Good news for Jat's passengers?
Jat Airways’ new management is determined at turning around the airline into a profitable, regional leader with strong support from its home base. In order for this to be accomplished a new strategy for Jat’s development will be presented in 7 days, firstly to the Serbian ministry for infrastructure and then to the Serbian people. According to Serbia’s infrastructure minister Milutin Mrkonjić, Jat’s CEO Srđan Radovanović will present short, medium and long term plans for the airline’s development. The minister once again made clear that the Serbian government will stand behind the national carrier. The new strategy will allow Radovanović to present his plans for the carrier for the first time since taking over as CEO. Jat’s previous CEO has been heavily demoted within the airline in the last 2 weeks.Meanwhile, Radovanolvić has said that Macedonia’s non operational national carrier MAT Macedonian Airlines still owes Jat over 10 million American dollars. Jat’s workgroup which was set up to find out about MAT’s debt towards Jat noted that the Macedonian carrier has no assets that could become part of Jat and replace the current 10 million dollar debt. The issue could be solved next month when an important new aviation agreement is signed between Serbia and Macedonia. The aviation agreement was announced after the two countries signed landmark road and rail agreements yesterday. Macedonia’s transportation minister said that Macedonia’s sky is open to Jat. It is believed Jat might gain 5th freedom rights and operate flights from Skopje to various European cities.
i doubt anything new and smart will come from JAT anytime soon. it would be nice for the government be constructive with JAT for once, not destructive by not investing into the airline yet protect it from foreign airlines and competition!
ReplyDeleteAs for 5th freedom rights from Macedonia, would be nice for JAT to fly via its domestic cities rather than Skopje eg: Belgrade-Nis-Zurich, Belgrade-Nis-London. A good route via Skopje in my opinion would be the Belgrade-Abu Dhabi flights, as many Macedonians from Australia did fly via Dubai and Belgrade when the line was in operation, just new aircraft with the range would be needed to do the route.
There's always the 735 being stored at SKP that JU could use to boost its fleet (a la Aviogenex), if they ever solved the problem of that front wheel! Though is it any improvement to the average age of the airline is debatable...
ReplyDelete@ JATBEGMEL
The most profitable lines JAT would look to operate from SKP would be ZRH, ATH, PRN, VIE and possibly FCO
And, how about a new name:
ReplyDeleteJat - The broken record airline.
frequentflyer: is there really a proven demand between PRN and SKP? You can do that by car easily!
ReplyDeleteWhy can't Macedonia establish a new national carrier simply called Macedonian Airlines or Macedonian Airways end of story.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the Macedonian Government thinking. Wake Up - Macedonia needs an airline which is profitable and to represent the country itself, it does not need foreign airlines using Skopje as a hub at this point of time.