Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is expected to register its busiest June on record with over 500.000 passengers handled, representing growth of some 10% compared to last year. It will mark the first time the airport has managed to welcome over half a million travellers during the month of June since opening its doors 55 years ago. It also handled its second millionth passenger of the year during the month. Furthermore, the airport posted strong financial data for the first five months of the year. During the period, it registered a net profit of 8.8 million euros, which is up 6% on 2016. Revenue stood at 29.3 million euros, an increase of 11%. "All business indicators point to a year of growth and development at Belgrade Airport", it said in a statement.
Apart from scheduled operations, the airport anticipates growth in the number of leisure flights this summer, which accounts for a significant portion of traffic during the June to October period. Air Serbia's dedicated charter brand Aviolet will maintain flights to points in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Tunisia and Spain. They include Antalya, Barcelona, Bodrum, Catania, Cephalonia, Chania, Corfu, Enfidha, Girona, Heraklion, Karpathos, Santorini, Lamezia Terme, Limnos, Palermo, Palma, Preveza, Rhodes, Rimini, Samos, Skiathos and Zakinthos. Furthermore, Tunis Air, which runs year-round operations from Tunis, will operate seasonal services from Monastir as well, while Aegean Airlines will maintain flights from Heraklion and Rhodes in addition to its scheduled Athens service. On the other hand, Turkey's SunExpress will operate flights from Izmir.
Carriers that have confirmed new services or frequency upgrades to Belgrade for the coming period include LOT Polish Airlines, Flydubai, Hainan Airlines and Qatar Airways. Earlier this summer, both Transavia and AtlasGlobal launched flights to the Serbian capital from Amsterdam and Istanbul respectively, while Wizz Air stationed its second aircraft in the city, introducing four new routes. Management estimates the airport will hit 5.5 million passengers by year's end. "With almost 2.000 employees and five million passengers handled per year, I can say it is our goal and a realistic expectation to surpass the 5.5 million passenger mark this year", General Manager Saša Vlaisavljević said recently . He added, "According to some estimates, over the next two decades we could reach up to twenty million passengers per year, which is four times more than what we have now".
Good results in June!
ReplyDeleteTheir numbers have been very good so far this year. With all these additional flights figures should continue growing.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Belgrade, those 5.5 million will be easily achieved this year. Let's hope for at least six million next year.
ReplyDeleteWinter months will be especially interesting with Wizz Air's second aircraft, Atlastjet, Transavia, Qatar...
Also, given that Wizz Air's worst performing route out of BEG has a load factor of 81%, I am sure a third A320 is not so unrealistic.
Hey Nemjee, do you know approximately which routes are doing best/'worst' on Wizz out of BEG?
DeleteI don't remember now but I think MMX is the best. FDH is the lowest with 81%.
DeleteMy beloved Larnaca is around 86%.
Thanks. Would be interesting how the four new routes are performing. I'm especially interested about Malta.
DeleteI'd imagine London is up there at the top.
DeleteWell no route is lower than 81% so that's good I guess.
Deleteimagine what would London be like if the UK have abolished visas for us
DeleteTo be honest I would rather have easyJet from LGW than BA from LHR. The latter has horrible service and extremely high fares. Another option is Norwegian but I don't see anything changing as long as the visa regime is in place.
DeleteHaha BA is a great global airline and every airport wants them
DeleteGreat global airline? They are about to go on a 16 day strike, yes 16 day strike, not to mention they have become a full LCC with pitch worse than Ryanair on European flights. Wouldn't mind having them of course but don't agree about your claim of them being great.
DeleteNemjee, what period are these LF% for? And I imagine this is flown, not booked. You can add 5-6% for booked LF%, which is what is being reported by the airlines.
DeleteYes, they are flown numbers and I didn't ask for what period it was, I was told about these numbers during a casual conversation. My guess is that it was for the previous month.
DeleteThanks. May is not a bad month as far as comparing to the average goes.
DeleteI guess so... however we shouldn't forget that FDH is one of the new routes that competes with both STR and ZRH.
DeleteThe good thing is that Air Serbia won't be making any more cuts to network and frequencies.
ReplyDeleteThank god.
DeleteWe shall see, nothing is for sure with ASL!
DeleteI was searching for a tkt BEG-ATH_BEG in mid / end July. The fares are the following: AZ day flight (1 stop) = 237USD, Aegean early flighs (nonstop) = 288USD, ASL day flight (nonstop) = 411USD. The question is who is going to fly JU if this price nonsense continues. No wonder that LF is low and results in route cancellations, 411USD for economy to ATH is outreageous!
DeleteJU to ATH is usually overbooked.
DeleteBecause the flight is full like all flights to Athens and Thessaloniki in July, August and early September.
Delete@1:10 PM
DeleteIf you had bought the ticket two or three months ago, it would cost you around 150-200 EUR. Think ahead next time.
Ko brani wizzu da uvede let za atinu?
DeleteNo one, Wizz Air used to fly to ATH about a decade ago but it withdrew due to high airport charges.
DeleteAnon 1:12 flights are overbooked by transfer passengers paying close to nothing when travelling through BG.
DeleteWizz Air is completely absent from the Greek market I think.
DeleteAnonymous at 2:48 PM
Delete+1000
JU is constantly among the cheapest options to fly from ATH to the rest of Europe and especially JFK.
The service is good compared with the rest of EU airlines so people book with them.
Just because JU is the cheapest (or cheap) doesn't mean they are losing money by selling those fares.
DeleteI agree with Nemjee - the fare they sell at doesn't mean it's at a loss. Also they do obviously have limitation with fares sold at different levels. There is a clip on YT which shows how this works among different airlines and how they work out their fares, etc. I think JU is an up and coming airline for this region of the world. They just need to be consistent in their service offering.
DeleteJU seems to be wiser when it comes to their pricing policy. Until a week ago they were selling LCA for 35.000 Dinars. A few days ago they opened up some lower classes and released return fares for about €200. The moment that happened I know three people (one being my sister) who immediately booked flights with them, despite Wizz Air being cheaper.
DeleteThey should go for volume with decent enough yields rather than to charge a premium hoping people will buy it.
They can't and shouldn't match Wizz Air. However if they keep most of their fares between €200 and €260 they should be ok.
That said, the overall product should be slightly improved.
I wish they do same for Paris!
DeleteSnatching wigs, left and right, east and west.
ReplyDeleteSeems like there are a lot of charters this year and it is interesting to see each year more and more destinations in Spain and Italy.
ReplyDeleteThere are notably fewer Turkish charter operators this year though.
DeleteThere are 10 charter flights today alone, mostly to Greece, Italy and Spain. I think there are two Antalya flights.
DeleteTrue only Aviolet flying to Turkey this year and Sun Express to Izmir. But with so many scheduled flights to Istanbul with 3 different airlines, I think it makes more sense for people just to catch a regular flight and transfer through IST to virtually anywhere in Turkey.
DeleteAnd Tunisia is coming back. This year flights to Tunis, Monastir and Enfidha. Last year there was just the regular Tunis line.
DeleteUnlike previous years there were also quite a few charters around Easter and May 1. Again mostly Spain and Italy.
DeleteHopefully we will get year round flights to Spain. It is crazy there are not any.
Delete@ 9:17 it's no surprise really. It's cheap as cheap can get. But with the security situation over there, I would not go even if they paid me.
Delete@9.22 there were also much more charters around New Year and Christmas this year.
Delete@ 9.57. good opportunity for Wizz Air there. They are doing extremely well on their flights from Skopje to Barcelona.
DeleteLet's not forget that Vueling started flying to BEG much earlier this year and they will keep the flights until the end of the summer season.
Delete2017 looking promising.
ReplyDeleteFinances are doing well. Puts them in a good position for the concession process.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that foreign carriers are doing extremely well at BEG passenger wise this year. Anyone know how JU performed in June?
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to see some more competition at BEG, London in particular. BEG fares are different order of magnitude compared to Sofia.
ReplyDeleteSOF have 5 carriers competing that is why they have such fares
DeleteAnd yet we have so many experts on here predicting otherwise.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/jZlBlRd.png
I like that he calls himself insider.
DeleteThey really need to attract some more European airlines to diversity offer on existing routes.
ReplyDeleteBA to London and AF to Paris would be nice.
DeleteWhy would we need another low cost airline flying to London? We already have Wizz on that route.
DeleteAF codeshares on JU to Paris. And they got a pretty good deal there (money wise).
DeleteIn my opinion they should try to get a Canadian airline to fly seasonal to BEG like Skyservice did a few years ago. Either Air Canada Rouge or Air Transat. But with this management nothing will change. They are not focused at attracting more airlines. The ones that do start do so at their own initiative.
Delete+1 last anon.
DeleteWizz may be 'ultra low cost', but definitely not 'low fare' airline anymore, judging by London fares.
DeleteIn total Wizz is selling 642,000 extra seats from/to BEG this year. That alone will help the airport significantly.
ReplyDeleteI read in Politika a few days ago that Minister of Tourism Rasim Ljajic confirmed that from next year the Beijing-Belgrade flights go nonstop without Prague.
ReplyDeleteThe confirmation should be coming from the airline itself and not from local politicians. Until now nothing confirmed.
DeleteKeep hoping it won't happen I guess. Last week CEO of Hainan said they are starting flights to Belgrade in September. But maybe he is lying.
DeleteDo you guys think Kiev will be getting back ever in the future? Such a pitty JU let it go so easily after only one failed season.
ReplyDeleteThey don't have an adequate aircraft to operate the route. If they get the SSJ I am sure it will be back
DeleteThe issue with Kiev is that while it has good loads the yields are poor. Before JU, Aerosvit (or Ukraine International) used to fly this route some years ago via Sofia as a triangle service. But they also cancelled it after a while.
DeleteAerosvit went bankrupt. That's why it was suspended
Delete5.5 mil in 2017 is in the realm of possibility.
ReplyDeletePeople go to summer vacation by air more than before. If oil prices remain low in 2018 we will se skyrocketing of charter flights next year.
ReplyDeleteResults are good so far this year.
ReplyDeleteWill Etihad respond to the increases by Qatar Airways and Fly Dubai? Seems crazy that they won't.
ReplyDeleteNo, they won't. They already increased it to an A320
DeleteThat was ages ago. They increased it to A320 two winters ago.
DeleteEspecially considering that JU is now shutting down their AUH flights.
DeleteEtihad is allowing competition to take over without a fight, as if they are getting ready to break up with Air Serbia.
DeleteActually EY is in such a mess that they haven't gotten around to publishing preliminary W17/18 schedules yet, not only for BEG but for other destinations as well.
DeleteEY unfortunately has much bigger worries right now that trying to defend market share in BEG.
DeleteEtihad is increasing its own flights to places like Casablanca, Dammam, Cairo, Beirut... so I doubt they are such a mess.
DeleteThese flight increases are due to Qatars blockade.
DeleteNedostatak BEG je nemanje velikih kompanija osim LH i Aeroflota da vidi narod kako su se srozali sa uslugom u evrosaobracaju. Letenje na interkontinentalnim linijama se jos drzi. Pokusaj ASL ostaje samo pokusaj.
ReplyDeleteJoš samo da nam objasniš koje to "velike evropske kompanije" treba da posluže kao primer srozavanja u evrosaobracaju...
DeleteJedina evropska kompanija koja je zaista bolja u svojoj usluzi, Turskih Airlines, uveliko leti za Beograd.
Moje licno iskustvo sa TK je gore nego bilo koji LCC
DeleteBA, AF, SN, Sa Turcima nikada nisam leteo.
DeleteWell done!
ReplyDeleteTransavia is making a killing on its AMS-BEG-AMS route.
ReplyDeleteDoubt it. If that was true they wouldn't be flying two times per week
DeleteNot sure about a killing but flights are indeed full.
Delete2 p/w has been planned from the start. This is not Qatar Airways were they have 20 planes sitting on the tarmac and can add frequencies if the demand is good. But be sure they will add frequencies next summer.
DeleteThey are doing well in Ljubljana too.
DeleteDoubt it but we will see. I can't see them making any money with JU and W6. Serbia is a poor country that's not in the EU, there isn't too much demand for NL flights.
DeleteMaybe they will stay once a week next year or suspend it. Competition is too strong.
Just because you don't see it that way doesn't mean it's so. If there was no demand for the Netherlands there wouldn't be three airlines competing there.
DeleteAlso JU and Transavia carry completely different kind of passengers to Amsterdam. JU's passengers are mostly transfers to the US and Canada. Transavia's are point to point and a lot of people from Belgium too.
DeleteThey are probably trying to get a peace of small cake, get their share from JU and W6.
DeleteMaybe one day if Serbia enters the EU they will launch flights like they did with LJU. But if Serbia becomes a popular tourist destination with a lot of business potential then maybe KLM will consider it, like they did in Zagreb.
"Maybe one day if Serbia enters the EU they will launch flights like they did with LJU".
DeleteThey have already launched flights to BEG.
"But if Serbia becomes a popular tourist destination with a lot of business potential then maybe KLM will consider it, like they did in Zagreb".
KLM has an agreement in place with JU under which it has restricted itself from flying to BEG for a couple of years.
I know they launched flights but I think they will not last as Serbs are poor and there is already Wizz
DeleteI think the only point of your entire comment was to write serbs are poor ten times.
DeleteWhat's the point of arguing with him? If he says the flights will be cancelled let him be.
DeleteIf anyone will suffer in that game, it will be AurSerbia. With Wizz to Belgrade and Nis and transavia to Belgrade, there are enough options to make a cheap return journey. No need to pay hundreds of euros to JU.
DeleteYou guys behave as if W6 is cheap which it isn't. Good luck finding a fare under €160 without luggage unless you book months in advance.
DeleteMaybe in Belgrade they're not super cheap, but in Nis there are flights for as low as 10 euros. If you go through Nis, or combine Wizz in Nis and transavia in Belgrade, you can get very cheap deals. I'm a frequent Serbia-NL traveller, and in the last year I never paid more than 150 euros for a return flight, and if without luggage, it's often below 50 return. Also, in the last year I don't remember flying JU :)
DeleteDont worry Anonymous @11:27 the whole region is very poor just look at the article
Deletehttp://mondo.rs/a965145/Top-Liste/Info/Zivotni-standard-u-Srbiji-lista-Kupovna-moc-u-EU-i-na-Zapadnom-Balkanu.html
But still aviation is growing in each country of the region...
But spreading hate towards Serbia is ok buy admin I am also OK with it...
AnonymousJune 29, 2017 at 10:58 AM
DeleteThis guy is the same person who comments about Croatia having 10 mil tourists, on every article. The same guy that yesterday or a day before yesterday started an argument about how Croatia has a dozen of airports while Serbia has two. The same one that says that NATO membership has a big influence on ZAG.
The whole point of his comments was to emphasize how Zagreb is much more of a tourist destination than Belgrade and that KLM flights are something that proves it.
Using his logic, KLM doesn't fly to Honolulu but it does fly to Zagreb, therefore Zagreb is much more of a tourist destination than Honolulu.
DeleteWrong, KLM caters for a different market than HNL. The same argument vice versa. American Airlines doen noth fly to Mallorca, therefore HNL is a bigger tourist market, which it is not.
DeleteHow is Aruba and St Marteen different market from HNL? Dumb.
DeleteFunny thing is that they are dreaming of 20 Million Pax. Those are roughly the numbers of airports like ZRH, VIE or DUS. I am just wondering where all that demand would be coming from.
ReplyDeleteIn 20 years.
DeleteOk, but still where would all that demand be coming from?
DeleteI don't know but last year IATA estimated that Serbia would become the fastest growing air market in Europe, 5th in the world.
Delete"The Association forecasts that Serbia will become Europe's fastest growing market in percentage terms over the next twenty years, with an average annual growth rate of 7 - 8%, doubling in size each decade. On a global scale, Serbia is expected to become the fifth fastest growing market in percentage terms".
Whether it is realistic, I don't know.
If I compare the numbers of airports with around 20 Mio Pax today e.g VIE,ZRH DUS, I can see them having many Longhaul flights- all three have multiple daily flights to NYC to SIN to HKG. Would be nice to see BEG having 20 mio Pax and 3 daily flight to NY daily to NRT, daily to SIN etc :) That would all be needed to achieve such a figures.
DeleteOT: LX operations to/ex INI this weekend:
ReplyDelete1.A319, 12/120
LX2512/30 04/118
LX2513/30 00/039
2.A32P, 12/162
LX2512/02 01/149
LX2513/02 03/132
Where is all this business class demand coming from?
DeleteRick gasterbaiters?
Delete*rich
DeleteI know 2 IT companies from Nis which works with Switzerland. There is probably more which I don't know. So probably business class demand comes from business :-)
DeleteWhatever the J load is on 4 august, i will be one of those... hopefully won't be like KK6600 today where i was in J by myself lol
DeleteSo despite all the pessimists these results show that BEG and INI can coexist together and both have growth.
ReplyDeleteNaravno samo kao potpuno razliciti aerodromi. Nikakvo kesanje na BEG sto mnogi ovde traze. Slicno sa Ladjevcima i Ponikvama. Drzava treba da odvoji novac za piste i uredjaje a onda sami da se bore za turiste koji dolaze tamo i drugi koji ce da lete negde sa carterima.
DeleteA koj će da plati za terminal?
DeleteVeć je plaćeno.
DeleteOT: SPU will handle more than 400.000 Pax in June.
ReplyDeleteIn July it could easily handle more than 600000. First in exyu.
Delete:)
and all P2P :)
DeleteOvertake BEG? Ha ha. Keep on dreaming.
DeleteBelgrade is definitely passing the 5.5 million mark this year. This growth is phenomenal. Congratulations to all those involved in making it happen.
ReplyDeleteGreat June numbers. In April haters said it was growth because of Easter, in May people said it was growth because of May 1st. What is it now? Vidovdan?
ReplyDeleteVidovdan :D
DeleteVidovdan of course..what else could it be :-)))
Deletenice profit!
ReplyDeleteGood news for Belgrade airport and future concession. Hopefully this will give some good binding offer.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone read the report from transparentnost about the bidding/tendering procedures at BEG?
ReplyDeleteI don't give a ****. Give me a new terminal now!
DeleteБРАВО СРБИJА!!!
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is not doing bad at all in June. Their pax numbers are at -2% compared to June last year, despite the fact that operations are -8%.
ReplyDeleteDo you maybe know the numbers for year to date results? Are they still in + considering the strong results in first for months?
Deletefour (4)* sorry
DeleteAir Serbia have transported around 1,105 million passengers in 2017 to date,that's 3% more compared to 2016.
DeleteThank you admin for deleting comments such as "write what you want" and "I am here to wake you up from your dream". This guy is obviously here to start fight and spread nationalism and hate and that way of conversation should be restricted.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great work and by the way great picture of Belgrade airport and a330 parked at c gate :)