Foreign carriers suspend majority of EX-YU flights

Foreign carriers have suspended the majority of their services to the countries of the former Yugoslavia where air traffic is still operational, with more to follow in the coming days, as a result of the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak. Aeroflot is halting the majority of its operations due to increasing travel restrictions and new measures in Russia but will continue to maintain flights to Zagreb. The Qatari carrier intends on running services to the Croatian and Bosnian capitals at this point.

Emirates also currently plans on maintaining its operations to Zagreb, albeit at six times per week instead of daily. Norwegian Air Shuttle has discontinued flights to all of its destinations in the former Yugoslavia, with operations currently scheduled to resume in mid-April. The airline will operate its last service to the region, between Stockholm and Sarajevo, tomorrow.

Turkish Airlines will discontinue flights to Dubrovnik, with the airport’s General Manager noting that all international services will likely be suspended. It follows Croatia Airlines’ decision to maintain only domestic services from all airports other than Zagreb. “We currently have flights from Athens [Aegean Airlines], London [British Airways] and Istanbul. Turkish Airlines is likely to cancel Istanbul, while we will see what happens with Athens and London. Due to very low demand, I expect they will be suspended as well”, the General Manager of Dubrovnik Airport, Frano Luetić, said. Lufthansa has suspended its operations to Zagreb and Sarajevo.

Within the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia effectively remain the only two countries with operational commercial air traffic at this point.

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