Slovenia is the most affected market in the former Yugoslavia by the coronavirus pandemic based on passenger volumes while Kosovo has seen the smallest decline in traffic during the first three quarters of the year. Based on data provided by Airports Council International (ACI), the Slovenian market saw its figures tumble 81.5%. It is followed closely by Montenegro with a 80.5% decline, Croatia with 79.2% and Bosnia and Herzegovina with a 78.3% reduction in passenger numbers. Fairing somewhat better were Serbia with a 68.7% decline in figures, followed by Macedonia with a 68.5% reduction and the Kosovan market, which saw its traveller numbers decrease 60.6%.
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport continues to maintain its position as the busiest in the former Yugoslavia, followed by Zagreb and Pristina, while Podgorica has overtaken Ljubljana in terms of passenger numbers. Belgrade was the 91st busiest airport in Europe, behind the likes of Riga, Minsk and Malta but ahead of Larnaca, Gothneburg and Keflavik (Reykjavik). Zagreb was the 120th busiest on the continent, behind Luxembourg, Vilnius and Tirana but ahead of Cluj, Tallinn and Bodo in Norway. Pristina was close behind, ranking as the 125th busiest in Europe, ahead of Chisinau, Yerevan and Split. The Croatian coastal airport itself ranked 130th in Europe, Skopje 136th, Dubrovnik 164th, Podgorica 165th, Ljubljana 168th, Sarajevo 171st and Tivat 174th.
Q1 - Q3 passenger numbers
| Airport | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Belgrade | 1.485.693 | ▼ 68.7 |
| Zagreb | 785.021 | ▼ 70.1 |
| Pristina | 725.024 | ▼ 60.6 |
| Split | 631.774 | ▼ 78.9 |
| Skopje | 565.617 | ▼ 68.5 |
| Dubrovnik | 306.949 | ▼ 87.7 |
| Podgorica | 278.005 | ▼ 73.0 |
| Ljubljana | 267.780 | ▼ 81.5 |
| Sarajevo | 199.910 | ▼ 78.3 |
| Tivat | 172.493 | ▼ 86.0 |
The average rate of passenger decline at airports across Europe during the January – September period was 67%. Paris Charles de Gaulle was the continent’s busiest airport followed by London Heathrow, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Moscow Sheremtyevo and Barcelona. Together with Georgia, Slovenia is the most affected country market in Europe, while Russia and Norway have been least affected, primarily due to their large domestic networks. Domestic travel is expected to recover the quickest from the affects of the coronavirus pandemic. Albania also fared well, buoyed by the development of its tourism industry, lack of entry restrictions and the expansion of low cost carriers into the country.
Wow Slovenia seems the most affected in Europe
ReplyDeleteObviously countries that rely less on tourism are less affected than those relying heavily on tourism.
ReplyDeleteTrue, look at Dubrovnik and Tivat
DeleteOf course. Those with the highest proportion of Gastarbeiterand and VFR Traffic in the total numbers are less affected since those travel easier than those going on holidays.
DeleteBut lets give some credit where credit is due considering all of those airports have to deal with travel ban to EU.
DeleteI wonder if PRN surpassed ZAG in October
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that PRN will have more pax in Q4 than ZAG for the pure fact of gasterbaiter travel from Germany and Switzerland.
DeleteSo sad to see these numbers on all markets.
ReplyDelete:(
DeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteGood new for PRN!
ReplyDeleteReally wouldn't say any of this is good news for anyone.
DeleteConsidering the situation, most airports have held up quite well.
ReplyDeletewell this is a first! Podgorica in front of Ljubljana!!!
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought...
DeleteThe recent Wizz Air cuts will impact quite a few airports.
ReplyDeleteAnd they keep cutting and cutting on a daily basis.
DeleteIt's useless to compare this year with last year unfortunately :(
ReplyDeleteWe won't have to wait long till growth. In April 2021 everyone will be up compared to lockdown April 2020 :D
DeleteALL airports ALL over the world have been hit by steep passenger decline. And things won't be getting back to 2019 levels anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteSome more than others...
DeleteExactly.
DeleteJust wait until the business travel demand never comes back to 2019 levels. Airlines, relying on business travelers are in for a surprise.
It's really hard to predict how traffic will develop.
DeleteWith Corona infections and unemployment on the rise I expect deteriorating results coming our way.
DeleteIt depends from the situation with health crisis and how quick the economies will recover.
DeleteThe more problematic thing is that revenue and profits have declined heavily. While governments are helping out their airlines, many have forgotten their airports.
ReplyDeleteBut imagine where airports would be without those airlines.
DeleteThings will get better.
ReplyDeleteSKP is that bad at all things considering.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Wizz has drastically reduced its capacity in SKP. The A321s were shifted to Western Europe. Many destinations were postponed for March.
DeleteQR have also ditched SKP this winter. It will be harsh.
seems that not having a national carrier is not that bad after all.
DeleteThere is no need for a national carrier. What for? To waste millions in an endless mine. Better do it like Hungary. No Malév and many more carriers and less monopoly. Flag carriers are old-fashioned.
DeleteHopefully this goes through
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/11/macedonian-airports-eye-rapid-testing.html
@notorious 9.32 you obv missed that the orig poster wanted to say is NOT that bad at all things considering
Deleteanon 10:10 do you know that slovenia isnt hungary? Slovenia will probably never have good connections without national airline. And thats a fact and you cant change it. Plus that national airline would be cheaper to establish rather than not establishing it and losing money becouse of poor connections.
DeleteNeither does NMK nor SLO need national carriers but diversity. The passenger today does not really care if he is flying with a pink plane or with a national carrier. They just want the cheapest price and punto. If other countries want to spend billions to save crumbling airlines, this is their own choice. The taxpayer ends up being cannibalised as usual.
DeleteLong and difficult years ahead.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how Pristina is so close to Zagreb with 4 to 8 daily flights... These numbers are fake like the covid numbers on Kosovo...
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should have a look at what aircraft are being used to Pristina compared to Zagreb and it also may give you an indication on the load factors in Pristina compared to Zagreb. If you are frustrated by the result does not mean it's fake.
DeletePRN is mostly to Switzerland. Hard to get there by car these days. ZAG has quite a different pax structure and emitive markets like Germany and Austria that are easily reachable by car. So quite logic.
Deletei agree with the Covid numbers for Kosovo but Switzerland is a huge market form them and the gasto flights are probably full
DeleteKosovo’s population is young. Only 10% older than 65. That’s why Kosovo has these COVID numbers. Of course, these numbers may not be 100% accurate..
DeletePRN remained most open during the pandemic and demand has been increasing compared to other airports in the region. Despite the EU restrictions, the numbers are still very good.
ReplyDeleteNumbers in Albania seem to be lower as well.
They remained most opened? PRN airport was closed for the longest out of all the major airports in the region.
DeleteThis will be a very sad year for aviation in ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a very sad year for aviation for every country of the planet.
DeleteThis is the biggest crisis for the aviation industry ever.
DeleteNumbers are in line with global trends.
ReplyDeleteThey would be much worse if January, February, and for the most part March performed really well for most.
DeleteTIA looking like it’s going to beat ZAG again next year
ReplyDeleteI know, right? This little airport is achieving amazing results lately tbh. If Albania was an ex-Yu country then it would definitely come second. Tourism is literally booming not only in the capital, but the Adriatic coast as well.
DeleteIf this continues TIA is also going to beat BEG in a few years.
DeleteUnebeliavable.
DeleteThe capital of Albania to have more passengers than the capital of Croatia...
Especially on the Adriatic coast.
Delete@10.06 because of albanian gastos form Italy. same situation with PRN and Switzerland
DeleteRight, only TIA and PRN have gastos
DeleteLOOOL anon 10:57!
DeleteTIA is getting more and more touristic. Just go to YouTube and you will see hundreds of videos about Albania. TIA has a perfect mix of gasto and tourism. Plus, many poorer Italians visit Albania because it is still quite affordable to them.
Delete@10.57 of course not but not many airports have a 50% market share (2019) for one particular country as its the case with TIA and Italy and for some reason these market remained open which is bit bizzare as Italy has banned flights to the rest of the Balkans.
Deletethe situation with PRN and Switzerland is very similar. Once Switzerland ended the qarantine roules for Kosovo (i stil need to undertsand why?) PRN picked up
TIA is at only -59% because of flights to Italy being "open"
Deletetourism stats for AlB for Sept: 377,033 tourists of which 316,000 are form KS,MK and MNE
so theres not much non-regional foreign tourism going on (at the moment)
ZAG in general cannot do much when you have SPU and DBV around the corner. SPU is the size of TIA alone
This is tragic, more has to be done to reverse this negative trend.
ReplyDeleteWonder how many pax BEG would have had if there was no coronavirus in 2020, especially how well things started out.
ReplyDeleteFor sure with all the increases and the Wizz Air expansion it would have over 7 million. Without Wizz Air it would be somewhere around 6.8 million.
DeleteRemember that JU was supposed to introduce many new routes too.
Delete7 million for sure
DeleteFigures will be whole lot worse with OCT and NOV data.
ReplyDeleteEspecially November.
DeleteNot for all markets.
DeleteBEG is open throughout October/November.
It might be open but many markets from which BEG is served is more or less closed.
DeleteHow are smaller airports doing? Tuzla, Nis, Rijeka?
ReplyDeleteWill Tuzla end the year with more passengers than Sarajevo?
DeleteDoubtful with so many flights cut by Wizz.
DeleteWhat the hell happened in Georgia??
ReplyDeleteDidn't Wizz close a base there?
DeleteGeorgia was entirely closed for all foreign visitors since the beginning of the pandemic. Only recently it opened slightly for travellers from only 4-5 European countries. So no surprise that the airports' pax numbers were low.
DeleteWell done Ljubljana. I wonder what the proponents of the "no national carrier" would say now, when it is official that LJU is the most affected airport in Europe. I guess something along the lines of "just wait for the crisis to be over and then we'll really get those 4.99 eur tickets". Until then we'll be paying LH 480 eur for flights to BRU.
ReplyDeleteHow many Slovenian people, who pay for tickets with their own money, even travel to BRU?
Deletewell i dont know for you but i bought 3 tickets from Ljubljana to Madrid, Barcelona and Helsinki and they were all below 170€ there and back, luggage included ... sounds good to me. And lets be honest. Zagreb is only 2% better than Ljubljana with national carrier but dont forget the state will spent 100+ millions on that 2% :) now do the math :)
Delete@Anonymous12:05:
DeleteI'm not a government employee and I have a business meeting in BRU. The quoted price is for next week.
@Anonymous 12:37:
Lucky you. In June, my flight to TXL from LJU was 300 eur, from VCE 200 eur (both LH).
@anon 12:37
DeleteI would really like to see those tickets, even when you check prices for FRA it's impossible to get it under 250 if you check within same week. Maybe you bought tickets for 2024? What is travel time (18h?) and when is return flight (after 1 year?)? It seems we don't need LCC when we have LH :)
Regarding LJU, comparison is completely wrong because LJU had low figures already last year due to JP bankruptcy. If 2019 would be normal year for LJU than decrease would be 95+%.
When were airline tickets for the same week cheap?
DeleteEven with LCCs is not unusual to see at 200+ EUR for the last couple of days before the flight.
Well, that depends on the load factor of flight, doesn't it.
DeleteAll I can say is, since Adria went bust, LH prices from LJU have been extremely disappointing. Which is normal, since they have a monopoly in LJU.
@Anonymous 13:19 no need to be sarcastic if u have difficulties when using google... some people do travel you know... and yes, sometimes does happen that shorter trip is more expensive than the longer one (but you could know that)... and since u doubt in my statement... here u go, all my flights (and don't worry they are all in first half of 2021, not 2024 like u suggested and they are all flexible so i can change them free of charge):
DeleteHelsinki: 13.4. - 18.4. (6h trip)
Barcelona: 16.6. - 20.6. (cca 3,5h trip)
Madrid: 6.7. - 11.7. (5h trip)
the most expensive one i bought is for Zurich in Feb (first week if you wanna check - i guess it wont be too hard?) and it was slightly less than 200€ ... And for all above i even checked Zagreb and Venice and it would not make sense because it was or the same price or only 20€ cheaper (or even more expensive). And those prices were impossible to imagine with Adria. Anyway if you need some help searching for your own tickets just let me know ;)
I have stopped searching after HEL case where 290 € is cheapest ticket I found for those dates. When JP was around you could travel for much less to HEL - been there, did that (oh, you are not the only one who travelling!?). It seems you should open travel agency if you can find (which I doubt) such prices while noone else can :).
DeleteAnd good luck with that ZRH flight :)
@Anonymous22:46:
DeleteAre you being sarcastic?! You bought tickets half a year in advance (in Covid times, when you can't plan a trip a week in advance) and now you come on here and brag how cheap they are?
I flew with Adria many times for less than 200 euros (direct flights). It's not my problem if you flew to VIE via DXB and payed 500 eur. Just don't lie how everything is better now without Adria.
no worries i will go on all those flight, can even buy u a beer if we meet there :P and Zurich flight was never that cheap and i am flying there every 2 months and most of the time i was forced to fly from Zagreb because it was cheaper... and sorry but u must have some special skills to not find Helsinki same date as i wrote ... i just checked and even today there is the same price :) and must be stupid not to plan trips in advance (even in normal times i always buy tickets about 4-5 months in advance and guess what, i'm not the only one, check flights from Ljubljana to Amsterdam or Berlin - its hard to find entry price ticket because guess what, people are planning summer 21 already... anyway its simple ... u buy ticket for meeting you know it will happen 90% (btw all business travel can happen easily, im doing it all the time, if the meeting gets canceled you just book different date free of charge ... sometimes i just don't understand whats the problem ... and no worries i never flew to vienna for 500€, but i did to tokio ;)
DeleteCroatia is heavily hit.
ReplyDeleteRight after Georgia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Slovakia.
Very, very bad
Actual decrease in LJU is even higher because they have compared 20/19 while LJU already had very low figures in 2019 due to JP bankruptcy. If LJU would have normal figures in 2019 then drop would be even higher and we can't blame 100% Covid for that. Well done Fraport..NOT!
ReplyDeleteWhy is Fraport getting the blame here?
DeleteAirlines are not flying due to low demand. Is this so difficult to understand?
Demand is low everywhere and they do not have such decrease as we do. We can blame them for crazy statements in media how Slovenia does not need national carrier and that market will take of itself. If Krasnja and Skobir would make such statements as residents of Slovenia I would understand, everyone has his own opinion. But to make such statements as representatives of LJU airport then we can blame them for those figures. If who then airport would benefit most from national carrier.
DeleteLast time they played the game with the nation carrier, they ended up with over 4m of debt, that they will never get back.
DeleteI can understand why they are reluctant to not support yet another ultimately unprofitable project.
And why does national airline really have to be profitable. If it has 5m € loss each year it isnt really a lot.
Delete@anon 13:15
DeleteEnded up with 4m debt, and what was the profit in last 10 years? Which was generated mostly by JP. Enough to pay new terminal right?
I would agree if someone would remain indebted to me for 4 m, but before I earned 10x times more.
@Anon 13:33: Try to explain to all other airlines on the market that you are essentially operating a competitive company that never has to make profit.
DeleteAirline market in Europe should stay deregulated and open to free market rules.
Deregulated? Says who?
DeleteAviation market is already regulated. From bilaterals to PSOs, from ULCC abuse of small airport markets to EC rules and interventions. Governments already had CO2 rules, airports have min ticket fare rukes, now there are virus rules for bailouts such as moving some routes to trains.
Rules are not symmetrical: OU is allowed to buy 100% of YM but YM is not allowd to buy 100 of OU (even if they had the money). Marketplace is not the same for all players. There is no free market in European aviation.
Ouch, good observation anon 19:25.
Deletewondering if SPU can stay ahead of SKP. After Oct the difference is just 45k
ReplyDeleteI think it will be close.
DeleteSKP will likely take over.
Delete^ Good job BEG.
ReplyDeleteTaking in consideration that Serbian passport holders can't enter EU this is not that bad result of BEG at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised how relatively well Spain and Italy have done considering they were severely affected in the first wave.
ReplyDeleteSituation at all airports is dire this month. At ex-Yu airports not more than a handful of flights per day.
ReplyDeletePleasantly surprised at how well SKP held on despite so many challenges. It is the second least affected airport in ex-yu and its passenger decline is well within Europe's average in these difficult times. Keep in mind the airport was entirely closed for 3.5 months, it had dozens of routes suspended, several airlines left until further notice, no national airline, ongoing EU travel ban, not many charters during the summer, and still it seems it survived better than many airports within Schengen.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIronically best performing countries in ex-Yu are those with severe travel (and in some cases flight) bans.
Delete