The three remaining national carriers in the former Yugoslavia – Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, and Air Montenegro - handled a combined total of over 1.1 million passengers during the first quarter of 2024. The figure represents an increase of almost 11% on the same period last year. Air Serbia accounted for just over 66% of those travellers, followed by Croatia Airlines, with almost 29% of passengers. Compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, the Serbian flag carrier surpassed its passenger results, while its Croatian counterpart is at 93.1% of its pre-Covid figures. On the other hand, Air Montenegro is still some way off from reaching the passengers numbers achieved by the country’s former national airline, Montenegro Airlines, which declared bankruptcy in December 2020. During the first quarter of 2019, Montenegro Airlines welcomed 87.569 travellers on board.
Air Serbia handled over 750.000 passengers during the first quarter of 2024, marking its strongest start to the year since rebranding in 2013. Although the airline has not published its average cabin load factor, based on available seat capacity during the first quarter, it is estimated to have hovered at 70%. During the first quarter, it provided the most capacity to Podgorica, followed by Istanbul, Moscow, Zurich, Paris, and Athens. The Serbian airline anticipates breaking JAT Yugoslav Airlines’ annual passenger record set in 1987, when it handled 4.531.000 travellers, either this year or in 2025. It handled its millionth passenger of 2024 on April 25.
During the first quarter, Croatia Airlines handled 321.936 passengers on board its aircraft, down 6.9% on the pre-pandemic 2019 but up 6.1% on last year, with an additional 13.499 customers carried. The airline welcomed 234.987 travellers on international flights, 85.593 on domestic services and 1.356 passengers on charter flights. During the first quarter, it had the most capacity available on services to Frankfurt, followed by Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Sarajevo. The average cabin load factor in Q1 2024 stood at 59.7%, down 9 points on 2019 and a decline of 1.6 points on last year.
Air Montenegro handled 54.500 passengers during the first quarter of the year, some 2.500 fewer travellers than during the same period last year. The carrier has blamed the result on softer demand for its Podgorica - Istanbul service following Pegasus Airlines’ entry on the route. The Turkish budget carrier has since been forced to discontinue flights between the two cities. Air Montenegro had the most capacity available to Belgrade, followed by Istanbul, Ljubljana, Rome, and Zurich. Although the airline has not published it’s average cabin load factor, based on available seat capacity during the first quarter, it is estimated to have hovered at 60%.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteSo Air Montenegro has decline in numbers and that they decide to get rid of the cause by banning the competition. Very 2000s like.
ReplyDeleteSmart
Delete^ for who?
DeleteActually Air Montenegro's numbers are very good considering Montenegro Airlines had double the fleet.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
DeleteActually it had more than double. They are not far off from YM's numbers to be honest.
Delete3 airlines and barely over 1 million passengers....
ReplyDeleteAgree. When you combine it all together, it is a really poor figure for three airlines.
DeleteThis kind of articles are always healthy to read as a reality check of how small ex yu aviation market really is...
DeleteYes, we know it's not as big as Germany. No need to repeat it every time.
DeleteIt's not a lot considering poor management and unfortunate events.
DeleteBut if all 3 cooperated even with half decent management then could double that
@09:47
DeleteGermany?
That's less traffic than Swiss or Aegean have in a single month.
Not small at all, only disastrously fragmented.
DeleteWhat was once a single country split into seven (!) banana republics.
Basically every village has its own airport.
The numbers are pretty good actually considering the size, population and purchase power. People just overestimate this region way too much.
DeleteGood to see all of them growing.
ReplyDeleteExcept Air Montenegro
DeleteAir Montenegro will have a great summer, don't worry.
DeleteJust 3 left...
ReplyDelete2 too much..
DeleteOnly AirSERBIA worth mentioning. The rest two are political zombies.
DeleteThey are not.
DeleteAir Serbia is the biggest political zombie in Eastern Europe.
DeleteAny estimates on how many passengers each could handle by the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteJU will be close to 4.5 million.
DeleteCloser to 5 mil, then 4,5
DeleteHope so
DeleteIf they continue at this trajectory, and they are able to sustain reasonable growth without major disasters, they will be closer to 5 million.
DeleteIt is really sad that all mentioned companies are still alive only due to illegal support (one way or another) of their governments. Nobody pays full amount of fees (very often nothing at all) to local airports.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you talking about?
DeleteHow much do you think other national airlines pay in their countries? Do you think Lufthansa is paying regular fees in Frankfurt and others local airports? The airline is in intrest of a nation and therefore it comes with few benefits.
DeleteWrong. Air Serbia doesn't require state subsidies any longer, and actually paid over 20 million into the state budget last year.
DeleteThey are responsible for hundreds of millions of euros of economic activity. Absolutely vital to the economy of Serbia
+1
DeleteAnd OU also doesn't require state subsidies any longer. Last was in 2022.
Delete@9:17 but still, they don't pay the same fees in BEG or INI as the other airlines.
Delete^ I don't know what you are talking about. They pay based on the published rates. There are certain discounts depending on the number of passengers you carry like at every airport in the world.
Delete@9:32
DeleteDon't bother. They have to find some explanation and excuse.
The fee in Nis is 3 euros for all airlines. So I agree with the other comment, I really don't know what you are talking about.
DeleteWizz Air in BEG doesn't pay what Lufthansa, Pegasus and others pay yet you are not bothered by that. You only seem to be obsessing about JU, why is that?
DeleteWhy would you suggest that they are getting preferential treatment but no other airline is? Why is FR/W6 pulling out of markets when their X year subsidy contract expires? Do you really think that LH/BA/AF/KL - to name a few - would operate out of certain airports if it wasn’t for subsidies. London has 4 ‘major’ airports. BA can negotiate a deal with LGW and pull traffic from LHR. LH can swap out flights for rail. Look at TK - do you really think that Istanbul has proper accounting measures to know how much TK owes to IST?
DeleteLet's see if JU can keep the growth in Q2 and Q3. My guess is Q4 will be very strong as I expect them to increase flights a lot due to new long haul routes.
ReplyDeleteQ2 and Q3 will be flat
DeleteLet's wait and see. People were predicting doom and gloom for Q1 too.
DeleteProbably some generic growth in Q2 and Q3 based on available capacity. It all depends on how quickly do A330s arrive and the network will be modified accordingly
Deletegood numbers overall
ReplyDeleteSeriously?
DeleteYes
DeleteOU really has to lift its game.
ReplyDeleteOU will grow this year with the 4 new routes.
DeleteWill they extend any of the seasonal routes during winter?
DeleteI think we finally might see some more meaningful growth for them next year as the A220s arrive.
DeleteBut how? Aren't the A220s replacing the existing fleet, meaning aircraft will leave and they will have the same amount of planes. It is not until 2026 that they start expanding the fleet on what they had.
DeleteI doubt we will see too many new routes in next year or two.
DeleteWell this year they are introducing 4 new routes, which I don't think is bad at all. I'm sure we will see some new routes this winter too.
DeleteAir Serbia added 100,000 passengers during the first quarter which is really good actually.
ReplyDeleteAnd especially considering the Marathon incident when certain experts were predicting passengers would no longer fly JU.
DeleteSome experts were also predicting that no one would fly with them because of delays last summer.
DeleteYou mean “experts”?
DeleteExactly
DeleteThe load factors are terrible.
ReplyDelete70% isn't so bad in Q1 for legacy European carrier.
DeleteAll exyu airlines need to improve their LF by 10%
DeleteIn OU's case that would still be a load factor of below 70%.
DeleteAll major legacies are in deep minus in Q1. Specially KLM/AirFrance. So this is pretty good result
DeleteWe are talking about passenger numbers and load factor, not financial results.
DeleteWell, that comes with poor load factor. Or you think that fuel is more expensive in Q1, or employ salaries are bigger in January-March?
DeleteLFs are generally low across European legacy carrier January-March.
DeleteThe most important of all are their financial results.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteExactly. And only one airline (OU) has released them so far.
DeleteI agree that these results overall are a sad state of affairs.
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteMade even worse by the fact that one airline has over 65% of those numbers, meaning the other two have peanuts.
DeleteWell it is more than double the size of the next largest airline, so it actually makes complete sense, numbers wise.
DeleteDoes anyone have data how many passengers were handled by TAROM and Bulgaria Air in Q1? It would be interesting to compare ex-Yu airlines with similar sized carriers nearby.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how many passengers TAROM had but they just got 95 million euros in state aid!
DeleteLast year TAROM had just 2.3 million passengers for the entire year.
DeleteTAROM is an absolute mess.
DeleteBulgaria Air isn't much better.
DeleteSo no Q1 results?
DeleteWell A3 for the Q1 had 2.9 million pax (11% increase YoY) with an 80% load factor.
DeleteSignificantly bigger market and airline operating from one of the world's most visited places.
DeleteAnd despite the infamous crisis, an average Greek has way more disposable income than an average ex-YU citizen.
DeleteTrue but do remember that Greece has got its economy back in order and is actually the fastest growing EU economy at the moment.
DeleteKeep in mind that the domestic market in Greece is huge. Apart from islands where of course traffic is high, Greeks often choose planes to travel from ATH to AXD,KVA,IOA,KLX which is mainland Greece.
DeleteMaybe new Slovenian carrier joins them next year :D
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of, can anyone remember how many passengers Adria was handling on an annual basis?
Delete2017 - 1,209,692
Delete2016 - 1,103,530
2015 - 1,239,920
2014 - 1,111,762
2013 - 1,026,839
Thank you. I thought they had much more passengers to be honest.
DeleteHow many planes did JP fly? I can't remember. Did it have a similar fleet size to Croatia Airlines?
DeleteBRAVO to all ex-yu flag carriers .
ReplyDeleteAir Montenegro has my full support.
ReplyDeleteJust an unformation if anybody can response . Does Air Serbia for the time being operates 23 airplanes in the Serbian registration plus 6 wet leases ? Thanks a lot !
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteHow many planes did they have wet leased last summer?
DeleteWaiting for the day they have at least 1 million in first quarter
ReplyDeleteAt current growth rate of 14.5%, Air Serbia will have a lot more than a million in Q1 of 2027.
DeleteIt's unlikely the growth rate will stay like that in Q2 and Q3. It will be maybe 5% max.
DeleteThen again it might grow much faster in Q4, then in 2025, then again in 2026...
DeleteRemember how Croatia Airlines used to be the busiest airline in ExYu 15 years ago? Bigger than Adria and JU. Fast forward to Q1 2024, Air Serbia had 2.3 times the passengers OU did.
Yes, I believe OU was the largest until 2014.
Delete