The Serbian Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure is aiming to attract more medium and long haul flights to the country in an effort to boost tourism and connectivity. It has identified several markets which hold potential to generate inbound or outbound travel from Serbia in the form of seasonal or charter flights, including Canada, Japan, India, South Korea and Morocco, as well as further opportunities in the United States and China. In its latest report, the European Travel Commission linked Serbia's tourism growth during the first half of the year to strong marketing efforts and improved air connectivity. Last week, Iranian carrier Qeshm Airlines launched charter flights from Tehran to Belgrade, while from mid-September China's Hainan Airlines will introduce two weekly services from Beijing via Prague.
Commenting on its upcoming plans, the Serbian Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Zorana Mihajlović, said, "In the coming period we expect even more new flights from Belgrade Airport, which will link us with previously unserved markets and in turn boost tourism. The government is working towards establishing flights to Chicago, and hopefully to Canada". The head of the National Tourism Organisation of Serbia, Marija Labović, added, "The development of air transport is one of the most important factors in increasing tourist numbers. When it comes to new markets, our selection is based primarily on the availability of direct flights. Thanks to our national carrier Air Serbia, in recent years, both Belgrade and our country have been well connected to a number of destinations, which is a basic prerequisite for the development of tourism. Furthermore, the upcoming flights to Beijing represents an extremely positive step forward". The substantial 40.3% growth in the number of visitors from the US to Serbia this year has been linked to Air Serbia's service to and from New York. Furthermore, the country has seen the largest growth in the number of Chinese tourists in Europe this year, up 166.6%, which has been attributed to the abolishment of visa requirements for Chinese nationals.
The Transport Ministry told EX-YU Aviation News in a statement it has renegotiated a number of air service agreements in order to open up new markets and attract new carriers. Over the past year, new agreements have been inked with the United States, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Iran and Iraq, to name a few, while new accords are being negotiated with Canada, Azerbaijan and Pakistan. The importance of such agreements is illustrated in the case of Israel, where an additional two airlines launched services between Tel Aviv and Belgrade after the two sides reached an air deal. "By revising the agreement we have encouraged competition and increased the number of seats between Israel and Serbia, which has resulted in lower fares. In 2016, approximately 55.000 passengers flew between the two countries, and the number of travellers is expected to increase significantly this year, with capacity also rising", Israel's Minister for Transport, Yisrael Katz, said.
The Serbian government has also expressed its hope to further boost connectivity with China through the potential introduction of flights to Shanghai and has announced nonstop services from Beijing next year, without the intermediate stop in Prague. Furthermore, InterGlobe Enterprises, the parent company of India’s largest and busiest carrier, IndiGo, with capital in tourism and aviation, has expressed interest in linking India and Serbia to cater for Indian tourists visiting the entire region. The company is currently seeking cooperation with Air Serbia to jointly establish flights between the two countries. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Civil Aviation in the South Korean government, Suh Hoon-Taik, said last month, "There is interest on both sides to establish scheduled flights between Korea and Serbia and we will undertake a study to determine if there is sufficient demand. The prerequisite for these flights is an Air Service Agreement, which was concluded with Serbia last year".
Comments
We don't live in Communism anymore. It's not the government that needs to 'apply some action.'Their job is to create a good business environment within which companies can operate efficiently.
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/06/royal-air-maroc-considering-belgrade.html
Посао бирократа је да олакшају пословање њиховим авио-компанијама, не да им сугеришу како да раде свој посао.
What we read in your comment is the exact same we saw when JFK was announced.
As for Hainan, I think the larger pax numbers will come with direct flights. Interesting enough, the planned flights dont seem to connect well to the JU regional network nor does it seem there will be any codeshare with JU.
Qantas - ova cerka kompanija JetStar, prema informacijama iz vazduhoplovnih krugova trebao bi da leti do Evropskih gradova. Naprimer Atine, Rima... Dobro bi bilo i do Beograda. To nebih ugrozavalo profit Ar Srbiji. Etihadu, Emiratima i Kataru bih. Ali bi dobro bilo zbog aerodroma na Surcinu. Verujem da vlada radi na ovome, ali nisam siguran dali to radi efektivno i dinamicno. Moralo bi. Sve u svemu, sadasnji i buduci putnici i turisti ce zaobilaziti drzave i oblasti ukoliko nisu vrlo blizu destinacije. Za razliku od proslosti o kojoj nas narod najvise prica o onome sto je proslo...!. Na kraju krajeva, koncesionar koji dobije koncesiju, dovesce visestruko putnika i aviona na Nikolu Teslu. Bez uvevcanog broja prevoznika putnika i karga nema ni profita... Ako mira bude na Balkanu, bice i velikog uvecanja avio saobracaja
Pozdrav iz Kings Park - a NSW Australia.
https://news.flydubai.com/emirates-and-flydubai-join-forces-announce-extensive-partnership-agreement#
EK will codeshare on many FZ services, and almost all scheduled flights to ex-YU operated by FZ will also bear an EK flight number.
Flydubai loads were already fantastic as is, this will further consolidate their BEG operations.
Not Emirati or Saudi, but Kuwaiti and Omani. The blockade will have to end sooner or later.
@10,58
I dont think its funny but sad, really. Interesting enough Pakistan fits the criterea for US flights and Serbia initially didnt. In the end JU sold tickets for 5 months and had approval in time for its launch, which isnt bad. JU stated prior to customers purchasing tickets that the flights are pending government approval so people werent mislead in anyway, purchasing tickets knowing it was possible the flights could be rejected by the DOT. I think JU has been amazing compared to the so called airlines attempting TATL rotations from the Balkan region ie Sky Greece, Swift Air, Skanderberg Air...
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ac1911/#e1ca2ec
http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2017&mm=07&dd=17&nav_id=1283541
+1000
That is cause, HNA has no intention of flying to Belgrade, it was a political game by both sides. Soon it'll be evident HNA when to delay Belgrade launch. If this was Qatar or Emirates, they'd market the launch of flights 4-5 months ahead, and do proper marketing. Qatar now has surplus of aircraft and they're sending their spare aircraft everywhere....
Hvala vam sto se slazete sa mojim tekstom o razvoju avio saobracaja i aerodroma drzave Srbije. Razumno, zaista je razumno otvarati aerodrome, ulagati u avio infra strukturu i dozvoliti legacy, nisko budzetnim i sezonskim prevoziocima dolazak sa putnicima, turistima i kargo transportom na aerodrome Beograda i Nisa za sada, i sto prije i Kraljeva i Uzica...
Efektivnost analiza i odluka jesu osnov efikasnosti u razvoju avio saobracaja. I ne samo njega. Srbija je dosla do shvatanja da informatika i mreza avio saobracaja u zemlji su hleb danasnjice i sutrasnjice. To su dva segmenta komunikacija koji najefikasnije spajaju ljude, dopremaju robu. Stvaraju osnov i uslove veoma pristojnog zivota. To se svakog trenutka uveravam putujuci sirom sveta i svedoci bez prestanka u zadnjih pedeset godina. Mnogi to u srbiji znaju, ali ne shvataju. Zbog lokalnog iskustva, sporog, sporog prihvatanja. I jos sporijeg primenjivanja. Ljudi su mnogo staticni. Mnogo pripadaju proslosti. Ogledalo im je pozadi
Ali svetlost jeste ispred!. Iskustvo je majka znanja. A promena je uslovno receno uvecavanje hleba, koji svakom treba. I niko se ne zali sa vise hleba. Ostalo je ep prohujalih vremena, od kojih dobar deo ljudi u Otadzbini ostaje uz guslanje da "netreba i nemoze to u Srbiji"...
Iskreno nisam ni sam sa znanjem, ali svedocim putovanjima kja neprestaju evo vec ce pedeset godina. Na kraju kao i na pocetku, Srbija ulazi u fazu privrednog i saobracajnog preporoda.
Mnogima, pa i meni komercijalna avijacija i aerodromi su druga strana srca!.
S'postovanjem,
Rodney Marinkovic i mlada krila Sidneja.
Kings Park NSW Australia
Those foreign languages don't have letter such as š or ć. ;)
Any other spelling is disrespectful.