Air Montenegro, the new national airline of Montenegro, is ready to go. Tickets have been put on sale today, and the first scheduled service will take off the week after next.

Air Montenegro is almost ready to go

The government of Montenegro has created a new national airline, Air Montenegro, to replace the previous national airline, Montenegro Airlines, which was shut down in December 2020.

Tickets for Air Montenegro's first flight are already on sale, starting today. The first scheduled service will be on Thursday 10th June to Serbia's capital, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.

Belgrade is currently the only destination available for purchase on Air Montenegro's website, from both of the country's airports: Podgorica, the capital, and Tivat, the Adriatic gem.

Air Montenegro will actually operate its first-ever flight before the first scheduled flight. The airline will transport the Montenegrin football team to Sarajevo on Tuesday 1st June for its symbolic first ever flight.

An all-white fleet of Embraer aircraft to start with

While setting up Air Montenegro, the government of Montenegro has transferred across the ownership of two Embraer E195LR aircraft previously operated by Montenegro Airlines to Air Montenegro. These are 40-AOA and 40-AOB.

To begin with, Air Montenegro's fleet will not bear any livery at all. This means that aircraft will be flying completely white, the CEO, Predrag Todorović has confirmed.

The all-white livery is because the corporate identity of the new airline has not yet been established, and the Montenegrin Government wants to waste no time for the aircraft to start flying.

Scheduled air capacity to Montenegro has been replaced to a limited extent by foreign airlines boosting their presence in Podgorica and Tivat, but the country has still not recovered what it had lost when Montenegro Airlines was shut down.

Air Serbia, in particular, has stepped up massively on this smarket. The Serbian flag carrier will be offering more seats to Podgorica and Tivat this year than it had ever done before.

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Air Montenegro is set up in record time

Exactly six months have passed between the moment that Montenegro Airlines was abruptly shut down in December 2020 and today, the day that tickets for Air Montenegro's flights have gone on sale. This was a remarkably quick process for what was a brand new government in Montenegro at the time.

However, it remains to be seen how successful this new European airline can be now that Air Serbia has cemented its position as a leading airline in the market and now that passengers will be skeptical of booking tickets to fly with a brand new airline. Especially one that only started selling tickets two weeks before the launch date.

What do you think of the news that Air Montenegro will be launching flights just two weeks after tickets have been put on sale? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.