Air Serbia planning Havana service

Air Serbia is planning the introduction of flights between Belgrade and Havana this coming winter season, the carrier’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said. It comes following Mr Marek’s remarks that the airline would launch up to a dozen new routes, some of which will commence as early as the 2022/2023 winter season. “We are starting to consider long haul flights to some exotic destinations. In that respect, we are looking towards the East and the West. One  such destination, that is looking more and more certain this winter, is Havana”, Mr Marek said. If the service goes ahead as planned, it will mark the first time the Serbian and Cuban capitals have been linked with a scheduled air service.

In 2016, Air Serbia considered introducing long haul leisure flights in order to better utilise its sole Airbus A330-200 aircraft over the winter months when it maintains fewer frequencies on its scheduled New York service, which will be complemented by Tianjin this winter. The National Association of Travel Agencies of Serbia (YUTA) told EX-YU Aviation News that the Serbian carrier was exploring long haul charters, in partnership with YUTA, several years ago. “Keeping in mind that YUTA is one of Air Serbia's biggest partners in charter travel through our members, Air Serbia suggested a meeting with tour operators where we would discuss possible charters to far-off destinations. At the time, tour operators were interested in long haul charter flights to Thailand and Cuba during the winter months, as there is sufficient demand for those markets. The realisation of these charters was to be carried out during the winter season”, YUTA said. Ultimately, the idea never came to fruition.

During the pre-pandemic 2019, just over 4.500 passengers flew indirectly between Belgrade and Havana. Serbian citizens do not require a visa to visit the island and Cuba has no Covid-19 entry requirements, with neither a PCR test or vaccination certificate required. There were earlier attempts to establish flights between the two countries. In 2010, several tour operators joined forces in an attempt to organise charter flights between Belgrade and Havana once every fifteen days, or twice per month. However, chartering a foreign carrier was too expensive, while Jat Airways did not have the necessary aircraft to perform the route.