China’s President calls for more flights to Serbia

China’s President Xi Jinping has called on for the introduction of more flights from the country to Serbia. Speaking in Belgrade yesterday, Mr Xi said, “China welcomes plans for Serbia to introduce direct flights between Belgrade and Shanghai. We encourage airlines from both sides to launch more flights between the two countries, as well as direct flights between Belgrade and Guangzhou”. Air Serbia has already announced plans to launch services to Shanghai in November or December this year, although tickets for the service itself won’t be put on sale until the carrier’s third Airbus A330-200 arrives at its hub in Belgrade. Delivery is currently expected in late July or early August.

Belgrade is linked to China by Hainan Airlines’ two weekly rotation from Beijing, as well as Air Serbia with a weekly service to Tianjin. Both passenger and cargo demand between the two countries is expected to grow in the coming months. Arrivals from China into Serbia jumped 190% in the first quarter of the year to 19.447. Furthermore, a free trade agreement, which was signed between the two last year, will go into effect on July 1, which is anticipated to further increase cargo volume.

Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, said last week, “We have flights to Tianjin, which is basically Beijing. Soon we will have a service to Shanghai and a third destination [in China] to Guangzhou. Negotiations are underway for flights to Miami and services to Seoul are also being considered, which would be important for our country”. The former CEO of Etihad Airways, who was instrumental in the airline’s partial takeover of Jat Airways back in 2013 and its subsequent rebranding into Air Serbia, James Hogan, noted, “Later this year, Air Serbia will increase its operations into the Chinese market, tapping into the post-Covid resurgence of outbound tourism from one of the world’s strongest economies. The importance of these new routes from Belgrade to Shanghai and Guangzhou cannot be underestimated as 130 million Chinese are expected to travel overseas in 2024, 50% more than last year”. He added, “Air Serbia will also launch flights to Miami in the coming months, the airline’s third US destination after New York and Chicago. The addition of these new cities to Air Serbia’s growing international demonstrates how the airline continues to mature”, Ex Yu Aviation writes.