Jat Flies to Pula

By introducing flights to Pula on July 3-August 21 this year, the Serbian flag carrier, Jat Airways, has restored commercial air traffic with Croatia discontinued in 1991.

Jat Airways will operate the Belgrade-Pula flights in economy class with ATR 72 aircraft twice a week - Thursdays and Sundays. In this way, Jat is striving to accommodate its passengers with as many seats as possible at lowest prices starting already from 69 euros for a round trip, plus 70.5 euros in tax and 4.5-euro aviation security beginning July 14.

On Thursdays, Jat departure from Belgrade is at 12:50 p.m. and from Pula at 3:10 p.m. On Sundays, Jat departure from Belgrade is 8:55 a.m. and from Pula at 11:15 a.m. The flight between the two points takes about 90 minutes.

A demand to restore this line has been evident for several years. At the beginning of this year, Jat Airways took the initial steps toward re-establishing flights on this line. The required formalities that needed to be met took longer than expected so that the permit to operate the line was granted on June 4. This was, also when in keeping with the summer timetable air ticket sales for these scheduled flights began.

The ticket sales yielded remarkable results so far. Some 1,300 seats were booked on 18 return flights. This exceeds the 50-percent capacity margin thus justifying the decision to restore traffic on this line.

Beginning July 3, 2008, more than 75 agents in Croatia are to be included into the Jat sales network promising increased sales in the future.

The line being re-opened at the height of the season, the tour operators' greater interest is expected in the coming period considering that in addition to tourist arrangements for the Croatian coast the offer may include also City Break in Belgrade or other interesting tours in Serbia.

Should these expectations be met, Jat Airways is prepared to expand its offer and include it in the winter season timetable.

History

A 1967 agreement between the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), the city of Pula and the Ljubljana airport envisaged that the military airport in Pula be used also by civilian structures. A pre-fab terminal building was constructed and the Pula-Belgrade scheduled flight opened, later to include Pula-Zagreb, via this airport named "Ljubljana-Pula". Soon, JAT recorded an increasing traffic volume via the Pula airport, mostly charter and seasonal flights.

In the 1989 summer season, JAT flew from Pula to Belgrade two to three times a day and operated five to six flights a week to Zagreb and Rijeka. JAT also maintained scheduled flights from Pula to Amsterdam, Birmingham, Glasgow, London and Manchester. The Pula airport recorded a total of 670,000 passengers in 1990.

The Yugoslav Airlines carried out the last flight to Pula, one of the most attractive destinations in former Yugoslavia, on September 13, 1991, on the JU 740/741 scheduled flight with 92 passengers onboard both ways. The flight was performed by the DC-9-30 aircraft bearing the YU-AHV markings.