Dane Kondić named Jat Airways’ new CEO
The Jat Airways Joint Stock Assembly yesterday approved the endorsement of the Serbian government to name Dane Kondić as the new CEO and President of the airline, relieving acting CEO Velibor Vukašinović of his duties. Mr. Kondić, who will head Jat through its transitional period over the next month and a half before taking on the role of CEO of Air Serbia, has outlined the airline’s goals over the next few years, with the short term objectives being new aircraft and new routes as well as joint training, procurement, sales and marketing with Etihad Airways. Mr. Kondić (48), was born in Sydney to Serbian parents. He graduated economics at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and started his career with Qantas before becoming the General Manager of Worldwide Sales for Malaysia Airlines. He subsequently moved to take on the challenge of managing a tour operator, and was heading the North Asia region for a major wholesaler, based in Hong Kong before taking up a position at Etihad Airways. Mr. Kondić becomes the first non political appointment to head the airline since the Jat brand was launched 66 years ago.
Velibor Vukašinović who served as Jat Airways’ acting CEO since May 8, 2013 can be credited for managing to return most of Jat’s fleet to the sky. Mr. Vukašinović took over the airline when only seven aircraft were in operation. By leasing a further four aircraft the airline is now operating a fleet of fifteen. During that time the carrier has seen its passenger numbers improve and losses reduce. In his farewell address yesterday to all of Jat’s employees Mr. Vukašinović said amongst other thing, “I would like to thank you all for your cooperation and the results we have achieved in very harsh conditions. It has been an honour and pleasure to lead such a group of professionals, excellent workers and even better people who have managed to save the Serbian national carrier despite all the wars, sanctions, bombing, poverty and bad political influences which have all deeply reflected on the airline. You should be proud that nothing could break your spirits and that every time the airline rose like the phoenix from the ashes”. Mr. Vukašinović wished Jat all the best in its next chapter.
As the official launch date of the rebranded Serbian national carrier approaches on October 27, the airline is preparing to put up for sale its first tickets according to its revised timetable. Yesterday the airline ran test by temporarily adding revised flight times, fares and equipment to global distribution systems such as Monastir for the summer of 2014 Today, Air Serbia is organising yet another round of crew casting and is also hiring in flight chefs as part of its new in flight dining concept.
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UPDATE
Air Serbia has begun adding its winter 2013/14 flight schedule to global reservation systems and are now available for view. The flights will be added throughout the day today and tomorrow. Also added are new flights to Ljubljana, Bucharest, Banja Luka and Prague. As can be noted the flight times and numbers correspond to the ones exclusively revealed by EX-YU Aviation News several weeks ago.
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Well indeed, does anyone know something about financial results of Jat for first half of this year, they always speak about LF, number of passengers etc. I have not seen a single word on this subject ever and anywhere. How much have that cost ?
ReplyDeleteAs of 16 April 2014, Finnair will operate its A321 with Sharklets from Helsinki to Dubrovnik. It will operate every Wednesday and it will have 8 sets in business class and 193 in economy.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to add the flights on the side as future routes launched here is the full schedule. The schedule is valid for the period 26 June 2014 to 07 August 2014.
AY181 HEL0810 – 1010DBV 320 156
AY183 HEL0815 – 1010DBV 320 2
AY181 HEL1655 – 1855DBV 32B 3
AY183 HEL1655 – 1855DBV 320 4
AY182 DBV1100 – 1500HEL 320 156
AY184 DBV1100 – 1500HEL 320 2
AY182 DBV1940 – 2340HEL 32B 3
AY184 DBV1955 – 2355HEL 320 4
"...in flight chefs as part of its new in flight dining concept"... THAT, I did not expect. It does seem Air Serbia will be offering the best service in Euro-Mediterranean flights. Wow!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Mr. Kondic. Let's hope that a new, better era, is starting for Jat (or Air Serbia that is).
ReplyDelete"Velibor Vukašinović who served as Jat Airways’ acting CEO since May 8, 2013 can be credited for managing to return most of Jat’s fleet to the sky. Mr. Vukašinović took over the airline when only seven aircraft were in operation."
ReplyDeleteThis is somehow unfair to say without two additional comments. First of all, there were 7 aircrafts used, but some other were on a regular mechanical check up and were subsequently introduced as schedualed by the old management. So it was not due to Vukasinovic. And secons: the leasing of additional aircrafts waas also planed by the previous management - what they did lack is the governamts support, since they were appointed before Mr. Vucic and SNS took over the government. Once the SNS put their manager - Vukasinovic, the government has allowed the leasing.
After all there is nothing what Vukasinovic should be aknowladged for. As the metter of fact, he has tried to stop and sabotage the takeover of JAT by Etihad. - All the details of Company´s business and potential were provided to Etihad prior to Vukasiunovc by old management, and it is the old management wtaht ist to be aknowladged for Etihad deal.
AS far Mr Kondic is concerned, I just hope that he will soon realize, that Sernoam community in AUstralia is living in a kind of virtual far-tale-reality regarding the Serbian state and tradition, and he will be not able to put a powerful leader in the Balkan region without that "srbovanje" typical for Serbian emmigrants. Afterall, less idilic srbovanje, more competence in Serbian language would be fine for the start.
*AS far Mr Kondic is concerned, I just hope that he will soon realize, that Serbian community in AUstralia is living in a kind of virtual farry-tale-reality regarding the Serbian state and tradition, and he will be not able to put a powerful leader in the Balkan region with all that "srbovanje" typical for Serbian emmigrants. Afterall, less idilic srbovanje, more competence in Serbian language would be fine for the start.
DeleteOgnjenovic had 3 years to lease aircraft while his party was leading the government. He did nothing. Too much time spent in cafes.
DeleteAgree about Vukasinovic. A big negative point about him is the deal with Bulgaria Air. I am very surprised that Vucic (Sinisa Mali) closed his eyes and ignored the leasing of those aircrafts.
DeleteAnd, once more, we have the Etihad-deal thanks to Vucic and Dinkic and not Ognjenovic or Vukasinovic...
More like thanks to Vucic. Dinkic was just there to techically help finish the deal, he was not the one who made the deal itself.
DeleteTo anonymous at 12.55 - you are such a fuckwit ! You have had native Serbian speaking leadership since day 1 and look at the results they have to show for it _ simply awesome. What you need is professional airline people leading this airline out of the mess that these people lead it into .... Whether you speak Serbian or Swahili, makes no difference at all ...
Delete+1
DeleteKind of related to the above first anonymous comment... I was speaking to a Serb colleague at work today who just got back from Serbia where he told me he had to hire CROATIANS to do the renovations he planned on his house in Belgrade because Serbs were very unhelpful because he was from Australia. Example he gave were, paying up front and not getting material delivered, and workers doing nothing for an entire week. He said they kept commenting about him being a 'stranace'. In the end he hired on old friend from Croatia.
DeleteAlso, I said next time you can fly direct with one stop via Abu Dhabi, He replied by not wanting to fly with Arabs and his first choice is Qantas or LH. lol.
Kondic might have his work cup out for him.
He did not hire Croatians because they are better or more grateful but because his friend is from there. If his friend was Mongolian it would have been the same thing.
DeleteSerbian and Croatian mentality is very similar and there are very few differences between the two people. Unfortunately some politicians like to change that so as to suit their own personal agenda.
Da li bi danas izglasane mogucnosti ponovnog uvodjenja viza od strane EU za gradjane Srbije, mogle uticati na ambiciozne planove Air Serbia?
ReplyDeleteИзгласан је механизам, Србија је далеко од увођења виза зато што се неколико чланица држава супроствља томе. Тако да смо на сигурном.
DeleteNije nekoliko vec vecina zemalja EU je protiv uvodjenja viza za Srbiju narocito kada krenu pregovori o prikljucivanju u januaru.
Delete@DusanSeptember 12, 2013 at 2:36 PM
DeleteIndividual EU members can introduce visa unilaterally for non EU citizens, without EU having a say. Also EU accession talks take long time, under new system it can last minimum of 10 years, but normally longer, 12 years would be a norm under new enlargement process, this is if all goes well, if not.
EU would prefer to have Serbia, Albania and Bosnia join in the same group, for obvious reasons, we'll see how things go.
Sorry, you can't compare Serbia and Bosnia, what about Macedonia??
DeleteYes,Serbia will enter together with Macedonia,Albania and Bosnia and also Kosovo.
DeleteSerbia has to recognize K.independence first...
not official but you know its fact.Dont think this will a problem in long term,The problem will be Greece(and Cyprus)
will not recognize entering Macedonia because of the name dispute.
Sorry forthis offtopic.
'Individual EU members can introduce visa unilaterally for non EU citizens, without EU having a say.'
DeleteNO! They can not do that! Can you please inform yourself before posting false information. The only ones that can do this are those which are not in the Schengen agreement and none besides the UK has them in place.
@DusanSeptember 12, 2013 at 3:12 PM
DeleteNobody is, but situation is quite delicate in the region that issue should Serbia become an EU member and than use its veto or w/e to block Kosovo, Albania or even Bosnia to further progress is one issue that bothers many with in the EU, of course EU could ask Serbia to agree not to block these nations progressing but there could be a number of reasons Serbia could still impose its veto not based on political but on "economic grounds".
Fine example of Greece and Macedonia fiasco,
Something EU truly wants to avoid in future.
Montenegro might join on its own, but even that hands in the balance now. Germany made it clear that they rather slow down EU enlargement process for a while, and this is what EU is doing now, they want to first deal with issue of other EE countries that have joined the EU and once they're economically more able, EU would be able to absorb new members easier.
Dutch, French, Danes, Swedes and Belgians are also inclined for postponing EU expansion for a decade of two.
Only The UK, Italy and Finland are for status Q, with UK promoting Turkish EU membership to which almost all western EU members oppose.
*hangs in the balance
DeleteIt would be funny for EU to have negotiation process with one country which citizens would need visas ....so funny for EU, not for Serbia.I was Euro-fanatic and i am changing my opinion very fast...i am Etihad fanatic now....:)
ReplyDeleteI read about it and the news are very vague.
DeleteObviously a member of the EU can ask the comission to temporary introduce visa-regime for five countries-
Serbia,Montenegro,Bosnia,Macedonia and Albania-
up to two months.
But as the comission has the last say it is very unlikely they will do anything.
It seems to me that now introduction of visa would even become more difficult in future.
Who knows,the whole EU is contradicting itself...
maybe its better to ignore their messy ways of doing things?!
@DusanSeptember 12, 2013 at 3:09 PM
DeleteIt all depends who is asking for visa-reintroduction, was it Germany ???
if it was Germany than its likely to have some credence and support among western members of the EU, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden even France. If it was the UK, than it will be only UK's decision to make, for UK isn't in the Schengen and has independent immigration policy.
So you got to look at who is proposing visa restrictions and why !?
If it has to do with large asylum seeker influx than it might be an issue for Serbia to sort out quickly.
Mostly asylum seekers from Serbia are Rom people and Albanians from the south with Serbian passports, that is the fact.So what to do with them?? They have they human rights too as all other nations who live in Serbia.
DeleteIt is not Serbias fault that the immigration bureaucracy of EU-countries is so incompetent.
DeleteEven if your asylum request will have a negative outcome you get shelter and medical assistance for half a year guaranteed!
A lot of people who have no health insurance apply for asylum to get free medical treatment and free housing in cold winters .
When the law of this countries do allow this all they can not
blame Serbia and Albania for it.
Btw: Marrying in Belgium is en vogue by Gypsies from Serbia and Macedonia -
the Belgian state pays up to 90 per cent for"humanitarian reasons".
; )
@DusanSeptember 12, 2013 at 7:07 PM
Deleteperhaps there are bigger issues than just few Roma and Albanians trying to leave, there are issues at home that need to be addressed, equality, human rights, including employment rights, rights to education and social equality.
Perhaps Serbia needs to work on this to encourage less Albanian and Roma leaving and trying to apply for asylum elsewhere.
Address the concerns, and try to find a solution that would benefit all minorities in a long term, provide them with economic freedom all Serbs enjoy, i.e jobs, housing, education, helathcare and other benefits state provides.
And no i am not talking handouts, but more of encouraging young Albanians and roma access to education, jobs and social life so they're not stigmatized and seen as 2nd or a 3rd class citizens.
This is what the EU is all about btw.
Remember was it last year when gay pride was viscously attacked by Serb Radicals, with 2 French nationals and gay activist ending on a life support and police doing nothing to protect the protesters, the whole culture must change in Serbia, it is too balkanized and too backward in its traditions, we live in a 21st century now, its time for people to accept other cultures and lifestyles.
Aquila non capit muscas
Delete@ Anonymous at 8:11 PM
Delete"Address the concerns, and try to find a solution that would benefit all minorities in a long term, provide them with economic freedom all Serbs enjoy, i.e jobs, housing, education, helathcare and other benefits state provides. And no i am not talking handouts, but more of encouraging young Albanians and roma access to education, jobs and social life so they're not stigmatized and seen as 2nd or a 3rd class citizens".
Are you serious? As you may or may not know, education and healthcare in Serbia are free. The Albanian community, just like most communities have: education in their mother tongue, media and information in their mother tongue, the right to work in the local self-governments, etc. The fact that they decide not to speak Serbian, thus making it impossible to work in the local self-government is another issue. If they boycott anything Serbian (2011 census, for example), it is not Serbia's fault, but rather of the Albanian politicians. The economic situation in Serbia is bad, regardless of whether you are Albanian, Serbian, Roma, Hungarian. Please stop blaming everything on the Serbs.
And with the Roma, there are steps the Serbian government is taking to change the situation, introducing positive discrimnation measures, for example the number of Roma students at Universities.
Cheers
Yes....BEG-LJU-BEG 102 Euros
ReplyDeleteWhere did u get that price?
DeleteTnx
http://www.momondo.com/multicity/?Search=true&TripType=return&SegNo=2&SO0=BEG&SD0=LJU&SDP0=11-12-2013&SO1=LJU&SD1=BEG&SDP1=13-12-2013&AD=1&TK=ECO&DO=false&NA=false#Search=true&TripType=return&SegNo=2&SO0=BEG&SD0=LJU&SDP0=11-12-2013&SO1=LJU&SD1=BEG&SDP1=13-12-2013&AD=1&TK=ECO&DO=false&NA=false
ReplyDeleteIt was 102 Euros, now it is more expencive, maybe it was mistake
?
ReplyDelete18632 RSD is not 102 EUR..
As i said, it was written 102, now it is 142, that is all
Deletesry, i had problems with posting my comment.. in the end my question came a little bit late :)
Deletei see 94€ now
DeleteMonastir was also €204 at first and then it dropped to €188. I am sure these are not the final prices u they are just testing the system. Still, it is finally happening.
ReplyDeleteAthens has been loaded too. One daily flight but the flight number has been revised. €179 is the price.
ReplyDeleteI think that's their default one for the time being.
http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Drustvo/405017/Er-Srbija-najavljuje-nove-linije-i-obnovu-flote
ReplyDeleteSo, they're possibly going for 8 Airbus A319 + 2 A320. Not bad at all.
DeleteFor me , the most interesting thing in this statement of mr Kondic was that they would consider buying Bombardier CS 300....94-104 pax...maybe instead of ATRs
DeleteDusan, where did you get that?
Deletehttp://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Ekonomija/Er-Srbija-najavljuje-nove-linije-vise-letova-i-aviona.lt.html
DeleteDruga faza u obnovi flote Air Serbia-e biće nabavka novih aviona putem javnog tendera 2016. godine, a tipovi aviona koji su planirani su: Erbas A320NEO, Boing 737 MAX i Bombardie CS300, koji su ekonomski mnogo efikasniji od dosadšnjih tipova vazduhoplova, ali su i po ekološkim standardima daleko savremeniji, navedeno je u saopštenju Er Srbije.
DeleteCS300 is a A320NEO/737MAX competitor, but all of that depends on what Etihad wants really. They won't buy 10 CS300s if they're buying 200 A320 NEOs. They'll want to maximize their negotiating leverage.
Deleteprecisely. CS300 is 320/737 competitor. bu ti wouldn't go with them for Air Serbia. especially since Etihad has good relations with both Airbus and Boeing. i would purchase CSeries for AGX, for they could have a good use of them (all economy makes CS100 110 and CS300 135 pax)
DeleteFor Istanbul, they added Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) instead of Ataturk (IST) for JU552/553. Perhaps there shall be more fine-tuning... or surprises ;)
ReplyDeleteIf it all comes like predicted this will be fantastic news for all the region. Really proud to see the progress is made in Belgrad. As a real ex YU I m so happy for all the people who will have the advantage to fly or work with JU. Lets keep fingers crossed that all our dreams come true
ReplyDeletepozdrav fm ZRH
For January Jat has Istanbul double daily:
ReplyDeleteJU 552 to SAW 12.50-15.25 //
JU 420 to IST 14.25-17.45 //
€127
I believe this is just a temporary error. There will be no double daily flights to IST, nor will the JU420 code for IST flights be kept. On many destinations we still have double codes and flight times. Im sure they will sort everything out, quickly... we shall see whether IST is swapped for SAW.
Delete5-6 daily flights to IST, too much..Turkish, Pegasus and Air Serbia, it will be the war for passengers
DeleteIt must be mistake again....
DeleteWell thank you EX-yu for giving us so much info on Air Serbia before it became official today. The flights number, destinations, times… Really appreciate it :)
ReplyDeleteSo far on JU's website we can see the following changes:
ReplyDeleteAMS from 7 to 11 weekly.
dep. 08.15 and 18.05
Athens, 12 weekly
dep. daily at 12.50 or 13.30 with B733. Other routes are the same.
Vienna stayed 2 daily but flight times are different. 600/604
Bucharest, daily departures at 13.30
IST SAW was added as a daily flight with a B733
LJU daily flight added
Milan JU 544 flight added, 3 times per week at 18.40
Moscow SVO
daily departure at 23.45 as JU 656
three weekly at 17.05 as JU 654
four weekly at 06.45 as JU 650
Now we know why the Moscow codes were odd
TGD
four weekly at 07.20 JU 170
four weekly at 18.50 as JU 174
other frequencies remain the same
FCO
three new weekly frequencies added
07.45 as JU 530
SJJ DOUBLE DAILY FLIGHTS WITH ATR 72
AT 14.10 (733) and 20.50 (ATR) JU 112 and JU 108
SKP nine weekly flights
two weekly at 16.05 atr
5 weekly at 21.30 atr
two weekly at 21.45 733
SKG daily A319 at 13.50
Stockholm
4 weekly 06.45 a319 JU 410
3 weekly 17.35 a319 JU 414
TLV three weekly at 14.25 a JU 812
TIV daily at 14.10 JU 182
three weekly 08.10 JU 180
These are all for January 2014. I am sure more changes will follow however there are some interesting ones.
One can fly from TLV to SVO in January via Belgrade for just €406! Damn...
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy about new ZRH-times!!! Amazing...
ReplyDeleteI doubt all will stay. They seem to be adding new flights first and then remove the old ones.
ReplyDelete"SJJ DOUBLE DAILY FLIGHTS WITH ATR 72"
Nope, only JU112 will remain at 14.10. JU108 should be removed.
SKP should also have 21:45 departure dropped. There will be no overnights on airports other than BEG.
AMS 262/263 will be erased, only new flights with new numbers will be operated. 7 times a week.
It is good that they are not going head to head with Aeroflot to Moscow, moved the daily flight to midnight departure and adding two more options with perspective of going 21pw. Similar flight times to those used in the `80s.
But, they seem to be going head-to-head with Montenegro to Podgorica... How cruel ;)
But what's strange is that these flights are in the booking system already. Why would they link the flights that are to go with these new ones? Doesn't make sense.
DeleteI believe the system does it automatically. It has available flights at hand, minimum connecting times in BEG and fares for the complete flight, ie TLV-SVO (via BEG). So it just mix and match what is available at the moment.
DeleteThey already started with erasing the old flights. ZRH-flights are loaded with 7.20 morning departure and (mostly) 19.05 evening departure (on some days +/- 30min)...
DeleteAre you sure? I'm now only seeing the morning flight JU 370/371, whose timing is great. You can make it from western Switzerland (even from Geneva) and it's perfect for extending weekend trip to BEG until Monday morning for people who work in the Zurich area... I hope JU 372/373 is close to the old 330/331 (which I believe are what you're referring to in the post above)
DeleteLook at 27OCT until 01NOV. For those days, they already loaded JU 374/375. And in all cases, except 30OCT, it is departing ZRH at 21.20. I guess that the standard evening departure will be 18.40 from BEG and 21.20 from ZRH (and that it will stay all year round).
DeleteI live and work in ZRH-city and the new timetable is perfect for me. I travel all 2, 3 weeks to Serbia and always choose the evening flights. And JU331 at 16.10 from BEG to ZRH was just too early for me. 18.40 or 19.05 is much much better.
The morning flight is also great, but not the much different to the old one (JU332/333). They just tried to optimize the timetable for business people. Now you can take the 7.20-flight in BEG, arrive in ZRH at 09.10, spend the whole day there and take the flight back some 12 hours later at 21.20. Not bad at all...
@SuisseOuest: Now everything for ZRH should be loaded. But it seems that it's going to be only 12 weekly with Saturday only morning and Sunday only evening... until January. And from January 2014 it will become a double daily service. Great news for ZRH!
DeleteI couldn't agree more with both of you! I liked JU 330/331, but JU 374/375 are way better. And they work perfectly for us from the other side of the country: I don't need to get out of work early to make the Friday evening flight and can have a nice long Sunday lunch with the family before flying back :)
DeleteOnward and upward, Air Serbia!
It will be very interesting to see how this impacts Swiss and their own double daily flights. I guess we are going to see fewer A321 on the route.
DeleteI am sure that as the Serbian economy improves so will the number of passengers flying to/from Switzerland.
I agree with you, Nemjee. It will probably take time, but I'm sure that a lot of those Serbians that ignored JU because of the bad service will change their opinion and fly AirSERBIA. And it's not only the quality that will come with the new brand. JU will have a better timetable for frequent/business travellers. But LX will always have some O&D-pax thanks to their good connections with North America. The only thing that will stay in my opinion are the prices.
DeleteSarajevo-Belgrade-Moscow €388!!!!! :D :D
ReplyDelete00.45 connecting time each way!
Very, very competitive fares from Thessaloniki as well!
ReplyDeleteIt would be fun to monitor how fares will go when the cheapes one are sold and whether JU will manage to remain competitive in the ever fluctuating world of airfares
ReplyDeleteThat monitoring might be fun activity for us here but a VERY hard work for the good people at JU. Their livelihood and corporate success depend on that.
Definitely best deal I have found so far:
ReplyDeleteTivat - Abu Dhabi 388 € with short transfer time in Belgrade.
TIV - BEG 10:00 - 11:00
BEG - AUH 12:25 - 20:40
AUH - BEG 08:20 - 11:25
BEG - TIV 14:10 - 15:15
I already see many tourists heading to Dubrovnik using those flights.
There is a thing called yeild management systems, all done by computer. Im sure the staff will no longer require to do this or planning schedules on paper any more.
ReplyDeleteThe Bucharest airport code is incorrectly listed on the Jat website. BUH is currently closed for the regular air traffic. It is for sure about OTP - Bucuresti Otopeni.
ReplyDeleteBUH is the code for all airports in Bucharest the same way MOW is for Moscow and NYC is for New York.
DeleteThanks for reply! My mistake, BBU is the other airport. I haven't known so far about the all airports code.
DeleteNo problem. By the way, BBU was closed last year and all operations have been moved to OTP.
DeleteBBU is used for private jets and government flights. :)