Serbia - Italy flights resume after nine months

NEWS FLASH

Commercial flights between Serbia and Italy have resumed this morning as Air Serbia restored operations between Belgrade and Rome for the first time since July 2020. Operations were initially suspended in March as Italy became the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. It followed a decision by Alitalia to discontinue flights on the route three days earlier. Those are not expected to be restored until 2022. Air Serbia’s rebooted flights to the Italian capital will run twice per week, each Monday and Friday, increasing to three weekly from June 13. It will be followed by the resumption of its Milan flights on May 28, which will initially run twice per week, incerasing to three weekly from mid-June. “We are happy to be re-establishing flights to Italy and adding another destination to our existing network, in addition to Rome, which we already announced. Having in mind that the pandemic is still ongoing, the recommencement of these routes can be considered a great success. Italy represents an extremely important market for us, and our goal is to provide continued and strong connection between Belgrade and Italy, as well as other destinations in Air Serbia’s network”, Jiri Marek, Air Serbia’s General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, said. Services to Bologna and Venice, which were operated by Air Serbia prior to the Covid-19 pandemic are yet to be scheduled. Air Serbia discontinued flights to Rome in March 2020 and restored the service for a two-week period in July before Italy introduced a ban on flights from a number of countries from the former Yugoslavia, including Serbia. In April 2020, Air Serbia operated eight special flights to Rome, delivering aid to combat the pandemic. The majority of Serbian citizens are still not permitted entry into Italy.