Jat Airways — BrandWiki

Jat Airways

airline	Jat Airways
iata	JU
icao	JAT
callsign	JAT
founded	June 17, 1927 (as Aeroput)‡R1R‡
commenced	April 1, 1947 (as JAT Yugoslav Airlines)
ceased	October 26, 2013 (became Air Serbia)
hubs	Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport
frequent flyer	Extra Flight Club

Jat Airways (stylized as JatAirways; Jat ervejz) was the national flag carrier and largest airline of Yugoslavia and later Serbia and Montenegro and finally Serbia. Founded in 1927 as Aeroput, the airline ceased operations during World War II. After resuming flights in 1947, the airline was renamed Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (abbreviated JAT, ; "Yugoslav Air Transport") on 1 April 1947. The airline was renamed again on 8 August 2003. Jat Airways and their predecessors were one of the oldest airlines still in operation. Flight operations were based at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, and the airline operated scheduled services to 72 international destinations, outside the areas formerly part of Yugoslavia, as well as charters and wet leases.[3] Jat Airways was owned by the government of Serbia and had 1,250 employees.

On 1 August 2013, the Government of Serbia and Etihad Airways entered into an agreement that reorganized the operations of Jat Airways, and renamed it Air Serbia after the transitional period ended.[4] Certain assets, such as the ATR 72

History

Aeroput

JAT traces its heritage back to 1927 when Aeroput, the first civil airline in Yugoslavia was founded. Their first international flight was in 1929 between Belgrade and Graz.[6] In 1937, the expansion of international routes and an increase in passenger numbers enabled Aeroput to acquire the Lockheed Model 10 Electra. Aeroput continued to operate until the start of World War II. JAT Yugoslav Airlines was launched on 1 April 1947 and replaced Aeroput in 1948. the name was changed to Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (abbreviated JAT; "Yugoslavian Air Transport"), then to JAT Yugoslav Airlines and finally to Jat Airways on 8 August 2003.[7]

JAT – Yugoslav Airlines

In 1946, it was apparent that the Yugoslav Air Force could not be involved in the nation's post-war build-up of civil aviation. Consequently, preparations were made for the formation of an air transport company. Three Douglas C-47 Skytrain and three Junkers Ju 52 were converted to carry passengers. The airline was officially renamed Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT) on 1 April 1947.

In 1949, Yugoslavia was faced with a dire international position: isolated both by the West and the East. This caused further rationing of fuel, difficulties in procuring spare parts, and the cancellation of all flights to Eastern European destinations. JAT was forced to survive on six domestic lines. When Yugoslavia turned to the West, an agreement was made with Swissair to open the Belgrade-Zürich route, which was inaugurated on 24 August 1949. Company stagnation marked operations in 1949 because the traffic volume was well below fleet potentials and transport needs in the country. However, 1954 was in many ways a turning point. Convair CV-340 and Convair CV-440 Metropolitan aircraft were purchased for short-haul and medium-haul routes, after which the Douglas DC-3 was used only on domestic routes. Multiple international and domestic routes were opened soon after. In 1957, six Ilyushin Il-14M aircraft were purchased. JAT purchased several Douglas DC-6Bs for long-haul routes in 1959.[7]

Jet age

In 1963, the first Sud Aviation Caravelle joined the JAT fleet. In 1969, the first McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (of 16) arrived, followed by Boeing 707 in 1970, McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in 1971 (of 7), and in 1974 by the first two (of nine) Boeing 727-200s.[8][9]

1970s

Long-haul routes to North America, Australia, and the Far East were flown by Boeing 707s, introduced in 1970.

In 1975, Belgrade was connected with Karachi, Singapore and Sydney.[10] Same year three brand new Boeing 727s were introduced. In 1976 fleet consisted of 4 Boeing 707, 13 McDonnell Douglas DC-9, 3 Boeing 727, 5 Caravelle and one Convair.

In 1976, two more Boeing 727s joined the fleet, for a total of five. The same year, Belgrade was connected with New York City, Malta, Baghdad, Kuwait City and Damascus. All Caravelles were withdrawn from the fleet, while the line to Karachi was terminated. That year JAT had almost three million passengers.[10]

In 1977, new routes to Madrid and Lyon were introduced.

In 1978, a wide-body

1980s

In 1980, the route Belgrade–Chicago was established. Two more brand new Boeing 727s were added to the fleet.

In 1981, Cleveland was added as a stopover on route Belgrade–Chicago. The same year the JAT fleet counted 28 planes 2 DC-10, 13 DC-9, 4 Boeing 707 and 9 Boeing 727.[10]

In 1983, Jat introduced new routes to Alger and Thessaloniki and ceasing route to Beijing.

In 1984, the Belgrade–Toronto route was established. Jat was the official carrier and sponsor of the 1984 Winter Olympics.

In 1985, JAT was the first European airline to purchase Boeing 737-300s. During those years, the company carried five million passengers annually and served 80 destinations on five continents (19 domestic, 45 medium-haul and 16 long haul routes). JAT also constructed a large hangar to accommodate wide-body aircraft and a jet-engine test stand at their Belgrade hub. The same year, Bombay and Calcutta were connected with Belgrade.

In 1987, Belgrade was connected with Melbourne, Perth, Montreal, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. Profit that year was $205 million.

1990s

In 1992, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke apart, resulting in the Yugoslav Wars. JAT was forced to stop all domestic services. The United Nations imposed sanctions on 20 May 1992 against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); for the first time since World War II, international transport was forcibly terminated.[11] This was preceded by the decisions of Germany and Italy to interrupt any traffic with Yugoslavia: on 21 December 1991 — Germany, the largest market for JAT in Europe, with seven flights daily and 40& million German marks gross annual profit, followed by Italy on 10 January 1992. The United States imposed an embargo on air traffic with Yugoslavia on 2 May 1992: the last JAT flights to the United States were to Chicago and New York. JAT management decided to re-route North American long-range flights to Canada. However, Canada quickly followed and banned all JAT flights entering the country, terminating all JAT operations across the North Atlantic.

During that time, JAT operated only domestic services between Belgrade, Podgorica, Tivat, Niš, Priština and — for a very short time — Užice–Ponikve Airport. In 1994, JAT resumed some of their international services. In 1998, JAT ordered eight Airbus A319s. This was seen as a political stunt by the president, Slobodan Milošević.[12] The original delivery date was June 2000, but this date had been postponed until a total of $23.5 million was paid off to Airbus while JAT was hoping to divert the deal to another airline.

2000s

International sanctions were lifted in 2000, and JAT resumed regular flight services. To celebrate the move that coincided with the country restructuring from FR Yugoslavia to Serbia and Montenegro, JAT Yugoslav Airlines changed their name to Jat Airways on 8 August 2003. In 2004, Belgrade based Intair Link Airlines was merged into Jat, one year after Intair Link had begun service.[13] Jat sold its last DC-10-30 on 24 June 2005 to France-based company TAT Industries. During 2005, the company also phased out all remaining Boeing 727s and DC-9s. The last airworthy DC-9-32 was leased to the United Arab Emirates company Eastern SkyJets.

By then, Jat Airways was not a member of any alliances or partnerships but did code share on some routes with Adria Airways, Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, B&H Airlines, KLM, LOT Polish Airlines

Privatization attempts

The government of Serbia made two unsuccessful attempts to privatize Jat Airways, in 2008 and 2011.[17]

On 16 January 2008, the government of Serbia announced it would sell a 51% stake in the airline.[18] The starting price for the airline's 51% share was €51 million, decreased from the earlier announced €150 million in order to increase interest.[19] The tender was canceled after no company had submitted an offer following the deadline.

In 2011, the Serbian government announced that it would create a successor to Jat Airways with a strategic partner. The new airline would assume all of Jat's healthy assets, codeshare agreements, aircraft and airport slots.[20] Baltic Aviation Systems was the only company to purchase the tender documentation but decided not to pursue the partnership further.[21]

Strategic partnership with Etihad Airways

In March 2013, Serbia's Minister of Finance Mlađan Dinkić traveled to Abu Dhabi to propose that Etihad Airways take a stake in Jat in order to renew their fleet.[22][23] In April it was confirmed that Etihad added Belgrade to their summer timetable as a part of the initiative to become a co-owner of Jat alongside the Serbian government.[24] A purchase of a 49% stake in Jat by Etihad is widely suggested by observing media, which is dependent on whether a memorandum of understanding (MoU) is signed with the government of Serbia, possibly in May 2013.[25][26] On 17 June 2013, an MoU was signed with Etihad and the Serbian government on exploring the possibility of an equity investment in Jat Airways.[27]

Liveries

Yugoslav Airlines

When the name Yugoslav Airlines first appeared on aircraft in 1950, the airline had a simple, mainly white livery. During these years there was a Yugoslav flag on the tail, and on the body the words Jugoslovenski Aerotransport. Shortly afterwards the airline changed its livery and added a logo on the tail section with a red shaped egg on the tail in which JAT was written in white, a logo kept for the rest of the SFR Yugoslavia period. The rest of the tail was blue, with Yugoslav Airlines written on the fuselage in red. There were variations of this livery during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The biggest change in this period was when the first Boeing 737-300 aircraft arrived with a silver body, and were kept as such, with just logo and basic livery added.

JAT Yugoslav Airlines

With the reintroduction of international flights in 1994 after two years of economic sanctions, JAT introduced a new livery and corporate image. A "euro-white" livery was adopted and the centre-piece was a new tail logo which contained a stylized Yugoslav flag with the white colour being represented by a pair of white wings, the larger wing symbolizing Serbia and the smaller Montenegro. For the first time, the word JAT was written on the aircraft in small blue letters. The words Jugoslovenski Aerotransport were painted on the starboard side and Yugoslav Airlines on the port side and these were written in silver italic script. In 1996, the livery was slightly modified, with JAT being painted in billboard size at the front with a small Yugoslav flag in the "A" in JAT. During this time, as a result of the extensive leasing of aircraft by JAT, most aircraft lost the tail logo completely. The livery was updated again in 2001 with the flag in the billboard titles disappearing, and the words Yugoslav Airlines and Jugoslovenski Aerotransport being painted in blue using the same font as the main logo. Not all of the aircraft received this update as the livery was updated again with the introduction of the new name "Jat Airways".

Jat Airways

On 20 March 2003, the airline changed its name to Jat Airways.[30] A national competition was held to design the new logo and livery. The winning design had three dots on the tail: blue, red and blue. The fuselage of the aircraft had a large Jat Airways title, with Jat in red and Airways in blue. The new logo was the name Jat Airways written with three dots in blue, red and blue following it. Jat Airways painted only one aircraft in these colours, a Boeing 737-300.

Jat started painting its aircraft all white and in 2006, most aircraft were white with a small Jat Airways logo. In December 2006 the airline decided to return to its dot livery. By August 2007, all aircraft had been painted. The livery is slightly different from the previous dot livery. It has the dots on the tail, but the small Jat titles remain rather than the big Jat Airways logo across the fuselage.

Services

Jat Catering

Jat Catering is a subsidiary of Jat Airways, providing in-flight meals for Jat Airways. Jat Catering offices and kitchens are situated in the industrial area of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. Jat Catering offers special meals for vegetarians, vegans and toddlers.

On board

The aircraft of Jat Airways are fitted out in a two-class configuration. In the Boeing aircraft, Jat has a business-class section and an economy-class section. On ATR 72 aircraft, the airline offers a one-class all economy configuration with the business class section, which used to be located in the back removed in mid-2008. Every passenger gets a complimentary copy of Jat's in-flight magazine "Jat Airways Review". All drinks, food and duty-free items are available during the flight. Includes copy of Jat Airways Review magazine, large black leather seats with limited reclining capabilities, and stowaway tray tables. From August 2012 the business class seats will be progressively replaced by economy class grey leather seats. However, the middle seat will be left unoccupied for greater leg space and comfort. Includes copy of Jat Airways Review magazine, dark blue leather seats with limited reclining capabilities, and stowaway tray tables. From August 2012, the airline began refurbishing its Boeing 737-300 economy class section by replacing the seats with grey leather seating.

Jat Business Class

Jat Economy Class

Frequent Flyer

"Extra Flight Club" is Jat Airways frequent-flyer program. The program works whereby passengers register each time they fly with Jat, gaining bonus points in return. After the appropriate number of points is collected, passengers are issued a free ticket.

Charters

Jat Airways organizes individual and group charter flights on all types of Jat Airways aircraft, both domestic and international. The users of this service include tourist agencies, sports teams and fans, artistic groups and ensembles, as well as participants of congresses and fairs. Most charters take place during the summer time to Greek, Turkish, Egyptian, Tunisian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and Bulgarian holiday resorts.

Freight

Jat Airways offers cargo services on all destinations in its network with special cargo only flights to Podgorica and Tivat in Montenegro, in addition to passenger flights as well.

Jat Tehnika

Legally a separate company from Jat Airways, Jat Tehnika provides services and maintenance for Jat's fleet and other airline companies, such as Jet2.com