Air Serbia drafts A321 entry plans
Air Serbia plans to add Airbus A321 aircraft to its fleet after identifying favourable leasing rates and conditions for two of the jets on the market. The airline is yet to make a firm commitment for the two aircraft, however, a Letter of Intent for their lease is expected to be signed in the coming weeks, which would likely enable their arrival during this summer season. The Serbian carrier plans to deploy the aircraft on busy routes including Amsterdam, Istanbul and Paris, as well as more recent additions to its network, which have proven extremely popular with passengers, such as Lisbon, Palma and Malaga.
The Serbian carrier is now undertaking a technical evaluation of the two A321 aircraft that it plans to add to its fleet. The A321 would become the largest narrow-body jet to be operated by Air Serbia. The aircraft can seat between 185 and 220 passengers depending on the cabin layout. They will enable the airline to add capacity on busy routes and reduce the need to introduce additional frequencies to meet the demand, especially as some of the airports the aircraft would be deployed to are slot constrained. The carrier is confident there will be sufficient demand for the higher-capacity A321s even during the slower winter months, following what was a record 2022/23 winter season, which saw the airline register a high average cabin load factor and achieve profitability.
Air Serbia currently operates ten A319 aircraft, three A320s, five ATR72-600s and two A330-200s. Furthermore, it wet-leases two ATR72s, one A319 and A320 each, as well as one B737-800. In the coming weeks, the airline will wet-lease an additional B737-800 and two more A320s. As previously reported, the carrier is set to dry-lease an extra two ATR72-600s, which will arrive this summer, with plans for more turboprops to join the fleet in the future. An A330-200 aircraft, which will become the third of the type in the fleet, is expected to join the airline some time during the summer. Supply chain issues remain a problem, altering planned delivery dates and entry into service of leased aircraft.
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