Belgrade Airport secures new winter flights

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has secured a number of new flights for the upcoming winter season with Etihad Airways and AlMasria Universal Airlines becoming the latest to announce additional services to the Serbian capital. The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates will maintain double daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade during the busy holiday season, between December 20 and January 13, up from the daily service it operated last winter. It comes after the airline ran twelve weekly rotations between the two cities over the peak summer months.

Egypt's AlMasria Universal Airlines, which has been operating two weekly flights between the holiday resort town of Hurghada and Belgrade with its Airbus A330-200 aircraft throughout the summer, has upgraded the service to year-round operations. It will become the second carrier to maintain services between the two cities throughout the year, with Egypt Air's subsidiary Air Cairo also operating on the route. AlMasria will run two weekly rotations from Hurghada to Belgrade this winter. Last week, the Egyptian Ambassador to Serbia, Amr al Jowaily, said the number of Serbian nationals visiting Egypt increased 60% this year, with 90% of all travellers heading to the Red Sea resort. Earlier this year Mr al Jowaily said the two countries were working on the resumption of flights between Cairo and Belgrade.

Austrian Airlines, Aeroflot, Belavia, easyJet, LOT, Norwegian Air Shuttle, TAROM and Transavia will all introduce additional frequencies this winter when compared to last. Aeroflot will add a third daily service to Belgrade for a total of 21 weekly flights, LOT Polish Airlines will boost operations, from daily last winter, to ten weekly starting October 28, while Belavia will maintain its third weekly service from Minsk to Belgrade launched this summer (two via Budapest and one nonstop). Austrian Airlines and TAROM will introduce an extra weekly service to the Serbian capital for a total of nineteen from Vienna and nine flights per week from Bucharest. Iran Air has filed its scheduled from Tehran for the winter, with the airline to operate two weekly flights. Air Serbia will increase its frequencies to Zurich with an additional three weekly services for a total of seventeen, add an extra weekly rotation to Stockholm for a total of four per week and upgrade its seasonal Larnaca service to year-round operations.

Low cost airlines will also be adding frequencies. easyJet will maintain all three of its routes to Belgrade - Geneva, Basel and Berlin - on a year-round basis, with the latter two to be operated for the first time. Furthermore, Transavia will run five weekly services between Amsterdam and Belgrade for the entire season, whereas additional flights were introduced last winter from February onwards. Norwegian Air Shuttle plans to boost its frequencies from Oslo to Belgrade from two to three per week, while it will also maintain its Stockholm service throughout the winter with one weekly flight. Wizz Air, which will downgrade its Belgrade - Larnaca route from year round to seasonal summer operations will compensate by adding additional frequencies on its existing services. On the other hand, Flydubai will decrease its flight offering from daily to five weekly.

EX-YU Aviation News will publish all winter network changes for the former Yugoslavia's capital city airports, as well as national airlines, over the coming month.