Germania to strengthen EX-YU operations

The Germania Group will strengthen its operations to the former Yugoslavia next year and has launched its first bookings for the 2018 summer season, which will see it return to Dubrovnik, Niš, Ohrid, Pristina, Skopje and Split, as well as launch operations to Zadar, In Croatia, the carrier will continue to maintain flights from Zurich to Split, but will up its existing frequencies from one to two weekly. Furthermore, it plans to inaugurate services from Zurich to Zadar from May 12, with flights to run twice per week until October 13. The airline will maintain its cooperation with Condor on services from Frankfurt to Dubrovnik and Split next year as well.

Germania entered the Serbian market this summer by launching seasonal services between Zurich and Niš. However, the route was quickly upgraded to year-round operations with the airline to continue to maintain flights twice per week during the winter season, although services will be down to one weekly rotation over selected periods when demand is deemed to be its weakest. As of next summer season, flights will continue to operate twice per week. Germania competes against Swiss International Air Lines on the route, which itself launched seasonal flights between the two cities this summer and recently announced it too would extend operations over the winter period.

Germania's summer programme will again be complemented by flights from Zurich and Geneva to Pristina, and from Zurich to Skopje and Ohrid. These services are operated on behalf of local tour operator Air Prishtina. Furthermore, it will maintain services from Basel, Bergamo, Dusseldorf, London Gatwick, Munich and Verona to the Kosovan capital. The airline was Pristina's busiest in 2016, carrying some 270.000 passengers on flights to and from the city. Similarly, Germania was the third busiest carrier in Macedonia last year. The airline said that it could further expand its operations to the former Yugoslavia, noting, "Our route network is undergoing constant expansion and further destinations will be announced over the following weeks". On all Germania flights passengers are permitted free baggage allowance of at least 20kg. Ticket prices also include a snack or hot meal (depending on flight duration), as well as soft drinks, newspapers, magazines and all taxes and fees.


  1. Anonymous09:04

    Wow 270,000 pax just from Pristina. That's huge.

  2. Anonymous09:06

    Anyone know the loads on their Nis flights?

    1. Anonymous09:12

      I wonder who is getting more passengers on that route. Swiss or Germania.

    2. Nemjee09:21

      Swiss, by far.
      Germania's LF in July was 42%. Given that they added more flights during the winter holidays shows that they are optimistic about INI. Who knows, maybe they end up adding Frankfurt or Dusseldorf to INI. Could work with one or two weekly flights.

    3. Anonymous09:58

      That's a pretty poor LF to be honest at the height of the season. I'm surprised they are sticking around.

    4. Nemjee10:10

      Well, don't forget that LX launched their flights much earlier than Germania did. That was one of the biggest advantages LX had over them. Germania has a lot of catching up to do.

      They seem to be a well-run airline meaning that they understand that time is needed for a certain destination to mature and to start performing well. Given how low costs are I am sure they are making money with this relatively mediocre loadfactor.

      Don't forget how badly QR performed in BEG when they launched their own flights. If they gave up back then they would have missed out on a lot, like filling a daily A321.

    5. Anonymous13:02

      True although Germania isn't really a low cost. It offers food, drinks and checked in baggage all free of charge. I find it weird that two airlines are operating the same route to such a limited market. I think even one of the days match for both.

    6. Nemjee13:25

      Sorry, when I spoke of the costs I meant the ones at INI, not them being a lowcost carrier. I was referring to the relatively low costs of operating the route, especially when you compare it with ZRH-BEG or ZRH-SOF.

    7. Marko13:38

      Lets just hope it won't end like having 3 carriers flying between BEG and GVA... Would be better if Germania tried from a different city, but you never know, maybe the loads will catch up sometime...

    8. Nemjee14:01

      The GVA saga was a bit different. Darwin was a failed EY project which never really had a business strategy. On top of that, Swiss authorities took forever to authorize the code-share meaning that Darwin had to spend the whole summer season flying O&D passengers- in other words they had to compete with Swiss and easyJet for them. Who in his right mind wanted to spend 3 hours in a tiny turboprop when both Swiss and easyJet operated much larger and more comfortable aircraft.

      Swiss on the other hand generally failed in Geneva as a result of a bad strategy. They underestimated easyJet's role in the market.

      easyJet was the triumphant carrier on the market simply because it knew what it was doing.

      ZRH is LX's home airport so they are far more competitive there. They know how to deal with their competition and to defend their share of the cake.

      I am sure both Swiss and Germania will do fine in INI. The market is big, no doubt about that. Both airlines need to wait out for it to matures. In a year or two I am sure we will see both airlines add more flights/seats between the two cities.

    9. Marko19:16

      I agree GVA is easyjet territory... But it makes me wonder how Air Serbia managed to defeat easyJet on a route to MXP and FCO... It's sort of sad not to have the opportunity to connect onto the flights as the options from MXP and FCO were really great. Was it lack of marketing in Serbia or something else, so that those flights couldn't operate with some profit ...

    10. Nemjee20:06

      BEG-Italy seems to be a very difficult market for LCCs. That said, Air Serbia had a few advantages:

      1. I think back then they had double daily flights plus the code-share with Alitalia.

      2. Better times out of BEG/FCO.

      3. Connections on both ends.

      All easyJet could rely on was the O&D market which probably isn't that big to start with.
      I guess in the end they found better use for the aircraft.

      Mind you, Wizz Air suspended their own Belgrade-Rome flights long before Air Serbia was established. Their LF was quite bad, around 65%. Then again, it's worth mentioning that arriving at BEG at 00.25 wasn't too appealing, no matter how cheap their flights were.

      For example, we can take the busiest month, August, back in 2011 to compare the two airlines.

      Wizz Air: 2.592 passengers on nine flights, LF 83%

      Jat Airways: 3.789 passengers on 23 flights.


      Jat Airways: 3.222 passengers on 18 flights.

      However, if we compare Jat's performance the previous August then we can see they recorded a sharp rise in passenger numbers, despite Wizz Air entering the market.

      August 2010:

      BEG-FCO 3.205 passengers (+23% in 2011)
      BEG-MXP 2.375 passengers (+18% in 2011)

      To the list of airlines that failed on this market we can also add Air One which suspended their MXP flights and that one airline that wanted to link BEG and Forli back in 2010.

      In my opinion, Air Serbia didn't directly defeat these airlines, they just found a way to make Italy work. So far no other airline has done that, with the exception of Alitalia, of course.

      Given that Ryanair wants to build a true hub in Rome with connections and all that, we might see them at BEG... or INI if they are adventurous enough.

      easyJet is too static when it comes to Serbia. I think they don't really have a strategy and I don't see what other route besides ORY they could launch. I think HAM-BEG could have worked but then ASL launched it... and now they are anyway closing the base.

      Hope this helped. :)

    11. Anonymous00:09

      True information about Germania LF for july INI-ZRH is 68,56%, Swiss is 78,34%

    12. Anonymous03:43

      I think LX is higher than that because of numbers Dusan gave us. They were always full.

    13. I flewINI-ZRH earlier this month and was surprised that flight was quite full with a mix of travellers from EU and from RS. J cabin was full and Y cabin was probably about 80-85% capacity.

    14. Should have said that was with LX as well

    15. Anonymous18:53

      Thanks to Dusan we also know that LX flights were very often overbooked on the A320.

    16. Anonymous21:09

      Winter will be completely different when one will quit and another will think about it.
      Btw, your numbers on gsw load in july are total bs.

  3. Anonymous09:15

    An interesting airline which is often under the radar.

    1. Anonymous11:25

      Yes, almost since 40 years.

  4. Anonymous09:19

    Bravo Hrvatska!

  5. Anonymous09:33

    Flights to Croatia starting in Germany are at the moment Condor flights with Germania Codasharing

    1. Anonymous09:35

      so no new flights

    2. Anonymous09:57

      No, it's Germania metal.

    3. Anonymous10:03

      at the moment the booking is via Condor

    4. Anonymous10:07

      Germania has no base in Francfort

    5. Anonymous10:12

      @9.35 there are new flights: Zurich-Zadar.

    6. Anonymous11:16

      ZRH is not Germany

    7. Anonymous21:27

      Not yet. ;)

  6. Anonymous09:59

    I'm surprised they don't fly more to ex-Yu.

    1. Anonymous10:41

      Montenegro seems like a natural choice to expand.

  7. Anonymous10:06

    ZRH-SPU will be increased by 1 to 2 weekly next summer

    1. Anonymous11:50

      It already says that in the article.

  8. Anonymous10:09

    Judging upon their livery and crew uniforms one would never guess they represent a European airline. Looks like more as a central Asian ex soviet state air carrier.

    1. Anonymous10:16

      LOL what's wrong with their uniform?

    2. Anonymous10:52

      one of the most bizarre comments ever on this blog

    3. Anonymous11:38

      huh? why? Their uniforms are classy and simply stylish I reckon - and represent their corporate colours.

  9. Anonymous10:59

    Wrong. you cannot book Skopje flights on and from PRN only to LGW

    What is the difference between Germania and Germania Flug. Germania gets rave reviews not sure about Germania flug though.

    1. Anonymous11:11

      Because they are operated by Air Prishtina, like it says.

    2. Anonymous11:12

      * Operated on behalf of Air Pristina, I should say.

    3. Anonymous11:41

      Germania is the German mainline and has 25 planes.
      Germania Flug is their Swiss subsidary and has only 2 or 3 aircrafts.

    4. Anonymous21:01

      Germania Flug AG is sister company of Germania Fluggesellschaft and together with Bulgarian Eagle and other seven companies under the holiding of Germania Beteiligungsgeselschaft. All three operators operates 29 Airbus (319/321)and Boeings (737) and has 25 A320Neo firm orders plus 15 options.

  10. Anonymous11:49

    Germania seems to be in deep sleep since many years regarding the tourism boom in Croatia and MNE.
    Hardly a single route that they operate in own name / at own risk to the area. They have bases e.g. in Bremen, Dresden, Erfurt, Muenster/Osnabrueck - from all of these airports/regions there is not a single (at least seasonal) service to the Ex-Yu Adriatic coast and they could easily operate them, they have the right metal (smaller med haul a/c's: A319s) and routes are much shorter to Croatia compared to Canaries and Turkey. They don't seem to realize their own potential in their home markets.

    1. Anonymous13:03

      They obviously think other markets are more lucrative for them.

    2. Anonymous13:12

      They are focusing a lot on the Middle East diaspora in Europe, which is much more plentiful then the ex-yugo one.

    3. Anonymous17:49

      True. On Lebanon and Iraq as far as diaspora travel goes.

    4. Anonymous17:51

      As far leisure travel, main focus next summer is Egypt, a lot of new routes and frequency increases. That market is recovering.

    5. Anonymous19:00

      They also had several flights to Iran, both Tehran and Mashhad. They expanded into diaspora travel to Turkey as well.

    6. Anonymous08:12

      How can the latter be financially more viable/beneficial considering the almost 6 hour flights on aircrafts with small capacity 737/319 for such distances? Is diaspora from there willing to pay astronomical prices? Very high costs per seat!...

    7. Anonymous08:24

      But all DE airports mentioned above are more or less the only sizable ones in Germany without any services to HR coast. It is unlikely exactly only from these airports there would be no demand for HR/MNE.

  11. Anonymous13:39

    What about ronair open base in Budapest and introduce flights to ZAG, LJU and RJK?

    1. Anonymous13:52

      It's a vanity project that has been "opening a base in Budapest" and flying to European cities for a decade. It's Hungary's version of Dalmatian, Air Croatia, Bosnian Wand Airlines etc. Don't waste your time on it. It's not serious. They informed how they will start flights from late August but last week Budapest Airport said they haven't even once been contacted by the airline.

    2. Anonymous08:13

      What airline is that?

  12. Anonymous13:56

    Speaking of Germania's INI flights. I've noticed that Passenger Service Charge is CHF 15, while Swiss quotes CHF 16. Not sure how this works, but I was under impression that INI charged EUR 3 per pax. Or is this a totally different charge ?

    1. Anonymous14:04

      Maybe those charges are for both INI and ZRH. INI only charges €3 per passenger.

    2. Anonymous14:09

      doesn't seem like. CHF 35 is Zurich. This is from Germania flight

      Airport Passenger & Security Tax 35.00
      Passenger Charge 1.06
      Passenger Service Charge 15.00

      also from Swiss
      Taxes, Fees & Charges
      Airport Passenger Security & Noise Charge Switzerland CHF 35.00
      CAD Passenger Charge Serbia CHF 1.50
      Passenger Service Charge Serbia CHF 16.00

    3. Anonymous14:23

      Interesting, I guess the 1.50 is the airport charge while the 16 one is probably some government tax. Useless one most likely.

  13. Anonymous19:27

    OT would anyone know the total pax between BEG and VIE , loads respecti ely for Austrian and JU?
    Is there a signn of INI-BTS impact ?

    1. Anonymous08:18

      Highly doubt there is any impact whatsoever.
      Would be different if Wizz flew BTS-BEG.
      JU has tiny capacity on ATRs anyways and Austrian has increased capacity- no more F70s and fewer DH4 ops- now more 120 seater (Embraers) which would indicate that pax number has risen/is on rise (at least for OS).

  14. Anonymous09:58

    Germania have established a Bulgarian subsidiary called Bulgarian Eagle. They said that they are going to use this new subsidiary for expanding in CEE. Bulgarian Eagle 2 weeks ago got the Bulgarian AOC and commenced operations.


Post a comment
