Wizz Air, Ryanair and Croatia Airlines will add the most new seats in the former Yugoslav markets during the upcoming first quarter (January - March), compared to the same period in 2025. Among them, Wizz Air and Ryanair, together with Air Serbia, will rank as the largest carriers by available seat capacity. Wizz Air will lead the growth, adding more than half a million extra seats. This growth stems from the expansion of its Skopje base, the reopening of its Tuzla base and further expansion in Belgrade. Overall, the airline’s capacity will rise by 47.4% year-on-year.
Fastest-growing airlines by added seat capacity in Q1, 2026
Ryanair will add 88.262 seats in Q1, increasing its capacity by 16%. Much of this growth comes from the expansion of its Sarajevo operations during the summer, with most of the new routes continuing throughout the winter. The airline has also grown frequencies from Banja Luka this winter. Croatia Airlines will add 79.784 seats, driven by its ongoing fleet renewal, with the carrier operating seven Airbus A220 aircraft during the first quarter. The airline has also expanded its network, with several routes which were launched during the summer maintained throughout the winter.
Largest airlines by available seat capacity in Q1, 2026
Wizz Air’s growth will position it as the largest carrier in the former Yugoslavia by available seat capacity during the first quarter. It will be followed by Air Serbia, which plans to add over 57.000 additional seats to the market, then Croatia Airlines, Ryanair and Turkish Airlines, with the latter maintaining extra frequencies introduced on select regional routes during the summer. In Q1, Croatia Airlines will be the largest carrier in Croatia, Air Serbia in Serbia, Turkish Airlines in Slovenia, Ryanair in Bosnia and Herzegovina, just ahead of a resurging Wizz Air, Air Montenegro in Montenegro, GP Aviation in Kosovo and Wizz Air in Macedonia.
No OU just needs to fill those seats
ReplyDeleteThey consider 59% LF a success...
DeleteAnd today they have no flights
DeleteAround 10 years ago Croatia Airlines was the largest airline in ex-Yu. Now it is 3 and in summer 4 or 5.
Delete@9.25 they don't fly on Christmas. Like Ryanair.
Deletea bizarre decision for an unprofitable airline.
DeleteThey most likely loose less money by not flying. If their loads during the summer were 60%, imagine what it is like on Christmas day.
Deletehahahah
DeleteTbh their loads yesterday were around 100% from what I noticed… but a limited number of operations
DeleteWell if it wasn't full on the day before Christmas when there is a lot of travel then they should be shut down.
Deletewow GP Aviation 6th largest!
ReplyDeletesays more about the Kosovo market than about GP Aviation.
DeleteIt sure is the most unique market in Europe :D
DeleteGP has been quietly growing for several years.
DeleteI wonder how sustainable all this Wizz growth really is.
ReplyDeleteSkopje will be first to find out.
Delete@12.59 LJU increased to daily
DeleteOnce upon a time Lufthansa and Austrian would be topping these lists. Now they are falling further and further behind.
ReplyDeleteLufthansa and Austrian were never topping these lists. They are airlines that fly into their hubs. They cannot have more growth in Ex-Yu than Ryanair or Wizz Air who can add lots of routes at once.
DeleteIt would be interesting to see how the positions of all the airlines changed in the last 15 years.
DeleteHopefully Wizz can maintain this growth and potentially place a 7th plane in Skopje, in order to increase the frequencies on some of the existing routes, and potentially launch 2-3 new destinations.
ReplyDeleteI root for Krakow/Katowice, Valencia and one more destination in Italy.
These would be nice additions. Hopefully we see more leisure routes from them in the future from Skopje.
DeleteThere will be new routes from Wizz air as well other airlines, potential talks are very intensive , finger crossed !!!!
Delete'Potential talks are very intensive' doesnt make sense.
DeleteThe government is making these talks like they are doing god knows what, people are now thinking that two years ago SKP had 10 flights per day, what would we do if it wasnt about this minister…
Deletewizz is adding an aircraft every two years it has nothing to do with whoever lignja is talking to
DeleteHalf a million new Wizz seats sounds great until you remember their cancellation record from the past.
ReplyDeleteThey are not going to cancel anything for the next 3 months that's for sure.
DeleteThey'll grow this year, then cancel half of the routes next year, then get subsidies again and add more seats the year after etc etc
Delete^ Exactly!
Deleteyeah sure. someone just can hack it obviously
DeleteTurkish Airlines being the largest carrier in Slovenia is still wild to me.
ReplyDeleteWay things are going Swiss might overtake them in LJU.
DeleteAccording to people commenting on this site, Lufthansa is the largest airline with a 99.99% monopoly market share
DeleteLH is for sure the second largest in Slovenia.
DeleteLH would be the largest if they didn't offload flights to Air Dolomiti.
Deleteeven then stil fara away from mo no po ly
DeleteLH Group airlines combined are by far the largest in LJU.
Deleteat this point it feels like Wizz is the regional flag carrier.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat!
DeleteMary Christmas everyone! 🎄
ReplyDeleteMary Christmas!!!
Delete"Marry", "Mary", "merry" fegeti?
DeleteGood to see that Air Montenegro is finally the largest in Montenegro.
ReplyDeleteI think by this time next year W6 will be the largest.
DeleteWhat is Wizz Q1 growth compared to 2023?
ReplyDelete+ 442.804 seats
DeleteThanks! So they are bigger in the region than pre-engine trouble
DeleteDon't forget they also have another round of growth in Q2 2026.
DeleteHalf a million extra seats from Wizz Air is massive.
ReplyDeleteAnd most of them are in Macedonia🥳
DeleteNo big surprises to me from the list.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how well Pegasus Airlines is doing in the region.
ReplyDeleteX4 weekly Podgorica-Ljubljana with Wizz will be really useful.
ReplyDeleteThat would be 950 seats each way. Isn't that a bit excessive?
DeleteIt will be interesting to see if this route works. Zagreb-Podgorica failed with Ryanair.
DeleteTrue. I hope it works like SKP-LJU thought. It would be great to get more and more LCCs on intra ex-Yu routes.
DeleteAnd TGD-SJJ failed with Flydubai.
Deletewow forgot about those flydubai flights
DeleteWhere is the AJet growth coming from?
ReplyDeleteThey added routes from SKP
DeleteThey add the same routes for next summer that they launch this summer...
DeleteWho would have thought two Turkish airlines.
ReplyDeleteNext year there might be three with AJet
Deletelook at the list again
DeleteI was talking about the second list of largest airlines.
DeleteAjet woud need to fly 2x daily to some of their destination in exyu to achieve that
DeleteQuite a few new routes by easyjet this winter. Hopefully they won't be gone by the end of the season.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm surprised although I know there are new routes but didn't expect the extra capacity to be almost as OU's and more than JU's...
DeleteSome here were claiming how Air Serbia's capacity would decline. Oh well. There is always next year.
ReplyDeleteAnother myth busted...
DeleteStop making things up. People said their numbers declined in January after the cuts, not in Q1.
DeleteOh there were people talking about Q1 just a few weeks ago. I'm sorry you got so triggered by it,
DeleteHistory says half of this Wizz expansion will be “re-optimised” by next winter.
ReplyDeletewishful thinking
DeleteWhy would I 'wish' that? For everyone's sake I hope they keep growing but they have done this many times.
DeleteCroatia Airlines growing in winter used to be unthinkable. Fleet renewal is clearly forcing a different strategy.
ReplyDeleteFleet renewal *is the part of different strategy proposed by BCG during Covid, it was massively reported here...
DeleteGrowth in capacity in OU is not consequence of diferrent strategy. It's the consequence of higher capacity aircraft. And those new seats offered will remain empty and they don't even want to think about how to fill them because their strategy is the same- to remain LHG feeder. That's why highly corruptive BCG deal was concluded, following political Mafia orders
DeleteRyanair’s winter capacity growth is modest
ReplyDeleteCompared to Wizz yes, but in line with others. Wizz really has a special mometum of "coming back" (again) and, since it's mainly SKP and BEG which are Wizzair's special zones of interest, I don't think Ryan could (or would) do anything more to grow now.
DeleteAny new destination by W6 from Belgrade to Spain in 2026?Or Spain is full with the last destions by JU to Sevilla and Tenerife?
ReplyDeleteThey are increasing Alicante
DeleteNot only that but yesterday they loaded increases to NCE, BVA, BCN etc.
DeleteNCE will be 4 weekly next spring. That's a new record for them.
I talk about a future new Spanish destination, perhaps Ibiza?
DeleteSlots are hard to get, don't think it will be Ibiza but Valencia or Malaga with LCC is long overdue. I don't think they'll pick that fight and also don't think they'll offer BCN from INI which would be nice and wise.
Delete@anon 13:09
DeleteRyan could step in with INI-Girona. Anyways, INI could sustain BCN flights I think.
"wise"?
Delete"having or showing the ability to make good judgments"
DeleteWiz and Cro figures look great, just I suppose it could be challenge for execution and profitability. Air Serbia plans 4.9% growth in capacity, and that sounds promising. I wish to all of them all the best in 2026!
ReplyDeleteCapacity figures, yes. Balance sheet figures on the other hand, don' think so at least for OU.
DeleteOU will have 22k more Q1 capacity than JU. With JU being ahead of OU by 2.6 million passengers in 2024 and assuming all other variables stay the same, it will take decades for OU to close the gap. Oh well, some will continue to grasp at straws here, hoping, praying, wishing, writing to Santa...
ReplyDeleteOU will not have more capacity than JU. It is adding more capacity
DeleteYess. Finally we have something better than JU!
ReplyDelete