NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia will use up all of its slots at London’s Heathrow Airport this summer season, with the carrier to operate nine weekly rotations between Belgrade and the British capital starting May 21. Initially, the airline planned to increase flights from six weekly to daily from this Saturday but has instead opted for an additional three weekly services for a total of nine. It will have two daily flights each Saturday and Sunday. It marks the first time Air Serbia has operated nine weekly flights to Heathrow since 2019.
Great news for JU - just pity that the UK has the most expensive yet utterly awful and unfriendly visa application service in the world - a national embarrassment, that puts many people off from going to this country.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I've visited more than 40 countries so far, but still haven't been to England as I don't fancy spending 100+ EUR and going through the torture of visa application/appointment for the privilege of visiting London for a few days. At least for the US they grant you the visa for 10 years and not 6 months. Laughable practice.
DeletePre pandenije su hteli da kupe dodatne slotove za LHR,možda sada ima slobodnih pa je šansa da iskoriste. Još 2 bi bila sasvim dovoljna da pored vikenda,2X dnevno lete i Ponedeljkom i Petkom.
ReplyDeleteUntil Serbia applies reciprocity with the UK on issuance of Visas the humiliation of people with Serbian passports will continue and the number of people flying there will remain limited.
ReplyDeleteNothing will change
DeleteYou gain to loose more by imposing visas for UK citizens than you have to gain. UK government couldn't care less either way and would not change its visa policy in any case.
DeleteDaleko im lepa kuca... so many other places in the world where you don't need a visa and are actually welcome to visit and are not humiliated and insulted at passport control even when you do have their visa...
DeleteNot really. We would lose more if we had visas for US citizens as there are A LOT of digital nomads from the States in Belgrade now. I can't remember the last time I heard British English in downtown Belgrade. I agree with anon 12:19, would be a good idea to reconsider the visa situation, especially now that they are out of the EU.
DeleteNothing really to lose by imposing visas on British nationals. They are barely in the top 20 visitors to Serbia (positioning 20th in 2019), we do more trade with Slovakia than the UK for example. I guess removing the visa free regime with the UK will put some political pressure on the UK to remove, or at least ease the visa requirements.
DeleteNext year starts the ETIAS scheme as well, which adds procedures to holders of Serbian passports, amongst others, which feels like a step back to what we currently have. Removing ID card entry to Serbia for EU countries would send a small message of dissatisfaction to the ETIAS scheme. They could of at least waved the fees for the ETIAS for citizens of EU candidate countries (Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia) as a small sign that they are sincerely interested in us becoming members of the union.
They can't remove the fee because they never adjusted their budget after Brexit. In other words, they are still spending like before with considerably less income. They need to find various sources of income like this one.
DeleteIt looks like most people here are in agreement about imposing visas on the UK passport holders until they are lifted from Serbian passport holders. One of the key motivators for the UK is that online "passport index" both as a matter of prestige as well as for their own business interests - the less markets you have available the slower it is for businesses operate. Plus it would make it a little more tedious for their spies to come to Belgrade - and right now there are a lot of them coming to town...
ReplyDeleteThere additional flights are for Russians to get to London via Belgrade…
ReplyDelete