Jat’s fleet shortage headache

Serbia’s national carrier is experiencing extreme delays on the majority of its flight due to a fleet shortage. The schedule was already stretched at the beginning of thesummer season with 15 aircraft operating for the airline. There were not many troubles until Monday. 3 aircraft (2 ATR72s and 1 B737-300) have undergone regular technical checks making the aircraft unusable for the next week. Major delays have been experienced on all flights particularly hurting the Belgrade-Dubai service which was delayed twice last week for up to 3 hours causing a headache for the airline as many transit passengers in Dubai had to be placed on other airlines due to missed connections. Although the airline apologised in the Serbian daily of Politika on Friday it says that it will not compromise safety and will not allow the 3 absent aircraft to leave the hangers until all regular checks are complete.

This morning Jat already has delayed flights with its Belgrade-Prague service delayed by an hour and the Belgrade-Istanbul service delayed by an hour and thirty five minutes however earlier flights this morning have been operating on time (improved situation compared to yesterday). Although things will soon be stabilised, once the out of service aircraft leave the hangers, the need for more new aircraft has now been made more evident than ever. If you are travelling on Jat in the next few days bring reading material – you will be spending some time at the airport.