Air Serbia puts focus on secondary destinations for growth
Air Serbia has added ten new destinations to its Belgrade network over the past month, all of which have been secondary cities in markets it already serves, with future expansion also expected to include similar additions to its route map. “We are glad that we have significantly improved the functionality of our network by carefully choosing destinations, in accordance with the wishes of passengers and the company's strategic plans. The great demand and load factor of flights in the coming period show us that we have made the right move and we are glad that we have provided passengers with an even better selection of summer destinations”, the company said.
The Serbian carrier has put a particular emphasis on Western Europe in its latest expansion, with the airline currently studying additional secondary cities in that part of the continent. Based on data, unserved secondary destinations in Europe with solid demand from Belgrade Airport include Manchester, Krakow, Catania, Porto, Turin, Marseille, Napoli, Palermo, Bilbao and Birmingham. The Serbian carrier now serves the majority of major Western European markets, with exceptions being Portugal, Iceland and Finland, the latter which it attempted to maintain in 2019 but ultimately discontinued operations due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It decided to permanently discontinue flights to the Finnish capital, and instead provides connections through its codeshare partners Finnair and airBaltic.
The airline’s network expansion in 2019 and 2022 marked a departure from its previous strategy, which was aimed at adding more frequencies, rather than destinations. Several years ago, the carrier said, “With many of the destinations that we fly today, we want to add frequencies. We don’t see a lot more opportunity for new destinations, because our network in Europe is set". However, late last year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, noted, “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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