EX-YU airports lagging in connectivity


The countries of the former Yugoslavia offer among the fewest connections to passengers travelling by air, both direct and indirect, compared to their European counterparts, according to Airport Council International's (ACI) latest connectivity report for 2016. Data shows Bosnia and Herzegovina has the poorest airport connectivity on the continent, while Montenegro overtook Slovenia when compared to last year. Kosovo was included in the study for the first time. Connectivity is the metric by which airports live - the more connected an airport is to the wider world, the more attractive it becomes to its users and the greater the value it provides to the community and local, regional or national economy it serves. The 2016 report looks at Europe's total airport connectivity (direct and indirect), onward connectivity from Europe and hub connectivity. In essence, the report defines the connectivity of an airport as the weighted number of weekly flights available from that airport to non-stop destinations and to one-stop destinations involving flights of the same airline or of two airlines in an alliance or codeshare.


Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked last among 45 countries in terms of connectivity. According to the study, the country has both the lowest direct and hub connectivity but is ahead of Macedonia and Slovakia in terms of indirect connectivity. It was followed by Kosovo, which was included in the study for the first time. Macedonia comes 41st, improving on last year by one position. Although the country has seen significant passenger growth over the past decade, as well as strong government support for air travel, the dominance of low cost carriers has impacted its report figures. Montenegro improved from 40th position last year to 37th in 2016, overtaking Slovenia in the process. Serbia ranked second in the former Yugoslavia on the connectivity scale with Croatia following on top with several active international airports. Germany has the highest level of airport connectivity in Europe, followed by the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Turkey.

2016 airport connectivity

European rank (out of 45)Country
23Croatia
29Serbia
37Montenegro
39Slovenia
41Macedonia
42Kosovo
45Bosnia and Herzegovina

On the other hand, individual capital city airports from across the region have seen robust connectivity growth over the past decade. Between 2006 and 2016, Podgorica was the fastest-growing capital city airport within the former Yugoslavia in terms of connectivity, averaging growth of 78%. It is followed by Belgrade at 67%, Skopje at 53%, Zagreb at 22%, Sarajevo at 6% and Ljubljana at 1%. Pristina was not included in the comparison. When all airports in the region are taken into account, ACI reports that Ohrid’s overall connectivity was the only one to decline. ACI uses the report as an opportunity to stress the importance of public policy and regulation in facilitating and enhancing connectivity, which is closely linked to the economic wealth of countries. ACI has called for progress on issues such as airport capacity, the liberalisation of market access, the lowering of navigation charges and aviation taxes and lighter economic regulation for airports.

Change in individual airport connectivity, 2016 vs 2006

AirportChange (%)
Zadar▲ 333.6
Pula▲ 205.7
Tivat▲ 141.5
Split▲ 137.1
Dubrovnik▲ 110.6
Podgorica▲ 78.2
Belgrade▲ 67.5
Skopje▲ 53.1
Rijeka▲ 35.1
Zagreb▲ 22.6
Sarajevo▲ 6.1
Ljubljana▲ 1.1
Ohrid 32.5

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:05

    To all those with illusions that this is some important region... that table sums it up quite well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:54

      They said the same thing for Dubai 30 years ago.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:31

      Except Croatia, the other countries are still wild angry childs they need to grow 20 more years...

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:08

    Congrats to Ljubljana! *sigh*

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  3. Anonymous09:13

    Sorry but I'm really not surprised about these results especially Bosnia & Herz. being last. Sarajevo lacks connections to most major European hubs.

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    Replies
    1. Sarajevo only connects to Arab cities

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:20

      Still no flights to Rome, Paris, Brussels, London, Moscow, Frankfurt and the list goes on. From October no more flights to Zurich either -.-

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:51

      Jos malo ce neko iz Sarajeva ili sa Sarajevo aerodroma doci ovdje i pohvaliti se kako se "sa jednim presjedanjem" moze otici u bilo koji grad u Evropi iz Sarajeva.
      Pusti to, treba da bude non stop letova, nek ovo danas bude lekcija i zadaca za upravu Sarajeva a takoder i Banja Luku i za Mostar i nek se malo vise ustvari dobro vise potrude da dovedu Evropske destinacije.
      Sarajevo nikako i nikad zadnji godina (osim Zurich) nije dovelo neku Evropsku destinaciju nego sam neke Sharjah za koji grad (?) ja i danas ne znam a iskreno ne znam gdje se nalazi. Nemoj molim govoriti, ti neko, da "ne ide" neka destinacija. Ako Skopje moze popuniti let za Rim i ako Pristina moze popuniti Frankfurt (transfer i dijaspora, ima i u BiH za transfer i izvan BiH dijaspore) moze i Sarajevo. Nisu sposobni, to je razlog, i nece se inace u BiH da vise privuce recimo engleze. Kako makedonci rade, oni imaju Ohrid, mora i BiH nesto imati sto privlaci engleze.
      Toliko ima vidjeti u samom Sarajevu i grad ima bogatu historiju i u losem i u dobrom tu je i Mostar kojeg necu dalje opisati jer svak zna za Mostara. Sve bi se moglo, samo kao i u politici ocigledno uprave nisu sposobne jedino znaju dovesti saku arapski destinacija i ganjati Egipat i Libiju da bi prosirili mrezu haha.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:21

      Sto bi Sarajevo privlacilo Engleze pijandure i gologuze Engeskinje?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:15

    Are LCC counted in the report?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:29

      Even if they include them they don't fly to major airports ir offer connections which would explain Macedonia's relatively low score

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:27

    Very interesting to see BEG in the middle asit is the biggest transfer hub in ex-Yu. So this means that people probably use LH group or TK.

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  6. JU520 BEGLAX09:33

    Nothing new. Just some ethic traffic wont make u a hotspot. Croatia leader due to inbound tourism. What is lacking the region are business travel and outbound tourism
    Still way to go but we are improving yby ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:35

    It should be mentioned that ACI compiles this data over the past 10 years for the peak summer months. It's actually really good for airports. They get much more thorough analysis and can really use it to see where they are lacking connections and where they have to improve (of course if they pay for the report).

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  8. The report: http://www.seo.nl/uploads/media/2016-50_ACI_2016_Connectivity_Report.pdf

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:59

      The positions of ex-Yu airports on the connectivity list:
      BEG 73
      ZAG 102
      SPU 120
      LJU 129
      DUB 130
      SKP 162
      TIV 176
      PRN 179
      TGD 188
      SJJ 202
      ZAD 230
      PUY 246

      +/- position or two

      Delete
  9. Nemjee10:10

    So it is looking at connectivity over the past decade in addition to year on year results?

    Will be interesting to see how Serbia ranks next year with INI booming and with BEG getting some love both from legacy carriers and lowcost ones.

    For its size, Belgrade is pretty well connected to the world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry Anon 10:10 AM.
      really Belgrade is not well connected to the world by its size. Maybe is by economic power? But in next ten years economic power will lots higher compering with this days. And domestic people from Serbia be fly in great numbers. including from Nis, Kraljevo, Uzice, Vrsac... If peace lasting in South East Europe, hoppe they will, psangers aviation will blossoming in years to come. Rodney+✈ Kings Park, NSW. Aus.

      Delete
    2. Nemjee14:01

      Blossoming in what sense? I don't see many new airlines launching flights to BEG.
      What's likely to happen is for the current airlines to expand their presence in Serbia. We might see four or five new airlines but that's that.Unfortunately we are still miles behind airport such as BUD, PRG or WAW.

      As far as JU goes, sure, we might see a few intercontinental destinations in the next decade but until all of their European destinations are served at least 14x/week they won't be able to compete with bigger players. It's difficult to predict JU's future developments as its uncertain in what way their fleet expansion will go. If they keep on adding more A319/20s then the expansion will be much slower. If they do add a regional jet then this process could go much faster, especially in terms of regional expansion.

      Just look at how much flexibility they got from the CRJ-900. It allowed them to open new destinations such as HAM or KBP.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:09

      +1

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    4. Aэrologic17:25

      One destination i see actually happening that's INI-ATH with Ryanair.

      Delete
    5. Nemjee17:52

      Maybe even Chania or Corfu to Nis, in summer that is.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous10:18

    bizzare. Podgorica has way less carriers then Ljubljana and Skopje and even Montenegro Ailines flights to FRA and CDG have no codeshare with LH and AF so you cant get any further from there. They probably include all the Tivat charters which are flying for 3 months in the year

    They should come up with Montenegro connectivity in off season, it will fall behind Slovenia and Macedonia for sure o_0

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:53

      MGX has codeshare with AF

      Delete
  11. Anonymous11:03

    Good morning, where can I find the complete european connectivity list? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:09

      http://www.seo.nl/uploads/media/2016-50_ACI_2016_Connectivity_Report.pdf

      Delete
  12. Anonymous11:23

    OT: proširenje Splita se opet odgađa: http://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/propao-im-posao-od-350-milijuna-zbog-par-rijeci-na-slovenskom-pobijedili-na-natjecaju-za-rekonstrukciju-aerodroma-detalj-ih-izbacio-iz-igre/4793492/

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  13. Anonymous12:19

    can guarantee that if they generated this report 5 years ago the figures for BEG and Serbia would have been very different. I assume most of the growth was produced in the last 2 years thanks to Air Serbia.

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  14. Anonymous12:33

    Well done Croatia! :)

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  15. Anonymous15:12

    OT http://www.aviatica.rs/israir-pocinje-sa-serijom-carter-letova-od-tel-aviva-beograda/

    Great news for Belgrade and BEG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:42

      It's less than 30 days total.

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    2. Anonymous17:47

      Can you count, 30 days till end December?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:49

      Read again
      Planirano je ukupno sedam letova ove kompanije počev od 30. septembra do 29. oktobra

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:53

      Koje kompanije? Prica se o dve kompanije.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous16:14

    Bravo Hrvatska!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous16:34

    OT: The director of the security sector in the national company "Montenegro Airlines" (MA) Miloš Vučinić has resigned from that function. http://www.vijesti.me/vijesti/vucinic-otisao-boris-celebic-ga-mijenja-905665

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous19:28

    Airport Council International (ACI), is including only its airport members. When comes to Bosnia-Hersegovina only two airports from BiH are member of ACI: Sarajevo and Banjaluka Airports. Study does show poor connectivity for SJJ and BNX, but if TZL and OMO were included numbers would be way different for Bosnia and Herzegovina as country!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous01:05

    Ohrid 10 year trend was mostly affected by MAT's bankruptcy.

    ReplyDelete

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