this venture. Historical preview The Brotherhood and Unity Highway was one of the first motorways of Central-Eastern Europe. Opened as early as 1950, it became the backbone of Yugoslav road system, and linked Belgrade through Zagreb and Ljubljana with Austrian border, and through Niš and Skopje with Greek border. It became the main road link between Central Europe and South-Eastern Europe and Middle East. Nowadays, the section going from Belgrade to the Croatian border is known as the A3, and links Serbia directly by motorway to Slovenia, Italy, Austria and the rest of Western Europe. While the section linking Belgrade to Niš and further to the border with North Macedonia is the A1 motorway and stretches all the way until Athens, passing through Skopje and Thessaloniki. With the break-up of Yugoslavia and the geostrategical change, the A1 was linked with the motorway linking Belgrade further North towards Novi Sad, Subotica and the border with Hungary going all way until Budapest. In Niš, the motorway has an extension that runs through Pirot towards the border with Bulgaria, linking it further with Bulgarian capital Sofia and running all the way until Istanbul becoming the most accessible motorway linking the Balkans with Turkey, Middle East and rest of Asia. Rail transport Since March 2015, the Government of Serbia announced its plan to establish three additional new railway companies, splitting the Serbian Railways in separate businesses. Those companies are: Srbija Voz operating passenger transport, Srbija Kargo operating cargo transport and Serbian Railways Infrastructure operating as infrastructure management company. Rail remains a popular mode for freight transportation with 12.3 million tons carried in 2018. Passenger services are less utilized, carrying just over 16 million passengers in 2018 plus the 5 million riderships in the Belgrade urban rail system. The railway system in Serbia consists of 3,739 km of rails, of which 295 km is double track (7.9% of the network). 33.6% of the network (1,279 km) is electrified. Railroads are categorized as either main lines, regional lines, local lines or sidings. Serbia has rail links with all of its neighbouring countries. Air transport There are in total 39 airports and 2 heliports in Serbia. In addition, three airports are with regular passenger traffic service: Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Niš Constantine the Great Airport and Kraljevo Morava Airport.The total air traffic in 2022 reached 6,014,625 passengers and 20 thousand tons in annual cargo tonnage. This figure