Air Serbia Secures Russian Airspace; China Eastern Expands To EU

Air Serbia has secured rights to operate scheduled flights from Belgrade to Shanghai through Russian airspace—a development that comes as Chinese carriers continue to capitalize on their ability to fly over Russia to expand long-haul services to Europe.

The approval was confirmed in correspondence from Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, which notified Serbian authorities that Shanghai had been added to the countries’ bilateral air services agreement. Serbia’s Civil Aviation Authority had requested access to the Trans-Siberian corridor.

Air Serbia launched its Shanghai Pudong International Airport service in January 2025, replacing a previous route to Tianjin. The airline also serves Guangzhou in mainland China.

The Belgrade–Shanghai route currently operates twice a week using Airbus A330-200 aircraft, flying through the airspace of Bulgaria, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. According to Flightradar24, the flight duration exceeds 10 hr. 30 min. While Air Serbia has not confirmed whether it will modify its routing on the 5,242-mi. (4,555-nm) sector, it now has the option to do so.

In contrast to the wider European aviation industry, which suspended operations to and over Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Air Serbia has maintained its flights to the country. As Serbia is not a member of the European Union (EU), its national airline is not subject to the sanctions that bar EU carriers from Russian airspace.

OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that Air Serbia operates three flights per day to Moscow Sheremetyevo, 6X-weekly to St. Petersburg and 2X-weekly to both Kazan and Sochi. Other European carriers still serving Russia include Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Corendon Airlines and AJet.

The approval for Air Serbia comes as China Eastern Airlines continues to expand its European network, leveraging its access to Russian airspace—a competitive advantage over Western carriers that must take longer, fuel-intensive detours to avoid the restricted zone.

China Eastern’s latest network addition includes the launch of a 4X-weekly service between Shanghai Pudong and Barcelona, beginning Sept. 26. The carrier will join Air China on the route, which currently operates three roundtrips per week with A350-900 aircraft, increasing to daily in July. Air China also flies daily between Barcelona and Beijing Capital, while Shenzhen Airlines connects Barcelona with Shenzhen three times per week.

As previously reported, China Eastern will launch service from Shanghai Pudong to Geneva on June 16, Milan Malpensa on June 20 and Copenhagen on July 17. Additional new European routes include Xi’an to Istanbul, beginning June 30, and Nanjing to Paris Charles de Gaulle, starting July 9.

According to the latest schedules filed with OAG, the SkyTeam member plans to offer more than 2.27 million two-way seats between mainland China and Europe during the summer 2025 season—a 25.6% increase year-on-year. With the addition of Barcelona, China Eastern’s European network (excluding Russia) will expand to 14 destinations.

In total, approximately 10.5 million seats are expected to be available between China and Europe (excluding Russia) in summer 2025, nearly 1 million more than a year ago. Chinese carriers will account for 83% of that capacity.

Air Serbia has been approached for comment on whether it plans to revise its Shanghai routing—or expand its wider China network—now that Russian overflight access has been granted.