Serbian airline Air Serbia has tried to capitalize on the war with Ukraine, but for the second week in a row is facing difficulties because of it.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU countries stopped air communication with Russia, and Air Serbia remained the only European air carrier that flew to Russia.
Due to the lack of convenient alternative air routes, Russians massively began to transfer to the flights of the Serbian air carrier. Now it connects Moscow and St. Petersburg with European cities via Belgrade.
Air Serbia saw an opportunity to earn extra money and increased the frequency of flights to Moscow from eight to 15 flights per week. After a flurry of criticism for the actions of the national airline, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had to make excuses. He stated that Air Serbia will return the previous frequency of flights, but will not stop them, as the countries of the European Union did.
After that, anonymous reports began to arrive at the Belgrade airport that something might happen to the plane on the way to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Because of this, Air Serbia flights on March 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22 were delayed for additional checks.
In several cases, the message arrived after the plane had taken off, and had to be deployed in the sky and returned back to Belgrade.
The President of Serbia stated that Air Serbia will not cancel flights to Russia, but its flights will now be deliberately delayed. This is done so that if an alarm message is received again, the aircraft can be immediately checked on the ground, and not returned after departure.