The capital city airports in the former Yugoslavia saw mixed results on flights to and from London during the first quarter when compared to last year. British Airways fuelled an increase in passenger numbers in Belgrade and Ljubljana, while Wizz Air was responsible for the decline in Skopje. Based on data provided by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Zagreb continued to have the most traffic out of the EX-YU capitals to and from London, with 53.572 passengers handled. Figures declined 1.4% on 2023, despite both Ryanair having 9% more capacity and Croatia Airlines 5% more. However, they were unable to make up for British Airways, which decreased its number of Zagreb flights by 3% and capacity by 23%. Overall, Ryanair registered more passengers on its London - Zagreb service than both Croatia Airlines and British Airways combined.
London passenger performance, Q1 2024
Belgrade Airport recorded a 31.8% passenger increase on its London operations due to British Airways’ entry onto the market. Overall, an additional 12.428 travellers were handled compared to last year. Besides British Airways, both Air Serbia and Wizz Air increased capacity on their respective flights to London by 10% and 7%. Ljubljana Airport also benefited from British Airways, which upgraded its seasonal operations between the two capitals to year-round. Figures increased 32.9% with an additional 7.451 passengers handled on Q1 2023. British Airways and easyJet were able to make up for Wizz Air, which discontinued its Luton - Ljubljana service in February. Overall, capacity on the London route grew 27% due to British Airways.
In Pristina, 27.611 travellers flew with Wizz Air to and from Luton, up 3.9%. Wizz Air, as the only carrier on the London route, increased both its number of flights and capacity by 6.2% and 9.6% respectively. On the other hand, Skopje Airport saw figures decline by 6.6%. Here, Wizz Air operated 5% fewer flights and decreased its capacity by 2.2%. Podgorica’s passenger decline on the London route was the result of Ryanair’s decision to reduce operations between the two cities over the winter, as the number of flights was reduced by 24%, while capacity was impacted by a 12.4% decline. Finally, Sarajevo saw a 4.3% passenger increase, although this only translated into 437 additional passengers on the route on an 8.3% increase in both flights and capacity by Wizz Air. Figures are expected to rise significantly in the second quarter following Ryanair’s flight launch between London Stansted and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital.
Anyone know how OU is performing to London?
ReplyDeletePoorly I think. I flew the route last week and the aircraft was about 60% full. Ryanair was sold out on the same day.
DeleteOU is flying transfer pax while FR is flying P2P ones
DeleteBelgrade needs another UK/Ireland route
DeleteI think OU flights to LHR don't connect to much? They are missing morning departures from ZAG
DeleteThe visa problem in the UK for Serbian citizens must be resolved for the market to reach its full potential.
DeleteAbsolutely and it's even more stupid you need a transit visa. No wonder as others have commented BA are stopping from their winter schedule. all this doesnt help
DeleteIt doesn’t. There are visas for USA and still third destination is coming. Of 3 companies are flying to London, there have to be room for one or two new destinations
DeleteUS visas are granted for 10 years, British visas are granted for 6 months. Huge difference.
DeleteNot very well if FR has more passengers than two airlines combined.
DeleteIf OU wants to continue in the UK market they either need a morning slot at Heathrow (ideally daily) to time well with North America connections or give up on Heathrow and fly to SPU & DBV from LGW & MAN seasonally where they could fill every flight…
DeleteWouldn't surprise me if they sell the slots and move to LGW or LTN.
DeleteWho are primarily passengers on ZAG-LON-ZAG? Croats, British tourists, diaspora?
DeleteA mix of all 3, to LHR I would say mostly diaspora and many connecting to other destinations. To STN much more tourists either British, Croat and Slovenian. In my experience FR is always full whilst BA & OU is almost never full and sometimes half empty.
Delete23:26 There is huge demand for flights to the coast from LGW, if OU offered a good product + more frequency (not just 2 weekly), there is no reason why they wouldn’t fill every flight in the summer, especially with A220. Many brits would happily pay a bit extra for better service than you get on EasyJet & Wizz. Back in the days when they used to fly LGW-DBV, the flights were full of British tourists.
DeleteLjubljana is healthy for daily winter LHR flights and double daily summer flights. LCC flights are also missing. I remember in 2019 there were sometimes 3 daily flights from LLCs to London, and now we have 1 if we are lucky
ReplyDeleteA lot of passengers from Zagreb (me included) used Ljubljana to fly to London because flights were astronomically expensive in Zagreb. That's not the case anymore. I flew to Ljubljana with British Airways from Heathrow, easyJet from Gatwick and Wizz from Luton in the past but now I only use Zagreb because even Croatia Airlines is now cheaper than it used to be
Delete^ interesting.. didn't know that
DeleteSKP is in decline again. Doubt this year will be a good one. If we consider London as a British city today, those numbers should be much higher. In reality, flights are from India, Pakistan, etc.
ReplyDeleteLJU needs to add London-City airport.
What a ridiculous comment
DeleteWizz Air is actually increasing LTN-SKP as of this winter to four times per week.
DeleteAnd BA is cutting BEG!!!
ReplyDeleteHave you read my post on another blog?
DeleteNice.
I don’t know about your post I just know that BA is stopping BEG from October.
DeleteWould be disappointing if they are. when I have flown it, it was full and the staff on board were telling me it was the route most staff didnt like working now as it was full and they would be busy all flight. I guess not enough transfer passengers or yield on the flight.
DeleteDoesn't even make it till end of September it's gone by 29th.
DeleteYou know it as you read it on another blog. You could have at least mention the source.
DeleteI got the info from "https://x.com/SeanM1997/status/1792797561914601861"
DeleteAlene you better focus on your Zagrebačke Mažoretkinje
lmao
DeleteIt's really a pity. Hard to understand if the loads are good. Indeed, BA is not selling tickets anymore after Sep 27.
DeleteAustrian Aegean and LH are nect
DeleteA bit dramatic, don't you think? JU is getting more aircraft, so I am sure they will make up for BA's departure. And once W6's woes are done they'll be back at it as well.
DeleteBA currently sends almost exclusively old planes (a320neo was few days ago), and few months ago mostly younger a320s visited Belgrade.
DeleteA bit dramatic that we can’t maintain BA year round flights ?
DeleteYou see how you could indicate the source now.
DeleteLess competition for JU is good for its bottom line.
DeleteNot so good for travelers though who will be paying more expensive tickets.
Unfortunately this is true. They couldn't even keep the service for a year which is a shame. I travelled that route three times and will do it once more next week and the flights were always full with the exception of my flight back in November when they actually started.
DeleteI am really wondering what made them make this decision. If LF is good and 32% increase in passanger in the first quarter is not enough for BA to take their part of the cake I am not sure what it is then. Did they expect a lot of transfer passengers via LHR? I am not sure Serbian citizens can take that route if UK visa is mandatory even if they transfer to the states from LHR.
I don't know. I am very dissapointed as BA entry to the market really affected the price. JU prices were rediculous before that and I guess we will again see £350 LHR-BEG one way on their website when LHR-JFK is like £280.
^ it has to do with lack of slots at Heathrow.
Deletethe loss of BA is good news for JU but bad for passengers. BA tickets were much cheaper than JU when I looked but more importantly they had better flight times. flight from London to BEG early in the morning is much more convenient to travel in Serbia than the 1pm flight that JU has.
Delete"What's going on in BEG?"
DeleteState airline monopoly
^ stop writing rubbish and nonsense. BA came during the so-called "state airline monopoly" so your comment really is pure rubbish.
DeleteI hate BA with passion so I am really happy they will be leaving BEG. Let the others take the "kajmak".
Deletegood for you. Imaging saying I hate a company with a passion :) They will now revert their decision just to annoy you more. I hope you're not more than 20 years old otherwise it's not looking good for you
DeleteBritish Airways was cheaper than even Wizz Air on its flights to Belgrade. I thought it was a promotional period only, but now it turns out that it's because they didn't have enough sales
DeleteI would wait for some official confirmation first
DeleteNot the first time BA ditches BEG.
DeleteI really hope Luton-Ljubljana returns either with Wizz or easyJet.
ReplyDeletei miss stansted
DeleteAnon 09.53. Can you explain the reason, please. I've only flown once and Luton is a nightmare, far from the center, completely overcrowded, dirty... So no Luton for me.
DeleteThe flights were always full and it's always nice to have more options. Plus people who live north of London use this airport - far from the center argument can be used for every London airport except LCY. On top of that, Luton is far more likely to happen as it is a Wizz and an easyJet base whereas Stansted is a Ryanair base and they have no intention on flying to Ljubljana sadly.
DeleteAgree, it’s always good to have more options. And yes, LCY is great. I know quite a lot of people form LJU that use it, flying usually via ZRH with Swiss.
DeleteI think when Wizz engine issues are over they will rstore Luton-Ljubljana.
DeleteOk so what is the reduction of capacity to London in ZAG???
ReplyDeleteIt says, 23% decrease by BA.
DeleteBut why?
DeleteBelgrade needs Dublin and Manchester
ReplyDeleteWe need a change to the current visa requirements.
DeleteBelgrade doesn't need any more flights to UK, until visa exemption for Serbian citizens is introduced..There are just not enough pax. Serbia is not that touristy destination that would attract more British pax to cover up for lack of Serbian pax...Me personally have most of my foreign friends living in UK, but I never visit them ( since schengen visa abolition for Serbians 2009) , they always come here..Cannot bother with visas, and especially nasty British immigration control towards holders of Serbian passport
DeleteVisas are in place for a reason
DeleteWhat reason would that be? Serbia has been on the white Schengen list for 15 years now, it's hard to imagine that the UK is a more attractive destination for illegal immigration than Schengen countries. Especially since Brexit.
DeleteIn 2019, Air Serbia applied for slots at Manchester, 2 weekly. Never used them in the end. It is a good indication which route they may open in their next expansion next year.
DeleteHow much did LJU have in Q1 in 2019?
ReplyDelete50,017
DeleteSo why are then Fraport fanboys talking about "100%" P2P recovery? This is -40% compared to 2019. Just BS from them as always.
Delete@Anon 12:03 Ok so you chose one destination where in 2019 there was almost no competition compared to now and you based your analysis on that? I could pick Dubai and make the counter argument that P2P traffic is 1000% larger than in 2019. You have to look at the situation as a whole and this year the P2P traffic will only be marginally smaller than in 2019. And that's not "fanboying", I don't care who owns the airport as long as I can get where I want at a reasonable price.
DeleteAnd I could pick up that there are way less flights to London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin.. but hey, if every airline discontinued LJU and only Wizz stayed with 10 daily to SKP you would still celebrate with "100%" recovery. You have to look at it as a whole. Delusional as always.
DeleteSo why did passenger numbers on Ljubljana route crash so badly? It’s not because of Adria bankruptcy since they didn't even fly to London. So who is to blame? Ryan in Zagreb? Fraport management?
DeleteLondon route is a good example, that the biggest problem of Ljubljana in not Adria collapse but Fraport
DeleteIt's about time BA to return back to Skopje...
ReplyDeleteReturn back? Did they ever fly to SKP?
DeleteThey did in the late 90s
DeleteYeah. The cancelled BEG but will fly to 4 times smaller country and who knows how smaller economy that has visa requirements the same as Serbia.
DeleteDon’t get me wrong I would like to have that option as well but it’s very unlikely
In 2010 they were interested in Skopje. They even held talks with the government. But it didn't work out.
DeleteSkopje really needs a link with LHR.
Delete12:21 Why do you think that the world revolves around Belgrade??? Why wouldn’t BA work in Skopje? If Belgrade is not stable enough to hold them, doesn’t mean Skopje is the same as them.
DeleteVery interested to see how FR performs in SJJ.
ReplyDeleteHuge growth incoming
DeleteZagreb (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) don't need visas for the United Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteWe know
DeleteAlbanians can travel too!
DeleteWhat?
DeleteOf course Albanians can travel too, but they need visas for United Kingdom.
DeleteThanks for the numbers
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI enjoy them too
DeleteSo LCCs rule London-ex-Yu markets.
ReplyDeleteLCCs generally rule most ex-Yu markets regardless of the route.
DeleteLCCs generally rule most European markets
DeleteWhere else in ex-Yu did British fly to in the past that they don't fly to now?
ReplyDeleteSkopje, Sarajevo and Pristina.
DeleteThank you. Didn't know they flew to PRN.
DeleteBritish Airways operated the LGW-PRN from 2001 to 2012.
DeleteLJU management not doing enough to keep those easyjet flights
ReplyDeleteRyanair should definitely increase Zagreb-London to double daily
ReplyDeleteThese figures show how long overdue it was to get another airline to operate Zagreb – London.
DeleteIt is a real shame that Ljubljana's potential is not being used on this route to its full potential. I mean, there used to be flights between Maribor and London!
ReplyDeleteConsidering the UK's visa policy to most ex-Yu countries, I'm surprised by how high some of these numbers are.
ReplyDeleteUK citizens are coming to Balkans, as well as Balkan’s diaspora.
DeletePeople are forgetting that there are many transfer passengers on these flights. People going to the US and Canada via London.
DeleteExactly.
DeleteAny chance Air Montenegro will start flights to London?
ReplyDeleteCroatia and Slovenia don't need visas for United Kingdom. Obviously they will have great numbers for London.
ReplyDelete