China becomes Belgrade’s top unserved air travel market
China has emerged as one of the top unserved markets to and from Belgrade since visa restrictions between the two countries were mutually lifted in 2017, with travel reaching a record high in 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Figures for that year show that Belgrade’s overall top unserved route was Shanghai, followed by Beijing, with Aeroflot profiting the most from the China - Serbia travel growth. A total of 145.248 passengers travelled between the two countries in 2019 (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan). Of those, 62.518 flew to or from Shanghai, or around 43% of all China travellers. It was followed by Beijing with 52.123 passengers and Guangzhou with 14.087 travellers. A total of 576 people flew indirectly to Belgrade from Wuhan, which would become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic just a year later.
Belgrade was the eleventh busiest unserved route from Shanghai and the seventh busiest European market without flights to China's second largest city. Most of the traffic flow between China and Serbia over the past few years has originated from Shanghai. This is in part because the largest portion of Chinese nationals residing in Serbia have their origins in two provinces south of the Shanghai region. Overall, Moscow Sheremetyevo was the top connecting airport for travellers between Serbia and China with 69.456 opting to transfer via the Russian capital. It was followed by Doha and Abu Dhabi. As a result, Aeroflot, which planned to introduce a third daily service to Belgrade in 2020 before Covid-19 struck, was the number one feeder carrier. It was followed by Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, which has since terminated its service to Belgrade.
The Serbian capital was briefly served by Hainan Airlines from Beijing in 2017 with a stop in Prague, however, flights were suspended a year later due to low demand. In May of last year, Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, noted, “Serbia is very popular in China due to its friendly relations and we are considering for Air Serbia to launch flights to the country in the coming period, with assistance from China. We are in discussions”. Travel between Serbia and China plummeted in 2020 due to the global health emergency. Travel in and out of the Asian country remains tightly regulated due to Covid-19.
Top five busiest China - Serbia routes in 2019
If you would like to find out the full list of the busiest unserved routes from Belgrade, of which three of the top five are in Asia, subscribe for this week’s EX-YU Aviation Premium Newsletter here.
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