Without a clue what to do…
The Serbian Prime Minister has denied claims that businessmen will invest millions into Jat Airways and take a 50% share in the airline. This is despite the fact that during last week the Serbian Minister for Infrastructure, which oversees the aviation portfolio and is known for various gaffes, claimed that businessmen, together with the government, would create a successor to Jat by May. The Prime Minister says that a decision whether Jat will continue to operate in its current form or whether a new national carrier would be created hasn’t even been made yet, although he remains adamant that Serbia needs a national carrier. Some of the mentioned businessmen interested in Jat spoke out last week saying they are willing to invest.EX-YU aviation news has since learned that Jat’s management is due to submit a revival plan to the government. The plan entails a solution to Jat’s future as well as a fleet plan. Furthermore, the Serbian government has approved arrangements for Jat to take out a 10 million Euro loan from the banks to be paid off within the next three years. It has not been disclosed to the public as to how the money will be spent. Jat is gearing up for one of its busiest summer operations in years, which it plans to carry out with 13 aircraft.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Russian plane manufacturer Sukhoi will be visiting Belgrade in the coming weeks in an attempt to sell its Superjet 100 model to the Serbian national carrier. The aircraft has the capacity to seat between 75 to 95 people depending on class structure. Jat still has an unsettled order for 8 Airbus A319 jets from 1998.
In your opinion, what is the way forward for Jat? Send a comment.
Jat needs a new livery and a new management, then im talking about too maybe hire people from Air France, make a deal with an airline, or maybe people with education in Leadership/ Communication. / Philswe
ReplyDeleteAvoiding Malev and Spanairs fate....there is a lot of solutions and i think that the government should give it awaya to Richard Branson or Micheal O´Leary,they are capable to run a airline...
ReplyDeleteThere is a very easy way. That’s getting rid of politically appointed management which has no clue how to run an airline. You don’t need Richard Branson. There are enough capable people in Serbia and even those working at Jat that would do a good job. Unfortunately, when you have management which doesn’t know what it’s doing they tend to distance the people that know something.
ReplyDeleteRichard Branson or Micheal O´Leary are just witing for Jat... hahaha...
ReplyDeleteThe B733's are fine for now, but JAT should focus on expanding its regional fleet. Belgrade is still an influential city in the region and the national carrier should reflect that. Adequate connections should be made not only Balkan wide, but should offer decent frequencies to the larger European destinations such as VIE, ZRH, FRA, CDG where it should attract higher yielding pax to fly to BEG for say business trips with a convientient schedule.
ReplyDeleteAs a serbian airline, there are many domestic products that JAT could use on its flights. Say serve Vodavoda on its flights and offer those smaller bottles in business class, Nektar jucies, knjaz milos mineral water for business, Jelen or lav beer, maybe small amenities bags for longer JAT flights in business with as well quality serbian and foreign products...all that promotes serbian products and adds that pleasant serbian touch.
As for the Sukhoi jets, they would be a welcomed addition only if JAT would be able to get reliable after sale service, such as spare parts etc. The regional jets are quiet, cheap and have proven to be quite efficient, and could help boost frequencies to destinations in flights with a 2 hour radius of Belgrade. JAT should return to DXB, codeshare with EK to SYD and MEL which see alot of Serbian pax and to which spend alot of money for their air tickets, which again equals revenue. A couple B757's could make a nice addition to enable direct DXB, maybe YYZ summer flights, probably even summer charters to Turkey and Greece which were previously operated on DC10's. A nice livery should follow with new uniforms designed and made in serbia.
For extra profits, JAT should offer more duty free, especially domestic products such as Rakiya, Belgrade city maps, travel guides, nice collections of perfumes, alcohol and last minute presents. They do sell and can bring alot of revenue when sold.
Working with TOB, maybe Hotel Slavija and alot of advertising, there could be nice city break offers for European tourists to visit Belgrade or Novi Sad for the weekend. These are some ideas in mind.
I can't agree with you with regards to you ideas with Jats fleet. The 737s are just too expensive for Jat to operate in a competitive environment and will be the Achilles heel of Jat very soon if something is not done. The 737s should be sold off asap, while they still have some life and could be a source of some needed extra revenue from Jat. Jat Tehnika should even look at converting them into freighters, they will sell like hot cakes. The 8 A319 would be perfect IF they can re-negotiate the contract and get a proper deal. Maybe even convert the order to the Neo's and eventually replace the ATR72s with newer models of the same type. Forget about the Sukhois!
Delete+1. Great idea :) Get A319neo from the Airbus deal for the long run, in the meantime, sell 733s, lease something newer (735/736?), sell authentic souvenirs on board, get 757 for DXB and charters, maintain regional network (and add INI for crying out loud). Keep the large destinations, code share, modernize the damn website, cut administration and let's live happily ever after...
Deletein the meantime, just start the new frequent flier program already...
Ahahaha new livery will save the airline :)
ReplyDeletefunny
Can't you read or you just don't get it?!
DeletePublic ownership has NO SENSE for business-oriented thinking in a fast-pace environment such as the liberalized air transport market. The country should take over the debts, and privatize the hell out of Jat.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Branson is, after all, interested in Jat... hahahahahaha...
ReplyDeleteGive Jat away for free to Mr Branson:):):)!
ReplyDeleteSO, YOU KNOW WHO MR BRANSON IS. HOW GOOD FOR YOU.
DeleteNew website and on-line check-in should be provided as soon as possible!
ReplyDeleteI think that Jat will go in the same direction as Spanair and Malev...:/ Its easy to say in praxe what is the right way for JAT..But to move political managment ahhaha so funny..:/ I dont think that this will be in near futur. I hoped that Jat would look bright times but now i see that this is just a dream.Really BAD! And if something happene, the best way is to stay JAT and to make structual changes.JAT IS A VALUABLE BRAND! It has been built for years...Greetings guys
ReplyDelete*practice :)
ReplyDeleteThe most important thing is to get the government out of the airline business. They must not own more than 49% of the airline, and they would preferably own none. If they own at least 50%, then nothing can possibly change in the disastrous ways Jat had been run.
ReplyDeleteIn order for the new airline to be successful, they need to attract some regional traffic. It will need to acquire some regional jets and run them daily on all regional routes (including Nis and Morava) regardless of the profitability, in order to establish themselves as a reliable option. They should also seek to partner with a major airline and bring connecting pax from Nis and Morava to their hub in exchange for a small cut of the price of their ongoing ticket.
One thing I loved about flying with Porter or with the East Coast shuttles were their lounges, which offered basic amenities (comfy seating, power plugs, refreshments) to all passengers. I always thought that the airline based in Belgrade should offer this service - for free - to all *transit* passengers. This is something that would totally beat the competition - it would allow transit pax to actually be productive during their layover in Belgrade, make a quick call home, or take a reasonably comfortable nap.
'Jat Aeroput' would be a great name. Maybe with the full name 'Jat Aeroput Serbian Airways'. I heard there are some issues with intellectual property on the name 'Aeroput'. Well, if there are, the government better get serious and figure that out. Both brands 'Jat' and 'Aeroput' have some serious cachet around here and should not be wasted for something terribly bland and uninspired (like 'Serbia Airlines').
'Aeroput' as a name change or addition would be a disaster for Jat. It sounds too Russian and thus (unfortuanatley) would scare many westerners away from using the airline.
DeleteJat should do whatever they are not doing now, I'm sure that would be a step in the right direction lol.
Someone's never been to the business class lounge in Belgrade. Pretty grim.
DeleteThat lounge has been closed. The new lounge opened a few weeks ago is great.
DeleteThe subtitle pretty much says it all "Without a clue what to do…"
ReplyDeleteOT: Why did LH have a flight to Sofia from BEG today?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the statement, the last few days many airlines rerouted their planes at the Belgrade airport due to temporary closure of many airports in the region.
DeleteBecause last night and this morning in Belgrade and diverted aircraft landed on the lines Vienna-Sofia Munich-Sofia and Nis-Podgorica.
Belgrade airport said that this morning due to bad weather was again closed the airport in Podgorica, which led to the cancellation
of morning flights between Belgrade and Podgorica, and airline passengers are transported on the aircraft for Tivat.
http://www.b92.net/putovanja/vesti.php?yyyy=2012&mm=02&dd=06&nav_id=580251
If JAt is "Without a clue what to do", it is time to close her down and start over. In my opinion if JAT was going to operate as JAT Airways, they should keep the original egg design on the tail with the blue background. The fuselage should be then kept a solid white, and possibly a sash on the front (what they had experimented before with), in the flag colours. They can also rebrand the name JAT as JUZNO-EVROPSKI AERO TRANSPORT (Southern European Airlines). This would open itself up to a larger market. Lets remember KLM is in dutch andin english it is Royal Dutch Airlines. Sukhoi Jets I am very leary on, especially if you are trying to get people from N America.
ReplyDeleteperfect Idea
DeleteJAT and Juzno Europski Aero Transport
and branding I would prefer the 737-300 branding at delivery in 1985
and no need for JA,YM,JP. OU remains.
Training Centres in BEG. Headquarter in Ljubljana, Slovenia, so you immediately become an EU airline, however airline mainly based in BEG. Codeshare OU flights.
I would actually put HQ in Bosnia, precisely because airline should not be an EU airline for as long as possible. Nothing to be gained by EU status really that cannot be fixed by fifth freedom agreements, but a lot to be lost in terms of state aid.
DeleteOT:
ReplyDeleteVueling will take over most of former JK routes. So let s hope we soon see Vueling A320s in BEG and ZAG.
At least 2 late night BCN departures and 2 early morning from BEG. Fingers crossed! :)
DeleteAEROPUT ?
ReplyDeleteAeroflot of Putin !
Eastern Orthodox Vizantine Airways of Saint Sava
ReplyDeletewould be a perfect name for the national airline of Serbia !
Two class configuration : class of angels
and less comfortable infidel class .
Airline should be 100% owned by the church !
Slogan should be :
With us you fly into heaven !
Vueling in Serbia?
ReplyDeleteThey already stated they would never fly to Syria!
you again? high again? lol
DeleteSyria!Srbija!
ReplyDeleteSyria!Srbija!
ahahhaha, well, its funny cause it sad ahhahaha lol
DeleteYou mean SYR(B)IJA ?
ReplyDeleteAirbus cheated Jat and the Serbian people off. Serbs spent over 20 million euros in tax money so far for not a single delivered plane. They will try to neglect the 20 million already payed and ask Jat to pay full price per unit with the A319s Jat would consider.
ReplyDeleteThink about this; two days after Sukhoi announced delegation travel to Belgrade, the French ambassador to Serbia talked about Airbuses with peasant Ognjenovic, which is why he said in the news today Jat would try to order 4 A319s for 2015. As if the airline could wait that long. Airbus and the French ambassador couldn't care less about Jat, they just want to make sure Jat doesn't choose Sukhoi (even though they cost 25 million less per unit than Airbus A319 or Boeing 737-700) all because of this zombie neo-cold war politics against Russia.
That’s the way it goes because Serbia wants to join the EU. The same way late last year a French company was given a billion euro deal to build the Belgrade metro. No tender was even organised.
DeleteAlthough this Sukhoi business is nothing major. A few weeks ago representatives of Bombarider were in Belgrade and trying to sell their jets to Jat. It’s just a sales tour each manufacturer organises.
As long Serbia wants to come into EU there is BLACKMAIL without end.
ReplyDeleteIn the end Serbia gets nothing!
The day after Serbia enters EU
Jat will have to close because in EU,governments are not allowed to rescue airlines.
See Hungary and MALEV!
The A319 is already an old model and totally outdated!
ReplyDeleteSerbia should switch to the more modern NEO-version of the A320.
It makes no sense to buy those old planes only to please France for EU-membership.
Then better Jat goes bancrupt before such a deal materializes...
The by-line is hilarious, but not *quite* true!
ReplyDeleteJUs survival depends on three key important factors:
- getting rid of government interference
- eliminating the overarching debt
- a new fleet to match its network
We all know the govt won't keep its grubby fingers away while there is money to be taken, and this is a major problem. Will the govt take over the debt (a la OA) to give the airline a true chance?
The fleet needs to be streamlined: 8-10 new jets (around 100 seats right-sizing capacity with possibility of increasing frequency) and 5 new AT7s for regional services.
How about "lost cause" for a new name?
ReplyDeleteget back to the livery from the 80ies.
ReplyDeletemost people (in e.g. germany) remember this one very well, and they have a good image in mind. trust me.
management must be replaced and the airline needs to get private...new paintjob and name doesnt solve everything!