Air Serbia handled 2.062.488 passengers during the first half of the year, representing an increase of 2.9% on the same period in 2025, or an additional 57.367 travellers. The two-millionth customer of the year was handled on June 27, three days earlier than a year ago. At the same time, the company operated 23.225 flights, over 1.000 more than in the first six months of 2025. Over the second quarter alone, between April and June, the flag carrier welcomed close to 1.25 million passengers onboard its aircraft and operated 13.192 flights.
Air Serbia’s most in-demand regional destinations were Tivat, Ljubljana and Podgorica. In Western Europe, the strongest demand was recorded for Zurich, Paris, Vienna, London, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Milan. Within the broader Euro-Mediterranean network, Athens, Larnaca and Istanbul stood out, while New York was the airline’s most sought-after long-haul destination.
During the third quarter, Air Serbia has made several adjustments to its network. As previously reported, the airline will temporarily reduce frequencies to Guangzhou over a two-month period, offsetting the capacity reduction by adding flights on selected European routes, including Tivat, which will see up to 43 weekly services in August. Overall, over the past week, the carrier has scheduled one additional weekly flight across its European network in July, four in August and three in September compared to its initial plan, while it will have an extra 38 to 47 weekly flights year-on-year.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We’ve had an extremely successful first half of the year, marked by stable demand growth and strong results - we welcomed our two-millionth passenger earlier than last year. We are extremely proud that at the very beginning of the second quarter, specifically starting Apri 30l, we commenced the first flights to new, attractive destinations such as Santorini, Baku, Munich, Toronto, Alicante and Brač, confirming that we understand the needs and expectations of our passengers well and successfully respond to their specific tourism and business requirements”. He added, “In addition to network expansion, this quarter also brought a strategic innovation – we introduced the new Elevate loyalty programme, designed to provide our loyal customers with additional benefits and raise the flying experience to an even higher level”.
What are the European routes that have increased. Besides the mentioned Tivat?
ReplyDeleteSVO and LED as far as I can see. These routes must be making them a fortune.
DeleteHow many passengers can we expect by the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteThey said just under 5 million
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/05/air-serbia-eyes-record-year-shy-of-five.html
Great pic again!
ReplyDeleteAnother solid set of results. Nearly 3% growth on top of last year's record numbers is nothing to complain about.
ReplyDeleteNot bad considering competition has become much stronger this year, especially from Wizz Air.
DeleteThe increase may only be 2.9%, but after several years of rapid expansion it's natural for growth to moderate. Maintaining momentum is more important than chasing huge percentages.
DeleteI might be the minority but 2.9% for an airline the size of JU is nothing spectacular. It's meh at best. They are not FR, EK, LH... where 2.9% is considered a solid result.
DeleteWith all the additions, Q3 should have minimum growth of around 10%.
What a utter nonsence!
DeleteIt seems here to be easily forgotten the impact of war against Iran on internation air traffic.
So many airlines including OU cancelled many, many flights, the fuel got more expensive and unrealistic people believe 2.9% is not good result.
I am speechless.
I think OU has even bigger pax increase than 2,9% but the cost of it is spectacular. JU also gain some pax from this conflict (in long haul), it really didn’t hurt their pax numbers much. Their finances for sure, everyone suffered from this financially.
DeleteGrowth percentage is completely irrelvant. OU's base number is more than half lower than JU's, making percentile increases much easier.
DeleteWhat does OU cancelling flights have to do with JU numbers?
Delete43 weekly flights to Tivat in August is incredible.
ReplyDeleteIs it really? It is a leisure route with extremely high demand in peak summer months. That's like saying MUC-PMI demand is incredible.
DeleteWell, there used to be more than 30 daily flights on some summer days in 1992. :)
DeleteDid they introduce some flights with stop at Uzice/Ponikve those years with full scale embargo? It’s like I have some memories or read somewhere?
DeleteNo way, that is unimaginable. Where did you get that info? That is amazing to hear
DeleteIt's true. When Croatia was closed for travel all traffic for the summer was redirected to Tivat.
Delete@12.02 yes
Delete@12:14 'closed for travel' being the euphemism of the day. 43 weekly flights is a lot and reflects Montenegro's bumper tourist season. Tivat airport's remains for this season a total hole however. Embarrassing, particularly to depart from.
DeleteI saw hundreds of clips from TIV this summer and it seems like it's bad, bad, bad.
DeleteChaos seems to be a daily occurrence over there. I don't understand why they don't move some traffic to TGD.
Yeah its not a nice airport. Taxi mafia central also.
DeleteI wonder what the average load factor was.
ReplyDeleteThe number of flights was increased by 4.5% so the average number of pax per flight is lower.
DeleteIt would be interesting to know the loadfactor though too.
You are forgetting that they have much fewer charter flights this year, which generally have high loads.
DeleteThey have also smaller planes. A319 left and E195 arrived.
DeleteAlso GetJet A320 left and BT’s A220 came. Also a downgrade
DeleteYes but in H2 they will have additional A320s.
DeleteOverall they'll still have less A320's compared to last summer. JU isn't replacing them 1 for 1.
DeleteReducing Guangzhou while adding more European flights makes sense. Airlines should always move capacity where it generates the best returns.
ReplyDeleteThey should also ask themselves why they had to make those cuts and learn from that experience.
DeleteThe loyalty programme was long overdue. I am pleasently surprised that my status match has been completed. On Thursday I flew for the first time under the new frequent flyer number and am happy to say that I got an email the following day with my new points accounted for.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear
DeleteInteresting that Ljubljana is among the top regional destinations.
ReplyDeleteAt some point they planned on sending E90, I think it was on Mondays and Fridays in the morning. Such a shame they gave up on that idea. I see Prague got many E90/E95 flights so hopefully LJU gets it as well.
DeleteMUC seems to be operated by Atr quite often so maybe they can make the switch?
@09:46 well the economic and social links are strong between Belgrade and Ljubljana. Furthermore JU provide excellent regional links from Slovenia to places where direct flights remain unworkable such as Sofia, Bucharest, Thessaloniki.
DeleteI think fast and reliable transfers from LJU is what made JU popular in Slovenia. Hopefully they add the E90/95 soon.
DeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteWhat's driving ATH to stand out compared to previous years?
ReplyDeleteI guess netowkr growth. I flew BEG-ATH twice this year. Once in January and once just 2 weeks agon (both full). Almost all passengers from Athens were transfers. On my last flight two weeks ago there were passengers to Sofia, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Mostar (big group to Dubrovnik was from US). On my flight in January more than half of the plane was heading to Germany and Zurich. Which goes to show that many experts in the comments here are wrong and that just because some airport has flights to somewhere does not mean other airlines won't be used even with one stop in between.
DeleteYea, I was surprised the redeye ATH-BEG flight was actually full with transfer and not locals looking to save a few bucks (this flight is usually much cheaper than the day one).
Delete@11:32 the 'red-eye' flights are ghastly for point to point travel for all but the most committed of traveller. However for connections they're a vital part of JU's model which they do well.
DeleteI flew Belgrade-Budapest recently and there were a lot of passengers from New York.
JU is profiting from Greek tourism doing extremely well. Also adding those morning/evening departure has freed extra space for transfers on the noon departure.
DeleteAir Serbia should do much more than 2.9% growth
ReplyDeleteYou're saying that as as some statement, wish, demand?
DeleteMaybe as the three?
DeleteWizz outperformed them in H1 which, I think, was expected after bouncing back from unfortunate fleet issues. Also, JU schedules new routes later in the year compared to previous expansion which should bring them better growth % in H2. Long haul is becoming most pressing issue to address… But overall, OK performance in another challenging year.
ReplyDeleteOutperformed them? Are you suggesting they had more passengers than JU? That would be impossible even if every single Wizz flight was sold out.
DeleteWizz is still struggling to restore their own capacity, not to outperform anyone. They would need another 8-10 jets to outperform JU. But that will not discourage you writing BS
DeleteDo we know what is performance of new Munich route? They started quite optimistic with daily fligths on E jet but last few days we see that ATR is now common on route. Also JU is maybe in price war with LH because they lowered ticket price.
ReplyDeleteIts an important addition to their network and even if it takes time to mature as a route I'm sure it will.
DeleteTough competition on this route.
DeleteLufthansa smacked them really fast with three daily plus Wizz Air has a strong presence in FMM.
DeleteIt will take time for MUC to consolidate and to start doing well. Without daily flights they wouldn't stand a chance.