EU: No means to stop Air Serbia flights to Russia
The European Commission has said it has no means to prevent Air Serbia from maintaining flights to Russia as the carrier plans to double its operations to the city. The Serbian carrier, along with Belarus’ Belavia are the only European airlines still flying to the country amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, although the latter is sanctioned by the European Union and Serbia itself. “In line with our measures, it is impossible for a Russian carrier to sell tickets from Moscow to Belgrade, or onwards from Belgrade to Brussels. However, if Serbia does not align its policy with the EU, then Air Serbia can sell those tickets, because we haven’t made these measures exterritorial”, the European Commission said. It added that, at this point, it would be inappropriate to extend these measures outside of its jurisdiction.
Air Serbia has increased capacity on its Moscow service to meet increased demand, with tickets selling out quickly. Yesterday, return economy class fares on select dates next week were selling at over 1.000 euros. The airline has been deploying its 257-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the route. It will add frequencies from its usual eight weekly to fifteen weekly rotations next week, replacing Aerflot's flights. This has resulted in fares stabilising. The carrier is operating the flights in line with issued Notices to Airmen, by avoiding Ukrainian and Belarusian airspace. Instead, it maintains its flights via Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, before entering Russian airspace. Other European carriers are banned from entering Russian airspace after almost all European countries forbid Russian registered and operated aircraft.
The European Union has criticised Serbia, as a candidate state, for not complying with the block’s foreign policy measures and it is believed considerable pressure is being put for the flights to be discontinued. However, for now, the airline’s services are continuing to operate as scheduled. At the same time, Turkey, a NATO member state, continues to welcome Russian carriers at its airports, while Turkish Airlines maintains operations to Russia.
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