Commercial airports in the former Yugoslavia processed a combined total of over 17.75 million passengers during the first half of the year, with Belgrade positioning itself within the top seventy busiest in Europe and Split within the top eighty. A total of eleven airports registered their best passenger performance on record during the seven-month period. They include Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica, Zadar, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Niš, Osijek and Kraljevo. On the other hand, two saw their figures lag on last year, which was still impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. They include Sarajevo and Rijeka. Furthermore, a handful of airports are still behind their pre-pandemic figures, among which are Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Tivat, Pula, Ohrid, Mostar, Brač and Mali Lošinj.
Passenger performance by airport, January - July 2023
During the January - July period, Belgrade Airport ranked 73rd busiest on the continent, just behind Keflavik (Reykjavik), Larnaca and Malta, but ahead of Sofia, Glasgow and Thessaloniki. Zagreb positioned itself as the 109nd busiest. It was behind the likes of Luxembourg, Vilnius and Corfu, but ahead of Paphos, Tbilisi and London City. Pristina was 117th on the list, behind Santiago de Compostela, Chania and Verona but ahead of Cluj, Florence and Split. The airport in the Croatian coastal city ranked 119th on the continent, ahead of Tallinn, Cork and Chisinau.
Passenger performance by airport, July 2023
During the first seven months of year, the Slovenian market saw the second largest percentual decline in passenger figures in Europe (excluding Ukraine), behind only sanctioned-hit Belarus, when compared to the pre-pandemic era with numbers down 35.7%. On the other hand, Albania recorded the fastest percentile growth, amounting to 107.5%, according to Airports Council International Europe, and was ahead of Armenia with a 64.1% increase. The market in Bosnia and Herzegovina grew 54.5%, Kosovo market registered 43.5% growth, Serbian 25.4%, Macedonian 16%, Croatian 9.9%, while the Montenegrin market saw its figures decline 4.7% on the same period in 2019. Notably, many markets in Europe are yet to recover their pre-pandemic figures with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Switzerland all below pre-Covid levels. Overall, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe between January and July, handling 44.8 million passengers, ahead of Istanbul’s main gateway, which was second with 43.1 million travellers. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Rome Fiumicino and Istanbul Sabiha Gocken.
Rank of select European airports by passenger numbers in the region
Largest airlines by seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, July 2023
* Scheduled flights only
Belgrade may well hit that 8M mark...
ReplyDeleteIt will be close but I think just under. We will see
DeleteAs soon as JU gets the direct flight to YYZ, YWG or YUL we will see a BOOM in the number of passengers they get and a 10% drop in LH, AF, TK, SA and KLM.
DeleteWinnipeg ce definitivno npraviti razliku...
DeleteI like the new table with airline capacity. Very interesting
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAre there no data for Portoroz?
Delete"Notably, many markets in Europe are yet to recover their pre-pandemic figures with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Switzerland all below pre-Covid levels."
ReplyDeleteI'm really surprised. That's more than half of the country's in Europe.
Southern Europe is an exception
DeletePrimarily thanks to tourism
DeleteVery surprised about Romania. Their aviation seems to be stagnating quite a lot. Don't see any expansions in their airports and Air Connect seems to be underperforming as well. Yet to see what happens with Dan Air. After all this is a huge country with a huge diaspora yet aviation wise not generally great. Same goes with Hungary. DEB has lost many routes and Hefiz no scheduled flights. Ironically, many Balkan states are doing quite well compared to 2019 or at least reaching its levels.
DeleteEmbarrassing that Mostar is behind Kraljevo.
ReplyDeleteUntil a few months ago they had no flights at all so this is good
DeleteWell that happen when you have one flight to nowhere.
DeleteThe most embarassing is position of Rijeka, the biggest ex-yu port, center of the most touristic croatian and ex-yu region, and the most cosmopolitan city in Croatia, with many ties to both the region and the World, and with much more population, and relatively wealthier, than many of those above on the list. Yes, RJK has its limiting factors like vicinity of most of the emitive tourist markets, seasonality, proximity of many bigger airports, winter weather conditions, but despite all of the mentioned, RJK could and should have had much more traffic. Is it ever going to happen, remains to be seen
Delete@ pozdrav iz Rijeke: How often did you fly out of RJK this year?
Delete@Pozdrav iz Rijeke, As far as I know, the biggest port in Ex-Yu is Koper in Slovenia :D
DeleteYes, Koper is bigger
Delete@11.08
Delete6 times this year, 3 times out of RJK, 3 times out of ZAG. And have another ZAG booked for November.
@19.04 and 21.03
You are partially correct. Koper is bigger, not only compared to Rijeka, but to Venice and Trieste as well, but in container traffic only. But Port of Rijeka consists of parts for oil and LNG traffic in Omisalj (just across the airport), bulk cargo in Bakar, grains in Plomin and general cargo in Rijeka, so it's not only in Rijeka, and not only containers. But even if you are right, and Port of Koper is overall bigger then Rijeka, it still does not change the fact that RJK airport should be better connected and with more traffic than now
Koper port has big part for cars too ;) massive one. And oil and so on…
DeleteOk, Koper is bigger, I am not here to measure whose is bigger in maritime transport but to say that Rijeka with its big port and everything else that you are conveniently forgetting to mention, should have much more traffic at its airport. This is airline industry blog and we discuss airports here, not sea ports. But as your ego obviously needs it, let me repeat it, three times, just for you to feel better : Koper is bigger. Koper is bigger. Koper is bigger. And I give no sh.t if Koper is bigger because it's not my aerea of interest. Hope you are happy now!
DeleteI was anon 19:04, @Pozdrav Iz Rijeke, I am also surprised why RJK doesn't get more flights, as the airport is literally next to the sea and ON the beautiful island of Krk
DeleteWhat the hell is happening at Rijeka?!? Why are they performing worse than last year?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/02/rijeka-airport-forecasts-fewer.html
DeleteThanks, didn't see that. Not good
DeleteSchengen as the first reason, easier and faster to come by car now. Higher prices as the second, overall tourist income will probably be higher this year but with less tourists, those coming by plane included, the third is PSO which started operating just recently due to incompetent and inert Ministry. The fourth are extremely high taxes RJK has, which chased away many potential customers, and the fifth is RJK management, which is much better than the former one led by Mr. Pascenko, but still with no stellar achievements and results
Deletemeanwhile, split is having a record year
DeleteThat's definitely thanks to OU and their "post-covid strategy', hahahahahahahaha
DeleteVase bi probleme rjesilo nesto na tragu aerodroma crne gore , udruzena firma zracna luka zagreb-rijeka , vi njima malo podignete broj putnika , oni vama malo na vaznosti . Naravno i nekoliko dnevnih polazaka omogucujuci brze putovanje poslovnim putnicima izmedu ta dva svjetski poznata ekonomska giganta .
DeleteOvo ako je trebalo kao bit smijesno, sori ali meni nije ni malo, a za sve ostalo mogu reci samo : no comment
DeleteGood results overall
ReplyDeleteNot really 17,8 million for so many airports is quite bad.
DeleteSarajevo again overtook Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a race between SJJ and LJU this year.
DeleteWhat a race
DeleteI think in the end Ljubljana will have more pax
Deletewow Pristina more than Zagreb in July!
ReplyDeleteYes I believe this is the first time in a few months that Pristina is ahead of Zagreb.
DeleteCould PRN end the year ahead of ZAG?
DeleteNo, there is already 80,000 difference between them.
DeletePristina will have a strong August, while Zagreb will certainly not. We saw the numbers in July. Nothing will be better in August.
Deleteyes but PRN is also under 10%
DeleteI will use this PRN/ZAG comparison topic, just for one observation : If PRN has almost equal number of passengers as ZAG, with NO flag carrier, or any carrier based there, what is the purpose of Croatia Airlines, as it is, and has been for the last two decades, and which citizens finance with millions of euros year by year?
DeletePRN will overtake ZAG next year.
DeletePozdrav, Kosovo lives abroad, Croatia does not. But you are right about OU! Kosovo is literally supporting itself abroad, the country abdicated!
Delete@ 18:49
DeleteAn estimated 3.2 mln croats also live abroad, half of which are post-Yu economic immigrants.
The difference between them isn't 80,000. It's 142,000.
DeleteComprehensive and very concise article. In particular I like table with airline capacity as well as remaining three tables. excellent. congratulations to the journalist.
ReplyDelete+1 Thanks for the list!
DeleteWhere did Ryanair expand so much for them to add so many seats??
ReplyDeleteTwo new bases compared to 2019 - Zadar and Zagreb. But their Zadar ops are impressive. They have something like 40 routes.
DeletePity it's only during summer.
Delete@9.35 well what do you expect
DeleteLJU and SJJ will be a close race, I think LJU might have more passengers at the end of the year
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note that Ohrid had a very bad July and is now under pre Covid numbers for first 7 months (in June it was above)
ReplyDeleteWhy are they struggling?
Deleteless chartrs
Deletefrom the Netherlands
DeleteWell @exyuaviation didn't mention Ohrid to be lower than precovid at the new post today. There are less charters from Netherlands. But the new JU flight and the new UK flights compensate for that.
DeleteThey did
Delete"Furthermore, a handful of airports are still behind their pre-pandemic figures, among which are Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Tivat, Pula, Ohrid, Mostar, Brač and Mali Lošinj."
Nice... good result for BEG with 68th ranking in Europe.
ReplyDeleteWith all the increases, Air Serbia will have an even better result by the New Year.
DeleteYes growth in Belgrade during last quarter will be around 30% on monthly basis compared to 2019.
DeleteTivat is still really struggling.
ReplyDeleteLack of flights from Russia
Deleteand Ukraine and Belarus
DeleteI'm interested in seeing Zagreb's numbers in August
ReplyDeleteIt will be growth up to 1%.
Deletepoor
DeleteWhere is Prague approximately?
ReplyDeletePrague has lost a lot, but this year they will return to normal. PRG also resumes long haul routes, and Czech Airlines will resume flights.
DeleteWill Split be ahead of Zagreb this year?
ReplyDeleteConsidering that stagnation at ZAG it is possible
DeleteYes
DeleteSome of these comments are so ridiculous they have to be sarcasm surely
DeleteCroatia Airlines still really below pre Covid capacity
ReplyDeleteThey still have more discontinued routes than newly launched ones. Plus they no longer wet lease 2 CRJs.
DeleteThat´s almost 6,2 million passengers for Croatia in the first half of the year and 2 Million in July of 2023. That makes Croatia the biggest aviation market in Ex.Yu.. Right?
ReplyDeleteIt was always like that, even during Yugoslavia. More airports, more tourists ...
DeleteVery nice pic of Zagreb :)
ReplyDeleteI just wish they had glass air bridges. Would look even better.
DeleteThose are called jetways.
DeleteIt's called an air bridge too. No need to attempt to look smart.
DeleteColloquially they are called "fingers". "Jetties" as shortened version of jetways is also commonly used. Jet bridges is another term used, and air bridges is the version mostly used, at least in my experience. Without any attempt to look smart 😃
DeleteSo LJU 1.3-1.5 million this year?
ReplyDeleteYes, things are definitely getting better.
DeleteAnd new route Luxembourg and Skopje coming up
DeleteAlso Riga next year too.
DeleteCan Belgrade stay ahead of Sofia until the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteI think so. Sofia performs well in winter but with all the increases at BEG, I think it will be ahead.
DeleteWill SOF surpass pre-pandemic levels? If it is at the same levels (or with an increase of 100-200 thousand), then BEG will be much higher than SOF.
DeleteIMO
DeleteSOF -7,2
BEG -7,6
Let's not forget Split which could be ahead of both by the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteDBV vs SKP is also interesting to follow.
ReplyDeleteA bleak winter for airports in Bosnia.
ReplyDeleteBravo Yugoslavio 😆 🤣
ReplyDeleteThe elephant in the room is Tirana airports massive growth this winter with the arrival of Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteno elephant. it is clearly mentioned in the text and present in the table
Deletethe real elephants are Vienna and Venice which are never mentioned despite being closer to ExYu then Bucharest
Closer to exyu... Lol!!
Delete@14.43 well go and see the distances Venice-Ljubljana, Vienna-Zagreb and compare them with Bucharest-Belgrade and then come back here
Deletethese Tirana trolls gosh
DeleteVenice probably effects LJU numbers (or exyu airport in general) like no other airport in the vicinity
DeleteWizz Ryan and Easy are 3 out of top 4 airlines but none of them operate domestic flights in the largest Ex Yu market Croatia. Distances are short but that's not an excuse in some other EU markets. It's not the matter if but when will they start.
ReplyDeleteTIA are coming
ReplyDeleteI can't believe Timisoara has more passengers than Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteSplit is seasonal, it has already reached its peak for this year.
ReplyDeleteIf it wouldn't be for the intense summer months, Split be competing with Ljubljana in terms of passengers. And that's an if.
Tiranas disadvantage all the time was that most routes were seasonally only.
ReplyDeleteNow with Ryanair coming this will change a lot.
Tirana next year will surpass Belgrade without any doubt.
JU increasing frequencies in winter at Belgrade thus is a good move to catch up.
Belgrade should be able to surpass Tirana in 2025.
Tirana surpassing Belgrade? LOL!
DeleteHow can you say without any doubt when Air Serbia, Wizz and others didn't publish their BEG expansion plans for 2024??? Do you know how many new lines Air Serbia announced for 2023?
DeleteDid he really say TIA has more passengers compared to BEG?
DeleteNo. "Next year" is the future, the year that will come after the ongoing year. You get the concept?
DeleteIf u think airserbia will expand in 24 as much as in 23 u are naive
DeleteI think Air Serbia will continue to expand in 2024 as they did in 2023. But with one difference : 2023 was the year in which they focused primarily on region and Europe, and created bigger network with more frequencies, adjusted to feed their long-haul, and precisely long-haul expansion is where the focus will be in 2024 and 2025. I think it's not naive at all to believe it's going to happen, everything indicates such development.
DeleteKomentar iz zagreba?
ReplyDeletePlease add Vienna and Graz as airports in the region
ReplyDeleteAlthough Ohrid had lower numbers in July I think you will see a fair few new routes from Ohrid coming up. This year has been the most tourists to ever visit Ohrid. Once the new terminal is built these numbers could potentially double.
ReplyDeleteBasel has been made seasonal now so that’s a big step back
Delete