Hopefully they release some renders.

The airport will really be unrecognisable in 5 years. Can't wait.

Rainwater drainage is among the most important parts. The entire C gate area is not tilted so water doesn't go anywhere and mini lakes are formed the moment rain starts to fall. Hopefully they address this issue during the upcoming reconstruction period.

I am curious to see what they plan for the A6-A10 area as that zone is in desperate need of a face-lift, starting with those underground toilets whose walls are covered in those thick dark blue tiles.

BEG terminal size will be among the biggest in the Balkans.

The airport will really be unrecognisable in 5 years. Can't wait

They need more bus gates.

They are building a solar panel plant??? Wtf?

January statistics?

And yesterday airport announced new job openings for ground handlers and staff which is great news.

Environmental awareness has swept the world, with exception to the Balkans, most notably ex-Yu region. That's why we have some of the worst air on the planet. I'm glad they will put an emphasis on environmental policy. More companies should.

Vinci is refusing to publish monthly statistics, they will stick to quarterly reports which is idiotic. Another downfall to their takeover.

Hopefully it doesn't go through omladinska zadruga.

It has been written a thousand times already that Vinci publishes only quarterly statistics for its airports. So you will have to wait until April.

You can apply on the airport's website. Something that was non existant before.

People were so dramatic about this whole thing. First that concession will be annulled, then that Vinci won't actually take over the airport, then that they won't do any major work at BEG, now waiting for the next one.

Yes but Air Serbia also advertizes jobs on its website and in the end you are hired by a different company, not JU.

That's a silly and senseless decision.

^That's not true at all.

I know that's the case with cabin crew. All new hires have contracts with these agencies, don't really know what's the benefit but there has to be one.

I still hope that Vinci will already start negotiating new non-JU routes, especially to France and its OST. Belgrade needs to compete with Budapest when it comes to inovative routes.
Lets see.

Environmental talibans as Nemjee called AMS airport the other day :D

I'm still trying to figure out where they will build half of these things.

There are three non JU airlines starting flights to Belgrade this summer - Air France, Air Arabia and ASL Airlines France. Your comment about FOT shows you either have little knowledge of aviation or you are just trolling. My guess is the latter.

On the first place I expect new U2 routes.
Maybe even FR, but I am not so sure. It looks like they are secretly negotiating with ZAG these days.
AF was very nice addition. Hope to see TP

I guess we will find out today.

*OST not FOT.

Something new will be found.

Great news. Looking forward to it.

Everyone has the right to express their opinion. If you disagree with an opinion, it's your own will. Oh yes, it's OFT and not FOT. Just for your info, to improve your aviation skills.

I corrected myself two minutes after I wrote my comment. Good luck with persuading an airline to launch flights from Belgrade to New Caledonia.

Simply unbelievable. This is really not a productive decision.
First it's the lack of information in the new website and now the figures that are published every 3 months. What's next?

Next they build you a new terminal, runway, aprons, parking.

Yes please!

It doesn't have to be New Caledonia but rather a Carribean destination. No visa for Serbs, so what's the problem?

It would be good, but I personally find it too optimistic.

If there was a demand for long haul chartes YU-ARA won't be sitting in BEG 5 days in a week during the winter.

Problem is it's unprofitable. There was a good interview published here two years ago with Air Serbia's CEO about flying long haul leisure. He said they did the maths and nothing would work, not even Thailand.

Do we know when construction work will start?

It will have to be fairly soon of they plan to have it done within 5 years.

EY can consider leasing an older 767 and using the Aviolet brand to launch long-haul leisure destinations. I mean a package to the Carribean can be like 800€ for 2 weeks. It can be something like the Condor or Neos Italia programmes.
The OFT usually are very expensive destinations, so I doubt there will be demand from Serbia or the neighbours.

I think it's good they are environmentally conscious.

VINCI said they will be sending employees to the Vinci Academy, which is good.

Ugh when I hear the word "know how" Etihad and their promises spring to mind.

Probably spring but I'm sure they will say today.

My guess is they will stick to the plan for A6-A10 area to refurbish it and slightly extend it.

Is there a space to extend it?

I hope they build an observation deck :)

Yes, I agree. It would be very nice.

What about cargo?

Why??

I don't understand, what is an issue with employing through agency? There is a huge number of companies from various industries doing that.

It was Etihad's favourite catchphrase when they were taking over Jat. How they have the "know how" and everyone at Jat is dumb. Too bad they went on to bankrupt several airlines afterwards and recorded over 2 billion in losses.

I'm waiting for how all the drama will subside once they present their plans :) just a little more left.

Shame that they didn't include the rail link to the city in the concession agreement.

An airport concessionaire can't build a rail link to anywhere outside of the airport premises. It hasn't been done anywhere.

It is supposed to be the biggest ;)

Why on Earth would they need bus gates? For turbo props?

Exactly! Vinci only has control of the airport premises (excluding land that belongs to SMATSA). They can't do anything outside of it.

It is a green PR for airports. Quite normal worldewide. At the end of the day airports/airlines are among biggest polluters.

Yes. BEG already has bus gates. They probably need another 2. I don't think more is needed. Sometimes they use the regular gates to get passengers to go down the stairs and then they are transferred via a bus to their plane.

I expect the following...
Oh, it is soo big for Belgrade airport...
Who is going to pay for it? Vinci.
Ok, Vinci, but they will take a loan by using their Serbian newly established company and what will happen after they go bust? Who will pay for it?
Serbian taxpayers, of course!

Well it's one thing to be eco-friendly and conscious about these issues and it's a whole other thing to close down an airport thus affecting millions of people and your country's economy.

You already sumed it up :)

The government plans to do it.
"Ms Mihajlović has confirmed that the construction of a rail link between the airport and city has high priority but has not been included in the contract with VINCI, meaning the project, valued at twenty million euros, will be carried out through a public private partnership."

Sure, bur for a so called legacy carrier to hire permanent crew (i. e. not for 6 months) through an agency is shameful.

Well, almost like Adria leasing cabin crew from one of their ACMI customers (Go2Sky, etc.). The wonderful world of Balkan legacy aviation.

If they'd build a coal power plant, they would be applauded.

I'm most interested to see the part about the runway. Will it be a "temporary" one or a compketely new runway on the other side of the airport.

Sounds good.

Nemjee, the Dutch are actually busy focusing on more creative, productive and lucrative aspects of the economy. There is a lot of talk already about the necessity for flying to become more expensive in order to curtail its environmental impact and finance the development of greener forms of transport. In the meantime, no one is closing down Schiphol. They will just move all the holiday flights (by transavia, Tui, Corendon and such) to other airports in the country, so that Schiphol can focus more on business, long haul and premium travel.

I will say it again. Connecting T1 with the aviation museum somehow would be a good idea :)

This is the biggest mystery to me too.

^^ Don't trust a word she says.

You guys are really crazy sometimes. And I am saying this as someone who supports Air Serbia and wants BEG to grow to >10 million passengers.

People leave Serbia (and not only Serbia) en masse because they can't feed their families. And you are talking about offering them long-haul leisure packages. Yes there is always that 5% of the population who can afford such packages but guess what - they have enough money to tailor their individual package which for sure won't include a Condor-like budget charter. They will fly some more comfortable option because they can afford it, just as they do when they fly TK, EK, EY and QR to reach the Maldives, Thailand, Bali and similar destinations in the east.

Long-haul leisure requires middle class that can fill those flights. Exactly what Serbia does not have and will not have in any foreseeable future.

It's likely they will say the result todaym

Good to see they will start work on expansion straight away.

Is there space for a second runway on the other side?

+1

It would be great for transfer passengers.

^No, no one said it would be the biggest. But certainly an improvement on what we have today.

They could expand it only if they move the cargo facilities. I think they could add another 3 to 5 airbridges.

Well bus gates could be used for turboprops and LCCs that do not require an airbridge. BEG has 11 remote stands and three bus gates.

Moving traffic elsewhere in the country is pretty stupid as it still 'pollutes' the air in the Netherlands... they just 'pollute' it elsewhere. Makes absolutely zero sense.
Furthermore, aviation has made massive improvements over the past few decades. It's probably one of the most efficient industries out there. Compare pollution levels of a B732 and a B737 MAX.

Hopefully Government will finally publish the Agreemnt so we can compare the plan presented with what was agreed in concession.

"There is a lot of talk already about the necessity for flying to become more expensive in order to curtail its environmental impact"

This talk is always by people who will be able to afford those more expensive fares. Classic hypocrisy like Obama and the crew flying in private jets to a climate change meeting.

Maldives could definitely work two times a week.
And the plane wont have to be filled just with Serbs but transfers as well. Just like the JFK flight is.

Bus gates are cheaper for an airline to use compared with jet bridges. The airport operators charge them for less money so they are preferred by LCCs.
Hopefully Vinci will work harder than the Vlaisavljević management to attract them to BEG.

If Bangkok couldn't work Maldives won't work either. JFK attracts mainly people who live and work in the US, or at least visit someone. Holidaymakers are kinda statistical error there.

MLE flights would be just the opposite - they'd have to be packed with holidaymakers as no one in the exYU region lives, works or visits someone in the Maldives. Where are we going to find all those holidaymakers?

Bulgaria, Romania, Czech republic, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, Italia and Germany.

Well, spreading the pollution makes more sense than focusing it on one spot, which is very densely populated, by the way. And in advanced democracies like the Netherlands, the people living around airports are an important player in the decision making process.
As far as rich vs. poor is concerned, it's true that these kind of measures will mean less travel for the poorer population. But what's the alternative? Air travel cannot continue to grow indefinitely.

What rubbish are you talking about it being "shameful" ?

Get out of the Jurassic era and into today's world - where contract/agency labour exists across many sectors

But not good for retailers.

Please don't go into what is the biggest and where. We immediately have to either narrow the area mentioned (to the corpse of YU) or we end up in a pi...ing contest. Not nice.
The New Istanbul Airport is the reality, it will not go anywhere soon, Athens and Bucharest exist as well and are somehow located in the Balkans. We all look ridiculous when enter the discussion who has the largest summer cottage.
Looking forward to see what Vinci has prepared for us to see.

So what you are saying is that we are shifting some pollution to other areas that are not as polluted so that we are all equally polluted? In my opinion it makes far more sense to concentrate pollution in one place, AMS in this case.
Also, I have no sympathy for people who bought houses close to the airport. What did they expect when they moved there? Peace and quiet?

Like I said, aviation has done a lot to reduce pollution. Plus, it's up to aircraft manufacturers to reduce pollution, not the airlines. Why punish KLM, Air Serbia... when it's up to Airbus, Boeing, Embraer... to make planes more efficient.

Again, he said one of the biggest. Not the biggest.

They need proper bus gates, I frequently fly out from C7 and have to use the stairs. This solution is not convenient for passengers. not at all. Especially in bad weather. Similarly for LCC who instruct passengers in the first 15 rows to board properly and the remaining passengers to use the stairs and walk down and around. Hilarious!

Totally agree with Nemjee on this issue.

Bucharest is not in the Balkans. Also, Belgrade will have a respectable terminal size bigger than Thessaloniki or Sofia. I think we should be proud of this milestone.

Also it would also free up some gate space during the morning rush-hour. Wizz Air can be moved to B parking positions.

They are privately owned company with their business plans. They can publish whatever they want, whenever they want. Hey, they can even change the name of the airport which they... let's say... own.

Well yes, if JU was the only airline out there with MLE flights in offer. Unfortunately the competition is fierce and it's quite unrealistic that anyone who needs a connected flight to MLE would choose JU over TK or MEB3. That leaves Serbia and some small parts of BEG catchment area in Romania, Hungary and Croatia. Far from enough I'd say.

Hiring staff through those agencies enables companies to cut down the number of workforce in the short period of time. Benefit for the company
It wreaks havoc to corporate culture as the difference between agency workers and directly employed always remain. Not good.
Sometimes, in societies prone to corruption, those agencies are owned by someone working in the company itself, has relatives in it, or by an influential person in the political system, and the agency receives hefty amount for every employee leased... I am not saying this is the case here. Who knows. AFAIK we live in Legoland and have danish social values.

What is the temporary runway? That has been a mystery to me. If one builds a runway, its a runway. They mentioned the term "inserted/umetnuta" whatever that means.

They don't own the airport, it's owned by the government. Vinci is just running it so they can't do exactly as they please.

Next goal should be for BEG to come close to the passenger numbers of SOF and SKG because currently it is far behind from two cities which are smaller than Belgrade.

Well BEG will pass six million this year so that's good.

Sofia seems to be stabilizing, January growth was 5.5%. I guess that's what we can expect the rest of the year as well.
Thessaloniki on the other hand grew by 25% in January! :O

If we strictly implement geographical rules Belgrade Airport is also not on Balkan peninsula.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanhalbinsel#/media/File:Balkan_topo_de.jpg

Yes but the city it serves is and that's what we are looking at.

I can really see some Austrian, German or Swiss family booking their holidays with some 5-star brand "Aviolet" instead of TUI or Condor, yes. Maybe they'll get a chance to fly on one of Aviolet's brand new 737 aircraft as well.

There is no problem with hiring through agencies in general. It's just that here we read how having things like metal cutlery is the most important thing, or premium routes like JFK-BEG, yet then the airline cannot absorb the (extra) cost/risk of having people employed directly on 100% contracts...

It is a new taxi runway that will have the ability to also serve as a takeoff and landing runway in case the main runway is closed for some reason (e.g. maintenance). So it's kind of a hybrid solution and a good one for BEG. I think LGW has something similar - only one runway in use but the main taxi can be used for takeoffs and landings if necessary.

You can believe or not but in Germany you can find regular travel packages that include Air Serbia connnecting flights - the most often to LCA and SKG

A growth of 5,5% for a seven million passengers per year airport is still significant. It will result to almost 400.000 extra pax for the when year!

Someone posted this a while ago, and it's worth another look. Scroll to the bottom of the page:
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1433056&page=66

So the low-cost boom is over...back to organic growth of 5.5%?

a big LOL from Germany

That seems to be the case, we have to see how other months do but I think this will be it from now on. Unless locos start growing again.

So just because you live in Germany makes you an expert on everything?

I've seen this before. Looks interesting but I don't think Vinci is going to do this.

"New generation of long haul airlines" my guess LEVEL, Norwegian??

When will we see some kind of plans, drawings, concepts?

+1 Nemjee, I live in Canada and people are pretty much brainwashed about this that they can;t fathom what you are saying.

The middle class is growing and needs to try a different product.
Serbs already know Egypt, North Greece and Tunis very well because they are cheap.
Long-haul budget destinations do indeed have much more demand than you think...

Surely nobody expects people to connect in BEG from JFK in order to go to Thailand or Maldives? That is ludicrous. Do you know what type of flight options exist from the NY area? As for Germans or other Europeans using these charters, they have tried and tested options. Unless you are undercutting pricing (which defeats the purpose) it will not be successful.

Profit margins are not great on these types of packages and risk is relatively high.

...or exit through the gift shop.

Norwegian came to mind for me. It would be amazing to see long-haul to BEG by Norwegian. It is good that they will support Air Serbia but will not be a slave to them.

So far these "visuals" are pretty disappointing IMHO. The Swiss proposal looked much more impressive. Naive of me to hope they would have borrowed the plans...sigh

Anyone have a link to the video?

Is this a joke? A couple of blurry unprofessional pictures. When will they publish a real render/plan?

I sincerely hope that they will upgrade offices for the employees and the wages following the growth of the airlines and passengers handled.

There's no rail link and the airport is so close to downtown. How are passengers supposed to get there, pollution-spewing buses and cars ? We're in the 21st century.

Visualisations are really shit, so I believe that will come true.

How did you come to the conclusion that Vinci will support AS but not be a slave to them?

I would like to see a rail link to the city as well, but I don't think a cost benefit analysis would allow for a direct rail link. Simply put, too costly for little return.

LOL. These images are beyond ridiculous. Totally unrelated to each other, or to the described plans. Any architecture student in Belgrade would have done a better job over the weekend than these jokers. I cannot believe this level of unprofessionalism. All in all, doesn't offer any consequence.

I mean, confidence.

Describing visuals as a work in progress and selection of presented renders indicate little doubt about intention to obfuscate more details. Absent from presentation were granular deliverable timelines and clear visuals of how will additional infrastructure fit and complement existing facilities. There are no obvious contractual obligations, proprietary info or advantage for competitors that would prevent Vinci from presenting comprehensive plans at this point. If their goas was to stir more controversy about apparent lack of concession transparency, they succeeded admirably.

I hope the French won't bring this to Serbia.

Time and time again :)
This is ex-yu portal. So anytime you mention Balkans it means Western balkans ie. ex yu (more or less).

It seems Vueling has responded to Air Serbia launching BCN.

In April they will operate two weekly flights, I think they also changed these times.

BCN-BEG 19.10-21.40
BEG-BCN 22.20-01.00

Then from 06.09 they are changing one of the flights to:

BCN-BEG 13.20-15.50
BEG-BCN 16.30-19.10

This will only operate for about a month after which we are back to the middle of the night flights. They are so clueless. I think Air Serbia is extremely lucky here.

The event itself did not serve public interest and despite indications that detailed plans would be presented, almost nothing came out of it. Unfortunately, as we could expect, it sole purpose was political marketing. So, without too many facts, we can only make some speculations about future plans. Here are several captured renderings and one scheme I managed to find - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JhON11E4pY4DJr0sXyRv5ke2Z3JMk6Rw?usp=sharing. As it can bee seen in these pictures, both A and C wings of the current terminals will be lengthened. At least four air bridges (capable of handling widebodies) will be added to C wing and at least three (probably more) will be added to A wing. T2 will considerably be expanded at the point of intersection of two wings while, what it can be considered as new terminal will be built around current location of Borik restaurant. I would say that part of the airport will undergo biggest changes. It could be assumed that in the first phase C wing will be extended while expansion of A wing will be carried out later, after new control tower (it seems that existing one will be demolished) and new cargo terminal are built. As most of the work will be around current buildings, it safely could be assumed that new runway will be built between taxiway A and current one (so-called embedded runway), not towards south west (as according to some previous plans). How it might look like and where those nine taxiways are planned can be seen in enclosed scheme. We can also assume that new runway will be one of their priorities and will be built pretty soon. If similar runway setup at Gatwick Airport can serve the purpose, it should be perfectly adequate for BEG too, at least in next thirty years or so. As I generally don’t like megalomania, all these solutions look very reasonable and rational to me. What does not look so reasonable to me though is yesterday political marketing. Whether airports like BEG (or ZAG for instance) should have been given up for concession is obviously debatable and there are good arguments for both stances. And I am the one who thinks that there are more pros than cons for the selected management model. But to present this model as something we should be proud of is, kindly spoken, very sad. And clearly shows not only state of minds of our politicians but what society we live in.

?????

Sada je "casa i molitva" u rukama VENCI Airports. Uglavnom svi ocekujemo promene do neprepoznatljivosti terminala i infrastrukture aerodroma. Kome je trebalo 55 godina da opsluzuje pet miliona putnika godisnje. U danasnjim uslovima potrebno je manje od jedne decenije gde ce sa rekonstruisanog i ptosirenog, poletati i sletati 15 miliona putnika na godisnjem nivou. Po meni, bice zanimljivo gde ce, na kojoj terasi renoviranih terminala napraviti observation platform za aircrafts onlookers? Posto prilikom jucerasnjeg svecanog obelezavanja pocetka uprave nad Beogradskim aerodromom, VINCI nije pripremio prikaz izgleda aerodroma u koga ulaze blizu 750 miliona evra, onda za mesto gradnje i izgled buduce terase ostace da se vidi za oko pet godina... ✈🌍✈🌏✈🌎✈🔅✈✨✈☺
Rodney.

I am also waiting for some info about our cargo. There is some mby false info that they are not interested in cargo and also another mby false info that they will not touch cargo for next 5 years. I do hope they will look for some cargo solutions....

+1

I find it strange that since the takeover, the airport’s shares have dropped by nearly 50% (to their lowest point in the last 3 years). What’s going on behind the scenes? With all this investment the airport’s value should be skyrocketing!

Heathrow Express is a shocking €25 return. Even if 2m passengers use the link @ €5 a trip it will pay for itself and then some.

according to maps, Athens is still in Balkans. but i may be miskaten :)