Air Serbia aircraft A320 image
Air Serbia aircraft A320 image

Subsequent yr, Air Serbia is planning to inaugurate service to Chicago, however it’s already eyeing further locations in the USA.


American enlargement

Air Serbia’s CEO Jiri Marek shared some perception into the airways’ enlargement plans to the USA with Aero Telegraph,

“We’re taking a look at different locations within the US. However once more, our important technique is to focus on cities which have year-round potential. We don’t need to improve seasonality, which is already excessive in our area. That is one of many causes we favour Chicago over Toronto, for instance, as a result of the Canadian metropolis isn’t solely extraordinarily seasonal, but in addition extraordinarily unidirectional. Firstly of the season the flights are full in a single path, and on the finish of the season within the different path.”

The busiest unserved United States routes from Belgrade, excluding Chicago, are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, Detroit, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, Tampa, Houston, and Orlando.

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Air Serbia owes loads of its success to the Serbian authorities which subsidizes and owns a lot of the airline. Photograph: Air Serbia

The Serbian service already plans to have every day service to New York subsequent summer time along with two weekly frequencies to Chicago and hopes to conform to a codeshare with a serious United States airline. Air Serbia has beforehand tried to kind a codeshare settlement with American carriers however was unsuccessful.

“We at present have interline agreements that work fairly properly. However we’re engaged on reaching the following stage, which is codeshare cooperation with one of many main airways in the USA. We’re within the last levels of negotiations and consider we are able to announce this earlier than the top of the yr.” – Marek

Current Air Serbia information

Early this week, Air Serbia introduced that it was relying on 2022 to be a worthwhile yr. Newly appointed CEO Jiri Marek stated,

“We’re a smaller regional airline and need to develop with the market in a worthwhile and sustainable approach. In 2021 we considerably improved our operational efficiency and even lowered our loss. This yr we’re aiming to be worthwhile, and we’ll proceed to be on that path sooner or later as properly. We wish it to remain like that. Air Serbia will proceed to be the main regional service within the Balkan area, and we want to maintain our market share between 50 to 55 p.c in Belgrade.”

Earlier than 2020, Air Serbia recorded earnings yearly from 2014-2020. However had it not been for presidency subsidies, Air Serbia would have suffered important losses. The worth of the airline’s subsidies is unknown, in addition to the subsidies supplied by the federal government to over 50 organizations.

Etihad used to have an possession stake in Air Serbia, nevertheless it just lately withdrew. Photograph: Air Serbia

Lower than two years in the past, Air Serbia acquired a capital injection of $100 million, however how the cash was used is unknown. The injection elevated the Authorities’s stake within the airline from 51% to 82%, which occurred as Etihad withdrew from Air Serbia. Because the Serbian authorities and Air Serbia are tightly linked, Air Serbia has been capable of develop considerably. Marek added,

“Air Serbia performed a major position through the pandemic, serving to the Serbian authorities with repatriation flights, with delivering medical support and so forth. And I believe we proved that not solely connectivity but in addition important financial advantages are a results of our operation.”

The Serbian airline hopes that this yr’s return to revenue will start a pattern of long-term profitability.

Do you assume that Air Serbia will have the ability to attain a codeshare with an American service anytime quickly? If that’s the case, which one? Tell us within the feedback under.

Supply: aerotelegraph.com