beograd | aviation overview

Summer 2011 on Final Approach (Part 5)

March 12, 2011 4 Comments

In today’s post we continue to look at the changes taking place in Belgrade during the coming summer season. Today’s topic will take a look at changes introduced by the lowcost carriers.

Norwegian Air Shuttle has been flying to Belgrade for several years now. Originally the airline operated flights from Oslo to Belgrade. With their growing network of bases across Scandinavia, Stockholm was added shortly after.

This summer season the usual changes will be introduced. Their Oslo-Belgrade route will be increased from one weekly to two weekly. In addition to their current flight on Wednesday a Saturday flight will be added.

Belgrade-Oslo
–3—- 13:00-15:50
—–6- 20:15-23:05

Stockholm-Belgrade will see an additional frequency, bringing the total to two weekly. The only change on this route is the departure time of the flight on Saturday.

Belgrade-Stockholm
-2—- 13:30-16:05
—–6- 09:35-12:10

Norwegian operates into Stockholm’s Arlanda airport where it will face direct competition from Serbia’s national carrier, Jat Airways. Wizz Air will launch Belgrade-Stockholm Skavsta from the 1^st of April after the opening of its base in Belgrade.

Germanwings and Norwegian have been the pioneers of lowcost operations in Belgrade. They have launched flights at a time when Serbian citizens needed visas to travel to the Schengen zone. Today, Germanwings operates flights from Cologne and Stuttgart to Belgrade.

This summer season we will see minor changes in their timetable to Belgrade.

Belgrade-Cologne will be scheduled to fly 4 times per week instead of the current three.

Belgrade-Cologne
1-3—-   13:25-15:35
—-5–   12:15-14:25
——7   15:50-18:00

Belgrade-Stuttgart will be operated three times per week. On this route Jat Airways and Germanwings directly compete with each other .

Belgrade-Stuttgart
-2—–   12:25-14:15
—4—   13:20-15:10
——7   14:20:16:10

Niki, a semi-lowcost airline, will keep its six weekly frequencies from Vienna to Belgrade. By entering the Serbian market Niki had put an end to the duopoly of Jat Airways and Austrian Airlines.

With up to five daily flights on Jat Airways and Austrian Airlines and an additional flight on Niki, ranks Belgrade-Vienna as the most competitive route out of the Serbian hub. However with Air Berlin and Niki’s entry into the oneworld airline alliance things might start to change. With British Airways gone, Malév has been left as the only airline from the alliance to operate flights to Belgrade. Once member, it can attract some of the loyal passengers to both Air Berlin and oneworld travelling to Serbia. Currently Niki operates the route using their Embraer E190 with a capacity of 112 seats.

Finally, as previously announced, Wizz Air will be increasing their presence in Belgrade by opening their base in April. One of their Airbus A320 will be based at airport operating routes to Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy.

More on Wizz Air’s base in Belgrade here: https://aviationoverview.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/wizz-air-lands-in-belgrade/

Filed under Part 5: lowcost, Summer 2011 Tagged with belgrade, beograd, germanwings, jat, Jat Airways, norwegian, vienna, wizz, Wizzair

Random facts from the Serbian market:

airBaltic launched flights from Riga to Belgrade in April 2010. Flights were operated throughout the summer season but were cancelled during the winter season of 2010 due to aircraft shortage as the lease on their Fokker 100s was expiring.

The airline re-launched their seasonal flights the following year, which operated throughout the summer season, using its Dash-8 aircraft.
The airline's best performing month was July 2011, when it carried a total of 2.207 passengers, with an average loadfactor of 83%.
The worst performing month was May 2010 when the airline transported only 729 passengers with an average loadfactor of 35%.

The return to Belgrade saw a decrease in the number of seats offered, from 105 seats on their Fokker 100s to 74 on their Dash-8s. This drop in seats offered is the main reason for the rise in the average loadfactor. Year on year, number of total passengers carried rose by 7%, from 7.251 in 2010 to 7.786 in 2011.

Currently there are no plans to re-launch flights to Belgrade despite satisfactory loads. It is important to understand that in aviation good loads do not mean good yields.
Currently the Latvian national carrier is being restructured, a process needed to make the airline competitive at a time when it is facing growing competition in Riga.