Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of 3.495.866 passengers during the first two months of the year. In February alone, 1.662.167 travellers were welcomed. The shortest month of the year saw Ljubljana overtake Podgorica, despite both shedding passenger numbers on last year. Podgorica saw its weakest February performance since 2022, with Ryanair being the main culprit for the 9.8% passenger decline. The low cost airline suspended all but one route from the Montenegrin capital over the winter, reducing its capacity by 56.1% or 7.632 seats in February. Niš and Ohrid continued to see reduced figures with both airports impacted by Wizz Air’s capacity cuts.
Passenger performance by airport, February 2025
During the first two months of the year, both Belgrade and Pristina ranked within Europe’s top 100 busiest airports, taking 68th and 95th place respectively. Belgrade Airport positioned itself just behind Sofia, Fuerteventura and Malta but ahead of Basel, Tenerife and Cologne. Pristina was preceded by Faro, Gothenburg and Tbilisi but in front of Luxembourg, Rome Ciampino and Chisinau. Zagreb positioned itself as the 104th busiest, behind Newcastle, Trondheim and Tromso, but ahead of Wroclaw, Stavanger and Cagliari. Skopje took 124th place. It was immediately behind Florence, Cork and Salzburg, but ahead of the likes of Santiago de Compostela, Innsbruck and Rovaniemi. Sarajevo ranked 144th, with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital behind Shannon, La Palma and Kutaisi, but outperforming Montpellier, Kaunas and Lille.
Passenger performance by airport, January - February 2025
European rank for select regional airports by passenger numbers
Istanbul’s main gateway was Europe’s busiest airport during the first two months of the year with 12.130.049 passengers, while London Heathrow was a close second with 12.037.632 travellers. The pair saw growth of 2.9% and 2% on 2024 respectively. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 10.344.634 passengers, Madrid with 10.007.117, Amsterdam with 9.497.326 travellers, Frankfurt with 7.790.630, Barcelona with 7.444.616, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen with 6.889.292, Rome Fiumicino with 6.406.973, and London Gatwick with 5.296.904 passengers. Out of Europe’s top ten busiest, four are still below their pre-pandemic 2019 records. They include Paris Charles de Gaulle (-1.1%), Amsterdam (-3.6%), Frankfurt (-15.4%) and London Gatwick (-12.5%).
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, February 2025
That's a very poor performance for Podgorica.
ReplyDeleteAnother airport dependent on one LCC.
DeleteBeen awhile since Ljubljana hasn't been last, yeah
DeleteAnd Ljubljana managed to overtake it :D
DeleteBravo Fraport!
DeleteWhat pushing out Pegasus did. Absolutely shameful by the Montenegrin government
DeleteWhat's going on at Kraljevo Morava? How come they have so much growth all of a sudden?
ReplyDeleteNumber of flights is the same. Improved load factor I guess.
DeletePeople have finally started hearing about these flights.
DeleteWhat airport is on the photo, if I may ask?
ReplyDeletePodgorica. No offence in my opinion one of the worst organized airports in ex-Yu. Horrid experience every time especially if there are more than 2 flights in the same hour.
Delete^^ agree!
DeleteI agree. The way they’re managing passenger flow is completely chaotic. It feels like it's being handled by people with no experience, who’ve never seen how things are done at other similarly sized airports. The passenger experience is extremely poor.
DeleteI love the nature around Podgorica airport. Also, very low prices at the Duty free.
Delete"Podgorica saw its weakest February performance since 2022"
ReplyDeletewow
So all our airports had less passengers during that period than ATH had alone.
ReplyDelete3.586.136 pax for Jan-Feb period.
same comment every time
DeleteYes, but it is true so what is your problem
DeleteVIE probably too.
DeleteIt goes to show how much of a caching up we have to do compared with the rest of Europe.
True!
DeleteBoth ATH and VIE are a joke compared to IST and LHR.
DeleteShows how much catching up ATH and VIE have to do. Let"s repeat this fact every time ATH and VIE fans compare ExYu with those airports.
DeleteATH and VIE are much smaller cities than London and Istanbul. ExYu countries on the other hand have 20 million people.
DeleteAtlanta is much smaller than London and Istanbul, so what? Dubai is also much smaller city but has busiest airport in the world by international traffic. Repeatedly bring up dumb comments about ExYu/ATH, get schooled like you deserve it. Repeatedly.
DeleteF off anon 17:52 ex YU are very much below world standards
DeleteResorting to swearing now? Devoid of counterarguments on the topic, your message is signalling surrender and closure of this debate. No need to bring up ATH next time monthly Ex Yu passenger numbers are published.
DeleteLOL, Atlanta is 80% connecting traffic and the city has a population of 6.3 million people.
DeleteSome commenters mentality is that if we have more traffic than we did 40 years ago all is good.
Meanwhile the real world has left us far behind and with such mentality we ain't catching up.
ATH is still a joke
DeleteHow dare anyone say something bad about these Balkan intergalactic hubs!
Delete@10:06 if ATH and VIE are jokes what does that make us with all our 22 airports combined?
DeleteIt has been known for a very long time ExYu airports have lower passenger traffic for reasons well known for decades. Industry analysts pointed to this area as an opportunity for growth for years and some ExYu airports have been growing at rates faster than Europe averages, mostly recovering from pandemic faster than Europe. That said, repeatedly comparing them to ATH and VIE is a topic for petty, ignorant amateurs. On the other hand, compare Athens and Vienna to Istanbul some 25-30 years ago and now. Posting repeated comments about this month after month gives insight into your mental state, here are examples from Mar and Feb:
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/02/single-ex-yu-airport-within-europes-100.html?showComment=1739444277919#c2691990616161395951
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/03/ex-yu-airports-handle-18-million.html?showComment=1741946312636#c2232668412119280069
have been growing
What a race between London Heathrow and Istanbul IST.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteShame about TGD.
ReplyDeleteNew management, record low results.
DeleteAnd on another portal I read how they are doing amazing lol. Figures speak for themselves.
DeleteYes
DeleteBanja Luka growth is fantastic! Great job!
ReplyDeleteSarajevo! Grade moj!
ReplyDeleteNjoj sam dao život svoj!
DeleteVery interesting to see Flydubai in top 10 in ex-Yu. They have certainly grown a lot in this region.
ReplyDeletePristina! Impressive work and without a national airlines or subsidies!
ReplyDeleteThis is good for aiport itself but bad for the Kosovo , meaning that a lot of people left their homes
DeleteAre you sure there is no subsidies , think twice before writing something.
Delete@anon 16:33 that’s true for whole ex-yu, but now they come here in short stays outside of high season too, which means they spend money here. At least some good in bad 😁. Those are our “tourists”
DeleteOne passenger at Brac ?
ReplyDeleteI should have flown to Brac, I could have really moved the dial on their numbers this year
DeleteIt is February.
DeleteDisastrous number for TGD.
ReplyDeleteI like that this site provides the reason for this like with other airports. And they base it on actual facts and figures. Not like some other places where conspiricies for decline run wild because they have no data.
DeleteHopefully the rest of the year will be better for BEG.
ReplyDeleteSkopje close to 400k even with all W6 cuttings ... I think this would be the busiest year on record!!!
ReplyDeleteAfter leaving Podgorica and Ljubljana behind,Sarajevo is slowly but surely catching up with Skopje :)
ReplyDeleteThey are performing very well. The growth is strong. To be honest, even stronger growth would be really unhealthy and unstable.
DeleteSJJ is not coming even close to Skopje. Now SKP has almost 400k for 2 months and March is finished with almost 300k which will lead SKP to close 700k , SJJ is way behind , last year the difference was 800k ;)
DeleteIn 2023 the difference was 1.5 million, last year difference was 800k, this year the difference will be even smaller and Sarajevo will come even closer to Skopje. ;)
DeleteIt is interesting that Mostar has more flights than Zadar, Osijek, and Rijeka. It will be overrun in the summer, but it’s still nice to see.
ReplyDeleteTrue. ZAD numbers are disastrous. Worst than PUY and it is the same flight.
DeleteBrac makes Maribor look like Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteWait for the summer.
DeleteAll Croatian airports in plus except island of Brač in February. Nice.
ReplyDelete