"Emirates" to introduce flights from Belgrade - Serbia and UAE signed Agreement on open sky

The representatives of Serbia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) initialed the Agreement on air traffic today (October 15, 2009) in Belgrade, which will enable functioning of "open sky" regime.

That document, initialed by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Serbia, Miodrag Miljković, and the Deputy Director General of Civil Aviation of UAE, Omar Bin Galeb, should be confirmed by both governments.

As it was explained after the signing of the document in the Government of Serbia, the Agreement on air traffic will make it possible for "Jat Airways" and five airliners from UAE to introduce unlimited number of flights between Serbia and UAE, as well as to fly to other countries from the airports in these countries.

So far, only "Jat" has had the flights between Serbia and UAE, that is, two flights a week from Belgrade to Abu Dhabi, which is one of seven emirates that make UAE.

The CEO of the Directorate for Civil Aviation of Serbia, Nebojša Starčević, estimated that, by signing the agreement with UAE, Serbia "opens air gate for east", reminding that "open sky" regime already existed with European Union.

There are 20 pilots and about 250 stewardesses from Serbia working in the Emirates at the moment.

Serbian Minister of Infrastructure, Milutin Mrkonjić, estimated that the establishment of "open sky" with UAE represented the chance for improvement of economic cooperation, primarily in tourism, and for quicker delivery of goods to the market.