Air Serbia’s Airbus fleet renewal approaches
The Serbian government’s plans to renew its national carrier’s Airbus fleet after an order for ten A320neo jets was cancelled in 2018 is approaching next year, with clear signs the airline is looking to replace older jets in its fleet with newer ones. The Serbian Finance Minister, Siniša Mali, who served as the President of Air Serbia’s Supervisory Board between 2013 and 2018, previously said the carrier would replace its A319 and A320 jets between 2022 and 2025. "The acquisition of the A320neos has not been terminated but moved for the period between 2022 and 2025, as the aircraft we have been leasing so far have shown to be very efficient”, Mr Mali said at the time. However, over the years, the Finance Minister has not had the best track record in communicating Air Serbia's fleet plans to the public, previously announcing the airline’s ATR turboprops would be completely replaced and a second wide-body jet would join in 2016, none of which materialised.
The coronavirus pandemic has seen Air Serbia reduce its fleet size and renegotiate leasing contracts. However, the need for additional aircraft was illustrated over the summer when the airline was forced to wet-lease a Boeing 737-800 jet to meet demand for leisure flights. Last month, it returned its oldest A319 to the lessor, with its second oldest having been grounded for the past month as well. Overall, the airline now has ten A319 jets, one A320, one A330-200 and five ATR72s in its fleet. Over the past year, it has also returned one A320 and one ATR72 to its owners and retired three Boeing 737-300s. At the same time, it added two former Adria Airways A319s for which it signed leasing contracts prior to the coronavirus pandemic and replaced its A330-200 wide-body with an aircraft of the same type.
Air Serbia’s average fleet age is at nineteen years with the ATRs being by far the oldest, averaging almost 28 years. In 2018, Etihad Airways cancelled its order for ten A320neo aircraft made exactly eight years ago, that were to be delivered to equity partner Air Serbia. Deliveries were initially due to begin in November 2018 and were set to completely replace the airline’s existing fleet of A319s and A320s by 2020. The aircraft were also to be used to unlock new markets in North Africa and Central Asia. Last year, Air Serbia shelved plans to lease additional ATR72s due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
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