Air Serbia Will Become The Only European Carrier Flying To Tianjin, China

Air Serbia will start flying to Tianjin from Belgrade on 9th December, complementing Hainan's flights from Belgrade to Beijing.


Photo: Vincenzo Pace - Simple Flying

Air Serbia has put tickets on sale for its second long-haul route from its hub airport, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG), to Tianjin Binhai International Airport (TSN) in China. Air Serbia’s predecessor, JAT Yugoslav Airlines, last served China in October 2000. Serbia's President hinted in February that Air Serbia wants to fly to China again.

The Serbian flag carrier will be the only European airline flying to Tianjin and one of only a few who operate flights to China at the moment. It is hoping the route will boost its hub-and-spoke system by offering easy transfer options to its European network, with a particular focus on Amsterdam, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Ljubljana, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Valencia, Venice, and Zagreb.

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Flights will launch on 9th December and operate as follows:

• Flight JU702 departs Belgrade (BEG) at 14:10 on Fridays to arrive in Tianjin (TSN) at 07:00 on Saturdays
• Flight JU703 departs Tianjin (TSN) at 10:30 on Sundays to arrive in Belgrade (BEG) at 15:20 on Sundays

Thus, the rotation will have a block time of over 49 hours, allowing the flight to be operated by the same crew.

The flight will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft. In December, Air Serbia will have two of these in its fleet. As Simple Flying reported last week, a second A330 will join the airline’s fleet soon and has already been painted.

Air Serbia says it is only operating one weekly flight on the route at the moment due to the COVID-19 limitations.

Commenting on the news of the route launch, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiří Marek, said:

“In spite of the still-limited international air traffic with China and strict rules imposed since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, our airline has succeeded in obtaining all the necessary permits and completed all preparatory activities so that we can launch flights to Tianjin in December. Air Serbia is not a stranger to China. In 2020, we operated dozens of special cargo flights, transporting hundreds of tonnes of medical devices and equipment to Serbia. I am convinced that our direct service will help boost the already strong economic and cultural relations between the two friendly countries. Our ambitions in regard to flights to China do not end here. We hope that we will expand our network to other strategically important cities in the near future, such as Beijing and Shanghai. We will continue to closely monitor the status of COVID-19 related restrictions and promptly react to new opportunities once the market access limitations have ended.”

However, he also added:

“The ground time that Air Serbia aircraft will be spending in Tianjin is not optimal and comes as the result of a combination of various COVID-19 restrictions still in place. We will continue to work to improve that in the future whenever such an option becomes available.”

Beijing – Belgrade is already operational

Hainan Airlines already flies to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) from Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) with its own A330 once a week. The route has a seven-hour stopover in Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport (DLC) on the way back.

Tianjin and Beijing are just 30 minutes away by train, so Air Serbia’s BEG-TSN-BEG rotation can be said to complement Hainan’s PEK-BEG-DLC-PEK rotation.