Air Montenegro will add a fourth Embraer E195 aircraft to its fleet after concluding an agreement with Dutch lessor TrueNoord. The jet, currently registered OY-NZO, is fourteen years old and will become the youngest in Air Montenegro’s fleet. It previously operated for Brazil’s Azul Airlines and has been stored in Saarbrucken in Germany since August last year. The plane is expected to join the Air Montenegro fleet by mid-May, with a monthly leasing cost of 115.000 US dollars. The 118-seat aircraft, which will carry the Montenegrin registration 4O-AOI, is currently undergoing maintenance ahead of its return to service, after which it will be repainted into the airline’s livery.
The Montenegrin flag carrier owns two E195s and last year concluded a long-term dry lease for a third, which it is now negotiating to acquire. “By 2028, the introduction of another Embraer aircraft is possible, and we will not stop at four aircraft. We will expand our fleet with at least one more”, Air Montenegro’s CEO, Vukadin Stojanović, said. He added, “Looking ahead to 2026, our goals include passenger growth and the continuation of our digital transformation. We face significant challenges in terms of market competition, fuel costs and increasingly stringent regulations, but we have the tools, the team, and the financial foundation to successfully address them”.
Air Montenegro expects the upcoming Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights to support another record year for the airline. The Montenegrin government has adopted a decision to designate six PSO routes from Podgorica Airport. PSOs enable the allocation of state funds to support unprofitable air services deemed essential for regional connectivity and economic development. The year-round routes include Brussels, Amsterdam, Zagreb and Bari, while services to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt will operate on a seasonal winter basis. A public tender for the selection of operating carrier(s) is expected to be launched shortly. The PSO services are scheduled to commence on June 1 this year and will run for a four-year period, until May 31, 2030. Air Montenegro, which is expected to secure most, if not all, of the contracts, has confirmed it will participate in the tender and believes the new routes will help drive another record year for the airline.
