NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia is today taking delivery of its newly leased Airbus A320 aircraft, registered YU-APO. The jet is the second of the type in the carrier’s fleet and the first to feature sharklets. The wing-tip devices improve the aircraft's aerodynamics and cut the airline's fuel burn and emissions on longer sectors. The aircraft is yet to be fitted with Air Serbia’s cabins and currently features those of its previous operator, Vistara. The jet was initially to enter commercial service on behalf of Air Serbia this Monday, but this has now been pushed back. As a result, the airline has been forced to conclude short-term wet-leases from Dan Air and Trade Air today, both A320s, to deal with the delay in the arrival of its own newly leased aircraft. This month, the carrier’s wet-lease arrangements for the summer with Lumiwings, Air Mediterranean and Dan Air came to and end, with the jets retuning back to their bases.
Comments
KUN to BEG under VT-TTF registration. Can’t wait to see it on ot’s first commercial flight on behalf of Air Serbia.
Go JU go!
What happened to reducing seasonality of widebody aircraft use? Winter suddenly no good?
The aircraft that is supposed to be YU-ARC did a test flight over Arizona on the 21.09. and hasn't flown since. Marana Airport, where the aircraft is parked I believe only has maintenance facilities and not livery painting. YU-ARB livery was done in Ireland. The aircraft still has to go for painting before coming to BEG. To give you an indication how that looks, YU-APO was ferried from storage in Roswell to Bangor on the 06.09. before flying out to VNO for painting on the 11.09. JU revealed the aircraft fully painted on social media 11 days later on the 22.09, while today it finally arrived in BEG. 37 days for an aircraft to arrive that they desperately needed and are having to wet lease capacity until it's ready for service. 2 wet leases in fact. YU-ARC isn't coming at best for another month and a half (December), that is if it comes this winter at all. So a little more than 2-3 weeks.
The real question is why is Air Serbia looking at possibly pushing YU-ARC to spring? All the hype about winter flights to China, Havana, Euro destinations, reducing seasonality etc is gone.
Things change on a daily basis in aviation. When JU were announcing their plans for the 2nd A330, Russian carriers were not flying to Cuba and it wasn't expected that they'll return. However Nordwind recently restarted direct flights with more flights to follow. Russian transfers were expected to be main target market.
Even if JU decides to launch TSN this winter, there is enough capacity with YU-ARB to do this. JFK will operate at 3 pw for most of the winter, and there should be sufficient gap between Friday and Sunday to allow for a 1 pw TSN rotation. 2nd A330 thus isn't necessary.
I believe that YU-ARB was last in maintenance back in March this year, and the check is typically every 12 months, so the ac should be able to hold out until then, which is when I think we will see YU-ARC. ORD is expected to be launched in the spring of 2023, practically once YU-ARB comes back into service.
As for the seasonality issue, whats positive is them introducing new routes for the winter schedule. KZN and MLA so far, ZAG was also a route launched in the winter months back several years ago. Small steps, nothing major, but getting there. I believe some new routes to come will be former charter routes. VLC was launched in April rather than the usual early June and I think we will see more of this happening. I potentially see 1-2 seasonal routes go year round, SPU being a candidate.