Air Serbia aims for 100 destinations by 2027
Air Serbia is striving to serve 100 scheduled and regular charter destinations by its centenary in 2027, the airline’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said. This year, the Serbian carrier is maintaining just over seventy scheduled and charter points in Europe, North America and North Africa. It comes following the introduction of seventeen new routes this year from Belgrade, Niš and Kraljevo. “We are currently recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, we are starting to grow again. We are flying to more than seventy scheduled and charter destinations. Where we are going is very easy. By 100 years we aim to have 100 destinations”, Mr Marek said at a gathering marking 95 years of commercial aviation in Serbia.
The General Manager of Belgrade Airport, Francois Berisot, said, the airport would support the national carrier in its future expansion plans. “Three years ago we unfortunately stepped into one of the most challenging times for all of us. We shared the same pain and same storm with Air Serbia. I want to congratulate Air Serbia and to thank the national carrier for their remarkable recovery and the way they have faced this storm. Air Serbia has proven to be a major key of our traffic recovery at Belgrade Airport. This crisis showed us how much stronger we are together”, Mr Berisot said. He added, “Air Serbia connects Belgrade and Serbia to Europe, to the region and to the whole world. Our goal is to make the airport the best tool to successfully grow and develop together. In the years to come, our national carrier and the airport will continue to strengthen Belgrade’s position as a well-connected regional hub and will continue to reaffirm this part of Europe as a desirable destination”.
Key to Air Serbia’s future expansion plans will be the growth of its fleet. The airline has wet-leased four aircraft to support its development plans this year but has faced operational challenges since the start of the peak travel period, with several flights cancelled over the weekend. “Currently, the situation in passenger air transport throughout Europe is burdened with great challenges, which are primarily related to the effects of the two-year crisis resulting from coronavirus pandemic, and the consequent travel restrictions, as well as a significant decrease in demand. All sectors of passenger air transport in Europe, from aircraft maintenance, through ground handling, airports, to airlines, are now facing exceptional seasonal growth in demand on the one hand, and relatively limited resources on the other, including a shortage of manpower. Passenger air transport is a highly interlinked industry, so delays and rescheduling in any of its segments lead to further phase delays and potential flight cancellations. As a result of the late entry of one of our aircraft to the fleet over the weekend and other technical reasons, we experienced delays and cancellations of some scheduled and charter flights”. Overall, the Serbian carrier cancelled four flights over the weekend, including one service each to Zurich, Hanover, Tirana and Tivat. On Saturday, its tenth Airbus A319, delivered a month ago, entered the fleet.
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