Turkish Airlines has denied that it wants to turn Jat Airways into Balkan Airways, a claim made by the Minister without a portfolio in the Serbian Government, Sulejman Ugljanin. The Beta news agency reports that the Board of Directors at Turkish Airlines was caught off guard by the minister’s announcement, explaining that no decision had ever been made to purchase the struggling Serbian carrier. “At the moment the Board of Directors has made no decision to form a strategic partnership with Jat”, a statement from Turkish Airlines reads.Meanwhile, the Serbian carrier will suspend flights to the Slovenian capital Ljubljana as part of its destination rationalisation scheme. Passenger loads on the Ljubljana flights have always been light and the recent arrival of Adria Airways on the same route put even more pressure on Jat. However, the final nail in the coffin was delivered after the decision made by Jat’s former management to sign a codeshare agreement with Adria (ordered by the former CEO himself), virtually handing over most of its own passengers to its rival. Adria, which is also struggling on the route, benefited greatly from the codeshare deal. Jat Airways will operate its last flight to Ljubljana on Friday, March 25. Adria will remain as the sole operator on the Ljubljana – Belgrade – Ljubljana service. However, Jat is expected to stay in Slovenia as it will operate 2 weekly flights to Portorož, if the long delayed launch of the new service commences on February 20.
This is chaos, they invested so much in promotion for Ljubljana, fly in the morning and return home same day, and now they have decided to leave Ljubljana. A do not know is there in Jat someone who are thinking strategically, or thinking at all. Sramota!!!
ReplyDeleteBoth airlines had (and still have) insane prices on the route. In the begining of December I was travelling to LJU and really wanted to go there and to return the same day. The cheapest fare offered was around 260 euros. In the days around up to 400!. I decided to drive instead to fly. Cost of fuel and road taxes were 150 euros and that is the target price both airlines sould consider in order to attract passengers who would use their cars instead
ReplyDeletethanks for telling me that, i was planing on going to Ljubljana. so, i'll go by car
ReplyDeleteAgain Jatovanje!!!! So bombastic news about alliance Jat-Adria-Montenegro.
ReplyDeleteFirst Montenegro demand any plans to enter Alliance (even there was no code-share on some of Jat or Montenegro lines), and than just 2-3 mounths after bombastic announcement Jat stop to fly to Ljubljana!?!?!
So, what is that paper colaboration for? With what, one Adria flight per day? What about flights via LJU to Western destinations and via BEG to East and South?
Adria cancels flights to BEG on a steady basis, they fly when they have pax loads.
ReplyDeletefor example this Sunday and Monday are cancelled.
that s not a reliable service at all.
all the destinations JP serves ex LJU, BEG has own direct flights or plenty of terrific connections via VIE,ZRH,MUC,FRA,CDG
On scale 1-10, where 1 is the lousiest and 10 the best mark of business results, and taking into account potentials, qualified staff and experience and tradition, ALL EX-YU "FLAG CARRIERS", DESERVE MAXIMUM MARK 2. IN MOST CASES, IT'S 1.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom of the bottom. That is where we are now. And because of personal and political interests, there is no way that could be changed - from Slovenia to Macedonia - within existing companies, which are all state-owned, subsidised, or overprotected. Or all of the listed.
Don't you understand that only A BRAND NEW AIRLINE which will "cover" whole region, with LOW PRICES, FREQUENT OPERATIONS, new planes, new attitude towards business, and yes, of course, LONG-HAUL OPERATIONS, could be solution for ex-yu "space".
Untill then, we will read news like these 2 today, and posts in bad English by "experts" who advise "our" "brilliant managers".
@ pozdrav iz Rijeke
ReplyDeleteThis time, I admit I am 100% with you!
Cheers!
BEG pax number:
ReplyDeleteJAN 2010 156.472
JAN 2011 178.732
22.260 more :)
The fact that Jat is making large losses on routes that should be successful is due to the incompetent management Jat currently has. Serbia at the moment has hundreds of inteligent unemployed graduates and who do Jat choose, an incompetent fool who only has a high school diploma for his qualification. Its quite a shame really as the airline has potential to be a regional leader operating from Belgrade, Nis, Banja Luka and potentially Skoplje and Ohrid. Thank God that the interest from Turkish has disssapeared I guess thats finally some good news for Jat. The government must privatise or the airline will continue to suffer massive setbacks however they must sell it to the correct people and not the Turks. The best option would be Aeroflot or another Europen carrier of infact LCC.
ReplyDelete@NRS
ReplyDeleteGood news for Jat? It means noone is interested in Jat. Keep dreaming about a European carrier buying them out. It is smarter for any European carrier for Jat to bury itself and just take over the routes.
Mismanagement is rampant in the Ex-Yu aviation industries. At this point a successful ex-yu airline (for the region or for the individual countries) is a fantasy. Until politics is removed from business there is no hope.
Emirates should inject some few hundred million dollars and make BEG their european hub.. - remember that story? :D
ReplyDeleteThis is good news. I do not want Turkish to run JAT at all. This is better for JAT. I only hope that JAT doesn't become too desperate and in the end folds to Turkish for less money and more giveaways.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Aeroflot or a Chinese carrier (that is doing good business) will buy JAT. Although the likelihood is very slim, it's good to hope.
Aeroflot already study Jat but it decides not to buy it! Remember this?
ReplyDeleteTrue, but like the guy said, always good to hope. What if JAT goes bankrupt and another airline takes its place with a whole new fleet but same destinations? Won't that be better than to let some other airline drive it into the ground?
ReplyDelete@Purger
ReplyDeleteAeroflot is still intrested in purchasing JAT although currently it is caught up with its own expansion program and merger with Rossiya.
All this crap about Turkish (or even Aeroflot) is utter nonsense. As part of the OpenSky agreement Jat cannot be majority owned by a non-EU airline. There is simply nothing else to say about that, all this PR bullsh1t about Turkish being interested is utter nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing is that there is no-one in Serbia to say this publicly.
Air Koryo:
ReplyDeleteAnd what was the reason 3 year ago?
50-60 million USD for Aeroflot is peanuts. Even with its own expansion program.
It''s nice to read the AIRLINERS stories from the 80's .
ReplyDelete