NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia is set to take delivery of an Airbus A320 aircraft, formerly operated by India’s Vistara. The jet, which is almost eight years old, will become the first in the Serbian carrier’s fleet to feature sharklets. The wing-tip devices improve the aircraft's aerodynamics and significantly cut the airline's fuel burn and emissions by 4% on longer sectors. The jet, which has been stored since April of last year, is currently being prepared for return to service and is expected to arrive in Belgrade in the coming weeks. Air Serbia's CEO, Jiri Marek, recently said the airline plans to transition from its primarily A319 narrow-body fleet to the A320s.
Great!
ReplyDeleteHopefully sharklets won't stay plain white, their logo would suit them nicely.
ReplyDeleteYU is very opportunistic lately, great attitude.
ReplyDeleteMarek is making al the right moves, rumor is he’s getting rid of COO and bringing fresh blood to operations to help facilitate the planed expansion.
ReplyDeleteIts not a rumor, its official as of today.
Delete@anonymous 12:27 , well it's easier when you ran a state owned airline and not a private one .
DeleteThis Marek guy really is coming off as competent. Good job, Air Serbia, in choosing him and well done for growing.
DeleteWho's new COO?
Delete>> @anonymous 12:27 , well it's easier when you ran a state owned airline and not a private one
DeleteThat means it's also easier for other two state owned airlines in the EXYU region. Somehow their results are not aligned with your "thinking"
@anonymous 17:37 when and if Air Serbia publish their true financial results , we will see if my thinking is right !
DeleteOh look it's the guy who asked how he can access a reservation system and was claiming the other day that JU's load factor is low based on BEG's passenger numbers even though it was mathematically impossible to calculate
DeleteWhy is it that every time anyone says anything critical of JU you immediately mention Air Montenegro and Croatia Airlines. They are irrelevant when it comes to JU because they have a fundamentally different business model. Whether we like it or not, Air Serbia is trying to enter the league where Austrian Airlines, Aegean, Tarom, LOT... are to be found.
DeleteI also think it's too early to judge the competence of the new CEO. He did have some good moves but let's wait and see in what shape they come out of the winter season and how successful they are on the financial front. Air Serbia needs to grow but at the same time, after ten years in existence, it's time to no longer rely on the government for financial support.
What is going to be the registration of this plane?
ReplyDeleteSome say YU-APO and some YU-APS.
We will find out soon.
DeleteMaybe both :D
DeletePlanespotters.net says its YU-APS, currently in ERF on maintenance at Hangar901 MRO.
DeleteYU-APS
ReplyDeleteIs it going to be leased by the hour or monthly?
ReplyDeleteWe have talked about this issue so many times here during the last couple of years even. The days of the A319 are gone now. More and more airlines are stick to the A320 if they want to be more competitive. JU has many busy routes it can deploy the A320. Just lower the business class and increase the economy by adding more seats. This way it will allow them to even be more competitive in pricing and have more and more people travelling on the segment.
ReplyDeleteThink Wizzair was stupid enough to buy them 235 A321 seaters or maybe the Ryanair bigger Maxes? JU is going on the absolute right track. They can now stick to 2 aircraft manufacturers instead of having 500. They were smart to upgrade their ATRs and now get rid of those old fashioned A319. If all goes well, they can upgrade to the A320neo and also the A330neo.
I hope it all goes well because we all know very well that if something goes really well in the Balkans, there will be some outsider wanting to hurt or meddle the development in every aspect especially the bigger ones.
Wizz has A321neo with 239 seats and in future it could grow to 244 seats...
DeleteWizz Air's cabin is absolutely horrible to fly on. I haven't flown with them in years because of it but I can only imagine what the flying experience is now when they managed to put even more seats on the A321. I don't know how so many people survive the five hour flight from AUH!~
DeleteThis summer a friend of mine flew to Palma with JU and their A320 was fully booked with no business class offered - they removed the curtain for the flight.
Obviously local demand is going to be good next summer due to economic stability in the country, so I expect them to have an even better network next year. Hopefully they add more flights to Spain next summer (frequencies).
Air Serbia in winter to Austria:
ReplyDeleteVienna will be increased two times daily with ATR72 (instead of 10 weekly)
and the Salzburg route will get an A319 instead of ATR72.
Plus:
Delete1. LJU 14x
2. SVO 10x
3. IST 10x
4. ATH 10x
5. OTP 9x
6. LCA 6x
7. LED 3x
8. FRA 6x
9. TIV 13x
10. TGD 20x
11. SJJ 7x
12. ZAG 11x
13. SKP 11x
14. PRG 5x
15. BCN 4x
16. SOF 7x
17. TIA 12x
18. LHR 6x
19. BER 6x
Delete20. MXP 5x
21. FCO 5x
BEG-ZRH is going to be quite busy:
DeleteLX: 16 weekly
JU: 14 weekly
Interesting for both airlines. LX will deploy airBaltic's A220 on 14/16 flights while JU's sharklet equipped A320 will fly almost every day to Zurich. I guess it's a similar strategy to what they did in Vienna since it is almost exclusively operated by new ATRs which makes sense since OS is sending E95 to BEG. They have to remain competitive.