Wizz Air overtakes easyJet to become Pristina’s busiest


Wizz Air was Pristina Airport’s busiest airline in 2022 as three major European low cost carriers handled the bulk of Kosovo’s passenger traffic. Wizz Air welcomed 414.478 passengers on its Pristina operations, notably improving its performance by 80.4% on the year before when it was the airport’s third busiest airline. The carrier also outperformed its pre-pandemic traffic levels by 63.6%, as it handled 253.282 passengers in 2019. Wizz Air maintains seven routes out of Pristina. easyJet was the second busiest airline with 411.688 travellers, up 45.8% on 2021, while Eurowings came fourth by handling 342.262 travellers.

Pristina Airport's ten busiest airlines in 2022


Low cost carriers and flights organised by tour operators again took a leading role at Pristina Airport, which saw its busiest year on record in 2022 and defied global trends as it kept growing for the better part of the slowdown in travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Turkish Airlines was Pristina’s busiest legacy carrier, handling 199.906 passengers on its flights from Istanbul last year. It was followed by Austrian Airlines with 126.298 travellers and Swiss International Air Lines, which managed to carry 26.474 passengers on its service between Geneva and Pristina. LOT Polish Airlines, which launched seasonal flights from Warsaw last year, was the fourth busiest legacy carrier, accounting for 8.205 travellers, while British Airways, which does not plan to restore its seasonal flights from Heathrow managed 4.285 passengers.

Pristina Airport passenger traffic in 2022


During 2022, Wizz Air’s President, Robert Carey, said, “We will handle over 600.000 Kosovo passengers next year, which will make us the largest airline here. We will maintain services to the likes of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. It is very important for us that travellers from Kosovo, but also those from nearby markets, fly with Wizz Air when they need to”. He added, “Part of our job is to add as many new destinations as possible. We hope to build a base here in the future”. Switzerland continues to hold its position as the busiest market out of Pristina, with 36% of all passengers either departing or arriving from the country. It was closely followed by Germany with a 32% share, then Turkey (15%), Austria (7%), the United Kingdom (4%) and Sweden (2%).



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    I wonder if they will open a base in PRN

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      I doubt before visas are lifted.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:12

      Wouldn't it have an impact on their Skopje base?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:46

      @09:08 They will be lifted by the end of the year:

      https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/12/14/kosovo-council-presidency-and-european-parliament-agree-on-visa-free-travel/

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    Big growth for all airlines.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    Interesting. Would have thought busiest would be one of the tour operators.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      Same. What happened to MyWings?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:14

      Trade Air and ETF Airways are My Wings operations.
      Now also have flights with one A319 and one A320 from Trade Air.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:07

    How insanely busy is the Swiss-Pristina market.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      It is a huge market because of the diaspora.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:21

      I don't get why Edelweiss flies from Zurich to Pristina and not Swiss...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:25

      Low fares
      But LX have big potential for 3-4 daily;)))))

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:51

      I would day PRN-ZRH is probably the largest in ex-Yu if you deploy a whole A340on a short European flight!

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/07/edelweiss-air-deploys-a340-to-pristina.html
      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/07/edelweiss-deploys-a340-to-pristina.html
      https://simpleflying.com/edelweiss-airbus-a340-pristina/

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:03

      @9.21
      Swiss codeshares on these flights.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous12:31

      Edelweiss service is better than LX.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:08

    Very interesting results to see. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:10

    PRN did very well last year

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:11

    Any chance Easy will open some new route from PRN?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:13

    Good mix of airlines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      There is a big lack of legacy carriers.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      ?
      Turkish Airlines
      Swiss
      Pegasus
      Austrian
      Eurowings ( alternative to LH)
      easyJet
      Wizz Air
      AnadoluJet
      Edelweiss

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:27

      Pegasus, Eurowings, easyJet, Wizz Air, AnadoluJet and Edelweiss are not legacy carriers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:04

      The legacy airlines flying to PRN are Turkish, Swiss, Austrian and LOT.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:31

      That is not very much actually.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:17

    GP Aviation seems to be doing very well?
    Why they don't have online booking, which tour operator sells tickets?
    A very strange Swiss airline

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:24

      GP aviation operates with airtiketa.com and prishtinaticket

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:15

      GP Aviation works with mobsters. So does Trade Air.
      In the past, many airlines have also worked with the mafia Orange2fly, Small Planet, Aviro Air, Fly365 Romania, Air Mediterranean and many others.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous07:11

      No matter how much we talk, these are the mafias, don't argue! It is completely true that all tour operators are scammers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous08:03

      +1000000

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:20

    Who operates the most destinations from Pristina?
    Eurowings, GP Aviation or My Wings?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:21

    So Wizz is the biggest airline in Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia in ex-Yu.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:22

    I read somewhere that they arrested the owners of PrishtinaJET? What happened? ( Malta Med Air , Air Malta flights)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:30

      Not surprised. Most of these "tour operators" are owned by criminals laundering money.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:17

      #onlyinkosovo

      Delete
    3. Ha ha ha, only in eastern Europe maybe.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:28

    How many "airlines" does Kosovo have?
    I can think of Chair, Air Prishtina, Kosova Airlines, Prishtinaticket, Air Munich, My Wings. I don't know if another European market works this way?
    It's a mafia!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      Add flights to LJU haha

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:24

      Air Munich? :D

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:27

      i bet its the same guy... the arrested Prishtina Jet boss was also from Munich

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:30

      Chair is AirPrishtina, KosovaAirlines is Eurokoha(Eurowings Partner for Kosovo), Airmunich is MyWings.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous10:03

    Very good statistics. Well done PRN!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:47

    Ljubljana should watch and learn from Priština model.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:52

      Have money laundering operation set up at their airport?

      Delete
  16. Anonymous11:39

    Nice results, hope 2023 brings in new destinations. I’m praying for direct AMS flights. TUI Netherlands scheduled a twice weekly (seasonal) service back in 2020 but discontinued sales shortly after.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous12:30

    Ryanair missing big time.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous12:32

    What is also interesting is that W6 will operate daily flights to LTN and FMM in summer from PRN.
    U2 will be increasing BER to 5 weekly in the summer peak season. It might be safe to say that PRN might even overtake ZAG if the trend continues and widen the gap further with SKP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:23

      BA is cancelled, FCO cancelled

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:46

      not sure about ZAG but SKP is geting a 6th Wizz aircraft as reported here (FMM goes to daily there too) plus LH flights

      Delete
  19. Anonymous14:16

    Market with tour operators, this is shame

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous15:20

    if you ever visited the websites of these reisebüro... its shambles... cant imgaine somebody giving their data online there

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous16:01

    List of destinations from PRN is boring, all gasto.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:43

      Without gasto’s this airport wouldn’t reach even 1 milion passengers

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:51

      I think you are being ambitious, they wouldn't pass 400.000 passengers.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:27

      That applies to quite a few ex-yu airports

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:34

      I can only imagine how busy and interesting other ExYu Markets would be, if visas weren't lifted for them 😅

      Delete
  22. Anonymous18:44

    Kudos to Kosovo for being the best performer in the exYu Aviation Market, despite all the challanges and obstacles ahead of them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:38

      its all about mass emigration

      Delete
  23. Anonymous18:59

    I think Wizz are going to be based in PRN before this summer season.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous01:14

    wizzair I think they should open new routes from riyadh/dammam to prishtina… or abu dhabi to prishtina cause there are too many saudi tourists visits Kosova last years

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous04:00

      So true. So many Saudi Tourists in Kosovo. The Manifesta Festival last year, and Dua Lipas annual Concert, were like magnets in attracting tourists from the Middle East.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:37

      lol

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:23

      Air Arabia used to have a service from PRN to Sharjah but that was not successful at all. Wizz has those destinations from TIA for whoever wants to use them

      Delete

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