Air Serbia recorded a net profit during the first quarter of the year for the first time since launching operations under its new name in 2013. Although the carrier did not specify the amount of money it made during what is traditionally the slowest quarter for the aviation industry, its CEO, Jiri Marek, told “Bloomberg Adria”, “We launched many new routes, primarily destinations for leisure travel and the diaspora. This quick reaction brought us to profitability, that is the first profit after Covid, which amounted to 21 million euros [in 2022]. What is particularly important to us is that we continued on that path in the first quarter of this year. I am quite optimistic about the future”.
Commenting on the months ahead, Mr Marek said in a separate interview that this year is performing above the company’s initial expectations. “Despite the very ambitious growth in operations in 2022, we planned further growth for 2023. We started the year with an extremely positive trend and are currently recording an increase in the number of passengers even compared to pre-pandemic levels. We reached and surpassed our historic record results in terms of the total number of passengers handled, but also in terms of the average cabin occupancy. At this point, we are confident that 2023 will exceed our initial expectations, which were otherwise very ambitious to begin with”, Mr Marek said.
As previously reported, Air Serbia handled 654.959 passengers during the first quarter of 2023. Once April figures are included, the airline’s passenger numbers have increased an average of 20% compared to the same period in 2019. “Earlier we said our goal was to handle over three million passengers this year, but now, for the first time, we can say that our goal is to reach three and a half million passengers”, the carrier’s CEO noted. Despite the strong results so far, the Serbian airline has been experiencing fleet issues over the past three weeks due to unexpected maintenance of its aircraft which is taking longer than usual to complete, forcing it to conclude short-term wet-leases. “The situation on the market is very volatile and complex, especially due to the increased number of strikes by stakeholders within the aviation industry - beginning with various airport service providers, air traffic control… but also due to a continuous disruption in the supply chain of spare parts and other equipment. Therefore, the necessary period for the procurement of individual spare parts is now measured in months rather than weeks as was previously the case”, Mr Marek concluded.
Good work
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how much the profit will be in 2023. Will it be over 21 mill or less?
ReplyDeleteIf they managed that results in 2022 with Q1 being impacted by Covid, then 2023 should be even better.
DeleteThe year is still young but if they managed profit in Q1, it is a very good sign, The two most profitable quarters are yet to come.
DeleteIt should be much over 21 mil EUR, if something unexpected doesn`t happen.
DeleteGood
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteRespect!!!!! And Congrats!!! 👍🙌
ReplyDeleteConsidering how expensive their fares are, and how much they charge for flights to Russia, I’m really not surprised.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see which route makes them the most money.
DeleteIt was already published here a a few months ago for 2021. I'm sure we will get it for 2022 too.
DeleteYes, based on that In 2021 Montenegro was their highest yielding market. It will be interesting to see if Russia overtook it in 2022. In 2021 US was its highest revenue generating market. I expect that will stay the same.
DeleteIs there a link to that article? I can't find it
DeleteHere you go
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/11/montenegro-maintains-spot-as-air.html
Thank you
DeleteHope we get a same report for this year.
DeleteOne of the big reasons why they have a profit is that employees still have reduced salaries. There is huge lack of manpower in technical department, with the pilots and all sectores general. People are leaving the company one by one. If yoi don't believe what i write. Jjst ask some people that work there that are not part of management.
DeletePeople with skills are moving to airlines or completely different sectors because of higher wages offered and better work conditions.
DeleteTake into account the inflation and then you realize rises in salaries are long overdue.
Good. At least this airline has something to show for last year. They renewed the turboprop fleet, introduced second wide body, launched second new long haul route, carried 98% of 2019 passenger levels and launched 20+ new routes.
ReplyDeleteRespect!
DeleteHow many employees does Air Serbia have now?
ReplyDeleteAround a thousand.
DeleteLess and less by every day, they hired 120 crew members, crew members are steward-s stewardess, pilots huge lack, mechanics huge lack, supply chain for the aircraft parts huge lack of manpower. They dont want to hire Serbian pilots because they want to teach them a lesson, and the lesson is we can do whatever we want. With mechanic its a little bit different because there is huge shortage of mechanics around the world, for supply chain they can't get people to work for 500e 600 because they can get twice as much for the same or similar type of job i other firms. Not to mention that there is a ban for company like MTU to hire people from Airserbia. Some other companies are also unlimited for employees of airserbia. All in all they need to threat their employees like real workers and to pay attention to them unless they want complete failure during the summer
Delete* treat their employees
DeleteAnon 14:49 Everything that you said is truth. The company is treating its employees very badly. A lot of people left the company in the past months, and there is still no collective agreement for salaries. Shame for the company calling itself a national!!! Salaries are very low for FA (basic salary is 42.000 RSD plus flying hours and it gets you around 750 EUR per month on average) and the way they treat everyone is horrible... People in HR and management are not treating others good at all. Hopefully something will change soon or they will loose all the good people there.
DeleteCongrats. I hope for further positive developments.
ReplyDeleteAh long gone are the days of 2013 and 2014 when they dumped prices and you could score amazing fares. But still I am happy with how Air Serbia has developed over the past 10 years.
ReplyDeletePrice dumping was strategic. The idea was to get people flying with the newly branded airline which was unknown to people.
DeleteObviously people want to fly at higher fares since their load factor is the best it has ever been.
DeleteI bought a ticket to Malta for 55 euro with Air Serbia. That's a decent price.
DeleteDats good price.
DeleteDoes the company share to profit with the employees or is it just for the management?
ReplyDeleteNo, because that style of economics was abandoned with the fall of communism.
DeleteThe profits go to the company owners.
DeleteUpper level management get set bonuses if they have achieved certain targets.
So you mean that Emirates (who shares its profit with the employees) is working in communist country.
DeleteSharing profit with employees do not exist in capitalism. Only with owners if they vote for it. Must be Purger's question.
DeleteThe owner of the company decides what to do with the profits. Profits is NOT their salary.
DeleteOh dear... If you would only know how many Western companies share their yearly profits with their employees... Even in Serbia there are many European & US daughter companies that share profits with all employees, not just with top management! It not a communism trust me. It is pure capitalism with sense for all employees.
DeleteBut ok, I understand that some will never understand...
MERZ do you happen to know which competing airlines share their profits with all their employees?
DeleteAnon 11:16
DeleteDo you like moving the goal posts much?
MERZ's point, which you may have missed, is that sharing profits with employees that play a major role in turning that profit in the first place, does not amount to "communism."
Anon 11:30
DeleteNobody says it is BUT not all employees get bonuses because not all positions are equally critical to making the company profitable.
Their operational meltdown will overshadow this success. Honestly someone should be fired over this ongoing mess.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete@Plane Mad
DeleteBingo!
It don't matter Nemjee and Plane Mad as long as Jiri gets a good gig after this. Small details like ops are for the little people.
DeleteI always like NEMJEE who speaks like a true aviation enthusiast and not like a cheerleader.
DeleteDisagree with you. What Nemjee is not is a blind cheerleader, but he is known to wear rose tinted glasses from time to time (SSJ being an epic example), he has some blind spots and dislikes based on non-aviation matters (he's not fan of Turkish or Istanbul, for example), but he's certainly not a blind cheerleader like "Bravo Srbija/Hrvatska/Crna Gora" type of guys.
DeleteI typed the comment at 11:38 hours and just wanted to add that I still appreciate Nemjee and his contribution here, but let's not get into a Kim Jong Un praise just because he has a degree of objectivity in his comments.
DeleteLet's see how things go now that YU-APS is scheduled to enter service to TGD at 13.45.
DeleteWell people need to be objective when possible. JU was on a good course but this fleet mess is unacceptable. In my honest opinion, Marek should have been sacked over it. This has been going on for a month now and will go on for a few more weeks...at least.
DeleteNemjee, you make me feel bad now about typing that comment. I admit it, I love your contributions here.
DeleteWhy bad feeling, the man speaks truth. I feel bad when someone lies.
DeleteCurrent situation is partly due to bad planning, so somebody is responsible. I hope that delaying would be resolved quickly without cancelled flights, Air Serbia has to preserve its solid reputation. If there is a goal of 100+ routes until 2025, JU needs, in my opinion 3 additional A319, 2 A320, 2 ATR 72 and 2-3 A330s on dry lease which will resolve wet lease during summer. It is good to have profit, however there was almost no A320s in the first half of April, and no A330 flights to Moscow, so they had demand but not enough resources.
DeleteNamjeee great start of APS they manged to get it delayed on the first flight by 47 minutes as well! Ako se po jutru poznaje dan !?!? Incapable bunch of clowns from top to bottom!
DeleteWell, YU-APS could have been delayed due to transfers since their morning wave kind of fell apart. I think almost everything had a delay, some bigger and some smaller. I don't think it's going anywhere this afternoon so it will either fly tonight or tomorrow morning.
DeleteI noticed they sent the ATR to Istanbul. What a great way to be competitive when facing Turkish Airlines and Pegasus.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteThey should definitely work more on improving their image ,reliability and focus on building customer loyalty.
ReplyDeleteAny predictions for 2023 end of year result?
ReplyDeleteIt is still early to make such predictions.
DeleteIt's never too early to make predictions. That's the very nature of making predictions, they can be made with little info or a lot of info.
DeleteNot bad
ReplyDeleteIf they had Q1 profit it is really significant considering they are no longer getting aid.
ReplyDeletePreparing to sell to QR?
ReplyDeleteQR is in Ignore mode.
DeleteLooking at QR management of Meridiana/Air Italy I 'm not sure QR is the ideal partner for JU.
DeleteGet some German or Scandinavian management /investor!:))
DeleteQR could be used to one day years in the future sponsor Air Serbia membership into One World, if Air Serbia decides to go that way.
DeleteDo not care about their Q1 profit, personally always try to avoid flying with JU as much as I can.
ReplyDeletelol ok
DeleteCommical lol
DeleteGood for ya' brother.
Delete@11:53 Commical is AS service these days and my choice is mine only
DeleteYou will find couple of same minded folks at some other places where you don't have to use English.
Delete@16:40 Whatever
DeleteYou found translation for Kajgot
DeleteStrong comeback from Covid.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the busiest routes?
ReplyDeleteZurich, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Podgorica, Tivat, Athens and Istanbul
DeleteI'm sure Moscow is on the list too. They have started sending A330s there again (now that they have them available)
DeleteSurprising considering the number of new routes they introduced and fleet renewal.
ReplyDeleteThey made the right selection of new routes.
Delete"the necessary period for the procurement of individual spare parts is now measured in months rather than weeks as was previously the case"
ReplyDeleteone of the reasons they are facing fleet issues.
But how come other airlines are not facing issues on such a large scale because of supply chain issues.
DeleteThey are. That's why almost all airlines in Europe have wetleased equipment this summer. But there is a difference if you have a fleet of over 50 aircraft and most brand new, then when you are operating mid age second hand jets with a fleet of 20 planes.
DeleteIf you plan ahead in both securing enough spares for your parts stock and especially of you have good maintenance partner or your own department supply chain issues are minimized.
DeleteThe above are even more important when your fleet is old.
I think we can all agree that their maintenance partner - Jat Tehnika is far from good.
DeleteThese procurement issues are not new and have been around way before they planned this ambitious summer expansion. So they should have better prepared instead of going into turbo mode without a single plane as backup. Now they have at least 4 planes out of service.
DeleteI can imagine how Wizz and others are laughing at them right now.
Well, it seams that it would be perfect if they were receiving some brand new A320s now - and financially feasible, too - but who would would have dared to order them.
DeleteThey can always choose to lease newer aircraft. And with the price of Oil at 80$ a barrel it makes financial sense.
DeleteThey don't need neos, they should stick to older and cheaper models. What they should have done is made sure that many of these seasonal leases arrived earlier than May or June.
Delete"Older and cheaper models" need more maintenance - and that`s where the problem is right now.
DeleteAirlines of the world are not stupid for flying new aircraft.
Average Air Serbia fleet age is not bad compared to some competitors in the region, for example Croatia.
DeleteI am not saying they get a bunch of DC9s but rather to focus on 5 to 15 year old A320s.
DeleteI commented here a while ago how they will need to have a couple of spare planes (726 and 319) on top of the busiest summer schedule with all ASL aircrafts and wet leases included. This would greatly help bridge over the ongoing situations with delays and sudden but short-term aircraft breakdowns, and most importantly with the constant crisis among staff that these situations bring. If you are not paid sufficiently, and have to be stressed out and put out fires every day at work, the only thing you would think about is to get the hell out of there. This is the best remedy they can have, beside paying and treating their staff much better. Unless they wait and then inevitably be forced to scale down operations.
DeleteStart of S23 is not promising when it comes to their punctuality and fleet availability
ReplyDeleteThey have compromised service quality for profit.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the 21st century.
DeleteThey really never achieved service quality; ok maybe the first few months after the relaunch but after that it was a steady decline.
DeleteGood for the profit but their delays are still ongoing especially today. As Nemjee mentioned above. They need to urgently work on the organisational part very quickly before the peak summer season.
ReplyDeleteWould be useful if they said how much profit they made.
ReplyDeleteYes, I don't understand why they are keeping it a secret if they already announced they made a profit.
DeleteIn my opinion it's because it probably has something to do with cooking and something to do with books.
DeleteAnd, if you disagree with me then I would like to offer you a special and limited opportunity to own your very own bridge in a most strategic position. 🤙🏼
Guys, you don't seem to "get" CEO types. They're not here for the long haul. They get paid handsomely for a couple of years, they want to grab headlines with cherry picked parameters and jump on the next wave elsewhere. In other words, he's trying to pull a "Kucko" and I don't blame him. Just don't ask me to believe him.
DeleteI lived in Greece and this is what successive governments did, leaving it to the next guys to sort the "underlying challenges" until reality catches up with you. But he'll be long gone and it will be up to someone else to carry the bucket.
Anon 12:01
Delete+1000
Do we know when OU will release their Q1 results?
ReplyDeleteShould be at the end of this week.
DeleteA lot of people here comment about expensive tickets of Air Serbia. I think it is not valid for all destinations... last week we bought return ticket to Marseille on 20th May/30th May for the price of 200 EUR... Also, I already got return ticket for Milan in mid-June and it cost 215 EUR... I think this is quite reasonable pricing... I remember that with Lufthansa I always had to pay around 280-350 EUR for the flight to Marseille via Munich/Frankfurt....
ReplyDeleteJasmineeeeeee!!! Dje si? Jel' bila dobra kahva danas? Sta cemo za marendu? Nego, aj' malo i o poslu : kad sjedaju novci od HTZ-a? Kad ce za PSO? Kad ce naknada za gubitak u covid u? Kad ce Mostarci uplatit? A od Jugotona? Ima'l kaki kredit od banke? A kad ce drzava uplatit za dokapitalizaciju? Ima'l jos uvijek neke pinke od duplog liza za Dasinke? A ono sa BSG, jel' sjelo pola pola od toga? Masala.....
ReplyDeleteFirst take your pills and then post.
DeleteRijeka, nekada si me iritirao sa svojim komentarima. Danas, nekako nije mi ova stranica ista ako te ne vidim u komentarima. Jesi kad razmisljao da svaki dan pises mail tom Jasminu? :D
DeleteHahahaha svaka ti čast "Pozdrav"!
Delete@11.30
DeletePilule su za one koje istina boli. Ja sam tu fazu prosao. Sada se sa istinom sprdam.
@12.21 i 13.11
Zahvaljujem. Trudit cu se da vas i ubuduce ne razocaram 😃
I DALJE NISU VRATILI PLATE ZAPOSLENIMA !
ReplyDeletePogresio si portal!
DeleteImaju li zaposleni i dalje pravo da lete besplatno sa JU?
DeleteDa
DeletePitam se kako se zbog toga ne bune?
DeleteNe, nikada se nije letelo besplatno, povoljnije svakako ali ne besplatno.
DeleteLetelo se u vreme JAT-a u inostranstvo besplatno, na osnovu međukompanijskih sporazuma (tad sve bilo bilaterala), a domaće za 10% i 25% cene (ja leteo). Bez prava rezervacije, sa žutim "stendbaj" bording kartama.
DeleteMala dopuna i ispravak : samo jedna karta godisnje bila je besplatna (ID00). Dvije karte godisnje (ID90) bile su sa 90 % popusta na najskuplju tarifu. I bilo je moguce 6 karti godisnje koristiti sa 75 % popusta na najskuplju tarifu (ID75), sto je cesto bilo skuplje od redovnih tarifa sa popustom, tako da su se malo ili nikako koristile. Takodjer treba napomenuti da su sve ove karte bile bez prava rezervacije, odnosno mogle se koristiti samo ako je na letu bilo slobodnih mjesta. To je sve vazilo za sve linije, i domace i medjunarodne.
Delete@Anonymous16:23
DeleteKakav komentar, ne mogu da verujem? Iz koje branše dolazite, posto očigledno ste zalutali u avijaciji...
Ni iz jedne, to je jasno.
DeleteKomentar da je promasio portal je najbolji!!!
DeleteIli bolje receno da je pogodio u metu!
DeleteIt would be interesting to know how much money Serbian state get from those money since the state owns 82%??? But I guess first the "good" guys need to take their profit and then the leftovers go to the state, since that's the way it's done in Serbia/Balkan!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe'll know the real money is there when they appoint some apparatchik as CEO.
DeleteBased on their irrational wet leasing (read bad planning), complete mess with operations on daily basis and some unpredictable factors I think all that Q1 profit will easily disappear for reclamations and reimbursements. Many of us were warning them here in Jan / Feb that hey better get ready for what they announced but seems they knew better. Shameful from their side!
ReplyDeleteThey already wet leased planes in Q1 but despite it they made profit.
DeleteIt seems your wish JU not to be profitable won't happen.
Why would I have such a wish? Rather you have a wrong philosophy of thinking! My wish for them would be for them to be so profitable to be able to afford decent planes and improve their product by 100% while growing even more the network. But with what they are currently doing they are not going to be able to achieve that ... read their reviews.
Delete@14.24
DeleteSo Swiss which wet leases from Air Baltic, or Eurowings and Transavia which wet lease from Avion Express, or Vietjet leasing from Smartlynx, they all are irrational, have bad planning and complete mess with operations?
Transavia is currently cancelling flights because of fleet shortage.
DeleteAnd that's why they lease planes. Not to cancel any more flights, or to reduce cancellations. And as far as I know, despite few cancellations, they are profitable and passengers like them. So, don't know what the purpose of your post is
DeleteThere are definitely bots working here that do not have any working airline knowledge. Air Canada, Westjet lease their planes and that is what Airlines do - lease the planes that they need to fly. Why such negativity for ex -Yu businesses? They are no worse and even better then many other counterparts in the West.
DeleteSouthwest just the other day canceled 6000 flights in few days and here we hear complaints about 47 minutes delay and probably that will be made up in the air?!!!
It’s tough out there kids, and so far ex Yu is doing pretty good considering so high demand for exotic Balkans. I mean really Croatia on the coast sold out, Greece is sold out, Albania is sold out, Serbia sold out, Montenegro is sold out, Ohrid is sold out, Saranda is sold out
This will be record year for many places. Just be happy that there is an opportunity to show people these exotic places in the Balkans and make money by doing it.
make up 47 min delay in the air to TGD? Funny expert!
DeleteI thought it was a New York delayed for 47 min?
DeleteAnyway everything stands what i said. Life moves on even with 47 minutes delay. Not biggy.
The people here really think they'll make JU constant delays a normal thing. It is not normal thing, guys.
Delete@20:23 +1000% you are right!
DeleteI landed on BEG this weekend and I have never seen the arrivals area as packed as it was. It was even busier than when I flew during the summer. Even though there was a huge crowd, I cleared customs and got my bag within 15 minutes of exiting the plane. I can't even do that in Regina.
ReplyDelete15 min is Formula 1 time. It’s awesome!!! Regina has 2 carousels and usually takes 45 minutes without any customs procedure on domestic flights to pick up the bags.
DeleteI landed on BEG with Prague flight on Sunday night and it took me slightly under 2 hours to get out.
DeleteI arrived on Sunday from LCA, it was crowded but it took me 20 minutes from C7 to the parking outside. Passport control was extremely crowded but all booths were operational so we were moving quite fast. All in all it was a decent experience.
DeleteAnon 29.18, you are really big baksuz, what else to say.
DeleteGreat
ReplyDelete