Air Serbia formally welcomed its third Airbus A330-200 aircraft, registered YU-ARD, at a ceremony in Belgrade yesterday, with the 262-seat jet currently scheduled to enter into service next Thursday. The aircraft will be used on flights to and from the United States for the rest of the month before being scheduled on select operations to China in November. Next week, the airline will also wet-lease an A330-300 from Spain’s Wamos Air on a short-term basis which will be deployed on flights to New York on October 12 and October 14. As previously reported, it comes as a result of one of the carrier’s A330-200s (registered YU-ARB) operating two ad-hoc charter flights to Tokyo Narita Airport this week and next. Over the coming period, Air Serbia will deploy its A330 aircraft on several short-haul flights for crew familiarisation purposes. The wide-body jets have recently been scheduled on flights to Zurich and Rome.
YU-ARD roll-out in October and November
Commenting on the arrival of the carrier’s third wide-body aircraft, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “The expansion of the long-haul destination network is closely linked to the development of a fleet of aircraft capable of operating these flights. We have maintained services to North America and the People’s Republic of China with two Airbus A330-200 aircraft and now a new aircraft of the same type has reinforced our fleet. In anticipation of the upcoming EXPO 2027 exhibition and wishing to contribute to the promotion of this event that is important for the Republic of Serbia and the entire region, we have decided that Air Serbia’s third wide-body aircraft will feature the visual identity of this specialised exhibition. We expect another such aircraft to join our fleet by the end of 2024, which will be branded in the same way. From Chicago and New York in the West to Tianjin and Guangzhou in the East, the national airline’s aircraft will present Serbia and EXPO 2027 to a global audience”.
As previously reported, the latest A330-200 features aisle access for all business class passengers with a staggered 1-2-1 cabin layout and lie-flat seats, as well as personal in-flight entertainment screens, USB and universal power ports for all travellers. Mr Marek previously told EX-YU Aviation News in August, “For the upcoming two wide-body aircraft, for the time being, this will be the standard cabins that we will look to develop further in the future. As soon as we have the engineering and design done, which takes six to seven months, YU-ARC will go for a full cabin retrofit and feature the same new cabins. On the other hand, YU-ARB, will undergo the retrofit either next year or the year after. As part of the deal for the incoming A330s, we have secured additional shipsets of the same seats for those retrofits”.
