Air Serbia plans to operate up to five wide-body aircraft in the future as it prepares to take delivery of its second twin-aisle jet in the coming weeks. “In 2023 we will operate two Airbus A330s. If China proves to be a success story and the markets open up, we could increase to three aircraft. In the long-term, I can imagine a fleet size of around five aircraft on long haul routes”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, told “Aero Telegraph”. He added, “The two aircraft we will be using now are the A330 Ceo, which offer good value for money. We already have a lot of experience operating this aircraft. On the other hand, in the short and medium haul sector, we are not just limiting ourselves to the Ceo version, because the leasing market is very dynamic and volatile following the pandemic, and we will seize every good opportunity that comes our way”.
Air Serbia is targeting to have all of its cabin crew members trained for the wide-body, with new batches of crew soon starting their courses. Air Serbia is leasing its second A330-200 aircraft from Aircastle Limited with the frame having previously operated for South African Airways. The jet is due to arrive in Belgrade next month and will be put into operation to Tianjin, New York and European destinations. It will temporarily replace the airline’s current A330-200 which will undergo scheduled maintenance during the winter season, after which both twin-aisle jets will be utilised. “In addition to serving future flights to China, which we plan to launch this autumn, this plane will also be deployed on flights to important European destinations that are in high demand”, Mr Marek, said.
The CEO previously described taking on a second A330 as a “big deal” for a regional carrier. “We are very satisfied with the performance of our A330-200 because flying just to one long haul destination with just one aircraft is quite challenging. The new addition will be vital to our further expansion, launching new routes and increasing the frequency of flights in our existing network of destinations”, Mr Marek said. Although yet to be confirmed, Air Serbia is expected to lease the A330 previously registered as ZS-SXW. It was delivered new to South Africa’s national carrier in 2011 and has been stored since May 2020, when it was returned to its owner.
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Realistically, with 5 planes how many long haul routes could they serve?
ReplyDeleteYes,for example:
Delete7X New-York
2X Shanghai
2X Beijing
3X Chicago
And maybe Bangkok,Toronto,Havana,Tianjin,Los Angeles,European destinations.
Depends on frequencies, i.e. one will be needed only for JFK, while second will see two/three destinations, so I would say up to 10.
DeleteWouldn't it be nice to have a spare plane?
DeleteHaving a widebody sit as a spare? Highly unlikely.
DeleteLast week I received invitation from HKTDC informning that all visitors of fairs are to be excluded from COVID quaratine. Same will be happening from April for Canton Fair, following China opening for business people. This way, I believe JU first destinations are to be Shanhgai, Beijing/Tainjin next year, and probably HK/Guangzhou from 2024. With already agreed Chicago and existing NY - this will mean they will need at least 2 x a330 for 2023 and 3 x a330 for 2024 just to cover theese lines. China is most frequent for business people from EXYU. Also, Chinese are frequesnt as business and tourists to EXYU. This will be enough passengers to fulfill at least 2-3 weekly flights for each of theese destinations in China.
DeleteGuys from 01.10 Canada is also removing all entry requirements. I expect demand to boom.
DeleteIf JU is to launch 5 x A330 and do serious long-haul in years to come, they shall same time increase regional fleet. They will need more ATR-s for transfer pasangers from Sofia, Bucharest, LJubljana, Tirana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Tivat, Dubrovnik, Split... Same time they will need more a320 for frequest destinations in Europe, destinations in EX-SSSR , North Africa and Middle East. They will need at least 8 to 10 pcs of ATR72-600 as well as minimum 5 to 6 A320 for this job adding to existing 11 x a319. Meaning they are to rise to over 30 aeroplanes in next few years
DeleteMaybe nonstop to Australia.
DeleteJAT had already 5 DC 10 in some summers….
DeleteAnon 9:04
DeleteWhat about Australia mate, maybe even Tokyo.
Hopefully they won't all be A330s.
ReplyDeletemy favourite wide body: 2-3-2 seat configuration, if you have a window seat, there's only 1 person sitting next to you when you have to get up.
DeleteWho knows, if they don't want all a330s it's good to get a350-900
Delete"my favourite wide body: 2-3-2 seat configuration"
DeleteThis would be my favourite widebody too if it existed :)
767 has such configuration. 777 and 380 are 10-abreast. 330 and 340 are 8-abreast. 787 and 350 are 9-abreast.
DeleteThe majority of A330s have 2-4-2 configuration. Air Transat has 3-3-3 and I have heard it's really tight. Also, most 777s now have 3-4-3 and it gets really crowded. This past summer i was flying United's B767 from EWR to ZRH. I really liked the 2-3-2 configuration. Additionally, the configuration that UA uses on this route is heavy premium. More than 3/4 of the seats were either Business, Premium Economy or Economy Plus.
DeleteIs there a time frame when this might happen?
ReplyDeleteIt's good to be optimistic. I just hope they improve their commercial strategy and that they will have a solid winter season.
ReplyDeleteAegean announced a major expansion for 2023 so they are definitely putting pressure on regional aviation, JU included. They even increased BEG from 4 to 5 weekly next summer.
So a third plane might arrive sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteWhere could they deploy it?
ReplyDeleteI guess a third destination in the US. Maybe Toronto too.
DeleteNo Toronto. Air Serbia is allergic to Toronto. Nonstop London Sydney is more likely to exist than Belgrade Toronto. That route is cursed.
DeleteLos Angeles
DeleteThere is simply no demand for YYZ flights from Belgrade, market is too small and those guys over there would sell their mother if they could save €10 on an airfare.
DeleteThat's why both JU and AC are staying away from this market.
Belgrade is full of passengers willing to sell anyone to save €10, Wizz has full A321s in Belgrade to prove it. There was also paltry demand from Belgrade to New York before 2016 but it grew after direct service was introduced. As for market being too small, are you talking about Zeleni Venac market? Because you are certainly not talking about Toronto, largest unserved market from Belgrade excluding China. Larger than Chicago. Any other excuses?
DeletePeople around the world would sell their kids/mother/father for 10$....that is why LCC companies are established, because there was a need for cheap flights! But, there are people who have more money (economy +) and much more money (Business, First class) and much much more money with private jets....in our region there are not many people who are that rich and that is why flights to/from ex-yu space are not premium heavy. Hope this clarifies situation for now...
DeleteIn the best times of JAT, they had 5x DC-10
ReplyDeleteThis was exactly my thought. Someone copy/pastes old JAT!
DeleteIf the shoe fits, wear it
DeleteRemembering my flight to New York in mid 80’s, in almost full DC-10 and making stop in Ljubljana only 7 passenger to board in.
DeleteWhen Havana?
ReplyDeleteNew York would be great via LJU once per week.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen.
DeleteThey should have two A330-300.
ReplyDelete-200 has better range.
DeleteThey don't need that range.
DeleteYes they do
DeleteWill be interesting to see 5-6 long-haul destinations;)
ReplyDeleteWhen will they announce Tianjin,Havana?
ReplyDeleteHavana likely won't go ahead. Tianjin very soon.
DeleteAll these plans sound great. I just don't know how they are going to finance it.
ReplyDeleteDidn't you see the news a few days ago? That's how.
DeleteWhat?
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/09/state-increases-ownership-stake-in-air.html
DeleteOh, true :D
DeleteYou should look at the remaining regional carriers to get a crystal-clear perspective
DeleteWhat happened to GullivAir?
ReplyDeleteThe cannibal of JU;)
Lol I do remember people writing here how it would be the end of JU.
DeleteDo they still exist?
DeleteThey exist in the same way FlyBosnia does.
DeleteThey still exist. They returned their ATR's a couple months back due to problems in paying for them, and have been using their A330's on behalf of European tour operators such as TUI. They've canceled SOF-SKP/TIA/BOJ and have canceled plans to launch SOF-OTP/Ruse as well as BOJ-BEG. How much longer they last will be interesting to see.
DeleteThe Serbian taxpayer will be digging deep into their pockets to fund this!
ReplyDeleteAt least they will fund a network of 100 destinations, rather than 13 for the same price.
DeleteWith 5 A330, Air Serbia can fly to JFK 4 times a day!
DeleteBetter than 4 times a day to Frankfurt.
Delete+100
DeleteEternal foreign concern for Serbian pockets. Our pockets are deeper than you think.
DeleteWell this year for the first time Serbian GDP will surpass €60 billion. Obviously our pockets are getting deeper and deeper.
DeleteWhy is flying to NYC 4 times a day with leased aircraft better than flying 4 times per day to FRA with paid off equipment?
DeleteBecause you are funding Lufthansa and bleeding money to aid an airline that doesen't even know OU exists. And just to note more than 50% of your OU's fleet is not owned by them.
DeleteI disagree. Paying for a flight with OU is bleeding money to LH how exactly? Much of the fleet is owned by OU, I never said the while fleet. Again, LH is not a share holder in OU so it is still not clear why 4 flights ti NYC per day is better than 4 flights to FRA.
DeleteMajority of tickets sold on OU flights to Frankfurt are purchased through Luftahansa where Lufthansa gets the majority of the revenue. Not to mention if long haul route is purchased, Croatia Airlines doesen't even get 2% of the revenue on its sector despite carrying the passenger to Frankfurt and that is why Croatia Airlines is posting record losses year after year even with huge government aid and subsidies.
DeleteNot true. Simply not true.
DeleteChina will be a success no doubt.
ReplyDeleteOn the recent crew recruitment they had over 400 applications.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! Hope it happens.
ReplyDeleteThis is in line with what VINCI outlined they expect when they took the BEG concession.
ReplyDelete5 planes could go to max 30 destinations, one weekly each if rotation fits in 24h window. With average 3x weekly and some taking longer than 24h, fleet of 5 can really serve only about 7-8 destinations
ReplyDeleteWill Air Serbia ever buy a brand new plane?
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteIt looks to me that green initiatves of leading countries are creating uncertanity. What would be perfect fleet for future years? When you buy new plane you have to plan 10-20 years ahead. It is just my opinion.
DeleteIt will make sense for Air Serbia to order new birds only if they place order for 50+ planes and be able get some big discount
DeleteVery nice. Well done JU.
ReplyDeleteDone what?
DeleteHaving clear idea about direction that they are going toward...
DeleteIs there any indication when China might ease these Covid restrictions?
ReplyDeleteProbably after the party congress. which starts on 16.10.
DeleteChine is in full clown mode still.. They are locking down and fencing off entire city blocks over suspected cases.
DeleteI see third A330 coming in summer 2023 and fourth in summer 2024.
ReplyDeleteSounds plausible.
DeleteYes, plausible being the least of all probabilities.
DeleteHamilton and especially Buffalo are not alternative to Toronto. I live in Chicago and I wouldn't fly with Air Serbia if they fly to Rockford, 50 miles from Chicago. Do you think that businessman, who would pay his ticket much more than me, would use Air Serbia from Rockford or LH from O'Hare? There are reasons why all airlines fly from O'Hare and not from Rockford and why they fly from Toronto Pearson and not from Hamilton.
DeleteWhat businessman?
DeleteHe knows a guy ...
Deletewith three planes they could easily fly to YYZ twice per week
ReplyDeleteToo expensive. Air Serbia would rather fly to nearby Buffalo in the US. No frequency limit, much cheaper airport.
DeleteBuffalo would be very happy, they would get their gateway to Europe in Belgrade. BUF seasonal service is a perfect solution to all those complaints from Air Serbia about Toronto being expensive, limited to 2 weekly by bilateral etc. Air Serbia, what's your excuse for not starting Buffalo?
DeleteHamilton is a city some 50km west of Toronto with a huge Balkan diaspora. Could be viable alternative to YYZ.
DeleteHamilton is not a perfect alternative to YYZ, but it might work with incentives, if there would be any. Much cheaper than YYZ. It worked well for Norwegian AS just prior to the pandemic.
DeleteIs Toronto designated airport in the bilateral? Anyone seen the text?
DeleteHonestly that's too optimistic, as if it didn't took them almost 7 years to lease a second widebody and announce new destinations !!!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I know Marek wants to improve Air Serbia's image, we should be more realistic and down to earth.
Well it was their first route and they were new to everything along with the route being unprofitable due to being started forcefully.
DeleteVery nice planes to have 5 wide bodies.
ReplyDeleteI wish all the luck to Air Serbia to get to this number and above.
Also I wish Air Serbia to use one of them to flights to Lagos. I am sure flights would be always full as are the ones from Qatar (Double daily), Lufthansa, British, Air France etc. Qatar even started flights to Port Harcourt and Kano and I am sure Air Serbia would find this route very profitable and could end up even double daily in future when their transfer network is bigger.
Why are you so obsessed with Lagos. BEG-LOS will relie 90% on transfers if there are no touristic programmes between the two countries or any study exchange programmes. At the moment there is quite a lot of concurention from KLM, Lufthansa, British, Emirates, Air France, Royal air Maroc , Etihad airways ,Delta, United, Etheopian and Kenyan airways. Ofc BEG has an advantage of having a better geographical posistion than the African and Middle eastern carriers but still a lot of concurention. Lagos had 7,3 million passengers in 2019. Which isn't bad, but for a country with 200 million people it's not that good. At the moment Air Serbia has great load factors on it's flight so it would not really benefit a lot of it's european destanations. If Air Serbia will go 2 times dailly to it's european destanations and the market in Nigeria will develop more than it will be might interesting to invest in this route. But at the moment there are better places to send their planes and getting new aircrafts it's not that easy nowadays.
DeleteLet's cool it with the Lagos talk. Not happening.
DeleteAir Serbia's biggest wide-body success is that they managed to operate JFK for 5+ years with a single plane without major problems. Having a second plane is always a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThey had a few major hickups along the way.
DeleteThey had hiccups, but I would not call them major.
DeleteIndeed, would be a great sight.
ReplyDeleteThey should fly to the maldives or thailand, zanzibar etc.Serbs go there
ReplyDeleteМного мачку говеђа глава! )))
ReplyDeleteIdemo a380 je jeftin, sada je prilika
ReplyDeleteLagos, braćo moja, Lagos, a ne Havane i Majamiji
ReplyDeletema j*** te lgaos više
DeleteThere are plenty of Nigerians in Italy.
DeleteThe render looks amazing!!! I know it's just dreaming and impossible but it would be soooo cool to see it on nonstop BEG-SYD route. I wonder what would be the flight time and how the economics would look like? What would be the ticket price, is there any potential for cargo, etc... Lets dream together :-)
ReplyDeleteSince we are talking about the ASL fleet, with perfect timing - SX-LWC has left ASL. It just landed in Foggia where it is now based, inbound from Belgrade as JU4020.
ReplyDeleteThis only leaves the Dan Air and Air Mediteranean leases. Intresting to see how often the MAR B734 is sent on ASL's trunk routes (and charters) like ZRH and AYT. Likely shows how much they need this new A320
Aviogenex Charter widebody A340-300, 7.5 mil euros for 5 aircraft for 1.5 each ?
ReplyDeleteYou can do Havana for example, like Lufthansa Tampa with A343.
You don't go there as National Airlines to do 5 charter flights.
Year 1990, JAT has orders for 6 MD-11, in addition to 3 sold and leased - back DC-10. At the same time, Aviogenex is negotiating with Boeing order for 3 B767-300. What happened later, and where are we today, we all know. No further comment needed.
DeleteMeanwhile, as Marek is dreaming of 5 A330 in their fleet, back in reality they already reduced JFK back to 2 weekly. That didn't take long.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take a guess and say that you got that info from a site that exclusively gives super urgent breaking news and is first to report it?
DeleteThat info isn't correct. It isn't the first time that site has posted incorrect information, it's quite often that he does. Just yesterday he posted the new A320 registration being YU-APS, info apparently directly from JU, even though JU has posted all over social media that the registration is YU-APO a couple of days prior.
I believe that the 3 pw flights in that period were never loaded in the system. YU-ARB will be off for maintenance, TSN will launch with 1 pw (over 48 hour rotation for the aircraft) + 2 pw JFK + expected DOH charters for world cup (approximately). YU-ARC will be busy. Beginning of December JFK is back to normal and stays like that until the rest of the season. It's a 3 week period during one of the slowest travel periods of the year and he was super enthusiastic to write a kilometre article on it, but MLA relaunch will be released most likely somewhere later in the week, maybe next.
Means nothing if they won't hire enough. Pilot recruitment hasn't even been posted, but we're screaming for more crew on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteLovely! Why not go for 10? Its taxpayers money after all.
ReplyDeletePurger on ''ping'' machine
ReplyDeleteThe only model that can give some results, bringing from different airports in China passengers to Belgrade and from Beg to rest of Europe.
ReplyDeleteIn that case, 5 A330-200 is possible.
Pay attention about charters, you cannot do with Air Serbia planes, it is not that serious, put Aviogenex with some cheap quadjets A340, they can work for British tour operators and then, during Summer for Air Serbia.
Add wifi. The old plane had it. 8-9 hours is too long without wifi.
ReplyDelete