Austria is one of the biggest markets for most capital city airports in the former Yugoslavia, with 929.514 passengers handled between Vienna and the six capitals in 2022. Ljubljana is the only capital city in the former Yugoslavia not to be linked with Vienna, having lost flights with the demise of Adria Airways in September 2019. Only two capital cities managed to increase their passenger numbers with Austria’s largest city last year when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, with Podgorica seeing the biggest jump, amounting to 88.9%. The growth in travel on the route was fuelled by the demise of Montenegro Airlines, reducing transfer options for travellers via other European hubs. Unlike the former flag carrier, Air Montenegro does not have codeshare agreements in place with other airlines which would enable it to shuttle passengers for onward journeys via its partners. As a result, Austrian Airlines, as the only Lufthansa Group carrier in Podgorica, benefited. Furthermore, budget airline Wizz Air added a significant number of passengers on the route. This summer, Austrian Airlines will launch seasonal operations to its second destination in Montenegro, between Vienna and Tivat.
Passenger performance on Vienna flights, 2022
Pristina saw figures on the Vienna service increase 71.5% on 2019. During the 2022 summer season, Austrian Airlines increased frequencies on the route from double daily to a record seventeen weekly rotations. Furthermore, Wizz Air maintains operations between the two, which were launched in mid-December 2019. On the other hand, passenger numbers between Belgrade and Vienna almost recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Both Austrian and Air Serbia maintain services between the two capitals. This summer, the latter will increase frequencies to Vienna to a record eighteen weekly rotations, while last year it introduced flights to Salzburg, its second destination in Austria. It should be noted that travel to Austria was restricted for most nationals from the former Yugoslavia whose countries are outside of the European Union during the first quarter of 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Skopje, Sarajevo and Zagreb failed to reach pre-pandemic passenger levels on their respective Vienna routes last year. The Croatian capital saw the biggest drop in travel between the two. During 2022, Austrian Airlines suspended operations to Zagreb for almost two months. This summer, Croatia Airlines plans to operate just five weekly rotations between the two cities, down from twelve weekly in 2019. On the other hand, Austrian Airlines will maintain up to thirteen weekly rotations.
Wizz Air is responsible for the growth from Podgorica and Pristina
ReplyDeleteWhy has Croatia Airlines given up on the Vienna route? Just 5 weekly compared to 12!
ReplyDeleteThey need planes to fly from every city in Croatia to Munich.
DeleteSchengen - highway
DeleteRyanair probably took quite a few connecting passengers on European routes.
Delete@9.05 Croatia was not in Schengen in 2022.
DeleteDon't forget Ryanair started flying to Bratislava. Probably had an impact.
DeleteAnon 09.05
DeleteLol, so true.
At the height Zagreb - Vienna route was very popular with 35 weekly rotations and over 220 000 passengers, in 2019, route had only around 175000 passengers, I expect route will regain its pre-pandemic figures this or the next year, however Vienna is only 280km from Zagreb, most Croats can hop in their cars and be in Vienna within 3 hours, and as there’s a massive investment in to Railways In Croatia, train will soon become very competitive option. Currently train takes around 6 hours from Vienna to Zagreb, Hungarians are improving tracks on their side and Croatia will complete its section of high speed link by end of 2025, so theoretically train to Vienna could be cut down to 4 hours, when that happens there’ll be less demand for air travel between two cities. I anticipate 200 000 air passengers on service between two cities any future increases would need to be fuelled by a very high demand, I’e growth in business travel and exceptional increase in city breaks. 1.6 million Austrians visit Croatia each year, they’re responsible for 10% of Croatia’s tourist receipts as Austrians spend more than Germans or Italians. BTW in 2021 Croatia had around 18.8 million foreign visitors and tourism generated €13.1 billion in revenue. https://izvoz.gov.hr/vijesti/prihodi-od-stranih-turista-u-2022-premasili-i-2019/5963 https://www.htz.hr/sites/default/files/2023-01/Informacija%20o%20statistickim%20pokazateljima%20-%20prosinac%202022.pdf
DeleteZagreb figures are 59% down on 2019, overall Croatia had 20.7 million foreign visitors in 2019, all indications are that in 2023 Croatia will surpass 2019 figures in noumber of visitors, stays and revenue. Roughly 21 million visitors are expected in 2023, which will generate around 110 million night, and revenue of around €15 billion or just under 20% of Croatia’s GDP.
But yes, atm Zagreb is way down, when it recovers fully...
Jesus 280 km in FOUR HOURS i mean...why? Even Belgrade-Subotica, which is 190 km away from each other will be 80 minutes once when HSR is completed next year.
Delete@Anonymous23:39
DeleteBy rail it is over 380km, not sure exactly, but route usually goes via Graz, Maribor, Ljubljana, Zagreb. New route planned is via Vienna - Gyor, Budapest - Koprivnica Zagreb. Hungarian side is upgrading their railways as we speak, cleared for up to 160kmph, on Croatian side same, although new rail line built can sustain 250kmph, it'll be limited to 160kmph due to costs associated with running high speed rail, financially it is not prudent. If there’s demand, then signalization will be updated in this case European Train Control System level 1 to level 2. However, costs of running 200kmph+ line are significant, i/e you need really large volume of passengers to justify the line, track need to be maintained every year, and catenary replaced every 5-8 years. Unless you have full trains on the route, with at least 50 trains per day, it is not financially affordable to run high speed line.
Nemjee19:27
DeleteFirst of all, what the hell is "KiM"? The official name for the country is "Kosovo", if it bothers you to call it "Republic of" it is completely understandable but stop using nonsense, ridicilous and nonexisting names for it. Just as you don't like to call Kosovo a "Republic" others do not like that stupid "KiM" name you used, so try to be respectful.
Second of all, of course it's not true that 107,000 young people left Kosovo since Kurti came to power, in fact, this number would not be reachable even if we calculate the last 10 years. Opposition does what it does, uses distorted truth, half-facts and sometmes lies and propaganda to try and undermind the government, it's the same in every Country, Kosovo is no exception.
And lastly, Kosovo market is maturing, new companies are opening their doors, people are travelling more often for business, even more people are visiting their relatives in the diaspora and also, lately a lot of people from neighbouring countries are using PRN because of better connections, routes and prices. This is why the constant increase of PRN is totally normal and excpected.
Respect.
wow I'm really surprised at how well VIE-PRN route is doing. Well done.
ReplyDeleteWhat equipment does Austrian use to PRN?
DeleteA320 and A321s
DeleteImpressive. Thanks
Delete17 weekly flights with OS +
Delete5 weekly with Wizz!
22 weekly flights in total in the high season makes this route one of the most successful out of PRN. The demand is nuts!
Personally I don't think it's nuts, market out of KiM is maturing and trends are changing. People are relying less and less on reiseburo guys and are switching to online bookings. Diaspora is large and like with most Balkan markets, it keeps on getting bigger and bigger.
DeleteToday I read a statement by an opposition politician who claimed over 107.000 young people left since Kurti came to power. If this is true then all of these people are going to be flying back for holidays to visit friends and families. I highly doubt most will bother with 30 hour bus rides from places like Denmark, Germany or Austria. Instead they are going to look for the cheapest option to fly back home. If an LCC isn't flying to PRN from their home airport then they are most likely to book a flight to either INI or SKP.
A friend of mine flew on HHN-INI and he told me that there were quite a few Albanians onboard.
Hope BEG-PRN will happen sooner rather than later.
DeleteI'm surprised Air Montenegro hasn't started flights to Vienna
ReplyDeleteIn May and June Air Montenegro has a few charter flights to Graz and Klagenfurt and in summer they fly to Bratislava and Brno; all these airports are quite close to Vienna.
DeleteConsidering Austria at one point completely banned traffic from the Balkans, it will take time before passenger numbers and trust recovers.
ReplyDeleteIt obviously won't take a lot of time, check the figures in the text. When it comes to trust there are still travel rules for US (case Djokovic) and we will see launch of new route from Belgrade even under these circumstances. So there's no trust issue in this matter.
DeleteI agree. People have been very quick to forget and view Covid as a distant memory. As if nothing ever happened.
DeleteWhy people should remember Covid? Never had any impact on my lifestyle and am not vaccinated. Travel industry suffered enough
DeleteIf Austrian Airlines still had Dash-8 Ljubljana would be possible
ReplyDeleteVienna is on the list of routes that will be subsidized by Slovenia. Let's see if Austrian applies.
DeleteIf Adria flew twice a day with CRJs then there is no excuse for not having at least daily E195 flight between Ljubljana and Vienna.
DeleteLJU did nothing to find alternatives. They waited for the government to offer money for a route that in the past wasn't operated because the government paid for it.
DeleteTrue
DeleteBEG-VIE in Q2 2023 should be interesting to follow. As mentioned in the article, both JU and OS increased the number of flights while Austrian went a step further and boosted the night flight from E95 to A320.
ReplyDeleteI think OS is profiting from BEG's overall solid performance. They are most likely relying on transfers to fill all those seats. I can imagine they were happy with LH giving up on the third daily from MUC.
The funny thing is that Air Serbia now has transfers from Vienna flying via Belgrade. Tables are turning.
DeleteIndeed, I noticed there being transfers to places like Malaga which is cool. I guess the market is big enough for several players.
DeleteOnce JU sorts out their fleet issues they could become even more competitive in western Europe.
VIE-BEG now has more flights than before Covid right?
DeleteYes, before covid JU used to have 14 and OS up to 21.
DeleteThis year OS will eventually reinstate 21 weekly flights while JU is increasing their own flights from 14 to 18. That said, OS will be offering more capacity this year. Night flight is increased from 120 seats to 174.
Mark my word, JU will launch Graz next summer.
DeleteIn April Air Serbia is quite often replacing the ATRs with an A319 on the Vienna route.
DeleteIs this because of increased demand or a lack of available ATRs ?
6.4.: JU600 BEG VIE 0640 0750 319
9.4.: JU604 BEG VIE 1835 1945 319
10.4.: JU602 BEG VIE 1235 1345 32A
12.4.: JU 600 BEG VIE 0745 0855 319
13.4.: JU 600 BEG VIE 0745 0855 319
14.4.: JU 602 BEG VIE 1235 1345 319
14.4.: JU 604 BEG VIE 1715 1845 319
... (aircraft changes continue until beginning of May)
It's because of extra demand.
DeleteFrom Canada Vienna transfers to Belgrade are very very appealing value considering price, layover time, lost luggage risk and etc
DeleteUnfortunately those A319s on BEG-VIE are only there because their ATRs were out of service. They can't delay flights like they do with SJJ, ZAG or LJU since they are facing fierce competition from OS on the route. They can't risk losing any potential clients.
DeleteWonder how Belgrade-Salzburg is performing. Anyone have any numbers?
ReplyDeleteBetween 20 and 40 per flight depending on the day.
DeleteI doubt they would still be flying there if they had 20 passengers per flight.
DeleteI wrote 20 to 40 passengers. Some days there are 24, some 44 and so on.
DeleteJU will face an uphill battle in SZG.
DeleteSZG is competing with MUC which is 145 km away. FMM is not a problem since it's all the way on the other side of Munich.
What JU will do is offer an alternative to locals who no longer need to go to VIE, MUC or FMM to fly to Belgrade. If they manage to attract some transfers then they could finally make this route work for them.
they should concentrate on some important route rather then this one
DeleteI agree with you on that one.
DeleteThat's a lot of passengers between SKP and VIE considering it is all handled by one airline.
ReplyDeleteTrue but keep in mind they are one of the few network carrier serving Skopje. Also there are flights to Bratislava so that takes away some passengers.
DeleteLet's see what happens when LH starts flying.
DeleteI think OS will be more affected than OU.
DeleteBut with OS 2 daily and LH 2 daily the connectivity in SKP will be significantly improved.
lol sure they will harm their own airline. the stuff one reads here ...
DeleteWait and see. Airlines within the LH group are not equal and all are their to primarily serve German Lufthansa.
Delete*there
Deleteah the conspiracy lovers
DeleteNo one should dare to write anything about SKP here as it will immidiately be marked as a conspiracy
Deleteespeciall nonsence like "Airlines within the LH group are not equal"
DeleteIt's not nonsense at all. Ask anyone working at Austrian, Brussels Airlines and especially Swiss do they think they are on equal footing as Lufthansa.
Deleteindeed Swiss is independent in LHs group and also the Star performer (incl. Edelweiss)
DeleteSwiss is independent because it is highly profitable. OS, SN and EW on the other hand not so much. Then again, EW being the bastard child of LH is treated a little bit better.
DeleteI can see LOT being afected the most, with mixed shedule to SKP, some days before noon, same days afternoon... not great for connections. Second one afected might be Turkish, with connections to Europe and north/south America, "flying backwards".
DeleteAustrian's and LOT's networks are not so great with mostly JFK, EWR, ORD, YYZ and LAX, while other destinations like MIA, TPA, DTW, SFO, PHX, central and sout America are eaither 2 stops or served by Turkish.
Price also will have impact... so we can wait and see what will happen
Why did Sarajevo not recover more?
ReplyDeleteI think Lufthansa is taking more and more passengers away from them. Remember they switched from Munich to Frankfurt on Sarajevo route and now they offer much more transfer options. Like I said a few days ago in the comments, I think the same will happen on the Skopje route once they start flying.
DeleteRegular people would rather pay for a transfer to Tuzla and the Ryanair ticket of 10€ than use Austrian that costs much more
Deletewow pax numbers on the Zagreb route almost halved! Ryan effect.
ReplyDeleteMontenegro keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteI remember when OS used to fly to places like Banja Luka and Mostar. They really were the number 1 foreign airline in ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteOhrid too
DeleteAs an airline, they profited a lot from the break up of YU.
DeleteYes. Their terminated routes in ex-Yu are Banja Luka, Mostar, Ljubljana and Ohrid.
DeleteVIE-OMO was 3 weekly with Tyrolean Dash.
DeleteThey also used to have a massive eastern European network. I remember in the early 2000s they had an ad on the back of their tickets which said: we fly to places you can't even pronounce.
DeleteAnd then next to it would be a list of Russian and Ukrainian cities. Many routes were slowly terminated as they started facing increasing competition from carriers like Turkish Airlines, Ukraine International, LOT and even Air Serbia which successfully pushed them out of KRR.
In reality, for OS, their biggest problem is not W6 or FR but rather LH in MUC. Despite being owned by the same company, Lufthansa will always give priority to their MUC base.
Just look at how they treated OS over the years. They are forcing them to operate long-haul flights with archaic metal while Munich gets a whole bunch of new and shiny A350s. On top of that, Lufthansa announced that the A380 will be making a comeback in MUC.
This is true. Austrian from the get go used Austria's "neutral" position to start flights to many Eastern European countries, and expanded through the Balkans when Yu broke up. Now they are being strangled by LH.
DeleteIt was also a time when Lufthansa was much weaker. Munich as a hub did not exist until early 2000s. Actually back then Austrian Airlines was much closer to Swissair than they were with Lufthansa.
DeleteWhat Lufthansa did was to profit from the German economy getting access to cheap Russian gas which caused them to expand quite rapidly from the early 2000s. Just look at what Gerhard Schröder is doing these days and who he is working for.
Putting the German, Swiss and Austrian market firmly under their control, they primarily managed to consolidate their operations in Frankfurt and later on in Munich.
Lufthansa might be many things but they have a clear strategy which only benefits Lufthansa.
Haha soo true.
DeleteOS did not get a good deal when they chose LH over TK to get bought.
Yes, Nemjee is right about the "East expansion" where OS used to cover various Ukrainian, Russian and other destinations with few competition and used to charge very high prices due to the lack of competition. For me, OS is becoming less significant as a player. Especially since VIE opened up and allowed many LCCs to compete. Not to mention their ageing fleet and lifeless brand. How could a rich country like Austria allow itself to still fly 24 year old 767s?? Okay, for a charter airline is quite common to have older planes but for a flag carrier...AND under the umbrella of LH.
DeleteNemjee, you forgot about the new LH airline - City Airlines. Would be interesting to see how that one develops. Perhaps something similar to the BA Euroflyer style or Iberia - Iberia Express thingy.
I actually much more prefer a 2-3-2 sitting (as in their 767s) than 3-4-3 in the newer b777s, so I don't really care that they are 20y plus old, as long as they are well maintained, which they are both in the cabin and technical maintenance.
DeleteAustria as a country has nothing to do with Austrian, as Austrian was sold to LH, so you can refer your question about the 767 to LH and not to the country of Austria.
Last but not least, their brand is not more lifeless than the rest of the group and legacy carriers for that matter. I have had better flights experiences with OS than with LH (both in economy as in premium).
There are signs that Austrian will order new Dreamliners this year.
DeleteI think OS will have to get some new planes because it would be disastrous for LH if they started cutting some core routes like the ones to New York or Chicago.
DeleteJust remember how angry the Austrian government got a few years back when LH wanted to replace OS with EW in Vienna. Lufthansa immediately dropped the idea and it was never mentioned again. They tried to do the same with SN and they faced a similar backlash. Then again I don't know why Belgians would really care about a relatively young and pointless brand like SN Brussels.
By now it's obvious that OS will struggle to turn a profit under current conditions. Lufthansa finally decided to modernize them a little bit by introducing the A320neo into their fleet. I am sure both OS and LH are keeping an eye on both JU and LO.
After all, about a decade ago LO was a joke and their future seemed bleak. Then it all started to change.
Numbers should be much better this year with pre Covid frequencies on most routes from VIE to ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteAnd no entry restrictions into Austria.
DeleteFinally VIE-TIV!
ReplyDeleteOdd no other airline already operates this route.
DeleteMontenegro Airlines used to fly Tivat-Vienna
DeleteYes but only once per week for one season.
DeleteI'm surprised they didn't have more success.
DeleteI wish we had more LCC options to Vienna.
ReplyDeleteThere are more and more offered by Wizz Air and Ryanair.
DeleteInteresting numbers.
ReplyDeleteIs Air Serbia the only airline offering a secondary destination in Austria from ex-Yu?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteA few years ago Eurowings had two weekly flights Split-Salzburg.
DeleteWizz planned to fly from Salzburg to several ex-Yu cities. Didn't work out past the first flight.
DeleteThey scheduled the launch of these flights maybe 2 weeks before Austria introduced an entry ban from the Balkans. I'm surprised they never gave these flights another go.
DeleteTruth be told Q1 was still very much impacted by Covid. So I think all ex-Yu capitals will surpass rpe Covid figures this year, except maybe Zagreb.
ReplyDeletePRN is doing better than many ex-Yu airports in many aspects.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI would love to see an LCC start Belgrade-Vienna
ReplyDeleteOr at least to Bratislava.
DeleteNiki tried and failed back in the day.
Delete^ That was 15 years ago!
DeleteI love it when you compare the times when Niki was flying and today’s market.
DeleteHah I just rememberd that I flew with Niki to Vienna in 2010
DeleteNothing much would be different today. Both JU and OS offer frequencies that no other airline could match, while both would collectively dump fares driving out the 3rd airline, just as they did with Niki.
DeleteBEG really isn't a market able to sustain 3 airlines to 1 destination, with Istanbul and Stockholm I believe being the only exceptions. Wizz recently dropped HHN. Vueling BCN. AF CDG. That doesn't mean that in the future things could be different but in the short term, I don't see a third carrier operating BEG-VIE.
Unfortunately Stockholm no longer sees a third airline since DY decided not to resume ARN-BEG this year. I believe this was their second or third try at launching this route.
DeleteThey should have tried CPH-BEG but now with Wizz it's next to impossible.
Before covid and the war, Moscow was another market where we had three carriers: Aeroflot, Air Serbia and Nordwind. Rome might be another one if ITA launches BEG.
TLV was another with Air Serbia, Arkia and Israir.
I know it's a stretch but Dusseldorf/Dortmund and Stuttgart/Baden could also be considered as markets served by three carriers: Air Serbia, Wizz Air and Eurowings.
One market I am almost certain will get a third carrier is Athens either with Wizz Air or Sky Express.
"complete recovery on Vienna route" aka Wizz's new routes to VIE
ReplyDeleteI would like to know the 2022 pax numbers between VIE and non-capital exYU airports such as OHD, INI, TZL, BNX, DBV, SPU, ZAD and PUY ...
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to view final & observe daily/monthly results(i.e.pax no) of Tivat flts, related to Austrian Airlines. 5x p/w,quite interesting....flt coding/numbers....Tivat would be great choice for all-year ops with times arr/dep time to/from TIV...1330/1415 or 1230/1315.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade had just 21 passengers less than in 2019. Expecting some amateur analysts to say: BEG had a huge drop!
ReplyDelete