Low cost carriers handled the bulk of Pristina Airport’s traffic in 2019 with Eurowings, easyJet and Wizz Air alone accounting for close to one million travellers. Eurowings, which based an aircraft in Pristina and launched a number of routes from the city in 2019, was unsurprisingly the busiest, handling 343.701 passengers, representing an increase of 109.6% on the year before. easyJet came in second, welcoming 268.694 travellers on board its aircraft, up 11.1% on 2018. It was followed by Edelweiss with 254.636 passengers, an improvement of 6%, and Wizz Air, which handled 253.282 travellers, up 153.3%. The busiest legacy carrier at Pristina Airport was Turkish Airlines with 179.351 passengers. The figure represents an improvement of just 0.1% on the year before. Overall, the Turkish carrier was the sixth busiest at the airport.
Busiest airlines at Pristina Airport in 2019
| Airline | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Eurowings | 343.701 | ▲ 109.6 |
| easyJet | 268.674 | ▲ 11.1 |
| Edelweiss | 254.636 | ▲ 6.0 |
| Wizz Air | 253.282 | ▲ 153.3 |
| Orange2Fly | 232.669 | ▲ 16.2 |
| Turkish Airlines | 179.351 | ▲ 0.1 |
| Chair Airlines | 169.013 | ▲ 30.0 |
| Pegasus Airlines | 129.744 | ▲ 8.1 |
During 2019, two carriers with bases in Pristina went bankrupt - Adria Airways and Germania - which had an impact on the overall order of power among airlines operating at the airport. Adria accounted for 128.422 of all passengers during its almost ten-month run in 2019, while Germania, which ceased operations in early February, welcomed 24.789 travellers. In 2018, the German carrier was Pristina’s busiest with 321.499 passengers, while Adria was seventh busiest with 157.931 travellers. On the other hand, most other airlines saw their figures improve in Pristina, among which were Pegasus Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Austrian, Swiss International Air Lines and SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
Switzerland continued to maintain its position as the busiest market out of Pristina, with 33% of all passengers either departing or arriving from the country. It was closely followed by Germany with a 32% share, then Turkey (15%), Austria (5%), United Kingdom (3%), Slovenia (2%) and Norway (1%). New York remains the busiest unserved route from Kosovo with over 15.000 passengers transferring through other points to reach JFK Airport (10.000) or Newark (3.000). Other most common cities reached by transferring through different airports were Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London Heathrow, Chicago, Helsinki, Brussels, Toronto, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Antalya, Washington, Ankara and Munich. As previously reported, Pristina Airport handled a record 2.373.698 passengers in 2019, representing an increase of 9.6%. Aircraft movements stood at 9.113, up 8.6%.
Pegasus seems to be hurting TK in PRN big time. TK is struggling at the moment and they have just announced a whole range of frequency cuts such as Napoli, Pisa, Bologna, Samara, Riga, Tallinn, Gothenburg...
ReplyDeleteWell TK was flooding those markets and many others with cheap seats in the hope that eventually passengers would be willing to pay more for connecting in IST.
DeleteObviously it didn't happen and now cuts need to be made.
Plus the Turkish state has serious financial problems and it has to reduce subsidies to TK and others.
Not only that but the new airport is extremely expensive to operate out of and many service like catering or cargo are still at the old airport and need to be moved every day. They rushed with the move and now they are paying for it. TK is lucky they have limited competition from ex-YU markets. Maybe OU could try their luck in IST, few weekly with the Q400 could work.
DeleteTK has problems with the MAX
DeleteTK has issues with overcapacity, the fact they ended bringing back the A319 proves it.
DeletePegasus has been growing by double digit rates every year. TK in the last couple of years is really hurting. That was before the move to the new airport.
DeletePegasus on the other hand is using SAW which is far closer to the city AND only flies narrowbodies.
TK is hurt? LOL
DeleteBiggest flag carrier in Europe in 2019 in terms of passenger numbers. And Lufthansa is second.
TK is impacted by the troubles of its home country and last year it didn't grow.
DeleteAlso the other Turkish carriers didn't grow.
Meanwhile RU carriers grew.
And so did former Soviet state airlines and of course JU.
So the busiest airline in Pristina has just 14% of the market.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in Skopje….
Delete...low cost heaven a la Sofija
DeleteJust that in Sofia you have a healthy mix of everything, LCC and legacies. No one really dominates.
DeleteThe most non-monopolised market in Ex-Yu.
Delete^ I think that title belongs to the Slovenian market at the moment after Adria's bankruptcy.
DeleteeasyJet’s result is by far the most impressive considering they achieve that figure with just 3 routes to PRN!
ReplyDeleteTrue but two out of those two are from Switzerland ;)
DeleteI have a feeling Wizz will open a base in Pristina sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteAirport is too expensive for them to open a base.
Deletea W6 base in PRN is a massive danger to SKP numbers and routes
DeleteNot necessarily. A bigger danger might be to let Eurowings expand. With a base in PRN Wizz could balance between the two bases, opening routes that would not harm the other while keeping away competition.
DeleteWell W6 already destroyed EW to VIE from PRN. Let's see how long OS lasts.
DeleteOS will survive due to transfers.
DeleteThese numbers show that there is enough demand for Wizz from both SKP and PRN.
DeleteIn the end Wizz will chase away all the smaller airlines and increase its ticket prices. That's their strategy.
DeleteDoes Wizz get subsidies to fly from Pristina like in Skopje?
DeleteNo
Deleteof course they do. incentives. you can see on theor airport page
DeleteIt can't even compare to the subsidies in SKP.
DeleteOS will have transfers but that still doesn't mean they might not reduce flights or capacity to match demand.
Deleteoh yes they compare. have a read. and compare. what Wizz is getting per pax in SKP they are getting it for fees in PRN
DeleteNot true. In Skopje Wizz gets government subsidies and airport incentives. In PRN only airport incentives like all other airlines. In Macedonia only Wizz gets government subsidies.
DeletePotato potahto.
DeletePRN charges are set by the government. I see fangirls trying to whitewash the fact PRN is following SKP practices after complaining so much for so long.
They are two completely different things but you can't seem to comprehend
DeleteWizz Air in Skopje - Gets annual subsidies from the government plus airport incentives.
Wizz Air in Pirstina - Gets airport incentives.
It's not that easy but if you read a through time maybe you understand.
It's you who doesn't understand. You're just repeating what you wrote and are not addressing the crux of the matter. Here's a nugget from someone who's actually involved -
DeletePRN ended up copying SKP's incentive scheme after years of complaining, down to each individual pax threshold.
How you call the support is just a matter of putting lipstick on a pig. Potato potahto. Look these up, you might get what I'm saying.
At the end of the day Wizz Air gets two types of support in Macedonia and one of them is only applicable to Wizz Air and no other airline. In pristina they get one type of support which is available to any other airline.
DeleteNo wonder BA is opening Pristina is Heathrow is one of the busiest unserved routes. But I wonder why they chose to just do a few one weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteSlot constraints and its questionable how the yields would perform.
DeleteAdria would have had a better year in Pristina had it survived even with all the trouble it had.
ReplyDeleteActually, they maintained flights from Pristina till the very end. Even when the service suspensions started they used wet leased planes from Germany to fly the Pristina routes.
DeleteA healthy mix of airlines.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the most impressive thing is that PRN lost its busiest airline (Germania) and its longest serving airline (Adria Airways 1999-2019) and yet it recorded a nearly 10% growth.
This is true. They did well to navigate the collapse of Germania and Adria and come out strongeer. Good on them.
DeleteWhat happened to Turkish? Barely any growth.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Pegasus proved to be more popular since the market is price sensitive.
DeleteBut Pegasus has been there for years
DeleteTurkish Airlines tickets got more expensive. Price conscious customers booked with other airlines.
Delete737 MAX issues.
DeleteThey can't fly 24 aircrafts. That's a huge number.
The new IST is far more expensive than the old.
DeleteAnd Pegasus flies from SAW which is cheaper.
Time for Pristina-New York flights.
ReplyDeleteFor 15 000 passengers? If it gets to 50 000, maybe.
DeleteAre there summer charters from Pristina to Turkish coastal destinations? I'm surprised Antalya is on the list of points people transfer to the most.
ReplyDeleteyes Antalya
DeleteI don't get why Edelweiss flies from Zurich to Pristina and not Swiss...
ReplyDeleteEdelweiss cost base is cheaper than Swiss's.
DeleteEdelweiss crew and service are better, its a codeshare flight with LX. Sometimes WK sends A330 or A340 when they have spare.
DeleteProbably always depends. I was pretty disappointed of the Edelweiss flight I made. Some crew members were flirting with passengers instead of working and to get another drink or somethig else had to wait ages for a cabin member. But maybe I had just bad luck with the flight and crew.
DeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeleteWe need Transavia for AMS to PRN
ReplyDeleteTransavia would be fantastic, however, I think Wizz will soon launch PRN - Eindhoven instead.
DeleteThey won't because EIN is maxed out.
Deleteafter March there will be no more connections possible via FRA and MUC because Eurowings have moved those flights to charters.
ReplyDeleteWizz air growth is insane. At this pace it will reach 500.000 pax within 2020.
ReplyDeleteDirect flight to JFK area must.
If you add D.C., Chicago, and Toronto as top unserved destinations from PRN, you get over 27.500 Pax.
BEG operates their bi weekly JFK flight with only 30.000 Pax.
Prishtina reaches that number without any transfer passengers at all!
Air Serbia had 79.657 on New York route in 2018. So your post is false.
DeleteMy bad. 30k indeed refers to H1 alone!
DeleteI agree that Pristina-New York has potential (at least seasonal). Huge Kosovo diaspora in US.
DeleteGet serious people. ZAG has over 200.000 passengers with different US destinations yearly, and it has a kind of flag carrier, and bigger US expat community, and tourism, and still no single US flight, and you expect PRN to get it with 27.000. I mean I am happy for BEG and DBV to have US flights, I would be happy for PRN, or any other ex-yu airport as well, but somehow if any airport in ex-yu has potential for US flights, it is ZAG, not PRN.
DeleteI think SKP has more potential than ZAG simply because the market is more stable, the situation in ZAG is a bit chaotic, one day one airlines cancels flights then the next day another launches.
DeleteOne weekly flight per year at 250 seats gives 14.000 seats one way per year. So 15.000 pax yearly (which means 7.500 pax each way yearly) to JFK+EWR are unable to fill half of that one weekly flight. And we are talking about pax that are very price sensitive and will go for an indirect flight, if the price for direct will be a bit higher than for an direct flight (which is always the case). This is about potential for PRN-JFK/EWR.
ReplyDeleteAs to BEG-JFK comparison, 79.657 is all pax, also transfers, not only pax direct BEG-JFK-BEG (O&D). Probably some 30-40% of this are direct pax BEG-JFK-BEG (24.000-32.000).
There are ca. 27.500 unserved Pax to North America (NYC + NJ, IL, Toronto) from Pristina alone!
DeleteA direct flight would incline people to fly more often. It would also attract passengers from Skopje too.