Air Serbia handles 4.19 million passengers in 2023

Air Serbia welcomed 4.19 million passengers onboard its aircraft in 2023, making the year its busiest since launching operations under its current name in 2003, and the third-best result if its predecessors are taken into account over the past 97 years. The figure represents an improvement of 55% on the year before and is up 50% on 2019. During 2023, Air Serbia operated over 45.000 flights, representing an increase of 40% on the pre-pandemic 2019. It maintained a total of 87 routes to 34 countries across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa, introducing 23 new destinations to its network, including long-haul operations to Chicago.

Air Serbia’s passenger performance by year

Commenting on the result, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “Air Serbia is not just an airline, it is a bridge that connects people, cultures, and opportunities. To preserve this important role, in our daily work, we are dedicated to passenger satisfaction, improving services, and expanding the fleet, and network of destinations. This has been our mission throughout 2023, a year in which we experienced unprecedented growth. This growth would not have been possible without the support of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, which has been our ally and partner in progress. We owe a great deal of gratitude for the success achieved in the past year to our passengers, partners, and employees”.

Addressing the operational issues faced by the airline over the past year, Mr Marek noted, “In addition to the achieved successes, which we can and should be proud of, in 2023 we also faced numerous external challenges that made our work difficult. A slow supply chain and a lack of spare parts on the global market, a lack of manpower and equipment at certain airports, industrial actions of airport services around the world, unfavourable weather conditions - all contributed to the fact that operations were difficult to carry out throughout the year, especially in the summer season. Based on the experiences gained during 2023, we are moving forward. In 2024, we will do our best to adequately address challenges, in order to provide passengers with a better user experience than in the previous year”.

Largest foreign markets by available two-way capacity, 2023

During the year, Air Serbia inked two wide-ranging codeshare agreements. This includes an agreement with Qatar Airways, encompassing over forty destinations, as well as JetBlue, covering 25 destinations. The company hired several hundred new employees, mostly cabin crew members, and had a total of 23 new pilots, the highest intake of captains over the past several decades. During the year, the carrier also rolled out its new uniforms for its crew members and opened a new retail shop in Belgrade.