Igor Salinger/BELGRADE
Yugoslavia's JAT and Bosnian carriers Air Bosna and Air Srpska have signed a co-operation agreement intended to form the basis of a south-east European airline alliance. The deal, signed on 27 November, will initially focus on cost-cutting initiatives, but should also lead to the opening up of abandoned routes within the former Yugoslavia, and eventually to a wider Balkan alliance.
Air Srpska managing director Srdjan Vukcevic says the new deal will see the foundation of joint systems covering reservations and sales, personnel training and maintenance.
He adds that the moves "could cut costs by three" in areas such as foreign representation overseas. "This is a very poor region, and none of the carriers can increase profits by simply raising prices," he says. "The only way is to cut costs."
JAT general manager Mihajlo Vujinovic has asked representatives of several airlines from Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia to meet in Belgrade this month to discuss widening co-operation (Flight International, 28 November-4 December).
Yugoslavia and Bosnia have also agreed to sign a new air traffic treaty which will see JAT, Air Bosna and Air Srpska re-establish routes disrupted by years of war, with Belgrade-Sarajevo services - jointly operated by the three - likely to commence almost immediately using temporary approvals. A round-trip of Belgrade-Banjaluka-Sarajevo is also being considered.
Vukcevic says that in the longer term regional co-operation could lead to the formation of joint enterprises and a formal alliance.
"We want to co-operate with others, but on a more equal basis," he says, adding that an alliance could make the region's small airlines "more important players and better protected". Any alliance is likely to be built around regional heavyweight JAT. Vukcevic says the plan is to follow the larger airline "on the way to its recovery".
Source: Flight International
