Catastrophic April for Jat

Passengers desert Jat

Jat Airways’ outgoing management will crown its three year reign at the airline with catastrophic passenger numbers in April brought on by the ongoing fleet shortage at the carrier. Last month, the Serbian national airline handled only 90.844 passengers, down 16% compared to the same month last year. The number of operated flights plummeted by 10%. The airline’s average cabin load factor stood at 67%, which is also down by ten points compared to April of 2012. Hardest hit were operations to Montenegro with figures tumbling by 22%, though the number of operated flights was decreased by 26%. Passenger numbers on Euro Mediterranean services were down 16% with 7% less flights while charters were the only highlight for the Serbian airline with numbers surging 83%.

In the first four months of 2013 Jat Airways has welcomed 312.476 passengers onboard its aircraft, down 5%. The average cabin load factor stood at 65%, a decrease from 68% during the same period last year. Jat’s aircraft spent 8.178 hours in the air over the past four months, which is 9% down on last year.

Jat Airways’ former management, headed by Vladimir Ognjenović, will officially be relinquished of all duties on Monday when the new acting CEO Velibor Vukašinović and his team are to takeover. Jat’s fleet shortage has hit the airline hard. However, Mr. Ognjenović and his team were aware of the impending problems since they faced a similar crisis during the summer of 2012 but did little to plan ahead for the 2013 summer season. The Serbian carrier will hope that numbers will improve in May since a week long public holiday was observed at the start of the month. Recently, an Aviogenex Boeing 737-200 joined Jat’s fleet with a further two Airbus A319s to arrive next month.

MonthPAXChange (%)Average load factor (%)
JAN77.962 463
FEB61.275 259
MAR82.395 170
APR90.844 1667

Comments

  1. Doot10:51

    numbers suck for Montenegro?

    How about setting prices and schedules that aren't consistently (possibly purposely) worse than Montenegro Airlines

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous08:44

      JU pricing structure is the same as YM one. Be more informed. The reason why Monteregro is so low is due to constant flight cancellation on this market...

      Delete
  2. Anonymous11:21

    Let me just say that I had my 2nd time flying Belgrade - Podgorica - Frankfurt.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:50

    It must be taken in consideration that Jat has significantly increased the prices of the tickets! For example the ticket on promotion BEG-FRA was 99 EUR 18 months ago and now they are around 169 EUR. When the promotion does not take place the tickets on this route are around 220EUR! It is also worthy mentioning that the reliability of the flight schedules is always questionable.
    After all, why has Jat lost its passengers? Not very difficult question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:26

      99E roundtrip is way too cheap for those tickets, especially with Jat's cost structure (old planes + too many non-flying employees). 200E is very reasonable price - that's how much you'll pay economy face with full service carriers in west Europe between almost any pair of large cities...

      Delete
  4. OT:
    Outstanding results for SARAJEVO AIRPORT: SIA welcomed 56.918 passengers in april: 14.5 % more then in april 2012.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous12:33

    It is completely normal to have aircrafts on C checks, but to be that blind and not interested in and have 4 aircrafts at one moment in hangars at the beginning of summer season is abnormal..
    And my question is: i don't know for which amount of money Airbus planes will be taken from Adria, but wasn't that amount of money enough to buy spare parts for old planes that are waiting in front of JAT Techincs' hangars?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous13:19

    Of course passengers are running away. Who wants to fly an unreliable airline whose almost every single flight is delayed by min. 30min. Just wait and see the results for the next months. It'll be even worse!
    And. btw. it is interrsting how BEG was publishing pax numbers almost on 2nd day of following month during the flourishing period but now when they are sinking nobody publishes nothing:-)) Kid story..

    Congrats to SJJ! Btw. SKP is + 12.3% in April with around 90 000 which is a record number for April!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. BA88814:57

    Why would I not run away!!!

    EXAMPLE:

    Tickets bought on promotion (BEG-LHR-BEG), friend of mine decides not to use BEG-LHR leg of the journey only to later realise that LHR-BEG was CANCELLED since the passenger did not use outbound flight!

    What the hell is this?

    By the way, none of this appears clear in their T&Cs!!!

    REALLY SAD I'LL BE SPENDING MY TIME IN THEIR AIRCRAFT IN JUNE!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:17

      I believe that this is a standard for all airlines when RT ti ket is bought. With Jat and quite few other airlines (except for Swiss) you can by 2 one-way tickets for the same price as RT.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:22

      I had the same problem couple years ago with AirFrance, not used outbound flight the return leg was imediately canceled. We have to know that it's not low cost model where every segment is separate one (all one way tickets) so we have to be aware of that...it's just like that.
      Once when you experience this, you learn and next time you don't make mistake.

      Sorry to hear that pax numbers for Jat went down. I really do hope that Etihad management will decide to take over and finally put their CEO and put the company on the right path! I think there's a lot potential inaviation business in this part of Europe, we just need to get rid of all those idiots who brought the company to this position!

      Cheers from Belgrade

      Delete
    3. BA88816:07

      Thanks guys for this!

      For years and years of at least 5 rtn journeys per year I never had this!

      And I must say...I thought it was Jat stuff!
      And I took it personal! LOL

      Delete
    4. Anonymous08:49

      @BA888 - It's standard procedure for all legacy carriers. You can look it up in T&C, just be sure to check it twice.

      Delete
  8. OT,

    Heavy's at Zagreb. Korean is there right now with 777 but I also noticed a 747 on webcam a few days back. Anyone know what that one was?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Not sure about the 747, but Korean 777 has been a regular charter guest for 3 years now. In April/May and then September/October it normally does around 7 to 8 cycles (Saturdays) of direct flights to Seol.
      As for the other bigger planes, Lufthansa has sent their 2 x 321s today on routes that normally use 737-300 and CRJ-900, and that's due to the strike of OU: "left over" pax, who didn't make it to Zagreb through i.e. Amsterdam or few other flight destinations that got cancelled, had to somehow be re-routed to Zagreb, and so they were flown through Frankfurt and Munich, Venice etc.

      So, nothing out of the ordinary, nor spectacular. Unfortunately...

      Delete
  9. JATBEGMEL18:02

    Charter pax numbers are probably up because they frequently cancelled SKP, SJJ, TIV, TGD...and instead of say an evening departure, the flight left BEG at 5am as for example JU8106 to do the flight it was supposed to the night before, and to return on the normal scheduled timing. I've noticed that SKP timing is now 11pm where before it was 9,30pm, and to no surprise even that is always delayed!!!

    But have to admit, things seem to be getting better now that YU-ANP has joing the fleet. Will maybe fly JAT next week.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous20:39

    Jat is falling apart!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous22:22

    Is YU-ANW stuck in Paris?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous23:47

    Get Etihad deal go through asap, otherwise things are not looking good...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous00:47

    Does anyone still fly what could be called Europe's least punctual airline? Some of today's arrivals:

    JU 421 ISTANBUL 13:50 16:45
    JU 351 FRANKFURT 17:10 17:40
    JU 211 LONDON HEATHROW 17:20 18:40
    JU 439 ATHENS 20:15 22:30
    JU 243 PARIS 20:25 23:57
    JU 331 ZURICH 20:30 22:55
    JU 382 STOCKHOLM (via COPENHAGEN) 22:10 23:05
    JU 2412 PARIS 16:20 00:32
    JU 313 VIENNA 20:55 00:45 (the following day)
    JU 209 LONDON HEATHROW 00:55 02:45
    JU 417A MILAN 01:00 03:30
    JU 071 TEL AVIV (via LARNACA) 04:10 08:40


    Sarajevo and Skopje departures for tonight have been cancelled and moved to (way to) early morning departures.

    ReplyDelete

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