Two capital city airports in the former Yugoslavia are set to see scheduled seat capacity decline during the first full month of the 2026/27 winter season this November compared to the same month last year, continuing a trend observed over recent months. Wizz Air will remain the region’s largest carrier, followed by Air Serbia.
Belgrade Airport has the most available seats on scheduled flights in November, standing at 858.181. The figure represents an increase of 6.3% on 2025. Air Serbia will continue to maintain its position as the largest carrier with 435.759 seats, up a notable 15.2% or an additional 57.384. Wizz Air, as the second largest airline, will reduce seats by some 4.340, contracting by 2.5%. Zagreb follows as the second largest with 442.449 available seats on scheduled flights during the month. It represents an increase of 1.8% on the previous year, ending several months of decline. Croatia Airlines will decrease its capacity by 2.5% but will continue to be the airport’s largest carrier with 187.917 seats. It is ahead of Ryanair with 131.232 seats, up a noteworthy 15%.
Pristina Airport has 421.294 available seats, with capacity currently projected to grow 5.5%. Fuelling the growth will be Wizz Air, which opens a base in the city in mid-November. On the other hand, Skopje Airport will boast 319.000 seats, representing a decrease of 2.7% on 2025, ending months of strong double-digit growth. The decline comes amid the suspension of LOT Polish Airlines flights, the withdrawal of Lufthansa, as well as fewer services by Croatia Airlines and Turkish Airlines. Wizz Air, as the airport’s largest carrier, will continue to grow, with capacity projected to increase 7.7% during the month, standing at a total of 208.408 seats.
Podgorica Airport will continue to grow at record pace on the back of Wizz Air’s new base, with the airport registering 169.216 seats on scheduled flights during the month, up 47.7%. Wizz Air will be the largest carrier by adding 55.926 seats, representing growth of 285.4%, for a total capacity share of 44.6%. Sarajevo will have 124.933 scheduled seats in November, representing a notable drop of 31.7%. The bulk of the 58.107 seats it will shed during the month will come from the seasonal suspension of operations by Ryanair. As a result, Pegasus Airlines will now become the largest carrier, followed by Turkish Airlines.
Finally, Ljubljana has a total of 138.300 seats on scheduled services, up 10.3% on November 2025. Turkish Airlines, despite a 1.6% decrease in capacity, will become the airport’s largest airline with 19.926 seats, followed closely by Lufthansa with capacity growth of 27.4%, despite a 23.1% reduction in the number of operated flights.
Largest carriers by scheduled seat capacity in the former Yugoslavia, November 2026
Overall scheduled seat capacity in November across all former Yugoslav markets and airports combined: 2.648.285, up 4.9% 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.
I was not expecting Skopje to decline
ReplyDeleteToo many airlines have left or suspended flights.
DeleteWhat is more worrying for Skopje is not the 2.7% decline itself but the airlines responsible for it. Losing Lufthansa and LOT means losing valuable connectivity through major European hubs.
Delete@09:04 its been discussed for a few months that this would occur.
Delete@9.04 then you must be for the first time on this blog if you didnt expect it...
Deletei didnt expect Wizz to be 7% up tho so they will not loose much pax compared to last year
DeleteWe are really screwed for connecting flights coming from Canada to Skopje, especially if you have to travel in the winter period. TK is arm and a leg now and Air Canada is via VIE is not that much better
DeleteSarajevo's decline of almost 32% is quite shocking. Ryanair has made a big difference to the airport.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo is an example of what happens when an airport grows too dependent on incentives. Once the subsidies or commercial conditions change, airlines can disappear for an entire season.
DeleteOk, so what is the alternative then? National carriers? We've seen how that worked out
DeleteAir Serbia increasing capacity by 15% in November is impressive. Especially considering November is traditionally one of the weakest months for air travel.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's just in BEG. They also have two additional routes from INI.
DeleteWell they have to fight seasonality. In the past they would butcher their winter schedule.
Delete^ if demand was lower they would butcher it again.
DeleteBut we read so many times by some ignorant experts that w6 is adding 20% and that's fuelling BEG growth. What happened with that??
DeleteNo we havent read that for a long time. So calm down.
DeleteI read such a comment very recently actually.
DeleteWell you know such comments are silly. So ignore it and dont fixate on it.
DeleteBravo OU
ReplyDeleteon 2.5% decline in capacity in Zagreb?
DeleteSomething is clearly not working in its network strategy.
DeleteZagreb finally back in positive territory, although 1.8% growth is hardly something to celebrate. Ryanair is once again doing most of the heavy lifting.
ReplyDeletePodgorica +47.7%! Those are extraordinary numbers. It will be interesting to see what sort of load factors Wizz achieves during the winter months.
ReplyDeletePodgorica is the biggest winner this winter. Almost 50% growth is something few airports in Europe can boast about, let alone in November.
DeleteDon't be so sure. If LF is not good, they will cut it without delay. With this fuel prices, no room for delay
Delete@09:24 have you heard about the the base effect, this occurs when the initial data point is extremely small to begin with. Of course 47% is massive when the baseline was low to start with.
DeleteThe most interesting figure for me is Pristina. Only around 21,000 fewer seats than Zagreb in November. I wouldn't be surprised if PRN overtakes ZAG..
ReplyDeleteIt would have been ahead of ZAG in November if GP Aviation didn't cut so many flights.
DeleteLjubljana growing by more than 10% without a home carrier is a very decent result.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd it has been like that all year
without a home carrier lol. hello Lufthansa Group
DeleteYes, without the home carrier, which is a bottomless pit, into which we would otherwise pour millions every year.
DeleteAnd that's why you have to transfer to most European cities. Or fly from an airport in another country.
DeleteLooks like the Anon 13:00 is totally missing the point. LJU airport is on the way to overcome the best year with Adria, without burning money on Adria. So, congratulations to Slovenia on it.
DeleteIt took just seven years... even though there are still fewer places to fly to.
DeleteFewer places to fly to? Which airport precisely are you missing from Adria’s network?
Delete+1 also even if Adria had survived it would not look, or connect to the same places as back in the day. LJ is doing ok in my view.
DeleteNearly 860,000 seats at Belgrade in November. I remember when those were summer numbers.
ReplyDeleteYess. We are closing to 10 million
DeleteCroatia Airlines reducing capacity at Zagreb again despite receiving new A220s. So where exactly is all this additional capacity going?
ReplyDeleteThe hangar.
DeleteLOL
DeleteZagreb should be doing considerably better considering Croatia's tourism numbers and economic growth. November capacity increasing by just 1.8% is underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you believe in that "growth", when numbers are showing completely different picture whole summer? ZAG and SPU decline whole summer doesn't comply with the official numbers
DeleteTourism numbers boost coast airports, not necessarily ZAG
DeleteThe majority of Croatian tourists come by car. The vast majority.
DeleteI wonder how much of Sarajevo's lost Ryanair capacity will be recovered by Wizz Air when its new routes start in December.
ReplyDeleteWizz routes currently are not enough to covee the Ryanair lost
DeleteThank you for the numbers
ReplyDeleteOne thing these figures don't show is how many seats will actually be filled. Adding capacity is relatively easy. Maintaining healthy loads and yields during November is another matter entirely.
ReplyDeleteplease move on, thanks
DeletePristina is becoming a serious competitor to Skopje, especially with Wizz opening its base. Both airports serve overlapping catchment areas, so this could get interesting.
ReplyDeletePrishtina has more passangers and this is remain so. But skopje has a wider range of destinations.
Deleteand its the same airline who are doing business and not some narrow minded balkan boys
DeletePristina is becoming a serious competitor to Skopje 😂
Deletebecause they have more flights to Basel now?
DeleteBoth airports are Basel expresses. Get over yourselves the lot of you and enjoy improved connectivity for all.
DeleteIt’s not hard to see why LOT suspend SKP if you’ve ever been to SKP 😬. It doesn’t offer anything much to the tourist.
DeleteWell that is neither true nor born out by facts. It does and inbound tourism is growing in N.MK well. What is true is that like several other regional cities its very low yielding which means capacity can be used elsewhere.
DeleteOverall growth of 4.9% across the region is healthy for November.
ReplyDeletetotally
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteRyanair is offering less than a third of Wizzair' capacity. Brutal
ReplyDeleteWizz is the ex-Yu specialist
DeleteDa
DeleteHumiliating for LH to have only 300 seats more than friggin GP
ReplyDeleteAnd once they were one of the busiest in ex-Yu.
DeleteWhich means the region is better connected directly to places in Europe. Which is good, zar ne? How is it humiliating. Calm down, really.
DeleteTelling everyone to "calm down" with anything you don't agree with is neither cute or funny. It's repetative and boring.
DeleteNo more than using words like humiliating and other hyperbolic nonsense.
DeleteAnd you are a policeman and will dictate which words people can use if they are not to your taste? Get a reality check.
Delete11:52 +1
DeleteLufthansa was never number one in the region. Never.
DeleteInteresting that Lufthansa will still have growth in LJU even when the Munich flights are not operating. Maybe the winter won't be so bad for Ljubljana. The real decrease is coming next summer I guess ...
ReplyDeleteYeah, let's hope for the worst. It’s hard to understand all those who just spread negative energy. :(
DeleteLufthansa will have 27.4% growth of seat capacity in nov26 (with only LJU-FRA) in comparison to nov25 (LJU-FRA + LJU-MUC), am I correct? That massive growth. Based on what we should think on decrease in next spring/summer? Is not November a "bad" month?
DeleteThere was an article published a few days ago on here (https://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/10/lufthansa-group-revises-ex-yu-network.html)
DeleteLJU-MUC flights will be operating with one less weekly frequency and all the flights to FRA will be downgraded to E190/95 instead of the A320 family, this means at least a one third reduction in capacity.
Also Swiss will be downgrading it's service to 14x weekly instead of 16. At least they are keeping the morning flights which they introduced this year.
SKP with the decline in November still hitting 300k + is really okay. I remember before 300k were summer numbers not even close to winter ones.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia now accounts for more than half of Belgrade's scheduled capacity. Strong position commercially, but it also means the airport is increasingly dependent on one airline.
ReplyDeleteYou realise BA have 52% of the slots at Heathrow. Is the airport increasingly dependent on one airline?
Delete@12:07 What percentage Wizz has at SKP, and even better, at TZL? Every time. You are welcome.
Delete^ The comment at 12:07 has no basis in fact. Belgrade has both a healthy 'home' airline and significant numbers of other carriers. I think the airport and overall connectivity and working relationships with other carriers is very healthy.
Delete50% is a very healthy number
DeleteAnd Tk with ~80% capacity on busiest airport in Europe
DeleteSkopje is now left with only Istanbul and Vienna connections, we desperately need more Europe hubs , no Amsterdam,Munich,Paris,Frankfurt,London is really bad that we dont have any of those hubs
ReplyDeleteSuch is life. Its a small market. You can fly with LCCs to those countries which covers migration routes well.
DeleteYes but we need longer options to connect to more routes not only the llc options
DeleteSadly want/need and commercial realities don't align in this case. There are many larger airports in Europe serving larger markets with remarkably few 'legacy' airlines. Think Bristol which is an airport serving more passengers than Belgrade has only KLM and Aer Lingus as traditional legacy carriers. Pegasus has some options. Passengers wishing intercontinental connections either have to go to London or Birmingham or use either these three. One of the problems in the exYu space is slow travel between countries which make going to alternative airports a hassle. Two-top transfers remain a very workable option for passengers from Skopje.
DeleteAre airports actually making more money from all this low cost expansion? The additional passenger numbers look attractive, but the commercial arrangements with airlines are rarely disclosed.
ReplyDeleteGood point
DeleteThey make money for their shareholders, don't you worry yourself about that.
DeleteAt Belgrade, Wizz Air will reduce seats by some 4.340, giving passengers less choice for affordable travel than last year.
ReplyDeleteWizzair at BEG is doing complete opposite of what they talked about in public tearjerker just a couple of months ago.
Delete