XiamenAir and the Serbian government have signed a strategic cooperation agreement this week, with the two sides set to intensify discussions over the potential launch of flights between China and Serbia. The agreement comes two years after the Chinese carrier first began examining the feasibility of serving Belgrade, with previous talks having included a detailed assessment of passenger and cargo flows at Belgrade Airport. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Adrijana Mesarović signed the memorandum with XiamenAir General Manager Xie Bing in Xiamen. Although the agreement covers a broad range of areas, including aviation, trade, agriculture and tourism, Ms Mesarović confirmed that air services will form part of the next stage of cooperation. She noted that Serbia had been in talks with XiamenAir for an extended period, adding, “We will also discuss establishing flights to Serbia”.
The memorandum foresees broader cooperation between Serbia and XiamenAir. Serbian food and beverage products are already being offered by the carrier, with Serbia seeking to expand their presence across the airline’s network. The carrier has established its first overseas “XiamenAir Farm” project in Serbia, focused on raspberries and other agricultural products. XiamenAir said this week that Serbian raspberry juice will subsequently be offered to passengers on its flights. Chinese media have also reported that Serbian wine, honey and plum brandy have featured as part of the airline’s promotion of Serbian products. The agreement was signed during the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), which is being held in Xiamen this week. The development comes exactly a year after Belgrade and Xiamen formally became sister cities.
XiamenAir, which is part of the China Southern Air Holding group, has a fleet of 211 aircraft and operates more than 400 domestic and international routes. Its long-haul fleet includes Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which the carrier deploys on its European network. XiamenAir currently maintains nonstop services from its Xiamen base to several European cities, including Amsterdam, Paris and London. A XiamenAir delegation travelled to Serbia this April, holding discussions with the Ministry of Economy, Chinese business representatives and agricultural companies.
This is cool :D
ReplyDelete"The carrier has established its first overseas “XiamenAir Farm” project in Serbia, focused on raspberries and other agricultural products. XiamenAir said this week that Serbian raspberry juice will subsequently be offered to passengers on its flights."
And almost all workers in this farm and company are Asian.
Deleteok... i just said it was interesting
Delete@09:05 such is modern economics and global economy.
DeleteInteresting how aviation is almost secondary in this agreement. It seems Serbia is using the airline as a wider commercial bridge into China.
Delete^ This article actually makes the aviation discussion sound more credible because there is already cooperation happening outside aviation.
DeleteThe whole farm project is actually quite unusual for an airline.
DeleteChinese Airlines and the Chinese state are, at some level, intertwined so it makes quite solid business sense. Boosting Serbian agriculture is a very welcome thing in my opinion.
DeleteChances of JU launching flights to Xiamen and being supported in that by Xiamen Air are zero.
ReplyDelete🤷♂️
I don't think JU would launch it. Xiamen Air would.
DeleteI also think that JU would just support them instead of actually code-sharing, let alone revenue sharing with them.
DeleteJU would have no chance in Xiamen. Only XiamenAir could make it work.
DeleteGenerally the Chinese make sure that only their companies make it work for flights to China...
DeleteIt doesn't have to do with JU specifically.
^
Delete+1000
Xiamen would certainly be one of the more interesting additions to Belgrade’s network.
ReplyDeleteDid not know they are owned by China Southern.
ReplyDelete51% owned by China Southern.
DeleteOr 100% government owned
DeleteThis would be absolutely massive for BEG, Xiamen is a great airline and, unlike all other carriers serving the Serbia-China market, it's part of an alliance (SkyTeam). It would also bring more competition to the Far East and Australia.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI wonder whether they would actually fly Xiamen–Belgrade or perhaps operate from another Chinese city.
ReplyDeleteTheir bases are Xiamen and Fuzhou.
DeleteXIamen is a second largest city in Fujian province with 5.5 mil population. Province itself have 40+ million people. It would make a lot of sense to start flights and also transport cargo and it's own supplies from Serbia
DeletePeople underestimate how important Chinese domestic connections are. The passenger does not necessarily have to originate in Xiamen.
DeleteThe Chinese outbound tourism market is enormous. Serbia only needs to capture a tiny percentage of it for these flights to work.
DeleteSerbia has a huge advantage, oppsite the rest of Europe. Visa free regime
DeleteThe cargo component could actually be very important here, especially considering all the agricultural cooperation mentioned in the article.
ReplyDeleteYes. I actually think cargo could make the difference here. Serbia exports a lot of agricultural products and the agreement seems unusually focused on trade.
DeleteImagine telling someone ten years ago that Serbian raspberries could eventually help support a Belgrade–Xiamen route. lol
Delete^ Although crops have been very badly hit this year by global warming and severe drought around Arilje.
DeletePeople here are insfurable lol as seen in the comments above.
DeleteCalm down.
DeleteYou don't see a pattern? Someone above writes how it's cool and the likes of you immediately responds how it is stupid because it's farmed by Asian workers. Someone again writes it's cool and then another person responds how there are no crops due to global warming. Seriously some of you need to seek help. Hatred towards a certain country doors not mean you have to rubbish everything.
Delete@12:47 wasn't wrong though
Deletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/berries-exports-serbia-arilje-drought-raspberries-b3002279.html
Asian workers are doing irrigation, sorry. No happy end for him
DeleteSerbian raspberry juice on XiamenAir. Didn’t have that on my 2026 bingo card 😂
ReplyDeleteHopefully this results in flights rather than another memorandum that gets forgotten six months later.
ReplyDeleteMost memorandoms end that way. Its just diplomatic spin mostly.
DeleteThey have building up their relationship for two years now. Anyway it's great you are so positive on an aviation site about new service.
Delete^ people here are usually happiest when a route is terminated so they can write
Delete"beggers can't be choosers"
"it's a low yield market"
"no demand"
@09:44 how fast to condem. Of course one is excited, but the reality most talk leads to nothing. But a few people are so obsessed by the idea that other 'put down' 'their' airport its rather sad. Hope it does come to something. 🙌🏼
DeleteNegotiations are ongoing. Around the world many talks don't amount to anything, some do. Actively cheering for nothing to happen on aviation forum is bizarre to say the least.
DeleteWould be quite something to see XiamenAir colours at BEG. Fingers crossed this progresses beyond the discussion stage.
DeleteXiamen–Belgrade two times per week with the 787 would be a very interesting route.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how strong XiamenAir’s connecting network is from Xiamen towards Southeast Asia? Could make this quite useful beyond China.
ReplyDeleteVery good to Malaysia and Indonesia, not sure about the rest of ASEAN.
DeleteThe biggest question is whether there is enough demand for all these China flights
ReplyDeleteIf the Chinese tourism market to Serbia keeps growing, I can definitely see another carrier entering BEG.
DeleteXiamenAir is also SkyTeam, so this would give another interesting option for passengers with alliance status.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Although only a tiny tiny fraction of passengers care about such things.
DeleteIf this happens, BEG will have quite an extraordinary China network for a city of its size.
ReplyDeleteThe 787 is probably the only realistic aircraft for such a route. Two weekly initially would make sense.
ReplyDeleteHopefully realise next summer for Expo. But I don't know about bilateral limits...
DeleteWhat I like about this agreement is that there seems to be an actual commercial relationship behind it, including Serbian products already being sold and served by the airline.
ReplyDeleteSerbia seems to have figured out that Chinese routes need support from tourism, business, cargo and government cooperation all at the same time.
DeleteMaybe this could also work as a tag-on to another European city initially, although obviously nonstop would be preferable.
ReplyDeleteLike PEK-OTP-ZAG?
DeleteUnlikely given Serbia is not in the EU and Schengen. I think that would be a complexity that an airline wouldnt need. Stand alone Non-stop would work.
DeleteIt would be maybe easier than flying to EU country.
DeleteFor example XMN-IST-BEG would work even with no 5th freedom betwen IST and BEG. Not going out for passport control...passengers remain in the plane.
As it was many years ago on DOH-SOF-BEG flight.
There is no point in making it a one-stop. And Turkey wouldn't allow it. The Qatar flights via Sofia were before Schengen. I can't see an airline doing that anymore.
DeleteWhat about PEK-OTP-ZAG? This month started.
DeleteSo, the airlines are doing it...it is only the question which cities to connect.
That is all within Schengen. Belgrade can support direct flights.
DeleteBeing within Schengen actually makes whole thing worse as passengers must leave airplane and go through passport control in OTP in both ways.
DeleteIn hypothetical case of route XMN-IST-BEG it would not have to be done and waiting on the ground would not be that long as in Air China case to ZAG (3 hours in OTP!).
I have no doubts that BEG can support direct flights, but maybe it would be easier to them first to start through some other city (as Hainan started through PRG when they started flying to BEG) and to minimize the risk. Better to have flights through some third city on the beginning than not to have them at all.
Ask Zagreb.
Maybe only Tashkent, Shymkent, Almaty or Bishkek would make sense. I don't see any city in Europe conveinient
DeleteWith 5th freedom rights, of course
Delete@16:09 as i understand the closest example would be Sichuan Airlines Chengdu to Athens via Istanbul. But I believe this also has quite a long wait times in Istanbul before continuing on the Athens.
DeleteI flew this route (Sichuan Airlines) in January. It was great actually. I didn't feel the wait in IST was long at all. We did not disembark the plane. They came onboard, cleaned it, people embarked and we were off. Most people left in Istnabul but I was shocked at how full the plane was from IST to ATH. Lots of people were booked just on this sector. I guess the fares are low?
DeleteI’m sceptical. Politicians love announcing “discussions about flights”. Call me when XiamenAir files a schedule.
ReplyDeleteWell they have been talks about them for a while and it has obviously produced some results.
DeleteThis is clearly government led route development, but that doesn’t automatically mean it is a bad thing. Plenty of long haul routes start that way.
DeleteMy guess: 2x weekly initially, 787-9, heavily reliant on groups, cargo and Chinese-origin traffic.
ReplyDeleteFlew with them some 10 years ago on AMS-XMN-NRT. It was great. The best part was when the flight attendant asked me if I wanted some a*s for my c*ck (her way of pronouncing "ice for your coke") :)
ReplyDelete😂
Delete@11:02 good to see 1970s humor is alive and well. hahah
DeleteXiamen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou… keep them coming. China is one market where Belgrade has a genuine opportunity to position itself differently from many neighbouring airports.
ReplyDelete+100
Delete@11:39 what have neighbouring airports go to do with anything? This is clearly a Belgrade thing, no comparisons needed.
DeleteAnd why not compare?
DeleteBUD is regularly compared to BEG in terms of Chinese flights because they have more. Seems like when BEG has more of something, it should not be compared.
DeleteAfter BUD, BEG has the most and it is slowly catching up. No other regional airport comes close, except Athens (or VIE) if we count them into the region.
DeleteGeographically do we really count Budapest? No other regional airport will ever boast flights to china on the scale so itw a rather arbitory comparison.
DeleteActually BEG isn't so far off. I don't know what you're taking about.
DeleteBelgrade is very far off Budapest in terms of weekly flights to China, but as stated by others its comparisons are often meaningless.
DeleteRelative to annual passenger numbers, BEG (8.9M) is actually doing great in terms of China passenger services compared to BUD (19.5M).
DeleteThe raspberry juice part is probably the most Serbian thing I’ve read all week.
ReplyDeleteNow I want to see the catering menu.
DeleteA flight to Xiamen would certainly be exotic from a European perspective. Even many much larger capitals don’t have one.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. AMS and CDG and LHR (as of four days ago) have them thus far.
DeleteI don’t care which Chinese city it is at this point. More competition on China–Belgrade would be good for fares.
ReplyDeleteXiamen Airlines is not exactly an airline that gets mentioned every day in this region.
ReplyDeleteThey have extremely beautiful uniforms.
DeleteWonder if VINCI is involved in these discussions as well.?
ReplyDeleteOf course not. They don't seem interested in bringing any airline to BEG.
DeleteThey only care about their pockets and the water salute.
DeleteGosh, i almost wish for GoS to cancel that stupid concession.
Hahah now that would really shout 19th century methods of business. You cant do such things and be taken seriously on the world stage.
Delete@17.43 I would say the only person caring about water salutes is you since you would end an airport concession worth over 1 billion euros over it. It is actually a trend that is now adopted by many major airport groups, not just Vinci, wheather you like it or not.
DeleteAnd of course they care for their pockets. If you run a business, you would not care about your pockets? You would rather be a loss making company?