Air Serbia sourcing third and fourth wide-body jet

Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, has said the airline is seeking to find a third and fourth wide-body aircraft on the market to join its fleet. Speaking to “Bloomberg Adria”, Mr Marek noted, “We have several possible aircraft, however, the biggest problem now are slots for maintenance, aircraft painting… There are a lot of problems in the supply chain, so something that we had to wait on for weeks have now turned into months. It is difficult to say when we will take delivery of the aircraft. There is a possibility for it to arrive earlier than we initially thought, while there is also a possibility that it might arrive in the fourth quarter. We are working hard to acquire a third, and soon after that a fourth wide-body aircraft”. The CEO noted the airline’s third twin-aisle jet will also feature a portrait of a famous Serbian personality on the tail, but he could not reveal further details at this point.

Air Serbia has previously said it plans to expand into China with its third wide-body aircraft. Services to Beijing and Shanghai are on the cards. “Our flights to New York became profitable during Covid and that is why we were encouraged to launch our second long haul service. Once you establish that second one, then the third, fourth, fifth come more easily”, Mr Marek said. He added, “Last December we successfully launched flights to Tianjin in China, which has been profitable from day one and we will continue to develop operations in China, however, gaining access to the market within the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area may take some time due to permit approvals.

The CEO noted that further expansion in North America is also planned. “We already mentioned earlier that we plan further expansion in North America. We are currently considering Miami and Toronto. Chicago launches next month, with flights from the US to Serbia already sold out. This route is developing rather well, which shows that we should continue on the same path”, Mr Marek said. He added, “This entire time we have been aiming to have five wide-bodies in the fleet, but after seeing how our Chicago and China flights have been performing, it may be possible that in ten years we have up to eight [wide-body] aircraft”.