April 1 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government has approved a project for subsidising services on 12 international destinations from the Konstantin Veliki Airport in Nis for four years starting in July, the city mayor said.
The flights will be operated in the period between July 1 and June 30, 2023, and will link Nis to Germany's Nuremberg, Hannover, Friedrichshafen, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, Sweden's Gothenburg, Italy's Bologna and Rome, Austria's Salzburg, Hungary's Budapest and Slovenia's Ljubljana twice a week, Darko Bulatovic said on Friday in a press release.
In addition, the government will subsidise flights from Nis to Montenegro's Tivat three times a week during the summer season, from May to October, Bulatovic said.
“This is also important for the development of tourism, and certainly for our diaspora, because the destinations have been defined according to the actual needs but without the help of the state there would have been not enough commercial justification for their launch,” Bulatovic said.
In January, Zoran Ilic, an advisor to the minister of infrastructure, said Serbia's government plans to launch a tender for the operation of subsidised services from the Konstantin Veliki Airport in Nis. Flag carrier Air Serbia is expected to participate in the tender, along with other companies, as the competition will be opened to international participants, Ilic said back then.
Serbia's government said in August it signed a contract to take over the management of Nis airport from the city government, in order to enhance investment in the airport.