NEWS FLASH
Eurowings will commence a limited service between Pristina and Salzburg this upcoming winter season. The low cost airline will maintain flights between the two cities twice per week, on Thursdays and Sundays, from December 18 until January 6. It will complement Eurowings’ operations from Pristina to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart, which run throughout the winter. This upcoming winter season, the carrier is reducing its Pristina frequencies to ten per week, as it decreases operations to both Dusseldorf and Stuttgart from three to two per week. Tickets for the new Salzburg service are now available for purchase through the airline’s website.
Idea for GP Salzburg.
ReplyDelete18 Dec to Jan 6. That's laughable.
ReplyDeletePristina Airport - the cash-cow of european airlines!
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DeleteCrazy how they cannot compete with local tour operators. Decreasing number of flights from/to a country where 1/3 of PRN pax travel and an airport that is growing by double digits.
ReplyDeleteMore baggage than allowed, also people are used to traveling in this stupid way. I can't explain it.
DeleteIts EW structure fault. easyJet and Wizz Air are very strong against Tour Operators.
Delete@19:54 exactly. I just don't understand why EJ and Wizz don't add more destination. Wizz probably because PW engines, but EJ...
DeleteMore baggage than allowed, also people are used to traveling in this stupid way. I can't explain it.
ReplyDeleteEasy: Low Costs want subsidies - but PRN doesn't give any.
DeleteLocal Tour Operators tempt PRN Management in unofficials ways - and they get more slots and more space to maneouver.
And the result is what it is!
Its EW structure fault. easyJet and Wizz Air are very strong against Tour Operators.
DeleteI think PRN needs an airline with A220s or E2s which could offer frequency on these German routes and also open up new leisure markets like Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Lisbon etc.
ReplyDeleteAn own 'Airline' would cost tens of millions of Euros to just make it operational.
DeleteGetting an LCC to cover those routes would 10-20 times less!
Examples are everywhere around Pristina! But PRN Management prefers monopoly of family Reisebüros instead!
Well tour operators are paying others to fly for them and still turn a profit. Prices are not too bad either. They are on par with Wizz from SKP for same routes with same baggage allowance.
Delete@11:53
DeleteThey can do that -because nobody will launch a new destination to PRN if they not sure they will have a max profit and a load factor of min. 90+%
That's why PRN has 70 weekly flights to Zurich - and almost zero leisure destinations where load factor might be lower.
Even Podgorica serves more destinations than Pristina despite being 1/3 of its size.
Podgorica has the coast and tourism and has those destinations for 4-5 months a year. Until recently, PRN was same or even better served compared to SKP. PRN is missing 2-3 destinations in France, Italy and Spain, which I believe will soon come. But SKP does not have Munich, Düsseldorf, Brussels, Oslo, Luxembourg, so number of destinations served is not that different.
DeleteOf course there's a difference!
DeleteSKP with less than 3mln PAX serves on av. 45 destinations in 21 countries.
PRN with over 4mln PAX serves only 35 destinations in 15 countries.
If you count Beauvais, Bratislava and Sandefjord as different destinations and Mersin, Diyarbakır and Monastir as must have destinations, yes there is a big difference.
Delete@14:51
DeleteWhat I had in mind was rather Barcelona, Izmir, Amsterdam, Athens, Zagreb, Warsaw, Malta, Rome...
None of them served from PRN!
Thats what I said, "PRN is missing 2-3 destinations in France, Italy and Spain, which I believe will soon come." So situation is not that bad as most try to portray. Airport numbers are growing, destinations are growing, all without any subsidy.
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Delete'Only a few destinations in Italy..Spain..' needed?
That's exactly the issue 😅. Airlines are reluctant to open leisure destinations from Kosovo. That's why there are none. They never done it.
If all surrounding countries, (mind you, way better off in overall terms), race to offer subsidies to LCC's to open such destinations, what makes you think Kosovo will achieve that 'naturally'?
They give subsidies because otherwise they will become stagnant. At the moment PRN doesn’t need subsidies for growth. There is an incentive scheme, designed perfectly, which will bring new routes and more frequencies, if there is demand for.
DeletePristina routes that are succesfull are the ones where gasto people lives , and cannot expect anything else to work.
Delete@17:07 so much negativism man, take a chill pill.
Delete@1707 Gasto is the main travellers group for maybe the whole Balkans, beside some at coast. Just because one has 2x weekly to FCO and BCN does not make them leisure travellers dependent airports. Also, PRN didn’t have time to develop the leisure market due to visa restrictions. Eventually, leisure will grow.
Delete19:03 where you see negativism??
Delete@19:14 I am writing real things. In 2024 Kosovo is visited by 820k tourists(official stats available) and airport served 4 million the same year right , so the rest 3.2 million people were what ? Gasto people or businessmans ? What do you think ? You trying to convience everyone here that PRN airport is not gasto its more attractive tourist destination??
Btw what you mean about FCO and BCN I dont understand ?
16:45 SKP is not giwing subsidies for growth,thats not the point, they giwe it for airports to be more close and efficient to its passengers. SKP half of the routes which are served in years are not subsided. Even more than half Wizz routes are not subsided. Plus SKP now have more leisure routes than PRN because they are not targeting villages in europe anymore which is amazing.
DeleteI didn’t deny that PRN is an airport for VFR airport, but so are all balkan airports. Just because some other airports in Balkan have flights to Rome or Barcelona 2x weekly and PRN dont, this does not make those other airports used primarily by leisure travellers.
DeleteI don’t know what the other 3.2 were but following your logic, 820k were those tourists flying back home 😂
No one says other airports in ex-yu are not gasto , in PRN thats just on high level and its air travel depend mostly on them. Of course having flights to Rome,Barcelona,Amsterdam doesnt mean that all people who use that routes are tourists, it is mix of all..
DeleteNo you didnt get me, the 820k were tourists who visited the country according to official stats available. And the rest 3.2 are exactly the citizens going in and out of the country , understand now ? :D
VFR is main travel group in all Balkans. For Kosovo, before it was mainly immigrants visiting their families back home. With visa liberalisation, now it is both ways, immigrants coming here, and family in Kosovo going to EU to visit them. Bear in mind that visa liberalisation happened last year. The leisure market is still developing.
DeleteDo you know that passanger numbers of airports is the sum of arriving and departing? If 820k visited Kosovo through the air, then you can assume that they flew back also? 😂 Understand now?
Find a girlfriend or start a sport or smth… it will help with negativity
+1
DeleteI understand all what you saying. Visa liberalisation is for Kosovo citizens ,not for any other nationalities who wants to visit it right ? Visa open doesnt have anything to do with leisure tourists.
Delete820k visitors we dont know if they come with air traffic or car or any other method , there was 820k tourists registered in 2024, but we dont know how many of them used thd air option right? :D if u have that information share it here :)
And stop convience people that Kosovo is tourist attraction when its far away from that , and its all relayed on the gasto population!!!
Well you said 820 out of 4000 were tourists. But you forgot to calculate the flights back😂 now you are saying they didn’t fly there. I didn’t bring stats here. I am just proving your flawed logic and your negativity which comes from your ignorance.
DeleteIn the same paragraph you said 820k visited Kosovo and then Kosovo is not touristy. 820k proved you wrong. (You can’t make this stuff up, i swear😂)
Download tinder or grindr, what ever you are into kiddo. Your thought track is full of negativity.
Who say kosovo is not tourist place and not visited by tourists ? We saying that is more gasto visited than tourists and leisure travellers. I didnt bring stats thry are shared and available online if you are smart enough you will see them. Who can also proof that all 820k visitors come with plane? I just tell you basic numbers of people counted as tourists.
DeleteJune 13 (SeeNews) - The number of overnights spent by foreign visitors in Kosovo hotels in 2024 increased 11% to 827,952, the statistical office, ASK, said on Friday. ...
Foreign tourist overnights in Kosovo rise 11% in 2024 with foreign citizens 57% , and domestic 43% people who enter their homeland.
And lets say this 57% foreigners comes and leave by air it is still small and tiny numbers of tourists.
This is what I am trying to explain , that tourists numbers are way less than gasto people.
@21:27, I absolutely agree that PRN is biggest gasto airport in region and I don't understand why is that a topic, since that AND visa liberalization is fueling double digit growths. That being said, number of 800k is not tourists, only overnights in HOTELS (per SeeNews article above). Other accommodation is not included and these also are overnight which implies that number of foreign tourists is quite less than 57% of 800k. All in all, Italy is served poorly, maybe Spain (MAD and BCN). What we are yearning are more LC destination, even replacing tour operators is nice. Although, prices have dropped in comparison to pre-visa liber. period as on peak seasons you had one-way load.
Delete@16:45 That's why PRN has half its load dependent on Zurich and Basel!
ReplyDeleteThats the engine of PRN load capacity very true. Kosovo people migrating to Swiss is incredible. Just check statistic how many of them lives there and you will understand ...
DeleteWhats your point? What do the busiest routes from PRN have to to with what we were talking? Do we now need to subsidise others so they can see the colosseum or Sagrada? Fyi, Basel was 18% and Zurich 14% of 4m last year.
DeletePristina has more weekly flights to Zurich collecting all Ex-yu airports together ....
Delete@19:29
ReplyDeleteIt goes to show that even current growth comes from diaspora routes..That Means: Leisure travel from Kosovo is not existent. That's why many fly out from Tirana and/or Skopje.
Why do you even keep opposing a known fact is beyond me.
What facts am I opposing? You are fighting windmills my friend.
DeleteJust because PRN does not fly to southern Europe and Amsterdam, leisure travel is not existent. There are routes missing to those parts, it is true, but, the airport is growing nicely. Record numbers every month, new routes, new airport incentives. Soon those destinations will follow.
There is no option for leisure travel when all routes currently are only good for gasto people understand ? Any tourists who ever wanta to visit Kosovo they dont have any reliable option to visit it by air , because all routes are produced for gasto people and thats the reality. Just check which routes have increased capacity and all is clear.
DeletePlus check almost couple different airlines serve exactly the same airports because of its huge diaspora demands not because of leisure travellers
DeleteAnd when you buy a ticket from Zurich to Prishtina they ask you if you're a Gastarbeiter, otherwise you can not buy a ticket ? You can not connect in Zurich or Vienna from London, Madrid... to Prn if you are not gasto ? I must have a direct flight to Amsterdam, otherwise I can not be a tourist? Come see the streets in Prishtina or Prizren, the Sunny Hill festival starts on August 1st, come count the non-gastos visiting and once and for all stop the vile, just because at the moment you have a flight or two more, Skopje is not an effin Atlanta or Heathrow!
DeleteBrother nobody saying Skopje is better in flights or numbers , I dont know where you get that,we are just speaking for reality.The movement of air traffic in PRN is from the gasto people and nothing is wrong with that. The little smaller portion of that numbers are tourists. And all the routes are made for the wishes of gasto people of course thats the demand and thats all. Speaking about the visa open from last year that doesnt have anything with foreign tourists and leisure people. I have visited pristina and it is nice place nobody saying no and yes there should be more attraction for peoples to come and visit , investing in tourism sector is important for any country!!
DeleteBtw skopje finally after years of looking and praying for wizz to launch europe villages airports , is targeting main hubs of europe. For start Amsterdam,Paris Orly,Barcelona,Lyon are amazing and yet need more of course. Prague,Madrid,Munich , Dubai,Doha,London Gatwick/Stansted hopefully to see more main hubs not villages.
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