Serbian regulator blocks Ural Airlines flights
The Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate has failed to issue Russia’s Ural Airlines a permit to commence flights between Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and Belgrade, which were to launch tomorrow. The carrier has now suspended ticket sales on the route. Flights were initially planned to operate once per week with the Airbus A320 aircraft. It is the second Russian carrier after S7 Airlines not to be issued a permit on the route. 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 sixteen 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. Last month, both Aeroflot and Nordwind introduced flights from St Petersburg to Belgrade, while Air Serbia restored operations to Krasnodar and St Petersburg, as well as launched operations to Rostov-on-Don. 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 and the Boeing 777 jet, with the Russian carrier almost exclusively maintaining operations with its A330-200 aircraft.
Commenting on its Russia operations, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, recently said, “The Russian Federation represents a strategically extremely important market for us. Despite travel restrictions, we have managed to increase the number of flights to Moscow, recommence services to Saint Petersburg and Krasnodar, and even introduce a completely new route to Rostov-on-Don. Great demand and passenger load factor on the new route showed us that it was a good business decision. We will continue to monitor demand and adapt to the circumstances on the market quickly”. Earlier this year, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate also blocked Turkey’s AnadoluJet from commencing operations from Antalya, which is served by Air Serbia with multiple daily departures across most days of the week.
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