New from Jat Airways

Much has been happening in the company this year, heaps of profits, records broken and expansion. I’ve searched for any of the related news on this site in regards to Jat Airways, and it seems to be a bit outdated.

i – Jat Airways is to be taking 2 CRJ700’s aircraft, with the first to arrive late this year (Nov/Dec) and the second early next year (Jan/Feb). These 2 a/c will be leased for 10 years at a cost of

ii – Recently, JAT wet leased a B737-200 (YU-ANP) from another Serbian carrier, Aviogenex.

iii – JAT has been given the “green light” by the UNMIK (United Nations Mission In Kosovo) to re-start it’s domestic flights between Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport and Pristina. JAT will be making Pristina it’s 3 secondary hub, after Nis Konstantin Veliki Airport and Tivat Airport in Montenegro. From Pristina, JAT is looking at operating flights to a few European destinations.

iv – JAT is hoping to re-start many destinations very soon, which include Bucharest Otopeni, Sofia, Banja Luka, Pula, Timisoara, and has been given rights to fly to Hamburg, which the company will do in 2007.

v – JAT is intending to increase frequencies to Sarajevo, Tirana, Skopje and Dubai.

vi – As of April 2007, JAT will introduce a new stop-over destination for their flights enroute to Dubai. Ohrid will become their new stop-over destination flying the route BEG-OHD-DXBvv twice a week. Beirut will also remain and will continue the usual BEG-BEY-DXBvv but 5 p/w. Macedonian aviation board are seeking BEG-SKP-DXB flights by JAT. This will enable Macedonia bound passengers from Australia a 8 hour reduction in travel. OS currently flies Macedonians to the Macedonian capital, Skopje in around 28-29 hours. JAT will do this in 20 hours.

vii – In July of this year, Emirates have signed an agreement continuing their current agreement of where JAT transfers Australia/New Zealand bound passengers to Emirates, and Emirates will transfer Serbia (and soon Macedonia) bound passengers with JAT. The agreement will last 4 years. Recent rumours that Emirates will fly to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, with A330’s, as of January 1st 2007, when the open skies agreement takes affect on Serbia is not true because of the agreement between Emirates and JAT.

vii – confirmed: JAT will fly daily to DXB from BEG unconfirmed: with B735’s.

viii – JAT this year has made their largest profits for the first time in 15 years. In the period January-June 2006 Jat Airways carried 503,818 passengers, 1724 tons of goods and 338 tons of mail. In comparison to the same period last year the number of the carried passengers soared by 28%, the transportation of goods recorded the 5% drop while the mail transportation rose by 13%. The cabin load factor recorded the increase of 3 indexes equaling 53%. The whole aircraft load factor increased, too. On flights to Montenegro the number of the carried passengers soared by 77% , in the Euro-Mediterranean traffic the number rose by 21% while the number of passengers on charter flights recorded the drop of 10%. The number of flying hours achieved by Jat’s whole fleet increased while the daily number of flying hours soared by 26%.

ix – In March this year, Jat Airways leased 1 B767-200ER for their re-starting of trans-atlantic flights, 3 p/w to JFK and 2 p/w to YYZ. The FAA are yet to still re-asses Serbia into CAT I, even though the Serbian government asked for this more than 1 and a half years ago. The aircraft stayed in Nimes, France for a week or two where it was to be painted in new Jat Airways colours and re-fitted, but the a/c never arrived in Belgrade as JAT cancelled the leasing because the FAA haven’t done their re-assesment of Serbia (then Serbia-Montenegro). The latest news on this is they will attempt December 13th for flights to JFK but it is highly unlikely it will happen. JAT has said it will lease 2 B762ER’s in their new plans which will enable them to add ORD to the route map, along with JFK and YYZ.

This is all i can think of right now. Lots of stuff for such a small airline 😉