Air Serbia analysing neo jets as part of fleet development

Air Serbia has said transitioning to Airbus neo aircraft is inevitable as part of its long-term fleet development strategy. “Renewing the fleet is one of Air Serbia’s strategic goals. During 2022 alone we took delivery of four ATR72-600s, as well as one A330, one A320 with sharklets and an A319. Earlier this year, Air Serbia took delivery of its fifth ATR72-600 and wet-leased a sixth unit. Also, this year we will add at least two more ATRs and one A320. During the summer we expect the third A330 to join the fleet”, Air Serbia’s Head of Networking Planning and Scheduling, Bojan Arandjelović, told the “Connect” publication.

Commenting further on the airline’s fleet development, Mr Arandjelović said, “For a company of our size, a lot has been done in one year regarding fleet renewal, especially the regional type which is key to our success. We have improved our customer experience and comfort tremendously on regional flights”. He added, “Keeping in mind current aircraft availability and the challenging times we went through recently, being a capital-intensive industry, our primary short-term aim is consolidation and stabilisation of our operations. That means that we will strive to keep renewing our fleet with younger A320ceo aircraft, while preparing the company for the ‘neo’ option as well, as in the long-term it becomes inevitable. As in many other fields, we keep analysing how this aircraft could fit into our network and what benefits and savings it will bring not only to us, but also to the environment we operate in. Over the past few years, we have learned how to be agile and adapt, therefore, we keep the ball rolling, believing that everything is possible”.

In early 2019, Etihad Airways cancelled its order for ten A320neo aircraft which were to be delivered to its Serbian equity partner. Deliveries were initially due to begin in November 2018. They were set to completely replace Air Serbia's fleet of A319s and A320s at the time. The delivery of the neos to Air Serbia was originally slated between late 2018 and 2020.

In comments made earlier this month, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, noted, “Acquiring new aircraft might look interesting, but it is currently not on our radar because we can still take advantage of a volatile market with very good [leasing] deals”. Air Serbia hopes to secure leases for two A321 jets in the coming months and has said it will look into adding regional 100-seater planes next year. “We have had some initial discussions but those will most likely result in us getting some capacity provider, instead of short-term wet-lease, similar to SAS or Iberia regional operations via third party, because that is low risk - observing how that aircraft or segment can perform before you start creating the complexity of adding a jet that requires additional licenses, crew training, engineering etc. We are looking into it. I don’t think it will happen this summer but next summer we may consider it”, Mr Marek said.