Air Serbia is set to wet-lease four Airbus A320 aircraft from Lithuania's GetJet Airlines. According to its existing capacity filing, the arrangement includes two jets with 176 seats, one with 178 seats, and another with 180 seats. As previously reported, Air Serbia plans to additionally wet-lease up to four Embraer 190s from Bulgaria Air. In the previous summer season, the airline had similarly leased four A320s from GetJet and two E190s from Bulgaria Air, along with one A320 from Fly2Sky, which will not be part of this summer's fleet. Consequently, Air Serbia will operate eight wet-leased aircraft at the height of this summer's travel season, increasing its capacity by one aircraft compared to last year. A wet-lease is a leasing arrangement whereby the lessor provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) to another airline.
GetJet Airlines hosted a recruitment event in Belgrade late last month to hire Serbian cabin crew, who are expected to be deployed on flights operated on behalf of Air Serbia. Another recruitment session is planned for this Saturday. The Lithuanian and Serbian carriers inked a two-year partnership agreement in late 2023. “This partnership is strategically significant for both carriers as it supports the development and growth goals of the companies and expands the geography of winter flights”, GetJet Airlines said. During the 2025 summer season, GetJet Airlines’ A320s are expected to be most frequently deployed for Air Serbia’s flights between Belgrade and Paris, followed by Larnaca, Dusseldorf, Barcelona and Oslo, although further adjustments remain possible.
Air Serbia has previously said it is working towards reducing its dependence on wet-leased aircraft but noted that a growing number of airlines are bringing in capacity operated by other carriers due to the current state of the aviation industry. Speaking at the Southeast Europe Aviation Summit last year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “If you look across Europe, wet-leasing has become inevitable for the time being. We are sometimes criticised that we are using too much wet-leased capacity, which is at 15% [of flights]. It is something that we would not like to do, but it is what it is at the moment due to the state of the industry. We are working hard to be able to have sufficient capacity to grow on our own”. The recent acquisition of a new Airbus A320-family simulator by the Serbian government will enable the carrier to start a recurrent pilot training program in the country, which will further ease the need for wet-leases. “We will make sure that in the future we will not be fully relying on the wet-leases”, Mr Marek said last year.
If I understood correctly JU will have one less A320 this summer but one wet lease more because it will double the E90 fleet?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteStrange they don't need more A320s in summer.
DeleteThey are supposed to get more dry leased E-jets.
DeleteThose Embraer dry leases are arriving on 30th of February! 😋
Delete^ you obviously missed that one has arrived and is already in service.
DeleteYes, one!!!
DeleteFeb 31st actually
Delete😆😆😆
DeleteSome people here seem to be students of Analyst's school. Pity that resigned due to recent scandal.
DeleteStrange enough that they are taking 4 Embraers from Bulgaria, instead of taking dry leases. Maybe it’s a good deal, but not for the company itself.
DeleteThere was a detailed explanation published here why wet over dry lease Embraers at this point. But you are obviously not paying attention.
DeleteAt least they don't have in a fleet PW GTF.
Delete@anon 18:12: I understand that they don’t have enough pilots, but they should try to attract more of them joining the company. Wet lease is always a temporary option. If exclude props, wet lease will provide for more then 30% of the jet fleet. It’s just too much.
DeleteWhy exclude props? Just to prop (pun intended) your unhinged theory?
DeleteAt least now the wet leases are from just 2 operators compared to before
ReplyDeleteAnd unlike before they sell business class on the wet leases.
DeleteIt also seems that most cabin crew will now be Serbian.
DeleteNot just that but they will come from a company they already work with. There shouldn't be any surprises as with that Romanian company or Marathon. I just wish they were adding more dry leased A320s.
DeleteAnyone flown with these GetJet guys? What was it like, crew wise?
ReplyDeleteI flew with them a few times and they were generally good. International crew (from all over the place), friendly, polite...
DeleteI did it three times so far, once it was 737 and twice 320. It's always all Lituanian crew - pretty professional and kind, but somehow slow. The Boeing had more confortable seats with headrests. The soft product was exactly like with JU.
DeleteWasn't the B737 Klasjet?
DeleteIt was, however GetJet also leased from time to time their B737-800s to JU.
DeleteI fly with GetJet all the time to Malaga, they are pretty good..international crew..Seats are rather uncomfortable, like in LCC, that's the only bad thing...Also captains never recover lost time while in the the air ( to say- speed up a bit if they are out of schedule) like Air Serbia captains do...
Delete" state of the industry" is corporate speak that actually means we can not find enough pilots to work for us for the wages and working conditions we offer so we instead pay around 800.000€ a month to wet lease capacity.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete...or it means rates for dry leased A320 are very high at the moment due to demand from airlines repairing neo engines.
DeleteWell if wet-leasing for peak season works out better for them financially than offering excessive wages to pilots throughout the year, so be it.
DeleteA320ceo are currently dry leased for 200.000€ possibly less for 15 year old frames.
Delete^ Prices have dropped to 180.000$ which is around 170.000 Euros I think.
DeleteThank you, I was thinking the same. You don't have enough pilots, therefore you must wetlease foreign jets. How do you get pilot? By treating and paying them well and you may in fact get additional Serbian pilots who over abroad to return home and work here.
DeleteBut...that won't happen soon enough until someone actually trys to deal with this ongoing issue.
@Anonymous09:19
DeleteExcept that JU wetleases in the winter time as well 3-5 aircraft. So no, it doesn't make sense.
@10:27 could not agree more!
DeleteAnd I would say the way you treat them is even more important than the salary. The way rostering works, the way you the company sees their most valuable group of its workforce.
But some people in management positions have trouble coming to terms with the reality that pilot demand globally is much higher than pilot supply and it will be like that for many years to come.
Having a pilot is not enough to fly the plane, guys. Are there enough cabin crew, mechanicians, cleaner... You need all that to add a plane in your fleet. If the chain is broken, you broke. So, it's better to rent everything from someone who has it all up and running.
Delete2nd argument, have you heard about outsourcing? Wetlease is exactly that, outsourcing. One may wonder how it is cheaper for the company to rent whole call centre than to hire few call agents and do it directly. Well, it is cheaper.
Signing year around wet lease contract is almost the same if you would have dry leased plane wih all necessary expenses and workforce. Difference could be up to 20%
Delete@Anonymous14:42
DeleteCompanies tend to outsource non-core activities. Flying planes kind of is core activity for an airline.
LH Group outsources CORE activity too, for example to Air Baltic. As many other airlines do, so what?
DeleteAnonymous18:10
DeleteSo nothing. Things are not black and white in real life. Companies frequently outsource core activities and source non-core ones for million different reasons, but these are exceptions to the rule, and that doesn't mean that any airline would one day outsource entire fleet to India like a call center. Nobody here is against wet lease per se, but the amount of wet lease that is used. Normally, unless there is some unplanned demand increase, there is no logical reason for a healthy airline to have wet leases in winter season. After Covid, there was a significant increase in demand and mass wet lease was completely reasonable solution, but years have passed since, market has settled and there is no visible difference in their fleet organization. That is not normal
I heard their seats are very uncomfortable and cramped like Wizzair, is that true?
ReplyDeleteNot really. They have one aircraft which is, that I believe actually operated for Wizz. But overall they are fine, like any other A320.
DeleteA320ceo with 30 rows of seats is tight. But wet-lease operators always try to have as many seats as possible on their aircraft since it makes them more attractive to the airlines leasing capacity.
DeleteWell, JU can always use these less comfortable ones on charter flights. Most flying on these flights don't really care.
DeleteFor flights up to two hours they are fine. Unless you are over 1.85 tall.
Delete@09:15 well..... it's not like JU's A320s are more comfortable than GetJet's. JU's comfort is similar to Wizz.
DeleteYes, seats are quite uncomfortable, and they always send GetJet to Malaga which is 4 hour flight...I flew with them like 20-30 times so far to Malaga and back..But what to do, thats the only direct line..Apart of seats, the rest is fine..
Delete^ That is my impression too.
DeleteBEG-AGP (Malaga) average 3:15h......just sayin'
Delete@22:10 maybe AGP- BEG, outbound they never fly below 3:30 hours...When you add taxi to building, disembarkation, it rounds to 4
DeleteAt least they acknowledge the wet leases are not popular with passengers :D
ReplyDeleteThat is not what he said though. He said "we are sometimes criticized", there is no implication that it's the passengers doing the criticizing. In fact most passengers probably don't even know what a wet-lease is.
DeletePax can definitely tell when an aircraft does not have JU colors on it and the crew ain't JU's.
DeleteYou would be surprised
DeleteAir Serbia will have 28 aircraft, possibly 29, and 8 wet leased this summer. Total 36 or 37 airplanes
ReplyDeleteThat's 5 more than last summer?
DeleteMore and more airlines are wet leasing, even airlines you would never expect
ReplyDeleteEven British Airways is wet leasing ATR72s due to lack of planes.
DeleteBA always wet leases ATRs. They never operated themselves propeller aircraft in decades.
DeleteMost European legacies have wet leases.
DeleteIt would be nice if one day Air Serbia has enough of its own aircraft to serve its network.
ReplyDeleteIt has enough ATR and A330
DeleteIt probably has twice as many A330s as it currently needs. Hopefully long-haul expansion will be announced soon.
DeleteThey don't. In summer the A330s will be operating at full capacity.
DeleteI fly BEG-BCN-BEG every month and GetJet is on almost all flights. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the fact that a lot of the cabin crew are Spanish. But finally last night we had an Air Serbia A319 :D
ReplyDeleteYes, I also came from Barcelona last night with Air Serbia..I was so happy to see them..I'm already a bit fed up with GetJet on all spanish routes..Its always nice to see our crew, and captains always speed up if they are behind the schedule..And in Barcelona they always are..I wander what happened last night, plane was there on time, we embarked on time, and than this girl from gate counter came in started looking for Dusan?!! And then we were sitting for 45 min..It hapens in Barcelona all the time, those airport employees are sooo bad, they don't know their job..Luckily captain speeded up and we came in 1 minute less then 2 hours..This would never happen with GetJet, they would even take longer in the air, than scheduled.
DeleteTrue! I thought we were waiting for a slot or something like that. Didn't hear the lady searching for someone. The good thing is we arrived on schedule :)
DeleteMr. Vishnja speed is not regulated by the pilots but by the flight plan and this one is produced taking into account ATC, Meteo and flying conditions in order to produce an optimal consumption of fuel. Unless specifically ordered by ATC to go faster or slower (during ascent or decent) the crew cruises at the speed idicated in the flight plan.
Delete@12:54 I didn't know that..but how come Air Serbia's pilots always try to recover lost time, and they mostly manage, in certain percent, but Wet lease never, they always fly with duration that is scheduled, never try to recover lost time..That is odd for me, I thought that wet lease do that to save some fuel (who knowes what kind of deals regarding fuel they have with Air Serbia) , because with faster speed more fuel is consumed
DeleteWell I am glad they are aware people are generally unhappy with the wet leases. On the other hand I think they have done a good job with the selection of wet lease partners and limiting the number of wet lease partners.
ReplyDeleteNo, people are generally happy with it
DeleteNot really.
DeleteMajority is fine
DeleteNo, majority is not fine with it and JU knows that. That is why they are operating less white A320s this year. If passengers were happy they would have more of them.
DeleteWhere does it say passengers are not happy?
DeleteWhy would passengers be happy?
DeleteAir Serbia just set new passenger record in 2024, so they are happy to come back and fly more.
DeleteWell, they're certainly not coming back because they love wet leased equipment lol.
DeleteYour source again is Trust me bro? Well I don't trust one thing without evidence you don't have.
DeleteWet leases seem like a good short-term solution but I hope they manage to increase their own fleet soon.
ReplyDeleteThey have increased it to 28 or 29.
DeleteI wonder about the impact on Air Serbia's brand and customer experience. Consistency can be challenging with mixed operators.
ReplyDeletePerhaps for you but not for Air Serbia
DeleteThe consistency is just bad. The overall customer experience of these Wet leases is poor. I remember the smug Bulgarian stewardess who behaved like she's operating a a380 to DXB lol
DeleteThe absence of a FF program, the lack of corporate program and the lack of alliance membership is a lot more important than white aircraft and Lithuanian aircrews.
DeleteJust my2cents
They have an FF program. Just because you repeat that they don't every other day does not make it so.
Delete^ They have partial use of EY's program, an airline that doesn't even fly to BEG any more!
DeletePoints accrual is the same if flown on wetleased plane or plane with Air Serbia livery. But you would need to be free in order to fly and accumulate points.
DeleteWhy didn't they work on dry leasing more Airbus narrow bodies?
ReplyDeleteAnd few A321s wouldn't hurt either.
DeleteNot enough pilots to fly them.
DeleteDry leasing requires multi-year commitment. Why would you sign a 5 year deal if you know pricing is trending lower? Why not wait another year or so and then sign a deal for lower price? Nothing to do with pilots.
DeleteHow does the 178-seat A320 look like? Where are the missing two seats? Same question for 176. Or they have a dedicated business class with 2-2 seating?
ReplyDeletethey have business now
DeleteBut I don't mean the regular euro business (3-3 with a blocked seat)
DeleteIt's euro business. Some have fewer seats depending on how the toilets are configured in the back.
Delete+1
Delete@Anon 14:17
DeleteThanks, I just saw Air France's A320 seat map on Seatguru with last two rows missing one seat each on the left side. Really weird... I wonder what happens for the 176 seat layout as I couldn't find such a diagram.
It's an improvement that they have just 2 wet lease providers and one per type. Remember when they had some Romanian, German and all sorts of wet leases.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteTrue but they should get rid of wet leases all together.
DeleteAnother day of great news for Air Serbia, another day of panic attack among "opponents" of Air Serbia as demonstrated by tons of comments attempting to present wet leasing in a negative light. Failed yet again.
ReplyDeleteMy god, what a conspiracy theory..ywa, people are just sitting and waiting to write negative comment about Air Serbia, or Serbia...I hear that story on daily basis from somebody's supporters
Delete