Air Serbia has confirmed it’s planning to introduce flights to Yerevan following the current introduction of providers to Tbilisi and Baku. Talking on the Slovenian Aviation and Tourism Summit final week, the service’s CEO, Jiri Marek, famous, “It’s only a matter of time and it’s positively coming. We aren’t centered solely on the summer season and winter seasons. We launch new locations every time the timing is true and we now have the plane capability accessible to assist them. Yerevan is deliberate as a year-round vacation spot, so its launch will not be tied to a selected season and may happen every time we’re able to introduce the service. It’s coming”.
Mr Marek mentioned frequencies on current routes to Tbilisi and Baku can be elevated. “We already serve all of Europe’s main locations, in addition to a lot of secondary cities, which suggests our core community is already nicely established. At this stage, progress is more and more centered on including frequencies and strengthening connectivity. Locations reminiscent of Tbilisi, Baku and Yerevan are unlikely to be sustainable purely on point-to-point demand between Serbia and people markets. Their success relies on having a powerful community that may present connecting site visitors. Since we have already got that community in place, these locations are primarily plug-and-play additions and have carried out very nicely”.
He added, “Baku is about to be elevated very quickly. We already boosted operations in September to cater for demand in the course of the Formulation 1 occasion. Following the launch of the route on Might 3, we recorded a mean load issue of 95% throughout its first month of operation. We’ve got additionally already elevated Tbilisi from three to 4 weekly flights, and we hope to additional broaden each locations going ahead”.
Commenting on operations additional afield, reminiscent of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia, the CEO famous they’re a part of the airline’s five-to-ten-year plans. “The problem with these locations is that they occupy an plane for a really lengthy interval due to the flight time concerned. While you function routes of that size, you successfully lose the plane for all the day. On the identical time, we nonetheless see important alternatives to extend frequencies on shorter routes, the place the identical plane can carry out two and even three rotations per day. That’s the reason our present focus stays on maximising the utilisation of our fleet and creating markets the place further frequencies can generate the best returns. These locations will are available time, however at this stage I can not say precisely when”.
