Chinese, Serbian airlines close to codeshare deal

BELGRADE - Director of the Serbian flag carrier Dane Kondic said that a codeshare agreement between Air Serbia and Air China is in the phase of finalization, explaining that the initiative for a direct line between Belgrade and Beijing has to come from a major carrier.

"We are in the middle of some discussions around making some codeshare relationship with Air China. We want to, they want to, and it is only a matter of finalizing the details around that," Kondic told Xinhua in an interview on Thursday.

He said that an initiative for constituting a direct line between Belgrade and Beijing should come from carriers much bigger than Air Serbia, which is a company formed in 2013 when Etihad Airways from the United Arab Emirates and the Serbian government formed a strategic partnership and rebranded former carrier JAT Airways.

"We don't have wide-body aircraft, so we look for opportunity to work and to partner with some Chinese carrier, or other airlines from Asia," he said, explaining why there is no direct flight between Belgrade and Beijing.

"We are always open to look for areas of further cooperation with our Chinese brothers," he said, revealing that he will visit China in the first quarter of 2015 to meet representatives of the civil aviation, banks, airlines and airplane manufacturers.

Kondic confirmed that he will attend the upcoming meeting between China and Central and Eastern European countries to be held in Belgrade from Dec 16 to 17 as well as the business forum, where he hopes to meet representatives of Chinese airliners or manufacturers.

"The summit is a positive thing because it is putting a spotlight on Belgrade and on Serbia," he said.