I am also wondering. It would have been smart to add gates on that side too.

JU HQ probably?

JU HQ is not located directly in front of the terminal. It's across the road. The photos show construction work directly in front of the terminal building.

I believe it’s that park with all the airplanes and greenery that was in the renderings

True. That's a possibility

It needs to be operational by start of 2027 summer season.

Hopefully the shops will be allowed to open by then.

Fingers crossed for JU's new lounge. They have to be operational for EXPO volume of traffic!

+1

Imagine first taking a bus from your aircraft to C18 and then try to reach the main terminal with the travellators IF they are all operational!

Highly unlikely that the bus from C18 will drop you of at C17. They usually take you down to C1.

In January I had a connecting flight from Amsterdam to SKP.
The A320 from AMS was parked arround Gates C11/12 and the connecting fligh to Skopje was at gate C13. I had to make a circle walking first down the arrival zone,-> than via security and dutyfree-> than climb and come back to almost the same spot on the departure C gates. This took me probably arround 15-20 minutes.
BEG felt like FRA.

^ unfortunately because you had to go through security. Otherwise you would have been able to just enter the C gates wing straight away.

^ That is only possible on domestic flight or intraSchengen area flights.
When we join the E.U. that would be possible at BEG.

It's not only on intra Schengen flight (how would the gate agent know which flight you are transferring to). You can enter the gate area immediately from the plane depending on the destination you are coming from. I think passengers arriving from all EU destinations can enter the gate area straight away.

09:53 Completely right, I could enter the gate area anytime I connected from EU to Sarajevo via BEG. Other way around is still not possible because Bosnia is not in the One Stop Security program yet, but people tell me same applies to Montenegro flights in BEG, even though they're a part of OSS.

More information about OSS countries

https://online.flippingbook.com/view/183113574/124/

Bravo E.U.

Actually you were supposed to be able to enter the departure zone directly at gate C12 and take a short walk to your gate. Either there was no one there, or it might be that you’ve taken a wrong turn at the gate - there is signage “Transfer” and “Exit Belgrade” at each gate. To end up on top floor you would have to take the Exit Belgrade route.

This is available only for flights from OSS countries, but AMS surely fits the description (unlike SKP).

A side of the building. Knock down the cargo depot and expand all the way there.

That should have been done from the start. It just makes sense.
Continuously expanding C gates doesn't

+1
The old Cargo depot should be replaced by a passenger terminal. In fact BEG should built a new both cargo terminal and the platform from the scratch, question is where.

It would also make A wing extremely long. Same as C gates.

They could add gates on the other side of the C wing if they wanted too.

^^ I suspect there wont be significant expansion after this until the time comes to start again with a better shaped terminal in the ealy 2040s.

Will Vinci be part of the concession then?

@09:46 hope not 🫣

VINCI concession commenced in 2018 and runs for 25 years.
I doubt they will build us a new terminal and then handle back the airport to the state in 2043.
Till then we are stuck with what exists currently plus small improvements wherever they can find free space.

"VINCI secured an additional year and a half on its 25-year concession of the airport, as part of force majeure compensation resulting from operations which were severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic."
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/04/belgrade-airport-to-open-overhauled.html

So no major redesign of the airport will begin until at least 2045...

The airport has just gone through a major redesign and looks nothing like it used to.

The 1980s is not the benchmark. It is the other similarly sized airports in Europe in the 2020s.

Who said anything about the 1980s? Although parts of the airport have a fun 1980s vibe still

^ Except for Terminal 1 which is being kept in its original look there is no part of the airport that gives a "1980s vibe" at all.

Airport has two terminals, how you can say "except for terminal 1" :) Btw, I like 80s vibe.

Because terminal 1 consists of check in desks only and nothing else. It is protected as a cultural monument and can't be changed even if someone wanted to. No other part of the airport has a 1980's vibe and even T1 does not have an 80s vibe since it was built 20 years earlier.

If they relocate access road they can build new north wing gates alongside with new terminal and connect it to C gates. Also relocating cargo terminal can probably open space for new 4-5 gates.

@^ 11:53 behind the scenes for staff it really remains fairly 80s, also some parts really dont look very 2020s. But irrespective its hardly a masterpieace.

+1

JU should try expanding the 2 smaller waves at 10am and 8pm.

True dat.

+1
A whole corridor cross section is already narrow and with this expansion it will look like a tunnel. Quite a walk to/from the most remote gate.

^^ the whole terminal is quite a mash-up. The walk is relatively long for an airport of this size but tbh mostly i find it takes no more than 20minutes from deboarding to exit nowadays which is not bad. That being said one can exit airports such as Heathrow Terminal 5 often even faster.

They should have completely redesigned the terminal, cargo area, maintenance hangar, parking spaces.
This is just trying to add gates wherever they can find some space which isn't very efficient or user friendly.

+1 they 'should' have started again with a far better orientation for a terminal. However as they didnt they have to make do. Tbh most passengers through Belgrade Airport wont really notice some of the design flaws. Rather they'll be excited to travel so ultimately its about dealing with volume until such time that its clear a whole new terminal will be required because the current method of adaptation extension has its limits.

Pretty much anyone that is not a frequent traveller is impressed with the terminal. I hear it all the time especially when they compare it to what it looked like. I have a few foreigner friends who came at the end of last year. They were here last time more than 5 years ago and they couldn't believe it's the same airport. For us frequent flyers or those following this expansion it's a different story.

'Impressed' is perhaps being generous. Improved definatly, but there is little impressive about the work done from an architectural perspective.

Pretty much anyone who compares the airport to what it was like in the 1990's and travels by airplane extremely rarely is impressed.
Everyone else who is visiting other modern airports in the rest of Europe is not.

Yes they are impressed because the airport was dreadful before and it was hardly an architectural masterpiece either.

I am sure anon @ 11.53 did a poll and knows exactly what "everyone else visiting" thinks.

@11:53 unlikely, considering the passenger levels during the 1990s - not even than many Serbs used the airport during that decade, let alone foreign visitors. People compare experiences at airports. Belgrade Airport is defiantly not dreadful, and I think most people here would agree on that. Its often really fast to transit, its relatively clean etc. But I agree with many observations that lots of missed opportunities are there. But I do not think many people compare with the 1990s.

Most people here complain, cry and spit on everything. No matter the country and no matter the topic.

I miss smoking place... With hub ambitions I think it's still enough time to make it. There are crazy people like me who care about that and skip AMS transfers prefering amazing Zurich lounges...

It amazes me that BEG has gone from 2 smoking areas to 0.

It amazes me that airports anywhere retain such a disgusting space

Don't know but it had 19.6 million pax last year!

67 gates

Thank you

Much less than that.

BUD has 17 airbridges. Belgrade will have 27 after completition.

No need for airbridges in that odd LCC hangar at BUD. Although I haven't been there for 5+ years, could be they don't use it any more...

Perhaps its a synonym for so much in the region..functiomally unfinished has a degree of beauty hihi

What do you mean? Where would they put the bus gate? At C15 and then continue with air bridge gates?

Somewhere near the passport control, maybe on lower level. Or at least at A gates. It's cruel to make people walk to C18 only to put them on a bus.

The stand is at C18, the gate for people to board there will not be at C18 but at existing bus gates. Similarly to B gates that are remote stands or A11 for Niš.

You board for example at C10A-E and the bus takes you to some remote stand, B positions, A11 or C 18

The biggest annoyance with the bus gates is the arrivals. The A4 entrance is really poorly designed.

The main thing with bus gate is it mainly serves ATRs which mainly serve short regional routes which are important for JU's business. Those gates should be easiest to reach with quickest procedure. Additional nightmare is checking in during morning wave for, say, Montenegro in the same JU lane with pax for AMS, CDG (...) who are there in massive numbers. At the end, I must come even before for short Balkan flight than when travelling to non-ATR destinations, which is discouriging.

Check in at BEG for JU flights is quite decent compared to many other major airports in Europe, fast and efficient even during peak times. Organisation of remote stand gates is a different story. Those gates would of been better around the gate C6 area with 10 gates rather than 5.

I've always found that quite good in the airport. I stuggle with the lack of good air conditioning during the summer. But seating with a view i find is really good.

saw on some asian airports that they have "small" fountains like areas where people can chill around, like quite area. Never saw this on any airport in Europe.

They have created a relatively nice area at the so called "Tesla Square", with some trees, tables with chargers and seating. When the restaurants around it which are ready and set to open for the past year finally open it will be even nicer.

+1000

-10000

maybe when beg has 30 mil pax that would make sense

It doubles the costs, so no way at this moment.

What would be more useful is perhaps a smaller transit control point made somewhere in the C wing to allow for a faster transit experience.

Another thing that they should of implemented is another access from the A wing to passport control.

@13:00 22nd century planning indeed

It is a paperwork issue.

Paperwork or not, its not good enough.

Literally on every topic same thing. I am unhappy about it too but you have been told about it and the reason. Asking every single time won't change it. I also find it interesting as if many here go to the airport purely to shop for Victoria secret underwear which is awaiting to open.

Isnt the owner of Victorias Secret connected to Epstein

Yes.
I will never shop there.

It is a paperwork issue, as EX-YU said. As we know, where there is a will, there is a way. There was a will to legalize very large number of real estate objects using simplified paperwork, but it seems there is no will for those airport stores. It shouldn't be hard to find out if approvals are rejected based on significant issues, or just based on some typos and other irrelevant errors, and if so, who is rejecting them.

+1

Let alone they took over BUD which is in the vicinity.