Air Serbia has concluded a wet-lease arrangement with airBaltic for two of its Airbus A220-300 aircraft over the upcoming winter season, replacing two GetJet Airlines A320s. As a result, Air Serbia will end its wet-leasing arrangement with Lithuania’s GetJet, which has been ongoing for several years. The 148-seat airBaltic A220s are set to begin operations on Air Serbia’s behalf from November 1. The number of airBaltic aircraft operating for Air Serbia will be doubled to four over the 2026 summer season. A wet-lease is a leasing arrangement whereby the lessor provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) to another airline.
Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We are very pleased to continue developing our cooperation with airBaltic, one of the most innovative airlines in Europe and our long-time codeshare partner. This partnership is of particular importance for Air Serbia, as on our flights, passengers will have the opportunity to travel comfortably and quickly to their destinations aboard modern Airbus A220-300 aircraft”. He added, “We remain committed to innovation and technological development, all with the aim of strengthening our competitiveness in the European market. This type of aircraft will be an important model and reference point for future decisions regarding the composition of Air Serbia’s fleet, all in line with the continued development and implementation of the company’s strategic plans”.
Thomas Ramdahl, airBaltic’s Chief Commercial Officer added, “With Air Serbia, we have maintained a long-standing cooperation for more than ten years, ensuring good connectivity between the Baltic region and the Balkans. Expanding this cooperation through the ACMI agreement supports efficient fleet use and reliable operations for both airlines. The ACMI model enables airBaltic to provide flexible capacity to partner airlines across Europe while maintaining consistent product quality and operational reliability with our modern Airbus A220-300 fleet and experienced crews”.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteA problemi s motorima, to ništa??
DeleteTo su problemi Air Baltic-a.
DeleteTacno tako.
DeleteDoes Air Baltic REALLY make money on these? They got all those expensive A220 and ended up wet leasing them to all and sundry. The fact that GetJet got outbid with its clapped out A320s…
ReplyDeleteAgreed. The GetJet A320s were really uncomfortable to fly on.
DeleteIt was a bulk order when Bombardier was struggeling, so I'm sure they got some kind of a discount
DeleteairBaltic is struggling financially. And for those people who will say how they are now doing great, it's not really the case. They have massive loan repayments for all these aircraft coming up. That's why they are wet leasing like crazy to get money ASAP.
DeleteWill these be Starlink-equipped aircraft?
ReplyDeleteHighly doubt it. Only around 10 of their planes have Starlink and for sure they keep these planes for their mainline fleet.
DeleteAt least we will have finally the moving map on the overhead screens :D
DeleteGood news. It will be a much more comfortable ride.
ReplyDeleteJust flew with their A220-300 (LX) yesterday and I disagree. Very unfcomfortable flight experience: hard and narrow seats
DeleteWonder for which routes they will use them
ReplyDeleteI think all over the network, like GetJet. There is no specific routes
DeleteWe will have time to get to know the plane and think about a possible order.
ReplyDeleteWho is 'we'?
DeleteWe the people.
Delete+1
Delete🤣🤣🤣🤣
DeleteNice
ReplyDeleteGood move. I personally like to fly with them very much. I like the aircraft type, the new aircrafts and crews and cabins are also on high level. BT has gained quite on reputation in recent years operating for LH group.
ReplyDeleteOn top of all that, I like their livery too: Simple but appealing
I was reading a statement from a small airline recently, and their boss said this: Low-cost airlines work with manufacturers to resell aircraft. We see something similar here.
ReplyDelete..Hi Fly i think
DeleteI was reading a statement from a small airline recently, and their boss said this: Low-cost airlines work with manufacturers to resell aircraft. We see something similar here.
ReplyDeleteCongrats JU!!
ReplyDeleteThis is the most important news of the day tho:
"This type of aircraft will be an important model and reference point for future decisions regarding the composition of Air Serbia’s fleet"
This is what caught my eye too. I wonder if this could mean that Air Serbia is potentially looking to secure an order for new generation aircraft, whether it could be the NEO, E2, or who knows maybe the A220
DeleteI think 10 year old A320NEOs will soon come to market, for me more logical choice would be order of 5 A330-900s
DeleteThe A320 NEOs should definitely come soon from the market. But about the A330-900 I think would be too big for Air Serbia, maybe they could order A330-800 since there is no backlog. And I also feel in the future they should get E2 jets
DeleteThere is no A330-800 backlog because the aircraft is not commercially interesting.
DeleteThe A339 has better economics so either airlines take it or go for the A350 if looking at larger ranges.
most of us here would like JU to prosper even more but listen to this guy saying 5 A339 should be procured??! from what? Serbia is already in unimaginable debts due to El presidente.
DeleteEither the A320NEOs or Embraer E2s should hopefully be in the fleet in the next few years. Thinking long term then either get A330 NEOs or A350
DeleteEither the A320NEOs or Embraer E2s should hopefully be in the fleet in the next few years. Thinking long term then either get A330 NEOs or A350
DeleteOnly if engine situation suddenly become stable, which doesn't seem to be real. Until then, no thanks
DeleteOU's only selling point of having A220s instead of A320s just flew out of the window
ReplyDeleteWhy would this be a “selling point”? Is there really anyone out there who chooses carriers flying Bombardier instead of Airbus? I would - to a degree - understand this if ATRs were involved simply because they are slow and loud, but between 220 and 320s, I cannot fathom why would anyone care.
DeleteI'm not saying it matters, I'm saying the smart folks at OU think that it does, and they actively were saying that A220s will be the reason OU will be profitable
DeleteThe two airline really don't compete against each other in any way. OU does not even offer connecting flights on many of its routes.
DeleteMany facts can simultaneously be true.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is a very poorly run airline, and Air Serbia is a very well run airline.
The A220 is a highly comfortable aircraft whereas the ATR is about as bad as it gets for flying in 2025.
I don't get the need for nationalism in the comments here sometimes.
I would remove word very from the "Air Serbia is a very well run airline". Just well.
DeleteComment above refer to anon @14:29.
DeleteJU's ATRs carry more passengers than OU's A220 in average.
DeleteQuite unexpected
ReplyDeletefew days ago, we were commentig here who will be replace for GetJet. People even wrote imagine it is OU 🤣 but one guy or gal said most likely its BT, guess he knew or was just very lucky in guessing
DeleteOn some forums BT was mentioned something like 2 weeks ago...
DeleteGood to see it's a long term agreement
ReplyDeleteThat also reduces costs. You get wet leases cheaper if you include the winter season too.
DeleteI love all these anon experts in the comments here
DeleteLike you, expert for comments, and grammar.
DeleteThey were supposed to lease 6 A220s to Sociedad Uruguaya de Aviación (SUA), which I don't think it's happening, so the price per unit is probably VERY low
ReplyDeleteYou will have a lot of people confused by what you wrote. "They" is airBaltic.
DeleteOnly one airline in this story has A220s to lease...
DeleteBut really: Is there any news about SUA progress?
DeleteMost probably a dead project
DeleteAir Serbia will now have an opportunity for first-hand comparison between Embraer and A220.
ReplyDeleteexactly! and this is amazing!
DeleteSo with this comparison and if results are good with the A220, would Air Serbia be interested in it?
DeleteWhy don' they get more A220 from FB
ReplyDeleteFB operates A220 on their scheduled flights, the rest of their fleet is on ACMI leases most of the year.
DeleteAll FB flights now are with A220-100/300. E190, 319, 320 are for ACMI and charters.
DeleteFB have minor flights during winter. Most of them to VAR
DeleteI suppose they will be flying in airBaltic livery.
ReplyDeleteWithout doubt. All of their ACMIs are in Air Baltic livery, including Swiss.
DeleteWhich is by far better than albino GetJets.
DeleteLooking forward to trying it out
ReplyDeleteWhat’s the point of this?? They were wetleasing A320 because of larger capacity and now they are wetleasing A319 like capacity plane, which they are reitiring. They have only 3 A320 for stronger demand routes and 3 more on a long shot(maybe)
ReplyDeleteThey don't need so many A320-like capacity during winter. We will see for summer.
DeleteThe point is that they got a better offer to lease new brand new planes rather than 20+ year old A320s about which many passengers they have complained. Their LF is currently 80% in summer so with this capacity adjustment, it will just increase.
DeleteExactly what I was thinking. They're reducing capacity by 35 seats per plane. Getjet's A320s were mostly used for charters and vacation destinations during the summer, and you need capacity there.
DeleteAlso next summer Air Serbia will have more A320s in the fleet as they are coming soon on dry lease as was already published here.
Delete"Getjet's A320s were mostly used for charters and vacation destinations during the summer, and you need capacity there."
DeleteNot true at all. They were used throughout the network. Most often to places like Madrid, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Copenhagen etc.
Frankfurt did not see any GetJet.
DeleteJU sends to FRA mostly Bulgarian E190, sometimes their E195 and rarely A319.
It does
DeletePlease prove.
DeleteExactly, Barcelona. And like every Antalya flight, etc.
Delete^ you conveniently left out every city that does not suit your argument.
DeleteGetjet is actually most used to Paris. And then places like Oslo, Larnaca, Stockholm
BEG-FRA was always an Embraer except once a week when it was an A319. This is for both of the flights (350 and 352)
DeleteOur friend got silent to prove otherwise.
Deletehe was hitting the nerve as going from get Jet to BT is something bad 🤣
Deletesome people want to make everything look bad about JU. It is true, some things aren't bright and should be better, but this deal is great.
+100
DeleteBut we keep hearing here that we actually don't know how the situation is bad in JU...
This piece of news must be the consequence of that bad situation.🤣
Who said going from Getjet to BT is bad. It's a fact that the capacity on the planes is being reduced by 20%. It's a fact that reducing capacity on charters and, as you said, Larnaca (summer destination, no?), which are often sold out, would not be such a good idea. I have no doubt they'll send them to routes with a lesser LF, but the fact is they'll have less capacity next summer, even with potential A320s which are to arrive.
DeleteExactly. We can only hope that they are preparing more frequencies on demanding route, which would be definitely better than keeping Get Jet wetleases.
DeleteIf JU had enough pilots and crew they would not need to wet lease planes. They got so many E95s and A320s this winter why need this BT planes? hm hm hm
DeleteThey have a grand total of 2 E195s and 3 A320s.
Delete"So many"
It is really strange that Air Baltic is leasing so much. Seems like they over-ordered and now have no idea what to do with all the capacity. The Baltics is a small market and not a tourist mecca
ReplyDeleteMaybe they planned to have more expansion to the east, and then they lost access to that?
DeleteAnd despite all political theatre they know that sooner or later the eastern market will reopen.
DeleteSo they lease the airplanes to tier airlines until they can make Riga great again....(uhhh that sounds like heard somewhere else....)
good1. good1!
DeletePretty good theory actually.
DeleteI can't believe that Marek is taking in a wet lease these planes...What a mistake!
ReplyDeleteHe should have taken some old planes so that some people here could continue curing their frustrations about JU.
there is a dude, few replies above that says it is a bad thing :D
Deletehe is trying to prove it by saying GetJet had more seats blah blah and providing Bombardiers instead of Airbus is a bad thingy xD
Imagine not being a bot and a yes-man, and maybe just thinking critically for a moment xD
DeleteIt might turn out bad, however I hope it turns out better than with GetJet.
And what was the issue with GetJet exactly? It served its purpose.
Delete^ True
DeleteProblem is that JU will have too many wetleases in fleet. Why if they get so many A320 and E95?
DeleteIdemo dalje...
ReplyDeleteNow I finally can fly with Air Serbia too
ReplyDeleteDuring summer season,, which locations need A 320?
ReplyDeleteBarcelona, Larnaka....
Marek is no fool, he takes what is most cost effective. 220 is a great machine, enough space for passangers and quiet enough to notice. But, air serbia gets only a few, it is not going single type like OU or aforementioned aribaltic
ReplyDeleteSeems really comfy. Looking forward to have an opportunity to fly on it. Usually I finish on Bulgarian wet lease unfortunately
ReplyDelete