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Once the airline was the flag carrier of the Republic of Yugoslavia, now the air company of the poor rest of this country which is less known by its beauty than by its political problems. JAT - Yugoslav Airlines had a strong international network with destinations on every continent except South America. These routes were operated by Boeing 707s, but taken over by DC-10s which were inspected by President Tito himself. The first aircraft, #259 (YU-AMA), arrived in Belgrade on December 8th 1978 and was introduced on the New York service a few days later. A second aircraft from the same order joined the fleet in 1979 and several leases in the 1980s brought the fleet to seven aircraft which were all operated at the same time for while. The UN sanctions after the civil war grounded JAT, but now services commenced again with a much smaller network and only one DC-10-30, YU-AMB, in the fleet. Long-range routes were given up in the 1990s, so that the DC-10 was used on the european network or ad-hoce charter flights and wetlease operations, for example for Ghana Airways in 2003. Today, JAT operates a fleet of 737-300/400 and ATR 72. The airlines still owns a couple of DC-9-30s, but they are leased out to other carriers. A Letter of intent for new Airbus A320 aircraft was placed, but it never became a fixed order.
