Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was the only one from the former Yugoslavia to rank within the top 100 busiest on the continent last year based on Airports Council International’s (ACI) annual report. With 8.912.349 passengers handled, it was the 74th busiest in Europe. The airport was ahead of the likes of Reykjavik, Glasgow, Sofia, Thessaloniki and Riga but behind Palermo, Ibiza and Lanzarote. During the second half of 2024, it ranked 72nd on the continent with 4.994.956 travellers handled. Over the last year, Belgrade Airport added 544.418 travellers on 2024.
European rank for former Yugoslav airports in 2025
Zagreb Airport ranked 107th on the continent during 2025 ahead of Corfu, Pristina and Nuremberg but behind the likes of Vilnius, Turin and Wroclaw. Pristina ranked 109th in Europe, followed by Split, which was 121st, then Skopje in 129th position, Dubrovnik ranking in at 133, and Sarajevo 145th, with the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina making it within the top 150 only for the second time. On the other hand, Podgorica remained out of the top 150 for a second consecutive year, landing in 157th place, while Zadar came 161st. Ljubljana remained the lowest-ranked capital city airport in Europe, placing 165th among close to 500 airports. Full passenger results for the former Yugoslavia’s commercial airports can be found here.
European rank for select airports in the region in 2025
During 2025, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe, just, handling 84.482.389 passengers, with Istanbul’s main gateway coming in a close second. They were followed Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Rome Fiumicino, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcan and Munich. Out of the top ten, six reached or surpassed their pre-pandemic 2019 figures with Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich still below their performance from seven years ago. Overall, passenger traffic across the European airport network in 2025 increased by 4.4% when compared to the preceding year, marking a return to “normalised” growth patterns after the bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic. This resulted in Europe’s airports welcoming an additional 100 million passengers and setting a new absolute record of 2.6 billion passengers. While many European airports broke their passenger traffic records, 41% of them finished the year still below their pre-pandemic (2019) levels. Non-EU airports outperformed the European average, with their passenger volumes expanding by 6.2% compared to 4% at EU airports.
Busiest airports in 2025
Bravo BEG 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteHopefully at least another ex-Yu airport can make it this year.
ReplyDeleteTrieste has zoomed past Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteThat is inexcusable for LJU in my opinion.
Delete“Ljubljana remained the lowest-ranked capital city airport in Europe.” Bravo Krašnja and his decades long tenure at LJU as a route developer.
DeleteShows what a sad region for aviation we have.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWe still have a long of way to go but the situation is significantly improving. Demeaning yourself does nothing.
DeleteDon't spoil his favourite part, please.
DeleteIf we didn't have tragic war (will not analize the guilt and who and which part caused it) and if we kept single ex-yu market, the situation could have been totally opposite and diferrent. More than half of those ahead of us today, were light years behind 40 years ago. Tražili ste, gledajte!
DeleteIsn’t it sad how we always here from people here about the imminent doom and gloom of European countries, and yet just one airport is even among 100(!) busiest in Europe, from our region? And that’s despite constant solid growth here, meaning Europe’s airport grow faster! I think we really ought to look ourselves in the mirror first before we ever comment on anyone again.
Delete^ you are right. We should self censor and dare not comment about anyone else. Any comment from anyone that something isn't rosy somewhere else should be sanctioned, deplolored and banned because we are poor and stupid. Thank you for shining the light for us.
DeleteTIA this year surpassing VCE is wild!
ReplyDeleteIstambul combined 130.000.000
ReplyDeleteHuuuuge.
Besides, Heatrow, London also has Luton, Stansted, Gatwick and City.
DeleteIf you combine those it would be even huger than Istambul
CDG+BVA+Orly some 110 mio.
Delete^ How about ORL?
Delete@09:07 London is over 170,000,000
Delete@ 09:30
DeleteNah, Orlando Executive is too far from Paris, I wouldn't take it into account.
Crazy that 41% of European airports are still below 2019 levels.
ReplyDeleteDomestic flying in Germany, the UK, France and Spain is actively discouraged...
DeleteAviation is Germany is doing terribly. Almost no airport has reached 2019 numbers
DeleteEverything in Germany (except inflation) got frozen in 2019.
DeleteYup, Germany is lacking cheap energy to keep prospering
DeleteSMH to the comments about Germany every single time: international air traffic is up, domestic is massively down as everybody takes the trains nowadays.
DeleteSMH to you getting triggered every single time. Talk to anyone in the aviation sector in Germany to tell you about the state of German aviation. The government has also admitted that its policies have been a failure and have now reduced taxes. The train has nothing to do with it. For goodness sake take a break from defending mutti.
DeleteNice overview
ReplyDeleteBelgrade is #74 but all those finished but still closed stores make Belgrade airport feel like lower ranked airport. It is unfathomable to see hundreds of thousands of buildings being in the process of legalization while those airport stores are being held back due to some miniscule paperwork errors!
ReplyDeleteI agree. The general lack of vision will ultimately stifle Belgrade's future growth as a hub. It required real joined up planning to future proof it for two or more decades to come. But for now good to see the level of connectivity the city and country has.
Delete+1000
DeleteSource?
ReplyDeleteYou could read the first sentence of the article.
Delete@11:06, seriously?
DeleteThe source is Airport Council International Europe (ACI), as indicated in the first sentence of the article. ACI compiles an annual list of airport performance which is accessible to select media and features results of close to 600 airports on the continent.
DeleteI remember people here saying SOF will annihilate BEG in 2025 - they were basing these ideas on monthly winter results.
ReplyDeleteSKP will be even further this year as Wizz will deploy 7th A321neo in late July and increase the flights to many routes. There will be 22 departures and 22 arrivals only from Wizz in summer at SKP. Many routes are increased, including Malmo to daily.
ReplyDeleteIs there gonna be any increase to LJU?
Delete