Air Serbia today unveiled its first significant expansion from its base in Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport since the outbreak of the pandemic. The airline will launch one brand new route to Spain, resume a route to Croatia, and convert a charter route to Italy and a charter route to Spain into scheduled services. Serbia's national airline is following the trend of European airlines boosting capacity to leisure destinations.

Air Serbia launches an expansion

Today, 19th January, Air Serbia put tickets on sale for some exciting new routes, boosting its offering of scheduled seat capacity to European holiday destinations.

The new routes with their launch dates are as follows:

• 21st April: Belgrade (BEG) to Valencia (VLC)
• 5th June: Belgrade (BEG) to Bari (BRI)
• 11th June: Belgrade (BEG) to Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
• 15th June: Belgrade (BEG) to Rijeka (RJK)

Let's take a look at each destination in detail.

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1. Bari (BRI)

Bari, the second-biggest city in southern Italy that is located on the Adriatic coast, will see the arrival of Air Serbia on 5th June.

Flights will run three times weekly, on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and they will be operated by Air Serbia's ATR72 aircraft.

Air Serbia used to operate charter flights to Bari before the pandemic. These are now being upgraded to a scheduled route in order to allow the airline to bolster its its transfer offering through its hub, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.

The flight to Bari is timed to enable passengers to make connections to Athens, Bucharest, Zurich, Dubrovnik, Istanbul, Larnaca, New York, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, Skopje, Sofia, Split, Tirana, and Tivat.

2. Palma de Mallorca (PMI)

Palma de Mallorca is also not a new airport for Air Serbia, as the airline used to operate charter flights there too. There were 20 charters in 2019, and the airline carried 5,000 passengers on them.

Just like with Bari, turning this charter destination into a scheduled service will enable Air Serbia to feed the flights from other destinations via Belgrade. This will be possible from Moscow, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Tivat, and Zadar, among others.

Flights will run with Air Serbia's A319 aircraft on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

3. Valencia (VLC)

Valencia is a brand new destination for Air Serbia and also a route that was never served from any Serbian airport by any other airline in the past.

The route will launch on 21st April, and it will be operated by Air Serbia's Airbus A319 aircraft on Wednesdays and Saturdays in April and May, and on Thursdays and Sundays from early June onwards.

Interestingly, it will be operated as a year-round route, unlike the other three.

4. Rijeka (RJK)

The Croatian airport of Rijeka used to be a year-round service for Air Serbia until December 2019, when the route was discontinued because of relatively weak passenger traffic.

The route is now making a comeback as a seasonal destination. Flights will run each Wednesday and Saturday from 15th June until 17th September with ATR72 aircraft.

What do you think of Air Serbia's expansion?