Pristina Airport became the second busiest in the former Yugoslavia in 2020 overtaking Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik. During the January - November period it handled 974.212 passengers, a decrease of some 58% on the year before, which is well below the European average. Pristina Airport itself was closed for over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. During the first week of December, it handled 16.899 travellers, while just between December 19 and December 23, it processed 23.000 passengers. Overall, the number of flight operations decreased by some 50%. Due to the new strain of the coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, flights from London have been suspended. 

Driving the lower passenger decline at Pristina Airport when compared to others in Europe is the diaspora. “Our traffic mainly relies on the diaspora, which lives and works abroad, meaning most of them hold citizenship and/or residency permits of the countries they are living in. Based on the abovementioned reasons, our passengers are not as affected by document limitations, while their desire to come and visit their families back in Kosovo continues despite the pandemic. This is one of the main reasons that passenger figures have seen a smaller decline compared to other regional airports, especially in the last two to three months”, Pristina Airport’s Chief Operations Officer, Gokmen Aritay, told EX-YU Aviation News. 

Pristina Airport is in the process of extending its runway from 2.500 to 3.000 metres, while its Instrument Landing System (ILS) will be upgraded from category II to category IIIb, enabling aircraft to land in more adverse weather conditions. “90% of the work has been completed, however, due to the local and global effects of the pandemic, the project has been re-scheduled in cooperation with all the stakeholders and is now planned for completion in July 2021”, Mr Aritay said. He added, “We believe that our immediate goals in the short-term will be to intensify cooperation with our partner, which in this case is the Government of Kosovo, so we can jointly overcome the uncertainties and challenges ahead of us”.