Serbia’s Air Pink plans to commence commercial flights

Serbian private business jet charter company Air Pink is considering launching commercial flights under a low cost carrier model. The airline intends on acquiring two or four jets for its commercial flight venture. The company’s CEO, controversial media mogul Željko Mitrović, who has close ties to the government, said, “We currently have 22 aircraft in our fleet, and we are on the verge of launching commercial flights. We are the second-largest European private business jet airline behind Air Hamburg, but we want to commence scheduled commercial flights as a low cost carrier with 49-seat Embraer aircraft. We will acquire two or four of these within the coming six months and attempt scheduled services within the region”.

Air Pink’s entry into the commercial flight arena has been rumoured for some time. The airline, founded in 2004, already has a permit as a ground handling provider at Belgrade Airport and last year registered a net profit of 4.5 million euros. It has 109 employees. Furthermore, Air Pink has a subsidiary named Air Emeralds, which has one aircraft in its fleet. Mr Mitrović did not delve further into the compnay’s plans to launch commercial flights.

Over the past two decades there have been several attempts at launching new commercial carriers in Serbia. In 2003, Jat Airways announced plans to create a low cost subsidiary named Inter Air Link with five ATR72 aircraft operating regional services. However, the plan never materialised following strong opposition from the airline’s pilots union which said they would be outsourced to the new company under unfavourable contracts. In 2005, Serbia’s richest man, Miroslav Mišković, announced plans for a new low cost carrier through a joint venture with charter airline Aviogenex. The LCC, named Air Maxi, was to initially commence operations to Tivat and Ljubljana, followed by services to markets such as Germany, Switzerland and France. However, Mr Mišković later said plans were shelved after feasibility studies showed the business would be loss making. Finally, in 2006, a newly established low cost carrier Centavia (Central European Aviation) commenced flights from Belgrade with a pair of BAe 146-200 aircraft. The airline was granted permits to launch operations from Belgrade to Slovenia, Germany, Italy and Switzerland but was rejected by Croatian and Montenegrin authorities. Ultimately, the company declared bankruptcy in November and ceased all operations.