Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is expected to register strong passenger growth over the coming two weeks as the Serbian capital prepares to host the EuroLeague Final Four basketball tournament from May 19 until May 21, which has resulted in airlines increasing frequencies, capacity and selling out on many flights. The four teams taking part are from Greece, Spain and Turkey. As a result, Aegean Airlines has so far put on sale an additional four flights next week, with one extra service to operate on May 18 with the Airbus A321, May 19 with the A320 and the remaining two on May 22, with the A321s. However, the airline has requested a total of eight additional landing slots at Belgrade Airport for next week, the majority of which are on May 19. The carrier’s scheduled service from Athens to Belgrade, in the lead-up to the tournament on May 18, has also been upgauged to the A321 and sold out. In addition, Air Serbia has added a further four departures to Athens and is expected to run additional charters to the Greek capital.
Besides increasing frequencies to Athens, Air Serbia is also adding flights and growing capacity to Barcelona, Madrid and Istanbul next week. The Serbian carrier will deploy its A330-200 wide body aircraft to Barcelona on Tuesday, May 19, instead of the usual A319 jet. This will complement the Sunday flights which are already being maintained with the A330. Capacity will also be increased to Madrid on May 19 with the A320 to operate the service. Furthermore, the airline will deploy its A330 jet to Istanbul on May 18, as well as the A320 on May 19, instead of the usual A319. Turkish Airlines, as the main sponsor of the EuroLeague, will allow passengers to earn four times the carrier’s frequent flier miles when travelling to Belgrade from May 18 to May 22 for tickets purchased between April 29 and May 22. Turkey’s Corendon Airlines will operate a charter for fans to Belgrade on May 22, while Iberojet will fly from Barcelona on the same day.
Other foreign carriers are also seeing a surge in demand for flights to the Serbian capital. Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM and Swiss International Air Lines are sold out on a number of services during the tournament. They are likely to add additional capacity on their Belgrade operations in the coming days. Belgrade last hosted the EuroLeague Final Four tournament in 2018. Major sporting events have generated strong growth at airports in the former Yugoslavia over the past few years, including the UEFA Super Cup Final in Skopje in 2017 and EuroBasket in Slovenia and Croatia in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Further changes in frequencies and capacity are expected in the coming week. Additional flights are likely to be scheduled once the finalists of the tournament are known.
I wonder how many extra passengers could it generate.
ReplyDelete20-30k
DeleteGood to see Air Serbia again responding quickly.
ReplyDeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeleteGood news. If the Turks make it to the final we will be seeing even more flights from IST on Sunday ;)
ReplyDeleteSame with Athens
DeleteWho was in the Final Four the last time it was in Belgrade? It was Efes and some Russian team but who else?
ReplyDeleteReal Madrid , Fenerbahce Istanbul, Zalgiris Kaunas and CSKA Moscow
DeleteWill Iberia send its own equipment? Their A330 was a nice sight in Skopje a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt looks that Real Madrid fans will mostly come to Belgrade mostly via Zurich, Vienna, Frankfurt and Munich.
DeleteIberojet is flying. Probably with A330.
DeletePassenger prediction for May?
ReplyDeleteBelgrade Airport deserve to be leader in this part of Europe.
ReplyDeleteAll ready visable. Even at half way of construction and redevelopment. 🛫🌐✈😀✈
Leadership days are gone, my friend. Today Europe is more about 3 main lowcost carriers and transfers via Germany and France. Even Poland is still way behind with its WAW hub.
DeleteBelgrade airport has always been and will probably forever remain the only real big airport within the ex-yu. The only other which had potentials to overtake BEG leading role was ZAG, due to Croatia 's tourism, diaspora and geographical position. But it did not happen because unlike Serbia, in Croatia politics and politicians don't care about aviation at all, and don't have any kind of plan or strategy for this sector. And I said it several times and will repeat once again : Happy about BEG and happy to have at least one airport in ex-yu comparable to "Big league"
DeleteDear pozdrav please define " big league" because as long as I remember Belgrade airport was at number 71 in Europe's busiest airports for 2021! Number 70 was Nantes atlantique airport and behind in number 72 was Bergen Airport. What is the "big league" for you??!!!
DeleteInstead defining, just advising you to visit once all works are completed, and than compare it to any other ex-yu airport. But if you insist on defining, here you go : total aerea in square metres, number of gates and air bridges, more terminals, not just one in use, remote parking linked to terminals by shuttle bus, 24 hours of operation, commercial services offered to passengers, business and VIP lounges, aviation museum on site, number of airlines, both regular and charter, passenger and cargo, using the airport, and even passengers numbers, P2P, transfer and overall, which despite being number 71 in Europe are still the biggest in ex-yu, and contributing to overall "picture" by my definition
DeleteSo your definition for "big league" is "big league" in the ex yu limits?! Okay.....
DeleteOK, let me put it this way, as you obviously play dumb : which ex-yu airport has two operative terminals? Remote parking linked by shuttle? Over 30 gates, bridges and bus combined? Aviation museum? Dozen of caffes, shops, lounges? That many square meters? None. I saw it only out of ex-yu, and only on "Big league" airports. And you can still swap theses, put in my mouth words I didn't say and go on voting for Adeze
DeleteDear pozdrav, no matter how many caffes, how many jet bridges, how many terminals you hane, numbers are numbers! A big league airport is considered by passengers numbers! So I guess you play the dumb! Whenever Belgrade becomes a major tourist destination and have someday over 25.000.000 millions passengers then you can talk about "big league"!
Delete*have
DeleteWhat you Anon 23.43 don't understand is that in order for BEG to reach the big league it needs to have adequate facilities for that. Look at terminal restrictions LO is having in WAW or A3 in ATH.
DeleteWithout this facility upgrade BEG couldn't have moved past the 6-7 million passenger mark. On Sunday I was at BEG waiting for someone and I have to say that work is progressing really fast and that it looks nicer and nicer.
Agree with Nemjee. And that's what ZAG is missing big time - strategy on civil aviation development, and synergy between flag carrier and hub airport. That's what will make BEG Big League even if it is not now in it by numbers only, and that's why ZAG will NEVER reach Big League. But people whose World ends in Graz and who are blinded by either chauvinism or complexes of higher value for sure cannot comprehend that
DeleteI will let both of you live your dream when Belgrade airport reaches (if) 25 million passengers in the year 2050!
DeleteSo far seems like Athens gets the biggest increase.
ReplyDeleteFinally, Serbia woke up and realised that Spain is a very important and huge market. Air Serbia was focusing on some rare secondary Russian airports where one god knows who goes there or oversaturated Switzerland and Germany. Deploying the A330 to BCN on the very beginning is just a pure sign. Next they should focus on a solid agreement with either Air Europa or Iberia via MAD and launch regular flights to PMI, AGP - airports with huge traffic. Not to mention LIS and OPO but this is another story...
ReplyDeleteWell those random Russian destinations like Krasnodar allowed them to increase VIE to A319 before covid. So I wouldn't toss them away just yet
DeleteAre you honestly comparing KRR with BCN? I don't think JU even dreamt of this A330 upgrade to BCN. Besides, I don't ever think you have been to Barcelona. It is not one of the top European destinations for a reason, leave alone their airport. But hey, KRR is always there with the A319.
Delete@09,08
DeleteThose Russian destinations are on a completely different wave to Spanish destinations. BCN, VLC, PMI and MAD are not operated during the midnight wave as was (to be) ROV, KRR and AER. They have no effect on frequencies to Spanish routes. ZRH additions are also during the midday wave, again no impact on frequencies to Spanish routes. ZRH isn't over saturated as the O&D demand there is huge, not to mention the transfer options in both ZRH and BEG. JAT used to send the DC10 to ZRH. Germany is also one of the largest investors in Serbia, major trading partner, with a huge Serbian and Balkan diaspora, so naturally there will alot of flights to Germany. Demand for Spain is growing and it is nice to see JU going after it.
One way ticket with Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Belgrade on the 18th of May is 556 euros (without luggage) ::D
ReplyDeleteAustrian is not much better. Their morning flight is over 500 euros on the 18th.
DeleteLufthansa will probably end up sending A321s that week.
DeleteOn the 18th Turkish isn't much better. Their morning flight to BEG is sold out in business, while economy costs 500 euros one way on all three daily flights.
DeleteLet's see if TK decides to upgrade some of their flights. Then again, there are up to 5 daily flights from BEG to Istanbul so capacity might be there already.
DeleteThere will also be a lot of private planes like a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure. Those private planes were mostly by Russians. Moscow team was playing 5 years ago.
DeleteSpeaking of private planes, this is how they had to park them in Berlin during the world cup in 2006
Deletehttp://www.airliners.net/photo/-/-/1072234/L
Fantastic
ReplyDeleteA lot of airlines are sold out on 18 and 20 may. interesting.
ReplyDeleteLooks as if it will be a good year for BEG.
ReplyDeletePrivilege Style is transporting Real Madrid to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteWill they use the B757 or B767?
DeleteNot sure yet
DeleteWow nice! Go Belgrade!
ReplyDeleteWow had no idea Belgrade was hosting this. Great job!
ReplyDeleteAny idea which aircraft type Iberojet will be sending? Fingers crossed for A330 or A350 :D
ReplyDeleteA330 is most likely.
DeleteNice :)
DeleteWill Turkish Airlines increase send larger planes? Although they have 3 daily flights so not sure if it is necessary.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget there is also daily Air Serbia which has already increase capacity.
DeleteAnd also Pegasus Airlines.
DeleteAnd there is also Anadolujet from Ankara.
DeleteIf I was a Turkish fan coming to Belgrade I would use Air Serbia to Nis or Kraljevo. It's very cheap instead of paying expensive tickets to Belgrade.
DeleteIt would be a hassle than to drive to Belgrade
Delete*then
DeleteI agree with @An.09.39. INI is practically in city center. One can take bus to BEG then, drink couple of beers during 3 hours drive, see around the new country, save few hundred euros, and come to BEG city center. I wouldn't call it a hassle. People are coming for the match and short trip after all, not on business where two or three hours mean something
DeleteJudging by Turkish Airlines insane pricing at the moment during next week to Belgrade, I'm guessing they might replace the scheduled A321s with a larger plane.
DeleteSeems like Wizz Air is also doing well from Barcelona. Their cheapest ticket next Wednesday is 215 euros one way.
ReplyDeleteAlso there are no longer any tickets without luggage available.
DeleteHow many passengers did Belgrade have in May in 2019?
ReplyDelete507,663
DeleteThanks
DeleteI honestly doubt those numbers can be reached this May.
DeleteI also think it's a long shot.
DeleteAny idea how many passengers they had in May when the championships was held last time?
DeleteIn May 2018 there were 479,689 passengers at BEG.
DeleteI think that figure is reachable. Let's wait and see. Hope for the best.
DeletePity that Aegean removes the flights from their website once they are sold out so we can't see exactly how many of them there are.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia does the same unfortunately.
DeleteWouldn't it make more sense just to write Sold out?
DeleteBEG is once more confirmed to be the main hub in the Ex-YU region. Glad to see this :)
ReplyDeleteI'm from Greece and I hope everyone can see how beautiful Belgrade is and come back the next time as a tourist! Open hearted people and lovely food!
ReplyDeleteWasn't this supposed to be held in Berlin?? Or did I mix something up?
ReplyDeleteIt was but they moved it to Belgrade because of Covid measures.
DeleteAhh ok makes sense. Thank you. It is certainly much easier for Turkish fans to come :)
DeleteThat's for sure
DeleteAirbnb's in Belgrade are almost completely booked. The ones that are available are like 300 euros/night. I'm renting place there and have put price I never believed it will be booked but what the hack. It was booked immediately.
DeleteGood for everyone.
DeleteTickets for all the games at Final Four have been sold out so I assume we will be seeing quite a few foreigners.
ReplyDeleteI hope BEG spotters will be busy those days!
ReplyDeleteWe will do our best :)
DeleteHa la Madrid !!
ReplyDeleteLufthansa from MUC on those days is €520 one way without luggage. Some days operating with A319, some with A320.
ReplyDeleteI think they will upgrade equipment come next week.
Deletewait, some people were not happy with Adria prices, how about this now? Why is Lufthansa abusing monopoly on German routes? I wonder why....
DeleteWell this is only for a couple days because of this tournament.
DeleteLH has monopoloy on only on route MUC-BEG.
DeleteOn the other side JU has many more monopoly routes to Germany.
The fares are high because many are using LH to transfer to BEG, presumably from Spain, Madrid in particular.
DeleteVueling should also benefit from this on their Belgrade flights, especially since their days of operation coincide with the tournament.
ReplyDeleteDo they still fly to BEG in the middle of the night?
DeleteYes
DeleteThat schedule is idiotic and suits absolutely no one.
DeleteWhat are the timings?
DeleteBCN-BEG
Delete21:10-23:45
BEG-BCN
00:25-03:05
Second weekly flight
BCN-BEG
18:50-21:25
BEG-BCN
22:05-00:45
By far the worst schedule of any airline on that route
DeleteWho on earth would want to arrive in Barcelona at 03AM!
DeleteDuring the height of summer this flight is usually heavily delayed because it departs Barcelona late by 2 hours. So people spend the entire night awake and arrive at 5.
DeleteThere is going to be a great verity of aircraft at Belgrade these next few weeks.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is going to benefit the most.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. It is the national airline of the host country.
DeleteIm glad to see AS is still utilizing it's A330 when it's not flying to JFK but it's high time for another A330.
ReplyDelete