Prompt lease of two 737-800s for Jat
The TangoSix portal has reported that on Wednesday Jat Airways began procedures for the lease of two Boeing 737-800s, as the government plans a ten million euro cash injection into the carrier. According to the portal’s sources, the airline will resume services to Dubai, a profitable route suspended without explanation last year. The leased aircraft will also be deployed to other popular routes, including Paris. The French Civil Aviation Authority has come down on Jat in recent months, unhappy that the carrier is sending old aircraft to the French capital. Only two of Jat’s youngest B737-300s in operation are sent to Charles de Gaulle.The Serbian national carrier, which will use 2.5 million euros for the lease of the aircraft, originally intended to lease one jet of the type, currently based in Romania, which was to arrive by May 1. However, ultimately the jet did not satisfy the airline’s needs. According to TangoSix, Jat has now requested a broker house, which it cooperates with, to find two available aircraft of the type for an immediate dry lease.
It is not the first time the Serbian carrier has wanted to lease aircraft in recent years. In 2009, all was set for the lease of two Boeing 737-700 jets from AeroMexico. However, in the end the then CEO, Srdjan Radovanović, inexplicably cancelled all plans. Since politics plays an integral part in the running of Jat, the airline might not have received the all clear from the government at the time. However, with elections less than a month away and the current administration’s two failed attempts to privatise the carrier (2008 and 2011) there is much to gain from good publicity.
If this is a deliberate positioning ploy before serious Airbus negotiations where they in fact take x amount of A32S aircraft, they've played their hand *very* poorly. I have no doubt Airbus would surely have found a few 'spare' aircraft for them to lease!?
ReplyDeleteIf this is the sign to Airbus that they aren't interested and are willing to have a lawsuit brought against them, it takes 'French arrogance' to a whole new level and should be commended!
Either way, we all know the airline desperately needs to modernise the fleet...
serbian politics is terrible... in this banana country, everything is politics and theft..
ReplyDeleteI will believe this when the aircraft land in BEG. I think the B738 might be a bit too big for JAT's current needs. JAT isnt the only airline to supposedly get new aircraft, Aviogenex is also supposed to receive a B734 this summer.
ReplyDeleteAs for the French thing, I think its quite hypocritical that it was ok for 40+ y/o Concorde's to fly out of CDG yet theyre unhappy with JAT's B733's? I dont doubt that JAT is operating one of the oldest a/c's out of CDG, but I dont think theyre the oldest.
The DXB thing would be great to see, ONLY if JAT is able to perform the flights non stop and a minimum of 4 p/w. FZ has shown that there is demand for O&D traffic on the route, and if only there was proper conections in DXB to EK flights, they would perform much better. Lets just wait and see.
A couple of 737-800 can be utilized quite fine on high profile routes like London, Paris, Moscow, and would also help relaunch Dubai, this time directly.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they are aware that bulk of the JU's "European" fleet should be based on -700 variant or equivalent, or ideally 100 seaters like C series.
Hope this materializes as it would really be a step forward.
It seems like that AGX has today taken Sun Adria's F100.
ReplyDelete13.04.2012 arrival:
AGX901 landed in BEG from ZAG at 0708 with an F100.
seems like the B732 is off for maintenance?
its in Chad.
DeleteWhos F100 did AGX take from ZAG? I remember seeing Sun Adira's F100 in Senegal last year :)
DeletePuste ZELJE i OBECANJA.......
ReplyDeletei prefer A319 or A320 more than 738
ReplyDeleteYou mean A321 rather than 738? A 319/320 is pretty same crap as B733/734. A321 is the only decent plane out there among the narrow-bodies.
ReplyDeleteThis is really a step forward if it happens, which I doubt the most..
ReplyDeleteBtw. B737NG are great planes!Much better than the A319/320/321 family!
And yet JU's flight crews, mechanics and technic can more easily accomodate to B737NG than to Airbus family
I support the idea for JU to lease these aircraft, it will increase capacity on busy routes, while also decrease the cost for maintenance relative to its existing fleet. Perhaps this approach can be used for phasing out the entire Boeing 737-300 fleet.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I also feel that the move is politically motivated. Elections are near, and the current ruling party has not resolved the issues with Jat Airways - hence they will simply throw money at the issue and acquire new planes as the solution. As we all know - new planes will not resolve all the problems at Jat.
Seriously, there isn't any need to launch direct BEG-LED? Or JU and SU prefer to keep it this way so they have the highest load-factors on BEG-SVO?
ReplyDeletefrench authorities? too old?
ReplyDeletethese little french fries ever took a look at AFs old 320s? this is ridiculous...