Airbus offers Jat four A320s
Airbus is threatening to take Jat to court after its offer to the government to finally settle the dispute with the airline went unanswered. Airbus is looking to resolve a 14 year old quarrel with Jat. In 1998, the Yugoslav government ordered eight Airbus A319s for its national carrier, a highly unfavourable and politically motivated deal worth 560 million dollars at the time. Despite a deposit of 23.5 million dollars, the aircraft were never delivered. The latest problem came last week after a draft Airbus proposal to the Serbian government was publicised. Airbus is now offering four A320s to Jat for delivery until 2015. Under favourable terms, the European plane manufacturer would be inclined to even deliver all four aircraft immediately from its stockpiles. However, even after eleven attempts to contact the government, the State Secretary for Aviation, Miodrag Miljković, member of the United Regions of Serbia Party, didn’t bother to answer.The Serbian government formed a task group two years ago to resolve the issue. However, they have never even met up. The TangoSix portal reveals that Miljković, instead of bothering with the Airbus deal, is hard at work lobbying in the interests of Wizz Air and is actively seeking for the low cost airline to be granted a bigger share of the Serbian aviation market.
Since, the latest row hit the media, the government has been in damage control saying at first that such pressure from Airbus is unnecessary ahead of parliamentary and local elections which are to take place in the country this May. Later the government said it needs more time to study the draft proposal. It seems that once again a complete disinterest in Jat on the part of the ruling elite has been shown. Airbus has given the government until March 30 to respond, either it will take Jat to court.
Comments
Go Boeing or go home.
They are in urgent need of 100 seaters and additional ATRs...
the Serbian shit government blocks Wizzair to open more routes from Belgrade !
Otherways that Milkivic would not have to lobby for Wizzair...hasnt Serbia signed Open Skies?
No more Wizzair flights this summer and winter and no more international airlines to Belgrade anytime soon because of the shitty government boycotting this!
Vueling was denied flying to Belgrade by the government and Easyjet wanted to fly to Belgrade already last year but...denied by the government!
Everybody asks why all those airlines dont fly to Belgrade?
Well ever heard about protectionism of the Serbian government?
what is the main picture on the ex-yu aviation page? is that Swift Air 767 @ Rockford?
Also, that "shitty government" should prosecute bribed officials that gave Wizzair better conditions in Serbia than the ones that domestic airline has.
Air One is a daughter company of Alitalia and the deal is Jat/ Alitalia to Rome and Milan and no other airlines are allowed to open routes to/from Italy.
Especially not Wizzair/Easyjet.
Also you have to allow Flydubai coming to Belgrade when you fly to Dubai(as Jat did in that time).
But it is true that Serbia signed the Open Skies treaty and has to allow Wizzair to base as much aircraft in Belgrade as they want which obviously is
blocked in order to protect monopoly of Jat.
People in Serbia waited enough time to have
alternate choices of airlines especially LCC!
If Wizzair and Easyjet(Vueling?) are blocked by
Serbian authorities to open that new routes
then Open Skies will be in not so far time revoked
by the members of the EU.
EU will not let itself get fooled much longer
by this childish behaviour!
at least our government allows Easyjet,
Vueling and now even Iberia Express to commence flights to Zagreb !
Even with all this competition Croatia Airways is number one in Ex Yu airline business !
Therefore, rights given to Wizzair and Norwegian are a matter of good will from our Government (and perhaps some corruption too).
It is good to have competition, however people often fail to realize that LCCs won't fly routes that are not highly profitable as is the case with most flag carriers. So there would be no Skopje, Sarajevo or Montenegro off season, and also half of current Jat's European destinations. If Jat would cease to exist some day, most of Wizzair's fare prices would probably double due to less competition.
Personally, I do not prefer Wizzair because I cannot book flights 6 months ahead to get cheap tickets and also hate to go through the complete booking process to see the real final price as it gets incremented with some various levies till the end. It is also NOT cheap, in 3 week advance time (which is fairly ahead) legacy carriers like Jat or LH have better prices in most cases...
In my opinion this is not in the best interest of the people though...
1) A batch of 4 A319s is much more of an attractive option for JU than 4 A320s (easily fixable, Airbus can recognize this without getting angry or losing out)
2) It is much cheaper to our government to get sued by Airbus than to go thorugh with the order. The threat of getting sued by Airbus is a threat of a total of 50 million euro whereas buying the REVISED order of, not 8, but 4 A319 or A320 would cost at minimum three times the money that is at risk of suing by Airbus. Unfortunately, our government is probably more willing to pay 50 million in legal damages (for nothing) than to pay 200 million and actually get something back for it.
MD you have your opinion but there are also a lot of people who have a totally different opinion!
These people would always prefer to fly LCCs but are HINDERED TO!
A government should not favourize a single airline
and discriminate all others which is the case now.
What a shit !
Actually lowcoast like Wizzair are not allowed to open new routes !
It can also be easily concluded that if Serbian Government (amongst other things) DISALLOWS Jat's management to fire employees due to social welfare issues, signs damaging agreements like this one with Airbus due to 'higher interest', basically forces it to service many of the destinations not being heavily profitable, indirectly forcing it to the verge of bankruptcy, while on the other hand without legal obligation, in good will (without protecting Jat's interest in asking for reciprocal measures) allows LCCs to cherry pick and service only the most profitable destinations then LCCs are obviously the ones being favoured by the Government. There are also several examples how Wizzair gets favoured by Belgrade Airport - it would be really interesting to see some serious investigation about potential corruption related to that BEG-Wizzair cooperation.
Seems like a bad deal to me...
And when this guy really makes lobbying for Wizzair
then i wish him all the best!
Are Easyjet and Wizz really such a threat to Jat Airways?
Obviously they are.
But i always had the impression that Jat really made progress in competing with the others.
I guess i was wrong.
: (
you write as if Wizzair success would be the cause of the bad shape of Jat!
But Jat was even in bad state long time before
Wizzair arrived in BEG.
Not only Wizzair..every airline would profit by this situation!
Wizz success is not the cause but much more the result of very mismanagement of Jat and certain government officials.
Wizzair should not be punished for
solely being successful!
You think that it is any better living in Serbia? The dinar keeps loosing value to the euro, and the buying power of the Serbian people isnt the same as a couple years ago. Back in 2008 i was able to easily save money from my wages when 75 dinars bought 1 euro, today it is nearly impossible and its 110 dinars needed for the euro. The kuna at least is more stable and doesnt show massive change year after year!
Maybe keeping the order of 8 A319's will do good, replace the aging 10 B733's currently in the fleet. As JAT tehnika is being prepared to cater to the Airbus a/c anyways, JAT wouldnt need to send it's a/c to foreign companies to do maintenace checks, rather will have it done at their hub. Both the A320 family and the B737NG's are economical aircraft the use and I believe that any choice between the 2 would do JAT better economically, as maintenance costs would come down.
Having said that have 8 a/c replace 10, JAT will need to bring in a proper DC9 replacement, im suggesting ERJ190's and at least 5. Keep the ATR's on Balkan rotations and the ERJ's on longer routes. Doubt anything possitive will come from MafiJAT.
I am sure JAT will find buyers for the B733 a/c as for a/c of that age it has got lower km's to it and still has some life left in them.
Its depressing that the Serbian government doesnt value Serbian jobs and doesnt show interest in Serbian companies. JAT should better treatment at BEG considering it brings alot of revenue to alot of the companies based there - JAT tehnika, SUport, JAT Ketering etc, and stands to lose alot if it was to suddenly dissapear.
I tend to occasionally 'advocate' for Jat because we need some of these routes that would never get operated by a LCC cause they are not super profitable, and more importantly, because I am fed up by cases where oversubsidized foreign companies replace the domestic ones in every single aspect of providing more technicaly advanced value added products mostly because of politicians and corruption. Don't think that Serbia should end up in producing solely agricultural products...
Tupko's posts should not be deleted. This blog is greatly improved by his contribution.
It is a complete absurd that within a 100e roundtrip ticket to say Montenegro, airports get around 35e and airlines get 10e for covering everything else except fuel.
In 2015, if it stays the same, it will be one of the ugliest airports in Ex You. LDZA design is already declared as one of nicest and most functional airports in the world.
Croatia Airlines dobila QUDAL, najviše priznanje korisnika za kvalitetu usluge.