Air Serbia is increasing operations between Belgrade and Tivat this coming winter season, with the carrier to maintain three daily flights between the two cities. An additional daily departure has been added throughout the season, bringing the total to 21 weekly services. Air Serbia will operate early-morning, late-morning and early-afternoon departures from Belgrade throughout the 2026/27 winter, with the additional flights now available for booking. Together with three daily services to Podgorica, the airline will offer a total of 42 weekly flights between Belgrade and Montenegro. The 2026/27 winter season begins on October 25 and runs until March 27.
Air Serbia competes with Air Montenegro on the routes. This winter, the Montenegrin carrier plans to operate fourteen weekly services between Podgorica and Belgrade, as well as ten weekly flights between Tivat and the Serbian capital, up from seven last winter. In total, Air Montenegro will operate 24 weekly rotations between the two countries. Combined, Air Serbia and Air Montenegro will offer 66 weekly flights between Serbia and Montenegro during the 2026/27 winter season.
Flights linking Belgrade with Podgorica and Tivat continue to generate the highest passenger volumes among routes within the former Yugoslav markets. The two routes handled a combined 685.316 passengers in 2025, representing an increase of 6.6% on the previous year, or an additional 42.389 travellers. Belgrade - Podgorica remained the busiest intra-ex-YU route, with Air Serbia and Air Montenegro jointly carrying 356.896 passengers, up 9.4% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Belgrade - Tivat handled 328.420 travellers, an increase of 3.7%. Belgrade was Podgorica’s busiest route in 2025, ahead of Istanbul with 290.827 passengers. It was also Tivat’s largest market, ahead of Tel Aviv, which recorded 201.531 travellers.
Is it mostly business or tourism?
ReplyDeleteIt is mostly extremely close ties among people. Friends and family travelling year round.
DeleteAll credit to JU. It's incredible how they are willing to fight the competition.
ReplyDeleteYes, but is YM really that much competition? Wizz or Ryanair flying this route - now that would be ‘fighting competition’.
DeleteYM does not exist. It went bankrupt in 2020.
DeleteWith flights to close DBV, this is 24 weekly to Tivat/Dubrovnik area. Huge!
ReplyDeleteWith Schengen border in between it's not huge
DeleteThat border is nothing during winter.
DeleteNice one
ReplyDelete66 weekly flights between Serbia and Montenegro is a huge amount for two relatively small markets.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s also a sad testament to any other real travel options between the 2 countries.
Delete^ more people drive and go by bus between these two countries then fly.
DeleteThree daily flights to Tivat in the middle of winter is quite impressive.
ReplyDeleteHopefully all this additional capacity will result in more competitive fares as well.
ReplyDeleteTivat three times daily in January and February would have sounded unrealistic only a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteI wrote this a few years ago and was attacked but down the road the ex-YU market will be divided between JU & W6.
ReplyDeleteThese two will be the dominant players holding most of the marketshare.
Would be nice if Tivat installed actual lights so planes could land after sunset.
ReplyDeleteThey don’t have much traffic during winter and that investment would not pay off.
DeleteTivat has a lights. Mountains and hills around are the problem. You can't light the mountain
Delete^ It does not and there is no need to share disinformation if you don't know the specifics.
DeleteTivat airport doesnt have approach lights neither rwy edge lights. Just Papi lights in 2026
TIV does not have a lighting system at all. Even the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) is not in function. They bought the cable but no PAPI
DeleteSerbia and Montenegro may be separate countries but from an aviation perspective this still behaves almost like a domestic market.
ReplyDeleteThis
DeleteTrue. BEG-TGD has more passengers than the two busiest domestic routes in Cro.
DeleteThe numbers also explain why neither airline wants to give up market share here. There are nearly 700,000 annual passengers at stake.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we won't see a third player on the market any time soon.
DeleteIf Montenegro does enter the EU in 2028, that's the first year we could see an LCC start flights on these routes.
DeleteNo LCC could fight with 66 winter flights and 108 summer fligts.
DeleteI'm not so sure it would be easy for an LCC to start these flights. Taxes are incredibly high when added from both countries. When you remove those taxes fares are already just 20 euros.
DeleteWizz Air could easily operate double daily A321neo flights in summer between BEG and TIV. Morning and late afternoon rotations would be more than enough.
DeleteIt would be interesting to know the average load factor on Tivat during December, January and February.
ReplyDeletePrices between Belgrade and Montenegro can be surprisingly high considering how short the flight is.
ReplyDeleteThe actual price is not that high. It's the taxes which make up over 80% of the ticket.
DeleteYou are implying that there are special taxes on BEG-Montenegro routes?
DeleteI am implying that taxes make up over 80% of the fare. Generate a booking between these cities and look at the fare breakdown. The actual fare is 20 euros.
DeleteActually taxes on average per seat are €70.
DeleteSo when you see a fare of €70 that means either airline makes zero Euros profit. It's the governments which are not allowing for low fares to happen.
Montenegro must be one of Air Serbia's most important regional markets by revenue as well as passenger numbers.
ReplyDeleteThis was for 2021 but relevant
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/11/montenegro-maintains-spot-as-air.html
Would be interesting to compare the market size for Spain, Montenegro and Greece. I think Greece in summer is larger than Montenegro.
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