Direct flights to Toronto and Chicago as of summer

The Ministry of Infrastructure has given its consent for the issuance of a license for charter flights from Belgrade to Toronto and Chicago.

As of summer, these flights will be operated by the U.S. air transportation company Ryan International Airlines, says State Secretary for Air Traffic Miodrag Miljkovic.

The U.S. airline has filed a request for the issuance of a license to the Directorate for Civil Aviation of Serbia and, since the Ministry has given the green light, it is now up to the Directorate to do the technical part of the work.

Katarina Andric-Milosavljevic, a representative of the Directorate, says that Ryan International Airlines is interested in establishing Toronto-Belgrade-Toronto and Belgrade-Chicago-Belgrade charter flights and operating them in the period between June 3 and October 29, 2011.

People at the Directorate say it is the first time in 19 years that a company from the USA has filed a request for the issuance of a license for flights to Canada and the USA and add that everything is ready for intercontinental flights since even the strictest security criteria are met.

Miljkovic says that Serbia should get the "category 1" for the establishment of intercontinental regular flights, which it lost at the beginning of this century, as well as that the Ministry has already filed a request to the U.S. aviation authorities for the issuance of the appropriate certificate "since we meet all almost all of their requests".