Ural Airlines has scheduled the launch of its first service to Belgrade, after receiving approval from Russian authorities to commence operations from five Russian cities to the Serbian capital. The airline has scheduled and put on sale flights between Moscow Domodedovo Airport and Belgrade starting next Saturday, July 24. Initially, it plans to run one weekly rotation. However, it is highly likely the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate will block the carrier from introducing the flights, as was the case with S7 Airlines, which also put tickets on sale between Moscow and Belgrade only for the Serbian regulator to refuse issuing a permit. Serbia and Russia have a stringent bilateral air service agreement in place. Although revised in 2013 to allow airlines other than Aeroflot and Air Serbia to maintain operations between the two countries, it still heavily favours the two national carriers.

Travel between the two countries has flourished during the coronavirus pandemic. Aeroflot currently maintains daily flights between Moscow and the Serbian capital with its wide-body Airbus A330-300 aircraft, while Air Serbia runs eight weekly rotations, as well as frequent charters with its A330-200 jet. In addition, Aeroflot recently launched flights from St Petersburg to Belgrade, while Nordwind Airlines has introduced services from both Moscow and St Petersburg this year. Furthermore, Air Serbia has restored operations on all of its routes to Russia including St Petersburg and Krasnodar, while it also inaugurated flights to Rostov-on-Don this summer.

In addition to Moscow, back in April Ural Airlines received approval from Russian authorities to launch services to Belgrade from St Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Kazan, however, these are yet to be scheduled. Ural had previously flown from Domodedovo Airport to Belgrade in 2016 but terminated the service after nine months due to strong competition. The airline carried over nine million passengers in 2019 and boasts a fleet of 51 Airbus aircraft including the A320neo. There are currently 25 weekly scheduled flights between Belgrade and Russia, with over 4.700 seats on sale between the two each week.

Further details for the new Moscow - Belgrade service can be viewed here.