Air Serbia to grow narrow-body fleet and look into regional jets
Air Serbia is keeping an open mind in terms of its fleet structure in the coming period with market conditions still changing quickly. In an interview for EX-YU Aviation News, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We are still flexible in terms of the fleet. We have a plan for how we will be introducing the dry leases. They will be added whenever there is a good opportunity on the market. Just because we are profitable does not mean we will go out and take whatever is available. One Airbus A320, which has been painted, should arrive in March, and start operations approximately in April. We are looking into adding an A319, which was not originally planned to join the fleet this year, but the deal is quite attractive and will most likely go through. We have signed a letter of intent for two more ATR72-600s, but because of maintenance and redelivery from the previous lessor, one will most likely arrive in May, and the other in August”.
Mr Marek added the airline expects to operate a fleet of up to thirty aircraft this summer. “This summer I would say we will have 28 to 29 aircraft and in terms of wet-leases we would expect four to five A320s or Boeing 737-800s and maybe one A319. We should have a clear picture on the fleet during March”, the CEO said. He added, “We want to grow the airline constantly, adding from two to three aircraft every year. Some years maybe more, some years maybe less. On top of that, we will renew existing aircraft, so this is just growth we are talking about”.
Commenting on the potential introduction of a regional 100-seater aircraft to bridge the gap between the ATR turboprops and the Airbus narrow-body jets, Mr Marek said, “It’s too early, in my opinion, to be creating the complexity of introducing a regional aircraft into the fleet. However, we might already have the opportunity for that segment. We have had some initial discussions but those will most likely result in us getting some capacity provider, instead of short-term wet-lease, similar to SAS or Iberia regional operations via third party, because that is low risk - observing how that aircraft or segment can perform before you start creating the complexity of adding a jet that requires additional licenses, crew training, engineering etc. We are looking into it. I don’t think it will happen this summer but next summer we may consider it”.
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