Turkish authorities could ban Aviolet (Belgrade) and its parent Air Serbia (JU, Belgrade) from operating charter flights to Turkey this summer in retaliation for Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate (CAD) decision to ban two Turkish carriers from plying their own summer charters to Serbia.
While the CAD last week granted Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) permission to start its own Antalya-Belgrade charter flights, it rejected applications from other Turkish carriers Corendon Airlines (XC, Antalya) and Freebird Airlines (FH, Istanbul Airport) as well as Egypt's Nesma Airlines (NE, Cairo International). According to EX-YU Aviation News, the regulatory body said the rejections were based on a recommendation from the Serbian Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.
However, Serbia's Večernje novosti newspaper now says Turkish authorities have yet to comment on the Serbian carriers' application to run their own charters to Antalya, Dalaman and Bodrum Milas in Turkey this summer.
As a result, tour operators such as Argus Tours and 1A Travel have already begun to cancel pre-booked packages in the event neither airline is given the greenlight to serve Turkey.
“We will see what sort of response [the Turkish authorities] give Air Serbia," Serbia's Deputy Minister of Transport, Zoran Ilić, said in a statement. "It is all a matter of reaching an agreement between the regulators and interested carriers from both countries. Until said agreement is reached, not a single foreign carrier will receive permits from us this summer."
Ilić went on to add that Belgrade was gravely concerned at the erosion of the national carrier's once commanding hold on the Serbia-Turkey holiday market, which at one point stood at 80%. He claimed Turkish carriers, in an effort to break Air Serbia's dominance, had put pressure on the ministry both through diplomatic means as well as through their Serbia tour-operator proxies.
