Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was the only one from the former Yugoslavia to rank within the top 100 busiest on the continent last year, according to Airports Council International (ACI). With 7.946.714 passengers handled, it was the 70th in Europe, up from 81st in 2022. It was ahead of the likes of Malta, Reykjavik, Riga, Tirana, Sofia, and Thessaloniki, overtaking the latter two when compared to the previous year. Notably, during the second half of 2023, the airport ranked 66th on the continent with 4.660.641 travellers handled. During last year, Belgrade Airport was one of the top five fastest growing within the category of airports handling between five and ten million passengers.
European rank for former Yugoslav airports in 2023
Zagreb Airport ranked 107th on the continent during 2023, ahead of Tbilisi, Chania and Paphos but behind the likes of Nuremberg, Wroclaw, and Rome Ciampino. Pristina ranked 114th in Europe, followed by Split, which was 116th, then Skopje in 123rd position, Dubrovnik ranking in at 131 and Podgorica 146th, with the Montenegrin capital making its top 150 debut. No other airport from the former Yugoslavia made it within the top 150, although Zadar just missed out, coming in at 152. Ljubljana was the lowest ranked main capital city airport in Europe, taking 162nd position out of over 300 airports. For comparison, in 2022, Belgrade was also the only airport from the former Yugoslavia in the top 100, while there were seven within the top 150, the same as this year, although Sarajevo and Podgorica have swapped places. Full passenger results for the former Yugoslavia’s commercial airports can be found here.
European rank for select airports in the region in 2023
During 2023, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe, handling 79.183.190 passengers, overtaking Istanbul’s main gateway which came second. They were followed Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Rome Fiumicino, and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen. Out of the top ten, only two reached and surpassed their pre-pandemic 2019 figures, both being airports in Istanbul. Commenting on the results, Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe said, "2023 has been a year of multi-speed recovery and great divergences for Europe’s airports in terms of passenger traffic. While many exceeded their previous yearly record in passenger volumes, 57% still remained below their pre-pandemic volumes”. He added, “Geopolitical conflicts have been a significant contributor to this multi-speed recovery - predominantly affecting airports in Ukraine, Israel, Finland as well as in other Eastern European countries. But the Covid-19 induced structural changes in the aviation market are also having a major impact. These structural changes include the prominence of leisure, and VFR [Visitng Friends and Relatives] demand as well as the emergence of ‘bleisure’ demand, along with ultra low cost carriers selectively expanding and full service carriers retrenching on their hubs and driving consolidation. While these developments have generally benefitted airports in markets relying on inward tourism, there is no doubt they have also resulted in increased competitive pressures for airports across the board.”
Busiest airports in 2023
Hopefully at least another ex-Yu airport can make it this year.
ReplyDeleteBEG will have a really bad year. Lufthansa cut flights from FRA and MUC. KL will not send 737 this year. Air Serbia has almost no new destinations. No new long-haul flights from any carrier. A330s are not coming before winter.
ReplyDeleteNow we see that Wizz is also massively cutting and most likely removing one or two planes from BEG.
I would not be surprised if BEG falls to 90-something this year. They will be lucky if they have growth of 5% this year
Keep dreaming.
DeleteAnd then you woke up.
DeleteWell @9.02 you definitely won't be happy when you see the January growth number :) but keep hoping.
DeleteIt is not normal to grow 30% each year anyway. Its not a start up
Delete2024 would be the year that TIA surpasses BEG.
DeleteNot likely, but is sure to surpass all Cro coastal airports combined.
DeleteTIA overtaking BEG already started happening in December 2023. So in 2024 we are just going to see the continuation of TIAs meteoric rise.
DeleteWizz Air cuts are real guys. It's bad, very bad. Many destinations from BEG are really seeing large cuts. Ouch.
Nah, it's gonna have a record year again. Don't forget to take your pills this morning.
DeleteTIA is on fire and with FE and W6 battling it out it could get very close to BEG levels of traffic even this year.
DeleteI wonder what the terminal capacity is. Anyone has flown through TIA lately?
@9.15 I find it quite sad how excited you are by that.
DeleteHe's probably from TIA, so that explains the pathological nature of the messages.
DeleteI also find it interesting how everyone is so fixated on BEG, failing to even comment on how 'well' Zagreb, Ljubljana, Sarajevo are doing,
DeleteAnon 09:02 - ideal example of someone who has no idea about aviation, only being jealous and bitter.
Deletewizz will cut TIA also
DeleteBelgrade keeps increasing the lead over ZAG, LJU, SJJ so no reason to celebrate. BEG growth has very little to do with Russia traffic, it was mostly from other Euro destinations.
DeleteBEG was 33 places ahead of ZAG in 2022 but inreased to 37 places ahead in 2023.
DeleteAdmin are Wizz cuts final? The source where it was reported is everything and anything but reliable.
DeleteW6 hasn't announced any cuts in TIA yet. Instead they are launching Valencia and Leipzig.
DeleteFRA cuts by LH will largely be replaced by JU who will fly FRA double daily, which wasn't the case last year.
DeleteJU can't keep adding 15-30 destinations on a yearly basis, as it has done the past 2 years, especially not for its size. Since late last year it was mentioned that focus will be put on increasing frequencies to its current destinations - which started in December 2023. You must of missed last weeks article.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/01/air-serbia-schedules-network-wide.html?m=1
Still, new routes by JU which wasn't there last summer are OPO and OMO. RMF is also a new charter route for JU starting in April.
JU is expected to add further increases when it is certain on the arrival date of their aircraft. Final 2024 summer schedule has not, as of yet, been published in full.
Also, JU started to introduce the ERJ aircraft into its fleet in the middle of the summer season, with the first ERJ aircraft arriving in late June 2023. The 5th ERJ arrived a few days ago. So far, JU will have an additional 5 aircraft compared to last summer with more to come.
BA also relaunched BEG at the start of the winter season 2023/2024 and will continue into the summer season 2024. Seasonal flights by BT will be relaunched earlier with an increase in frequencies. GQ recently announced HER-BEG starting in June.
Falling to 90th position in Europe would mean a drop of 50+% in passenger numbers, that is a reduction of at least 4.000.000 passenger. Falling to 90th position while growing 5% doesn't fit your argument. It's either growth or decline.
@09:15
TIA has to its advantage a LCC war, which will have to end at some point. In the Balkans we saw this in SOF - unnatural growth for a year or 2 before stabilising (for SOF it was 2 years). TIA was also, before the arrival of Wizz, really underserved.
people really need to wake up. there is zero possibility of TIA overtaking BEG unless half of JU fleet is grounded.
Deletethe difference between BEG and TIA in 2022 was about 460 thousannd. the difference in 2023 was about 790 thousand. it grew last year and the difference will continue to grow in 2024.
BEG has nearly a 400k more seats available in jan and that difference will not be made up in one month.
The side effect of Tirana rise is Monetengro and Macedonia market starting looking at it and using it more and more. Ryan is going crazy agrresive with "Maldives of Europe" campaign. This is going to be TIA's year but I'm also not convinced it will be enough to overtake BEG...
DeleteYea, TIA is on its way to overtake BEG while the gap between them is widening. Logic and some people don't go together.
DeleteThey jumped over Sofia and Thessaloniki much quicker than Belgrade though. It's logical to think of it as a possibility.
DeleteHow? Has Tirana Airport been in existence less than Belgrade Airport?
DeleteI believe so but that's not the point. BEG is comitted to the growth strategy for 10 years now, Tirana for 3...
DeleteBEG's growth is based on hub development which takes longer. TIA's is based on not charging Wizz and Ryanair a cent for using the airport. The balloon will eventually pop. On top of that, there is another airport in Serbia with over half a million passengers.
DeleteActually Serbia has more than two commercial airports.
DeleteTIA will not last especially with Wizz which won't be able to pour capacity there with all the engine issues.
We can talk about the reasons, but we can't neglect their fairly quick development and ambition. Remember that old saying "developed like Albanian tourism", it was like a joke... I'm afraid the joke is not on them any more.
DeleteThey are still not developed the same way Spain or Greece are. Their growth is based on low pricing for airlines and hotels. People are going there because it's affordable.
DeleteAnonymous09:14
DeleteNot likely, but is sure to surpass all Cro coastal airports combined.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In that scenario BEG will be far behind Tirana.
All Cro sea airports in 2024. will achieve approx. 9 mil. passengers....
Wow they will have 9 million passengers? That's really not a lot if you consider how much Croatia invests in tourism.
DeleteHow much?
DeleteAccording to 2023 numbers published here, all Croatian coastal airports together had about 340 thousand passengers more than Tirana airport. With announced capacity growth in 2024 Tirana will likely overtake them.
DeleteI don't know about that. DBV will get huge growth from FR.
DeleteWe still have a lot of way to go.
ReplyDeleteOf course we have . Amongst european capitals airports BEG ranked within the lowest .
DeleteIt's busier than MLA or KIV.
DeleteIz didn't
Delete"Amongst european capitals airports BEG ranked within the lowest ."
DeleteAnd all the ex-Yu airports are in Africa?
@9.09 it literally lists in the articles a number of European capitals Belgrade is ahead of.
Delete* article
DeleteNice overview. Could we get also financial report for ex yu airports?
ReplyDeleteTime for Skopje to get in the top 100 this year :)
ReplyDeleteUnlikely. A lot of Albanian travelers who were using SKP are now using TIA.
DeleteNot bad for a Balkan airport. BEG should hit 9 million this year.
ReplyDeleteDon't see it happening especially without Wizz growing. They are going to shrink their BEG base in summer by around 30%,
DeleteThe Pratt engine situation is really hurting W6.
Delete9 million is realistic, but I think slightly more than that with JU's new long-range routes opening.
Delete@09:15
DeleteWizz decline should be offset by other increases. JU will have an additional 5 ERJ's compared to last summer, 3 more ATR's still to be delivered plus 2 A330's. BA wasn't present in BEG last summer. BT has brought forward its BEG relaunch while increasing frequencies. GQ just announced HER-BEG. Sun d'Or will relaunch TLV-BEG.
Air Serbia planned growth is about 20%. BEG growth above 15 %
DeleteWith all these new airlines introducing flights to IST will probably make it 1st in Europe in 2024.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely
DeleteParis might be close this year with olympics and all...
DeleteI am surprised that many airports in Europe didn't reach pre Covid rates yet.
ReplyDeleteI believe they did except for some long haul, this is mainly the effect of the ban for Russian and Ukrainian carriers.
DeleteThey didn't
DeleteSo, what's missing compared to 2019?
Delete57% of European airports are still below pre covid levels according to ACI.
DeleteAnd is there some commom denominator for those airports or for some clusters of them?
DeleteBefore covid the market was unrealistically large, it was too hot. Now things are going back to normal. Also with inflation being crazy many airlines and airports simply can't afford to be sa cheap as they were while Russian gas flowed without a problem.
DeleteTrieste will overtake Ljubljana with that Ryanair base...
ReplyDeleteYou wish. No it will not.
Deletethey plan 1.3 MIO this year.
DeleteTRS has a record 2023 year: 929976.
DeletePrevious record was 882146 in 2012.
If plans of 1.3M in 2024 will be reached it would be a huge success.
TRS has a potential and can easily, with LC presence, overcome LJU airport till the end of 2026.
i would not be that sure ... they have 2x venice 1h away.
DeleteWhat is the rationale for LHR to be nr1?
ReplyDeleteEven for transiting many countries need a visa, and UK is fine to visit I guess, but it's not like the tourist Mekka
London was the third most visited city in the wolrd in 2023.
DeleteIt is tourist Mekka. And business. And art&culture. And football. And transfer Mekka...
Delete80 mil people travel to single airport only in London, get over it.
Deletelondon has population of about 9 million. and 60% of those people are non-white english meaning that most of have a connection to some foreign country that they will travel to visit.
Deleteanother reason is that people in london have more money for a holiday.
london is the favourite stop from canada and usa.
and that london is a large attraction for business and tourism.
London is by far the busiest city airport system in the world if you combine number of passengers in a metropolitan area. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_city_airport_systems_by_passenger_traffic#:~:text=London%2C%20with%20six%20commercial%20airports,the%20world's%20busiest%20individual%20airport.
Delete"Ljubljana was the lowest ranked main capital city airport in Europe, taking 162nd position out of over 300 airports."
ReplyDeleteI hope one day we will move from last place. Like someone said Trieste will overtake us.
+1
DeleteTimisoara with over 1 million PAX?!? Wow
ReplyDeleteWhere is the demand coming from? Romanian diaspora in EU?
DeleteThey are the only real airport in the Romanian Banat so no surprised. Timisoara is also Romania's second largest and wealthiest city.
DeleteThanks, wasn't aware it was the second largest city
DeleteExcept it's not
DeleteBudapest barely ahead of Bucharest
ReplyDeleteI think they pulled ahead in the last months of 2023. I remember in the monthly airport performance articles here Bucharest was ahead of Budapest for some time.
DeleteTirana numbers are most impressive! City similar size to Zagreb and nations population a lot less than Croatia with a much weaker GDP too. Makes you realise how much Zagreb can grow with Ryanair and how much more it could grow if OU started to act like a normal company.
ReplyDeleteTIA is country's only airport, unlike Zagreb. If Alb. had just a couple of coastal airports, then traffic would not be as concentrated.
DeleteIf Zagreb were the only gate to Croatian Adriatic, it would be on fire. Different markets, different stage of tourism development, diaspora flows and proximity to key markets, there's no much good in comparing them...
DeleteBut Croatia coastal numbers are very low "off season", not sure how much traffic drops off at Tirana during the colder months and its not like Albania is a summer tourism hotspot like Croatia, not yet anyway.
DeleteOnly real difference is how far Albania is from diaspora hotspots compared to Croatia. Maybe makes driving less appealing.
Zagreb is easily reachable by car/bus from most Middle European countries. Also, unlike Albania, Croatia has multiple big airports, so it's really not a good comparison.
DeleteCant compare TIA to ZAG. TIA is the only airport in the country while croatia has multiple airports. The total numbers in Croatia are over 12 million its the 3rd largest in air travel market in the balkans after Greece and Romania. Albania will never reach that.
DeleteI don't have data but it would be interesting to see the totals for Croatian and Albanian markets in, say, November 2023...
DeleteGeographical location plays a big role as well. It is easier to drive to Zagreb from Central Europe compared to Albania, especially with Croatia now in the Schengen Zone. For example:
DeleteMunich - Zagreb: 6-6 and a half hours with 0 border crossings.
Munich - Tirana: 16 and a half hours with 8 border crossings.
Within a 5 hour radius of Zagreb you have VIE, BEG, BUD, VCE, and a tonne of smaller airports including LCC hubs.
Within a 5 hour radius of Tirana you have TGD, PRN, OHD, SKP and TIV.
what would the numbers for november matter since only the total passanger numbers for the year mattter?
DeleteCroatia is 5 million ahead at the end of the day.
This comments are so funny. "Airport Franjo Tuđman is closer to center of Europe and that's the reason for poor numbers". With that logic, Air Serbia should cancel all regional lines, because people could arrive by car or bus.
DeleteJust coping
DeleteAnon 10:49 Could be, but the country should build proper road infrastructure first.
DeleteZAG numbers are definitelly not "poor".
DeleteBelgrade - Budapest? Check numbers of flights. There is great highway between the cities.
DeleteWith your logic, Prague, for example, should have less flights then Zagreb, because it's near "jezgre Europe"
I never said that Zagreb's geographical location was the sole reason for it not performing as well as Tirana, but it is part of the reason. I doubt Tirana would have as much of a success it has now if it was much closer to Central Europe. And how much of Tirana's traffic is specifically for Tirana and not the coast?
DeleteZAG's biggest problem is OU, who have failed to create even the slightest bit of a hub in Zagreb, despite opportunity after opportunity being thrown its way. Just look at the subsidies offered for airlines to launch routes out of ZAG and yet OU ignored it. ZAG's patience with OU hoping for some miracle that it will change is another.
On the other end, you have JU which has aggressively expanded the past couple of years, has created BEG into somewhat of a hub and its regional routes complements its network, regardless of how close destinations are (ie BUD, ZAG). Remove JU and Wizz out of the picture and we have the mass return of XYZ combi drivers taking our people to the likes of Budapest, Sofia and Timisoara while (enter surname here) Reisen will get you to any German village.
Tirana on the other hand would be no where near the numbers it has now without giving concessions to Wizz, opening its borders during COVID restrictions and investment into its tourism sector, nor would Albania be as popular as a tourist destination. Those now popular Albanian destinations have always been there, it's accessibility that has changed.
If geographical position of TIA is the part of the reason then it would have been the case also 5 years ago when TIA had less pasengers than ZAG, but it had not been.
DeleteTIA is on the same place like it was 5 years ago as well as ZAG but the passengers numbers have been radically changed
2019
ZAG 3,435,531
TIA 3,338,147
2023
ZAG 3,723,650
TIA 7,257,662
It is obvious it has nothing to do with geographical position.
The point is that W6 and FR started bloody war in TIA and therefore (like it was the case in SOF) we have extra growth that is not organic and will stop in a year or two.
From the other side we have ZAG that has terrible OU results + not so good numbers of FR as in TIA. Also, ZAG did not succeed to attract W6 and let's not forget that comparing to 5 years ago Swiss, Brussels, TAP, Air Canada, Vueling, Emirates, Korean all left ZAG.
Talking about concessions and not mentioning unbelievably low prices that FR pays in ZAG is not realistic.
So, as a conclusion we have ther picture showing that geographical position has not been changed but the players (airlines) on airports have. It simply shows how TIA made much better job than ZAG in last 5 years.
But the reason for Tirana figures now exploiding is not bloody war of LCCs but the rise of coast tourism which led to the bloody war of LCCs. Now, the guy from Vienna goes on vacation, till 3 years ago he was not thinking about Albanian beach, now he does. If he decide to go to Croatian seaside, Austrian dude will travel by car or by direct plane to Split, Dubrovnik (not to Zagreb) but he will travel to Albanian seaside by plane to Tirana. How difficult is to comprehend that?
DeleteTIA is growing because they gave people a reason to fly there. It's not like people just discovered it yesterday. You have airports like Krakow which are large and are closer to Western Europe than ZAG.
DeleteThe reason why ZAG is stuck is because the airport is too expensive. Obviously airports like BEG, BUD, OTP, SKG ... can grow without being cheap. ZAG, BTS etc. obviously can't.
exactly, the geopgraphical placement of ZAG does provide an issue for its lower numbers.
Deleteand if croatia had only 1 airport it would have passanger numbers of 12 million. so its not even close if the circumstances were the same.
also dont forget that Croatia has adopted the Euro increasing prices and putting people off what used to be a cheaper holiday destination.
If Croatia had one airport then ZAG would barely profit. Do you think someone flying to Dubrovnik would go to Zagreb instead of Tivat? What about Istra? It would be easier to fly to Trieste etc.
DeleteSo no. Even if there was one airport people would still chose other airports than ZAG. It's logical after all.
However some South Korean airline will start Zagreb and not Dubrovnik.
Deletehuh? why are you naming other airports? if the country has one airport it has one airport, they wont have other options.
DeleteThey will have other options across the border. Look at sLOVEnia.
DeleteLJU has some very serious catching up
ReplyDeleteI don't think ZAG will make iti in the top 100 this year but it will probably be very close. Hope they do in any case.
ReplyDeleteThey forgot to put VIE and ATH to the list.
ReplyDeleteATH is going crazy they reaching 30+million passengers. If you look at the new airlines for 2024 flying to ATH you’ll be amazed.
DeleteOne of the reasons for that is that ATH has an extremely generous incentive/ subsidy program at the moment to get as many new airines and keep them flying in winter.
DeleteSource?
DeleteThere is not a subsidy program at the moment in ATH
Delete@12.46 1
DeleteWhy don't you bother reading the article
@12.46 2
There is, inform yourself
"Amid a backdrop of rising energy costs, inflation, and increasing interest rates, AIA has made a remarkable commitment. It stands as one of the few major European capital city airports that has chosen not to increase its aero charges for 2023. This marks the 15th consecutive year that Athens International Airport has maintained its aero charge levels, offering rare stability in uncertain times.
Furthermore, AIA stands out for its comprehensive incentives scheme, comprising 14 different elements designed to support various route developments with multi-layered coverage. A newly designed scheme, known as “Customer Service Optimization,” will be introduced for airlines starting in 2024. This initiative aims to address the surge in summer demand at Athens and alleviate congestion during peak hours by offering substantial discounts for landing and parking for arrivals and departures during off-peak periods of the day."
ATH needs to stop growing until they fix and expand their airport. In summer it's an absolute disgrace and I can't say it's ok. A new terminal is absolutely needed, not more and more airlines.
DeleteI read that they're actually expanding their main terminal with extra jet bridges starting in 2024. Their main goal is 50 million passengers in 10 or 15 years if I remember correctly which I think they can achieve as they attract new airlines and routes like crazy ( this year United is starting Chicago AA already serves ATH-ORD, Shanghai with Juneyao Airlines and Norse is starting JFK the fifth airline operating ATH-JFK + some new European routes LOT returning to ATH with daily year round flights Aegean new routes and Sky Express is also getting new planes so they're gonna start new flights too lets hope for BEG!! ). Finally a mirror terminal is expected to be built on their final phase of expansion and like that ATH will be a mega hub in Balkans.
DeleteThey have a lot of space for expansion since they moved so far away from the city. Weird position but I guess it had to be like that...
DeleteAll big airports are far from the city. Spata the place where ATH is located is a financial place too as many big companies have their offices and their bases there. ATH also has a shopping park with IKEA, Leroy Merlin and many more.
DeleteATH 28,2mil VIE 29,5mil
DeleteVIE also has OS with a big network and long haul flights while Aegean remain in Europe and Middle East.
DeleteBy the way Aegean next winter will maintain 3 weekly ZAG flights all year round without stopping in January.
DeleteAegean has been scheduling those flights like that for several years, and then when winter comes cancels it.
DeleteThe Greek ministry of tourism said they expect the minimoum a 14% growth for ATH in 2024 , that means at least 32+ million passengers for 2024.
DeleteCan you share please TOP 100 airports full list?
ReplyDeleteAre there numbers with charters in BEG
ReplyDeleteyes
Delete200 000+
DeleteHas anyone paid attention to BT fares to LJU? Seems like flights are selling like hot cakes. Anyone can guess who is filling all these seats? Could it be Finnish tourists? Russians?
ReplyDeleteSlovenian transfers to Scandinavian countries - Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, also to Baltic countries, CIS and also to Western Europe.
DeleteRIX-LJU is more expensive than the other way around, it's people coming into sLOVEnia.
DeleteTIA story is interesting. Yes, there are many passengers, but how much profit is the airport generating? LCC vultures are paying close to nothing. So, comparing TIA and BEG is crazy. BEG has a legacy hub model, while TIA has two low-cost carriers that could disappear in a blink of an eye (like they did in numerous Eastern European cities). Change my mind.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they dissappear? And how do you know how much is Wizz Air paying?
DeleteThat's all true. The only thing you didn't factor in is tourism expansion which will not disappear in a blink of eye, but only going higher. Yes, it will slow down at some point but first we have to see where's the peak. It didn't happen yet and with Rama's plan and fresh UAE money, I don't know where it can go... Montenegro and other Adriatic nations should worry the most, after all TIR and BEG pax are completelly different, they don't take each others passengers (or tourists).
DeleteNoone is commenting on ZAD. Nothing short of amazing.
ReplyDelete