First scheduled flight from Astana lands at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport

BELGRADE - The first scheduled flight from Astana landed at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport at around 2.20 am Monday.

It was welcomed by Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic.

"This marks the start of direct air transport between Astana and Belgrade, and Kazakhstan and Serbia. It is really impressive how quickly we have done that work, really impressive. I would like to thank our friends from Kazakhstan for the hard work on this important project," Brnabic said.

She said talks about introducing the new flight route had been initiated during Kazakh President Kassym Tokayev's visit to Serbia in September last year.

"Tokayev and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met in Moscow in May this year and, practically, six months later, the promise was delivered on and we have direct flights," Brnabic said.

She said Kazakhstan was a great friend of Serbia that was always there for it in difficult times.

"When President Tokayev visited Serbia last year, we signed 10 bilateral agreements, and the fact that we now have direct flights will also contribute to much better political and economic cooperation as well as people-to-people cooperation. We expect much higher numbers of tourists from Kazakhstan, but we also expect our people and businesspeople to be visiting Kazakhstan," she said.

Brnabic thanked Kazakhstan, the host of specialised EXPO 2017, for supporting Serbia's successful bid to host EXPO 2027 in Belgrade.

"This is another good start to what is coming in 2027. A great day for our two countries, our friendship and the two presidents," she said.

The Kazakh embassy in Belgrade has announced that Kazakhstan's SCAT Airlines would be flying between Astana and Belgrade twice a week.