The former Yugoslavia’s 24 commercial airports handled 2.773.787 passengers during the first two months of the year. Brač is the only one to have not welcomed a single traveller so far. Notably, Ljubljana’s strong performance during February saw it overtake both Sarajevo and Tuzla. Rijeka’s poor showing during the first two months resulted in it slipping behind both Portorož and Kraljevo. Slovenia’s second busiest airport handled over 1.300 passengers so far this year, despite having no commercial flights. Kraljevo was close to welcoming 1.000 customers on Air Serbia’s two weekly rotations to Istanbul.
Passenger performance by airport, January - February 2023
In February itself, two airports from the former Yugoslavia were within the top 100 busiest on the continent. Belgrade positioned itself as the 72nd busiest in Europe, just behind Cologne and Keflavik in Iceland, but ahead of Riga, Malta and Stuttgart. During February, the Serbian market saw the third largest passenger growth rate in Europe when compared to the same month in 2019. Zagreb just made it on the list, placing 100th. It was behind the likes of Larnaca, Vilnius and Tbilisi, but ahead of Salzburg, Hanover and Pristina. Pristina itself was 108th on the list, ahead of Tallinn, Chisinau and Verona. However, during the month, Zagreb overtook Pristina, which was busier in January than its Croatian counterpart. Skopje and Podgorica were the only other two airports to make it within the top 150 busiest in Europe during February, which is considered the slowest month in the aviation industry.
Passenger performance by airport February 2023
Passenger performance by airport, February 2023
During the first two months of the year, the Slovak market saw the biggest decline in passenger figures in percentage terms in Europe (excluding Ukraine) when compared to the pre-pandemic era and was just ahead of Slovenia which saw the second largest decline, down 41.3%.. On the other hand, Albania saw the fastest growth, according to Airports Council International Europe, and was just ahead of the Kosovo market, which had the second fastest growth rate. Notably, Russia handled more passengers so far in 2023 than three years ago with 5.4% growth. Overall, London Heathrow Airport is the busiest so far this year in Europe, handling 10.7 million passengers and overtaking Istanbul’s main gateway, which was second. They are followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Istanbul Sabiha Gocken, London Gatwick and Lisbon.
European rank for EX-YU capitals and select regional airports, January - February 2023
Will be interesting to see what BEG's numbers will be for March. Should be a good month. It also marked the resumption of BEG-BUD by JU. Good thing is that the route keeps on improving and is actually recording solid loads these days. There is a lot of O&D demand which I don't think anyone expected.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what April looks like and how things turn out. Hopefully JU sorts out it fleet issues so that they can stabilize their network.
Do you have any clue about the loads on BUD route?
DeleteDon't know exactly but from what I saw loads are rarely below 20 passengers per flight, many times they are over 40. Overall it's good and I am sure this route will perform quite well in the long run.
DeleteI expected a fair bit of O&D demand judging by the schedule they put in place. Crossing the border between Hungary and Serbia can be frustrating and waiting times can go into the hours, especially in the summer months. The direct flights provide a faster alternative and there is a market that will pay for the convenience, especially business travellers.
DeleteNo doubt the route will work out well. BUD lacks adequate connectivity to Southern Europe where JU will have a strong advantage with transfer pax. There isn't much competition and the LCC's don't offer the frequencies that JU does. JU has had impressive growth, especially in Southern Europe, which will be an added advantage this time around compared to the last time JU served BUD.
Tremendous growth for Bucharest airport!
ReplyDeleteIs there some place where we can see the full list?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wish there was a place where you could ask for something and get an answer from computer or internet itself.
DeleteThat would be really cool, even cooler if they named it by a really huge number.
And this shows that if any airport is not located in a tourist destination ( Athens ) or a big commercial hub (Amsterdam) you can never be a big player no matter how many destinations will start !
ReplyDeleteFYI Amsterdam has more tourists than Athens.
DeleteBucharest is the 37th busiest airport in Europe!
DeleteAnd it is neither a tourist hotspot or a big commercial hub.
That’s not his point tho.
Delete@anonymous 10:26 , you missed the point .
DeleteNo, I didn't. I was just pointing out one of the many ways in which the statement is flawed.
DeleteAnd Bucharest's economy, in terms of GDP is not far off from the whole of Serbia's (54bn).
DeleteAnd yet OTP is 36th and BEG is 72th...
Delete@10:05 just goes to show having all the data in front of you doesn't make you smart if you pick the wrong stats or if you don't know to analyze it.
DeleteAtlanta is far from top global tourist destination and not close to the largest commercial hub in the world. But it it a largest airport in the world.
As for OTP, poor land connectivity and large diaspora help a lot. Now imagine if Bucharest was located in Slovenia with only short drive to Venice, Vienna etc.
^^^
DeleteWhat is true for Bucharest is also true for Belgrade.
Which is why BEG jumped by 10 positions, from 82nd to 72nd position in Europe. Not bad.
Deletewow coastal Croatia. The airports could just give ther employees a long winter hoilday :)
ReplyDeletePUY, RJK, ZAD
DeleteThey hire mostly seasonal workers.
DeleteBanja Luka better than Split? Wow!
DeleteIt won't last long.
DeleteIt won't because of all the tourists coming, but those numbers show what the potential is based on the local demand.
DeleteNot only that Croats don't travel but Dalmatians travel even less.
DeleteGood results overall
ReplyDeleteSo in March BEG definitely had in total over 1 million passengers
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteBEG should be somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4.
DeleteThanks
DeleteFinally Ljubljana overtook Sarajevo :D
ReplyDeleteAnd Tuzla
DeleteSo that means LJU will be around 1.4-1.5M passengers this year?
DeleteWell remember that Ljubljana should get new routes once the tender occurs so I expect more passengers.
Deletedespite all the "Winter is coming" experts
DeleteIt's still no where near good ...we should aim for 2-2.5 million pax, not celebrating 1.300.000 of them
DeleteWell winter is indeed coming, many regional airports are not doing as well as they should. So the fact that you keep your head in the sand doesn't change the reality my friend.
Delete@14.24 :D:D keep on those comments
DeleteI flew out of LJU on Friday for the first time since the new terminal was opened and I have to say I was positively surprised. The service was quick, friendly and hassle-free, while the terminal is simple, yet modern and fresh looking, if that’s the word. The atmosphere was good. Plenty of Austrians on the FZ flight to Dubai, though. Was surprised about that.
Delete2.7 million for 24 airports is a disaster.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+1000
DeleteJust wait until Kosovo gets the long awaited visa liberalization
ReplyDeleteVisa is not stopping growing numbers in PRN.
DeleteJust 2,000 difference between Zagreb and Pristina. It's going to be a race this year.
ReplyDeleteZAG should have bigger growth if some airline takes up those subsidies announced recently.
DeleteLess than 10,000 difference between Sarajevo and Tuzla!
ReplyDeleteTuzla's growth will slow this summer when Ryanair leaves.
DeleteNice... good result for BEG with 72nd ranking in Europe. Hopefully February will be good so they can move even higher.
ReplyDeletei wonder if ljubljana reached 200K in Q1.
ReplyDeleteI think it is possible
DeletePortoroz is on fire!
ReplyDeleteI hope JU will consider launching flights to POW!
DeleteI still don't get how they manage to handle so many passengers.
Delete