Air Serbia has reduced operations by just over 4% in March after it terminated its wet-lease contract with Marathon Airlines following an accident involving the latter’s aircraft in Belgrade on February 18. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, the carrier is seeking a solution to address the issue, however, it will take some time. The recent arrival of a third wet-leased KlassJet Boeing 737-800 aircraft is a replacement for one of the other two jets already operating on behalf of the Serbian carrier. Despite the reduction in its March schedule, Air Serbia will still have more flights and capacity than it did during the same month last year. The airline will have an additional 258 flight movements compared to March 2023, based on its existing schedule.
Air Serbia will make the biggest reduction in the number of weekly flights on services from Belgrade to Milan, Istanbul, and Frankfurt, with three to four weekly rotations removed from the schedule on these routes during the month of March. Vienna will see frequencies reduced by two weekly flights. Other destinations which will sustain a smaller reduction of one weekly rotation include Amsterdam, Larnaca, Ljubljana, Budapest, Zagreb, Tivat and Athens. Other destinations remain unaffected. The reduction in flights on select routes is limited to March. The first of four Marathon Airlines Embraer aircraft which were in use by Air Serbia until the recent accident joined the fleet in late June of last year.
The Serbian carrier has said it remains committed to launching its newly planned service between Belgrade and Mostar, which will commence in April. Flights were initially scheduled to be exclusively operated by a wet-leased Marathon Airlines E175 aircraft. However, the airline has now changed the aircraft type on the route to an Airbus A319 jet. “Flights between Belgrade and Mostar will launch as planned. For the needs of those flights, Air Serbia will deploy aircraft from its fleet that meet the conditions required at Mostar Airport”, the carrier’s Head of Corporate Communications, Arsen Rudan, said.
