Air Serbia continues to tweak its summer schedule ahead of its official start in just over two weeks. The airline currently plans to operate some 32.579 scheduled flights during the season, representing an increase of 7.2% year-on-year or up by 2.197. The carrier has 3.887.424 seats on sale, up 5.7% compared to last year. However, the ongoing war in the Middle East could impact demand to traditionally strong markets within Air Serbia’s network, such as Turkey and Cyprus. Last year, charter demand to Egypt was also affected by the conflict in Gaza. Over the past week, Air Serbia has delayed the resumption of its seasonal service to Izmir, which will now return on May 23, instead of the initially planned April 1. Furthermore, flights to Ankara will resume on April 4 as scheduled, although they will operate once per week instead of two weekly until mid-May.
As recently reported, Air Serbia will increase frequencies between Belgrade and Tivat during the peak of the upcoming summer season. The carrier has added four additional weekly departures to the coastal city compared to last year, for a total of 41 weekly rotations during July and August. The increase will complement Athens and Vienna, which will also see four extra weekly flights, bringing their totals to eighteen and 21 weekly services, respectively. During the peak summer months, Brussels, Budapest, Milan and Bucharest will each have two additional weekly departures compared to last year. Meanwhile, Berlin, Bari, Florence, Istanbul, Lisbon, Madrid, Malta, Moscow, Nice, Oslo, Prague, Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Tirana and Varna will each see one additional weekly rotation during the peak season.
Routes with fewer flights during the peak summer months compared to last year include Zagreb, which will operate thirteen weekly services instead of fifteen, Barcelona, which will run nine instead of ten weekly, and Heraklion, scheduled at three weekly flights instead of four. Unlike last summer, the carrier will no longer serve Lyon, with the route discontinued at the end of last summer. Air Serbia will also introduce five new routes this summer, starting April 30, including Santorini, Baku, Toronto, Alicante and Seville.
41 weekly flights to Tivat in July and August is huge. That’s almost six flights per day. Clearly the Montenegro market remains extremely important for JU.
ReplyDeleteTivat is the real "Belgrade Waterfront" it's almost like a busline for many.
DeleteWould it make more sense to send bigger planes than to have 6 flights per day?
DeleteInstead of having an A330 sitting idle it could definitely fly full to TIV on Fridays and Sundays at least.
DeleteI doubt TIV has a parking place for a wide-body
DeleteAnon 10:45 During summer, A320 is very often on that line.
DeleteSending an A330 to TIV even full would be at loss due to short cycle, handling fees, and other fees.
DeleteThese birds are not for such short hops.
The a330 to Tivat? Seriously man...
DeleteWhy not?
DeleteBecause A330 is THIRTSY and you cannot fill business class on flight to TIV...
DeleteWith the Middle East situation still uncertain, I’m wonder if we might see further adjustments to Turkey later in the season.
ReplyDeleteSounds very possible to me. Also Egypt will probably get affected too.
DeleteOverall this looks like a very balanced expansion: a few reductions, a lor more increases and new routes. Smart capacity management by Air Serbia.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteA 7% increase in flights is quite significant for a carrier of this size.
DeleteSad to see Lyon gone. That route seemed like a good fit for the network and provided decent connectivity to southeastern France.
ReplyDeleteGVA is just 90 minutes away by car or train.
DeleteGVA can generate much more revenue than LYS. And we have now 4 JU flights to GVA (8 in total) while Lyon was only 2pw.
DeletePlus we have U2 flights GVA-BEG.
DeleteJU presence in France except Paris is very slim, sad that there is no demand and flights to Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux, those are all beautiful places.
DeleteLyon is second largest diaspora city in France. It's a shame it lost race to Geneva, extremely transfer destination
Delete@11:11
Delete+1
Not just JU's, just a few Franch destinations from BEG overall
Delete*French
DeleteThe seat growth being smaller than the flight growth probably shows the airline is still relying heavily on the A319 and ATR fleet. The A320s and E195s help but not enough.
ReplyDeleteI belive that no one besides you knows what you were trying to say. They only have 3 a320s and 4 e195s obviously the majority of growth will come from a majority of fleet
DeleteNot really true, by the summer season, they will have 6 A320s (3 existing, plus 3 new ones coming in dry lease) and 8 E195s (dry + wet lease). The reason that the growth in flights is outpacing the growth in seats is partially due to the departure of Getjet that had A320s and their substitute with Air Baltic A220s that have smaller capacity
DeleteAnd E195 are only 118 seats compared to A319 with 144, which they are replacing.
DeleteRegarding A320s, what is happening with YU-APT? As per FR24, last activity was on January 23rd, probably some tests (still with Wizz call sign).
DeleteWhy is ZAG being reduced? Lower demand or they just need the planes elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteThey can probably make more money by using aircraft to Tivat rather than Zagreb.
DeleteThere has been a lot of new routes and frequencies from ZAG so less demand for connections via BEG.
DeleteNew routes and frequencies?
DeleteFR cancelled SOF, MRS, HHN and PSA, Norwegian cancelled CPH.
Sun D'Or maybe won't start flying due to political situation.
This year will be disaster for ZAG.
^ LOL dude, your wishes ain't reality. ZAG has grown 40% since 2019.
DeleteWhy does that upset you?
FR is flying 27 routes now.
Why would people connect to BEG instead of flying direct? 🤷♂️
Dude,
Deletewe are comparing this year with previous and not with 2019.
Nice try.
That’s the trending in ZAG
DeleteDude today's ZAG is very different from when JU started flying there and getting a lot of connecting traffic.
DeleteThe need for it has been greatly vreduced since so many more routes are now available direct.
So if JU wants to get some of the traffic it lost back could try and offer lower fares. But just one angry commenter won't change market dynamics.
It is just common sense.
Anonymous 09:47
Delete+1
Apart from flights to Russia JU doesn;t have an offering that Zagreb doesn't currently get directly with Ryanair. If JU eventualy returns to the Middle East that could get traffic from Zagreb since FR won't be allowef to fly there.
I remember when they launched flights to Zagreb, people here were screaming that no one from Zagreb will transfer via Belgrade. Now it turns out they did?
DeleteWho said they didn't?
DeleteAnd now that ZAG has many moire direct options AND affordable because of FR you seem to be angly aboiut it. Care to explain?
Of course they did, just neighbours did not want to admit it.
Delete@anon 09:47
Try to understand I am talking here about previous year and not the year when JU started to fly to ZAG. It is not that difficult.
We all see that there are no new routes from ZAG in 2026 and 5 of them were cancelled. Obviously it shows lack of demand and that is the rason nr. 1 why JU decreased Croatian capital.
Zagreb and connecting passengers😂, JU to lower fares when OU charges 300€ for a 90 minute flight, the real reason for the deduction is simple, JU makes more money elsewhere
Delete@09:57
DeleteYou seem upset that neighbors now can fly cheaply and directly.
Since JU can use the capacity elsewhere and more profitably everyone's is happy, no?
ZAG keeps its impressive growth and JU flies more in other destinations. Sounds good to me but you are having some unspecified issue with it.
What a pile of nonsenseness. If ZAG is loosing one weekly flight to BEG and doesn't have one new destination to last year (actually 5 less) it's clearly that demand is lower. Same is from many other companies this summer, not only JU. So it's not a better connecting, but lower demand, which is trend this year..
DeleteNo, no, you are not right. It's not lower demand in Zagreb it is very wellknowm fact that there is NO demand of any kind from Zagreb to anywhere 🙂
DeleteAnd now for real: The overall problem of ZAG and why it doesn't have bigger numbers, is incompetent useless feeder Croatia Airlines. About this year compared to 25: It's about Ryanair, the one that actually makes growth in ZAG, which is negotiating its terms and positions in ZAG. Once it is concluded, probably next year, we can expect another significant round of growth in ZAG.
Once weekly ATR to BEG less or twice weekly Norwegian over two peak months is fine tuning and definitely not proof of lower demand, so give us all a break about your wet dreams
@09:53 i've used JU to fly to Tirana and Geneva from Zagreb a few times. Very useful. Also a huge number of us use this route for point to point travel considering the train is but a distant memory
DeleteI flew 3 times ZAG-BEG in the last year, and one or two times before - to me it seems there is an increase in demand, including transfers. Last time I actually had to change the dates, because 300EUR ticket one way on certain days was way too much (in February!). Even the cheaper option of 100EUR one way was significantly more than before (at some point, the ticket was the same price as FlixBus). Last two flights were completely full.
DeletePIR
DeleteIf there is so big demand why do we have 5 destinations less and no new routes by foreign carriers which are not so incompetent as OU is?
Lets remind that Swiss, Canada Rouge, Brussels, Korean and Emirates never returned to ZAG, that Vueling left, that Norwegian left, that TAP left, that Finnair left, that British turned ZAG into seasonal destination and that T'Way this year has less frequencies to Croatian capital as well as Air Serbia.
Is it all only fine tuning?
Certainly not.
@Anonymous 11:27
DeleteNonsense indeed!
ZAG having 7% more pax than last year must be a clear shine that "This year will be disaster" as you wrote at 09:28! 😂
Clearly though JU reducing a couple of ATR flights A WEEK means doom and gloom for them!
Dude, seriously stop it because it is embarrassing.
Again, it's not only JU, but a lot of other companies, which anon 13:34 listed. If it's not a lack of demand, It must be some kind of conspiracy, connected to incompetent OU or waiting FR to finish blackmailing Croatian government. It is embarrassing, you're quite right.
DeleteIt is embarrassing to see a 7% increase in passenger traffic and say "This year will be disaster".
DeleteAre you OK?
Is more capacity planned for Egypt this year compared to 2025?
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt it with this latest developments. I think Spain and Greece will be more popular than ever this summer.
Delete^Makes sense.
DeleteEgypt just can't catch a break.
2025 capacity to Egypt was already reduce vs 2024, a further decrease this year is big news.
DeleteTurkey bordering Iran and having issues with missile and drone attacks could also be hurt this summer.
DeleteJU would be wise to increase flights to Greece, Italy Spain and Montenegro.
Obviously JU is planning more scheduled flights this summer than charters. They will not repeat last years mistake, which is great
DeleteZar ne krece Sevilla od 30. oktobra
ReplyDeleteDa. To je letnja sezona 2026.
DeleteNo. Sevilla starts on 30th of September. That is still summer season.
Delete30 September not October.
DeleteIzmir delay probably means the bookings were weak. Turkish Riviera demand might be softer this year.
ReplyDeleteI think it is more likely that AJet is killing them on this route. Same with Ankara.
DeleteIt is because Serbs travel with charters to Turkey. It is hard to arrange Turkish vacation in self-arangment.
DeletePrimary customers on ESB and ADB flights are Turkish citizens visiting Belgrade and transfers. First group will always priotirize AJet and Turkish Airlines, while second has much more options with TK.
Fair point
DeleteThe real question is whether Belgrade Airport can handle all this growth smoothly during peak summer days.
ReplyDeleteIt can
DeleteIts always been fairly good to me. Only twice i've personally witnessed airport collopse and both times were weather issues. The airport is fairly pleasent to use nowadays.
DeleteAdmin, can we get informations about planned charter flights operated by JU for this summer season?
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI would like to see this too.
I wonder if they will keep Toronto year round. They said they would make the decision by May.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't may now is it
DeleteJudging by their lack of advertising at main diaspora gathering events, such as those by System Entertainment, they might not be interested in going year round.
DeleteHope the Middle East conflict does not affect travel patterns too much this summer.
ReplyDelete32,000 flights sounds impressive but we will see if they actually stick to the plan.
ReplyDeleteJuly is going to be another month with 1M+ passengers, lets hope for September to be as well and May, September and October 900k+. Can we expect all summer season months next year to be 1M+ passengers?
ReplyDeleteIf the situation in middle east does not stabilise, I fear the loss of flydubai and qatar flights might impact numbers.
DeleteOr probably it could even be beneficial for JU as many people going for city breaks in Dubai or transiting through the Gulf might opt for some European destinations where JU is well positioned.
DeleteWhat could serve as alternative? Many different pax streams in Dubai but for tourism maybe Nice and Sardinia, Santorini obviously... Shame about Ibiza, maybe think of Mykonos
Delete@09:44 although given people ans dying and your petrol bills are about to skyrocket that is hardly a significant 'fear'
DeleteJU increasing flights to China would help ofset the impact of FZ and QR, especially CAN.
DeleteSeville is actually a very interesting addition. Not many airlines from the wider region fly there directly. I wonder how it will perform.
ReplyDeleteRecommend Seville. Beautiful city to visit.
DeleteSurely not more exotic than Tromso.
DeleteMalaga being not so far and the road network in Spain being good both airports might be in competition.
DeleteBut on the other hand south Spain climate in winter being pleasant it should have a good load factor.
@09:46 Tromso is definatly exotic from our region. My bet is its not going to work, but i really hope it does! Tromso airport is getting very overworked nowadys as its a very popular place for winter tourism.
Delete
ReplyDeleteJu has already finalized its entire summer program?
Does anyone know what is happening with JU loyalty program? Its already March, I am excited to see what they prepared.
ReplyDeleteI also keep looking for these news every day. Admin, help usss! :D
DeleteAir Serbia added 5.7% seats for sale during summer season compared to last year. If we make a very bold and audacious assumption they will actually increase the number of passengers for the whole 2026 by the same percentage, it could mean Air Serbia might possibly have 4.83 million passengers this year. Continuing with 5% passenger growth next year, that could get them to just over 5 million in 2027.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the news about the A320 coming?
ReplyDelete