Amendments to regulations adopted by the Civil Aviation Directorate of the Republic of Serbia in March have raised questions about the future of Wizz Air’s base in Belgrade, the only base operated by a foreign airline in Serbia.
Wizz Air’s Belgrade base was opened on 20 May 2010 and currently operates four aircraft serving 25 destinations. The company employs more than 150 people in Serbia and carried close to two million passengers on routes to and from the country last year.
According to information obtained by Aero, employees at the Hungarian low-cost carrier’s Belgrade base have become concerned that the new provisions could affect its future operations.
At the centre of attention is an amendment to the Regulation on the Issuance of Authorisations to Foreign Air Carriers for the Performance of International Public Air Transport Services with the Republic of Serbia, signed on 27 March 2026 by Ognjen Babić, Acting Director of the Civil Aviation Directorate of the Republic of Serbia.
Particular attention has been drawn to the new wording of Article 3 of the regulation:
“In cases where an international agreement permits air carriers of the contracting parties to operate scheduled public air transport services using third and fourth freedom traffic rights, authorisation shall be granted for flights that originate and terminate in the territory of the state that authorised the foreign air carrier, or within the territory of the European Union where the air carrier concerned is an air carrier of the European Union.”
Although it is only a single sentence within the regulation, it has become the focus of considerable discussion among representatives of the aviation industry in recent days.
The third freedom of the air is the right of an airline to transport passengers, mail and cargo from its home state to another country, while the fourth freedom permits transport in the opposite direction. In practice, the third and fourth freedoms allow an airline to carry passengers between its home country and another state. For example, Turkish Airlines between Turkey and Serbia, or Air Serbia between Serbia and Turkey.
However, the European air transport market has for many years operated under significantly more liberal rules. Thanks to this business model, the airline operates a network of 27 routes from Serbia using four based aircraft and crews who live and work in Serbia.
Sources familiar with the matter state that Wizz Air believes the new regulations may be inconsistent with the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) Agreement, to which Serbia is a signatory. According to the same sources, the airline has already informed the European Commission, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and the Hungarian aviation authorities about the issue.
(Telegraf, 03.06.2026)