Air Serbia’s Chicago flights sell out
Air Serbia has seen its upcoming new service between Belgrade and Chicago sell out for the first month of operations, as the carrier gears up to commence its third long haul service on May 17. Sales are notably strong departing Chicago, with no seats available in either business or economy class on May 20, 24, 27, 31, June 3, 7 and June 10. Few seats are available for later dates in June. The airline will initially operate two weekly rotations between the two cities with its Airbus A330-200 aircraft, increasing to three weekly from June 12. “This route has been long-awaited in our network. Many from the diaspora in the United States have written to us, urging us to introduce these flights. Its launch is justified considering that almost all flights have been completely sold out until mid-June”, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Boško Rupić, said.
Commenting on the Chicago service in a television report dedicated to the new route, Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, said, “We had a lot of issues when Air Serbia first launched flights to New York but now it is one of the most profitable routes in its network. We have high expectations for the new Chicago service, that aims to bring the Serbian diaspora closer to home but also serve businesspeople in the United States and bring the US closer to Serbia. From Chicago, passengers will be able to connect to Canada, LA, San Francisco and other parts of the States which were not as easily accessible before. I am pleased that our diaspora in Chicago, Illinois, Indiana and those in the mid-West are looking forward to this new route”
The new service will mark the resumption of flights between Belgrade and Chicago exactly 31 years to the day when they were last maintained by JAT Yugoslav Airlines and 43 years since operations between the two cities commenced on April 10, 1980. The last scheduled flight between Belgrade and Chicago was carried out on May 17, 1992. The United States introduced an embargo on air traffic from Yugoslavia four days later, on May 21. Figures provided by Sabre Market Intelligence show that the Serbia-US market attracted 239.000 two-way origin and destination passengers during the pre-pandemic 2019 - almost 85% of whom travelled indirectly. Belgrade - New York was the largest city pair, with Air Serbia alone handling 61.700 two-way passengers on its nonstop service, while Belgrade - Chicago was the second biggest market with 38.000 two-way passengers.
One of the airline's largest sellers in North America, travel agency Axioma Travel, recently told EX-YU Aviation News the new route is generating a lot of interest. “There is lots of interest as expected. Fares across all airlines are very high for this first full post-Covid summer and Air Serbia’s nonstop flight from Chicago to Belgrade is no exception. As far as beyond Belgrade is concerned, we are mainly seeing Skopje, Podgorica and Tivat”. Axioma Travel said.
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