The 24 commercial airports in the former Yugoslavia handled over 26 million passengers in 2022, during which the remnants of the coronavirus pandemic were still being felt on the travel industry, particularly during the first quarter of the year. Several airports registered their busiest year on record, including Pristina, Sarajevo, Zadar, Banja Luka and Portorož. On the other hand, some airports were strongly impacted by the war in Ukraine which began in February 2022, with Tivat and Pula notably affected. Overall, a number of airports in the former Yugoslavia saw a quicker pace of recovery than the European average, among which are Belgrade, Zagreb, Split, Skopje, Podgorica and Niš.
Pristina Airport saw the biggest improvement on its pre-pandemic performance, adding over 600.000 passengers. It was followed by Zadar, which, for the firm time, handled over one million travellers in a single year. Banja Luka Airport added over 193.000 passengers on 2019, making it the third fastest growing airport in the former Yugoslavia. On the other hand, Ljubljana Airport saw the biggest decline in passenger numbers, making it one of the slowest recovering capital city airports in Europe. It was followed by Dubrovnik and then Tivat, which was dealt a major blow with the loss of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian markets due to the outbreak of war. Russia was Tivat’s largest air market prior to Covid-19.
Overall, Belgrade Airport retained its position as the busiest in the former Yugoslavia, while Zagreb returned to the number two position for the first time since 2019, outperforming both Pristina and Split, which had overtaken it during the pandemic-stricken 2020 and 2021. For the first time, Skopje was just within 10.000 passengers of overtaking its counterpart in Dubrovnik, while Sarajevo overtook Podgorica. Despite the bankruptcy of Montenegro Airlines in 2019, Podgorica Airport managed to nearly outperform its record 2019 results, just 2.4% below its pre-pandemic figures. Kraljevo’s Morava Airport debuted on the list, handling 13.683 passengers during its first full year of operations.
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What happened in Dubrovnik? Why such a big decrease compared to example Split which did relatively well.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering too. I don't think DBV had an overly developed network to Russia and Ukraine for that to have had a huge influence.
DeleteDubrovnik underperformed
DeleteThanks for clarifying this last anon, because it wasn't clear from the text, so we needed you to explain it once again.
DeleteI believe Dubrovnik lacks intercontinental visitors, mainly Asian.
DeleteIt became too expensive, that's what happened
Delete@9.30 true. Completely forgot about Asia's closure for most of 2922.
DeleteAround 5% guests were Russians plus not sure percentage, lot of guests from Asia and Australia
DeleteAnonymous 09:30 and 09:33 have it right, loss of Far East visitors coupled with ridiculously high prices affected DBV a lot. Also one bizarre reason - Game of Thrones thing fizzled out which was to be expected at some point. In 2023 vistors from Far East will return to a certain amount, but I would bet that the airport will again underperform compared to 2019 as the the prices are still going up and up.
DeleteWouldn't agree there with you because current bookings are higher then in 2019. Customers that are visiting Dubrovnik are not so price sensitive and Dubrovnik is still popular destination but not for everyone pocket
DeleteYes but this doesn't show in passenger numbers.
DeleteMy opinion is that after this restart B&H airports start to take again their citizens since their development after the war was far bellow Croatian ones. I worked I touristic agency mainly focusing on airport transfers. So, mainly B&H diaspora because of luck of connections were using Croatian airports. This will happen more if Mostar airport start to work properly. Since HDZ management who was under influence of Croatia this was stopped for long time.
DeleteI'm really surprised how well Portoroz it's doing considering they don't have scheduled flights.
ReplyDeleteZAD having more passengers than Ljubljana says everything about Ljubljana's management.
ReplyDeleteI think that was the case in 2021 too
DeleteIt was
DeleteLJU 2021 - 430943 passengers
ZAD 2021 - 513093 passengers
This year looks more promising for LJU.
DeleteYes, that is true. I hope they have a more speedy recovery this year.
DeleteThey will.
DeleteBut nothing special will not happen without national carrier...
DeleteAnonymous10:59
DeletePristina does not have a national carrier, yet they are on fire, so it's about who is controlling the airport and who is making decisions there more than having-not having a national carrier.
However, unlike PRN, LJU does have a competition nearby (Zagreb, Trieste, Venice, Pula etc), amazing highway connection to all the neighboring states, solid railways etc. and that goes against them. Considering the size and the location of the country I think LJU is doing OK.
@Anonymous09:05: The current run of ZAD is on shaky legs because of their strong dependency from Ryanair.
DeleteHow true.
DeleteWell done PRN. Excellent result.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. An airport not relying on a national carrier and pumping money in it. It used to be almost similar to SKP and now the difference is almost 1 million!
DeleteAlso unbelievable difference in Serbian airports between BEG and INI, it being the most populous ex-Yu country.
BNX has already outperformed OHD and reached INI levels!
BEG and INI is no different than Budapest and Debrecen or Prague and Brno. Geography doesn't require a lot of active airports, that's why PRN and SKP do so well, they are not close to any major airports like SKG, BEG or SOF.
DeleteAnonymous09:14
DeleteYou forgot that INI is located in the poorest part of the country, super close to Greek and Albanian beaches and well connected with highways to other parts of the country and with it rest of Europe, and plus it does not have the capacity to accommodate many passengers. Whenever they have flights scheduled in an hour difference, the terminal becomes super chaotic and crowded, so maybe when new terminal is over, the airport could do better.
Also, AirSerbia is not doing much to advertise the routes they are doing from INI, including the option for people to transfer via BEG to other destinations. Also, not many people know for that option and simply don't use it even when connection times are amazing, and prices are decent (usually its much cheaper to fly from INI via BEG than directly from BEG).
Another thing that went off-radar is that JU sells tickets for passengers that want to transfer via INI (the recent that I discovered is Han to Istanbul with about 45minute transfer time and about 70+ euros one way on economy light) but not many people know about that. INI has the potential needed to grow and even be a minor (and alternative) transfer hub, but no one does much about it. We will see how they will develop it in the future when the new terminal and a semi-high-speed railways is finished, it can even host an airport railway station (since the railway itself is just in front of the terminal) but that's something the government needs to plan and project.
That is why comparing Nis and Debrecen makes sense. When you do that you realize INI isn't doing that badly. Debrecen is located all the way in the east with no real threat other than from BUD which is 233 km away, so almost as Belgrade is from Nis.
DeleteUnlike INI, Debrecen doesn't have other airports like SKP, SOF... with which it has to compete.
On top of all this, Hungary is wealthier than Serbia and has a larger diaspora. Plus eastern Hungary isn't close to any sea like Nis is so charter traffic should be easier to sustain.
Looking at all this, INI does really well. That is why we need to compare them to Kosice, Osijek, Tuzla, Debrecen or Brno.
Podgorica did extremely well considering Air Montenegro is more than half the size smaller than Montenegro Airlines plus it can't handle transfer passengers, which is something that Montenegro Airlines did.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI'm surprised Podgorica managed those numbers. They did better than I expected.
DeleteGood recovery by most
ReplyDeleteHow do the top exyu airports compare to the rest of the region?
ReplyDeleteI expect Kraljevo will overtake Osijek this year. Kraljevo didn't have any flights until the summer.
ReplyDeleteDidn't OSI also not have some PSO flights operated by Trade Air for several months?
DeleteCripple flight.
DeleteThat flight is useless, it gets cancelled very often since there are no passengers booked, not even 1! This is not surprising since there aren't many connections possible.
DeleteOSI should fork out some money and give JU subsidies to operate BEG-OSI the same way RJK did some years ago.
Does anybody know when the new runway will be built?
DeleteTivat is really in a bad situation
ReplyDeleteIt lost its biggest market. It will take time for them to find alternatives.
DeleteI think TIV is the only airport who had a worse results than in 2021.
DeleteCorrect. They had 671,333 passengers in 2021.
Delete@Anonymous09:17: PUY suffers from the same problem as TIV. Heavy dependency from Russian and Ukrainian market.
Delete12 million passengers more than 2021.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting how airports perform this year.
ReplyDeleteI expect record results for most airports.
DeleteAll that red should turn green during the year.
DeletePRN and SJJ have shown really impressive results
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that it is all over for Sarajevo with Wizz leaving :(
DeleteNije nista proslo! Dolazi zamjena:-)
DeleteWho flies to Mali Losinj? Private planes?
ReplyDeleteYes private flights.
DeleteIs there any plan to develop Mali Losinj for commercial flights?
DeleteThere were plans. With investors from Russia. Believe everything halted now due to the sanctions. And in my opinion, with RJK and PUY on 50 km each, and both underperforming, I really don't see why should LSZ be developed to handle 320/737, which were the plans
DeleteOn 50 km... Epic!
Delete?
DeleteCrazy to think that LIS concluded 2022 with more than 28 million, which is the entire ex-Yu traffic a country with barely 10 million.
ReplyDeleteZAD is most likely to have a good 2023 as well.
It's sad
DeleteIt's a tourist powerhouse. That's like saying how shocking it is that Rhodes with 115.000 people has more traffic than Zagreb.
DeleteRhodes has more traffic than Belgrade too !
Delete9:37 Not only. TP has a very good and developed hub with really cheap flights to North America. Using the A321LR allows them to use quite low prices and not to mention the golden access to the huge Brazilian market. Portugal has an excellent geographical position.
DeleteAnon 10.01 only this year because Belgrade had a bad start of the year. Rhodes handles around 5 to 5.5 million so less than Belgrade usually does.
DeleteThis year Greece made a killing with tourism. All airports performed well. No one does tourism better than the Greeks.
10:08 Spain: hold my beer xD
DeleteMomko, you need to visit the country and see how true tourism is done.
Anonymous11:06
DeleteDon't you dare say anything bad about Greek tourism on an ex-Yu platform, it's dangerous :D
Anon 13:04 Of course not, but I personally prefer Spain much more than Greece. Guess everyone has their likes. Spain is more diversified for me. Love their tapas culture, very good infrastructure and the great bars and nightlife. Imo, they have much more experience in tourism compared to Greece.
DeleteAnonymous15:24
DeleteI personally think that Spain is worlds tourism powerhouse that has the most things to offer in whole Europe, but being the basic bi*&h I am, I would not change Greece for anything.
I was joking in my comment before :D
17:08 LOL Greece is Greece and Spain is Spain. Spain remains the most interesting European country for me personally from Barcelona all the way to Lanzarote. Very difficult not to fall in love with it. Greece is more about islands and beaches. Spain has cheap, cheesy resorts in Mallorca to elegant cities likes Santander, Oviedo and vibrant Seville. Málaga and its surroundings are amazing and of course modern Madrid. Will not even mention the Santiago de Compostela area. Spain is love.
DeleteOf course because Spain was a global empire that enslaved entire continents and used their resources to build all that. Meanwhile Greece was an Ottoman province until 1821.
DeleteGreece has the best food, great beaches and islands and fantastic hospitality.
Thank for the list. Very insightful.
ReplyDeletePortoroz is a nice surprise every year. I wish they could start handling scheduled flights.
ReplyDeleteThey are trying to get JU to launch flights but I don't think it will happen this year. We will see.
DeleteIf they for scheduled flights I could see them getting close to 100,000 passengers.
DeleteSuch a shame that such a touristic city with so many foreign visitors like Mostar has so little traffic. It the best example of corrupt and politically appointed management.
ReplyDeleteBEG holds up quite well considering the amount of new routes added from Nis.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for the first results for 2023. It's going to be a much better year.
ReplyDeleteI'm stiil worried there isn't a single new route scheduled from Zagreb for this year.
DeleteMore surprised than worried I should say.
DeleteSo this year there are 9 airports with over 1 million passengers. I think that's a first.
ReplyDeleteNo, it was the case before when Ljubljana used to handle over a million passengers.
DeletePredictions for BEG 2023? Also with the pace of frequency increases and new route introductions, when is it realistic for BEG to reach 10 million?
ReplyDeleteI expect BEG to have some 7 million passengers this year.
DeleteAnonymous10:02 New routes and extra flights on existing ones simply cannot bring an extra 4.5 million people so that BEG can surpass 10 million :D
DeleteAs Anonymous10:04 said 7 milion is a realist number and a great result, maybe even 8 million if a miracle happens or another European airline crashes and AS picks their leftovers like they usually do :D But so far so good, both BEG and JU are doing great.
@10,02
DeleteMany are predicting around 7 million pax for this year, which requires a growth of 24,8%. The last time growth was in the double digits was in 2014, the first full year of Air Serbia operations (31%). If BEG maintain an average growth of 10% the next few years, it'll take around 2027 to reach 10 million pax. Earliest estimate for 10 million pax I would say 2026, while a more conservative 7% yearly growth hitting the 10 million mark 2029.
The growth of JU will be the most important factor in this realising. Maintaining a 50% market share at BEG would require JU to double their size, which may not be so realistic. 2023 will be a very important year for JU in terms of organising enough aircraft to support its growth, and most importantly staff. This winter hasn't been a good indicator that they are managing their growth well (currently 3 wet leases, which has never happened at Air Serbia). If they manage to pull off a successful summer season, it'll be a good indication that they could pull off an ambitious growth plan the next few years.
Actually they have 4 leases:
Delete1. Dan Air A319
2. Dan Air A320
3. Montenegro E95
4. Romanian ATR
@20,00
DeleteI skipped out on YR-URS (A319). Thanks for the correction.
I think they kept it for longer than they initially planned. I saw the A319 at the gate the other day and they removed the Air Serbia titles from the fuselage. Later on I was told this happened in late 2022. Seems like they needed it for longer especially since YU-APB is sitting half dead at Jat Tehnika.
DeleteSkopje still has room for improvement, the catchment area is excellent, they just need to work in bringing more routes.
ReplyDeleteCatchment area isn't that great as there are around 3.5 million people who are mostly poor. What helps is the gasto demand. That is why routes like Barcelona struggled from SKP
DeleteThat's a nice image
ReplyDeleteSta ocekuje Aerodrom Morava Kraljevo od ove godine?
ReplyDeleteProduzenje letova Er Srbije od strane Vlade i od ove godine?
Pocetak gradnje nove piste sa Kargo centrom i pratecim objektima? Ili? 🛫😀✈🌐🛫🇷🇸✈
Number of pax per country:
ReplyDelete1. Croatia 9.882.761
2. Serbia 6.014.434
3. Kosovo 2.994.550
4. North Macedonia 2.371.423
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina 2.505.404
6. Montenegro 1.919.521
7. Slovenia 1.004.814.
PS 2.205.404 for B&H*
DeleteIndeed!
DeleteComparison to 2019 per country
DeleteSlovenia -42,67%
Montenegro -27,97%
Croatia -13,66%
N.Macedonia -9,4%
Serbia -8,16%
BiH +14,94%
Priština +26,2%
Anonymous11:01
DeleteYou totally cannot guess where the author of this comment is from just by the way the numbers are listed. lol
I did not intend to guess at all where he is coming from and honestly I do not care.
DeleteCroatia 10 mil
DeleteSerbia 9 mil
.....
Just FYI @anon 11:01 Priština is not a country
DeleteI wonder if SKP will overtake DBV this year. I think it is doable.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Banja Luka. Knowing where the airport was just a few years ago, these are excellent results.
ReplyDeleteTrue it's quite impressive in terms of numbers. This year they will jump over Nis and come close with Tuzla.
DeleteZadar is doing amazing. Thanks Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBlessing and a curse, all at once.
DeleteSo BEG was the only ex-Yu airport that was in Europe's top 100 last year?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteI'm hoping one day an ex-Yu airport will reach top 50.
DeleteIt will once it passes 8 million per year which should happen soon.
DeleteAny prediction for 2023?
DeleteZagreb - 3700 000
Split - 3 300 000
Dubrivnik - 2800 000
Zadar - 1 250 000
Pula - 750 000
Rijeka - 220 000
Osijek - 50 000
Brac - 30 000
Number of pax per country:
1. Croatia 12 000 000~?
2. Serbia 7.300 000~
3. Kosovo 3.550 000~
4. North Macedonia 2.770 000~
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.105.000~
6. Montenegro 2 300 000~
7. Slovenia 1 500 000
Where will Zagreb find an additional 600.000 passengers this year with no new routes and minimal growth on existing lines?
Delete600.000 passengers are arriving from the Land of Dreams.
DeleteMy bet is on OU with its ultra capable and professional management combined with brand new A220 fleet LOL!!!
DeleteIf ZAG is lucky they can pull off maximum 10% growth if existing airlines see better than expected bookings. So 3.3 or 3.4 is the best case scenario.
DeleteDon't forget that we are almost in February. That mean ZAG missed out on getting extra flights in early summer like March or April. Now best case scenario is getting something from June or July.
Compared to 2019 Banja Luka had the biggest percentage increase. Combined passenger numbers for Nis, Banja Luka and Morava could reach over million in 2023. Belgrade could go over 6.5 million based on already announced routes and projection for additional capacity, frequency and destinations.
ReplyDeleteI also think Osijek, Portoroz and Mostar could combined get to over 100k.
Decent from Skopje and Macedonia In general when you look at how hard it was to travel there at the start of 2022. With all the additional flights it Skopje and Ohrid this year I can see Skopje potentially hitting 2.5mil and Ohrid 400k.
ReplyDelete2,5 million will be difficult but I think Skopje can hit 2,3 million and Ohrid 260k
DeleteMark my words, Nis is not going to recover. The immense growth from 2016. to 2019. raised some eyebrows and that was it. Ryanair already objected for HNN route claiming AirSerbia monopolised INI. Few weeks after AS announced all the new Italian routes, FR closed Bergamo for "commercial" reasons - flights with 90+ % LF. First it was until the end of March, few days later until the end of February and after the meeting with "Aerodromi Srbije" finally, flights ending by the end of January. Having in mind that Begramo is one of the biggest FR hubs, this basically means - that's it, no more.
ReplyDeleteGovernment of Serbia cannot reject any EU airline from operating to any Serbian airport from the EU due to regulations in place. Exception made with the poorly articulated (what a surprise) PSO agreement tailor made for JU. INI-ZRH isn't doing well as the first non subsidised route for JU out of INI, while LX first operated the route with smaller aircraft, bigger network and still cancelled the route. Regarding BGY-INI, 90% CLF doesn't mean much as poor yield could also be a motivation for pulling the route. FR also cancelled BGY-OMR, which is well over 300km from Belgrade (5+ hours by car). For comparison, Budapest is just over 3 hours from Oradea. I doubt JU/airport/government is at fault for that as well. Roughly half of JU's network from INI is not able to be served by any other airline other than that registered in Serbia due to bilaterals (nothing strange about that). Yield simply isn't there for many routes, however I think there is room for slight LCC growth. Niš simply doesn't seem to be high on the list of priorities for ULCC despite the lower rates.
DeleteAnon 22:38, claim that INI-BGY was shut down by "Belgrade" to reduce competition Air Serbia has on BEG-MXP route is just nuts! Don't you know Wizz announced BEG-BGY route? THAT one will compete with Air Serbia BEG-MXP, not BGY route from airport 250km away from BEG!
DeleteSeriously, anyone or any media making that claim is obviously unable to look at those basic facts and use common sense to figure this out! Pathetic!
First JU INI-ZRH flight operated with 36 and 80 passengers. On an A319 this is disastrous. As for Ryanair, it's pure nonsense that Belgrade had anything to do with this suspension. After all, Belgrade is getting Corfu flights this summer while FR is increasing INI-CFU. So how come this route wasn't terminated? Or how come Ryanair still flies to Malta from Nis despite there being so many flights from Belgrade?
DeleteThis has more to do with so many flights to Italy being operated from SKP and SOF. People from the south use those flights as there is a lot of flexibility, more than the 2 weekly from Nis.
I think it's time for INI and the south to realize that relying on Ryanair is not smart. Their future lies on growth by W6 and JU. If they want more flights then they should use their political connections to make sure JU keeps adding more PSO flights from INI.
JU has so many wet leases, it's not like INI can't encourage them to get one E95 wet lease and base it in INI at least for the summer months. Like that they could operate more flights, more often.
Please read the first half of the article and tell me if the guy made a single mistake in his estimations. And then read the second half and compare to your answers. As simple as that
Deletehttps://beta.rs/posmatraci/posmatraci-vesti/109320-subvencionisani-letovi-niskog-aerodroma-lome-krila-konkurenciji
Procitaj komentar 05:14 pa reci kako normalna osoba može da misli da je tu bilo uticaja.
Delete