Carriers continue to amend their schedules to former Yugoslav markets amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has driven up jet fuel prices across Europe. Airlines are revising their operations, with short-term frequency cuts primarily impacting April and May. It follows the earlier cancellation of over 450 flights in April.
TAROM Romanian Airlines will temporarily suspend services between Bucharest and Belgrade from April 9 until May 10. During this period, the carrier had planned to maintain three weekly flights. Furthermore, Air Cairo is reducing operations on its Hurghada - Belgrade route from five to three weekly services during April.
Turkish Airlines is scaling back operations on its Istanbul - Zagreb route. Having initially scheduled 21 weekly services throughout April, the airline now expects to run between eighteen and twenty flights per week for most of the month. A similar adjustment is being made in Ljubljana, where operations have been trimmed from the originally planned eighteen weekly to between fifteen and seventeen.
LOT Polish Airlines is also cutting back services to several destinations across the region. In Podgorica, frequencies will drop from eight weekly to 6 - 7 in April, while in May they will decrease from ten to nine weekly. In Skopje, operations will be reduced from seven weekly to between four and six in April, and to six weekly in May, compared to the initial plan of seven. The carrier will also scale down Dubrovnik services during select weeks in April from three to two weekly, while in May, Split will see two to three weekly rotations for most of the month, down from the planned four.
SunExpress has postponed the relaunch of its seasonal Izmir - Skopje service. Originally due to resume on April 17, flights will now begin on May 1.
AJet is lowering frequencies on its Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen - Skopje route during May, reducing operations from seven weekly to five to six. Likewise, services between Istanbul and Pristina will decrease from six to between three and five weekly over the same period.
From April 20, Pegasus Airlines will cut back flights between Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen and Pristina from the planned fourteen weekly to twelve weekly until mid-May.
Volotea is halving capacity between Bordeaux and Dubrovnik from two to one weekly in April. Similarly, in Split, both Bordeaux and Nantes routes will be reduced from two to one weekly.
SAS, which had planned to maintain a weekly Copenhagen - Split service throughout April, will temporarily suspend operations between April 18 and May 2. Smartwings also intends to scale back services to Croatia’s second-largest city in May, operating four to five weekly rotations instead of seven until May 25.
Ryanair is reducing frequencies between Zagreb and Paphos from the initially planned five weekly to four.
Finally, Aegean Airlines will conclude its new seasonal Thessaloniki - Dubrovnik service, launching this June, a week earlier than initially planned, with the last flight now scheduled for September 11 instead of September 18.
Oh dear this isn't good
ReplyDeleteNew COVID without COVID effect, if Hormuz crisis carries on we can expect more consolidations in Europe
DeleteMy guess is the nordic ones would be the first to be "consolidated": Finnair is not allowed to fly over Russia and they now have to pay much more for the available jet fuel.
DeleteAirbaltic, praised by many here, already asked for an emergency loan of at least $30 million from the Latvian Government
Thats exactly it. New "covid" around the corner. Expect pro eco/green politicians to press hard on our everyday life.
Delete@10:08 give i a rest mate...
DeleteTalk to me again in the summer if this s#@tshow does not end by then, mate.
DeleteThis is the first time someone called current US or Iran leadership eco/green, that’s amazing.
DeleteBombing another country to stone age, the cleanest and greenest behaviour possible :)
DeleteI'm really wondering what Tarom's results are on the BEG route. They have been operating at a low frequency for years and often reduce frequencies on a month by month basis. I don't see how they can compete against JU on the route.
ReplyDeleteTAROM route has always been borderline.
DeleteThey cannot compete with JU. However, they have a codeshare with JU and I guess that handful of their passengers are transfers.
DeleteDo they fly ATR42 or 72 to BEG?
DeleteATR72. They retired their ATR42 few years ago.
DeleteIf this in Iran not finish soon, the worst is yet to come
ReplyDeleteTrue. I just read 4 Italian airports have run out of fuel.
DeleteA jet fuel will yet to become the worst problem for the airlines, especially European ones as the main source of getting this fuel for Europe is coming exactly from Iran... the only country that is allowed to recieve fuel tankers is India and Iraq
DeleteThey haven't run out of fuel, but are restricting fuel amounts per aircraft. Read somewhere around 2000kg per aircraft.
DeleteAnyway its the same, basically they are using their stocks now ...
DeleteNot surprising at all. Fuel prices up 30% and airlines immediately start trimming frequencies. Summer might look good on paper but it all depends how long this war goes on.
ReplyDeleteBut yesterday was double price
DeleteDidn't people say just a week ago how SKP was not impacted at all. Does not seem to be the case anymore.
ReplyDeleteThat was 2 weeks ago. In that time was not impacted but now is little bit yes. Situation is changing every day and everyone currently is impacted
DeleteIt seems this week, SJJ has no cuts.
Delete@9.06 that was false and it was reported here already that Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia decreased flights to SKP while Wizz Air cut Larnaca until September.
DeleteOU decreased flights to SKP even before this war. Only route affected from this war is Larnaca. Now this is new and updated info.
Delete09:42 SJJ has reduced flights 1 week ago
09:42 Kuwait will not be resumed out of SJJ , as well SAS postponed its launching flights to SJJ,as well Qatar airways , 10 days ago informations about SJJ
DeleteFeels like airlines overestimated early summer demand and are now correcting.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't overestimate anything. War started, fuel prices skyrocketed.
DeletePristina taking quite a hit from Turkish carriers. Surprising considering demand.
ReplyDeleteWhen there is high ticket prices there is no rules
DeleteWell, great chance that OU beat Volotea in Nantes in summer. I really admire Jasmin B.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm sure they are shaking.
DeleteVolotea one pw flight, means almost zero. OU should put now 3pw, while cut other routes. Maybe Jasmin will read this article and get this idea.
DeleteBrilliant idea
DeleteI'm guessing LOT cut a big chunk of frequencies last week (not just to ex-Yu)
ReplyDeleteThey did.
DeleteLast week the airline cancelled 330 flights for the remainder of April.
DeleteBut I thought only ex-Yu airlines cancelled flights?!?
DeleteIt's either a lack of pilots or they didn't hedge fuel, according to certain experts.
DeleteLast Anon, you keep repeating the same thing every day. Just because you parrot it doesn't change the reality. And no, NO ONE, literally NO ONE said only ex-YU airlines cut flights so stop spreading lies.
DeleteI remember very well comments stating "How come no one else is cutting flights?!?!?"
DeleteOne thing I am wondering, are these cuts happening due to a lack of demand, or because of high fuel prices?
ReplyDeleteHigh fuel prices brings to lack of demand ... its a chain of problems
DeleteThe issue is not only the high fuel prices, but its mere availability.
DeleteYeah it's a supply issue, takes a while for a tanker to get to Europe from the middle east. Ships still at sea are coming buy there's little coming after. Thisnis why Trump went nuts today he realising g that we are soon going to feel the real effects. A lot of these cuts might be what airlines are being told to do to help preserve fuel but I fear what is coming will be a lot worse .
Delete@14:41 no fear!
DeleteSomeone mentioned in a comment not long ago about skyrocketing fuel prices and how it's going to get worse, and people mostly responded with a very mocking response. It's going to get even worse!
ReplyDeleteI was the one who exactly write the comment that the A jet fuel soon in that time before Easter , will be the biggest problem for airlines and some of them will struggle to get that fuel, and also with all that expensive fuel the price will go crazy high , which is normal and expected. BUT everyone was laughing on me , and I told that time I am saying again if this not finish soon, the worst is yet to come...
DeleteYou would think TK would have more demand considering the status of Gulf carriers. Yet they cut frequencies.
ReplyDeleteThey most likely do but they can probably deploy aircraft on routes where they can make more money. Remember that they don't have a limitless number of aircraft and they still have many grounded planes due to engine issues.
DeleteSlowly starting from after Easter and thats next week every airline will start cutting and reducing flights. Especially in mid april and beggining of May would be the biggest problems after the Covid19 crisis, this wikl be even worse
DeleteDemand for Turkey has significantly dropped since the start of this conflict.
DeleteCuprys and Egypt as well
Delete09:26 It really hasn't, especially not from the region where it's seen as militarily strong and able to fend off threats better than others. It also carefully balances between two sides in the conflict, unlike GCC states and Cyprus who are heavily pro-US.
DeleteIt has. Official February statistics show tourism is down, hoteliers in Antalya have reported there was no increase in demand for April and May. It has nothing to do with who is on whose side but the fact that many people are unconformable to go to Turkey due to their perceived proximity to the conflict zone and there are fewer tourists from the Middle East and Gulf.
DeletePegasus is cutting in Pristina but not in Skopje for now, which means Skopje has more bigger demand ......
ReplyDeleteWhat an odd conclusion. Does that mean that Skopje has less demand than Pristina for AJet since it is cutting Skopje and not Pristina?
DeleteAjet is reducing Pristina too, you missed to read that ?scrool above and see better :))
DeleteGreat success for SKP! King in the castle!
Delete@10:14 well hardly a king
DeleteYou cannot accept reality that SKP in this case has more demand ?? Why the truth hurts some people I dont understand🫣
DeleteLH is also cutting flights - up to 5% of their capacity = 40 aircraft (out of 800 they have)
ReplyDeleteAll transfers to Dubai.
ReplyDeleteHuh?
DeleteAre u sure about ur comment ???
DeleteWould be good to maybe do a revised article about capacity levels in the capitals for April, considering all these cuts. Would be interesting too see how it has changed.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAegean cancelled planned Sunday flight to Ljubljana as well.
ReplyDeleteSo far it's still bookable, at least in August.
DeleteWhere are the new routes that were supposed to be announced the previous week for Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the point of asking this every day? The ministry did not announce them as they said they would.
DeleteWhere are now all those experts attacking Air Serbia for flight cancellations?
ReplyDeleteSeems that crew shortage is becoming contagious around Europe
DeleteYou do realize pilot shortage was last year, right?
DeleteYou don’t relize that your fairytales stays fairlytales, no matter how many times you repeat them on every topic years ago
DeleteThere are no winners in this issue, I hope everyone can understand that there is no airport which is not affected, everyone is affected. Lets just hope that the humanity will prevail and all these wars, the one in Iran and also lets not forget the one in Ukraine too will finish soon and the humans will start competing in other fields, not just increase the spending for weapons and ammunition!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteTell that to idiots that are provoking all this happenings, but keeping themselves aside
DeleteHey Admin, I know we ask for a lot (and for free 😂), but an article with seat numbers per airport lost due to cancelations would be great to understand the magnitude of the cuts. Thank you as always
ReplyDeleteI will look into it
DeleteSAS Copenhagen-Sarajevo is also further postponed with flights now scheduled to resume on May 20.
ReplyDeleteRyanair cutting Paphos from Zagreb is minor, but still shows even they are not immune.
ReplyDeleteI think the main reason is that Paphos is in Cyprus.
DeleteThe real question is what happens if fuel prices stay high into July and August.
ReplyDeleteWe’ve seen this before – external shock → immediate schedule adjustments → gradual recovery if situation stabilises.
DeleteTicket prices will go up
DeleteOverall, not dramatic individually, but when you list everything together, the scale of reductions becomes quite noticeable.
ReplyDeleteNow we will see which routes make economical sense and wich are just for other reasons
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else feel like April schedules are becoming meaningless? What’s published vs what actually operates are two different things.
ReplyDeleteThis crisis is real and inevitable.
ReplyDeleteHowever fluing yesterday from LTN- SKP with WIZZ there were no issues. Liton was packed on Easter Sunday and the flight was 90% full. But the inflation is noticable all over, mostly petrol and food prices.
Clearly airlines are feeling that and downgrading schedule. Summer will be interesting.
Aegean has reduced flights in April. Tuesdays are removed. Only on April 14th Tuesday will operate.
ReplyDelete