Egyptian Airline KoralBlue Launches Flights From Serbian Capital Belgrade

A KoralBlue Airbus 320 carrying 170 passengers took off on Monday for Cairo and the resort city of Hurghada, on the Red Sea coast, the Nikola Tesla Airport said in a statement made available to SeeNews on Tuesday.

More than 20 return flights will be performed to Egypt over the next six months, the statement said.

Koralblue Airlines is headquartered in Cairo with main operation bases in Sharm El Sheikh, in the South Sinai Governorate, and Hurghada, according to the airline's website.

A slew of airlines, including low-cost carriers from Austria, Russia, Hungary, Spain and the UK, are interested in launching flights to Belgrade, local media reported last week. Air traffic to the Balkan country is poised for solid growth in view of the likely easing of visa requirements for Serbian citizens travelling to the European Union from the start of 2010.

The European Commission has proposed that short-stay (less than three months) visa requirements be waived for Serbian citizens as of January 2010.

Earlier, local media quoted the head of the Civil Aviation Directorate, Nebojsa Starcevic, as saying that Serbia will grant licences to all EU-based airlines seeking to open routes to any of the Balkan state's airports.

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