Commercial airports in the former Yugoslavia handled just over 36 million passengers in 2024, adding 3.4 million additional travellers on the year before. Nine airports managed to register their busiest year on record - Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina, Split, Skopje, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Podgorica and Zadar. On the other hand, eleven were below their pre-pandemic figures from 2019 including Ljubljana, Tivat, Pula, Niš, Ohrid, Tuzla, Rijeka, Osijek, Portorož, Brač and Maribor. During 2024, Pristina became the former Yugoslavia’s fastest growing airport, adding 657.598 passengers, while Tuzla Airport shed the most travellers, 374.894, enduring its first full year since Wizz Air’s base closure.
During 2024, Dubrovnik overtook Skopje to become the region's fifth busiest airport, Sarajevo pipped Podgorica, while Zadar surpassed the traditionally busier Ljubljana. Croatia maintained its position as the largest aviation market, with its airports handling over thirteen million passengers. Furthermore, the Croatian market added the most travellers year-on-year, with over 1.8 million extra passengers when compared to 2023. A number of smaller airports struggled last year, hit primarily by capacity cuts by low cost carriers.
Air Serbia became the largest airline in the former Yugoslavia based on the amount of offered capacity, outpacing 2023’s top performer Wizz Air, which shed the most seats. The budget carrier has been hit by manufacturing issues affecting some Pratt & Whitney engines, resulting in the grounding of a number of aircraft. It wiped out over 1.2 million seats off markets in the former Yugoslavia. On the other hand, Ryanair gained over 1.5 million seats, becoming the fastest growing in the region and almost overtaking its competitor Wizz. In 2023, the difference between Wizz Air’s and Ryanair’s capacity levels were over two million seats in favour of the former. Elsewhere, Pegasus Airlines ranked within the top ten for the first time, overtaking Eurowings.
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity in the former Yugoslavia, 2024
Where is Portoroz getting so many passengers???
ReplyDeleteIt's a mystery to me too :D
DeleteThere are a lot of private and recreational flights.
DeleteIt's a pity the airport's geography does not allow it to expand. I actually think it would have quite a bit of traffic and certainly more potential than Maribor.
DeleteIsn't it located next to a lake, with lots of birds around and the land is swampy?
Delete@10:29 it's next to the protected area on one side, and the croatian border on the other side.
DeleteInteresting so 9 airports with record traffic and 11 below covid.
ReplyDeleteIt has elements of one extreme and the other :D
DeleteHappy to see OU and Croatian airports registering growth, spectacular!
DeleteIt is a prestigious achievement.
ReplyDeleteAll airports together carried more pax than VIE or ATH had alone.
Stop trolling.
DeleteRyanair and Pegasus growth is huge!
ReplyDeleteAnd Wizz Air decline too.
DeleteAnd FR will keep growing this year
DeleteYes, again mostly in Croatia.
DeleteStill only one airport in Europe's top 100
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Europe
What airport is on the pic?
ReplyDeletePRN
DeleteTerminal looks nice
Deleteit's amazing how poorly wizzair has performed.
DeleteThat white, blue, and red livery looks great! Do you know which airline it belongs to?
DeleteChair Airlines
DeleteIt is amazing that JU had the most capacity in ex Yu, even more than Wizz and Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia taking the lead over Wizz Air is quite impressive. It shows how well they’ve adapted to market conditions
DeleteIt is not amazing. Just normal SFRJ. Nothing changed in 35 years.
DeleteIt is amazing that they overtook a giant like Wizz Air which until 2023 was completely unbeatable in terms of size.
DeleteLast year Ljubljana fell behind Sarajevo. This year it fell behind Zadar. Sad.
ReplyDeleteThe Fraport affect.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
DeleteHope this year will be better for Ljubljana with new carriers and routes
DeleteIt looks promising at the very least atm with all the increases
DeleteFingers crossed.
DeleteThat is amazing growth in Pristina.
ReplyDeleteThis year PRN will be ahead of ZAG.
DeleteWith the visa-free entry to Kosovo from EU, it was expected that the growth would be strong.
DeleteFinally all Germans can come freeeee!!!
Delete@Anon 9:38 How do you mean visa-free to Kosovo from EU?
Deletenonsense thst how
DeleteThe person obviously meant the other way around. You can all stop having meltdowns.
Delete@Anon 09:32 PRN will certainly close in on ZAG but definitely not overtake them in 2025
DeleteIt's good to see Tivat recovering. This year it could take over 2019 numbers and that's without flights to Russia, Ukraine and Belrus.
ReplyDeleteYes, it took a lot of time but they have managed to find new markets. And when Ukraine reopens there will be even more passengers.
DeleteThank you for including the actual difference in numbers! Percentages don't give the full picture at all.
ReplyDelete+100
Delete+1
DeleteFirst time with 3 airports over 4 million pax.
ReplyDeleteIt took some time.
DeleteZadar is doing amazing. Thanks Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteDouble edged sword.
DeleteOh please.
DeleteWell it's true. Ryanair's passenger share at Zadar is over 70%. I believe that is the biggest by any airline at any ex-Yu airport.
DeletePRN is pulling ahead. No chance of SKP overtaking it anymore.
ReplyDeleteYes, it looks unlikely now.
DeleteNot to overtake but to come closer yes it is possible..
DeleteSeat capacity for Jan and Feb (PRN 8% vs SKP 1%) indicates the gap could keep growing.
DeleteMostar will shine in 2025.
ReplyDeleteAirport still has not reached numbers from 10-15 years ago. And back then it didn't pay for any of its flights.
DeleteConsidering the JU's seat capacity and their pax number, their LF should be around 80%
ReplyDeleteYes, makes sense. Marek said they improved their load factor in 2024 and I believe in 2023 it was about 76%.
Delete4.44 million passengers of JU are not only from BEG , take consideration of INI and KVO , so their LF in BEG should be around 78 % .
DeleteHow did easyJet grow so much? Where was this growth? Split?
ReplyDeleteThey also added several new routes to PRN.
DeleteAlso added flights in a few months in LJU + had a near 100% LF during summer
DeleteDBV growth is impressive but it just overtook 2019 numbers.
ReplyDeleteThat's why they caved in to Ryanair after many years of resisting. Without them, it would still be below pre Covid numbers.
DeleteWhich show that they have wrong tourist politics. Not all tourists are rich factory owners.
Delete22% growth but nr of tourists only grew 9%
DeleteNice numbers.
DeleteGreat to see such growth in passenger numbers across the region
ReplyDeleteOHD keeps shrinking.
ReplyDeleteThings should get better with TK coming this year.
DeleteI don't think it can make up for Wizz Air's almost complete withdrawal at the airport.
Delete"almost"
DeleteI thinl W6 will resume slowly some operations this year and TK should be for sure the game changer at OHD
DeleteKudos to Ryanair for stepping up – competition is heating up
ReplyDeleteWizz Air is having a tough time, but I hope they bounce back soon. They’ve been a lifeline for smaller airports across the region for many years.
ReplyDeleteAnd now they are the gravediggers for the smaller airports.
DeleteIt's the airport's fault not Wizz Air's. The airports should have done more to attract more airlines. Not just be content with Wizz Air and maybe one more airline.
DeleteWizz Air didn't look to kindly when smaller airports looked for other partners.
Deleteits stil the 2nd busiest airline in ExYu
DeleteTuzla’s drop is shocking but expected after Wizz Air’s closure. Airports reliant on single carriers need to diversify or they’ll always be at risk when something goes wrong.
ReplyDeleteTuzla had an alternative in the form of Ryanair. But the BHDCA with its taxes was responsible for them packing up and leaving.
Deleteso let them fly for free and exploit us
DeleteRijeka is the best. To park the planes.
ReplyDeleteAlmost 150.000 passengers last year.
DeleteThere are few airports in the region with less passengers.
Delete@19.51
DeleteDo you know that Split and Rijeka regions are approximately same size, with same population?
Do you know Split has Zadar, Dubrovnik, Mostar close by, the same as Rijeka has Zagreb, Pula, Trieste? Do do know Split had THREE MILLION SIX HUNDRED passengers last year? And knowing all of that, do you know how stupid your comment was?
Yeh Mostar the big factor
DeleteDo you know that Rijeka is much closer to tourists and people from Rijeka with a car than Split. From Rijeka you are quicker in Munich than in Dubrovnik. Don't forget geography.
DeleteI wanted to write that you are quicker in Milan than in Dubrovnik from Rijeka, but Munich is not far as well.
DeleteAnd Milano and Munich are two only cities in the World, correct? UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Middle East, they do not exist and if somehow some day they miraculously appear on the map, passengers from there will be driving their cars to Rijeka, too. Btw how far is from Trieste to Munich or Milano and how many passengers Trieste airport has? Cheers!
Deleteit would be nice to see financial reports for all airports.
ReplyDeletePortoroz really needs TradeAir to step up and sell the capacity they have with their Saab340 and open weekly flights to Zurich, Prague etc.
ReplyDeleteThat Saab will be sitting in Osijek for 3/7 days in the summer
I have friend who know new owner of MK group. You can write to them also to Amelia they have smaller Embraers.
DeleteCan we expect 9M pax for BEG this year?
ReplyDeleteNo
Delete8.55 tops, mark my words
DeleteBelgrade only needs to add about 219 thousand more passengers than it added during undeniably slower 2024 to reach 9 million. BEG already added Shanghai, announced 3 more Air Serbia destinations, will have two more airlines Transavia and SkyExpress. Nouvelair and others are adding more capacity. If Air Serbia gets two more Embraers and Wizz starts adding capacity even after August, BEG will be able to get to 9 million.
DeleteBummer that BNX fell behind in 2024, they were so close to 500k
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed this year they'll exceed
Zadar is the slow achiever nobody of us really pays attention to :)
ReplyDeleteNice to see FR launching BTS-ZAD
DeleteI agree. I remember not so long ago, maybe 6-7-8 years ago they were dragging on half a mil. I thought PUY would leave ZAD in the back mirror, especially because of general wealth and tourist attraction of Istria region, and not having relatively big airport nearby (as SPU is to ZAD)
Deletelol the difference between DBV and SKP is literally one A320 rotation
ReplyDeleteThe only difference is that DBV in winter is sleeping , despite SKP doing pretty much okay :))
DeleteNice. :) And Mali Lošinj?
ReplyDeleteThank you for these beautiful statistics every month and year. 😃
ReplyDelete