Air Serbia and ground handling specialist Menzies Aviation have finalised an agreement for Menzies Aviation Beograd, a Joint Venture which provides passenger and aircraft ground handling services for the Serbian national carrier at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The deal has been agreed but is now subject to competition and regulatory approval. A Joint Venture is a combination of two or more parties that seek the development of a single enterprise or project for profit, as well as sharing the risks associated with its development. However, the venture is its own entity, separate from the participants’ other business interests. Air Serbia has signalled interest in forming joint ventures with other companies in the past, including Turkish Airlines over a potential Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility.
Commenting on the development, Air Serbia said, “The signing of the contract represents the next step in the previously established cooperation which saw Air Serbia and Menzies Aviation sign a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2023. This confirmed both parties’ intention to launch the Joint Venture, supporting the growth of the Serbian national airline and the improvement of the overall service it provides to passengers”. Menzies took over ground handling operations on behalf of Air Serbia on March 5. It provides the carrier with ramp handling and baggage, de-icing and passenger services. It also supplies passengers with reduced mobility services and air cargo services.
Philipp Joeinig, CEO of Menzies Aviation, previously noted, “We are extremely excited by the opportunity to work with Air Serbia, helping the airline achieve further domestic and international growth. Strategically, as the number one service provider in the world, and the number one provider in the region, this venture represents a major step for Menzies, supporting our ambitions to expand our presence in the Balkans and support emerging aviation markets. We are looking forward to delivering market-leading, high-quality aviation services in the Balkans with the fast-growing Air Serbia and increasing our market share at Belgrade Airport”. Menzies is further expanding in the region following the acquisition of Flystar Flight Support this month, a Podgorica-based ground handling provider specialising in business aviation, with subsidiaries in Serbia, Croatia and Albania and a dispatch centre in Belgrade.
Very good news
ReplyDeleteSo this joint company will also provide ground handling to other airlines?
ReplyDeletein Belgrade I mean?
DeleteYes
Delete^ Which other airlines to they provide ground handling to in BEG?
DeleteBack to the future for ASL. They did have a ground handling unit which they transferred to Aerodrom Beograd only for the Aerodrom Beograd ground handling team to return back to non-airport operators. What a merry go round for people.
Deletegood sign for continued development at JU. MRO facility needed next
ReplyDeleteI'm a passenger. I'll help put pressure on the Menzies mgmt team by leaving reviews on public review sites. I do think some of these firms have lazy and incompetent management, but of course, in my public reviews I'll describe my personal experiences dealing with their staff. I think pressure is good even if they have a monopoly... eventually things crumble under pressure.
DeleteDelays are not as bad as last year but there are still a lot of them. Marek parked two planes as spares but it's still not enough. Unfortunately this seems like another failed idea he promoted.
ReplyDeleteMenzies helped in reducing delays so where is the problem? Not enough people? Maybe they should improve work conditions?
The money they offer for working in shifts, weekends and nights to day many workers can get in other industries for much better conditions.
DeleteSo all handling companies in Europe have trouble finding enough personnel.
I noticed some like Lidl are offering 90.000 RSD to work as a cashier. That's less than what Menzies is offering to their airport employees. It's less stress to scan goods in a supermarket than to scan boarding passes at the airport and to worry about all those legalities.
DeleteWell, I believe the average salary in Belgrade is around €1.000 so Menzies and Air Serbia should not offer less than that.
DeleteI am a check in and PRM agent, working almost 190 hours a month with a combined income of salary and bonuses of 85000 RSD and am very close to give them all the finger. I am not alone in this, we are at the limit and point of cracking. Every flight is packed, every flight has 6+ PRM pax and we are sent to either handle them alone or with one colleague. ORD and JFK usually have 25+ PRM pax both local and transfer and are managed by 5 sometimes 6 of us. We are cracking and some of us can't handle it anymore. We spoke our troubles to management and were told that these conditions are fair and will hire more personal which takes time to hire, train, get the police approval and etc which is usually around 3 months.
DeleteNo way in 3 hells will BEG survive. 1/3 of Pax handling is on sick leave and closing to be 1/2 soonish. Send help because we all love our jobs, we love aviation but it seems the aviation in Belgrade doesn't love us.
There is no way you can survive in Belgrade with that money, especially if you have to pay rent. Just quit and go elsewhere. There are a lot of other job openings throughout the city. I think GSP pays you more to drive a tram.
DeleteDid you check if same employees can "survive" with their salaries and cost of living in London or New York? Not likely. Some of them live with their parents or share a room or live an hour or two outside those cities to make ends meet.
DeleteDo I live in London or New York for me to care about their living standards?
DeleteFollowing your logic - you are not a ramper either, so why do you care to post comments?
DeleteI am Anon 15:38, I agree that most of us live with our partners or parents, rarely anyone lives alone. Like I mentioned, we want to stay, we wish to stay, but we just can't. I wish someone could ask Menzies about the number of agents who quit are on sick leave or didn't come to work. It's pathetic how they brag and brag about how good they are.
DeleteBecause both BEG and JU are government owned companies and the government lives from my taxes. Clear enough for you now?
DeleteMore importantly, why are you so eager to defend such low wages? By your logic you work for JU/BEG/Menzies so you want to maximize your profits.
Nemjee if you think you can do a better job you are free to start a company and make profit by paying rampers 1500 eur a month. Good luck!
DeleteSo I am only allowed to comment on aviation if I run a business with rampers? Do you since you are giving out advices left and right?
DeleteThey have been around for almost 200 years and are operating in about 60 countries. They have seen it all.
DeleteYou can comment all you want but your comments come across as preposterous and ignorant. Please don't be Serbian/Cypriot version of Purger.
I'll take your advice into consideration especially since it's coming from an Anonymous source on an aviation portal.
DeleteAnon 01.55 Pointless insults because someone dares not agree with you.
DeleteNemjee would you rather someone expose salaries at your workplace, then suggest what they should be and if salaries are not raised ask employees to just quit and go elsewhere? That's what you did.
DeleteService has improved since they took over. If service levels were getting worse, if you had to wait two hours for bags to unload, if gate agents were rude - those would be valid complaints.
This is the start of the privatisation of Air Serbia!
ReplyDeleteHow exactly?
DeleteSo the shut down ASGS a Serbian company so that down the road the job could be handled by foreigners?
ReplyDeleteJob is not handed to foreigners, JU is still a part owner of this business. They brought in foreigners because locals who used to run ASGS did a poor job.
DeleteThe locals that ran ASGS was Air Serbia! It was shut down in 2018 when they had to cut costs everywhere.
DeleteMost ASGS guys came from Jat - паметном довољно.
DeleteASGS worked well and had no major issues. It was closed because JU management burned so much money with Etihad know how they had to change complete business model and they shut down catering and ground handling. Since then both of these sectors went down hill.
DeleteASGS was shut down because local managers were afraid to protest against idiotic measures imposed by Etihad. On top of that YU-APJ and YU-API were not controlled by JU so they could do as they please and be delayed as much as they wanted.
DeleteThen there were issues with BEG since ASGS did not have all of their equipment and for most of the time they couldn't operate airbridges.
So there were many factors that contributed to their downfall but most importantly it was down to the new and old managers at ASGS.
By the way, only other airline ASGS handled was Etihad and Etihad Regional. They didn't even make sure Alitalia was handled by them. Overall it was really poor organisation from the very start.
ASGS had no future because they never bothered to get their own equipment as well as staff to operate them. For example, back then plane foremen were employed by the airport and they all came from Omladinska zadruga. Some of them were 40 years old and were working there through that set up for over a decade.
^ Thanks for the insight. Didn't know that
DeleteASGS was the best ground handling agent sertified by CAA with the first and only in RS for ground handling services they doing their job proffesional with high level of comitment
DeleteThey were ready to take over the ramp services with GSE equipment but some people didnt allow because it would be direct atrack to thr airport busdoness
DeleteASGS might have thought they were ready to take it over but in reality they were not. By late 2014 morale was low and people kept on leaving as work conditions deteriorated.
DeleteMost new hires came from the cleaning department or whatever you call them (those who clean planes). These people were barely literate and were in no position to run the show.
BEG despised ASGS because in reality back in 2013/2014 it still had better educated staff. Mind you, most of these were older guys who used to work for JAT. BEG staff was mostly made up of rude, overpaid and hostile people with no qualifications. For years and years the only way you could get to BEG handling was if you started your career in сортирница or чистоћа.
ASGS had full government protection so if they wanted they could have taken over everything. They didn't because at that time there was no willingness to purchase all the new equipment and to train more people.
ASGS could have worked if some older guys were allowed to do their job. Since October 2013 some new faces appeared for whom a pretty facade was extremely important so as to cover the decaying business foundations. This became especially apparent once EY guys left ASGS, they were the ones who opened doors to new talent.
Let's not forget that it was not BEG that started hiring externally. It was Air Serbia which started bringing in people from outside. In 2013 a lot of fresh blood came into the airline. Unfortunately a few years later they were all gone. Mostly because of 4 or 5 people ... who are sadly still at JU.
So it's going to be
ReplyDeleteGround handling: Menzies
MRO: Turkish Airlines subsidiary in Serbia
and now we wait to see who will take catering
I think the MRO deal with TK is dead. As dead as all other fantasies that were put forward by Marek (loyalty program, JV for RS-TR flights etc.).
DeleteAir Serbia is too small and insignificant for TK to bother with them especially now when they have undisputed access to the Serbian market. In the past they had to cooperate with JU as they were restricted by the bilateral. Marek more or less opened the door to them so JU was overrun in Turkey by both Turkish and Ajet.
+1 for JU
ReplyDeleteDelays have significantly decreased from what I've noticed. I flew a couple of times with Air Serbia and all flights were on time. Unlike last year when all flights were delayed. Also noticed luggage is being delivered much quicker than before.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand the situation in ZAG went in the opposite direction. Last year there were barely any delays but this year the situation is very, very bad. This morning most flights were delayed even Ryanair which sleeps at the airport and which have no transfer passengers.
Delete^ Likely that local ground handler can't deal with increase in traffic. There is only one ground handler - Havas so...
DeleteWith the aim to save as much as they can, it is not going to work. They need better trainers I.e. work place trainers that will properly train new staff and support them untill they are able to do the work without supervision. Next, lack of planning is another issue. Egos, lack of manners and lack of common sense is another issue. In my opinion they should send all their managers to shadow airports in Europe and learn how to run operations effectively and efficiently.
ReplyDeleteSo what does this mean for JU?
ReplyDeleteThey will have more say in the ground handling business which is obviously important. Last summer things fell apart because BEG handling was underprepared for the increase in traffic by Air Serbia.
DeleteMenzies is cheap and low cost
ReplyDeleteMenzies handling in UK airports has a terrible reputation.
DeleteHopefully they will do a much better job here.
100%
DeleteFinally
ReplyDeleteScottish "no" how! I personally think airlines lose a lot of control of their brand when they decide to outsource. The customer does not know that they are not dealing with an ASL employee and if things go badly it impacts on ASL not Menzies whose identity is hidden from the customer.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how bad Menzies might be, I think they are still an improvement over what we had in the past when BEG handling was in charge. At least gate agents are polite and don't bark at you with instructions.
DeleteI flew on OS a few weeks ago and their gate agents where like the old BEG ones. I fear Sky Partner or whatever they are called isn't doing a good job.
Can anyone explain something that is unrelated to this article? Air Serbia mostly flies the Tesla (YU-ARB) to New York and the Pupin (YU-ARC) to Chicago and Tianjin. I am flying from Chicago to Belgrade soon and am seeing that I will be on Pupin. As Tesla is the better aircraft I would rather fly on that plane but there is no opportunity. Does anybody know the reasoning behind this?
ReplyDeleteBuddy they are both in the same interior condition more or less with tired cabins, lots of IFE screens not working and some broken chairs. They are scheduled both for a cabin overhaul. Most important they are mechanically sound and safe so you will make your flight ok just maybe not in the outmost comfort you would like.
DeleteCalm down. I was just wondering. I was not aware that Tesla (YU-ARB) was also in a bad condition with IFE screens not working. The cabin overhaul is long overdue with them announcing it many different times. It will be good when it happens. Safety is the top priority and as long as they are mechanically safe that is all that matters.
DeleteMy seat on the Tesla was more less comfortable than on the Pupin aircraft tbh.
Deletemuch *less comfortable
DeleteTesla is pretty much always flying to New York for two reasons. Its cabin is far from perfect however much better than Pupin and given that JFK is the flagship longhaul route the dont want to offer worse product.
DeleteAlso, on Pupin you have crew rest areas which is needed to both ORD and TSN given the longer sector time than to JFK. If Tesla were to fly to these two routes they would have to block a certain number of seats to give crew with needed rest, decreasing the nuđber of pax
Thank you for the explanation. I was thinking that New York being the flagship route they would want to fly the somewhat better aircraft but was not sure.
DeleteNuđber of pax could be a problem.
DeleteOnce it was JAT, then they split to JAT and Aerodrome Beograd, AB, Then we went to war, then JAT technics splits, then Jat Airlift split s, then ground handling become independent, then,
ReplyDeleteWorking at an airport is good if you are young and still have to live at your parents.
ReplyDeleteA lot of experience to get from.
But two years are enough, then better look for a new job and move on.
Yes but then airport is always left with young and inexperienced employees. They need to pay more those who are good so that they stay and help in keeping the system working.
DeleteYou may be right but employers will never ever again pay good wages.
DeleteIf they dont find enough cheap personell they will simply import Nepalese workers doing the same job for Nepalese wages.
Thats our anglocentric world with neoliberal mindset and race to the bottom with everything.