It has been fascinating to watch the evolution of Air Serbia. The airline was founded in its current form in 2013, as a joint venture between the government of Serbia (51% stake) and Etihad Airways (49% stake). As Etihad evolved its strategy, it progressively decreased its stake in the Serbian national carrier, and as of…
Continue reading: Air Serbia Expanding Airbus A330 Fleet, Long Haul Flights
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The official explanation is that Air Serbia chose Tianjin because of restrictions on other destination airports during the pandemic, and that although it planned to transition to Beijing that the Tianjin route ended up being successful as it was.
Side note: Airbus just announced additional delays on deliveries. This hamstrings the growth plans of many. In the case of AA, the XLR is slated to replace the transcon T-Birds and to keep certain long-haul destinations on a year-round schedule (where wide-bodies were only justified in high season). Prior delays had pushed the likely full deployment of XLRs to mid-2025. With these newly announced delays, it might well be the end of 2025 or into 2026.
The reason why Air Serbia is doing exceptionally well in the New York market is the open air travel relations between Serbia and Russia. Many Russian communities in New York area travel for VFR during summer. Aeroflot and earlier Transaero and Delta used to serve New York. Now, Türkiye is restricting Russia-bound itineraries a bit. So it’s either via Uzbekistan (a good option for Siberia-bound pax) or Serbia (great for Russia-Europe bound pax).
I’ve been using the TSN flight for nonrev purposes. Business and Economy go out full almost everyweek, there has been an open seat in either direction in over two months.
TSN is not far from Beijing and it may have been cheaper for them to choose it than Beijing. In addition it may depend what they were offered. CAN is not surprising because many international flights fly there.
"Serbia is one of the few countries in Europe that doesn’t require visas for Chinese nationals" - This is not true anymore. I think you should research a recent initiative that China as with a number of countries for visa free access. It depends on the agreement. It may be two weeks or a month. It may be one direction or both. Then there is also the 144 hour visa on arrival in China.