Serbia eyes Russia for Jat

Government looks to Russia for Jat solution
The Serbian government will attempt to find Jat Airways’ strategic partner in Russia. It will be the second time Russia has been seen as Jat’s potential saviour. In 2008, talks were held between the Serbian carrier and Aeroflot regarding a possible takeover. However, in the end the Russian national airline said it had lost interest in its Serbian counterpart. The Serbian Minister for Transport, Milutin Mrkonjić, has said that the government plans to retain a majority share in Jat but that a partner is needed as the current status quo is unsustainable.

A high ranking delegation, which includes the Serbian President and Prime Minister are set to travel to Russia soon to discuss economic cooperation. Furthermore, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is scheduled to visit Serbia in December. Some state officials have said, in the past, that Aeroflot’s takeover of Jat in 2008 was a done deal but was blocked by certain politicians. However, inside sources at Jat have confirmed that Aeroflot was never interested in the Serbian carrier.

Meanwhile, Jat is set to get a new management within a month. Local media have reported that the Serbian Socialist Party has been given control over the state carrier and will nominate an acting CEO soon. Since 2008, Jat has been controlled by the Democratic Party. Within the four year scope the company has changed three CEOs. Following elections in May, the Democrats became the country’s main opposition party.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:13

    Nooooooooooooo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:27

    Getting in bed with Russians is never a good idea :D

    On a serious note I doubt this will happen. It’s just Mrkonjic blowing his horn again. If I were to go to him (presumably at the local kafana where he is drinking at around 9AM) and say how it would be great for Jat to buy an A380 and show him a few figures he would run to the media and say that JU is getting an A380. The guy’s a joke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JU520 BEGLAX16:16

      Bravo Anonymous, getting in bed with Russians is never a good idea. I agree with you 10000%

      They can keep their Suchoi jets for them self, don t need that waste of money piece of sh.... aircraft

      Delete
  3. frequentflyer09:45

    You can guarantee the Russians will offer a good deal (inc unbelievable finance rates) for some Sukhoi jets at the meeting. Given the only jets in production at present would be smaller than the ageing 733s by ~30 seats, would these really be of use to the airline??

    And as for Mrkonjic, perhaps they'll throw in a free Il-96 or three for JUs new intercontinental flights?

    ReplyDelete
  4. BA88813:33

    "Serbian Socialist Party has been given control over the state carrier and will nominate an acting CEO soon"

    What a perfect statement describing level corruption in Serbia.

    Unfortunately me ex country is going backwards...day by day...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Doot13:51

    LOL @ them wanting to retain a majority stake.

    In order to get a partner, they are not only going to have to give up a majority stake, they'll need to throw in the airport as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous14:23

    Wizz Air will add a second aircraft to its BEG base in 2013 which will mean increased frequencies of existing routes and new destinations: Basel Mulhouse (3x weekly from 15DEC2012), Corfu, Rhodos and Oslo Torp (from summer 2013).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:40

      Is that confirmed information?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:09

      you bet it is!:))))

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:22

      Just saw it on Aviokarta.net, great news!

      Delete
  7. Anonymous14:56

    OT: could this be true that Podgorica and Tivat are to close?

    http://www.novimagazin.rs/ekonomija/cilipi--regionalni-avio-centar

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous15:09

    http://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/1372-wizz-air-uvodi-letove-do-bazela-osla-rodosa-i-krfa/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous15:27

    From SUMMER 2013 Wizz schedule from BEG:
    EIN ?
    BSL 3 weekly
    CRL 3 weekly
    GSE 5 weekly
    DTM 3 weekly
    CFU 1 weekly
    LTN 4 weekly
    FMM 3 weekly
    MMX SIX weekly!? Wow!
    TRF 2 weekly
    FCO 2 weekly
    RHO 1 weekly
    NYO 4 weekly
    Thas 2 aircrafts with 37 weekly depratures from BEG in total. BEG-EIN appears to be out of the reservation sistem for now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:39

      BSL 4051/4052 from 15 December 3 weekly
      RHO 4249/4250 from 15 Jun 1 weekly
      CFU 4253/4254 from 20 Jun 1 weekly
      TRF 4225/4226 from 31 May 2 weekly

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:16

      Confirmed 4 weekly flights to EIN, total 41 weekly, they will add two more destinations shortly (two times two weekly flights).

      Delete
    3. Anonymous21:45

      Absolutely brilliant! Well chosen destinations (especially Basel!!), Oslo (Torp) will have its customers as CRL has had so far. I think that Corfu and Rhodes could go twice a week easily ( I mean there would be enough passengers). another Greek islands would do good. Spain and France would do great also as it has been said, any coastal airport in Spain. Portugal is waiting too :-)

      Delete
  10. JATBEGMEL17:11

    Again?!?

    Maybe the Serbian delegation can try and negotiate a nice price for say 5-6 SSJ 100-95's which would fit nicely into the fleet. Im sure a used one can come quickly with Armavia removing theirs from their fleet. Apparently they are reliable a/c. JAT cant fill the B733's on alot of their flights and is pointless in having soo many. Down side is that they will have to outsource maintenance.

    Dont like the sound of SPS taking part in JAT again, wasnt it them who made the Airbus fiasco in the first place?

    JAT B733's have alot of life in them still, but the maintenance for them must be expensive, not to mention the consumption of fuel etc. Wish some NG's would finally arrive, those ones that pop up in media every few months but some how disappear and never reach BEG.

    Alot of effort is needed to bring it up to standard, but the government doesnt help by bringing the company to a minus as to giving a reason to sell it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “Armavia is a small company and cannot afford experimenting and Sukhoi has already returned the money paid for the plane excluding the $1 million servicing fee,”

      $1 million servicing fee on a one year old jet? Seems crazy. No wonder Armavia is returning their Superjet "to buy aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, which offer cheaper servicing and spare parts."

      Delete
  11. Anonymous01:29

    The main problem is the same problem most large Serbian businesses have and that is that they do not bring CEOs that are business smart. The CEOs are usually politicians or members of the ruling parties which have little to no business experience whatsoever. What JAT needs to do is to hire someone capable of business management that could lead them out of this mess. The airline is not doing so bad, it's not great, but it's not bad either. With new aircraft JAT can make some speedy recovery and challenge other airlines for dominance on the entire Ex-Yu market. But this is only possible with a valid partner and a strategic business executive

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doot16:20

      In other words, the main problem with large Serbian businesses is that they're Serbian.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous00:04

    If they sell JAT to Russians I will never ever fly with JAT ever again. Hell no. What a joke . I'm sure vast majority of people that use JAT would feel the same way. Almost on weekly basis we are getting news of some air crash accident from Russia.

    ReplyDelete

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