“Air Nis Express” to Belgrade 4 Times a Week – Tender for Companies to Operate Air Lines of Public Interest from Nis and Kraljevo Opens

The Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure of Serbia has opened the tender for the selection of the best bidder for air transport on the lines of public interest from the airports in Nis and Kraljevo.

The estimated value of this job is RSD 2.8 billion, that is, around EUR 23.7 million.

The aim of establishing air lines of public interest, as said, is the need of big companies which operate in south, east, west Serbia and Sumadija, but also small and medium enterprises which are internationalizing their operations, to reach the desired destinations by direct flight in a manner of hours.

According to the technical specification of the tender, the selected companies will fly from Nis and Kraljevo to European cities, Belgrade, Tivat and Istanbul.

Return flights will be carried out twice a week, throughout the year, or in the summer season.

Concretely, there will be direct flights from Nis to Frankfurt and Hahn, Cologne and Ljubljana, for which purpose the airline company needs to have a jet aircraft with at least 140 passenger seats.

There will be flights to these destinations throughout the year, whereas the lines Nis-Athens and Kraljevo-Thessaloniki will be limited to the period between June and September, and the lines will be operated by jet or turboprop aircraft with a minimum of 65 seats.

These types of aircraft are also required for the Kraljevo-Tivat line (June-September), as well as the Kraljevo-Istanbul and Nis-Belgrade lines (year-round).

Of a total of four flights a week, from Nis to Belgrade, there will be two flights a week by a jet aircraft with 140 seats, throughout the year, as well as to Istanbul, whereas, from Nis to Tivat, this type of an aircraft will be used only in the summer season.

January 1, 2022, is marked as the deadline for the beginning of the execution of the contract.

The text of the tender says that the decision to introduce these air lines was made in line with the Decree on the Conditions for Pronouncing Lines of Public Interest in Air Traffic form 2019, considering that the regions of South and East Serbia and Sumadija and West Serbia are lagging behind when it comes to economic development, and there’s no well developed fast railway or road infrastructure, as an alternative that would enable the connecting of these regions with EU states with an average travel time of under three hours.

In early November, the media reported the information about said lines being pronounced lines of public interest, which will be subsidized from the state budget.

According to the Decree, lines in public interest can be pronounced if they pertain to a route to an airport which services one or more developing regions in Serbia, or a route with low-intensity traffic (up to 100,000 passengers a year), toward any airport.

The tender is open until December 17, and more details can be found HERE.

B. Petrovic

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

Aerodrom Konstantin Veliki Niš

Aerodrom Morava Kraljevo

air lines of public interest

Nis Belgrade air line

Nis Frankfurt Hahn air line

Nis Cologne air line

Nis Athens air line

Nis Ljubljana air line

Kraljevo THessaloniki air line

Nis Istanbul air line

Kraljevo Istanbul air line

Nis Belgrade air line

Nis Tivat air line

Kraljevo Tivat air line

Decree on the Conditions for Pronouncing Lines of Public Interest in Air Traffic