Uzbekistan’s Air Samarkand has expressed interest in launching services to Belgrade, with airline officials holding talks in Serbia on the matter in recent days. The potential route comes as the Serbian capital seeks to strengthen its connectivity with Central Asia, following the recent introduction of flights between Belgrade and Astana in Kazakhstan. Air Samarkand commenced operations in December 2023 and currently operates a fleet of three aircraft, comprising an Airbus A321, an A321neo and an A330-200. The carrier serves destinations in Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on a scheduled basis from both Samarkand and Tashkent and is planning a significant network expansion over the coming year as it aims to more than double its fleet.
Belgrade was last linked to Uzbekistan by a scheduled air service in 2004, when Uzbekistan Airways operated flights between Tashkent, Belgrade and New York using Boeing 767 aircraft. In late October, Serbian officials said Air Serbia was conducting feasibility studies into launching services, in partnership with another carrier, to either Tashkent or Samarkand. Belgrade Airport’s revised incentive scheme, introduced last year, also targets routes from the Central Asia region.
Meanwhile, the fast-growing Uzbek carrier Centrum Air, which now operates a fleet of thirteen A320neo-family and A330 aircraft, has also expressed interest in serving the region. Its parent company owns cargo airline My Freighter Airlines, which recently inked an interline partnership with Air Serbia. In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, Centrum Air said: “Centrum Air is interested in serving the region as part of its route network expansion plans. At the moment, we are completing our IOSA audit, which is essential for IATA membership. This will support further network expansion, as codeshare and interline agreements for passenger flights are generally possible with full IATA membership. While some airlines can establish bilateral agreements without full IATA membership, this depends on specific compliance requirements between the parties”.
That's unexpected
ReplyDeleteLooks like Air Serbia is trying to attract airlines from that region.
DeleteOnly if you lived under the rock last 4 years. Fuel for all of these recent and future destinations (Riga, Baku, Astana, Tbilisi. Yerevan, Tashkent) are Russians living in Serbia. Belgrade became important Russian hub
DeletePartnerships seem to be the preferred model these days.
DeleteWhat would be interesting is whether they will try for fifth freedom rights to another destination like Scat is trying.
DeleteIs JU going to also launch flights there or just codeshare?
DeleteHopefully they will ink a codeshare agreement with Air Astana sooner rather than later.
@ anon 09:06
DeleteYeah, just like China flights would be impossible without China workers in Serbia. Which is well known fact from Z-Academy. Makes me wonder on what are US and soon to be Canada flights driven?
@9.12 Most likely codeshare. They already have an interline with Scat for Astana.
Delete@09:14
DeleteI heard all these flights mentioned are full of Serbian businessmen and tourists visiting these countries and locals visiting and doing business in Serbia!!! 🤪
^ Well the flights certainly are not empty and despite your wishes to the contrary are operating.
DeleteNo, they are not. But majority of passengers are Russians circulating around mentioned destinations. Of course, there are also transfers, tourists, business, VFR's
DeleteRussians do play a part in these routes, but it's also Uzbek tourism that increased arrivals 4x in the past 5 years
DeleteAfter Samarkand, Dushanbe please :D
ReplyDeleteFirst time I hear of them
ReplyDeleteWell they are a relatively new airline.
DeleteThis would be a very interesting niche route. Central Asia is still massively under-served from the Balkans, and Belgrade is probably the only airport in the region that can realistically sustain it.
ReplyDeleteI would say BUD also.
DeleteThey recently failed to Tashkent.
DeleteI remember the old Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent–Belgrade–New York service. Hard to believe that was over 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even harder to believe for me is that 40 years ago we had JAT flying to New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto, Teheran, Baghdad, Kuwait, Dubai, Calcutta, Beijing, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney, with contracts signed and flights about to start to Caracas and Seoul, and with firm plans for new services to Washington, Miami, Houston, Vancouver, San Francisco, Mumbai, Colombo, Manila and Tokyo in the first round of growth with MD11 joining the fleet, and second round of growth which was supposed to see Havana, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Hong Kong. Then some brilliant minds decided we should fight the ear.
DeleteWar
Delete@19:42 - if you were flying around with JAT back then, you must have some amazing stories. I imagine that anyone working for JAT back then must have had some great adventures - being able to visit parts of the world that no one else could back then (back before there was a McDonalds/Starbucks on every corner too).
DeleteGood to see diversification of traffic at BEG. Central Asia, Middle East, long-haul... Much healthier than relying only on European routes.
ReplyDeleteRoutes such as this (if it happens) will always be a small (but of course welcome) part of Belgrade's offering. The bread and butter of an airport such as Belgrade is relatively high frequency connections to major Western European cities and the Balkans. "Relying" on European routes is perhaps the wrong term, Serbia is centrally located within Europe and as such will always be dominated by routes to within Europe to serve business, tourism and VFR passengers.
DeleteWake me up when the first A321 actually lands.
ReplyDeleteYou are not funny.
DeleteQuestion is who would actually fly this route regularly? Tourism is limited, VFR is small, business still developing.
ReplyDeleteThose who asked same question about JFK some times ago
DeleteVFR is not small at JFK, both Serbian and wider region. It is also one of the most visited cities on earth.
DeleteAnon 10:23
DeleteYou are right, NYC and Samarkand are similar markets...
There are a lot of Russian migrants both in Serbia and in Central Asia. And since the war started, Russia has become less attractive for workers from Central Asia, so instead they go to Serbia, for example. It's not a lot, but it's much more than before.
DeleteAnd generally, both Serbia and Central Asia are developing, at some point connection starts to make sense.
New airline and they already have A321neo and A330...
ReplyDeleteThey should have opted for Intergalactic Spaceship A220 instead, bright and shiny 🙂
DeleteAviation in central asia has exploded.
ReplyDeleteThe region is increasing in wealth slowly but surely
DeleteI think it has also benefited from the exodus of Russians from Russia, some of which have moved to these Central Asian republics.
Delete09:16
DeleteOnly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan is comunism, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are still in 2000-2010.
Which of those is most worth visiting, if someone has been?
DeleteDefinitely if you are looking for Asian and oriental culture - Uzbekistan, something like Turkey or Egypt. Kazakhstan looks like Russia and is a very European country, Astana and Almaty are modern European cities, they are the most interesting. There are also many beautiful mountains in Kazakhstan.
Delete10:28 GBAO
Delete@10:28
DeleteBeen living here for 5 years.
For history and people, cuisine (and even life as an expat), Uzbekistan by far.
For nature, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are some of the most beautiful places on Earth.
Kazakhstan has little to offer in both those aspects (albeit many minuses, such as endemic corruption, high cost, inexistent road infrastructure in many places and long distances), expect a bit of nature around Almaty closer to Kyrgyzstan.
Talking of which, i don't know why SCAT choose to launch flight to Astana except to serve the political/economical elite, a city which has next to nothing to offer, especially in winter. Shymkent was a much better option where they have a hub and could serve entire central Asia + China, well guess, BUD got it.
Cheers.
@10:56
DeleteAstana is New Belgrade "на стероидима". A new city which has nothing to offer, besides a few photogenic places, especially when edited on photoshop. Otherwise no history, full of gasterbeiters and not the best ones - ask local people. In winter -20 is the norm. I'm used to it, are you?
Almaty, European city? Half of Almaty has no running canalization, no functional metro, buses stop at 22:00, for 7 months of the year the smog is unbearable thanks to the geographical position, catastrophical quality of fuel and ТЭЦ-2, one of the largest point polluters in the world. Almaty is nice from April till September, if to live in the upper areas over Al-Farabi and close the eyes on everything else. Still not many reasons to travel half the world, especially compared to other central Asian places.
Ah yes, everything is terrible except Shymkent. We need double daily flights there. Scat should hire you.
DeleteGood news
ReplyDeleteThat's exotic
ReplyDeleteCentral Asia routes will live or die on transfer traffic. Point-to-point demand alone won’t be enough.
ReplyDeleteAstana was the icebreaker. Once one Central Asian route works, others become easier.
ReplyDeleteSamarkand is one of the most fascinating destinations in the region.
ReplyDelete+1 growing tourism, inbound travellers from Persian gulf.
DeleteJust google Samarkand airport and that is a very nice terminal building.
ReplyDelete*googled
DeleteWould be nice if they flew with the A330 :D
ReplyDeleteOnly if it continues onwards to somewhere.
DeleteThis is a very good market. It seems that there are also a lot of Uzbeks in Serbia and Romania and Bulgaria. In Turkey there are a lot.
ReplyDelete...maybe alternative to Russia 🤔
DeleteYes, I watched a documentary and many of them said they are moving to the Balkans because since terrorists attacks in Chechnya they have become unwelcome in Russia and they also fear being conscripted for the war.
Delete+1
DeleteA lot of uzbek workers in Lidl, Sofia, Sunny Beach 😉
DeleteCentral Asian airlines expanding westward is one of the most interesting trends in aviation right now.
ReplyDeleteThat's where we started from to reach this peace of land centuries ago. Without aviation obviously :) But migration central Asia - Europe was the biggest in history, and one thing I learnt - historic patterns repeat... The region was huge in Silk Road times and is gaining momentum again beacuse of China...
DeleteBelgrade is quietly building a very diverse route network .
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhat do you mean quitely? And if so, why?
DeleteSmarkand is still a long way to happen but yes, it is a very decent network even now. Central Asia and ME are next in line for new routes, starting with Tbilisi and Amman.
DeleteTbilisi is launched, Amman starts in April
Delete13:01 Tbilisi isn't by any definition in any of those regions
DeleteNice
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the kind of route Belgrade should be developing. New markets, not just more of the same Western Europe capacity.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, BEG should have first focused on Middle East and then Central Asia.
DeleteThey seem to be focusing on both as Amman flights start next April. But Cairo is missing big time.
DeleteAlso Beirut, Damascus, Algeris, Tripoli, Baghdad, why not Teheran
DeleteThe days of Baghdad and Tripoli flights are some way away I would guess. Certainly not routes for JU in even the medium term, but perhaps some exotic local airline. But they really are quite niche routes in the modern geopolitical landscape. Teheran has been served, and we remember how that resulted.No major European Airline serves Damascus as of yet as I understand, with just some charter-type flights between Athens and Bucharest. Might be interesting going forward but probably really early days as anything like a profitable route.
DeleteI would always pick Madrid before Tashkent but to each his own. And it's not a zero-sum game, one can have both.
DeleteDo people from Uzbekistan need a visa to enter Serbia?
ReplyDeleteYes they need a visa for every European country
DeleteWhat about the other way around?
DeleteSerbian passport holders can enter Uzbekistan visa free.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteOne of the rare instances of non reciprocal visa regime.
Delete@10:23 Uzbekistan has a very liberal visa policy and allows instant access to almost all European countries. A really interesting place to visit.
DeleteThanks, didn't know that
DeleteI have been proven wrong on many recent occasions by the number of routes when they were announced as "interest" here would never happen but have. Royal Jordanian and SCAT included. So this time I won't write these guys off.
ReplyDeleteNeither do I, my guess is on some Chinese carrier next. All of them working in cooperation with JU could make a decent connection network to the central Asia and beyond. On top of that, BEG gonna pass 10 million mark in a year or two. Fingers crossed.
DeleteIsn't Uzbekistan enemy of Kazakhstan? Uzbekistan has great army and will surely send Borat to Serbia to negotiate end to these flights.
ReplyDeleteWhich one produces the best potassium???
DeleteThere are a lot of uzbek workers in Kazakhstan.
DeleteSince 15th century when orology Lazar from Serbia made watch in Samarkand, they know what time it is.
DeleteWho on earth would use this route
ReplyDeleteMe
DeleteSamarkand or Tashkent would both be interesting, but Tashkent probably offers more year-round demand.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning air crew uniform. Wonderful colour.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, this ''airline'' is currently operating a single A321 and just for Hajj charters.
ReplyDeleteBEG operations seem like quite the stretch.
I'm sure it was made up that they had talks with BEG over flights because out of all the airlines in the world someone would really pick this one to make something up about.
DeleteWith a little fleet you certainly have to look out for niche routes/
DeleteIf this route happens Purger ce se slogirati, he barely survived the Astana one.
ReplyDeleteI guess if there will be flights then either by Uzbekistan Airways or Centrum Air.
ReplyDeleteAn A320 would be most suited for capacity.
Air Samarkand is the one negotiating but you think it's going to be Uzbekistan Airways. Did you read the news?
Delete