Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport handled 1.013.000 passengers in July, marking the first time it has welcomed more than one million travellers during the month and only the second time in its history, after August 2025, that it has surpassed the milestone. The figure represents an increase of 4% compared to the same month last year. During the January - July period, the airport handled 5.2 million passengers, or over 322.500 more than during the same period in 2025. In July, the most frequently operated routes from Belgrade were to Tivat, Zurich, Vienna, Istanbul, Podgorica, Frankfurt and Munich, which were also among the markets with the highest capacity. The largest increase in frequencies compared to July last year was recorded on services to Munich, following the launch of Air Serbia flights alongside Lufthansa. Madrid saw the second-largest increase, driven by Wizz Air’s entry onto the route in competition with Air Serbia.
Air Serbia added the most capacity on scheduled services from Belgrade in July compared to last year, with an additional 43.708 seats, representing growth of 7.6%, against an 8.8% increase in flights. It was followed by Wizz Air, which added 37.035 seats, or 20.5% more than last year. easyJet, new entrant SCAT Airlines and airBaltic recorded the next-largest capacity increases. Belgrade Airport is on course to handle more than one million passengers for a second consecutive month in August, with currently scheduled seat capacity up 6.5% year-on-year. The airport surpassed the one-million-passenger mark in a single month for the first time last August, when it welcomed 1.003.934 travellers.
Belgrade’s largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity, July 2026
The airport’s performance in the fourth quarter remains uncertain. Its second-largest customer, Wizz Air, has warned it may be forced to close its base in the Serbian capital in November due to changes in local regulations. Although the airline has confirmed it will not withdraw from Belgrade Airport entirely, it has said such a move would result in a significant reduction in operations and fewer flights. A final decision on the future of the base is expected in late September. The airline most recently said it was continuing talks on the matter with relevant stakeholders. Last week, the European Commission, which Wizz Air has called on to intervene in the matter, told EX-YU Aviation News it had no further comment beyond its initial statement that it would be in contact with both sides.
Nice. Congratulations
ReplyDeleteGreat result for Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteI think so too, especially considering the war in the Middle East and its impact. For example Flydubai is in the top ten by capacity as we can see. They actually reduced flights somewhat and these flights, which used to be packed, are now at around 50%. Also Qatar reduced ops and Abu Dhabi is missing compared to last summer. So to achieve good growth and 1+ million passengers in a month in that sort of environment is extremely good.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeletePassengers number would be even higher if the year was "regular".
Such is the nature of the beast.
DeleteTen million annually no longer seems like some distant target.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air growing capacity by more than 20% and then potentially closing its base a few months later shows how bizarre this whole regulatory situation has become.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade needs more airlines rather than fewer. Air Serbia's growth is excellent but a strong airport should have several major carriers competing for passengers.
Deleteif you repeat even 1000 times, it will not become truth. W6 is not growing at all. They had same capacity in 2024. Stop spinning
DeleteThe airline has 37.6% more capacity than in 2024 (January - August). If Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is taken into account, then the growth stands at 29.4%.
Delete@09:20, aren't you the spinner here?
DeleteJU is not the problem in summer, JU is a problem in winter when they cut too much.
Delete@admin
DeleteDidn’t W6 based it’s fourth plane first time in July 2023?? Which means it’s full capacity reached in July 2024 for the first time? All planes were same A321, like today
Yes it did, but those were ceo variant with less seats. Then in late 2023 they removed one aircraft due to engine issues and brought it back in June 2025.
DeleteDifference is only 9 seats. Not even close to mentioned 20%
DeleteGuys several W6 destinations from BEG are served by planes from other bases hence the crazy growth
DeleteSo it will be over 6 million by the end of August
ReplyDeleteHopefully August will set another record. Two consecutive months above one million passengers would be fantastic for the airport.
ReplyDeleteWhat worries me is that passenger growth is becoming dependent on two airlines.
ReplyDeleteMost airports have one or two dominant carriers.
DeleteAnd it's usually the national airline, like Iberia in Madrid, Lufthansa in Frankfurt, OU in Zagreb :))
DeletePeople often underestimate how much Belgrade Airport has changed in the last five or six years. A million passengers in one month would have sounded unbelievable not that long ago.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+1
Delete+100
DeleteLH Group ahead of other legacy carriers in BEG as well, especially TK.
ReplyDeleteI imagine, besides the usual P2P travel it is also the main source for long haul transfers..
I am also surprised that LH group has a much bigger capacity than all 3 turkish carriers.
DeleteNot bad of 1.145.299 seat for July
ReplyDelete88% combined LF
DeleteNow the task is to take it to 1+ million in June next year.
ReplyDeleteWithout Wizz even one month over million would be a miracle.
DeleteWith almost three times more capacity than W6, one month over half a million without Air Serbia would be a challenge.
DeleteWhat's the point of that comment? Air Serbia is not the one whose base is forcefully being closed by the Serbian government. We all know who owns JU.
DeleteThe point is clear, the airline with most consequential impact on BEG passengers by far is Air Serbia. Facts are not feelings.
DeletePoint is that Wizz air is recognised as a completely unreliable partner. He cut his capacity at BEG when it grew in many other markets nearby and closed bases overnight in the region, so you can not be clear with them at any time. Air Serbia is only certain and stable factor who brings growth all the time. You can always count on that
DeleteI would like to see more focus on attracting completely new airlines now.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to see another Asian carrier enter Belgrade.
Delete^Such as?
DeleteI think another Chinese carrier from an unserved Chinese city could work but I don't know what the regulatory restrictions are in terms of that.
DeleteThai, or India. There are more and more working force in Serbia from south east Asia
DeleteNot enough to make flights profitable yet.
Delete@9:29 I would like you to start living in the real world where Air Serbia added more capacity in July than any other airline.
DeleteIt would be interesting to know the load factors
ReplyDeleteAnd I would really like to see is a breakdown of transfer passengers by market. But this is usually highly confidential information.
DeleteThe authorities really need to resolve the Wizz Air issue. Losing a large part of their operation just as the airport is breaking records would be completely counterproductive.
ReplyDeleteI think Belgrade could still grow strongly even with Wizz reducing operations, but it would definitely slow things down.
DeleteIt would be ironic if Wizz recorded one of its best summers in Belgrade and then removed the base several months later.
DeleteEverybody got quiet about Wizz in BEG so I suppose they are dealing with this matter behind the curtain.
DeleteEspecially as EU does not send strong messages.
I wonder whether Vinci expected traffic to grow this quickly when it took over the concession.
ReplyDeleteNo way because Covid restarted aviation business and JU took the opportunity. No one could predict that
DeleteGood result but November and December could tell a very different story if the Wizz issue isn't resolved.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade could probably support more competition to places like Lisbon, Prague and Rome. Madrid shows what happens when another airline enters a market.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Madrid is probably the perfect example of suppressed demand. Add more flights, lower fares and suddenly the market grows.
DeleteThe airport should be targeting carriers that can bring completely new passenger flows rather than just adding another airline to already busy markets.
DeleteMore carriers in big markets bring down the fare creating even more demand.
DeleteHelsinki and Dublin still stand out to me as obvious gaps in Belgrade's network considering the size of the airport now.
ReplyDeleteI think Helsinki will be back sooner or later on JU Embraers.
DeleteDublin will probably come too. I mean Air Serbia is now opening routes like Tromso so it would make sense.
DeleteNeither of the two airports have sufficient P2P demand, unfortunately, and the rotations are too long to make them profitable on transfer traffic alone.
DeleteSerbs do not need visa for Tromso, that's a big obstacle for Dublin route
DeleteI think Manchester would be profitable with Ejet. Now should be Europe unserved route no. 1.
DeleteManchester is served via Heathrow and the train for p2p demand. Dublin no way. Tiny economic links and the visa issue.
DeleteSo is Barcelona via MAD
Delete^ so is Belgrade via Budapest.
DeleteThe airport desperately needs to avoid a situation where record traffic is followed by a self inflicted capacity reduction.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia's growth is impressive, but I'd actually prefer to see a greater share of future growth coming from foreign airlines. It would make the market healthier.
ReplyDeleteOk, you repeated that on enough threads. I would not, I like IST with 75% TK flights. Homeland company will never pack and leave in one morning like W6 did so many times
DeleteBelgrade's biggest advantage at the moment is that it has several different types of traffic: diaspora, transfers, tourism and business. That makes growth more sustainable.
ReplyDeleteAnd fast growing of salaries
DeleteThe capacity figures also show just how aggressive Wizz has been this summer. More than 20% growth is not a small increase.
ReplyDeleteIf you bothered to read the text, you would have known that JU added 20% more seats than W6. But bots doesn’t read
DeleteWho said anything about JU?
DeletePost is about aggressive growth
DeletePeople complain about the airport constantly but the traffic numbers show that demand for Belgrade continues to move in one direction.
ReplyDeleteAmazing news, and if I am not mistaken this comes with reductions of qatar and flyfubai, or they return to pre war capacity
ReplyDeleteBoth are reduced. But it's not so much about capacity. Flydubai has mostly restored it but the planes are half empty, like all are to Dubai at the moment.
DeleteI flew frw days ago with Qatar to Bangkok from Milan, both flights packed plus airport was super full. I think that they restor just routes with higher yields
DeleteYes because QR has cancelled many flights and rebooked passengers on what they left. Not to.mentiom that QR carries mostly transfers which is not the case with Flydubai.
DeleteBEG needs to continue to work on their river bank projects and plans. It has great potential and once completed, it will be an attractive European city with a good tourist demand, as the potential on the river banks is really there and it will change Belgrade's face completely.
ReplyDeleteSame time they can build a new terminal and finger for JU on the side where the new train station is currently built.
2045 we will see a Belgrade with 25 mio passengers annually, full of visitors and citizens enjoying the Sava and Danube river bank areas
With 2.5 Mio passengers in July 2045 😃
Delete@10:15 cute but not correct. A more realistic figure is 17/18milliom in 2045. What the city will look like by then godness knows.
Delete25 million easy in 2035 with better concesion contract or that other government take BEG and cut deal like in Budapest.
DeleteNope.
DeleteOne underrated factor is how much competition between Air Serbia and Wizz has stimulated demand from Belgrade. Losing that dynamic would be bad news.
ReplyDeleteVery well said.
DeleteHow Fly Dubai can have 20,000 seats,
ReplyDeleteto fly 3 times a day as before, it cannot have 900 passengers a day in both directions if it is 100% full.This is not true numbers
The figures are correct. Flydubai maintains 14 weekly flights to and from Belgrade. Flydubai mainatained the same number of frequencies in July 2025 as it does now, all the way up until September 4, 2025 when it increased to 17 weekly.
DeleteMaybe you should apologise MM
DeleteBack-to-back great news about Belgrade Airport. Infrastructure expansion news followed by record passenger numbers. Airport is on track for another record year. Great time to be a fan of Belgrade!
ReplyDeleteIs the airport in a good place? Yes. Is there a lot more than needs to be done? Also yes.
DeleteBig-ticket items are being done and checked off the To Do list. Having other items on the list means airport did not reach plateau, justifying more investments in expansion. Just 15 years ago, current airport size and functionality would have been considered unrealistic. Great time to be alive and enjoy the changes flourishing in front of us.
DeleteGreat time to be alive indeed, but much more to life than infrastructure mate.
DeleteNo one claimed it is, of course there is, but this is aviation blog. In that domain, it is infrastructure but also record number of passengers, and the joy of sharing those awesome news on this blog with all of you who enjoy seeing Belgrade Airport reach new heights!
DeleteThen, it's the best historical monthly record until now? Maybe, I've missed that comment?
ReplyDeleteYes it is
DeleteThe Serbian government said that anyone who is building a hotel for Expo will get subsidies. Since JU started building a hotel at the airport just before Expo, makes me wonder if they also got subsidies from the government.
ReplyDeleteSo what? They shouldn't get it maybe?
DeleteCongratulations! Busiest month on record. And good growth considering how poorly many performed in the region in July.
ReplyDeleteTrue, goes to show Belgrade doesn't get the credit it deserves.
DeleteSomeone is always complaining about something. When it was adding over a million passengers per year in the 2010s there were people angry about it. On another site it is actively encouraged by the owner to claim that the figures are fabricated. Somehow VINCI out of its 100 of airports fabricated only the numbers for Belgrade. Of course when it is a decline, like a few months last year, the numbers are correct. But when it is growth it is made up.
DeleteOh, not only BEG numbers. Also, JU financial report, annual growth, profitability, Serbian GDP, average salary in Serbia and everything that is positive is suspicious and fabricated.
Delete