Friday, October 31, 2014
Air Serbia today handled its two-millionth passenger for the year. Marina Jovanović, traveling from Belgrade to London Heathrow, was the lucky passenger and she received two return business class tickets to a destination of her choice within Air Serbia's network. In a statement, Ms. Jovanović said, "I am so surprised that I am the two millionth guest of Air Serbia. I could not believe it and I am still in shock. It is a pleasure to travel with Air Serbia. I can see that the changes in comparison to JAT are remarkable, so I am proud that Air Serbia is our national airline. I still have not made up my mind how I will use my reward, but I would like to visit the Middle East, for example, Abu Dhabi". Air Serbia has already handled over 200.000 passengers in October. CEO Dane Kondić, said, ”We are very happy to celebrate Ms Jovanović as our two millionth guest. Coupled with our year to date results announced earlier this week, this achievement is further proof that we have the right business model and are on track to meet the expectations of our shareholders with sustainable growth”. The Serbian carrier becomes the first airline in the former Yugoslavia to handle over two million passenger in a single year since JAT Yugoslav Airlines in 1991.
Air Serbia today handled its two-millionth passenger for the year. Marina Jovanović, traveling from Belgrade to London Heathrow, was the lucky passenger and she received two return business class tickets to a destination of her choice within Air Serbia's network. In a statement, Ms. Jovanović said, "I am so surprised that I am the two millionth guest of Air Serbia. I could not believe it and I am still in shock. It is a pleasure to travel with Air Serbia. I can see that the changes in comparison to JAT are remarkable, so I am proud that Air Serbia is our national airline. I still have not made up my mind how I will use my reward, but I would like to visit the Middle East, for example, Abu Dhabi". Air Serbia has already handled over 200.000 passengers in October. CEO Dane Kondić, said, ”We are very happy to celebrate Ms Jovanović as our two millionth guest. Coupled with our year to date results announced earlier this week, this achievement is further proof that we have the right business model and are on track to meet the expectations of our shareholders with sustainable growth”. The Serbian carrier becomes the first airline in the former Yugoslavia to handle over two million passenger in a single year since JAT Yugoslav Airlines in 1991.
Where is Croatia Airlines?
ReplyDeleteActually, it would be interesting to know how far they've come.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is expected to handle around 1.9 million pax this year, right now they've got around 1.7 million pax, so 200 000 behind AS, but OU still operates at reduced schedule, till the end of October.
ReplyDeleteDude - change the batteries in your calculator ... 2,000,000 - 1,700,000 = 300,000 not 200,000
DeleteCongratulations for sending 3 almost 30 years old B733 to major cities like CDG, ZRH, FCO this morning. If ASL is unable to offer all airbus OPS couldn't they at least send the old aircraft to places like SVO, OTP, SJJ? They place high flying ads about comfort and service and then international travelers board old Aviolet Boeing....
ReplyDeleteCDG, ZRH and FCO are flying in a different wave than SJJ and OTP so your comment makes absolutely no sense.
DeleteFYI, Moscow is Air Serbia's destination with the highest yields so giving it priority makes absolute sense.
Ahhhh, if it was only that easy .... Maybe you should put your hand up and run the Ops division ... You seem to have all the answers
ReplyDeleteI am just insisting on what Mr. Hogan, Mr. Kondic and Mr. Vucic said, that in less then a year ASL will fly an all airbus fleet. Am I now wrong or them????
DeleteThe critic is killed for telling the truth, not the ones who lie......that's Serbia!
This is not responsibility of Ops or something that should be resolved at that level. Ops are given planes to use and they are using them.
DeleteReal question is why are they still allowed to use 737 when it clearly damages brand that's being promoted as being competitive if not above in the European business class offering? I understand 737's are fully appreciated, cheap to operate, and I personally love the plush feeling of that lounge-class seat on a 737, but keeping 737 in service is seriously detrimental to the new brand image. So announce additional planes and retire 737 asap.
I just love comments like this from self appointed experts like yourself.
DeleteOk Einstein, so what happens when an a/c goes AOG ? Who then makes the call on what operational spares will be deployed or how the aircraft get reassigned - particularly in a time critical period where decisions have to be made around getting people flying out to their destination or canx their flight altogether ?
Ops - thats why they're called Ops.
It is not ideal that 733s get utliised at all. BUT, if you ask any pax would they rather stay an extra day in BEG and miss any onward connex bcoz there are no Airbus', or would they be ok with a 733 so that they can still get to wherever they need to get to - 9/10 people will say - give me the 733.
Air Serbia is driving a/c utilisation very hard - bcoz they need to return to profitability THIS YEAR. Their usage is above industry average and well above every other airline in the region.
a/c reliability is high, but like any piece of machinery, things happen. They are fortunate that they have 733s as operational spares so that they can keep to the integrity of operating their published schedule.
Trust me - it is far worse for an airline to be constantly canx flights due to a/c reliability issues. This is much much worse than utlilising a 733 here and there
I'll take that "expert" as a compliment, thank you! However I am not an airline expert and never claimed to be one, but I do know a thing or two about aviation.
ReplyDeleteThis was never about whether to cancel the flight or use 733 instead - it is about 733's still being available to Air Serbia in the first place. I love 737 but it's time for retirement, for new Air Serbia's brand sake.
I completely understand the utilization and tradeoffs, it makes sense given the push for profit.
However I still don't see why is first year profit required, because we can all look back at the announcements made last year and profitability for year one was not listed. But let's not go there.
Once spending gets a green light from CFO, I'd like to see 737 gone and replaced. That would also allow the company to close the chapter on JAT.
Let's imagine a different fleet, one that has A319/320 (+ATR's) only, including Aviolet. Aviolet's planes would be A319 or even better A320 economy-only, but once that summer season is over, a couple of them could have front economy seats removed and replaced with business seats, so they could be used as a 100% backup when mainline jets are AO
I have not claimed to be Einstein, but if an airlines wants credibility it has to have a proper fleet planing. If after a year and airbus fleet completion 3 Boeings are actived in a single day, theres is something wrong. That's the point! Of course it's better then to cancel and send pax to other airlines, but's it disastrous to have fancy adds and at the same time send ultra-old charter planes to major cities!
ReplyDeleteI am no Einstein (but I like their bagels). It's easy to use 737 - they are free, crews are available, spares aplenty, just park it when you don't need it. But I agree - they should not be used for Air Serbia routes any more.
DeleteEventually we'll find a language that people can understand ... Air Serbia does NOT schedule it's 733s in its regular flying - they are simply operational spares when any aircraft go AOG ...
DeleteGot it ??
Got it. I think the message was: get more Airbus so 733s never have to be used as operational spares again.
DeleteAnd where do you think " more Airbus' " come from and cost ? No, there aren't any more airbus' bcoz they cost a lot of money and having the luxury of airbus' as operational spares (as you suggest), makes no economic sense - it would risk the profitability of the company.
DeleteSo agree, you are neither an aviation expert nor Einstein - that much is obvious ...
But hey, feel free to continue to post your uninformed comments - but pls be sure to put that caveat before you make any comment...
First uninformed observation : BA’s risk mitigation when they introduced new type (787) relied on lower utilization to minimize initial issues common with other type operators. Norwegian on the other hand went through a painfull process of having to wet lease other aircraft while dealing with early 787 issues. Operators are free to set their priorities and how will they impact profitability vs. brand value.
DeleteSecond uninformed observation: Air Serbia’s 737’s are now very slowly racking up cycles, but even they will have to get retired sooner or later. If not now, at that point in the future someone will have to figure out if and where will replacement aircraft come from, what type and at what cost. I trust Air Serbia will make a decision in their best interest.
Exactly.
DeleteThe problem is that currently two aircraft are not flying: YU-API and YU-APG. This means that Boeing birds have to step in to fill the gaps. What's the airline supposed to do? Cancel flights until both aircraft are fully operational while its B733s are sitting idle? I fear some of you do not think rationally as much as you should.
Of course, none of us wants to see these old ladies fly but things are the way they are and we can't do much about it. I am more than confident that Air Serbia will add more metal before the 2015 summer season.
I think most people here just don't t get the point. A proper fleet management takes operational hick-ups with a/c falling out of service into account. So the number of a/c covers times when members of the fleet are in hanger or out of service. A while ago the management and politicians were talking about a PURE airbus fleet and the Aviolet brand was not even on the horizon. I can even remember interviews where the establishment of charter branch with B733 was denied. I think that the reason is simple. The fleet management and scheduling is erratic and chaotic. The number of A319 is simple insufficient for the present schedule! They simply don't have the money to lease two more A319! And it will be worse when ASL will sent its own metal twice a day on the long flights to AUH. I will repeat: to spend millions of dinars for a fancy campaign and then send old (cramped seating) charter a/c to places like LHR is just totally unprofessional. I bet my ass that we will see lots, lots, lots of Boeing flights until 2017/18. Zivi bili pa videli.
ReplyDeleteProfessional ? The only currency here about being professional in the context of running an airline business, is profitability - no more and no less.
DeleteMgt's responsibility is therefore around keeping the focus on this critical parameter, where 733s constitute less than 5% of scheduled ASKs ... So the comments are taken well out of context
Exactly, with keywords here being "scheduled ASKs". In reality 733s probably pick up the AOG slack to the total of perhaps 10% ASKs flown (uneducated guess), but that alone is still not high enough to refrain passengers from switching brands. There are more positives than negatives for Air Serbia to continue to use 733s for spares, so the net benefit is clearly there.
DeleteThat didn't turn out right, what I meant was:
Delete...that alone is still not high enough to push passengers to switch brands...