Belgrade Airport handles over 700.000 passengers in July

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport welcomed over 700.000 passengers through its doors in July, just 3% shy of its pre-pandemic levels. The airport handled some 712.500 travellers during the month. It represents its second busiest July on record behind 2019. During the month, the number of commercial aircraft movements decreased 2.8% on three years ago. Over the January - July period, Belgrade Airport registered 2.854.000 passengers, which is still down 15% on the pre-pandemic 2019 but up 96% on last year. During the same period, aircraft movements were down 11%. Airport operator VINCI singled out Belgrade as a “notable” performer in its portfolio of 53 airports across twelve countries.

Fuelling Belgrade Airport’s growth this summer is Air Serbia, which introduced a number of new routes and grew frequencies across its network. It accounted for 55% of the airport’s passenger traffic last month. The carrier’s overall capacity on scheduled services during the third quarter is down just 1% on pre-pandemic levels. This does not take into account its vast charter network, which has seen 30% more flights this summer than in 2019. Belgrade Airport currently offers services to more than 100 destinations. During July, Beijing was added to its network, while this coming winter season, another two long haul routes are expected to launch, to Tianjin in China and Havana in Cuba. Hainan Airlines has confirmed it will continue to maintain operations from the Chinese capital throughout the winter as well.

Passenger numbers on a number of select routes out of Belgrade during the first quarter of the year have been made public, showing the likes of Istanbul, Zurich and Podgorica as the busiest. It should be taken into account that strict travel restrictions were still in place in most of Europe during the first quarter, as well as ban on entry from Serbia to some markets. As a result, the majority of routes were still performing below pre-pandemic levels, however, there were some exceptions. Passenger numbers on Istanbul flights, both the main airport and Sabiha Gokcen, saw figures improve 3.5% and 19% respectively. Dubai was the standout performer, as has been the case throughout the pandemic, with 29.641 travellers flying between the two cities during the first quarter, up a notable 74.1% on the pre-pandemic 2019, and an improvement of 71% on last year.

Belgrade performance on select routes, Q1 2022