Growth in February

Mild February growth

Jat has recorded a second consecutive month of growth with a 2% passenger increase in February 2010 when compared to February last year. Jat transported a total of 122.923 passengers while its average cabin load factor stood at 47.5%, 3% less than in February 2009. More importantly, the airline managed to record high scale growth on services to Podgorica and Tivat. Jat’s Montenegro passenger numbers collapsed in the first half of 2009 and until now have not been able to recover. Jat transported 7.830 passengers to Montenegro in February (compared to 5.230), 45.384 passengers on Euro-Mediterranean services (compared to 49.453) and 1.376 passengers on charter flights (compared to 933 in February 2009).

The airline’s Brussels flights continue to report the greatest growth in its network in comparison to last year. The flights saw a 155% passenger increase. It is followed by Podgorica (+61%) and Tivat (+23%). Jat is reporting its greatest decline on flights to Athens, hit by fierce competition from Aegean Airlines. A similar decline can be noted on the airline’s Tel Aviv flights. Despite new competition from Niki and an increased flight offering from Austrian Airlines, the Serbian national carrier reported an 8% growth in passenger numbers on flights to Vienna. Whether this trend will continue in March remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, on March 1, Jat launched a new advertising campaign. The airline has introduced a daily “Jat bulletin” on a popular Belgrade based channel 3 times per day. During the bulletin Jat’s new PR manager invites passengers to use the services of the national carrier, advertising promotional tickets and destinations.