Jat Airways’ aircraft, that is due to depart from Dubai to Belgrade on Wednesday morning, could be seized by local authorities as the airline has not payed outstanding debt to a Jordanian travel agent, Serbian media report. Jat has been issued with a court decree to pay up to 1 million American dollars to the agent. If the aircraft is grounded it will be the final blow to the airline’s management which is hanging by a thread. Jat’s financial manager, brought to the company by the CEO Srdjan Radovanović has a high school diploma as his highest form of education. Ironically, all of his advisors must have university degrees. Rumours continue that Srdjan Radovanović has resigned as the airline’s CEO although there is no official confirmation.
UPDATE
Jat's flight JU089 from Dubai departed to Belgrade this morning
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. he shouldn't just resign, he should kill himself, and spare us all from watching him ever again
ReplyDeleteThis can be the beginning of the end of one era-namely JAT!
ReplyDeleteLet's hope it's the end of the Radovanovic era.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how does JAT own 1 millon to a travel agency?
ReplyDeleteIt's more likely this is the handling agent.
ReplyDeleteSaddly or not agony is on the end
Is there anyone who is more happy than hater champion - IN007 ???
ReplyDeleteI agree that the situation has been allowed to get out well out of hand. The govt will have to step in, but so long as they don't cleverly use the money for the new planes to pay off previous debts!
ReplyDeleteAn OA-style write off could be the only saviour for JU, but it will require more than 2 new planes, a very slick managerial team, and a hell of a lot of government support.
But seizing the plane won't do much to recoup costs: how much of a market is out there for a pre-loved 733 with many years on the clock?
Cant they bring some aviation expert with managerial skills to run Jat?
ReplyDeleteRadovanovic should definitely go asap...
Government lacks the idea what to do with Jat...do something to either restructure Jat or close it, for Gods sake...and stop wasting taxpayers money, without any idea about the future of the airline...Such a shame where they have taken Jat.
Hahahaha! Oops, sorry :P
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for this to happen! Maybe it will be a wake up call for all the responsibles in the government. Unfortunately, I see that the flight has left for Dubai, so probably nothing will happen. Oh well, sounded too good to be true :(
ReplyDeleteWell, i guess nothing happened, cause Jat's flight took off this morning from Dubai without any problems!
ReplyDeleteNot again...its been 11 years since the last time a JAT aircraft has been grounded at a foreign airport. YU-ANJ was grounded in IST back in 1999.
ReplyDeleteThe year and a couple months that Radovanovic has been CEO hasnt been the best. I think the worst was when his brother, a journalist, got a seat onto the JAT flight which took families to bring home bodies of relatives who were killed in that bus crash in Egypt.
I think the DXB routes should be the least of JAT's problems, considering JAT's Sydney office is one of the most profitable in the network.
Holly Jesus I am supposed to fly from Larnaca to Belgrade on the flight that is arriving from Dubai on Friday! Damn that would be too funny if it gets grounded on Friday!
ReplyDeleteI think Radovanovic was far the worst CEO of Jat, I mean come on he did go back to the Montenegran market, refurbished the planes,improved the catering, launch a new site... That is the most a CEO has done since the break up of Yugoslavia! Also do not forget that he is the one that managed to keep the number of passengers at Jat stable when the market was liberalized and all these airlines started to fly to Belgrade!
I guess some people just like to nag and spread negative energy around!
I just purchased a ticket from Belgrade to Amsterdam on Jat as no matter what I will keep on supporting them as they are far from the worst airline around!
Mr. Radovanovic had so many negative impacts to Jat, but still there were many more postive. Last anonymous listed some of those positive. I will focus attention on keeping pax number stable, with regain of some markets back, all of that in very unfavorable market conditions for Jat as well as with very late backing from Government, like the one which is just happening with this loan granting.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the number of passengers didn’t decrease is simply because the aviation industry around the world has stabilised (outside factors which have nothing to with the management). However it is true that since Radovanovic came Jat is being beaten on every single route where it has competition except for Sarajevo and Montenegro, its employees have not been paid for months, its finance department is in disarray, he doesn’t allow his company to hold talks with foreign carriers, he forces his employees to pay full ticket prices out their own pockets if they have a meeting with foreign carriers outside of Belgrade, he doesn’t have a clue about aviation, his only priority is to have code shares with all EX-YU airlines despite the fact that in many cases these code shares are hurting Jat, he went all the way to Melbourne for an IATA slots conference (unthinkable for a CEO to go there and what’s worst he went with Turkish Airlines from Belgrade rather than his own company and EK via Dubai despite the fact that there was a flight that same day), he actually purchased tickets on TK instead of getting them for free which he can but has no clue that he can therefore he waisted company money and the long list goes on. All the people that know something at Jat and have been working there for years have been sidelined away from higher positions because a dumb person with no aviation knowledge doesn’t want to be surrounded by people that know something about the business and make him look dumb. Probably one of the worst CEOs. I support and like Jat and that is why I hope to god he has resigned.
ReplyDelete@ last Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteProbably you are right. I don`t have a clue how it looks like inside.
Still, I will disagree about the reasons for pax number stabilisation
What pax stabilization numbers are we talking about? BEG is growing at 12% on annual basis (20% in the last few months), and Jat's numbers are falling/flat in best case scenario?!
ReplyDeleteI don't want a single penny to go out of my pocket to pay for Jat's tickets and support this kind of management.
On November 5th, there was an article about it here. That is what I am reffering to about pax number.
ReplyDelete^ yeah that’s because there was strike last October with all operations suspended for a week, so the company would have been closed by now if its passenger numbers fell this October as well compared to last year
ReplyDeleteJat's numbers will fall by less than 100.000 this year which is not that bad if you take into consideration the number of airlines that are stealing JU's business.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to dislike Jat but its a totally different to be blinded by the hatered.
lol @ "stealing Jat's business"
ReplyDeleteDude.... um...
The market doesn't belong to JAT. If they're losing passengers, it's nobody's fault but JAT's
Well the Serbian market is Jat's market in the sense that they are the national carrier, of course that in a capitalist world there is competition and that is what I am saying. With so many new airlines that had begun flights to Belgrade it's good that Jat's number didn't fall by 20% but had remained around 0%.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that to Scandinavia there is crazy competition with Jat, Cimber, Norwegian and now Wizzair entering the market. The same with Germany where next to Lufthansa and Jat you have Germanwings and Wizzair and I am sure that once the economy stabilizes Air Berlin will come as well. What I am saying that unlike before Jat doesn't have a strong market with no competition where it can make some easy cash, now they actually have to do some work- finally.
The best proof that Jat doesn't suck is that the French Davis Cup team is actually flying on them and not on Air France. I guess that says something!
ReplyDeleteWell, there we go, Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteCase closed.
@Doot
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly.
Politika writes that JAT hasnt payed fees for using Jordanian air space, which they use on the LCA-DXB-LCA flights. Also handeling agents in DXB havnt been payed.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Lufthansa Tehnik is said to have held onto 2 of JAT's CFM 56 engines it had been repairing due to unpaid fees.
Aparently all JAT pays for is for fuel and its PR agency. Jat Catering, Jat Tehnika havnt been paid. The JAT articles in the Blic newspaper along with the JAT report on Studio B as well havnt been payed for.
What is stupid is that they mention that passengers arent impressed with their stop over in POW enroute to FCO, even if that line hasnt opened.
http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Ekonomija/Jat-leti-u-propast.sr.html
Btw, this is their PR company... the only one which has been getting money from jat...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.farmer-spaic.co.rs
Additionally we do not know if the flight will go BEG-POW-FCO or BEG-FCO-POW which kind of makes that article seem like a joke.
ReplyDeleteI flew DXB-LCA-BEG yesterday, the plane was YU-ANI which in my opinion is the worst in JU's fleet, -ANL which flies sometimes is way better. The plane was only 40%, Business 100% (7/10 people came in Larnaca), the service was actually really nice!!! The cabin crew was made up of three older ladies and one young one. They were all jsut so pleasant, making small talk with the passengers and being really polite. The food was also really good.
I really do not understand what's this hatered towards Jat!
@Anonymus ^
ReplyDeleteWell, cabin and flight crew aren't those who are hatered. It's the management and their politics who are ruining all the good things honest workers were building for so many decades in JAT. And that's the real shame.
Cabin Screw
ReplyDeleteI know, it's such a shame. Cabin crew can really change ones opinion about an airline.
Jat cabin crew has always made me feel so welcome and pleasant onboard.
So what if some of them are a bit older? Usually the older ones are nicer than the bitchy young ones.