Serbia seeks to reinstate Beijing flights
The Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić, has discussed the resumption of flights between Beijing and Belgrade with Chinese officials. Following talks with Li Bin, one of the vice-chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, both sides concluded air services between the two countries would cater for the growing number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia. The Serbian Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure noted, “There are valid reasons for the resumption of these flights, considering the existing economic cooperation between the two countries and an increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia”. Hainan Airlines abruptly suspended its two weekly service between Beijing and Belgrade via Prague in 2018 following a year of operations.
The transport ministry noted it is up to the airlines themselves to decide whether it is viable to resume services between the Serbian and Chinese capitals. “The introduction of flights between any two cities is always a matter of the carrier’s commercial interest”, the ministry said. Asked whether potential flights between the two countries could be granted state incentives, the ministry added, “There has never been any request made to the Serbian government to subsidise flights from China”. Currently, Belgrade is the eleventh busiest unserved route from Shanghai and the seventh busiest European market lacking flights to China's most populous city.
Despite the suspension of flights between Beijing and Belgrade, the number of Chinese arrivals to Serbia has not been dented and continues to grow at a record pace. During the January – July period, a total of 73.559 Chinese travellers visited Serbia, representing an increase of 38.6%. According to a report by OAG, a world leading travel data provider, Serbia saw the third-largest growth in Chinese arrivals in Europe so far this year, behind only Switzerland and Belgium. China is now the world's largest outbound market in terms of travellers and expenditure. Air China noted that the introduction of nonstop flights to European markets has had a positive impact on the number of Chinese visitors to the continent. "Air China opened nonstop flights between Beijing and Athens on September 30, 2017, and after one year the number of Chinese tourists through the air route visiting Greece has increased threefold", the carrier said.
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