Transition process continues
With less than two months left until the official launch of Air Serbia on October 27, rapid developments are taking place in the airline to finalise the transition process. The new look Serbian national carrier is set to receive regulatory clearance next week which will allow the new management team, appointed by minority shareholder Etihad, to take over. On Monday a total of forty Jat Airways pilots will begin training for the Airbus A319 in Berlin in order to operate the aircraft on scheduled flights from October 27. The first A319 is set to arrive in Belgrade on October 21. Yesterday, Jat Airways announced it was hiring an additional twenty co-pilots for the ATR72 aircraft. Simultaneously, the airline is hiring 43 new pilots holding operational certificates for the A319 jets.
After Jat Airways cabin crew members underwent examinations last week, the airline announced a surprise casting call for new cabin crew members, which was held on Thursday. New members of the cabin crew team are to be trained for all aircraft types in the fleet while Jat’s current crew will also receive formal training for the A319 jets in Belgrade in the first week of October. Meanwhile, an Etihad delegation visited the SMATSA Flight Academy (formerly Jat Airways Flight Academy) in Vršac in Northern Serbia on Tuesday after which it was announced the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates is considering training its own pilots at the Academy. The school boasts a fleet of twenty aircraft. “Etihad and SMATSA (Serbia & Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency) will continue to discuss all possible models of cooperation as representatives from both companies were pleased with talks held in Vršac and Belgrade”, a press release reads.
In light of its new partnership with Etihad, Jat has continued expanding its relationship with equity partner Air Berlin. After the two airlines began codesharing on each other’s flights, the German airline has included Jat into its corporate program for business travellers. On all Jat Airways flights to and from Belgrade to Dusseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, members of Air Berlin’s “Bonus Points” program can earn points for award flights or business class upgrades starting tomorrow. The accumulated points can be redeemed for domestic flights in Germany and flights within Europe and also for long haul flights such as Chicago, Los Angeles or New York. They may also be redeemed for a business class upgrade.
During the week, Serbia abolished its visa regime for UAE nationals. Within the next month the United Arab Emirates is also expected to abolish its visa requirements for Serbian citizens. Furthermore, the two countries are set to open their respective embassies in each other’s countries by the end of September.
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Comments
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In August it was said by Etihad that 60 JAT crew members will go for training to AUH. So, A319 cabin crew training will be in BEG, not AUH?
http://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/2006-air-serbia-velike-promene-od-zimskog-reda-letenja/
I'm Serb from Serbia and your comment is more pathetic than any comment from Croatia you might have expected can possibly be. Get a bloody life!
Passengers in neighboring countries will continue to have the choice between their home airlines, LH&Friends and the new JU. The only difference would be that there will be even more choice for them as well.
Besides, it was obvious that a name change was about to happen as it would be rather impractical to have an airline with a name that resembles Indian Jet Airways, being in the same "alliance".
Jat Airways with the hideous livery carried no sentimental allure, not even for the Serbs themselves and I seriously doubt that AirSerbia will suddenly turn away all those who were flying JatAirways, or that JAT name would make someone suddenly wanting to fly from Belgrade, when they had the oportunity to fly Croatia Airlines direct.
The problem with more "regional" name is that it may end up belonging to no one. People keep mentioning airBaltic (Latvian Government had to step in and finance the bailout), SAS (continuous financial troubles, three hub system is not working that well)...
For passengers, the only things that matter are price, service, and convenience. With all three boxes ticked...
We have a pink-violet low cost airline flying around that named itself after a bathroom function and noone really cares.
I am much more worried about the recent developments in Syria, if that barrel explodes, God knows what will happen in Lebanon and the Middle East in general.
Perhaps you are right that many opponents of brand "Air Serbia" just believe that Croats or Bulgarians will not buy tickets printed with name "Serbia". Well, even if I cann´t exclude that option, this is not what the whole critics is about. Passangers may be "bought" with good service and good prices, but what cannot be bought with good service and good prices is the feeling of people that one company is "their" company, and that´s, a kind of extra feeling that brings you customers even when you are not offering the best prices. That feeling could be easilly made with neutral name such as it is Aeroput or Wizzair, or with some regional branding.
The main point is however: there is no money of this world which can make happen "Air Serbia" brand to have a base in Sarajevo or Podgorica or Split, the way Adria airways is having base in Pristina. With some other branding it would be, however, quite possible. Now, there are certainly national markets which are big enough to be "a regional" brand for themself. Air France or AlItalia certainly need no regional branding, since their national market is big as wour whole region. But Serbia is no Italy or France, Serbia is having so many inhabitants like each province in Italy or Germany, or like the Paris itself. The expirience of Hungarian, Bulgarian, Macedoninan, Bosnian and even Croatian, Slovenian and Montengrin company has showen us during the past 10 years that the national markets are to small for serious aviation business. This could be to some extanct corrected with strong transit-passangers-politics. But the actual winning model is one of the regional business, and this what Etihad and JAT failed to do with their new brand.
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You are just repeating what we all know and what nobody doubts. JAT and ETihad didn´t state the itention to fly from Sarajevo or from Dubrovnik, instead of that they have choosen to make an extremly narrow national brand. But was it economical decission, or was it rather some instictive, irrational and uneconomical cry of nationalism among the politicians and Serbian diaspora members?
The fact is that there is this whole region of Southeastern Europe, where all nationally oriented airliners have failed to make profit and went or are just about going into bankrupcy.
- The fact is that there is this huge cake of 12 Mil. coming each year to Croatian sea coast, just in our neighbourhood and that with chosen braning Air Serbia will have no chance to open bases there and to directly take a part of that cake.
-The fact is that there are quite big cities in the region, like Sarajevo or Skoplje, that practically don´t have their own airliner, and that there is a strong economical interest for airliners to open a base there. However, with brand "Air Serbia" it can never happen.
-The fact is that Montengro Airlines is struggeling, and that there would be a possibility for JAT to take its whole busniess in the next years, but with braning "Air Serbia" it will not happen.
- The fact is that there some underconnected airports in the region, due to the transfer policy of national carriers, such es Osijek or Rijeka/Krk, where it would be also make sense to open an opperating base, but with brand "Air Serbia" it cannot happen.
Eventually, everything what stays with the brand air serbia is warming up of national feelings for few million serbs in diaspora and within the Serbia - and at the same time automatical shutting of some many doors, so many profit possibilities, deninig of a socio-economical reality in Serbia and the whole region.
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The name and brand as such are no garany for good business. However, they are important factors. BalticAir for instance may have some troubles in their business but they have managed to spread their network for like 5 times and to become a serious company, just as they changed their name from Latvia Air to BalticAir. SAS is somewoh difficult for comparing, since it´s a multinational company with regional branding (the first factor brings many political and inprofitable decisions).
Now we whitness that the whole Europe and whole world are just being tired of balcanization. They regard the whole Southeast Euope as one region, they have research institutes with that names, travel books are published for the whole region... And it would have been quite a superb economical decision to bind an ariliner´s braning on that region.
It´s not about me or someone not liking JAT and Air Serbia. It´s something like watching one´s own child stepping into a bad pot and failing to take perfect chances out there in the life.
And who has ever said Air Serbia would consider having a base in Sarajevo or Podgorica or Split at any stage in the future as you claim? Nobody ever... You have your opinion and that is good, but Etihad as managing shareholder knows it slightly better what they want to achieve with Air Serbia, better then you, and me as well... So let's be patient for a year or so before jumping to conclusions what a good model is or it is not for Air Serbia.
Did Serbia sign all those open sky and civil aviation freedoms agreements in order to make some use and profit of those rights or just in order to allow other, foreign companies to make use of those rights in Serbia?? With the concept and brand of "Air Serbia" they shouldn´t have signed those agreemnts at all. But since they have been signed, what´s deal whit letting others use them, and choosing a concept that cannot use them for our profit and sake?
I agree with you on several points, especially about the last part, watching one´s own child stepping into a bad pot and failing to take perfect chances out there in the life.
However, the one thing whis you keep mentioning is the lost oportunity of opening bases in several regional cities,y you mentioned Krk, Osijek, SKP, TGD...
From what we hear, opening new bases in the region was never included in any of business plans of the "new Jat".
Their business plan is to recreate and maintain the hub&spoke system based in Belgrade and not establish small operational bases across the region and to cherry pick point-to-point routes that might work.
Those are two completely different business plans and are not really compatible. One has to choose which one to follow, and the "New Jat" decided on the first one, with Etihad having all the expertise to back that strategy up.
The second one was simply never in the cards.
1. I do not think Croatian Government, for example would allow a Serbian carrier to open up bases there no matter what name you choose, and for that matter vice versa for a Croatian carrier in Serbia.
2. Air Serbia, i.e. Etihad wants to attract transfer passengers, yes, and not necessarily majority of them from ex-yu, but they do not intend to open up bases around as you wish, that is not their model.
3. If you admit how unsuccessful both airBaltic and SAS are for all the different reasons, however you still think that would be a model for ex-yu region...
Sorry, but I disagree.
*Is there a possibility to make serious aviation business in the Balkan and Southeast Europe without taking the whole region as one unique market with some 70 M inhabitants, in the same way as Air France, AlItalia or Lufhanse are having their 70-90 M markets?
*Is it a good concidered decission to make a brand that make the oppening of regional bases from the start not possible, if we know that some other players in the region like Adria Airways have already opened regional bases outside their national markets and are now having a plan to open few more (in Albania)? One they, there could be Adria coming to open a base in Belgrade, but "Air Sebria" with that brand will never be able to open a base in Slovenia, not to speak about other countries in the region.
I´m getting your point. JAT is in a very bad condition, they have been doing some nonprofitable, oldstyled business in Belgrade since years and it was a main focus of Etihad/JAT deal to makes things work in Belgrade headquoters, at the Belgrade airport, within the service from and to Belgrade. Fair enough! But could it be that this focus on the basic improvemnts that have urgently to be done here and now, has stopped Etihad and JAT from seeing the strict structural predispositions of market (Serbian and regional); that they have payed to much attention on new logo, new uniforms, employees policies, fleet renewal and did not see that they have choosen the branding that shuts to many important doors and business possibilities for profit making?
1. I do not think Croatian Government, for example would allow a Serbian carrier to open up bases there no matter what name you choose, and for that matter vice versa for a Croatian carrier in Serbia.
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Tehere is no need to put up some idealistic war here. Croatia is certainly a hard nut to crack for each company coming from Serbia. But I can easily see "Aeroput" or "Southeast European" oppening a base in Bosnia and Macedonia, even Bulgaria. Same with Montengro, if YM fails to flight in the future. After the oppening of those bases the company would remain Serbian and Etihad´s but would get a realistic regional image. It would be only a question of time for good opportunity to come for oppening the base in Croatia. Like this one we are having in Dubrovnik these days, where people and airport management is not sattisfied with OU. So, even the oppening of basis in Croatia is quite a realistic scenario for people who are doing realistic business and not making dreams.
Legally, there are international agreements who allow companies to fly all over Europe, which have extensively been used by Wizzair and to some extents by Adria.
And about BalticAir and SAS. A proper name and brand are no warrienty for successfull business; they are however an essential predisposition for it.
But I have to remind you again that Etihad has chosen the opposite model for Air Serbia, not the one you keep talking about.
That model is to offer a good onboard product with competitive prices to a range of destinations via BEG with decent connecting time for transfer passengers who are interested in that kind of offer.
Whether the chosen model will be successful and superior for Air Serbia compare to the one you prefer is yet to be seen in a year or so, but I am confident they know what they are doing because Arabs do not throw their money away easily.
At the end of the day, we agree to disagree. ;)
Fair to hear that Etihad and JAT are putting some other type of business, but this still doesn´t give an explanantion for closing the door to all other business model in the future. They could equally run the transfer-business model with some name and brand which wouldn´t stop company to use other profit making options in the future.
However, opening up basis around, and direct flights from there for that matter especially in Croatia, is not on the cards for Air Serbia, nor it is in their plans, intentions or business model they have chosen. Even Jat did not offer year round flights to Croatia, and Etihad certainly does not consider so either, at least for time being. Further more, setting up the bases in the region would not be profitable at this point. I think it is correct to concentrate on home base in the first place, then starting some future services from Nis to a few destinations in the second place, and take it from there before even considering spreading the wings regionally.
Now Serbia only has to open an embassy in Thailand...
As a Serbian tourist you have no help from an embassy if you get in trouble there.
Plus not a single national fully fledged carrier from Europe which opens bases in the neighboring countries crosses my mind at the moment, except loss making and already mentioned airBaltic and SAS.
Is there any? I think model is used mostly by low cost carriers these days.
Serbia: 88,361 km2 (with Kosovo), 7 Million customers.
Perhaps you are getting the point? Each company has to have a solid base of customers which accept that company as their own, and a solid number of airport bases which psychologically belong to that company. If you cannot put that together within the national boarders, like in Germany or France, you have to go regionally.
Offering a good service and prices to passangers is not what the competing is all about. If you can make a base in Dubrovnik, hire cabin crew, ground stuff, pilots from that town, than you can manage to make a perception of people there than that´s also their, Dubrovnik company. An extra factor that would make people buy tickets of that company even if they are somehow maybe more expensice than OU tickets. And there are many other psychological factors of base oppening, as a presency at the airport. Just imagine you are in Paris and you want to fly to Dubrovnik. A normal passanger is not an expert in aviation industry, but he has some knowladge on geographics, and he wishes a normal, confortable journey, not an adventure. He sees "Air Serbia" and thinks: why should anybody go to Dubrovnik and Croatia with a Serbian airliner. He sees "Southeast European", he knows that Dubrocvnik is in that part of Europes, he feels safe and make no further big thoughts - he just buys the ticket.
Price is an important factor, but choosing one or another airliner is always a cultural decision based on many other parametters. It can for instance be cheaper to fly from Belgrade to Los Angeles via Moscow with Aeroflot. Maybe they even offer a better service. But it´s a kind of cultural nonsense to fly to LA via Moscow. So as long as I can find some other, "standard" option for 50 Euros more, I will use it.
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You will, somebody else wouldn't, does that prove anything? People are different.
While I agree people choose an airline having in mind different criteria important to them, price is one of the most important ones.
I do not agree it is "cultural nonsense" to fly, for example from Belgrade to Los Angeles via Moscow with Aeroflot.
For a good price (and 50 eur less, as you pointed out) flying with an airline with good service and safety record is something many people would give it a go. Plus you can take a few hour stopover and visit another country/city at the same time, if interested.
But Croatia is really a difficult case for Serbian companies, regardless of their name. A pitty, however, that we cann´t expect a base in Skoplje or Sarajevo, where a domicilized company with good service would be very appriciated.
Some easy economy: flight SJJ-BEG-FRA is made out of two flights, which brings dubble costs, dubble taxes per each passanger than for a direct flight SJJ-FRA.
Some psychology: if a company put up a base in Sarajevo or Skopllje, with a propper marketing, people would start to concider that company as theri own. This will, however, ofcourse never happen with "Air Serbia" name, but that´s the obvious reason why branding was done bad.
The most valuable passangers are those who will fly an airliner even if it´s not the cheapest one. And brand "Air Serbia" will defenitely never reach those passangers in the region.
Not to speak about passangers flying on business. Under the common nationalistic social preassure in Croatia, I cannot imagine any public office or bigger company buying the tickets of Air Serbia. The media and their customers would start making a scandal and boykoting those companies.
10 lines from 27th October become 5 lines from December. And huge reduction in TGD and TIV routes. Why? Those flights were "the best of the best" for Jat! So, if they can not make 3 or 4 frequencies from TGD and TIV how will they make BEG transit hub where they need at least 2 flights per day from SJJ, SKP, LJU, BNX, ZAD, RJK, PUY, ZAD, SPU, DBV, OHR, ZAG... to make BEG real hub.
http://www.wallpaperhi.com/thumbnails/detail/20111227/nemanjici-orao.jpg
For some reason,we have deleted this wallpaper.We are so sorry.
The vast number of passengers does exist but, apart from Zagreb focused traffic, traffic towards the coastal cities is highly seasonal, one has to combat the charters for yield – which is disastrous, O&D to cities along the coast is rather limited (population: Split 178k, Rijeka 130k, Dubrovnik 45k). It seems more prudent to set up a base away from the coast and adjust the capacity in accordance with the demand.
If YM fails, an airline can just add more flights to Podgorica and (in high season) to Tivat and make more money on those routes. Why risk opening a base there?
One can imagine local airlines based in Skopje and Sarajevo or even a JU base in really distant future, but realistically speaking, “new Jat” needs to clear their own house prior to poaching around. With proper connections and decent prices, they can offer numerous convenient connections for passengers without investing so much money into operational bases there, with limited route structure from those new bases and simultaneously weakening the developing hub in Belgrade. Belgrade can easily become a hub od some sort as it really is at the heart of Europe, three hours from Lisbon, London, Moscow, Cairo… its central location is well suited for many connections, if the connection system is done properly.
I really hope OU, YM and JP are all going to survive, because, as passengers, we are in desperate need of competition.
Jat never had more than 3 flights per day during winter season to TGD and TIV, contrary to the summer, now they propose 2 during upcoming season, not abig deal anyway...
What somebody like you cannot cope with is that Etihad appointed management in Air Serbia is not interested in Croatian market at the moment at all, no matter how important you think you are. What ZAD, RJK, ZAG etc. are you exactly talking about? They are not airlinked to BEG for 20 or so years, and neither there is an interest to be so for the time being. So relax and leave Air Serbia route planning to airline professionals for the first time after a decades of incompetent pollitically appointed Jat so called managers, something your home carrier is yet to achieve.
We can discuss Air Serbia's new network results this time next year, providing you can hold it that long
u're a nationalist cunt, background colour of Atlantska Plovidba reflects colours of Dubrovnik, you stupid nationalist idiot!, red and blue, you should check Croatian flags and symbols before you start your nationalistic quest, you love to stir hatred don;t you, bit of daily trolling is what you live off.