Low interest for Niš flights

Montenegro Airlines remains Niš’s only customer for now

Niš Constantine the Great Airport is still looking for airlines to commence services to the East Serbian city as the 2011 summer season ticks away. The Mayor of Niš, Miloš Simonović, has said that local authorities have secured almost 2 million Euros to subsidise airlines to fly to Serbia’s third largest city. He added that talks have been finalised with one airline, which will commence flights to Niš next summer, but failed to mention the airline’s name. Simonović said that city authorities are negotiating with another two airlines but no concrete agreements have been made yet. Last year, Niš forked out 1.1 million Euros to the low cost Italian Airline Wind Jet for its 69 flights from Forli. The service ultimately ended as the authorities could no longer support the financial subsidies.

Montenegro Airlines is currently the only airline offering flights to the struggling airport where 40 seats are pre-booked on each flight by the local governance. The airport still hasn’t signed a new agreement with the Montenegrin carrier, which would see it continue flying to Niš, but is expected to do so soon. The subsidies in the new agreement are expected to amount to 1.4 million Euros, which is less than in previous contracts with the same airline.

Some sources state Niš Airport has held talks with Carpatair from Romania, Adria Airways and Atlasjet from Turkey while interest has also been shown on behalf of Belavia, the national carrier of Belarus.