New Adria and Belgrade flights

Slovenia’s national carrier Adria Airways is already in the advance stages of finalising its summer 2009 schedule which begins on March 29. With the arrival of new aircraft more new services can be expected. Adria Airways will launch scheduled flights to the capitals of Spain and Bulgaria in order to meet the demand. Soon more information will be known about the new flights from Ljubljana to Madrid and Sofia.

Meanwhile Pegasus Airlines of Turkey will commence regular services to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport from January 25, 2009 after receiving necessary slots from Belgrade Airport and an approval from Serbia‘s Civil Aviation Authority. The new flights will operate from Istanbul’s alternative base - Sabiha Gokcen Airport. The flights will depart from Turkey’s largest city to Serbia’s capital every Monday and Wednesday late in the evening while it while its return flights will be operated on Tuesday and Thursday just after midnight. The aircraft to carry out the operations on this line will be either a B737-500 or a B737-800. This will bring the number of flights operated from Belgrade to Istanbul to 13 times a week. Currently Jat Airways operates to Istanbul Ataturk Airport 6 times a week while Turkish Airlines operates to the same airport 5 times a week. Read more

Adria Airways winter 2008/09Strengthening European services

Today on October 26, 2008 Adria Airways, the national airline of Slovenia will begin with its winter schedule. This winter season, which ends on March 28, 2009, Adria has increased frequencies to some popular services and hasn’t decreased frequencies on almost any other destinations. Seasonal flights have ended. This winter Adria will operate 234 weekly flights to 22 destinations from Ljubljana. It will operate flights using 12 aircraft (2 Airbus A320s, 1 Boeing 737-500, 7 Bombardiers CRJ200s and 2 CRJ900s) as it awaits the delivery of 2 new CRJ900 Next Generation aircraft and 2 Bombardier 1000NextGen planes.

Adria Airways will operate four daily flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna which have all been increased from double daily flights operated during the summer. Furthermore the airline will operate three daily flights to Brussels and Zurich. Flights JP322 and JP342 to Paris will remain unchanged with double daily flights from Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana. Flights will be operated 9 times a week to Amsterdam, daily to London, Moscow and Istanbul, five weekly to Stockholm and Warsaw, four weekly to Kiev and Copenhagen and three weekly flights to Athens. Flights to Barcelona will operate twice a week and services will cease on January 4, 2009.

The airline is significantly strengthening its flights within the region including former YU republics. Flights JP700 and JP702 from Ljubljana to Sarajevo will operate 13 times a week, daily flights to Priština will remain unchanged, while Podgorica flights will also remain with the same level of operations it had during the summer – 3 times a week. In Macedonia, the airline will operate to Skopje with double daily flights. The airline also remains committed to Albania’s capital Tirana with 10 weekly flights. Flights to Bucharest will be operated 4 times a week. Adria does not serve any flights to Croatia or Serbia’s capital Belgrade.

The only flights Adria will end are to its 2 seasonal destinations Birmingham and Oslo. The airline will fly into the winter season with new uniforms (pictured above). Adria will also have to prepare to deal with its 2009 summer schedule when many flights from June will have to be redirected to Maribor due to the reconstruction of its hub in Ljubljana.

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Adria introduces new uniforms

The Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways celebrated the 20th anniversary of its in-flight magazine and presented its new uniforms on the occasion. The new uniforms, which the staff will start using in November, are designed in the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, when air travelling glamour was at its peak. Hats and gloves give the new uniforms a touch of retro look. The predominant colour of the new uniforms, blue, is complemented with white and grey. Badges and name tags are made of silver metal. The pilot uniforms will meanwhile remain dark blue with golden marks. The uniforms were designed by Jelena Proković with the help of Barbara Znidar and Saso Radović and made by apparel maker Labod. The Adria In-Flight Magazine celebrated 20 years since it was first published. Its first issue was in English and German, since Adria Airways mostly carried out charter flights at the time. Now the most popular version is the Slovenian-English. The magazine comes out six times a year and besides informing the passengers about the company, flights and safety measures, it now also showcases tourist destinations in Slovenia and abroad. Read more

Good results for Adria and Jat Airways

In September this year Adria Airways from Slovenia managed to surpass a million passengers for 2008. By the end of the month Adria transported 1.040.037, which is an impressive 18% increase compared to the same period last year. Adria increased the number of its flights by a total of 16% (increase of 17% on scheduled lines and 14% on charter destinations). When compared to last year, Adria has increased the number of passengers on each flight by 4%. When charter flights are not taken into consideration 826.877 passengers flew Adria by September 30, a 21% increase compared to last year. In September alone 132.276 passengers were transported (a 3% increase compared to last year).

Meanwhile the Serbian national airline Jat Airways has managed to overcome troubles to post a good passenger number in August, increasing passenger numbers by 7%. In a statement, the company said it had transported more than 1.120.569 million passengers, some 2.112 tons of cargo and 414 tones of mail as between January and September 2008. The airline also reported a 22% increase in charter passengers. The most interesting figures should be published in December when it will be seen how the major fleet and destination reduction will affect passenger numbers in the winter period. Meanwhile IZIT experts believe that Serbia needs to find a strategic partner for Jat Airways as soon as possible, as otherwise, the airline could go under. Saša Đogović from the Marketing Research Institute (IZIT) told a press conference that the company should have been privatized last year, adding that the state had let Jat down, and that a strategic partner should be found right away, without any tender. Đogović said that the state had to act as a businessman and have a vision for development and a plan to attract foreign investment.

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Adria flies into profit despite fuel prices

Despite gloomy predictions earlier in the year with announcements that Slovenia’s national carrier, Adria Airways was in a financial crisis, the airline managed, in the first 8 months to improve its profit by 20% compared to last year. This was achieved by cutting costs in other sectors in order to allocate expenditure for rising fuel prices which has destabilised the aviation industry. This way Adria managed to bring its operating profit to just over 1 million Euros. In total, without including any expenditure the airline would have achieved a profit of 21 million Euros. Adria’s management was less optimistic a few months ago when it predicted it would finish the year with a loss. Now the management believes the airline will just manage to make a profit by the end of December 2008.

The positive financial result comes as the airline transported 907.761 passengers in the first 8 months of the year. Adria is hoping for good financial results as next year expenditure will rise with the airline forced to redirect some of its flights from Ljubljana to Maribor due to an airport construction project which means Adria will have to provide free transportation between the two cities.

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Adria and Brussels Airlines sign agreement

The largest airline in Belgium – Brussels Airlines and Slovenia’s Adria Airways have began a special partnership on their line from Brussels and Ljubljana with an agreement to offer their passengers 3 flights per day. The agreement was signed due to the large cost of fuel and therefore this expenditure will be decreased as the airlines code share on their flights, a tactic most airlines in the EX-YU region will employ from the winter schedule. Adria operates flights to Brussels from Ljubljana using a CRJ200.

Meanwhile Adria has revealed a temporary promotional livery on one of its CRJ200’s, registration S5-AAF (as pictured above). The jet is promoting the Mini car.

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Adria Airways passenger numbers up 21%

In the first eight months of this year Adria Airways carried more than 907.761 passengers, which is 21% more than in the same period last year. The total number of flights was up by 17% (scheduled flights by 17% and charter flights by 22%). In the case of scheduled services, the number of passengers per flight rose by 6% in comparison to last year. In scheduled services, which is the most important sector, Adria operated 17% more flights in the first eight months of the year and carried 757.721 passengers, which is 24% up on the same period last year. In the month of August alone, Adria carried 150.233 passengers, which is 12% more than in August 2007. Adria operated 2.197 scheduled flights – 18% more than in August last year – and a total of 2.676 flights – 16% more than in the same period last year. The number of passengers on scheduled flights in August stands at 105.753, which is 19% more than in the same period last year.

In August, Adria completed its successful season of charter flights as it carried 13% more passengers than planned. Adria's summer charter services covered 24 Greek islands, the Spanish islands and destinations in North Africa (Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada and Tunis). Amongst the national airlines in the EX-YU region Adria comes in third after Croatia Airlines and Jat Airways. Read more

Jat Airways: We will improve 3 star ranking

Serbian media have responded to the website airlinequality.com which ranks airlines from 1 to 5 stars depending on levels of service and other factors influencing the airlines operations. Although the rankings have been available for more than 4 years, as a Serbian tabloid discovered the website, which is well known amongst aviation fans (website), other more distinguished newspapers picked up the story.

Jat commented on the rankings saying it has motivated them to improve services. The Serbian national airline joins airlines such as SAS, Canadian Airlines, and Iberia and also EX-YU airlines Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways in the 3 star ranking. Jat Airways released a statement saying that “the airline feels proud of its ranking having in mind the extreme difficulties it had faced in the past 17 years. Because of the rankings we will particularly focus on improving customer service”. Jat’s rankings in detail can be seen here.

MAT Macedonian Airlines has received a 2 star rankings while B&H Airlines and Montenegro Airlines have not received rankings as yet. According to the website rankings are reviewed annually. For a full rankings review click here.

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Good seven month passenger report provides little relief for Adria

In the first seven months of this year Adria Airways, the national airline of Slovenia, carried more than 757.528 passengers, which is 23% more than in the same period last year. The total number of flights was up by 18% (scheduled flights by 17% and charter flights by 28%). In the case of scheduled services, the number of passengers per flight rose by 7% in comparison to last year. However increase passenger numbers is not reflecting in Adria’s profits as the airline struggles with oil prices.

In regards scheduled services, which is the most important sector, Adria Airways operated 17% more flights in the first seven months of this year and carried a total of 651.968 passengers, which is 25% up on the same period last year.
In the month of July alone, Adria carried 155.366 passengers, which is 13% more than in July 2007. Adria operated 2.298 scheduled flights – 21% more than in July last year – and a total of 2.778 flights – 19% more than in the same period last year. Adria carried 109.899 passengers on scheduled flights, which is 20% more than in the same period last year.

Like most other airlines, Adria Airways is this year suffering the negative consequences of oil prices. In the first 6 months of the year alone, Adria's fuel bill was 34% higher than planned, meaning additional costs of over 6 million Euros. In comparison to the same period last year, Adria has spent 65% or 9 million Euros more on fuel this year. The cost of oil will have a significant effect on the company's financial performance; in the first 6 months of the year this was in line with planned targets, but the company estimates that at the end of the year the outlined financial performance will be difficult to achieve.
Out of the EX-YU airlines Adria is coming in third in terms of passenger numbers behind Croatia Airlines and Jat Airways.

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Adria moving out of Ljubljana next year

As reported earlier this month Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia, which is the national carriers, Adria Airways‘ hub, will go under an intense reconstruction project. This includes a 6 million Euro construction of a parking lot that should be finished in November, a new travel terminal T2 which will replace the sight of the old parking and will be located next to T1 and a construction of an airport hotel - all a part of Ljubljana Airports expansion plan to be completed by 2010. It has now been revealed that in June 2009 the airport’s runway 13/31, the only runway at the airport, will go under reconstruction and will be extended and widened in order to accommodate larger planes. This will force Adria’s evening flights to be redirected to the countries second airport - Maribor. Works on the runways reconstruction will be carried out by construction company SCT.

The news may be good for Maribor as it will significantly increase the airport traffic flow next year however it will prove a headache for passengers and Adria which will have to organise transpiration for its passengers from the one city to the other. Although ultimately both passengers and the airline will be awarded by a better looking airport. The duration of the runway expansion project next year is unknown. For example Belgrade’s Airport runway lengthening, which took place in 2006, lasted a month with work taking place from midnight to 5AM in order to avoid traffic disruptions.

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More passengers and more expenses for Slovenia’s Adria

Slovenia’s national airline Adria Airways has in the first 7 months of this year transported 23% more passengers compared to the same period last year while the number of flights was increased by 18%. The airline management believes that because of the increase in the global fuel prices the airline will have difficulties reaching its set goals for this year.

In the first seven months Adria had 17% more scheduled flights compared to last and a 28% increase in charter flights. This means that Adria Airways had transported 651.986 passengers by the end of July. In July the total number of passengers transported was increased by 13%. As is the case with most airlines this year the price of fuel has had a big impact on Adria Airways. The airline has spent 6 million Euros more than last year in the first 7 months meaning expenditure has increased by 65%.

Currently based on passenger numbers the top 3 EX-YU airlines are:

1. Croatia Airlines

2. Jat Airways

3. Adria Airways
Compared to the results for the first 6 months Jat Airways has caught up to Adria during July and taken over the number 2 spot while Croatia Airlines looks unbeatable for the rest of the year.

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Croatia Airline reports major loss in profit

The Croatia Airlines Group has, in the first quarter of this year, reported a profit of 823 thousand Kuna (just over 114 thousand Euros) while in the same period last year it had a profit of 30.2 million Kuna (4.1 million Euros). The 97% decrease in profit has, according to Croatia Airlines management, been caused by an increase in costs due to increased capacity. The management says that one must remember the purchase of new Bombardier aircraft and the increase in the price of fuel. The fuel increase has cost the airline 59.3 million Kuna. Croatia Airlines has increased the number of sold tickets within the country by 27% (at 259.03 million Kuna) while international sales have fallen by 1.3% to 479.9 million. The total expenditures of the Croatia Airlines Group this year stands at 850.25 million Kuna which is an increase of 19.3% compared to last year. Furthermore operational costs have increased by 20.67%. The most significant expenditure, as expected, is fuel which increased by 57%.

The results are nothing better for Slovenia’s national airline which will experience a financially difficult year again despite a strong start to the year and an increase in the number of passengers. You will be able to read about this in more detail tomorrow.
On Saturday there will also be news posted regarding the Jat Airways privatisation with two new surprising potential bidders. Stay tuned!

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Adria incident causes delays

An incident at Ljubljana’s Jože Pučnik airport on an Adria Airways jet has caused major delays to the airline’s schedule due to the fact that the aircraft has been taken out of service. On Wednesday an incident occurred when a parked Adria jet, which had just arrived from Munich, was hit by a baggage delivery trolley. Even though the trolley had its security breaks in use a strong wind pushed the trolley over which hit the side of the Adria plane. The plane was expected to fly again to Munich that evening however was taken out of service and has been causing the cancelation of certain flights as the Slovenian national carrier is now operating with only 9 aircraft. Nobody has been blamed for the incident as security breaks were in use and the cause of the incident was blamed on the wind. Therefore an insurance company will provide the finances to fix the inflicted damage as soon as possible so the plane can return to regular service.

Many flights today were extremely late. For example flights to Skopje and Tirana departed an hour after schedule. Slovenia has recently experienced extremely bad weather with even a tornado forming 2 weeks ago destroying villages in the process.

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Adria, Jat Airways and Belgrade Airport report good results

Slovenia’s national air carrier Adria Airways is reporting a huge increase in passengers in their half yearly report. For the period between January to the end of June Adria saw a 26% increase in passenger numbers. The number of offered flights also increased by 16%. In total Adria has had 602.037 passengers with a 38% increase in charter flights. In June Adria carried 138.274 passengers, a 20% increase compared to same time last year.

In the first six months this year, Jat Airways carried a total of 578.781 passengers. Compared to the same period last year, this is a 9% increase in the passenger numbers. Charter traffic this year grew by 38%. In June 2008, Jat Airways carried 141.000 passengers on 2.072 flights, an 11% rise against the same month last year. The average daily flight-hour level for the entire fleet for the January to June period of 2008 was 8:53 block hours, the highest daily number of flight hours being logged by the B-737-300 fleet - 9:48 hours.

Currently based on passenger numbers the top 3 EX-YU airlines are:
1. Croatia Airlines
2. Adria Airways
3. Jat Airways
However, like last year, it is likely Jat will overtake Adria in passenger numbers by the end of the year as the largest amount of passengers for Jat Airways come through during July.

Currently, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is unbeatable in EX-YU when it comes to the number of passengers that passed through its gates. Until the end of June 1.181.448 passengers have passed through the airport compared to 1.064.556 the same time last year. May saw the biggest increase in passenger numbers thanks to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest which was held in the city. Read more

Good financial results for Adria

Slovenia’s Adria Airways’ management board presented to the supervisory board the business results for the period January–April 2008 and an estimate for May. The company has attained all the objectives it has set itself and is achieving better results than envisaged in the business plan, since it has generated 12% more income than planned and 9% more profit than planned. The management board informed the supervisory board of the critical situation concerning aviation fuel prices, and of the measures the management board has already taken and the measures it plans to take. By keeping costs under control and improving its results, particularly in scheduled and charter services, the company has generated almost € 6 million more income than planned and thus mitigated the unexpected growth in fuel prices. The supervisory board gave a positive assessment of the work of the management board and supported its activities to mitigate the effects of high fuel prices.

In the period from January to May 2008, Adria Airways carried a total of 430,126 passengers, which is 28% more than in the same period last year and 7% more than the figure in the business plan, and operated 15% more commercial flights. The company operated a total of 9,633 commercial flights. Income from scheduled flights increased by € 2.8 million above the figure in the business plan, while income from charter flights grew by an additional € 2.1 million. The company also generated € 1.2 million more operating income than planned. Despite the clear increase in income from operations, fuel costs have increased by over 37% as a result of the higher price of kerosene and now amount to 22% of the company's total costs.

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Adria humiliates low cost carriers in Slovenia

Slovenia’s Adria Airways has posted such strong passenger results so far that it has humiliated all west European low cost carriers which recently started services to the country after the liberalisation of Slovenian skies in 2004. The results are so strong that 80% of low cost carriers have now dumped Slovenia from their destination lists. Although easyJet with its single daily route to London Stansted has an almost 5% share of the scheduled market its attempts to serve Berlin were less successful. Daily services were begun in November 2004 but the route was abandoned at the end of March 2006. Wizz Air has tried and withdrawn two routes to Ljubljana. Both London Luton and Brussels Charleroi services were started in May 2006 but Luton was dropped after one year and the Brussels route ended in mid-January 2008.
Even Ryanair has struggled. Last June it began thrice-weekly flights from London Stansted to Maribor in the north-east of the country. However, despite carrying 33,800 passengers in 10 months at an average load factor of 71%, the route was axed at the end of March. In August Ryanair had carried 4,431 passengers at 90.2% load factor but this fell to 2,971 passengers at 56.1% load factor in January.

Meanwhile Adria dominates all outbound traffic from Slovenia. Its frequency share stands a 77% while its capacity share stands at 76.5%. Easyjet is second, Air France thirs followed by Turkish Airlines and CSA Czech Airlines in term of passenger numbers. Germany is the biggest country market from Adria’s hub Lljubljana is to Germany with Adria serving the Lufthansa hubs of Frankfurt and Munich with four daily flights. The airline’s fleet consists of three A320s, one B737-500, six CRJ200s, two CRJ900s and a single CRJ1000. A Fokker 100 is being wet-leased for the summer season from Carpatair bringing the fleet to 14 aircraft. Adria recently started servicing the city of Oslo in Norway with its CRJ900.

Statistics source: OAG Max and Anna Aero

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May passenger report: Jat with 16 year record / Adria going strong / MGX reports improvements

Jat Airways

May 2008 has been a successful month for Serbia’s national airline Jat Airways. It has reported its best result since 1991 with 116.956 passengers transported – an increase of 19% compared to last year. Even more impressive is the cabin occupancy index (the amount of people in the cabins across the fleet) which last month stood at 68 index points – the best cabin occupancy result since 1990 when it was 66 index points. From January this year to May 437.862 passengers travelled with Jat, a 9% increase since last year. The big improvement in passenger numbers has been greatly contributed by the world’s biggest music contest named the Eurovision Song Contest (the 53rd edition) which took place in Jat’s hub city Belgrade in May. Since 43 countries competed there were many tourists and participant delegations using Jat. Secondly the overall standard in Serbia is improving which can be traced to the large increase of Serbs using charter flights this summer for their holidays to Greece, Turkey and Egypt as compared to using busses, as was the case in the past. Jat Airways can expect a record July in 2009 in relation to passenger numbers as the Summer Universiade Games take place in Belgrade with 44 countries participating (sporting event).

Adria Airways

Adria this year is doing very well compared to a not so great 2007. It is currently reporting better 5 month passenger numbers than Jat Airways, although Adria can largely thank its success this year due to Slovenia’s presidency of the European Union (which started in January 2008 and ends in June). In May the airline transported 116.413 (some 400 passengers less than Jat) which is an increase of 27% compared to last year. It will be interesting to monitor the airlines result in the second half of this year. Last year Croatia Airlines came first from the ex-Yugoslav region in terms of the number of passengers transported with Jat second and Adria third. Will Adria overtake the second position? Stay tuned.

Montenegro Airlines

Montenegro Airlines transported in the first five months of 2008 154.000 passengers. Although Jat carried nearly as much in only one month it is important to remember the size of MGX and the size of its market. The airline’s management board announced that the January-May 2008 period has improved 21% compared to last year. Read more