Air Serbia has been forced to cancel a number of flights, with the airline blaming the development on the late arrival of leased aircraft, the prolonged maintenance of its jets and supply chain issues. The carrier cancelled twelve flights from Belgrade yesterday including Athens, Bucharest, Prague, Larnaca, Ljubljana, Thessaloniki, Tel Aviv, Tirana, Salzburg, Stuttgart, Sofia and Vienna. It will now “optimise” and “reorganise” its schedule for the coming period, warning of last-minute equipment changes, as well as delays and flight cancellations. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, the carrier is working on securing additional aircraft to restore its full schedule. Air Serbia has 77 departures planned from Belgrade today.
Commenting on the matter, Air Serbia said, “Due to the combined effects of a number of unfavourable factors, above all the later entry into service of certain planned aircraft, as well as the later entry in operation of several aircraft from maintenance due to supply chain issues of spare parts globally, as well as major problems at certain airports with a lack of manpower, unfavourable weather conditions and the consequential loss of slots, Air Serbia is forced to reorganise and optimise operations of its destination network in the coming period”. It added, “Bearing in mind the aforementioned factors, in the coming days there may be a changes in the type of aircraft planned on select flights, as well as delays and even cancellations of certain flights. Nevertheless, the competent services of the Serbian national airline will continuously adjust operations based on existing resources so that there are as few disruptions as possible and that operations are carried out in accordance with the planned flight schedule”.
Air Serbia has been late in taking delivery of ATR72-600 aircraft, the first of two which were supposed to arrive last month but has still not been delivered. The airline is currently wet-leasing two Boeing 737-800s, one Airbus A319 and A320 each, as well as two Dash 8 turboprops. The carrier is also in discussions with another lessor for options of up to another four turboprops, although initially, it will likely settle for just two of them. Furthermore, the national airline is negotiating the dry-lease of two A321s and one A330-200 aircraft. The addition of more jets is also being negotiated.
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Totally expected. Hope they will solve this soon and continue on growth streak.
ReplyDeleteHardly this year as claims from affected pax will be huge
DeleteThey will continue to grow this winter.
DeleteI don't want to get into conspiracy theory territory, but what's going on with all these delays in the delivery of the planes that AS is supposed to receive is extremely ... let's say statistically suspicious.
DeleteSomething is going on behind the scenes, and that something is causing all these problems for AS.
Oh give me a break. Yes, it is suspicious to the level anyone from this blog with zero aviation experience have seen this coming. Your comment is suspicious.
DeleteAnn 9:41 yes it's lack of planning, 5 wet leased planes are missing, which isn't a delivery issue but a contractual one, where AS is the only one to blame
DeleteSo LH told all these leasing companies to cool it on deliveries to AS?
DeleteYeah I guess that's believable if you're a six year old.
Have you heard about the resignation of 11 pilots in one day, some days ago? Politically assigned management cannot threaten the pilots or employees that are essential, because these people can find a new job in airline industry within a blink of an eye..Have you heard that a week ago , billing system of AS didn't work for entire 2 days- friday and saturday..You couldn't buy ticket on AS web site, or do any transaction that envolves payment. Credit and Debit cards couldn't go through. Explanation was that assosciate bank blocked all the transactions..So you could buy ticket only in cash, and only in AS office in Belgrade near Markova church, which was opened till 17 h on saturday, 10 of June, with 1 and a half counters working, and 100 angry people in every moment in the queue ,waiting in front of the office. Company that cannot sell tickets?? These things are unacceptable
Delete9:47 - 10:25
DeleteWhat a swarm or replies !
It was as if I had touched a hornet's nest. VERY interesting..
@Treshnja truth be told, the issue with payments was due to the domain name expiration of a payment processor (a company from Croatia), it wasn't just JU that was affected, many web sites and companies couldn't process payments till the issue got resolved
DeleteMaybe there is some truth to it.
DeleteThay there is a political agenda to disable Air Serbia. Its not unheard of. Especially towards nations and companies that the west does not like.
But even if it was true. It was still air serbias responsibility to bring JAT teehnika under control and modernise the business so they could be in control of their own maintenance and Air Serbia needs to have a partner like Etihad that could protect them and support them financially/political where needed. They can't do it alone
Conspiracy theories is the last refuge of the desperate.
Delete@10:53 This is still unacceptable for one "reliable" airline company..And , at least , if something happens beyond your hands, at least what you can do is to open office and open full counter capacity, because you can expect many vlient with various issues that has to be sorted ASAP...And the other question is: what about political commesaries who are chasing away the most important employees for one airline company- pilots..Is this normal for bussines of an airline company?
DeleteGod Yeah I guess that's believable if you're a six year old.
DeleteTreshnja why do you make up things? We actually had 0 pilots left in the last 90 days however 2 first officers are on sick leve and one captain took other type of leave . I just don't understand why spreading roomrs ?
The word conspiracy theory was put in place in 1967 by CIA, in order to kill any discussion or investigations by journalists after the JFK assassination. It is still used very commenly to kill any discussion and those who benefit fm the word are super happy to see, it s been used widely by the regular people. I live in freedom and I will not let my thoughts killed by a super criminal organisation like the CIA. In todays world everything is possible, so almost everything needs to be taken in consideration.
Delete@anonym 0941h
Not only JU has this problem, also others, e.g. LX with their A220 fleet and their engines. I think a big problem is the outsourcing large companies did to save costs. Today large production companies often have different locations of manufacturing, spare parts, sales/purchase and logistics office. What might be good for cost savings, is not good for distribution. Too long ways, staff and dept. too distant. In Switzerland dozens of drugs are not easy accessible due to this fact. Neoliberal capitalism is perfect for the top 0.001% of the population. We regular people are more and more disadvantaged.
Employees where warning them that this will happen. During the negotiations between sindicates and company the company blamed sindicates for failure of negotiations. But they were just saying if you dont hire more people and raise the salaries a lot pf people will leave the company. 20% of license mechanic left the company in 3 weeks they just had better offers. More than 20 pilots left in 1-2months. It happened exactly as they said it will happen it was not a threat as they wanted to show it was a warning what is waiting, i fear this is only the beginning things are not going to be better.
DeleteBan Trehsnja for spreading misinformations by purpose!
Delete@12:20 haha good one, now we have political bots here as well...I think my story, and a few more people below, is covered by facts here- night flights being canceled when there is not much of rotation..Shortage of stuff, the most important ones , can be the only reasonable reason, Isn't that right? And all of this cancelations coincide with my "fake rumor" that so many pilots left in one day, very recently...Interesting coincidence
DeleteSo., sh*it hit the fan.. and AS is saying "so what?"
DeleteIt’s probably couple of hiccups for Air Serbia. As long as they constantly keep their plains in the air, they are probably in good financial shape.
Delete@Treshnja daj neki dokaz za tih 11.
Deleteif its not a conspiracy then show proof. if no proof for 11 pilots then its not a conspiracy theory, it is a lie.
DeleteA friend of mine fm Belgrade left JU as a F/A as well in December. He said athmosphere was too negative, salary payments were an issue too.
DeleteWe've been bullied on this very platform when questioning the expansion of the schedule without the expansion of the fleet
ReplyDeleteNow exact thing many of us were warning about is happening
That's actually true. Still, good luck AS.
Delete09:02
Delete+1000000000
From what I heard and read online, many people left JU as they were not happy with work conditions. Now who knows what the truth is but these cancellations could be partly caused by that.
DeleteWhy would they cancel so many night flights when they have enough planes for that wave? To me this seems like a staffing problem. They tried to grow aggressively and they failed. This shows a systemic problem at JU and how important it is to have well paid and competent people running the show.
@Nemjee +100!
Delete@09:02
DeleteI know. On every post I wrote how this will happen of air serbia wasn't careful and people said I was crazy.
Now it has come true. Me and others knew this would happen from January
People on here always forget that even the best of the best will have failures, and are pron to ignoring and bashing those who point it out. It's a shame as constructive critisism helps
DeleteOnly issue here is that this is not the first time JU is experiencing such problems. Have you forgotten the meltdown in April? I am all for supporting JU but this is becoming too much. Something needs to change.
DeleteCrew is now receiving biweekly schedules instead of monthly ones because of the lack of crew. JU just avoids mentioning it as it would be embarassing that they are missing the crew. It would turn attention to many people quiting the company due to poor working conditions and overall work environment.
DeleteThat is not true, biweekly is bcs aircrafts that have been planned for service have not arrived and no point scheduling people is leasing company is not sure if they will do the delivery or not. People on This site are spreading fake statements too much.
DeleteRead the article on Tango6, it explains everything.
DeleteOne important thing think to note, there are 77 flights today, few has been cancelled, lefs say 10%. Is it a lot, yes, but are there 90% of the operations that happened?! Isn't that more important?!
What happened with other 90% is also not good, my friend, but so far it looks better than yesterday. However, the number of cancellations and delays JU had past two days (and past two months) justifies news dedicated to it, don't get offended.
Delete" Air Serbia has 77 departures planned from Belgrade today."
ReplyDeleteThat is still a lot
Planned, or if those 7 were already cancelled
Delete^ What?
DeleteNo, they have 77 flights operating today.
Delete7 Flights canceled today (so far)
DeleteSo, less than 10%. Big deal.
Delete10% is a huge proportion of flights. If you think of people connecting, they will experience a close to 20% disruption
DeleteRidiculous. A crystal ball was not needed to see this coming. Marek had better stop with nonsensical promises that he cannot deliver.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I don't think he can as he still insists on aggressive PR. The other day an international magazine published an article on their growth. Bad timing for them. They were praised for their growth but when you look at the current situation it goes to show had badly they failed at the planning phase. They put all of their eggs in one basket, now it's apparent that they don't have a plan B.
DeletePR is the entire raison d'etre of Air Serbia
DeleteDecisive time I guess for Air Serbia, if they manage to come out of these issues on a positive note they will resume their growth, otherwise it might be very bad for them...
ReplyDeleteHey Jasmine, set a base at BEG!
ReplyDeleteThe issue is Jasmin is also cancelling flights except his traffic is half the size.
DeleteAs if midnight until I print this 5 cancelled flights and some delays of over one hr since midnight
ReplyDeleteEmbarrassing. The government needs to get out of the business of running an airline and privatize JU asap.
ReplyDeleteThey tried that with EY and it went horribly.
DeleteThey didn't try it. We still had the government heavily involved in the management and also the state still owned 49% of the company.
DeleteThe state needs to completely divest from Air Serbia and let it survive in the real world if it can. If it cannot, another company will take over.
The last thing the government wants is for JU to survive or die according to market forces.
DeleteIt will just keep on pumping more subventions to it in various ways.
You mean like JP did? Or Malev?
DeleteSNS does not want ASL to go the way of Malev or Adria.
DeleteIt's a very high profile poster child of Vucko.
Governments are involved in some way (owners, part owners, strategic partners, projects of national interest) in almost every airline in Europe and beyond. And it will stay that way for decades because we cannot trust uber-capitalism to do the right things.
DeleteWhich is why Ryanair is eating their lunch
DeleteThe people at the top just didn't do their job, it is as simple as that. Any armchair CEO could have foreseen this.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd the airline staff are paying for it with exhaustion and lack of proper scheduling.
I knew it and I said thay this would happen, but people who stick their head in the sand who talk about
ReplyDelete"Air serbia keeps winning"
I said thay air serbia will collapse of they're not careful and its started. They are falling apart and it is 100% their own fault. And I'm sure there will still be people who will try make excuses for them.
If they don't fundamentally fix the entire company in next month or 2 they will completely collapse.
They need to fix the fundamentals first. To have their own service centre for their jets. They need more jets and they needed them earlier lime the Embraers I said they should have. Not bigger airbus.
Their heads got too big and forgot how fragile Air Serbia's position is
I wouldn't say "falling apart". It's not that bad yet. But you know things are really getting bad when an article about cancellations and delays shows up on this site!
DeleteEspecially with the ironic headline.
DeleteAir Serbia has a chance to fix things but if they don't and problems like this continue for next 3 months or more. Then the work they did for last 5 years will be undone.
DeleteSlav.Man, they need to fix things ASAP, until the end of this month. Everything beyond that would be to late and as you said they will throw last 5 good years away.
DeleteLooks like demand for air travel in Serbia is explodibing. Nothing unusual to trim current schedule. Almost every airline does it .The whole game in airline industry is how fast you can adapt in existing conditions. At the end balance sheet is what matters.
DeleteIt is unusual to trim the schedule in June, sorry. No one does it. The trim should be done before the season starts.
Delete"Nothing unusual to trim current schedule"
DeleteHahaahh, best line of the day, oh man you made my day with this sentence.
The experience is really terrible - I had in May 5 out of 6 flights delayed. Already avoiding them for next travels until they dont sort out problems.
ReplyDeleteAnd I jad all 4 soo far on time except one to AMS 10 minutes delay on departure but arriving on time. People are dramatic on here . Look at other airport sites and most airlines depart late .
DeleteYou would be dramatic too if you had those 4 flights cancelled/heavy delayed, wouldn't you?
DeleteThey will be fine. More planes are coming very soon. Watch this space.
ReplyDeleteAnon 09:31,
DeleteOnly if they are wet leased. It is clear now that they are running out of pilots very fast.
What about enough flight crews and ground staff to fly the schedule?
DeleteI just checked FR24 and the whole fleet except APN is flying today. APN hasn't been in operation since the 10th of June, so it definitely isn't the cause for this announcement. It is just too easy to blame this on external factors.
ReplyDeleteTo blame is their ludicrous strategy with endless wet-leases (YR-URS has been flying for JU without interruption since last year) and the idea to add new aircraft to the fleet mid-season. Other airlines first secure the capacity and then put flights on sale. Or at least they cancel flights weeks or months advance, as the LH Group did last year, when it becomes apparent that you don't have the necessary equipment / man power to operate the flights.
This will just again leave people having to beg JU's lousy service center for their refund.
It's not about having the whole fleet in the air its about them having expected to have another 2-3 planes in the fleet now which they don't while their schedule is planned around having those extra aircraft.
DeleteNot true. They are cancelling flights during the night wave when they have spare capacity.
DeleteIt helped that they seem to have secured a last minute lease from Avanti. Looking at FR24 it arrived yesterday from CDG and is flying to Prague right now.
DeleteI was at the airport a few nights ago, waiting for my flight and I observed the midnight wave. Basically all the planes were on time and started boarding passengers but in the end they were all delayed by an hour because they were waiting for transfer passengers coming from inbound flights from Europe. Although I must say I was very surprised by the amount of transfer passengers coming off flights.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is there are no alternatives. LCC's are unreliable, they can cancel your flight any day, Lufthansa is a mess, and transferring through Amsterdam is madness. The only normal option I see is Turkish (which is getting really expensive lately) or LOT, which does not have so many frequencies, so transfer options are limited. We kinda have to stick with Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteLufthansa is not a mess, it works fine. They cancelled on time what they couldn't deliver on time, unlike JU who is launching new routes in the middle of operations meltdown. They ought to optimize earlier, just when LH did. Sometimes it's good to look what better than you are doing. Unless you really believed the fanboys repeating LH is garbage and JU is all rosses and butterflies.
DeleteLufthansa was a problem last spring and summer but it's certainly not a mess now. It cancelled flights months in advance and it is delivering on its schedules just fine.
DeleteBut with LH you need to pay much, much more...
DeleteKoliko para toliko muzike.
JU tickets haven't been cheap for a while now.
DeleteLOT has less frequencies, but LH recently is less reliable and connecting through FRA and MUC can be a pain
DeleteJU tickets are cheaper than LH. Especially if you have a look their discounted prices they kept in last 2 weeks for autumn / winter period.
DeleteBut everyone wants to buy ticket today for tomorrow and to claim how "JU is expensive".
How yes no.
I have flown through AMS 6 times last year and 4 times this year between EU and North America and never had a problem, why is it "madness"???
DeleteThe writing was on the wall. The question is why JU didn't see it?
ReplyDeleteNot defending JU but my Wizz flight was delayed over 3 hours the other evening. Last flight of the day for the plane.
ReplyDeleteWizz is a far bigger disaster, but it's also the worst in Europe so it's hardly a good comparison.
DeleteThis weekend there was a big international event in Prague. Our company had many people there. Unfortunately JU decided to cancel their BEG-PRG flight yesterday causing absolute chaos in Prague. Mind you the flight was supposed to be operated by A319. On average we paid 30.000 RSD per passengers so tickets were anything but cheap.
ReplyDeleteJU sent them an email informing them that they would take them home in two days. They had no one at the airport, you couldn't reach them at the call center and there was next to no support on their end. In the end many €600 one way fares were paid to Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines to get them back home last minute. As far as our company is concerned, we have blacklisted JU until further notice.
Unfortunately it seems that Marek's vision is not synchronized with his capacity to execute this growth.
All airlines today are faced with same problems as JU yet their network isn't collapsing on a daily basis. Really makes you wonder if Marek is the right man for the job especially since this operational meltdown isn't new, we've all seen this show before (April). Seems like very little was done between these two events. Supply issues are not a new phenomenon, we knew about them last year. So why would you embark on a massive expansion when you are living through such unpredictable times. Would have been safer to launch 5 or 6 new routes and to boost existing network.
Oh well...
p.s. we had one client who was flying on Lufthansa and she left Prague in the morning and was in BEG on the first flight from MUC. Everything worked fine and there were no delays or problems.
This reminds me to my last Adria trip, coincidentaly also to Prague, for the return the flight was delayed for a day and joint with Vienna ops...overall a huge mess, but i hope you sort it out soon!
DeleteAre you claiming back the tickets you paid on Lufthansa?
DeleteI don't think we can claim them. JU informed them late at night that their flight was cancelled the following day. They offered to fly them back in two days. I think most we can do is refund JU tickets for the return flight. At the end of the day it's just easier to no longer book with JU than to deal with these refunds and so on.
DeleteLike I wrote above, one client was booked on LH from the start and it all went smoothly. From now on we are going to be booking on KL and LH Group. We already have about 15 clients heading to Amsterdam in September and they are all going on KLM. Ten days ago I almost experienced a delay with JU from AMS but luckily KLM stepped in and rebooked me onto their flight. Instead of getting to BEG at 01.15 I arrived at 23.05.
From my own expereince I can say you should never trust to the options they offer you for cancelled flight because they will always offer you the cheapest alternative for them. You simply need to go online, to see what options with other carriers are there and to demand from them to book for you seats on one of these flights.
DeleteThe very same thing happened to me when BT cancelled my flight FRA-RIX few days ago. They offered me evening BT flight that was totally unacceptable for me. I called them and few hours later I was on LO flight to RIX via WAW.
So, never, never go with the propositions airlines offer you when they cancel some flight.
When a week or two ago I wrote that serious people will avoid Air Serbia after experiencing delays and cancelations, I was told that I hate to see Air Serbia succeed, that two hours delay is not an issue, that it's the weather...
DeletePeople do not understand that it's about an experience. If the experience is bad, business travelers will not come back. They (or rather their companies) value more the certitude of getting to/from the meeting than a few hundred euros price difference.
But Nemjee, surely you are entitled to replacement transport? Don't ask for a refund and demand them to pay your alternative transportation costs, and you won't have lost any money.
Delete@Nemjee you can absolutely ask JU to refund the costs of one-way tickets on LH. The EU261 regulations clearly state that the carrier is obliged to rebook you on the first possible alternative connection to your destination. Two days later does not constitute "first possible" since people were obviously able to get back to BEG earlier. Threaten to sue and they will pay out.
DeleteThank you, I'll see what we will do. From what I read online it's a hassle to get a refund and people wait for months.
DeleteOn the other hand, their situation should improve tomorrow as DAT's ATR is currently on its way to Belgrade. Should help them in reducing the number of cancelled flights tomorrow.
Coming back.
DeleteThere are two ATRs from DAT scheduled to arrive in BEG today. OY-RUG ironically is a ATR-200.
DeleteOuch...
ReplyDeleteSarajevo night flights are apparently canceled?
ReplyDeleteATR fleet is way too overstretched, even at night
DeleteMarek should own this issue and peronally address the public to appologize and provide update on what is being done to resolve it.
ReplyDeleteOr resign.
DeleteResigning is the worst way to deal with it, step up and prove you can lead a company in bad times is the way to go...stepping down is the most coward thing to do
DeleteNo, just appologize and fix the issue
Delete@XYZ Exactly
DeleteWell he should also explain why we are experiencing another meltdown less than two months from the last one. Why wasn't much done to avoid this scenario at the height of the summer season. Foreign carriers in BEG have minimal delays.
DeleteIt's not a meltdown, it was just one particularly bad day. A much worse problem is the low-level disruption that is constant and occurring daily - one cancellation here, another cancellation there, and hour-long delays across the board which cause annoyance and missed connections.
Delete+ 1000.000
DeleteYou wanna see what ia a real meltdown? Come over to US and experience Southwest, United, Jet Blue and Spirit operations.
DeleteComfort for the faint-hearted, sweet.
DeleteYou should see the meltdown at YYZ last night with Air Canada and the crew calling in sick cancelling 27 flights due to current union negotiations. This is nothing.
DeleteThe state should just subsidise wet leases at this point, it will pay off in the long run.
ReplyDeleteSve je prevara. Ni novac, ni ugovori vise ne garantuju da ces dobiti proizvod.
DeleteGood luck finding capacity in mid-June.
Delete@Dee
DeleteDobrosli u Novi Svjetski Poredak, osnazen pLandemijom
^^^
DeleteDon't forget the chemtrails! 😆😆😆
This is just begining. Marek became reality star with non stop self promo in media. Im no sorry...
ReplyDeleteHe is a mercenary and nothing else, just have a look at his CV. He finally got a CEO title at an airline, and this crazy expansion with constant news coverage is just giving him the platform to position himself.
DeleteI prefer that more than previous CEO.
DeleteWe have not heard anything from him for years!
At least they now hand out new branded boxes at the transfer desk with a bottle of water and a package of Noblice ;-)
ReplyDeleteYeah a package of processed garbage is just what one needs when their flight is cancelled lol
DeleteOptimal thing to do would be call all flights off on tuesday, where there is the least amount of traffic, reorganise, optimise, and go from there. This has become a rolling snowball
ReplyDeleteNo it hasn't. It's a day-by-day issue. There aren't enough aircraft to operate each day's flights. Probably not enough crew either. They need to trim their schedules asap.
DeleteThey reset their operations last night Traffic seems to be more or less on time. Now let's see what happens with the regional wave. This is where things usually go south.
DeleteThe evening wave is not looking good. MXP and PRG cancelled and LJU delayed by an hour already.
DeleteMarek is CEO, but some politically assigned directors in the company are causing a huge mess, because they don't know the job..I've heard that 11 pilots resigned few days ago, within 5 min. time, after one of the drills carried by one of the political commissars in AS, Mr. Malovic..Maybe that could be also one of the additional reasons why all of this is happening- maltreatment of the employees, specially the ones who are essential for the company's business..Gor example, how are you honna fly without pilots?
ReplyDeleteHardcore SNS guy
DeleteI'm sure Mr. Malovic and his real boss know even better than the pilots how to fly the plane.
DeleteHaha Mr. Malovic is in cabin today, to cover some routes, probably the challenging ones..And his real boss is probably in cabin on NYC route, because he goes only after the big ones..And all of this he manages between morning and afternoon show on TV...It's a magic what this guy can achieve in one day..
DeleteHe'll have 10 conversation during night and 10 flights during morning wave, just to show up at his 10.00 press conference. What a man!
DeleteMalovic needs to go.
DeleteFully agree. He is wrong person on the wrong place.
DeleteHow many planes broke down? Any information on that? I have not seen the Dash 8 flying in the last days.
ReplyDeleteQ400 arrived to BEG yesterday and is currently flying to Prague. I think it's scheduled to fly to Sofia later on. From the looks of it only one A319 isn't flying which should indicate JU is indeed experiencing a staffing problem.
DeleteDidn't they brag about hundreds of applications just a few months ago?
DeleteAnon 10:40
DeleteLots of bragging about applications but silence about staff leaving all the time for better opportunities at airlines more professionally run than ASL.
I wrote so many times that the staff shortage will be an even bigger issue than the number of planes. You cannot produce so many pilots and crew members locally in such a short period of time. They should try to hire more on the market, but that will probably hit they "profit" too hard. On top of that, good local pilots willing to move are going again massively to the Middle East and elsewhere, as the business is picking up everywhere. All in all, I wouldn't book anything with JU until autumn, unless there are no other options.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Vucic's Potemkin villages are falling down everywhere... no more tricks left to show and the audience is finally leaving.
ReplyDelete+1!
DeleteOnce for all remember that JU has the problems like any other company. Their level of problems is far below the problems western airports had due to lack of staff this and last year, but nobody said that these airports were Goverment's Potemkin villages.
DeleteLike it or not Air Serbia is here to stay no matter who will be ruling party today, tomorrow or day after tomorrow.
No, it is not true that JU has problems like "any other company", at least not like "any other company" in the airline business in the world, as they don't have party's commissionaires ruling the company and yelling on pilots. If you are referring to "any other company" in Serbia, especially state owned, than I apologize, you are totally right.
DeleteI wonder who is to be blamed for massive cancellations LH had this spring? They changed my tickets 3 times from FRA to BEG! 3 f..ing times!And of coure I am not the only one who was played on this way, but many, many other passengers too.
DeleteI suppose they also have party's commissionaires.
It is terrible what is going on with JU delays and cancellations at the moment, but yes it is the problem all the airlines have.
Not all of them have it.
DeleteLH has less than 80% of 2019 traffic thanks to their fleet/staff problems. They had meltdowns, they paid for it and learnt something, they optimized. JU didn't learn anything from April, they are adding destinations like everything is normal. LH cuts operations, JU adds. Wow, who would expect this outcome?
Delete@Anonymous 11:28 You are proving our point. If your flight was rescheduled three times it means the airline acted in advance to try to minimise disruption to you. JU cancels flights on the day, every day.
Delete@11:28...First of all, in LH there was a strike, not the same..Secondly, you're right, I don't fly with LH any more, even since last year spring time I noticed what was going on in that company..I choose reliable carriers, like Turkish, for instance..And thirdly, we are talking about AS here, and not about LH
Delete@11:28 And besides that, in normal company, when head office receives so many resignation letters from employees on crucial positions, managment is guilty, and not the employees..Manager who was in charge is the one to be fired immediatelly after, not to cause even bigger problems..This is procedure in normal company, not the one politically run by ignorants, and that is turning into semi - private business of few people, but using the resources of all of us
DeleteJU's meltdown was not even close to LH's when we take in consideration how long it was happening to LH. They had the same problems for months and we see here difficult situation in JU in couple of days in April and now. There were few delays and cancellations in the meanwhile but not as yesterday.
DeleteThe point that company cancelled the flights 3 times means that their planning was nothing, but terrible as they could not have made it properly (same like JU).
No, the strike was not the problem that caused flight disruptions, but their planning department.
I support that it is Malovic's responsibility as it seems here to be a problem with crew, not the planes.
JU needs to be fully privatized ASAP
DeleteFloat all state-owned shares on Belex, then all the Bravo Air Serbia commenters on here can put their money where their mouth is :)
"It looks like Vucic's Potemkin villages are falling down everywhere... no more tricks left to show and the audience is finally leaving."
DeleteI support your rights to express your political views all over the internet but this is an aviation blog. Only philistines don't understand there is a time and place for it. This blog does not share baking recipes or discuss football players.
If you are implying, based on current disruptions, that Air Serbia is just a sham and not a real airline, you are completely wrong. If you think Air Serbia is nearing it's end, you can't be further away from the truth. Airline had far more challenging times in it's 96 year history.
@last anon
DeleteWe are discussing the business side of aviation here all the time. The fact is that JU is not a viable business, but a political entity and the current ruling party's pet project
You must be new to aviation. Myth about JU being ruling party's pet project has been thoroughly debunked time and again here. You are welcome to read about it.
DeleteMyth? Debunked? Vučić doesn't even hide it. It's his project numero uno.
DeleteYour ignorance is showing. Did you at least try to look it up? If not, bring your "arguments" here and I'll post links that destroy them.
DeleteMarek should realize that the job of the CEO is not just to announce grand plans and expansion.
ReplyDeleteit is not just doing PR and promising the moon.
And the ministry who employed him should realize this also.
Just my2cents
Agree.
Delete+1000
DeleteYesterday (18.06.) JU804 to IST departing at 17:45 was cancelled too. I was advised of the change by e mail on Thursday PM hours and I was re booked on on the flight at 12:15 which too ended up being delayed about 90 minutes. All in all instead of having a 6hrs transit time in Istanbul I ended up having to wait almost 12 hours for my next flight. Very impressive and well done JU. I admit that it is my fault because I wanted to leave some money with our domestic company instead of feeding a foreign one but no more and never again; lesson learned!
ReplyDeleteAt least you got to your destination on time. But you should try claiming some expenses back. JU should pay you for your meals and refreshments in Istanbul.
DeleteWe talked about this so many times in the forum. JU was warned not to do the "Vueling v2" scenario a couple of years ago in Barcelona where they launched flights to every possible European village with a reduced fleet. Then came the peak summer and boom! Delays and cancellations one after the other. Also, this JU mixed fleet is just not healthy at all. Romanian charters, Montenegro fleet, mix of A330 with no Air Serbia branding and so on and so on. And not to forget the lack of coordination with BEG airport. Trip reports showed us how chaotic the situation is. Also lack of personnel in the aviation industry is massive in the whole continent. And August has still not began....
ReplyDeletePeak summer season is coming!
ReplyDeleteFor JU, the Winter is Coming.
DeleteThis is how u generate short term cash flow. U put on offer a wide schedule, people pay in advance, afterwards u cancel flights, rebook passengers and since probably only 25% send claims, you got yr cash flow. This is super short term thinking, however people accept nowadays any behaviour and airlines know, they come back anyway. LH did this the in 2021-2022 and do u see any less passengers on LH 2023?
ReplyDeleteThats why I have reduced my air travel significantly. Airlines and good quality customer service is reserved nowadays for F Class or Platinum Member passengers only.
The one thing JU doesn't need at the moment is cash. At least, if anything we are said about cash on their accounts is true.
DeleteLufthansa had a genuine issue in 2022. It did not hire enough staff fast enough. JU has a completely different issue - JU's fleet was stretched from the start. Look at how many wet-leases there are. And the aircraft still haven't all arrived (in June!)
DeleteI am Etihad Platinum and I still get treated like a piece of cattle.
DeleteNothing ever said by state officials about Air Serbia's cash positions or any other financial data can be considered as accurate.
DeleteRight, all we Anonimous say here is 100% accurate :)
DeleteI support Mr Malovic. The pilots are very expensive and in several years or decades will not be necessary for flying. Mr Malovic is giving us a great vision of a pilotless company and we should all follow it.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope this is sarcasm :)
DeleteOf course it is.
DeleteHaos obicno nastaje kada poverujes u svoja PR saopstenja
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteThey are keep lunching routes despite the problem.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of that "This is fine" meme with dog and fire :)
DeleteThey should retire their A320ceo for Neo, focus on their regional aircraft like more ATR72-600 and starting with Embraer (E190) aircraft. Neo is a perfect aircraft for JU, saving money and fuel. For long haul, starting on A330neo (A339 or -800), with a A332, its impossible directly flight for Japan or South Korea unless they make a stop in Beijing.
ReplyDeleteClassic SNS story -> overpromise, underdeliver, do not take any responsibility, rinse & repeat
ReplyDeleteHahahaha. You silly goose!
DeleteAnd a true hater.
🤗
...and blame everyone else for the failure
DeleteMany executives come from the academy of young leaders, that had to backfire sooner or later
DeleteThey think that many destinations mean a good airline well they're wrong ...
ReplyDeleteCancellation of a single flight is sad, but it happens. Delays are definitely not nice for passengers, but they happen.
ReplyDeleteFor all those who are worried about the AirSerbia, I suggest to check the statistics available online.
I would like not to see AirSerbia on this list, but it is not that bad like some claim here.
https://flightaware.com/live/cancelled/
Wow. Not one single European legacy airline has worse cancellation record and only one ACMI has more (Trade air, with one flight cancelled out of two today). I didn't know it truly is bad like some claim here.
DeleteLol.
DeleteITA and Air France are right behind.
3% of cancelled flights, 14% with the delays.
ReplyDeleteThe result of an expansion that's too aggressive. They bit off more than they can chew. Instead of focusing on improving their product and quality of work conditions for Employees, they instead chose to open up a plethora of new routes and hoped they wouldn't face any shortages of aircraft, parts etc.
ReplyDeleteSo with an aggressive expansion, the staff they once had were pushed to work harder to the point of resigning. It's fairly straightforward. Their ambition didn't have the funds or resources to support itself
I think it's not about funds but competence.
DeleteSns comptetence
DeleteAre you okay? Was Duncan Naysmith a party member? Is Jiri Marek? Do they even have Serbian passports? Was Wizzair owned by SNS when they had dozens of cancellations last summer?
DeleteAir Serbia is a hybrid carrier, not in an usual airline sense, but in a way that it has few real professionals (along with the most of the pilots), but ultimately is governed by the party's goals and people placed by the party. That kind of mix will always lead to a disaster, one way or another. It was like that always, it is not just with SNS, it was like that even before, but SNS moved this on an even higher level (in the worst possible meaning), like with everything else in the country.
ReplyDeleteAs with other government-owned flag carriers, party in power/government decides if they want an airline or not, and if they do what are the goals and how will government support it. Current and previous JU CEOs are nonpartisan professionals, unlike party-appointed CEOs of the past with long list of horrific aviation failures and bankrupcies like Pregrag Vujovic:
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2008/10/vlaisavljevi-is-out-and-vujovi-is-back.html
Cancelled flights are just a secondary problem.
ReplyDeletePeople will miss their flights anyways because of waiting hours in line for passport control...
This is true and it needs more attention. JU's problems are only occasional (even though they are serious) but the passport control mess is there every day.
DeleteCan somebody explain to me why even their morning wave of departures is always delayed by 40-50 min?
ReplyDeleteThis is a case even taking into account that the planes are sitting in BEG and transfer pax from the entire region have landed punctually?!? If you delay your first flight to a congested airport like CDG or AMS you miss your slot and the 3rd rotation of the day is cettainly delayed by 2+ hours. It’s not only missing planes to blame..
They are delayed because of air traffic congestion. Few days ago flew MUC-BEG with LH. Boarding completed before deparrure time, doors closed and then we waited for 40 minutes on the plane due to air traffic congestion.
DeleteDont forget there is also that big NATO Air Defender exercise going on, which causes delays in EUR air space
DeleteTonight has turned out worse than we expected in the morning. Apart from the four overnight departures past midnight today that were cancelled (Sofia, Tirana, Tel Aviv, Bucharest), Zurich was cancelled in the morning, Budapest in the afternoon and Copenhagen, Milan and Prague were cancelled in the evening. Loads of delays too - Zagreb is 2.5 hours late, Ljubljana is 2 hours late.
ReplyDelete