Air Serbia: New Route Network Gives Best Ever Choice for Serbian Travellers
25-Oct-2013 Air Serbia's new route network, which starts operating from tomorrow (26 October 2013), will give Serbian travellers the best ever choice of destinations from Belgrade Airport, more than doubling current frequencies and capacity by June 2014.
From 26 October, Air Serbia will launch a new route from its hub at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla International Airport to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, with routes to Banja Luka (Bosnia), Bucharest (Romania), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Prague (Czech Republic) to be launched by the end of 2013.
These new flights add to the 29 destinations previously served as part of the airline's 2013 summer schedule.
Air Serbia also plans to launch another seven new routes between January and April 2014, in addition to rescheduling existing operations to optimise connections via its hub in Belgrade. By June 2014, it will have doubled the frequencies and capacity, serving destinations in 43 countries, with 73,000 seats on more than 670 flights a week.
The airline's schedules have been redesigned to maximise connections between destinations with four major 'banks' of flights converging in the Belgrade hub at 7.00am, 1.00pm, 5.00pm and 11.00pm daily.
In addition, the key business destinations of Paris, Zurich and Moscow will be served double daily to facilitate convenient day-return business travel.
Dane Kondić, Chief Executive Officer of Air Serbia, said, "We're giving our guests a new route network which goes where they want, when they want and how they want. That means new destinations, more convenient timings and modern aircraft.
"Tomorrow's new flights are just the first step in the development of our future network strategy. That will see more and better direct flying by Air Serbia, as well as new codesharing with partners including Etihad Airways and members of its equity alliance."
The destinations will be served by the airline's new fleet, which will see the addition of modern Airbus A319s. Six new Airbus A319s will be introduced within the next two months, with a further four aircraft being brought into service during 2014.
The second phase of the Air Serbia fleet renewal will be a long-term competitive tender for the acquisition of additional aircraft. Aircraft types evaluated for this second phase will include the Airbus A320NEO, Boeing 737MAX and Bombardier CS300, all of which are much more efficient than current aircraft types, delivering both environmental and economic benefits.
The Airbus A319 aircraft, network and schedules are key steps in creating an airline that meets the needs of the passengers, whilst also offering superior levels of comfort and service not previously experienced by passengers.
The new schedules are planned to maximise connectivity at other hubs, including Abu Dhabi, from where new partner, Etihad Airways, which is taking a 49 per cent equity stake in Air Serbia, flies to destinations in India, Africa, China, South East Asia, Australia, the Americas and throughout the Middle East.
In addition, Air Serbia is strengthening relationships with major European carriers including Air France, KLM, Alitalia and airberlin, using their respective hubs in Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin and Dusseldorf to add even more choice for passengers.
These schedule changes will offer significantly improved connections to major centres of Serbian population around the world, including to Chicago with airberlin and to Melbourne with Etihad Airways.