Qatar Airways sees gradual recovery on Belgrade, Zagreb flights

Qatar Airways has seen pre-pandemic passenger levels on its flights from Doha to both Belgrade and Zagreb over the past three weeks during the FIFA World Cup, with the carrier deploying wide-body aircraft on both routes to meet demand. However, overall figures are yet to return to pre-Covid levels, with the airline still feeling the impact of pandemic-related restrictions in China, as well as most of Asia during the first half of the year, which has reduced passenger levels on its only two year-round destinations in the former Yugoslavia. The reopening of Australia earlier in 2022, which is a source of transfer traffic on its Zagreb and Belgrade routes, helped improve its overall performance.

Qatar Airways handled 24.799 passengers on its Belgrade flights during the first half of the year, down 42.7% on the same period in 2019 when it welcomed 43.333 travellers. Three years ago, Shanghai was the carrier’s top destination Belgrade passengers transferred within Qatar Airways’ network. This summer season, the carrier has maintained between five and seven weekly flights between Belgrade and Doha with the Airbus A320 aircraft. In 2019, services were operated between seven and ten times per week, mostly with the A321 jet. As part of the carrier’s preliminary 2023 summer network, flights to the Serbian capital will run on a daily basis with the A320.

The Qatari carrier welcomed 16.998 passengers on its Zagreb flights during the first half of the year, down 75.4% on the same period in 2019 when it handled 69.107 travellers. Three years ago, Bangkok was the carrier’s top destination Zagreb passengers transferred within Qatar Airways’ network. This summer season, the carrier has maintained between three and five weekly flights between Doha and Zagreb with the A320 aircraft. In 2019, services were operated twice per day, mostly with the A320 jet. As part of the carrier’s preliminary 2023 summer network, flights to the Croatian capital will run on a daily basis with the A320.

Qatar Airways is expected to finalise its network for the 2023 summer season towards the end of next month. The airline is yet to restore operations to Skopje, despite attempts by both the Macedonian government and operator TAV Macedonia for the Oneworld-member carrier to return to the city. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline has downgraded its operations to Sarajevo to summer seasonal flights. Services are currently slated to resume to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital on June 2 with three weekly rotations to be maintained until September 17. Qatar Airways was to launch operations to Dubrovnik in 2020, however, these were scrapped as a result of the pandemic. The airline is yet to restore plans to serve the city.

EX-YU Aviation News

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