December 22 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's Adria Airways said it will re-launch its regular route between Belgrade and Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana on March 1, Serbian media reported on Tuesday.
The carrier will fly between Belgrade and Ljubljana several times per week and expects the route to be successful as the European Union scrapped short-term visas for Serbian citizens travelling to EU member states as of December 19, Belgrade-based broadcaster b92 (www.b92.net) quoted carrier officials as saying.
Serbia began blinking on the radar of many airlines, including a host of low-cost carriers, after the European Parliament last month approved a resolution that recommended lifting the visas.
Greece's Aegean Airlines plans to launch daily flights between Athens and Belgrade on January 1. Italian low-cost airline Wind Jet will launch regular flights from Serbia’s southern town of Nis to Italy's Bologna later this month. Hungarian flag carrier Malev re-launched its Budapest-Belgrade route after a 17-year halt earlier this month.
Sweden's MCA Airlines is also expected to launch flights to Nis in December, while Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air is interested in flying from Belgrade to other European cities. Romanian state-owned flag carrier TAROM re-launched its Bucharest-Belgrade route earlier this month while Croatia Airlines plans to start flights to the Balkan country next year.
Serbia’s tourism revenue, currently at some $1.0 billion (700,300 euro) a year, is expected to rise by at least a half when low-cost air carriers start flying in following the liberalisation of the visa regime, the head of Serbia’s national tourism board YUTA, Radisav Stankovic, told SeeNews earlier.
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