Qatar Airways has announced that it has signed a comprehensive codeshare agreement with Air Serbia, the flag carrier of Serbia. The new partnership will allow passengers seamless travel to over 40 destinations when traveling on each other's networks with effect from February 1st, 2023.
Linking Serbia to the world
The newly announced codeshare agreement between the two carriers will link their operations through Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Qatar Airways currently operates five weekly flights between its hub in Doha, Qatar and Belgrade using Airbus A320-200 aircraft. The flight between the two cities takes around five hours.
The codeshare will allow passengers flying from Doha to use a single booking to continue their journey to various European countries served by Air Serbia, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Slovenia, opening up a range of new destinations for Qatar Airways passengers.
From its hub at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG), Air Serbia serves more than 70 destinations in Europe, the Mediterranean, North America, Asia, and Africa. As a part of the new commercial partnership, Air Serbia will add its marketing code (JU) on Qatar Airways direct flights between Belgrade and Doha, as well as to various points beyond Doha, which will initially include the following cities -
- Adelaide
- Baku
- Brisbane
- Tbilisi
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Hong Kong
- Melbourne
- Muscat
- Nairobi
- Perth
- Seychelles
- Singapore
- Sydney.
Additionally, subject to obtaining all necessary government approvals and once all operating conditions are fulfilled, the airlines plan to extend the codeshare agreement to more cities served by Qatar Airways from Doha, including Bangkok, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Phuket, Seoul, Tokyo, Yerevan, Zanzibar amongst others.
Given the considerable network served by Qatar Airways from its Doha mega-base, it is likely that the agreement will be expanded further in the future.
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Speaking about the new commercial relationship between the two carriers, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Mr Akbar Al Baker, said,
“This partnership will allow us to expand our footprint in the Central and Eastern European markets, where we are looking forward to offering additional travel choices for our customers. We are extremely proud to unveil this partnership with Air Serbia, the leading airline in this region since it was founded in 1927, and we look forward to working effortlessly together.”
Who is Air Serbia?
As a relative newcomer to the international airline scene and the national airline of the Republic of Serbia, Air Serbia has been operating under its current name since October 2013. Before this, the airline was known as JAT Airways, and before that, JAT Jugoslovenski Aerotransport, the national carrier of Yugoslavia before that country broke apart following a civil war in 2003.
Today, Air Serbia flies to over 75 scheduled and charter destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean, North America, Asia, and Africa, carrying both passengers and cargo. The airline operates a fleet of 26 aircraft in total, which is made up of 11 Airbus A319s, 3 A320s, 3 A330s, and 9 ATR72 turboprops.
Upon announcing the new codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, Air Serbia, Chief Executive Officer Jiří Marek, said,
"It is our great pleasure to announce the codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, known for its global network of destinations and premium service. We are joining forces to provide passengers with new connection opportunities and access to unique destinations from both networks. Through this cooperation, we believe that we will be able to jointly bring to Serbia more traffic and opportunities for trade and tourism, as well as to increase the traffic between the two hubs.”
An airline on the rise
In the past six months, Air Serbia has seemingly been on a one-way trajectory to growth and development across its operation. The announcement today certainly adds to that direction of travel.
On the back of close historical aviation ties with Russia, which continue today, the airline broke through its pre-pandemic traffic figures in September last year. It is also expected to become Istanbul Airport's top European international carrier in the summer of 2023.
In November, the airline also announced that it would be returning to the Belgrade to Chicago route, last served by its predecessor JAT with DC-10s in 1991. It has also commenced services to Tianjin, China making Air Servia the only European-based carrier serving the Chinese city.
Finally, and just as 2022 drew to a close, the airline announced a significant expansion plan for flights to Italy in this summer's schedule. The four new routes to be flown are between Air Serbia's Belgrade hub and Catania (CTA), Naples (NAP), Florence (FLR), and Palermo (PMO). All four cities will be operated twice weekly by Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 aircraft, and all flights are already on sale for summer 2023.
This announcement represented a significant boost for Air Serbia's Italian destination network. Last year, the airline served Bari (BRI), Bologna (BLQ), Milan Malpensa (MXP), Rome Fiumicino (FCO), Trieste (TRS), and Venice (VCE).
Building on existing relationships
Qatar Airways is already no stranger to codeshare agreements with other airlines, with the Air Serbia announcement bringing its current portfolio to 29.
The company already enjoys the benefits of codeshare relationships with airlines such as Air Botswana and Royal Air Maroc in Africa, LATAM, JetBlue, and American Airlines in the Americas, Japan Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, and China Southern in the Asia-Pacific region, and British Airways, Iberia and Finnair in Europe through its membership of the OneWorld alliance.
Air Serbia itself enjoys existing codeshare agreements with carriers such as Aegean, Air Europa, Air France, airBaltic, Bulgaria Air, Finnair, KLM, Tarom, and Turkish Airlines.
Qatar Airways and Air Serbia together already enjoy a long-standing interline cooperation agreement. Today's announcement marks a development in the carriers' mutual commitment to improving customer experience between Qatar, Serbia, and beyond. Tickets on the codeshare services are bookable through both airlines, online travel agencies as well as local travel agents.
What do you think of the new codeshare agreement between these carriers? Have you ever flown on Air Serbia? Tell us more in the comments.
Sources: ch-aviation, Qatar Airways, Flightradar24