NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia has returned a leased Airbus A319 aircraft to its owne, bringing its total fleet to seventeen aircraft. The A319 in question, registered YU-API, flew to Pinal Airpark in Arizona via Keflavik in Iceland and New York’s JFK Airport. The jet had not been in service since November of last year, when it operated its final service on behalf of the Serbian carrier from Zagreb to Belgrade. The aircraft has been with the airline since October 2013. At almost 22 years, it was the oldest of its type in the carrier's fleet. Air Serbia now has ten A319 jets, one A320, one A330-200 and five ATR72 turboprops.
One would say: it`s obvious!!!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhy wouldn't they have kept it for charter flights, given they retired their 737's and worse, hired in expensive wet lease capacity from smartwings ?
ReplyDeleteWTF ?
A) you have no clue what the wetlease cost is so you can't determine if it is expensive or not.
DeleteB) the lease of this aircraft expired 11 months ago. It was stored in Belgrade. Considering these were subleased through Etihad I can only imagine what the leasing cost was (like with the former A330)
A) A wet lease vis-a-vis a dry lease for the same aircraft type/capacity, is always MORE expensive.
DeleteB) you have no clue of the dry lease cost of the aircraft, or, whether or not it was subleased through Etihad
It was. It even flew with UAE registration for a year. I didn't claim I know the lease cost of the A319. I said I can only assume and knowing how much they paid for the A330 and that Etihad did everything to suck money out of the Serbian government.
DeleteSo now it's a problem they removed a 22 year old plane from service and replaced it with 12 years younger A319 formerly operated by Adria? And yes retiring B737 after 35 years is logical.
DeleteAnother possibility is that a D check was coming up and those are extremely expensive. JU could probably get a cheaper plane on the market without investing in a D check on a 22 year old aircraft.
DeleteThey could have extended the lease for a few more years. 22 years is not that old. They probably could have gotten very favorable rates. And it was already in BEG and had all the Air Serbia colors.
DeleteIf it was leased through EY, it would have flown back to them in AUH as the lessee. As it is, it flew to the US and back to BBAM, the owner and the lessor
DeletePlus, this aircraft type is needed in Air Serbia's fleet.
Delete@14,10
DeleteThey didn't even use it this season. No need for more aircraft for another 6 months.
@14,26
That's correct. It was A6-SAA durung that time. It was weird seeing the Air Serbia livery and Arabic signage onboard.
@14,36
The fact that they didn't get it for YU-ARA seems to suggest that the lease price wasn't able to be adequately negotiated. They will probably get a few younger A319's at a cheaper rate.
@14,58
It is, but YU-API isn't the only aircraft on the market.
JATBEGMEL, always appreciate your comments and insight.
DeleteThanks Charlie :)
DeletePersonally I am sad to see this one go. My first commercial flight was with it back in 2014.
ReplyDeleteYour first ever flight was in 2014?
DeleteNemjee, so You`re really a young buddy! Wouldn`t have said that myself. Cheers:)
DeleteHe obviously meant with Air Serbia.
DeleteHe obviously didn't say that.
DeleteMy first flight with the rebranded Air Serbia was also with this aircraft :) but while it had the Emirati registration and EY cabin crew operating the flight in Air Serbia uniform.
DeleteHehe sorry, I meant my first flight with ASL.
DeleteJATBEGMEL, that's cool!
I belive a319 needs to come to lju instead of atr
ReplyDeleteAgree. It might even increase passengers traveling.
DeleteThat's the question.
ReplyDeletethey could've used it for INI and "PSO", but I gues nobody in YU cares about INI
ReplyDeletePSO money is supposed to cover losses produced from operating the route. It can't cover the lease of the plane as well.
Deletethere is no more YU
DeleteI think this might the first nail in the coffin for JU.
ReplyDeleteHi neighbor, it's you again! Love your funny but senseless comments! Air Serbia got rid of this plane about one year ago and will be able to lease younger and cheaper one when needed, which is not during pandemic winter. This whole switcheroo will actually make Air Serbia stronger. That was all covered in Aviation 101 but you skipped that class, remember?
Delete@anon 17:57 This supposed to be funny, huh?
DeleteReturning aircraft to lessor as the first nail in the coffin for JU is a statement either stupid or funny. I choose funny.
DeleteA year without flying, old and probably could be gotten under better conditions now.
ReplyDeleteMaybe even D check was coming guessing with it's age.
Flew yesterday Beg-IST on Yu-APD, interior looked shabby and poor, overhead pannel in row 16 (ABC) hanging from the ceiling. Really poor appearence not giving a good impression. Load was ok, around 80-90 PAX.
ReplyDeleteJU hasn't been for years great with cabin maintenance, unfortunately. Whats worse is now even aircraft maintenance is no longer done in BEG since Jat Tehnika lost their license. YU-APF was sent to GYD for maintenance not long ago.
DeleteSo basically, if they don't get a newer plane soon they will be quite tight on fleet? I mean they got rid of some ancient ATRs and now they are left with only 1 A320? This aircraft type is important if they want to compete with Wizzair on busy routes. A319 is a good plane, but if Wizzair has A321 230 seats it will always be cheaper.....
ReplyDeleteThey're not going to be tight with aircraft the next 6 months. YU-APJ will most likely be the next to leave the fleet. And only 1 ATR left the fleet, not 'some'.
DeleteWe should know in the next 2-3 months the new additions to the fleet for the next season. Rumour is 4 ATR's are already in the works, and there was talk of possibly ARA returning to the fleet. It recently had a test flight in AUH with a JU flight number.
As for A320/A321, JU currently doesn't have much use for it once the summer season is over. Their CLF doesn't show the need for capacity, however their expansion anbitions suggests they need more aircraft. JU after all has a different business model to Wizz so what works for Wizz might not for JU.
Nice observation. For sure, JU need more aircraft if they wanna expand. I don't think having mainly A319 is a very good idea on some routes.
DeleteIt will be also interesting to see how they perform in winter, which is expected to be quite stagnated in the continent.......
Anon @21:32 "Wizzair has A321 230 seats it will always be cheaper....."
DeleteAlways as in even with just one passenger? No it won't.
Wizz has to fill most of those 230 seats to be cheaper. Airlines are flying regional jets and props for a reason. It's not possible to fill 230 seats on Belgrade - Banja Luka route.
I think in summer with a bit of marketing you could fill 230 seats without a problem on BEG-BNX. Issue is that lower yields and lack of extra capacity are the main reasons why JU didn't expand on this market. Before covid their flights had on average over 50 passengers.
Delete@03,15
ReplyDeleteHaving larger aircraft works for LCC with lower frequencies but a tonne of routes. JU on the other hand, as with other carriers of it's type use frequencies to stay competitive. Where they need those extra seats, the A320 is there. However, considering that currently their A320 is sitting for 12 hours once a week in DXB suggests they don't need it as much for their network at this point. Their overall CLF indicates that they have enough capacity. Even ZRH where the A320 used to be quite active is almost always on the A319, with extra midday frequencies added prior to Covid and intentions for a 4pm departure last year. Interesting observation is that even the charters are pretty much always on the A319.
@ nemjee
JU have drastically reduced BNX over the past few years. Summer 2014 it was daily which lasted 1 season. It's hard to imagine an A319 being a regular on the route let alone an A321. But interesting info on the loads as those flights don't really connect well with their network, which suggests its more O&D pax on the route.
BNX was sacrificed so that other routes where they can make more money could get boosted. Fares on this route are kept low on purpose. BNX needs someone to develop it, that is to get people to stop taking the bus and to switch to the plane. JU is obviously not interested in this.
DeleteI see one mistake in this text. Air Serbia have 2x A330. YU-ARA maybe doesent fly but it is still under AirSerbia.
ReplyDeleteIt does not.
Delete