Delta rules out EX-YU interest

NEWS FLASH

The word’s second busiest carrier, Delta Air Lines, has ruled out any interest in operating flights to the former Yugoslavia in the near future. The airline recently inked a number of codeshare agreements allowing it to sell its own tickets to the region. Apart from codesharing with Air France and KLM between Paris, Amsterdam and Zagreb, the carrier has also added its designator code and flight numbers onto ČSA Czech Airlines’ services between Prague, Zagreb and Skopje. “Codeshares are an important part of Delta’s network strategy as they allow us to reach parts of the globe that we do not operate to ourselves. We have many partnerships of this nature around the world”, a spokesperson for the airline said. They added, “Although we continually evaluate our markets and make adjustments to our network when required, we are happy with our current network footprint in the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe and at this stage do not have any plans to update this”. In 2013, Delta was the only carrier to file a complaint against a planned codeshare between Air Serbia and Etihad Airways on flights from Abu Dhabi to the United States. The codeshare was ultimately rejected by US regulators. However, a month ago Air Serbia and Etihad were granted approval for the latter to place its codes onto Air Serbia’s service between Belgrade and New York, without any objections from Delta. Over the past few months, a number of airports in the former Yugoslavia, including Zagreb and Dubrovnik, have expressed their interest in offering direct flights to the United States.