Air Serbia is upgrading seasonal summer operations between
Belgrade and Split to a year-round service. Flights will continue to operate
past October 26 twice per week, on Mondays and Fridays. Tickets for the winter
Split flights are now available to purchase through the airline’s website. Services
to Bari and Naples will also continue throughout the winter.
Air Serbia has signed agreements to add five aircraft to its
fleet over the upcoming winter season. “These will be arriving in the next
couple of months and include two additional Embraer jets and three Airbus
A320s”, Mr Marek noted. At the same time, EX-YU Aviation News has learned
that three Airbus A319s are expected to be retired during the same period. The
first, registered YU-APK, is expected to operate its final flight for the
airline at the end of next month, marking the beginning of Air Serbia’s strategy
to gradually phase out the A319 fleet.
Despite a slight dip in passenger numbers in July, Air Serbia remains confident it will surpass JAT Yugoslav Airlines’ 1987 passenger record. Mr Marek said, “We are quite certain we will exceed JAT’s former record from 1987, when it carried 4.5 million passengers. Last year we handled 4.4 million, and we now estimate around 4.7 million this year, representing 6% growth. At the moment we are trending at about 5%. So, we will definitely surpass JAT’s record, but we are aiming to reach 4.7 million”.
Mr. Marek added, “Passenger numbers are growing faster than seat capacity, which means our load factor is higher. With the launch of flights to Guangzhou and Shanghai, combined with the government’s signing of a Free Trade Agreement with China, we are also seeing a very positive impact on cargo performance. All of our KPIs are improving, and we are very satisfied with the season”.
On profitability, the CEO noted it was still too early to provide exact figures, as all airlines typically perform strongly during the peak summer months, but confirmed results so far are in line with last year’s record profitability.
