Jat awaits new jets in the summer
Jat Airways has confirmed the lease of new aircraft for the 2013 summer season, after Serbian media finally broke their silence on the ongoing fleet crisis in the carrier. With half of its fleet grounded the airline has been forced to suspend services to Brussels until April 1 and has cut down on its frequencies to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin and Milan. The airline says it will financially lease four Airbus A319 jets, with two arriving in April and the other two in May. According to fleet plans submitted to the task group in charge of restructuring the carrier, which EX-YU Aviation News exclusively revealed last Monday, it has been proposed for Jat to lease two ATR72-500s and two Airbus A319s for arrival in March, while a further two A320s would be leased in May.
The airline says part of its grounded fleet will soon take to the skies again. The Serbian carrier adds that some of its aircraft are on the ground because the government took its time in approving a ten million euro loan the airline intends to take out from the banks. The government gave Jat the green light to take out the loan in December, several months after it originally blocked the carrier from doing so. Jat says it will now use the money for spare parts for its aircraft. However, some of the grounded jets have been permanently taken out of service as the cost of maintaining them has become too expensive. Furthermore, one of the airline’s leased ATR72s is set to return to its owner.
Meanwhile, Jat Airways pilots have sent letters to the Serbian President, Prime Minister and first Deputy Prime Minister urging them to focus more on the carrier and its problems. In its letters the pilots criticise the Serbian Aviation Directorate and its policy of issuing licenses to other airlines without any legal basis. They note that Pegasus Airlines and Turkish Airlines were issued licenses to launch flights to Serbia contrary to the bilateral air agreement the two countries have signed. The agreement, dating back from 1953, is set to be modified with Turkish officials arriving for talks in Belgrade today. Furthermore, the pilots criticised the decision to allow Wizz Air to base an aircraft in Belgrade without registering a company in Serbia. They say such policies have cost the Serbian carrier millions.
RE: Sad story about competition from W6
ReplyDeleteSniff...Sniff...sob, sob...
Does anyone take these JAT articles seriously any more?
ReplyDeleteExactly !!!
DeleteLOl! So jat are scared of one wizz Air aircraft based at Belgrade. Wait till Serbia join the E.U and Serbia will have to allow any European carrier to operate from there! Let's see these leased aircraft joining them, how many times have we heard thisover the years. LOL!!
ReplyDeleteThis policy is already set in place with the signing of the Open Skies agreement. The reason why Turkey is mentioned here is because it is not an EU member and the market between Serbia and Turkey is not liberalized but it is regulated by an air agreement.
DeleteSeriously, why don't some people check the facts before attempting to be smart.
Serbia won't be in the EU for some time (11-12 years at least), so JAT can breathe a sigh of relief. lol
DeleteThis sounds so pathetic, they are in no position to compete with W6. They are largely targeting different people. Jat simply needs more planes and more careful operations management. O&D market to Turkey is not so huge, TK is winning because of transfer pax where JU can't compete...
ReplyDeleteI don't see the lease materialising. Even if it does, it will be an expensive one considering the crew are trained for the B737 ac. Intrested to know how many they intend to train for the Airbus fleet. Not seeing the logic, but its JAT. They could start cost cutting by terminating the contracts of those who don't show up to work but are being paid! But it's JAT - Welcome to Serbia!
ReplyDeleteThey have actually. All pilots who are employed at Jat but are currently working for other airlines across the world have been given 7 days to show up to work or they lose their jobs. And believe me there is a huge number of those pilots.
DeleteConsidering applying for a job, get my a320 type rating and come back to jetstar
DeleteMy comment wasn't directed towards cabin crew or cockpit crew, rather towards those based in the office. However, better cut the contracts of underperforming crew, most of the male crew are lazy, i wish they would prove otherwise!
DeleteI do not know why someone always jump when they mention Wizz Air. It does not have anything to do about competition it has whit law of this country. And according to low it must registrate a company in our country if it wants to operate flights from Belgrade to other destinations.
ReplyDeleteWell if Serbia doesn't want Wizz air, then I'm sure they will gladly take their aircraft elsewhere to make money! Serbia can be left with jat to squander the Serbian citizens taxes!
DeleteHello, sorry for off topic but does anyone knows what happened to Montenegro's F100 4O-AOL? Stored at Podgorica or something? Any good reason? Why it is not sold or something.
ReplyDeleteI think they recently said it is beyond repair so it’s just stored there in TGD.
DeleteHas something happened to it or is too costy to make some kind of check on it to be airworthy?
DeleteYou know what its really interesting that huge number of people suddenly shows up and pretends to know everything acting like they are experts in any parts.Because of then we have bad managementin Jat and we are living in such a '' Great'' country..Just wanted to thank you guys.So funny..Smart people are living country because of them because they know that there will not be a brither future for us
ReplyDeleteJat is stuck in the old times, with old aircraft, with corrupt managememt!
ReplyDeleteha ha @ these silly confused communists.
ReplyDeletenewsflash: an airline (or any business) isn't some sort of social-services agency.
Someone's offering the same service at a better price? Don't cry; improve your service.
Exclusive and just as predicted (even earlier though): FlyDubai shelves Sarajevo launch.
ReplyDeleteThere won't be flights from Sarajevo to Dubai.
At least they've proven to be smart enough to cancel that route before actually launching it and spending gallons of fuel flying an empty plane that far, just as Air Arabia to PRN. Just as i said, the SJJ line would have eventually worked only in combination with BEG.
Could Skopje be the next? How often do they fly to there anyway?
DeleteIt is really a question of time for how long TK, PC and FZ can all fly from SKP before one decides to pull out... Most likely it'll be FZ.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteFrom 1st June to end of october, FLYDUBAI 3 times weekly from SKP to Dubai !!! :)) Don't worry be happy !! Best wishes from MACEDONIA !!
DeleteMacedonia, greetings from Belgrade. Good done.
DeleteFZ cancelled on SJJ because of crew limitations. I am surprised how they can still keep BEG, its one very long turn around for them and would hate to be in their possition. Would be nice for JAT to get its act together and offer real connections to ex-YU cities to connect these flights and stimulate some growth in their regional network and transfer pax.
DeleteDon't "worry" it won't be the next! SKP has LF of 60% which is far better than BEG's in the 3rd month of operation+ 40 min. less flying time! Services operates 2 times a week.
ReplyDeleteNot true, after three months in Belgrade flydubai had already announced additional frequencies. So I fail to see where your argument comes from.
DeleteYes, Shkup has a really nice connection, cuz it also draws ppl from Prishtine
DeleteI'm surprised the SJJ- dubai route has been cancelled. I thought Sarajevo was going to be a major transit hub of the balkans with JA playing a major part with it's European network!
ReplyDeleteAs long this is a rumour I believe nothing!
ReplyDeleteBut i wouldnt be surprised if,because SJJ is a Turkish Airlines stronghold.
And TK will defend it no doubt of it!
How embarising that we get so excited over the lease of maybe 4 planes!
ReplyDeleteEven one aircraft would cause major celebrations!
DeleteHey, aviokarta.net has just announced Easyjet's flights Belgrade-Milan Malpensa! WOW ! Congratulations !
ReplyDeleteSeems Russia is opening its air space. Easyjet's flights DME-LGW are on sale. Obviously Easyjet is moving eastwards.
DeleteGreat news! Hope to see flights to Geneve, Barcelona and London soon
DeleteThat's great!
DeleteI hope they do Geneva too!
+1 for Geneva :) Couldn't resist... Cheers from Lac Leman!
DeleteBut JAT's pilots will obviously be against Easyjet's coming in Belgrade. EX-YU,could you inform us, will they fight against Easyjet as they do against Wizz and everybody else ?
DeleteYeah, right. I don't think so. If Air One didn't succeed for barely 3 months, then why would they want to launch this? Besides Wizzair could have reacted faster. Malpensa airport is no longer one of easyJet's priorities.
DeleteWRONG ! Are you kidding ? Malpensa is Easyjet's very top priority ! Nearly 50 destinations ! The biggest base outside UK.
Deleteair one had a terrible schedule
DeleteJAT's pilots have no say in who should be granted rights to fly to any city in Serbia. Serbia as a 'democratic' country signed the open skies with the EU member states and for easyJet it shouldn't be a problem to get rights for the flights. If JAT crew were that concerned about their job then they should behave like they do and not attack pax on their flights with arrogance and laziness!
DeleteAnd from where the hell will the Serbian Gov't get all this money from?? What about the tonnes of scheduled flights for summer 2013? They have LHR, LGW, VIE....it's time for Croatia Airlines to react and buy JAT fast!!
ReplyDeleteOU isn't gonna touch that piece of junk! No-one is! I don't understand why the Serbian government doesn't do the best thing and bankrupt jat and put it to it's grave for good and then set up a new line. Such as Air Serbia or something decent with new aircraft, but not the rusty old metal from jat!
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia??? No! It can be Serbian Airlines or SerbAir or Srpski Air...but, you are right!
DeleteYes, that's a great idea. All they need to do is start over with a fleet of new planes and voila!
DeleteThey should hire you for the CEO!
Bankrupting JAT and starting fresh will jepordise valuable slots they currently have at airports like LHR, which are probably worth more than the airline. Serbian government have been granting the airline loans for the costly maintenance of the B733's (engine overhaul, twice for new interiors, spare parts) I am sure they can grant cash for the lease of a new fleet of 15 ac for 5 years! OU has its own market to focus and strenghten and their own debts nicely mentioned by purger in his earlier posts. Changing the name of an airline doesn't mean much, as seen with Helios Airlines from Cyprus after their traggic crash near ATH who went bust after being rebranded as Alpha Jet i believe the name was.
DeleteThere are boring news items and then there are Jat boring-beyond-belief non-news items. There must be something more interesting happening in the Balkans, surely, surely!
ReplyDeleteOnly four times the week from Belgrade to Dubai in summer...
ReplyDeleteactually a decrease of frequency in comparison to last summer.
Wasnt there talk about six times weekly?Obviously Belgrade is not as succesful as thought as destination for FZ.
Let's wait for schedules to come out. The Sheikh of Abu Dhabi was in Belgrade holding talks of extended trade with Serbia regarding Serbian exports and business, maybe something could materialise such as needing flights for cargo capacity.
DeleteDon't forget QR's arrival in the mean-time, which is cheaper than FZ to the Gulf btw...
ReplyDelete