Saša Vlaisavljević, "Jat Airways" - "Jat" to introduce flight to Abu Dhabi in May

In the forthcoming summer season, "Jat Airways" is going to put accent on regional transportation by introducing six flights a week to Salonika, four flights to Pula, 12 flights to Skopje and flights to Ohrid.

- The new flight to Abu Dhabi will be introduced on May 5th. In association with "Etihad Airways", the national airliner of United Arab Emirates, we will offer better connections and more favorable prices than before to our passengers from Australia - Saša Vlaisavljević, the President of the Administrative Board and Acting Director General of the national air transportation company, said in the interview for "Blic".

When we are talking about new season, new price policy is also mentioned. What does that mean?

- That means that "Jat Airways" will be at the level of competitive companies when it comes to the prices of tickets, while the rating terms that concern cancellation and change of flights will be more liberal and more favorable than in other companies.

Will there be any new agreements with travel agencies concerning charter traffic?

- We have set aside two units B737 with 144 seats and, as far as I know, the agencies have already booked all flights.

"Jat" could take over a part of the ownership of Macedonian MAT. Are there any plans for similar kind of partnership with other companies in the region?

- Our intention is to establish excellent and friendly relations with all companies in the region, even partnerships if possible. Therefore, we want to organize the conference of regional national airliners in Belgrade and we are intensively working on that at the moment.

Nevertheless, you will accept the position of the City Manager of Belgrade at the time when "Jat" is on its way to come out of the crisis. Why is that?

- The job of this management has been successfully done – the company’s survival, the Government-backed programme for business recovery of the company – and the only thing that is left to be done is the signing of the new contract with "Jat Tehnika" in order for “Jat” to avoid the payment of annual fixed fee of 16m USD for the services of “Jat Tehnika”.

What is next?

- New organization, procurement of new fleet, and rejuvenation of the company in all of its segments. Realization of such tasks requires forming of a different team because we need staff of different profile. Therefore, you can expect some significant changes, but the continuity must be maintained.

(Note: complete text is taken from newspaper Blic of March 25, 2009)