Air Serbia to take delivery of second wide-body jet

Air Serbia is set to take delivery of its second Airbus A330-200 aircraft in the coming weeks after it was painted in Arizona in the carrier’s livery. The eleven-year-old jet, now registered YU-ARC, will be deployed on flights to New York, as well as Tianjin, with the latter set to launch in December. The aircraft will temporarily replace the airline’s other A330-200 which is due to go into regular maintenance, after which both will be utilised. Air Serbia has previously said the incoming wide-body jet will have a short entry into service, which would prevent the carrier from installing its own cabins, meaning it will temporarily feature those from its previous operator.

The second A330-200 features a special livery and is named after the Serbian physicist and physical chemist Mihajlo Pupin, with the jet bearing his image on the tail. Based in the United States for much of his life, Mihajlo Pupin was also the Honorary Consul of Serbia in the United States from 1912 to 1920 and played a role in determining the borders of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Notably, Mihajlo Pupin was one of the twelve people to have attended the first meeting of the National Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which would later transform into NASA. In addition to being involved in its establishment, Pupin was also the first Chairman of the subcommittee on Aviation Communications in the United States.

Commenting on its long haul fleet, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “The new addition will be vital to our further expansion, launching new routes and increasing the frequency of flights in our existing network of destinations. In addition to serving future flights to China, this plane will also be deployed on services to important European destinations that are in high demand. Our New York JFK operation is profitable and, combined with the new opportunities in China and expansion in the US, it was a simple decision to go for the second aircraft”. He added, “Today it is not easy to launch services to China, due to ongoing Covid restrictions, it is only possible to start one frequency per week. In order for the incoming aircraft to be utilised, we will also launch flights to Chicago. There is a strong Balkan community there. A third long haul aircraft is planned if the Chinese market completely opens up. However, that will take some time”.

EX-YU Aviation News

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