Serbia's national
carrier Air Serbia staged the first direct flight from Belgrade to Tel Aviv,
Israel, in a new Airbus A319 on December 15. Serbian Parliament Speaker Nebojša Stefanović, Minister of Regional Development and Local Self-Government Igor Mirović, Israeli Ambassador to Serbia Yossef Levy and Air Serbia CEO Danny Kondić were all on the promotional flight.
Stefanović
"expressed hope at Ben Gurion Airport that this direct route will boost
the tourism of the two countries," Tanjug reported.
Mirović
"underscored that the cooperation between Serbia and Israel should also be
improved in other fields, taking into account traditionally good political
relations between the two countries."
Kondić noted that Air
Serbia expects a lot from this route, as passengers will then be able to travel
from Israel via Belgrade to other destinations in Europe.
He announced that, in
2014, Air Serbia will continue to introduce flights to new destinations in the
East.
Instead of two flights
per week via Larnaca, Air Serbia introduced four flights a week from Nikola
Tesla Airport in Belgrade to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
On that route, Air
Serbia will operate the Airbus A319 and Boeing 737 aircraft until May 2014,
when the flights in a Boeing 737 will be removed from the schedule.
The Tel Aviv-Belgrade
flight will offer a connection to important destinations such as Paris,
Amsterdam, Brussels, Moscow, Copenhagen, Zurich, Vienna and Berlin.