Commercial airports in the former Yugoslavia processed a combined total of over 6.7 million passengers during the first four months of the year, with Belgrade and Zagreb positioning themselves within the top seventy and top 100 busiest in Europe respectively. During April, Dubrovnik Airport handled more passengers than its traditionally busier counterpart in Split. Furthermore, both Zadar and Rijeka handled fewer passengers this April then they did the same month last year, when the remnants of the coronavirus pandemic were still being felt. During the month, Mostar Airport finally saw more meaningful passenger numbers by handling close to 900 travellers or 96% of its customers so far this year.
Passenger performance by airport, January - April 2023
During the January - April period, Belgrade Airport ranked 69th busiest on the continent, just behind Cologne, Palermo and Malta, but ahead of Reykjavik, Larnaca and Thessaloniki. Zagreb also made it into the top 100, positioning 98th. It was behind the likes of Vilnius, Hanover and London City, but ahead of Tbilisi, Tallinn and Pristina. Pristina itself just missed out on the top 100 and was 101st on the list, behind Santiago de Compostela but ahead of Nuremberg, Verona and Florence. The Kosovo market saw the third-fastest growth rate in Europe during the four-month period when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.
Passenger performance by airport, April 2023
During the first four months, the Slovenian market saw the biggest decline in passenger figures in percentage terms in Europe (excluding Ukraine) when compared to the pre-pandemic era with numbers down 40.8%. On the other hand, Albania recorded the fastest growth, amounting to 98%, according to Airports Council International Europe, and was ahead of Armenia with a 50% increase. The Kosovo market registered 41.4% growth, Serbian 25.6%, Montenegrin 14.6%, Croatian 7.7%, while the Macedonian market saw its passenger figures grow 8.5% on the same period in 2019. Notably, Russia has handled more passengers so far in 2023 than four years ago with 1.1% growth. Overall, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe between January and April, handling 23.3 million passengers, ahead of Istanbul’s main gateway, which was second with 22.3 million travellers. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Istanbul Sabiha Gocken and Rome Fiumicino.
European rank for EX-YU capitals and select regional airports, January - April 2023
How come there were more passengers in Dubrovnik than Split?
ReplyDeleteThat is nothing unusual, Dubrovnik season always started earlier than Split's.
Deletethe numbers for Brac airport are not correct,
Deleteonly in April, Brac airport had more than what you posted there...
Tivat is still really struggling.
ReplyDeleteSurprising that Zadar and Rijeka had less passengers than last year.
ReplyDeleteIt is not surprising about Rijeka, they said they would have less passengers this year than in 2022.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/02/rijeka-airport-forecasts-fewer.html
What about Zadar?
DeleteRyanair cutbacks in both airports.
DeleteZadar is just temporary because Ryanair moved the resumption of a lot of its flights until later in the summer. But in general I think it will end the year ahead of 2019 and certainly ahead of 2022.
DeleteWhy did they push back the resumptions?
DeleteProbably because they needed aircraft elsewhere. Anyway, ZAD will be back to strong growth since FR and other airlines are opening a lot of new routes.
DeleteRegarding Zadar and Ryanair I think the issue is lack of personnel. I have passed interviews for flight attendant at Ryanair but I wanted to live in another country so I refused. Because during interviews recruiter told me that they need people in Croatia and Lauda usus Airbus and Ryanair Boeing. Once you pass training for one type of aircraft you fly just that aircraft. That why I refused the offer as I could expect to be placed most probably just in Croatia.
DeleteFurthermore last week I took flight to Vaxjo from Zadar (it was full)and all flight attendants was Italian on that Lauda flight.
So I think that Ryanair issue in Zadar (and Zagreb, Rijeka) is lack of staff.
What airport is on the photo?
ReplyDeleteDubrovnik
DeleteThank you
DeleteIt has developed nicely
DeleteIt is without doubt one of the best managed airport in ex-yu. Management and infrastructure wise.
DeleteThere are no Portoroz numbers?
ReplyDeleteOh Slovenia is back on the bottom in Europe... I was worried since it was second last in March.
ReplyDeleteDespite this, I think LJU is a good path now and should have a much better year than originally expected.
DeleteHope so
DeleteLJU will be around 1.4-1.5M passengers this year
DeleteNot bad all things considered.
DeleteBelgrade is literally unstoppable despite all the hate it gets from pretty much anyone and everyone. From tomorrow it will be even busier when JU sets new standards by adding its second B738.
ReplyDeleteNikola Tesla is on course to finally overtake Sofia and to move towards handling 10 million passengers. Airport is worthy of the Serbian scientist's name and it's definitely a good way to promote Serbian cultural heritage.
This summer Nikola Tesla might be home to close to 40 based aircraft when you add JU and W6.
Upwards and onwards.
+100
DeleteBravo!
@9.11 hate from who?
Deleteit's not hate.
DeleteJU and Nikola Tesla Airport would be much better if they faced the problems they had earlier or face the problems people tell them about today.
like improving regional flight, if they had cheaper and more frequent flights from the region then more would use belgrade as a hub or main hub of the Yug.
and to be the best airport, it really needs a train/metro line to connect to the city and the rest of the country even Sofia has this.
We're happy that passenger numbers are growing and so is their revenue but we know it could be even better if they fixed problems sooner rather than later.
Previous nick was nicer Slav.Man. Why don't you use it?
DeleteYou simply need to read so called "regional portal" to see what means hate.
Delete@10.13 TBH from seeing all the daily post about BEG and JU about getting flights to US and China ,new charter destanations,having the advantage of the Russian market, big transfer market,having the biggest diaspora,getting new planes,having a central posision etc the result are a bit disapointing. In fact TGD, PRN and SKP have a higher passenger/inhabitant ratio than BEG while they have only p2p In my opinion JU and BEG have a very good business model and demand is pretty good but the succes is a bit overblown by people on this blog. Also SOF which is a p2p lcc airport same size as Belgrade somehow had a bit more passengers than BEG in april.
DeleteYour comment is so detached from reality that I don't know where to start.
Delete" daily post about BEG and JU about getting flights to US and China"
I don't see daily posts about it. They started 1 weekly flight to China in December 2022 and two weekly flights to Chicago in MAY. Don't know the Chicago flights would impact passenger numbers in April that are in this article.
" New charters"
You didn't even bother to read the article that you are mentioning. It says that charter flights will increase this summer by 15%. Charter operations begin in JUNE so I don't know how it affects passenger numbers in April.
Sofia is a capital city that is part of the European Union and a major portion of Bulgaria's population lives across Europe. Serbia's diaspora is large with high concentrations in Canada, US and Australia which cannot catch a Ryanair flight for 15 euros to go home every weekend or whenever they feel like. In fact most of them fly once per year to their homeland.
I didn’t mean litterally everyday but atleast 50% of the articles BEG and JU are mentioned . I said that almost everyday there is an article about JU or BEG and flights to US and China are an example of topics that are discussed about BEG not that there is everday an article about this topic. Serbs are litterally all around Europe the Bulgarian diaspora is probably bigger though and they have a lot of students in the EU but they don’t have flights to US, Russia and China and less flights to gulf states and also don’t rely on transfer pax. Atleast in Serbia the money goes to a Serbian carier and in Bulgaria they go to foreign cariers that is positive though but lcc’s grow much easier within europe than normal airlines.
DeleteSo first you claimed how there are so many flights to US and China and that BEG should have significantly more passengers because of it. When I tell you that in the reporting period the only addition is 1 weekly flight to China you change your tune. And there should be more articles about JU than others considering it is one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe at the moment. Or should there be about Air Montenegro with grand total of 2 planes. As or Bulgaria, considering the country's history over the last 30 years it should be light years ahead of Serbia but in actual fact there is little difference.
DeleteExactly plus let's not forget that all of eastern and central Bulgaria is forced to use SOF. On top of that, add south-eastern Serbia which is also gravitating towards Sofia. INI is still too weak to have any meaningful impact. Then on top of all that, the entire Bulgarian ski industry is also handled by Sofia airport.
DeleteSo in reality and as you mentioned, if we use the illegal NATO bombing as well the 1990s, BEG and JU are doing extremely well. It's only this year that the Serbian market is going into turbo expansion mode. KVO is keeping more or less the flights it had last year, INI is getting more charters than ever before and BEG ... well, we all know about BEG.
Since covid started to fade, BEG has been finally shining. I expect both JU, Wizz and others to perform even better in the coming months and years.
Vinci said that they expect BEG to handle 15 million and I highly doubt they make these projections lightly and without thorough analysis.
*western Bulgaria
Deletesorry
Like someone said they should have more cheap flights to regional cities. I travel to Banjaluka every year and cant go Istanbul BEG Banjaluka with one ticket!? I need to purches separate ticket for Beg-BNX.
DeleteTo Banjaluka they should go everyday as there are 4 of 5 daily buses charging 50 euros return tickets.
There are 10 to 11 daily buses between Belgrade and Banja Luka. If they promoted these flighs they could get more passengers from Srpska.
Delete@anon 13:17 that's what i thought air Serbia is neglecting, the regional connection of the Yug. especially if they want to focus on long haul expansion they need the people around Serbia to first travel to Belgrade to use that flight and they need to make it easier and more convenient to reach belgrade.
Deletesomeone mentioned the large diaspora in Australia, which is something that should be pushed. there's the diaspora demand to serve all ex-yug nations but also transfer demand of europeans-australia and the opposite direction.
the entire Yug also has very large coach service industry so there is definitely demand for travel between the cities that they could serve
other people are right they have grown a lot and done a lot considering where they started, which should be celebrate, but missing the obvious things under their nose.
JU isn't neglecting the ex-YU market.
DeleteLJU has been brought back to double daily, with intentions to further boost operations to 21 pw.
ZAG is back to 14 pw, the first time since 2016. They've also played with the option of introducing midnight flights. I see ZAG going 21 pw in the next couple of years.
Flights to the Croatian coast are back to the same frequencies as pre Covid. Perhaps DBV is seeing a small decrease from the A319 to ATR. I wouldn't be surprised to see SPU become year round, while DBV season starts earlier. JU attempted RJK year round in 2019 and they cut the winter season short, despite subsidies.
SKP is also back to 14pw, the first time since 2017.
OHD has been relaunched, which was last operated in summer 2017.
SJJ will be boosted to 10 pw, the first time since relaunching the route back in 2003 that operations will be more than daily (not including the short lived frequencies given by JA).
BNX is tricky as they have ULCC's there, fairly close proximity to Belgrade, ZAG is also close by which also has FR. Despite the favourable conditions in BNX, they cut the frequencies from daily to 2 pw. They have been really short of ATR's up until this summer. Perhaps other routes are performing alot better hence the lack of motivation to boost BNX.
There is quite a bit more that JU can do, sure, however they still have an impressive ex-YU network for their size.
@Slav.Man
The Australian diaspora is better served via ME hubs. Both FZ and QR have decent amount of flights via their respective hubs that offer 1 stop connectivity, which JU could never do. Once TK launches direct flights to Australia, IST will have a massive advantage. You may get a hand full that will do 2 stops which includes JU and BEG, but no where the numbers for JU to even take notice let alone react. Even despite a codeshare with JU, QR haven't increased frequencies to BEG.
TATL flights on the other hand are seeing some ex-YU connectivity. They have tested midnight flights to ZAG (where they have 4% of the ZAG-JFK market) and failed at it. Twice if I am not mistaken. JU's TATL connections are not just coming from the ex-YU region, they are seeing increasing numbers from outside the Balkans such as VIE, FCO and SVO. Competition is big and JU is competing with major players such as FRA, MUC, VIE, IST, AMS, CDG, WAW, LHR for a slice of that market.
Where JU really does well is the inter Balkan connectivity. JU for example has the largest market share on the LJU/ZAG-ATH connectivity. It's exactly the inter Balkan connectivity where JU have the bigger advantage due to the limited, almost non existent competition. Want to travel from OTP to TIA? Its WAW, FRA or VIE. SJJ to SOF? IST or FRA. Its improving this kind of connectivity where JU will notice a knock on effect on the rest of their network. However more departure banks will be needed and this seems to be the next thing in stall.
Serbs always focus on SOF but very quickly forget that Bulgaria has 2 more big airports and a 4th one now with the traffic of INI. Do yes, it is indeed "light years" and not to mention that the country has more 5 airlines 2 if which are cargo.
Delete2 big airports are BOJ and VAR, summer vacation destinations on the Black Sea. BOJ is almost entirely summer seasonal, VAR slightly better. Unless the Panonian Sea returns, Serbia isn't going to see summer beach charters.
Delete4th airport with the traffic of INI in fact has 75,5% less traffic compared to INI.
Unlike most Bulgarian cities, Serbian cities have decent sized airports in it vicinity. SOF to the East, SKP and PRN to the South, ZAG and TZL to the West, BUD to the North. Bulgaria on the other hand has OTP which works for Ruse, and SKG which works only for the South West corner or Bulgaria.
@ JATBEGMEL could Air Serbia not do the same that Qantas do with their kangaroo route from sydney to london?
Deletethe same could be done. stop in singapore and continue to sydney. New Zealand also rushed to start a route direct to New York from Auckland before Qantas started project sunrise. They achieve this flight with a stop in Fiji to re-fuel. AS could find the same.
its not refined and classy but these are two options that other airlines are employing
As for turkey there are some positives that could favour Serbia. its a smaller airport with easier transfer and less traffic than Istanbul. Nikola tesla is a cheaper airport and cheaper service that is a shorter hop for transfer to rest of europe. even for those backpackers and tourists from new zealand/ australia would be easier to travel europe from belgrade croatia/bosnia, hungary and austria all close.
@Slav.Man
DeleteAbsolutely not. There is a reason why there aren't (more) European carriers on the Kangaroo route or why QF has pulled out of almost all of their European routes. QF configurations for these ultra long haul routes is premium heavy, JU is no where near this. JU has amongst the lowest capacity of premium seats on the TATL market, if not the lowest.
The time it'll take for the aircraft to go to Australia and back, JU would make more money on shorter long haul routes (5 TATL flights vs 1 to Australia and back). Not to mention the amount of crew that will be out of base (at least 40) for 1 round trip. JU couldn't offer frequencies, which again lowers their advantage and hurts yield. Destination wise, JU doesn't have demand for multiple points in Australia, so again, the competition has the advantage, while JU's destination count and frequencies in Europe is no where close to the main competitors on the Kangaroo route.
The main competitors have alot more on offer with higher frequencies, more destinations, much superior products and services, larger aircraft, newer fuel efficient aircraft, bigger brand recognition, better loyalty programs, alliance memberships, joint venture agreements, everything you look at the competition does better, alot better. You need premium pax and cargo to make long haul work, not backpackers looking for the cheapest ticket online. Even those backpackers have a tonne of options to Europe through one stop options such as DXB, DOH, AUH, SIN, KUL, BKK, HKG, PVG, DEL, CAN, CMB, BWN, with 2 stops the list dramatically increases.
JU at best would need to find a hub and partner in Asia for the Australian market. And that in itself is going to be a huge challenge to pull off as JU is no where near the position to take that step.
@JATBEGMEL thanks for explaining.
Deletesounds like the only option would be direct flights, if they can ever be in a position to take the A350.
probably at least 4/5 years away from that.
its a shame that the A340 is so expensive and inefficient to operate, because it has nearly same capacity as a330 and can do the range to sydney.
Air Serbia flights from Belgrade to Australia are a great idea. Refined and classy. Profitable without a doubt. Can't wait to hear more reasonable ideas like that.
Delete@Slav.Man
DeleteIf giant TK is struggling with implementing direct Australia flights, imagine JU. TK at least have A350's in their fleet which would make things alot easier. IST is also closer, has a huge network, FF program, alliance membership, excellent award winning service, brand recognition, are based in a tourism powerhouse and a major business hub. JU is doing great, but lets be realistic.
@JATBEGMEL
DeleteThere may be more reasons why TK would struggle. First is that they are expensive while not being a luxury brand like etihad/qatar. Also they are not the home brand of Qantas.
As far as I know there isn't a draw from australia to turkey. Currently there is point to point demand from australia to Dubai/Singapore for example as well as transfer demand to the rest of euorpe (Yug diaspora/ british/ french etc)
Turkey ranks very low on austrailian desire for tourism, diaspora and business. People of austrailia focus on asia, middle east and europe above turkey for everything. Turkey would be relying solely on transfer, and they are much less desirable than the other options. They may be recognised to Europe and west asia but not in australia and the rest.
Lastly, Air serbia can provide a cheaper transfer from Belgrade but even more Belgrade has WIZZ air present to offer cheaper transfer routes than Istanbul is able to offer, as well as the ability of other european airline to take the share of transfers from belgrade, while they cant penetrate istanbul the same way.
Even Ryan Air may decide it will be worth it to fly to belgrade. Istanbul doesnt have these options of 30/40 euro flights.
These things may seem small but when you add them all together could be the explanation of why its hard for Turkish airlines to make it successful.
It is interesting that Belgrade is very close to have double more passengers than Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteAnd they are on first and second position in ex Yu. Huge difference.
Because a Serbia is totaly centralized around Belgrade. So, Serbia don't have any other airport performing very well. Just the Belgrade. In the end, Croatia have more passangers then Serbia in total including all airports.
DeleteFirst of all it is not true that Serbia has no other functioning airport which you can see on the list. If you don't consider Nis a functioning airport then you should not consider Zadar, Pula, Osijek, Rijeka and Brac that had less passengers than Nis. Second, Croatia has significant summer traffic due to tourism industry.
DeleteFully agree with you anon @12:20.
DeleteWe can say that during winter months coastal airports in Croatia have almost no traffic and at that time ZAG is centralized airport in Croatia.
But still it does not help to catch BEG as the gap between first two airports in ex Yu is constantly growing. And it will be continued so.
Oh please, are you really comparing Split and Dubrovnik to Nis? SPU and DBV are airports of around 3 mill pax a year.
DeleteAs for comparing ZAG and BEG, well Belgrade is almost double the size of Zagreb just as a city alone. Not to mention that entire central and northern Serbia uses its airport. That's 5 million people...more than the entire population of Croatia. If BEG was as successful as you think it is, it would have 3x the ZAG's numbers.
Just stop with these nonsensical comparisons that have nothing to do with facts.
Admin,
ReplyDeleteWhat is TIA passengers number for the first 4 months of this year?
Thanks.
1.682.653
DeleteTIA is doing amazing.
DeleteInteresting to see LJU ahead of SJJ in April!
ReplyDeleteThey overtook them a few months ago.
Deletein February
DeleteIt is all so very interesting!!
DeleteI'm interested in seeing Zagreb's numbers in May and what impact the runway closure over night had, if any.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will have much of an influence and numbers should be good.
DeleteDidn't Ryanair cancel over 100 flights?
DeleteZagreb should handle at least 325000 pax, but could be a lot more.
Delete110 flights cancelled by Ryan Air alone and few others cancelled some flights,
I think in total 130-140 flights cancelled, around 12000 pax lost as a reasult.
May figures are hard to gage, but I think could be 335-345 000, we'll see in few days time.
Good results overall
ReplyDeleteSo by the end of May BEG definitely had in total over 2 million passengers
ReplyDeleteDefinitely.
DeleteWell over 2 million.
DeleteDifference between Zagreb and Pristina is getting bigger.
ReplyDeleteZAG should have bigger growth if some airline takes up those incentives announced recently.
DeleteNo chance anyone will act on it this summer, and unlikely in winter either. Maybe next year.
DeleteTuzla's growth will slow this summer when Ryanair leaves.
ReplyDeleteThey left last week.
DeleteThey only had 3 routes.
DeleteFor an airport such as Tuzla that is a lot.
DeleteNice... good result for BEG with 69th ranking in Europe.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThanks for the list!
ReplyDeleteSofia and Belgrade are now very close.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunatrly the difference between SOF and BEG got increased
DeleteSOF 2022 6.003.653
BEG 2022 5.611.920
Difference 7%
SOF Jan-Apr 2023 2.193.748
BEG Jan-Apr 2023 1.892.545
Difference 16%
I know that SOF has better winter months than BEG, but unfortunately I do not think that the difference at the end of this year will be smaller than 7%.
Let's wait and see.
Delete@10,36
DeleteThats not the way to compare numbers. BEG did better than SOF last year in July, August and September, while SOF numbers were better for the other months. SOF also has winter tourism traffic going for them which BEG doesn't have.
SOF Jan-Apr 2022: 1.502.196
BEG Jan-Apr 2022: 1.132.864
Deference: 32,6%
This shows that BEG has halved the gap between the 2 airports when comparing the same 2 periods.
Numbers for the first 6 months of 2022 was impacted with Covid related travel restrictions, which also needs to be taken into consideration.
Also to take note is that BEG has the expansion of its 2 base airlines this year, which SOF won't have. JU have started their expansion much earlier when compared to previous years (expansion started end of March compared to its typical end of May/early June). JU have also began launching new routes during the winter season, which is lowering the heavy seasonality of its operations, further boosting BEG numbers during the slower months.
I think SOF will have better numbers this year by a couple of percentage points (2-4%), however BEG will overtake SOF overall in 2024.
How about Plovdiv which in 2022 had almost the same traffic as Nis without government aid and subsidised routes?
DeleteINI had close to 180.000 (75,5%) more pax in 2022.
DeleteThe Bulgarian government is also providing incentives for airlines to fly to Plovdiv.
Wow LHR and IST and just a million passengers apart! I wouldn't be surprised IST becomes the busiest airport in the world this year.
ReplyDeleteProbable
DeleteIstanbul busier than Atlanta???
DeleteSorry I meant busiest in Europe.
DeleteWhy are these rankings in Europe important? I don't see the point.
ReplyDeleteThey are not. It is just interesting to see who is where in Europe.
DeleteStats are important in each business or sport or anything. This is a mesurment for good work.
DeleteThat's a very low number for Kraljevo. What is the purpose of that airport?
ReplyDeleteI see that Mostar, Maribor and Brac are under Kraljevo, but still this question has not been asked for them.
DeleteHmmm...
Postovani Anon 10:25. Vase pitanje sta je razlog Kraljevackog aerodroma Morava je suvisno. Investirano je veoma mnogo novca u ovaj aerodrom,
DeleteVojna pista koju koristie Air Srbije turbopropi, ATR 72 - 600 su do sada avioni do koje postojeca pista prima opterecenja sto se tice civilne avijacije.
Dok se ne izgradi nova pista za mlazne putnicke avione kao sto su Erbasi A319, A320, A321, Boinzi
B737 - 800... kao i kargo aviona svih velicina.
Objavljeno je da bi Nova pista bila 4.000 × 45 metara.
U kategoriji 4 F. Uz gradnju Kargo Centra, rezervora za kerosin i svih drugih objekata. Bez ovoga Aerodrom Morava nemoze ni u snu biti ni blizu samoodrzivosti. U glavnom o svemu ovom sto sam napisao, nedavno je javno objavljeno od strane Ministarstva Saobracaja Vlade Srbije. "Rodilo se, valja ga ljuljati" po staroj Srpskoj poslovici. Ulozeno je mnogo. Nazad nema.
Na kraju, ovo je poznato. Pogotovo ljudima koji vole i zive za razvoj komercijalne avijacije i aerodroma.
Verujuci da ste i Vi postovani Anon 10:25, Iskreno primite pozdrav iz zimskog Sidneja.
Rodney. ✈🌐🛫 West Ryde Sydney Australia
@10.27 all of those will be ahead in a month or two.
Delete@ 12:23 including November and December?
Delete2022
DeleteKVO 13.683
OMO 10.991
MBX 3.919
Yes, really all of them finish a year ahead of KVO.
Kad bi samo dozvolili rajanu da razvije niš. Ali nece...
ReplyDeleteA neko mu brani? Nisu mu izdali dozvolu za neki let? Sprecili ga da otvori novu liniju?
DeleteKad bi samo Nišlije trošile više para na dodatni prtljag, hranu i ostalo. Ali neće...
DeleteРајанер повећава из Ниша тамо где има потребе. Ето добили сте више летове из Беча и ка Крфу. Пре се радујте Ер Србији која вам уводи серију нових чартера овог лета. Таман не морате да летите из Скопља или Софије већ са вашег локалног аеродрома.
DeletePrishtina needs an airline! these charter flights are horrible. Flying with almost 30 year old Bulgarian planes is always an awful experience
ReplyDeleteSimply don’t book them. While booking you see the flight numbers. I only take the EW or DE charters.
Delete