Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, has said the airline is seeking to find a third and fourth wide-body aircraft on the market to join its fleet. Speaking to “Bloomberg Adria”, Mr Marek noted, “We have several possible aircraft, however, the biggest problem now are slots for maintenance, aircraft painting… There are a lot of problems in the supply chain, so something that we had to wait on for weeks have now turned into months. It is difficult to say when we will take delivery of the aircraft. There is a possibility for it to arrive earlier than we initially thought, while there is also a possibility that it might arrive in the fourth quarter. We are working hard to acquire a third, and soon after that a fourth wide-body aircraft”. The CEO noted the airline’s third twin-aisle jet will also feature a portrait of a famous Serbian personality on the tail, but he could not reveal further details at this point.
Air Serbia has previously said it plans to expand into China with its third wide-body aircraft. Services to Beijing and Shanghai are on the cards. “Our flights to New York became profitable during Covid and that is why we were encouraged to launch our second long haul service. Once you establish that second one, then the third, fourth, fifth come more easily”, Mr Marek said. He added, “Last December we successfully launched flights to Tianjin in China, which has been profitable from day one and we will continue to develop operations in China, however, gaining access to the market within the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area may take some time due to permit approvals".
The CEO noted that further expansion in North America is also planned. “We already mentioned earlier that we plan further expansion in North America. We are currently considering Miami and Toronto. Chicago launches next month, with flights from the US to Serbia already sold out. This route is developing rather well, which shows that we should continue on the same path”, Mr Marek said. He added, “This entire time we have been aiming to have five wide-bodies in the fleet, but after seeing how our Chicago and China flights have been performing, it may be possible that in ten years we have up to eight [wide-body] aircraft”.
4th?
ReplyDeleteThey'll have more a330 fhan a320s lol
I'm actually not surprised by their move. In some cases A330s are currently being leased under better terms than A320s.
DeleteJAT always had full DC10s to Aus., Can. and several destinations in USA and Asia. At the time there were 4 DC10s so 4 A330 sound about right.
DeleteTotally different era, can't really compare the two airlines.
DeleteI agree with that, now the number should be around two aircraft for one back in JAT times.
DeleteFrequencies of business travel have increased, leisure and diaspora have became bread and butter so filling an A332 to another continent isn't as hard.
On the plus side for us, consumers, that means better prices from AS.
I do not agree that filling widebody aircraft is not a problem. Our market is very price sensitive, competition is strong, expenses are brutal. Among others, Tarom, Malev, Olympic all used to have overseas flights but none has it now. All three has huge diaspora to rely on, even their tourism potential was greater than Serbia's and still did not make it. What I want to say is that it is possible to be successful just need to be very careful and keep all details under control...
DeleteThere were 5 DC-10-30, 2 owned by JAT and 3 leased, Finnair, Air Afrique, World, Sabena, L1011 Royal Jordanian.
DeleteNot exactly correct. JAT owned 3 DC-10 's, YU-AMA, YU-AMB and YU-AMC. Another 2 were long-term dry-leased to become owned, one from SAS and one from Swissair. That was on JAT's top, 1989-1990. Before that, all of the above were leased as well, but for shorter period, without intention of buying, and for maximum of 4 in fleet, with exception of L1015
DeleteJU shall negotiate with Vinci and try flying SYD with a stopover at Vinci's new megaairport in Cambodia, soon to be finished.
Delete"Gaining access to the market within the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area may take some time due to permit approvals."
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. It could mean that they might not start Beijing considering they fly to Tianjin and Hainan flies Beijing and might go for Shanghai and a destination within this area which would mean Guangzhou, Shenzhen or Hong Kong.
True. First time I hear they are interested in this area.
DeleteFinally!!!
DeleteI wrote about this also weeks ago, that main expansion into China should be in the Guangzhou/Shenzhen/Hong Kong area.
DeleteOut of those I think Guangzhou and Hong Kong are best choices. Then again Shenzhen is 20 minutes by train from Hong Kong (and even less to Hong Kong Airport) so if they want to serve Hong Kong from mainland China then Shenzhen.
DeleteWell, serving Hong Kong from Shenzhen (it is pronounced Šendžen, not Šenžen) is non of a problem for Serbian passport holders, as they need no visa for China, but those who do, would not be addmitted back to Mainland China once they have left for Hong Kong...
DeleteWhy so?
DeleteI entered mainland China from Hong Kong without a problem.
If Your visa was single entry, than that would be a problem. But now I see there is 144 visa-free transit policy for Shenyhen, so it means Hong Kong could be served from there.
DeleteSerbian citizens don't need a visa for China.
Delete...as mentioned above.
DeleteIt is always better to have a cargo-heavy destination to offset the possible seasonality in passenger numbers. Shenzhen is among the top ten cities with the largest economies in the world. In addition, it provides access to the entire Pearl River estuary. Not bad, not bad at all.
DeleteYeah pretty much China flights should be cargo heavy. I think it is just waiting for green light on China part.
DeleteIn other news Air Canada broke the some contract with Air Serbia so 3000 passengers with purchased ticket had to be rebooked for summer with extra costs. Unfortunate timing. Well Air Canada did not care. Very unprofessional.
Each of spoted destinations in China will perform much better than Toronto. Level of product and money exchange with China is 10x bigger than with USA and 100x bigger than with Canada. Apart from this - Chinese wii soon again be most frequent tourists in Serbia. Flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong or Guangzhou will generate musc bigger numbers than from any North America destination
DeleteWhich contract they broke?
DeleteAC flies to a Euro city and AS takes pax to BEG. This was some sort of joint ticket where pax was permitted 2x 23 kg. Similar to what LOT does now.
DeleteAnd?
Deleteagreed
ReplyDeleteNice!
ReplyDelete8 A330s!!!! Love it
ReplyDeleteHopefully they won't all be A330s.
DeleteMarek said how the A330 is the ATR of the widebodies, so they will probably stick to the A330s.
DeleteIt will be interesting if they will eventually go for the A330-300 or stick to the -200 series.
DeleteThey need a couple of A330-300, especially for short-haul, charters.
DeleteA330-300 for short haul???
DeleteNonsens.
DeleteGuys, its been explained before already. - 300 gives you more capacity at a reduced range while - 200 more range at reduced pax capacity.
DeleteTaking in consideration that bigger capacity won't be needed on newly opened destinations A332 is the best solution.
DeleteNewly opened destinations?
DeleteThey already have two of those which are full to the brink.
Tianjin would be much more suitable for A330-300, which Hainan is flying btw.
Other destinations as well, since China is not that far but very cargo/pax heavy.
All the other destinations Air Serbia plans to enter are well within the range of the A330-300.
FYI - TK flies frequently A330-300 around Europe, between different long-haul departures.
In Asia as well it's frequently flown on short-haul routes.
DeleteYes, newly opened destinations.
DeleteI am sure they should have hired you to tell Marek which plane he needs. Poor guy, he lives in ignorance that he has good widebody planes for taht JU needs.
Anon 10:59
DeleteAre you really comparing TK with JU?
Get real.
Who should we compare them to?
DeleteDo you see that A330 is frequently flying to Barcelona, Zurich, Moscow or you're blind?
DeleteThose flights are exceptions and not the rule.
Try to compare them to AA.
Moscow and Zurich are not really an exception.
DeleteThat is why they're getting A321's.
DeleteExactly.
DeleteA321 for ZRH and SVO and not A333.
Why not if demand justifies it and other aircraft are unavailable at the moment?
DeleteIf they had A333 it would be flying now to Moscow.
A333 for sure...at least one or two...
DeleteTheir flights are packed right now to Spain, Zurich, Paris and Russia. And its not even May yet..
Absolutely.
DeleteI think at least 5 x A333 should be in the fleet.
DeleteToo bad Marek does not know it. Poor guy.
There are different needs to utilize airplane, for training purposes primarily and instead of doing circles around Belgrade airport it is better occasionally to send A330 to short trip in Europe (the more pax or cargo the better) and use it as training flight as well. Turkish is doing for both reasons as everybody else, too.
DeleteThere are some ignorant people who are stuck in the past, who only yesterday were crying out loud glorifying the A319, telling how A320 is too much and those are the same now that are saying Air Serbia doesn't need A330-300. 🤦
DeleteThose same ones missed yesterday's article btw.
Air Serbia does not need A333 and current results confirm it.
DeleteThere are people who from their own interest try to push the idea of A333 presenting it as "company interest".
Sure. Nice try.
Really?
DeleteSo can you teach us for what missions the A333 is made for and in what ways it wouldn't be suitable for Air Serbia?
Delight us with your intelligence and knowledge.
Thank you.
Realistically, with 4 planes how many long haul routes could they serve?
ReplyDeleteDepends on frequencies
DeleteWith 4 planes and depending on rotations and schedules, realistically they could do around 20-22 weekly return flights
DeleteWill be interesting to see 5-6 long-haul destinations
ReplyDeleteGood luck! Hope it happens.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIm no pro for sure. But i feel like that their fleet should look like
ReplyDeleteATR 72 X12
A319 X10
A320 X14
A321 X4
A330 X8
Cover all airports in the region at least once per day, but most 2 x per day and some 3 x per day.
Increase flights to rest of Europe..
Long haul:
New York
Chicago
Miami
Toronto
Shanghai
Hong Kong
Tianjin
Beijing
Winter flights to:
Havana
Male or Bangkok
A319's will slowly leave the fleet.
Delete10 ATR seems quite sufficient for the region.
Once a destination gets saturated they can upgrade it to A320, like they do in Tivat.
No need for more frequencies than double daily on most of regional routes.
They should focus on developing and aggressively growing regional/balkan routes.
DeleteLike connecting Niš to every destination. That's why 10+ ATR's would be good
I know they said that about A319 but I think that they should have a few, maybe not 10 but some anyways.
DeleteI would imagine its hard to fill A320 on some routes.
As far as the region goes, ok twice per day is a must . To be able to connect onwards everywhere. 3 times per day should be LJU.
I just feel like they need to focus on the region so they become a true hub. If it works, they will need A321s more and more for rest of Europe.
It's either 3 daily Atr to LJU or you bring A319 for regular daily flights to LJU because I flew quite a few times now on this route this and last year and I don't remember one flight that wouldn't be full which is quite incredible in my opinion for this route.
Delete3 times per day should be Budapest/Bucharest and Istanbul which are dozens of times larger than LJU.
DeleteNext should come Athens/Sofia.
Either way almost all of the larger markets are outside Ex-yu.
https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/uzbekistan-airways-introducing-a330s-to-support-network-and-fleet-expansion/153002.article
DeleteTo me, ideally would be some a220-100 and a220-300 instead of (all) a319 and (few) ATR's. Also I believe that a330 could go up to 10 eventually.
DeleteA220 has big problems with engines.
DeleteJust two A220-100, for London City and Florence and Scandinavia villages, are enough.
DeleteAnn 09.43 I completely agree that those markets are bigger than Lju. But you have to know that many people that fly AirSerbia from LJU are using the airline for connections, as LJU is very poorly connected to Europe, so these passengers use another JU flight to their final destination. And on the other hand, passengers that fly to Istanbul and Budapest mainly fly there to catch other connections with other airlines. And all of those (Istanbul, Bucarest, Athens) are also connected by other airlines, while JU is the only carrier that flies to LJU from BEG. But maybe that is just my point of view and I could be missing something.
DeleteAnonymous10:54
DeleteI understand that they had problems with older batches and new ones work great (at least according to Air Baltic). Embraer uses the same engine, so there are no real alternatives in this segment. Anyway, we are daydreaming here, so even if they still have problems, they'll be long gone when this procurement becomes realistic.
There's quite the gap between ATR and A320 family that needs a 100 seater to fill. And there E Jet is more realistic option on the second hand market, with JetBlue and to an extent Azul are phasing them out for new gen aircraft, so hopefully JU can add them soon
DeleteAegean is somehow living with that gap and so are many other airlines.
DeleteAnonymous13:57
DeleteI agree that in current situation Embraer is better option to fill the gap between ATR and A319, but when they phase out A319, then there will be a gap between 100 seater and A320 (174 seats), where in case of a220 family, they could bridge with a220-300. Of course, we are talking about ideal situation, reality is something else.
Anonymous14:11
Completely different market, completely different strategy. They don't even have gap since they don't have anything smaller than a320
Thats why I think they should keep some A319 instead of 100 seaters. Idealy couple od E195 (100 seaters) would be ok...but you have to train for all of that..i dunno..keep all airbus and hope for the best.
DeleteAegean is not solely dependant on transfer passengers in a single hub, serving a vastly bigger market and not having any long haul flights to fill, unlike JU. As a counter argument I'd bring up LOT with E jets as the backbone of their fleet complimenting the large 738s.
DeleteJU has in the past given up on the routes which are out of ATR reach yet too small for A319, which is where E70/E90 could step in for the additional pax transferring for long haul.
Anonymous15:55
DeleteI think they should definitely hold on to a319 as long as they can. I don't think a couple of regional jets would be enough - if they introduce them, they'll be relying on them heavily very soon...like with atr's
Agreed Branko
DeleteJAT had already 5 DC 10 in some summers….
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia will ultimately have more widebodies than that
DeleteTime between first and second wide body - 6 years. Time between second and third - less than a year :D
ReplyDeleteYour comment makes no sense. There were 3 years of covid times and 1 year of recession in many countries.. What airline JU size would expend and inquire a wide body aircraft? They did the the right thing at the right time.
DeleteNice. I just hope it does not have a third type of cabin
ReplyDeletehaha they most likely will.
DeleteI do understand that unification of cabin look should be done but at the same time how many people will fly on both A332 planes and notice that cabins do not ook the same.
DeleteAnd even if they notice it why would they care?
They will come here to complain.
DeletePeople who actually fly with planes will. Business class product in ARC is 3 levels below the one once on ARA. Believe it or not, people paying 2.500 eur for a plane ticket actually care about the seats, product, amenities (nothing similar now in JU business class on A330).
DeleteAnd btw, business class is what should really make money for an airline such as JU.
Delete@anon 09:42
DeleteIts not about passenger experience as it abou maintenance, because then you have stock for 3 different type of seats galleys lavatories etc etc instead of only one stock.
So by the end of the year, Air Serbia's long haul network could be New York, Chicago, Beijing, Shanghai, Miami/Toronto. Can that be done with 3 aircraft?
ReplyDeleteIs this CEO going to be able to clone some key personnel required to run operations with 4 widebody AC? He has not enough people to maintain the existing network / schedule not to speak of additional inaugurations. They will need at least a year just to consolidate what they currently have.
ReplyDeleteThey had 800 people apply just for cabin crew role.
DeleteCabin crews are not the issue here. He's talking about the pilots and mechanics.
DeleteSame with pilots, over 40 of theose in JU pool atm.
DeletePeople be realistic, like city bus drivers coming from Bangladesh or Pakistan it will be the same with pilots, they will come from all over the world to Air Serbia to build hours, put most of big European airports landings into their CV's (for long haul it will be even more candidates) and after 2-3 years will leave for better....work force is dynamic nowadays and it getting even faster every year.
DeleteWith this logic and when they make more money, they will no doubt consider the A330 neo.
ReplyDeleteA320s will be replaced with A320neo and A321 with LR.
What would be the benefit of the extended range of the A321LR for JU, that would justify the reduced capacity compared to standard?
DeleteCan't wait to see 3 A330-200s lined up in Belgrade one next to the other.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteThat will be very proud!
DeleteWell done Serbia!
That will be a sight for sore eyes.
DeleteYes!!!!! Imagine 4
DeleteA330-300 would come in handy where on future frequency-restriced routes where A330-200 lacks capacity to meet the demand.
DeleteWhich is already the case to Tianjin.
DeleteMaybe:
ReplyDelete1.A330 New York daily.
2. A330 Chicago and Tianjin.
3. A330 Beijing and Shanghai.
4 A330 Toronto/ Miami and Istanbul, Moscow, Barcelona, Zurich.
They are not gonna fly to Tianjin and Beijing, and leave all the Canton province unserved..Its much bigger posibility that AS flys to Hong Kong, Shenzhen or Guangzhou rather than Beijing ( if they keep Tianjin). Also if 4th is reneted, they're gonna use it for long haul destinations, such as Bangkok or Singapore, not Barcelona or Zurich
DeleteGreat. Now they need to work on improving on board service.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteSo this will be YU-ARD and YU-ARE?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteJasmineeeeeee! Dje si? Dobro jutro! Ima 'l kahve? Aj lagano, bezbrizno samo, nek' radi 'ko mora i' ko zna..... I pitaj gazda Ivana kad planira djenazu za OU, cisto da vidis kad ce te i dje sledece uhljebit...
ReplyDeleteOoohhh. Thank you so much for this. The day can begin now.
DeleteSvaki put kad kazes to Jassssmine, meni kroz glavu prodje slika Djure i njegovog Dzasminaaa😂😂😂😂
DeleteI like you ❤️❤️❤️ 😂😂😂
DeletePiR is fantastic as always! ))) ... keep on!
DeleteI hope Jasmine be the way she is now just to break PAZDRAV'S nerves !!!
Delete🤣🤣🤣🤣
DeleteOne must be just stupid not to be able to make diferrence between Jasmin and Jasmina, must be significantly more stupid not to understand Jasmin is just a personification for all crime and corruption and all incompetence and servility in OU, and must be utterly stupid to think I get upset about it.
DeleteWhy dont they use:
ReplyDeleteATR for Balkanic Region, Vienna too
A319-20 for medium haul
That's what they do now.
DeleteBalkanic sounds like a planet, just say Balkan.
DeleteIf they continue like this, more ATR, A319-20 and A330 they can depasse TAP, they can depasse Austrian and LOT
ReplyDeleteWhat does depasse mean?
DeleteDépassé = overtake.
DeleteOk, thanks.
DeleteFor sure!! Aim high!!! Good luck to JU!!!
DeleteAre you talking seriously? Do you know the size of TAP and Austrian? TAP had revenues of 3.5Billion EUR in 2022. Austrian had almost 2Billion EUR revenues in 2022. Air Serbia had 0.4Billion EUR revenues in 2022. Not that it's peanuts. But you see how smaller Air Serbia is than those airlines?
DeleteAt this rate in 5 years AS will have revenue of 2 bill. And fleet of 70 aircraft.
DeleteEasy there... 4-5 was a plan for a while... 8 now!? I don't know about that.
ReplyDeleteThey say in the next 10 years. It is always good to have long term goals.
DeleteThis just shows how crappy the ex-yu politicians were…30 years after breakup, AS fleet snd routes increasingly remind us of those JAT already had. And those were the dark ages they say…
ReplyDeletePaid by conserved ham from Juhor and Cibona. My grandfather aunt prepared recipe for that ham. You do not understand how SFRJ functioned.
Delete^ Barter economy was widespread in that day and age. It was nothing unusual or odd.
DeleteThat at least worked and produced results. Now 30 years later the entire area is split into small colonies uncapable to be of any significance at all.
DeleteDivide and conquer? Austrian was smaller than old JAT but after later became bigger than Adria, Croatia Airlines, Jat Airways, Montenegro and others combined.
DeleteI really feel sorry for brainwashed kids like @11.11, who are explaining us who actually lived and worked in SFRJ how bad it was, based on the stories of "neighbour's aunt". And it's not only Austrian, JAT was bigger than Turkish as well. And precisely Turkish and Austrian were companies with the biggest and the most progressive growth out of all legacies in Europe, in the post - JAT and post- SFRJ period after 1991
DeleteIn 2025 they will have big wide-body fleet, believe me, and some 10+ long haul routes, Air Serbia will become one of the best and biggest carriers in Europe, i believe they will consider bigger wide body jets in the future like A350 or smth.
ReplyDeleteOk, I believe you, but what does smth mean?
DeleteSomething i guess
DeleteHad no idea.
DeleteDaj Boze!! They have the potential to be just that. Good luck
DeleteSerbia should not be a member of EU because then something will sooner or later smell like olympic airways or malev or alitalia for Air Serbia .
ReplyDeleteMalev was sacrifised to Wizz Air. JU should introduce Beirut and Amman quickly because Wizz might do this in the winter season. We have been told that 3rd A330 should arrive in June when it is needed because of 7 weekly flights to New York, 3 weekly flights to Chicago, and 1 to Tianjin, if something happens they must wet lease A330 again, not to mention Moscow, Istanbul or Zurich. When China is considered that should be Tianjin or Bejing, and Hong Kong because of transfers. Fourth A330 should arrive at the end of summer so they can work with tourist agencies and introduce Havana as regular season route this winter. Please, do not tell us that months are needed for "painting".
DeleteOr OU or AZ...oh wait!
Delete"Please, do not tell us that months are needed for "painting".
DeleteIt does actually. Most people here seem to have no clue of the issues in the aviation industry, supply chain, filled up slots for everything. It is particularly an issue when most services are outsourced as is the case with Air Serbia and you depend on others.
Can't Jat Tehnika paint and A330?
Delete@13:10 JAT tehnika used to paint various aircrafts. True it was not an elaborate work like Tesla / Pupin liveries but they were able to paint for sure. The JAT "flame" livery came out of that shop.
DeleteThey did painting before.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU9bAAokndg
It was painting of a decommissioned plane that is never going to fly. Not the same and even that was done only once.
DeleteThe JAT flame livery was one of the best.
DeleteIt would be great if they gave it a rest with those painted tails for the sake of both practicality and aesthetics.
Ako nasi ofarbaju, nece vrata moci da se otvore.....samo tanak spric!
DeleteSve to si znao i pre 4 meseca
ReplyDeleteGiven the long term plan, I wonder if it made financial sense to place and order for 5-6 A350s or A330Neos and given the backlog they will arive just in time when JU is bigger and more financially stable to make such an investment worth while
ReplyDeleteOMG! Nonsense!
DeleteHeavy nonsense. New narrowbodies are out of JU's financial capabilities, let alone A350s/A330neos
DeleteHave you heard of discounts and loans and help from the state..
DeleteWouldnt rule that out..
If there is a need there is a way.
Wish all the best to Air Srbija.
Like I mentioned many times before 10 A330neos and 30 A220 will be the perfect fleet, maybe 2 a350 xlr for Australia, but dreaming is free and buying new planes is far from free. I don't think that new planes are reality for AS at this point, you can see that they are using old 319/320s and leasing also old 330s. I am sure that somebody out there knows financies and based on the current situation with the airline industry, this is the most afordable solution.
DeleteLong term JU fleet should consists of 4 types of planes:
Delete- ATRs for the regional fleet
- 100 seater jets for exploring new routes and secondary/tertiary airports
- mix of A320/321 for European/MENA routes
- A330/350 for long haul.
Ideal fleet according to me (sounds unrealistic but Svet je lep kada sanjamo): 10 A319neo, 10 A320neo, 10 A321neo and 10 A330neo or A350.. if it wants to be "wizzier than wizz" so that people can "fly the greenest" with JU too
DeleteCorrelated with JU, but more aimed at BEG. With the pace JU is going, 5 widebodies shouldn't be a surprise by 2025. In addition to that, what other widebodies can we expect at BEG? Hainan, potentially QR, TK (if gov allows), EK (if they get their orders in time). Not an aviation expert but just speculating, with the pace BEG is growing at, we can see 5 to 8 widebodies a day minimum. Anybody's thoughts?
ReplyDeleteAir Transat.
DeleteAeroflot, once they can fly again.
DeleteWhy doesn't Air Serbia join the Star Alliance so that other airlines like United and Air Canada fly to BEG ? I mean these can fly to BEG even if JU doesn't join the alliance but that won't be as easy.
ReplyDeleteBy any chance you noticed what happened to Adria? Croatia Airlines? Air Dolomiti? Sabena/Brussels? Swiss? SAS? Austrian? TAP? Can you name ONE european airline (except TK which is untouchable because of market size and state aid) which is not totally and completely down on its knees as a result of Star Alliance membership? Do you really want it for Air Serbia?
DeleteAegean?
DeleteNice, it's gonna be funny when they realize that the airport is becoming bottleneck, and they make again plans like in the 80s with two runways. Hihihi... (Or if they decide to invest in their own maintenance, etc.)
ReplyDeleteHihihi???
ReplyDelete