A new deal on the horizon?
Serbia’s troubled national carrier Jat Airways is negotiating with one of the world’s largest banks, the American Citibank. After a meeting with the Serbian national carrier yesterday, Citibank officials say that they see Jat as a potential new partner. It is believed Jat would request a multi million dollar loan from Citibank to cover outstanding costs and would invest left over funds into its delayed fleet renewal programme. In the past, Jat had extreme difficulty in obtaining loans from banks because the Serbian government would never guarantee that Jat would return the money and thus banks were not intent on helping Jat. However, the government recently announced that it guarantees the return of all of Jat’s loans, reiterating again that it will firmly stand besides Jat. Jat is also negotiating with Banca Intesa, Komercijalna banka and another Serbian bank for a possible loan.Last week, on Thursday, the Serbian president and prime minister met with the CEO’s of Serbia’s government owned companies and agreed that all loans Jat has to the Serbian National Petroleum Industry and Belgrade Airport will be written off. Jat pays some of the highest prices for the use of kerosene in Europe.
Meanwhile, in 10 days, a Boeing delegation will arrive in Belgrade for a fresh round of talks with Jat. The news comes only a week after Jat officials met with a delegation from Airbus.
What intrests me is how much money will JAT throw away in chaging their name again? Lets not begin with painting a new livery. Hope something possitive is cooking up at JAT :-)
ReplyDelete^ I think that idea has been ditched
ReplyDelete@ ex-yu aviation
ReplyDeletewhere did you here that? in JAT there is talk about a 90% certainty that JAT will be renamed to Air Serbia in the new rebranding campaign.
The name JAT is the only good thing that has left from this company.
ReplyDeleteSam
Indeed, the name JAT is the only good thing that has left.
ReplyDeletemeh, only memories is the only good thing JAT has left. the JAT name has been tarnished too much, especially recently. this summer saw more negativity to the JAT name rather than possitive.
ReplyDeleteRepresentatives of Emirates airlines (www.emirates.com) will visit Belgrade to discuss the possibility of establishing the Serbian capital as their regional center.
ReplyDeleteRepresentatives of UAE’s Directorate of Civil Aviation will arrive in Belgrade on Wednesday to sign an agreement on flying rights between Serbia and UAE, domestic newspapers Blic and Novosti reported.
Airline representatives will accompany the delegation to present their business plan, according to the newspapers.
Aside from the regular Belgrade-Dubai route, the company wants to use the Serbian capital for flights to Australia, New Zealand, China, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. However, Emirates does not want to fly to these destinations on a temporary permit, according to the reports.
"Emirates has serious plans for air traffic between Belgrade and Dubai. For a long time the airline has wanted to establish Belgrade as its regional center through which we would daily transport passengers and goods to over 100 destinations in the world,” an Emirates source told Blic.
@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteThe flights will be operated via DXB. There is talk of JAT returning to DXB, so im guessing a new JAT/EK agreement is cooking up. EK tickets here are cheap, im guessing EK has lost alot of Serbian passengers since cancelling their agreement with JAT. EK isnt as convenient anymore, having to need to connect to another airport before getting to DXB. BA/QF is prefered now to Australia, and JAT has an agreement with SQ. With TK coming to Australia next year, and QR, EY already expanding in Australia....