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| Iran Air to end technical stops in Ljubljana and Belgrade |
Iran Air is to cease its refuelling stops in Ljubljana and Belgrade on flights from Western Europe in the coming weeks. After four years of US-led sanctions against Iran, which restricted most European airports from providing jet fuel to the country’s airlines, the airports in both Germany and the Netherlands recently began to refuel Iran Air jets. As a result, stops in the capitals of Slovenia and Serbia will no longer be necessary. French airports will also resume refueling Iranian planes in a few days with more countries to follow. Most Iran Air jets flying out of Tehran must take off with a full tank and less cargo than they normally would carry. Unable to complete the return flight, they are forced to make stopovers in Ljubljana or Belgrade to refuel. Insiders even report that the airline's jets are being flown at slower speeds to save fuel. This extra stop adds to Iran Air’s costs and means passengers face about ninety extra minutes before reaching Tehran. Ljubljana and Belgrade have permission to refuel Iran Air jets since they do not have direct flights to the United States.
While the move to provide fuel to Iran Air aircraft at key European airports will be welcomed by both the carrier and its passengers, Ljubljana and Belgrade are set to lose easy cash. Most Iran Air flights from London make a stop in Ljubljana on their way to Tehran and these are set to continue for the time being. On the other hand, refuelling stops in Belgrade were mostly for flights originating from Germany and these are now expected to be discontinued. Passengers and crew on the Iran Air flights landing in both Ljubljana and Belgrade do not disembark the aircraft and no one is allowed to board either. Officials at Iran Air believe they are the innocent victims of geopolitics. "This is a human rights violation", complained Jamalodin Zavichi, Iran Air's Germany manager in Frankfurt. "Passengers are being forced to suffer from inconveniences despite the fact that they have nothing to do with the political conflict".
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| Iran Air at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport |
Oil companies are technically permitted to sell kerosene to Iran Air under the current regulations. The sanctions are only applied once sales volumes exceed five million US dollars per year. But no major oil company has been willing to conduct those sales out of fear of angering the Americans and adversely affecting their business operations in the United States. With US-Iran relations improving, oil companies have begun easing their bans. In 2011, Belgrade Airport informed Iran Air it could no longer provide refuelling services without giving a reason to the carrier. It is believed the Serbian government and the country’s fuel supplier came under outsde pressure to do so. However, Belgrade Airport began providing services to Iran Air again in late 2013. In November 2011, Adria Airways attempted to sell its Airbus A320 to the Iranian airline Yas Air but leaked diplomatic cables show it received a stern warning from the United States to immediately halt such plans.
OT: I have tracked some time JU news and discussions, and I want to know your opinion on my thoughts. Wood it be for JUST logical to expand their order from Airbus and add additional 10 A319NEO, and 5 A321NEO, and until their delivery, they could lease some aircrafts so that they could operate some routes with more frequencies (Moscow, Paris, London, etc.) and add some new destinations like Madrid, Barcelona, Hamburg, Dublin, Helsinki, Oslo, Zagreb, Saint Petersburg, etc. Also to buy/rent some ATR for regional destinations. This is a long term plan, so I want to know your opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe A319NEO might not happen, considering that there are only 45 orders for the plane.
DeleteFrom what I have been reading, the operating costs between the A319NEO and the A320NEO are very similar, so most airlines have opted for the A320NEO and decided that they would rather fly it partially empty some of the time, because when they do manage to fill those extra seats, those extra seats are sold at a very good margin.
It seems like the Bombardier CSeries is a much more attractive airplane in the 100-150 seat range since there have been a lot more orders for that plane compared to the A319NEO.
In my opinion, the A319NEO will be the equivilent of the A318 from the CEO generation.
The only reason why an airline would want to get the A319NEO instead of the A320NEO is if they need further range and takeoff performance. Considering that the A320NEO already has enough range to fulfill 99% of narrowbody missions, there really is no need for the added range of the A319NEO.
And how many A330 should they order if they planning long haul, I think they might fly to Toronto, Chicago and New York maybe.
Deletethere is a rumor about los angeles
DeleteAleksandre za juce AB jeste bio prvo porucio 787-8 ali je posle poruceno preko EY 787-9:). INN :)
Delete@Aleksandar
DeleteBesides 737max, Airbus also has to deal with Bombardier, Embraer, Comac, Mitsubishi, Irkuts and even Sukhoi in A319neo's seat range. So that could be the reason for lower number of preorders.
I think that CSeries or E-jet E2 would be a great alternative for ASL :)
There will be not be a single A319neo ever made.
DeleteA330-300 does not have the range for BEG-LAX, even with A330-200 it can be a challenge. And A332 is not competitive for that mission, nowadays if you are flying from Europe to LAX you better bring A380 or give up.
@ INN 1:46,
DeleteOh. I didn't know that. Do you know if those 787-9s are coming directly from Etihad? Etihad has so many dreamliners on order, it will take a long time for them to get all of them.
@Kraspeed 2:59,
I agree with everything. There are too many great alternatives to the A319NEO. The only issue is, Air Serbia is getting 10 A320NEOs from Etihad's major order, so it doesn't make sense for Air Serbia to take delivery of the A320NEOs as well as another airplane with similar size.
Aleksandre zajedno su poruceni sa GEnx-1B Motorima u isto vreme kod Boeinga i treba isporuka Etihadu da krene u Decembru to znam licno,a za AB mislim Mart-April.A ko je to sve platio to stvarno neznam.,jos znam da je BER dobio dosta veliki popust zbog ETD =D
DeleteInzinjering i Odrzavanje je zajednicko.:)
INN :)
Disgusting American politics!
ReplyDeleteTerrible USA policy round the world.. I am always asking myself what is the difference between russian and american global politics. American is even worst. They are deciding how small countries are going to behave in global market. Terrible!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are the same, I cannot stand those big country's Governments how they act towards smaller nations...
ReplyDeleteSlightly off-topic, but has AirSerbia ever considered launching flights to Teheran and Erbil? I think the latter would especially be interesting due to higher yields on that route. Besides the Middle East companies, Erbil is also served by LH and OS.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to know what potential the route would have if Iran Air was selling tickets and taking passengers on BEG-IKA and onwards.
ReplyDeleteProbably no potential, the route would be interesting for connecting pax, e.g. Europe - BEG - IKA and Europe - BEG - EBL.
DeleteSomething similar as is being done for BEY.
Add to that BAku and Yerevan as new potential routes.
DeleteDear admin, this sentece is compltely wrong: "In November 2011, Adria Airways attempted to sell its Airbus A320 to the Iranian airline Yas Air but leaked diplomatic cables show it received a stern warning from the United States to immediately halt such plans."
ReplyDeleteInformation about this was produced by Reporter magazin, which a part of political party of SDS. It is stil unclear, why that information was produced, especialy as information about A-320 involved was very confused. (they talked about two different planes of which one was already sold and another one retired with no flying abbility)
BEG-BEY-BEG A320:)
ReplyDeleteINN =D
A320 je leteo i u petak za BEY
DeleteIranAir ceased its operation in Ljubljana at the begining of June....
ReplyDeleteMost Iran Air flights from London make a stop in Ljubljana on their way to Tehran and these are set to continue for the time being.
DeleteIs it Iran AIr still refuelling in Ljubljana?
No. From the beggining of June, Iran Air stop landing in LJU. Agreement was canceled. Today I saw IRA720, EP-IBD stop in BEG
Deletehttp://www.flightradar24.com/IRA720/3b39aa9
In some cases they stop in MPX and IST as well (today probably IRA726 http://www.flightradar24.com/IRA726/3b37690).
Thank you Milan
ReplyDelete