and even India are very common in some mountain regions which have a slightly strange authoritarian flavour. The comment about the secular nature of the country is totally correct, in places one would hardly even know its a majority Muslim country given the scarcity of mosques.
DeleteYerevan is a lovely city with some of the best food one will find in the region. If JU was to start both it would be really nice. From a tourist perspective Tbilisi still wins in the region but from a business perspective JU to Baku would make sense to me.
Aegean flies seasonally to Baku and year-round to Yerevan. Just a hint.
DeleteAegian is related to Greek tourism primarily, not long haul connections
DeleteYes, well, in Baku they basically speak Turkish, you know, and Armenians and Greeks have so much in common.
DeleteGreat news about new routes, but I hope they focus on frequency increases too, not just new destinations. Some existing routes desperately need more flights.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI think Spain will see quite a bit of increase in frequencies seeing that Wizz is starting to hit at JU on that end. MAD at least daily, BCN 12-13 pw, AGP 4-5 pw and PMI season extended.
DeleteCDG will likely be another route with additional frequencies, especially with easyJet on the route.
Regionally SPU has long been ready for daily flights. I think a second daily DBV and SPU in time with the North American rotations would be ideal given the demand. OTP, ATH and JMK will likely get a boost as well.
SPU definitely since they're getting direct US flight although there could be some slot issues (JU has to be after specific time slots, not any)
DeleteSPU isn't too problematic with slots. BEG I see would be more of an issue given the lack of gates during JU's waves. For JU, they could be quite flexible with schedules given how close Split is to Belgrade. It is likely any frequency increase will happen on the ATR. 1h 15 mins block time isn't too hard to schedule into a 6h wave.
DeleteSPU is not problematic for slots on weekdays. Over weekend, it's very problematic, especially Saturday when it's almost impossible to get a slot
DeleteTbilisi over 90% LF? Impressive. That shows there is potential in underserved markets .
ReplyDeleteMarek has previously announced that 5-6 new routes will be launched every year. If that holds true Air Serbia will have 20-25 new destinations by 2030.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a great accomplishment for Air Serbia and Tesla airport.
Well, according to his statement that long haul has to be announced much more in advance, looks like we won't be seeing Miami in this next summer season expansion.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I've flown recently to CAN rpund trip with Air Serbia, they need to much improve quality of food serving, especially on BEG-CAN leg , that quality and amount of food ypu're getting for one over 11 hours flight is disgraceful..Also on CAN-BEG leg all 3 offered meals were spicy..Not just that is not recommended to serve spicy food in these conditions, but also you have a lot of people who cannot eat spicy dish...I, for example, couldn't eat anything and was hingry till sendwich for breakfast, after over 12 hour flight ( due to rough weather flight lasted a bit longer)....Some screens are not working ( mine hehe, on inbound flight) although plane is 4th newly acquired..Apart of food and lack of entertainment ( which was not a big problem, I slept 7 hours), everything else was pretty good, and staff very helpful and attentive, great BRAVO for staff
My recommendation is to fly on China Southern the next time. Better planes and better overall service.
DeleteI don't believe that Miami was ever considered for the summer season. If (when) it launches, it will probably be in winter
DeleteI agree on JU's food offering on long-haul flights is not very good.
Delete@12.05
DeleteIf I remember well, MIA was supposed to be year-round. But if it's going to be winter seasonal, it's still possible to announce it in December and start October next year
MIA themselves said tickets are expected to go on sale at thr end of 2025 or early 2026. And they said this back in March.
DeleteChina Southdrn food is not good, especially for us European traveller's, it was all noodles ( even a snack was a boild plain noodles in hot water). So not sure why you are recommending them.
Delete@14:04 so it seems like that food on both airlines on this toute is bad...Air Serbia outbound flight I barely could call - food, and inbound all spicy dishes- chicke in pepper saice ( very spicy), beef curry ( spicy off course), and pasta with green and red pepper sauce, spicy amd heavy as well....Spicy food should not be served in airplane
DeleteChinese people often love spicy food. Bland European dishes might not be up to everyone's taste and lets face it this route is not designed primarily for Serbs visiting China.
Delete@19:03 yes, that is true, but regardless of taste, spacy food is not supposed to be served in airplane due to different heath reasons, its my vocattion and I cannot go into explenation now, but its even common sense..Besides that, they need to offer food for westerners as well, at least Air Serbia, on my flight half of the pax were from Europe..
DeleteNew routes are fine but reliability must improve.
ReplyDeleteWonder if they will go into Central Asia next
ReplyDeleteThat is starting to enter a market of almost medium-haul flying which JU have little room to attempt given the aircraft issue. Maybe in the medium term however its worth trying given the region's increasing tourism.
DeleteJust announce it already.
ReplyDeleteAs they say, they will announce it in late November, early December.
DeleteInteresting to read they're surprised with Tbilisi and that Toronto's sale has started better than Chicago. The planning is not that good if there is so much surprise. Luckily, the surprises are mainly positive... Is JU's planning too conservative?
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness.... some people on here.
DeleteWhere exactly did he say they were surprised by Tbilisi? I have reread the text and no where did he say that they are surprised by Tbilisi. Don't make things up.
Deletešta te žulja?
Delete@09:43 if it's not a surprise, it should be launched couple of years ago with some nice incomes meanwhile. Caucasus is a topic for quite some time...
DeleteFirst of all part of the success to Tbilisi are Russian transfers, which couple of years ago, before the war, were minimal.
DeleteSecond part of the success are the growth of the network, providing stronger feed on routes relying heavily on transfers like this.
No, he didn't say they were surprised. He said that the route is performing well.
"Extremely satisfied" extremely = surprised. Couple of years ago = 2023. I'm not telling this is not great, I'm just asking are there other routes which could work "extremely well" but they don't cause JU takes more conservative approach? Munich, being top of my mind. I'm not even telling conservative approach is bad per se. Please let's talk normally.
DeleteExtremely satisfied does not mean extremely surprised. Please stop making things up.
DeleteI didn't say they're extremely surprised. Just a bit
Delete😄
DeleteMaybe they open WRO or even GDN?
ReplyDeleteThose routes will definitely come at some point.
DeleteThey did said there is potential for more routes in Poland.
DeleteGreece and Italy should be the focus in the short term in my opinion. Large demand for the 2 and the US carriers seem to be throwing more capacity into these leisure markets. Just increasing frequencies would be adequate seeing the decent network in both countries.
DeleteI am always hoping for LEJ but I don't think they would keep that as surprise
ReplyDeleteI think they have a sufficient number of destinations in Germany for the time being.
DeleteThey have several destinations but some of them are limited to 2 pw, so probably increasing the number of frequencies before launching new cities.
DeleteI think some more Greek destinations will be in. Maybe KLX EFL KVA
ReplyDeleteThey should re- introduce Krasnodar now that the airport re-opened, that is another cash cow without too much competition at the moment.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the current political situation, I highly doubt it.
DeleteAnd what would be different compared to Sochi or Kazan?
DeleteLet's hope next year they'll be able to fly to both Kiev and Krasnodar without any issues...
DeleteThe end of the war in Ukraine might be a huge challenge for JU.
DeleteThe peace will bring the reopening of the routes to western Europe.
Yeah business as usual and the big guys like LH OS AF KL SK BT will rush in.
And SU will be back also.
Russian sanctions won't be lifted any time soon. Even if some ceasefire is reached.
DeleteRussians have already signalled they would like air traffic sanctions lifted. I have no idea how and when this will end but I'm positive it can all change in a single day.
DeleteYou can always hope :)
DeleteI guess:
ReplyDeleteBaku/Yerevan
Munich
A city in Romania
A city in Poland
A city in Baltics
Tel Aviv
Couple of cities in Romania, Slovakia and Poland would do wonders, especially if that is couples with the return to the Middle East (Cairo, Tel Aviv and codeshare/interline on Amman)
DeleteYerevan would go nice along Toronto. There is a big Armenian diaspora there.
ReplyDeleteIn Los Angeles too.
DeleteI would bet on Helsinki and Manchester which are perfect routes for new E95.
ReplyDeleteIbiza finally being scheduled for summer 2026.
As for Caucasus, Yerevan should be the logical choice, lots of Armenian diaspora across Europe and JU could offer many connections. Baku is very a specific and tricky market.
Tel Aviv/Cairo might be resumed depending on the situation in the Middle East.
There are some many options that could work - Manchester, Bergen, Gdansk, Dublin, Iasi, Cisinau, Baku, Yerevan, Miami, Chengdu, Beijing, Cluj, Cairo, Tel Aviv.
ReplyDeleteIn general, good development
Brac
DeleteHelsinki, Wroclaw, Reykjavik
DeleteMali Lošinj!
DeleteNot surprised YYZ is off to a running start. I long imagined demand is higher at YYZ given the nature of the diaspora. ORD has a more established community but very few “fresh” immigrants unlike Toronto. The newer ones travel home more.
ReplyDeleteI tried booking a direct ticket. It was over $800 Canadian more expensive than to BEG via Frankfurt. I have 3 kids and my wife. That's $4,000 more money.
DeleteU're doomed to chicken class and connections...
DeleteWhat happened with MIA?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean what happened? MIA airport said that tickets for the route will go on sale at the end of 2025 or early 2026. It is currently October.
DeleteProbably gonna start with 2025/26 winter season...There is no point to start MIA during summer
DeleteMaybe they start again Porotož with ATR or Maribor :)
ReplyDeleteNo, they wont.
DeleteMiami for winter 2026/27 !!!
ReplyDeleteVery likely
DeleteAny chance of CGN?
ReplyDeleteThey fly year round to CGN from Nis.
DeleteIdemo dalje..
ReplyDeleteManchester, Dublin and Alicante are the busiest Airports in Europe not served.
ReplyDeleteAlicante is served from Belgrade. Wizz Air flies there.
DeleteSeoul when?
ReplyDelete