Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last week announced that Air Serbia would reduce its operations from Belgrade to Russia, citing pressure from abroad amid, while condemning Turkey for increasing its flights to Moscow amid the war in Ukraine, writes ahvalnews.com
Flights between Belgrade and Moscow will likely run seven to eight times per week, as compared to the current 15 weekly operations, Bloomberg cited Vucic as saying.
EU membership candidate Serbia has condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine but has stopped short of joining the sanctions imposed by the bloc on Moscow.
“They are not criticising those that are members of NATO and that is partially in Europe, who have thirty times more flights than us, like Turkey,” Vucic said, about mounting international pressure over the operations.
Turkish Airlines is among several foreign carriers that continue to operate in Moscow, increasing its capacity to the Russian capital in recent weeks.
Turkey maintains good ties with both Russia and Ukraine. The war in Ukraine that began on February 24 is testing the country’s balancing policy.
Last week, Air Serbia was forced to suspend online ticket sales in Russia, directing customers to buy tickets through local tour operators, Bloomberg reported.
“Due to the suspension of servicing Visa and Mastercard cards in the Russian Federation, payments with cards issued by Russian banks are currently not possible. Air Serbia is working on finding an alternative option for online payments. In the meantime, you can buy tickets from our partners”, the company said
