The airports in Pristina and Skopje have registered their best September figures to date, with both eying a busy winter season ahead. The gap between the two is now closing with Pristina still ahead of its Macedonian counterpart.
Pristina Airport continued its growth streak in September by handling 147.357 passengers, an improvement of 8.9% on 2015. The number of operated flights also grew, totalling 1.179. It represents an increase of 7.4%. As a result, the airport has now handled 1.349.880 passengers in 2016, up 10.9%. This October, Pristina will benefit from the introduction of easyJet’s new service from Paris, however, at the same time, Croatia Airlines will terminate its flights from Zagreb. At this point, a total of sixteen carriers plan to maintain operations to 22 destinations from Pristina this winter season, which begins on October 30.
Germania will offer the most seats during the winter months, accounting for 20.5% of total capacity or 154.892 seats. It is followed by easyJet with 112.896 seats or 15% of capacity, Swiss International Air Lines and Edelweiss Air with 12.5% of capacity and Eurowings, which will offer 8.5% of total capacity or 66.060 seats. Adria Airways, which boasts a base in the city, will add an additional two weekly flights to Frankfurt. On the other hand, Turkish Airlines will reduce frequencies between Istanbul and Pristina by four weekly flights, although Pegasus will add an additional two services for a total of six per week between the two cities. Furthermore, Eurowings will suspend its Berlin – Pristina route, while SAS Scandinavian Airlines will discontinue flights from Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, Skopje Airport continued to outperform its counterpart in Pristina by handling 152.519 passengers in September, an increase of 4.5%. However, Pristina is still ahead once annual figures are taken into account, with Skopje welcoming 1.258.967 travellers during the first three quarters, an increase of 15.3% compared to 2015. Later this month, Wizz Air will introduce its new service to Hanover, however, Swiss International Air Lines will suspend its flights from Geneva. Istanbul maintains its position as the busiest route out of Skopje, operated by both Turkish Airlines and Pegasus. It is followed by Zurich, operated by Belair, Edelweiss, Helvetic Airways and Germania Flug on a charter basis, Vienna, which is run by Austrian, then Malmo, Basel and London, which are all maintained by Wizz Air.
I don’t think there is a chance of Skopje overtaking Pristina this year but it will be a tight finish.
ReplyDeleteWell the battle between SKP and PRN will be interesting because they have a similar markets and passenger base and are relatively close to each other.
DeleteTo be honest I never thought Skopje would overtake Ljubljana but I was proven wrong. I'm happy the airport is growing. But I also think Pristina has a "joker" up its sleeve and that's visas. When they are removed traffic should grow significantly. When that will be is anyone's guess.
DeleteBy PAX not by profit
DeleteIt's a shame neither of them publishes their financial results. I think BEG and LJU are he only two airports in ex-Yu that regularly update their financial results.
DeleteSo much for people who were saying Skopje would go into negative territory. It’s a good result. With new Hanover route starting at the end of the month number will improve even more.
ReplyDeleteSkopje could reach 2 million passengers next year.
DeleteWhy are so many airlines quitting Pristina?
ReplyDeleteI think their fees are very high
DeleteDon’t they give significant incentives for airlines flying there?
DeleteThey give peanuts.
DeleteOnce Qatar starts flying in 2017, along with the planned base for Croatia Airlines plus possible Ryanair arrival, SKP will become third busiest airport in ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there will be Ryanair coming. They chose INI instead.
DeleteIt's funny that people still believe OU will set up a base anywhere outside of Croatia and maybe (and that's a big maybe) Sarajevo.
DeleteWhat makes you think they won't?
DeleteWell, hopefully OU wont base any planes anywhere else outside of Croatia. If it does, it will just hasten their demise into oblivion. They are already threading fast in that direction.
DeleteINI has been chosen, yes, but Skopje is further than Sofia or Belgrade. It depends not on INI if Ryan or Easy will come (marginal effect, not significat for any calculation).
DeleteMain factors are the competitors (behaviour of Wizz especially) and the maximal potential for Skopje (2016 is about 2 million passengers). With this two parameter they will decide and check the opportunity-costs.
FR can only come to SKP with even bigger subsides then W6. INI is just right chooice for them cos of very low per passanger fee,and SKP and BEG are not too far away for those who want to fly very cheap.
DeletePristina obviously ain't happy with Skopje's growth as it seems SKP is eating into their passenger base. That's why the complained to the European Commission.
ReplyDeleteNot yet...but mwrket has a limit. I do not belive that such impressive growth as it was recently won't be see again. Soon or latter will come to normal generic growth. But anyway SKP was a story by itself. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI think we are there. Growth of 4-5% is Skopje's real growth at the moment and not the result of increased capacity.
Delete+- 4-5% means that matket is saturrated
DeleteNo, it means it's purely organic until W6/FR base another aircraft.
DeleteLet's hope these two don't have the same issues with fog as they did last year.
ReplyDeleteYeah last year wasn't the best but it was worst for Sarajevo. They were closed for most of December.
DeleteIsn’t a highway under construction between Pristina and Skopje? This could further increase competition between the two.
ReplyDelete.. or further increase traffic in both PRN and SKP, which is what's been happening lately. Good times.
DeleteOn the albanian side they are forcing this highway, the macedonians don't hurry
DeleteCongrats to both Pristina and Skopje!
ReplyDeleteNext year SKP will have great chance to overtake PRN, with the addition of all the new planned flights. For this year I think PRN will maintain the lead. I'm very happy about SKP, although for me in Southern Macedonia, SKG is much better option with better prices. Nevertheless if RYR can join W6 for few destinations sometime in the future that will be excellent. CIA can be one option, also MAD and MLA can work with 2 p/w flights. I still expect flight to Moscow to happen soon.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteEverybody is hoping for flights to Moscow. Will they materialise is a completely different matter. I dont know if there is enough demand for SKP-MOW flights.
DeleteI think Athens has even more potential than Moscow.
DeleteDidn't Aegean fly to Skopje? Why did they stop?
Delete^ Politics
DeletePobeda was considering flights to Skopje last year then they decided against flying there. Hopefully they review their plans. There is really a strong case for flights between Moscow and Skopje.
Delete@anon 11:27
DeleteCan you elaborate a little bit more. As far as I know there arent lot of O&D between Moscow and Skopje, and Pobeda can not rely on transfer pax.
What's the capacity of Skopje's terminal? Will they need to expand soon?
ReplyDeleteNo, it's 4 million
Deleteok, thanks :)
DeleteOT: Zagreb in September 2016
ReplyDelete271.647 / 287.664
+16.017 pax
+5,89%
Good work for both airports. It will be interesting how PRN will perform this winter since quite a few airlines are ending flights.
ReplyDeleteHas Qatar finally set a date for Skopje flights. I have a feeling they might not come at all :(
ReplyDeleteThey haven't yet but flights will start. They have a fleet shortage.
DeleteFantastic results for PRN and SKP. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteŠTRAJK U GRČKOJ OD 9. DO 13.10.
ReplyDeleteGrčki kontrolori leta će štrajkati od nedjelje 9.10. do utorka 13.10. Samo "emergancy" letovi će se dozvoliti u tom vremenu.
U Hrvatskoj će se isto reflektirati na letove Aegeana za Split i Dubrovnik, te Croatie za Dubrovnik.
No, u Srbiji će to izazvati poprilične probleme obzirom na 4 dnevna leta za Atenu i Thessaloniki koji su feeding letovi, kao i zbog brojnih charter letova Avioleta koji lete za Grčku.
I u Sloveniji će se osjetiti velik poremečaj obzirom na Aegeanovu redovnu liniju za Ljubljanu, no daleko više radi velikog broja chartera iz Ljubljane i Maribora za Grčke destinacije.
Nadam se da će Croatia pojačati svoje kapacitete prema Skopju, te Adria i Air Serbia prema Skopju i Tirani, čime bi uz autobusni transfer mogli dio putnika prebaciti preko ovih zračnih luka.
Kolega bez panike-bilo bi nuzno da se pre ovakvih postova konsultujete sa nekim iz HKZP. Ovo je vrlo cesta pojava i ne utice previse na avio saobracaj u regionu. Inace Aviolet nema niti jedan planiran charter u tom periodu.
DeleteBez uvrede.
ATCO
Aviolet od tolikih chartera u top sezoni nema ništa sredinom Oktobra? Moram priznati da sam iznenađen, ali nemam razloga zašto vam ne vjerovati. Nažalost tek manji dio letova Avioleta su izlistani na Beogradskom aerodromu pa cjelokupna rekonstrukcija reda letenja Aviolete nije moguća.
DeleteNo, 4 dnevna aviona iz Grčke nisu mala stvar, poglavito obzirom na konekcije. Sječam se koliko sam problema imao radi jednodnevnog štrajka na CDG, te kako sam radi toga izgubio puna dva dana, tonu živaca i sate obilaska šaltera. A tada je 1/4 letova bila dozvoljena.
Mogu misliti koliki će kaos biti nakon 4 dana, što je 16 otkazanih letova iz Grčke prema Beogradu.
Iskreno mislim da HKZP ne bi bila baš presretna da ju ljudi kontaktiraju radi pisanja na blogovima.
Detaljan i tacan red letenja mozete naci na oficijelnom sajtu Avioleta.HKZP je sasvim ok i nisam shvatio vas komentar, no nema veze. Poenta je da pretnja strajkom u ATC svetu, u 95. posto slucajeva, ne znaci i realizaciju sto bi vam svakako mogle potvrditi i kolege koje poznaju materiju.
Deletei dalje bez uvrede
ATCO
P.S. Pozdrav kolegama iz Zagreba
Nažalost prečesto sam bio žrtva štrajkova. Nemalo puta mi je žao što odmah nisam sjeo na vlak, došao bih prije u Zagreb.
DeleteHvala za info o redu letenja. Ujutro sam pokušao nači taj red letenja na njihovoj stranici i nisam ga "ubrao". Eto sad znam gdje tražiti. Korisno za ubuduće. Hvala.
I hope Ryan will come to Skopje. It's more important than Croatian or Qatar!
ReplyDeletePristina has to lower its prices and try to attract another LCC.
ReplyDeletehow much do they charge per passanger?
DeleteThe problem is in the concession agreement it was decided that the government sets the airport fees, not the operator. Limak has been trying to get the government to reduce fees but it has not worked so far.
DeleteHow did Ljubljana do in September? Have they managed to halt the passenger decline?
ReplyDeleteWe will know in a few days but I think they are still below SKP and PRN.
DeleteWe cannot compare both airports simply because they are quite different. SKP relies almost 50% on Wizzair while PRN is a mix of everything. PRN has less destinations but more impotant and bigger destinations such as FRA, CDG, MUC, DUS, BRU while SKP has more LCC ones. On my opinion they will be neck to neck all the time unless a new player appears and changes the game.
ReplyDeleteIs there a chance for Easyjet to open a base in Pristina? They added two new routes this year plus they already fly to a few cities.
ReplyDeleteWith Ryanair in Nis and Wizz in Skopje it seems like a logical choice for easyJet if they want to increase their presence in the region.
DeleteVueling might be the next LCC in this region and both Skopje and Pristina are possible routes.
ReplyDeleteWould be good if they started Skopje since Wizz Air does not seem to want to operate this route.
Delete1:45,
Delete1. How did you get this impression?
2. Do you think they would easily give up a market they have built up for someone else to milk?
Congrats Pristina, right on keep on going growing every day :) very good news for PRN!!
ReplyDeleteI think the new direct competition to INI will now be CRA in Romania, which is only 250km away. It was a ghostly airport just like INI but now the figures grew like crazy. INI will face competition from many airports nearby.
ReplyDeleteDo you think people from CRA use BEG or OTP as an alternative?
ETIAS will be implemented in 2017 so Western Balkan countries will need to registered before traveling to the Schengen and to pay! Bye bye.
ReplyDeleteEven if that happens your tone implies you are overwhelmingly happy about it.
DeleteAnon 3:16
DeleteAs far as i understood it will not apply to countries which have opened chapters and are negotiating to become members
It's happening. Only Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Croatia without reg. For Schengen including Greece one week before you must pay and register, and wait for approval !
DeleteOnly Serbia and Montenegro are negotiating and will include them too ! It will include them until they became member of EU ! For the others it will be a disaster.
DeleteZagreb surpassed 2 million pax before October for the first time in history and ended September with 2,127,000 approx.
ReplyDeleteWhile Split, which also surpassed 2 million pax in September, also reached and surpassed 2 million mark for the first time ever and ended September with 2,058,000 approx. That currently puts ZAG in lead by only 69,000.
NO ABSOLUT NO
ReplyDeletePRISTINA JANUARY SEPTEMBER 2016 : 1,375'991
The results cited in the article were provided by the Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority.
DeleteBut it's correct 1'375'991 or no?
Delete