Eight airports across the former Yugoslavia are still struggling to regain their pre-pandemic passenger volumes. These include Ljubljana, Tivat, Ohrid, Pula, Tuzla, Rijeka, Osijek and Brač. Ljubljana Airport, the largest among them, continues to feel the lasting effects of the collapse of Slovenia’s national carrier, Adria Airways, which ceased operations in late September 2019. During the first three quarters of this year, Ljubljana handled 1.233.329 passengers, down 15% on the same period in 2019.
Tivat Airport handled 1.182.904 passengers between January and September. Although volumes have improved significantly on last year, they remain 4% below pre-pandemic levels. The loss of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian markets is the main driver. Compared to six years ago, airlines such as Aeroflot, Pobeda, Azur Air, Red Wings, NordStar, Ural Airlines, S7 Airlines and Brussels Airlines no longer serve Tivat, while Air Montenegro offers noticeably fewer flights and seats than the country’s former national carrier, which went bankrupt in December 2020.
Q1 - Q3 passenger traffic
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Ohrid Airport's performance has been significantly impacted by Wizz Air’s reduced operations, particularly the loss of its London Luton service. The airport welcomed 209.832 passengers during the first three quarters, down 17% on 2019. Wizz Air has struggled with ongoing engine issues affecting its Airbus A320neo-family fleet over the past few years but has now begun rebuilding its network. In addition, compared to six years ago, Ohrid is no longer served by Brussels Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Eurowings, Corendon Airlines or Onur Air, the latter of which has since gone bankrupt. Tuzla has also been unable to return to pre-pandemic volumes due to Wizz Air closing its base there in 2023, although the carrier will restore base operations next month.
Croatia’s Pula, Rijeka, Osijek and Brač have also been unable to return to their 2019 figures. Pula has been adversely affected by the absence of carriers from Russia and Ukraine, including S7 Airlines, Red Wings, Windrose and SkyUp. In addition, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Swiss, Volotea and LOT Polish Airlines have all discontinued services. Rijeka Airport has seen its passenger numbers decline 16.2% compared to 2019 and is no longer served by Condor, airBaltic or Volotea. Osijek has been impacted by the loss of Wizz Air and Eurowings, both of which operated there six years ago, while Brač has been hit by the withdrawal of TUIfly Belgium, which once provided almost as much capacity as all scheduled airlines serving the airport this year combined.
Ryanair is indirectly the root cause of this
ReplyDeleteHow exactly?
DeleteNot sure how you came to this conclusion. In the mentioned Croatian airports I don't see Ryanair's influence.
DeleteMore pax travelled from/to ZAG TRS instead of LJU RJK PUY cause of Ryan?
DeleteW6 too.
Delete0902 you are exactly right. Even in Pula for example, the article lists the airlines that withdrew from there but Ryanair's cuts on existing routes had MORE of an impact. For example London Stansted used to be April-October four times weekly. This year it was June-September three times weekly.
DeleteI'm surprised there are that many!
ReplyDeleteThe world has changed since then
DeleteChanged for why? Maybe for you.
DeleteWow completely forgot that Eurowings and Brussels used to fly to OHD
ReplyDeleteIf I remember good israel airline was serving OHD too for one season or something like that
DeleteMost of them are so small that the relative comparison is not so relevant and only one new route can change the situation a lot. The only two significant bad performers in the region are Pula and Ljubljana.
ReplyDeletePaid arrival of TK didn't change anything in Ohrid.
DeleteNeither did paid arrivals of Pegausus and Ajet in Tuzla.
Delete"paid arrival" the sound of hate
DeleteThe sound of hate? It is paid for, whether you like it or not.
Deleteits significant that you picked up a single airport
DeleteTwo actually. Tuzla and Ohrid. Both pay for flights and both are behind 2019. Difference is in 2019 Ohrid paid only for new Wizz routes, now it pays for all new routes. In 2019 Tuzla didn't pay for any routes, now it pays for all of them.
DeleteLJU also pays for flights and its still behind.
DeleteThe problem with Ohrid has little aviation angle. During the summer season all the hotels in Ohrid are fully booked months in adance, despite the proverbial bad servive. Until huge new boarding capacity is available, OHR will struggle. Pre pandemic levels may be avhieved but no more.
Deleteif they are full how are they struggling
Deleteand Osijek too ...
DeleteTuzla in 2019 - record with unsusbidized flights
ReplyDeleteTuzla in 2026 - likely record with subsidized flights
unsusbidized but huge discounts at airport
DeleteGreat overview. Thank you
ReplyDeleteLjubljana may actually finally be able to reach 2019 levels next year.
ReplyDeleteAnnounced increases:
- TGD: Wizzair (new route, 4pw)
- EDI: easyJet (new route, 2pw)
- AMS: KLM (2nd daily flight)
- BCN: Vueling (confirmed by the airport)
- MAN: easyJet (confirmed by the airport)
- FRA: Lufthansa (greatly increased capacity)
- RIX: AirBaltic (2 -> 3pw from May)
- ATH: Aegean (2 -> 3pw from Jun 7th)
- MAD: Iberia (2pw starting earlier, in June)
- DBX: FlyDubai (4 -> 5 weekly)
- HEL: Finnair (increased capacity)
Probable increases:
- SKP: Wizz (Increased capacity and frequencies)
- Pegasus launching SAW
The only decreases so far are the absence of Eurowings and Transavia.
Any news on Pegasus?
DeleteAnd new routes are coming…
DeleteI don't think it'll be enough to breach 2019, but it's looking good so far
DeleteThey would need to add 200k … if they grow in winter than we could be close to 2019 numbers… fraport said rhey will reach it at 2026
DeleteVueling only sells tickets for the winter season from LJU, meanwhile from VCE they are already selling it for the summer season. Are they staying in Ljubljana?
DeleteSummer schedule is far from finished for most airlines.
DeleteYes they are staying… sales goes well. Also both new uk destinations are selling good
DeleteI think LJU will have cca 2,1 milion sheduled sits in 2026. From my calculation and what happened this year, I think they reach cca 1,8 milion passengers.
DeleteGreat, does anyone know when will Vueling put flights to Barcelona on sale for April?
Deletewhere is INI?
ReplyDeleteThe airport has registered passenger growth both on last year and 2019.
DeleteIn southern Serbia
DeleteIt would be nice if we had data about it.
DeleteOHD might get close to those numbers with the Basel route which just started and another one coming back next year (Milan)
ReplyDeleteMilan planes were half emtpy. I dont know what u are talking about
Deleteeven if they are thats some 15.000 passengers yearly
Deleteis Zadar slowing down Pula and Rijeka?
ReplyDeleteIt is completely different catchment area
DeleteIt's 2, 5 hours by car via highway from RJK to ZAD. Personally flew from ZAD. Know lot of people who did it too. Partially agree vast majority of ZAD pax are tourists staying in Dalmatia but definitely ZAD as it is does not help RJK growing. PUY not that much but people from RJK use ZAG, TRS, VCE, PUY, LJU, ZAD, even VIE and BEG for travel because of disastrous management and total lack of services, except for few months of peak season with very limited offer
Delete+1 PIR
DeleteOhrid will definitely lost alot from VIE and LTN routes , this routes was always full. Summer seasonal OU will not change anything about this , or either TK seasonal flights... lets see how this Polish routes will be next year...
ReplyDeleteAdmin do you know how many passengers had OHD in 2019, and is it possible reach them by the end of the year or no ? Thank you
ReplyDelete317k and defintely not. They expect double digit growth so maybe they will surpass 2023 when they had 265k which was its second best year
Deletethey have added some 25k this year (Jan-Aug) in comparison to last year
Delete