Air Serbia will wet-lease a 149-seat Boeing 737-700 aircraft from Greek carrier Lumiwings. The jet is expected to enter service on behalf of the Serbian airline tomorrow. It will be primarily deployed on charter flights, as well as a select number of scheduled services on certain days out of Belgrade, including Berlin, Brussels, Milan, Tirana and Zurich. The development comes as Air Serbia ramps up both its scheduled and charter network, and ahead of its major summer expansion in June which will see the introduction of twelve new routes. Last summer, Air Serbia also wet-leased a B737-700, albeit from Smartwings for a period of four months.
Lumiwings is a private airline based in Italy but registered in Greece. It was founded in 2015. Under the wet-lease arrangement, Lumiwngs will provide its own crew, maintenance support and insurance for the aircraft while operating on behalf of Air Serbia. The jet in question, registered SX-LWC, is nineteen years old. It has been part of Lumiwings’ two-member fleet since last May. It was delivered new to Transavia in 2003 and operated on behalf of the low cost carrier until its transfer to the Greek airline. Similar to last year, the jet will be primarily used on leisure flights from Belgrade to Antalya and Hurghada. Air Serbia plans to run over 1.000 charters this summer.
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| Lumiwings B737-700 cabin |
Air Serbia’s plans to wet-lease a Boeing 737 aircraft were first reported last month. Over the past week, the airline has taken delivery of an Airbus A319 and its second ATR72-600 turboprop. Another three ATRs will join the fleet this year, with the third set to arrive next month. The -600 series will progressively replace the older versions of the turboprops currently in use by Air Serbia. One was retired earlier this year, while the second was taken out of service this month. The Serbian airline is considering the lease of additional jet-engine aircraft this summer as well, depending on market conditions.
I am happy they are adding ATRs since the old ones are a disaster but it's a shame they are not doing it for growth purposes.
ReplyDeleteAlso 149 seats on the 737 seems kinda tight.
It has more seats than their A319. Although cabin looks nice based on the photo.
DeleteI guess that is why it is flying on short flights as people won't be able to feel their knees after more than 2 hours in the plane.
DeleteIt is exactly the same number of seats Transavia has on their B737-700 and I don't hear anyone complaining.
DeleteA B737-700 typically seats 149 people in all economy layout. It is nothing extra ordinary. Last year's wet leased plane had the same capacity.
DeleteThat's crazy.
DeleteAs for Transavia, they are not exactly successful so it seems like people voted with their wallets and went elsewhere.
Their success has nothing to do with seating capacity in one of their planes. Like I said this is standard capacity on the B737-700 in an all economy layout.
DeleteYou really did say that, didn't you?
DeleteThis goes to show that JU needs to more aircraft.
ReplyDeleteRealistically speaking, they need to have at least ten ATRs to maintain normal network
Delete@09,04
DeleteNot really. It shows that JU has big issues with seasonality rather than needing more long term aircraft. These 2 wet leases will do the job for the busier 4 months during the summer season, while this additional capacity is not needed for the other 8 months.
@09,34
Perhaps not sending ATR's on 2 hour flights would be a nice start to free up ATR's. PRG, VCE and BLQ should go over the A319. TIA and SJJ should also get more permanent A319 rotations in their schedules. All this would free up some ATR slots for expansion ie OMO, OHD, split morning and evening rotations to TIA and SJJ for example.
TIA is getting A319 more often
DeleteThey don't send larger planes to those destinations because they can't fill them. Why can't they fill them? Well because their marketing and sales teams are generally useless. Once they fix these issues they will start having better loads. A good start would be not charging €250 to Prague on the ATR.
DeleteAlso JU needs to pay closer attention to its on time performance. As loads start to pick up more and more flights are being delayed.
@13,17
DeleteKind of. You have 3 flights a week around the weekends with the A319 (Thursdays JU212 rotation at 13:20, Mondays and Saturdays JU216 rotation at 00:20). These are short term seasonal upgrades. For the amount of traffic heading out to Albania this summer, it isn't much.
@13,39
DeleteCouldn't agree more. Their recent promotions was decent, used it myself personally. Apparently, the promotion was fairly popular with their customers as well, showing that their starting prices are quite high. Switching over to the A319 would help them reduce fares as they could devide their expenses over more seats.
Regarding marketing, their theme lately has been Konstrakta's Eurovision performance with their ads on social media. I was surprised to see an Air Serbia YouTube ad a couple of days ago as well. I guess it's a step in the right direction.
Out of curiosity, where did you book a flight with them?
DeleteIssue is that occasionally they will have something but the thing is not to have 5 years between two ad campaigns. I think they need to be more customer friendly though. I don't think JU is overly liked by the traveling public here in Serbia.
The Konstrakta ads and promo campaign "Koja li je tajna" is on billboards across Belgrade. For many destinations - Spain, Italy, Czechia, France, Greece and a few more.
DeleteA friend of my friend came up with that idea, she is actually an intern there. Hope they keep her especially since they have no one in the marketing department.
Delete@19,42
DeleteTicket booked to SPU. Economy Light fare was around 5.800 din, with luggage 7.800 din, one way. To compare, going by bus is around 6.500 din and the schedule shows 11 h 30 min driving time. I think the price is quite ok.
Their app wasn't working well when booking, so I called the Call Center who answered quickly and were very pleasant and professional. They completed the reservation for the same price as the app and we're apologetic for the inconvenience. I am very happy with the way it was handled.
If prices like these were more often then they would be able to capture more of the O&D market. I still don't get the no Economy Light fares policy to Montenegro. JU doesn't have a great reputation amongst the average Serbian traveller as being a decently priced airline and most likely would not be their first choice for travel. This is going to be difficult to change. Campaigns like this I think is a step in the right direction.
At least they are proactive. Starting new routes, getting extra capacity. Much better than what I expected for this summer.
ReplyDeleteWhy wet lease, why not much cheaper dry lease? - JU has 737 licensed flight and cabin crews.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know their licenses have not expired? The last B737 flight operated in March 2020. It is now May 2021.
DeleteSince when is dry lease "much cheaper" than wet lease?
DeleteIt is May 2022 now!
DeleteYou can't get a dry lease for just the summer season. Finding anything for less than 3 years would be quite an achievement.
DeletePlus, how many of JU's crews were trained for the 737NG?
DeleteZero actually
Delete@09,05
DeleteJU crew had licenses for the B737-300, not B737NG. Those licenses have expired. For a small fleet which JU has, it's more cheaper sticking to 1 ac type. Dry leases dont happen for just 3-4 months. Plus, what do you think happens to the crew, that they have invested in training, once the aircraft is returned? Without more training, they can't operate on any other JU aircraft. Returning the aircraft after the season has ended would have them with an excess of cabin crew, which isn't cheap.
First time I hear of this airline
ReplyDeleteWow, how is that possible Air Serbia has been around for a long time
DeleteObviously I meant Lumiwings.
DeleteThe charter season seems to be very strong this year.
ReplyDeleteThe article says that a second ATR was taken out of service this month . Does anyone knows which one ? Thanks .
ReplyDeleteYU-ALN
DeleteLast flight was on Victory Day (May 9th) VIE-BEG.
DeleteIt was 31 years old. I don't think anyone will miss it.
Thanks again ! I just hope they will give it to the Belgrade museum .
DeleteDoubt it, Naysmith ordered the 733 to be sold to spare parts in order to get $50.000 for them. Quite tragic actually. I guess that's what happens when you get foreigners to run your airline. They don't care about such things.
DeleteThere is one B737-300 which has not been sold and will be put in the museum once there is actual space and infrastructure provided by the museum.
DeleteI'll believe it when I see it. These foreign guys at JU just care about the bottom line and they will sell whatever they can just to show positive cash flows to the government. Unfortunately that's how things run at JU these days.
DeleteShould have sent it to Berlin lol
DeleteDon't give them ideas. They already sent it there a few times during covid and now it makes an occassional appearance in STR.
DeleteHowever it would have had a lot of symbolism, not doubt about that if it was sent to Berlin on that day.
Nevermind, Vienna will do as well.
DeleteIs the crew Greek or Italian?
ReplyDeleteGreek.
DeleteNice. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSurprised they didn't select Smartwings again.
ReplyDeleteBecause Smartwings is busy elsewhere with exploding demand for leisure travel. However with the EU heading towards a recession I can expect tourism demand to be softer than initially planned.
DeleteThey couldn't. Smartwings is not leasing any planes during peak summer. They barely have enough to perform their own flights.
DeleteSmartwings has a plane shortage itself this summer season so that's why they won't be leasing out to anyone from June.
DeleteI flew on SX-LWC in January and it was of the most pleasant flight I ever had. The interior features the very old Transavia seats which are very comfortable and the legroom is not bad at all. The crew is really amazing, the service was great for one hour flight with soft drinks and salty or sweet snack included and the plane is in very good conditions. The photo published with this article is actually taken on their 737-400, the interior of the -700 is totally different.
ReplyDeleteI think they changed the photo and it's the cabin you're talking about. Looks like Transavia green.
DeleteYes, that’s the cabin you will find on the -700.
DeleteWhat route were you flying?
DeleteI flew from Forlì to Palermo via Catania.
DeleteNice
DeleteLumiwings has and a -300 version of a Boeing 737. I think that that version would be better for Air Serbia west leasing
ReplyDeleteThat one is 30 yrs old.
DeleteEven worse, it's 31 years old. Seems like JU really likes old planes.
DeleteWell they didn't lease that one so I don't understand your conclusion.
DeleteThat one is coming probably next month. You probably didn't know that otherwise you would have understood my conclusion.
DeleteMaybe you shouldn't jump to conclusions? How about that?
Have you ever considered not talking with 0 context
DeleteI agree with you Anon 14.11, Anon 13.44 shouldn't talk with 0 context.
DeleteNGL JU should have opted for the B737-700 back in 2013 in stead of the A319.
ReplyDeleteMuch better aircraft and would have been easier to make the switch. Not to mention how cheaper it would have been.
Airbus was chosen by Etihad as Etihad has single aisle Airbuses. Crew was trained in Abu Dhabi and Etihad gave two of their own planes.
DeleteAs many things with Etihad, that made zero commercial sense. That's why the government got rid of them from JU.
DeleteThe plane is expected to arrive to BEG in 35 minutes as JU 4021. Right now above Bulgaria on its way from Volos where it was stored. FR24 shows that the last operated flight was in the beginning of January before ferried to Volos on February 9. In 2021 except from flying couple of times per week between Forli and Sicily and a few ad hoc charters elsewhere (Islamabad among others) seems like it wasn't much busy, therefore JU must've got it very cheap.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Volos has an airport. One more opportunity for JU to introduce schedule service, since close approximat of Skiatos, Skopelos...
DeleteOr just fly to Skiathos instead? Which they do. JU doesn't have to fly to every village.
DeleteWhat village ? lol . Volos has 100.000+ population and it is located in the Thessaly region of Greece which is pretty popular for Serbians , so i also find JU flying to Volos pretty interesting.
DeleteI know, that's why it's exploding with traffic
DeleteJU needs to find niche destinations, with transfers and direct passangers. That's the only way to survive and to create it's own identity. Without government subsidies and to try to be profitable
DeleteVolos just like Alexandroupolis could work as summer seasonal destinations with the ATR at night. It might work better than SKG for them since there is too much competition there and they are sending the ATR quite often now.
DeleteAgree
Delete19:24 Definitely agree about that, however you can't just throw darts in a map. Because you randomly heard about an airport in Greece in ex-yu aviation news it means that JU should start flying there? Alexandroupoli? Lol. Throw in Kozani and Kastoria too
DeleteKozani and Kastoria are not the case , Alexandroupolis has mainly Turkish and Bulgarian tourists however Volos and the Thessaly coast is full of Serbians and generally Balkans , most of them going there with their cars , so some charters from BEG could actually make sense and work pretty well.
DeleteAlex/polis is not that close to SKG and it has a decent catchment area with much gasto demand.
DeleteCharters? They could make sense, but that doesn't depend on JU.
DeleteSo if Serbia was in the EU, those Greek guys could've done the same thing in Romania by creating a leisure division of Aegean Airlines which is Animawings. Thing is, the GoS need to have full control of airlines to guarantee the JU rights...
ReplyDeleteThey like to support fraudsters like Air Posh, MPC Air and many others ....
DeleteUz sledeci A330 bilo bi lepo kad bi doslo nekoliko A220 i ATR72 jos za neke evropske destinacije da se stvori vise prostora za Afriku i Bliski Istok.
DeleteINN-NS
Слажем се, још 2 - А330, то би им решило све будуће проблеме везано за флоту.
DeleteLLA-BG