Montenegro Airlines maintains cost cutting

Resignations and dismissals as Montenegro Airlines tries to keep afloat

Montenegro Airlines has continued with its cost cutting measures after its Finance Department determined the carrier is 68 million euros in debt, significantly higher than the 19.1 million claimed by the previous management which was dismissed by the government last summer. Montenegro Airlines has decided to shut down its sales offices in Frankfurt and Zurich, while it previously closed its offices in London and Rome. However, the carrier will keep open its representative offices in Belgrade, Moscow, Paris and Vienna. As it turns out, the airline’s country manager in Frankfurt was the brother of former CEO Zoran Djurišić who ran the carrier for almost twenty years. The closure has further fuelled tension between the airline’s current and former management. Mr. Djurišić himself resigned from the company on November 28, 2013 after he was dismissed as CEO in July.

In another sign that all is not well amongst the powerbrokers at the airline is the recent resignation of Executive Director Vojin Vlahović, who served only ten days on the job. The airline’s management has refused to comment on the issue, though CEO Daliborka Pejović says it was a decision made by Mr. Vlahović himself. Until being named as Montenegro Airlines’ Executive Director last month, Mr. Vlahović served as the Montenegrin Ambassador to Italy and the advisor to the Prime Minister.

Despite the problems, CEO Pejović says the airline has a bright future ahead. “Despite the debt, I can say with confidence that Montenegro Airlines has a future following the measures undertaken in the second half of 2013. I expect the new management will better handle the commercial sector of the business than was the case up until now”, Ms. Pejović says. She adds, “We will fight for new markets”. Montenegro Airlines recently announced the launch of new flights to Dusseldorf on April 19. However, the airline will face added competition with Ryanair launching new flights from London to Podgorica this summer. In addition, the Montenegrin carrier has seen tough competition on its main service to Belgrade with Air Serbia seeing an 11% passenger increase on flights to and from Podgorica and Tivat.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:15

    Those are good news for YM,but i think Ryanair is going to crush them with new routes from TIV and TGD.Also with Air Serbia,the year of 2014 will be very hard for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are YM's E Jets leased or bought?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:03

      Leased from GECAS for a period of 8 years

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:32

    Sorry to say but I feel that this time next year, YM will no longer feature in news items...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:15

    I do not see why Montenegro, Bosnia and Slovenia really need their own national airline. Look at Macedonia and how well they are doing now when they gave up on having a national carrier.
    I fear Montenegro Airlines will not be around for much longer. With Ryanair and Air Serbia eating their market share their losses will only increase.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Off topic:

    James Hogan: New era for Etihad in 2014

    By James Hogan, Saturday, 4 January 2014 11:11 AM


    Etihad Airways has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. In just a decade, we have created from nothing a dynamic national carrier for a dynamic young nation, a world-class airline with a global presence and a company which continues to grow strongly in an industry known more for its challenges than its successes.

    We are proud of our past and our achievements. But we are even more excited about our future and our opportunities, as new markets emerge, old markets reshape and the airline industry reinvents itself to meet changing economic and social requirements.

    Etihad Airways is an airline on the move, and 2014 represents not just a new year but the start of a new era for our company. As the UAE continues to emerge as the next global business hub, Etihad Airways is building a global network to connect the world via Abu Dhabi.

    Being one of the youngest airlines in the world, it is simply not possible for us to achieve the same scale as our major competitors, most of which have been well-established for decades, even generations. So we have developed a fresh business model for the airline industry, based on collaborative growth through a mix of organic expansion, codeshare partnerships and minority equity investments in other companies. Through the sharing of resources, knowledge and vision, Etihad Airways is achieving both significant scale and cost efficiencies.

    By the end of 2013, we had launched or announced equity investments in seven other airlines, three of which will truly take off in 2014.

    On 1 January, we will acquire a 49 percent stake in Air Serbia, the national carrier of the Republic of Serbia, of which we already have a five-year management contract. We are acquiring 33.3 percent of the Swiss regional carrier, Darwin Airline, which in January will also become the first member of our new “branded partnership” model, Etihad Regional.

    We are preparing for major expansion of our India operations following the recent approval of our historic 24 percent investment in India’s Jet Airways, the first investment by a foreign carrier in the Indian airline sector. And we continue to explore partnership opportunities where they make economic and strategic sense.

    Parallel with our partnership strategy, we are building our own operations, and in 2014 will inaugurate eight new routes from Abu Dhabi — the US cities of Los Angeles and Dallas Fort Worth, the European gateways of Zurich and Rome, Perth in Western Australia, Jaipur in India, Medina in Saudi Arabia and Yerevan in Armenia — taking to over 100 the number of passenger and freight destinations which we serve in our own right.

    To support our growth, we continue to invest heavily in new, state-of-the-art fleet, and in 2014 we will take delivery of 20 new aircraft, including our first Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. We will also take delivery of five Boeing 777-200LR aircraft from India, to bridge our growth requirements until the arrival of our next wave of new long-haul aircraft beyond 2020.

    Etihad Airways is an airline on the move, and an airline which is growing to meet changing traffic flows between established markets and emerging regions including India, Africa, China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Abu Dhabi, our home, is, in every way, the centre of the world, and in 2014 Etihad Airways will continue to ascend to both leverage and meet the expectations of the market.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11:06

    Typical YM. Wherever you scratch the surface a bit you will find brothers, friends, sisters, aunties, uncles, sons a daughters employed. This new management will just replace everyone from the old one and bring in their own family members. That’s not how you run a business and if you didn’t have the government behind your back you would collapse in a matter of days.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11:15

    Always enjoyed flying with YM, but the company is doomed as long as the corruption and the nepotism is allowed to go on.

    They need to replace the managment with people who actually know basic business economics and how you run a company. That will never happen as long as they only hire relatives. Wasn't one of the board members a traffic warden or something like that?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:47

    Agree 100%. I also enjoy flying YM and was really hopeful last summer when they changed the management but then realized it's exactly the same. And yes, one of the members was a traffic warden -.- There is also the president of the Montenegrin Tennis Association.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous13:36

    OT: Newsflash about Air Seychelles is very nice to hear. It seems that Etihad's involvment with carrier's operations has a sizable quantifiable effect on its product and service. I hope that Air Serbia will also continue to improve its offering and make a large jump in overall quality, although it already has in many aspects.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:02

      "universally recognized as an independent and creditable measure of the service quality of an airline"

      ROFL :)))

      Delete
  9. OT:
    A6-SAA fly today again from AUH to BEG but as EY flight

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aэrologic21:37

      EY's A320 stayed in BEG overnight and departed today for the return flight.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous15:08

    OT:

    Why isn't the TAP Belgrade - Lisbon loaded into the system yet? Is everything okay about that flight?

    As for the YM, Dusseldorf route is a good choice. You can always try to rely on diaspora, or Serbs who would definitely spend their holidays in Montenegro.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:09

      Because the management of the airline said in a public statement that they will start selling the tickets by the end of January.

      Delete
  11. OT:

    New flights from SARAJEVO Int. Airport in 2014:

    B&H Airlines:
    Sarajevo-Amsterdam-Sarajevo (resumes 1 May 2014)
    Sarajevo-Ljubljana-Sarajevo (begins 1 May 2014

    Etihad Regional / Darwin:
    Geneva-Sarajevo-Geneva (begins 8 April 2014)
    Zurich-Sarajevo-Zurich (begins 5 April 2014)

    Germanwings:
    Berlin-Sarajevo-Berlin (begins 4 April 2014)

    Montenegro Airlines (not official):
    Podgorica-Sarajevo-St. Petersburg-Sarajevo-Podgorica

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If this is true. SUPER!

      Can you disclose any kind of source?
      Or if not, can you tell us when this will become public information.

      Thanks in advance!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:09

      I really doubt this will materialize except for BER-SJJ-BER Germanwings and maybe Etihad Regional but almost unbeliveable. Etihad dedicated SJJ to JU and with 3 daily flights to BEG this will be achieved.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:34

      Hope this is true, excellent news for Sarajevo! Best wishes to those who celebrate Christmas from Croatia!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:38

      Maybe the guy is someone or knows someone who has that kind of information.

      Remember when one anonymous anounced Sarajevo - Moscow flights a couple of weeks before it happened.

      I believe this is true. JA will lose on Zurich route, but Amsterdam route is a jackpot!

      Pozdrav iz Beograda

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:42

      It' true. You can see on wikipedia.

      Delete
    6. All contracats (besides TGD-SJJ-LED-SJJ-TGD) have already been signed between Sarajevo Int. Airport and mentioned airlines.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous19:17

      Good we have insiders on this blog. How did SJJ-AMS fail in the first place? Was it in 2011, right?

      Delete
    8. SJJ-AMS-SJJ didn´t fail.

      In June 2012 Turkish Airlines ended the joint venture with B&H Airlines and they removed their A319 from SJJ to IST.

      Following that, B&H Airlines cut all frequencies and stopped flying SJJ-AMS maintaining Istanbul. Zurich and Copenhagen flights.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous19:47

      So when can we expect announcements / flights on sale?

      Do you have the planned frequency for AMS? Will it be with ATR?

      Darwin is already denying GVA-SJJ route...

      Delete
    10. Anonymous19:51

      There is still no slot request for SJJ at Amsterdam Airport

      Delete
    11. Anonymous20:08

      Ouch... isn't Amsterdam a bit too far to send an Atr? o__O

      Delete
  12. Anonymous18:25

    http://montenegroairlines.com/system/home/newsplus/viewsingle/_params/newsplus_news_id/18806.html

    Awesome YM crew :)

    ReplyDelete

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