Air Serbia leases first A320

Air Serbia leases A320 from Jetstar

Air Serbia has leased its first of two Airbus A320 aircraft from Australian low cost airline Jetstar Airways. The jet is set to enter revenue service on behalf of the Serbian carrier on March 30, with its inaugural destination expected to be Moscow that Sunday morning. The aircraft was delivered new to Jetstar in November 2005 and entered commercial service on November 25. The A320 is currently in Singapore where it is performing test flights and wearing the full Air Serbia colour scheme prior to its delivery to Belgrade. The aircraft will have the capacity to seat 164 passengers with eight business class seats.

Air Serbia’s A320s will operate to Athens, Paris and Moscow as well as Zurich on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Skopje on Saturdays and London Heathrow on Sundays. The two aircraft, coupled with the airline’s A319s and ATR72s will replace the Boeing 737 fleet which will retire from scheduled service on Monday, March 31 after spending more than 25 years as the staple of the airline’s fleet. The last scheduled B737 service is currently planned for the afternoon Podgorica flight. In the coming month, Air Serbia is to take delivery of an additional two A319s, joining the existing five in the carrier’s fleet.


As EX-YU Aviation News exclusively learns, Etihad Airways’ A319, which operates the scheduled Abu Dhabi - Belgrade service and arrives in the Serbian capital in the early morning hours, will be utilised on behalf of Air Serbia until its afternoon return flight back to Abu Dhabi. As a result, the aircraft will operate an additional rotation until its return home to the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Air Serbia took delivery of its first ATR72 aircraft wearing the airline’s new colour scheme following its repaint in the Netherlands. A second ATR72 left for Lelystad on the same day to receive fresh paint. The entire ATR fleet is expected to wear the Air Serbia livery by the start of the 2014 summer season.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:08

    Let the trolling start :-))))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marija Topic Ramljak09:13

    Saturday 15th February 2014
    Air Serbia in code share on B&H Airlines
    17 pax = 25,7%

    Monday 17th February
    19 pax = 28,7%

    price of ticket 151,00 EUR

    On Saturday morning huge problem on check-in, 30 minutes of waiting without a word of apologize.

    Marija Topic Ramljak, Široki Brijeg, BiH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:32

      Only 17 passengers on that flight, and only 19 on Monday????

      Disaster. That route can not be profitable with LF of 25%.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:43

      That is really low LF!

      And with discounts on that route all the time this route loses money like hell.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:51

      That's why BH is running it. :D

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:38

      Most of JU flights have extremely law LF. Yield is desaster

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:48

      Desaster? How law is their LF?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:58

      48 to 53% per month

      Delete
    7. Anonymous18:00

      In some routes even less than 30%

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:14

    Wait, so JU is going to receive only 7 A319? Is that some recent development oradmins mistake

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 7+one A319LR from Kingfisher Airlines.
      The LR is listed separately from the other A319.

      Delete
  4. Nikola09:21

    returned yesterday from Rome. BEG-FCO was great, 319, YU-APC. late 20 minutes on departure, but arrived there on time. FCO-BEG was also great flight, but bad plane, 733, YU-AOV (or AOU, not sure). departed on time, arrived 5 minutes earlier. as for the plane, very narrow seat pitch and i'm glad they're returning them soon. overall 6,8/10 (because of return leg). btw, saw ALO when we landed, just returned from TGD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nikola09:22

      oh, and both flight were full (90+%). as far as i've seen, FCO-BEG was 100%

      Delete
    2. The Wednesday flight to Larnaca was about 60% full but what's interesting is that business class was sold out!

      Delete
  5. How many ATRs are in the fleet right now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5 according to my calculations. JAT had 4 of them, one returned to lessor (ALN, ALO and ALP stayed in fleet) but 2 danish 72-500 leased. Now, we see that 3 of them are rotating every day and one is being painted in Neatherlands. Perhaps the fifth one is on regular checks? Or it really doesn't exist, because most people would say that JU has 4 ATRs....

      Delete
    2. JU had 3 owned ATRs, being ALO, ALP and ALN. They used to have YU-ALR and YU-ALS, both being returned to lessors, one of them scraped. YU-ALT and YU-ALU are -500 series. At the moment, on the list they have 5 ATRs. ALP is having a check for a long time already, so only 4 are operational - (minus) ALN which is getting a new paint in LEY:

      Delete
  6. Anonymous10:31

    http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Airbus/A320/2600,VH-VQN-Jetstar-Airways.php

    ReplyDelete
  7. Is JU600 moving to 6:50 from April?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:38

      Don't think so. Check below.

      http://airlineroute.net/2014/02/15/ju-s14update3/

      Delete
    2. Eight10:53

      Yes it does. Feel free to check the schedule for any given date in May or July 2014

      Delete
    3. I have just tried to buy a ticket for 7th of July BEG VIE and was offered a 6:50 JU600

      Delete
    4. I think this is a good idea. In such a way connecting times will be reduced from roughly two hours to just 40-60 minutes, depending on what flight you arrive.
      I still believe Air Serbia needs an afternoon flight (around 14.00) to cater for the needs of the O&D folk. After all, that's how Austrian manages to fill its A320 at around that time.

      Delete
  8. Eight10:36

    Do we have any idea regarding the A320 reg? Will it go to become YU-ARA or are they to continue with YU-APx?

    What happened to the names? It was bit awkward to name the APC the way they did, but since they went through with it and did it, they should have continued as such (or change the pattern alltogether).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:16

      That is question for ICAO. Google it. It depands of weight, number of engines... CAD follow ICAO rules and allocate registrations, that has nothing with airlines.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous10:37

    Zivot je pun cuda! Kada sam pocetkom novembra 2005 odabran sa ostalih tridesetak clanova tima tehnicke ekipe
    QANTAS/JETSTAR da bi ucesvovali na prvom tehnickom letu prvog erbasovog A320 registrovanog u Australiji. Na ovom specialnom letu po nazorom od strane CAA,Departmant of Safty Autority poletelismo u 07.00 iz mlazne baze QANTAS-a.Sydney. Na letu za aerodrom Avalon kod Melburna, Posle odredjenih radnji u planu letenja, sletanja i uzletanja nastavilismo let za Kulangatu na Gold Cost-u. Posle zadrzavanja, odredjenih radnji i procedure u 17.15h uzleteli smo prema aerodromu Kingsford Smith Sydney. Prilikom uzletanja prvi put sam iz kabine ugledao prizor jedinstven! Na desnoj strain kroz prozor A320, video sam vecernji prizor dodira suncevog diska na crvenkasto zlatnom horizontu iznad Longrich-a, gradica, mesta dugacke sage gde se 1920 god. "rodio" danasnji QANTAS (sa svoim cerkama kompanijama). Sa suprotne leve strane istovremeno sam video puni disk meseca koji je tek izronio iz pucine Pacifika na horizontu. Za 45 godina i oko 3.500.000 km. letenja nisam imao takvo iskustvo. Mozda ce se cudo ponoviti pa da na istom avionu , ali ovoga puta u boji AIR SERBIA uzletim iz Beograda preko koridora Kraljeva, Vrsca, Nisa, Sremske Kamenice... Nadam se da Kondic, Sipka & staff nebih imali protiv moje male zelje da se ispuni. Gospod jedini zna, a meni ostaje da se radujem uz AIR SERBIA. Uz reci NAMA DOBRI A NIKOME ZLO, Uzivajte u zimskom prolecu.
    Rodney Marinkovic, AMA. Kraljevo, Sydney-Griffit NSW. Australia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eight10:49

      Hvala Rodney. Pozdrav Australiji!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:23

      Uz otpozdrav za -Eight-, do maja iz grada kod aerodroma MORAVA, Kraljeva iskreno Rodney.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:37

      Ipak bilo je to let oko polovine juna, 05, umesto novembra sto sam ocigledno pogresio. Rodney.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous11:38

    OT: LOT W2014/15

    Warsaw – Belgrade Increase from 3 to 4 weekly

    http://airlineroute.net/2014/02/18/lo-europe-w14update1/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Evo ga A320 AirSERBIA

    http://avioni.net/uploads/2014/02/2397777-620x330.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous12:03

    Why do all the ads have the same stewardesses in the pic?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:55

      Because those are models hired for JU promotional campaign, they are not flight attendants...

      I apologize for crushing someones dreams...

      Delete
    2. Nice girls, wish i was younger.......

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:19

      I wish I was older... I dont think 22 sounds too appealing to them :)

      Delete
  13. F-ORAJ, osmi A319, odleteo u SNN na farbanje

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:53

      Dusan, can you list the A319's because ai am quite confused. ..

      so far we have A6-SAA, A6-SAB, YU-APC, YU-APE, YU-APD and YU-APA soon to arrive... so which one is seventh A319?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:02

      YU-APF, already delivered.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:44

      My bad, APF instead of APD which does not exist...

      Delete
    4. Don't know, maybe YU-APG

      Delete
    5. YU-APD is KIngfisher a319 LR, still in reconfiguration

      Delete
    6. Anonymous14:01

      OK, thanks...

      So we`ve got three A319 pending arrival...

      YU-APA (currently F-ORAH)
      F-ORAJ (YU makrings unknown)
      YU-APD (Kingfisher A319)

      Why do we need a A319 LR I do not know, but I guess that is why I am not the CEO :)

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:13

      F-ORAJ to receive YU-APB

      Delete
    8. A319 are very dificult to find for leasing, so this Kingfisher LR was avaliable...

      Delete
    9. Anonymous18:13

      where is yu-apd?

      Delete
    10. Coma20:25

      So F-ORAJ is also LR version of A319...
      I just wonder will Air Serbia ever use those planes to reach something that's in the range of an LR (10 400 km) .

      Delete
    11. Anonymous22:13

      Who knows...If they continue expanding into markets in Africa such as Nigeria, Marrocco, or secondary cities in Russia and Central Asia such as Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Baku, the A319LR would be ideal to test the market.

      Delete
    12. What kind of deal does Serbia and Russia have for flights? I heard that the reason why JU never flew to St. Petersburg was because in the agreement only one airline from each country was allowed to fly on one route each. Is that true?

      Delete
    13. Anonymous23:22

      According to the latest bilateral agreement between Serbia and Russia both national airlines can fly up to 2 destinations in each country without prior approvals, i.e. Aeroflot between Russia and BEG and INI, while former Jat (Air Serbia) between Serbia and Moscow+one more city of their choice.
      Everything more is possible, but requires further approval. Agreement can be found in the passed laws section of Serbian parliament :)

      Delete
    14. You are forgetting KVO as an option for Aeroflot. :P

      Delete
    15. Anonymous21:42

      Ti se zezas, Nemjee, ali ukucaj Закон о потврђивању Споразума о ваздушном саобраћају између Владе Републике Србије и Владе Руске Федерације u pretragu na sajtu parlament.gov.rs ili videces zakon u celini, sa svime sto sam gore pomenuo ;)

      Delete
    16. Зезам се али знам да постоји такав билатерални уговор.
      Пре неколико година Јамал је хтео да успостави два лета недељно између Москве и Београда али су на крају морали да одустану јер државама није било у интересу да ревидирају споразум.
      По мени, овај архаични уговор треба да се замени потпуном либерализацијом тржишта.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous12:23

    Nobody asked this for a while, so I wonder if anyone knows how is LOT (BEG-WAW) and Belavia (BEG-MSQ) doing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:39

      I wonder how is Air Serbia doing, as there is no data for December and January!

      I don't care about LOT and Belavia, but for sure I care about Air Serbia data?

      ExYu you said you have data. Why delay in published those data?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:26

      Here is why there re no figures. They are just trying to play with numbers so that it looks as if they are doing a superb job in everything they do. If the airline was doing as good as everyone is saying, they would publish the numbers quickly. Just my point of view.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:56

      As they did in first week of January.

      But as far as I understand exYu has numbers so one have to ask why he does not want to publish them. Friendly "apeal"?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:26

      I can't find any info where new Air Serbia management committed to turning JU profitable or high load factor airline by Feb 2014, probably because that commitment was never made! If they are having low LF on some routes, it can still mean they are executing well against their business plan. Management and investors are aware of the load factor info. If you are asking for LF info, you are not one of them. Everyone else is potential customer, and consensus in the industry is that things are looking good for Air Serbia customers: improved service levels, better product, more destinations and frequency, competitive fares.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:51

      JU January : Passengers 126.000 (+61%), flights (+74%), LF 52.5-53.0%.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous08:59

      Still low LF, and 52% is very very very low, shows that this business model is not running well. Combining low fares, actions (like buy 1, second ticket for free), that company is destroying money. And how long this 80 million EUR (40 from each part) can finance that especially that most of that money goes to new planes, rebrending, education, new system...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous12:47

      Hm, something strange about that small LF.
      126000 / 31 = 4065 passenger per day
      4065 / (25*2) = 81 passenger per flight
      81/126 = 63% LF

      I take that there were 50 operation per day and that every plan has 126 seat (and we all known that there were minimum 15 operation with ATR with much less seat)

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:19

      yes, but you'll have to take average number of seats, which is 110, and that makes LF 74%

      Delete
    9. Anonymous15:06

      This is conservative approach. Probably ,the best way is to calculate correct number of operation and seats in January.

      I only wan't to show that LF must be higher than 53%

      Delete
    10. Anonymous15:53

      And it is not! It was 52%. In December 48%.

      Delete
    11. Here is correct calculation based on 14 planes with average 2.5 rotations per day and average 109 seats:
      14*2.5*2*31*109=236,530 offered seats
      126,000/236,530*100=53.27% LF

      Delete
    12. Anonymous20:21

      Theoretical yes,but not all planes are flying every day.

      Today there were 23 A319/737 rotation and 9 rotation with ATR . In W14 JU has 159 rotation with A319/737 and 67 with ATR per week.

      Delete
    13. Your data gives average of 2.3 rotations per day per plane, my estimation was 2.5. If 2.3 was the average for January, LF would be close to 58%. However, I believe correct figure should be as said 52-3%, certainly below 60%.
      BTW, Air Serbia initially proclaimed last year that each plane will have 3 rotations per day.

      Delete
    14. The LF was 54.3% in January.

      Delete
    15. Thanks. I think it's OK for a rapidly expanding business.

      Delete
    16. Anonymous21:41

      Three rotations per day will be after they renewal fleet. Probably from S14. But even then they must keep one plane in reserve or for regular maintenance check . Also plane which go to Abu Dhabi will have probably only 2 rotation.

      Delete
    17. January at BEG is about 50% as busy as August when it comes to passenger numbers. If the loadfactor for JU is 54.3%, I think that the loadfactor will be around 75+% during the summer for JU

      Delete
  15. Anonymous13:48

    ExYu why route Zagreb-Rijeka by Croatia Airlines is on list, and Rijeka-Split-Dubrovnik is not.

    And those routes are not operated by Croatia Airlines, but by Trade air, and Croatia Airlines just sales tickets as agent. They even don't have code-share on those Trade air routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:36

      OU5252 and OU5253

      Delete
  16. Anonymous15:06

    http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/Djordje_Agbaba/mmm4_zpsd58e7171.png


    Evo ga A320 u Singapuru,zeza se:))))

    ReplyDelete
  17. tu sliku sam vec objavio

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous16:37

    AirSerbia is currently running the scrolling info on their website informing passengers flying next week (25-27 feb) from Belgrade to come to the airport 3 hours before the departure time and bring a paper ticket because they're upgrading their check-in system. From the IT perspective this sounds very amateurish: they should be able to upgrade their system without any interruption to passenger operations. They should be able to do the upgrade at night, or run system side-by-side or do any number of things to make sure that passengers never see this change-over!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:38

      It seems that you didn't do your homework on outages other world class airlines had when doing major IT changes. It's not all in Google.

      Air Serbia change is complex but will likely not have any major impact, however measures listed on their site are in line with industry best practices to mitigate impact on operations in case things don't go as planned. In other words, they are doing the right job.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:57

      In case you didn't read today's news:

      http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-united-airlines-reservation-system-outage-20140218,0,4344655.story

      Delete
    3. These things happen on a regular basis. I know AC had issues twice last year with massive effects because of the ripple effect. On the other hand JU is minute compared with AC but I'm glad they are being proactive. I'd rather come 2 hours early than be stuck at the airport and late for connecting flight.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:32

      The fact that other airlines have outages doesn't mean that JU cannot do the changeover right. It seems to me that this change is local to BEG and that they could have done it without informing everyone about it. Basically, they could have just informed the passengers scheduled to fly out on 25.2 and they could have printed out the paper tickets themselves to double check the new system.
      I might have too much faith in IT staff in general, but as an IT person, I'm not too proud of JU at the moment (I will be if the finish the change-over next Tuesday by mid-day).
      Fingers crossed!

      Delete
  19. Anonymous16:44

    Basically yesterday's comments turned into article

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:57

      Darko... shut up.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:58

      how the fuck do you know each other names when it is anonymous???!!!??!??!?!?!?!??!??!?!!?!!??!!??!?!?!?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:36

      Because I have a gift, that's why.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:05

      haha lol

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:25

      No. Not him. You're wrong :)

      Delete
    6. Anonymous20:30

      You are kinda right. Somebody did write about A320 lease yesterday.

      Delete
    7. The lease of the aircraft became public knowledge yesterday after 9AM, that is after yesterday’s article was published. Somebody choose to share it in the comments section. Should I not have reported on it because someone mentioned it in a comment? I don’t understand. Also the article quite clearly has exclusive information in it as well. Darko, as I told you on many occasions, you are more than welcome to leave if you don’t like the articles.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous00:29

      Yeah would be interesting for this anonymous to tell us where in the comments yesterday he saw info on EY's A319 being used or where the A320 will be deployed and even on which days. Give the admin a break he is doing a fantastic job and I for one am thankful there is a site like this with excellent English and knowledge of aviation in general unlike the trash airline stories we can find in our media.

      Delete
    9. Eight09:20

      I dont see the point in negativity expressed towards EX-YU admin. This is his private/personal project. We are all willingly coming here as guests wanting to participate in discussions.

      People are more than welcome to leave and find other discussion spot if this blog is not to their likings. But dont spoil the fun for us who appreciate the EXYU effort.

      EX-YU is doing a great job in aggregating all the stories from the region, my hope is that he/she will persevere.

      Kind regards to all, both signed or anonymous contributors.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous16:56

    Basically you are a sad and pathetic stalker. It would take you less than a day to launch your own blog and start producing some serious articles, but of course you are not capable of it. You cannot even upload the profile photo in line with basic online bonton. Grow up for pity sake.

    ReplyDelete
  21. In any business including airlines when you are planning major expansion and changes you don’t expect to turn profit right away. In my mind, most if not all new destinations will initially suffer low LF/yield because you are just starting up, trying to expand your market and attract new passengers. Very rarely you’ll run into a case where you’ll hit gold right away. You have to give it some time, adjust as you go along and after a year or two (depending on how long you can sustain losses) you reassess your position. What is encouraging to me is that new mgmt. seems to be doing all of this: investing into its product, trying to expand the market, adjusting their schedule in order to make some destinations work etc. Jury is still out if they are going to be successful at the end but I think it’s still premature to talk about yield, low LF etc. Also, most of the talk here about LF on a particular lines to me is just circumstantial evidence (somebody went to FCO and back and witnessed 90% both ways). What is the LF over a longer time span is closely guarded information by every airline on this planet. Here in Canada Air Canada sued WestJet 10 years ago because they were sending their staff to count number of passengers on AC flights in order the demand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. The most important thing is that the foundations which have been placed are right. It is no secret that some of the routes in Air Serbia's network are doing badly (Brussels, Stockholm, Tel Aviv...) but what we rarely mention are those which are doing very well. To me the best move was to launch Bucharest. During the slow winter months, Air Serbia managed to record an average loadfactor of over 90%! Mind you, most of these passengers are connecting in Belgrade. This result is even more impressive if we take into consideration that Air Serbia's brand is non-existent in Romania. Another route which is performing very well is Prague which was launched more or less the same time as Bucharest. We already spoke a few times about their success in Ljubljana.

      With additional frequencies and destinations being added soon, Air Serbia will manage to fix some of the flaws within its route network map which will further enhance connectivity in Belgrade. Winter 2014 will be the best proof of how successful (or not) the airline has been until now. :)

      Delete
    2. The new management is competent. They know exactly what they are doing.

      I wonder what summer 2014 will look like. I think that AUG 14 will be near 500.000 for BEG if the current growth continues. To achieve 500.000, BEG needs to increase around 12% from 441.088.

      Delete
    3. Exactly. People keep on forgetting how bad the situation in Jat really was and how much effort and time it takes before things can function normally.

      Belgrade will surpass the 500.000 passenger mark this summer without a problem. What I am worried about is how will BEG deal with all this traffic.
      In the morning, from 06.00 to 07.30, the airport will be extremely crowded with every gate occupied.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:36

      Jat Airways handled only 61.275 passengers last year in February. That's so pathetic. Since they handled around 120.000 in January I am sure we can expect their February numbers to be between 90.000 and 100.000.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous21:09

      Very good points!
      And you said it without insulting or offending people.
      +1

      Delete
    6. Honestly speaking I'd be happy if 50% of the "new" lines survive and are still around in S2015.Anything above is a bonus. People sometimes forget how tough this business is, with a lot of competition and historically low margins. There is a planty of airlines that apparently had good people at their helm that are not arround any more.

      Delete
    7. @Aleksandar

      At the end of the day, the only true sign of a competent management is the profit. In the case of JU I would expect massive loss in 2014 due to all the changes and one time, initial cost associated with them, somewhat smaller loss in 2015 and generate some small profit a year after. They inherited some good lines and assets but also aging infrastructure on many levels, questinable workforce etc. Introducing new ac typer and expanding to new markets while addressing all of these issues is not easy but it's doable if you have $$$

      Delete
    8. SM,

      Actually, the only thing that makes me sad is that out of 200 Jat Airways cabin crew only 30 have remained. For me this was a very emotional moment because some of these cabin crew were amazing and, in my opinion, they represented an era of struggle and survival starting with the 1990s and the first decade of 2000s. They might not have been smiling all the time or had the standards of customer service some airlines demand but they made you feel good and safe onboard.
      I hope the new cabin crew knows what kind of shoes they need to fill now that they are wearing the Air Serbia uniform. This transition definitely marked the end of an ear.

      I would also like to add that on countless occasions here (and some other places) we heard that JU was being ripped off by Belgrade airport. It's good that Etihad has put an end to this. Regarding the new routes, I doubt they will be cutting any newly introduced ones. As their hub system in Belgrade grows, logically speaking, so should their loads as well.


      Off-topic:

      It seems that Jat Tehnika has a new customer, Yakutia.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous09:08

      "They might not have been smiling all the time or had the standards of customer service some airlines demand but they made you feel good and safe onboard. "


      Sorry but you're weird, getting rude, arrogant, unprofessional service made you feel good and safe? Thats messed up


      "I hope the new cabin crew knows what kind of shoes they need to fill"


      Yeah the kind that they should never try to put on. Infact the training should be to take them on a flight tell em to watch the FA's and then tell them to do the exact opposite.


      "This transition definitely marked the end of an ear."


      This is a very, very good thing IMO

      Delete
    10. Nemjee,

      30 out of 200 WOW, that’s a huge turnaround. I definitely feel sorry for all those people. Hopefully most of them were close enough to retirement age that they could get something like early retirement. On the other hand, its good for bunch of young people. We all know how hard it is for younger generation to find meaningful employment in Serbia. I guess “dok nekom ne smrkne, drugom ne svane”.

      My last memory of JAT was from 2006 when I flew LHR-BEG-LHR. Completely white livery, two older female and two older male FAs. It was definitely something you don’t see as much in most of the airlines. You could see they have tons of experience, very good in what they do, very mechanical in their motions (something we all become with numerous repetitions) but also lack that customer service touch (as many of our people in our countries) that people expect these days. For me it was cute and reminded me of how my parents were and how we all grew up. No BS, no nonsense, no fake smile, just do my job and move on kind of approach. Right or wrong, that approach is not customary in any of the customer facing jobs these days, especially airlines so I’m not surprised new mgmt. had to make big changes. In NA airlines (AC, United etc.) you’ll find good number of older FAs, especially on longer routes but I think past the age of 50 most of them get tired of flying and move to some planning or training roles.

      Delete
    11. Today, during a break, we were standing in front of one of JU's buildings smoking and next to us was the entrance to the crew centre. So many cabin crew passed by us and I have to say that they looked really nice. It was quite funny to watch the purser walk away towards the terminal with the younger crew. It looks like a mother duck followed by her ducklings. :D

      I could not agree more with you. The thing is that people in the Balkans do not smile all the time and that's fine. It's part of our culture, the same way the crew onboard Finnair, Lufthansa or Icelandair will not be smiling the whole time. The most important thing is for them to make you feel safe. No one can say that the JU crew was not professional prior to the takeover. Their behaviour was in line with the Serbian mentality, including its negative sides. Things are slowly changing which is a must if they wants to become a true international player.

      Hmm 2006 is a long time ago. The time is right for you to fly on Air Serbia. I am sure you will be impressed... once you recover from the shock. :)

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    12. We all had that cultural shock here. When I first arrived in Canada I worked as a waiter and my boss was kept on reminding me to smile. And I was like why the hell would I smile if something is not funny. But I adapted over time and learned how to BS through life with a fake smile. Sadly, this is the norm and appearance is very important these days. Too bad the “old” crew couldn’t adjust to it in time

      I’m coming this summer and I’ll fly SJJ-TIV to avoid driving and JU is the only option of course-I watch where I leave my money. I travelled a lot due to my work but I’ll never forget the feeling I had that night when landing in BEG. That’s one of the rare flights that stuck in my memory. Young lady talking to her daughter who is visiting motherland for the first time, me talking to the FA and just seeing the city lights still brings tears to my eyes. You must be laughing at me now, expats are sad people LOL.

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    13. Hey, I lived 14 years in Cyprus so I know the feeling. :D

      So have you booked your flight to Belgrade? I suppose you will be flying in from Canada, right?

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    14. I have, but not to Belgrade but to Sarajevo, my parents live in Istočno Sarajevo. Got it on sale for $1250 with OS. Usually, regular price is arround $1800 yikes. OS/LH are killing us if you'd like to go one stop to SJJ

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    15. Ah ok, that's quite a discount then! Makes absolute sense. So you will be going to Tivat on JU in the end?
      Mind you, Tivat is the only regional destination to get type 2 catering. :D
      Air Serbia has seven different catering types. Category 1 is for regional flights and catering 7 is for Abu Dhabi flights. :)

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    16. Most likely, unless it ends up being too expensive for four of us in which case I'll drive. Now it's arround $1200 for two adults, kid and an infant. Still a bit too much for my taste. Maybe they drop the price once they add more flights. Doubt it but who knows...

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    17. Hmm what if you buy separate tickets during the happy Friday sales? Maybe it could comes out cheaper. Somehow $1.200 is a bit too much for such short flights.

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  22. I hope the airport gets some expansion. A new terminal for JU would be great. Terminal 1 could go to lowcost carriers and Terminal 2 to everyone else.
    The only real possibility for major expansion is if the airport gets a new management contract. What happened with talks about that?

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  23. @anon 9:09

    Insulting someone like saying that OU is the worst is not right and I don't ever do this. I leave it to those who better know the company and the market to comment on this. On the other hand, you can never control if people take offence with what you say. I like Serbia nad RS more than any other becouse I'm proud Serbian and wish JU all the best. Now, if somebody takes offence with this, so be it.

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  24. It seems like JU is getting better. Yesterday there were only two flights that took off more than 15 minutes after schedule from BEG. Most flights were within five minutes, and some were actually early.
    -Skopje 20 minutes delay
    -Moscow 37 minutes delay

    It is interesting to note that both flights were operated with 737-300s, perhaps there will be less delays when those planes leave. I hope JU continues to perform on time.



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  25. Regarding Air Serbia profitability, Hogan said Kondic has two years to bring the company in black, ie. until end of 2015.

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  26. Good idea I'll check it out. Thanks

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