Air Serbia maintains profitability as passenger growth loses momentum

Air Serbia is expecting another profitable year despite softening passenger demand in the second half of 2025. The carrier’s CEO, Jiri Marek, told EX-YU Aviation News, “During the first six months, we recorded passenger growth of around 8%, however, traffic stagnated over the summer and this trend continued through the remainder of the year. It is still too early to draw firm conclusions about the underlying causes. Aside from a roughly 15% decline in charter passengers, the rest of the business is performing well”.

Commenting on the coming year, Mr Marek noted, “It is also premature to speculate about what next year will bring. The impact has been felt primarily in our home market. The question remains whether people in Serbia travelled less overall, or whether this was influenced by broader factors such as geopolitical developments, including reduced demand for Egypt due to the situation in the region, as well as higher prices in destinations such as Turkey. There are several elements at play”.

On the financial side, the carrier is performing better than it initially forecast. Mr Marek said, “Overall, we expect to close the year with passenger growth of between 3% and 4%. From a financial perspective, the year will certainly be profitable, although we do not yet know the final result. Performance is better than originally budgeted. That said, cost pressures that emerged from June onwards require careful management. This is something we have also observed across the industry, as third-quarter results from multiple airlines have shown a decline in profitability. While our revenue performance has been very strong, costs remain an area where additional efficiencies are needed”.