Air Serbia (JU, Belgrade) is set to return to Istanbul Atatürk after Serbian and Turkish aviation authorities resolved a spat concerning slots allocated the Serbian carrier at the airport.
The stand-off, EX-YU Aviation News reports, began late last year when Air Serbia switched its Istanbul operations from Atatürk to Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen in protest at the “unattractive” slot times allocated it by Atatürk airport authorities.
When repeated requests for new slot timings at the more appealing Atatürk airport fell on deaf ears, Serbia’s Civil Aviation Directorate then threatened to strictly enforce the terms of its Bilateral Air Service Agreement with Turkey which would have forced Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Atatürk) to cut its frequencies to Belgrade from its current seventeen weekly flights, to seven.
However, following talks in Belgrade with Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, last week, the dispute was resolved with Air Serbia once again allocated seven weekly Istanbul Ataturk Airport slots.
Source ch-aviation
