Aegean delays EX-YU return and terminates route

Aegean Airlines has delayed the resumption of its flights to the Serbian and Croatian markets, while it has also terminated its seasonal service to Split. So far in the former Yugoslavia, the Greek carrier has only restored operations between Athens and Skopje, albeit at a significantly reduced rate than initially planned. Despite resuming flights to Belgrade earlier this month, the airline only maintained two rotations before suspending the service until June 2, when Greek authorities are expected to facilitate entry into the country for vaccinated Serbian nationals, while those that have not received the jab will be able to enter with a negative PCR test. Once flights resume, they have been scheduled to initially operate twice per week, before increasing to four weekly in late June. All will be operated by the Airbus A320 aircraft. Air Serbia continues to maintain flights to Athens.

In Croatia, Aegean Airlines has pushed back the resumption of its flights between Athens and Zagreb from early April to May 29. Services are slated to run twice per week, with one weekly rotation operated by the A320 aircraft and the other by the brand new A320neo. Flights to Dubrovnik will resume on June 1 and run twice per week with the A320 jet. On the other hand, the airline has terminated its operations to Split. At this point, Croatia Airlines plans to resume its seasonal Zagreb - Athens service via Dubrovnik on April 20, three times per week, with the Dash 8 aircraft, while seasonal operations from Split to the Greek capital are scheduled to resume on May 29, once per week, with the A319 jet.

Over in Macedonia, the airline is currently maintaining flights to Skopje, however, the schedule has been reduced and flights are now operating just once per week. They are set to increase during the summer to two weekly. Services are being run by the ATR42 aircraft, however, capacity will be increased to the Dash 8 turboprop from June 1.

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March of last year, Aegean Airlines terminated its operations to Sarajevo, marking its exit from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s market after just one year. There are currently no plans to restart the service. Furthermore, the airline has terminated operations to Podgorica. Aegean has been serving Montenegro since 2017. The Greek carrier had over the years also served Ljubljana and Zadar, however, both were terminated after just one year of operations. Resumption dates for all the abovementioned routes may change due to the pandemic, although the airline filed its schedule revisions this week.