Photo: TanjugWhile Moscow cannot be reached from other parts of continental Europe, Serbia has increased the number of direct flights to that destination by almost half. By coincidence, Air Serbia became competitive with the world's largest air carriers. Considering the company's past losses, it is not certain that it will make any money
Europe, including the countries of the region, have closed their airspace for planes flying under the Russian flag. It is one of the responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow responded in kind. Serbia and Belarus are the only countries in Europe that have not imposed any sanctions on the Russian Federation.
For air traffic, this means that Air Serbia planes are the only planes from the continental part of Europe that can now fly to Moscow. As a result, the number of flights has increased these days.
As can be seen on their website, there are direct flights to Moscow every day.
The number of departures varies between one and three per day, that is, between 12 and 17 per week, which means that Air Serbia has doubled the number of flights, compared to the former eight per week.
After the Western sanctions, and due to the high demand for the trip to the capital of Russia, the price of the ticket was up to 1100 euros, but now, after the increase in flight capacity, it costs between 300 and 400 euros. The prices are reasonable, but there are fewer and fewer places - according to the latest data, there are almost no vacancies for March.
Regular Airbus 319 and 320 planes fly to Moscow, and a large plane that was previously used for flights to New York is also used.
Petar Vojnović, editor of the aviation portal "Tango Six", explains to "Vreme" that the largest number of flights from the continental part of Europe that have been stopped due to sanctions will be taken over by major international airlines, such as "Turkish Airlines", "Qatar Airways" and the national company United Arab Emirates.
"In that constellation of forces, Air Serbia will take over a very small percentage of flights, but even that small percentage is drastically significant for Air Serbia." And right now we see that Air Serbia is increasing its capacities".
The current advantage of Air Serbia is that it flies significantly shorter to Moscow compared to Turkish or Middle Eastern airlines. As Petar Vojnović says, due to political circumstances and "a game of chance", Air Serbia gained an incredible advantage "that it would never have received in business" and became a competitor to the world's biggest players.
The public speculated that European countries would eventually ban Serbian planes from flying to Russia through their airspace. Radio Free Europe, however, reported a statement from an official from the European Commission that the EU does not have the instruments to implement it.
Petar Vojnović says that they exist in theory, but that the reasons for their activation would be purely political. It explains that aviation regulatory bodies, such as the European Aviation Safety Agency, can ban some airlines from flying purely for safety reasons - breakdowns, crew problems or some other technical problem.
He believes that given the fact that states can influence the work of such institutions, it is not impossible to use some provisional and administrative matters that could lead to a decision to ban Air Serbia from flying. "But in that case, it would be clear that it is a political decision, and not about some technical problems of Air Serbia."
Vojnović says that there are some other "economic and political decisions" with which the EU can "punish Serbia" for non-compliance with sanctions against Russia. Also, it does not rule out the possibility of "unofficial toleration" of flights to Moscow from the European Union due to the fact that it is almost the only airline that will fly to Moscow.
SP
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