Jat farewells Dubai

Jat pilots give all clear for Belgrade – Abu Dhabi line

Tonight at 20.15 Jat Airways’s last flight to Dubai, JU088, will depart returning to Serbia’s capital on Friday afternoon. Not only was the line the longest in Jat’s destination network, it was also the most popular and profitable, with the largest average load factor on any of Jat’s flights. This was mostly due to passengers travelling to Australia from Belgrade (Serbia’s Diaspora) which had excellent connections to 4 Australian and 2 New Zealand cities, with Jat managing to secure special pricing in cooperation with Emirates. However Emirates has recently changed its policy and significantly increased prices for Jat to the point where it is extremely expensive for passengers to travel on this combination. The Dubai based carrier did the same to Croatia Airlines. This new policy might not have been such a good move as Emirates has been left with the largest amount of empty seats to and from Australia in January in the last 5 years.

Jat Airways immediately began work on securing a new connection to Australia and it seems to have found a new partner. It is Emirates’ arch rival Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates. The new deal will allow Serbs to travel to and from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane via Abu Dhabi to Belgrade, although the airline is rapidly expanding and planning to begin services to Perth. Meetings have taken place between the two carriers in Sydney and in the first week of February will take place in Belgrade. This is when the deal is expected to be officially announced. Jat has expressed an immediate wish to commence services to Abu Dhabi and there is even talk of Etihad code sharing on these flights, although details will be available in early February. Despite a fleet shortage Jat will provide the aircraft for the Abu Dhabi line which will now most certainly commence during the summer season. This news has left pilots and cabin crew in high spirits. Both were extremely angry once they heard that the Dubai line will be closed. The Dubai line benefited pilots due to its long flying hours while cabin crew benefited as this was the only line where they did not immediately return to Belgrade, instead they spent a few days in the ultra-modern city.

Jat resumed services to Dubai in 2002, after more than a decade. Flights were operated via Lebanon’s capital Beirut. Following the assassination of Lebanon’s president and the political instability which took place immediately afterwards Jat decided to operate Dubai via Kuwait. This proved to be a bad move. Jat was unable to secure local passengers from Kuwait to Dubai as it had extreme competition from Kuwait Airways, Emirates and low-cost Jazeera Airways. A year later Jat returned to Lebanon. However once again it was not to be. As the Israel-Lebanon war took place Jat made a decision to permanently reroute its flights to Dubai via Larnaca in Cyprus. This has been by far the most successful stop over destination to Dubai.

The new line to Abu Dhabi will also most likely be operated either via Larnaca or Beirut. More details will be available after next week’s meeting in Belgrade.