Strategic partnership details revealed
During the week a delegation from Etihad Airways will begin analysing Jat Airways’ business model before signing a memorandum of understanding in Belgrade in two weeks time, the first step in forming a strategic partnership agreement between the two airlines. The agreement is vital for the Serbian carrier as the government has now tied up the airline’s fleet renewal with the strategic partnership with Etihad. If the deal falls through, the airline could face yet another summer without new aircraft, which would have a serious impact on its summer operations.
According to the proposed strategic partnership agreement, Etihad Airways would help Jat lease four Airbus aircraft in June, after which the Serbian carrier would launch daily flights to Abu Dhabi. In cooperation with Air Berlin, flights would be launched to Chicago, via the German capital. Once Serbia is granted a category one rating by the Federal Aviation Administration, expected later this year, with Etihad’s help Jat would launch flights to Chicago and later New York. Finally, according to the strategic partnership agreement, Jat would operate a fleet of 21 aircraft. In return for the investments, Etihad would be granted a 49% stake in the Serbian airline.
If all goes to plan the strategic partnership agreement is expected to be signed in May. Etihad has spent the past few years forming what it describes as an “equity alliance”, which has seen the airline build up stakes in carriers including Air Berlin, Air Seychelles and Virgin Australia. The government owned Etihad in January this year reported that full year net profits for 2012 increased 200% to US$42 million, as it carried more passengers and pushed ahead with strategic alliances with other international carriers. The flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates said revenue increased 17% to US$4.8 billion, while passenger numbers rose 23% to 10.3 million.
Very good April fools joke! You had me there for a second! LOL!
ReplyDeleteLOL!!
DeleteLOL!!!
DeleteI saw today that Jat sales the tickets Belgrade-Girona-Belgrade from 280 Euros and European carriers sale flights Europe-US-Europe(Dublin-NYC-Dublin)from 430 euros. That is joke.
Big LoL! It is all a Balkan fairytale! :)
ReplyDeleteAt ex-yu is the comments limit to 30 comments?
ReplyDeleteNo, there is no limit.
DeleteSO the Arabs will buy JAT 21 new planes in exchange for 49% of their busted-ass airline that has just had $170m of debt hidden by the govt?
ReplyDeleteThey would be better off starting another airline from scratch, at least they wouldn't have to deal with intellectual midgets like Mrkonic.
No, I don’t think they mean they will buy them 21 jets they will just have a total fleet of 21 jets. It includes the current ones meaning they will get around 8 planes (since they already are getting 6 that just another 2).
DeleteThe reason why they won't create a new airline is because JAT has extremely great slots at major European airports. These are very very very lucrative and is the reason JAT cannot change its name.
DeleteI don't understand this concept of lucrative slots.
DeleteIt's an expense that they pay, no?
I understand that there's a trade in airline slots, but it's still an expense.
So, it might have some value in that they could be sold, but it's not "lucrative"
But mostly, I sincerely don't understand what people mean when they talk about this. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
@ doot
Deleteslots are time frames for aircraft to land and depart at certain airports. Airports such as LHR are reaching their capacity and finding 'slots' at these airports are harder to find. hope that helps.
EY last month bought from 9W 3 slots at LHR for USD$70 million. JAT has at LHR 9 slots, maybe more.
yes, I understand that.
DeleteSo, it's an asset that can be sold and has value.
But, it's also an expense to maintain.
So, unless you're selling the company, they're not "lucrative", it's just another bill to pay.
Hahahahaha great topic for 1st of April!! LoL
ReplyDeleteI don't really know if this is some sort of an April joke because b92 reported something similar to this...Lets just hope it isnt haha ;)
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday JAT, all the best for future!
ReplyDelete"Serbian carrier would launch daily flights to Abu Dhabi...". As far as I understand AUH-BEG-AUH daily will be operated by Etihad Airways.
ReplyDeleteHi all and Happy Easter for those who just celebrated.
ReplyDeleteJust my humble opinion of why I think this is just Jat or the Serbian government again just blowing smoke.
First problem I have with this is that the number of aircraft have already been announced, 21. This before Etihad has had a chance to 'analyse' Jats business model thus not really knowing what Jat needs are in terms of number of aircraft so where did the number '21' come from?
Secondly, I fail to see what Etihad could do or gain with Jat which it will not already be able to achieve using Air Berlin that would generate the revenue justifying the investment into Jat.
What I see Etihad trying to do here is to take as much of the Australian / Asia market it can from Belgrade and have it routed via Abu Dhabi and all North America flights via Berlin. Jat and Belgrade might look like an easy target here because there doesn't really seem to be any major alliance agreements with Jat.
Etihad should not do the mistake and mingle Jats business with that of Air Berlin.
ReplyDeleteThis Air Berlin already forced NIKI to cancel the flights to/from Vienna which were really good alternative to Austrian Airlines.
ETIHAD should buy 50% stake and help Jat to get new planes for the already existing routes.
ReplyDeleteBut daily nonstop to Abu Dhabi should be operated by Etihad aircraft.
Only the brand of Etihad can attract pax to skip Turkish Airlines.
Jat first has to change a lot before it can think of operating
to the likes of Abu Dhabi or even places like Chicago or NY.
I like that at least one company sees profit in JAT. That being said, it is interesting to see what Etihad sees in JAT.
ReplyDeleteJAT has excellent slots. Someone talked about this before, and I am not sure if they are a large expense. JAT was one of the first airlines to be created which is why it has such good slots. Etihad could want to use these if it buys out JAT, but I don't think it will with just a 49% stake in the company.
Flights to the US are profitable if the market is right. In the Balkans, majority of people fly out of Germany, France, Italy, or the UK. Etihad could want to use Belgrade as a transfer hub like Uzbekistan Airlines did back in the day. I am not sure Etihad would invest in a widebody airline for JAT to start flights to North America, but I can see Etihad flying out of Belgrade to the US, with JAT codeshares.
Another small but maybe important thing to note is Belgrade's location. It is in the center of Europe and can reach plenty of places yet the Balkans are still a relatively unexploited market when it comes to the air industry. Only Athens, Istanbul, and Budapest offer direct transatlantic flights, and none have a fairly decent transcontinental lines established. Etihad could be using JAT to establish regional control over a new market and steal pax away from Western Europe.
I think JAT only has to gain from this. My view is that both Etihad and JAT want to take regional control of the Balkan market.
Etihad could do with BEG what EK is planning with Athens and Milan:
DeleteUse it as stopover to cities in the US or Canada.
Of course someone said it already why should anybody fly via BEG when he can fly nonstop?
Because these Belgrade flights would simply be for another sort of pax than the nonstop flights.
Chicago/Toronto to BEG leg would be O&D mainly,
while BEG to Abu Dhabi would be for transfering pax to Asia/Australia.
A lot of interesting comments but some things havnt been mentioned which I think would be interesting as well to follow.
ReplyDeleteTo start, JAT has a surplus of crew (both flight deck and cabin crew) which I am sure that the experienced flight deck crew will be transfered to fly on the EY network. Im not sure on EY, but in EK the requirement for flight deck crew is experience in another company. Some of the younger cabin crew could join the EY network and that way reduce the amount of crew in JAT.
JAT Tehnika recently took onto servicing narrow body airbus a/c which I am sure will be serviced in BEG. It is already mentioned that the Y class cabins could be serviced in BEG. Servicing a/c in BEG is cheaper and would reduce costs for EY.
The Emir of Abu Dhabi looking into PKB and other businesses in Serbia could rise the growth of Serbian exports to the UAE, thus boosting the need for cargo being transfered between the 2 countries. This could in turn raise the profitablity of the daily BEG-AUH flights.
JAT have many slots, which are still unused and to airports which EY are having trouble accessing. EY could use JAT to use some of these slots to airports which have restricted the gulf carriers.
As for the transatlantic flights, I can imagine there will either be more regional flights to say SKP and SJJ, with flights to SOF and BUD opening. Something will need to feed the flights. Will be interesting to see what actually happens.
Finally, EY will push for a lot of changes if it takes shares into JAT. The amount of corruption and interferance from the Serbian government into the airline could damage the deal. I wonder if the Dinkic and the Serbian government will back down and agree to what EY says once they force on new changes.
Oh my god Serbian government interference into Etihad business would be a joke!
ReplyDeleteJat will only have a chance with a complete new management with as much foreigners as possible...
Etihad should say a very big N O to every politically appointed looser,parasite,idiot!
And those idiots who are already at Jat should get sacked ...
And if they refuse to go then let Jat die!!
Jat has no chance to say no because they will be dead then ..
i give them two weeks only.