Air Serbia has put into service a second Embraer E195 aircraft (pictured) operated by Greece’s Marathon Airlines. The jet, which features the Serbian carrier’s livery arrived in Belgrade last Friday afternoon and operated its first revenue service for the airline later that day to Frankfurt. The aircraft, registered OY-GDC, is fifteen years old. It is the second E195 operating on behalf of the carrier, alongside another E190, as well as an E175, although the latter is being utilised by the carrier on a temporary basis and is due to exit the fleet next month. The two E195s operating for Air Serbia feature 118 seats in an all-economy class layout.
Another E195 aircraft operated by Marathon Airlines is due to arrive in Belgrade next month. The jet, registered OY-GDA, is currenty in Warsaw and is expected to begin operations on behalf of the Serbian carrier in November. Based on current availability in the Global Distribution System (GDS), the jet is scheduled to make its debut on behalf of Air Serbia on the morning of November 9. However, this is a tentative schedule and is likely to change. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, Marathon Airlines has also signed a contract to take over another E195, registered OY-GDB, which is also likely to be delivered to Air Serbia. All the abovementioned E195s that bear the “ÖY” registration are being dry-leased by Marathon Airlines from their owner.
Commenting recently on its growing Embraer operations, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “As you notice, it is not a typical wet-lease. It is going more towards a capacity provider model, which is used in the US. The aircraft are in Air Serbia’s livery and we are currently working on damp-lease options, meaning cabin crew will be from Air Serbia and we are looking at some other functions that we can synchronise in order to make it as seamless towards our own product”. During the upcoming month of November, Air Serbia currently has the Embraer fleet deployed on 440 flight operations (the figure includes return flights). Next month, the aircraft type will be most commonly deployed on services between Belgrade and Frankfurt with a total of 29 out of 58 flights scheduled with the jet on the Frankfurt route.
