Eurowings to launch Belgrade - Pristina service
Serbia, Kosovo and the Lufthansa Group have signed a letter of intent for the company to commence scheduled flights between Belgrade and Pristina at a ceremony held yesterday at the Embassy of the United States in Germany. The future service, which will mark the resumption of flights between the two cities after 21 years, will be operated by Lufthansa’s low cost subsidiary Eurowings, which boasts a base in Pristina. Although it was noted that services would resume during 2020, no firm date has been given. Eurowings said that technical details would be clarified “in the coming weeks” as soon as further regulatory hurdles have been removed by both sides. The airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Knitter, said, “Air transport stands for bringing people of different origins together peacefully. By establishing an airlink, Kosovo and Serbia are taking a step towards rapprochement on the initiative of the US. We are pleased to accompany this process".
The President of Kosovo, Hashim Tachi, the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Zorana Mihajlović, as well as the Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority welcomed the development. Mr Tachi said, “I welcome the letter of intent between Kosovo and Lufthansa to open an air route between Pristina and Belgrade. This is an important step for the movement of citizens and the normalisation process”. Ms Mihajlović noted, “Just as we have bus services between Belgrade and Pristina, we believe that this air service can only bring good, and we are prepared to work on all the administrative and technical details to create the necessary conditions for this route to be launched”. The Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority said Eurowings has submitted a request with the regulator to be issued a permit for the service. US National Security Adviser, Robert C. O'Brien, said the letter of intent signed in Berlin marked a “historic deal", calling commercial air links the “lifeblood of a modern economy”.
The Serbian Ministry for Economy said, “Serbia has shown clear determination to boost free movement of goods, people and capital contrary to the artificially imposed barriers and limitations”. It has called for Pristina to drop a 100% tax on Serbian goods in order for the flights to resume. Furthermore, the Serbian Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure said it would work with the Kosovo Force (KFOR) in order to regulate airspace rights. Serbia and Kosovo have not regulated portions of their airspace which border each other, however, even without a deal, the issue could be overcome by flying over Macedonian airspace before entering either Kosovo or Serbia.
The Serbian government formed a task force for the "normalisation of air travel in the Balkans" back in 2017 with its main objective being the resumption of services between the two cities. In addition, it previously reached a free movement agreement with its Kosovan counterpart, allowing Kosovan passport holders to transit through Belgrade and Niš airports. Currently, the fastest way to fly between Belgrade and Pristina is via Vienna, with a journey time of over three and a half hours. JAT Yugoslav Airlines was the last to operate scheduled flights between the two cities back in 1999.
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