Turkish Airlines eyes new year-round Belgrade route
The Turkish Ambassador to Serbia, Hami Aksoy, has said his diplomatic mission is assisting Turkish Airlines in the introduction of a new year-round service between Antalya and Belgrade. However, due to the rigid bilateral air service agreement between the two countries, which outlines the need for the national carrier of each not to object to the launch of any new service, the Embassy is in discussions with Air Serbia in order to enable the route. “Our goal is to connect Serbia with Antalya through nonstop year-round flights with Turkish Airlines. We are currently talking about this with Air Serbia. I hope we will succeed as Southern Turkey has lovely weather all year round, perfect for tourist visits”, Mr Aksoy said.
Air Serbia does not operate scheduled flights to Antalya, however, the coastal city is one of the centrepieces of its leisure charter operations. Growing relations between Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines, as well as the recent revision of the bilateral air agreement, have enabled Turkish Airlines to boost frequencies between Istanbul and Belgrade with the introduction of a third daily service, and for it to launch operations between Ankara and the Serbian capital under its lower cost unit brand AnadoluJet. In return, Air Serbia has established flights from both Niš and Kraljevo to Istanbul and holds a monopoly on lucrative charter services between the two countries. While Turkish Airlines runs seasonal flights from Antalya to numerous cities, it only maintains year-round operations to Istanbul and Moscow.
Commenting on the potential of the new service, the Ambassador noted, “We are not only working on bringing more Serbian tourists to Turkey but also encouraging Turkish tourists to come to Serbia in greater numbers. Our two countries have a visa-free regime and soon enough, passports will not be needed as only a chipped ID card will suffice for entering either country. Our goal is to get to know each other more and better by launching additional flights and exchanging more tourists”. He added, “In 2021, the number of Serbian tourists visiting Turkey outstripped the pre-pandemic period by 85%. Statistical data shows that over 230.000 Serbian tourists visited Turkey last year. The number of tourists from Turkey who visited Serbia increased by 95% and stood at about 48.000. Our goal this year is to increase the number of visits from Serbia to Turkey in the 2022 season to at least 300.000. If everything goes well, we will soon reach a figure of half a million Serbian tourists”.
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