Adria Airways is likely to lease Bombardier aircraft for the 2020 summer season after its plans to acquire fifteen Sukhoi Superjet 100 jets fell through. Adria's CEO, Holger Kowarcsh, said, "Adria will most probably lease Canadian Bombardier planes. The 2020 summer season is now being planned so we will see what sort of fleet is required". The airline currently has twelve Bombardier jets in its fleet, although half of them are being wet-leased through ACMI contracts to other airlines over the summer. Adria itself does not own any aircraft. Its two CRJ700s are being leased until December 2019, a further four CRJ900s are under contract until 2022, another two until 2026 and 2027, while one of the jets is being leased through a pay-by-the-hour agreement, where Adria pays its dues to the lessor based on aircraft utilisation. The remaining two are under long-term leases.
Last June, Adria signed a contract to acquire an additional three Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft from lessor Regional One, which were to be delivered in 2019. Commenting on the status of the deal late last year, Adria noted, "The order for the CRJ900 is still an option for us". At the time, the carrier said it would also consider adding more of the seventy-seat CRJ700 aircraft to its fleet in 2019. Adria added two CRJ900s last year. The Ljubljana-based maintenance company Adria Tehnika is a Bombardier Authorised Service Facility. Its agreement with the Canadian plane manufacturer is set to last until 2021.
Mr Kowarcsh previously noted that the Slovenian carrier's fleet is too small and needs to grow in order to support its route network. "I think critical mass for us would be in the range of 25 to thirty aircraft in the future. We're a small carrier, we have to grow, strengthen our operations and improve our connectivity", Mr Kowarsch said. In addition to Bombardiers, Adria also boasts three Airbus A319 and six Saab 2000 aircraft in its fleet, although two of the turboprops are wet-leased to Swiss International Air Lines, while another two are stored. The airline's average fleet age stands at fifteen years.
Hopefully we see some new routes in summer 2020.
ReplyDeleteIs there a chance for any of the routes launched last year to be resumed?
DeleteI would work hard on resuming Moscow.
DeleteToo late for Moscow. Route already taken over successfully by Aeroflot.
DeleteI still think Spain would be a good choice for them in the future.
DeleteNot only Spain, Rome too. Ryan cancelled Trieste Rome flights, so there is only Alitalia now.
DeleteInterestingly they wanted to start flights to Belgrade and even inquired relevant regulators about it late last year.
DeleteAgonija traje...
ReplyDeleteAko ginem, ginem junački!
DeleteWill they try to blackmail Bombardier like they tried to do with Sukhoi?
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, kudos to them for planning for 2020.
Bombardier isn't desperate as Sukhoi to sell aircraft.
DeleteAnd if you can't make a deal with Sukhoi, which would probably do almost everything to have a Star Alliance airline in Europe flying their aircraft, then I think that says enough.
25-30 aircrafts?
ReplyDelete40-50
Delete60-100
Delete102 is a realistic number so they can have two wide bodies flying LJU - JFK and LJU - ATL
DeleteWould be nice if they eventually replaced the CRJs with a mix of A220s.
ReplyDeleteWay too expensive for JP.
DeleteToo expensive, I doubt their business model now supports anything else then leasing older aircraft.
DeleteAirlines with much solid balance sheets are tough to manage A220. E2 would be good feet of them or the best, keep calm and fly CRJ.
DeleteAdria used to have the youngest fleet in ex-Yu by average age but it has been dragged down by the ancient Saabs.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Even the CRJs they leased last year are very young.
DeleteWell they don't take good care of their planes at all. Look at the photos in this review from yesterday. Carpets completely ripped on this CRJ.
Deletehttps://onemileatatime.com/adria-airways-customer-service/
The saabs are the dinosaurs in the family. Without them Adria would still have the youngest fleet in ex-Yu.
DeleteClearly no money to fix even the carpets in the cabin. I wonder what else are they saving money on.
DeleteIn-flight service, customer support, sometimes fuel..some maintenance obviously..paying almost nothing to Fraport, Petrol, Slovenia Control, and the lessors..basically the salaries and the dues to foreign airports and traffic control agencies are the only things they worry about hahaha
DeleteEven if they cant afford to pay Adria technika to change a carpet on a cabin you know their situation is bad....
Deletethat ripped carpet must be some sort of a safety violation
DeleteExposed metal structure in the cabin is never a problem, c'mon :)
DeleteThe real question is how many of these planes will actually be operated by Adria for Adria and how many will be wet leased.
ReplyDeleteI assume they need just 15 planes max for LJU/PRN ops. The rest will be leased out.
Delete15 planes? For how many legs? 80-100 daily?
DeleteFinally some good news for Adria.
ReplyDeleteIs it?
DeleteYes!
DeleteWell it's good they are thinking Bombardier and that they are already planning for 2020 summer.
DeleteWith what money will they lease CRJs?
ReplyDeleteThey haven't gotten that far with their planning yet
DeleteGood choice!
ReplyDeleteWell it's a much better choice than the Sukhois to be honest.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+2
Delete-3
DeleteThey already have the most CRJs in the fleet in this region I think so it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteExcept for OU I don't think any other airline in the region has CRJs.
DeleteOU does not have CRJ s. They lease them from Spain for 4 or 5 summer months. OU has only Q400 and A319/320 in its fleet.
DeleteYes but I meant they are operated in their fleet during summer and probably next winter too.
DeleteOdd they don't go for the CRJ1000. It's a very good aircraft and could lead to the retirement of the A319s.
ReplyDeleteCRJ1000 has about 40 seats less than the A319 and the leases for 2 A319s are appareantly very costly to withdraw from.
DeleteHa in 2007 Adria placed order for CRJ1000 and was supposed to be the launch customer. Never materialised sadly.
DeleteWow really? Didn't know that.
DeleteIt did
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2009/05/adria-to-launch-crj1000.html
What happened? Why wasn't it delivered?
DeleteOrder was converted to CRJ900.
DeleteOh I see. Thanks for the info. Interesting stuff.
DeleteCause Adria started making loads of $ and LJU became a major transfer airport that destroyed the competition in the neighbourhood..what do you think happened?
DeleteLeasing some CRJ1000 could make sense. It has better CASM than the good CASM CRJ900 (and obviously similar crew training than the CRJ900).
DeleteHowever, take off / rate of climb performance are weaker than the CRJ900.
Is rate of climb an issue at LJU?
DeleteWhy are some of the Saabs still inactive? They should try to get those up in the air first. They fought hard to get them in the first place.
ReplyDeleteLack of crew.
DeleteFought hard? Lol, hardly anyone wants those things
DeleteI meant with liquidators of course, not with other airlines :)
DeleteThey need to to do something about the lack of pilots.
DeletePlenty Saab pilots from now bancrupted/merged airlines in Scandinavia etc. are available, but Adria won't pay what it requires. And if they settle with moving to Nordica etc., with pretty bad salaries, then you know how bad it stands at Adria.
DeleteWhich routes from Ljubljana are the Saabs being used on?
DeleteZRH, PRG, VIE, POD, MUC, SOF
DeleteGiven that most of the 50 million euros of debt they have amassed is owed to the CRJ leasing companies, I call BS.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Hope none of the planes gets repossessed.
DeleteI remember when they announced the SSJ plan, people got sooo excited. Well, some people did, mostly from Slovenia. Even though everyone was saying that it made no business sense to get an aircraft that is grounded due to the spare parts issue. Because Sukhoi will open a service center in LJU just for those planes, lol
DeleteI honestly hope people don't give this too much attention
They need some larger capacity and longer range planes. Couple of months ago they were flying a charter from ljubljana to Hurghada and it had to land in Cyprus because head winds were strong and they wouldn't have had enough fuel to make it all the way.
ReplyDeleteCR9 or 319?
DeleteCR9 of course. During winter they wet leased all Airbuses to Lufthansa.
DeleteThis airline cops too much crap from people. I'm glad they are looking towards the future.
ReplyDeleteThis announcement is merely a spin to reassure that the company will still be around in 2020. Which it most likely won't be.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion their fleet in LJU should consist of
ReplyDelete12 CRJ900/700
2 A319s
That's it. The rest they can lease out.
OK, I will try to explain it for everyone here, as I see people in the comments still don't get it.
ReplyDeleteJP currently owes 50 million euros (or more) to its contractors, most of this money is owed to the owners of CRJ's (ie the leasing companies). The reason the leasing companies are not grounding JP is simply the fact that no one wants to lease old CRJ's - so it's commercially better for Adria to have them, even if they are not paying for it regulary.
They cannot buy new or used airplanes - it is simply not possible in this universe. JP cannot get a bank loan with the current state of finances. They also cannot lease any 'good' airplanes, because the leasing companies know they cannot afford it. They can only lease old CRJ's and SAAB's.
The thing that's going in 4K's favour is that they are paying salaries on time. Once that stops, the first card in the pyramid will fall. Petrol and Fraport will not pull the plug on Adria, as they also lose more than gain. Airport fees in other conutries - that's another story. They have pay those on time, otherwise they will ground their planes (which almost happened a couple of months ago).
So this is a huge pile of debt, and the only reason it's still standing is the fact, that it's more profitable for the creditors to recieve payment every X month, than to close it down. But sooner or later every Ponzi scheme collapses, there simply won't be enough money to finance everything.
So the question is what happens to LJU if Adria goes bust.
DeleteSome routes will be taken over..some won't however. Quite a lot probably won't. If there really was that much interest in them you would already see Wizz, Ryan or Easy at LJU
DeleteYou are right. The good thing is Slovenia is in the EU so any EU airline can take over whichever route they wish.
DeleteThis is PR exercise.
DeleteThey had a bunch of really bad PR regarding SSJ100, at the end it was complete disaster, everything canceled, they were attacked by Russians, everybody started talking about their bad finance situation.
Now they need something to spin story around, so they started this story about next summer.
And until next summer, who knows, there will be another story, and another...
OP. Who are you working for?
DeleteI know the company is having some troubles but there is one good thing they fixed and that is that there are almost no cancellations anymore. Last year was a nightmare but this year things are going smoothly.
ReplyDeleteWell they are operating significantly fewer flights.
DeletePerhaps they learned a valuable lesson. They are still paying out compensation to passengers for all the delays and cancellation from last year.
DeleteMore than a few passengers newer got their compensation, if you are quick enough you might spot some of them on their Twitter and FB page complaining before Adria deletes the comment and blocks the user
Deletethat's crazy
DeleteAdria can not delete Twitter posts.
DeleteIs there a chance for someone to buy Adria and resolve their debt and fleet issues?
ReplyDeletehahahah
DeleteYes, in our dreams.
DeleteWell if James Hogan was still in the industry it would be posssible. :D
Delete4K did just that couple of years ago. They are doing a fantastic job I must say.
Deletemaybe Croatia Airlines can buy them LOL LOL
DeleteI'm just waiting to see what 4Ks end game is here.
ReplyDeleteI don't get their strategy... if they have one.
DeleteI wouldn't say they have one.
DeleteStrategiju skoro sigurno imaju, ali ista nema veze sa profitabilnim poslovanjem aviokompanije. Njima je cilj prebaciti što više love iz kompanije
DeleteAdria needs a plane between the Bombardier and Airbus. The Airbus is too large for pretty much anything other than charters.
ReplyDeleteLike the Sukhoi Superjet 100 :D
DeleteAs someone said the CRJ1000 would make most sense.
DeleteI heard all airlines who can't afford SSJ100 or old CRJs are going for A220 :D
DeleteThe smaller and older the plane is, the more weaker you are in the jungle.
ReplyDeleteEurope today is a true battlefield and the hungry big sharks are waiting for the next prey to fall.
Around 10 companies went bust. The old boys from AF, BA, KL, LH, etc know exactly how to tackle difficult situations.
JP must initially get 2 bigger leased planes and increase capacity to be more competitive, to focus on important destinations and mostly charter summer and winter destinations.
The other possibility is to simply merge with another bigger airline and act like a feeder. This can be SQ, JAL, QF and so on.
Or they can deploy the A319 to DXB and collaborate with EK.
Today, the S2000 has no place in Europe where almost every aircraft is now either an A320 or a B738. (short-medium range).
Those companies you mentioned are so massive that the little feed they would get from Adria is really unimportant for them.
DeleteAcqua passata. Govorilo se o Air India, da će kao letiti za LJU, pa će onda JP razvoziti putnike po Europi. Naravno ništa. Ne sjećam se više za koga je bila vezana priča za Garudu. OU ili JP. Ali uglavnom, nije se dogodilo ništa
DeleteInteresting times ahead that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteFleet expansion? Why do they need one?
ReplyDeleteHopefully to grow their network.
DeleteFor some reason I don't believe him
ReplyDeleteAdria Bombardier jets look very old and tired,sold them
ReplyDeleteHow about having a cabin refurbishment program?
DeleteThe CRJ900 has the best CASM on the regional jet market, and currently fit perfectly with Adria's network.
CRJ1000s (used) could later complement the fleet with little introduction costs.
1. They don't own any aircraft. Everything is leased.
Delete2. With what money would they pay cabin refurbishment, if they can't even fix one carpet?
Couldn't the lessor / owner pay the refurb upfront and pass on the costs via higher monthly payments?
DeleteCurrently the top cabin refurb available is the new "Atmosphere"; it would improve the value of those planes big time (but indeed, at what costs?);
https://blog.wandr.me/2017/09/new-atmosphere-can-crj-become-sexy/
(Assuming Adria would fetch higher revenues as a result and supporting the business case - otherwise it's a lost cause)
Adria already owes money to the lessors. Why would they contribute to that debt?
DeleteThey can refurbish the aircraft when they get them back
Wow, I'm now realizing Adria’s scary state. Despite "apparent" low unit costs, Adria still can't fetch enough "net' revenues to stay on top of their leasing payments.
DeleteIs there a reason behind that situation? (Sorry, I'm not familiar with your regional political/economic situation)
I just hope they get better - before some other LCCs steals / eats their lunch with better maintained planes. Could expanding AirBaltic be a possible competitor, with their new CS300s and not so new Q400s?
2020???
ReplyDeleteBut they survive 2019...
SSJ100 perhaps was not ideal option, but it was only option. And they was planned for this season.
This game is over, there is no 2020...
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ReplyDelete