Three capital city airports in the former Yugoslav region are set to see their scheduled seat capacity levels decline in June when compared last year, while others will reach record levels. Wizz Air remains by far the region’s largest carrier, growing its lead against Ryanair, which dominated throughout the summer of 2025.
Belgrade Airport has the most available seats on scheduled flights in June, standing at 1.066.650. The figure represents an increase of 5.3% on 2025. Air Serbia will continue to maintain its position as the largest carrier with 565.784 seats, up 6.3%. Wizz Air will add 35.700 seats, growing by 20.4%. Zagreb follows as the second largest with 570.362 available seats on scheduled flights during the month. It represents a decrease of 0.1% on the previous year. Croatia Airlines, which will grow its capacity by 2.9%, will be the airport’s largest carrier with 201.806 seats. It is ahead of Ryanair with 193.154 seats.
Skopje Airport will boast 413.986 seats in June, up 19.2% on the back of Wizz Air’s expansion. The low cost carrier will grow by 96.655 seats or 61.6% on the same month in 2025. It will hold the largest share at 61.2%. It is followed by Pegasus Airlines with an 11.4% share. Pristina Airport will have 378.778 available seats, with capacity currently projected to decline 8.3%. It follows large-scale frequency cuts by GP Aviation, which will result in the airline removing over 30% of its capacity year-on-year.
Podgorica Airport will see the next batch on new Wizz Air routes in June following the opening of its base in the Montenegrin capital in late March. The airport has 324.246 seats on scheduled flights during the month, up 45.4%. Wizz Air will be the largest carrier by adding 97.114 seats, representing growth of 195.3%, for a total capacity share of 45.3%. It is followed by Ryanair with 13% of the market.
Sarajevo will have 274.032 scheduled seats on the market in June, representing a decrease of 10.1% on 2025. The decline is being fuelled by the absence of Flyadeal (returning in July), Qatar Airways and SAS Scandianavian Airlines, as well as frequency cuts by Pegasus Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Flynas and AJet. Finally, Ljubljana has a total of 217.085 seats on scheduled services, up 18.5% on June 2025. Lufthansa will be the airport’s largest, holding 18.3% of all seats. It is followed by Turkish Airlines with a 10% share and Swiss with 9.5%.
Largest carriers by scheduled seat capacity in the former Yugoslavia, June 2026
Overall scheduled seat capacity in June across all former Yugoslav markets and airports combined: 5.216.481, up 6.7% year-on-year
Please note that the above figures are correct as of the date of publication. As the month progresses, they may change due to schedule revisions or equipment adjustments. Nevertheless, they provide a reliable indication of overall capacity trends across the airports.
Those are crazy numbers for Podgotica. And Wizz almost at 50% share
ReplyDeleteAnd all that with just 2 A321s.
DeleteWizz opening a base has completely changed the market overnight.
DeleteAre all W6 flights to/from TGD operated by the 2 A321s of the base or do they use aircraft from other Wizz bases too?
DeleteThere are a few routes where aircraft from other bases will be used, like Gdansk, Wroclaw and Vilnius.
Deleteits interesting that they reached 45% market share with two based aircrafts
DeleteIt's a small market
DeletePodgorica becoming Wizz territory this quickly is remarkable. Ryanair barely gets mentioned anymore
Deletethey will need to rethink their "give me 25€ per pax" strategy
DeleteAll these people flying to Podgorica, are they mostly heading to the coast? Do they leave directly from the airport or do they go into the city first? If they are going to the coast is it mainly by bus or rent-a-car? Genuinely curious. Thx.
DeleteI have flown from FMM to TGD as a (ExYu) tourist once and did indeed spent 2 hours walking around the city (but would not do it again) before heading to the coast with a bus.
Deleteits fair to say that the new year-round lines are (all but one) classical gasto routes targeting VFR traffic in the first place.
Bravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteWith all these going on in the world having an over 18% capacity increase is amazing!
hahah yes because last year was amazing !!!
DeleteIs it possible for BEG to handle 1 million passengers in June? Charters are not counted in the number above.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be in the high 900,000s but they will likely be over 1 million in July, which is one month ahead of 2025.
DeleteProbably not as there will be no many charters, but it might be close ot it.
DeleteMaybe 930.000
Probably not, role of charters has been diminishing with JU switching strategy to have many previous charter destinations as regular routes.
DeleteNonetheless, probably the pay number will be around 900k. It was 870k in June of 2025
How many was it last year? I think AYT charters start in late May, early June.
DeleteThey already started in May.
DeleteSarajevo is getting really hit by the ongoing crisis.
ReplyDeletenot a good sign heading into summer. Hopefully July improves
DeleteSJJ's growth was generated last year by Ryanair. This summer, Ryanair has no increases. So really it is becoming another airport heavily dependent on one airline for growth generations. If Ryanair opens a base in winter like some are suggesting then numbers will explode again.
DeleteSJJ is a small market, they can't do much.
DeleteSJJ will still grow this year YoY. But I expect them to be more aggressive in getting new lines and diversifying as the media already suggest has been unfolding on all these conferences. It's likely Sarajevo follows the Skopje trend and fully commits to a LCC that could bring a base and 1M+ passengers.
DeleteGP Aviation completely dropped out of the top 10 largest airlines.
ReplyDeleteWell...
Delete"It follows large-scale frequency cuts by GP Aviation, which will result in the airline removing over 30% of its capacity year-on-year."
GP Aviation will probably be gone within months. And then something else will be registered.
DeletePRN decline is big. Does the figure include all seats of other tour operators?
ReplyDeleteThis will be the first month after years when SKP surpasses PRN.
DeletePRN most likely had a decline in April and same will be for May. There is a reason the airport stopped announcing their passenger numbers.
DeleteI'm sure some passengers are also using Tirana and that is one of the main reasons why PRN is losing passengers
DeleteI doubt it. TIA isn't that close, SKP and INI are much closer to PRN.
DeleteWe only use SKP for flights not available from Tirana.
DeleteNonsense. Last year it was published on here that the CEO of PRN mentioned SKP as the alternative to PRN, not TIA.
DeleteSKP is the closest competitor but TIA is getting a bigger share.
DeleteI would not take it for granted that SKP will surpass PRN next month but i didnt expect such a decline in capacity
DeleteBoth airports have the case of when one operator sneezes, the whole airport catches a cold.
DeleteAll airports have the same case. One or two dominant carriers.
DeletePRN is somehow better than SKP on this in % controlled by a single carrier. GP would/will very quickly be substituted with another carrier if they go out.
Who knows what the numbers will be like in November when they are this bad in June.
ReplyDeleteAs they say... winter is coming.
Wow could Wizz reach over a million passengers in August??
ReplyDeleteThis is capacity
DeleteYes sorry I meant seats
DeleteRemember when FR was claiming a year and a half ago how they would rule the Balkans? lol
DeleteWizz has regained the initiative.
DeleteWhat happened to Croatia Airlines' huge capacity growth? Just increasing 2.9% now
ReplyDeleteNumber is likely even lower if all Croatian airports would be accounted.
DeleteWhen can we expect a new wave of flights launching from SKP by Wizz?
ReplyDeleteNovember 2026
Deletesource: Стара чаршија?
DeleteIn July when the 7th plane is coming and Alghero and Palermo will start.
DeleteThose are already announced, but lets hope there is still room for growth. I flew with Wizz twice in the last 30 days, Paris and Bari, and the loads were very healthy. Bari was 100% both ways, Paris was around 85%, but man that Beauvais airport is horrific. I hope they can somehow start flying to Orly instead
Deletei know tickets are cheap but 4 weekly to Bari ... never expected this :) crazy
DeleteI thought Bari wouldnt work from SKP.
DeleteWould be good if they try to extend, at least Palermo until end of November
DeleteI kniw tjere are alot of albanians in the Bari area is this flight mainly fot them? Was there many albanians on your flights there? Just curious, bari is a wonderful city i hope everyone in macedonia travels there!
Deleteit was a mix of Macedonians and Albanians and some Italians. What is interesting is that I saw a group of 6 Greek people using the flight from Paris to Skopje, they were picked up by the same parking company from Skopje airport as us and they went to Greece, which means that Skopje airport is getting some love from our Greek neighbors as well.
Deleteoh i was slashed here for noting that these cheap flights to SKP could be suddenly attractive for Greeks from the northern parts because Ryanair will close their SKG base
DeleteInteresting how Ryanair is no longer the main disruptor in the region. Wizz seems much more aggressive right now, while Ryanair looks selective.
ReplyDeleteits only fair to say its been like this since ages. Wizz had a status-quo caused by the engine issues
DeleteZagreb should be doing better. With Croatia’s tourism numbers, flat growth in June feels underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteMost new tourists in HR come by road, not plane. That's why airport numbers are not booming.
DeleteFrom England, USA, Canada, Korea, UAE coming by road?
DeleteSure.
uncomparable with numbers from Slovenia, Germany , Austria, Czech ...
DeleteTourists don’t go to Zagreb. It’s just another small city. Most of them go to the coast.
DeleteRed eagle, often I agree with you, but not this time. Tourists do visit ZAG and in big numbers. But it could be better with national carrier having decent network and offerring affordable and convenient packages of Adriatic with stopover in Zagreb. People like to visit multiple destinations today, not to spend entire holidays in one city or even country. ZAG numbers (both city and airport) could be bigger, but they are not because of humiliated feeder and useless public money waste machine Croatia Airlines
DeleteNeighbours, whats going on with GP?
ReplyDeleteOld planes which need more fuel which is quite expensive now. Former CEO being arrested. New ownership. Huge expansion of Wizz in SKP. I can say a lot is going on.
DeleteThx. Do you think the AirPrishtina/Chair team could now step in? They were a bit under pressure if we are honest
DeleteJust to know PRN airpott getting fuel from Skopje Okta rafinery , if they giwe they will close the airport :))
DeleteThe refinery closed for long time. They now act just as a storage and distribution center. If they stop selling to PRN, someone else will. Don't get too excited.
DeleteWho else will giwe it ? Why they didnt get from other place? Not only them , Nis airport recieving as well. That fuel comes from Hellenic group as they own the rafinery now
DeleteThey can get from Albania, Greece, Montenegro….. stop poisoning your head.
DeleteGod forbid something happens to Wizz. The whole regional aviation would collapse.
ReplyDeleteČukni vo drvo
DeleteHmm not all, BEG and ZAG would be ok as they have local carriers. Both would step in their respective markets.
DeleteWizz does not even fly to Zagreb.
DeleteČukni tri pati 🙂
Delete❤️
DeleteSJJ a 10% drop in June during peak season is not something to shrug off.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWhat new routes do you expect with Wizz on ExYug space?
Baltics -> ExYu
DeletePoland -> ExYu
Baltics -> ExYu
DeletePoland -> ExYu
Skopje is booming this year. This period almost every Wizz flight from SKP is oversold or totally full. The real reason why LH is pulling out of SKP is because fewer people are using OS since they launched FRA.
ReplyDeleteBecause the maket is not big enough for both
DeleteExactly my point.
DeleteLH pulled out because OS should have shrank too much and probably their rather modest long haul network is very dependent on Eastern/Ex-yu transfers. Otherwise OS should terminate US-Canada long hauls which would be a very big loss and reputation damage.
For example today LH has 5 business and 118 economy paxs SKP-FRA while OS has 77eco pax SKP-VIE. Most of the days this is the difference. Before LH, OS was sending A321s to SKP, now they cant make an E195 full.
Deletethat makes it even more sad
DeleteSad to see the PRN decline
ReplyDeleteWhat about Dubrovnik, Zadar and Split?
ReplyDeletethey are not capitals
DeleteSo?
DeleteThe title says capitals
DeleteSo? I'm asking what is capacity offered in ZAD, SPU and DBV and not what the title is.
DeletePristina remains one of the least predictable airports in the region.
ReplyDeleteAirports need to stop celebrating raw growth without looking at market quality. Not all capacity is equal.
ReplyDeletebrace yourselves for the elitists
DeleteUntil with date in June Freebird will run the SKP charters does someone knows?
ReplyDeleteBtw SKP numbers are amazing !!! I am just very dissapointed of LH left the airport :(
dont think there are any in june
DeleteI believe there are until end of May and than October start again
DeleteI think Croatia has serious, serious problems. If we look at previous financial reports, the current annual borrowing is about 23 million. Two million comes from issuing. To cover this, we need an additional 21 million per year. Given the fact that the roads are not full, the planes are grounded (and not all have arrived yet), we have here a very good indicator of how well JP operates. However, I wonder how JP would react if another crisis like the one in 2020 were to happen. Why are they buying planes for flights within the EU if they are supposed to be intended for 'international' flights? They should start thinking about destinations for summer travelers (Cyprus, Portugal) and not about Nantes, where occupancy will be very low.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the seats for airports and promotion are not important, but rather and above all the profitability of the routes themselves for the carriers.
Addendum:
DeleteI think that with the E195 we would have lower operating costs (rental, fuel, etc....) but we would rather buy the brand and pay for the name than a useful plane that would fly the same as a "well-known" name ...
how well JP operates???
Deletehow well JP operates???
ReplyDeleteWhat?
Deletecomparison with last years June:
ReplyDeleteWizzair: +348k (back on top)
Ryanair: +35k (down to 2nd place)
Air Serbia: +35k (3rd)
easyJet: +48k (up from 5th to 4th)
Croatia Airlines: -2k (down from 4th to 5th)
Lufthansa: +13k (up from 7th to 6th)
Turkish Airlines: -10k (down from 6th to 7th)
Austrian Airlines: +1k (8th)
Pegasus: -7k (up from 10th to 9th)
Eurowings: -35k (down from 9th to 10th )
will TGD overtake SJJ??
ReplyDelete