Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of over 26.07 million passengers during the first three quarters of the year. Among them, Belgrade positioned itself within the top 75 busiest in Europe, with the remaining airports outside of the top 100. A total of eleven airports registered their best passenger performance on record during the nine-month period. They include Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica, Zadar, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Niš, Osijek, Portorož and Kraljevo. Notably, during September, Tuzla Airport bore the brunt of Wizz Air’s base closure, although figures are expected to further slide in October, which was the first full month since the carrier relocated its two aircraft away from Tuzla.
Passenger performance by airport, January - September 2023
During the January - September period, Belgrade Airport ranked 73rd busiest on the continent, just behind Keflavik (Reykjavik), Malta and Seville, but ahead of Sofia, Glasgow, and Thessaloniki. Split positioned itself as the 108th busiest, between Wroclaw and Stavanger in Norway, while Zagreb took 114th place. It was behind the likes of Tirana, Paphos, Olbia but ahead of Verona and Tbilisi. Pristina was 118th on the list, behind Santiago de Compostela but ahead of London City, Cluj, and Santorini. Skopje ranked 128h, trailing Tallin, Chisinau and Cork but immediately ahead of Memmingen, Dubrovnik and Ponta Delgada.
Passenger performance by airport, September 2023
During the first nine months of year, the Slovenian market saw the second-largest percentile decline in passenger figures in Europe (excluding Ukraine), behind only sanctioned-hit Belarus, when compared to the pre-pandemic era with numbers down 33%. On the other hand, Albania recorded the fastest percentile growth, amounting to 109.5%, according to Airports Council International Europe, and was ahead of Armenia with a 66.1% increase. The market in Kosovo grew 43.1%, the Serbian market registered 25% growth, the market in Bosnia and Herzegovina was up 21.4%, Macedonian 15%, Croatian 2.5%, while the Montenegrin market saw its figures decline 8.5% 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, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Switzerland all below pre-Covid levels. Overall, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe between January and September, handling 59.4 million passengers, ahead of Istanbul’s main gateway, which was second with 57.8 million travellers. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Rome Fiumicino and Antalya.
Rank of select European airports by passenger numbers in the region
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, September 2023
Wow, Zadar ahead of Sarajevo!
ReplyDeleteYeap, and they are building new terminal, longer runaway and the state is announcing the railway to the city center (until the end of decade). With a good management and winter routes they have potential reaching Dubrovnik level in ten years.
Delete..... and Ljubljana.
DeleteIt won't finish above Sarajevo though, the gap is almost erased after X/2023
DeleteSo sad to see Tuzla fall behind Nis, Ohrid and Rijeka, which it used to be ahead of on a monthly basis.
ReplyDeleteIt will get worse in October. Numbers will probably be half of November.
Delete^ true unfortunately.
Deleteand I doubt the Air Montenegro arrangement will actually happen.
DeleteUnfortunately, I think Wizz will eventually completely pull out of Tuzla. We will see.
DeleteOhrid will also further drop as Wizz Air finished its Basel and Malmo flights, Tuzla will be ahaid of Ohrid in November.
DeleteThat only goes to show how exposed these smaller airports are to softening economic performance across the EU.
DeleteHow the hell does Portoroz have so much traffic?!?
ReplyDeleteThat is what I am wondering aswell. They weren’t far behind Osijek and you need to know that Osijek had Ryanair, Croatia Airlines and Trade Air flights scheduled, while Portorož didn’t have any scheduled flights at all
DeleteNo .
DeleteI'm really surprised how well Portoroz it's doing considering they don't have scheduled flights.
DeleteI wish they could start handling scheduled flights.
DeleteThey have their own counting methodology. Fly in with cessna, single pilot = 1 pax
Deletehaha figures
DeleteWill Ljubljana overtake Sarajevo?
ReplyDeleteHighly likely, considering Sarajevo has softer numbers towards the end of the year.
DeleteLju had stronger October than Sarajevo and the same is expected for November and December
Deletebut it wont be enough to overtake it this year.
DeleteLet's see
DeleteIt will definitely be close
DeleteHighly unlikely, Sarajevo will finish above them by 100-150k
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteWe are all waiting for fraport fanboys, stating how well Ljubljana has recovered...
DeleteWell it's good, now there is more than one plane, we have new destinations, p2p is almost fully restored, tourist traffic is fully restored, many destinations are fully restored in terms of frequency.
DeleteCool pic of Split :)
ReplyDeleteAgree! Very nice airport :)
DeleteIt is obvious that until the end of the year BEG will have double more passengers than 2nd ex Yu airport (probably it will be ZAG).
ReplyDeleteSince it’s the only major airport in the country no wonder it’s the busiest in Ex-Yu..
DeleteIf Zagreb was the only major one in Croatia, we would see the same numbers, but Croatia for such a small country has 4 airports above 1mil paxs count, that’s far more impressive I would say..
I disagree. It's far more impressive that a country with no Adriatic coast, or similar, can have such high numbers in comparison. You move all traffic via Zagreb and you would lose half the traffic because who wants to transit and lose 2+ hours in each direction when you can have a direct service.
DeleteSo if BEG had 5.9 million in September, and just the other day it was reported they surpassed 6.6 million, it means that there were around 700,000 passengers in October. Not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteThe information about BEG going to 6.6 mil was given few days before end of October so therefore I suppose October had around 750.000 passengers.
DeleteAnyone know how many passengers BEG had in October 2019?
DeleteBEG had 5.950.000 at the end of September so I think we might not see 700.000 this year, maybe 685.000 or so.
How many routes Kraljevo had in September? Just Istanbul? The numbers show that the flights were half empty if it was only one route that month.
ReplyDeleteMy mistake, sorry, not half empty but actually full hahahha
DeleteThe average cabin load factor on flights from/to Kraljevo stood at 61.8% in September. During September there were nine flights to Istanbul, four to Thessaloniki and four to Tivat.
Deletethank you admin.
DeleteHey admin, do you possibly know LF for Wizz in Tuzla in September?
DeleteLooks like the author of the article (and the excel tables) forgot to update Zagreb's place in the September performance table and copy pasted last years ranking, where historically Dubrovnik performs better than Zagreb in Septembers and takes the third place (but not this September).
ReplyDeleteTable is correct. DBV had less passengers than Zagreb in September and is behind in ranking table too.
DeleteNo recovery in sight for Tivat unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteIt is dragging down the whole average of Montenegro's passenger numbers.
DeleteIt lost its biggest market. It will take time for them to find alternatives.
DeleteSo ex-Yu airports have surpassed 2022 annual results, when they had just 26 million.
ReplyDeleteZAD having more passengers than Ljubljana and Sarajevo!
ReplyDeleteat the moment, in october they will go to almost 0.
DeleteOf course they will report almost 0 pax in October, more like 100,000.
DeleteZAD in October 120K, 109K in Oct 2022.
DeleteNot only has BEG distanced itself from the rest of the ex-YU gang but it seems like the difference with SKG and SOF is also growing.
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that by now BEG is moving closer to airports such as BUD and OTP than it is to the ones I mentioned above.
Upwards and onwards we go Tesla!
Not sure. BUD and OTP have double digits in millions for years now. BEG is witnessing what SOF did in 2016 with Ryanair arrival. It might take up to 5 years to each 10 million. Both BUD and OTP have a immense O&D traffic while BEG relies on transfer via BEG.
DeleteBUD especially has very few turboprop flights. OTP has a huge domestic traffic as well.
Yeah you are right. All the passengers at BEG are transfers. When arguments about political routes, immigrant routes, Russians etc are no longer possible, than we move onto transfers. I believe the next line of argument is that Serbia hires actors to board planes just for the statistics.
DeleteHmm so airlines like Wizz Air which don't have access to JU's network boosted both capacity and frequencies because they rely on passengers who are self-connecting?
DeleteWhat Belgrade is experiencing now is growth and development that comes as the result of improved economic climate. This trend will continue especially from November when Sava Center opens its doors. Belgrade already said that their goal is to work on promoting the city as a congress destination.
Similarly to both OTP and BUD, BEG has a large catchment area with minimal competition. I mean who are OTP's main competitors? Craiova? Constanta? Same with BUD. To the west they have VIE but to the south there is nothing until you reach Belgrade. To the east first airports with some sort of traffic are Kosice and Debrecen.
As BEG keeps on improving its offer it will become more attractive both to transfers and O&D passengers.
BEG growth this year was very well above 20%, assuming this year's current MoM growth, lets say it reaches 7.7 million this year. Bringing down the growth next year to 20% (bare assumption) with JU and other airlines capacity increase, it will see 9 or more million in 2024. 10 million or more is inevitable in 2025. 2030 will already see capacity at peak with VINCI expansion. So my question is to more experienced aviation enthusiasts and professionals, what is going to happen when BEG reaches VINCIs end of concession period capacity by 2030? Further expansion or chaos again?
DeleteBEG is no where close to BUD or OTP in terms of traffic, let's be real. BUD is not only a leading tourist city but hosts many events, many students, many Chinese, many Asians, etc.
DeleteOTP and Romania is a huge city and country with a large diaspora of only 1 million Romanians to begin with. It is a city with 2 airports. It has various airlines.
If we need to also compare Bulgaria, they have 3 more airports and their coastal airports with serious traffic. BEG is currently growing quite good, but very far especially BUD and OTP figures. It can currently compete with SOF and SKG as usual.
BEG overtook both SOF and SKG so now it has to work to catch up with BUD and OTP.
DeleteThere is no reason why it can't handle as much traffic. People here said BEG will never reach or overtake SOF but here we are today.
No one said that
DeleteWell done PRN. Excellent result.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
DeleteBravo Hrvatska. More airports and more passengers than any other country.
ReplyDeleteWell having so many airports doesn't have to be a good thing. OSI, RJK and ZAD could easily be shut down and traffic redirected to ZAG, PUY and SPU. But we all know that will never happen because those airports employ valuable party members.
DeleteReally? That’s how you see ZAD?
DeleteYes because ZAD's growth mostly came from SPU's bad spacial planning. If SPU could build a new taxiway, expand the apron etc it could handle more traffic. We all remember how SPU turned down Air Transat because they simply could handle such large planes. That is why Transat boosted ZAG.
DeleteYes, it would. If it could. But it can’t. So?
DeleteSo ZAD's success is nothing spectacular. It would be it if SPU was running at full capacity.
Delete@Anon 10:01 Close ZAD w 1.3mil pax and keep SPU with bad 'spatial planning' and no room for growth? Clever. Another bright idea: close both and build ŠIBENIK.
DeletePodgorica is doing extremely well considering Air Montenegro is more than half the size smaller than Montenegro Airlines plus it can't handle transfer passengers, which is something that Montenegro Airlines did.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGood recovery by most
ReplyDeleteWho flies to Portoroz? Private planes?
ReplyDeleteYes private flights.
DeleteIs there any plan to develop Portoroz for commercial flights?
DeleteThey are waiting for approval to either demolish the terminal and build a new one or completely refurbish the current one. Then they will extend the runway a bit so the smaller commercial planes like Atr76 and Dash8 or Crj900 will be able to land there without problem or restrictions. Then they will probably start to have scheduled flights
DeleteI think Portorož has flights to Austria (Goldegflug) and Switzerland with Swiss Flight Services. So there were times with scheduled flights.
DeleteIt's so sad that it is all over for Tuzla with Wizz leaving :(
ReplyDeleteThanks for the list.
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame that such a touristic city with so many foreign visitors like Mostar has so little traffic.
ReplyDeletelol, do you know how many touristic cities with xxx times more tourists there are in Europe with no airport?
DeleteYes, but Mostar already has an airport with a terminal building. Why not use it to its full potential?
DeleteMostar visitors are mainly from a side trip from Croatia holidaymakers, Balkan tour backpackers or groups, sidetrip from SJJ middle east visitors (although they are not as many).
DeleteAll of them barely stay more then one night.
Turkish has a lot of cancelations today and yesterday to PRN/SKP, does anyone maybe know what is happening?
ReplyDeleteThe reservation system and technology they are using has malfunctioned and that is the reason for the cancellations.
DeleteSo this year there will be 10 airports with over 1 million passengers. I think that's a first.
ReplyDeleteHappened in 2019.
DeleteSkopje still has room for improvement, the catchment area is excellent, they just need to work in bringing more routes.
ReplyDeleteIt does, but Prishtina is very close and is doing unbelievably well.
DeleteIf you think about it, it is actually amazing that airports like Antalya or Mallorca generate the entire traffic of all ex-YU airports combined. Also Lisbon handled 20 million by August.
ReplyDeleteIn general, most interesting is to see ZAG almost restoring its 2nd position and the gap between PRN and SKP now nearly half a million when both airports were traditionally almost the same.
I'm more shocked tgat Antalya is tenth busiest airport in Europe!
Deleteit was much bigger
Delete^ what?
DeleteIn Europe?
DeleteYes, Turkey as a country market is considered in Europe for purpose of statistics by IATA, ACI Europe, Cirium, Sabre etc. Get over it.
DeleteWith BEGs growth, it is a matter of time when it breaks into top 50. 10+ million in 2025 and by 2030 a true regional hub with 13 to 15 million.
ReplyDeleteExcellent results for SKP. This year it will defenitly break it's own personal record. I hope Wizzair will focus more on leisure destanations and they don't have to be year around in my opinion(seasonal is oke). It would be nice if Macedonian citizens will be less dependant on transfers or neigbouring airports for leisure trips. Also a gulf destanation would be nice(I hope for flydubai). There is defenitly some more potential but because we are a small market it's more difficcult to exchange that potential into flights.
ReplyDeleteWhat leisure destinations are you talking about? SKP is more of a gasto airport similar to Charleroi, Hahn, Memmingen, etc. You have 1-2 leisure routes for only 2-3 months but SKP traffic today relies mainly on Wizzair and as you can see Ohrid traffic figures are catastrophic so people are left to use only SKP and used by Macedonian Albanians as an alternative airport of PRN. Good news is LH are deploying A321 on some days to FRA from SKP. Highly doubt the Gulf routes will return. Gulf carriers saw their success in BEG, SJJ and now as we can see in LJU, where DXB and IST became very popular and for sure, DOH will become such if QR ever decide to deploy flights.
DeleteWhat SKP, similar to SJJ need are more European connections....
used by who and alternative to what? so much triggered ...
Delete@14.19 puzzled by your neznanje:
DeleteAntalya, Izmir, Bodrum, Hurghada, Monastir, Djerba, Enfidha, Larnaca, Malta
SKP is the probably the 3rd largest outgoing leissure market in ExYu after BEG and LJU
14:19 in the summer their were 5-6 leisure flights every day so it's defenitly possible. Antalya, Izmir, Bodrum, Hurghada, Monastir, Djerba, Enfidha, Larnaca, Malta and Split. Gasto traffic is the highest but every airport has is own strenghts and with the gasto routes you boost also other sort of travel. Both Macedonians and Albanians from Macedonia who want to go to Macedonia are ofc gonna fly to SKP why would they use Pristina. Ohrid is still behind 2019 but is ahead of 2022 figures so catastrophic is not the right word.
DeleteOfc more European destanations would be nice but with Lufthansa,Austrian, Air Serbia and Turkish you can get to a lot of places in the world.
That's a nice image
ReplyDeleteI wonder if SKP will overtake DBV this year. I think it is doable.
ReplyDeleteThank you for destroying our climate with highspeed
ReplyDeleteWho?
DeleteCongrats to most, but ZAD and BEG are the superstars!
ReplyDeleteZadar surprised me again but I've since found out they deserve the success. Not only as an airport but the entire city is just happening. It's got so many things to offer, definitely not a destination relying on sun and sea alone.
BEG has blown everyone else out of the water and is experiencing its golden era, a historic success for sure.
Another surprise given the resumption of post covid "normal life", is ZAG having more passengers than DBV in September?!
A note: if the numbers are correct, Pula should be ahead of Banja Luka in the table for the entire period.
Most Croatian airports are doing very well. The only exception (in my opinion is DBV). When you look at it, the number looks impressive but it is still down by quite a lot compared to 2019. I just don't understand the reason why. It can't be Russia-Ukraine war since it didn't have that many flights from that region.
DeleteKudos to ZAD. With runway extention construction to start, new terminal, and train connection planned to the port and city, future looks bright.
Deletehow can ZAD be a superstar?
Deleteit added "only" 158k pax compared to last year
DeleteNot bad at all
ReplyDeleteDBV, due to management short vision and obvious we don't care could perform so much better. Asian market could triple the numbers. They don't like sunshine, and winter time is perfect for them. Dubrovnik have had JAL direct flight from Tokyo. Have had direct flight from Seoul, but due to new Zagreb airport, government took Korea Airlines flight from DBV to Zagreb. And they lost it on the end. I am sorry, but tourist can do and see in Zagreb. Nothing. Zagreb is a bad
ReplyDelete...Zagreb is a bad copy of the Wiena.
DeleteAre you serious?? There's nothing in Zagreb?! Lol, you've obviously never been to Zagreb.
DeleteThis comment is just as ridiculous as saying there's nothing to see in Dubrovnik.
Zagreb's Upper Town is approximately as large as Dubrovnik's Old Town, and just there alone there's plenty to see and do, both in Grič and Kaptol.
Not to even mention the downtown. And unlike Dubrovnik there's plenty of things happening in Zagreb all year round. The city doesn't transform into a ghost town for half a year.
That's probably the reason why Zagreb has more annual visitors than the entire Dubrovnik-Neretva county.
I was in Seoul. Flying home. It was 7 years ago. And I was so proud. City public buses where all painted with Dubrovnik picture on one side and Split picture on the other side of the buses. Korean Airlines in flight magazine cover photo was Dubrovnik, and last page ha Split photo. And those government idiots moved flight from Dubrovnik to Zagreb
ReplyDelete