This morning, the Serbian national airline Air Serbia launched its commercial passenger traffic after the hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The flight to Zurich was escorted by Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Zorana Mihajlovic.
After the state of emergency was lifted, this was Air Serbia’s first commercial flight. The 33 passengers who departed to Zurich from Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade all wore face masks and sat on the plane in line with the social distancing rules.
Minister Mihajlović got on the plane before it took off and greeted the crew and passengers.
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“This is an important day for Air Serbia and Belgrade airport, because, after two months, we have re-established the first commercial flight to Zurich, which left with about 30 passengers and will return full. Besides Zurich, Air Serbia will soon restore flights to Frankfurt, London, Vienna, Paris and Amsterdam, Ljubljana, etc,” Minister Mihajlovic said on the occasion.
“Of all transport branches, air traffic is the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, Europe and in our country. We are a team who works together- that is the government, Air Serbia and Belgrade airport, and we are doing everything in our power to make this transport as safe as possible, as accessible as possible and have as many regular commercial flights as possible, because that means a lot to our economy,” Mihajlovic added.
Managing Director of Nikola Tesla Airport, Francois Berisot, said that it was a great day to see something that airport had been waiting for almost two months.
“Our partner, Air Serbia, has done an extraordinary job and planned many more flights than we could have imagined in the previous weeks; we hope that this is a great start for air traffic in Serbia,” Berisot added.
Managing Director of Air Serbia, Duncan Naysmith, said that he was excited to see the first commercial flight to Zurich and looked forward to the resumption of other flights – to Frankfurt, London and Vienna.
“Today, we have five flights – three to Zurich and two to Frankfurt – and at the end of the month, we will re-launch the flights to Amsterdam and Paris. As for the region, on May 29th, we will start flying to Ljubljana and will have five more flights – to Podgorica, Tivat, Skopje, Banja Luka and Sarajevo. On June 6th, we will reinstate our flight to New York and continue with other commercial flights,” Naysmith informed.
He also thanked the Serbian government, Belgrade airport and all those who made it possible for this to happen.
In addition to the 7:20 flight to Zurich, Air Serbia will fly from Belgrade to Frankfurt at 17:00 today.
Airport employees also welcomed the passengers while adhering to the social distancing measures and wearing face masks, gloves and visors.
(RTV, 20.05.2020)
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