Etihad Starts Belgrade Services

Etihad Airways has begun daily flights to Belgrade.

The route, serviced by A319 aircraft, is operated as a codeshare with Serbian national carrier, JatAirways. The aircraft offers 16 Pearl business class and 90 Coral economy seats.

Both airlines are keen to expand the codeshare, subject to government and regulatory approvals.

JatAirways’ JU code will place its code on 21 destinations across Etihad’s network and the Abu Dhabi carrier will place its EY code on 23 of the Serbian airline’s European flights.

Etihad is eyeing traffic flows to and from Melbourne and Sydney, where there are more than 100,000 Australian citizens of Serbian ancestry, and Chicago, which boasts another large Serbian population, in conjunction with partner airberlin.

Etihad will also gain stronger access to central and south-east European markets as well as to some cities which it already serves. To date, the UAE airline is not providing any equity investment.