Embraer aircraft a “striking fit” for Air Serbia
Plane manufacturer Embraer believes it has the right aircraft for the Serbian national carrier to renew its fleet, noting that both its E2 jet, as well as the development of new turboprops would suit the airline’s needs. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Embraer’s Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Cesar Pereira, said, “Embraer has a very good relationship with the management team of Air Serbia and we regularly exchange thoughts on industry matters and business development topics. Air Serbia took an impressive development since its launch and we also took notice of their efforts in navigating through and out of the pandemic. With our E2 family, as well as the development of a future next-gen turboprop aircraft, we believe to have a striking fit for Air Serbia and will support their team for any future fleet evaluations”.
The E-Jet E2 family are medium jet airliners which come in three variants, succeeding the original E-Jet. These include the E175-E2, with the capacity to seat between eighty and 88 passengers, depending on cabin layout, the E190-E2, capable of accommodating between 96 and 104 travellers, and the E195-E2, seating between 120 and 132 passengers. Furthermore, Embraer has revealed a new turboprop concept which represents a shift in thinking for turboprop design. A seventy to ninety seat aircraft is proposed to feature aft-mounted engines and is expected to enter into service between 2027 and 2030.
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| Embraer's turboprop aircraft concept |
Mr Pereira believes airlines will have to increasingly look into modifying their existing fleets to suit the needs of the post-Covid world. “There are several post pandemic trends we foresee which will influence the way we travel, and subsequently needing airlines to re-think fleet and network strategy. One of these trends is that we see passengers preferring to travel nonstop whenever possible, avoiding busy hubs”. He added, “For hub airlines that means that they will need to refine the aircraft size. But we also see opportunities coming up with low cost airlines, which are historically operating 180+ seater aircraft, but might now have the chance to tap into really small markets that cannot profitably sustain big aircraft like A320neo or MAX 8, but requiring smaller and superefficient aircraft like the E195-E2. The E195-E2 has a much lower cost per trip than these bigger aircraft, but almost the same cost per seat. This could become a competitive advantage for LCCs to create new markets and grow market share in underserved/non-served markets”.
Commenting on the manufacturer’s strategy in the region, Mr Pereira noted, “Today there are more than 100 operators globally operating our jets, in more than ninety countries, and we are very proud of the strong relationships we’ve build with our operator base and of course also the airlines that are not yet operating our type, just like Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia. Our sales and marketing teams are very active in the market, and we continuously talk to a large number of airlines, even if they operate completely different business models”.
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 737-700 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 over a 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 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. Last year, Air Serbia shelved plans to lease additional ATR72s due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
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