Pristina Airport becomes former Yugoslavia’s second busiest


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”.


Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    That's a very good result all things considering.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    wow

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:02

    Goes to show that airport relying on diaspora traffic will recover much faster.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:03

    Congrats Pristina. Solid result for an airport in covid era. Good work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:04

    It used to be 3rd once a upon a time, ahead of DBV and SPU but then they overtook it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:30

      If Kosovo didn't have visa restrictions, Pristina they would still be ahead of Dubrovnik and Split.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:31

      @09:04
      Over took what?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:35

      They overtook Pristina Airport.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:04

    Let's see if they can maintain that spot in 2021.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      I think Zagreb will be back to number 2 this year.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:07

      Doubt it, we saw these days that airlines keep on delaying ZAG. Maybe in 2022.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:35

      lets hope the pandamic keeps on so PRN can keep second place ;)

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:40

      Pandemic or not, they have the opportunity to keep second or third position for a while.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:42

      We don't know how BEG did but maybe they overtook them. BEG had a rather bad year with complete lockdown.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:45

      Try not to write nonsrnse. Belgrade had over 1 million passengers in September already. And I don't know what complete lockdown you are talking about. It reopened over a month before Pristina.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:05

    So they probably had close to a million in 2020?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:06

    It needs to reduce its fees.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      They give some nice incentives out now.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:12

      The problem with Pristina is that the government sets the fees, not the airport operator.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:18

      Who made such a concession agreement where the government sets prices at the airport. Ludicrous.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:20

      It is not true that the Government sets the fees. The Government has adopted a regulation on this topic, given that according to ECAA it has to have such regulation, however Prishtina Airport is excluded from remit of regulation for the duration of PPP agreement. Reg 3/2015 on Airport Charges, more specifically Article 17 states the following:

      Article 17
      Specific Regulation for Prishtina International Airport Adem Jashari
      The provisions of this Regulation for Prishtina International Airport “Adem
      Jashari” shall be implemented in accordance with the PPP Agreement, during the
      time that this agreement is in force.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:07

    With the runway extension, widebodies will be able to land at PRN without a problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      Pristina handled Swiss 777 and Edelweiss A330 last year without a problem. It also handled a United 747 once.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:14

      The United one was in 2015 but the plane had a light load, just some army personell. Plane from Zurich can land with widebody but for a full long haul flight it wuld be very difficult.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:18

      I see. Makes sense. Thank you

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:56

      Anon 9.14, just out of curiosity, why should be more difficult for a widebody in long houl?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:10

      Because it needs much more fuel, hence, the aircraft weighs much more, therefore requireing a longer runway to land, and even more to take off from.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:08

    I'm surprised Croatia Airlines no longer flies to Pristina. Couldn't they have used this route to feed their West Europe flights?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      People need to understand OU offers nothing to these airports. They serve O&D demand plusLH Group.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:10

      The majority of passengers from/to PRN are from LH Group hubs.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:11

      Route was struggling for years, even though it was scheduled to link onto the morning wave.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:15

      Morning 'wave'

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:57

      It just proves that you need to have at least 2 but ideally 3+ frequencies daily to cater for transfer passengers.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:59

      09:10
      Nothing? What does that mean? Does JU also offers nothing in that case?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:01

      Huh? JU doesn't fly to PRN but given their crazy success in Tirana I'm sure they have something to offer to passengers.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:21

      But OU is usually doing better then JU in Skopje and Sarajevo. How does that mean OU has nothing to offer?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous13:48

      Because O&D has to fly to ZAG because road is quite long and/or bad which is not the case with Belgrade. Road from Sarajevo to Zagreb is horrible and long.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:26

      Same as road from Sarajevo to Belgrade. Still i dont see you answer again on my question what do you mean by OU has nothing to offer to Prishtina or overall.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:49

      Because there is O&D demand from Zagreb to Sarajevo and Skopje. Not so much to PRN

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:18

      So OU has to offer something to PRN? Ok, i understand you know.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous15:30

      No, they don't have something to offer because if they did they would not have suspended flights. Their network is stagnating and it's not organized in order to offer connections.

      Please don't put JU in the same category as OU. Their network is light years ahead of OU and that's a fact.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous16:03

      They suspended flights because of competition by Adria Airways which flew multiple daily flights to LJU, FRA and MUC. Croatia Airlines can offer conections to Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Bruxelles, Vienna, Paris and Copenhagen which have many albanians living there. And OU flies to all these destinations more then daily.

      I put these airlines in same category because they are literaly same. Around 2-3 mil. passangers, about 15-25 planes in fleet, money losing, southeasten europe, national carriers... i dont see a significant difference if we look at all european airlines.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous16:10

      So with which airline is then JU in category? And what about all these european destinations where a lot of albanians live and OU has a llt lf frequenices to there? Thats nothing to you?

      Delete
    16. Anonymous16:18

      Well what about FRA, MUC, VIE, BRU, CDG, AMS, CPH, ZRH? Is that nothing?

      Delete
    17. Anonymous16:20

      Sorry for mutliple comments, i thought they were not posted at all.

      Delete
    18. Anonymous16:30

      There was no need for you to write three separate comments. One was enough.

      So OU is so weak that it was butchered even by JP? That says a lot. JU at least managed to successfully fight them off in BEG and in TIA they were slowly eating away their market.

      OU and JU might be in the same range but that's only because of summer traffic on the coast. Here we are talking about the hub middle. Look at OU's OMO schedule to, for example AMS. Good connection one way and then 15 hours the other way. JU has an extensive network. OU cant fly in winter to places like Milan or Prague.

      What OU offers is what OS can offer so much better. OU can always rely on its regional feed from OSI and OMO.

      Delete
    19. Anonymous16:30

      So, they suspended flights because of competition. What makes you think they would succeed now?

      Delete
    20. Anonymous16:36

      And how would those flights work in winter? Why would someone fly with OU to VIE, MUC, FRA, CPH...and not on OS?

      Delete
    21. Anonymous16:44

      JU fought them off in BEG (isnt that JUs market?) and TIA? Or they went in bankrupcy? And back in a day JP was strong transfer carrier, and they had a base in PRN. So for OU which had at its peek in PRN daily flights, it was not so high profitabile to stay when JP offered direct flights to their major markets from PRN.

      And? So what? They are in same range. Period. You never mentioned you are talking about hubs. Which are not so simmilar, but still they are small when you look at other major European airlines

      And with this OSI and OMO comment it is obviously you are here just to mock and bash OU.

      Delete
    22. Anonymous16:52

      Anon 16:36
      I dont know, but passangers from Sarajevo and Skopje are doing it.

      Delete
    23. Anonymous16:54

      Arent many people from Kosovo using Skopje airport which has double daily flights to ZAG with OU? They can always use these.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:14

    What happened to SKP? Weren't they very close to PRN last year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:16

      It has been more affected by the EU entry ban. Also I assume more people from Kosovo that used to fly to SKP before tried to go directly to Kosovo this time because of all the entry requirements.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:07

      Kosovo was the only Yu market which wasnt affected by Swiss quarantine rules. Great success for PRN but this Switzerland loophole contributed mostly to it :D

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:12

      Didn't Kosovo also have Swiss quarantine during height of summer?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:42

      in the beginning yes. there was an article here when they changed it

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:17

      Wasn't Edelweiss sending A330s on a regular basis to deal with demand?

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:14

    Good for the airport but overall bad for the country if so many people would rather live abroad than in a home country... :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:12

      but this is the case with more or less all exyu states. If i am not wrong, only Slovenia has more inhabitants today than in the 90ties. and when those countries enter EU it will be even worse ... croatia "lost" almost 200K ppl in last 10 years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:57

      A very important perspective. In fact, we should be much happier with the growth of non-diaspora-related air passengers, as the figures on air passengers from the diaspora tell us more about the poor economic situation in the former Yugoslavia (with the exception of Slovenia) than about the level of development of air traffic.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:19

    Congrats Pristina!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous09:26

    Wizz Air should open a base there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:39

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:40

      They are expanding all the time. They introduced Milan and Baden Baden last week.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:44

      Does Eurowings still have a base in PRN?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:24

      Pristina airport, or better said, Kosovo Government should start changing the policy and start implementing subsidies as Macedonian Government. Then we could see someone serious open a base.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:27

    Relying only on diaspora traffic isn't sustainable in the long run.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous09:28

    How long does Limak's concession of Pristina Airport run for?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:39

      Until 2030.

      They won a 20 year concession in 2010.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:41

      Thanks. Still a while to go.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous09:43

    They should work on attracting flights from Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen and Rome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:50

      Highly unlikely in these circumstances.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous09:49

    It's surprising that Lufthansa does not fly to Pristina. They could easily pack passengers to the US via Frankfurt, not to mention all the diaspora from Germany.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:54

      LH has very high costs, that's why they don't fly to SKP either.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:02

      They also don't fly to ZAG right now.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:12

      They don't fly to many destinations at the moment.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:17

      Do they fly year round in ex-yu only to BEG and LJU?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:19

      Its because they care about profit. Unprofitabile OS is flying to all these balkan destinations for transfers and making low profits.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:20

      They fly year round to Zagreb and Sarajevo. Covid winter can't be taken into account.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:21

      At this moment is it only BEG and LJU?

      Delete
    8. Anonymous15:24

      Around 80% reduced operations on those routes compared to last winter.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous15:34

      ^ don't you realise his only asking so you say yes so he can feel superior for 5 minutes. Just give it to the kid. Regardless of the fact that there are fewer flights from his city to Frankfurt then ZAG for example

      Delete
  19. Anonymous10:08

    Excellent result for PRN taking into account what's going on around in Europe at the moment. It will be interesting to see whether the new airport in Kukes will open this year and whether will have anything to offer at all?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      If that opens and becomes an ultra low cost airport as previously indicated that is going to affect the numbers in PRN and the numbers in Skopje.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:22

      Doubt it will happen, the concessionaires in PRN and TIA would try to kill it.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:30

      Apparently the Albanian PM mentioned about 2 months ago that the airport will offer links to cities which are neither served by TIA nor by PRN. I am not sure what else is there to cover from Kukes which is not already covered by the above mentioned airports....

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:17

      The airport will cover north Albania and majority of south Kosovo

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:03

      So basically it will be for north Albania and Metohija. Not much in terms of population.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous14:01

      Well not necessarily. Kukës is easily accessible from both Tirana and Pristina. It remains to be seen whether there will actually be any airline interested or they will have to give subsidies/incentives

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:21

      Kukës will be really atractive for North Albania and Rrafshi i Dukagjinit.

      But if tickets will be cheap, I dont exclude that people will come from NM or even MNE.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous10:16

    What's interesting is that PRN has no transfer/ connecting traffic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      Yes but they have a huge diaspora that only keeps on getting bigger and bigger.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:23

    Great results for PRN considering covid and entry ban.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous10:24

    Congrats Pristina!
    Keep going forward -->>

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous10:26

    Nice for them but also don't forget that its the only airport in the country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:58

      Do you really think there needs to be more than 1 airport there?

      Delete
  24. Anonymous10:37

    Even in times like this? Amazing, good work PRN

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous10:37

    Happy to hear good news for PRN.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:19

      They still had a passenger decline of almost 60%... Not sure how good the news is.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous11:04

    of which 65% passengers to/from Switzerland :)
    no quarantine rules upon entering Swiitzerland was all this airport needed :D

    on a serious note how many people (stil) live there now aprox. ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In KaM, Around 970.000

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:56

      In Kosovo, around 1.9 million

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:33

      It's a myth that it's 1.9 million. There hasn't been a serious census is who knows how long. Estimates are that numbers have come down to below one million.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:03

      No, estimates are
      that numbers are 1.9 millon, based on official sources.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:10

      Estimates of frustrated people say that in Kosovo live less than a million people. Last official census in 2011 says that in Kosovo live almost 1.9 million people.

      Delete
  27. Anonymous11:40

    end of year results probably gonna look like this:

    1. BEG 2.PRN 3.ZAG 4. SKP 5.SPU 6.DBV ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:18

      And LJU around the bottom :(

      Delete
  28. Anonymous12:19

    This could mean they could have had one of the smallest declines in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous12:38

    In the wider region TIA has far better results than ZAG this year and now we see that in ex-yu even PRN has achieved more than ZAG.

    ReplyDelete
  30. There is also the airport in Đakovica/Gjakova which is in southwestern Kosovo. Not sure if it is operational, but has a runway of 1.75km. Both Đakovica/Gjakova and Kukës airports are only 50km apart, and about 1.20 hours driving time, and the same distance to Prizren.

    So Đakovica/Gjakova Airport could shake up the regional airport wars if it began to receive flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:28

      If Kukes becomes successful, than we gonna see Djakovica
      airport start to develop.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:21

      Until the Limak concession of PRN expires in 2030, Gjakova airport can not operate commercial flights. It is part of concession agreement.

      Delete
  31. Anonymous18:07

    LH was supposed to start flights in record time:

    https://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/09/belgrade-pristina-flights-to-launch-in.html

    ReplyDelete