Air Serbia targets up to six Embraer jets for next summer

Air Serbia will add a third Embraer E195 aircraft to its fleet later this month and anticipates the arrival of a fourth unit in January of next year. The carrier plans to operate up to six aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer during the 2024 summer season, all of which will be wet-leased from Greece’s Marathon Airlines. “It’s not a typical wet-lease, it’s a growing partnership towards a capacity purchase agreement (CPA). At the moment, we’re targeting five to six units for next summer. That depends very much on how Marathon will be able to source aircraft”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, told “Aviation Week”.

The aim is to replace the 144-seat Airbus A319s, which will be phased out. That will leave a gap between the 72-seat ATR 72-600s and the 180-seat A320s. The E195s seat 118 passengers. As a result, the Embraers are being used in several roles. Mr Marek noted, “We would like to grow frequencies on some of the routes on which we’re using A319s. It’s much better, as a hub-and-spoke airline, to have high frequency rather than more capacity. We’re also using them on some ATR routes that need an upgrade, but which are not mature enough for an A319, such as Prague, and regional routes where we have high demand, such as Montenegro, Romania and Italy. We also use them to Germany, where we have thin routes on which we want more frequency”.

Air Serbia currently has two E195s, plus a single E190 and a single E175. The last of these is a temporary addition until a third E195 arrives this month. Marathon Airlines, as the capacity provider, was recommended to Air Serbia by Embraer. “Marathon is looking for aggressive growth, and so are we. We’re 45% above 2019 figures in terms of passenger numbers. We will carry four million passengers this year, compared to 2.8 million in 2019”, Mr Marek explained. The Embraers are expected to play an important role in the significant frequency growth the airline plans to unveil across its network for the 2024 summer season.