Belgrade eyes gradual recovery amid new routes and vaccine success
This morning, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport saw the launch of the first of five new routes which are to commence in March, while a total of six new services have been confirmed so far for the coming summer season. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many routes are still in limbo as a result of travel and entry restrictions, however, with more than half a dozen new services planned, there is some hope for cautious optimism. This has been coupled with the successful role out of the mass vaccination program against Covid-19 in Serbia, which has been one of the fastest in the world so far. Air Serbia inaugurated flights between Belgrade and Geneva today, while low cost carrier easyJet plans to restore the same route this Friday, which will also mark its return onto the Serbian market.
During the month, Wizz Air is set to introduce services to Sandefjord and Hamburg, SkyUp Airlines to Kiev and Eurowings to Stuttgart. This will be followed by KLM from Amsterdam in May and Luxair from Luxembourg in June. In addition, Russia's Ural Airlines has shown interest in launching five new services to the Serbian capital, while Norwegian Air Shuttle has filed a schedule for seasonal summer flights from Helsinki, although these are yet to be confirmed. At this point, 1.616 flights are scheduled to operate in and out of Belgrade this month (both directions included), although uncertainty still prevails due to the epidemiological situation across the world. Carriers such as Air France, Aegean Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines and Norwegian are all set to restore operations to Belgrade in March.
Last year, Belgrade Airport’s Chief Technical Officer, Nicolas Brousse, said, “No one can say with certainty how the situation with the pandemic will evolve, but we expect a return to our more usual operations during the summer of 2021. In the coming months, we anticipate a gradual growth in traffic. If the virus is put under control, we could expect a real restart in April or May, if the health situation improves in Europe and beyond”. The National Association of Serbian Tour Operators (YUTA) said it is coordinating talks between Serbian authorities and those from key summer markets such a Greece, Turkey and Egypt over entry rights for holidaymakers this year. YUTA is pushing for vaccinated travellers to be able to enter all countries without restrictions while those without vaccines to be able to enter with an antigen test, rather than the more expensive PCR test.
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