Budget airline Ryanair has become the third largest in terms of offered capacity in Montenegro behind only the national carrier and Air Serbia. The low cost airline has overtaken Turkish Airlines and plans to handle over 175.000 passengers on its flights to and from Podgorica this year, up from 150.000 in 2018. This summer, Ryanair added a further two routes to the Montenegrin capital, for a total of seven, with Barcelona becoming its latest addition last month. The carrier offers the most capacity out of Montenegro among low cost carriers. Furthermore, Ryanair's subsidiary, Lauda, commenced services between Stuttgart and Podgorica earlier this summer season.
Ryanair launched operations to the Montenegrin capital in the summer of 2013 following two years of negotiations with the government. In February it handled its 500.000th passenger in Montenegro since it commenced flights to Podgorica. It has expanded its network from the city each year ever since. "The interest for flights to Barcelona was huge. We always tend to meet the needs of our customers and we have been pushing for the introduction of this route", the head of operator Airports of Montenegro, Danilo Orlandić, said. He added, "After a year of negotiations with several companies, we secured cooperation with Ryanair and we kept our promise".
Good on them. Hopefully more new routes to come.
ReplyDeleteThey should consider Malta, especially since they are setting up an airline there
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/07/montenegro-seeks-malta-flights.html
Is there really that much demand between Montenegro and Malta??
DeleteThey should start GOT-TGD. They will have lots of passengers.
DeleteAgree, considering the large number of people from that country residing in western Sweden.
Delete79,000 PAX. Not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteIt says 175,000!
DeleteIt says they handled 79,000 passengers so far this year and that they plan to handle 175,000 passengers by the end of the year.
DeleteYou are right sorry my bad
DeleteIn a year or two they might even surpass JU and become second largest.
ReplyDeleteIt will probably take a bit longer than that.
DeleteDon't see it happening anytime soon since JU can offer multiple daily flights the whole year. FR can't.
DeleteIf they handle 175,000 pax like they plan in 2019, they will be very close to overtaking JU in Podgorica.
DeleteWell one would expect that considering they fly 7 routes from Podgorica and Air Serbia just 1.
DeleteThey might even overcome Montenegro if they are allowed to open a summer season base in Tivat.
DeleteIs there any chance they will open a base in TGD?
ReplyDeleteNo way. Not until Montenegro Airlines is privatised.
DeleteEven then it is questionable as I doubt someone will buy a 100% share in YM. It will probably stay partially state owned.
DeleteThe failure to sell MGX is the reason the airport still haven't been put up for concession.
DeletePartially and partially because of politics and which party controls the airport and which party is pushing for the concession.
DeleteWe never expoected FR would launch flights to Podgorica in the first place so you never know.
Deletethat should say expected, sorry
DeleteGood News for TGD! They will most probable connect France.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the map, I'm quite surprised that neither FR nor U2 succeeded in Romania. Blue air and W6 seem to be quite strong...
Not only that but FR totally failed in TSR some months ago. Wizz and BEG killed them.
DeleteThey also pulled out of OMR and in Transylvania and CND. W6 is slowly shrinking in CRA.
DeleteIt seems Romanian market has reached its limits...
Wow I didn't know about that. I just checked some airports you mentioned and CRA has only W6 left and they are cutting TLV.
DeleteOMR seems like a disaster and is only served by RO. Seems like smaller Romanian airports really struggle big time.
Yes, which is quite strange. CLJ hasn't received any recent expantions neither. Blue air, similar to W6 are expanding outside of Romania. It's time for their government to start giving them to concessionaires just like Greece and Bulgaria did.
DeleteAnon 10.25
DeleteIndeed, I guess with European economy getting slower people are not travelling as much. Also there is a limited number of gasto passengers and routes these Romanian airports can handle.
What's the issue with gasto routes? Gastos fill up the budgets in many ex-Yu countries, Montenegro included. LCCs have made the diaspora much more dynamic.
DeleteAgree with last anon. This region has an extremely large diaspora around the world therefore the diaspora needs cheap tickets to come back and visit there family etc. They cannot be burdened by idiotic ex yu airlines.
DeleteNothing wrong with them it's just that at some point you hit a ceiling. That seems to be happening with Wizz in Romania but also in some ex-YU markets like Tuzla, INI and maybe even SKP. Before I get attacked for SKP I am referring to the delay of LCA and Turku flights.Seems like it's getting difficult for them to find new markets.
DeleteRyanair are entering Lebanon in October. Could Lebanon be the next new LCC destination?
DeleteAny idea what's their best performing route?
ReplyDeleteBerlin most likely.
DeleteLike someone wrote, they will be increasing Berlin for the New Year holidays, which is an indication that the route is performing well.
DeleteWho would have thought just a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteBad news for YM.
ReplyDeleteWell they chased them off the London route.
Deleteeasyjet contributed to that too from Tivat.
DeleteIt is also bad news for JU.
DeleteIt's bad news for all full fare carriers.
DeleteAnybody has idea how Podgorica-Bologna is working out for them on a yearly basis?
DeleteAnd all their routes except the Polish one are year round which is great!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that Barcelona is performing well. Seems Spain is doing really good from all ex-Yu markets.
ReplyDeleteYes good performance from Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. Now Montenegro. Hopefully Slovenia will join soon.
DeleteInteresting the way Ryanair and Wizz Air focues on Podgorica, while easyjet went for Tivat.
ReplyDelete**focus
DeleteRyanair is smarter in Montenegro and not focusing just on gasto routes, unlike Wizz (with exception to the seasonal Polish lines).
DeleteEasyJets presence in Tivat is very limited. Just London, Manchester and Geneva and all routes are seasonal.
DeleteIn the first three year agreement between the government and FR, FR was supposed to launch flights from 4 cities to Tivat in their second year. That never happened.
DeleteEasyjet is present in Tivat because they get big subsidies. PortoMNE is biggest source of that money,but not the only one. They get about 2 million per year.
DeleteThat is crazy.
DeleteTIV works on maximum capacity,with full-fare(ground handling) airlines,so I don't see the need for LCC,especially during summer.If they want to fly, give'm all free (symbolic price), but in winter season.If they want 4 days/1rotation per day, in summer, they must fly min 80% same 4/1 schedule in winter.
Yes but Porto Montenegro is privately operated. If they want to pay airlines to fly to TIV, like they do for FlyDubai as well, it's there decision and comes out of their pockets, not the publics.
Delete@anon 12:57
DeleteCan you provide us source/news for 2 mil subsidy (mostly from Porto Montenegro)?
Ryanair is building a nice little network in Podgorica
ReplyDeletePodgorica is really doing great for FR. Well done!
DeleteWhat I find interesting is that FR will be adding extra flights during the Xmas / NY period from both STN & SFX to TGD. This indicates that both routes are performing very well.
ReplyDeleteAnother successful route would be Frankfurt, but not sure if they will let them launch it because of Montenegro Airlines.
ReplyDeleteNo one can stop them. Montenegro and EU have a free sky agreement.
DeleteIt's unfortunate they can't fly to non-EU ciies from TGD.
DeleteGreat news :)
ReplyDeleteThis is good news for all passengers traveling to Montenegro. It's always nice to be able to choose -- the more competition, the better for the consumer.
ReplyDelete