JatAirways to become Air Serbia as Etihad takes stake
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Serbia national carrier JatAirways is to be renamed to Air Serbia as Etihad announced a 49% stake in the airline.
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier has signed a five-year management contract for the Serbian airline and follows a string of equity stakes which also include interest in Air Seychelles (40%), airberlin (29.21%), Virgin Australia (10.5%) and Aer Lingus (2.99%).
Under the agreement Air Serbia will be completely overhauled with a new look, livery, aircraft fleet and routes. The airline also has a new CEO in Dane Kondic, who joins the airline from Sabre Airline Solutions where he was regional director for SE Asia. Kondic has also held positions as VP north Asia for GTA; managing director of Kuoni Travel China and general manager of worldwide sales at Malaysia Airlines in a career spanning 20 years.
Etihad, which launched flights from Abu Dhabi to Belgrade earlier this year, will make a US$40 million loan facility available to Air Serbia which will be converted to equity on 1 January. Air Serbia’s government owners will also invest US$40m into the airline, which is 86 years old.
Aleksandar Vučić, deputy prime minister of Serbia said the rebranding was essential for the country’s economy and had to reflect national pride.
“The people of Serbia value their heritage and their national identity,” he explained. “This change signals a break with the national airline’s past practice but not with its strong ethnic roots. “The name Air Serbia will carry the national identity into other markets, and clearly establish the Serbian brand in a way that Jat Airways could not.”
James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ president and CEO welcomed Air Serbia to its equity alliance.
“In addition to creating scale, our renowned business model provides a unique common platform to drive synergies and cost savings which will be of considerable benefit to Air Serbia as the new airline evolves.
“We will have tough decisions to make but the financial investment by Etihad Airways and the Government of Serbia, together with the positive impact of our joint management expertise and experience, will help ensure this airline, with its proud history, now has an even brighter future,” he said.
Air Serbia’s new network will not include the UK but will commence with four-times-a-week services to Abu Dhabi from October 2013. Other new connections from Belgrade will be to Banja Luka, Beirut, Bucharest, Budapest, Cairo, Kiev, Ljubljana, Prague, Sofia, Varna and Warsaw.
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