Six airports across the former Yugoslavia are still struggling to reach their pre-pandemic volume of scheduled flights and capacity. Ljubljana, Tuzla, Pula, Rijeka, Niš and Brač, will all see lower metrics this upcoming summer compared to the same period in 2019. Ljubljana Airport, the largest among them, is still recovering from the loss of Slovenia's national carrier, Adria Airways. This summer, the airport will have 164,134 fewer seats on scheduled services than it did six years ago. Adria Airways ceased operations in late September 2019, while the summer season extends until late October. However, the airport has regained a significant portion of its capacity, considering Adria once provided over 50% of total seats during the summer.
Tuzla Airport’s capacity has been wiped out by Wizz Air’s base closure in September 2023. This summer, the airport has 139.939 fewer seats on the market. Despite its woes, it has seen a number of new routes recently, with both Pegasus Airlines and AJet commencing operations from Istanbul Sabha Gokcen Airport, while Wizz Air will launch its first new service to Tuzla since the base closure, to Vienna, this June. Pula follows suit with 105.695 fewer seats compared to six years ago. Despite launching several new routes this summer, the airport's operations have been adversely affected by the absence of carriers from Russia and Ukraine, as well as by the discontinuation of flights by British Airways, Swiss, and LOT Polish Airlines.
Rijeka Airport sees its capacity levels reduced by 9.242 seats. Unlike six years ago, the airport is no longer served by Condor, airBaltic and Volotea. Meanwhile, Niš Airport will shed 8.641 seats this summer on 2019 levels. Wizz Air has reduced its seat availability by 24.000, which has been nearly offset by Ryanair adding 23.400 seats. However, the overall figures remain negative as Swiss maintained operations to the southeast Serbian city throughout the summer of 2019, whereas this year it will return with a limited peak season service. Brač Airport’s capacity is also down this summer by 1.516 seats compared to 2019. While the airport has gained service from Sky Alps and Luxair, it is no longer served by TUIfly Belgium which previously had more capacity than the two new carriers combined.
Ljubljana desperately needs new connections, any news about the tender?
ReplyDeleteProbably no one applied
DeleteMaybe nationalization of a Airport might work better for Slovenian economy!
DeleteNo way it would be better, do you even see who runs our goiverment and other stait owned companyes, people that know nothing about anything, fraport is after all a company that specifies in airports…
DeleteNot to mention it once was owned by the country but guess who sold it to fraport?
Officially they have two weeks to announce who applied, that is under the tender rules. In reality they never did it.
DeleteIt seems like we're all eagerly waiting for some news on the tender!
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteAnd then people write "Bravo Fraport"... they should have thought to find an airline to base aircraft in LJU.
ReplyDeleteYou are free to start your own airline.
DeleteIt's a shame to see how long the recovery is taking, especially for Ljubljana without Adria Airways. Losing a national carrier really sets you back years.
DeleteLoss of being a transfer hub is definitely painful, but it's no excuse for Fraport to not be attracting any LCCs. Only LCC routes are Amsterdam, Orly, Gatwick as well as subsidised Skopje and Copenhagen
DeleteTechnically AirBaltic is an LCC
DeleteThere's little demand for air travel to Rijeka when you have Pula next door, which is a holiday destination.
ReplyDeleteNext door Pula also can't reach pre-pandemic volumes either.
DeleteIsn't Rijeka a holiday destination too?
DeleteRijeka's too.
DeletePula isn't next door. By car in the season it takes cca 2 hours or even longer to get from Pula to Krk. Krk airport is just badly mismanaged.
DeleteTrue
DeleteWow it's very interesting that Ryanair has substituted Wizz Air's capacity in Nis. Did not know that.
ReplyDeleteAnd then some people claim how Ryanair has reduced ops at Nis which its actually not true at all.
DeleteMost of those airports, except maybe Tuzla, have a lot of untapped potential.
ReplyDeleteWhy not Tuzla?
DeleteWhat is there to do in Tuzla? It served as an alternative for Sarajevo when it was expensive for airlines to fly there and the management didn't want LCCs. Now the situation has changed.
DeleteTuzla Canton together with Zvornik, Bijeljina and Brčko has almost one milion inhabitants.
DeleteTuzla did not serve as an alternate for Sarajevo. Tuzla is neither a tourist destination. Its passengers' numbers were there as a result of gasto people comming home within the catchment area of Tuzla.
DeleteI'm surprised Ryanair didn't use the opportunity to replace Wizz.
DeleteCroatia Airlines could and should have done much more with RJK.
ReplyDeleteThey used to fly Rijeka-Heathrow once upon a time before they sold their Heathrow slots.
DeleteLike it says in the article they had Volotea, Air Baltic, Condor...
DeleteOU is run by HDZ, Krk airport is run by SDP. It's that simple.
DeleteRJK is Wizz material
DeleteRijeka is close to Zagreb. Croatia should develop it's hub and not concentrate on P2P/LH feeder routes from Rijeka.
Delete@10.17
DeleteWith current management RJK is doomed
Wizz is not anyone's material at the moment considering their troubles.
DeleteWhy OU? The Kvarner Tourist Board gave incentive to LH. The people are complaing about OU non profitability, but at the same time they expect from OU non profitable service. You don't have to be genious to fly to the costal airports during summer season. What are the airports doing to keep airlines during winter? Nothing, and they blame OU for bad connectivity during winter.
DeleteCome on guys.. Croatia Airlines can't have several routes from every city in Croatia. It has just 7 international destinations from DBV so how do you expect them to have a handful of routes from Rijeka. If they were smart they would completely focus on ZAG to build up its operations.
Delete@10.01
DeleteKrk airport is not run by SDP. The state is majority owner and the state appointed management. Palalalalalić is closely tied to Kradeze. Rijeka, not only airport, entire region is being punished in most diverse ways for not being Kradeze. What used to be Opcina Rijeka are today diferrent entities : Kastav, Čavle Viškovo, Čavle, Kostrena, Bakar and Rijeka. Only by administrative division Rijeka lost 50.000 inhabitants. Entire state owned and Kradeze controlled economy entities were deliberately destroyed - Croatia Line (ex Jugolinija), Transadria (ex Transjug), 3 May shipyard, Rikard Bencic, Torpedo, Brodokomerc, Kvarner Express, RIO, Mesokombinat, Tvornica papira, Tvornica konopa, Tibo.... Udruženo oglašavanje for Rijeka was 10 times less than for example for Zadar, railway, the most central important for the Port, (which btw has half less traffic than during Yugoslavia and less than Koper or Trieste and used to have more) is slower than 100 years ago - it takes 5 hours for train to come 180 km to Zagreb or 3 hours for 120 km to Ljubljana, and no links at all to Pula, Koper and Trieste. And so on and so on. Croatia is the most centralized country in Europe, Kradeze is in control of absolutely everything including judiciary and is deliberately destroying Rijeka for 30 years and using Croatia as its own ATM.
09.18 (and ex-yu aviation)
DeleteRJK didn't lose Condor, Volotea and Air Baltic but LOT, Arkia, Easyjet, Norwegian, CSA and Enterair as well. Croatia cut Heathrow and Barcelona. Ryanair cut Bergamo. Eurowings cut Hannover and reduced frequencies on Cologne and Dusseldorf. Disaster.
I believe I read somewhere that Rijeka is no longer included in the udruzenje oglasavanje. Basically no subsidies for airlines anymore.
ReplyDeletewell, I doubt Ryanair would fly to Rijeka without serious " financial support". I think they have 4 routes this summer. in 2018 British Airways contacted RJK re potential summer Friday route LCY to RJK using Embraer..they didn't even receive a reply.
DeleteDismal
ReplyDeleteMany European airports are below covid levels. This region can't be any different.
DeleteConsidering something like 45% of Europe's airports are still below Covid levels, this isn't that bad.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteMore than I expected in ex-Yu actually.
DeleteSE Europe is one of the fastest growing regions by airport traffic in Europe, so we're doing pretty well.
DeleteTrieste is great alternative to Pula and I think their development is taking some passengers away.
ReplyDeleteIt was always doing that.
DeleteYes, but Trieste last year became a Ryanair base.
DeleteIt is most likely having an impact.
DeleteI hope these airports can secure more stable partnerships with airlines.
ReplyDeleteNo need to worry about that for LJU :)
DeleteYou would need to change the management in almost all of them.
DeleteJoke of a century ann 927
DeleteInterestingly Rijeka, Pula, Nis and Tuzla all have politically appointed management. See the link?
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteI'm surprised Ohrid isn't on the list considering all the Wizz Air cuts.
ReplyDeleteTurkish Airlines saved them.... just
DeleteOHD is still undiscovered by the wider public. It could be a top tourist destination if people knew about it.
DeleteMost tourists who come to Ohrid arrive via Skopje so it's fine
DeleteIt might be better that it is not completely discovered and destroyed by tourists.
DeleteI think there is a good chance for Rijeka to become a seasonal base for some LCC at least. The number of German on Kvarner is large.
ReplyDeleteIs there much point with Zagreb nearby having a Ryanair base?
DeleteWell Zadar has developed strongly, despite the proximity to Split
DeleteI guess Tuifly won´t be coming back to BWK as they no longer have the E190.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately no chance for them to fly with 737s
DeleteWere they flying from BRU?
DeleteYes. With embraer and 737
DeleteThanks. So B737 can land at BWK?
DeleteOhrid also has fewer seats than in 2019.
ReplyDeleteIt currently has some 300 seats more than in 2019 based on scheduled capacity.
DeleteThat's completely thanks to Turkish Airlines and them scheduling A321s to Ohrid.
DeleteHopefully loads are better than 6 years ago
ReplyDeleteHow many weekly flights did Swiss have to Nis in 2019?
ReplyDeleteIt's not just about recovering numbers but also about adapting to a new aviation reality.
ReplyDeleteAnd what are the new aviation realities?
DeleteSupply chain issues, late aircraft deliveries, lack of airline personnel. It's having a huge impact on many airlines and their decision of where to fly to.
DeleteThe discontinuation of routes from Russia and Ukraine has a bigger impact than some might realize. It's a huge loss of connectivity for Pula.
ReplyDeleteFrom these six it only impacts Pula.
DeleteWhich Russian/Ukrainian airlines used to fly to Pula if anyone remembers?
DeleteWindrose, Sky Up, S7 and Red Wings had flights you could buy online. I think there were several others that operated charters.
DeleteTransaero used to operate 6 weekly regular flights on B747/B777/B767
DeleteAll these airports seem rather unbothered and are doing nothing to attract traffic.
ReplyDeleteBecause most don't have professional management. LJU is the only exception.
DeleteFor sure LJU has professional management. LOL!
DeleteWell compared to the one in Rijeka, Tuzla or Nis it sure does.
DeleteWhere is first pic location?
ReplyDeleteLjubljana :) the new terminal
DeleteThank you.
DeleteTerminal looks beautiful at night
DeleteIf only it was more utilized.
DeleteLJU have an estimate that they exist to overtake pre Covid levels in 2026.
ReplyDeleteThat seems realistic. Let's see what happens.
Delete7 years later. Crazy!
DeleteI'm not convinced they will reach pre Covid by numbers next year.
DeleteThese airports can only hope for LCC flights. Look at Skopje and Pristina, no national airline, no real ex-yu connections and they are crushing their numbers. Unfortunately for Ljubljana without subsidies or without another national airline helping them like JAT they will remain in airport purgatory.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThanks for the stats
ReplyDeleteAlways thought JU would start flights to Brač
ReplyDeleteThey negotiated many times.
DeleteThere were plans for tour operators to buy out seats but it never happened in the end.
DeleteHad LJU opened its doors to an LCC in 2021 it would not have over 2 million passengers per year.
ReplyDelete