Inside Air Serbia’s latest A330-200

Air Serbia will take delivery of an Airbus A330-200 jet this morning, making it the third aircraft to be added to the carrier’s fleet since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The plane, registered YU-ARB, is set to arrive at Belgrade Airport from the Netherlands just after 11.00 CEST, where it has been for the past few weeks receiving its new interior. The aircraft will replace the only wide-body jet in the airline’s fleet, the A330 registered YU-ARA, as its five-year lease comes to an end. The replacement plane features a special Nikola Tesla-inspired livery, as well as a new business class product (pictured below). The twelve-year-old aircraft is expected to undertake a test flight for the Serbian carrier this afternoon after 17.00 CEST. Its entry into commercial service is currently scheduled for Thursday, April 26, from Belgrade to New York. Last minute changes remain possible.

The new hard product features fully lie-flat seats, with two in the middle, and direct aisle access for over 95% of seats. The cabin resembles most closely that of Ireland’s Aer Lingus and each seat also has personal charging points and USB, as well as a dedicated personal stowage area next to each seat. It boasts a total of 21 seats in business class and a further 236 in economy. All seats will have access to personal in-flight entertainment screens with on demand movies, TV shows and music. The soft product will also remain unchanged, with business class passengers having access to a la carte dining, amenity kits and sleepwear, while economy class passengers will continue to be served two complimentary meals and have access to the airline’s Sky Au Pairs nanny service - cabin crew who are specially trained to take care of children throughout the duration of the flight. The airline is introducing a new in-flight dining menu inspired by Nikola Tesla’s diet regimen, which is based on three keyword that can be used to describe his work and patents - energy, frequency and vibration. The menu for economy and business class passengers was inspired by Tesla’s childhood, his student days and his life in New York. Passengers will be able to find the Tesla meals marked with the letter “T” for “Tesla’s way”.

Air Serbia A330 business class seat map

Air Serbia A330 economy class seat map

The incoming aircraft also features a special livery with Nikola Tesla’s portrait featured on the tail. The painting process, which took place in Shannon in Ireland, included the use of 22 different colours and approximately 250 litres of paint. It took eight days of non-stop work in three shifts to apply the livery with teams of around ten people per shift. The modification of Air Serbia’s existing design will only be applied to this aircraft, which also has dynamic lines symbolising movement and speed, while the main detail is on the tailfin, in the form of Nikola Tesla’s image. The distinctive blue colour, as a part of the national airline’s corporate identity, was chosen to be the main colour of Tesla’s image, which required nineteen different shades of blue to produce.

Manufactured in 2008, the incoming plane is a year younger than the previous jet of the same type in Air Serbia’s fleet, and its previous operator was the Russian national airline Aeroflot. Unlike Air Serbia’s first A330, the new airplane will have Rolls Royce engines. YU-ARA, which served in Air Serbia’s fleet from 2016, operated 819 round trip flights to New York, carrying a total of 319.712 passengers on the route. Over the past year, Air Serbia has also added two A319s to its fleet. It has retired three Boeing 737 jets, which were over three decades old, and returned one leased A320 and ATR72 to its previous owners.

EX-YU Aviation News

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