Air Serbia plans to add Airbus A321 aircraft to its fleet after identifying favourable leasing rates and conditions for two of the jets on the market. The airline is yet to make a firm commitment for the two aircraft, however, a Letter of Intent for their lease is expected to be signed in the coming weeks, which would likely enable their arrival during this summer season. The Serbian carrier plans to deploy the aircraft on busy routes including Amsterdam, Istanbul and Paris, as well as more recent additions to its network, which have proven extremely popular with passengers, such as Lisbon, Palma and Malaga.
The Serbian carrier is now undertaking a technical evaluation of the two A321 aircraft that it plans to add to its fleet. The A321 would become the largest narrow-body jet to be operated by Air Serbia. The aircraft can seat between 185 and 220 passengers depending on the cabin layout. They will enable the airline to add capacity on busy routes and reduce the need to introduce additional frequencies to meet the demand, especially as some of the airports the aircraft would be deployed to are slot constrained. The carrier is confident there will be sufficient demand for the higher-capacity A321s even during the slower winter months, following what was a record 2022/23 winter season, which saw the airline register a high average cabin load factor and achieve profitability.
Air Serbia currently operates ten A319 aircraft, three A320s, five ATR72-600s and two A330-200s. Furthermore, it wet-leases two ATR72s, one A319 and A320 each, as well as one B737-800. In the coming weeks, the airline will wet-lease an additional B737-800 and two more A320s. As previously reported, the carrier is set to dry-lease an extra two ATR72-600s, which will arrive this summer, with plans for more turboprops to join the fleet in the future. An A330-200 aircraft, which will become the third of the type in the fleet, is expected to join the airline some time during the summer. Supply chain issues remain a problem, altering planned delivery dates and entry into service of leased aircraft.
Great choice and much needed addition to their fleet.
ReplyDeleteFinally! I hope the deal goes through. I've been saying this all along for few years now😀
DeleteMost airlines that grew too fast went bankrupt. Air Serbia should focus more on consolidation, and improving their customer service, the quality of the plane interior. Alitalia and Air Berlin were both huge airlines from rich nations and they collapsed. Everyone who is critical doesn't want the same to happen to Air Serbia.
DeleteThats why Air Serbia should focus on their regional jets. More ATR's and something to close the gap between the short range ATR and the A319/320. Like embraer jets. they can increase the fleet, seat availability and frequency to make travel across the network smoother. Instead of high capacity low frequency A321.
The costs of adding new airplane type could actually make JU go bankrupt.
Delete^ all that is left for you to do is wish and hope.
Deleteits not optional. Jiri Marek did an interview saying they will phase out the A319 for the A320 which create an even bigger gap.
DeleteThe Embraer will be needed, and better to get it now. The fleet is having more difficulty meeting frequency.
after initial introduction cost the Embraer is cheap to operate and far more flexible, to start new routes and even be deployed from Morava and Nis, the A321 only serves a few routes and only from belgrade.
"the A321 only serves a few routes and only from belgrade."
DeleteAnd that's totally fine because there are 4-5 routes from BEG where you can easily fill an A321 year-round.
I don't understand this obsession with JU introducing a regional jet when LF is growing every year, while Balkan destinations are comfortably covered with ATRs that are significantly cheaper to operate. Introducing a new aircraft type would mean a lot of sunk cost at a time when JU needs all the cash it can get to expand long-haul, harmonize the hard product across the fleet etc.
The push for regional jets is to close the gap in the fleet. to increase frequency, and efficiency and increase flexibility. to avoid the problems that will definitely happen from lack of planes available.
DeleteThe ability of higher frequency also encourages more people to travel. since more availability to reach the airport for a flight instead of a few flights a day.
They're also short on the ATR's, which are good and best option but only for flight up to 1 - 1.5 hours.
Fully agree with you Vlad and really do not understand the comment of anon @ 10:49
Delete@Slav.Man10:17
DeleteIf the situation was better I would agree with you completely, but having in mind a chronical lack of pilots that they are facing, from the pure mathematical point of view, adding a bigger plane in this moment makes more sense.
@Vlad11:05
Regional jets could cover destinations that are too far for ATR's and don't have enough demand for Airbus. Not having a plane like that limits possibilities for Air Serbia's growth significantly.
Also, they could be used regionally in cases where ATR is too small to cover the demand and Airbus is too big. At this moment they could send A319, which is double the capacity of ATR (144 to 72 seats) and, since their plan is to phase out A319 completely, in the future they could face the situation that the next bigger plane is A320, which is 174 seats. Gap is way too big, their fleet needs to be more scalable
@Branko thanks, i forgot to consider the work to hire pilots, yh they would need to double the amount of pilots they, which seems is harder to do. They can probably find 10 cheap leases for Embraer before the 20 pilots to fly them since the whole industry has a shortage of pilots, especially in the Yug.
DeleteI wonder if they have a pilot training program or will start one
@Slav.Man11:56
DeleteFrom what I've heard about their typical SNS style HR, I am not very optimistic
Ja sam amaterski avio entuzijast (profesionalno u stočarstvu) ali je i meni jasno da je A321 dobra odluka.
DeleteI think that JU does not need 100 seater, ATR should be replaced by A319.
DeleteNo, with A321
DeleteBravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will also be deployed to SVO.
ReplyDeleteNormal.
DeleteDepending who they lease the plane from, hopefully there will be no restrictions for Russia flights
DeletePretty sure we may also see it on Zurich route too.
DeleteBarcelona as well
DeleteA321 can fly almost year-round on Zurich, Istanbul and Moscow.
DeleteLisabon and Paris should be added to that list.
DeleteWow really happy to hear Lisbon is doing well and could be upgraded to A321!
ReplyDeleteNot surprised. Route long overdue
DeleteAnd JU might not have started it if W6 hadn't started it first...
DeleteI think Wizz pushed them to start it earlier than they intended.
Delete@JATBEGMEL Exactly. Primary goal was to get CASK closer to Wizz A321 (no A321NEOs based at BEG so far) on competing routes like LIS and BCN. To get wizzier than Wizz.
DeleteSlav.Man and others completely missed the point.
@16:20 Wizz air is a low cost carrier. even if its not successful in Serbia it will be successful overall. Air Serbia needs to be more careful, its operation is struggling to be maintained, they're running of planes, they're late, and having issues with their service.
Deletethey can compete with Wizz by having higher frequency, more reliable service with better quality. they cant match Wizz prices using the same plane.
@Pu..sorry Slav.Man, "Air Serbia needs to be more careful, its operation is struggling to be maintained, they're running of planes, they're late, and having issues with their service."
DeleteOnly one person in the world keeps writing this "Air Serbia is bad" stuff over and over in desperate hope it will somehow damage Air Serbia. Doesn't work, Air Serbia keeps getting bigger and better. On the other hand your aviation knowledge still sucks.
@Anon 23:28
DeleteI don't want air Serbia to follow Air Berlin and Alitalia.
i would like Air Serbia to grow and have same reputation as KLM, Air France and British Airways.
blind loyalty doesn't build success. I congratulate them on things they do well and criticize where appropriate. Air Serbia does not have the political and economic support and stability of EU airlines so needs to be more careful.
not my comment that damages them, its their own delayed flights, bad customer service which i have received more than once, that damages them.
Their growth of number of destinations, long haul network, fleet and passengers shows no damage at all. That damage exists only in your head. You can't damage them, you can't stop them and your hurt shows. It only gets worse, they are adding another batch of destinations right now. It's not jatovanje as you called it for many years, it is reality and you can't stand it.
Delete>> Air Serbia does not have the political and economic support and stability of EU airlines so needs to be more careful.
DeleteAir Berlin, Alitalia and Adria had "the political and economic support and stability of EU airlines" and see how successful they are LOL
EU airline based in your city is on a downward path to join them.
Great progress made by Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
I fully agree!
DeleteWe all agree. The point is to say something smart or new if you decide to post a comment. I hail the fleet expansion but would also like to know more about hard financial data and the expected impact on the company.
DeleteIt's just unfortunate that the plane is not likely to come during peak summer. Could have been used constantly on charters as well like Hurghada.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. It is possible that way they wouldn't need to operate Hurghada 8 times per day but 6 for example and free up A319/A320s for other routes.
DeleteJust seeing that they are serving Ljubljana with A320 this morning, is there a demand or are they lacking atrs?
ReplyDeleteThis morning it was due to no ATRs being available. One of the new dry leased ATRs was supposed to enter the fleet this month. But it didn't because of some part on nose cone is needed and like the article says there are supply chain problems so its arrival will happen in June now instead.
DeleteWeird! Both DAT and Air Connect atrs are in service now, not to mention that 3 a319 are on the ground this morning due to easy schedule on Wednesday.
DeleteAnd ATR you mentioned already did test flights and is now being painted in fhe UK, so i very much call BS on 9:15 comment
Yes, the ATR I mentioned is painted but it was supposed to be in service at the start of the month. Frequencies on routes are increasing and more aircraft are needed. You can easily check that all other ATRs were fully deployed this morning. Anyway there were exactly 50 passengers to LJU this morning.
DeleteI apologise! I thought you were talking about entry into service in June! Please accept my apologies for that one :)
DeleteThe one thing I'm bothered about is using A320 instead of A319 that they have available, the only reasonable thing i can think about is them using wet leased aircraft to ease their own cabin staff as they probably lacl them right mow
Verovatno su i košarkaši Partizana bili na ovom letu pa je bio poztrban dodatni kapacitet.
DeletePretty sure Air Serbia's A321s will have 220 seats.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt
DeleteI think it is still less than W6 A321 with 230 seats.
DeleteAnd their neos have 240
Delete239 to be more precise
DeleteGreat news. About time.
ReplyDeleteWell done JU
ReplyDeletePlan is good. Hope planes can arrive this summer.
ReplyDeleteJasmineeeeeee! Dje si? Je l'se ispila kahva? Kako idu Dasinke, ima'l se dovoljno masla za vrata podmazat? Kad ce vise zamjena vecih vlastitih za manje u najmu? A joj, a dje sad jos i neki 321, triba se prvo razlika svladat kaki je 319 a kaki 320. Ma pus'ti ove, nemaju ni oni pojma, kaki' sad jos 321, pogotovo kad imas turizam i 11 miliona putnika godisnje. Jel'de da je tako?
ReplyDelete😂😂😂😂
DeleteСпрема се за Белфаст. Организује летове из Сплита. Треба то организовати. Толико ширење мреже се не може тако лако спровести. Еј, 10 летова за два месеца је то.
DeleteYes absolutely amazing, that OU as a representative of 'west-leaning, tourist-heaven, we-are-not-eastern-Russian-leaning, no-more-socialist-JAT rules' is actually turning into a worst example of all this. JU is kicking it full power and if they do not stumble on 'fast growth>>delays issues' they could fully dominate not only ex-YU but could easily go neck/neck with Tarom (not real comparison due to country size) overkilling Bulgarian which I think is nothing special. AS transformation is a clear SRB gov. victory, no doubt. BEG airport looks like second victory too. Good job so far.
DeleteBelgrade Airport is a mess, staff shortage. Passengers are not happy with the service. But even if there are people who like the airport now, remember its not eastern/Serbian its run by a French company.
DeleteAir Serbia only achieved transformation after changes from restructure working the Etihad and now the guy in charge is Czech.
Air Serbia has adopted more of a western or foreign approach to the company and grown. Croatia Airlines seems more to represent the spirit and business practices of JAT unfortunately
BEG definitely needs improvement. Passport control is a mess, there are very little shops, the traffic around it is nightmarish and there is an evident lack of personnel.
DeleteHopefully they're fixing this before the summer begins.
@Slav.man
DeleteOf course there was space in JAT for improvement and changes. Improvement and changes are always possible. But JAT of Yugoslavia (at those times) and CTN of Croatia (today) are two diferrent Universes. Despite some negativities, JAT at its peak was overall business oriented company on the path of further improvement and changes. Croatia Airlines is Mafia driven political entity absolutely uninterested in any improvement or change
So they could end the year with 26 aircraft of their own (excluding wet leases) - 10 A319s, 3 A320s, 3 A321s, 3 A330s and 7 AT72s
ReplyDeleteNot bad at all!
Delete* 2 A321
ReplyDeleteYes sorry I meant 2 A321s, so 25 aircraft
DeleteAir Serbia will probably have 31 to 32 total planes including wet leased later this summer.
DeletePlease for the sake of everyone flying with ASL, get those regional jets as well
ReplyDeleteNot till next year unfortunately
DeleteThat's my thought, they should have focused on the regional jets first, to close the gap between the very short haul ATR 72 and the A319-A320.
DeleteThey said several times that the reason they are going for these two A321s is because the conditions for their lease are very favorable.
DeleteThey also said introducing 100-seater would require additional training for crew, maintenance, certification and would be expensive.
@10:12 that's the point. the initial introduction of Embraer for example might be more expensive initially, but would help to secure the airline more. increase of seat availability, with increase in frequencies, and more flexible than the use of the A321.
DeleteEmbraer is cheaper to operate and with low capacity and with a range to reach all of Europe they could even use if from NIS and Morava. They need more ATR also.
A321 lease is the easier option and might be a deal thats too good to be true.
Just the other day in the new they mentioned it
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/05/air-serbia-analysing-neo-jets-as-part.html
Air Serbia hopes to secure leases for two A321 jets in the coming months and has said it will look into adding regional 100-seater planes next year. “We have had some initial discussions but those will most likely result in us getting some capacity provider, instead of short-term wet-lease, similar to SAS or Iberia regional operations via third party, because that is low risk - observing how that aircraft or segment can perform before you start creating the complexity of adding a jet that requires additional licenses, crew training, engineering etc. We are looking into it. I don’t think it will happen this summer but next summer we may consider it”, Mr Marek said.
yeah i read that article, they "will consider it next year", meanwhile the A319 is too big for some routes, they are struggling to have planes available to fill the frequency and the growth out of NIS and Morava is very very slow.
DeleteThere will be no frequency and growth out of Nis and Morava. The only reason they fly from there is because they are paid to fly from there. For their cost structure, all routes out of these two airports are highly unprofitable.
DeleteConsidering the average cabin load factor they are doing rather well.
Nis especially has a huge catchment area. Skopje is only 2-2.5 Hours from the airport. it could serve around 1/3 of the country, since its closer to so many than Belgrade. they wont grow them because they don't want to.
DeleteAn E170 is cheaper to run and easier to fill than the bigger A319 and more range than an ATR so they could at least try to popular destinations from Nis like germany, france, netherlands.
Regarding regional jets - at first my opinion was in completely in favor of Embraer (and ASAP!), but the more I think of it I am not sure that strategically maybe a220 is betters solution, especially having in mind rumours about a220-500. a220-100 and a220-300 could perfectly bridge a gap between ATR's and A320 and from what I heard a220-500 would have similar capacity to a320, but better performance and price. Having all that in mind, postponing a regional jet decision and getting a temporary capacity provider before things are clearer and financial situation is better, sounds like a reasonable choice.
DeleteYou are forgetting very important factor and that is cost of lease and TCO which will in total include all other factors that affect total cost of operation.
DeleteHaving all of this in mind you can quite easily get in situation that owning bigger plane of already familiar and bit older type will be cheaper that going for something that looks nice in brochures of airplane manufacturers.
A220 is most efficient plane today but too expensive, and too in demand with many engine problems for Air serbia. Also a220 was not created by Airbus so it doesnt have commonality with the rest of the fleet, would be same process as bring in an embraer.
Deletebetter off for older Embreaer or if they do go for newer plane it will be an E2. much cheaper than a220, less efficient but much better than the a319 or a320.
Anonymous14:55
DeleteI understand that, but I am talking about long term planning and not the near future. They need certificate for both - Embraer and a220, but with a220 that certificate would cover wider range of aircrafts (3 probably). Embraer is much better plane for them at the moment, but what about 2 or 3 years from now? Will they need to waste a lot of money for new type certification because they made the easier choice now? If Airbus decides to goes with a220-500, I don't think there will be a choice
probably still too new for air serbia, even if the a220-500 comes out, air serbia wont be in position to get it for a long time. currently they focus on planes that are 12+ years old to renew with. to get cheap lease deals and improve efficiency.
Deleteprobably continue with same approach for next 5 years, to remain profitable, increase fleet size and Marek said when they get to about 35 in the fleet they will start thinking of buying. (also waiting to see how the economy, politics plays out)
Regarding regional jet fleet, one good solution could be outsourcing service to for example Montenegro or similar r/j users, specialized for those services, making long term deal with them.
Delete@Anonymous16:06
DeleteTheir plan is to consider outsourcing regional jet operations (get capacity providor) next year. If they do that, I am guessing that deal would last at least year or two, so we are talking about moving to in-house and possible procurements earliest 2025/22026. A lot could change by then
What happened with JU's Atr's yesterday?
ReplyDeleteFlight to BUD was diverted.
DeleteSmart move
ReplyDeleteWonder who was the previous operator.
ReplyDeleteThe way they are talking about it, to me it seems that both have maybe been stored for some time. We will see.
DeleteThere are a whole lot of Nordwind A321s grounded. Wonder if it will be one of those.
DeleteUnless they are grounded somewhere in Europe, those won't be flying anytime soon.
DeleteIdeally should have joined the fleet right about now.
ReplyDeleteThey weren't planned to join the fleet this summer at all. An opportunity arose and they will take it.
DeleteSo in addition to 3 Wizz A321s (soon 4) we will also have 2 Air Serbia A321s based in Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteGreat!!!
DeleteCan't wait to see the A321 in JU livery.
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteNext stop... Ordering A321XLRs :)
ReplyDeleteWill they have enough cabin crew for these two planes?
ReplyDeleteYes. They hired 120 new cabin crew members in March out of 800 that applied. They have at least 100 more shortlisted.
DeleteIn the meantime, YU-ASA, YU-APS came, and soon YU-ASB and YU-ASC are coming. In addition, a large number of cabin crew quit their jobs. If we add two more A321 to that, I think they will be missing a lot of cabin crew.
DeleteThey have 800 to choose from so your assumption is wrong.
DeleteSome flights have already been canceled due to a lack of cabin crew. This is clearly seen when ATR is on the ground overnight and they cancel Skopje, Bucharest or Thessaloniki.
DeleteAll those flights that were on occasion cancelled were to be operated by Air Connect, which has issues of its own.
DeleteAnd to add, I love how some people wildly assume things without actually knowing anything and present it as matter of fact, like anon 13.38.
DeleteAir Connect has been having problems with flights and cancellations for days. The fact that he canceled does not mean that Air Serbia cannot fly in with its free ATR. Overnight, ATR Air Serbia was free and they still canceled flights. So there is no justification.
DeleteFully agree with you anon @ 13.41
Delete@14.05 first you claimed the flights showed that Air Serbia has issues with crew which is why the flights were cancelled, failing to mention these flights were to be operated by Air Connect. Now that you admit that they are operated by Air Connect I would suggest you stop spreading misinformation. No, it is not so easy to simply exchange the aircraft for Air Serbia equipment when you didn't have staff rostered for those flights as you have to take into consideration pilots as well and not just cabin crew. That does not mean they have a lack of crew but they don't have a dozens of crew resting on standby. There are certain procedures, crew rest limitations etc. You can't just switch and swap as you please.
DeleteTouché
DeleteIt's okay if on that day, for example, 27.05. Air Connect cancels the evening and night flight, but what about the flights on the 28th, 29th, and 30th? Why was JU166 Skopje canceled yesterday if Air Connect has not been flying since 3 days ago? On top of everything there is DAT and they still can't stabilize. Finally, why was MRS canceled yesterday?
DeleteFlight wasn't cancelled it wasn't even planned for yesterday.
DeleteWhich one are you referring to? For the canceled Skopje or Marseille?
DeleteI don't care if Air Connect has problems. If this is JU flight the whole responsibility is on JU.
DeleteYes, the crew is being actively trained as we speak. This week I was at the airport admin building and there were about a dozen new Air Serbia crew members getting their badges at the gates. I was told their training lasts around 3 weeks :)
DeleteAwesome!! Hope they arrive soon and I see JU getting more og A321s in the near future.
ReplyDeleteThey should have:
ATRs - at least 10
Some 100 seaters.
A319 - 10
A320 - 8
A321 - 4
A332 - 4
By next year.
That's not possible by next year. They don't have the pilots.
DeleteThey can always employ pilots from Asia or elsewhere...
DeleteThis company is a complete mess, yesterday A320 YU-APS had to return from SVO at 22:25 in order to catch the flight that was scheduled to depart BEG at 20:30 (actually departed at 12:16AM) ...only delayed by 3hrs 45 min!
ReplyDeleteNo other airline in the world had delays of 3:45??? It happens to every other airline.
DeleteThe thing is that it happens daily with JU. Do airlines have a schedule set up to wait for a flight suposed to arrive later than planned departure time is?
DeleteI'm done with JU. Was yesterday on JU194 flight BEG-LJU, delayed for more than 3 hours at the departure. This is my third JU194 flight in a row that was severely delayed (more than 2 hours) just in May. Of course it happens, but the JU situation is currently chaotic.
DeleteA while ago, I have placed my prediction here about ASL fleet composition of 36 planes in the next 2-3 years. It may turn out to be a very accurate estimate at the end.
Delete5-330
2-321
6-320
10-319
3-195
10-ATR-600
And how is this connected to initial post about JU being "a complete mess"?
DeleteIt's not, I wanted it to be a stand-alone post, but wrongly clicked the reply button. It's obviously a mistake, but you don't take much time to criticize...
Delete@16:40 i completely agree, Air Serbia needs to provide reliable, consistent service before going for aggressive expansion.
DeleteTired of this 'regional jet' crap.
Delete@Slav.Man You must be an airline CEO to make those claims. I wonder if it's a large, medium or virtual airline?
Delete@16:40 i completely agree, Air Serbia needs to provide reliable, consistent service before going for aggressive expansion.
ReplyDeleteScared of Air Serbia expansion, aren't we? Awww...
DeleteYears ago we had Air Serbia haters directly placing disinformation in the form of "Airbus planes will never come to Belgrade" etc. Now it's all wrapped in a fake care for Air Serbia: "please don't expand too fast, lease Embraers, don't get A321s". The thing is, we all know, those caring suggestions are counterproductive and not in Air Serbia's best interest. We know better and we can read between the lines.
@23:48 you are pathetic!
Delete@23:48 hallmark of Balkan gastarbeiter mentality, filled with complexes. The only metric of success is shear size that you can rub in others’ faces, and the disregard of other fundamental issues.
DeleteLike being happily married to a supermodel just so that you can make others jealous, while being okay with her having affairs on the side and being a horrible mother.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸....samo napred.
ReplyDelete