New aircraft expected by March 2010
Serbian media have reported that Jat Airways has accelerated its fleet renewal plans, whose details are being secretly discussed. As it turns out, Boeing also attended a recent meeting between Jat and Citibank. A delegation from the American aircraft manufacturer will visit Belgrade in just over a week. It is said that Jat is planning to purchase 2 to 4 Boeing aircraft through financial leasing. Citibank would provide the loan and become the owner of the 4 aircraft until Jat pays off the loan, when the aircraft will formally become Jat’s property. The airline plans to add the new aircraft into the fleet by March 2010. It is still not clear whether the Boeing aircraft would be completely new or between 2 and 5 years old.Meanwhile, Jat is negotiating to change its infamous Airbus order. It wants to receive new ATR aircraft for the 22 million dollars it has already given to Airbus. For the first time, it seems, Airbus is willing to negotiate. The agreement Airbus made with Jat in 1998 is unique since it does not give Jat the right to cancel the deal.
This winter season Jat will operate with a total of 11 aircraft, despite the airline having 16 aircraft in its fleet. For all Jat’s winter 2009/10 modifications visit the blog tomorrow.
finally some possitive news from JAT! I hope all goes well. I imagine its 4 B737-700's coming. I wonder if the aircraft will be the first in the fleet to recieve the Air Serbia livery (that is if the airline is rebranded as Air Serbia) :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for the Airbus deal, if JAT has payed Airbus USD$22 million, that leaves JAT the ability to buy new 1 ATR72 and have a few million in change, considering 1 ATR72 is between USD$16.5 - 20 million. I guess some not soo new ATR's are coming for JAT.
Air Serbia is soo old fashioned. SerbAir would be way better!
ReplyDeleteHi EX YU, this is a message to you, will you be posting an article about the news of an air agreement between UAE and Serbia. Apparently, Emirates will be a regular at belgrade Airport
ReplyDeleteLet's see what happens. I also hope the ATR plans works out.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Airbus deal, I'd say it disadvantages Jat, but there is no such thing as a unique deal; it's subject to (international) contract law as any other deal ever made in such situations. The whole story somewhat took on a life of its own.
@Peter: There will be an article regarding the agreement sometime during next week.
ReplyDeleteit think it could renamed as Serbian Airlink
ReplyDeleteIt should be called Jat-Serbia's airline.
ReplyDeleteOr Jat Serbia
Something along those lines.
It will be sad to see the name Jat lost to history, especially this way.
"Secret negotiations", denials of any negotiations with Citi, etc...and here I was thinking that Jat is owned by Serbian people.
ReplyDeleteAs for the name, Serbian Airlines, although too mainstream, it is simple and effective. The whole Jat thing has to go for as long as Jat is owned by the government. If it is a government company, it should have something national in its name. And, no, I'm not one of those who despise the name Jat.
are they planning on leasing new planes or not? on one place i read one story, on another second story
ReplyDelete^ As the article says it will most probably be a finanial lease since JU does not have the finances to buy the aircraft. Most airlines are now choosing to get planes through financial leases (for example Montenegro Airlines' 2 Embraer jets).
ReplyDeleteCSA kept their name after the fall of Czechoslovakia, just they became CSA Czech Airlines. Wouldnt mind JAT Serbian Airways - Srpski Aviopromet :-) but talk in JAT is that the name change will be 90% likely be Air Serbia.
ReplyDelete@ peter from syd
I dont think EK will do too well in BEG. JAT had a 126 seater B733 and had 5th rights when flying via Beirut, Kuwait and Larnaca, which also generated passengers for the flight, where as a direct EK A332 makes more seats to fill. I see more JAT returning to DXB next year rather than EK coming to BEG. From SKP, SJJ, TGD, TIV and OHD via BEG to DXB with JAT and DXB to PER, BNE, MEL, SYD, AKL and CHC with EK. Im keeping my fingers crossed for daily JAT to Dubai and a new JAT EK contract :)
Imo changing name to Air Serbia is a bad move. Don't get me wrong here but "Serbia" isn't that strong brand. For majority of non-balkan passangers it's a eastern european country with a bit shady history. Thus when you get to choose between say LH and Air Serbia european business passangers will most certainly choose LH.
ReplyDeleteI certainly do this with other eastern europen lines. Ask yourself if you would choose Tajikistan Airlines or Belavia to Belarus when you can choose Austrian, BA or SAS.
Now you might argue that "Serbia" isn't the same as Ukraine or Moldavia or whatever. And to you it is not but to westerners it is.
More neutral name (like JAT) don't bring any negative cannotiations. Consider that most of half-successful eastern european carriers actually don't use country name in thename of the airline. CSA, LOT, Adria...
4 73Gs in a ~130 seat configuration could work really well for JAT - slightly more seats than the current 733s and a lower per-seat cost should bring in revenues, and looks to be a much better alternative than the two planes deal which were cancelled not so long ago.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope it goes through so they can get their feet back on the ground.
As for the Airbus/ATR deal, most recent deals for new planes have been around the $18m mark, so unless they buy two planes and get the money from somewhere for the rest of the second one, they may lose out on their investment...
@ zrak
ReplyDeleteYugoslavia has had more negativity than Serbia, but then the negativity in the media was mostly towards the Serb people. But that negativity seems to be changing, slowly, and Serbia is emerging as a sporting nation, now with Novak Djokovich, Ana Ivanovich and Jelena Jankovich to beging with. As for the business class passengers, JAT doesnt even have a frequent flyer program, nor does it have anything enticing for business class passengers. How is it that Ethiopian Airlines seems to be doing quite well regardless of the fact that Ethiopia is stereotypically known as a dirt poor nation? I believe good marketing and an excellent product is what entices the flying public to fly with you.
@ frequentflyer
JAT doesnt need more seats on an aircraft, JAT should offer more frequencies and to be more convenient to travel with. Would be nice to hear what will replace the DC9's which were retired a couple years back.