Serbian regulator blocks S7 flights
The Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate has failed to issue Russia’s S7 Airlines a permit to commence flights between Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and Belgrade, which were to launch on May 21. The carrier has now suspended ticket sales on the route. Flights were initially planned to operate once per week with the Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Instead, additional frequencies on flights between Moscow and Belgrade will be awarded to Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot. Serbia and Russia have a stringent bilateral air service agreement in place. Although revised in 2013 to allow airlines other than Aeroflot and Air Serbia to maintain operations between the two countries, it still heavily favours the two national carriers.
Russia is one of Belgrade Airport’s biggest markets and despite the coronavirus pandemic has continued to perform well. Currently, Air Serbia, Aeroflot and Nordwind Airlines maintain flights between Belgrade and Moscow with frequencies limited to fourteen per week by Russian authorities due to the pandemic. Nordwind itself inaugurated operations to the Serbian capital in January but has also faced permit issues with the Serbian regulator. Air Serbia will restore operations to Krasnodar and St Petersburg on June 4 and June 8 respectively, as well as launch new flights to Rostov-on-Don on June 4. Due to existing limitations, both Aeroflot and Air Serbia have often been deploying wide-body aircraft on flights between the two capital cities so far this year, including the Airbus A330 aircraft and the Boeing 777 jet.
Commenting on its Russia operations, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, said last week, “We continue to react quickly to all changes in travel restrictions in order to make use of every opportunity that arises. The Russian Federation represents a strategically extremely important market for us, and we are very glad that we will soon be able to operate flights to as many as four destinations in this great country. We are especially proud of the fact that, after Oslo and Geneva, we will be launching flights to Rostov-on-Don, as the third completely new destination in our network since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and the second one this year”. Earlier this year, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate blocked Turkey’s AnadoluJet from commencing operations from Antalya.
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