UPDATE: Jat Airways winter 2008/09Farewelling four destinations

On October 25, 2008 Jat Airways, the national airline of Serbia will begin with its winter schedule. For Jat this usually includes the decrease in frequencies which will occur this year as well however the main difference is that the airline will farewell 5 cities from its destination network as it will decrease its fleet to 9 (6 Boeing 737-300’s and 3 ATR-72’s). Two Boeing 737-300 will be leased to an African airline which is a practice Jat commonly employs during the winter although it is unknown what will occur with the other aircraft, however it is expected they will be returned to their original owners since these aircraft are leased.

Jat will after many years cease flights to the Albanian capital Tirana. Flight JU412 was operated using an ATR72 twice a week. Another line operated for many years, Malta (Luqa) will also cease and effectively flights to Tripoli will end which were operated via Malta. Flight JU454 to Tripoli via Malta was operated twice a week using a Boeing 737-300. Jat will not return to Oslo this winter. Flight JU394 to the Norwegian capital was operated twice a week however was only planned as a summer destination and was not expected to return to the schedule in the winter. Finally Jat will also farewell another city in Scandinavia - Goteborg will no longer be served.

Jat will also no longer fly to Prague and Munich. These flights will not be pulled out of Jat’s scheduling. It will be operated by partner airlines ČSA and Lufthansa in a strong codeshare collaboration agreement where the flights will be treated as if operated by Jat. Belgrade – Prague JU8170 will be operated with a B737-500, Belgrade - Munich JU8344 will be operated using an Avro RJ85.

The new addition to this year’s winter schedule will be Thessaloniki which was originally planned to be operated only as summer destination however it will continue throughout the winter. Jat Airways will, despite earlier financial troubles, commence flights to a new destination from October 26 to Milano Malpensa Airport. The destination which was just added into the reservation system will be operated using an ATR72. Flight JU416 will be operated three times a week on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. The flights on Tuesday and Sunday will depart from Belgrade at 13.10 while they will return from Milano at 16.25. Friday will provide a morning flight for passengers, departing Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport at 8.30 and departing back to Belgrade at 11.45. The price of tickets will range from 99 to 259 Euros. All other destinations operated by Jat Airways, including Dubai, Larnaca, western European destinations, Moscow and North African destinations will continue throughout the year. All destinations within the EX-YU will remain in the schedule (Podgorica, Tivat, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Ljubljana and Skopje).

Any related updates will be posted. Any question our readers might have regarding the new schedule can be posted by using the “comments” option or contacting us using our e-mail address. Soon Croatia Airlines’ 2008/09 winter schedule will be published on the blog.