All capital city airports from the former Yugoslavia are expected to see passenger growth during the final month of the 2023/24 winter season in March when compared to last year, based on available scheduled seat capacity levels. Wizz Air will stay on as the region's biggest airline ahead of Air Serbia.
Belgrade Airport has the most available seats on scheduled flights in March, standing at 743.806. The figure represents an increase of 20.7% on 2023. Air Serbia will continue to maintain its position as the largest carrier, holding 49.5% of all available scheduled capacity at the airport. Zagreb follows as the second largest with 401.885 available seats on scheduled flights during the month. It represents an increase of 12% on last year. Croatia Airlines will retain its position as the largest carrier at the airport, with 41% of available capacity. It is followed by Ryanair with 24.2% of all available seats.
Skopje Airport boasts 268.680 seats in March, up 31.8%. Wizz Air will hold a 61.1% share of available seats, while Pegasus comes second with an 8.2% share. Pristina Airport will have 220.952 available seats, however, it has numerous flights sold exclusively through tour operators which are considered as charters. Therefore, these are not included in the overall scheduled seat capacity. If only seats on scheduled flights are taken into account, the airport sees an increase of 19.7% in capacity on last year. easyJet has the largest portion of scheduled seats, holding a 21% share, ahead of Wizz Air with 15.1%.
Podgorica Airport has 129.276 scheduled seats on the market in March, up 8.9% on 2023. Turkish Airlines is the largest carrier with 17.6% of capacity, just ahead of Air Serbia with a 17.2% share of seats. The country’s national carrier, Air Montenegro, places fourth in Podgorica based on available capacity behind the Turkish and Serbian flag carriers, as well as Pegasus Airlines. Ljubljana Airport has 123.206 seats on scheduled flights in March, an increase of 36.7% on 2023. Turkish Airlines is the largest carrier with 17.3% of total capacity. Finally, Sarajevo Airport has 115.848 seats available this March, which is up 4.3% on last year. Pegasus Airlines will be its largest carrier with a 19.3% capacity share.
Largest carriers by scheduled seat capacity in the former Yugoslavia, March 2024
I’m surprised to see Sarajevo at the bottom of available capacity and with so little growth compared to last year, considering all the new routes starting in March.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind the new Ryanair routes start on the last day of March
DeleteSunexpress starts at the beginning of March.
DeleteApril will be much stronger
DeleteI just hope in Sarajevo they are ready for the growth as passport control when landing is chaos. They will need to do something about that before Ryanair arrive.
DeleteAgree! Its often an issue at the security check as well. Unfotunately it is due to border police and not because of the airport itself, and considering certain political structures in the country that do no apprechicate further investment in border police im afraid it wont get muc better. But i hope they at least can solve the issue with the security check, they could technically employe securitas as that’s common across Europe
DeleteHow many passport booths on arrival in SJJ?
DeleteI’m not sure I think there are 8/10 but usually only 3/4 are open due to lack of staff.
DeletePegasus has really become a major airline in ex-Yu
ReplyDeleteThey fly to all ex-Yu states except Slovenia. Hope they finally arrive here too.
DeleteHow come SKP has such big capacity growth? What's going on there?
ReplyDeleteIt is self explanatory
Delete"Wizz Air will hold a 61.1% share of available seats"
Wizz
DeleteWizz increased frequencies, brought larger planes and launched new routes.
Deletenah, its because last winter they were stil in sleep-mode
DeleteSkp huge growth? I am dissapointed from these results for SKP for March. Wizz reduced the operations by removing two aircraft last month, and deploying four A320s instead of A321s.
DeleteKeep in mind that this summer the Wizz share will drop as they will have just 5 aircraft instead of 6 and there will be more flights per week by other carriers compared to last summer, out of 35 departures per day on Mondays and Fridays this summer, Wizz will have only 14, smth similar is with the other days or the week.
have you been living on planet mars to not know that they need to take out 40-45 aircrafts for maintanance? gosh
DeleteWhere did i mention that i dont know why they removed to aircraft? I perfectly know the reason, its not neccessary to make a fool out of your self with these types of comment.
Deleteif u knew how come that you are "dissapointed", what did you expect ....
DeleteWhy do you care? Some people here are crossing their line.
DeleteBEG growth quite good considering the JU cuts.
ReplyDeleteExcellent
DeleteGo Ljubljana!
ReplyDeleteStill no news for subsidies
DeleteNice to see LJU on the mend.
DeleteQ1 has 30% growth right?
DeleteYes
DeleteKam pa naj bi Ljubljana šla? Ob takšni ignoranci politike in velikega dela slovenske javnosti do nacionalnega prevoznika nikamor. Prvo mora priti v Sloveniji do spoznanja, da so letalske povezave del infrastrukture in se temu primerno obnašati. Do tega pa bo pot še dolga.
DeleteI wonder if there will be a month where Wizz won't be the largest airline.
ReplyDeleteWizz is unbeatable
DeleteExcept on customer service, reliability and service yes Wizz is unbeatable.
Deleteizz Air. Prices are low and I didn't have a delay of more than 20 minutes this year and in 2023.
DeleteI flew Wizz Air 13 times in last 36 months. Only 2 flights were delayed and even those delays were slight (20 minutes or less).
Delete13 flights on Wizzair with only two slight delays vs. 6 flights with Air Serbia half of them delayed (the Budapest to Belgrade flight was delayed by almost double the time it took to reach Belgrade on the flight) so I refused to take part in the Wizz Air bashing.
DeleteOne day wizz can be overtake in the Yug depending on future developments at the flag carriers. How they grow in the future. The airports and if the flag carriers start to cooperate more.
DeleteDefinitely possible but not at current direction
JU is the closest to dethroning them. They would have done it in March had they not cut the initially planned schedule in January and then again a few days ago because of lack of Embraers.
DeleteAir Montenegro being fourth at its main base shows how poor the situation is for the airline.
ReplyDeleteWell they have 2 planes. What can you expect
DeleteThey are only that owns planes.
DeleteHonestly I don't trust an Airline run by Montenegrins. They are lovely people but I cherish my life and safety so I psychologically can't get on their plane of even the ticket was free.
DeleteOf = if *
Delete1505, you are talking BS.
DeleteAgree, complete nonsense.
DeleteShame on Easy. So little capacity in the region.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteMargins are too low for easyJet in the region. They would rather operate where higher margins can be made.
DeleteBigger surprise is that they're somehow the biggest in Pristina
DeleteWell they were the second busiest airline in Pristina last year based on passenger numbers. So it's not so surprising.
Deletethey captured (parts of) the Swiss market
DeleteSwiss market is no 1 from PRN. No surprise.
DeleteWhat surprised me the most is Pegasus being 1st in Sarajevo. How many flights a week does it have?
ReplyDeletePC has had an impact on TK which does not send A321 very often anymore.
DeleteVery good growth for all of them.
ReplyDeleteCan passenger result be predicted based on the planned capacity?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteWell yes. Usually up until now the passenger growth rate has been similar to the capacity growth rate.
DeleteSkopje has the biggest improvement compared to 2023.. Nice work
ReplyDeleteIn percentage terms
Deletenot if you read the article
DeleteYou are right, LJU has slightly larger increase in seats based on percentages.
DeleteI assume BEG added the most seats overall.
DeleteYes, in March BEG added around 127,000 seats. SKP 64,000, LJU 24,800.
DeleteWhy such increase of seat capacity in LJU?
ReplyDeleteCompared to last March, Luxiar has launched flights, Wizz Air has new Skopje flights, British Airways is operating during the winter, Swiss, Brussels, Flydubai, Air Serbia, Lufthansa and Turkish have all increased frequnecies.
DeleteIf you compared it to the same month in 2019 it would be a disaster.
DeleteDo we know what the available seet capacity was for 2019? I cannot find it anywhere to decide whether to believe you it is a disaster or you are just saying this out of nowhere
DeleteLjubljana Airport had 191.890 seats on scheduled flights in March 2019
DeleteSo, almost 36% decrease.
DeleteWell I would say that is a disaster.
DeleteNot really. Considering how few Slovenian actually fly, I'd say that's pretty good.
DeleteTrue because zero Slovenes use LJU and half of traffic are Croats.
DeleteThere we go again, Slovene don't fly, Croats neither, blablabla...
DeleteHe is being sarcastic...
DeleteInteresting stats.
ReplyDeleteNow it will be interesting to see when the passenger numbers are out to see how big of a load factor each airport has on its flights.
DeleteI dont expect massive changes, not in Q1 at least.
DeleteBEG will lead, PRN might overtake ZAG, but that's an IF.
SKP will come 4th and so on.
@9.51 you write that every month. you can already "see" it if you take some time to compare pax numbers and capacity preview
DeleteI think Zagreb will hit 300 000 in March, if capacity/seats figure of 400 000 is accurate, normally Zagreb manages around ~75% of seat capacity for the month. So rounding this to 300 000 is possible. February it'll be around 230-235000, January was around 250 000. For the rest of the year it'll be between 4.1 and 4.2 million total. No idea how other airports are expected to do.
Delete^ Sounds about right.
DeleteMassive Wizz share in SKP.
ReplyDeletewhat is it on an annual basis?
DeleteI think they had 60% passenger share last year.
Delete@09:51 Are you the same guy posting the exact same comment on the exact same post about seat capacity per month on this article every month?
DeleteIt will be interesting to watch the rest of the year. How the engine issues effect Wizz or if existing capacity remains and if Air Serbia find planes. Could be an interesting fight for 1st spot in the region. That said would love to know ranking when taken into account load factors (LF) and if that changes things.
ReplyDeletewell regarding LF you know which one has +90%LF
DeleteSkopje is the quiet achiever
ReplyDeleteMore airline diversification needed.
Deletepeople complain about the low presence of Easyjet but the real loser here is Eurowings knowing Germany is one of the biggest markets from ExYu
ReplyDeleteEurowings used to be larger but they cut a lot of flights in Croatia since Corona. Agree that elsewhere in ex-Yu they have a very low presence
DeleteIt's interesting how far Turkish has come. It was unthinkable once that it would be below Lufthansa.
ReplyDelete* I meant it was unthinkable that Lufthansa would be below Turkish.
DeleteTrends continue in March, Belgrade is adding about 127 thousand seats over 2023, Zagreb about 43 thousand over 2023.
ReplyDeletePristina was no surprise with nice >15% growth as noted some 10 months early on air blog djaftekurafte.
ReplyDeleteWhat?
DeleteThose Ryanair figures will change a lot for Croatia in a few months. Btw, Tirana airport published on their FB page that they ovetook both BEG and SOF in traffic. There is a graph. They still have a lot of new routes and think they are really on fire. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=431683965872235&set=a.229456829428284
For those who don't have Facebook it says:
With an impressive 652,270 passengers in January 2024, Tirana International Airport - TIA claims the top spot as the leading airport in the region, surpassing also Belgrade Airport
I have the impression that Tirana will definitely surpass BEG, SOF and SKG this year. It is de facto their only airport, but still many new routes announced in 2024.
BEG and SOF had almost super identical traffic just like SKP and ZAG and SJJ more flights than Bratislava for me was the biggest surprise.....
What is interesting about the official stats is that the difference between SKP and ZAG is so so small in January, but guess this will change in summer when Ryanair expands in ZAG.
Good thing is that LJU finally woke up and suppose SJJ will for sure increase in 2024.
For the time being SKP does not have that many new routes so we can expect some higher figures in 2024 but not huge.
You know you are suffering from superiority complexes when the official Facebook page of an airport brags about overtaking another airport one month in the year. Really poor taste in my opinion, no matter the airport in question. Never saw BEG brag they overtook Sofia.
DeleteTIA has already passed SOF and SKG last year.
Delete+1 15.30
Deletehaha i also thought that
Delete@Anonymous15:20
DeleteImpressive growth at Tirana indeed, surprised tbh. But the fact it is only airport and only way to get in to the country other than very bad roads or by a ship. Air seems most convenient and fastest way to get in.
Zagreb has always very slow start to the year. January and February are almost dead months when it comes to air traffic. But based on current trends Zagreb should hit 4.1 million passengers by the end of this year, 4.2 million if things go really well, anything over that would be outstanding result.
wouldnt be surprised if someone form that airport posts here :D
DeleteLJU quite close to TGD.
ReplyDeleteIn February they had more than TGD.
Delete