Air Serbia handles over four million passengers

Air Serbia welcomed its four-million passenger of the year yesterday, marking the first time the carrier has handled the figure since its predecessor JAT Yugoslav Airlines in 1988. It also represents the third-best result by a Belgrade-based carrier. Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, noted, “Despite the numerous challenges we faced, we managed to achieve very high growth and carry over four million passengers in one year for the first time since [rebranding in] 2013. This number will be even higher by the end of the year, which is something we are very proud of. Looking at the national carrier’s entire 97-year-long history, passenger traffic was highest in 1987 and 1988. In both cases, over four million passengers were carried”.

Air Serbia attributed the result to its business strategy and expansion of its network throughout 2023. The company said, “Air Serbia’s success is the result of a carefully devised business strategy, which entailed expanding the destination network, upgrading and expanding the fleet, as well as reinforcing cabin and flight crew. In 2023, the national airline launched 23 new destinations, among which was Chicago, the third long-haul destination and the second one in the US, which especially stands out. The Serbian national carrier operated close to 43.000 scheduled and charter flights in 2023. Next year, Air Serbia plans to develop its fleet and the destination network even further”.

Air Serbia and its predecessors busiest years 

JAT, as Air Serbia’s predecessor, saw its busiest year was in 1987, when it handled 4.531.000 passengers. Of those 2.225.000 were welcomed on domestic flights. Although JAT’s total passenger count fell by just under 1% in 1988, the decline was solely due to a 6% decrease in passengers on domestic flights (2.109.000 travellers), while a record was achieved on Euro Mediterranean operations (2.003.000 passengers), as well as a long-haul flights (379.000 travellers). Furthermore, in 1988 the carrier uplifted a record volume of cargo - 43.081 tonnes. In the years that followed, both passenger numbers and cargo fell progressively. The crisis began in 1989, when declining living and social standards, high inflation and politics affected the aviation sector. The political unrest in China, and the forced closure of the Yugoslav consulate and subsequent expulsion of diplomats in Sydney, Australia following the shooting of a teenager who entered the consulate grounds during a Croatian independence demonstration significantly affected passenger numbers on the two markets. Operations were also influenced by internal issues which started to arise at the company, including issues over the introduction of a new reservation system and flight delays. As a result, the airline and its subsequent successors never managed to handle over four million passengers again, until this year.