Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled 39.3 million passengers in 2025, growing by 3.3 million additional travellers on the year before. Ten airports managed to register their busiest year on record - Belgrade, Zagreb, Pristina, Split, Skopje, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Zadar, Banja Luka and Kraljevo. On the other hand, ten were below their pre-pandemic figures from 2019 including Ljubljana, Tivat, Pula, Niš, Tuzla, Ohrid, Rijeka, Osijek, Brač and Maribor. During 2025, Belgrade Airport added the most passengers, while Tuzla had the highest growth rate. At just over 5.000 travellers, Podgorica shed the most passengers.
During 2025 there were no major changes in the placement of the busiest airports, with exception to Tuzla overtaking Ohrid. Croatia maintained its position as the largest aviation market, with its airports handling just over fourteen million passengers. Furthermore, Croatia added the most travellers year-on-year, with one million extra passengers when compared to 2024. Podgorica was the only capital city airport to see its figures decline in 2025, albeit marginally, impacted by Ryanair’s capacity cuts and a now-lifted temporary reintroduction of visa requirements for Turkish nationals entering Montenegro.
Wizz Air regained its crown as the largest airline in the former Yugoslavia based on the amount of offered capacity, outpacing 2024’s top performer Air Serbia. The low cost airline also added the most seats in 2025, an additional 875.505, after wiping out 1.2 million in 2024 when compared to 2023. On the other hand, Condor shed the most seats across the former Yugoslavia last year, with capacity being reduced by 113.432. It was followed by British Airways, Qatar Airways, airBaltic and Volotea.
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity in the former Yugoslavia, 2025



With what to Maribor? Over 2000 is great.
ReplyDeleteCharters. 2000 passengers is great?
DeleteCharters to and from where? Yes 2000 for Airport without any scheduled or charter flights.
DeleteIt has sport charters. An airport with fully built infrastructure and 2000 passengers is not great.
DeleteLooks like Tirana neary had same passanger numbers as a all Croatian airports combined. Expensive pices have bitten a growth, and given Albania growth.
Deleteit helps when half of the routes are to Italy because of diaspora
DeleteGood to see that the biggest second is just loss of 5000pax.
ReplyDelete* biggest decline, sorry
Delete10 mln BEG in 2026
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIs this possible? In my opinion yes but we need more flights, interesting will be that if Wizz base new A321, why not two😁
DeleteZero chance of that happening.
DeleteIf it manages 9.5 million will be an amazing result.
BEG has my full support but I don't like it that JU is not growing
DeleteIt had 4% more passengers than in 2024 and has announced 7 new routes for 2026 and a lot of frequency increases. Maybe that's the opposite of growth for you.
DeleteJust the other day it was reported that JU's capacity is up 6% in February. You are saying that is not growth... ok
Delete@09:12
DeleteJU's second half of the year was stagnant. It needs a whole lot more added capacity this year for BEG to reach 10 million passengers.
Right. 7 new routes and big frequency growth is bad. Got it.
DeleteMore routes and more planes expected soon, which means extra capacity. With huge W6 growth, easy 10 million
DeleteGive it a rest guys, there is no chance BEG will have an 11.2% growth this year.
DeleteEven half of that will be a great result.
Anon 09:20
DeleteExactly.
For 10m it would need 12-13% increase in pax, that is very optimistic. Not to say that JU hasnt started growing a bit again, but not sure that JU and W6 can pull off extra 1.1 million this year.
DeleteDuring the first six months of the year, Belgrade airport will add close to 400.000 additional seats, resulting in growth of 9.4%. Second half might be even better, so 10 million is possible.
Delete^
DeleteLOL, no.
BEG needs to grow by 12.2% to reach 10 million mark.
DeleteIf it's adding 9.4% more capacity in H1, that means that H2 capacity needs to grow ~14-15%, to compensate lower-than-needed capacity growth in H1.
Not sure whether that's realistic.
To be honest, pax number grew more than the capacity in 2025. However, we are probably going to reach 9.6-9.7 million in 2026 and then maybe take a swing at 11 during EXPO in 2027
DeleteAs for JU, just look at the table above and you will see 1.4% growth which is nothing. It's basically stagnation..
DeleteIt grew with 4% more passengers. No matter which way you spin it.
Deleteanon 09:57
DeleteExactly. Pathetic spin.
In 2026 JU adds 6 more destinations. It should be also considered as stagnation 😂
It adds 7 actually.
DeleteOh, it means even bigger stagnation, doesn't it?
DeletePeople are seriously expecting over 4 million foreign visitors to the EXPO. JU by that logic could have between 15-20 million pax in 2027...
Delete@10:13 exactly. 4million foreign visitors...LOL of LOLs
Deleteby why this obsession with huge growth? Stable and strong performance is also a win for the aviation sector in Serbia.
More people have an obsession of claiming growth is no growth or that everything os a disaster. Especially when it comes to BEG and JU.
DeleteDouble weekly seasonal flights to Mykonos with an E-jet by JU will surely push BEG to 10 million pax, just wait and see you haters!
DeleteHehe, Mykonos is very beautiful but besides that destination we shall have in 2026 in BEG the following new routes
DeleteAlghero, Wizz .
Palermo , Wizz
Amman, Royal Jordanian
Santorini, Air Serbia
Riga, airBaltic
Baku, Air Serbia
Toronto, Air Serbia
Alicante, Air Serbia
Chania, Wizz
Pisa, Wizz
Sevilla, Air Serbia
Tenerife, Air Serbia
Tromso, Air Serbia
So sad for you dude.
Enlight me please: who cares whether it will be 9.5 or 10 million at BEG? Even 9.5 is considered as a big win when compared to the rest of the region...
DeleteActually, it is huge comparing to ex yu region.
DeleteSoon Etihad is expected also, at least 5pw
DeleteHuge growth for Tuzla and Podgorica incoming.
ReplyDeleteSkopje too.
DeleteAmazing performance from PRN again.
ReplyDeleteOnly 120.000 behind Zagreb
DeleteAnd Split is after Pristina on the list.
DeleteSJJ added almost more passengers than Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteSJJ is becoming quite unstoppable
DeletePRN added almost as many passengers as BEG!
Delete^ last year it added more than BEG and ZAG. But this year only more than ZAG. Not to mention that PRN is more comparable to ZAG and BEG than SJJ is to ZAG. But whatever makes you feel better.
DeleteWhat is driving the massive growth in PRN?
DeleteDiaspora
DeleteDid diaspora really grew by that much in a year?
DeleteIt is growing. Kosovo has the fastest shrinking population in the world.
Deletehttps://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-fastest-shrinking-countries-by-population/
That is so sad.
DeleteNot just Diaspora but also Kosovars visiting other countries. Visa liberalisation was not long ago.
DeleteNo, it's diaspora and you can see that from the lost of destinations served from PRN
DeleteMany ex yu airports have that issue mate.
DeleteWhat about Portoroz?
ReplyDeleteAnd Mali Lošinj?
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteDubrovnik dropped to sixt place. It used to be number 4 for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI am positively impressed by Split's growth in 2025. I was expecting more from DBV considering the new Ryanair base.
DeleteGastarbeiter traffic is a huge driver for growth.
DeleteGastarbeiter traffic for SPU and DBV is minimal.
DeleteI think he meant that SPU and DBV were overtaken because of gastarbeiter traffic at other airports.
Delete09:47
Delete+1
There are a lot of “prodaje se” signs next to houses south of Split. For quite a while. Are you sure there is no diaspora going through SPU? Just asking.
Delete^ That is more of a "western Europeans will pay a lot for a home in Dalmatia so we better cash in" issue.
DeleteOverall, pretty good for the region.
ReplyDeleteSo close to all airports having growth
ReplyDeleteNoticed that too. Could it finally happen in 2026?
DeleteThere is always Maribor so doubt it
DeleteLol true
DeleteBravo to all, especially Mostar and Tuzla. Croatia more than 14.000.000 passengers, wow.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo.
Delete+1 I find admin always puts really nice photos
DeleteAnd special Bravo to croatian "flag carrier" with market share of 13 %, and dropping
DeleteCroatian flag carrier is in plus of 13.8 %. But you can imagine what you want.
DeleteCapacity wise. Not passenger wise and definitely not with its load factorm
DeleteAs you wish, dear.
Delete10.52
DeleteYeah, they are in plus. With 30 mil euro minus 🤣🤣🤣. Are you aware at all that I am talking apples and you talk pears? Or is your Party duty to constantly monitor my posts and within 2 minutes desperately try to advocate midget feeder despite you write BS that is totally not related to things I talk about?
To put things into perspective, Gatwick Airport alone had more passengers last year than our entire region. And Gatwick is not even in the top 10 busiest airports in Europe.
ReplyDeleteSo?
DeleteSo the comment at 09:43 means to say that whilst its great for the region to see such connectivity levels, its small-fry for Europe.
DeleteIt means we need more people, please make more babies! :)
DeleteAny meaningful regional comparison should include Tirana, Trieste, Budapest and Thessaloniki.
DeleteWhat was the performance of TIA and BUD last year?
DeleteSofia as well.
DeleteAnd Gatwick is a single runway airport. So, if Belgrade operates well, single runway will never be an issue.
DeleteExactly. Although the issue in Belgrade going forward should not be JU (if well managed) but the terminal building which is my eyes the only let down. JU good, terminal mediocre and poorly done.
Deletea more important perspective is the missed opportunity of the YUG countries and the people that run now OU, JU, 4O. if they worked and cooperated like air france-KLM or like those under lufthansa could have 50% of that 39 million and if FB and Bulgaria was included and their 11.9 million air travellers. then the result would be a have a very large and effective airlines. and much greater increase of destinations and links.
DeleteSounds rather like a Balkan Federation... 🫣
Deletenot balkan.... South Slavic... and if airline and government cooperation for air travel makes you think that then what does the Lufthansa group make you think of? ... especially now they have the italian national airline
DeleteAir France and KLM were major successful airlines before the merger, not after. It's completely out of scale meaningless comparison. Better compare with Air Baltic, but even then, they don't need to deal with 6.5 states, dozen of small airports, and they are doing not that better than Air Serbia.
DeleteAir France and KLM are from states with functional bilateral relations and deep economic cooperation. The Yugophere does not.
DeleteIt's an island dude, that'w why UK's numbers are always so big compared to mainland Europe too.
DeleteCroatia having 14 million passengers through its airports is huge.
ReplyDeleteYes, very good result. Congratulations
DeleteCould it reach 15m in 2026?
DeleteStill in 2026 whole Croatia will be less than Tirana.
DeleteBecause very few tourists drive to Albania. Croatia has many many more visitors per year.
DeleteHuge? You have low standards. Spain which has 10 times the population of Croatia has had 320 million passengers in 2025, that's 22 times the amount Croatia had...
DeleteOur whole region is still lagging, Croatia lags maybe the least out of all ex-yu, but is still lagging.
Croatia is a tiny country compared to Spain. And Spain has huge domestic traffic. The Canaries are hours away from mainland Spain. There is also Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza. In Croatia people don't fly to islands.
DeleteNo, they swim to get there.
Delete@Anonymous10:01
DeleteLOL dude! I almost spill my coffee!
Of course, Croatia is beautiful, with sooo many islands. You can see it on the map. Greece and Croatia in the Mediterranean with so many islands.
DeleteOk so well over 40 million in 2026
ReplyDeleteYou wish
DeleteYou don't wish? If it had 39.3 million and added over 3 million in 2025 why would it not be over 40 million passengers in 2026? Would really like to hear your thoughts.
DeleteTuzla, Niš, Ohrid, 2 times more than RJK, Banja Luka 3 times more, Tivat 8 times....Is it only me who thinks it shouldn't be like that?
ReplyDeleteI suppose it does not help that ZAG, PUY and TRS are not that far from RJK.
DeleteLJU as well. But still, Rijeka has a potential.
Delete11.05
DeleteNiš has Sofia, Skopje and Belgrade. Ohrid has Skopje and Tirana. Banja Luka has Zagreb, Sarajevo, Tuzla....All cities in our region have several airports close by. It's not an excuse, although it does not help, that one I agree. But it's not help that's needed, it's work. In my opinion.
Yes Pozdrav it's only you. Rijeka is a rather insignificant city and very accessible by road from Central/Western Europe compared to the airports you mention above. Plus most importantly they're heavingly relying on gastos.
Delete17.29
DeleteI will not even waste time seriously answering and arguing on such a stupid, black and non-analitical comment
blank
DeleteIs Maribor airport fully operational again after the storm damage? It is really sad to see it failing so bad. It would be perfect for a few Ryanair flights, Maribor and the area has been growing a lot as a tourist destination lately.
ReplyDeleteI truly do not understand why this airport has no LCC flights.
DeleteBefore FR arrived to ZAG, Maribor could have been perfect airport for LCC's especially as there was no LCC massive presence to neighbouring airports.
Apart from it, back in 2006-2007 Ryanair was actually flyiing from Maribor to London and that region has so much to offer.
It could easily attract people from Graz with some well placed destinations. I don't know what pricing they have but the management is crazy if they don't want to offer any discount considering the dire situation they are in. Maybe they just don't care.
DeleteSKP actually overtook DBV, the difference in 2024 was some 350(!) pax in favour for DBV
ReplyDeleteZadar is stagnating
ReplyDeleteZadar is in plus of 3 %.
Deleteit had growths of 30% 2024 and 53,6% in 2023 and you calling the 3% not stagnating?
DeleteFor a city of 80k ppl with an urban area of less than 150k and still being an automobile destination, this result is huge. I guess that mid-to-long term maximum is 2.5M for ZLZD.
DeleteTell that to the guy above claiming RJK is ok with 160.000 🙂
Delete6 airports over 3m
ReplyDelete"Condor shed the most seats across the former Yugoslavia last year, with capacity being reduced by 113.432." they chartered another airline in PRN
ReplyDelete