Air Serbia has decided to re-establish direct flights between Belgrade and Turkey's Istanbul, following a two-and-a-half-year break.
The first flight to the city is scheduled for 11 December 2019.
Air Serbia will operate three weekly flights with departures from Belgrade on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with additional services on Sunday between 22 December and 5 January.
After the initial period, the Serbian airline will consider potentially increasing the frequency to 7 flights a week from 29 March.
Jiri Marek, Air Serbia’s GM commercial and strategy, said: “We are very pleased to be re-establishing the route to Istanbul, a destination our company used to fly to for decades. With a quick reaction and special airfares, we wanted to help people whose trips became uncertain due to temporary suspension of operations by AtlasGlobal."
The decision to re-establish Belgrade-Istanbul flights comes as a consequence of temporary suspension of operations by Turkish company AtlasGlobal, a partner of Air Serbia.
The airline recently reported that it has seen an increase in passenger numbers for November 2019, following on from record-breaking results in October.
The Serbian flag carrier has already surpassed last year’s November results and is expecting to exceed the number of passengers carried in 2018 by the end of the month.
With a 25% rise in passenger numbers in relation to November 2018, Air Serbia’s routes also offer a 9% increase in passenger capacity compared to the same month last year.