Belgrade Airport resumes expansion project

Belgrade Airport investing millions in upgrades


Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has resumed its fifty million euro reconstruction and expansion project with the airport to shift attention to transit passengers. The airport says the reconstruction of its terminal two gates as well as transit areas in both terminals will resume soon with a consortium of Serbian companies to carry out the work. A total of 2.304 square metres will be refurbished and another 311 square metres added to the terminal buildings. The project will see the overhaul of C3 to C6 gates which will mark the completion of its terminal two reconstruction, since other gates have already been expanded. The new look transit areas will feature new shops operated by Swiss retailer Dufry. Work on the expansion will be completed by March 17, 2014.

With Serbia’s busiest airport seeing double digit passenger growth so far in November, the airport is set to put more emphasis on transit passengers which are increasingly using its services due the new business concept undertaken by its main customer Air Serbia. The airport has recently purchased and replaced all seating in its terminal building. The new leather seats featuring USB ports and power sockets have been purchased from German manufacturer Kusch+co at a price of 96.409 euros. In addition, the airport is in the process of finalising the replacement of six air bridges being installed at gates A1 to A5 and C6. Work is to be completed by December 18. The price tag of the six air bridges totals 2.1 million euros.

So far this year Belgrade Airport has invested significant amounts in expanding its facilities. In September the airport expanded its terminal two apron by adding 26.000 square metres and has also built new jetways. The expanded apron has the ability to serve several small regional aircraft or four Boeing 737-800s or two Boeing 747-400s. The airport’s entire expansion project is scheduled for completion in two years time with its largest investment, the construction of an additional floor above terminal two, expected to commence next year. The airport also plans to construct a small VIP terminal. All reconstruction work on terminal one will be up to Air Serbia after it was determined the terminal is owned by the carrier. Belgrade Airport’s current two terminal buildings cover an area of 51.000 square metres and have the capacity to handle eight million passengers per year. This year is set to be its busiest on record.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:10

    Strong OT:

    Belle Air suspended flights yesterday afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:50

      Considering it was an airline operating 6+2 a/c and operating flights to Prishtina and Skopje, I consider it top news of the day. No, cross that - the month.

      Delete
    2. Well, this blog covers ex-Yugoslavia and Pristina is/was an important city for Belle Air.
      It will be interesting to see how this impacts PRN December 2013 numbers, especially since Belle Air was their number one operator. I guess these are good news for Split as they have even more chances of being number three.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:52

      Anonymous at 09.50,

      I think the A320 order was news of the month (even year) but this is definitely breaking news. Well, at least Adria can place its Airbus fleet here. ;)

      Delete
    4. You are confusing Belle Air (Albania) with Belle Air Europe (Pristina and Skopje). Belle Air Europe is operating normaly.

      Delete
    5. DKinVXO10:03

      Hi I was trying to find some info on that, but couldn't. It doesn't say anything on their website either. Does anyone have a link?
      So Belle Air Europe is working as it should at least?

      Delete
    6. As per commentators on airliners.net Belle Air has gone bankrupt last night and all flights out of Tirana have been cancelled. Belle Air Europe is still operating but they seem to be struggling as well.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:07

      Yup,Belle Air Europe flights from Pristina are operating normaly. All Belle air flights from Tirana are canceled.

      Delete
    8. DKinVXO10:16

      OK I just checked Belleairs webpage again (did it some 45-mins ago) and NOW there is information. Belleair Europe's webpage is still open. Albania's without an airline again it seems...

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:23

      I check it last night and Belle Air page was shut down. Belle Air Europe was active as it is now.
      What does this mean for Ex YU market? Do you see Ju or OU entering Albanian market soon? Only Adria is present over there.

      Delete
    10. Eight12:02

      I knew Albania is well connected to Italy but I was truly surprised when I saw the list of Belle Air destinations for all flights cancelled this morning. Today they were suppose to fly to Venice, Rome, Bari, Milan (2x), Trieste, Ancona, Florence, Bergamo, Bologna, Perugia, Pescara, Rimini, Bari and Athens. It would be virtually impossible for JU or JP to provide such coverage of Italian destinations. After the failure of Belle Air, it is obvious that those flights were not profitable even from Albania, but the specific demand is there. A rather unusual situation.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous13:12

      Time for a proper LCC to step in.
      Ryanair or Wizz Air, time will tell.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous13:20

      Actualy they were flying only to every vilage in Italy, Athens and Pristina. Its not so suprizing they got bunkrupt with such a network. Via Belgrade, Air Serbia could offer only Athens, Rome and Milan from Belle air destinations. All those routes are also operated by Olypic, Alitalia and Air one. So I believe bankrupt of Belle air doesnt influence much Air Serbias decision to enter Albanian market again. Air Serbia can offer nice conections with Europe but it seems Tirana doesnt have much petential.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:37

    Air Serbia, A6-SAB entering service, today at BEG-LHR-BEG route

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:44

      Aircraft with an A6 prefix are owned by Etihad, Air Serbia planes have JU prefix.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:00

      Don't mix frogs and grand-mums, like Vuk Draskovic once have said :)
      All aircraft registred in UAE have A6 (not only Etihad). For Serbia equvalent is YU.
      JU is IATA code only for Air Serbia, so like I said, Air Serbia's flight, JU380, will operated by leased Etihad's A6-SAB is Air Serbia livery. Why are you so jealous?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:29

      Air Serbia so far has 4 319's registered as, A6-SAA, A6-SAB, YU-APC and YU-APE is still due. What this means is that Sir Serbia only owns 2 of these 4 planes. The other ones belong to the arabs.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:34

      Wrong. Air Serbia doesn't own anything. They're all leased planes. Two from EY and the the other two from leasing companies.

      Delete
    5. A6-SAB just landed to LHR, congratulations! YU-APE finished all test flights in Germany and coming this week.It is registered and got all permission.Next will be YU-APD

      Delete
    6. Never quite understood why balkanians of all flavor are so prone to say, "don't be jealous". What's there to be jealous of?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous18:07

      Oh Doot... you never miss an opportunity to trash the Balkans, do you? :)

      Delete
    8. If by "trash" you mean "point out the self-evidently ridiculous when it presents itself", then yes.

      Is pointing out the obvious, "trashing"?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous18:19

      What you claim to be the obvious is just the product of your chauvinistic attitude towards those who do not live the same way you do. ;)

      Delete
    10. I made a comment about one balkans person accusing another of "being jealous". This is objectively ridiculous and deserves (light) mockery. You can feel free to explain how this makes me some sort of chauvinist.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous19:04

      It's not just this comment, it's that almost every time you comment it's to mock us. That's why you are a chauvinist. Simple as that.

      Delete
    12. I don't mock you because of you're you. I mock that which is ridiculous. If you folks happen to be producers of larger quantities of ridiculosity than average, that's not my problem.

      I note that you are unable or unwilling to answer the question.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous19:33

      English-speaking foreigner living in Serbia, writing anonymously about everything that makes Belgrade, Serbia the worst place on earth.

      This is my therapy

      Well according to your therapy you're mentally ill

      Delete
    14. so, ya, anyway. Anyone have an idea why balkanians are so prone to ask other balkanians, "why are you jealous"?

      I see it a lot on this blog and I'm genuinely curious.

      Delete
    15. Doot, lots of people use that phrase as it translates differently in Yugo languages. It means more envy than anything. More importantly its a proverb of sorts, so generally people use it when trying to say: "why the envy? Come down man" .... Its really difficult to explain, but anyway, it doesn't mean the same in English as it does in any of Yugo languages. Hope that helps :)

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:43

    Does this mean there will finally be a viewing gallery?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Belgrade airport seems to be the only government owned company in Serbia to be doing something correctly, despite its top management being appointed by Dinkic.

    It is indeed interesting that November growth was so strong. Let's hope they keep it up. In two weeks we will have five new destination and B&H Airlines so let's hope they help push Belgrade airport numbers even further up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:06

    The reconstruction project has resumed three weeks ago with the ongoing expansion of the area between gates C3 and C6.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:05

    Does anyone have news about T1? When can we expect Air Serbia to take over management of T1, reconstruct it and move its operations there?
    On a related note, if AirSerbia moves to T1, does it make sense to make big investment in T2 transit area which is likely to be very underutilized?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nikola12:52

      T1 and T2 share transit area. in fact, they share everything except check-in desks

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:14

      I see. Thanks for clarification!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:25

      I don't see how is it possible that an airline that owes tens of millions of EUR to Belgrade airport is the alleged owner of Terminal 1? Even if it were true (which is not the case), it would have been a debt for equity swap between the airport and the airline.
      I do hope that Air Serbia will lease Terminal 1 from the airport, and pay money to the airport for this transaction.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:29

      Because the airport claimes it had ownership over the terminal for the past 15 years and all taxes went to them. So they agreed to write off the debt and the takeover agreement betwen EY and the Serbian government includes T1

      Delete
  7. Is there a plan to make the terminal with C gates longer? The platform has been enlarged, wouldn't it be possible to make the building longer and add additional gates? If I'm not mistaken that was the original idea when Terminal 2 was built.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous15:04

    Summer Seasonal June through August: Stockholm-Sarajevo on SAS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:43

      I am happy there will be more airline diversity in Sarajevo but I hate SAS!

      Delete
  9. Anonymous17:40

    Any word on the new control tower that was announced a few years ago? Also what about a new short term parking structure?

    -- Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous19:24

    Congratulations Belgrade! This shows that BEG will continue to be the first and best airport in Ex-YU for many many years

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's true :)

      Amazing how far BEG has come in the last 4-5 years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:21

      +1

      Delete
  11. Anonymous21:32

    @anonymous 9.43 gallery is still not planned i seriously don't know why
    @anonymous 6.29 pm the airport doesn't claim, it indeed owns the complete airport building. jat airways/air serbia currently owes EUR30 mil and the bill is rising
    @aca probably in the future but the next are apron level gates

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous22:25

    Bookings for Air Serbia flights are really disappointing, load factor is less than 54%. Some routes with the new schedule are bad, ie. Amsterdam, Moscow, Tel Aviv....and many others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:39

      I flew to SVO twice in the last month and the load factor was around 85%.

      Delete
    2. I flew 6 times with Air Serbia and planes were packed.....

      Delete
    3. Pera Kojot23:02

      I flew 4 times and it was 2x80%, 1x70% and 1x20%.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous23:13

      Well ex-yu has given us load factors and pax numbers for Jat every month this year so we only have to wait a few more days to find out the exact numbers

      Delete
    5. Anonymous08:27

      Pero,

      Just out of curiosity, which flight had a lf of 20%? Thanks.

      Delete
    6. Pera Kojot08:54

      ARN-BEG

      Delete
  13. Anonymous00:27

    Well I didn't want to provoke, but after one month situation with delays is much worst than in beginning of Air Serbia.

    Every and each day all flights are late. In those one month just 8 flights were on time. Every day several flights delay more than one hour some even few hours.

    For example. Today all flights delay 982 minutes, and that is 16 hours and 22 minutes. That is average delay per each flight of 35 minutes. Worst delays today were:

    JU170 TGD 2:22 hours
    JU112 SJJ 2:15 hours
    JU370 ZRH 1:58 hours
    JU182 TIV 1:16 hours
    JU380 LHR 1:09 hours
    JU330 FRA 0:56 hours

    And that is with 3 more planes (A319) so it is much easier to fly as they have spare planes in case of trouble. They could not settle catering problems for one month?

    Guys that is huge problem. First of all I will choose some other company to fly as I can be 100% sure my flight will be delay and I can not afford that. Second, that is very bad for image of new company. I thing JAT= Joke About Time stays! And third that cost a lot of money. To come one hour after slot to LHR cost huge amount of money

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nikola10:02

      you are aware that yesterday was very foggy morning in Belgrade, especially around airport? JU's 733s and AT7s don't have equipment for foggy take-offs and landings, that's why they are always late or diverted when there is dense fog in Belgrade. today weather is way better, as can be seen that all flights are on time

      Delete
  14. What are you talking about "all flights"? Where are you getting this information? I just looked at beg.aero and flights for November 25th departed largely on time.

    By the way, the departure time listed and the "Odleteo u " time are naturally different. The departure time is the time plane pushes back from the gate (this is universally what departure time is taken to mean). The "odleteo u " time is the time the plane actually lifted off. It has to be later. For example, JU404 to Copenhagen scheduled for 17:55 took off at 18:11. You cannot be counting that as a delay. I see the major delays you are talking about, but where do you get "all flights" were delayed?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous01:03

    A po tome je odlazak što? I zašto onda netko uopće objavljuje taj podatka. Konačno pogledaj dolaske pa češ vidjeti da je večina letova kasnila. Znači li to da ako su sletjeli u 12:02 umjesto u 9:50 (iz TGD) da je to još dodatnih 10-tak minuta do gatea iliti još veće kašnjenje? Pa onda je situacija još lošija nego izgleda po dolascima.

    U svakom slučaju vrlo loše za nakon mjesec dana letenja. Očito se ne mogu nositi sa ovim "novim" sustavom "cateringa". A što će tek biti kada padne snijeg...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous01:06

      Prema dolascima 24 od 28 letova je kasnilo. Neki i više od dva sata. A to je više nego strašno.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous01:09

      No, it is 22 from 28 flights delayed yesterday, not 24. It is true that some flights delayed more than 2 hours. But even 22 flights are huge amount of delay.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous08:29

      Какве везе има снег са било чим? За то је задужен Аеродром Београд, не Ер Сербија.

      Delete
  16. Well,when Beg.aero shows the same departure time for two different flights then you know there is something not correct considering Belgrade airport having only a single runway.
    Maybe the problem is more with the information policy of Belgrade airport than with Air Serbia?
    Somehow i get this impression seeing Beg.aero publishing codeshares that do probably not exist (JP with JU) and not even mentioning others (JU with AB).
    We all remember Ex-Yu Aviation reporting about the codeshare with Air Berlin...
    According Beg.aero they do not exist.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous05:30

    "A flight delay is a when an airline flight takes off and/or lands later than its scheduled time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers a flight to be delayed when it is 15 minutes later than its scheduled time"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_cancellation_and_delay

    From what I've seen on this website and other aviation forums, that 15-minute window is also used when calculating airlines' on-time performance.

    Based on that, this is how Air Serbia's arriving flights performed (10 out of 27 flights were late, of those 10, 7 were half an hour or more late):

    1. JU405 1:04 late
    2. JU305 On time
    3. JU507 Early
    4. JU657 Early
    5. JU171 2:12 late
    6. JU541 Early
    7. JU801 22 minutes late
    8. JU371 1:51 late
    9. JU321 On time
    10. JU411 On time
    11. JU311 On time
    12. JU651 Early
    13. JU113 2:02 late
    14. JU173 Early
    15. JU331 30 minutes late
    16. JU163 on time
    17. JU183 54 minutes late
    18. JU523 early
    19. JU381 1:18 minutes late
    20. JU513 27 minutes late
    21. JU175 on time
    22. JU535 26 minutes late
    23. JU605 on time
    24. JU375 on time
    25. JU405 early
    26. JU305 on time
    27. JU315 on time

    Of course no late flights are good, but 22 is not the same as 10. And whether you like the 15-minute grace period that applies to the definition or not, that's what the definition is and is used across the industry.

    I don't know why BEG shows both the departure time and take-off time. That's not really the point. Flights that leave the gate at the scheduled time are flights that have left on time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous08:34

      OMG can you imagine that out of the 8 morning departures only one, JU 170 to TGD, had a 20 minute delay!! It's really getting worse by the day man! :O What shall we do now...


      On a more serious note, if you want to count it like that then you have to subtract 5 to 8 minutes from the delay which is the taxing time from the gate to the runway. Airlines count in the taxing time into the 'flying time'. Don't confuse them.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous08:37

      ...plus, you quoted the FAA. Why should Belgrade Airport be subject to US rules and regulations. They can publish their times any way they want to.

      Delete

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