Air Serbia has completed the renewal of its regional fleet with the arrival of its tenth ATR 72-600 aircraft at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG).
The latest ATR 72-600, registered YU-ASC, rounded off Serbian flag-carrier’s modernization and expansion process that began in January 2022.
“The first ATR 72-600 (YU-ALY) landed on January 27, 2022, and each subsequent aircraft was a step towards creating a state-of-the-art regional fleet,” Air Serbia said in a statement.
The new aircraft landed in Serbia on June 14, 2024, after arriving from Toulouse Francazal Airport (QYF) where it had been painted in the airline’s livery.
YU-ASC had previously been operated by Azul Brazilian Airlines where it arrived in December 2015 and has been in storage since November 2023.
The CEO of Air Serbia, Jiri Marek, said that the airline’s ATR 72-200 and ATR 72-500 aircraft had been “gradually replaced” by more modern ATR 72-600 aircraft.
“Despite challenging market conditions, we have managed to acquire as many as ten aircraft of the same type, thus standardizing our fleet. The average age of aircraft in our regional fleet is now 9 years, making it the youngest in the broader Western Balkans region, Marek said in a statement to Aviator.
He added: “We are extremely pleased with the choice of aircraft and the pace of their entry into service. Thanks to them, we have significantly improved our operational efficiency.”
Earlier this year, Air Serbia posted a profit of €40.5 million for the year 2023, on a revenue of €627 million which represents an almost doubling of profits compared to the previous year.
Marek told AeroTime: “We are achieving record profitability again without any government subsidies.”
Air Serbia expects to receive two Airbus A330s by the end of 2024 that were previously operated by Air Belgium and, before that, Etihad.