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| Air Serbia anticipates 2014 profit after strong half yearly performance |
Air Serbia has published its half yearly results showing growth in revenue, passenger numbers and handled cargo compared to the same period last year. The airline is now confident it will achieve profitability by the end of 2014. During the first six months, revenue at the carrier grew by 82% to 102 million euros, compared to 56 million in 2013, while passenger numbers soared by 70%. The airline also reported it handled 907 tonnes of freight, a 65% increase on 2013. In addition, cargo revenue grew by 32%. Air Serbia’s passenger carrying capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs), was 1.588 million in the first six months, an increase of 85% compared to the same period last year.
Air Serbia’s CEO, Dane Kondić, said, “The results are very pleasing and demonstrate how effectively the Air Serbia team is working to deliver on the strategy of sustainable growth. We are on track to deliver a profitable, strong airline by the end of the current financial year, in line with the commitment of our shareholders, the government of Serbia and Etihad Airways”. He added, “We expect to maintain the momentum for the second half of 2014, as we continue to reconnect the Balkan region and new markets, through a combination of direct flights, as well as expanding our codeshare partnerships. There is no doubt that we are bringing choice, convenience and comfort to travellers”. The airline is set to launch flights from Belgrade to Tirana later this month, connecting the two cities for the first time in six years.
In its report, the airline says it has launched eleven new routes while its growth has also produced hundreds of new jobs, with a total of 300 new employees signing on since last October. “Investing in the future, Air Serbia is planning to relaunch its cadet pilot scheme. Elsewhere, ten young graduates are currently attending a management program in Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways and will, upon successful completion, join operating divisions across Air Serbia. The maintenance department has employed 44 engineers and technicians to establish the line maintenance facility at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla International Airport”, the carrier concludes. Later next month, the Serbian national airline will mark its first anniversary since relaunching under its new brand.
Photo *.*
ReplyDeleteYes she is beautiful and friendly too, had her on one of my flights :)
DeleteI am so happy that the Air Serbia project is slowly taking off. However, I will still remain sceptical for a few reasons:
ReplyDelete1. Etihad is still pulling strings on the most important decisions in the airline, mostly related to the growth strategy and finances.
2. We still did not hear what kind of expenses they had. I am happy revenue is up but that's only one side of the story.
3. Delays are still omnipresent but congratulations to the airline for sending Beirut before midnight for the first time since the route was introduced on June 1st.
4. Working conditions in Air Serbia are quite bad, especially in ASGS where numerous people are quitting on a daily basis.
Someone should let Mr Kondic know that this are the Balkans and people are not slaves. This distorted illusion was best portrayed when an Etihad official was shocked when 18 people quit in a single day, all he said (in shock) was: but why? This is Air Serbia!
Best of luck.
http://www.airserbia.com/en-rs/news/air-serbia-results-for-first-half-2014-show-stronger-revenue-passenger-numbers-and-cargo
Delete"...Since Air Serbia's launch on 26 October 2013, the airline has inducted 9 Airbus aircraft" - inducted, are they crazy?
The translation is shameful just as the transition towards the Latin alphabet in Air Serbia's in-flight magazine.
That is not even Jatovanje, because even Jat was not doing such an idiotic translation. Google translator for air company which should use English all the time... hmmm...
DeleteI have no objections that EY is taking important decisions in the airline. It is since EY came into the picture that JU is finally expanding.
DeleteAs for the workers, for many it is a shock that work is needed to be done to get a salary. Workers rights cannot change a whole lot due to unions. In Serbia, workers have rights to protest as well. This is much more than that in the UAE where is it illegal to protest, no worker has a union, and the salary is half of that given in Serbia (for many jobs). If they dont like their working conditions, they can always go and strike.
PS: im sure its a typing mistake. Its interesting to see those who judge have bad english themselves.
Those who judge them are not ones who are paying thousands to PR agencies to rebrand them. ;)
DeleteAs for the working conditions, please, do not speak about things you know nothing about. When it comes to the airport employees, they are treated like slaves and there is no union to represent them.
People have choices .. if the conditions are so bad, then surely they are free to leave and find better conditions elsewhere, aren't they ?
DeleteBelgrade airport has written off ~EUR 7 million of Air Serbia's 2014 debt. This is not debt from time of Jat Airways, but debt from 2014!
ReplyDeleteAnonymousSeptember 1, 2014 at 9:25 AM
DeleteReliable source, please!
Sure thing. Love to publish the source, especially, when it's an official document. I'd also like to add some other things which strike me:
Delete- Air Serbia does not pay for the usage of air bridges in BEG. (page 9 of annual report, page 16 if looking PDF numbering). Foreign companies using BEG have paid RSD 78 million in H1 2014
- Passenger service: Air Serbia has paid RSD 427 million in H1 2014, whereas foreign companies have paid RSD 706 million. Air Serbia accounted for more than 50% of pax of the airport, so they should probably be paying more (page 9 of annual report, page 16 PDF).
- BEG airport has written off RSD 4.042 million (~EUR 34 million of Air Serbia/Jat Airways debt from previous years). At the same time, BEG has written off RSD 703 million of Air Serbia debt from 2014. These charges were incurred by Air Serbia since January 2014. Annual report page 17, PDF page 24.
- You have a nice summary of all accounts receivables which were written off (Air Serbia and other companies) on page 31 of the annual report, PDF page 38.
- Despite all the debt being written off, Air Serbia continues not paying the airport, or at least, it seems the airport might have given them better conditions to pay accounts receivable: 60 days. You can see this (compared to other airlines) on page 32, PDF page 39.
Hope this helps. For all those that actually want to look into facts, and not rely on hear-say, you can have a look at the annual report of BEG airport at: http://www.belex.rs/data/2014/08/00090736.pdf In Serbian only.
Sorry, made a small mistake. It's not the annual report, but the half year report for Jan-June 2014.
DeleteIf government of Montenegro can write off hundreds of millions of debt to their national carrier why can't Serbia do the same and try to create a successful leader. Not like our idiot Kucko who would rather die than do something to make OU successful airline
DeleteWho said it cannot? Much better spent money than on new cars for politicians. But that is not "profitability" and question is does Serbia have that kind of money. Plus one must see what benefit will come from this multihundredmillion EUR investment. Is it worth it?
Delete300 people who got jobs + all those that were already there i bet say it's totally worth it.
DeletePlease please please keep the SPU route in winter timetable....even if only twice a week.
ReplyDeleteWe are missing 2 important data in this pinkie report:
ReplyDelete1. There is no Load Factor between so many numbers. Why? LF is one of the best indicators how good company is!
2. It is more than unfair to us Serbian taxpayers not to say how much Air Serbia is subsidized from Serbia and Serbian public companies:
- 100% on lot of services in Belgrade Airport
- 50% of all other services in Belgrade Airport
- 7 million EUR debts deleted by Belgrade Airport for first 6 months (and for sure it is not last time debt to be delete in 2014)
- 14 million EUR direct subvention from Serbia in 2014 (it will be like that till 2016)
- 50% of patrol price in NIS (obligation of Serbia)
...so it will be around 70 million EUR of direct and indirect subventions
On that pattern even Montenegro airlines and B&H Airlines can be profitable.
You cannot be profitable if you have so low price (at least 100-150 EUR lower than competition) with so low LF (in first 6 months it was 65%). To be profitable on 60 to 90 minutes flight your price must be 210 EUR with 75% LF, and Air Serbia has price of 115 EUR with 65% LF. But if someone is giving you 70 million EUR than you can say you are profitable and show how big business wizard primeminister is.
How many times are you going to write the same thing?
DeleteEvery time when we will read "Air Serbia will be profitable till the end of 2014". That is not true, and public should know the true. And logic is when you repeat lie so many times it becomes true. So it has to be deny same amount of times not to „become“ true.
DeleteI'm assuming the CEO of the airline knows better than you whether it will profitable or not.
DeleteOf course it is with 70 million EUR of tax payers’ money. And without that?
DeleteConcerning CEO who knows, well and Montenegro ex. CEO also „knew“, but knew how to falsificate numbers. So, what we learn on that story???
"On that pattern even Montenegro airlines and B&H Airlines can be profitable."
DeleteI agree, on that pattern only Croatia Airlines can't be profitable cause they're too close to the bottom.
Croatia airlines was profitable last year without subventions. Only subvention was PSO for domestic routes.
DeleteIt was profitable after it sold a plane at the end of the year.
DeleteNot true. They deny it and say that this money comes on 2014 (because of Q400 incident in ZRH plane was flying much longer than planed). And that A320 was even not CTN but it was on lease, so one cannot sell something what does not belong to one. Only benefit was from selling 2 spare engines but those were sold in 2014, not 2013.
Delete@ 10:19 AM
DeleteIt is not any kind of report but simply a PR release from the airline. And PR releases only mention hot figures. And this is common practice in the corporate world. And a bit of relaxation would not hurt you. Air Serbia is not the supreme evil of this world, cheer up a bit. Life is not that bad.
Funny ... you say that the prices charged by Air Serbia are low, yet the other half say they are too expensive ...
DeleteSo what is it ? Too low or too high ??
The moment they raise fares, introduce excess baggage charges in line with other European carriers etc etc,, people start screaming that it is robbery ...
my sense is that everyone would be much happier is there was no Air Serbia ...
Maybe that's the answer ...
Prices are very low. I use Air Serbia just because price is so low. Usually 100-130 EUR lower than competition.
DeleteToday I bought 3 tickets to OTP for 105 EUR each. 9 days before trip!!!!!
NO WAY !!!!! If that happened, then there wouldn't be anything for anyone to write about !!!
DeleteSince Air Serbia came along, there has been no end of stuff for people to write about !
Imagine this blog with no Air Serbia .... OMG, we would be lost ....
Keep it alive - it gives everyone something to write about ....
Belgrade-Bucharest is around 40 minutes with the A319. Paying 105 Euros for a ticket is more than ok. I don't see how much they should be charging not to mention that Air Serbia currently has a promotion going on so...
DeletePurger ... Big of you to admit that you use JU - even after your last detailed trip when you basically said that they were sub standard ...
DeleteSo, if JU ever launched flights to ZAG, could you see other Croats flying with JU ?
He says it's cheaper, and why wouldn't other Croats fly with JU if it was cheaper? Purger has great comments, unlike many other self-centered people on this blog! Btw., where do you see other Croats flying with Air Serbia, to Belgrade, Sofia, Dubai? Certainly not to Western Europe over Belgrade, I suppose!
DeleteI said I will use JU if price would be much lower than competition. And this time it was 450 EUR for 3 tickets. That is more than enough to motivate me to use JU. Last time 250 EUR less was not enough so i use Tarom from VIE.
Delete1. CLF doesnt show profitability. You can have a full flight but the yield being poor.
Delete2. JU gets 100% discount on ground services because they do it themselves. Thats the whole idea of ASGS (Air Serbia Ground Services). You sugest that 2 companies should be payed where as 1 is doing the job? Its like paying someone to wash your car after you washed it yourself.
3. JU will get non monetary support from Serbia (BEG) for the next 2 years (until 2016). ie: no direct money, but discounted use on facilities at BEG.
4. Not all the fares are low as you write. I didnt find it cheap last month that BEG-AUH one way was almost 600€. It is not a secret that JU lowered fares to encourage people to fly with JU rather than other airlines. Jat had a very bad name to travellers, was performing poorly and made massive debts. Purger is giving JU another try as the fare is cheaper. Now if JU was horrible, I am sure customers would not return no matter how much cheaper the price was.
Sooooooo Purger, any problems with gypsies on JU this time????
DeleteI feel like people are too optimistic about air serbia. They did improve but nothing special. Air serbia is now equivalent to tarom and scroatia airlines
DeleteOne more time. It was not problem with Gypsies as nation but with behaviour of those passengers who were that nation. It could be Germans, Hungarians, Croatians... if their behaviour would be like that I will, for sure, write that. If I wrote group of Germans were drunk and vomited no one will find any problem. So, here discrimination is yours, not mine problem, as you point just one nation as problem where others would not be.
DeleteI can not open Air Serbia web page to buy ticket. Anybodey know why?
ReplyDeleteA problem with you internet connection maybe. The webpage works fine.
DeleteNo it is not. If that is true I will not be able to wright here.
DeleteWell the website works fine for me.
Deleteworks ok for me too
DeleteWeb page was hard to open from 9:55 till 10:35 (most of times it shows error without possibility to open), and after that till now it is very slow. There is a technical problem with server.
Deleteweb checkin?
ReplyDeleteIn summer 2032! :-)
DeleteInteresting article in the "Middle East Eye" dated on Aug 14 and another on Aug 15 in regards to Air Serbia and other dealings with Serbia and the Middle East. Everything is very secretive .
ReplyDeleteApart from secretive subsidies and write-offs, another thing strikes me:
ReplyDelete- passenger numbers soared by 70%
- Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) increased 85% compared to the same period last year
I'm not good with percentages, but sounds like a 15% drop in actual LF. Am I right?
Yap!!!!!
DeleteThat is why we can not find LF. It is top sicret!
No, you're not right ... you need year-on-year RPKs to make that assessment and they haven't provided that, so you can't make that conclusion ...
DeleteActualy you wanted to calculate (100%+70%)/(100%+85%) which is 0.9189, meaning a drop of some 8% in LF.
DeleteThis can be a good enough approximate, but for a precise calculation we need passenger-kilometers (RPKs), not just passengers - as this is an "equivalent" to ASKs
Pardon my ignorance, but why do you add 100?
Delete(85-70)/85=0,176 = 17,6%
i.e. drop in 15% "units" of LF is 17,6% drop (in relative terms to previous 85%LF).
Next year, if JU is to return from LF of 70% to LF of 85%, it would be an increase of 15% "units" of LF but larger percentile increase of 21%.
The CLF cannot be any worse than what was that in the days of Jat. There was even that year where Jat didnt transport 1 million pax.
DeleteIts interesting to see how no one talks on cargo who sometimes generate more revenue than passengers.
I am surprised that Air Serbia doesn't give out LF on month to month. If you look at AEA stats, they give monthly for European Airlines.. Even here in Canada, you will read LF percentage for AIr Canada and, Westjet monthly basis. ie i ie in July AC had a loadfactor of 86.7 per cent, WS 83.3. So please if Air Serbia wanted to let the public know the LF for every month they would. But they are keeping quiet. Again hiding from the public.
DeleteAir Canada and West Jet are publicly traded companies. As part of their quarterly stock exchange filings they must show investors how they performed. LF, RPK, ASK is always included as well as other fininacial performance related data.
DeleteThats the reason why it is so important to sell the airport to the Arabs.
ReplyDeleteAs long as it is government owned the taxpayer pays.
Thanks for your replies!
ReplyDeleteOT: Dubrovnik in August
ReplyDelete8/2013 293983
8/2014 317184 +7,9%
Dubrovnik in 2014:
I-VIII: 1'178'072 + 5,4%
I think Split will be even better, great job!
Ali meni idu na zivce ovi pacenici sto im smeta ASL ali to su sve radnici bivseg JATA koji su krali pa sad nemogu + ovima sto im smeta. :))
ReplyDeleteINN
I'm sure it is many former JAT employees who don't like the fact that they are no longer with the new company, or those who now have to work and can't handle having to actually do some work to earn their salary ...
DeleteThere are also others who see things from a political angle and are simply opposed to it because Vucic is behind it ....
What strikes me though, is those who take the political angle in opposing Air Serbia ....
Over the past 12 years, when various parties and govts had responsibility for JAT, they did nothing except take what they could; employed whoever they could; and accumulated masses of debt to the business, that it basically got to the end of its road ....
It didn't really matter which party was now in power, this was the only way forward, short of having the company go bankrupt.
If I recall correctly, the last failed privatisation attempt from those now criticising this deal, offered 100% of the company for EUR 51m and there were NO takers ....
This tells you what JAT was worth - the market has a way of bringing home some difficult truths and there is no need for any political spin with that ....
Yes, the failed privatisation was offering Jat at Eur 51m, but that was without complete debt write-off, without airport subsidies, without fuel discount...
DeleteAnd how many companies were interested ?? Zero - and that's the point ... no one was interested in JAT under those conditions. Even if they had offered it for zero consideration, still no one would have wanted it ,, ergo my point - this was the best and only way to solve the question of JAT, short of shutting it down
DeletePrijatno sam se iznenadila kada sam nedavno pri ulasku u Er-Srbijin avion ponovo ugledala meni poznatu stjuardesu (ima blizu 60 godina), s kojom sam nekoliko puta letela, kao i prvi put, davne 1978 Jatovim B-707 iz Australije. Na mnogim letovima Er-Srbije zapazila sam pri ulasku u avion cabin crew od 50-60 god, sto je u duhu tradicije bivseg Jat-a, jer se u Srbiji povecava starosna granica za odlazak u penziju.
ReplyDeletekakva glupost ne postoji u ErSrbiji stjuardesa od 60god
Deleteova gospodjica ima barem 57,58, ako ne i 60, proverite koliko ih ima jos preko 55god, pa objavite.
DeleteNije bitno koje je boje krava. Bitno je kakvo mleko I kakvog kvaliteta mleko daje. To je osnov. Ostalo je diskriminacija!. Krecuci se na oko 160 aerodromima sirom planete sa provedenih oko 4500. sati leta svedocim da ima mnogo, mnogo starijih stjuarda/stjuardesa, pogotovo u velikim Americkim avio kompanijama. Odnos prema prema svakom putniku, mora da bude isti, empatija, usluga,.. Sve ostalo je irelaventno Prijatan let!.
DeletePozdrav iz Kraljeva.
Rodney, Kraljevo /// Sydney..