Air Serbia is finalising a dry-lease for an additional two ATR72-600 aircraft with plans to have eight of the type in its fleet this year. In a statement to “ch-aviation”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We would like to operate eight ATR72-600s during this year, so depending on market availability of the aircraft, we may have a combination of dry and wet leases to cover the transition period. We are in the final stage to contract the next two ATR72-600s through a dry lease”. Air Serbia currently has five dry-leased ATR72-600s, one of which was delivered a few weeks ago and is yet to be put into service.
The carrier is also wet-leasing an Air Connect ATR72-600, which is planned as a long-term solution for Air Serbia and is expected to continue operating on behalf of the carrier throughout the 2023 summer season. The Serbian airline has been utilising the Romanian-operated aircraft four times per week to Bucharest, Tirana, and Zagreb, three times per week to Vienna, two times per week to Ljubljana and once per week to Prague, Podgorica, Sofia and Venice. The airline still has one ATR72-200 and one ATR72-500 aircraft in service. Over the past year, it has replaced the majority of its older-generation turboprop aircraft with the -600 variant.
The airline has put on hold plans to potentially convert some of its older ATRs into freighter aircraft, according to Mr Marek. However, the airline has announced a naming concept for the turboprop fleet. “We should be proud of the country in which we operate and that is why we plan for the ATRs to receive geographical names and for the aircraft to feature the symbols of Serbia", the airline’s CEO said. The carrier’s current ATR72-600 fleet averages seven years, while its previous mix of -200 and -500 models of the aircraft averaged 24 years. The two older ATRs still in operation with the airline are 25 and 32 years old respectively. Air Serbia owns the 32-year-old ATR72-200.
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At least they are dry leases.
ReplyDeleteSince the Air Connect plane will be staying for a long time, is there a chance for them to paint the aircraft into JU livery
ReplyDeleteSince it is a wet lease, I doubt it.
DeleteWell, that Romanian A320 was partially painted, so they could do it, but I doubt it, as it will require the a/c to be offline for few weeks.
DeleteMaybe if at some point it goes into maintenance.
DeleteWont be painted IMO. It already has a "custom" livery for Connect Air. Also the partly painted Romanian plane was an A319, and it wasnt painted, it just had the "AirSerbia" applied as a decal. Thats why they managed to get it off in a single day in october when its contract expired and the plane flew back to Craiova, and then right back to BEG two days later
DeleteDoes it really matter if it is in JU paint?
DeleteWhich of the new routes are being operated with ATR?
ReplyDeleteKrakow and Budapest
DeleteVery few. So they will need more A320-family planes.
DeleteKeep in mind that they are increasing frequencies on a lot of regional routes. So the ATRs will have high utilization.
Delete@9.08
DeleteYou forgot Ohrid
and Varna.
DeleteVarna as well.
Delete@Anon 9.14
DeleteThey said the other day they will lease an A320.
Five 600s, one 200, one 500, one Air Connect plus two 600s if they get them in time. So yes, 10, but I doubt they'll be all flying. Especially the 200.
ReplyDeleteTwo of the - 600 currently are on the ground (yu-asa and yu-alx)... So the utilization of atr-75-200 is quite high
ReplyDeleteMarek mentioned a while ago that 10 would be the optimal size of the ATR fleet. I think they will retire the two older ones next winter.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to see which city names they will go after for the ATR names.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it will be lakes, mountains..
DeleteAny ideas when these names will be given?
DeleteProbably by start of the summer season but I'm just guessing.
DeleteI think the ATR should get natural geographic names such as mountains and rivers.
DeleteA319/A320 would be more suitable for city names if they ever move away from the failed "living legends" theme.
I think the living legend theme died a long time ago.
DeleteI don't understand this
Delete"the aircraft to feature the symbols of Serbia"
Will it be symbols as in the name of there will have it on the livery?
There are 12,000 different plants and flowers in Serbia and ex-Yu region. The region is home to most diverse variety of plants in the whole world. Period. Majority of these plants are medically beneficial. If Marek is cool guy :) he would take my idea and put some of the most beautiful plants from this region on the tail of the plans. It would be visually pleasing and educational for the general public. And it can even make your life healthier after learning about these plants. I would place catalog with description and benefits of these plants in seat pockets. Let's do things out of the box.
Deleteand I meant Photo of the plant with name on the tail.
DeleteThey can start with Наталијина рамонда. They can put a nice design and it's first flight should be to Vienna.
Delete"The region is home to most diverse variety of plants in the whole world. Period".
DeleteReally?
Great news
ReplyDeleteWhen will YU-ASA enter service?
ReplyDeleteIt takes several weeks for them to enter a plane into service from delivery. The plane has to undergo maintenance check but also check by Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate to be put in the Serbian register.
DeleteThanks. So hopefully soon.
DeleteThis is a good start, they should eliminate the 72-200 ASAP.
ReplyDeleteThere is only 1 left.
DeleteThat ATR72-200 deserves to go into retirement. 32 years of service!
ReplyDeleteThey should put it in the aviation museum.
DeleteThe issue is there is no space in front of the museum. The whole thing has to be renovated big time.
DeleteThey need a regional jet plane. Something with the capacity to seat 100 passengers.
ReplyDeleteNot going to happen anytime soon.
DeleteMarek last summer talked about regional jets, in particular noted the ERJ, however not anytime soon. I think the plan is to transition from the A319 to A320 and when that is towards completion to introduce the ERJ's.
Deletehttps://www.aerotelegraph.com/en/embraers-turboprop-looks-interesting-to-air-serbia
In my opinion, a mix of turbo props and regional jets would make most sense for JU, as it would allow them to achieve good financial returns on short routes and yet open new routes that are uncomfortable on a turbo prop yet beneficial for longer flights covered by the Airbus fleet.
Deleteair-tycoon-online.fandom.com
DeleteHuh?
DeleteJU has and had quite a few routes that needs/ed regional jets. ATR doesn't do the job while the A319 too big. From the discontinued routes WAW, HEL, GVA, current routes PRG, TIA, LJU, OTP, LYS, BRU, HAJ, STR, VIE.
DeleteAnd NUE, ATH and GOT.
DeleteGood news. ATR are great aircraft.
ReplyDeleteThis was expected considering the new routes they have planned.
ReplyDeleteAre the ATRs serviced in BEG?
ReplyDeleteI mean is maintenance done in BEG?
DeleteYes
DeleteHow much do brand new ATRs cost? The ATR72-600?
ReplyDeleteThese things change and vary based on numerous things but the -600 list price is $26.8M
DeleteActually not as expensive as I thought. If you order a couple you will definitely get a discount.
DeleteUntil when do the lease for the ATR72-500 last?
ReplyDeleteI doubt anyone other than Air Serbia and the lessor can now until when did they sign the leasing agreement :)
DeleteAny reasons behind deciding not to convert the atrs?
ReplyDeleteThey said a few months ago that it was difficult to secure conversion slots. I don't know if that impacted their decision but it might have played a role.
DeleteThe priority should be growing their passenger fleet and not relying on wet leases.
DeleteSo what will be the next registration for the two ATRs?
ReplyDeleteYU-ASB and YU-ASC.
DeleteLol makes sense. Forgot the last one is YU-ASA.
DeleteIn addition to more modern ATR's they need to get rid of 75% of A319 and replace them with newer birds.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteIn any case they said they will replace most of their A319s with A320s.
DeleteThose A320neos they had ordered would have come in handy now.
Delete@22,42
DeleteThat order would of bankrupted them. 10 A320's is overkill now let alone back in 2018 when they were supposed to arrive. Not to mention the pandemic period where they reduced the fleet to reduce costs.
Last thing I know is that JU managment offered a version of the collective agreement that was refused by the unions. At the moment, they have started/should start soon a mediation with some professional mediator to reach a compromise
DeleteReplied to a wrong post... Sorry
Delete10 ATRs in summer sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteI'm still certain that E90 plane would be perfect for them, especially when they get rid of A319s
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteTrue, and if they can get that sweet deal EMB offered to Croatia Airlines, they can easily go for 15 E2 family jets and also save a lot on operating costs.
DeleteEmbraers would be ideal. I hope they look into them.
DeleteAir Serbia just keeps growing
ReplyDeleteRoute network growth is exceeding fleet growth big time.
DeleteThen goodness they are not all wet leaees.
ReplyDeleteDon’t understand the comment, you thought they were gonna wet lease 6+ ATRs on a multi-year basis?
DeleteI'm referring to the 2 additional dry leases that the article is talking about. Considering their track record I was certain they would just wet lease planes the entire summer.
DeleteApologies for all the spelling mistakes in the first comment.
The wet leases are probably in part due to a lack of workforce - pilots and cabin crew.
DeleteJust yesterday it was announced that Serbia is 25,000 short of people in the workforce.
Alot of employers in Serbia are still working out that overworking and underpaying employees is something people don't like, just as having on-time salary and being registered from day 1 is not a perk. To be fair, it seems to be trend everywhere. Problem in Serbia is that both minimal and median wages don't cover the average monthly expenses. You have hotels in Belgrade asking for perfect English language skills for minimal wage while the Ministry of Tourism reports of having a lack of skilled workers in tourism and hospitality.
DeleteAs for JU, they've managed to chase out quite a number of experienced employees, especially those that have come in from the Middle Eastern companies through an increasingly deteriorating work atmosphere. It's a shame as they could of been resourceful in enhancing things at JU. 4 wet leases in the slowest period of travel isn't good, while the 'at least' 1 A320 comment by Marek doesn't give the impression that they expect things to get much better by the summer season, as in total, they haven't covered in dry leases the wet leases used last summer while embarking on further expansion, not only in destinations but frequencies too.
Agree with JATBEGMEL.I don't know whether they have reached an agreement with crew over collective agreements. At the start of the month negotiations were ongoing.
Delete@22,39
DeleteApparently they haven't reached an agreement and negotiations broke down. A couple of posters have given some slight insight, including the possibility of strikes.
Last thing I know is that JU managment offered a version of the collective agreement that was refused by the unions. At the moment, they have started/should start soon a mediation with some professional mediator to reach a compromise
DeleteBravo JU
ReplyDeleteWould have been nice if the planes were ordered new from ATR.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia does not have the finances for that.
DeleteExactly. They made less profit than the prove of 1 ATRA72-600.
Delete*price
DeleteYou think that airplanes are purchased in cash in one big suitcase?
DeleteŠta se dešava sa A319 APB odavno ne saobraća
Delete^ Ima diskusija u komentarima na vesti o Tehnici
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/01/jat-tehnika-marka-b767-conversion.html
10 ATR fleet will be necessary.
ReplyDelete^ For this summer?
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the ATRs that are no longer in service? Have they all been returned to the lessor?
ReplyDeleteThe ones leased have been retuned the ones owned by Air Serbia are parked in front of Tehnika.
DeleteTnx
DeleteHopefully everything will be ready by summer.
ReplyDeletegood job Air Serbia with dry lease, to give the chance to your cadets and young pilots, great company!!!
ReplyDelete