Kazakhstan’s SCAT Airlines is looking to launch fifth freedom flights between Belgrade and Morocco. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, SCAT Airlines’ President, Vladimir Denisov, confirmed the carrier is in talks with Serbia’s Civil Aviation Directorate to secure traffic rights for such a service. Fifth freedom flights allow an airline to carry passengers between two foreign countries as part of a service that originates or ends in its home market. Mr Denisov noted this would build on the airline’s newly launched Astana - Belgrade route and serve the airline’s plans to expand into North Africa. He added that given Morocco’s distance from Kazakhstan, an intermediate stop is required, and Belgrade has emerged as a logical and convenient point for this purpose.
Aviation authorities from Serbia and Kazakhstan held talks on the matter this Monday, with another meeting scheduled for later this year, at which point an agreement could potentially be finalised. Ideally, SCAT hopes to launch flights between Belgrade and Morocco next year. The discussions were also attended by Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek. Mr Denisov said that SCAT and Air Serbia are already cooperating, enabling passengers flying with the Kazakh carrier to purchase onward tickets with Air Serbia. He added that he expects an even 50-50 split in passengers on the new Astana - Belgrade route between Serbian and Kazakh travellers.
Belgrade Airport has been attempting to secure flights to Morocco for a number of years. The head of the Moroccan Tourism Office, Adel El Fakir, recently said, "The Moroccan National Tourism Office is collaborating with Serbian tour operators to develop packages that promote Moroccan destinations and boost sales. Efforts are also underway to enhance air connectivity between the two countries, including the introduction of charter flights to Morocco. Our primary focus is on establishing nonstop flights between Serbia and Morocco to attract more tourists. Negotiations with several airlines are currently in progress”. The two countries have never been linked with a scheduled air service.
This would be a win win for both sides
ReplyDeleteThis is great news , but shouldn't they involve Morocco in these talks too?
ReplyDeleteKazakhstan signed an open sky agreement with Morocco already. So if Serbia agrees, they can start flights.
DeleteThanks, but there is also a portion of flight between Morocco and Serbia...Shouldn't Morocco agree about it too?
DeleteWhen you have a free sky agreement, you agree that an airline can operate via any intermediate point.
DeleteThey are obviously in contact with all relevant authorities.
DeleteThank you anon 09:13
DeleteNow they need to abolish visa for Serbian passport holders 1st, if they want this to succeed.
DeleteAnd this will never happen as we recognize West Sahara as a country
Delete^ Serbia does not recognise West Sahara as a country. Please stop writing nonsense.
DeleteOmg this is kinda getting out of hand..lol
ReplyDeleteAnd you are lolling again… It’s not too hard to see that very serious people and countries behind them are behind this project, so you should be asking yourself if you are mature enough even to put a comment about it?
DeleteI’m honestly surprised Air Serbia didn’t start Morocco.
ReplyDeleteWhile they are looking, tipping, evaluating, nagotiating, others are working
DeleteThey looked and evaluated and launched 40 routes in 3 years.
DeleteStill someone else is taking advantage of Serbian potential. I can see now at least 20 new routes from BEG that are long overdue
DeleteOnes are complaining that AirSerbia has monopoly and does not allow competition, the others complain they don't fly to envy airport someone else flies... Ko će svetu ugoditi?!
DeleteHopefully Morocco abolishes visas for Serbian citizens. Otherwise, no point in establishing the link, so many visa-free destinations.
ReplyDeleteI think this is mainly for people from Kazakhstan. Anything from Belgrade would just be extra passengers.
Delete^ true Kazakhstan and Morocco have visa free travel as of this spring.
DeleteDo Morocans need a visa to come here?
DeleteYes.
DeleteThey need visas for whole Europe, Russia, China, USA, Canada...
Delete+1
DeleteSerbs still need a visa to enter Morocco which clearly makes it a less popular destination than others in north africa.
ReplyDeleteIs there a reason Serbians still need a visa for Morocco, does any body know? Do a lot of ex-Yu countries need a visa for Morocco?
DeleteMontenegro yes, for sure.
DeleteThis escalated quickly haha
ReplyDeleteHoho, it’s not so pleasent to read bad news for you every morning… cry me a river
Delete@9:11 the first persons comment was negative, calm down.
DeleteCitizens of Kazakhstan can enter Morocco visa free which is interesting. The Serbian government not having achieved visa free for their citizens is quite bizarre.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade-Morocco could be a good route as the country is very lovely.
The Serbian government has not "achieved" visa-free travel for their citizens because they would also need to give Moroccans visa-free access to Serbia. And we all saw what happened with Iran.
Delete@09:16 This is not correct. Albania has visa free access without Moroccans having visa free in return. It can be negotiated. It just hasn't been done.
DeleteEU citizens have visa free access to Morocco without Moroccans having similar visa free access to EU countries. It can be done.
DeleteI believe some elements from our history with Morocco stops them from abolishing visas with us.
DeleteHowever, all these things are behind us and they should be concentrated on tourism income and not on history especially as there are no open political issues between Serbia annd Morocco at the moment.
True that. It is about time to negotiate visa free agreement with Morocco.
DeleteThis is very smart from SCAT. There is not enough demand to fill the BEG route on its own. Kazakhstan has an open sky agreement with Morocco and visa free travel too. They can't make it nonstop from Kazakhstan to Morocco . This is ideal for them.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteThey need anyhow to stop somewhere on the way from Morocoo to Kazakhstan and why not to make some extra money out of it by selling the tickets to and from Belgrade.
What destination would it be? Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, Agadir?
ReplyDeleteMost likely Marrakesh.
DeleteMarrakesh for sure.
DeleteCasablanca is the main airport in Morrocco and can attract diferrent types of passengers, not only tourists which is the case with Marrakesh. I think it will be Casablanca.
DeleteMarrakesh for sure. Casablanca, although a very interesting city, has almost no tourists. And this route would be primarily for tourists. And if you're travelling from Kazakhstan or Serbia to some third African country, you'll likely end up on one of the gazillion Turkish Airlines flights, not on SCAT.
Delete@10:15 I agree on Marrakech being a better selection. Casablanca airport is also a fortress for RAM.
DeleteTravelling from Kazakhstan to Morocco at present is no easy journey, with one-stop routes between Almaty and Astana taking upwards of 16hours and astronomical fares. Connections via Qatar seem to be some of the most efficient both time wise and money wise.
Whilst this potential SCAT route might be a bit 'strange' it actually would compare very well to the current one-stop options via Istanbul or Doha.
Nice and smart. It could also mean they increase BEG to 3 weekly.
ReplyDelete"Mr Denisov said that SCAT and Air Serbia are already cooperating, enabling passengers flying with the Kazakh carrier to purchase onward tickets with Air Serbia"
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean they have interline already?
Yes
DeleteI wonder what the demand is like between KZ and morocco. Seems like a very very long, and very thin route. But would be a wonderfully exotic way to get there. Curretly Budapest is the main gateway near EXYu with around 6weekly direct flights.
ReplyDeleteIt is probably for Russian tourists.
Delete@10:17 they can get to Morocco rapidly and efficiently via Istanbul. Unless you mean Russians in KZ which constitute 14% of the population.
DeleteSmart
ReplyDeleteBelgrade has been targeting Morocco for years, and this might be the only realistic way to get scheduled service quickly. If it performs well, others will follow.
ReplyDeleteMorocco is a trendy destination right now in Europe. Serbia is missing out.
ReplyDeleteMorocco-Serbia tourism flows are still very small. But tourism demand is created by connectivity.
Deletemainly because of visa :(
Deleteso many good things to see and affordable riads in city centers that look like small palaces where you can book a room is really fantastic. But back to visa, until they abolish it, we wont see any progression forward with or without direct flights.
I'm surprised JAT never flew to Morocco.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't fly because Yugoslavia and Morocco did not have good relations because Yugoslavia was the first country to recognise Western Sahara as an independent country. Serbia reversed the recognition in the 2000s.
Deletewow did not know that. Thanks
DeleteYupp, and in the 1979 Mediterranean games football final between Yugoslavia and Morocco (held in Šibenik, if I remember well) our militia beat up Morrocan players in the pitch... One of them first assaulted a militioner with a corner flag :)
DeleteIt was only in this century that Belgrade had revoked recognition of Western Sahara.
So who won that game?
DeletePolice/narodna milicija 😂, clear winner, no VAR needed
DeleteNot 'Narodna', only Milicija from sixties onwards. And now it's Komunalna :)
DeleteIt's good that they choose an unserved route from BEG.
ReplyDeleteAgree.
DeleteConnectivity from Belgrade is really good.
I think this would be the first fifth freedom route from BEG since Uzbekistan Airlines flew Tashkent-Belgrade-New York.
ReplyDeleteDidn't QR fly via Ankara/Sofia when they launched Belgrade?
DeleteThey did but they didn't have fifth freedom rights on either route. They replaced Ankara with Sofia and quickly dropped that too and started nonstop flights. They had fifth freedom rights on the Doha-Budapest-Zagreb flights.
DeleteHope it starts next summer
ReplyDeleteThe positive thing about this is that fares between BEG and Morocco with them would likely be cheap. Their main priority will be filling the flight with people from Kazakhstan. And as is usually the case with these fifth freedoms, fares between the intermediate point and final destination is usually cheap.
ReplyDeleteAs a dual citizen who doesn't need a visa to go to Morocco, that would be a huge win
DeleteAbolish visa or make it VOA
ReplyDeleteIt needs to be addressed to Moroccan authorities.
DeleteSure, that' s MFA job. However, I do recall that there was Agadir on Kontiki summer map, long time ago.
DeleteThe Moroccan tourist board is an extremely powerful voice within their political and social structures. If I was an MFA official I would trying to woo them to lobby Rabat for a change in its visa policy towards Serbia.
DeleteUnfortunately Serbia is not such a powerful market for the Moroccan side to lift unilaterally its visa policy toward serbian passports.
DeleteEU is a huge market so even if EU requires visas for Moroccan citizens, not a big deal as long it brings billions to the country....
Power of money....
Priority for MFA are the UK, USA and Canada, once those are done the rest will be just matter of administration.
DeleteAnyway, it has been recently announced that one of the priorities for MFA in the near future is abolishment of the visas for some 30 counties. I remember I heard that in the news, but no details .
But what is Morocco gaining by keeping visa regime with Serbia?
DeleteAthough I agree Serbia is not a big market they could still earn something from our tourists. Working on this way and keeping visa regime with us they get actually nothing.
@12:11 good observation. Its a strange one. The reasons for keeping it seem limited considering Montenegrins and Albanians don't need a visa and are (for now) outside the EU. They must realise that Serbia is (in theory) only going to increasingly align its visa policy with the EU which means Moroccan citizens are unlikely to be granted visa-free access in the medium term.
DeleteMontenegrins need visa for Morocco. And Belgrade embassy is authorised. They ask so many things, like bank account balance, proof of employment, pictures, payment in USD, passports and 7 working days
Delete@16:25 Has Morocco's e-visia system started? there seems loads of confusion online if Montenegrin or even Serbian passport holders can do it that way? Doesn't help that their websites are always so sketchy.
DeleteLast year my good friend had to come from Podgorica to Belgrade to apply for visa with tons of documents and interview. After 7 days, I picked up his passport at Morocco embassy at Senjak.
DeleteBtw SCAT plans to get B777 aircraft soon
ReplyDeleteOn SCAT's website they're advertising "SCAT and Air Serbia flights on one ticket" connecting Europe, it sounds great and I bet they're selling attractive tickets at tour agencies in Kazakhstan (does anybody know if this is more popular in their country?), however, it says they're selling as tour agencies AND online - however, I cannot find ANY sold connections on any sites (Air Serbia, SCAT, Google Flights, Cheapoair, Orbitz, Checkfelix, etc.) for exp. BEG-FCO BEG-CDG BEG-ZAG BEG-LHR etc. I've tried many...? Lol. LOT comes up many times as the cheapest and most attractive fare via WAW.
ReplyDeleteThis flights will happen!
ReplyDeleteBelgrade can be happy for being chosen as stopover.
If they ruin this another city in the vicinity will ge the opportunity.
Why would anyone "ruin" anything?
DeleteThis is great! Air Serbia should do same thing with a stop in Almaty to the end in New Delhi/Mumbai. Or maybe Tashkent/Samarkand instead of Almaty stop, if Uzbekistan is willing to give 5th freedom rights. I guess A319 should be good for a start
ReplyDeleteerm...you realise that would be totally ridiculous and no airline planner in 2025 would consider such a thing?
DeleteMhm... I presume this Astana Morocco route is also ridiculous? These guys from SCAT airlines are just waisting their time and money, because some desperate anonymous wrote that? Delhi and Mumbai are on the TOP10 unserved BEG list and another stop would just add extra profit to the route. If Athens can have more than daily flight to India, so can Belgrade 3-4 a week with a 140 passenger plane
DeleteAirlines don't do triangle routes anymore for a reason.
DeleteYes, they do.
DeleteIt’s not a triangle, it’s a route with stopover. Believe it or not, Tway is doing one seasonally from ICN to ZAG. But I presume that’s quite ok?
DeleteIt would be a huge loss maker. That is why that kind of route isnt started. You just dont know what you are talking about mate.
DeleteThe stopover for Tway was solely to refuel, nothing else.
DeleteDo you have any other arguments or it’s just your standard “trust me, bro”? No? I knew it. Only downside of this route would be non comfortable plane for such a long route, but regarding the potential passenger type, it would not be a huge problem. Profitablity depends of the price ticket, but surey it is a waaay cheaper do it with smaller narrow body than larger widebody.
Delete@21:12 Even worse. That stopover is prolonging trip duration and don’t bring extra yield
Tway no longer operates with a stop. Flights are nonstop.
Delete@18:16 i'm afraid you are talking total nonsence about that working for JU. Nice to dream but you don't know what you're talking about.
ReplyDelete