The World Economic Forum has published its acclaimed biannual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, in which it measures and ranks the competitiveness of 140 economies, comprising of fourteen pillars, one of which is air transport. In its 2019 report, Croatia was named as having the highest quality airport infrastructure in the former Yugoslavia. Within the last two years, new airport terminals have been opened in Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Split. The country also improved the most when compared to two years ago. As a result, Croatia surpassed Macedonia which has topped the list since 2015. All countries, with exception to Macedonia and Slovenia, managed to improve their ranking on two years ago. Kosovo was not included in the report.
Croatia ranked 44th in the world for its airport infrastructure, with an average score of 3.6 (with one being the lowest and seven the highest). It was followed by Montenegro, which took 60th place, Serbia 76th, Slovenia 81st and Macedonia 89th. Bosnia and Herzegovina fell behind in the rankings, taking up 110th position and an average score of 2.0. While the World Economic Forum did not give a detailed individual report for each country and their ranking, in the case of Serbia it noted, “Ticket prices and airport taxes have been reduced, adding to the country’s overall improvement when it comes to price competitiveness. In line with this improved openness and lower costs, the nation’s air transport infrastructure also improved as more airlines started operating in the country and perceptions of airport infrastructure quality became more positive”.
| Global rank | Country | Score | Rank change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | Croatia | 3.6 | ▲ 34 |
| 60 | Montenegro | 3.2 | ▲ 21 |
| 76 | Serbia | 2.6 | ▲ 16 |
| 79 | Slovenia | 2.6 | ▼ 9 |
| 89 | Macedonia | 2.4 | ▼ 38 |
| 110 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2.0 | ▲ 21 |
The World Economic Forum takes note of several key areas when compiling its reports for airport infrastructure quality. These include: quality of air transport infrastructure, available seat kilometres on domestic flights, available seat kilometres on international flights, number of aircraft departures per 1.000 population, number of airports with at least one scheduled flight per million of urban population and number of operating airlines. Two-thirds of the data in the report are provided by international organisations, with the remaining third based on surveys carried out among over 15.000 business executives and business leaders annually in all the economies included in the assessment. The survey represents a unique source of insight into critical aspects of travel and tourism competitiveness. Data for this year's report was compiled over 2017 and 2018.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteIs there a link were we can see the full list of countries?
ReplyDeletehttp://reports.weforum.org/travel-and-tourism-competitiveness-report-2019/rankings/#series=TTCI.C.10
DeleteThank you Anon 09:21
DeleteCroatia is improving the countries infrastructure, first here were the roads, now it the airports, next seaports?
ReplyDeleteAnd then they gotta fix their airline ....
DeleteThe airline in question is so rotten it cannot be fixed anymore. The only solution is starting from the beginning with new airline and new people. But politicians will never let it happen because they will loose several hundred "uhljeb" positions for relatives, mistresses, party buddies, netjaks and so on
DeleteWhat's with new route announcements (in general for Ex-Yu) on the right side of this page? Only a few in 2020?!
DeleteEuropean economy is slowing down so there is less expansion going around. Coastal airports got a lot of new routes this summer so airlines will probably just boost those with new frequencies or bigger planes.
DeleteI noticed that even EK revised ZAG operations, 5x on 773 and 2x on B772.
DeleteLook at the Gaženica seaport in Zadar. Top 3 finalist for the best new port in the world together with ports from Japan and Norway..
DeleteWell deserved
ReplyDeleteI'm really shocked to learn how Montenegro is much more developed in that sense. BiH is last but jumped by 21 positions.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Serbia has more room for improvement...
Serbia will improve once BEG reconstruction and expansion is complete and once that shack in INI is modernized.
DeleteWasn't INI already refurbished? What about the fog system?
DeleteINI terminal needs a complete reconstruction and expansion. New tower is needed as well as lighting to allow night and low visibility operations.
DeleteMaybe also a new taxiway that is parallel to the runway.
DeleteWhen will Vinci start construction at Belgrade airport? Peak season is over, what are they waiting for?
DeleteThere is a rumour going around the airport that they still didn't get all the finances they need.
DeleteDo they need all of 730 million euros needed over the course of the concession to start? Who says they don't have enough to start and for initial phase?
DeleteYou have no clue what you are talking about. They have already started preparatory work. Cleared land, 3D scanning of existing terminals, built a construction sight. Read the news here.
DeleteOh so they are preparing for real work. Okay then, wake me up when real construction starts.
DeleteWhy the drop in Macedonia? SKP has a brand new airports that's state of the art and more impressive than some newer ones.
ReplyDeleteMaybe business executives who formed part of the ranking don't like having Wizz Air as their primary choice of travel.
DeleteActually the country performed poorly in many metrics in the Tourism report and regressed compared to previous years. Don’t know why.
DeleteIt would be really interesting to know because Macedonia has really been a success story in many ways, especially when we look at passenger growth over the past decade.
DeleteSKP
2008: 658,367
2018: 2,158,258
Zagreb , Split, Dubrovnik have new terminal. Zadar infrastructure miles ahead of what it used to be. Pula Airport plans to modernize as well, so should be fun times ahead
ReplyDeleteFun times ahead for everyone except for OSI. :/
DeleteIs there any project for the expansion of Zadar Airport?
DeleteYes
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/03/zadar-airport-unveils-70-million.html
^ Thanks! Missed that
DeleteI'm not s huge fan of such reports but it is the WEF which is quite reputable.
ReplyDeleteThis summer was impressive for Croatia, really good performance by the airport so the investment was more than justified.
ReplyDelete1. SPU 2.497.427
2. ZAG 2.276.373
3. DBV 2.099.022
4. PUY 604.191
5. ZAD 594.374
It's time to invest into ZAD as the airport is absolutely booming! It almost outperformed the whole of 2018!!!!
Yes, dear. Don't forget that 2020 will be even larger for Hrvatska.
DeleteNew SPU terminal, more prestigious flights to DBV, more UK tourists and most likely more flights to BWK.
SPU has no more space to grow in Sommer. Need new apron with more park position and taxi ways. Winter is still lower than Tuzla! And what are "prestigious" flights? Who will fligh to Brač 2020?
DeleteSPU needs to encourage airlines to send larger aircraft. Look at Air Serbia, I think this is the first summer they operated all flights with the A319. Last year there were some on the Atr. It's nice to see JU become more and more strong on the Adriatic coast with more and more flights added every year.
DeleteYes! Top Job JU, good development. But OU = nothing new
DeletePrestige is not a category used for this ranking. Amateur analysts think it matters but any professional will laugh at it.
DeleteCroatia keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteWell, coastal airports keep on winning, continental ones have not been as successful.
DeleteWell, you couldn't really say that their airline is a "winner", could you ??
DeleteSo sad: still no LCC in ZAG, Rijeka not worth takling about. But SPU and DBV really great! Pula and Zadar have to grow much stronger. In Ex-Yu Passenger numbers are very low by global standards
DeleteActually not. If you look behind the stats, the economy is not overperforming or another words; too much smoke for the fire it heats.
DeleteIs this the new, updated version of "Bravo (insert location or an airline)"?
DeleteYes, why not? Could be.
DeleteCongratulations Croatia.
ReplyDeleteHow did Montenegro make it second? I must ask.
ReplyDeleteIt tells you all the perimeters in the article. They must have scored high on airport density and ASK.
DeleteProbably has among the most flights per capita in Europe.
DeleteIn 2017 I said Croatia would be upfront in 2 yrs and I’m not surprised by the result.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to Macedonia :o
ReplyDeleteI think it should be taken into account that report was compiled in 2017 and 18 when there was a political crisis in Macedonia, daily protests etc. Business confidence probably wasn't very high.
DeleteMakes sense. Business executives which took part in the survey were probably more critical in certain countries than in others.
ReplyDeleteYes. The question is "How would you assess the quality of air transport infrastructure in your country?" The responses are very subjective.
DeleteThat's way too harsh for BiH...
ReplyDeleteNo it isn’t. Remember this report isn’t just about how nice the terminal looks. It is about actual connectivity and Bosnia probably has the worst in Europe.
DeleteAgree with last anon but hopefully things will improve with FlyBosnia.
DeleteAnyone been to Ohrid airport? Have the concessionaires reconstructed the airport?
ReplyDeleteNothing major
DeleteThey will expand soon.
DeleteThese reports are used as a reference for businesses, investors and so on. Even though they are, scientifically at least, worthless, they are not insignificant.
ReplyDelete+1
Deletewow SPU's new terminal looks stunning at night.
ReplyDeleteStunning
DeleteGood work Croatia
ReplyDeleteHas anyone been at the new Split terminal? What's it like?
ReplyDeleteIt's a spaceship compared to the old one and it looks very nice, but there's very little seating space considering the sheer space available. The old and new building are connected, so all gates are still in use.
DeleteI was flying from SPU to ZAG this summer. Self Check-In wasn't working. Check-In desk for all flight with no clear line. So it was like in a casino. If you have luck, you get a fast line for check-in.
DeleteAnything else was nice.
INI desperately needs investment, i flew into and out of there this weekend.
ReplyDeleteQueues horrendous to get through passport control on Friday afternoon, i think they were only dealing with only 2 aircraft movements as well!
No queue lanes so a free for all scrum.
Flight from Tivat 40mins and 35mins to get out the place:-(
Departure yesterday to Tivat, good fast Air Serbia check in, security reasonably quick and friendly.
Had to queue in a greenhouse for 15mins waiting to board the, plane, heat you wouldn't believe;-(
A little money would go a long way to improving things.
Loved the fact that it's a little airport and close to the city.
Nis was fantastic BTW, I'm from the UK and really can see the tourist potential in Nis, a perfect weekend destination if Ryanair et al start new flights.