Air Serbia jet with Nikola Tesla’s image soon in Belgrade

The new Airbus A330, which Air Serbia will use on its flights to New York, is scheduled to arrive at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport on Saturday, 24 April.

The wide-body passenger jet, named after Nikola Tesla, will sport a different visual identity than the rest of the Serbian national airline’s fleet. It will be embellished with a stylized image of Serbia’s famous scientist and inventor.

Air Serbia’s new jet got its unique look in Shannon, Ireland. The painting process, which included 22 different colours and approximately 250 litres of paint, took eight days of non-stop work in three shifts, with teams of around ten people per shift.

The modification of Air Serbia’s existing design will only be applied to this aircraft, which has dynamic lines symbolizing movement and speed. The main detail is on the tailfin, in the form of Nikola Tesla’s image. As a part of the national airline’s corporate identity, the distinctive blue color was chosen to be the primary color of Tesla’s image, which required 19 different shades of this color to produce.

“The arrival of the Airbus A330 jet to its new home in Belgrade is a significant event for Air Serbia. It is a great honor for us to have one of our planes carry the name and image of Nikola Tesla. The fact that this great genius, who is from our region, but spent most of his life in New York, adds to the importance and symbolism of his image on the airplane, connecting Belgrade and the Big Apple. This is one of our flagship routes, and we are certain that the arrival of the new plane will enhance the customer experience and success of the route, which connects the entire region with the United States of America”, said Air Serbia CEO Duncan Naysmith.

The new airplane, manufactured in 2009,  is a year younger than the previous jet of the same type in Air Serbia’s fleet, and its previous operator was the Russian national airline, Aeroflot. The aircraft will be registered in the Serbian aircraft registry under YU-ARB. Unlike Air Serbia’s first Airbus A330, registered as YU-ARA, the new airplane will have Rolls-Royce engines. The latest addition to the national airline’s fleet will have a configuration with 21 seats in Business class and 236 in Economy.

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Nikola Tesla’s diet regimen inspired the new menu, and it is based on three keywords that can be used to describe his work and patents – Energy; Frequency, Vibration. The menu for Economy and Business class passengers, created in collaboration with chef Zoran Mišković, was inspired by Tesla’s childhood, student days, and life in New York. Passengers will be able to find all the meals, carefully designed to satisfy the standards of even the pickiest gastronomy lovers, in the menu marked with the letter T – Tesla’s way.

The first A330 Airbus, YU-ARA, which served in Air Serbia’s fleet from 2016 until 31 March 2021, operated 819 round trip flights to New York, carrying a total of 319,712 passengers on this route.