Novi Sad, the capital of Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina, and the second largest city in Serbia, after Belgrade, has been given the green light for a civilian airport to be constructed that could handle aircraft and passengers. The city already has an airport, named Čenej, however it is used only for sporting activity. The airport has been in existence for the past 50 years however has always been in the shadow of Belgrade’s Airport, located some 60 kilometres from Novi Sad. With a new highway constructed and an efficient railway line many citizens from Novi Sad can arrive to Belgrade quickly and with ease. However the new airport project would allow smaller passenger aircraft and smaller cargo planes to land. The construction project should be finalised within 3 years while first aircraft could depart by the end of 2009.The airport will be built in four phases. The first is to construct a new runway, second to reconstruct the existing, small, passenger terminal and the final two phases are to provide the technology needed in order for the airport to operate by international standards. The airport should be rated as a “Category C” airport, meaning there will be a runway 2.000 metres long which would be used by smaller planes operating for charter flights and would continue to be used for sporting aviation. The entire project would cost 5 million Euros while the final “yes” needed for the project to go ahead will be given in late February. After development is complete the newly formed airport authority hopes that low-cost carriers will use the airport as their base in Serbia.
In 2004 a promotional flight from Podgorica successfully landed in Novi Sad (operated by Di Air from Montenegro). Serbia has 4 international airports, if the disputed Kosovo is included: Belgrade, Niš, Vršac and Priština. Although Vršac has recently become an international airport it still has no civilian traffic. Development is soon expected to start on an airport in Kragujevac, located in central Serbia.
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