Air Serbia is finalising plans to wet-lease aircraft for the peak of the summer season with at least six expected to be operated on behalf of the airline by foreign carriers. Air Serbia is in the final phase of arranging the wet-lease agreements, the number of which could further grow, with the planes expected to start arriving in Belgrade from next month onwards. It comes as the airline embarks on a wide-scale expansion, with another nine new routes to be added to its network next month alone. Furthermore, the carrier is adding frequencies on existing services. Air Serbia previously said it is using wet-leases to add capacity over the seasonal summer peak, as well as cover the period before securing dry-leases under favourable terms. A wet-lease is a leasing arrangement whereby the lessor provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance to another airline.
Air Serbia is no stranger to wet-lease arrangements and is currently utilising several aircraft operated by foreign carriers, mostly on a short-term basis. They include a Trade Air Airbus A320, a Dan Air A319 (pictured), an ETF Airways Boeing 737-800 and an Air Connect ATR72-600 turboprop. Earlier this year, Air Serbia advertised a job opening for an expert in wet-leasing agreement. Last year, the carrier's CEO, Jiri Marek, noted, “Currently, we are looking into the longer-term strategy because leisure demand is from mid-June until mid-September, and whatever calculation you do, a dry-lease option with the additional crew for three months of operations, that mathematics doesn't work. We are looking either to make some capacity provider agreement on a long-term basis, five-plus years or trying to enter into some Joint Venture agreements with reverse-seasonality operators. We would like to have a constantly available shortlist of aircraft with pre-negotiated commercial terms and technical reviews to be able to act promptly”.
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| ETF Airways B737-800 in Belgrade this morning |
Despite the multiple wet-leases, Air Serbia has also been growing its own fleet through dry-leases. The airline took delivery of an A320 last week. “This is the second addition to our fleet since the start of 2023 and we are very proud of it. Continued modernisation of our fleet, management system, technical support, and crew training are the Serbian national airline’s strategic goals. In the past year, we expanded our fleet by adding eight new aircraft. Our turbojet fleet saw an addition of one A319 and A320, our regional fleet was rejuvenated with the addition of five ATR72-600s, and as of December, our second A330-200 has taken flight”, Air Serbia; s Chief Operations Officer, Marijan Kocić, said.
Do we know from which airline they will get the aircraft.
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteSo which airlines?
DeleteSeriously? Did you bother reading the article??!
DeleteYes I did and if you read it carefully it does not say from where the wet leases are going to come from. It says "the planes are expected to start arriving in Belgrade from next month onwards."
DeleteI think it will be interesting to see if all planes, or most planes, come from one provider or all are separate leases.
DeleteDo we know the cost and the projected profit?
DeleteNo, the companies rarely disclose financial plans. They have to report past results but not current costs or future expectations.
Delete@10:45
DeleteFrom 3 separate provider.
More and more airlines seem to be doing this. I notice Air Baltic is leasing A320s, A319s and even a Carpatair Fokker 100 for the summer!
ReplyDeleteBut I think they also leased to others their own metal (a number of A220s)?
DeleteYes, can see them in LJU quite often, flying for Swiss with their A220-300.
DeleteThey operate one of Swiss'' daily flights to Belgrade for the entire winter season and now in summer too.
DeleteActually there were days in winter when all flights were operated by BT metal for LX.
DeleteI can only assume that is a very expensive wet lease. I mean it one thing to wet lease 15 year old planes from Romania and it is another to wet lease brand new A220s.
DeleteThat's the difference between Swiss' image and Air Serbia's image. And when you have image, you can ask for more money, that's Swiss strategy. I'm not saying that should be JU's strategy, just stating there are different ways of doing business.
DeleteThe A220 makes sense for Swiss, there have been massive debates in the media about the fact that an"Eastern European" airline is flying for Swiss. Them operating the same plane takes away a few arguments, also they can freely rotate the planes throughout their schedule.
DeleteWhere was that debate about”east European” airline was flying for Swiss?
DeleteIn Swiss media?
Hahahaha
Did they debate about fraudulent banking by Credit Swiss fir the last 100 years?
Swiss will not know what hit them in the next few years.
"That's the difference between Swiss' image and Air Serbia's image."
DeleteSwiss flyer are massively pissed off by the fact that Air Baltic crews don't speak German, don't greet Senators and HON Circle members by name, there's no champagne on board for business class etc. Swiss is a far cry from what it used to be. Grass is not always greener on the other side.
The Swiss should speak English like everybody else .
DeleteIts the master language after all .
Did they ever find that ACMI expert they had a job vacancy for?
ReplyDeleteReading this article it looks like JU was planning to wet lease Trade Air and ETF, and that those options are quite cheap and normal. But the truth is totally opposite
ReplyDeleteWhere does it say that they are planning to wet lease Trade Air and ETF?? It says in the article they currently have short term wet leases for those two and it says that the new wetleases come from May. You should read more carefully.
DeleteIn terms of maintenance, how are these airplanes maintained? I'm not feeling the same when I see some white non branded airplane operating a flight...
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteReally lol
DeleteTruly lol
DeleteAirplanes only get maintained if they have airline logo on them, obviously :)
DeletePainting an aircraft should be maintenance enough .
Delete@7:21 literally doesn't impact anything apart from aesthetics, which in my opinion, when you're having a short term wet lease agreement and you're trying to cut costs wherever it is viable, is perfectly valid.
DeleteOh boy, they are now finalizing fleet plans? Can we agree one shouldn't finalize network plan without finalizing fleet plan at the same time?
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if one day Air Serbia has enough of its own aircraft to serve its network.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+1
Delete+1
DeleteBulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Greece are good choices for ACMI.
ReplyDeleteHopefully it's not another Romanian or Greek carrier that we haven't heard of.
DeleteI think the Lithuanian and Bulgarian airlines are more famous and recognized.
We see the success of Avion Express, Smartlynx, GetJet, Heston, European Air Charter.
I had a flight to Tirana with Romanian aircraft (one with Air Serbia on the side) and crew, and it was really a pleasant experience. Friendly crew, nice and clean aircraft, totally fine.
DeleteRomanian aircrafts are cleaner and the crew is far, far, far more friendlier than any Serbian aircraft or crew I ever flew with.
DeleteThe idea of having an exclusive capacity provider is a good one. Hope they manage to do that.
ReplyDeleteTheir deal with Dan Air seems to be quite successful
ReplyDeleteI think it's time to get a new Serbian ACMI airline.
ReplyDeleteThere's a market, why the hell isn't anyone doing it? As the colleague above said, Lithuania is a very good example?
Wet leasing 3rd country aircraft is much more complex than an EU airline wet leasing aircraft from EU ACMI operator.
DeleteYes, only one of the perks of EU membership. ETF is even operating on French oversees I think.
DeleteAnd not just EU airlines, Air Serbia is not an EU airline and can easily lease EU registered aircraft.
EU wins again!
DeleteIt's just that the Serbian ACMI airline will expand to Malta or another country. But apparently, apart from business aviation, there is no other potential in Serbia. I exclude Air Serbia.
DeleteBeing technical, Serbia can have a ACMI provider. The main market can be middle east, Asia and Africa.
DeleteYou need equipment, personal, licenses and airport to base at.
For long term dry leases it could be even better because you mostly need some technical personnel and a base for the planes.
Now the only question is why would anyone base their company in Serbia?
I like how on every flight operated on behalf of Air Serbia by another airline they say "This flight is operated by an Air Serbia partner airline and aircraft and we apologise if it does not meet the standards you are accustomed to on Air Serbia"
ReplyDeleteI was flying twice with Dan Air and never heard that sentence,
DeleteWhat standards?
DeleteWell I flew last year two times with the, - both times with Lumiwings and they said that.
DeleteI would like Air Serbia to own at least few planes. That should be easier for them than negotiating new leases every then and now.
ReplyDeleteNaravno. Koliko imaju aviona u vlasnistvu u svojoj floti? Malo su preveliki zalogaj jabuke zagrizli! Piloti i kabinsko osoblje kucu nece videti. Prevelik zalogaj, no videcemo.
DeleteZasto ne bi videli kucu? Njih preko 120 zaposljeno. Na to dodajte wet gde JU ne trosi svoju radnu snagu.
DeleteYU-APS is actually a former Wizzair plane. So I guess there will be no business class on it.
ReplyDeleteJV between JU and W6;)))
DeleteYou are talking as if Air Serbia has dedicated business class seats. It's just economy seats with a blocked middle seat which you can do on any plane.
Delete9:31 - I agree with you.
DeleteIsn't it too late to plan their fleet now?
ReplyDeleteThe season has started and they don't know how many planes they will have. To quickly hire machines from abroad!
A sta ce biti u Julu i Avgustu?
DeleteIt says these planes come from May.
DeleteI mean that’s not something to be proud of…
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Air Serbia dry lease some extra Aircraft? Long term it will be cheaper then wet-leasing.
ReplyDeleteHow difficult is to read this?
Delete"Last year, the carrier's CEO, Jiri Marek, noted, “Currently, we are looking into the longer-term strategy because leisure demand is from mid-June until mid-September, and whatever calculation you do, a dry-lease option with the additional crew for three months of operations, that mathematics doesn't work"
He should revise the mathematics and longer-term strategy ASAP cause he had wet leased aircraft whole winter.
DeleteDon't forget how long YU-APB was in Jat Thenika and it seems to be now the same case with YU-APA.
DeleteSure but that's the issue with planning, one has to follow the steps. "Give me back my plane till this date or I'm finding new plane". That date can't be in summer season but much earlier.
Delete+1
DeleteThis goes to show that JU needs to more aircraft.
ReplyDeleteGood
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be more common now with most airlines. Last week I flew to Warsaw and they use the ex Blue Air 737 MAX, which is still fully branded. The only problem leaving it so late is availability and with other airlines doing this then I’m not sure prices will be competitive as if they planned in advance and were at the front of the queue. I think Air Serbia with its desire to grow its network quickly could end up if not too careful with the reputation LOT has or as everyone tells me Late or Tomorrow (LOT)
ReplyDeleteWhy did the retire their 737`s then?
ReplyDeleteBecause they were over 30 years old and expensive to maintain.
DeleteHad they not retired them, people would be saying how they fly ancient planes.
DeleteActually one of them is back in the air for testing.
DeleteIt is being prepped for the ferry flight to its buyer.
DeleteOlder posters will know, but at its peak, Yugoslav Airlines had numerous wet leased aircraft during the high season (probably in the similar range od 5-8). At that time, they could rely on Aviogenex’ and Inex Adria’s spare capacity, plus on one presidential B727 (YU-AKD, aka No. 2). Totally normal is to look at Dan Air, ETF, Trade now… they are close, friendly crews, people know them, and ferry (empty) flights are cheaper. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteSorry to disagree, but JAT never had that many leased planes. Yes, they did wet lease aircraft, but in much smaller numbers. It was usually just one or two planes per season. What I recall are leases of B727 from Hapag Lloyd and Aviogenex, BAC S1-11 from Tarom, L1015 Tristar from Alia Air Jordan and I DC-10 from Finnair and Air Afrique. But not at the same time, over a decade period. Maybe I forgot some, but it was definitely never 8 planes, or even 5, leased in one year
Deleteinteresting
DeleteThe only DC-10 wet lease was from Martin Air think it was PH-NBN Was for 3 months. The DC-10 from Air Afrique TU-TAL and Finnair OH-LHA were dry leased. Also dry lease they had Sabina OO-SLA
DeleteTrue. Air Afrique, Finnair and Sabena were dry leases. My bad. But it means that even less aircraft were leased by JAT than I stated, which proves my point.
DeleteHow many of Air Serbia's own fleet is currently out of service?
ReplyDeleteAPA, APH, APO, ARC, ALY
DeleteThat's terrible.
DeleteIt's frankly getting annoying. You don't know what you'll get on their own aircraft yet alone on wet leased ones. I know leasure travelers don't care but business pax and frequent travelers do feel the difference and it's getting worse day by day
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteJU is somewhat indifferent when it comes to their business and premium travellers. If you pay top dollar, you don't want to be treated like cattle.
DeleteFriendly advice: If you pay top dollar, do it with some airlines known for good business and premium service. From Belgrade I suggest Turkish. And take JU if you want to reach some regional destinations and wider Europe with quick, affordable and mostly uneventful non-stop service.
DeleteIf you pay top dollar your time is the most valuable thing. Time is money. If you backtrack from Belgrade to Istanbul then take a flight to western Europe or for example New York, you are showing that your time is not really valuable. If you backtrack via IST for premium service you are doing it for vanity or comfort, not for business efficiency.
DeleteFor those who value their time that much, I always suggest private jet. Serbia is small country so Air Pink can handle those passengers really well. And who are all those business people, I don't think we have them that much. There are usually singers and sportsmen behind that business curtain, it's not like we are some business Meca. It's OK to fly via IST just for vanity or comfort, people can spend money as they please.
DeleteIf you don't have other option than JU, you have to fly with them so JU shouldn't invest in business.
If you do have other option, you will use it over JU because they'll never have better business product than the biggest competitors.
Forget movies. Business execs fly commercial a lot more than private jets.
DeleteIf JU cared about its high yielding customers then they would have had a corporate program by now. Our company bought two tickets for BEG-FCO-BEG for 76.000 RSD and there is no corporate benefit for leaving them all that money.
DeletePersonally I don't have a problem with this. It's a convenient way of testing market demand without committing yourself to expanding your fleet.
ReplyDeleteBased on that info they can make future plans.
I just hope they are better prepared for the upcoming winter season, there is more than enough time to prepare.
We can only hope, but JU is planning just for the next and ongoing season. Remember when Air Baltic added Belgrade or Aegean Ljubljana? That's how you don't leave the operations only to hopes. I believe majority of successful legacies plan like this. Even Wizz is scheduling November now while JU is spending resources left and right trying to find aircrafts for April operations and, as we can read, they don't even have final contracts (or final number of aircraft) for summer wet leases which is just around the corner.
DeleteI don't like this, don't see anyone operates like this.
Whilst you are correct Nemjee, the current situation is poor from a cost perspective (wet leases are not cheap) and an employee morale perspective.
DeleteOverstretched crew and schedules don’t help morale as does not being able to have pride in a product. Whilst I’m sure the crew on wet leased flights are perfectly competent and nice, it prevents JU from taking ownership of their product and therefore taking responsibility for their product and investing in it.
There is a reason very few other airlines operate like this and I’m worried that it will come back to bite JU. They’re fighting in a very competitive European market and leaving a mediocre impression on customers at best isn’t going to cut it.
I don't agree with you about product. People are travelling in massive numbers while the lottery is happening around them, what is the product in aviation today. The product for many many JU travelers is not the flight experience, but the flight per se. JU is selling great variety of destinations to Serbs, Balkan people and transfer passengers, that's their main product and that's how people perceive "the product" of JU. A few are looking for something more and those are not JU passengers.
DeleteYou’re ignoring the fact that JU is looking to establish BEG as a hub and are competing against airlines with a better product. I’m not saying JU should have wifi on planes or seatback screens here. I’m saying the planes should be clean and the cabin should be in good condition. Many JU cabins look worn/have broken arm rests and panels etc.
DeleteIn regards to the product being the flight per se, JU has recurring issues getting flights out on time at BEG. This stonewalls connections both at BEG to other JU flights and at other hubs to partners. Seems to me like they need to brush their product up when you consider both my and your point.
Yes, on the routes where JU is competing it must create the advantage. Network is main advantage for non-stop no-competition routes.
DeleteThe product is one possible option for competitive advantage (the best metal in fleet should fly to FRA), the second is cost/price (JU has to be price-flexible on the Wizz routes), the third could be brand loyalty (for many reasons this is the playground for Zurich, Vienna) etc.
Yes, I agree that JU must up its game and its product, I just don't think it's wise to invest a lot of money in product if there are others battles JU needs to win. It's not always relevant, just look the planes Swiss and JU operates on Zurich route and then check the number of flights and passenger figures - if the product is the only king, JU wouldn't have Zurich in the network at all.
I agree that it’s not wise to invest huge amounts of money in the product at this time. I do think however that a certain minimum standard needs to be maintained e.g. clean and not broken cabins, flights leaving on-time, reliable aircraft etc.
DeleteWet leases discourage this because flights are less likely to be on JU’s own equipment and this therefore gets shoved down the priority list. A daily scramble to send flights out because of a lack of aircraft is taking up attention that needs to be directed at the product and the minimum standard I’ve mentioned above.
They could really do with taking a step back after this summer and reevaluating the priority list a little. I’m all for the ambitious expansion but it should not come at the expense of the basics.
It is unfortunate that we can't attach pictures to comments on this blog ... I would have a few showing the state of the cabin on YU -APE...completely disgraceful to passengers who are paying for their product!
DeleteNemjee, +1, it seams they didn't expected that huge demand this winter and dry leased more planes earlier.
DeleteWell, that's the whole issue. They didn't expect demand last January/February too (remember them falling to 30-35% market share in Belgrade in those two months?). So they are failing to predict demand two winter seasons in a row, all while complaining how they need extra aircraft only for summer. Bad demand prediction is the problem, not the explanation for the problem.
DeleteI agree with most of you especially when it comes to the state of the cabin. If you remember my trip report in business on YU-APM to CDG, my seat was also broken. To make things even worse this is a younger plane they recently added to their fleet.
DeleteUnfortunately JU isn't known to pay attention to small details like that. They seem to be expanding left and right without first making sure they have the needed support from all departments ... which seem to be understaffed at the moment.
All in all, I doubt they will prepare themselves for the upcoming winter season. After all, they are sending several planes for regular maintenance now when demand starts to pick up. This is down to bad planning.
Like I wrote many times before, JU needs to find a new head of commercial affairs as this is a department where they struggle to create a competitive and attractive product.
Whoever is doing fleet planning should get the sack at this stage.
ReplyDeleteThey’re 5 routes into an expansion with a clearly insufficient fleet and are only forming plans for their capacity now?
Where are the A319 and AT7 that Marek talked about in January? I’m somehow skeptical that any aircraft are arriving before the end of summer season given no contracts are in place.
When is the patchwork of different cabins going to be sorted out? Product is inconsistent on A332s which is far from ideal. APL/M and now APS have differing cabins to the rest of the fleet as well, less serious on short flights but still not ideal.
The rapid expansion phase needs to be cooled after this and the airline needs to regroup and get its product together.
Ypu should apply for a job at ASL.
DeleteThat's the best answer you got?
Delete+1 absolute mess.
DeleteWhat is interesting is their inability to expedite the rotation of the planes in Belgrade itself as being their main base. Yesterday for example mostly all the morning flights arrived back to Belgrade on time but it resulted with significant delays of the afternoon wave of departures. They have so many issues (fleet / personnel / maintenance / AB) that are pending that it looks like the summer schedule will be executed very poorly.
DeleteIt was reported back then that 1 ATR will join the fleet in May and 1 more in August. I think the A319 is something unexpected as they were more focused on A320's entering the fleet and it seems they got a better deal for the A319, which is why another A319 is expected to join the fleet rather than a 4th A320. Their finances haven't been great for years so I doubt the budget for aircraft is big. Putting schedules late for sale isn't helping either in both cases (getting cash in advance to invest into fleet enhancement and adequately estimating capacity needed).
DeleteLast summer gave a good indication that things were back to some normality and they should of used the winter season to better prepare. The entire winter saw on average at least 3 wet leases which should of been sorted out by now. Last summers wet lease capacity will not be matched in dry leases this summer even though they are endeavouring in an ambitious expansion, while it is expected that winter 2023/24 will see a couple of new additions. I also think that the lack of available capacity in their fleet is holding them back in boosting frequencies that they also need. A bare minimum should of been to have replaced last years wet lease capacity into dry leases.
One thing that comes to mind is perhaps they are having difficulties with attaining pilots. Offering existing employees options to complete pilot training with JU (with conditions) would be a great way to secure future pilots for the company. Other companies do this so it would only be logical for JU to do the same. Attaining cabin crew obviously isn't the problem as seen the past few months.
As for the cabin state, there seems to be a global issue with cabin refitting as even EK is experiencing issues. I think that JU hasnt refitted the cabins as they reported that the whole fleet will be refitted, so there is no point in touching things now if they are going to do it again in the near future. It does leave a really inconsistent look and it isnt just those aircraft you listed, its more.
At Lufthansa, rather.
ReplyDeleteWhen will Air Serbia have its own fleet?
ReplyDeletePlanes painted in Air Serbia livery are their own fleet.
Deleteanonymous20:50
DeleteSome of those planes are dry-leased despite having Air Serbia livery
I was on that DAN air airbus and did not like it, its pretty old and the entire plane was shaking lol
ReplyDeletePlanes are designed to take a lot of shaking.
DeleteTheir plane is only 14.7 years old. This means that it is younger than half of Air Serbia's A319 fleet, as well as the entire fleet of Croatia Airlines.
DeleteAir Serbia will have six leased aircraft just to handle seasonal peak. Six aircraft is exactly the whole initial batch of A220 planes neighbourhood airline will have as the core of their new fleet in a couple of years. Air Serbia is at the whole different level.
ReplyDeletePlain whataboutism
DeleteNot at all. Just a fact-based comparison of airlines to get a sense of a different scale, and in following 5-10 years, a different order of magnitude.
Delete@Anon 21:38
Delete+100
Flew out of BEG twice in the last 10 days, one early one late afternoon flight, its total madness at the airport. The airport is packed, queues everywhere, both planes were full to last seat. My thought is that there is so much demand that both BEG and JU could double its capacity in the upcoming years.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to JU, I have the feeling that they could easily double most of their frequencies and still have a great LF. Not to mention INI which is not running on even percentage of its real demand. Great job overall for both BEG and JU management.
Where did you travel?
DeleteIstanbul and Rome. A week before to Stockholm with Wizz.
Delete