Air Serbia plans Central Asia, Middle East expansion

Air Serbia plans to launch flights to Central Asia and the Middle East as part of its expansion drive next year which will involve the introduction of up to a dozen new routes. The carrier’s CEO, Jiri Marek, told “Aerotelegraph”, “We already have quite a number of destinations in Europe. So, we will rather increase frequencies there than launch new routes. We are looking at Central Asia, countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, for which Belgrade would be a good option for connecting to Europe. We also have the Middle East on our radar. Furthermore, we want to grow our long haul operations”.

The Serbian carrier has been absent from the Middle East since March 2020, by discontinuing its scheduled flights to Beirut, suspending operations to Cairo and Tel Aviv, as well as shelving plans to serve Amman in Jordan this summer. It has already indicated the resumption of flights to Cairo next summer, while plans to serve Jordan are likely to be restored. On the other hand, Belgrade Airport has seen growing demand for flights from the main gateways in the Caucuses, which combined with transfer traffic to and from Western Europe and North America, could provide healthy loads on nonstop flights. Out of the three main Caucasus nations - Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia - Belgrade saw the highest volume of point-to-point traffic with Yerevan, followed by Tbilisi and Baku. Late last year, Georgian authorities held talks with airlines over the potential introduction of flights between Belgrade and Tbilisi.

Mr Marek noted that serving 100 destinations by the airline’s jubilee in 2027 remains a target. “When we celebrated our 95th anniversary, I said that we want to fly to 100 destinations by the 100th anniversary. This surprised many, but it can be done. This year we opened more than ten new destinations. For next year we are planning more or less the same number”. He added, “We already fly to fifteen destinations in the region, more than any other airline. And we will continue to increase frequencies in the Balkans as it offers our guests opportunities to connect onto other flights, especially on long haul routes. In August, we became number one in the Balkan region in terms of weekly flight frequencies”.

EX-YU Aviation News

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