Air_transport_in_Yugoslavia
This article provides an overview of air transport in Yugoslavia, a country in the Balkans that existed from 1918 until its dissolution in the 1990s.
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Public air transport in the interwar period was organised by privately owned Aeroput. The company's post-war operations were suspended due to nationalization and near total fleet destruction during the war.[1] The first plan for the post-war public air transport reconstruction was introduced by the Commission for the Economic Reconstruction on 28 December 1944.[1] The plan envisaged the national network which would include Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Titograd, Skopje, Novi Sad, Kraljevo, Niš, Borovo, Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik, Banja Luka, Mostar, Maribor and Trieste.[1]
Initial charter public flights were organised by military planes while the first regular international line was introduced on 6 October 1945 between Belgrade and Prague.[1] The initial public fleet was organised by 4 old German planes (Junkers Ju 52) and 4 Tukans purchased in France in 1945-46.[1] In August 1945 Yugoslavia received 11 Soviet Lisunov-Li 2, but their usage was quickly discontinued in international and partially domestic transport due to safety concerns.[1] Yugoslavia therefore initiated purchase of 10 American excess and therefore cheap C-47 planes in 1946.[1] However, as Yugoslavia at the time was still a close Soviet ally, the US rejected the proposal, pushing Yugoslavia to purchase three DC-3 in Belgium which will be the basic type of planes in Yugoslav public fleet all up until 1960's.[1] Yugoslav national public transport air company JAT Airways was established in April 1947.[1]