Air Serbia has said the European plane manufacturer Airbus has returned a 23.5 million dollar deposit made by its predecessor JAT Yugoslav Airlines for eight A319 aircraft in 1998. The deposit was credited by Etihad Airways as a pre-delivery payment for ten A320neo jets, which the Emirati carrier had ordered for its equity partner Air Serbia in 2013, but has since been cancelled. The Serbian airline said it secured the deposit "only thanks to Etihad". However, it remains unclear whether the payment has been forwarded directly to Air Serbia or if the deposit has simply been transferred back from Etihad to the Serbian airline, but ultimately remains locked-in with Airbus.
Asked by EX-YU Aviation News to clarify the statement, the European plane manufacturer said it was not at liberty to disclose any details as the matter is of a contractual nature which is confidential. Air Serbia held direct talks with Airbus in November of last year concerning the deposit. The airline's predecessor, Jat Airways, as well as multiple Serbian governments, unsuccessfully attempted to return the deposit payment for over a decade. The matter was quickly resolved after Etihad acquired a 49% stake in Air Serbia five years ago. Relations between the European plane manufacturer and the Serbian government have improved over the last few years, with Serbia also ordering Airbus military helicopters.
JAT Yugoslav Airlines was instructed to order eight A319 jets twenty years ago under extremely unfavourable terms. The order, valued at 560 million dollars, was viewed as a political stunt at the time as Yugoslavia was negotiating the lifting of trade embargoes imposed by the European Union onto the country. The sanctions were not lifted until 2001. Under the original order, delivers were due to begin in 2000 with two jets, while the rest were to be in service by 2005. At the time, JAT had no Airbus aircraft in its fleet, which was predominately made up of American airframes. The Yugoslav carrier also signed a preliminary agreement for CFM International CFM56-5A4 turbofan engines.
Well now we know where their profit is going to come from for 2018.
ReplyDeleteSigurno ot tvojih milijonskih poreza koje su uplatio državi . Zanima me da li neki ljudi ovde ikada postave neki dobar pozitivan komentar ili žive da budu stalno negativni , kao onaj mrgud iz štrumfova:)? Ja lično mislim da je ovo super vest i da sada AS ima mogućnost da krene jednom novom strategijom za nabavku manjih aviona potrebne za razvoj svoje flote.
DeleteHow is this treated by International accounting standards? It should not be a profit?!
DeleteWho in the Balkans really care about international accounting standards?
DeleteIf Pleso prijevoz and LHR slots could have been treated as profit I see no reason similiar to be seen now
Delete23.5 million dollar might be just enough to cover this year's loses.
DeleteCertainly won't be enough for buying any shorthaul aircraft. Well except for the SSJ of course. :D
They are reserved for JP
DeleteNot even the SSJ comes for free, or did Putin offer a special deal last week?
DeleteMy guess is that Airbus has returned the money. What a saga that has been.
ReplyDeleteIf they held talks with Airbus, maybe they will use the money to order their own aircraft?
ReplyDeleteJust to remind you that an A220 at list price costs $ 79.5 million
DeleteThey can use the money to refurbish the B737's for another few years!
ReplyDeleteThat is actually mean reply.
DeleteBig Lufthansa used all these planes until end of 2016 and they are still ok to fly with
Lufthansa planes were couple of years younger with much more modern equipment that wasn't available when JU received their B737s from thr factory. Nobody else in Europe is operating such old 737s, not even for cargo.
DeleteLufthansa had many deliveries of B733 in period 1986-1995 and JAT had it in period 1985-1988.
DeleteSo of course that the planes delivered in 1995 were better equipped than those in 1986, but not all LH B733 fleet
These planes were grounded during the embargo, which means you can technically take a good 5 years off their current age. They are very well maintained, so not all that gloom and doom as per the well-rehearsed comments that we see here.
DeleteTrue, but all ex-LH aircraft pre-1990 have been scrapped for almost a decade.
DeleteJU makes with these birds very good money
DeleteDelta and American Airlines still have MD-88s they are flying that are just as old. Those were in continuous use unlike the 737s in question here.
DeleteSeveral SSJ100s landed in Belgrade this weekend and are still there. Maybe they are on show to JU?
ReplyDeleteNo, Jat Tehnika is doing interior work for them. Nothing to do with JU.
DeleteHopefully that will use that money wisely.
ReplyDeleteDon't count on it.
DeleteGood. Now use that money to buy a brand new (new version) ATR72-600. It costs US$26 million (they have almost the entire sum). They desperately need regional jets.
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteand it would be the most sensible aircraft to choose for them at this moment.
What is the capacity of the -600 series?
Delete78 seats. They also have the new Armonia cabin.
DeleteI don't see how you can change the cabins on the ATR much. What's special about these new ones?
DeleteThis is actually great news and it is very good reply to those who asked what would happen with this money when the news about cancellation of Etihad A320 planes had been published.
ReplyDeleteIt turned out to be much better than expected.
Sooner or later Serbian government will realize that there is no need for an own Serbian national carrier and to waste taxpayers money which should be used for other infrastructure projects and are more desperate
ReplyDeleteWizz Air or Easy could base crew and aircrafts, maybe TK or A3 could base 1-2 aircrafts too and done deal. I would negotiate take over of as much as possible JU staff for those basing ac in BEG or adding new flights to BEG
TK would need a lot of bilateral agreements for flights from BEG to countries other than Turkey. Not to mention their business model is one big hub in Istanbul, not some tiny base in Serbia.
Delete1. National carrier is an infrastructure project.
Delete2. Taxpayers don't decide where the money collected from taxes will go. They get periodic chances to sack the government if they think it does a lousy job with tax money management. If the government wants to open a $10 bn Disney World in Donje Brijanje - and they win the election - then they can go and open the damn thing. That is how democracy works. Taxpayers who don't like the way their tax money is spent can vote against the government. If the government wins, they accept it because that is how democracy works. Or they can stop paying their taxes. One thing that for sure makes no sense is to write another sad novel of a poor taxpayer every goddamn day on a goddamn AVIATION BLOG.
Well, if we had no government-owned political airline projects, there would be no politics here, now would it?
DeletePolitics is OK if someone is really not able to stick to aviation. The taxpayer demagogy is no more than cheap trolling.
DeleteJU can not compete in the long term, you will burn more and more of your taxes just to hve the luxury of a national carrier. Makes no sense. Cut it and progress. Look at the North American market. it has double income against Europe (almost 17 bln in 2018) but Europe has 150 mio more population. And why this: because of their consolidated market. The cancellation of the NEOs was for me a clear sign. Time to break off tents
DeleteOU and JP should be first and second to go under.
DeleteMože mi netko reći da li sam ispravno shvatio. JAT je platio depozit za A319 koji je kasnije EY promijenio u narudžbu za A320 neo ili?
ReplyDeleteTako je.
Delete@EX-YU Aviation News
ReplyDeleteDid you ask JU for a comment/clarification and what was their response?
You really think Air Serbia would have responded to anything? They haven't responded to a single question about the neos for 5 years.
DeleteTheir "interim" CEO has become the permanent CEO and over the past 12 mths since assuming the role, he is yet to have done any interview with any local press ....
DeleteIn light of everything that has happened over the past 12 mths, don;t you find that weird ?
Super su mi komentari ovih što gledaju kroz ružičaste naočale. Priie je bilo joj super dolaze nam novi A320NEO. Onda kad su otkazali narudžbu, ma pametno, šta će nam to? Preskupo ovo ono. Sad je Airbus vratio novce, ali ja mislim da će prije otići Etihadu nego AS, i opet, evo super, vratili nam novce. A ne kužite da to vi sve plaćate!
ReplyDeleteSuper je meni to sto to to sve gledas kroz crne naocare jer je u pitanju Air Serbia.
DeleteNe secam se tvojih postova kad je OU otkazivala letove zbog nedostatka mehanicara koji nisu mogli da spreme avione na vreme, kad je zbog toga placala milionske penale putnicima i jos skuplje leasinge drugih aviona, kad je OU prodavala slotove na LHR pa posle to prikazivala kao profit koga se godinu kasnije odrekla jer im je smetao u novim bilansima stanja, kad su se prodavali motori koje ste svi vi platili i tako unedogled.
Bice da si pristrasan momak!
Danijel, there really is no moral authority for you to comment on JU.
DeletePa ako neko prodaje slotove, otkazuje letove i unajmljuje druge aviokompanije, pa šta tu treba nešto posebno reči? Pa katastrofa ljudi! Normalno! Ali ja nikad nisam rekao da je OU unajmila strane kompanije da lete za nju jer je to za OU isplativije. A vi, kakvo god vam sranje serviraju iz AS vama je super. A situacija je ozbiljna.
Deletešto ozbiljna? bila bi ozbiljna da smo uzeli te avione i posle nismo imali kako da ih platimo.
Deleteodakle nama toliko stotina miliona? to bi vučić trebo onda da pravi referendum da li da cela država zalegne da JU isfinansira te avione. ovo je najbolji mogući scenario.
@Petar Ti si jedan od rijetkih koji racionalno razmišlja. Ali trebalo se to znati kad se tako pompozno najavila kupnja tih A320. Po meni je problem AS ATR-ovi koji će trebati zamjenu kroz neko vrijeme i 737-ice, koje im sad jako dobro služe. Em rade chartere em im ulete ako koji avion ispadne iz pogona. Ali dobro, to se leasingom može riješiti. Jedino možda neće biti ekspanzije sad neko vrijeme. Inače ispadam hejter, ali stvarno nemam želju da AS propadne, jer ja s tim ne bih dobio ama baš ništa. Tako da ovi napadi su neargumentirani.
DeleteWell it took them just 21 years to return it.
ReplyDeleteThat deposit payment is very high for an order from 1998.
ReplyDeleteThe question is now: Who will get this monney? 51% SerbGov and 49% Etihad or 100% AirSerbia?
ReplyDelete100% Air Serbia, like Air Serbia said.
DeleteWhy doesn't JU invert this money into Aviolet and focus exclusively on charters and the charter brand? You can make much more money in winter flying to already popular destinations.
ReplyDeleteSSH, VDA, AJQ, RAK, MIR, etc.
The logo can be revised and still include the sun and water logo.
Zaista za taj novac mogu da rentaju 4 starija a321 i da rade sa njima cartere i leti na jadran i egej i ostalo po evropi i zimi za neke druge po austriji. Za redovan saobracaj osim Ciriha i Pariza su im preveliki.
DeleteZaista nije losa ideja.
DeleteDa li pilot A319/A320 moze bez ikakvih peripetija i problema da leti A321?
I assume the return is not adjusted to inflation. Those 23 million back then are equivalent to some 36 million today.
ReplyDeleteEither way, I hope they put it to good use
yupp we gave airbus a 21 year 0% loan. cannot beat that
DeleteJust one of many things Slobodan Milosevic did.
DeleteWill this deposit leave ASL as a legacy or hybrid carrier?
ReplyDelete