Air Serbia is looking at retrofitting cabins across its fleet, as well as improving both its onboard soft product and ground service. The carrier will introduce a new hard product on its two incoming Airbus A330-200 wide-body aircraft. As previously reported, this will include 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 and USB and universal power sockets for all travellers. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “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 [Mihajlo Pupin] will go for a full cabin retrofit and feature the same new cabins. On the other hand, YU-ARB [Nikola Tesla], 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”.The airline is also looking into options of retrofitting its narrow-body fleet. “We are looking at the retrofit of the cabins and some kind of simplification, standardisation and more ergonomic seats across all fleet types. However, these types of projects usually take a lot of time, you have very limited options from what you can select”, Mr Marek said.Service-wise the airline aims to make improvements. “We introduced complimentary sandwiches on board and now we are looking at further improving the quality. We still think there is room for improvement with catering and we will continue to put in the effort with our supplier to improve the proposition in that segment. We are also working to make changes with buy-on-board because it hasn’t been refreshed since 2019. That includes improving the quality, selection, introducing pre-order meal options and so on”, the CEO said. He added, “We are looking at introducing duty-free on all flights and we are in the process of evaluating and deciding about onboard streaming options”.On the ground at its hub in Belgrade, the carrier has been met with delays in implementing its plans. “We have a lot of challenges with the building permissions to realise what we envisaged a long time ago. We are in close coordination with the airport operator to speed up the process. We have three main projects at the airport. One is premium check-in, which we can hopefully start construction soon, a new service desk / ticketing office, and the biggest project – the new premium lounge. Everything is pending on the final green light to start construction. We hope it can commence this year”.Finally, the carrier is in the process of selecting a technology provider for its new frequent flyer program, which will mark the end of eleven years of reliance on the Etihad Guest scheme. “We want to have an up-to-date program where everything can be done through an app and where you can collect and redeem points. It will be a spend-based system and we would like to include also third parties to create lifestyle product including co-branded cards”, Mr Marek concluded.
