Skopje tumbles while growth slows at Zagreb and Belgrade
Several airports across the former Yugoslavia have seen a mixed bag of results this October as the number of operated flights plummeted. Skopje Alexander the Great Airport saw its passenger numbers tumble by 9%. The airport welcomed 68.192 passengers. It is the second time this year that the airport has seen its numbers decline, after an almost 1% decrease in August. The drop was fuelled by a significant decrease in flights of 12%. In the first ten months of the year, Skopje and Ohrid airports handled a combined total of 782.988 passengers, an overall increase of 9%. Skopje’s numbers should see a boost in November since Wizz Air opened its base in the city and launched flights to six new destinations.
Meanwhile, the pace of growth at Zagreb Airport has slowed. Croatia’s busiest airport welcomed 213.936 passengers, up 2.6% on 2011’s 208.569 passengers. Growth was recorded despite a 10% plunge in the number of operated flights. By the end of October the airport handled 2.009.271 travellers, a decrease of 0.6% on the same period last year, data from the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency shows.
Belgrade managed to record its 31st month of consecutive passenger growth, however, the rate of increase has significantly slowed. In October it welcomed 275.583 passengers, some 3.000 more than last year or a 1.1% increase. As was the case with Skopje and Zagreb, Belgrade too saw a dive in the number of operated flights by 2.6%. The airport is soon expected to handle its third millionth passenger of the year. By the end of October it saw 2.918.112 travellers pass through its doors, an increase of 8.4%. Nikola Tesla Airport is now 56.266 passengers behind Sofia Airport. During the week an incident occurred when an airport catering truck collided with a Lufthansa Regional Embraer E195 jet, which was parked at the gate awaiting passengers to board a flight to Frankfurt. While an internal investigation is ongoing it has been said that the truck’s breaks failed, enabling the driver to come to a stop. The damage to the aircraft will be covered by insurance.
Forza aeroporto di Belgrado.
ReplyDeleteBut how are SKP numbers falling?! They have a brand new terminal! :(
ReplyDeleteOT: FlyNiki is cancelling VIE-BEG, VIE-SOF and VIE-OTP from next summer.
ReplyDeleteIt was already quite clear that BEG figures will start dropping because it is not so typical to have such an unusual increase in the number of passengers and this to be maintained for such a large period. BEG might not reach 3,5 million as predicted by the end of 2012.
ReplyDeleteAs for SKP those figures will soar again because of the recently launched flights by Wizzair.
ZAG will probably remain stable and start increasing starting Jan 2014 - I predict more flights to London, Germany, BE and NL.
SOF might still maintain the same figures by end of 2012 but will rise again due to the launching of London-Stansted and Berlin-Schonefeld next spring. Not to mention the ski destinations.
It's going to be a tough, regional competition! Lets watch and see.
I am sure BEG is back on track as of November. They got AirOne, Qatar Airways and had a B767 from MXP as well as A320 bringing inter fans.
ReplyDeleteWell October and November have traditionally been the slowest months at Belgrade airport. Naturally we all knew that, at one point or another, the abnormal growth would come to a halt.
ReplyDeleteI guess Belgrade will keep on posting growth, naturally a more modest one from what we have seen until now.
I hope that government's plan for Jat's restructure goes according to plan so that we might see Jat Airways prosper.
Until the state of Serbia's economy improves I doubt we will see great changes when it comes to air operations.
If I had to guess then I would say that in the next five years we will see Aeroflot with at least 10 weekly flights, daily Air France, daily British Airways and increased frequencies from Scandinavia on Norwegian.
I doubt Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines or Swiss would introduce additional frequencies worth mentioning.
I would say that Belgrade will lose Adria and Montenegro Airlines as I have a feeling these two airlines are heading for bankruptcy sooner than later.
Also, I would not expect Wizz Air to add a third aircraft in Belgrade any time soon. They are primarily targeting O&D market which is still relatively limited; especially if you are Wizz Air and operate solely with high-configuration A320s.
Let's wait and see what happens. Best of luck to all ex-Yugoslav carriers.
""Well October and November have traditionally been the slowest months at Belgrade airport."
DeleteThat why you compare year-on-year, i.e. October 2011 vs October 2012, November 2011 vs November 2012. No one is comparing October 2012 with August 2012. So, your argument that "October and November have traditionally been the slowest months" hold no water.
http://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/1523-pegasus-airlines-ponovio-zahtev-za-letove-od-februara/
ReplyDeleteAviokarta.net quoted arriving/departing time to/from Belgrade as 10:10/10:50 AM, but in fact these are one hour later. Also, starting date will be February,1st. And Pegasus got the license for these flights.
DeleteWhat do you mean they got the licence? Or are you saying that they most likely will get it?
Delete1.1% increase for Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteWell they easily could have more growth if those morons would have allowed Pegasus to fly there.
Imagine 4times weekly with 737-800 !
That would be a lot of additional pax.
And 4times in winter easily could become daily nonstop in next summer.
And i bet that TK and Jat would not got harmed too much by this because demand is enourmous and still not satisfied enough.
It really is a shame that you have to go
to Pristina or Skopje to take a flight with
this quality airline...
Agreed. They are not 100% in competition with Jat because they fly to the Anatolian side. Not really TK either because most of their passengers are transit.
DeletePegasus quality? this is the joke of 2012 hahahahaha. I work at AMS airport and onur-air & Pegasus are the 2 cheapst airlines for Turks or holiday folks that go to Turkey. A budget airline thats cheap, dont give much and dont ask for much, but quality? you must be joking.
ReplyDeleteYou are so stupid.
DeleteFor you cheap is bad?!
People have enough reasons to fly them...
Pegasus is very succesful in PRN and SKP
despite Turkish Airlines presence.
Pegasus is great! Have you ever flown them FSX?
DeleteWhy was some posts deleted? OK for those which were nationalist one, but those who speak about air traffic like that ZAG airport and all roads to airport was closed because of huge crowd in front of airport to meet liberated generals coming into Croatia with Government plane? That is fact about Zagreb airport in that moment, which is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt is OK to say that some airport is closed because of truck crash into plane, but it is not OK to say it is closed because of crowd in front of it? On that way you show that this blog is not really exYU but just blog of one part of exYU!
The main comment, which had nothing to do with aviation, was deleted. Subsequently all responses linking to the main comment were deleted.
DeleteYou answer this shit..why not delete?
DeleteDisgraceful.
Ex-Yu I think you should keep on deleting all posts that mention the 'liberated' generals as it will most likely cause a non-aviation debate.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Delete22 flights to/from Zagreb was delay and one flight was canceled because of two generals that were liberated and lot of people out of terminal because of it. Zagreb airport is not closed. Now traffic is normal.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteAviation Blog?
ReplyDeleteДобра вест из Београда. Формирана је радна група која ће радити на Јату.
ReplyDeleteНадам се да је ово први корак у правом смеру нове владе, нека само тако и наставе.
http://www.politika.rs/vesti/najnovije-vesti/Vlada-Radna-grupa-za-analizu-stanja-i-oporavak-Jata.sr.html