New Jat with new owners

Businessmen taking over Jat

The Serbian Minister for Infrastructure yesterday announced that the government is finalising an agreement with local businessmen to invest into a successor to Jat Airways, which will become Serbia’s new national carrier. A total of ten businessmen are willing to invest into the new airline in return for an ownership stake. “I can’t tell you which businessmen are in question because they are very sensitive people who have their own interests and reasons. Give us another week or two", the minister told the media at a press conference.

One of the businessmen being tipped to be interested in investing into the new Jat is Miroslav Mišković, the owner of the Delta Holding company, which has been named the 86th most successful company in Central Europe by Deloitte with recorded revenue of over one billion Euros in 2011. Several years ago Mišković was interested in creating Serbia’s first low cost airline, Air Maxi, in cooperation with Aviogenex but in the end stepped away from such plans.

The Serbian minister for infrastructure states that the new company will be created before the end of the government’s four year term. Serbs are set to go to the polls on May 6 this year. The minister further states that the new Jat would have a completely new management and would take over Jat’s existing fleet with new aircraft to be ordered in 2013. He further adds that the new company would take over Jat’s employees and will operate with a profit.