Serbia’s President has suggested to his Chinese counterpart that Air Serbia or a Chinese airline should launch direct flights between Belgrade and Beijing or Shanghai. In response, Xi Jinping offered his personal backing to the idea, adding that a direct air link would be of enormous importance for the two countries.
Belgrade seeks flights to Shanghai or Beijing
The Office of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, revealed in a press release that the Serbian President believes there is a need for either a Chinese airline or Air Serbia to launch flights between the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and China.
Mr. Vučić expressed this sentiment last week in a phone call with Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, explaining that direct air links between Serbia and China would bring the two nations together even more closely. It would also open up more opportunities for “economic and all other cooperation” between the two countries.
Beijing and Shanghai were the two destinations explicitly mentioned in the phone call as possible choices for the city that would be linked directly with the airport serving Serbia’s capital, Belgrade Nikola Tesla.
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No flights between Serbia and China since 2018
Hainan Airlines used to fly to Belgrade from Beijing with a stopover in Prague. These flights were launched on 15th September 2017, but they were maintained for just one year. Before then, Belgrade was linked with China when it was still the capital of Yugoslavia over two decades ago.
Apart from the Hainan Airlines service, there has been no other scheduled passenger service between Belgrade and China this millennium, despite demand being very high: 151,637 passengers flew…