Air Montenegro to acquire larger jet

NEWS FLASH

Air Montenegro has issued a public call for the lease of one jet, either from the Airbus A320 family or the Boeing 737 family of aircraft, for a period of between three to eight years, starting from April 2022 at the earliest, with the possibility of extending the contract. The aircraft must have the capacity to seat at least 144 passengers. The Montenegrin carrier will select the most economically favourable bid based on criteria which includes: the lowest offered monthly lease rate, general technical condition of the aircraft, leasing discounts during the winter months, lowest maintenance reserves offered, as well as the amount of available resources on the engines, landing gear and other systems. Bids can be submitted until January 14, 2022 while the public opening of the bids will be held on January 17 at 13.00. The airline’s CEO, Predrag Todorović, recently said, “Based on analysis we undertook, a business model based on the exclusive use of Embraer aircraft is difficult and can almost never be profitable. Therefore, in order to be successful on a market such as Montenegro, especially during the summer, greater capacity is required. We are slowly moving in that direction”. Air Montenegro currently has two Embraer E195 aircraft in its fleet, one of which has been wet-leased to Air Serbia during short periods of time this December while it performs maintenance on its own aircraft.