Russia has granted Serbian airlines the right to operate regular flights to the Kaliningrad region

Elena Teslova

Serbian airlines will be allowed to operate regular flights to Russia’s Kaliningrad region following an agreement between the two countries’ aviation authorities, Russia’s Transport Ministry announced on Monday.

Under the agreement, designated Serbian carriers will be entitled to operate scheduled flights to Kaliningrad, the ministry said, without specifying when those flights would begin or which airlines would operate them.

Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, separated from mainland Russia by Lithuania and Belarus and bordered by NATO members Lithuania and Poland.

Its position has made the region a center of security tensions in the Baltics, especially since 2022, due to disputes over transit through Lithuania, as well as increased military activity and air police incidents around the exclave.

Serbia remains one of the few European countries to maintain direct scheduled air links with Russia since 2022, when the EU banned Russian carriers from its airspace and Russia imposed retaliatory restrictions on EU airlines.

Air Serbia continued to operate flights between Belgrade and Russian cities, making Serbia an important direct air link between Russia and Europe outside the EU.

The EU currently has no airlines flying into, out of or over Russian airspace, while EASA continues to advise against flying in parts of western Russian airspace.