Adria Airways has sold the last aircraft it owns, a Bombardier CRJ200, ahead of a planned expansion of its fleet and destination network. The eighteen-year old 48-seat jet has been sold for an undisclosed amount to Regional One, a purchaser, leaser and seller of aircraft. The Slovenian airline began phasing out its four CRJ200s in late 2013. Some of the aircraft have been sold, while some have been scrapped. Adria opted for the type in 1997 in order to replace its ageing DC-9s and Dash 7s. However, the aircraft now costs 10% more per available seat kilometre than seventy-seat jets in comparable age profiles. Volatile fuel prices add to the economic challenge because the 50-seater has higher relative fuel consumption compared to larger jets. Furthermore, fixed operating costs for the -200 series, such as dispatch, flight planning, navigation, and pilot costs must be distributed over fewer seats, making these smaller jets more expensive to fly. In addition, analysis has found that the operating costs for the CRJ200 rise disproportionately as the aircraft ages.
Next month, Adria will add a third Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft to its fleet, becoming the third jet to join the airline this year. The carrier has arranged a lease of the aircraft which was formerly operated by the Air France subsidiary HOP!. It will carry the registration S5-AAW. The fifteen-year old jet has the capacity to seat seventy passengers. Adria has already added two aircraft to its fleet this year, including a CRJ700 and a CRJ900. At the same time, it has wet-leased some its aircraft to other carriers during the summer season. Despite plans to wet-lease one of its CRJ900s to Croatia Airlines this winter, the deal has fallen through and the jet will instead remain a part of Adria's fleet.
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| Adria's last CRJ200, photo by Miha Žnidar |
Adria Airways will maintain operations with twelve aircraft over the winter, including three Airbus A319s, three CRJ700s and six CRJ900s. One of the CRJ700s is based in the Polish city of Lodz. The airline will boost frequencies to a number of western European destinations this winter before a planned expansion to the east next summer season. Currently, the Slovenian carrier boasts the youngest fleet out of any national carrier in the former Yugoslavia with its average age amounting to nine years. This will further decrease with the retirement of the CRJ200. In 2017, the lease for one of its CRJ700 jets will expire, while leasing arrangements for six CRJ900s, which make up the bulk of Adria's fleet, will end in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Leases for three Airbus A319s run until 2021 and 2024.
Not going into the economics of it but this plane was perfect for short flights with less demand. A 48 seater would be perfect for Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines too, especially on regional routes.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree, Anonymous 9:04! Btw, beautiful photo!
DeleteCRJ200 is afwul to fly with, especially window seats.
Deleteturboprop yes, but not jet, because it really spends a lot of fuel
DeleteThey may be expensive to have but the flying with them was nice. Much nicer than the dash Q400s or ATR72s.
DeleteYes but Air Serbia has no need for it when the Atr has incomparably better economics on regional routes.
DeleteNicer - perhaps. But nobody is flying CRJ200s anymore for the logical reason - fuel efficiency.
DeleteIt would have been ideal for daily Niš and Banja Lula flights.
DeleteWill the incoming CRJ 700 get the Star Alliance livery since the 200 had it?
ReplyDeleteYes I think the ex-HOP crj700 has the * livery.
Delete@ ano n 9.20 no it won't. It should get the standard livery.
DeleteLike I said recently it would be great if they brought back the vintage livery. That color scheme was nice on the Airbus.
DeleteI wonder how much money they got for it.
ReplyDeleteThey sold one of their CRJ200s a few years ago to SCAT Airlines for 3,2 million EUR. Not sure for how much they would have managed to sell this one. It's pushing 19 yrs.
DeleteI think Adria should be looking at leasing larger aircraft. If it has the resources they could even consider in the long-term getting several CS100 or CS300 around 2020. Both aircraft can be purchased same way CRJ200 were for $50 million each (CS100) with 10 year lease to own (around $6-7 million per aircraft). Croatian Dash 8s were $4 million per aircraft lease to own, and airline is making a killing on them, they're very profitable for Croatian, although they do have a few technical issues.
ReplyDeleteWell, they don't have the resources.
DeleteIs it true that the Crj200 is a gas guzzler and that even with 100% loadfactor it is not profitable?
ReplyDeletewell not really. It all depends on the price of your tickets. If you are competing on a short flight with a Dash-8 or an Atr then you are most likely going to bleed money. If you have a monopoly then you are most likely going to have a better performance. One thing is for sure, the CRJ 200 is not an aircraft you get if you want to make a lot of money.
DeleteOK so there is a lot of talk about them next summer. So far I have heard they are thinking about Lviv, Tel Aviv on regular basis, Tehran and Kukes... Anything else?
ReplyDeleteYou can cross off Kukes. The airport needs a lot of work in order to handle passengers and I doubt it will be ready in a few months.
DeleteI have noticed that apart from Abu Dhabi a lot of Slovenians travel with Air Serbia to Athens, Thessaloniki and Larnaca in particular. Maybe Adria could consider a destination in Greece.
DeleteWhichever destinations they choose I'm glad they are focusing finally on Ljubljana a bit more rather than Poland!
DeleteSo eastward expansion is in progress. Where to?
ReplyDeleteBankru...
DeleteUkraine :)
The dream market.
Where to? Currently to bankruptcy. You cannot expand if you do not invest (and K4 isn't doing that).
DeleteVinnytsia :D
DeleteChisinau. They'll compete with W6.
DeleteDont know why they leased the CR7. Anzura said plans are to turn JP fleet into all CR9 fleet. Also their schedule is more or less made that CR9s should be the best option. They tried to get rid of the 319 contracts but no chance. Now suddenly we see 3 CR7 again in the fleet. Ok for Lodz, but ex LJU I dont think they are the right choice.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Adria should become an exclusive CRJ operator and get rid of the Airbuses.
DeleteMakes sense with Adria Tehnika being the regional CRJ service facility.
Delete@JU520 i think the crj900 has too big of a capacity for Adria on many routes. It's not as if their LF is cery high.
Delete* too much capacity I should say
DeleteThe terms of that Airbus contract are killing them
Delete@ last anon can you give us more info on the terms? Thanks :)
DeleteThere is a rumour circulating, that Air Moldova will take over the lease of both A319s. We'll see if it materialises.
DeleteCR9 are good for SVO ZRH FRA MUC VIE BRU AMS CPH SKP PRN CDG TIA flts
DeleteNot sure about SJJ TGD
AMS CDG CPH are not daily so CR9 ops is justified. Esp in SUTT often 319s are used
I fly regularly ZRHLJU and loads are there. 2-3 daily and mostly 2 CR9 if not 3 are used
Can anyone tell me the status of the CRJ900 that is yet to be delivered by Bombardier? Adria ordered 7 CR9, only 6 were delivered. What is happening with the 7th airframe?
ReplyDeleteI'm positively surprised at the developments at Adria over the last few months. There seems to be some strategy with their new winter timetable and it will be quite interesting what they have planned for next summer.
ReplyDeleteWhat strategy?
Delete+1. What strategy?
DeleteIs Adria the first ex-Yu airline not to own any of its aircraft?
ReplyDeleteNot sure about Croatia Airlines and its Airbuses. Air Serbia still owns a few of its ATRs and all of its B737s. Montenegro Airlines owns its Fokkers.
DeleteQuite unhealthy to lease only and not be able to purchase
DeleteCroatia Airlines owns 5 planes - four A319s and one A320. Rest are on lease.
DeleteNot true. They own 4, not 5 planes.
DeleteWhich one did I get wrong?
DeleteWhy do you need to own your airplanes? If you can't pay at least the lease, you should have gone bankrupt already anyway.
DeleteDoes Adria have a plane based in Pristina or are the flights operated by a Ljubljana based plane like for its Tirana operations?
ReplyDeleteI think they do have a plane in PRN and also have PRN based crew.
DeleteJP normally has an A319 based at PRN, however lately some of the day the A319 has been replaced by a CRJ9. This could be because JP is upgrading the PRN-FRA route to daily and perhaps A319 would be too much capacity. A number of TIA routes were operated with the PRN-based A319 utilising a W schedule (PRN-FRA-TIA-FRA-PRN).
DeleteThe A319 would operate regular charters to BSL on Saturdays when there were no flights scheduled to FRA or MUC, but I guess that can be arranged with a W schedule from LJU, if needed.
So again they secured liquidity by selling a plane. Just like last year. There is now absolutely nothing left to sell.
ReplyDeleteWe will see what they do next year
DeleteHaha nice to see you are an aviation enthusiast Melania :D
Delete:)
DeleteThey have a very good fleet in general. What they need is a route network and strategy to match it.
ReplyDeleteGreat news Adria! Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteJa obožavam CRJ-200. Šteta što ga penzionišu :(
ReplyDeleteDa, sjajan avion, ponekada je leteo na Lufthansinom BEG-DUS dok su imali tu liniju i bilo je sjajno. Šteta, ima onaj "feel" privatnog jeta, ali pretpostavljam da je upravo to razlog i zašto je neisplativ.
DeleteI flew on this CRJ2 numerous times and I too absolutely loved the experience. Fond memories in particularly of early morning flights drinking black coffee and reading a broadsheet like FT onboard.
DeleteWill the Hop CRJ700 be fitted with Adria's interior or will it use that of Hop?
ReplyDeleteAdria interior I think but it seems to be Adria has moved away from their gray seats to blue ones. At least that is the case with the last couple of CRJs which have been added to the fleet.
DeleteThis one will also have blue seats like AAU, AAV and AAX.
DeleteGood riddance. That crj200 was just a waste of money the past few years.
ReplyDeleteI think they could have still utilized it for charters.
DeleteA 48 seat plane for charters? Right.
DeleteBesides it says in the article the plane is loosing money in today's market conditions.
DeleteAnonymousOctober 18, 2016 at 2:16 PM:
Deleteyes for charters (AdHoc charters), like football clubs and so on. it's perfect plane...
Nice to see their fleet expanding. Hope they have enough passengers to fill the planes.
ReplyDeleteDon't see how swapping CRJ2 with CRJ7 is fleet expansion...
DeleteIs it true this particular HOP! CRJ7 will only have 1 toilet at the back and not 2 as all other 700/900s?
ReplyDeleteOT: I've jus seen Silkway's 747 over Avala, Belgrade (i was near it), to bad I have not good camera but view with TV tower behind was amazing
ReplyDeleteOde za Kabul.
DeleteJP should focus on TIA. There is so much potential in this airport. They had almost 2 million passengers last year and have so many new routes. Very nice to see airlines like Volotea, BA to LGW and even LH. I hope to see W6 there soon!
ReplyDeleteI have friend. He work at Easyjet London. He says me Easyjet will launch 3 news flights
ReplyDeletecopenhague Pristina
London- Pristina
Amsterdam - Pristina
And Easyjet will a base an aircraft to Pristina. Really? Anyone have information?
Sta dobija LH time sto ukljucuje dve propale kompanije u Eurowings? Adrija vise nista ne poseduje, regulativno nema smetnji da Eurowings leti iz ljubljane, zasto bi se tu mucili sa 4K? Croatia ima neodgovarajuce avione za zimski period tu mozda malo ustede.
ReplyDeleteA zašto i jedna kompanija kupuje drugu kompaniju? Već postojeći jeftini piloti (a svi znamo koliko pilota fali na tržištu) i posade, image, slotovi, pozicija, postojeće baze, mogućnost prebacivanja dijela CityLine linija na tu jeftiniju kompaniju (konaćno to Lufthansa već radi u Prištini, Tirani i Poljskoj), i na kraju ubijanje moguće konkurencije (da LH tamo bazira svoje avione i netko drugi kupi Adriju dobila bi ozbiljnu konkurenciju - zašto ako za kiki-riki može kupiti kompaniju).
DeleteCroatia ima neodgovarajuće aviona zato što ima neodgovarajuću upravu koja te i takve avione ne zna zaposliti.
When Will be the last S5-AAG flight operated by Adria then?
ReplyDelete