Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia, the national carrier of the Republic of Serbia, announced an additional enhancement of their commercial cooperation with a new Memorandum of Understanding, officially signed in Doha during the 78th IATA Annual General Meeting by their respective CEO – Bilal Ekşi and Jiří Marek.

Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia will further explore ways of deeper commercial cooperation, possibly leading to a Joint Venture, which will enable the two companies to offer more competitive and affordable flights between Türkiye and Serbia, improve the quality of both their services currently offered, as well as expand the offer and benefits for all passengers.

Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Ekşi (front, right) and Air Serbia CEO Jiří Marek during the signing of the new MOU.

As a part of this expansion of cooperation, Air Serbia will introduce additional flights on the Belgrade-Istanbul route starting this July, increasing into ten flights per week between Belgrade and Istanbul. Turkish Airlines, meanwhile, will allocate wide-body aircraft to the route twice a week. Within the scope of the MOU, both parties will negotiate to boost existing cooperation in terms of codeshare, cargo and Frequent Flyer Program (FFP), while developing cooperation alternatives on passenger lounges in their networks.

Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Ekşi said that increasing the bilateral relations between their countries and improving cooperation through their networks are essential for them, especially after the pandemic. He said they are delighted to sign the MoU with Air Serbia, to explore enhanced cooperation opportunities and negotiate further to expand their existing partnership.

We would like to thank Mr Jiří Marek and his team on this occasion for their continuous support on our common works which will further contribute to the improvement of the relations between our airlines, countries and communities.

On the agreement, Air Serbia CEO Jiří Marek stated that they are also pleased to further strengthen their good relations and cooperation with Turkish Airlines. He said that it is with great pleasure that Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines will continue to look for new commercial opportunities for creating efficient and mutually beneficial relationships, while considering the option of joining forces to achieve better connectivity and offer for  customers through possible Joint Venture on the services between Serbia and Türkiye.

In this way, we are contributing to the further improvement of relations between our two states, in the interest of users and communities in both countries.

So far, the two companies have adopted and upgraded multiple times their codeshare agreements for flights to destinations within their networks.

Joint flights offer quick and practical connections for passengers travelling out of Istanbul, the biggest city in Türkiye and one of the most important air traffic hubs in the region, to Belgrade and onward, as well as for passengers travelling from the Serbian capital to Istanbul and onward. In addition, Air Serbia added its JU code to flights of AnadoluJet, a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, between the Turkish capital Ankara and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

Turkish Airlines aslo added its TK code to Air Serbia flights between Niš and Istanbul, as well as between Kraljevo and Istanbul, offering passengers access to the extensive global network of Turkish Airlines on the aforementioned flights.


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