Wizz Air Slashes Belgrade Flights in Tax Row

Wizz Air, the biggest low-cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, on Wednesday said it would halve its Belgrade operations and close low-fare services entirely from Belgrade to Oslo's Torp and Brussels' Charleroi airports as of May 6.

The company said it was also planning to reduce its flights to other destinations from Belgrade.

The reductions come after Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport increased its charges by 40 per cent.

"We believe that access to low-fare air travel is good for Serbia but sadly this belief is not shared by Belgrade Airport," Wizz Air vice president John Stephenson said.

"As one of the most expensive airports in Europe it should incentivize low-cost air travel instead of unfairly protecting the high-fare wannabe monopolist Etihad/Air Serbia," he added.

Wizz Air started operations in Belgrade in 2010 with one plane and five international routes. Today, that has grown to 12 routes.

The move comes days after Etihad Airways, the flag airline of the United Arab Emirates, became the official co-partner to the state-owned airline Air Serbia. It owns 49 per cent of the shares in a joint company with the Serbian government.