Aeroflot and Air Serbia have agreed to extend their codeshare partnership so that the two airlines are now linked via a city that is not in either of their two home countries: Istanbul. Starting today, 23rd November, Air Serbia’s flight codes are on Aeroflot’s Moscow-Istanbul flights, and Aeroflot’s flight codes are on Air Serbia’s Belgrade-Istanbul flights. Let’s take a look at the details.
Aeroflot and Air Serbia now linked via Istanbul
In a press release, Serbia’s national airline Air Serbia announced that it had reached an agreement with Russia’s national airline Aeroflot. The agreement kicks in today, Monday 23rd November, and it covers an expansion to the codeshare partnership between the two airlines.
Under the agreement, Air Serbia will carry its own flight code on Aeroflot’s service between Moscow and Istanbul. In turn, Aeroflot will carry its own code on flights operated by Air Serbia between Istanbul and Belgrade.
This increases the total number of weekly connections between Belgrade and Moscow: there are now multiple daily departure and arrival times between Russia and Serbia, counting both direct flights and connections via Istanbul.
Presently, Air Serbia maintains two weekly flights to Moscow from Belgrade, on Mondays and Fridays. Aeroflot flies on the route on Thursdays and Saturdays. Both airlines fly to Sheremetyevo, to A.S. Pushkin International Airport (SVO). They both use Airbus aircraft on the route.
A strategic partnership
Commenting on the agreement, Air Serbia’s General Manager, Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, said:
“A good partnership strategy is particularly important in the current circumstances, when our network is limited as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. In order to provide our passengers with as many options and as much flexibility as possible when planning trips, we are constantly working on improving our services and enhancing our cooperation with our partners.”
As mentioned above, this new agreement enables Air Serbia and Aeroflot to offer daily connections between Moscow and Belgrade. This still represents a considerable decrease from the previous winter, when Air Serbia alone operated seven weekly flights to Sheremetyevo from Belgrade.
Another strong partnership
As an airline that does not belong to an alliance, Air Serbia is doing a remarkable job of establishing partnerships with other airlines.
As Simple Flying reported in August, Air Serbia has signed an extensive partnership with Turkish Airlines this year. The partnership that was agreed spanned 15 routes in four countries and saw Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines give access to parts of each other’s feeder networks in their region.
The success of the Turkish Airlines – Air Serbia partnership was such that Air Serbia increased its available seat capacity to Turkey within weeks of signing the agreement. Will the partnership between Aeroflot and Air Serbia have the same impact?
What do you think of this linkup between Serbia, Russia, and Turkey? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.
