New Embraer jet for Montenegro Airlines
Montenegro Airlines will expand its fleet within the next few years and plans to position itself on new markets. Earlier this year the Montenegrin national airline revealed it would purchase new aircraft in an attempt to counter its financial woes. The airline’s Commercial Director, Vladimir Ristić, says that the airline will take delivery of a new Embraer jet in 2013, to complement its existing fleet of 3 Embraer E190s and 5 aging Fokker F100s. “Our negotiations are entering the final phase and we plan to put an order in soon”, Ristić said, referring to the new aircraft. Currently 7 out of the 8 aircraft are in use as one of the F100s has been grounded for some time.
The airline is also planning ahead for the Open Sky agreement with Europe, which will come into effect in 2 to 3 years. The agreement will allow foreign airlines to be granted licenses to operate to Montenegro more easily. Ristić emphasized Serbia and Russia as the airline’s two main markets but also added that Montenegro Airlines plans to expand. This summer the airline was not granted a license to operate charters from Belgrade to Palma de Mallorca and Greek holiday destinations. It also failed to secure a license from Swiss authorities to operate direct flights from Niš to Zurich. However, the airline is not giving up and plans to offer direct flights from Niš to other European cities other than Podgorica.
During this winter season Montenegro Airlines plans to wet lease one of its Fokkers to Belle Air, which is based in Tirana. Montenegro Airlines will operate on behalf of the Albanian airline with Montenegrin cabin crew, pilots and technicians taking care of the aircraft.
Let's hope they have more luck with expansion, we all remember how their London route went. Didn't they have like 5 pax per flight?
ReplyDeleteExpansion, right, because Belgrade isn't already flooded with carriers. If they want to expand from Nis, fantastic, otherwise, you can't piggyback through Belgrade against fierce competition.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if Montenegro Airlines is planning to launch direct flights between Kiev and Podgorica? From what I recall, Montenegro and Ukraine signed an MOU in May this year allowing for direct flights betwen Kiev and Podgorica to be operated by Ukrainian and Montenegrin airlines. Seems kind of a waste for Montenegro Airlines not to reap the profits from this, given the fact that summer charters between KBP and TIV -- operated by Khors Airlines, Windrose, Ukraine International, and other Ukrainian charter flight operators -- are all packed.
ReplyDeleteisnt that too much aircrafts for the destiantions they are flying?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you repeat the same story about Montenegro Airlines again, just in a few days????????
ReplyDeleteThis news hasn't been posted before.
ReplyDeleteTO sydney : belgrade flooded with carriers ?
ReplyDeleteNo Tap,iberia ,klm ,air malta, air cyprus .no single british airline ,no sas,finnair ,brussels national.
Not a single connection to
Madrid ,hamburg,
monopoly of jat on dusseldorf, berlin ,milan
and so on and on...
that you call to much ?!
Last anonymous,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you misspelled most of the carriers on that list.
Second of all, relative to its size Belgrade is flooded. If you look at it from the perspective that Belgrade has almost 3,000,000 passengers and almost 30 airlines, then yes, Belgrade is flooded.
On a side note, I do not see why you mention Dusseldorf when the starting price on Jat is 115 Euros tax included.
Please,
ReplyDeleteif you call belgrade flooded
than you mean it is too much!
Which also means...
we dont want more!
Relative to its size....
look every second rate airport in europe and its passenger numbers :
Brussels charleroi : more than 5 mio...for a second airport !
venice ,oslo...the list goes on..
belgrade is 3-4 times bigger than those cities...but has less pax !
Maybe you should stage a protest
against to much flights and passengers !
Duesseldorf is NOT monopolized by Jat, since there is indirect competition by Wizzair to Dortmund (only 120km from DUS). Dortmund airport can be reached easily cause train is fast and cheap. This is the reason, why Jat´s DUS prices start from 115 EUR :)
ReplyDeleteGotta correct myself. Distance between DUS and DTM only 85 km!
ReplyDeleteDear JU361
ReplyDeleteI`m a business person
and don`t want to spend my time with train,bus or taxi rides.
Those are all extra expenditures
and what is most important...
i will loose time !
Nothing against Jat but i want direct competition at Düsseldorf airport!
I would like to fly with NIKI
to Belgrade...
because Niki already flies from Düsseldorf !
Have a nice day !
Serbia should allow Montenegro airlines, to use beograde airport.
ReplyDeleteYou have enugh routes and citys,
nobody wants to fly there.
Yes, its Hamburg and Medrid.But Serbian people dont want to fly there...why?Serbs dont want fly to Hamburg?
I think they want to go by feet there ?
To the anonymous business man:
ReplyDeleteWell if you are a business and not a leisure traveler, then you wont have any problem with paying for business class... So I dont get your point.
PRAGuc
ReplyDeleteWell said.
Remember Ryanair at Montenegrian sky in 2012. They sign contract with Montenegrian State about minimum passenger they should handle out of season.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion it will be in 2012 approximately 200 000 on season and 60 000 of-season passengers transport by Ryanair.
The problem with Ryanair is that they are an EXTREMELY unreliable partner for any region wishing to improve inbound traffic. Their negotiation practice is often perceived as something close to extortion – as long as you satisfy their insatiable hunger for hidden subsidies (“promotional campaigns”) and airport tax/fee cuts, everything is fine.
ReplyDeleteBut millions of euros later, the moment you say “now we helped you enough to continue on your own” they just close down or heavily cut back operations.
So first they expel long standing carriers on which local tourism has relied on, then they create a short-lived boom and finally you either pay or face disaster.
Of course, cheap flights are good to stimulate tourism (depending on the local tourism business development model), but either there is a very clear strategy about long term air connectivity and the desired mix of operators, or Ryanair can pretty much complicate things in the long term.
Said that.
Damien!
ReplyDeleteYour post is the best one i have ever read on this blog !
MGX would give everything for flying from Beg, they need to expand with their fleet...they re trying year after year, charter or schedule flights, whatever! Their no 1 destination from both TIV and TGD is BEG and almost half of their total pax figures are made there!
ReplyDeleteThey are probably getting signals from the Montenegrin government that the subsidies are not going to last for that long and that they need to figure out a way to make a profit.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for them, the business they would get in Belgrade would be low yielding VFR and charter traffic.
However, makes me think, with Atlasjet and Pegasus both operating high capacity aircraft (A321 and B737-800) makes me wonder how much space would there be for them there.
Flight from Nis of Montenegro Airlines is full this summer.
ReplyDeleteBravo for South Serbia !!!
load factor 80-95 %
Why don`t they let Montenegro Airlines fly from Belgrade ?
ReplyDeleteObviously there are enough possibilities and routes ,which were never fully used or explored
( i don`t want to repeat those destinations because they were already mentioned 100times before!).
No single Serbian taxpayer would be bothered so ...why not?!
Let them try their luck...LET THE MARKET DECIDE ...not the politicians !