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Aeroput
Aeroput (Serbian Cyrillic: Аеропут, lit. 'Airway') was an airline and flag carrier of Yugoslavia from 1927 until 1948.
Society for Air traffic AD Aeroput was the first Serbian company for civil air traffic, which was founded on 17 June 1927 as Društvo za Vazdušni Saobraćaj "Aeroput" (English: Society for Air Traffic "Aeroput"), in the palace of the Adriatic-Danube Bank in Belgrade. Aeroput was the national carrier of the Kingdom of SHS, and then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Aeroput was among the first civilian aircraft carriers, being the 10th airline company founded in Europe and the 21st in the world. The airline ceased to exist during World War II in Yugoslavia, but was renewed after the war under the new name Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (abbreviated JAT; English: Yugoslav Air Transport) and still flies today as the Serbian national air carrier under the name Air Serbia.
In 1913, the Kingdom of Serbia passed a regulation concerning air transport, becoming one of the first countries to do so. The forerunners of scheduled civil flights in Serbia were military postal services, as in other countries which participated in World War I. Several flights were organized in Thessaloniki, where pilots of the First Serbian Squadron, carried mail between Skopje and Thessaloniki. In 1919, postal air services between Novi Sad, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar and Zagreb were operated with Breguet 14 aircraft, and they carried individual passengers. One was converted to a passenger plane for four passengers, but did not end up being used for that purpose.
In 1926, the administration of the Aero-club of the Kingdom of SCS, founded in 1921 by the pilots of the Thessaloniki front, calculated the costs and performed administrative activities needed to establish an air transport company. A group of businesspeople gathered in the State Mortgage Bank in Belgrade decided in February of that year to establish a founding committee for the establishment of a company by the name of Air Transport Company, plc (Društvo za vazdušni saobraćaj, a. d.). In April, 24,000 shares were authorised, and in January 1927, a contract was signed with the government regulating subsidies, tariffs, and airport usage rights. The contract also allowed the government to approve annual route and pricing plans and choose the aircraft the company was allowed to use, and obligated the company to open a route between Belgrade and Zagreb. This, as well as the fact the government had a representative at all board and shareholder meetings, meant that, despite the company legally being structured as a private joint-stock company, the government still excercised significant control over it.
The sale of shares, though initially slow, was greatly accelerated by three events in the spring of 1927. Namely, late March saw the opening of a new airport in the Bežanijska kosa suburb of Belgrade, and Charles Lindbergh completed his historical solo flight across the Atlantic in May. Additionally, military pilot Tadija Sondermajer, a member of the company's administration, suggested that he and Leonid Bajdak, another military pilot, fly from Paris to Bombay as a publicity stunt. They took off from Paris on 20 April, flying a Potez 25 aircraft. Upon their landing in Belgrade on May 2, they were greeted by a crowd of 30.000 people, and share sales jumped significantly, thus saving the company from potentially being legally required to dissolve. On 17 June 1927, the company was officially incorporated by the Belgrade Commercial Court, with Tadija Sondermajer as general director.
Throughout 1927, the company hired three pilots (Vladimir Strzhizhevsky, Viktor Nikitin, and Mikhailo Yaroshenko), three mechanics, and an airport manager each at Belgrade and Zagreb airport. The airline also ordered four Potez 29-2 aircraft, the first of which, christened "Belgrade" arrived on 4 February 1928, the other three arriving by the end of the month. The first flight from Belgrade to Zagreb was announced for 15 February, and several Belgrade journalists and photographers were selected to be the first passengers. Despite bad weather and technical issues, the aircraft, piloted by Strzhizhevsky, took off, albeit over an hour late. No new routes would be opened by the end of 1928, and the total number of passengers between Belgrade and Zagreb that year totaled 1,322. Nearly four times more income came from government subsidies than from direct revenue that year, and as the subsidies were not greatly increased the following year, it only saw two new changes to the route network – the inauguration of a domestic flight from Belgrade to Skoplje, and the extension of the Belgrade to Zagreb flight to Graz and Vienna, operated in cooperation with Austroflug and CIDNA. However, two more Potez 29 aicraft were added to the fleet that year, bringing the total aircraft count to six. They transported a total of 1,787 passengers in 1929.
In March of 1930, the government signed an amendment to their previous agreement. The same year, new flights were introduced from Belgrade to Thessaloniki via Skopje Airport (which the company could now use free of charge thanks to the amended agreement). The company posted its highest passenger count thus far that year. By then, Aeroput connected Belgrade and Zagreb with routed to all other major domestic centers in the interior and the coast of the Adriatic. Initially, the fleet consisted of three Potez 29/2 biplanes with five passenger seats. In 1932 Aeroput expanded its fleet with Farman F.306 aircraft, and in 1934 the company purchased three Spartan Cruiser II planes. Aeroput also bought two Caudron C.449 Goéland monoplanes, one de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide and six mid-range Lockheed Model 10A Electra aircraft. Relying on its renewed fleet, the company greatly expanded its list of destinations in 1937 and 1938. Regular flights to Sofia, Tirana, and Budapest were introduced, as well as a seasonal-tourist flight Dubrovnik - Zagreb - Vienna - Brno - Prague. In cooperation with Italian and Romanian companies, the Bucharest - Belgrade - Zagreb - Venice - Milan - Turin route was introduced.
In 1940, Aeroput broke all records by carrying over 16,000 passengers and 232 tons of freight by flying 726,000 aircraft-kilometers.
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Aeroput
Aeroput (Serbian Cyrillic: Аеропут, lit. 'Airway') was an airline and flag carrier of Yugoslavia from 1927 until 1948.
Society for Air traffic AD Aeroput was the first Serbian company for civil air traffic, which was founded on 17 June 1927 as Društvo za Vazdušni Saobraćaj "Aeroput" (English: Society for Air Traffic "Aeroput"), in the palace of the Adriatic-Danube Bank in Belgrade. Aeroput was the national carrier of the Kingdom of SHS, and then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Aeroput was among the first civilian aircraft carriers, being the 10th airline company founded in Europe and the 21st in the world. The airline ceased to exist during World War II in Yugoslavia, but was renewed after the war under the new name Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (abbreviated JAT; English: Yugoslav Air Transport) and still flies today as the Serbian national air carrier under the name Air Serbia.
In 1913, the Kingdom of Serbia passed a regulation concerning air transport, becoming one of the first countries to do so. The forerunners of scheduled civil flights in Serbia were military postal services, as in other countries which participated in World War I. Several flights were organized in Thessaloniki, where pilots of the First Serbian Squadron, carried mail between Skopje and Thessaloniki. In 1919, postal air services between Novi Sad, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar and Zagreb were operated with Breguet 14 aircraft, and they carried individual passengers. One was converted to a passenger plane for four passengers, but did not end up being used for that purpose.
In 1926, the administration of the Aero-club of the Kingdom of SCS, founded in 1921 by the pilots of the Thessaloniki front, calculated the costs and performed administrative activities needed to establish an air transport company. A group of businesspeople gathered in the State Mortgage Bank in Belgrade decided in February of that year to establish a founding committee for the establishment of a company by the name of Air Transport Company, plc (Društvo za vazdušni saobraćaj, a. d.). In April, 24,000 shares were authorised, and in January 1927, a contract was signed with the government regulating subsidies, tariffs, and airport usage rights. The contract also allowed the government to approve annual route and pricing plans and choose the aircraft the company was allowed to use, and obligated the company to open a route between Belgrade and Zagreb. This, as well as the fact the government had a representative at all board and shareholder meetings, meant that, despite the company legally being structured as a private joint-stock company, the government still excercised significant control over it.
The sale of shares, though initially slow, was greatly accelerated by three events in the spring of 1927. Namely, late March saw the opening of a new airport in the Bežanijska kosa suburb of Belgrade, and Charles Lindbergh completed his historical solo flight across the Atlantic in May. Additionally, military pilot Tadija Sondermajer, a member of the company's administration, suggested that he and Leonid Bajdak, another military pilot, fly from Paris to Bombay as a publicity stunt. They took off from Paris on 20 April, flying a Potez 25 aircraft. Upon their landing in Belgrade on May 2, they were greeted by a crowd of 30.000 people, and share sales jumped significantly, thus saving the company from potentially being legally required to dissolve. On 17 June 1927, the company was officially incorporated by the Belgrade Commercial Court, with Tadija Sondermajer as general director.
Throughout 1927, the company hired three pilots (Vladimir Strzhizhevsky, Viktor Nikitin, and Mikhailo Yaroshenko), three mechanics, and an airport manager each at Belgrade and Zagreb airport. The airline also ordered four Potez 29-2 aircraft, the first of which, christened "Belgrade" arrived on 4 February 1928, the other three arriving by the end of the month. The first flight from Belgrade to Zagreb was announced for 15 February, and several Belgrade journalists and photographers were selected to be the first passengers. Despite bad weather and technical issues, the aircraft, piloted by Strzhizhevsky, took off, albeit over an hour late. No new routes would be opened by the end of 1928, and the total number of passengers between Belgrade and Zagreb that year totaled 1,322. Nearly four times more income came from government subsidies than from direct revenue that year, and as the subsidies were not greatly increased the following year, it only saw two new changes to the route network – the inauguration of a domestic flight from Belgrade to Skoplje, and the extension of the Belgrade to Zagreb flight to Graz and Vienna, operated in cooperation with Austroflug and CIDNA. However, two more Potez 29 aicraft were added to the fleet that year, bringing the total aircraft count to six. They transported a total of 1,787 passengers in 1929.
In March of 1930, the government signed an amendment to their previous agreement. The same year, new flights were introduced from Belgrade to Thessaloniki via Skopje Airport (which the company could now use free of charge thanks to the amended agreement). The company posted its highest passenger count thus far that year. By then, Aeroput connected Belgrade and Zagreb with routed to all other major domestic centers in the interior and the coast of the Adriatic. Initially, the fleet consisted of three Potez 29/2 biplanes with five passenger seats. In 1932 Aeroput expanded its fleet with Farman F.306 aircraft, and in 1934 the company purchased three Spartan Cruiser II planes. Aeroput also bought two Caudron C.449 Goéland monoplanes, one de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide and six mid-range Lockheed Model 10A Electra aircraft. Relying on its renewed fleet, the company greatly expanded its list of destinations in 1937 and 1938. Regular flights to Sofia, Tirana, and Budapest were introduced, as well as a seasonal-tourist flight Dubrovnik - Zagreb - Vienna - Brno - Prague. In cooperation with Italian and Romanian companies, the Bucharest - Belgrade - Zagreb - Venice - Milan - Turin route was introduced.
In 1940, Aeroput broke all records by carrying over 16,000 passengers and 232 tons of freight by flying 726,000 aircraft-kilometers.