US market of “great importance” to Air Serbia
Air Serbia has said the United States remains one of the best performing and most important markets in its network as the airline approaches six years of operations between Belgrade and New York. The carrier’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, noted, “The United States is of great importance to us. The Belgrade to JFK route is the only nonstop year-round scheduled service to New York from this part of the world, connecting people from Serbia and the whole region with their families, friends and relatives, as well as connecting businesses and bringing tourists to Serbia and the USA. It is one of our strongest routes, which continues to produce positive results despite the pandemic”.
The remarks come as Air Serbia is believed to be considering expanding its long haul operations, with the US, Canada and China being of interest to the carrier. The airline handled 41.320 passengers between Belgrade and New York in 2020, and a further 8.048 during the first quarter of this year. It carried over 320.000 travellers between the two cities during its first five years of operations which was marked in June. Based on OAG data from the pre-pandemic 2019, Chicago is the top unserved route from Belgrade to the United States with some 32.115 indirect travellers. This is followed by Los Angeles, which saw over 14.000 passengers flying between the two cities on other airlines. In 2019, Lufthansa was still the main carrier of choice for indirect travel between the US and Serbia, followed by Air Serbia and Swiss International Air Lines.
Busiest unserved routes between Belgrade and the US in 2019
Busiest airlines between Belgrade and US for indirect travel in 2019
Commenting on its New York operations, the airline’s Vice President for Americas, George Petković, recently said, “We are very satisfied with the achieved results, which are a good indicator that, despite the coronavirus pandemic, the flight to New York is operating well and represents one of the strongest routes in Air Serbia’s network. The US is a very important market which is made available to Serbia and all of Southeast Europe thanks to us as the only airline in the region with a scheduled nonstop flight over the Atlantic. According to data from the New York airport, we are also at the top of the list in terms of on-time performance, i.e. take-offs up to fifteen minutes from the planned departure time”. During the upcoming 2021/2022 winter season, which begins on October 31, Air Serbia plans to run two weekly flights between the two cities, increasing to three per week between December 20 and December 30.
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