Air Serbia formally welcomed its third Airbus A330-200 aircraft, registered YU-ARD, at a ceremony in Belgrade yesterday, with the 262-seat jet currently scheduled to enter into service next Thursday. The aircraft will be used on flights to and from the United States for the rest of the month before being scheduled on select operations to China in November. Next week, the airline will also wet-lease an A330-300 from Spain’s Wamos Air on a short-term basis which will be deployed on flights to New York on October 12 and October 14. As previously reported, it comes as a result of one of the carrier’s A330-200s (registered YU-ARB) operating two ad-hoc charter flights to Tokyo Narita Airport this week and next. Over the coming period, Air Serbia will deploy its A330 aircraft on several short-haul flights for crew familiarisation purposes. The wide-body jets have recently been scheduled on flights to Zurich and Rome.
YU-ARD roll-out in October and November
Commenting on the arrival of the carrier’s third wide-body aircraft, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, "The expansion of the long-haul destination network is closely linked to the development of a fleet of aircraft capable of operating these flights. We have maintained services to North America and the People's Republic of China with two Airbus A330-200 aircraft and now a new aircraft of the same type has reinforced our fleet. In anticipation of the upcoming EXPO 2027 exhibition and wishing to contribute to the promotion of this event that is important for the Republic of Serbia and the entire region, we have decided that Air Serbia’s third wide-body aircraft will feature the visual identity of this specialised exhibition. We expect another such aircraft to join our fleet by the end of 2024, which will be branded in the same way. From Chicago and New York in the West to Tianjin and Guangzhou in the East, the national airline’s aircraft will present Serbia and EXPO 2027 to a global audience".
As previously reported, the latest A330-200 features aisle access for all business class passengers with a staggered 1-2-1 cabin layout and lie-flat seats, as well as personal in-flight entertainment screens, USB and universal power ports for all travellers. Mr Marek previously told EX-YU Aviation News in August, “For the upcoming two wide-body aircraft, for the time being, this will be the standard cabins that we will look to develop further in the future. As soon as we have the engineering and design done, which takes six to seven months, YU-ARC will go for a full cabin retrofit and feature the same new cabins. On the other hand, YU-ARB, will undergo the retrofit either next year or the year after. As part of the deal for the incoming A330s, we have secured additional shipsets of the same seats for those retrofits”.
Good thing is it will quickly enter into service, unlike the Embraers.
ReplyDeleteI think the colorful livery actually looks good.
ReplyDeleteMy 8 year old daughter agrees.
DeleteI like livery, like your 8 years old daughter.
DeleteAny photos from inside the plane?
ReplyDeleteYou have videos online of Air Belgium A330-200. Or type in Etihad A330-200 business/economy class.
DeleteI wonder why it was not allowed to jounalists to visit the plane inside.
DeleteIt was the same case for YU-ARC
DeleteWe see now why it was the case...Hopefully it is not in Pupin's condition.
DeleteThe cabins are actually in excellent shape, as you can see in recent passenger reviews on this aircraft.
DeleteAnd the positive thing is that they purchased extra seats of the same type so they can actually replace them if they are not working.
DeleteThere was an article on yesterday's Dnevnik, with journalists inside the plane and filming everything.
DeleteAlot of the broken seats talked about yesterday could be fixed with general maintenance. The problem is that next to no cabin maintenance is done even in areas they can. The aircraft even in the peak summer travel season still allows enough time to not use as much speed tape in the cabin as they do. Having 3 times the seats for their entire fleet will change nothing as it's down to pure laziness and a lack of coordination.
Delete@Anonymous 11:08
DeleteFully agree, seats and IFE brake down all the time on EVERY aircraft of EVERY airline.
But they do bother to fix them! They do bother to do proper maintenance. They even bother to do some proper cleaning of the cabin instead of the sloppy, harried job they are doing lately.
No, they don't. If you traveled with LH on A340 and B747 always was a lot of broken seats. With Alitalia always late luggage.
DeleteAnon 11:41
DeleteDude when in a hole stop digging! You are trying to defend the indefensible!
Would like to see the seats in JU and not KF or EY colors, so if someome has a link, pls share it
DeleteThere is no point in defending something that shouldn't be defended. IFE is something that can't be fixed in BEG, sure, but seats unable to be reclined should be able to be fixed during the aircraft downtime in BEG.
Delete@11.52
DeleteYou can see it in the video
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAyMpgGIEQ3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
How many business class seats ARD has with this configuration?
Delete22
DeleteIn 1-2-1 configuration
DeleteYU-ARD is scheduled to enter the service in 5 days. With Wamos aircraft being fourth A330 operating JU flights the following week it looks like YU-ARC will only have 8-10 flights before being benched. With 5 seats not reclining in business as per yesterday's trip report, that means less than 50 customers might be affected, and only if business class on remaining flights are full and passengers in affected seats have not been reassigned. There were more comments in the past two days about those seats than potential passengers. Not saying broken seats are good, just asking if things are blown way out of proportion?
DeleteYU-ARC is scheduled to operate 24 flights in November.
Delete@Storm in a teacup I know you are trying hard to defend JU but do you realize that non working seats and non working entertainment didn't start yesterday on this aircraft? It has been flying that way for months and months. Trying to defend the airline for deploying an aircraft in that state is beyond me. I support JU too but blindly cheering everything they do is not normal either. I am sure that if you found yourself on the aircraft unable to recline on a 12 hour flights after paying over 2000 euros for a return ticket without so much as being able to view the flight path map you would never fly your favorite airline again. But who knows, maybe you would and you would even applaud them .
DeleteПризнајем, 24 лета је много. Било би занимљиво сазнати да ли је Ер Србија почела да блокира покварена седишта и обавештава путнике о поквареном ИФЕ после твог путописа.
DeleteSeems like they will mostly be using it to the USA.
ReplyDeleteBecause US passengers are more vocal to express their dissatisfaction with hard product. That's why they use YU-ARB almost exclusively on the US routes while they put YU-ARC which is falling apart on China routes.
DeleteYU-ARC is sent to China because it is a longer flight and it has crew rest areas.
Deleteexactly anon 9.15. People forget or do not know that Tesla does not have crew rest areas. As the working hours for the crew exceeds 12 hour for all flights except for JFK route, the law mandates that the crew should have a separate crew rest.
DeleteIt can be done through a dedicated crew rest area as on Pupin or by covering passenger seats with curtains. The first option reduces some cargo space, while the second one reduces pax numbers and is also showing derogatory attitude towards the crew.
Although it seems that ARD and ARE are great planes, one big downside is that it does not have crew rest. Therefore, for flights to CAN, PVG and ORD they will have to reduce their max capacity as they dont have dedicated rest area. That is why those planes, when flying for Etihad, flew exclusively shorter long-haul routes on which their crew did not have to use the rest.
Hopefully someone has thought of it before getting planes.
@10:53 what they think before purchasing A330s has been only the lowest price possible.
DeleteAfter paying way more than market rate for YU-ARA they just look for the cheapest option.
The result is to have a dated and inconsistent long-haul product in bad shape and without WiFi a few months before 2025...
But hey, they are painting two of them like harlequins! 🎪
The derogatory attitude towards the crew that you mention probably stems from the fact that JU haven't bothered installing a curtain (as all airlines do) for the dedicated crew rest seats, which leaves the impression that it's lazy crew having a nap in full view of the passengers.
Delete11:13 +1000
DeleteEverything's great, but that livery—I mean, I think kids in kindergarten could have drawn it better. I don't like it at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd the one of the fourth A330 will be simmilar...
DeleteOne Expo livery would have been more than enough
DeleteAgree
DeleteI wish they would all be painted like YU-ARA first was.
DeleteSerbia creates was also horrible.
I love it. Looks awesome and very modern . Hope more aircrafts get such a design as that drives lots attention from passengers at the airports . Good job JU.
DeleteSo does that mean that Pupin won't be going for a retrofit in the next six to seven months? Ugh, that's some bad news since its cabin is falling apart.
ReplyDeleteAny news on the surprises Marek mentioned for the winter season? Hopefully it won't be yet another fake news. We need winter growth.
Marek made that statement about retrofit in August. So the plane should go to be retrofitted in February
DeleteYU-ARC retrofit is expected to be completed by the 2025 summer peak.
DeleteAnon 10:37
DeleteInteresting to now, source? Where will it go for the retrofitting?
It was published on this very site when they did an interview with Marek a few months ago.
Delete@Anon11:12 based on recent examples:
Delete1. LH Tehnik in Germany or in Sofia
2. Atitech in Naples
There are just too many interviews with marek out there. One can't go through all of them.
DeleteWhere is now YU-ARE? Is there any issue with it?
ReplyDeleteThere is no issue with it. It is under maintenance at Lufthansa Technic in Dusseldorf.
DeleteIs this D check?
DeleteGood news
ReplyDeleteMakes sense to use the best aircraft on the flagship route to New York the most.
ReplyDeleteBut it is their shortest long haul route
DeleteWill Shanghai be longer than Guangzhou?
DeleteNo, Guangzhou will stay their longest route.
DeleteOk, thank you
DeleteFinally
ReplyDeleteHow we will name them (ARD and ARE)? Mileva Ajnštajn and Milutin Milanković?
ReplyDeleteThey won't be named while they have the Expo livery
DeletePlans are for the next two planes to be Milutin Milankovic and Ivo Andric. Not Mileva who is relatively anonymous.
Delete^ There are no plans like that. You just made it up.
DeleteI literally work for the airline. That was the plan before the government decided to make them Expo. Stop spreading hate.
DeleteWhen can we expect Miami to be added?
ReplyDeleteI do not see it (if introduced at all) coming before winter 2025/26
DeleteFirst they need to put PVG on sale.
DeleteMiami will probably happen in October 2025.
DeletePresumably when ARE arrive and ARC retrofit finish
DeleteThat's a long time away
DeleteHow long will that Belgrade-Tokyo Narita charter take?
ReplyDeleteProbably around 12.5 hours
DeleteAnyone know why it's going to Tokyo?
ReplyDeleteIt's linked in the article
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/09/air-serbia-plans-one-off-tokyo-charters.html
This male flight attendant is too tall or the others are too short !
ReplyDelete🤣🤣🤣
DeleteProbably ex basketball player.
Too tall/short for what?
DeleteWhen you can't find anything else to complain about...
DeleteAnon 11:15 , relax . It was just a funny comment .
DeleteLoving the uniforms
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd I remember the meltdown some had when it was introduced.
DeleteSame regarding the livery on this A330
DeleteNow that their long haul fleet is growing, I hope they consider long haul leisure routes.
ReplyDeleteThey said it can happen only if local tour operators get their act together.
DeleteLocal tour operators could not be bothered to offer anything new.
DeleteTrue unfortunately
DeleteAdmin (or anyone in the know) do you have any info as to why the flights to/from CAN avoid Russian airspace and take a longer route through the Black sea. Georgia and Kazakhstan?
ReplyDeleteAt least that's what Flightradar24 shows:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/yu-arc#376dd8b2
Because of aircraft insurance and they don't what their plane to have to land in Russia in case of a technical issue and not be able to get it out of there due to lack of spare parts.
Delete@11:30 wouldn't they face the same issues with the aircraft operating Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi flights?
DeleteCan you calculate difference in price of airplane and insurance?
Delete@11.39 there is difference when one A319 gets stuck in Russia, as it has in the past when they have another 9 in the fleet to when an A330 gets stuck of which until yesterday they had just another one.
Delete^^^
DeleteWhat does that have to do with anything?
A plane stuck in Russia that was flying JU 134 will be just as stuck as JU 988 if it was overflying Russia to CAN.
Because if an A330 gets stuck in Russia their entire long haul network falls apart. Don't understand how you can't see that.
DeleteIt's not only insurance. Some lessors don't give permission for their planes to overfly Russian airspace
DeleteFlying 20-30 minutes longer on a 12hr flight is peanuts compared to possible financial, insurance and time issues if plane get stuck in Russia. Not worth it.
DeleteIs it really 20-30 minutes? 🤔
DeleteJU's route is actually faster on the outbound by 20-40 minutes, roughly 70 minutes on the inbound. You can find the data on flight radar.
DeleteThe cabins on this plane are a big upgrade on both ARB and ARC
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteNow that 3 A330s are in, what's stopping Air Serbia from announcing Shanghai route?
ReplyDeleteThey said last week the route would launch this year.
DeleteExactly, so if they will launch it this year, what's stopping them from announcing it now, two months before the launch?
DeleteThey will announce it in the next few days.
DeleteThey will announce it in the next few days.
DeleteI wonder if the Expo livery on the fourth A330 will be the same as this one or they will make some changes
ReplyDeleteThe same most likely.
Delete