New flights across EX-YU

New airlines and flights launching this week

With the start of May, several airlines will be launching new flights across the former Yugoslavia, looking to benefit from the May Day holiday, which is being observed across the region. Both today and in the coming days, many airlines will launch their seasonal charter flights to the Croatian coast. On Saturday, Croatia Airlines will begin charters from Split to Ostersund in Sweden while on Monday, Germania will launch its charters to the seaside city from Toulouse. Following the success of its Dubrovnik - Athens seasonal service, Croatia Airlines will inaugurate flights from Split to the Greek capital this Saturday. Services will operate once per week until October 4, with a 144 seat Airbus A319. Further flight details can found here. Zadar will also welcome a new seasonal service during the weekend with Germanwings launching flights from Berlin. The route will operate once per week until the end of the 2014 summer season, with more details available here.

Meanwhile, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport will see the launch of two new routes today. Etihad Regional will inaugurate its three weekly service from Geneva, making it the third airline to operate between the two cities. Regional will face off against easyJet and Swiss International Air Lines on the route, making it one of the more contested from Serbia’s busiest airport. Service details are available here. In addition, Air Serbia had today launched its first of three weekly flights to Varna, on the Bulgarian coast, which will increase to four weekly from June 16. The carrier’s CEO, Dane Kondić, says, “The launch of our new service to Varna is perfectly timed to help connecting passengers enjoy a seamless journey to this popular holiday destination. The increased frequency of service to four times per week from June 16 will be of benefit to holidaymakers throughout the entire region, offering connectivity to mainland Europe and global destinations through our Belgrade hub”. Further details can be found here.

Further South, Alitalia will today launch flights from Rome to Skopje Alexander the Great Airport. The new service will operate on a daily basis and marks Alitalia’s return to the Macedonian capital for the first time since it suspended daily flights from Milan on January 8, 2008. The flights will be operated by Alitalia’s subsidiary Alitalia CityLiner on the 88 seat Embraer E175 jet. Further details on the new service can be found here. On the other hand, Turkish Airlines will, from tomorrow, again boost its Sarajevo flights. The Turkish national carrier will launch services from Istanbul’s second airport, Sabiha Gokcen. The new flights will run three times per week and will compliment the carrier’s eighteen weekly flights between Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and the Bosnian capital. As a result, Turkish Airlines will offer up to four daily flights between the two cities on selected days this summer. The new Sabiha service will go head to head against Pegasus Airlines’ daily flights with more details available here.