NEWS FLASH
KLM will boost its capacity on flights between Amsterdam and Belgrade next year. The carrier, which currently maintains its double daily flights between the two cities primarily with its 100-seat Embraer E190 jet will begin deploying a mix of the E190 and 142-seat Boeing 737-700 aircraft from January 6, 2025. The larger Boeing aircraft will be utilised on one of the two daily flights until February 14 but is set to completely takeover the route from the start of the 2025 summer season on March 30. It is currently scheduled to be deployed on both daily rotations to Belgrade throughout the summer of next year. Changes at this early stage remain possible.
Fantastic news!
ReplyDeleteNot so much for JU but KLM's network out of AMS is insane!
+1
DeleteVery good news indeed especially since their (KL) punctuality is so much better than JU. AMS is a busy airport but seems KLM is capable of maintaining it's flight schedule in and out of AMS quite well. JU is late every day.
DeletePersonally I don't think it's so much about O&D demand as much as it is about KL acting as a real alternative to LH Group. Best thing they did was to introduce night flights to BEG. It's only then that they became truly competitive.
DeleteIt's a shame JU doesn't have an earlier flight to CDG so that we can connect onto more AF flights.
Anon @13:28
DeleteKLM is based at AMS and they definitely have priority there. Their whole hub model would fail if they don't get priority.
@Nemjee
DeleteHow early would you like JU to fly to CDG? They fly early in the morning, early in the evening and now they are adding late morning/early midday flights as well.
It would be good if JU had a departure (at least a few times per week) at 05.00 from BEG. Like that it would arrive at CDG just after 07.00 and you could catch the entire AF morning wave. These are their departures today starting from 08.00:
DeleteMUC, AMS, PUF, LYS, JFK, FCO, NTE, GVA, TLS, WAW, BLL, AMS, LAX, MXP, PMI, NCE, DTW, ARN, BGO, AGP, BIQ, JFK, ZRH, BSL, AMS, BOD, MRS, TUN, CPH, NAP, MAD, BIO, ATL, MAN, BER, JFK, LIS...
The above destinations are served from 08.00 to 09.20 so by the time JU flight arrives to CDG.
Well there is nothing to stop JU doing that. Most airlines fly from their hubs after 6 am because of their noise curfews, which JU doesn’t have.
DeleteI think JU doesn't do it because they don't have spare aircraft. However they should consider it just so as to have access to a partner's global hub. Their current schedule isn't bad it's just that it arrives at CDG quite late.
Delete@Nemjee
DeleteThat would be perfect, but makes no sense for JU since JU has many P2P pax on CDG route and their own transfers from the night wave.
If the most pax were transfers to AF network then it would make sense to introduce 5am departure, but that is not the case at JU.
I'm not saying to suspend the 06.40, keep it but add this one on top of that one (a few times per week).
DeleteIt would make sense to add such flight once they cover all their waves and connections. It is a long way to it, they would need to have 21pw at least for it. Now they have 16pw.
DeleteIn my opinion they would need something like this to counter Lufthansa. There is a reason why they are still so popular despite JU growing so much. Their network is decent but the number of frequencies they operate is still relatively low. Many passengers out there are simply not flexible enough so they end up flying via one of the hubs.
DeleteBy working closely with AF in CDG, JU can provide their passengers with additional flexibility and to prevent them from switching to their competition. Right now their flight arrives to Paris just after nine meaning you can take flights from 10.00 or 10.30 so you can't be pretty much anywhere in Europe before 12 or 13.
Connections in CDG are mostly to long-haul, not Europe. There is a whole bank of American departures between 11.00 and 13.00 and that's what most people connect onto. There are few destinations in Europe where connecting in CDG makes sense for BEG-based flyers.
DeleteYes but then you have KL's night flight from AMS which doesn't connect to any longhaul and those flights are full. So if people are using AMS for Europe then why not CDG too?
DeleteVery good news especially for premium passengers since KLM CityHopper doesn't block the seat next to you. When the flight is full, like Belgrade usually is, it can be quite an unfortunate experience. KLM mainline should provide a much better experience overall.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteIt is still more comfortable than a 3-3 layout. I love the 2-2 layout on the E2s and a lot more legroom than A319s.
DeleteI was speaking about their business class product. In economy I also found their E90 to be more comfortable than their B737-700. That said, when you are in business their B737 is much more better because of the blocked middle seat.
DeleteAnd Tesla is going to grow!
ReplyDeleteBEG AMS show amazing potential.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised @ all. I have used SKP-BEG-AMS and SOF-BEG-AMS 4 times in the past 12 months - both have great short connection in BEG and are priced very well.
Nice.
DeleteAF watch and learn!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteBA too. Sedi, jedan.
DeleteAF and BA are not the same case at all. AF is letting JU fly the BEG route for them and provide feed for their long-haul operations, while BA has no codeshare agreement with JU whatsoever. You can even earn Flying Blue miles when flying on JU metal as long as the ticket was issued by AF.
DeleteLike most CDG-based flyers, though, I do wish AF would start at least a daily flight like they used to have a decade ago.
I honestly don't know what BA's strategy was. I literally checked them every time for transfer flights and it never worked out. They should have gone with the KL strategy: go big or go home.
DeleteKL went big, BA went home.
No market for BA in BEG.
DeleteThen how come there is for everyone else?
DeleteThere is room for BA in BEG if they fight for it.
DeleteThey could have done well with daily flights not 3 weekly. Their timings were a lot better this time compared to 2010.
DeleteExactly, they need to start 5pw at least and make most connections to the US affordable in order to succeed in BEG.
DeleteWhich are main airports for transatlantic (and other long-haul) flight transfers for passengers originating from BEG (and outside of JU's own long-haul network)?
ReplyDeleteYou mean which airport handles the most transfers from BEG to North America? My guess would be FRA though MUC also got quite a lot of capacity from BEG this year. It's not uncommon to see LH dispatch A321 on this route.
DeleteBravo Lufti! 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
DeleteNo point of that. ANALiticar clearly stated that Zagreb has a lot better indirect connections than Belgrade, so it's much easier for Croats to fly all overt the world. What could LH, LX, BA, KL, AF, TK, JU, OS help us then... :-))))
DeleteAnalitičar never stated something like like that.
DeleteLol he absolutely did and insisted on it
DeleteHe was in prehuge mode even the difference innindirect connectivity was something like 6-7%. And he counted Euro connectivity only, not the global one (no JFK, PEK, MOW.... and so on).
Delete*in indirect
DeleteCan we expect Air France soon?
ReplyDeleteVinci should have this as a priority.
DeleteWhy. Just because it is a French company? BTW ADP runs CDG not Vinci.
DeleteKLM come to Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteBA base is 45m away but they abandoned the route. Meanwhile KLM are increasing capacity.
ReplyDeleteI stick with flyingblue/skyteam and I usually take this route, will be enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteKLM just revised their timetable and added B73W from 06.01.2025 to 14.02.2025. it will operate the daytime flight.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope they add even more flights.
It literally says that in the article.
DeleteIt wasn't there this morning at 10.30
DeleteThe article has not been edited since it was published at 10.30 CEST and was written yesterday.
DeleteSkyTeam is getting stronger in Belgrade with this increase and China Southern laughing flights.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we get SK back?
China Southern left SkyTeam more than 5 years ago.
DeleteProbably he is thinking of China Eastern which I am sure will start BEG soon having been rejected by Vienna at the last minute.
DeleteSK has not operated a very long time. Wasn’t it Snowflake which flew to BEG?
DeleteSnowflake flew to BEG from I think CPH back in 2004 with their MDs. Back then times were different. Demand was much smaller, standard of living much lower and the Schengen visa regime was still in place.
DeleteI fear BEG-CPH is too crowded right now with both JU and W6.
SK missed their chance. They should have launched these flights before Wizz. Simply put, SAS has very little to offer to transfer passengers and I fear they would not be very competitive.
Btw talking of SkyTeam, I fear now that Lufty bought ITA that they will terminate their code-share with JU. This would be rather unfortunate as they offer some great transfer options via Rome.
DeleteITA’s codeshare with JU is rather expensive. But they will probably consider launching BEG once the LH purchase is done.
DeleteYes. I am sure termination of the codeshare is imminent because LH Group does not cooperate anywhere with JU unlike in the 2000s and pre-Etihad when they were codeshare partners. JU should also start MUC which is the missing piece in Germany. Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Salzburg are too far for Serbian people actually living in Munich proper.
DeleteGood points.
DeleteMUC sooner da better.
To be honnest, all JU code-shares are expensive and very often the times they offer make no sense. I understand being expensive on days when JU offers their own flight but why overcharge your customers on days when you don't? That's how they end up losing customers. I just hope Bosko pulls his act together (as CCO) and prepares for the termination of ITA code-share so that when it happens JU doesn't butcher their operations to Rome. It's a big and lucrative market.
Delete