Air Serbia poised to unveil new routes for winter

Air Serbia is expected to shortly announce the launch of new routes which will be added to its 2022/23 winter season network. It follows the addition of several new destinations. Earlier this week, the carrier commenced services to Malta, marking its return to the island after three years. Air Serbia has also scheduled a limited holiday service between Belgrade and Pula for late December and early January, while it began ticket sales for its second long haul service, to Tianjin, yesterday. The flights will mark the first time a Serbian carrier has maintained services to China since 2000. In addition, the airline will operate new holiday flights between Niš and Zurich, which could be extended if the route proves to be successful.

The airline is expected to schedule its service between Belgrade and Tel Aviv, as recently reported, which would see it return onto the Israeli and Middle East markets after over two and a half years. Furthermore, another route is planned, which has previously never been served from the Serbian capital on a scheduled basis. The airline’s network growth is part of its ambitious plan to add around a dozen new destinations to its network by the end of next year, the majority of which will be announced at a later stage for the 2023 summer season. “We are convinced that this winter season will be dynamic and that we will achieve better results than those of autumn and winter of 2021”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said recently.

The carrier has put a greater emphasis on launching popular holiday destinations, as there is greater demand for leisure travel in the waning days of the coronavirus pandemic. New routes to Spain and Italy have performed well this summer and are subsequently being increased for next year, with services between Belgrade and Barcelona to more than double from four to nine times per week in 2023. Additional frequency growth on other routes is expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks. “We will continue to work on expanding our destination network primarily to tourist destinations, which has proven to be a complete success this year”, Mr Marek recently noted.

Air Serbia handled over 2.3 million passengers during the January - October period, with over 250.000 travellers welcomed last month alone. In October, the airline operated 2.815 flights, slightly down on 2019 pre-pandemic levels when they stood at 2.907. During the month, passenger numbers on charter flights increased 97.6% on three years ago. The results we have achieved in 2022 show that passengers enjoy flying with us. In the first ten months of the year, we carried over two million passengers, almost a million passengers more than in the same period last year. We plan to strengthen our fleet and launch new routes in the upcoming winter season, offering our passengers even greater comfort and better connectivity”, Air Serbia's General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Boško Rupić, said.