Belgrade – Dubrovnik 20 years later

Jat returns to Dubrovnik

After almost 20 years, Jat Airways today resumed flights from the Serbian capital to the Pearl of the Adriatic. This morning Jat’s ATR72 departed Belgrade at 07.30 on route to Dubrovnik as flight JU720 and arrived at 08.40 without much fanfare. The service will operate twice per week. In only 3 days, Croatia Airlines will also commence 2 weekly flights between the two cities making it Croatia Airlines’ first scheduled service to Serbia. It is a long way from 20 years ago when the two cities were connected several times per day but marks the start of flights between Croatia and Serbia which, with the exception of summer flights between Belgrade and Pula in 2008, did not operate for 20 years.

The final service between Belgrade and Dubrovnik was operated by JAT Yugoslav Airlines on August 6, 1991. No regular flights have operated between the two ever since. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia the final service from Serbia to Croatia was operated between Belgrade and Pula on September 13, 1991. It is interesting to note that during the late 1980s Yugoslav Airlines’ most popular domestic service was between Belgrade and Dubrovnik, outperforming even the Belgrade – Zagreb flights.

Both Jat Airways’ and Croatia Airlines’ flights to Dubrovnik will operate until September as a seasonal summer service. Although initial bookings for the flights were low, things have recently picked up.