The multi million euro expansion of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is advancing as more and more airlines begin restoring operations to the Serbian capital. Currently, construction work is taking place both inside the terminal building and outside where a new departure pier, inserted runway, as well as a control tower are under construction. Inside the existing terminal, work is taking place on the expansion of duty free and food and beverage facilities, which will include an 882 square metre shopping area, a 372 square metre bar-restaurant, as well as more shops and brands. Construction is also taking place inside the airport-operated business class lounge, while two new bus gates are also under development.
 |
| C pier expansion development |
 |
| Terminal 2 duty free development |
Airport operator VINCI has partnered with Amadeus to modernise its IT systems, which will allow it to offer a more personalised passenger experiences, improve current processes, and aid new services. The companies have entered a seven-year partnership, under which Amadeus technology will be deployed at the airport to aid in higher automation and modernisation. The company stated that passenger services will be personalised according to their profile or airline policy. This also allows for the maximisation of last-minute revenue opportunities. Amadeus will deploy its Altea Departure Control for Ground Handlers solution, which is expected to improve check-in and flight management operations. Along with providing a personalised travel experience, this technology is expected to restore passenger’s confidence in travel amid the coronavirus Covid-19 health crisis. The technology will offer a single system approach, making its start-up simpler for ground handling agents compared to the implementation of multiple airline systems. In addition, resources will be used to focus on serving passengers. The flight management capability can centralise load control, which leads to increased efficiency and ensures that baggage is loaded in a way that balances the aircraft weight.
 |
| Terminal 1 bus gates development |
 |
| Terminal 2 expansion |
Belgrade Airport’s Chief Commercial Officer, Žarko Suvačarov, said, “Our goal is to make Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport the future hub in Southeast Europe. With a mix of full-service and low cost carriers, we know we need to provide a choice for a range of customers and support the services they want. We aim to significantly improve the level of service, comfort and variety of commercial offer at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport”. A number of carriers have resumed operations to the airport since it reopened in mid-May, including Aegean Airlines, Aeroflot, Austrian Airlines, Belavia, easyJet, Flydubai, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Pegasus Airlines, Qatar Airways, Swiss, Lufthansa, TAROM, Transavia, Turkish Airlines, Air Serbia and Wizz Air. They will be followed by Air France, LOT Polish Airlines, Etihad Airways and Air Cairo next week, while Alitalia has announced its return in September.
Good to see the development is advancing.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the new duty free area will look like. That's quite a large area.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is the entire area after passport control up to the gates becomes a duty free area so you enter duty free straight away. That's what they do at most airport around the world.
DeleteIt's a shame they don't produce some render so we can see what it will look like.
DeleteNice to see SU A333 yesterday at BEG. Hope it becomes a regular soon .
ReplyDeleteThey will resume double daily flights from AUG 1.
DeleteSeems like they are in it to win it. Let's see what JU does with Russia and Moscow in particular.
DeleteRed Wings also plans four weekly flights. I don't see JU resuming SVO until the pandemic is over.
DeleteJU already said they will resume flights to Russia in August and Russia has announced it plans to resume international air travel this month. Why wouldn't they resume SVO then?
DeleteJU could be refering to KRR which is the airport code for Krasnodar, a city in the south west of the country they fly to. Moscow has too much competition at the moment.
DeleteI doubt they will give up on Moscow that easily.
DeleteCan't they send the Atr to Moscow like they do to Kyiv and Athens?
DeleteToo far away
DeleteOf course it's too far and impossible for scheduled passenger flight. But theoretically, it could be done. Croatia Airlines, while still had ATR's in fleet, operated once sport charter Zagreb - Amsterdam - Aberdeen - Faroe Islands,with ATR42. And Trade Air operated passenger flights Beirut - Zurich, or Split-Bergen, both well over 4 hours, on Fokker 100. Few days ago Helvetic had longest Embraer 190 flight, without passengers, delivering aircraft, from Natal, Brasil, to Zurich, 9 hours
DeleteOf course, the plane can make it but they would be destroyed by SU and WZ which would offer a much superior onboard experience.
DeleteI heard a rumor that KRR won't be back until next summer.
DeleteFrom what I noticed they will eventually expand the terminal over current departures entry area into the terminal. Belgrade will really look grand and passenger numbers will boom soon, no doubt about that.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to see destinations like KIV, HEL, AMM, CAI, BEY, ,FLR, GVA, ROV etc cancelled by Air Serbia.
DeleteHope they will be back.
Corona situation needs to be controlled first.
DeleteGood to read something positive in these troubled times.
ReplyDeleteYes! Nice to see this activity. This dark period will pass and soon airports will be busy again.
DeleteWell done
ReplyDeleteI think real recovery will beging once MNE flights resume in September and once Turkish tourists start coming back.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI doubt MNE flights will be resumed this year. The fact that YM owes millions to BEG and SMATSA (92% owned by Serbia) coupled with the political situation makes flight resumption highly unlikely.
DeleteWe need ORD and PVG flights ASAP
ReplyDeleteNo we don't.
DeleteChina and the US are right now Covid-19 hotspots.
China isn't anymore, please update yourself.
DeleteStill, no way somebody would launch new long haul flights when still nobody knows what will happen with this pandemic. On the other way, there is less demand in air travel so airlines wont be so confidient in lauching new long haul flights.
DeleteWhat about A6 to A10? When is that area going to be renovated?
ReplyDeleteMaybe right now if they closed T1?
DeleteT1 is closed. Not the gate area though.
DeleteProjekat napreduje. U iducih sto dana produzenje terminala Dva sa grubim gradjevinskim radovima ce privesti kraju.
ReplyDeleteZa tri nedlje, jedva cekam sleteti i pogledati dostupne objekte u izgradnji. Do sada nisam procitao da li je projektom predvidjen cevovod za punjenje aviona kerosinom na gejtovima?. Ili ce i dalje cisterne opsluzivati.
Red je da ovakvi projekti osvetle svakodnevicu zivota. Preovladaju vesti korone, crne hroike i zavera...
Zivot nema alternativu. To pokazuje izgradnja Beogradskog Aerodroma. Sjajno. Mnogo srece i nade da ce te nastaviti
pregldi sa aerodromimskog projekta.
✈♥️🛫🌐✈♥️🛫🇷🇸🛫😀✈
Poštovanje,
Deletekako putujete do Beograda, pretpostavljam Qatar?
Putujem sa Etihad Airways SYD 🛫 AUH 🛫 BEG 🛫
DeleteVama, i Aerodromu dosta truda, mir i zadovoljstvo.
Iz zimskog Sidneja, Rod.
😀🛫♥️✈🇭🇲🛫🌐✈
Srecan vam put i, naravno, menjajte maske tokom puta!
DeleteHvala Vam za moj osamdeset peti let iz Austrlije u Srbiju. Ali prvi let sa maskom na ustima. Vise maski and manje grobova. Jednacina je jednostavna i proporcionalna. Budite naprdeni, zdravi i radosni.
DeleteSa time se pobedjuje korona, zli ljudi i pateticnost.
Podize vera, trud, i izgradnja Medjunarodnog Aerodroma Beograd!
Od Radovana toliko do sletanja.
Svako dobro. ✈♥️🛫
It's fantastic to see this sort of development which will completed very quickly.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to a nice and modern look.
DeleteAre the C5 and C6 out of action currently because of the expansion?
ReplyDeleteThey are still in use. Right at this moment C6 is being used by Air Serbia to Sofia and C5 by Swiss to Zurich.
DeleteWhen they start working on connecting the new part of the terminal and the existing part, that's when part of the C gates will be closed. Until then, there is no need.
DeleteThe airport will really be unrecognizable
DeleteI don't think they'll need to close much of it because the two will be connected 'behind' the end of the C concourse. That's why they moved the road behind away from the building to make room.
DeleteLike yesterday, nice line up of planes and airlines in today's photo too :D
ReplyDeleteI think people will be back flying in no time. They are already getting used to living with corona so traveling will also be accepted under new circumstances. I mean, charter flights have already resumed from BEG.
ReplyDeleteHope so but when the virus is over the question is will people will have money to fly.
Deletewhat works are going on on the right of the private jet apron
ReplyDeleteI think they are extending the apron.
DeleteBravo Vinci
ReplyDeleteGood to see construction is ongoing.
ReplyDeleteThe C hall will become quite long. Hope they put in a moving walkway.
ReplyDeleteSomeone asked about this before. I think it is difficult to put it in because the area is not wide at all. Remember that one side you have to have the gates and on the other there will probably be some commercial space for shops and restaurants.
DeleteOh come on, it's not THAT long.
DeleteIt seems that the under construction C Hall is not lined up with the existing C Hall. Is it just me, or is it still early in the construction period?
DeleteIn the last few months they have also resurfaced some parking positions at the air bridges.
ReplyDeleteNice. I hope we some some more airlines add flights.
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath until corona passes as not much will change before then.
DeleteTime to bring some decent F&B choices please!
ReplyDeleteI have found some really interesting background information in the Jakarta Post about the Garuda Indonesia flight of last week :
ReplyDeletetype in " Diplomacy pays off - Editorial - The Jakarta Post "
So flight was about catching criminals and sending back them to Indonesia. So it seems that it wasnt just wasting Indonesian taxpayers money.
DeleteSerbia makes Indonesia very happy, that woman lived 17 years in the Netherlands .
DeleteThe Dutch government obviously did not care at all .
How things have changed. Quotes from this site on following dates:
ReplyDeleteMarch 22, 2018: VINCI Airports will aim at improving airport operating conditions to enable Air Serbia to offer new long haul routes
February 18, 2019: We are already working on bringing new airlines to Belgrade ... We need some more time to work on flights lasting for over seven hours.
Today: No mention of long haul/over 7 hour services, not for 2021 or after.
Is Corona the only reason? No. Even with Corona, you get yet another service to already existing services to MXP, BCN, OSL...
Do you understand what is happening in aviation right now? Now there is less demand, less money, orders are getting canceled, legacy airlines are not going in expansion... And you now think that somebody will launch new long haul flights to BEG? Are you real or what? You get another services thanks to Wizz Airs european expansion because Wizz sees this as great moment to beat other airlines. And why are you thinking about long haul in poor and small market like Serbia. Let them try to improve connectivity with airlines like BA, Iberia, Finnair etc. and you will have more passangers even without long haul.
DeleteDear concerned neigbour, pre-covid BEG already had connectivity to LHR, MAD, BCN and HEL. Those prestige airlines could help connectivity at your local airport but not much at BEG.
DeleteYou mentioned there is less demand now, and Wizz is expanding not because of more demand, but to beat other airlines. Exactly the same can be said for long haul at BEG: introduce more long haul services not because there is more demand right now, but to beat other airlines before they start long haul to Belgrade in 2022, 2023 and beyond.
You are also wrong about BEG being a small market, it is far bigger than any other airport in Ex-Yu including your hometown airport. You are also wrong about market being poor. Most of the long haul traffic would be incoming and you can't call them poor.
Its really interesting how you already know that someone is neighbour when is mentioning some airlines who are missing in BEG but are really important for connectivity to the world. BEG is connected to major hubs of these airlines but with Air Serbia which in this case is not offering any codeshare with these airlines via these hubs. Finnair is really important for connecting Europe with Asia and it offers one of the best route networks to China, Japan and Korea. In all these countries it is offering the largest number of routes in comparasion to any other european airline, even LH, AF, BA etc. Iberia is offering the best Latin American route network than any other european airline and it is really important having Iberia in your hometown airport because of great connectivity across Americas and Iberian penninsula. British Airways is the second largest european legacy airline and it offers large network around the world, especialy USA. Air Serbia is flying to LHR and MAD but without codeshare with domestic airlines. It has codeshare with Finnair i think, but it only flies 3 per week to HEL and the best way to provide better connectivity to China is adding more flights by JU or just Finnair launching new route to BEG. I really do not understand about witch airline are you thinking about launching flights to China because no chinese airline will do it know and JU has no money for it. When I said that it is a poor market that means that it is not comparable to bigger EU countries who can simply sustain more long haul flights. BEG is the largest airport in the region but it is also literally the only one in the most populus country in the region so having 6.5 million passangers and 7.1 million population with the largest diaspora in exyu is not something that is superior in comparasion to neighbouring countries like Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro. The last think i need to say to you that if you say how it would be nice to see more airlines in Belgrade who can offer significant connectivity it doesnt mean that youre a hater or "neighbour" but actually opposite, that you respect growth of BEG and just wants to see more passangers, more tourist, more money and better connectivity for Belgrade.
DeleteSo easy to recognize identical arguments used here and writings on some other sites. Only one person in the world insists on them.
DeleteHe is just not giving up. Seems to bother him how quick BEG operation is recovering.
DeleteHe still believes BEG is the only airport in Serbia.
DeleteOr want to believe so.
"Seems to bother him how quick BEG operation is recovering." Where did you read this? Where i wrote that?
Delete"So easy to recognize identical arguments used here and writings on some other sites. Only one person in the world insists on them." I read couple of more aviation blogs (Avioradar, TangoSix.rs, OneMileAtATime, Croatian Aviation, etc.) but im only writing comments here.
"He still believes BEG is the only airport in Serbia." I said literally the only one because other is only LCCs airport used only by diaspora and gasterbaiters, with no legacy carriers.
Exept this, do you have any other arguments against things that I wrote or you simply think that im a hater if i have different oppinios than yours? I know you have a lot of fanboys here but really Im not one of these guys who think that their home coutry aviation is the best in everything no matter facts or numbers.
You just try to find the excuses of your words stating false facts.
DeleteDo not forget that Air Serbia also flies to INI and KVO and. Last time I checked JU was very much legacy carrier.
And you intentionally forget that until last year Swiss flew to INI.
You do not understand my point abd meaning of the word literally. BEG has 6.1 million passangers and INI had only about 350.000. Difference is extremly big what means that passanger numbers in Serbia are centralized on Belgrade while other airports numbers are really insignificant, same as in Czech Republic, Moldova, Belarus, Hungary, Austria... Is Air Serbia is flying to INI? Yes. Is Air Serbia a legacy carrier? Yes. Was Swiss flying to INI last year? Yes. Nobody is disputing these statments/facts, just you forget that Air Serbias network out of INI is literally LCC made. It flies mostly to some LCC/smaller airports without codeshare with other airlines, like to Frankfurt where it doesnt fly to major legacy airport FRA but is flying to LCC airport. So difference between JU and LCCs are routes out of INI are insignificant (no codeshare, no flying to bigger hubs, cheap prices, no possible connectivity via larger hubs etc.).
DeleteI think that you really need to check the meaning of word "literally". Especially in the situation when one airport has more than 5% traffic of the other airport.
DeleteIf we were talking about promiles than your statement would be closer to reality, but in this case it is surely not.
So we concluded here that BEG is not the only airport in Serbia, that having most of the traffic in one hub is normal for landlocked countries of size of Serbia, that JU is legacy carrier flying to INI and KVO and that other legacy carriers except JU flew to the other airport than BEG.
Last time I checked FCO is not secondary airport and JU flies there from INI. For other airports it was estimated that JU could make better results flying to HHN than to FRA as it would mean lower airport costs and better price for people flying from one of the poorest regions in Serbia. And I really do not see what is wrong with that? After all JU has one of the best LF from INI to HHN.
Your statement about Serbian diaspora being bigger than Romanian or Croatian is very, very wrong especially after these countries joined EU. If the basic facts from your analyse are wrong it is understandable that final conclusions can't be correct.
Yes im wrong. Air Serbia flies from INI to FCO wich is one of the largest european hubs but im not sure are they offering any codeshare and connections with Alitalia. I never said that Serbian diaspora is bigger than Romanian one, i said that is the largest one in the exyu region. Second largest airport in Serbia has more than 5% of no. 1. airport, it has even more than 6%. Still i dont think that i am wrong here in my statement that serbian aviation is still extremly centralized on Belgrade. In comparasion, 2nd largest airport in Croatia has 90% of the largest one airport, in Turkey it is about 50%, in Greece about 35%, in Montenegro about 90%, in Bosnia more than 50%, Bulgaria also about 50%... You also forget that Serbia is one of the rare European coutries where you have more population than air passangers so this is very important thing when you are talking about BEG and comparing its numbers to other airports in the region. And i still did not got most of the answers...
DeleteThe GoD gave the airport up for concession in the last minute. Had it happened a bit later, the price would be much much lower.
ReplyDeleteI do not think you are telling trutha airport could really be on its profit for long, airport could build all this by its own money but not at the same time, i think that price would grow by time because by number of pass it was growing without Vinci, so it has both good and bad sides
DeleteGoD?
DeleteOr it might be just a plain typo - S and D are next to which other
DeleteThere is no doubt GoS were super lucky with basically scamming out over half a billion euros from Vinci. The timing was just right.
DeleteThere's nothing "scammy" about a voluntary transaction. Great move on behalf of GoS at the right time.
DeleteYeah, but old employees who got fired, around 180 of them are still not back on the job.
ReplyDelete