Serbia dubbed Balkan leader in air taxi services

Prince Aviation - the largest private air taxi airline in the former Yugoslavia

Serbia is the region’s leader in air taxi services, with five companies providing them as well as an opportunity for private clients to rent aircraft from the official fleet of the Government of Serbia. Aircrafts from the government’s fleet (a collection of Falcon 50s) can be used for flights within Europe, Asia or Africa. Well off clients can hire planes that have carried various Yugoslav and Serbian presidents and prime ministers fsince the 1990s. In case they are already occupied, five other companies in Serbia offer air taxi services. The largest one, Prince Aviation, has a fleet of 11 aircraft. Despite the financial crisis, representatives from the company say that the amount of clients has not decreased. “The volume of work we have is shown by the amount our fleet has grown in the last few years”, Vladimir Kovačević from Prince Aviation told the media. “The company started with three aircraft in 2006 and now has 11, three of which are new, delivered in 2008, and we are proudthat these are the first new planes in Serbia in the last 20 years”.

According to the report, most of the clients of the air taxi services in Serbia are wealthy local businessmen, but foreigners use them as well, such as music stars, including Kylie Minogue, Robert Plant and Jamiroquai. Another Serbian air taxi company, Jat Airways AVIO Taxi, a subsidiary of the national Serbian carrier in 2004 started operating scenic tours for tourists flying around the Belgrade city centre.

According to official statistics Slovenia has 1 air taxi operator, Croatia has 1 as well as a few others which only operate scenic tours around seaside towns, Montenegro has 1 while Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Macedonia currently to not have air taxi services within their countries.