Air Serbia has registered its second-best financial result since its relaunch in late 2013, although profits shortened compared to the previous year. The Serbian national carrier recorded a net profit of 12.2 million euros in 2018, while revenue reached 288 million euros. The result represents a 23% decrease in profits from sixteen million euros the previous year. The carrier's revenue remained unchanged on 2018. Although earnings from passenger services decreased 3.6%, the airline boosted takings from charter flights by 41.7%, from unused tickets by 37.7% and from cargo by 4.4%. On the other hand, expenses stood at 278.7 million euros. Savings were made in handling, maintenance, frequent flyer program and others. The biggest reduction in costs was recorded in catering, where expenses were reduced by 55.5% on 2018, while the biggest increase was registered in spending on fuel and taxes, as a result of new MSFI15 accounting principles.
| Year | Net profit / loss (million €) |
|---|---|
| 2013 | ▼ 73 |
| 2014 | ▲ 2.7 |
| 2015 | ▲ 3.9 |
| 2016 | ▲ 0.9 |
| 2017 | ▲ 16.0 |
| 2018 | ▲ 12.3 |
In line with the transaction agreement between the Serbian government and minority shareholder Etihad Airways, Air Serbia was the beneficiary of state aid in 2018 to the amount of 20.9 million euros, which is the same figure it received the previous year but down from 41.8 million it benefited from in 2016. The airline's EBITDAR (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation, and restructuring or rent costs) stood at 66.4 million euros, up 19%, primarily as a result of cost cutting measures. At the end of 2018, Air Serbia mainline had 1.370 employees, down from 1.488 the year before. The figure includes 204 pilots and 289 cabin crew members. Together with its subsidiaries Air Serbia Catering and Air Serbia Ground Handling Services, the company counted 1.758 employees, down from 2.339 on 2017. The airline's annual financial results were audited by KPMG.
In 2018, Air Serbia handled 2.480.000 passengers, which was down 5.2% on the year before. The number of operated flights decreased 3.6% on 2017, standing at 15.026, while the airline maintained services to 39 destinations, down from 42. The number of operational aircraft stood at 20, with one Boeing 737-300 being retired. Network capacity decreased 5% to 4.03 billion Available Seat Kilometres (ASK). The airline's average cabin load factor stood at 71.2% in 2018, down 2.2 points from 73.4% the previous year. Air Serbia's cargo uplift increased 0.9% to 6.213 tons, while punctuality (the amount of flights which departed or landed within fifteen minutes of the scheduled time) stood at 83%, which is the same as in 2017. The airline's dedicated charter brand Aviolet operated a record 958 flights in 2018 and carried 223.000 passengers.
Commenting on the results, Air Serbia’s CEO, Duncan Naysmith, said, “Last year was important because the airline set the foundations for expanding its network. This also served as a basis for our long term strategy, which has already been implemented and will reinforce our role as a regional leader”. He added, “Regardless of the numerous and demanding challenges in the airline industry, Air Serbia is developing its product portfolio to ensure even better financial and operative results but also to offer our passengers an excellent product for an economical price”.
Revenue should be over 300 million in 2019!
ReplyDeleteLoad factor really needs to improve.
ReplyDelete83% is not that bad actually
Deleteoops thats punctuality
DeleteI don't know where you got 83%. The article says "The airline's average cabin load factor stood at 71.2% in 2018, down 2.2 points from 73.4% the previous year."
DeleteI didn't see your subsequent comment when I posted the above.
Deleteits surprisingly low
DeleteEven suspiciously low!
DeleteWell In 2018 all Airbuses were reconfigured for the entire year meaning they had more seats per plane.
Delete09:31
DeleteSo what you're saying is they couldn't adapt pricing to the change in capacity in time?
And more costs related to it
DeleteI don't understand the general obsession with the load factor - info without the average price is pointless and at least, missleading.
DeleteFrom my personal experiences, JU prices went seriously up in 2018, so the load factor can be a result of that policy, whereby the actual income was much better (with a lower costs of fuel for emptier aircraft).
It wasn't
Delete"earnings from passenger services decreased 3.6%"
"Passenger services" is ticket sales.
If ASK went down 5% and ticket revenue decreased 3,6%, the outcome is obviously positive for the airline.
DeleteIn H1 2019 Air Serbia's average LF stood at 66,5%.
Delete66.5 je skros netačna informacija, lično mogu potvrditi da je bila 72.8. Ne razumem ljude zašto vole da izmišljaju.
Deleteso thats -8.6 mio
ReplyDeletetheres much more optimization to be done
No surprise then with the news yesterday that they are outsourcing catering.
DeleteSo real result is loss of 8.7 million euros when you subtract the aid.
ReplyDeleteWhich is good compared to the loss of 73 million some years ago.
DeleteThat loss was produced by Air Serbia. If you look at the financial results that year, you would see that during the first three quarters Jat was in profit. The loss was produced in the last quarter when Air Serbia was launched.
DeleteJat was making the losses one year after another together with bad service, old planes, many cancelled flights etc...
DeleteNot comparable
Jat was in profit? Hahahahaha
DeleteAnd ASL might have recorded a loss but only because rebranding and all related expenses are classified as loss which obviously wasn't covered by higher revenue.
Jat was actually operating with a profit for the last 5 or so years of its existence. Look at their financial reports. It's true that profits were small but they were still profits. The issue is the company had debt to other local state owned companies.
Delete@9.10. I don't see what's funny. It was. I didn't make it up, you can look at their reports. Yes Air Serbia did produce a loss because of rebranding, I didn't say it didn't. It also produced losses because it was bringing everything and everyone from Abu Dhabi. They even brought cleaners from Abu Dhabi to train cleaners in Belgrade.
DeleteOperational profit might have been there but not overall one which is the most important part. Air Serbia has an operational profit as well and so do most airlines out there. Its other non operational expenses that cause issues.
DeleteSo, the loss is around 8,7 million EUR.
ReplyDeleteWe shall see about financial results in 2019, but it is for sure that many factors in this year have been improved including number of passengers, number of planes, number of destinations (extremely!), number of operated flights any many other.
And in this case I agree with CEO that in 2018 JU set the foundations for further expansion. Increased number of destinations and flights confirm it.
Passenger numbers are up this year so that's at least something positive.
DeleteWhat was results in 2017 when state aid is deducted?
Delete4.9 million. In 2016 (when they launched New York) it was 39.9 million. So now you see why restructuring and move to hybrid model started in 2017.
DeleteIn other words without JFK JU would be profitable. Oh my...some on here will not like that revelation. :/
DeleteI guess that those numbers are in minus? :) I mean, 4.9 was total loss without aid?
DeleteYes loss of 4.9 million in 2017 without aid.
DeleteHow much of a loss would a line to China make?
DeleteORD was discontinued from BUD.
China might not be losing as much as there would tourists to fill seats, quite different from New York.
DeleteORD from BUD never made sense since LO has no real feed there and it was made seasonal.
They are still paying back old jat debt.
ReplyDeleteNo Air Serbia is not paying back any Jat debt. If our 'esteemed' government is to be believed, namely Sinisa Mali, all Jat debt is being covered by the state.
DeleteNo they are not
DeleteAll old debt is being repaid by Republic of Serbia, or out of pocket of the citizens
As a citizen and a taxpayer I fully support this move as we got rid of the disaster called Jat Airways.
Delete+100
DeleteJat Airways was not only disaster but a huge shame!
DeleteWith barely five operational planes by the end. Luckily they leased equally bad B733s by the end. lol
DeleteActually Bulgarians were even worse with holes in tanks
DeleteBut Bulgarians don't rely on Abu Dhabi...
Delete@Petar Čelik 6 August 2019 at 09:14
DeleteNot according to PM Ana Brnabic: "Vlada Republike Srbije nije dala ni jedan jedini dinar, evro, dolar ili bilo koju valutu. Dakle ni jedan jedini za subvencije za Er Srbiju. To što čitaju kao prihod, to se računovodstveno vode dugovi koje smo preuzeli od JAT-a. Do 2023. će se u njihovim izveštajima finansijskim pojavljivati to svake godine zato što su to dugovanja koja su bila od JAT-a"
Zahvaljujuci AS i velikom rastu broja putnika koje ce generisti zbog novih linija drzava ce od Vansija dobiti od 10-15ml evra. Znaci 8.7ml ce uloziti u AS a ostarak ide u budzet i svi srecni.S obzirom na veliku ekspanziju ove godine i ocekivanu prekookeansku sledece ocekujem jos bolje rezultate sledece godine.
ReplyDeleteWhat route will be the next long haul for asl?
DeleteToronto,Čikago,Peking,Šangaj naj verovatnije dve od ovih četiri.
DeleteI'd say Toronto (due to diaspora) and Beijing (due to the new airport) are the most likely candidates.
DeleteToronto 4X
DeletePeking 2X
NjuJork 7X
Umesto Pekinga ja tipujem na Sangaj
DeleteDespite having less flights they had significantly poorer sales from tickets. It means people are choosing other options and were not in owe of the airline's new business model as the CEO makes us believe.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that their sales policy was wrong, but starting from 2019 it has been also changed.
DeleteThey understood from LH that during the winter you need to offer lower prices and that brings more money than to keep it high and have 30-40% LF.
Also it looks like they finally understood that you can earn extra money if you offer lower price for flights 6 months from now than to keep it high and not seel it at all later on.
Is the last part of this sentence for real? Excellent product for price? Tickets are like for a full fare airline and you get low cost service. They even charge more for some things then LCCs.
ReplyDelete"Air Serbia is developing its product portfolio to ensure even better financial and operative results but also to offer our passengers an excellent product for an economical price”.
Yes but now they have regular sales. This Sunday a several day action ended and I saw they had Berlin one way for €35!
DeleteHonestly, from my perspective - business traveler, lot of flights, tickets bought up to 1-2-3 weeks before flight, JU is usually best option and cheaper when comparing to other airlines on same route.
DeleteI guess that this might be different when looking from other perspective like buying tickets 3-4 months in advance couple of times per year.
+1
DeleteNot only is JU usually the cheapest but they also offer the best times out of Belgrade for most destinations. I think it's only LH and OS that offer morning departures from Belgrade. All others fly at rather random times.
That's also one of the reasons why no one can beat TK on the IST market- times.
Except Cyprus, I boycott them on that route :)
DeleteIn addition to that, during summer, some routes become more inconvenient for business passengers as they tweak times in order to accommodate transfer passengers I guess. Bucharest is one example...
Hehe yes, Cyprus... but don't despair. ;)
DeleteWell business travel takes a dip during summer months so I guess JU knows that. Also volume from charter and connecting traffic compensates for the loss of some business passengers.
As for Bucharest, that's the issue with all regional flights, even Athens. I think there isn't enough p2p demand to sustain morning flights and those planes are better used to western European markets. The only difference is Montenegro for obvious reasons.
I'm not even into classic morning flights exclusively, I would be ok with standard afternoon slots that they are using on some days. Just not after midnight departures from BEG and 5am departures from OTP.
DeleteAs far as I see, Tarom is keeping standard slots thrugh year.
State of Serbia made a loss of 21 Million Euro
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get 21 from? If there was no JFK there would be no loss.
DeleteNot necessarily. The wider picture that includes Vinci payments, employee taxes, increased number of foreigners visiting Serbia etc surely turns that "loss" actually in good investment that brings more money than invested
DeleteIf you're really bent on looking at the 'greater picture', then also include the missed revenue due to significant discounts on pax charges and fuel.
DeleteI agree, net is probably still positive. However if you look at the opportunity cost it doesn't look that great. But I guess it's a sacrifice one is willing to make in order to have JU as it is.
Also don't forget how important the JU deal is to Чачански чипс and Тото chocolate especially since they come from Kikinda which is quite underdeveloped.
Delete@Anon 09.56
DeleteNow that is ridiculous, factory producing Toto/Noblice is very well established on the market, they dont need any help. Not that I have anything against cookies :)
BTW, one comment if somebody from JU reading this - bottle of water that they are giving in flight (Iva, I think) are sometimes incredibly difficult to open comparing to regular ones you will buy in a shop. It looks like they are using different kind of plastic then others. Not a big deal but sometimes is annoying :)
Yes but extra revenue/profit from the JU deal can help them expand their facilities.
DeleteCongratulations Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteIt will be very interesting to see their financial results for 2019 with all this major expansion.
ReplyDeleteSo in this 12,2 million EUR profit, there is 20,9 million EUR subsidy and 21,0 million EUR that was returned from Airbus on 24th December 2018. That is 42 million EUR incomes from Government (even deposit to Airbus was payed by Government on founding Air Serbia as "old debt"), and that means
ReplyDeletein reality Air Serbia is 29,7 million in red!
I doubt the Airbus payment was accounted in 2018 result.
Delete+1
Deleteyes it did
Delete"Međutim, ugovorom između Etihada i Air Serbia, Etihad je 24. decembra 2018. godine uplatio Društvu celokupan iznos plaćenog avansa Airbus-u (USD 23,5 miliona) bez ikakvog uslovljavanja kupovinom novih aviona."
Petar it depends how this money was accounted for. It could have just been accounted as cash flow, which means it would have no impact on profit. There are many factors to consider. It isn't as easy as just them paying back the deposit and it is immediately added to net profit.
Deleteagree
DeleteWould be nice if ASL would pay back some of these profits to the government for writing off JAT s debts.
ReplyDeleteWhat profits?
DeleteThe government is giving ASL over 20 million Euros every year while it owns only 51% of it. Meanwhile EY does not give anything but keeps the 49%.
Way to go Air Serbia!
ReplyDeleteThe posted result is a complete nonsense. Creative Accounting in every sense.
ReplyDeleteConsidering it was a year many airlines did poorly, these are quite good financial results. Operational results are down which is to expected since they culled their network in 2018.
ReplyDeletewow the amount of people that got triggered by this news is amazing and funny :D I have never seen more people praying for a company to fail and go bankrupt then I have seen for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would have been rather surprised, and somewhat disappointed, if people do not react to dishonest headlines about airline "profits."
DeletePoor figures are buried in a myriad of flowery language, while nonsensical percentage increases are pushed to the front of media releases, such as this. For example, the airline has "boosted" takings from unused tickets by 37.7%. Great, so why don't we put a figure on that? Because 37.7% of 10.00 Euros is 3.77 Euros. Hooray! The "takings" are up by 3.77 Euros.
No doubt a number of people want Air Serbia to go bankrupt because it has been presented as a party political project, so no surprises there. But most people don't want to be treated as fools.
So much winning, I'm tired of winning! So much profit for the last 5 years, when are we going to see a dividend declared?
Observer - the financial result is public and published online so you can read every figure for yourself.
DeleteAnon 14:27
DeleteAnd, yet, the headline states "Air Serbia posts €12.2 million profit for 2018" as if the airline is making money when in fact it doesn't. So, expecting ordinary people to just "take it" while laying down to be is strange.
One could make the argument, as some people do here, that the overall impact on the local economy justifies the investment/subsidies by the GoS, and that's fine. But don't simplify things to the point where you're insulting people's intelligence and then act surprised that people " get triggered."
The problem is that most of you don't even read the articles and comment based on the headline. The article states the airline gets subsidies, the amount it gets subsidies, that its operational metrics decreased. Hell it even says its profit decreased. Something I didn't read in any other Serbian media.
DeleteMost people get triggered by the airline's name. We all know it. How come you are not triggered that this year Montenegro Airlines is getting 24 million EUR from Montenegrin government? That's more then Air Serbia which is 3 times the size of Montenegro Airlines got last year. And despite all that Montenegro Airlines still has losses.
@Anon 10:25
DeleteThe point of discussion is whether ordinary people are right to react to the way news are reported, including in this site. I can only speak for myself, but it appears that most people are saying look "beyond the headlines" and the "political" sound bites. To me that's a perfectly normal reaction that is in fact very healthy for a society. And, unless we read from very different sources, I see the same reaction to Montenegro Airlines and their truly staggering losses - another level altogether. But can we point out the "smoke and mirrors," the PR nonsense, in all instances?
The author of this site as well as other independent journalists could have just as easily headlined this report as "JU recorded an operational loss of X million EUR in 2018," and then in the report itself state that the loss was more than covered by governmental subsidies. It's the tone, you could say the same (or very similar) thing but reject the PR pushed by the government and the companies. Alas, that could lead to loss of access for reporters, so they don't do it. And that's reasonable, but for heaven's sake, accept that people have the right to call out this utter nonsense.
Not everyone has a clear grasp of accounting to deduce C from A and B.
If I were Mo Al-Manama and read this report without knowing the full background of the story, I could easily conclude that if the airline had a clean slate after 2013 then the airline is seating on over 35 million Euros of cash. And, next thing you know, I hire a certain Mr McNaysmithface to head my national airline Air Gulfy Gulfy because these guys are magicians and turn 73 million EUR loss into a profit overnight.
No you can't write they have an operational loss because they don't.
DeleteAnd I didn't see you write essays about Montenegro Airlines, Croatia Airlines or Adria Airways results. You only got triggered by Air Serbia.
It's good to see that the number of employees are being decreased. They are getting near optimal level of number of employees a company of its size should have.
ReplyDeleteYes noticed that too. It's going in the right direction.
DeleteThe number of employees is still way above what it should for a company of JU's size.
DeleteWhat a Ponzi result, its easy to post “profits” when the Serbian government picks up the check, LOL...all the Balkan airlines are mismanaged and the tax payers are stuck bailing them out....give a small crisis and we’ll see who survives.
ReplyDeleteAviolet figures something that needs to be checked: 223000 pax on 958 flights= 232 pax per flight! With B733? Very well checked KPMG!
ReplyDeleteAviolet flights do not operate with just B737s.
DeleteAnonymous 10 :38 is right the numbers for charter flights are wrong. Even if they only use the a 320 for those flights, again then numbers are not making out. Unless they also use for charter also the a 330, but again I think something is wrong.
DeleteThat's the number Air Serbia put in its financial report.
DeleteWell anonymous 12 :27, THEY ARE FAKE NUMBERS!!!!
DeleteWhy don't you calm down.
DeleteBecause I don't like lies!!
DeleteCharters also include sport charters, special charters etc not just leisure flights to the coast. These were all operated by different aircraft. Without knowing the total capacity you can not conclude whether the number is right or wrong.
DeleteOh my God!!! But it's simple mathematics!!! 223.000 devided to 958 is 232. How more can this explained?
DeleteAnd if they don't know the exact capacity then don't announce fake numbers! That's all!
Deletecould it be an Etihad A380 in the mix? Just a wild guess..
DeleteOr maybe air Serbia is the first airline in the world that put seats on the wings for charter flights! Hahahaha!
DeleteGuys calm down. The admin made a mistake. In the report it clearly says 958 RETURN flights, which means 958*2=1916 flights in total, or 223000/1916=116 passengers per flight.
DeleteYou can find the report here: http://pretraga3.apr.gov.rs/pretragaObveznikaFI
*crickets*
DeleteThanks Anon 14.34 for calming down these hysterics.
JU had 6 interesting and intense years with many changes and more will probably be seen in the near future. The aviation market is extremely dynamic and airlines need to act fast to adapt to the needs. I think they are acting reasonably and trying to find more markets.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteapart from making a loss again, it looks that company is seriously sinking in debt
ReplyDelete8,4 bln RSD in the bank
17,3 bln RSD of loans
------
- 8,9 bln rsd
or
-75mil €
how they plan to repay that is beyond me.
also, they took another loan from EY
"Takođe, Društvo je dana 13. decembra 2018. godine zaključilo aneks ugovora o kreditu sa Etihad
Airways u iznosu od USD 40.000 hiljada. Sredstva su povučena u celosti 20. decembra 2018.
godine. Kredit dospeva 21. decembra 2019. godine i otplaćuje se u celosti po dospeću. Kamata
se obračunava i isplaćuje tromesečno po stopi od 3% p.a."
my guess is that this loan of 40mil is going to be matched by another 40mil from serbian government to recapitalize JU in order to return these loans
Knowing your attitude towards Air Serbia I don't believe your words even if you say today is Tuesday
DeleteLOOOOL
Delete+100000
Right, because attitude is paramount and facts are fiction.
DeleteTypical.
Where do you see facts?
DeleteČelik, ne kaki
Deleteso they imply that our government was sponsoring each ticket with € 8.43 ...
ReplyDeletei wish they would extend this generous scheme on all wizz air and easy jet flights that touch belgrade. that would make for some great fares
I totally agree! As soon as Easy Jet and Wizz Air open subsidiaries in Serbia, get a Serbian AOC and start paying local taxes on everything.
DeleteI flew an A380 with only 50 people in Economy, and no more than 50 people in both Business and First (if any) So, economy load factor stood at some 12%. So basically my ticket was heavily sponsored by the UAE government because A380 is profitable only when totally full.
DeleteWizz Air doesn't even pay tax in Hungary, so even if by any remote chance they would get Serbian AOC, don't expect them to pay tax in Serbia.
DeleteThis are good numbers. When company stabilises we can expect even sone profit, which is so rare among European flag carriers.
ReplyDeleteThe network is growing steadily, thare are some good days ahead.
Replacement of the ATRs is a must in the next year or so.
Partnership with Etihad was a best move possible. We were lucky there.
+1
DeleteNot surprised the biggest savings were made in catering.
ReplyDeleteand revenue on unused tickets, probably because they hiked penalties and made ticket terms more restrictive.
DeleteThis year revenue will probably be high but profits will go down because of all the new routes.
ReplyDeleteSo out of the ex-yu airlines now we are only waiting on Adria to publish its results for 2018.
ReplyDeleteThey are rip-off airline; I bought recently a return ticket to TIV for 120E and needed to change the date of the return flight and they asked for 80e as penalty for that change.
ReplyDeleteOf course. Every company is doing it as you have purchased the ticket where dates can't be changed free of charge.
Deleteunderstand that and no issue with having to pay a penalty but 80e on a 120e price is a bit too much!?!?
DeleteNOT that I want to defend Air Serbia standpoint. I just want to say that cancellation fees can sometimes can even be greater than the amount paid. Its because that all is calculated by AI powered software. And its across many airlines.
DeleteSo don't book the fare with maximum penalty for date change. Колико пара толико музике. Maybe take the bus or a train the next time?
Delete120eur return ticket, in middle of high season for seaside destination is not really not a rip off.
DeleteNot to mention that destination is hard to reach with other transportation. I guess that planes are full?
Wondering what the punctuality posting will be at the end of the 2019 summer season. 83% was not too bad but the last few months their on time performance is terrible.
ReplyDeleteCharter growth is impressive but increase in long awaited ancillary service revenue is a rockstar of 2018 and appears to be on a solid trajectory for this year. Capacity reduction trend since 2016 has finally been reversed this summer. Slow growth of internet sales remain a soft spot and questions continued dependence on channels. Lack of commitment to long term, long haul vision as a core advantage of an airline and lack of responsive execution in a competitive environment remain on a list of challenges. Solid results overall and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHow much is this profit adjusted for the subsidies this company receives from Serbian taxpayers?
ReplyDeleteRelatively tiny scale of Air Serbia subsidies are easier to understand when stacked up against a known reference. For example, subsidies for public transit. Not for the whole country but just Belgrade in 2019: "Planirano je da Grad i dalje dotira gradski i prigradski prevoz sa čak 27,5 milijardi dinara" (approx 235 mil eur).
DeleteSource:
https://www.danas.rs/beograd/subvencionisanje-gsp-se-nastavlja/
That's about 11 times more than Air Serbia. If paid ticket rides are 100% strictly enforced there would be no need for subsidies. In other words, price of "social peace" transit just in Belgrade is the same as having ELEVEN Air Serbia's.
Effectively 8.6 mil loss is actually not a bad result. There are many things that can be sorted about that company so it could even become profitable for real.
ReplyDeleteSo if they made a "profit" of 12 million, does this mean that the half-owner Etihad can take 6 million into their pockets?
ReplyDeleteIf yes, that would be truly scandalous.
Etihad is broke and every dinar is more than welcome. They are struggling a lot and UAE economy is currently going really down because it is difficult to sustain what they are doing.
DeleteTime will tell how long Etihad will last. The European carriers were really smart and managed to find a more clever way to defeat the MEB3 carriers by doing reforms and becoming more united.
Examples are IAG, AF/KL/DL, LH Group + UA and the creation of LCC acting as feeder flights but also O&D.
The future of UAE carriers looks slightly gloomy unless they don't reform and this is what Etihad must do to take care of its siblings such as Air Serbia.
Great examples. Let me add some colour: "Lufthansa Group delivered a 2019 first-half net loss of $132 million"
Delete