Jat Airways’ CEO, Srdjan Radovanović, has said that the airline will be receiving 2 new aircraft next year. Although it was originally planned for the airline to receive 1 Boeing B737-700 and 1 Boeing B737-400, the airline has now decided to receive another B737-700 instead of the -400 series. In June 2010, Jat’s lease of its sole Boeing B737-400 will expire. The airline intended to extend the lease but has now decided not to, opting instead for another Boeing B737-700. The -400 series aircraft will leave Jat’s fleet in April 2010. The first Boeing B737-700 will arrive in March 2010, in time for the 2010 summer season.Speaking to the “Novosti” newspapers, Radovanović also outlined that 7 of the airline’s Boeing B737-300s will get new engines by next summer. Radovanović stated that Jat is not worried by the arrival of low cost airlines to Serbia, instead, established national carriers flying to Belgrade pose more of a threat. With flights from Belgrade, Skopje and Banja Luka, the CEO expects that some 1.5 million passengers will be carried by the airline in 2010 - 1.3 million from Belgrade, 200.000 from Skopje and 50.000 from Banja Luka. Radovanović also mentions that “Jat will be the only airline in the world to offer a complementary taxi service for all passengers with a return ticket to Belgrade”, and expressed his belief that the taxi service, which he estimates will set the airline back 3 million Euros, will attract more passengers. Jat will soon call on businesses to send in their offers, via a public tender, for free travel insurance that Jat’s passengers will receive when travelling to any country within the Schengen Zone.
UPDATE
Latest media reports suggest that the taxi service has been put on hold until further notice as 2 taxi companies have logged a complaint against tender procedures. Once a commission rules on whether the rights of the 2 taxi companies have been infringed, the airline will continue with its free taxi service plan.
Thank God they changed their mind for the 737-400! Good that I got to fly on it a few times before they sent it back... Is it the US Airways one?
ReplyDeleteDoes Jat have the biggest passenger share in Skopje?
When are we going to know if Jat is changing something with the visa removal?
Maybe now Banja Luka will have more success as a lot of people there are holders of the serbian passport...
So the airline will now not have no high-capacity (140+ seats) aircraft, which would surely have some affect on capacity to its busy destinations?
ReplyDelete73Gs are the obvious solution to the aged 733s in the fleet, though they should have kept the 734 lined up as well if they could afford it.
200k out of SKP? They must still be serious about Aeromak, though that figure seems a little low...
And interesting to note they don't expect any passengers carried from INI...
I believe that Jat doesn't need any high capacity planes. They can always add an additional capacity, but I don't see where they would deploy a high capacity plane. Sure there is London and Paris and sometimes Moscow but that can be easily covered with a 737-700. The only option I could see Jat operating a high capacity plane such as 737-800/900 is in the summer for charters, as they usually have 3-4 flights to Antalya and such destinations.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be the seat configuration on the new Boeings?
Czech has the highest capacity to SKP, 735 6 times a week. (MALEV has a daily flight, but served by a DH4) Adria has the most frequencies to Macedonia, 14x to SKP and 3x to Ohrid.
ReplyDelete200k out of Skopje they can only dream of... unless they're serious about Aeromak (that would be 30% of total pax)
ReplyDeleteAustrian and Adria are the market leaders at SKP at the moment...
@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteIts ex US Airways N429US
@ frequentflyer
I think leasing something like a Tu-204-300 or 2 could replace the B734 as they have similar seating capacity (B734 has 146 in 2 class comapred to Tu-204-300 with 142 in 2 class config), but the advantage here is they have the range for direct BEG-YYZ flights and JAT has rights to schedlued flights to Canada, or even to BKK and create a deal with TG on sending passengers to Oceania
@ anonymous
JAT doesnt really need high capacity aircraft, but depends what and for which destination. The 1 B734 was stupid, i mean have a couple or just increase frequencies. Is good reading that the B734 lease is being converted to another B737. Would be good either a B752 or a Tu-204-300.
There was never any plan to keep the
ReplyDelete737-400 in the fleet beyond next June. It's an operational and commercial nightmare to have only 1 type of any aircraft. They were never able to sell all of the 144 seats on it as if there was a technical problem, the replacement (a -300) would mean 20 pax would have to be offloaded, at huge expense (due to EU flight offload legislation, plus re-booking, etc)
As for Tupolev, you must be joking...
50000 pax from Banjaluka...Maybe in 5 years ;)
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable!!! To say that low cost airlines are not a threat speaks volumes of his competency... or lack thereof. Anything that transports people from A to B should be viewed as JAT's competition, including buses and trains. For example, Eurostar poses major competition to airlines flying between London and Paris/Brussels.
ReplyDeleteJAT Airways has any plan!? 50.000 pax from Banja Luka and 200.000 from Skopje? It is a dream of JAT genius “managers”. They give up from much stronger Montenegro market and try to find passengers on the poorest markets in the Balkans?
ReplyDeleteBNX has approximately 20k passangers. It is served by JA and JU to Zürich and Belgrade. Don't know ratio but assuming that they have each 50% it would mean that JAT would have to increase by 400%.
ReplyDeleteSKP has 600k passangers in 2008. Probably less in 2009 and 2010. If JAT is assuming that they are going to make 200k they would have to make 33% share.
Now you don't have to be expert to see that these number doesn't make any sense at all.
Don't know about BEG numbers...
@ anonymous
ReplyDeletei didnt say Tu-154M or Tu-134, i mentioned a Tu-204-300 (note: -300)...theyre not bad aircraft.