The three flag carriers of the former Yugoslavia - Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines and Air Montenegro - handled a combined total of 1.298.606 passengers during the first quarter of 2025, up from 1.19 million the year before, adding a combined total of 104.718 travellers.
Air Serbia remains the largest of the three, welcoming 813.188 passengers between January and March, representing a 3.1% increase on 2025 figures, or an additional 24.087 travellers. Although the airline did not disclose its average cabin load factor for the period, it is estimated to have hovered around 74% based on available capacity. During the first quarter, Air Serbia expanded its capacity levels by 2.5%, while the number of operated flights grew by 2% to 10.032. According to the airline’s figures, the busiest destinations within its network were Podgorica, Tivat and Ljubljana within the region. It further noted that Paris, Zurich, Milan, London, Barcelona, Vienna, Frankfurt, Rome and Amsterdam ranked among its busiest routes in Western Europe, while Athens, Istanbul and Larnaca topped the list in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Croatia Airlines handled 405.160 passengers during the first quarter of the year, up 23%, or an extra 75.679 customers. Of those, 301.598 travellers were transported on international services, an improvement of 25.5%, 100.661 on domestic flights, up 14.1%, while 2.901 flew on charter operations, representing an increase of 151%. The average cabin load factor over the three-month period stood at 63.9%, up three points. The international load factor was 64%, while it stood at 63.1% on domestic services. The airline increased its capacity by 17.7% during the January – March period and operated 5.323 flights, up 1.7%. During the first quarter, the airline had the most capacity on its Zagreb - Frankfurt service, offering 78.598 seats, followed by Zagreb - Dubrovnik with 77.373, and Zagreb - Split with 68.928 available seats.
Air Montenegro handled 80.258 passengers during the first quarter of the year, representing an increase of 6.6% compared to the same period in 2025. The carrier operated a total of 900 flights, down 3%. The average cabin load factor stood at 77%, a notable improvement from 70.7% in Q1 2025. During the first quarter, the carrier had the most capacity on its Podgorica - Belgrade service, offering 41.760 seats, followed by Belgrade - Tivat with 20.880, and Tivat - Istanbul with 11.832 available seats.
Bravo Air Serbia 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteQuite low for three airlines cumulatively.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia alone carried almost twice as many passengers as the other two airlines combined.
Delete^Building a transfer hub continues to separate it from the others. The network is simply much broader.
DeleteThree very different airlines, three very different strategies.
DeleteIt also shows how seasonal these airlines remain.
Delete^ Yes, a 64% loadfactor for OU during the slowest quarter of the year is actually pretty good.
Delete09.56
DeleteObviously strategy of being shameful feeder while operating the most expensive and the most unreliable type in its category, on the biggest ex-yu air market, is the best one. Disastrous LF, market share of 13 % and enormous losses are clear proof. Despite the guy hailing Bravo OU and Bravo Hrvatska and writing about new phases. Very low LF even after the increase lately, unused oportunities of and on home market and bigger and bigger losses are sad and disappointing facts and reality which won't be changed until politics and politicians leave OU and until new independent, professional and competent management is selected
OU's load factor is still weak considering the amount of additional capacity they introduced
ReplyDeleteChronically low
DeleteWhat can be done to improve this?
DeleteBetter network and better sales.
DeleteOU has stellar grow thanks to Jasmin the Lion and Slaven Zabo.
DeleteListen, for Q1 it's not horrible. The bad thing is it stays like this on the yearly level. And, on top of that, additional pax means additional loss for them. The cost structure is something they have to look into asap, it is obvious they don't need growth but downsize in order to be able to grow healthy again. Five ATRs, five-ish A220s, and complete restart. Will it happen? No.
DeleteIt will be interesting to compare these figures again after summer.
ReplyDeletePeople criticise Air Montenegro a lot, but these numbers show they are quietly improving year after year.
ReplyDeleteIn winter they fly just a few core routes. It's not too difficult to be profitable.
DeleteAnd it is what they should be doing. They are a small country, not very wealthy and very seasonal. This model is far better than what the previous company used to be.
DeleteOU also flies core routes during winter, but it is too difficult for them to be profitable. It's a job to identify your core routes too.
DeleteInteresting that Ljubljana remains among Air Serbia’s busiest regional routes despite all the competition in the market.
ReplyDeleteStrong P2P demand plus lots of transfers.
DeleteCroatia Airlines +23%.
ReplyDeleteNow waiting for negative comments on my comment of fact of 23%. Go...
DeleteThe only thing you need is some help my friend.
DeleteA 23% increase in the number of pax on an increased capacity of 17.7% means a serious improvement in load factor.
DeleteIt's written in the text how much it improved.
DeleteJasmin magic
Delete@Anonymous 09:52
DeleteYes it is. A 64% load factor during the slowest quarter of the year is pretty good performance for OU.
09.48
DeleteA person is professional murderer. He stops killing people for living and switches business to beat, hurt and harm them severely and making them criples. This 23 % increase is in line with it. I promise I will be the first one to write positive comment on OU the day their market share reaches 25-30 % and their LF increases to 75 %. They don't even have to make profit, I will be happy with "positive zero" and them not wasting our money any more. Until than, 23 % you talk about make no difference. On the contrary, it's result of ad-hoc actions and "outlets" which are basically firefighting measures. The only thing is extinguishing agent used for firefighting is not BCF or water but gas or alcohol instead. It's clearly visible in their financial performance. Croatia Airlines needs restart, it needs change of strategy, it needs serious work on fleet and network development, marketing and pricing policy. It needs new professional and competent management. There will be no change until all of the above happen. Really sorry about my "negative" comment, but OU as it is cannot be commented positively, despite your wishes and attempts to show it as flowers in full blossom
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDelete
DeleteFor 47 % market share? For 78 % LF? For 40 mil euro profits? Oh, wait, it's Air Serbia
Good to see all three growing.
ReplyDeleteaviation market in the Balkans is still growing faster than much of Western Europe.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteAlso the aviation markets of the Mediterranean countries continue to outperform the rest of Europe like they have been doing since COVID.
Well the region has a lot of catching up to do.
DeleteIndeed it does
DeleteAnd it depends very much on the west as the source of its markets. So its a rather arbitory observation.
DeleteBelgrade–Podgorica and Belgrade–Tivat continue to dominate regional aviation. Those routes are basically the backbone of the market.
ReplyDeleteAs always. Back in the fifties, BEG-TGD ammounted to 1/3 of the overall domestic traffic in Yugoslavia. Even Tito`s first visit to Montenegro was aboard Aeroput liner in 1940.
DeleteActually, during the 1960s, 70s and 80s the busiest domestic route was Belgrade-Zagreb by far. Belgrade-Podgorica was not even close and was something like 7th position.
DeleteIt's true that BEG-TGD only become busy in the 90s. For a number of years Belgrade-Dubrovnik was even busier than Belgrade-Zagreb.
DeleteFully correct 10.59
DeleteFrom BEG, ZAG was up to 10 daily, DBV up to 6 and TGD maximum up to 3 daily. Talking about 1970-1990
The real comparison should be profitability, not passenger numbers. Some airlines can grow very quickly and still lose money.
ReplyDeleteTwo out of three are profitable.
DeleteProfitable in our region when it comes to state owned entities is a very loose term.
DeleteWell the other is not profitable, is getting state aid and is still unprofitable.
DeleteState aid to state entities can take many forms.
DeleteAir Montenegro seems to have found a more sustainable balance recently. Their numbers are not spectacular, but they look healthier.
ReplyDeleteAir Montenegro deserves more credit. For such a small airline, maintaining a 77% load factor in winter is not easy.
DeleteThe load factor difference between Croatia Airlines and Air Montenegro is huge. One airline is clearly prioritising expansion, while the other is focusing on efficiency.
ReplyDeleteYes but one airline is tiny. It's easy to have a good loadfactor when you can count the routes with the fingers on one hand.
DeleteThat's also a strategy. Air Montenegro could buy 15 new planes too and leave them on the tarmac. And they have competition on the key route while OU codeshares and partners on their key routes. It's not easy for Air Montenegro.
DeleteCroatia Airlines has a new fleet but now they need to prove they can use them profitably.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines is finally entering a new phase after years of stagnation
DeleteThey don’t need
DeleteI guess they don't. Neither the electorate or government cares. Certainly the fans don't care either. They seem to enjoy the airline posting a record loss.
Delete09.56
DeleteHahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Me above
DeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
DeleteWould you like to explain your useless observation,
DeleteYes, I will explain it for the millionth time : Hailing Bravo to shameful feeder which has 13 % market share, the lowest LF in Europe and tens of millions of euros losses raising month by month and year by year is something every single person with 0,2 milligrams of brains will not do, and which is useless, unlike my "observation"
DeleteI'm not so certain about Air Montenegro when I remember that they falsified Montenegro Airlines' results.
ReplyDeleteThey used to fudge passenger and financial numbers.
DeleteDidnt they allow passengers to ride in the toilet back in the good old ciggie smuggling days? Or was that a tabloid embelishment
DeleteIt would be interesting to compare to some other flag carriers in the region. How did TAROM or Bulgaria Air do during the first quarter?
ReplyDeleteI don't think either of them publish their passenger figures.
DeleteEven more interesting would be their financial performance
DeleteBulgaria Air is on the stock, they will report the result, TAROM is under EU watch, and they have to report them too. TAROM (the government) has some deadline these days regarding their status, I'm not optimistic.
DeleteAny forecast, will ASL see some decline in April and May ? Think it could happen.
ReplyDeleteOther than wishful thinking, what makes you think it "could happen"
DeleteWizz had more passengers from Skopje in Q1 than Croatia Airlines from Croatia.
ReplyDelete* and more than Air Montenegro too
DeleteHow many pax did they have in Macedonia in Q1?
DeleteThey don't report their passenger numbers on a market by market basis. So I don't know how anon 11.46 made his conclusion.
DeleteYou can conclude from amount of capacity. Wizz has more capacity from Macedonia in Q1 than Croatia Airlines from Croatia.
Delete@admin is this true what 13.59 wrote?
DeleteSkopje fan figures
DeleteYes, it is correct. Croatia Airlines had 676.634 scheduled seats across its network during Q1 2026, while Wizz Air had 712.140 seats on its Macedonia flights.
DeleteThank you and that proves my point. OU has 60% load factor while I am certain Wizz Air has at least 80% load factor on its Macedonia routes. So yes, Wizz has more passengers to/from Macedonia than OU has from/to Croatia. Quite sad actually.
DeleteSo croatia had 74€ loss PER PAX....what???
ReplyDeleteNuts. A really unhealthy business.
DeleteNow let's see the financial results for all three in Q1
ReplyDeleteOU one is here
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/05/croatia-airlines-posts-biggest-q1-loss.html