Air Serbia optimistic over continued recovery in 2022
Air Serbia believes it will see further improvement on its way to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic next year but warned that plans could change at short notice due to the ongoing consequences the virus is having on the aviation and travel industries. The carrier’s CEO, Duncan Naysmith, noted, “At Air Serbia, we place more trust in plans, strategies and well-convinced steps on the path to achieving a goal. The year behind us was very specific - the consequences of the pandemic can still be felt globally, travel restrictions are still around, and it remains more difficult to make plans, with the possibility that everything could easily change in an instant. However, we can say that, for us, this year was better than the last one. In the first three quarters of 2021 alone, we carried 40% more passengers than we did during the whole of 2020. We worked hard, adapting quickly to the shifting situation, and kept pace with passenger needs”. He added, “This ensured that progress was not lacking and that we achieved better results than the industry average in almost all segments”.
Commenting on the coming year, Mr Naysmith said, “We have laid strong foundations to support the belief that 2022 will be even better. We are continuing to adapt our network, digitalise our operations and improve the user experience”. Air Serbia is tipped to start off 2022 with a slew of new routes, which will be subsidised by the state. The airline is widely expected to apply and be selected as the operating carrier on ten routes deemed to be of public interest, six of which are required to be launched as early as next month. These include services from Niš to Belgrade, Hahn, Cologne, Ljubljana and Istanbul, as well as from Kraljevo to Turkey’s largest city.
Air Serbia has said its objective is to fully return to 2019 passenger levels, after which it will pursue the multilateral development strategy that was planned before the pandemic, complementing it with elements of its crisis management that has proved successful over the past twenty months. The carrier is considering a greater presence in Central Europe, regional development with potential new routes in Romania and Bulgaria, as well as a return to the Ukrainian and Polish markets. “We want to position ourselves as the leading regional airline in this part of Europe and we believe that so far, we have been successful in this respect. We would like to continue doing so in the future”, the company said.
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