Aegean brings forward EX-YU service resumption

Greece’s Aegean Airlines has brought forward plans to resume flights to select markets in the former Yugoslavia. The carrier plans to restore operations between Athens and Skopje in under ten days, on February 15, twice per week with the 48-seat ATR42 turboprop, through its regional subsidiary Olympic Air. Flights between the two capital cities were suspended at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year. This will be followed by the resumption of flights to Belgrade, on March 2, with two weekly services operated by Aegean’s mainline Airbus A319 aircraft. They will complement Air Serbia’s two weekly flights between Belgrade and Athens which have been running throughout much of the pandemic.

Operations to Croatia are set to restart at the beginning of the 2021 summer season. Services to Zagreb and Dubrovnik will commence on April 3, while flights to Split will be restored on May 18. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March, the carrier terminated its operations to Sarajevo, marking its exit from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s market after just one year. There are currently no plans to restart the service. Furthermore, the airline has terminated operations to Podgorica. Aegean has been serving Montenegro since 2017. Resumption date changes for all the abovementioned routes remain highly likely due to the pandemic, although the airline entered its schedule revisions this week.

Entry into Greece for the majority of nationals from outside of the European Union is still not permitted. However, the country is looking to facilitate travel during the Covid pandemic. It plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with Serbia which will regulate travel between the two countries between May 1 and October 1. It foresees the mutual recognition of electronic Covid-19 vaccination certificates for travel between the two countries. “This will allow entry to vaccinated citizens from both countries without restrictions, whereas a negative PCR test or antigen test will be obligatory for unvaccinated citizens. Also, random rapid tests will be conducted at the border”, the Serbian Tourism Minister, Tatjana Matić, said. On the other hand, two weeks ago, the Macedonian Foreign Minister, Bujar Osmani, signed a range of bilateral agreements in Athens. At the time he noted, “I expect that in the coming months, as the restrictive measures for the pandemic are eased, we will have an increase in cooperation between our two countries, in all sectors, including tourism and investment”.