In July, Air Serbia carried over 400,000 passengers on regular and charter flights through its base airport in Belgrade and airports in Nis and Kraljevo – the most in one month since October 2013, when it started operating under its current name.

“The number of passengers carried in July is up 47 pct compared to July 2021, when the Serbian national airline carried a total of 276,191 passengers.

Passenger numbers are also up 9 pct compared to record-setting pre-pandemic 2019, when Air Serbia carried 372,839 passengers,” the company said in a statement.

Air Serbia expects that the number of its passengers in July this year will make up over 55 pct of the total number of passengers who travelled via Airport Nikola Tesla Belgrade.

“The results we achieved in July are a good indicator that we made correct and timely business decisions when it comes to scheduling for this summer season. Here I primarily mean the strategic launching of new routes to tourist destinations, including those in Italy and Spain, which were most popular among passengers in the summer season. This result is also a consequence of additional growth of charter traffic by approximately 37 pct this season compared to 2019. We will continue to keep a close eye on market demands, and boost our capacities on most popular routes in our network and we are certain that the stable growth trend will continue in the coming months”, said Bosko Rupic, Air Serbia General Manager Commercial and Strategy.

“Attractive summer destinations are seeing a big uptick in passenger numbers compared to July last year, and traffic has grown by 172 pct to Barcelona, 133 pct to Larnaca, 128 pct to Dubrovnik and 62 pct to Athens. The Belgrade-Madrid route, which was suspended last year because of the pandemic, reached the 2019 levels immediately upon renewal. There is big demand year-round for destinations like London, which has seen a 151 pct growth in passenger numbers, Zurich with 87 pct growth, Istanbul with 43 pct, Berlin with 40 pct and New York with 27 pct.

Increased mobility of diaspora from European cities towards the region is followed by growth on regional routes, as Sarajevo has seen growth of 67 pct, Skopje 71 pct, Ljubljana 35 pct and Zagreb 52 pct, compared to last year,” the statement also said.