The airports in Zagreb, Belgrade and Pristina will be the fastest-growing in the former Yugoslavia during the upcoming third quarter (July, August and September). The trio will add the most scheduled capacity compared to the same period the previous year.
Zagreb Airport is set to lead in capacity growth, adding 252.137 extra seats. The increase is largely driven by Croatia Airlines, which will launch five new routes in early July and boost capacity with the arrival of Airbus A220-300 aircraft, following the retirement of two Dash 8 turboprops earlier this year. Ryanair is also contributing to the growth with additional frequencies, while Turkish Airlines plans to operate up to four daily flights to the Croatian capital for the first time.
Belgrade Airport will see an increase of 244.445 additional seats this summer, driven primarily by Wizz Air and Air Serbia. Wizz Air is adding 120.938 seats in the third quarter, supported by the introduction of two new routes, frequency increases, the return of a fourth based aircraft, and a fleet shift from A320s to larger A321neos. Meanwhile, Air Serbia, which is launching five new routes in the second quarter, will contribute an extra 26.280 seats during the upcoming three-month period.
Scheduled capacity difference at airports in the former Yugoslavia, Q3 2025 vs Q3 2024
.png)
In Pristina, the strong growth can be attributed to GP Aviation, along with Wizz Air, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus. All airports across the former Yugoslavia, with exception to Osijek, are expected to see an increase in scheduled seat capacity during the third quarter. Osijek Airport will register a minor 1.4% decline, primarily as a result of four fewer operations by Ryanair during the three-month period.
The table above is of an informative nature and is correct as of June 21. Airlines regularly adjust capacity by changing aircraft types, modifying frequencies, or adding and suspending routes, which may lead to changes in the figures as the third quarter of 2025 progresses.
Great to see everyone growing 👏
ReplyDeleteFinally OU generating growth :D
ReplyDeleteGenerating capacity for now. Whether that translates into growth is yet to be seen.
DeleteLet's see what happens when they retire even more Q400s and when they are forced to send the A220 to places like SKP, SJJ etc.
DeleteThis somewhat reminds me of Jat Airways back in 2005 when they retired the DC-9 and replaced them with a much larger B733. Took JU roughly two decades to right this wrong.
They are going to wet-lease smaller planes.
DeleteThanks for the numbers. Do these include Israeli carriers or os the capacity without them?
ReplyDelete*is
DeleteIsraeli carriers have all cancelled their flights until further notice. They are not included in the figures above.
DeleteThanks! Cheers
DeleteAnd those are only scheduled flights, no charters included?
DeleteSomething seemsmoff with Air Serbia... If they are to add 26.280 over a three month period thats 285 pax daily, or 142 per direction or under ONE A319 flight daily.
ReplyDeleteWith all the new routes launched, they must have cut frequencirs compared to the last summer for the total growth to be so weak
Yes, they are cutting some flights this summer. Athens was one of those which was reduced in July due to cabin crew shortages and mediocre loads.
DeleteThey have been saying all year their growth will be 5% to 6%. So this is in line with that.
DeleteOh and btw there have been no cuts to Athens. Anon 9.16 just made it up. ATH is operating 14 weekly all summer. That's 2 weekly flights more than last summer.
DeleteI also heard ATH isn't performing as expected by JU.
DeleteWould be interesting to see what capacity they plan for this summer compared to last year. I see a lot of E90/95 scheduled for this summer.
Maybe it's time for JU to consider morning flights to ATH so that they offer even more connections from long-haul flights. They could easily operate these with the Atr.
For Athens I personally believe embraers are great during the summer season especially the E190s from Bulgaria Air. Air Serbia should get some of their own too. During the winter the ATR would be good, but a thought I have is maybe they could get e170/75 for that kind of route?
DeleteWhen winter comes, I think the E90/95 is more than fine for the noon departure. There are enough connections offered to fill those seats.
DeleteNight flights as well as any future morning/afternoon flights can easily be operated by the ATR.
ATH is an extremely competitive market and JU needs to offer a lot of flexibility in order to survive. With Aegean not slowing down in BEG, they also face increasing competition from a well run carrier which offers a superior service and other perks such as frequent flyer program etc.
@09:20
DeleteJust 285 extra daily available seats both ways in definitely not a 5-6% growth but much less.
With so many new destinations and added frequencies on the longhawl schedule I wonder which routes are seeing reduced capacity.
You have the summer timetable published here so you can look it up yourself. The year runs for 12 months, not 3 months.
DeleteI mostly fly A3 since I connect to their IOA flights, but I can tell that JU is handling competition on the ATH route very well as A3 has load issues on their BEG flights.
Delete@13:57 thank you for confirming the obvious that for the high season JU will have nowhere near the 5-6% growth they had as a target.
DeleteHopefully in the winter season they will have bigger growth than that in order to achieve their annual goal.
Their passenger growth is already at 6%.
Delete^
DeleteYou are talking about Q2 I presume? Because in the Q3 their capacity growth is going to be much lower than that.
They'll need to perform really good in Q4 to make up for the very low Q3 growth.
They had 3% capacity growth in the first 5 months of the year but 6% passenger growth. So they obviously are performing very well, despite your big concerns.
DeleteYou guys are forgetting that this summer Air Serbia uses smaller aircraft such as 4 E190s and E195s. Last summer there were only 2 E190s.
DeleteATH is doing ok, ERJ's are just better suited for JU on the route rather than larger aircraft due to the frequencies they offer. What also needs to be taken into consideration is that JU has greatly expanded its scheduled routes to Greece creating less demand for travelling via ATH, not to mention other routes. They do however throw on the odd A320 on the route, which does fill. It's definitely an advantage currently at JU, having the diversity in the fleet to match demand adequately.
DeleteJU is definitely missing a third daily to ATH that will not only connect with long haul routes, but also regionally (ZAG, LJU, SPU, DBV, OTP, BUD, SJJ) and other European routes (ZRH, MAD, SVO, LED, LHR, LIS, OPO, VLC, AGP).
ATH is an airport that has over 25 million passengers. JU should be able to operate A319 twice a day. There are a lot of locals and transfers.
DeleteI think A3 is hurting them with their daily flights. That's a problem for JU.
The amount of times I've heard about everything that's hurting JU, you would start thinking they are on the brink of bankruptcy.
DeleteYou have to be pretty passionate to compile all those figures, and do so free of charge and carriage paid.
ReplyDeleteThank u admin 🙏
Good to see that despite all the tensions in the world, that there is still growth.
+100
DeleteZagreb Airport is set to lead in capacity growth, adding 252.137 extra seats. The increase is largely driven by Croatia Airlines, which will launch five new routes in early July and boost capacity with the arrival of Airbus A220-300 aircraft
ReplyDelete--------
This is the main problem. The airport must rely on incompetent OU to fill all those seats.
People are angry when OU is not growing and angry when OU is growing
DeleteCan't win
Till yesterday the problem was OU doesn’t launch new routes in Zagreb, now it’s problem it does…
DeleteI think you missed the point. Issue seems to be that OU has a problem filling those seats. It's one thing to put them up for sale, it's a whole different story of actually getting customers to fly with you.
DeleteOU's average LF is quite low. They need a new overall strategy. Dumping more capacity without changing your sales strategy won't change much.
ZRH SPU ZRH next 10 days, Monday departure and return: Edelweiss less than 300 CHF for Y basic, OU over 600 CHF
DeleteOU is mostly more expensive than Edelweiss.
Other check ZRH DBV ZRH 24JUN and 01JUL back. LX is 250 CHF cheaper than OU
And this is no exception. I hve flown the ZRH SPU routing many times and since Edelweiss started to operate to SPU, their prices were for my trips always below OU.
I don’t think OU’s LF is that bad during summer and this is article about Q3. Don’t think they’ll keep them during winter. Q3 is not problem for OU in my opinion…
DeletePRN just keeps growing and growing
ReplyDeleteTrue, well done PRN.
DeleteImagine where PRN would even be, would the air fares be less. Lots of Kosovars have reduced Kosovo travels due to the high prices, especially second and 3rd diaspora generation, sees no reason to pay every Summer up to 800-1000 EUR/person, just to travel to Kosovo, where they even dont really feel home.
Delete@anon1124, how did you come to that conclusion? In my personal experience, relatives and friends that live outside Kosovo are visiting Kosovo much often than before. Before, once a year used to be the norm. Now they are visiting multiple times a year. This shows in the big growth the airport has experienced. We used to be same level as SKP and LJU, but now look at it.
DeleteSummer is more expensive everywhere and not just in PRN.
The first generation still does and does it more often. 2nd and 3rd/4th generation less, especially the 3rd and 4th. I know plenty of them and basically all tell me the same. The first generation has been living in Kosovo. Lots of the 2nd and basically none of 3rd/4th generation ever lived in Kosovo. This not only counts for Kosovo, but also for other ethnics. Why always visiting the same, if you have so many options to visit? Some Kosovars fly even just to Albania to spend their holidays at the sea. I am a good example. Last time I visited ex YU was in 2022 and next time will be probably around 2027.
Delete@Anon 14:41 that is exactly right.
DeleteCroatian coastal airports doing very well too.
ReplyDeleteSplit especially. And unlike Dubrovnik they didn't give in to Ryanair's demands and wishes. Respect.
DeleteYes but if DBV did not get Ryanair it would still be below pre Covid traffic. That's why they made a deal with Ryanair,
DeleteStill no major moves in Skopje. With talks of Ryanair entering the market, maybe Q4 will look different.
ReplyDeleteWizz still did not increase capacity , probably will do in winter months. And thats why thete is no major movement.
DeleteIf Ryanair really enter Macedonia ,launching of routes I believe will be next year not this one...
Belgrade has no chance to reach 9 million this year.
ReplyDeleteWho, other than yourself, set them a target of 9 million this year?
DeleteWho says he set a target? It's just a round number.
DeleteBravooo
ReplyDeletehow is it possible for PRN to add yet again 240k capacity without a single new flight in over a year?
ReplyDeleteIt has many new flights. From easyjet, Wizz Air, o many new GP Aviation flights, Pegasus, ASL France
DeleteStill, all these new route have very low frequencies (1-2 per week). So the growth is coming from more frequencies from old routes.
Delete18:42? what new routes are you talking about?
Deleteonly new routes since 14 month are gonna be those to Lyon and Paris, 1 or 2 a week, starting next month!
rest is frequency increase on existing destinations!
There is no need to be agressive and rude if you don't follow news related to PRN. New routes include Amsterdam, Milan Malpensa, Stuttgart, Basel, Helsinki, Dortmund, Cologne... Most are operated through tour agencies but are scheduled and ongoing.
Delete20:39 How was I rude or agressive?
DeleteFYI: Amsterdam route lasted only few months. Milano exists since years ago, with Wizz. Easyjet also opened it, to shut it down weeks later.
Basel, Helsinki, Cologne...are existing routes. None of them are new!
Apparently its you in need of an update, friend!