After two weeks of preparations and the arrival of the first plane – the French biplane Potez-29, which Aeroput named "Belgrade", company management reported to the Supreme Command of Aviation and informed the public that the first flight between Belgrade and Zagreb would be inaugurated on February 15th, 1928, at 08.00 hrs. The first passengers to Zagreb would be journalists and photo-reporters from several Belgrade newspapers, and on its return flight it would take their colleagues from Croatia to Belgrade.
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Early in the morning on February 15th, the sky over Belgrade was covered with heavy clouds and there were occasional downpours, which made cancelling the flight a real possibility. Still, the first passengers, together with the crew, set out to the airport and, by the end of their trip to Bežanijska Kosa, first by boat then by cars, weather conditions had improved. The Aeroput management informed the country's first commercial air travellers that the Potez-29 would depart for Zagreb with a minor delay. Eventually, a small celebration was held with speeches, best wishes and many pictures, after which the passengers boarded the plane and took their seats. The chief-captain of Aeroput pilots, Mr. Striževski, started the engine, but nothing happened. The anticipation increased the passengers' tensions before the long expected flight. Mechanics hurriedly filled fuel, moved packages and luggage, and the passengers were transferred to another standby airplane. Finally, the airplane took off at 09.05 for Zagreb. Thus, the first flight was already behind schedule due to "technical problems".
"Wheels are scattering mud all around", a Politika journalist wrote of the event. "As the airplane ascends and leans, it appears that it is not we who are leaning but that the whole of Belgrade is about to plunge into the Sava."
His colleague from Vreme, comfortably placed in his seat and piously taking off his hat above the Cathedral, exclaimed: "Colossal!"…
"The airplane flew at an altitude no higher than 500 to 600 metres due to low clouds. One moment you're in Bosnia, the next in Slavonia so as to avoid clouds. Fog is a real hazard in the air, but fortunately it doesn't last long, and after more than a two hour flight one recognises the two tall narrow steeples of the Zagreb Cathedral. Only a few seconds more and we fly over the city, the airplane makes a wide circle and soon lands at the airport, touching land which is simply beautiful. It is precisely 11.25 hrs".
The same journalist then records that at the Zagreb Airport Borongaj, in addition to civil and military authorities, the first passengers were also greeted by a large number of citizens and several journalists. Thus after Belgrade, which had previously been included in two air routes since 1923 via the French-Romanian company Franco-Romaine, Zagreb had now become part of air transport network. Hence a lot of applause and "photography for the cinema"…
Later that afternoon, a group of Zagreb journalists was on the flight back to Belgrade. "Today, at 15.03 hrs, the airplane returned from Zagreb with five journalists who wanted to prove they were no less courageous than their Belgrade colleagues", ended the report in Politika on this historic day for Yugoslav aviation.
During the first year, Aeroput operated the Belgrade-Zagreb route every day except on Sundays, until November. In total, it made 411 flights and transported 1,322 passengers. Although tickets were costly and general prejudices were still strong about the dangers of flying by plane, the response of passengers was above all expectations, so that the number of sold seats surpassed 80 percent. The initial success induced the company to increase the number of new lines and to purchase two new airplanes, both Potez-29s, so that over the course of 1929 the fleet consisted of six airplanes of the same type.
The strategy of Aeroput was to use the advantage that Yugoslavia's favourable geographic location offered, and to connect the country with Central Europe and the basin of the Aegean Sea. In keeping with this strategy, in 1929 the Belgrade-Zagreb line was extended via Graz to Vienna, and a new Belgrade-Skoplje line was opened that was extended to Thessalonica in 1930. On these international lines Aeroput managed to establish a pool with the Austrian Austroflug and CIDNA. This enabled maintaining flights without significantly increasing government subsidies. The flight schedule was in coordination with other members of the International Air Traffic Association (IATA), which Aeroput joined in 1929. Thus a flight from Belgrade to London could be made within one day, which in those conditions was a real enterprise. | 
