Air Serbia to finalise summer expansion with additional new routes
Air Serbia is to finalise its 2022 summer expansion with the introduction of more new routes. The airline has already announced nine new destinations out of Belgrade and a further one each from Niš and Kraljevo. It is due to outline an additional three destinations out of the Serbian capital. The airline’s growth strategy for the summer has been focused on a mix of leisure destinations, mainly to countries which have reopened for tourism with few restrictions, as well as points which will complement its hub and spoke model. It comes as the carrier aims to reach pre-Covid passenger levels by the start of 2023.
According to global travel data provider OAG, the route with the greatest potential for success out of Air Serbia’s portfolio of new destinations from Belgrade is Bologna, based on pre-pandemic 2019 figures. It is closely followed by Trieste, Valencia, Lyon and Palma. However, these figures are based on point to point traffic and do not take into account the potential of transfer passengers. Data further indicates that Lufthansa was used as the main transfer airline for the majority of these routes out of Belgrade, with exception to Amman where Turkish Airlines handled 30% of passengers between the two capitals in 2019, followed by TAROM with a 26% share and Aegean Airlines, which accounted for 21% of traffic.
Commenting on the carrier’s network planning, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, recently said, “Covid-19 completely changed the network planning approach. You no longer use really long-term planning. You still make the three-year and five-year plan but, in a way, it is an exercise which you will keep changing and adapting based on external input. The reaction on the market is key. You basically see an opportunity and go after it. We proved that during the pandemic. We launched a couple of new destinations and some of them we launched in the course of two weeks. I think this flexible model will stay with us in the next five years, where you will still have to react very fast to all the changes coming. The biggest undiscovered truth of Covid is that change is possible and that the speed of change is incredible”.
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