Charter war comes to an end

Jat charters to Turkey get green light

The intense battle waged by Jat Airways to operate charters to Turkey has finally come to a close and the Serbian national carrier walks away as the victor. The airline has been granted the right to begin services from Belgrade to Antalya, Dalaman and Bodrum with the first charter service leaving Nikola Tesla Airport this evening. The row with the Turkish Aviation Agency began when its Serbian counterpart declined to issue an operating charter license to airlines from Turkey which wanted to commence services to Belgrade. Instead, 3 of these airlines were given a license to operate to Niš, Serbia’s second largest city. Unhappy with this, the Turkish authorities revoked Jat its rights to operate 300 charter flights to Turkey during this summer season.

The breakthrough came yesterday after 9 hours of negotiating between the two sides in the Turkish capital Ankara. The row with Turkey seriously threatened Jat’s charter operations which have been the only sector recording big success for the airline this year. However, it has not yet been disclosed if the Turkish side has received something in return. The Serbian Directorate for Civil Aviation argued that the Turkish government should be happy with the fact that Serbian tourists are choosing to spend their summer in Turkey and therefore easing the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, after Jat’s Boeing B737-300 registered YU-ANJ received a new look interior, a second aircraft is to follow and expected to enter service during next week. During the fitting of Jat’s new cabin in YU-ANJ, the engines were also replaced with new ones. Another piece of news regarding Jat’s fleet includes a B737-300 registered YU-ANI, which is wearing the titles of Air Ivoire, the national carrier of the Ivory Coast. This is because the airline has been serving in Abidjan for the past few months and will once again be leased to the African carrier from July 1, 2009 until late October this year. The aircraft will replace Air Ivoire’s MD80s.