Aerotransport ( JAT or Yugoslav Airlines) was established on
April 1, 1947. Shortly afterwards, the government in Belgrade
adopted a decree prohibiting private joint-stock companies
and pursuant to that on December 24, 1948 Aeroput was
liquidated and all its property, pilots and mechanics were
transferred to JAT.
Operations began with a small f leet of three Douglas DC-3s
and three Junkers Ju-52s and JAT initially re-established
domestic routes before initiating international f lights to Prague,
Warsaw, Bucharest and Tirana. In its first year the airline
transported 26,423 passengers and 197,337lbs (89,512kg) of
mail and cargo.
After just a year JAT retired its Ju-52s and replaced them with
additional DC-3/C-47s but with revenue from domestic routes
constantly decreasing, the airline turned towards the promising
Western European market for its future. By 1952 JAT was
regularly f lying to Zurich, Munich, Frankfurt, Thessaloniki,
Athens and Paris and the 1954 addition of three new Convair
CV-340-58 mid-range airliners allowed the carrier to add
London, Cairo and Beirut to its list of regular destinations.Jet Age
The initial successes, however, were overshadowed by two
fatal CV-340 crashes in 1955 and 1956. The f leet gap was filled
in during 1957 with delivery of two new Convair CV-440
Metropolitan airliners and with the conversion of the sole
remaining CV-340 into CV-440 configuration.
That same year the f leet also expanded with the addition of
six Ilyushin Il-14s and several Douglas DC-6Bs arrived in 1958
and 1959. The Convair f leet was further expanded when JATacquired three CV-440s from Alitalia and three others from
Lufthansa but the real change in the pace of development came
about in 1963 with the arrival of the first jets.
The three Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VI-N jetliners
increased JAT’s domestic capacity by 59% and its international
f light capacities by 75%. This enabled the airline to retire
the uneconomical Il-14s and while it kept the Convairs and
DC-3s in service, most of the DC-6Bs were also retired. One
‘Six’ lingered on until 1968 however as the personal aircraft of
President Tito [Ed: and now f lies as part of the Austrian-based
Flying Bulls collection).
By 1970 another three Caravelles had been acquired and two
further examples were leased between 1969 and 1972. The
range and economy of the new jets enabled JAT to introduce
new scheduled f lights to Warsaw, Copenhagen, Amsterdam,
Moscow, Stockholm and Brussels. The positive trends of
the sixties were easily recognisable – the airline transported
500,000 passengers in 1969 but this had reached 1.2 million
per year by 1970. JAT also carried its five millionth passenger
in May 1970.When the airline
was re-formed after
World War Two the
f leet consisted of three
Junkers Ju-52s and
three Douglas DC-3s.
The Ju-52s were soon
retired and C-47s,
such as YU-ACB
joined the airline.During World War
Two a number of
Aeroput Lockheed
Electras were pressed
into military service.
YU-SAZ force
landed in marshland
at Nikinci, near
Belgrade in April- There were no
casualties.
The JAT C-47s
remained in service
as late as 1976.
YU-ACA is seen here
at Munich in 1969.
It had previously
served with the
R AF as FZ651.
A M B
C 86 AIRLINER Classics 2018
“THR EE SE-210 Caravelle
VI-N jetliners increased
international f light capacities
by 75%”