Air Montenegro has had an excellent start to operations since it launched on 10th June this year. Let's take a look at how the past two months have been for the airline.

Air Montenegro takes off

Air Montenegro, the new flag carrier of the European country of Montenegro, has now been flying for two months. During this time, it has achieved some pretty remarkable statistics.

The airline has recorded over two million euros ($2,350,000) in revenue and has carried 40,000 passengers, Vijesti reports. Thus, Air Montenegro has had revenue of almost $60 per passenger over this time.

Most impressively, Air Montenegro has recorded a load factor of 70%. For a brand new airline seeking to establish itself during COVID-19, this is a highly commendable result.

The on-time performance of Air Montenegro's flights is 90%.

Commenting on the load factor and the on-time performance statistics, the Executive Director of Air Montenegro, Predrag Todorović, said:

"The time period between when we started selling tickets and when we started flying was very short,  but we managed to achieve a result that is much better than the industry average in Europe at the moment, which is an excellent start."

Where is Air Montenegro flying to?

Air Montenegro is flying both from the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, and from the country's summer magnet, Tivat.

From Podgorica (TGD), Air Montenegro flies to:

• Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) in Serbia since 10th June
• Frankfurt International (FRA) in Germany since 13th July

From Tivat (TIV), Air Montenegro flies to:

• Banja Luka Airport (BNX) in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 26th June
• Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) in Serbia since 10th June
• Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) in Slovenia since 26th June
• Istanbul Aiport (IST) in Turkey since 17th July

From 7th September, as the peak tourist season ends, Air Montenegro will swap the Tivat-Ljubljana-Tivat route for the Podgorica-Ljubljana-Podgorica flights.

The airline has also operated 20 charter flights to Montenegro from Yerevan, Armenia.

What aircraft does Air Montenegro have?

Air Montenegro has three aircraft in its fleet, though there was never a time when all three operated at the same time.

Two aircraft are 116-seat Embraer ERJ 190-200LRs that the Montenegrin government purchased for Air Montenegro from its predecessor, Montenegro Airlines. They are 4O-AOA and 4O-AOB.

The third aircraft is an Embraer E190 that Air Montenegro is wet-leasing from German Airways to ensure that its operations can be carried out reliably.

One major problem that Air Montenegro has been having is that its maintenance is not taking place in its base airport, Podgorica, or even in its focus city, Tivat, but in Bratislava in Slovakia. This is due to the ongoing dispute in the country concerning the rift between the old national airline, Montenegro Airlines, and the new one, Air Montenegro itself.

One of the two E190s in Air Montenegro's fleet of three aircraft has only just arrived in the country because it has been stuck in Bratislava undergoing maintenance.

The airline has so far had one incident where a fault on an aircraft has caused a cancellation of a flight from Banja Luka to Tivat.

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