Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport today handled its five-millionth passenger of the year and will close the bidding process for its 25-year concession at 15.30 CET. The five-millionth traveller, sports journalist Nebojša Višković, travelling on an Air Serbia flight to London Heathrow, was welcomed by Serbia's Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, the Mayor of Belgrade and Chairman of the Air Serbia Supervisory Board, Siniša Mali, as well as the General Manager of Belgrade Airport, Saša Vlaisavljević. The airport has seen average growth of some 9% this year, which has been fuelled primarily by foreign carriers. New arrivals have included Transavia, AtlasGlobal and Hainan Airlines, while several carriers have boosted frequencies and launched new routes, most notably Wizz Air, which based a second aircraft in the Serbian capital.
| Year | PAX |
|---|---|
| 1971 | 1 million |
| 1975 | 2 million |
| 1988 | 3 million |
| 2014 | 4 million |
| 2017 | 5 + million |
Belgrade Airport anticipates welcoming 5.3 million passengers this year, which would represent an increase of 8% on 2016. "This will be the first time in its 55-year history that the airport will handle over five million passengers. It represents the continuation of one and a half years of sustained passenger growth and is the pinnacle of the airport's outstanding operational results", the operator said in a statement yesterday. In November, Belgrade Airport recorded its sixteenth consecutive month of passenger growth. Over the past decade, figures have increased 138%, with the largest number of travellers added in 2014 when over a million extra passengers used the airport's services, primarily as a result of Air Serbia.
Today will also mark the end of the second and final phase of bidding for the 25-year concession of the airport, which has previously been extended three times. The Public Body overseeing the process has approved the addition of another party to the consortium led by China's HNA Group, with the Cyprus-based Severika Limited joining Hainan Air Travel Service, HNA Airport Group and China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation. Meanwhile, South Korea has continued to lobby in favour of the consortium comprised of Incheon International Airport Corporation, Turkey's Ic Ictas Altypi and Russia's VTB Capital. The Deputy Foreign Minister of South Korea visited Belgrade this week where he spoke with Serbia's President about the bid and indicated that there is strong interest for the establishment of nonstop flights. It marks the third high-profile visit by a member of South Korea's cabinet to Serbia within the past six months. Last week, Jin Air announced plans to inaugurate flights between Seoul and the Serbian capital in 2020. Other parties bidding for the airport concession include the Franco-Swiss consortium comprised of Zurich Airport, Meridiam and Eiffage, a consortium made up of India's GMR Infrastructure and Greece's GEK Terma and a stand-alone bid by Vinci. The Public Body will now score each bid in twelve different categories, with a preliminary decision expected on December 25.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced yesterday it is willing to help the future concessionaire finance the large-scale investments planned for the airport. The Serbian Prime Minister noted that the final concession agreement will be made public and noted that while she does not want to comment on the submitted bids, the offers have exceeded initial expecations.
Congratulations Belgrade Airport. I hope that with a new operator next year things will pick up even more.
ReplyDeleteIs there really that much demand between Serbia and SK?
ReplyDeleteNot at the moment. But there are ways to generate demand.
DeleteIs there any site where PAX statistics for BEG before the year 2002 can be found? I searched the whole internet and found nothing.
ReplyDeleteI remember on some forum years ago there were statistics posted for every single year. I will try and find it.
Deletepax - 1,621,798
Deletecargo - 6,827
?
Deletepax is short for passengers
Deletecargo is denominated in tonnes
I understand that but what are you referring to? The original poster asked if someone had pax statistics for Belgrade before the year 2002 :)
Deleteouch
Deletenot enough time to read through everything and even make some comments :D
Petar, what is your opinion about cargo?
Delete"The five-millionth traveller is set to arrive just after 09.00 CET and will be welcomed by Serbia's Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, the Mayor of Belgrade and Chairman of the Air Serbia Supervisory Board, Siniša Mali, as well as the General Manager of Belgrade Airport, Saša Vlaisavljević"
ReplyDeleteJeez was it really necessary to have the PRIME MINISTER welcome an airport passenger?
Just wanted to say that... PRIME MINISTER to welcome... LOL
DeleteLOL. Find it a bit exaggerated indeed. Maybe Tourism Minister but PM..!!
DeleteWelcome to Balkana!
DeleteI think this is a BIG DEAL for a small country. They are almost 2M pax ahead of the nearest airport in ex-yu, making BEG by far the biggest game in town. Also don't forget that there is a lot of PR necessary around the airport concession, so having such a heavy delegation to celebrate the airport's handling of its 5m pax, will no doubt help to sell the concession story. I'm sure if there was no concession on the horizon, you wouldn't be seeing the PM at such an event.
DeleteIt's also free publicity ahead of the Belgrade elections where no one will get the magical 50%.
DeleteAnon 9:26 is right. PR is much needed for the concession. Just imagine the look on the face of today's passenger. He/she/it will be shocked. Can't wait to see, loly.
Delete@9.32
DeleteYes of course. This will be at the forefront of people's minds 4 months from now when the elections take place.
The PM should go stand at the aircraft door and say to passengers: "welcome to Belgrade, thank you for flying Air Serbia"
DeleteAnon 09.35
DeleteYou think SNS will allow them to forget it?
^ You are obsessed with politics. Stop polluting the comments section.
DeleteAnon 9:41am, sadly, politics are involved here once again. If a PM decides to appear, it's because he wants to appear on TV and grab the attention of the public. This will send a direct message to the bidders, that BEG is a serious airport and won't be cheap to manage.
DeleteYou mean she* xD
Deleteagree, the PM is an overkill
Deletebut, hey this is serbia, mayors are opening traffic lights, bus stops and gas stations and some ministers elevators
Don't forget tiny bridges over tiny rivers.
DeleteAlso grand opening of Traffic Light, and Trash Container!
Deletehttp://rs.n1info.com/a231408/Vesti/Vesti/Nakon-semafora-i-kontejneri-svecano-pusteni-u-rad.html
Ha ha ha!! Well, once the concession is awarded, this political grandstanding in Serbia, at least when Belgrade Airport is concerned, will hopefully come to an end!
DeleteIn fact, today they will celebrate the five-millionth passenger. They turned five million pax couple of the days ago.
ReplyDeleteThey probably had to wait for the politicians to have a free hour. Or they wanted to do it hours before the concession bidding ends on purpose.
DeleteJa ovde pokusavam da nagovestim da je ovo namestaljka i da nije danas nikakv 5 milioniti putniki inace je novembar tesko podbacio.
DeleteDanas se oznacava 5 miliona putnika. Da li je bio pre neki dan je nebitno. Tako rade na mnogim aerodromima. Ne znam koji je tvoj problem. A u novembru je bio rast oko 5-6%
DeleteNije novembar podbacio nego je Air Serbia ukinula 35 letova sedmično.
DeleteAnyone else expecting another extension to the bidding phase?
ReplyDeleteThey would have announced by now if they were extending it.
DeleteNope, tender closing today like iy says in the article.
DeleteSays it all in the article. Offer submission closing at 3.30pm, preliminary decision 25th December.
DeleteAny news?
DeleteAbout what? The tender closed today.
DeleteThey added over 1 million passengers in 2014. Wow, that's impressive.
ReplyDeleteThat was all down to Air Serbia ....Infact, if you see the growth between 2014 to 2017, it was all fuelled by Air Serbia
DeleteLate change with Chinese consortium is proof that the process was delayed because of them and proof that they will fix the tender for them.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't bet on that ... it was done to appease the Chinese so that there are no sour grapes when the tender gets awarded to the Koreans ...
DeleteI would love for the Koreans to get it.
DeleteConspiracy. First it was the Arabs, then the French, then the Chinese. I bet you it will be neither of them. Serbia wants to get as much money from this. The concession fee has already been included in next year's state budget.
DeleteI wonder how much BEG would be handling if Yugoslavia broke up peacefully
ReplyDeleteAround 15 million I assume.
Delete9 million tops,
DeleteBelgrade - 9 million
Zagreb - 7.5 million
Split - 5.5 million
Dubrovnik - 5.0 million
Ljubljana - 3.2 million
Skopje - 3.0 million
Pristina - 3.0 million
Sarajevo - 3.0 million
Pula - 2.0 million
Zadar - 2.0 million
Podgorica - 2.0 million
Tivat - 2.0 million
Rijeka - 1.0 million
What was the growth in November this year?
ReplyDelete6%
Delete+6% for November ? Something does not seem right here. Please correct me if I am wrong... According to my estimates, if today is the "real" 5 millionth passenger, that would mean that BEG has managed to accumulate roughly 369.000 pax in the past 37 days (Jan-Oct is at 4.631.000 pax), so 5.000.000 - 4.631.000 =369.000
DeleteIf the average daily number of pax is about 10.000 in this time of the year, 369.000 pax - 70.000 pax (first 7 days of December), that would put BEG around 300k for November, right ?
Last year November achieved something like 331 k ?
So, we are looking at a negative trend in November, OR the 5th million passenger in reality showed up much earlier ?
thnx
@Petar It is not negative in November. Actual 5 million passenger was handled last week. Same as Zagreb marked its millionth passenger over 2 weeks late.
Deleteoh 2 million in Zagreb. isnt that cute
DeleteAt least we know why they haven't published their November numbers.
DeleteWhy? I still don't know?
DeleteA few reasons:
- there was a huge drop in the number of pax (they failed to reveal this number today)
- they lied about the 5m pax today (if it was a few days ago as some say), meaning that they cannot be trusted for any other figure they reveal
- an attempt to hide the figure from the bidders?
So many possibilities...
3 million not 2.
Delete@anon 1.54 interesting how you trust Zagreb Airport's numbers even though they announced their millionth passenger 2 weeks after the actual passenger passed.
DeleteThe article itself mentions they had growth in November.
Other than that you are just a conspiracy theorist who may be a bit jealous. Numbers will be out next week. But then again it doesn't matter. You will just say it's fake. Interesting you didn't have a tantrum about the absence of Pristina, Skopje, Ljubljana airport numbers.
5,6%
DeleteIf BEG becomes a FR base, the number will be 8 million in zero time.
ReplyDeleteI hope they FINALLY decide to include BEG and launch daily BEG-TGD or BEG-BSL to compete with ZRH. The busiest routes. Domestic flights within Serbia will be amazing too.
That would be very bad news for ASL.
DeleteImpossible at the moment.
DeleteCan't they amend this limited law of the certificate or they are doing this intentionally to "protect" JU? More routes, means more Serbians will fly and more traffic for the country. Domestic flights are very important for the economy too.
DeleteYes yes, we already know ... everything is bad for Air Serbia. They should simply just close down the airline now before any other airlines start to fly to BEG.
DeleteNo need to close JU. It will even have more clients, trust me. There will be a change in policy, strategy and destination improvement. Serbs are tired of German routes, they want to explore new destinations. FR can launch leisure destinations to Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Spain. People are tired of gasterbeiter routes. What about companies in south Serbia that need to travel on a daily basis to the capital?
DeleteStrange to read the comments ... but it is evident from the comments that they are ignorant and subjective.
DeleteYM is THE biggest player on routes between Serbia and Montenegro. Infact, it represents 50% of their pax base, yet for JU, significantly smaller - around 9%. So any airline entering this market, will affect YM far more than JU.
As for protection - traffic rights do not currently allow for anyone other than a Serbian or Montenegrin airline to fly these routes. Until that changes, no one else will fly it.
That said, it is highly unlikely that an LCC will fly anytime soon between BEG or TGD/TIV simply because of the high cost of airport operations - aeronautical charges, ground handling charges, fuel costs and pax airport taxes are amongst the highest in Europe. To add to this, the short flying time, makes these routes highly unlikely for LCCs, as all of these factors work against the LCC model
I disagree with the last part. Could you then tell me why there are short LCC flights from Cluj to Bucharest (less than 50min), Sofia to Varna (40min), Mallorca-Barcelona (30min). If you tell me there isn't enough traffic between TGD and BEG, I would probably not take your comment as serious.
DeleteRyanair wouldn't change much. They would just dump cheap fares on the Serbian market hoping for a swift defeat over JU and W6. Once these two would suspend some markets FR would increase their fares to what they were on the other two before their arrival.
DeleteRyanair was 'fascinating' 5 to 10 years ago. Since then the market has adapted to their tricks and tactics.
Tell me, what novelty would they bring to the Serbian market? Taxes are preventing JU and YM from offering cheaper fares (like JU does to BNX) so how would FR get around this?
Do you understand that FR has no rights to fly BEG-TGD or BEG-SJJ or BEG-SKP or BEG-TIA or BEG-TIV etc. and it will remain so in min next 7-8 years?
DeleteWell, I am referring to the busy routes only. If there are, say, 5 flights per day from BEG to TGD, don't you think there will be room for a 6th one? Taxes can always be adjusted for the sake of the economy, if this compensates of course.
DeleteAnd why not adjust them now when JU and YM fly on the route? Both governments have more reasons to protect their own rather than to allow FR to enter the market.
DeleteAlso, FR's entry to the market would be marked by extremely low fares thus creating an unsustainable business environment in which neither JU nor YM could survive. In the end, the consumer would benefit but only for a little while.
Nemjee - you are wrong. JU would survive very easily - it is YM that would not survive the entry of FR on Serbia-Montenegro routes.
DeleteIn any event, 1 flight per day from FR would hardly make an impact on either JU or YM. However, if they were ever to get to the same sort of frequency as that of YM and JU, then it would be a different story.
That said, airports will not lose their shirts on this OD just to have FR or W6 fly between these 2 countries. They have high fees, make a lot of money and don't need to discount to accommodate LCCs on the routes between Serbia and Montenegro
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deletelove this "customers are tired of gastarbeiter routes"
Deletedude, gastarbeiters use gastarbeiter routes it is what work
all the "leisure" destinations are already served
btw there are a lot of gastaerbeiters on cyprus routes, isreal is more about transfer pax and them coming to us, less vice versa
Ryanair has no plans for BEG, there was an interview with their pilot (Serb) that they have plans for "Serbia West" and "Serbia East", with west being INI, and east they will probably choose "Uzice over KVO" I may add a link later, if I find it
DeleteThere are roughly 2.000 Serbs in Cyprus so it can hardly be described as a 'gasterbajter' route.
DeleteASL carries mostly transfers on the route while O&D and tourists going to Cyprus use Wizz Air.
@Anon at 9:52
Delete"Could you then tell me why there are short LCC flights from ... Mallorca-Barcelona (30min)"
Oh my, I can tell you. That's because Majorca is an ISLAND! What a failure you are!
Petar, how come all leisure destinations are served? Could you please tell me why BCN is the only Spanish city which is seasonal? How about LIS? Canary Islands? Morocco? Egypt?
DeleteEgypt is served year round on Air Cairo.
DeleteAnd the rest...?
DeleteLIS is most likely coming back next year and Morocco might start as well.
DeleteBEG has been connected to Tunisia and Malta for many years now.
Ok anon 9:55 pm you said it all, so there IS demand for leisure and not only Germany. All the Serbs that emigrated emigrated. The Serbs in Serbia do not want to go Germany or Sweden but to try nice places like Tunisia and Malta and why not Portugal and Morocco and even Spain. Now you get my point, thank you.
DeleteI am not that Anonymous, I helped prove your point.
DeleteI commented on BG airport's instagram page that the airport needed 26 years to go from 3 to 4 million passengers, showing the country was indeed in a terrible state during the 90s and 00s ... and they deleted my comment after a few minutes LOL
ReplyDeleteProbably because of the stupidity of your comment. What happened in the last 26 years in Serbia?
DeleteIt was a malicious comment.
DeleteAgreed, besides air traffic now is growing almost everywhere worldwide especially in Europe, SE Asia.
DeleteNo, my comment was not mean. I just pointed out in what a lousy state our country was and implied that the country needed 26 years to go from 3 to 4 million and just 3 years to go from 4 to 5 million, showing we are improving fast. They obviously did not get my comment nor did you!
DeleteYou're right, but the times were different back then. There was no LCC, Serbs needed visas to Europe, there were few destinations, lower standard of living and many other factors. Also the previous JAT had a poorer management, older planes, expensive tickets.
Deletegood comment, as somebody noticed above, if we didn't have war belgrade would be handling 10+mil
Deletepersonally i don't like these comment deletions. especially i hate it when it is done on T6
Does anyone know the breakdown of p2p and transfer pax at BEG and growth of the two ?
ReplyDelete"...Belgrade Airport anticipates welcoming 5.3 million passengers this year..." It is quite obvious they will reach 5,35 mill. passengers.
ReplyDeleteHaha 5 millionth passenger is Nebojsa Viskovic! Best tennis commentator from Sportklub :)) Great guy
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteZa razliku rasta broja putnika od cetiri miliona
ReplyDeleteOd 1971 do 2017 godine, taj broj ce biti udvostrucen za samo pet iducih godina. Danas je dan pobednika koncesije i pocetak preporoda glavne vazdusne luke Srbije. Ko bude dao najbolju ponudu i prihvatio uslove, njegova je uprava za iducih cetvrt veka. Zaista danas pocinje nova, ozbiljna era na aerodromu Nikola Tesla. Samim tim i buducnost putnickih aerodroma Srbije. Suncan dan je na dan koncesije. Takva su ocekivanja daljeg razvoja komercijalne avijacije. Da je srecan pocetak pobedniku za aerodrom BELGRADE - NIKOLA TESLA. 🇷🇸🌐🇷🇸
Radovan, Kraljevo.
Pomeren je rok za koncesiju
DeleteNije pomeren rok. Danas se zatvara podnosenje ponuda ali se pobednik bira tek za mesec dana ;)
Delete2018/19 will be huge for BEG with new operator. Looking forward to more records being broken.
ReplyDeleteCongrats BEG! Cheers.
ReplyDeleteI have a very strong feeling the Koreans will get the concession. They have sent many government officials to Belgrade recently, Jin Air's announcement that it will launch Belgrade (and the timing of the announcement and launch year) is no coincidence. Incheon even paid an RTS crew to come over to Seoul recently to do a report about the airport. They are also the only ones to have publicly talked about some of their plans for the airport.
ReplyDeleteHope so but I would not underestomate the bids by Swiss and French. I heard that in first round the Swiss offered the most money.
DeletePredictions for next year?
ReplyDeletePassenger wise I mean
Delete5.6 million.
DeleteGood thing is that JU is no longer cutting flights left and right. Also, we have Wizz Air with extra flights in the first half of the year.
DeleteI agree with Anon 10.25, 5.6 million is extremely realistic.
So by 25 Dec we might know the winner. Nice!
ReplyDeleteIt says they will make a prelimunary decision then. Does not mean they will announce it to the public ;)
DeleteAfter that they start direct talks with the best bidder. This is Serbia. We will probably read about the biggest bidder in the press within a week.
DeleteWell done.
ReplyDeleteOh dear - looks like ASL could be in some trouble here after this incident with one of their ATR's on a BEG-SOF flight a coupe of weeks ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://sofiaglobe.com/2017/12/08/serious-incident-above-bulgaria-air-serbia-plane-loses-parts-in-flight/
That happened in october, dont think it they will be in trouble now
DeleteCongratulations on the result Belgrade. I really hope we will aee more new routes and airlines next year.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit worrying that there isn't an announcement for a single new route next year.
DeleteIt's still early. Almost all ex-Yu capital cities have no new routes announced.
DeleteA lot of airlines have already announced frequency increases to BEG next year.
DeleteI only know of Transavia and Swiss
DeleteFlydubai, Qatar Airways, Transavia, Swiss, Vueling [extended season - will fly entire summer].
DeleteAh yes, I forgot about flydubai and Qatar. I hope RO adds another flight, they seem to be doing really well.
DeleteLooking at their schedule they are after business traffic.
Congrats BEG!!!! wish you many more to come !!!
ReplyDeleteWhat about number of passengers for november ?
ReplyDelete+6%
Delete+5,6%
DeleteFor those interested, the 5 millionth passenger got 2 return tickets to any destination in Air Serbia's network and a year pass to Belgrade Airport's lounge.
ReplyDeleteCompare that to JP's gift. Lol
DeleteAdria yesterday gave the guy two return tickets after they were mocked by the media and online for their "gift".
DeleteHahaha yeah but the damage was done. That little plane was just such a PR disaster.
DeleteAt least they didn't give them tickets on Adria Airways Switzerland !
DeleteI just saw that Adria released a statement that they gave the guy tickets hahaha. What a screw up on their part.
Deletehopefuly this guy got bigger plane :)
DeleteSo good that people reacted on this. Sramota! and then you wonder why they were hesitant to offer free water (or stil are?)
DeleteI would even go as far to say that BEG would be competing with ATH and VIE today if the war didn't happen. It would probably be a large hub with many connections from the Balkans to the rest of Europe, North America, Asia and even Africa or South America.
ReplyDeleteJAT went ballistic on the Australian securities exchange today up 169%!
ReplyDeleteSo the old JAT didn’t just disappear, they got involved in selling baby formula from Australia to China :p
https://www.google.com/search?q=ASX:JAT&gws_rd=ssl
stupid comment
DeleteIf anyone had any doubts that this was used for political promotion, they should head to the RTS website to see how the SNS spin masters 'mix grandmas and frogs' on several fronts, to push forward a clearly promotional story. I'm sure it will also play in the Dnevnik.
ReplyDeleteMan this is an aviation site. We don't care how RTS reports it or who used what. This site hasn't reported it that way. Give it a break. I don't think this is a place to discuss polotics.
DeleteAnon 02.43 let people post what they want. If you dont like it skip their post.
DeleteThe issue is this is not a political forum and no they should not be allowed to post whatever they want. There are other places on the net where you can be a political campaigner. This is not it.
DeletePolitics and aviation go hand in hand. If politics should not be invlolved then the PM should not have been there and Mihajlovic should not have taken credit for it.
DeleteSorry, but as long as the 'Chairman of the supervisory board' is a politician, and the Prime Minister turned President negotiates and announces new route launches, and the Prime Minister welcomes 5 mil'th passenger, aviation will be inseparable from politics. I wish it was otherwise, I really do. But as long as it's not, if we're seriously going do discuss aviation, we have to touch upon politics every once in a while.
DeleteYes people, but the PM needed to show up because of the future concession. He probably wants to increase the value and image of BEG airport for Marketing and PR purposes.
DeleteGuys the PM is a she not a he.
DeleteSerbia and Alibaba are launching something they call 'online tourism.'
ReplyDeleteI guess there are going to be even more Chinese tourists coming here so chances are increasing of seeing non-stop flights from PEK!
Interesting initiative. Maybe it's a first step towards a second Chinese destination?
DeleteI hope it is Hong Kong, even though it is a SAR of China.
DeleteDragon Air could launch HKG though I think it Will be Shanghai.
DeleteIf it is Shanghai, then maybe it will be China Eastern - they fly to European destinations such as PRG. They have a total of 51 Airbus A330 so they can launch a 2 weekly flight to BEG too. Good connections to the rest of China.
DeleteBEG - PEK today 102(17 to Prague)
ReplyDeleteReally good load during the slow season.
Delete*only economy, I don't loads for business class, but what I heard: 2 maybe no maybe yes...
DeleteThe aircraft was an Airbus A330 reg B-6539 and has a capacity of 292 seats.
DeleteIf 17 left to PRG this means 85 left to China = LF = 29%.
Lets see if the route will last, without being a hater or pessimist.
Yes, because from Prague it was probably empty. I really wonder if they will keep PEK-PRG.
DeleteThe only thing you are forgetting is that a certain number of seats are blocked for PRG passengers. The 17 that disembarked in Prague most definitely pushed the yield of the route up.
DeleteDo you still think it is a normal LF?
DeletePojedini ljudi ovde zaboravljaju da sektor leta PEK-BEG-PEK ima ogranicen broj mesta. I ovo sto pustaju do 100 mesta je odlicno.
DeleteKada linija postane non-stop generisace i vise putnika.
Today JU654 BEG-SVO only 25 pax, really poor load.
ReplyDeleteSorry 650
Delete6 A321s tomorrow in BEG and two A330 turkish carcog today
ReplyDeleteLufthansa's morning flight is packed. I guess their other A321 will be as well.
Delete