Qatar Airways has scaled back its planned summer 2027 frequencies to Belgrade and Zagreb and tentatively scheduled the return of its seasonal Sarajevo service, which it shelved this year due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Following a revision to its summer schedule this week, the airline now plans to operate four weekly flights between Doha and Belgrade from March 28, down from the five initially scheduled. The carrier operated between three and four weekly flights on the route this summer. Zagreb is also set to receive four weekly flights, in line with this summer’s schedule and down from the daily service initially planned for 2027. Qatar Airways plans to deploy the Airbus A320 on all flights to both cities.
The airline plans to resume seasonal flights between Doha and Sarajevo on June 15, with four weekly A320 services through September 12. It had initially scheduled five weekly flights for next summer. The carrier cancelled its planned 2026 season on the route following the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
Qatar Airways suspended a number of routes this year while maintaining services to Belgrade and Zagreb at reduced frequencies. Both routes have historically recorded high annual load factors.
Speaking the airline’s recovery recently, Qatar Airways Group CEO, Hamad Ali Al-Khater, said, “We’re back to 90-95% of where we were last year in terms of passenger numbers and flights”. He put the airline’s overall load factor at around 85% and said it was operating about 540 passenger flights a day, compared with around 600 daily flights before the conflict.
At least they didn't discontinue. SOF has been.completwly gone since the war.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with them?
DeleteThey seem to have struggled in SOF. After covid, for a long time they operated it via Bucharest.
DeleteEven before Covid I remember there were very often amazing deals in business class, only double economy class price, with options to even use Qsuites on their long haul.
DeleteGood news for Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteMid-June to mid-September is a pretty short window. I wonder if there’s enough demand to keep Sarajevo going until the end of September, even at two flights a week.
DeleteU ljetnjim mjesecima je potraznja uvijek blla velika.
DeleteIs it possible we see them again in Skopje? Or now with the Dubai service probably the chances are even smaller?!
ReplyDeleteEven smaller
DeleteI'd prefer QR to FZ in SKP, but it is what it is
DeleteFor better connection options for diaspora is definitely better Dubai, but Doha is more convinient and well connected airport as well so it is not bad at all to have them both. Doha could work summer without any problems
DeleteWell clearly they dont think it can work..
DeleteWell Flydubai took them 7 years to decide that can work so Qatar airways will probably one day do the same its just matter of time
DeleteI've flown to Zagreb on Qatar 8 times this year and it's been full with every time, especially business which was frequently sold out when I flew
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance they start Ljubljana in near future?
ReplyDeleteDepends what future you mean
Delete2027/2028. Their narrow fleet will expand a lot in coming years
DeleteDemand at BEG is not an issue. I flew on LH to FRA this morning and the flight was 90% full (A321). I heard that the OS A320 was full, they mentioned it at the gate. So here QR is the problem.
ReplyDeleteQR is full too. But it has to do with fleet and yields.
DeleteGood news for Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteAl Baker and his ego feud with Airbus screwed QR royally. 2028 might be better as I believe a number of narrowbodies should finally be received. They had to cancel VCE and SOF completely, MLA will restart only end 9f March 2027 and both ZAG and BEG are constantly scaled back, as well as most of narrow body routes.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteExactly. This unfortunately impacted their ops in the region quite a bit.
DeleteAnd BEG 10 weekly on A321. Times have certainly changed.
Deleteand before covid they were serving BEG, ZAG, SKP, SJJ year round and were about to introduce seasonal DBV.
ReplyDeleteBefore Covid Skopje with less passenger than now had both Dubai and Doha year round, now doesnt havy any of them even with much more traffic and passengers
DeleteAnd Zagreb used to be double daily!
DeleteGood to see Sarajevo back on the schedule. I’ll be more convinced once we get closer to June, but four weekly is a decent start after losing the entire season this year.
ReplyDeleteHigh load factors only tell you so much. I’d be curious how much Qatar actually earns on Belgrade and Zagreb, especially when a lot of passengers are connecting beyond Doha.
ReplyDeleteThey should introduce bigger planes on ZAG and BEG if they insist on keeping them 4 weekly. This summer in BEG many flights were oversold and many rebooked onto other airlines, mostly TK if there was space.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is they used to serve BEG 10 times per week with A321 before covid. And that was at the time when they had to compete with daily Etihad flights.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the gulf as an end-destination was more popular then. Who knows.
DeleteLove this airline but wish they were much more proactive in the region like they used to be.
ReplyDeleteAfter what happened this summer, I’d be reluctant to book Sarajevo with Qatar six months out. If the flights are still there in May and the price is right, I’d give it a go.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t read too much into the November schedule. I’ll be more interested to see what’s actually on sale in February, especially for July and August.
ReplyDeleteMost of their flights are connection dependant, with the uncertainity of the Middle East and economic down turn around the globe, you will find its related to these issues
ReplyDelete