Skopje Alexander the Great Airport has kept up its momentum over Piristina, handling more passengers than its traditionally busier rival for a second month running. On the other hand, Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport recorded its third consecutive month of declining numbers.
Skopje Airport handled 142.332 passengers in June, an impressive increase of 20.5% compared to the same month last year. As a result, the airport managed to welcome 1.153 travellers more than Pristina. During the first half of the year, Skopje Airport improved its figures by 24.6%, for a total of 757.850 passengers, which is still some 18.650 travellers behind Pristina during the same period, although the gap is narrowing. Last year, Skopje overtook Ljubljana Airport to position itself as the sixth busiest in the former Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, Macedonia's second international airport, Ohrid, welcomed 17.811 passengers in June, up 33.5%. Combined, the two saw 1.508 aircraft movements, an increase of 13% on last year.
Skopje Airport has positioned itself as a star performer in the former Yugoslavia this year, with the highest growth rate of any capital city airport. Over the past six months, Wizz Air launched three new routes from the Macedonian capital and replaced its service to Lubeck with Hamburg. Furthermore, Czech Airlines introduced flights from Prague. Meanwhile, Wizz Air recently applied for Hungarian-backed subsidies to operate flights from Budapest to the Macedonian capital later this year, while Croatia Airlines has announced plans to open a base in Skopje in 2017. In addition, Qatar Airways plans to launch flights from Doha early next year. Services were initially to commence this October but were pushed back due to an ongoing fleet shortage. All eyes will be on Skopje's performance this July, with airlines to offer just a 1% increase in capacity from the city compared to last year.
SKOPJE AIRPORT
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 109.097 | ▲ 23.6 |
| FEB | 102.178 | ▲ 27.6 |
| MAR | 120.668 | ▲ 26.4 |
| APR | 135.013 | ▲ 23.3 |
| MAY | 148.562 | ▲ 26.9 |
| JUN | 142.332 | ▲ 20.5 |
On the other hand, Ljubljana Airport has recorded its third consecutive month of declining figures. It handled 135.757 passengers this June, a decrease of 9.2% compared to last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 3.228, down 3.1%. The results come despite Aegean Airlines launching new flights from Athens to the Slovenian capital during the month. The decline in figures is attributed to Adria Airways which has discontinued two routes from Ljubljana since the start of the year, as well as softer demand for leisure flights over security concerns, which has had an impact on airports across Europe. During the first half of the year, Ljubljana Airport handled 598.271 passengers, down 4.5% on 2015.
LJUBLJANA AIRPORT
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 73.567 | ▲ 0.6 |
| FEB | 77.976 | ▲ 7.9 |
| MAR | 93.923 | ▲ 3.3 |
| APR | 100.549 | ▼ 10.5 |
| MAY | 116.499 | ▼ 9.3 |
| JUN | 135.757 | ▼ 9.2 |
Well done Skopje. Amazing growth there.
ReplyDeleteSo much for people saying how growth would slow in July.
ReplyDelete* I mean June.
DeleteNo one said growth would slow in June, everyone said growth will slow in July. Like it says in the article capacity will be up just 1%. And no one said it was a sure thing it was just mentioned that it will be interesting to see how the airport performs in July when we can finally compare year on year without new Wizz Air routes.
DeleteNo no, Anonymous 9:03 is right, everyone say - in Juni Skp collapses
DeleteOk no one said it would "collapse" but we will see in July.
Deletesorry for OT, but:
ReplyDelete3 widebodies incoming to DBV the next 20 minutes: Thomson's 787-8 and 767-300, Titan's 767-300 G-POWD (operating for Norwegian).
Somebody know if there ever were 3 heavies at once?
Nice. Is there room for all three or is it crazy at the airport?
DeleteNo in 80s Dubrovnik had 4-5 wide body aircraft landing at the same time, PanAm era. Zagreb had few widebody landing at the same time last month, might happen a lot more in coming years, with Korean Air, Jal,Canadian, Chinese and US carriers all starting or continuing the service to Zagreb. Wouldn't be surprised to see 3-4 A330/B777s at Zagreb soon enough.
DeleteA330 departed Split today sometime around 1:30 pm. No idea what airline.
DeleteWas it one of the DY Norwegian wet leases?
DeleteAs SPU is well capable of handling B767 and A330 are they also certified for 340 and 777 ops? Are there any restrictions for the really large birds (payload for ex.)?
Hifly operating Stockholm-SPU vv. for Norwegian
Deletere 80s @ DBV: which heavies?
DeleteJAT DC10 and ..?
The numbers in Ljubljana are becoming really concerning. Can't believe two suspended routes from Adria could have such an impact.
ReplyDeleteSomething is seriously wrong at Ljubljana Airport. Is this consolidation or just plain lack of leadership skills?
ReplyDeleteLJU had a strong charter traffic but looks like that JP is no longer interested into this
Deletenow in main season is charter traffic
DeleteDecline in demand for charters has affected a lot of airports. Believe me, even Frankfurt reported that charter traffic is significantly down this year. Reason is the situation in Turkey and people being generally scared of traveling, using airports and planes.
DeleteJP was doing losses with some charter flights, thats why the new mgt cut them
DeleteI think in LJU we see quite a real and healthy picture, where the environmeht in SKP seems more inflated thru the government subsidies. Still demand for travel in SKP seems to be continuing
SKP picture is as real as can be. Despite constant explanations as to the actual incentives for incremental traffic which have phased out for some time now for ~90% of the traffic, you still persist with this skeptical view. I'll refrain from being cynical, but this discussion needs to progress, don't you think?
DeleteOne part is restucturing of JP the other one is cut of charters...correct me if I am wrong. There were no charter flights to Egypt and as well to Turky and Tunis
DeleteBut REALLY, would you STOP ALREADY with this never ending story about goverment subsidies in SKP!??
DeleteU can call your subsidies the way you want, it stays taxpayers money and is an artificial interference in a free market system
DeleteEU has defined some state aid as legal and and even though personally i hve mixed fellings with state interfering into free markets, i m happy that people to from SKP have increasing possibilities for affordable air travel
Re JP, yep TUN Egypt and Turkey had impact too. Usually it would be absorbed by more charters to Italy Spain France. But seems that on one hand JP and tour operators came not to further deals on the other hand, I know Slovenians are very happy with HR Jadran coast, so most probably an increased figure with private car travel SLO to Jadran is being recorded
oh dear what about BEG and JU?
DeleteAnn1:51 ... go to the market and sell yourself
DeleteI hope Ryan will come to Skopje. It's more important than Croatian or Qatar!
ReplyDeleteI Agree. Ryan or Easyjet!!!
DeleteSeems Skopje is eating into Pristina's passenger base.
ReplyDeleteSkopje is better positioned to take pax from Kosovo than Pristina is to take pax from Macedonia.
Deleteu can see lots of albanian passports too
DeleteAs an albanian, I must say were lucky to have Skp as a competitor. If Prn alone maintained the flight monopoly, Id still be paying 5-600EUR return flights to Pristina!
ReplyDelete+1'000
DeleteAmen brother. The sooner PRN takes a more active approach the better. And I don't mean complaining to the EU, I mean effective measures to incentivize incremental traffic.
@10:04 What monopoly in PRN are you talking about? EU carriers enjoy unlimited traffic rights between PRN and any airport in EU and you can fly on LCC like easyJet, for example, which is expanding rapidly its route network to/from PRN. Despite the illegal state aid provided by MK GOV to Wizz, Prishtina is doing well with its modest incentive program, offered to all airlines.
Deleteillegal? LOLZ
DeleteI am surprised a bit. Did not expect Skopje to be doing so well. Congratulations. Good management.
ReplyDeleteManagement it's not good, TAV are poor, but numbers are excellent
DeletePeople are also forgetting Ohrid which is also doing great. If they could maintain a few more lines during winter it would be fantastic. What is interesting that Ohrid growth does not affect Skopje. Probably different passengers using the airports.
ReplyDeleteOhrid must get a lot of pax from Albania
DeleteOhrid is a leisure airport, meaning, charters from various countries bring tourists to the area and flying them back. There are Government incentives for the tour agencies for this. So, it's not something special about Ohrid, albeit Wizz flights which are the only "regular" ones (plus AirSerbia) are always full. And that with pax from Albania, Bulgaria and less than Macedonia. Go figure. :)
DeleteSource - I work in the tourism sector on the Ohrid Lake shore.
OT
ReplyDeleteZanimljive Vesti DY je svoju porudzbinu od 30 A 320 Neo zamenio za 30 A321 LR bice zanimljivo gde ih sve slati . I konfiguracija ce biti 220 sedista.
INN-NS
Fantastic results. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteLjubljana is having the same scenario as in 2009 :(
ReplyDeleteResult of over relayenece on one airline. They didn't learn the lesson in 2009 so here they go again.
DeleteI thought that new Aegean flights and additional Easy Jet and Turkish frequencies would help in June. Unfortunately they didn't.
DeleteLjubljana handled 1.67 mil passengers 2008.
Delete2000 they handled 0.99 mil passengers. This year has an outlook of 1.35 mil.
To put that into perspective in 2000 Zagreb handled only about 15% more passengers, and Ljubljana had more than Split and Dubrovnik combined. They are by far the worst performer among the mayor and larger airports in ex-yu, for the last 15 years.
Well they were also impacted a lot by the opening up of ex-yu countries. Remember Adria use to be a transfer airline for most ex-yu countries.
DeleteCouldnt it just be that their market is already more mature, thus gaining less passengers over the years?
DeleteSlovenian aviation is 100% privatised...this is the main issue. No more subventions or subsidies or state money. Pure capitalism
DeleteLJU is in car driving distance to Italy Germany Austria Czech Rep, even Switzerland and Benelux, where PRN SKP are another LJU-FRA trip away fm LJU. And LCC with their cheap rates make air travel nowadays much for affordable for PRN SKP passengers
DeleteNo offence but it wasn't as if the Slovenian aviation sector was pushing daisies the last few years while it was still in state hands.
DeleteJU520 BEGLAXJuly 14, 2016 at 1:43 PM
DeleteFYI:
LJU-FRA is aprox. 800km (at least 8h 30min by car)
LJU-PRG is approx. 650km (at least 7h 30min)
LJU-ZRH is 700km (7h 30 min by car)
if YOU would like to drive this distance go ahead- I would prefer to fly
AnonymousJuly 14, 2016 at 1:32 PM:
Deletewhat does your comment even mean??
the market is "mature" as in it doesn't go to night Clubs anymore but prefers the opera...or it doesn't want to full around but would like to settle down and have children??
AnonymousJuly 14, 2016 at 1:38 PM
DeleteMost of the Airports (if not all) in the EU are privatised and work under conditions of "pure capitalism" and they still record Pax. growth- whereas LJU does not.
Anonym 0216h
DeletePrefer flying too. But small slo company which needs to meet German counterpart and 2 mgrs need to go, probl prefers the car over JP airfares
Good job, Makedonija is booming and is fastest growing economy in Europe + Skopje has a great renovated centar -> go visit
ReplyDeletesrkaj dalje voda od Dojransko
Deleteke srkam, ke srkam i jas :)
Delete@1:38 Trolas ili seriozen si?
DeleteOT - BEG to get a PEK link according to SRB PM... B92
ReplyDelete''Mogu to sad da vam najavim, počeli su razgovori juče, uskoro dolazi kineski avio-prevoznik da građani mogu direktno da idu u Peking”, rekao je Vučić novinarima u Vladi Srbije.
Prema njegovim rečima, taj let bi trebalo da se realizuje pre najavljenog leta Peking-Zagreb.
“Mislim da ćemo i po tom pitanju biti prvi u regionu, pre najavljenog leta Peking-Zagreb. To je naravno moja nada i moja želja i boriću se za to”, rekao je Vučić.
Awesome! The stakes are high.
DeleteZnači ništa od toga da leti Er Srbija kao što se pričalo. Dakle od sledećeg leta Air China za PEK, Air Serbia za JFK i ORD a možda i Kanađani za YYZ. Bravo Beograd!
DeleteWhich Chinese company could it be? I am guessing Air China or Hainan since both are known to launch routes like Budapest or Minsk.
DeleteBelgrade airport would have to build C concourse extension or renovate old A gates in 8-10 months to handle all those planes. They are not capable of doing it.
DeleteHU 788, return to E Europe, indirect flight (1 stop) via BUD (resumption of services) as an extension with traffic rights and code-share with JU... as I was told...
DeleteBravo Srbijo !
DeleteSince you mentioned QR, does anyone know how is QR doing in BEG and ZAG lately? A few months ago there was even talk that QR might send B787 to ZAG next year.
DeleteNot again via f****ing BUD...
DeleteQR has been reaching LF well over 70% lately.
DeleteOT: Qatar bought 49% of Meridiana. It's official.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: 1153 travellers more than Pristina and not 2153
ReplyDelete