Air Serbia will launch nine new routes this year, marking its largest network expansion since 2023, when it reinstated numerous services suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. The carrier sees further room for growth despite serving over 100 scheduled and charter destinations. Speaking at the ERA Regional Airline Conference, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “Our growth strategy will remain primarily organic. At times, we may pursue more ambitious expansion, particularly given the advantages of operating a hub. There are also clear opportunities across the wider Balkan region, including markets such as Bulgaria and Romania, which are still not fully connected to our hub. While there is further room for growth, we believe we have already reached a solid critical mass”.
Commenting on the airline’s position in Belgrade, Mr Marek said, “We currently hold a market share of over 50%, which we consider a healthy level, particularly as competition remains essential to a well-functioning market. We have no ambition for Air Serbia to significantly exceed this level, and it is unlikely we would ever surpass 60%. Looking at comparable hub carriers, such as in Vienna, a home airline’s market share of between 50% and 55% is generally seen as optimal, as it both ensures scale and encourages competition”
Air Serbia has a rolling five-year strategy, which is adjusted based on evolving market conditions. “Long-term planning has become increasingly challenging due to the pace of global change. What remains clear, however, is that we will continue to grow as long as demand remains stable. Demand for air travel typically follows GDP growth, which is strong in our home market”, Mr Marek said. He noted the carrier plans to grow at around 5% per year. “Our ambition is to grow at around 5% annually, which would translate into the addition of at least two to three aircraft per year. At the same time, we are replacing existing aircraft in the fleet. Wet-leasing has proven particularly effective in the current environment, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East. Compared to an eight-year dry lease, a two-year wet lease provides significantly greater flexibility to manage risk and align capacity with demand”, the CEO added.
Commenting on the upcoming summer, Mr Marek noted, “At present, we expect stronger demand for European destinations this summer. This outlook has influenced network decisions, including the introduction of Brač, as we anticipate high interest in markets such as Greece, Spain, Italy and the Adriatic coast”.
Maribor is a MUST, especially with the subsidies offered by the gov...If not, Graz should happen.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIasi and Cluz too.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday flights would do wonders for the region.
DeleteWould Portoroz make sense?
ReplyDeleteUnless they do some deal with tour operators I don't think so. Especially since there would have to be load restrictions on the ATR72.
DeleteVLO would make perfect sense as a gateway to the Albanian Riviera.
DeleteI think POW makes sense because most of Portorož hotel owners are Serbian, but in this case Trieste is too close
DeleteIt would make sense but most tickets put on sale should be bussines to compensate for empty seats due to weight restrictions - so it would be a niche route primarely
DeletePOW doesn't make sense due to weight restrictions needed for departure. The area anyway is decently served through PUY, LJU and VCE. Both PUY and VCE could do with more frequencies which would cover that area better.
DeleteI'm actually shocked at how many new routes they are launching this year. 9! wow
ReplyDeleteAt low frequencies though.
DeleteAnd more than half are winter exclusives, if I remember correctly.
Delete^ Just two are winter routes. That is definitely not "more than half" of 9.
DeleteHow many are summer exclusives?
DeleteThree. A good balance.
DeleteInteresting that they mention Bulgaria and Romania. Both are huge gaps in their network.
ReplyDeleteRomania is definitely underdeveloped for Air Serbia. Cluj, Timisoara, even Iasi could feed nicely into Belgrade.
DeleteJust mentioning, not acting. Like it would ruin company with 4-6 weekly ATR flights to niche routes
DeleteIn Bulgaria there is only Bourgas to be launched as summer seasonal route. Plovdiv has no chance.
DeleteHowever, in Romania there are MANY opportunities such as Cluj and Iasi.
...and nearby Kishninev and i would also add Kosice.
DeleteRomania is a must and it deserves broader tourism initiative. I was surprised to see how many Serbs this fall and winter were surprised by Timisoara as cool nearby city. Maybe only Iasi has some kind of awareness. I'm afraid we have no clue about Romania but also vice versa.
DeleteCluj and Iasi definitely, Timisoara is too close, does not make sense
DeleteKishniev is accessible from Iasi in reasonable time
Kishinev is a bit tricky considering very bad relations between Serbia and Moldova recently. IDK do Serbian passport holders even need visas for Moldova?
DeleteNo, they don't.
DeleteSerbia also has "very bad" official relations with Croatia, but still JU flies to 8 airports in Croatia this summer. Official state relations have little to no bearing on actual traffic in Europe.
DeleteVery different. People from Serbia have families in Croatia, some have property, many people work in Croatia over summer, people from Croatia have families in Serbia, there is significantly more point to point travel between Croatia and Serbia, there is significantly more transfer traffic to Croatia due to coast. Can't be compared to Moldova, a country that has accused Serbia of trying to overthrow its incumbent government.
DeleteOfficial Serbia-Croatia relations are more of folklor za široke narodne mase. On the other hand, if I remember corectly there was an issue with Serbian citizens in Moldova a year or two ago. Also that Serbo-Russian camp for Moldova riots doesn't help either. Moldova side was and still is very angry.
Deleteširoke narodne mase don't want that folklor, it's for uske but bučne narodne mase
DeleteThey talk about opportunities but competition is getting stronger. Wizz Air is not standing still.
ReplyDeleteWell they are launching nine new routes this year. So obviously they are not sleeping.
DeleteWizz is lost completely. They do not have any plan, just trying to copy successful JU routes
Delete@09:07
DeleteLOL, no!
^ In BEG they are definitely just adding existing JU routes.
DeleteThey had to wait for JU to launch Barcelona, pretty much clueless... They changed approach a bit after that slap, but they still stay responsive rather than developing.
DeleteWell they launched Alicante before JU did.
DeleteThe hatred towards W6 for launching popular routes and adding much needed competition to our market is funny!
DeleteHow come they were not popular enough before JU launched them?
DeleteWho told you BCN or MAD were not?
DeletePeople are demanding that Wizz launches unserved routes with its 239 seat A321s instead of JU who has E-jets is weird.
DeleteWhy is it weird to expect that LCC brings Barcelona, Malaga and Naples? It's normal thing. They can't fill A321 because they let JU launch leisure before them, as simple as that.
DeleteAlicante was inspired by JU's Malaga and Valencia, it didn't cross their mind, and they are the one who owns all the data from Budapest, Timisoara and Sofia about Serbian pax streams for a decade. Btw, I'm not mad at them, it's their business and they can do whatever they want but I can comment on that too.
I'm kind of skeptical destinations such as Alicante, Malaga and Valencia came on W6 radar because of JU.
DeleteMalaga and Valencia are still not on W6 radar and Alicante came after JU launched these two. 2+2=4
DeleteBeautiful pic!
ReplyDeleteThis 5% growth plan feels very conservative. Given their position, they could probably push harder.
ReplyDeleteThey've doubled since 2019, that's 12% yearly growth. Not exploding would be an achievement for them already, having growth above GDP is even better.
DeleteAdding 20% on the base of 100k and adding 5% on the base of 115k is the same in absolute numbers and markets are absolute numbers, not percents. There's a limit to fast % growth, defined by absolute numbers.
DeleteWhat is that aircraft in the background with Cyrillic letters?
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to the one between the A330s in the cover photo, and standing by the hangars, its a 737 (-500 i think) formerly of some like Nigerian airline or something similar, that ended up derelict at JAT Tehnika, which then took it/acquired it and now uses it as a trainer for maintenance/painting work.
DeleteOne side of it is painted in the "JAT Tehnika livery", and those are likely the letters you saw
I think it's B727
Delete727 has t-tail, so no....probably 737
DeleteIt is 737-300 5N-BMC
DeleteHalf painted in Jat Tehnika colours but not in Cyrillic
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeKvVMYWsAA5c7p.jpg
I hope they start flying to Cluj!
ReplyDeleteSo do I! Fingers crossed. People don't realize how "isolated" that city is from Serbia and even from Bucharest in terms of hours needed to get there by train or bus.
DeleteI have no cluj about that
DeleteCluj basketball club this year compete in ABA league. Surely they will love JU connections 3-4 times a week. And that's already half of ATR both directions
DeleteConstanta airport could be an interesting option for JU. It is a relatively small airport, 120k pax but Turkish flies there as well.
ReplyDeleteWith a lot of Serbian foreign trade happening through Constanta and the city being far away for a car drive it might be able to work 2x weekly. The route could generate O&D traffic plus transfers
To bad YU is not an exclusive airline with brand new birds, so it has to grow and keep up the good work:)
ReplyDeleteWhat about Trieste as new destination ? Will it work ?
ReplyDeleteThey tried it multiple times and it failed.
DeleteProbably. There are a lot of diaspora in Trieste. And lot of Serbs have properties there, unlike Venice. But somehow, ATR expansion is keeping low for now
DeleteTrieste has come and quickly gone a fair few times. More frequencies to VCE and PUY would serve the area better. PUY at 5 pw and VCE at 4 pw last summer is ok but these 2 destinations flying daily or more would be more beneficial for that pax rather than low frequencies to 3 cities at similar times.
DeletePUY is seasonal only. VCE is getting slot constraints slowly. At some point, traffic will flow towards Trieste.
DeleteVlora would make perfect sense
ReplyDeleteBWK flights were probably made possible by the switch of SPU flights to the Airbus fleet, opening up room for BWK midday flight. They have not mentioned anything about growing the ATR fleet so probably some regional routes would have to be upgraded to the Embaraer or Airbus fleet for more Romanian and Bulgaria flights that would definitely start on ATR
ReplyDeleteBucharest (afternoon flights) and Sarajevo have mostly been upgraded to Embraers.
DeleteSPU has been on Airbus aircraft for the past couple of years, especially in the period when BWK will operate.
Deleteflights to bwk leave 15 minutes earlier than the flight to split,
Deletethe split was not increased because last year it flew a 319 and in the summer flight schedule, if necessary, a320..
however, considering that they do not have flights for Split on Saturdays, in my opinion they should have flown the flight to Brac on Saturdays either with e 190 or with a 319 and thus adjust the prices and offer connections... it would also be extra if the flights were already open at the beginning of 5 months and lasted until the beginning of 10 months
There's also Mostar; and Zadar should be on some 1.5-2h drive, and DBV 2.5h now with a bridge. Scheduling transport to Brac timely could be more of an issue than reaching some continental airport (relatively) nearby, if needed. However, they always need room for growth and Dalmatia will see new frequencies in the future for sure.
DeleteCan A319 land at BWK?
DeleteGood to see a long-term strategy, even if they admit planning is difficult. At least there is some direction.
ReplyDeleteBrač is niche but could work well
ReplyDeleteStill waiting to see a proper expansion into secondary Eastern European cities. That’s where growth is.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. More transfer routes are needed, to support long haul. But still, they’re more up to leisure routes
DeletePlease MUC!
ReplyDeleteThey are interested in Spain, but those routes are already covered. There are no more destinations in Spain for them to operate.
ReplyDeleteBilbao is an option. No flights currently to that part of Spain.
DeleteFor S 27?
DeleteReminder there's INI airport waiting for the first Spanish flight :) From BEG obviously Ibiza. Bilbao maybe, but Menorca could be a real hidden gem.
DeleteCanada should remove visa for Serbian passport holders. Maybe in the past there was interest to move there, but those days are long gone. With the Euro vs Canadian dollar being 1.60 there would be a lot of demand for tourists to fly JU direct BEG-YYZ for holidays.
ReplyDeleteThey should, our Foreign Ministry could provide some info on the efforts regarding visa policies with key countries... Didn't hear there was some talk not even with that Moroccan guy who was announcing direct link each year.
DeleteWhile at it, ask Serbian Foreign Ministry to also remove visa for Serbian passport holders visiting UK as tourists. Good luck knocking on the wrong door.
DeleteIdemo dalje...
ReplyDelete