Air Serbia to phase out A319s within five years

Air Serbia plans to phase out its ten-strong Airbus A319 fleet within the next three to five years by replacing them with both A320s and Embraer E195s. It is also considering the newer-generation E195-E2. Speaking to the TangoSix portal, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “In the next three to five years our A319s will gradually leave the fleet and will be returned to their lessors. A number of them will be replaced with the larger A320s, while the rest with Embraers. I see that there is a lot of confusion in the professional community, so I will try to explain this as simply as possible. Our fleet strategy is very clear: if the direct operating cost of a particular aircraft is genuinely lower than that of a current type we are using, we will opt for that new aircraft. At present, we have no economic justification to replace older Airbus models with neo versions, as the reduced fuel consumption cost is not sufficient to cover the high costs of owning a new aircraft. Passengers certainly won’t pay a higher fare just because they are flying on an Airbus neo”.

Mr Marek explained the carrier is seriously considering the newer E2 version of the Embraer as well. “We started testing different types of regional jets, such as the CRJ and Embraer, even before the Covid-19 pandemic. The E2 is, on paper, much cheaper than the A319 and seems like it could also be cheaper than the E1. If we grow with Embraer, and if the E2 proves to be cheaper than the E1 in practice, why should we wait?”, Mr Marek said.

The airline plans to introduce the first of two dry-leased E195-E1 jets into its fleet in the coming days, after several delays. Mr Marek explained the delays were of a regulatory nature and that the airline did not incur any losses as a result. “Currently, unless there are any unforeseen circumstances, we expect to start scheduled operations with our first dry-leased Embraer in the first half of October. The second one should join during November. The technical condition of both aircraft is perfect. It is well known in our industry that having flawless documentation is one of the main prerequisites for an aircraft to be able to fly. When it comes to introducing the Embraer into our fleet, that’s exactly what it’s about. This is a new type of aircraft that we are adding to the fleet, and we wanted to do it gradually and in a professional manner”, the CEO said. 

Mr Marek added, “It's true that we aimed to have the first Embraer introduced at the beginning of July. Before explaining why this deadline was not met, I want to emphasise that the two aircraft, although parked at Belgrade Airport, are not our expense since their lease payments only start from the moment the aircraft pass our technical acceptance. Our goal was to have them in the fleet during the summer season. However, we also had a plan that if any potential delays occurred or if we observed strong growth in demand, we had enough capacity within our Airbus fleet to respond to market changes, as we have done several times in the past. When we determined that the increase in passenger numbers was higher than our available capacity, we decided to engage additional resources. Therefore, in no way were we financially disadvantaged by their planned delay in entering service. On the contrary, we earned more due to high demand and their replacement with Airbuses that have a larger capacity”.

The head of Air Serbia Tehnika, Miroslav Musulin, noted the delay in introducing the Embraer aircraft primarily comes down to two reasons: a thorough verification of the aircraft's technical history and supply chain issues impacting parts availability. Since this is a new type for the fleet, Air Serbia wanted to ensure a proper integration, which involved extensive documentation review and technical inspections, according to Mr Musulin. Complications arose because the previous operator, who was also the owner, had disorganised records, requiring Air Serbia to trace every component's service history. Additionally, parts that previously took a week to procure now take several weeks due to current market conditions.