Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport will offer a combined total of over one million seats in a single month on flights to and from Serbia’s capital this August for the first time in its 65-year history. A record 1.022.220 seats are available on 7.231 scheduled flights next month (this includes both inbound and outbound services). It represents an increase in capacity of 27% on its previous best result achieved in August 2019 and a 17.7% increase in the number of operated flights. Air Serbia will hold 55.5% of total scheduled capacity followed by Wizz Air, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Swiss, Austrian and Flydubai.
The biggest percentile increase in capacity on last year, if new arrivals such as airBaltic and Jazeera Airways are excluded, will be recorded by Hainan Airlines, Eurowings and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, while in absolute terms Air Serbia will be adding the most capacity, an additional 183.300 seats, followed by Wizz Air with an extra 56.790 seats and Lufthansa with an additional 13.528 seats. Airlines with the biggest decline in available capacity, if those that discontinued operations since last year are excluded, such as Air France and Vueling, are Arkia and easyJet, down 59% and 26% respectively on August 2022. Istanbul’s main airport will just pip Zurich for having the largest number of seats from Belgrade next month, followed by Tivat, Vienna, Frankfurt, Larnaca and Barcelona.
The significant increase in traffic comes as Belgrade Airport continues to deal with operational difficulties. In addition to its ongoing expansion and overhaul project, the airport is facing a staff shortage, most notably in its baggage handling department, which is causing delays, primarily on Air Serbia flights. It has also resulted in significant amounts of lost luggage, mainly for Air Serbia’s transfer passengers as there is not enough staff to load, offload and transport luggage between two connecting flights, causing a significant backlog of stored bags which are taking days, and in some cases weeks, to be delivered to their owners. Although new personnel are being hired, the pace at which new employees are joining in a market already experiencing a low unemployment rate, cannot keep up with the significant increase in demand. Furthermore, frequent severe weather throughout the past two months, causing a ban on aircraft refuelling for safety reasons, has also led to delays.
Nice. That is a huge amount of extra seats by JU in a single year.
ReplyDeleteThis means that next year the airport could actually have a million passengers in a single month too.
ReplyDeleteIt could have it this August already
DeleteMore likely it is going to be around 920.000 - 950.000
Delete^ Highly unlikely last annon because average loads across all of those 7000+ flights would have to be 97% which is impossible.
DeleteMy comment above was meant for anon @9.05
DeleteThe only question is how many extra seats will there be if charters are counted in.
DeleteProbably about 950.000, there is 27% seats more in offer than in 2019 year so if LF remain as it were in 2019 we can expect something about 950-960 thousand.
DeleteYes, that sounds most realistic, which is quite a good result.
DeleteIf I understand the news correctly, these are the numbers without charters. When charter results are added at the end of the month it should be much closer to million
DeleteIt's interesting to see destinations such as Larnaca and Barcelona having the most capacity.
ReplyDeleteWizz and JU were sleeping on Barcelona for years, maybe even a whole decade.
DeleteCircumstances have also changed in the last few years which has made Barcelona and Spain in general accessible to the Serbian population.
DeleteSpain is much cheaper than Croatia and Montenegro, so once people realised that, you cannot stop them. Not to mention that service and offer in general is way better in Spain.
DeleteAgreed, Spain have been doing tourism for years and have hotels for all budgets, great beaches, infrastructure and reasonable prices. I can only see the opportunity for more designations, frequency to Spain and be interested if this spills over to Portugal as also better prices than more local destinations.
Delete@9.35: Serbs visited Barcelona, but they were travelling from Timisoara or Budapest, usually in great numbers.
DeleteAlso now people are using Belgrade to get to BCN from other regions like Bosnia and Romania.
DeleteYou land in Barcelona, take the subway, then the T1 and you are at Costa Brava in 2 hours.
DeletePrices are great, weather too.
I remember back when Montenegro Airlines used be in the top for flights and capacity in Belgrade. Air Montenegro has completely handed over their passengers to/from BEG to Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteAnd they also dominated these market.
DeleteOne reason for founding the successor airline Air Montenegro was to not loose the profitable leadership on this route to its competitor Air Serbia.
That didnt work out obviously..
That's coming close to Budapest.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to know how much capacity they have planned for August.
DeleteThe handling situation and especially the lost, severely delayed bags for transfer pax really damages the JU brand.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt is awful. When will it improve?
DeleteThey need to find a lot more people to hire.
DeleteAlso the security checkpoints need more stuff.
But the wages offered are low and working shifts is tough.
Even though it isn't their responsibility, JU have been hiring and training staff for BEG seeing as they are incapable of doing so in a timely manner. There has been dome noticeable improvements with luggage the past few days but more needs to be done.
DeleteAir Serbia Ground Services is definitely Air Serbia's company and, therefore, responsibility.
DeleteASGS has been inactive since November 2017. ASGS back then had 340 employees, all were transfered to BEG. JU's ground handling is done by BEG and therefore it is BEG's responsibility.
Delete@15:38
DeleteJU choosing BEG as its handler is JU's responsibility.
The passenger doesn't get to choose who will handle its bags, the airline does.
@16:06
DeleteThat is true, however there really isn't much of a choice in BEG (I believe BEG has only 2 handlers). JU, like all airlines in BEG, are paying for a service which isn't being done adequately and in a timely manner. Passengers are also paying BEG, through airport taxes, a service which isn't being done to minimum expectations. And it should never have come to that as there was more than adequate time to prepare. All airlines and passengers are suffering in BEG, JU is worst hit as it's their base.
Super impresive number!!
ReplyDeleteI wish that thay sort out the problems as quick as possible.
I flew twice this month.
And thank god no issues at all. It was quick process.
Very good numbers
ReplyDeleteWhere is all the Lufthansa growth coming from? Bigger planes?
ReplyDeleteI think they have more flights compared to last year.
DeleteOne extra flight daily, I think?
DeleteThey are also sending A321s on many flights.
DeleteAnd this is on top of the cuts in flights they made for this summer. So it is a good result.
DeleteNice
ReplyDeleteDid JU restoring Tel Aviv impact Arkia?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it. Probably has more to do with them needing extra capacity on other routes.
DeleteAnd there's some issue with slots at TLV so the companies have to make some choices...
DeleteTrue. Forgot slots are an issue in TLV in summer.
DeleteIs ghat that without charters?
ReplyDeleteYes. It says in the second sentence that this figure is for scheduled flights.
DeleteYesterday YU-APS had a record delay of 5HOURS 11 minutes on flight JU652 to Moscow. This morning flight JU650 YU-APH to Moscow left Belgrade with a 3+ hours delay. Many other early morning flights delayed making Belgrade airport constantly present on the FR24 world airport disruptive list. Really IMPRESSIVE, Kudos for both Air Serbia and Belgrade airport operations.
ReplyDeleteSomething to be very proud about!
Not defending them but just the other day there was another bomb threat against Belgrade Airport and Air Serbia (including Air Serbia offices) and I believe it is happening on an almost daily basis.
DeleteI am also not defending them, but delays are unfortunately normal nowadays and they are happening everywhere in Europe. Can people accept it or we expect ultra LCC prices and prime class service... It doesn't work like that.
DeleteYesterday I was flying from MUC to BRU, 1h dela, announced in pieces of 20mkn each time. I saw noone complaining.
There was a "storm" which was summer shower, multiple flights delayed because of it. I saw a queue of at least 200m of people waiting because their LH flights were cancelled or delayed "for indefinite period". People queuing peacefully and in silence, noone complaining.
And why is like that? Because people know their rights, they know the procedures and they know the situation so they are well prepared for that kind of situation, so opposite to many in ex-yu.
There are many delays across Europe but there are people who intentionqlly attack only Air Serbia.
DeleteI can only assume the reason for it, but I can't understand it.
Mr negative, just FYI majority of their flights are in D5 standard departure time, which means hardly any huge delay. Most of us are impressed with their operation as many rich and big countries are not able to achieve JU performance.
Delete@11:10; 11:43; 11:48 I must say that I am shocked by your way of thinking and for supporting this level of "service" by JU. The trend is almost EVERYDAY 2+ hrs delays to Moscow and yesterday / today we have 5 and 3hrs respectively and you call that norm? 2 hours needed to turn around a plane in it's base airport you call that norm? Yes there are delays in other airports and some flight goes bazook occasionally but that is not every day and not a justification. It is time that you raise the bar at least a bit!
DeleteYou are right. When you get a bomb threat for a particular flight they should ignore it and go against all international rules and regulations. Smart thinking.
Delete@Anon 9:27 Delays and cancellations much smaller BEG-based airtline also had yesterday but you had no interest in checking those facts:
DeleteDortmund W6 4092 11:20 Wizz Air A08 Слетео 18:21 - LATE 7:01 hours!
Barcelona W6 4116 00:50 Wizz Air A09 Слетео 05:50 - LATE 5:00 hours!
Three other flights with more than 4 hour delays: W6 4072, 4106 and 4110
Plus two CANCELLED flights: W6 4052 and 4262.
@13:28 I fully agree with you. Every time I write about it, people give me excuses, explanations and justifications. Yes, others are late as well. So what? Shouldn't we aim to be better than others? Shouldn't we try to improve? Especially, that an ordinary European citizen thinks in stereotypes. LH - good (hell, no!) and Air Serbia - the knee-jerk reactions is: to avoid. Whether we like it or not, we need to be excellent to be regarded as equal. Sad but true.
DeleteThink about Turkish 30 years ago. That's where the Air Serbia brand is now.
A few days ago, there were articles about the most punctual airlines in Europe. Air Serbia nowhere to be seen. The top 10 most punctual European airlines are as follows: Polish Airlines (82.72%), Norwegian Air Shuttle (82.02%), Iberia, Finnair (80.69%), Austrian (78.12%), Vueling, KLM (76.18%), , Eurowings (69.12%), Lufthansa (66.16%) and Norwegian Air Sweden (65.68%).
Best way to help spoiled passengers to and from Russia is to permanently stop those flights. Would that be better Anon 09:27?
DeleteAnother 200+ airlines are not in your top 10.
Delete@14:51 That is exactly the attitude that will keep Air Serbia out of top 10 permanently.
DeleteSo what that another 200+ airlines are not in top 10. Is our ambition to be mediocre? The Poles can be - in this particular statistic - number 1 and we cannot make it to top 10 and it is fine, because there are 200+ who are with us?
Is it really our ambitions to compere ourselves always to Sofia, Bucharest, Thessaloniki and Budapest? Why not to Vienna and Warsaw? These are airports with national carriers with long-haul flights; someone Belgrade should be competing with...
Bomb threats against Moscow bound flights are certainly not to be blamed on Serbia or JU.
DeleteGood grief, many European airports are a disaster. Just look at ATH for example. JU doesn't have multiple daily departures to most destinations meaning flights have to wait for transfers. This creates a chain reaction. Today there were 36 transfers from IST to CDG. JU had to wait for them so the flight is late.
DeleteMany European airports are a disaster. But many European airports are not a disaster. I'm wondering why you are OK with BEG being a disaster?
DeleteBecause airports like BEG that are getting busy and that are seeing a lot of transfers are becoming more and more chaotic. Heck, I don't understand why people are ignorng delays at ZAG when there are no transfers there.
DeleteOn a good day like today, 15% of all their flights are heavily delayed.
Congrats. Let's hope the airport can handle all these flights.
ReplyDeleteAnd now more than SOF, BUD, SKG
ReplyDelete233.272 more than Sofia
Delete99.251 more than Thessaloniki
583.153 below Budapest
Thanks for the numbers! BUD has attracted a lot of new airlines in the last few weeks.
DeleteThis just goes to show how strong Sofia is in winter while in summer not so much.
DeleteBulgaria invested in winter tourism and Sofia now reaps the harvest.
Deletehttps://dailynewshungary.com/chaos-at-budapest-airport-passengers-waited-hours-for-wizz-air/
DeleteTalking about tourism, Serbia is as good at developing it as BEG is in handling luggage this summer.
DeleteBudapest has become the new trend in central Asia and parts of Asia.
Not Warsaw, not Prague, not Paris but freaking Budapest. Every hipster from Almaty or Bishkek has been to or plans to visit - Budapest. Now they've even got direct flights to Tashkent.
Why?
Aggressive promotion and marketing. Hungary has now an embassy even in Kyrgyzstan, whilst Serbia has ZERO embassies anywhere East of Moscow, all the way to Beijing.
That's pretty catastrophic, especially taking into consideration that Serbia is pretty much the only country in Europe for which central Asian citizens don't need a visa. 🤦♀️
If Serbia was to invest 30% of what Hungary is doing by targeting developing markets in Asia, Africa, South America, they could catch their numbers in 5 years.
Serbia invested in other markets, mostly Turkey and China and now we are seeing benefits of all that. Just look at how many flights we are getting. Serbia and Turkey even introduced ID travel between the two countries.
DeleteThat's good, but there is still a lot of work to do in order to penetrate other emerging markets which don't have historical or political underlying with Serbia.
DeleteAlso, there's a difference between growing a market and creating a market from scratch.
DeleteSerbia is pretty much ZERO at that.
Despite excellent visa policies with some of the largest and most prospective markets.
I think there is a lot more work to be done with China. Also I think Saudi Arabia is on their radius right now. That's another market that can work for Serbia. I mean many of them go to Bosnia so Belgrade which has much more to offer can attract them without problems.
DeleteAirport completely underprepared to handle this amount of traffic in the waves.
ReplyDeleteWhat's crazy is that they knew about this and about the planned volume of flights. There were no surprises.
DeleteGood about capacity. The question is will the passengers be there to fill that capacity.
ReplyDeleteI value my time and nerves so I will not and I will make every effort to bypass Belgrade and Air Serbia in the future.
DeleteAnd I am happy not to see you 2 at BEG that I will use.
DeleteAnd I would like to see your faces when you "bypass" them into the same or worse.
A friend has been traveling yesterday from Tuzla by With, actually she did not as the flight has been delayed for 3ž2 hours 4 times until it has been cancelled for good. She was with the 2 month old baby and she was trying to "bypass" BEG and AirSerbia, too. If it wasn't a baby there, I would laugh out loud.
Bypassing Belgrade can lead to losing more time and nerves than using Belgrade. I know the situation has been bad for quite some time but it's not unprecedented...
DeleteLet them enjoy "bypassing BEG" and entering bigger delays and cancellations.
DeleteI flew yesterday FRA-AYT 2 hours delay in departure and everyone considered it as normal.
Only "dezurni pljuvaci" are paid not to see it.
@Anon 9:53 "will the passengers be there to fill that capacity" and avoiding JU/BEG due to delays are claims made recently:
Deletehttps://ibb.co/Y2Z4f41
Studies from other airports and airlines show customers are and will keep coming back, so it is widely believed by real experts that JU/BEG passenger numbers will not be affected in a significant way. Calling a whole nation "nuts" when that happens is however offensive:
https://ibb.co/3TPqwfc
These days he is going crazy with his doom and gloom predictions about collapse at BEG. He keeps on insulting anyone and everyone here in Serbia. People stopped commenting so much there because he just insults you if you disagree with him.
DeleteI need to correct you...
DeleteIf you prove hìm wrong as often it is the case, he will simply not publish your comment.
He will publish it only if he thinks that he is able to reply to you even with the amazing "e,da.. " or "ako vi tako kazete" or if the comment is simple insult to JU, BEG, Serbians, Serbia or anything related to that country.
His blog is basically home to those who hate Serbs including deranged Serbs. It basically became an epicenter of anti-serbian everything.
Delete+100
DeleteHow many new routes from BEG so far this year?
ReplyDeleteOver 20 new routes
DeleteOver 30.
DeleteThere will be more new routes by the end of the year.
DeleteHope we see more new airlines.
ReplyDeleteA lot of new airlines have come in the last few years - Hainan, KLM, Luxair, Jazeera Airways, Air Baltic...
DeleteWhat is the number 1 foreign airline at BEG in terms of passenger numbers?
ReplyDeleteWizz Air, obviously.
DeleteWizz Air. After that either Turkish or Lufthansa.
DeleteFrom the article, I guess Wizz?
DeleteIs Wizz considered "foreign" in Belgrade? They have base at BEG for quite some time, I would count them as locals.
DeleteWell they are not registered in Serbia nor have a Serbian AOC.
DeleteI like the variety of airlines.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Bit of everything for everyone :)
DeleteI would like them to attract more European legacies - SAS, British Airways, Iberia...
DeleteHehe, it is easy to recognize you Pu..er.
DeleteGood news all things considered.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade's time is only coming now
ReplyDeleteWhere are they coming from after 60+ years of existence?
DeleteUnless you think Back To The Future films are documentaries, BEG is coming from the past. Past where 5 DC-10 were operated to many destinations from LAX to SYD. After brutal interruption that lasted couple of decades time to continue expansion.
DeleteBravo BEG!!!
ReplyDeleteBravo for what exactly? For the mess taking place from check-in to boarding and vice versa when you land?
DeleteI believe that there are serious issues but I flew twice this month. Within 20 minutes, I checked in, cleared passport and bag check. I guess i was lucky.
DeleteUnfortunately, people in Serbia are not used to waiting in line and expect to be served and bypass everything immediately. Reality is this sort of air travel is over for the time being. Yesterday at passport control at JFK Terminal 1 (arrivals) I had to wait 2 hours in line. Just 3 passport booths working. I was afraid someone would take my luggage by the time I passed passport control.
DeleteUnfortunately, people in Serbia doesn't use 50mil passenger airport like JFK, but moderate and decent-sized Belgrade Airport. At BEG-size airports, there are not so many disruptions... I'm sure when BEG reaches JFK size, people will act differently.
Delete^ you should travel more to see how airports of Belgrade's size are "functioning" this summer.
DeleteI really don't see what different does it make if the airport serves 50 million or 1 million passengers if it decides to have 2 or 3 passport booths open when a lot of planes land.
DeleteAn airport doesn't decide on how many passport control booths will be open. That's up to the Ministry of the Interior.
DeleteNot in the USA, as their Ministry (Department) of interior is concerned with national parks, and stuff alike :)
DeleteAnd 200000 lost suitcases
ReplyDeleteSomeone is a bit triggered woth the news.
DeleteYes, I waited for the plane for 4 hours and I've been waiting for my suitcase for 7 days
DeleteCrazy bad luck. Too bad.
DeleteWhch flight?
DeleteBelgrade- Split on JU
ReplyDeleteArrived 2 hours ahead at the airport.
Dropped bags, already checked in the night before. First in line, no line ups; maybe got lucky between big waves and got empty counterchecks.
An agent printed boarding passes just in case.
Quite busy at the Airport. Breezed through Duty free.
Gate C7. Huge space, lots of chairs.
Witnessed landing of JU plane from NY.
Flight to Split was delayed initially due to thunderstorms in Italy, Slovenia. We boarded. Further delay due waiting for transfer passengers affected by their delays. I was seated next to female American pilot from JetBlue and she told me pilots make decisions about route in case of storms at the moment before take off depending on storms. Its not easy task because these storms are fast moving. Anyway flight to Split was uneventful. Everything was smooth.
Car transfer guy from Kaštela was super nice waiting for over 1.20 hour delay. Took him for dinner. Primošten is great.
BEG Airport prices for food are on par with other airports so that means very expensive. Make a sandwich if you want to save a few coins.
JU had classical music while boarding and waiting. Excellent move because Reduces the stress level.
In any case come to airport 2 hours before flight, if you need food on longer flights make some sandwiches so not to pay extra and wait in line and everything will be good and raise vibrations.
Sound all good in your case. What to tell people waiting 3 4 5 or more hours for delayed flight? Some with small childrens.
DeleteWas your flight to SPU full? I saw that today they sent the A320.
DeleteAnon 16.16
Nothing to tell them, it happens. Just like their loud children can be more annoying than a massive delay. If you are looking to complain and bitch about something you will always find an excuse.
Fully agree!
Delete@Boris
Delete+1000
Yes. It was full flight. Mix of local tourists, local seasonal employees who work at the Croatian resorts, expats who live in serbia, and quite a few transfers.
DeleteI fly to Serbia from NY three times a year. I have been doing this for five years now and have been delayed every time, but not once out of Belgrade. On my last flight out of Newark, NJ our United flight to Frankfurt was delayed five hours so we missed our connecting flight to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteOn our prior flight from JFK with Air Serbia we were delayed four hours.
So please stop this nonsense. Delayed flights exist everywhere. Air Serbia and Belgrade airport will learn and adapt.
Don't you know it is national sport in Serbia to spit on its own airline?
DeleteSo 4 hours delayed flight is consider to be ok?
DeleteIt is not such a big deal as some try to present here.
DeleteIt's ok because it happens in Frankfurt and Amsterdam
DeleteGood to have expansions, but never liked the huge ones. Anyway BEG today has definitely changed as an airport so it will be interesting to see what happens.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha. Belgrade should have 1m Passengers? Yeah right, Niš a City on the south have surpassed this number years back with good policy by air companies who offered good deals while in BG for the same flight was three to four time expensive,but then politics got involved by "president"of Serbia.
ReplyDeleteNo, sum of all inbound and outbound Belgrade seats on offer in the month of August is over a million. Very different from what you are imagining.
Delete