Air Serbia plans to expand its fleet this year with additional dry-leased aircraft. The carrier is due to take delivery of a second 118-seat Embraer E195 in mid-April, complementing the one jet of the same type already in operation. The airline is also exploring options for the additional lease of a further two E195s for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year. The carrier had initially planned to already have two E195s in its fleet. However, problematic paperwork from the past owner for the planned second unit meant the airline opted for a different frame altogether.
Air Serbia also plans to lease an additional Airbus A320-family aircraft. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, a Letter of Intent has already been inked with the lessor, with the jet due to arrive next winter season. The Serbian carrier currently has three A320s and ten A319s in its fleet. It also owns three of the A319s, purchasing the aircraft last year after being offered favourable acquisition terms. In addition, the airline has ten ATR72-600s and four A330-200s in its fleet, one of which (YU-ARC) is currently undergoing regular month-long maintenance. It is due to resume operations on behalf of the airline on April 14. Although the aircraft has been earmarked for cabin reconfiguration, this is likely to occur next winter.
As previously reported, Air Serbia will also expand its wet-lease fleet this summer. An additional two 108-seat E190 jets operated by Bulgaria Air are set to join the fleet, for a total of four. One is expected to begin operating on behalf of Air Serbia next month, while a fourth aircraft of the same type is expected to enter service from Belgrade in June. Furthermore, the airline plans to have four wet-leased A320 aircraft operated on its behalf by Lithuania's GetJet Airlines. A wet-lease is a leasing arrangement whereby the lessor provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) to another airline.
Good!
ReplyDeleteTo expand what exactly?
DeleteTheir Atr's and A330 are badly underutilized.
Not a single new route was launched despite having 10 ATR in the fleet.
The other regional portal wrote about how traffic exploded in all airports close to Ukraine (Rzesow, Iasi, Satu Mare, Suceava, Chisinau, Kosice...) yet Serbia launched none of those, eventhough we were talking about it even waaay before the war. Sarajevo is still at 1 daily with abysmal connections time, no night flights. To expand fleet for what??
They should first make sure their current fleet is properly used.
I was hoping they would have a lot more than two Embraers for this summer season.
DeleteWhat's the point of getting them in the 4th quarter when fleet utilization is greatly reduced compared with summer?
JU had said even when they still had the deal with Marathon that they intended to get more dry leased E-jets.
DeleteSeems that it takes forever.
And we are talking about previous generation E-jets, not E2s. Everything the airline says it intends to do seems to take a very long time to materialize.
Anonymous10:01
DeleteI am guessing they didn't get to chose when the planes would be delivered. Also, question is would they have enough crew for them so soon.
Anyway, I think because of their economy Embraers would be very useful in the winter
If they can not get enough crews for two years to fly 3-4 Embraers then some changes need to take place in the personnel department.
DeleteIt has nothing to do with crew. The issue with the previous 2 E195s was detailed here. But some people prefer to play dumb to fit their narrative.
DeleteI wasn't aware that there were only two available E-jets globally.
DeleteOr why JU needed so much time to see that these two had problematic paperwork.
^ I guess you can learn more about aviation and the current state of the industry.
Delete^ We learn a lot for the way JU operates and does fleet planning for sure!
Delete@IR720
DeleteAir Serbia is launching new routes with ATRs. This year they are launching Florence with ATR.
ATRs are not badly underutilized. In summer they are 90% utilized, in winter around 70%. That is okay.
@IR720
DeleteI agree completely. The planned schedule for this summer is very underwhelming considering what they had initially planned.
@12:31
1 new route isn't replacing the reductions so far scheduled for the summer compared to last year. Budapest, Zagreb, Prague, Venice, Tirana and Bologna all have lower frequencies. Bucharest, Ljubljana, Pula and Sofia have the only increases in frequencies at 1 pw extra. Summer utilisation isn't anywhere close to 90%.
So what is reason why night flights to SJJ were removed? ATRs in the midnight wave are even less utilised than during the day.
Delete"even less utilised than during "
Deletewhat some people write on here without any data or fact to support their statements.
Someone can not get idea when Wizz or RA starts it is much less passenger for others.
Delete@13:29
DeleteSchedules are widely available across tens of sites. This isn't a hidden secret. If you have 6 flights for example during a wave and 10 aircraft obviously there is room for additional flights.
Data as in demand not so much. But taking SJJ as in the example above, a destination that hasn't moved from 7 pw for over a decade, taking into consideration the traffic between the 2 cities and the amount of people that use various other modes of transport between the cities on O&D alone, it's a no brainer that the current capacity is insufficient.
You need to keep yields in perspective which are very low from Sarajevo. What is the point of a low yielding passenger taking another seat on another one of your flights (transfer) when you can sell it to a higher yielding passenger from another market.
Delete@17:40
DeleteThat kind of reasoning makes perfect sense —> when you have problems with capacity and have to choose between lower and higher yields.
This is not a case with JU at the moment.
If you can get incremental EBITDA from certain markets, go for it.
SJJ is anything but low yield for JU. Fares start at 100€ one way. Often fares are as high as 170€ one way. For comparison, BUD starts at 59€ one way. Look at BUD frequencies and look at SJJ.
DeleteMore frequencies would allow for more flexibility for O&D travellers to use JU rather than car or alternative modes of transportation, transfer pax wouldn't necessarily be the motivation for extra frequencies.
This means there will probably be more routes or extra frequencies on current routes.
ReplyDeleteIt has been already planned JU to have 17 weekly flights more.
DeleteYes, but that's without the extra aircraft.
DeleteWhen I saw extra aircraft I mean extra E195 since the rest are planned for winter.
Delete* say not saw
DeleteIt is nice to read these news.
ReplyDeleteBtw, One question...
"A wet-lease is a leasing arrangement whereby the lessor provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) to another airline."
Who pays for fuel and who pays taxes to Eurocontrol? Air Serbia or lessor?
Always the operator. ASL in this case.
DeleteAir Serbia, of course
DeleteThe lessor pays for crew, maintenance and insurance. Fuel, fees to Eurocontrol, landing and parking fees are covered by the operating carrier. JU in our case.
DeleteAlso if the operator wants the aircraft painted to its own livery instead of being white has to pay for it too.
DeleteThanks to all.
DeleteHopefully no more delays with the Embraers
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWell this second one was announced for Q1 by the management and now its pushed to mid April.
DeleteIdemo dalje...
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThis should provide more flexibility and potentially open up new routes.
ReplyDeleteIt was written here last week that we should get at least one more new route for summer season which starts on Sunday. Waiting to see what it is.
DeleteCurious as well. Hope it is something more exotic and not some diaspora route :D
DeleteAnyone know from where the Embraer being delivered next month will come from?
ReplyDeleteI'm interested too.
DeleteProbably same as previous, sonce it has same 118 seat config
DeleteWhich is very good for fleet unification
DeleteMany people said that second E195 will be G-NSEY.
DeleteIf it’s coming within next 20 days, it should be on painting already. Hopefully we can expect some early photos even this week
DeleteIt's possible. Planespotters indicates its going to Lumiwings, but it is not very reliable.
DeleteHow long does it take to paint the plane? Because G-NSEY has been in Exter since January. if it is coming to JU in mid April I assume it would be going for paint by now.
DeleteWe will find out soon enough. Mid April is in 3 weeks time.
DeleteBreeze Airways is set to retire the all 3 E195’s from scheduled service on April 7.
DeleteAccording to airfleets G-ENSEY is going to Helvetic.
Deletehttps://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-e190-671.htm
Growth is always welcome
ReplyDeleteThird Bulgaria Air E90 should enter service on April 1st.
ReplyDeleteFor how long? Only summer or it will continue to winter timetable
DeleteSummer..... for now.
DeleteA320 family… That means we can hope for A321 maybe?
ReplyDeletePretty sure it will be A320.
DeleteSince most of their fleet is A319, for them A320 is what A321 for regular airlines. So I guess they will not get A321 anytime soon. Also one extra size of aircraft makes it more complicated operationally.
DeleteBut beggars can't be choosers, so maybe they got a good deal on A321.
As I remember, there were serious talks about 2 A321s parked at LJU during Covid. But price was too high at the end
DeleteI hoped that Pupin would get its cabin retrofit this year since both EXPO A330s are flying and there is enough slack on the long haul fleet.
ReplyDeleteThe condition of its cabin is unacceptable and it really hurts the JU brand.
At least they can do a proper maintenance in the seats, the carpets, the toilets and the IFE of the current cabin since it will be in the fleet for a year more. Or so I hope they do.
Delete^ can guarantee you've never flown with the plane in question.
Delete^ I have
DeleteWhy can't JU technicians fix the broken seats?
DeleteIs it really so complex to fix a seatback that doesn't recline or to change the carpet of the cabin that you need to send an aircraft abroad?
JU does not have technicians. The maintenance company in Belgrade is Jat Tehnika and they are not certified to do interior work on Airbus aircraft. People often don't realise that if you have to change just one screw on a plane you need to have a pool of those parts, certified technicians and company for work on that particular aircraft type and full documentation for that one part. Otherwise you end up like Sky Alps.
DeleteHopefully, some of the seats and displays will be fixed during this service, so plane could be utilized for another year with less complaints
DeleteFlew the other day with the JU E195. Comfortable ride and nice crew.
ReplyDeleteWas it Serbian crew?
DeleteYes of course
DeleteAll crew on E195 is JU crew. This is a dry leased plane.
DeleteSerbian crew will also be operating the Bulgaria Air E190s soon. Some already are. The idea is to have completely Serbian crew in a month or so.
DeleteNice.
DeleteAlso Serbian crew will be operating Get Jet A320s too.
DeleteExcellent. With extra A320 and E195s they will probably ease reliance on wet lease partners.
ReplyDeleteHope so
DeleteMore growth ahead
ReplyDeleteOnly aviation website where people in comments are unhappy with fleet expansion news.
ReplyDeleteIt's very difficult to please people in the Balkans 😀
DeleteBitching about everything is a national sport :)
DeleteIndeed
DeleteJust look at Croatia Airlines A220 comments. God forbid airline expand fleet with new jets.
DeleteComments about OU's fleet mostly concern the financial aspect of such a move considering the airline's 20 million euros financial loss, extremely low load factor and small network along with the high cost of the plane's lease (not ownership like the airline first lied to the public)
DeleteBy the end of the year, JU should have 32 planes plus 8 wet leases. Total 40. Seems we need at least 10 more routes next summer and more frequencies
ReplyDeleteEasy. They miss so many routes that they can choose any of the following - Miami, Washington DC, Chengdu, Seoul, Mumbai, Delhi, Dubai, Amman, Cairo, Damascus, Tel Aviv, Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Manchester, Iasi, Chisinau, Constanca, Turgu Mures, Craiova, Vlore/Kukes.
DeletePick, put in a wave, launch.
Vlora Airport is still under construction!
DeleteI would add Cluj, Kosice, Graz, Debrecen, Wroclaw, Lublin, Helsinki, Bergen
DeleteThey flew to Helsinki but it didn't work. They even use to send CRJ900 there.
DeleteE190 may fit perfectly. For Marseille also
DeleteHEL didn't work on the A319, but was ok on the CRJ. This is definitely a route I see coming back now that the ERJ's are entering the fleet.
DeleteMore frequencies on current routes are needed for further expansion especially on longer flights to the Middle East and Caucuses. It's a shame that the preliminary schedule published last year didn't go ahead.
@anon 1315 - and thats why I wrote Vlore/Kukes, not just Vlore.
DeleteOn the other hand, as soon as Vlore is finished, JU should start flights 7PW to get locals accustomed to JU service.
Tirana is doing miracles for JU in terms of transfers, Vlore should be similar
Alicante
Delete@18:35 Vlore will mainly be a seasonal airport for inbound tourism. JU only flies 4 weekly to VAR which is a much bigger and wealthier city, let alone Vlore.
DeleteThis is good because they are actually thinking about the future and planning for expansion in winter.
ReplyDeleteFinally doing things on time.
DeleteI wish they painted the Bulgaria Air planes in JU livery seeing as this wet lease will be long term. Especially now when they are hiring Serbian crew to operate them.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they will ;)
DeleteThey started doing that with Marathon
DeleteSJJ je u određenim danima nadograđen na E190, TIA i OTP podnevni letovi su svi nadograđeni na E 190. Treba očekivati nove linije za ATR, imaće dosta slobodnog kapaciteta.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThe E195s are such a perfect aircraft for JU and could really reduce seasonality. Happy they will get more of them.
ReplyDeleteE190s would also be good
DeleteFinally some good news in terms of expansion, but I'm a bit skeptical if this timeline will materialize.
ReplyDelete