Air Serbia sustains further bomb threats as Russia flights continue
Air Serbia saw two anonymous e-mails report bombs on board two of its aircraft bound for Russia yesterday for a third day in a row. The threats targeted Air Serbia’s service from Belgrade to St Petersburg, as well as to Moscow. The e-mails were sent prior to departure, resulting in the St Petersburg service being delayed over three hours, while the evening Moscow flight was late two hours on take off. Both threats, along with the previous three, turned out to be false. While most of the e-mails being sent to Belgrade Airport are from Ukraine, the last one was submitted from Poland. They come amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Air Serbia is continuing to serve the Russian market for now. Despite media reports in Russia that services are being discontinued and that some passengers have received e-mails of flight cancellations, the airline is only reducing its frequencies to Moscow from fifteen weekly rotations to eight weekly, with some travellers subsequently being informed that their flight has been cancelled. Starting March 21, the carrier plans to maintain a daily departure to the Russian capital, with two flights operating on Fridays. The reduction in frequencies come in response to external pressure for the airline to discontinue its flights, as it remains one of the few European carriers still able to operate into Russia. Most flights from Moscow have been sold out over the coming weeks.
Air Serbia has not commented on its Russia operations since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. According to the TangoSix portal, in addition to the sustained hoax bomb threats, the airline’s website has also come under attack from hackers on several occasions over the past week, targeting ticket sales. Furthermore, its employees have also received threatening e-mails. However, there are few solutions to the ongoing bomb scares. Due to short turn around times, the aircraft operating flights to Russia cannot be thoroughly checked for explosive devices prior to departure, a process which takes hours as each piece of equipment on board must be screened.
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