Air Serbia Adds Vienna and Malta Flights From Nis

Air Serbia is opening two new routes from Nis Constantine the Great Airport, to Vienna and to Malta, with the first flights departing on October 25, 2026. The date is no accident: a day earlier, on October 24, Ryanair operates the last flight out of Nis that can currently be booked on its website.

Both routes on the national carrier operate twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. Tickets are on sale through airserbia.com, the airline’s mobile app, its ticket offices and authorized travel agencies.

Air Serbia CEO Jiri Marek explained the decision in a company statement.

“With these flights, we want to give passengers from Nis and the wider region a reliable, high quality direct connection to major European destinations.”

The statement made no mention of fuel, supply or regulation, the reasons Ryanair cited for pulling out of Nis.

Two of Four Routes Get a Successor

Ryanair held four destinations from Nis: Vienna and Malta year round, Stockholm Arlanda and Corfu seasonally. Air Serbia is now taking over both year round routes, while no replacement has been announced for the seasonal ones.

• Vienna: Ryanair stops at the end of October, Air Serbia starts October 25
• Malta: same schedule, virtually no gap
• Stockholm Arlanda: tickets disappeared from sale in late August, no new carrier
• Corfu: tickets disappeared in late September, no new carrier

The sales model differs too. Ryanair flew those routes as a low cost carrier, while Air Serbia is folding them into its own network and selling through its own channels, including agencies. The airline did not disclose fares for the new Nis routes in its statement.

Why Is Ryanair Leaving Now?

Fuel, according to the explanation the company itself gave last week when it confirmed it is suspending operations from Nis starting with the 2026 winter season.

“Unfortunately, we will suspend operations to and from Nis from winter 2026 due to regulatory issues around fuel affecting the airport.”

The company did not elaborate. No regulation is named, no authority is named, only an indication that the obstacle sits with the airport. We reported on this on August 8, when it became clear the Irish carrier was shutting down its entire ten year Nis program at once, rather than route by route as usually happens when a single destination’s profitability is being weighed.

Air Serbia is entering the same airport, under the same supply conditions, and its statement does not address that question. What the announcement does establish is the schedule: Wednesdays and Sundays, two destinations, starting right at the switch to the winter flight schedule, which begins in Europe in late October.

What Nis Gains, and What It Loses

It gains continuity on the two routes that had been the most stable in the lineup, the only ones that flew year round. A passenger from southern Serbia who used to connect through Vienna still has a direct link, without rerouting through Belgrade or Sofia.

It loses two seasonal destinations and loses a carrier that had flown from Nis since September 2016. After Ryanair’s departure, the only low cost carrier left at Constantine the Great Airport is Wizz Air, meaning that entire segment of the offer now rests on the business judgment of a single company, one that draws on the same fuel supply and faces the same regulatory framework.

Ticket sales for Air Serbia’s Nis flights are already open, and the first flight schedule in which the two routes appear is the winter one, which takes effect October 25.