Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of 28.941.011 passengers during the first three quarters of the year, with 4.03 million travellers in September alone. Among them, during the ninth month of the year, three airports stood out for their high growth rates. They include Tivat with a year-on-year increase in September of 33.6%, Zadar with 31.6% growth, and Sarajevo, which had a 30.6% boost in numbers. On the other hand, several regional airports underperformed during the month, including Tuzla, which saw a 27.3% slide in figures, Niš, which had 18.7% fewer passengers than in September 2023, and Banja Luka, which shed 11.3% of its travellers year-on-year. A number of other airports also saw their figures decline compared to last year, among which are Ohrid, Rijeka, Kraljevo, Mali Lošinj and Maribor.
Passenger performance by airport, September 2024
During the January - September period, Belgrade Airport ranked as the 72nd busiest on the continent, just behind Basel, Reykjavik and Lanzarote but ahead of Glasgow, Sofia and Rhodes. Zagreb positioned itself as the 110th busiest, behind Chania, Olbia, and Leeds, but in front of Split, Nuremberg and Trondheim. Pristina took 115th place. It was immediately behind the abovementioned, but ahead of the likes of Billund, Stavanger, and Verona. Skopje ranked 134th, with the Macedonian capital behind Memmingen, Cork, and Treviso but outperforming Ponta Delgada, Zakynthos and Tromso. With over 1.5 million additional passengers by the end of September compared to last year, Croatia is the fastest growing market in the former Yugoslavia in 2024 based on the number of added travellers.
Passenger performance by airport, January - September 2024
Number of added year-on-year passengers by market, January - September 2024
European rank of select regional airports by passenger numbers
Most European markets saw year-on-year growth during the first three quarters of the year. The exceptions were Belarus, Russia (-15.6%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (-4.1%) and Armenia (-2.0%). London Heathrow was once again Europe’s busiest airport over the eight-month period, with 63.086.952 passengers, while Istanbul’s main gateway was second with 60.703.085 travellers. The pair saw growth of 6.2% and 5.0% on 2023 respectively. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 52.930.804 passengers, Amsterdam with 50.551.419, Madrid with 49.739.434 travellers, Frankfurt with 46.713.588, Barcelona with 41.926.396, Rome Fiumicino with 37.362.849, London Gatwick with 33.484.202, and Munich with 31.394.621 passengers. Out of Europe’s top ten busiest, half are still below their pre-pandemic 2019 records. They include Paris Charles de Gaulle (-8.9%), Amsterdam (-7.4%), Frankfurt (-13.8%), London Gatwick (-7.7%), and Munich (-14.2%)
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, September 2024
Ryanair is the true winner!
ReplyDeleteThe real competition this year is between Sarajevo and Podgorica :D
ReplyDeleteSarajevo will win no doubt :)
DeleteIt's pretty close
DeleteIt is impressive that Kosovo added more passengers so far this year than Serbia did!
ReplyDeleteIs this because of W6?
It is because they got visa liberalization this year to the EU.
Delete@09:12 Nothing impressive there. The difference comes from stagnation of passenger growth in Serbia, because of Wizz - not because PRN grew by alot.
Delete09:13 Not exactly. In 2023 PRN grew by 17%. In 2024 it's only around 13%.
13% growth after 17% growth is highly impressive.
Delete@10:24
Delete17% growth with visa regime vs. 13% growth WITHOUT Visa regime?
In what Universe is that highly impressive? 😅
Congrats to all airports
ReplyDeleteDifference between first and second over 3 million passengers...
ReplyDeleteActually the difference between Croatia's airports and Serbia's is more than 4.5 million passengers!!!
DeleteThat's great for them considering they have 9 airports, almost all of which are on the adriatic coast. Just observing the difference between the two busiest airport. Gap seems to widen each year.
DeleteBelgrade after some time again had in Septemeber more than double passengers comparing to Zagreb.
DeleteAnd it happens at the time BEG has JU and W6 cuts and ZAG has FR expansion.
@09:24
DeleteSerbia essentially has a single airport to serve the whole country. His comparison between total passenger traffic for each country is more accurate way to compare.
And Croatia has the Adriatic coast which brings millions of tourists each year. Or you think it's Croatian citizens jet setting around the world? Perhaps take inland airports in Croatia to compare with others in landlocked countries.
DeleteIt's not Croatia's fault that it is beautiful and people want to visit it.
DeleteI'm sure your country has some qualities too.
Not saying it's anyone's "fault", just saying its incomparable. If you think mountains bring more tourists than the sun and beach think again. Inland airports in Croatia like Zagreb and Osijek say a lot.
Delete@09:32
DeleteNo its not. They use Budapest, Sofia and even Timisoara. I have very good friends traveling more from Budapest or Timi than from BEG. They are happy when they decrease the cost for 50 EUR even when they have to be in car/van 5-6h..
А колко кошта трансфер од места становања до, како Ви кажете, Тимија или Будимпеште? Има она стара ако не платиш на мосту платићеш на ћуприју.
DeleteThanks for the list.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSuch a shame that such a touristic city with so many foreign visitors like Mostar still has so little traffic
ReplyDeleteIt is getting a Sky Alps base next summer so things will improve
DeleteSo this year there will be 11 airports with over 1 million passengers. I think that's a first.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, it is actually amazing that airports like Antalya or Mallorca generate the entire traffic of all ex-YU airports combined.
DeletePeople in these comments never think about it. It's always a "competition" between Zagreb/Belgrade, Serbia/Croatia and Skopje/Pristina but with zero wider perspective.
DeleteHa ha how yes no. Between ZAG and BEG... It´s not a real competition. It is more between ZAG and PRN.
DeletePeople view them as competition even though most (although not all) markets in ex-Yu are incomparable
DeleteSkopje still has room for improvement, the catchment area is excellent, they just need to work in bringing more routes.
ReplyDeleteNew routes coming next year
DeleteNot bad at all
ReplyDeleteCollectively it's far from great.
DeleteWell it's an improvement on last year
DeleteRemember those guys saying SJJ will overtake SKP this winter? These results are good reality check.
ReplyDeleteChill, noone said SJJ will overtake SKP this winter. People said that SJJ has decreased the gap between the two A LOT, considering how SKP had more than double passengers than SJJ, and they said ho SJJ i slowly but surely closing the gap between them and SKP.
DeleteSJJ cannot be close to SKP not even to overtake , SKP even with all the cuttings is still reaching close to 300k pax in a single month , number that SJJ never had , and also SKP in winter is still with more then 200k which SJJ as you can see drop below 200k
DeleteJust wait and see :) SJJ started doing only this year what SKP was doing with subsidies for 10 years, and only in April started with Ryanair flights. On top of that, besides SJJ Bosnia has OMO, BNX and TZL, while MK has only Ohrid. At least 11 more destinations will be opened next year in SJJ as well :)
DeleteYes and before covid Ohrid had more routes and was more succesfully then all airports you mention in Bosnia :))) thats the reality.
DeleteAlso the gap now between SKP and SJJ is 800k diffrence. SKP getting new routes for a month again ,W6 is coming back stronger next year ,SJJ can have successes yes cannot reach SKP and thats reality. Btw OHD next year will start renovating its terminal building ,getting more new routes , plus charters , so the years that coming both SKP and OHD will be very strong , especially with W6 return.
I would wait until tomorrow before making conclusions if SJJ can reach SKP next year ;)
DeleteSorry, but what are you talking about? Ohrid 2019 - 317,000 passengers, Tuzla 2019 - 593,000 passengers. In what reality was Ohrid more successful than all airports in Bosnia? Your realities are great I have to say :))
Delete12:36 I am speaking for the routes that OHD have before 2019 , not for the numbers , check and make compare between Ohrid and Tuzla airport and decide which airport had better routes and airlines.SJJ was also dead now this days shows little better results which is okay I dont say no , but still is far away far from SKP.
DeleteYou can wait we all will wait SKP will finish the year close to 3m SJJ close to 2m
I know DBV has gone to bed with Ryanair but I think the management is very shortsighted about it. They just wanted a quick fix to get back to 2019 passenger numbers after a bad 2023. But such a tourist hotspot with just a single long haul flight shows me they are not doing enough. Crazy there there are no flights to China, South Korea or Japan. Crazy that Flydubai is the only Gulf airline flying there. They really need to wake up.
ReplyDeleteCanada too
DeleteI agree. There is a lot of long haul seasonal demand.
DeleteZAD having more passengers than Ljubljana says everything about Ljubljana's management.
ReplyDeleteIt has more than Podgorica and Sarajevo too
Delete@09:49
DeleteSo out of 16 airports that are behind Zadar, you're only salty about Ljubljana?
It wont have more than Sarajevo at the end of the year.
DeleteYes because it's the capital city of one of the most developed countries in Europe that had more traffic than Zadar for many many years.
DeleteSlovenia one of the most developed countries in Europe? LOL!
DeleteWhy LOL? Slovenia is one of the most developed countries in the world on holistic index measures.
DeleteThere is s rumor that eurowings will base a plane next ss25 season flying to berlin, dusseldorf etc
DeleteJust 2 routes. No base
DeleteRecord numbers at BEG continue despite Wizz troubles.
ReplyDeleteWizz will rebound next year
DeleteThis time next year...
DeleteNothing special will happen in Ljubljana without national carrier...
ReplyDeleteThere is a rumor that eurowings will base a plane in ljubljana next ss season… starting Düsseldorf, Berlin etc
Deletehighly doubt it
DeleteNo base. Just 2 routes 2 weekly
DeleteWell done PRN. Excellent result.
ReplyDeleteEven after all the increases in Zagreb and stagnation in Belgrade, Belgrade has again double the passengers. How?
ReplyDeleteMAgic
DeleteI'm happy to see Tivat finally recovering. Considering there are no longer flights to their biggest market which generated something like 60% of traffic if not more.
ReplyDeletePUY suffers from the same problem as TIV. Heavy dependency from Russian and Ukrainian market.
DeletePula got over the loss of Russian tourists TEN years ago and doubled its passenger numbers after it lost the Russians. PUY's biggest problem is Schengen.
DeleteWhy?
DeleteWho flies to Mali Losinj? Private planes?
ReplyDeleteYes private flights.
DeleteIs there any plan to develop Mali Losinj for commercial flights?
DeleteThere were plans. With investors from Russia. Everything halted now due to the sanctions.
DeleteHonestly does Mali Losinj really need commercial flights?
DeleteI also don't think so. With RJK and PUY 50 km away, and both underperforming, I really don't see why should LSZ be developed to handle 320s/737s, which were the plans.
DeleteTrue it would be a waste of resources.
DeleteYou think someone going to Losinj will fly to Pula???
DeleteIt will be interesting how airports perform next year considering all the issues in the aviation industry.
ReplyDeleteI expect record results for most airports.
DeleteWhen will SLO govt announce which airlines applied for sixth tender?
ReplyDeleteNo one prolly applied that is why there were no news
DeleteWow, the gap between Croatia passenger numbers and other countries is growing more and more. Didnt know its so severe.
ReplyDeleteI mean it really wouldve been weird if it didnt have the gap considering the 1000+km of Adriatic coast lol
DeleteYour comment makes no sense because the biggest airport is not on the coast.
DeleteIt makes sense considering 7 out of 9 are.
DeleteYou should add ATH, VIE and IST just for comparison.
ReplyDeleteCroatia added more passengers than all other markets combined. How come? I know tourism brings people, but they didn't have bad last year either, they are not at Albania level to have this scale of change... Excellent job in DUB, SPU and ZAG this year, I guess.
ReplyDelete