Air Serbia completes turboprop renewal, considers expansion

Air Serbia has completed the renewal of its ATR72 turboprop fleet with the carrier taking delivery of its last of five -600 models of the aircraft last week. It is considering further growing its regional fleet. The latest aircraft, registered YU-ASA (pictured), is nine years old and previously operated for Aer Lingus and its subsidiaries but has been stored for much of the past two years. It features the new cabins installed across the ATR fleet and is expected to enter revenue service shortly. In addition, the carrier has wet-leased an ATR72-600 from Romanian carrier Air Connect. It commenced operations on behalf of Air Serbia yesterday.

Air Serbia began the drive to replace its old ATR72 fleet last tear. It was comprised of -200 and -500 models, most of which were almost thirty years old and delivered new to the carrier’s predecessor JAT Yugoslav Airlines. The average age of Air Serbia’s ATR72-600 fleet is now seven years. Air Serbia is expected to retire the last two older -200 and -500 ATR models still in service, registered YU-ALU and YU-ALP, although it still has several older turboprops stored in Belgrade. Since the Serbian carrier owns some of the ATR aircraft it has retired, the company is studying the possibility of entering the freighter market and using the planes for cargo flights. The airline is also looking into expanding its ATR fleet. “The optimal size of the [ATR72 fleet] I would say is ten because then you can start benefiting from some economies of scale”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said last year.

The Serbian carrier also plans to unveil its naming concept for the ATR fleet this year. The names will likely be related to the country’s geography rather than personalities, as featured on some of its Airbus jets. Mr Marek recently said, “We are currently developing a different concept for our ATR fleet that will not necessarily be human related. It will be something more related to our home country”. In 2013, the airline launched a “Living Legends of Serbia” aircraft naming concept, where several narrow-body jets were named after famous Serbian sportsmen, actors and musicians. However, the concept never really took off and has been halted. The carrier named its first wide-body A330 jet after Nikola Tesla, while the second carries Mihajlo Pupin’s name.

EX-YU Aviation News

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