The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Kosovo has held talks with representatives from Delta and American Airlines over the potential launch of nonstop flights between Pristina and New York. “With Pristina Airport ranked as the third busiest in the Western Balkans and among the fastest growing airports in Europe, Kosovo is ready to strengthen transatlantic ties and meet growing demand for direct air connectivity. A nonstop flight would unlock new avenues for trade, tourism, and investment, while reinforcing the deep ties between Kosovo and the United States”, AmCham said in a statement.
As part of a new four-year incentive scheme, Pristina Airport is offering a Long-Haul Route Incentive targeting nonstop flights. To qualify, routes must not have been served in the past twelve months and must run for at least six consecutive months. Qualifying airlines receive a full 100% discount on landing and parking fees for the first two years, and ground handling is discounted by 50% in year one and 30% in year two. Marketing support is also available based on evaluation and requires a minimum spend of 50.000 euros per route.
New York was Pristina Airport’s busiest unserved route in 2024 for a ninth consecutive year. Over 19.800 passengers travelling from Pristina transferred through other points to reach New York on a single ticket last year. Some 15.000 travellers had JFK Airport as their destination, while over 4.800 passengers were destined for Newark Liberty. Other popular destinations in North America included Chicago, Washington, Toronto and Montreal. Pristina was last linked to New York with a scheduled air service back in 2009. Scanderbeg Air, a short-lived tour operator that contracted with Sky King Airlines, maintained two weekly flights between the two cities with a Boeing 767-200ER aircraft from June to September that year. Since then, there have been no flights between the two cities.
Interesting. I doubt it will get past thr talks stage but good to see them being proactive
ReplyDeleteSeasonal flights from PRN to NYC could work, especially because they would be able attract passengers from Albania and Macedonia too. That said I doubt anything more than seasonal traffic on this route would be possible at this point.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, very seasonal as most of the cities in the region. Very little business travelers, very little tourists from the region going to the US, mostly diaspora passengers which can hardly sustain the flights.
DeleteMost people from Kosovo and Albania living in the US fly only once every few years because fares are high. If there was a nonstop flight prices would probably go down and there would be more visits.
DeleteHigh probability for cargo traffic development and it’s an emerging tourist destination
DeleteI assume that the majority of passengers from Pristina transfer through Istanbul with Turkish Airlines to the US?
ReplyDeleteThat, or fly to Tirana witk TK or another legacy carrier and drive to Pristina
DeleteMany use Austrian too.
DeleteThis is big nonsense. It is far more logical to consider TIA, if consider anything on Balkans at all.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt's great that an anonymous commentator on a forum can enlighten giga-profitable American companies on what is nonsense and what is not.
DeleteThis was an interesting article highlighting the top 10 unserved routes from JFK and TIA was 3rd in the list with 102,800 pax annually.
DeleteI think TIA management recently said that they are in negotiation with Delta for commencement of these flights but not sure whether they will materialise.
https://simpleflying.com/new-york-jfks-top-10-long-haul-unserved-routes/
That's true and there are chances they may start next year. TIA is just finishing works on extended runway, taxiways and widebody parking.
DeleteIt was confirmed, that Delta will start New York - Tirana next year
DeleteHahahahahahah this has to be one of the best jokes. Budapest, Sofia or even Skopje don't have flights but PRN thinks they can? They are missing flights to major European airports.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, one can dream, right?
There is much more demand to JFK from Pristina than from Skopje and Sofia.
DeleteI don’t think that’s accurate. In 2019, New York was the busiest unserved route from Skopje, with around 19,000 passengers, whereas Pristina had 17,800 passengers in 2024. I'm not sure about the exact numbers for Sofia, but I’d assume they’re higher than both Skopje and Pristina.
DeleteRead the article. And this is just from Pristina
Delete"New York was Pristina Airport’s busiest unserved route in 2024 for a ninth consecutive year. Over 19.800 passengers travelling from Pristina transferred through other points to reach New York on a single ticket last year."
And that doesn't count people driving from Kosovo to Macedonia and Albania and Belgrade to fly from there.
DeleteI do not know about SKP figure, but the figure for PRN is just one way passengers, so leaving PRN and going to New York. So you can assume that the traffic on both ways is double that. For SKP and PRN is who ever gets it first. If PRN gets NYC flights, SKP will be out of question for any other airline wishing to fly there. And the opposite is true.
DeleteThis is still politics. Kosovo is USA protectorate. We are yet to see when Trump sees the cost of it if he will continue to support it. So far it has not been on the agenda, so this is consequence of the previous administration's efforts. Otherwise all the airports in the region have excellent connections to IST and then many Turkish flights to USA. Occasional scheduled charter yes. Of course public would be almost 100% diaspora. Minimum business interests and even less tourist either direction.
DeleteKosovo is an emerging tourist destination
DeleteNo, it's not.
DeleteIt's much more likely that PRN will get the NYC flights than SKP. And if it gets this route, then all SKP will use PRN rather than transfering
Delete@14:04 this has to be a joke.
DeleteI think any airline that flies this route in June, July and August can be successful. The issue is afterwards.
ReplyDeleteYou would need like all coach reconfigured 400 seats A330 to make them work. You may still end up losing the cash as it very price sensitive market.
ReplyDeleteprice sensitive means people from our region are...poor?
DeleteI'm surprised that there are quite a few people travelling between Pristina and Washington DC. Is there an Albanian population living there?
ReplyDeletePoliticians, they are lobbying like crazy
DeleteConsidering the size of the diaspora in the US it would make sense for some seasonal flights at least. Plus it could attract passengers from Macedonia and Albania.
ReplyDeleteAn estimated 80k K-Alb live in the Bronx alone.
DeleteIn this 2 mil NYC Borough even the Albanian language is official, paralell to spanish.
LOL!
DeleteWhat about transfer traffic to Serbia, Albania, even Bulgaria
DeleteWhat transfer traffic when there are no flights between PRN and any of those places. And BEG has nonstop flights to New York, Chicagp and soon Miami.
DeleteBy car, bus, or soon light rail
DeleteCould the A321XLR be used from New York to these Balkan airports SOF/SKP/PRN/...
ReplyDeleteIf yes this could make sense especially in the summer season.
It's very much on the edge. Depends on configuration and cargo, but in most cases, it's pretty difficult
DeleteNo, not both ways without a refueling in Ireland or Iceland.
DeleteSince when is Skopje on par with Budapest or Sofia? A bit of a delusional grandeur? Its way back behind Pristina for that matter.
ReplyDeleteBEG similarly had only 25k passengers when JFK was not yet served, in 2016 or so. But now it has grown to 70k.
ReplyDeleteIt took 5 years for JU to make this route profitable.
DeleteI do not think US airlines who have a lack of long-haul aircraft and huge demand for them in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece will dedicate one of them to an almost 100% gastarbeiter route like PRN, or SKP, or TIA with non existent business class demand.
Just my2cents
What’s a gasterbeiter?
Deletegastarbeiter in German, guestworker, all those who came from the Balkans to the West for work.
DeleteThe difference with BEG is that JU has a decent regional network that can transfer pax across the region via BEG for added traffic. You can see examples in neighbouring cities how this is important. LOT pulled out of the BUD-US market, OTP-JFK isn't doing great, SOF-US never launched, SkyGreece didn't last long.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska? Bravo Zagreb? Bravo Croatia Airlines? 670.000 US tourists last year, 450.000 diaspora, ideal transfer position for albanian, greek, kosovar, macedonian, serbian, montenegrin, bulgarian, bosnian, transfer passengers, whole of Slovenia one to two hours by ground, all EU open sky agreements, no visa regime, Kosovo and Albania working on US flights, Romania already did it, and they go for single type regional feeder aircraft to remain german ass kisser humiliated feeder. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteIt can happen, if they pay Delta, American or any other airline. Dubrovnik is the only destination, that managed to have Seasonal flights with the States and that’s big surprise.They don’t even fly to Milan all year round, but they will to Pristina. I mean, some folks out there, need to have more knowledge of what’s going on. They can pay these flights and they‘ll fly. Ain’t that easy to have direct flights by some US Carrier.
ReplyDeleteKosovar diaspora is very good at supporting routes to and from PRN. I'm sure that this route will work out, if it becomes reality, as Kosovars from all over North America would use it for transfers just for the sake of supporting its existence. Other diasporas could really learn something from them.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a much-welcomed service. NMK/MNE would also use this route although the road just got shorter from NMK to Tirana. I don't know if PRN/TIA simultaneous to JFK makes sense. Not to be political as well but once the war ends Russians will start using western euro carriers again instead of the duopoly TK/Air Serbia exclusively.
ReplyDelete