UPDATED
Air Serbia marks first anniversary

Air Serbia celebrates its first birthday tonight

Serbia’s national carrier has begun celebrating its first anniversary since relaunching as Air Serbia on October 26, 2013. To mark the occasion, this evening the airline will host a lavish event for its employees, as well as members of the press and government officials. EX-YU Aviation News will be in attendance and will bring you any major developments live. The event is scheduled to take place at the Old Palace (City Hall) in Belgrade. To share in the festivities, the Serbian carrier yesterday launched a two for one ticket sale, where passengers can purchase a single return ticket and receive another one free of charge. In a statement, Air Serbia said, “This is the first of many attractive promotions, which will be launched over the course of the next five weeks until the end of November 2014”.

Over the past year the airline has rebranded itself, signed codeshare partnerships with Etihad Airways, Etihad Regional, Air Berlin, Adria Airways and B&H Airlines, leased ten Airbus aircraft and employed over 300 new staff, including cabin crew trained at the Etihad Crew Training Academy. Furthermore, it has launched a new charter brand, Aviolet, which utilises Boeing 737-300 jets to popular holiday destinations. In addition, the carrier has been increasingly focusing on handling transit passengers, shuttling them through its Belgrade base. It has also managed to become the busiest airline in the former Yugoslavia so far this year. From tomorrow, Air Serbia will strengthen its cooperation with Air Berlin, with the German airline to begin codesharing on Air Serbia flights from Belgrade to Athens, Banja Luka, Larnaca, Sofia and Thessaloniki. Furthermore, Aeroflot will add its flight numbers onto Air Serbia’s services to Tirana and Sarajevo.


Earlier this week, Air Serbia’s CEO, Dane Kondić, said, “We want to thank the people of Serbia, and everyone who travels with Air Serbia, for their support and loyalty. Our aim is to encourage travellers who have yet to experience our service and hospitality, to see for themselves what has made Air Serbia the success that it is”. However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the airline. Critics have accused the Serbian government of signing a costly partnership agreement with Etihad, where the government has to fork out much more than its counterpart and take on significant commitments. Meanwhile, low cost airline Wizz Air has labelled Air Serbia and Etihad Airways as “wannabe monopolists”. In a recent report, the European Commission said, “Air Serbia was established in October 2013 as a joint venture owned by the Republic of Serbia and United Arab Emirates’ flag carrier Etihad Airways. Inquiries are ongoing regarding the airline’s compliance with the ‘effective control’ requirements stipulated in the ECAA [European Common Aviation Area]”.


Nevertheless, Serbia’s national carrier has transformed itself from the days of Jat Airways, which was, at the time, facing declining passenger numbers, a chronic fleet shortage and was in a dire financial state. Since the strategic partnership was inked on August 1, 2013, Air Serbia has leased eight Airbus A319 aircraft and two A320s and has ordered a further ten A320neo jets, for delivery from 2018. Furthermore, the carrier has launched eleven new routes: Abu Dhabi, Banja Luka, Bucharest, Budapest, Beirut, Ljubljana, Prague, Sofia, Tirana, Varna and Warsaw. The carrier forecasts it will record a profit of at least a million euros by year’s end.


UPDATE
 
 

Air Serbia CEO, Dane Kondić: Results in the third quarter, which will soon be made public, are extremely impressive. August was the busiest month in the airline's history.

Air Serbia Chairman, Siniša Mali: A profit is certain and has already been secured by the end of October.

Air Serbia Vice-Chairman, James Hogan: Air Serbia is shaking up the European aviation industry. It has become the envy of the region.

More photos available on EX-YU Aviation News' Instagram account.

Comments

  1. Dejan09:12

    Year 1 is over ...congratulations to JU! A lot of accomplishments were made indeed but a lot needs to be still improved in their service...punctuality is #1! Smooth skies going forward!! Ps. Try to avoid using anymore B737 on regular routes such as FRA, LHR ... although I love the B737 using them as they are negatively impacts the image on those main destinations....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:14

    Congrats, Air Serbia, with many great years to come from Croatia!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:57

      I hope OU will also do something similar... Greetings from Belgrade!

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:16

    Congrats to the airline but Ex-YU, the codeshare between JU and RO was signed before Air Serbia was launched. It was initiated and completed by Jat.

    Interestingly enough, the winter timetable starts tomorrow and there are no B737 scheduled to fly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:18

    Hmm... which of the two parts of the royal palace are you referring to? The president's office or the town hall? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:20

    Looks like Tarom will no longer code-share with Air Serbia to Skopje.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:30

    Happy 1st anniversary Air Serbia!
    Wish you many more good years ahead and safe skies.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:52

    Why there are 2 YU flights to AUH tomorrow, and no EY? Someone here posted that YU will operate EY flight (under EY number), but there are JU802 and JU800 sheduled.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:56

      Air Serbia will take over the route until Etihad overcomes its fleet shortage issues.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous11:04

    Happy first anniversary to AIR SERBIA !
    First choice will be on next fly toward Sydney. Love to see hers transformation from typically Balkan way of doing business to present modern way, only way to satisfying guest on board and people on ground...
    Snazno leti Er Srbijo, prvenstveno postujuci dignitet ljudi koji na tvojim krilima plove, a sireci postepeno tvoj network i prema drugim kontinentima. Da GSPOD podari mir, a vama mnogo rada sa vrlo uspesnom buducnoscu. HAPPY FIRST BIRTHSDAY my AIR SERBIA !.
    R. Marinkovic & good wishers. Kraljevo --- Sydney.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous11:37

    April 2014 CDG-BEG-CDG, economy class: free newspapers, cushion on every seat, warm meals.
    June & September 2014, same flight, same class: no free newspapers, no cushions on any economy seat, cold "meals" that consist of few leaves of green salad, two thin slices of beef or chicken ham, 20g of white cheese, two micro-pieces of fruit and one cheap apricot "cake" bar.

    Why did they degrade their services?

    On the other hand: kind and attentive, well groomed flight crew.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:40

      Meal service was downgraded on CDG because crew do not have enough time to heat meals and then serve a packed a319/a320. It was a major issue for some time.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:15

      If that was the real reason then they could have simply added another crew member.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:27

      All the possibilities were tested, but the only one that allowed the entire service to be finished by the book was the one with cold preset meals.
      Fifth crew can't do much when there are only two carts.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:21

      I found this degrading of service dissalpointing, paeticularly the meal which tasted more like rubber than beef! This needs to be sorted out.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous21:12

      It is called cutting back to increase profit. Will probably see more of this in the future.

      Delete
    6. And I suppose free newspaper and cushions also disappeared because of... oh, wait!

      Delete
  10. Anonymous12:01

    Dali neko zna razlog zasto je air serbia i austrian podigli cene karte na relaciji bec-beograd! Najmanja cena karte kod air serbia je 240 eur a kod austrian 440eur!!!!!!!! Te cene su promenili ssmo za jedan dsn i nemoze da se nadje vise cene do 170 eur! Poz

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  11. AirCEO12:55

    Congratulations Air Serbia on an outstanding first year! Keep up the great work.I wish you safe flights and many happy returns.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous13:20

    How much OPERATING profit will they make? http://www.investinganswers.com/financial-dictionary/financial-statement-analysis/operating-profit-2796

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous17:18

    Neka je sa srecom pa da vidimo ako bog da vidimo jednog A380 u bojama ASL :))
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:54

      da će bog, bog je veliki, i jedini, i da će da AS leti i do tvog INN-a. ako bog da.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous17:36

    koristim usluge air serbia cesce nego pre! Po meni se dosta promenilo na boje, usluga mi je dosta bolja, service itd! Jedino sto jos treba da se dovede u red to su ostali atr72 koji kad sedis u njima imas osecaj da sedis u 70tim i da ce proci drug tito pored tebe! Sedista se usmrdela! Ali to su sama dva aviona u celokupnoj floti, mislim da ce i to uspeti, tako da samo napred, neka je sa srecom :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous20:17

    I went from Belgrade to Paris with ASL and they lost my baggage...I had to search my baggage all over Europe and I find out that it's in Beirut.Also, meal on the plane was disgusting, and I saw that my seat was dirty. Worst airline ever!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:30

      You actually did not, tight? Because any idiot knows that for losing baggage it's not airline to blame, but airport. And I know a lot of people who had lost their baggage on airports across the world, it's not happening just in BEG. But I think there was a lot of problems with baggage in BEG this year because of an massive growth in number of passengers, and flights. So employers maybe couldn't face with a lot of passengers (baggage). And your comment about meal is completely stupid. Because that's an meal for flight that last no more then 4-5h, that is not an 5***** hotel. Seat dirty? Don't you tell me, please! Was there a lot of dirty? The remains of a dead rat on it? So, please, sell that story to someone retarded, don't underestimate are brains.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous20:30

    You actually did not, tight? Because any idiot knows that for losing baggage it's not airline to blame, but airport. And I know a lot of people who had lost their baggage on airports across the world, it's not happening just in BEG. But I think there was a lot of problems with baggage in BEG this year because of an massive growth in number of passengers, and flights. So employers maybe couldn't face with a lot of passengers (baggage). And your comment about meal is completely stupid. Because that's an meal for flight that last no more then 4-5h, that is not an 5***** hotel. Seat dirty? Don't you tell me, please! Was there a lot of dirty? The remains of a dead rat on it? So, please, sell that story to someone retarded, don't underestimate are brains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:18

      Actually, from a few weeks ago the luggage sorting facility (for transit bags) is controlled and run by Air Serbia soooo.... to make things even worse a lot of bags are still being removed from flights.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous21:22

    Does anybody know what is going on with AirSERBIA cadet program?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous22:03

    Sad bi rekao svima sto su pljuvali ASL da urade nesto ali bi najverovatnije Gospodin Admin obrisao komentar.
    A sztra ce veliki CEO Gospodin Kondic da najavi letove za SAD ja se nadam :))
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:00

      + da plate pilota budu minimum 4000eur posto oni to zasluzuju a ne Gospodin Mali koga postujem da prima 2 plate =D
      INN-NS

      Delete
  19. Anonymous23:37

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:51

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. You can disagree with a politician but please follow these rules: "EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks".

      Delete
  20. Hi, I am writing my dissertation on Air Serbias performance compared to Jat and need customer satisfaction feedback. Could you please take a moment to fill in a quick questionnaire linked below? Thanks!
    https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RTX5XM9

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:49

      INN-NS
      Evo ispunio sam sve najbolje za pbadvoje posto znam da ovde ima njih dosta ljubomornih na ASL sretno =D

      Delete
  21. Anonymous23:50

    lopovska aviokompanija koja ne plaća nikome ništa, dužnis u i bogu i narodu, kada nemate rashodnu stranu u bilansu uspeha uvek ćete imati profit, nazadnjačke "poslovne" veštine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:56

      Nije vam ovo Blic ili Fb stranica ASL da lupate
      I sta sad ako ne placa mista mnogo uglednih ljudi isto nista ne placa .
      I sad ce dobiti A380 dzabe i sta cete sad
      INN-NS

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:00

      nemojte se začuditi ako jednog dana dodjete na aerodrom i vidite da na gejtu nema aviona jer je oduzet zbog duga. Pare od karte vam naravno niko neće vratiti.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:02

      a da zaboravio sam, oni nemaju NI JEDAN avion, osim ona triAT72 iz osamdesetih i tri oldtajmera B733, oni nemaju imovinu a obrću pare, tipičan primer tašna mašna firme koja je nastala da se prikriju malverzacije koje su uništile jat airways.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous00:04

      Pa dobro šta očekujes ti bre? Kako drugacije da postignu ista u prvih godinu dana? Boze kakva smo mi Srbi govna sami sebe pljujemo... Ajde probaj da kazes nešto kao "Ove godine će je koristiti više od 2 000 000 putnika" ili "Avioni su mnogo bolji od Jatovih" a ne sam po svojem da pljuješ.Posle kad drugi krenu da pljuju ti kao braniš.. Nadam se iskreno da nisi Srbin ako jesi ne znam sta da ti kažem..I sebi.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous00:13

      Anonymous at 11:50PM
      Inače da-ASL je ubedljivo najbolja aviokompanija u ex-Yu i jedna od najboljih na Balkanu. Vi budite ljubomorni, niste uspeli. Šta ćeš, stručnjace, aj objavi te tvoje teorije zavere i daj jedan čvrst dokaz za sve što si upravo lupio. Nemaš pojma ni o cemu, da ista znaš znao bi da imaju 6 A319 i 2 A320 i dva iznajmljena A319 od Etihada. Sledeći put se potrudi da ispadneš malo manje glup.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous00:20

      Bote nazadnjački oni nemaju ni jedan airbus, sve je t uzeto na lizing, i to su avioni u očajnom stanju, gori nego oni B73 iako su duplo mladji, više su u hangarima na opravkama nego na nebu, a lizing se uredno plaća i za takvo smeće, pritom tu su kašnjenja, nevidjeno velik broj izgubljenih prtljaga, lete strani piloti iako na birou ima 700 pilota koji su ostali bez posla kad je uništen jat i aviogenex, kada sa medjunarodnih sudova stignu tužbe aerodroma, putnika, naftnih kompanija, handling agenata ima za dan da nestanu kao Malev, najbolji naziv za air serbiu bi bio Trotters Independent Airlines

      Delete
    7. Anonymous00:30

      Ja bi vas sve sto pljujete ovde ASL IZ RETARDIRANIH RAZLOGA odve kod Doktora posto za ovih godinu dana sam se nacitao toliko lazi i bljuvotina da mi je muka kad je neki Srbin svaki put o nekom clanku o OU pljuvao CTN kako nesto neplaca samo mozete samo tuzni i ljubomorni posto je ASL najbolja u EX-YU i sledece godine ce leteti za ORD . Ako se nastavi to provociranje onda cu i ja provocirati ;)
      INN-NS

      Delete
    8. Anonymous00:32

      Anonymous at 12:20AM
      Sto svi morate da gledate uvek sve tako stravično? Ti stvarno misliš da bi Etihad kupio toliki deo ASL bez dobrog razmišljanja? Da bi to bio propali projekat? Što ste toliko pesimisticni čim se pojavi nešto novo? Gade mi se takvi ljudi, u svemu kopate po najgoroj strani. Ništa nije savršeno, ali vi ste tu da prikažete lošu stranu svega. Verovatno si i smanjenje plata komentarisao kao kradju novca..Molim te učini uslugu svetu i nestani.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous00:35

      Кад би у србистану постојали икакав ред и закон, таква компанија каква је ер србија би могла само да лети у ликвидацију :>

      Delete
    10. Anonymous00:37

      Pa to onda pisu bivsi radnici JATA posto sad nemoze da se krade vise i da spremacice lete sa JU =D
      INN-NS

      Delete
    11. Anonymous00:38

      Anonumous at 12:32
      Ma pusti budale niko nije trebao da komentarise njegovu objavu da ostane neprimecen..

      Delete
    12. Anonymous00:46

      vi ste zatrovani nazadnjackom propagandom, ili ste mozda placeni da hvalite ovu prevaru...cuj najvise putnika u istoriji kompanije u avgustu, istoriji od oktobra 2013...koliko glup treba da budes da bi verovao djacima slobodana milosevica?

      Delete
    13. Anonymous00:52

      стручнјаци за печење прасића и експерти са мегатреша умислили да могу да воде авиокомпанију, притом је ово невиђено пранје пара са кипра које су изнете у динкићево време а арапи се ту појавлјују да би се прикрило порекло новца...не могу да верујем какво нас је зло снашло друже

      Delete
    14. Anonymous00:53

      Sto mesate mrtve ljude tad se bolje zivelo nego sad u srbiji .
      Samo mi recite preko cije partije se obogatio Miskovic i kompanija ;))
      INN-NS

      Delete
  22. AirCEO00:12

    At tonight’s Air Serbia celebration PM called out management to raise salaries. I hope he did not mean it as a tasteless joke in times of other pension and salary reductions. If it was not a joke, PM calling out executives on how to run the business? Not even behind the closed doors but in front of everyone including media. Seriously, in front of everyone?!?

    Tonight we also learned from the PM that global companies are fighting to get that Airport concession. I am taking a deep breath trying to come up with a list of benefits if concession decision is delayed by a year and can’t come up with one, not a single valid one. Discounts to Air Serbia until the end of 2016 could be called out in the contract, mind you. We all understand negative impact of delaying the concession outcome and airport construction will have on Air Serbia. So unless someone out there can come up with a valid reason for the delay, we have to call this one for what it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:36

      Moze malo kulture ima maloletnika ovde ahahah :P i da admin nebi zatvorio komentare molim vas ja
      INN-NS

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:59

      Kako ti znaš da će AS dobiti A320 dogodine, i to džabe?

      Delete