Air Serbia to take Jet Airways slots at Heathrow
Etihad Airways will lease seven weekly slot pairs at London Heathrow Airport to Air Serbia. They were previously utilised by the now grounded Indian carrier Jet Airways. The Indian airline, which was until recently the country's second-largest, suspended flights last week under the weight of high debt and a severe cash crunch. Etihad has since taken over some of its slots at one of the world's most congested airports, in London, which it will lease as of tomorrow to Air Serbia for an undisclosed sum. The two partners have submitted a slot swap request form. As a result, Air Serbia is expected to soon add an extra seven weekly services between Belgrade and London Heathrow.
The swap request was submitted yesterday to Airport Coordination Limited, a slot coordination company, and will be in effect until the end of the 2019 summer season on October 26. They include a daily 17.20 arrival into Heathrow and a 19.45 departure. The airline already owns a daily 10.25 arrival and 13.30 departure slot, as well as a two weekly (weekend) 18.10 arrival slot and 18.55 departure. The newly leased slots will be operated under new flight numbers JU388/JU389. An Etihad Airways Airbus A320 is expected to be deployed on the service on behalf of Air Serbia.
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| Etihad Airways - Air Serbia slot swap request |
Heathrow Airport, as one of the most congested in the world, operates at maximum capacity for most of the day. Oman Air broke the record for buying the most expensive slot in Heathrow’s history at 75 million US dollars from Air France - KLM in 2016. It surpassed the previous record holder American Airlines which bought a slot off SAS Scandinavian Airlines for sixty million US dollars. Croatia Airlines sold five of its morning slots, which are the most sought after, for 19.5 million US dollars in 2017 to Delta Air Lines.
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