President: Air Serbia eyeing Seoul, adding new US and China routes

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has said the state-owned national carrier Air Serbia will introduce one new destination in the United States and two in China for a total of three in each country, while services to the South Korean capital of Seoul are currently being considered. Speaking at a press conference following talks with his counterpart from the Central African Republic, Mr Vučić, said, “During this year we will have three scheduled routes to China. In addition to Tianjin, which is near Beijing, they include Guangzhou and Shanghai. We will also have three routes to the United States. We already have New York and Chicago, and we will also add flights to Miami. We are reviewing the possibility of a new quick service to Seoul too. It is difficult to source wide-body aircraft which are affordable, but it is our duty to find those aircraft.”.

Air Serbia has so far confirmed it plans to introduce flights to both Shanghai and Guangzhou this year. It previously said it had reached an agreement to expand its fleet with two wide-body aircraft, which will be arriving this year. Since then, the country’s Ambassador to the United States noted the carrier was in advanced talks with Miami Airport over the introduction of flights to the city and that ticket sales could begin as early as this year. “Miami is next in the US. Discussions about the new Miami service have been taking place since at least last year. Air Serbia is pretty far in talks with MIA [Miami International Airport]. I think it will happen this year. If the carrier gets new long haul airplanes by April, then the Miami flight could be added fairly quickly”, Marko Djurić, Serbia’s Ambassador to the US, said last month.

The remarks largely align with Air Serbia's previously disclosed plans. The airline has openly acknowledged obtaining permits for routes to Shanghai and Guangzhou. It had earlier mentioned the potential inclusion of Miami or Toronto as its third destination in North America, although it had said its newest route to the continent would commence in 2025. The CEO has also indicated a review of Far East Asian destinations, such as Seoul and Tokyo, for potential launch in the future. “Once we expand to these cities in China, we will most likely add another destination in North America and, in the near future, we will also look beyond China in the Far East, most likely South Korea and Japan”, the company’s CEO, Jiri Marek, noted.