Air Montenegro sees strong start to operations


Air Montenegro has been operating commercial flights for just over twenty days with the new Montenegrin national carrier reporting strong bookings and passenger numbers. “It is a fact that many thought Air Montenegro would never get off the ground. There were concerned individuals who thought it was all a utopia that would take years. Three and a half months later we have an airline that is operating flights. It is our national carrier with a brand and fleet that will continue to grow in the coming period”, the member of the company’s Board of Director, Goran Djurović, said. Services from Belgrade to Podgorica and Tivat are currently performing best with an almost 100% load factor on all flights. “Planes are operating at almost full capacity. There is huge interest for travel to Montenegro”, Mr Djurović added.

Air Montenegro recently introduced flights from Tivat to Ljubljana and Banja Luka, with services from Podgorica to Frankfurt, as well as from Tivat to Istanbul, to follow later on this month. The airline is also maintaining charters between Podgorica and Zurich, which are being performed on behalf of a Swiss tour operator specialising in diaspora travel. The flights have been chartered until the end of the year, with the airline being paid for a full load of passengers, regardless of the actual final load factor. Air Montenegro is also considering additional destinations. In September it will replace its seasonal Tivat - Ljubljana route with flights from Podgorica to the Slovenian capital. The new service from Ljubljana to the Montenegrin coast is performing well. Tomorrow’s flight is sold out, as well as on numerous other dates throughout July.

The new national carrier has also faced some hick-ups along the way. Part of the Montenegrin press has been hostile towards the new carrier, reporting the airline has been left without operational engines for its aircraft, that it is purchasing catering for its flights from Air Serbia and flying empty to Zurich at the cost of taxpayers. Most of these claims have proven unfounded. The carrier confirmed it does cater its aircraft with food and beverages from Serbia since it was offered a lower price by the catering company in Belgrade than the one in Montenegro. “The new Montenegrin government did not shut down Montenegro Airlines. The carrier shut itself down. The public should know that Montenegro Airlines was dead for years. Records now show the airline had amassed debt of 169 million euros with just 34 million euros in capital. Over my career, I have seen companies have their capital and debt at the same level, or debt double the amount of capital, but I have never seen a subject with five times the debt of its capital”, Mr Djurović concluded.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:07

    Most airlines have manyfold more debt than capital. It is called leasing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:16

      Leasing is not debt (unless you are behind on your payments), so your comment doesn't make a lot of sense.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:45

      Anon 10.16. You have no clue, so why do you comment? Under accounting standards an airline needs to show as debt all leasing payments, whether due or not, whether outstanding or not.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:50

      Leasing is an expense, not debt.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:02

      Leasing payments for the current period -> the accounting cost is amortisation charge of the aircraft plus ONLY interest part of the leasing payment.

      Leasing payments for future periods -> they are all shown in the financial accounts as debt.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:04

      As long as your assets are larger than your liabilities, it doesn’t matter what the equity to liabilities ratio is.

      Mr Djurović his comment makes no sense haha. I believe he hasn’t seen any financial statements so far.

      Only way this could make sense is if he was talking about negative other reserves instead of ‘debt’.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:07

    Congratulations on setting up the airline so quickly and for it being functional.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:09

    “It is a fact that many thought Air Montenegro would never get off the ground. There were concerned individuals who thought it was all a utopia that would take years."

    Hehe, I know at least one so called expert saying it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:45

      Oh do you. Thanks for sharing.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:00

      Yeah, he knows a guy ... hahahah

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:04

      Dont't we all?

      You guys dissapointed me.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:19

    The offer the same snack onboard as on Air Serbia :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:19

    What are their fares like on the all important TGD/TIV-BEG flights. Are they cheaper than Air Serbia?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:43

      They are usually cheaper than JU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:10

      It is good to have a second player on the market, more competition and more choice for customers.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:29

    Nice to see they are performing well on LJU-TIV route. That was a missed opportunity for Adria back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:50

    Let's just hope their finances are successful too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:43

      Highly unlikely

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:05

    Montenegro keeps winning!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:39

    How long will they be leasing the German Airways plane? When will the second ex-MGX Embraer join?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:46

      Probably by the end of the summer season.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:00

      I wonder how much the lease costs

      Delete
    3. Anonymous19:11

      Is the lease from German Airways be a wet or dry lease?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:19

      Dry lease

      Delete
  10. Anonymous10:43

    Good job

    ReplyDelete
  11. It is working, full of pax, thus max revenue. Success in all means, very good start

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous11:59

    Those Zurich charters were a great deal for Air Montenegro.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:07

      These charters are pure fraud. They do not fly at all, and the first flight was empty. Did anyone expect something from ISG Travel (Sulejman Gazić) ?! Heavy SCAM!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:16

      Air Montenegro got paid the full price. Why would they care if the flights are full or not? It's even better for them that they are empty.

      Delete
    3. I don't know who Sulejman Gazic is and are these charters scam but I know that in charter chains operated from emitive market by home based carrier, first flight usually or even regularly, leaves home base empty, in order to bring the first group of passengers. Later, both rotations are full, and the last one is empty on the last flight, flying back home, on the last day of chain operation.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous12:08

    10 JU flights to Montenegro today and 3 MNE flights to Montenegro today shows that there is a HUGE demand for that market and that both carriers take their slice of the cake.
    Good job

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:22

      Air Montenegro is based in Podgorica, so you should have written, three flights from MNE to BEG today.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous12:20

    I hope they consider resuming flights to LIS and start codesharing with TP!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:23

      You really think that there is a market demand for that?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:01

      Yes and especially in summer. Look at BCN-TGD, it is now a year-round destination.
      If BCN can, then so can LIS.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous12:58

    While one positive is indeed that Air Montenegro started flying, it is yet to be seen how things will develop. I have not followed the launch of its predecessor, but I am pretty sure whoever has been in charge at the time of their launch has also given similar speeches. And we all know it ended amassing an unprecedented debt of more than 160 million with just couple of planes.
    So, kudos for the good start, but, it is still very early days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:11

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:20

      Well we can say it's a good start. They are not lying about their flights being full. You can see by attempting to book flights on certain days. They are all sold out.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous19:10

    I wish them a lot of success. Don't get the negativity of some people and media towards them.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous19:10

    Best of luck.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous19:11

    I think it is impressive they have such good loads with little advertising and basically being a start up.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous19:12

    can't wait to see what are they like

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous19:19

    So what does this catering that they get from JU entail?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:20

      A strudel and bottle of water.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous19:20

    And what is happening with MGX Fokkers. Will they be taken over by Air Montenegro?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous19:21

    I just wish they painted a livery on those planes. Not a good look flying all white.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous19:21

    They are still missing any sort of flights to the huge Russian market.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous10:29

    Does anyone know about what this is all about?

    https://simpleflying.com/montenegro-airlines-returns/

    ReplyDelete

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