DUBAI—Air Serbia plans to launch two new routes to China before the end of the year in line with the expansion of its widebody fleet.
The airline has three long-haul services at present—flying from its Belgrade hub to Tianjin in northeastern China and New York John F. Kennedy and Chicago O’Hare in the U.S.—but intends to add routes to Guangzhou and Shanghai over the coming months.
Traffic rights are already in place for the two new destinations and CEO Jiří Marek said slot confirmations are expected shortly. “We believe we will be able to open sales in June and one destination will start in October and one destination will start in December,” he told Aviation Week Network from the sidelines of the IATA Annual General Meeting in Dubai. “Depending on the slot clarification, we are still deciding which will go first, but both Shanghai and Guangzhou will definitely start this year.”
The planned launch comes as Air Serbia is set to take two more Airbus A330s, thereby doubling its widebody fleet. Marek said a lease agreement has already been signed and the aircraft are undergoing maintenance.
“If everything goes well and there are no issues with spare parts ... we expect the first aircraft to arrive at the end of July or beginning of August. The second will be in October,” he added.
Air Serbia entered the Chinese market in late 2022, launching a route to Tianjin. The service saw the national carrier re-establish direct flights to China for the first time since October 2000 when predecessor JAT Airways ended its link to Beijing.
Tianjin, a coastal metropolis in northern China on the Bohai Sea, is home to 14 million people. It serves as a key trade port supplying Beijing and is connected to the capital by a 117-km (106-mi.) high-speed rail line, making the journey in about 30 minutes.
Marek said Air Serbia began Belgrade-Tianjin as there was “no other option” to China during the pandemic. However, the route has proved successful and therefore remained part of the airline’s network.
He explained that China and Serbia have a visa-free agreement, which is helping to drive leisure demand, and added that there is also a strong labor flow thanks to Chinese investment into Serbian infrastructure projects. A new free trade agreement will also be introduced at the beginning of July.
Marek said that demand on Air Serbia’s Chicago route—launched in May 2023—had been softer during the winter months, but he believes improvements can be made so it remains a year-round destination. He added that the airline is assessing “one or two” more destinations in the U.S. that have a strong Serbian diaspora.
However, the focus in the short-term will be centered on the Chinese market as there is less seasonality. “China is a nice counterbalance to the North Atlantic,” Marek said. “It’s such a big market and there obviously a big opportunity to grow, perhaps not in the number of destinations, but in densifying the frequencies.
“We are starting with a low number of frequencies because we don’t want to take any risks. We want to stay as a profitable airline. Beyond that, I think in two- or three-years’ time [we will look to] the South Korea and Japan markets.”
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