Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport anticipates handling some 2.9 million passengers this year or around 50% of its pre-pandemic traffic. Based on its estimates and modelling, the airport should welcome five million travellers through its doors in 2022 and will be operating at 2019 levels in 2023, when it expects to handle 6.1 million passengers. The airport estimates figures should grow to 6.9 million in 2024, 7.3 million in 2025 and 7.7 million travellers by the end of 2026. The airport’s record year remains 2019 when it registered 6.158.897 passengers, of which 2.733.304 were carried by Air Serbia and 3.425.552 by foreign airlines. In the pandemic-stricken 2020, the airport welcomed 1.903.540 passengers, of which 865.121 were handled by the national carrier and 1.038.399 by the rest.
Belgrade Airport’s flight programme for the summer of 2021 is now at 83% of 2019 levels. The number of routes on offer from the Serbian capital this summer stands at 71, just one short of 2019. Airports Council International Europe (ACI) recently said passenger performance at the airport was "significantly outperforming the European average". The organisation’s Director General for Europe, Olivier Jankovec, noted, “The road to recovery will be long, but it is already very clear that it is faster for Belgrade Airport than others. Looking ahead, we see Belgrade Airport positioning itself as an important hub for Eastern Europe, working closely in an integrated manner with Air Serbia, as well as other airlines with the goal to increase the country’s connectivity”.
Numerous carriers have increased their operations to the Serbian capital in recent weeks, with some outstripping pre-pandemic levels. A number of new routes, launched this summer, are also performing well. Among them, KLM, which introduced services to Belgrade in mid-May, is operating double daily flights from Amsterdam until the end of the month, while Luxair has upgraded its seasonal service from Luxembourg to year-round operations and has added an additional weekly frequency, for a total of three, for next summer. Furthermore, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which also commenced services to Belgrade in June, will grow its frequencies from two to three weekly from the start of the winter season in late October.
Seems realistic that numbers will be back in 2023.
ReplyDeleteI think their estimates are quiet conservative and will be handling more than they think. I definitely think this summer caught them by surprise.
DeleteHope the recovery will be quicker.
DeleteWhile there was recovery in summer, as winter approaches there will be more rounds of lockdown which is going to impede any further growth. Hopefully by winter 2022/23 this is going to be a distant memory for us all.
DeleteNope, there will be no more lockdowns. At least not for vaccinated people, as far as the the other ''enlightened'' ones that are against the vaccine go, hope they get the lockdown forever so they can keep doing their ''research'' in their homes, at peace.
DeleteLast anon, this is a place where air travel enthusiast come. Let's keep politics and personal opinions to ourselves if it doesn't really matter with the text.
DeleteLol, those ''personal opinions'' are indeed what affect airlines and air travel, and if people did follow real science and not fb science and tik tok doctors this all woudl've been behind us. But since your ''personal opinions'' come before collective good, here we are, debating what will be in the Autumn. And by your comment and request i can guess which side you are leaning on. So no, i will keep mentioning it cause this idiocy affect air travel and much more.
DeleteI think Indians helped a lot in this recovery. Their arrivals have since almost stopped but they made it easier for airlines to rebuild their network. I think this winter will be key to making sure numbers keep on growing at a steady pace.
ReplyDeleteI think winter should be relatively good considering the number of new routes and airlines. Of course will depend on virus.
DeleteMore Indian charters are being planned as we speak. Spicejet coming from New Delhi on 6th and 7th of August.
DeleteThat's very good to hear because the faster the network is rebuilt easier it will be for people to travel.
DeleteIndians aren't even 10% of the total passenger numbers and the phenomenon is relatively recent, so I wouldn't really ascribe the network recovery to them.
DeleteActually Indians made up just around 2% of traffic in July.
DeleteI'm really glad BEG worked out for Luxiar. I see they won't be flying to TGD in the winter. I wonder if they see a lot of passengers from nearby areas on these flights or just from Luxembourg.
ReplyDeleteThey signed an interline with JU so they could offer MNE flights via BEG. Then again I think most demand from LUX comes during summer months.
DeleteGreat that Luxair has had success on the route. Who would have thought
DeleteI don't think they expected it either since they made it seasonal before turning it into a year-round destination. Really nice connection for BEG.
DeleteAre there any new routes planned for next year?
ReplyDeleteCertainly JU’s long haul expansion and maybe pre covid announced/ suspended routes.
DeleteSo far it's only Air Cairo that plans to expand its BEG network with CAI and SSH. However if they expect 5 million passengers then I am sure there will be a lot of additions by everyone.
DeleteI think we will know if they are going to expand long haul by the end of the year. I'm really hoping they do but still a guessing game as to whather they go east or west.
DeleteI think Wizz will bring its third A321.
DeleteI'm also expecting Wizz to base third plane and make good on its 2020 expansion plan.
DeleteIs 50% of prepandemic traffic above European average? Those are some really good number for BEG.
DeleteAnon@9.13 - what long haul expansion are you talking about ? Are you aware of how deep the financial hole is at the moment that the Govt is having to cover ? And that is just to cover last year losses + this year losses + probably next year as well .... and you want to throw more losses with long haul expansion onto the already red hot loss fire ?
DeleteThey will do well to contain the situation within their existing fleet and network - and that in itself will be a huge mountain to climb without throwing away EUR10-15M per route on a long haul misadventure in the midst of a current pandemic and financial meltdown.
Don't mistake the Govt's financial goodwill as a bottomless pit. It is right of the Govt to support JU through these turbulent waters, but reckless endeavours will find no support from those who underwrite the bills
Yet their sole long-haul flight is making money for them, second year in a row.
Deleteyes I’m talking bout long haul flights. Whether JU or some other airline it is more than obvious that flights to YYZ and China will materialize soon because demand is there, if there’s demand there’s a profit at the end of the day, so your statement is not correct and btw this is not economic forum relax bro :D
DeleteYes, after 5 years (with losses in the first 3/4 yrs) and with US-Europe markets closed out to but a few countries. This went JU's way and good luck to them. Without covid and borders being shut, who knows whether they would have been able to make money on this route. Post covid when borders are open and airlines return to aggressive growth and pricing strategies, it will be a whole different ball game
DeleteAnd why do you think JU won’t use that same aggressive strategy as well. During Covid they were most of the time very proactive and fast to the market changes, I’m pretty sure they’ll keep up with the market. Of course everything is possible, I’m aware of that but Air Serbia gets always massive state support no matter how big debt in the budget is !
DeleteOnly flaw in your argument is that you are forgetting that for a few years now JFK has been recording improved results. Covid merely acted as a catalyst in this process. JFK is not doomed to be perpetually loss-making as you make it to be. They have a decent regional network now which means it will be easier to add other flights than it was back in 2016.
DeleteIt seems JU will do well this month. A lot of flights are sold out this August from the direction from BEG.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. Diaspora going home.
DeleteIt helped that many western nations put large parts of Greece, Spain and Portugal on the red list so many gastos decided to fly back to Serbia. Look at Swiss going crazy in BEG with 21 weekly and many flights upgraded to A321.
DeleteLol sure it’s just “gastos”.
DeleteI hope JU keeps KRR and ROV over winter. They need as many transfer passengers as they can get.
ReplyDeleteKrasnodar is on sale for winter.
DeleteI believe there will be some exciting times ahead for BEG next year. They will open the new expanded part of the terminal, I believe Air Serbia will get second A330 and Wizz should base third plane.
ReplyDeleteQuite realistic.
DeleteThe fact they upgraded their base to A321 shows they have BEG on their mind and is in their plans for future expansions. They also resumed Oslo about a week ago.
DeleteAgree with last anon. It is a good sign. Flew with them Belgrade-Hamburg-Belgrade two weeks ago. Packed A321 flights in both directions. Only downside was that both flights were delayed seeing as they were operated at the end of the day. Interestingly quite a few Macedonians on the flight. I thought W6 flew SKP-HAM.
DeleteInteresting. Airport estimates they will add 800,000 passengers between 2023-2024, 400,000 between 2024-2025 and another 400,000 between 2025-2026.
ReplyDeleteSo airport expects something big to happen between 2023 and 2024?
DeleteWell it expects pent up demand and people to be travelling in greater volume when this virus is finally defeated one way or another.
DeleteHope Ryanair will arrive soon.
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteI hope they attract more European legacies in the years to come. TAP, SAS, British, Iberia... It's interesting that Lisbon is the busiest unserved route from BEG in Europe yet it doesn't seem to be of interest to TAP or Air Serbia for that matter.
ReplyDeleteWizz was planning to start Lisbon as part of their 2020 expansion.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/p/wizz-air-belgrade-lisbon.html
DeleteForgot about that. Thanks. I really hope they bring those plans back.
DeleteWhat were the other routes that Wizz planned to launch? Other than Lisbon?
DeleteBarcelona, Charleroi, Cologne, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg, Milan Malpensa, Salzburg, Turku and Sandefjord
DeleteOut of those they launched Sandefjord the other day and Hamburg which is performing really well for them.
DeleteBut should be noted they launched Abu Dhabi, Santorini, Heraklion, Hamburg and Oslo Torp/Sandefjord this summer.
DeleteCan't wait W6 to open again destinations in Portugal and Finland.
DeleteDon't forget that they operated a few flights to SZG but it was at the height of Austria's restrictions so they ended up having like 40 passengers per flight.
DeleteThey should start Turku as planned, especially considering Air Serbia has withdrawn from the Finnish market.
DeleteThere was no demand for those routes at first place. The same happened with Kyiv. Turkey, Russia, MNE and Switzerland are the main markets.
DeleteKiev is served from Belgrade three times per week.
DeleteAlso your claims about main markets is highly inaccurate. There are more flights to Germany and Austria than to Turkey and Russia,
DeleteI don't think Finland is fully open, don't see them launching any flights to there just yet.
DeleteAs Serbian citizens are allowed to enter Italy again for tourism (albeit with 5 days of quarantine), I'm pretty sure Wizz will look into reinstating MXP. That route would be a bomb.
Delete@12.01 Finland has reopened to Serbian citizens. Those who are vaccinated are free to enter (all vaccines approved by WHO) and those that are not just need a Covid test. That's it.
DeleteIt's really nice of Finland to accept both the Chinese and Russian vaccines. Really gives us hope that a more sane tomorrow is coming.
DeleteLike anon 12.11 said they accept all vaccines that the World Health Organization has approved. I don't think that includes the Russia one. The Chinese yes. Actually many European countries now use the WHO list for vaccines. For example Netherlands also allows entry based on WHO list, Spain and many others.
DeleteI think SZG has potential for 2 flights per wwek as it's the city with the second largest Serbian diaspora in Austria. Also, the city and the region in general is pretty and has a lot to offer. SZG is the second largest airport in Austria.
DeleteHad the directorate not blocked them, we would have had scheduled flights to Ankara and Bodrum this summer, as well S7 Airlines and Ural flying from Moscow.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Unfortunately a very destructive decision.
DeleteAnkara wasn't blocked, TK decided against those flights.
DeleteHas LOT restored its base in Budapest? Before the pandemic they planned to fly BUD-BEG. Wonder if we will see those plans restored
ReplyDeleteThey scrapped the plan to expand BUD flights. They only fly Seoul and Warsaw at the moment and seasonal Dubrovnik.
DeleteThanks. As far as I remember they had London City flights and were planning Budapest and Brussels too.
DeleteI think their number are very realistic. Next year should be better but I think we will still be very much influenced by the pandemic. 2023 should finally be a clean slate I believe.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnyone know how many passengers they had in July?
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for them to finish the expanion
ReplyDeleteNice to see the airport returning to life.
ReplyDeleteWill Air Serbia be introducing any new routes this winter?
ReplyDeleteCharters are certainly helping them this summer.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade Airport arrivals yesterday :D
Hurghada JU 9291 02:35
Hurghada JU 9887 02:40
Hurghada JU 9895 03:15
Hurghada JU 9181 03:35
Hurghada JU 9483 04:35
And then Air Cairo arriving on scheduled flight from Hurghada at 05:30.
DeleteThey have days when JU 8 flights going out to Hurghada. I think the record was 9 a few weeks ago. plus one by Air Cairo.
Delete*when JU has 8 flights
DeleteThere would be even more if Air Serbia had aircraft. They turned down doing more charters due to insufficient capacity.
DeleteAfter all, let's not forget that Egypt is a more affordable and budget destination.
DeleteAbsolutely but luckily JU also added a few charters to Mykonos. ;)
DeleteObviously there is demand for those kind of destinations as we have Wizz Air flying to Santorini.
@12.46 I'm trying to understand your point?
Delete@16:43 What was not clear? Egypt is a cheap country and is not expensive compared to other higher-class destinations. It's normal to have massive tourism.
DeleteSo? In the midst of a global pandemic it is great that you have a higher volume of flights to a destination than you had 2 years ago.
DeleteNot really. Egypt emerged because of the restrictions elsewhere. It is also a destination where many Serbian medium class can allow themselves to go. Something like Northern Greece or Tunis.
DeleteYou are obviously not from Serbia since you don't know that there have been charter flights to Egypt for over 15 years. I understand what you want to prove. You repeat the same comment each and every time. Something about Serbian people being poor. Thankfully you have regular and charter flights and outbound tourism to Greek islands, Spanish coast, French coast, Cyprus, Malta, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and before Covid started Italian coast and even charters to Morroco planned for summer 2020. All this for the 'poor' local population. At the same time from some other nearby 'rich' markets there are no charters for local population to virtually anywhere.
DeleteFeel better dude?
DeleteGreat to see Wizz Air AUH doing well with A321 and adding third flight.
ReplyDeleteYes, seems the route is working out, relying completely on P2P.
DeleteIt helps that Serbia is one of just 10 countries from which you don't have to quarantine and get a tracking bracelet when arriving to Abu Dhabi (if vaccinated).
DeleteAnd below we can see that from June UAE arrivals to Serbia started to grow. I think FZ made a mistake not to boost BEG right away. They left some room for Wizz Air which used it and not only launched it but also increased it to three weekly.
DeleteThen again, the biggest loser seems to be EY. They should have at least sent Air Arabia.
Agree that Etihad made the dumbest move but not surprised. It is Etihad after all.
DeleteMost of EY's passengers were transfers to China and Australia. Both markets are closed now.
DeleteWell you change and adapt. The same rule applied for QR but they shifted focus, kept flying and now they are sending the A321 every day. Not to mention there is far more P2P traffic between Abu Dhabi and Belgrade than there is between Doha and Belgrade.
DeleteAgree. One of the reasons QR has returned their prepandemic schedule to BEG is precisely because there is no more Etihad around.
DeleteTourism numbers for June are out. Year over year arrivals grew by 334% and here are some interesting numbers.
ReplyDeleteItaly 1.632/ +77%
Germany 4.826/ 110%
Russia 6.143/ +652%
Turkey 4.018/ 369%
India 2.765
China 1.060/ +391%
UAE 452/ +425%
81.520 foreign arrivals in June, 263.774 in the first six months. I think we are going to have over 100.000 in July.
So almost 3,000 Indians on flights to BEG. No wonder the likes of QR have been doing well.
DeleteSo if we count they were on an outbound and outbound flights that is almost 6,000 extra passengers for BEG.
Delete*outbound and inbound.
DeletePretty much yes since all of them flew out of BEG after roughly two weeks.
DeleteKeep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the only three airports in ex-Yu with charters for outbound passengers are Belgrade, Ljubljana and Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteThere are also Skopje, Nis, Banja Luka and Tuzla with chargers for local population. That's about it.
Delete