Montenegro Airlines demise leaves market gap

Montenegro Airlines suspended operations last night, leaving the country without key routes in the immediate future. The Montenegrin carrier transported 24.7% of all passengers flying to and from the country in 2019, its last full year of normal operations. It welcomed 657.416 passengers on board its aircraft and operated 7.798 flights. As of today, Montenegro no longer has nonstop services to France, Switzerland and Slovenia. Austria will also be left unserved once Austrian Airlines temporarily suspends its flights between Vienna and Podgorica, which are currently operating over the holidays and are not running on a regular basis due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wizz Air does not plan to restore the route until March 30. In addition, during the summer, the Montenegrin flag carrier exclusively served Copenhagen, Dusseldorf and Lyon from Podgorica, as well as Copenhagen, Leipzig and Hannover from Tivat. 

Serbia was by far Montenegro Airlines’ biggest market, with the carrier offering 356.376 seats between the two countries last year. It was followed by Russia, France, Switzerland and Slovenia, which made up the top five markets. On the other hand, the airline’s busiest year-round service on which it faced no competition was Paris, with 42.894 passengers carried in 2019, followed by Zurich and Frankfurt. Montenegro Airlines served three of Podgorica Airport’s top five busiest routes in 2019 (Belgrade, Vienna and Ljubljana), as well as two of Tivat Airport’s top five busiest routes (Belgrade and Moscow). 

Montenegro Airlines' largest markets by capacity in 2019

Montenegro Airlines' busiest Podgorica routes without competition in 2019

As of this morning, carriers are yet to respond to Montenegro Airlines’ collapse, whose demise came suddenly. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and low demand has reduced the need for any major and immediate response. Until last week, Montenegro Airlines was primarily flying only to Belgrade, with the majority of its remaining European network brought back recently for the holiday period at a low one to two weekly frequency. The Montenegrin government has announced it will form a new carrier within six to nine months, but warned the process would be complicated and long, and would likely have a negative impact on the 2021 summer season as capacity would not be replaced in such a short period of time. It further noted foreign carriers would use the void left by Montenegro Airlines to better position themselves on the market. On the other hand, the President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanović, noted, “Terminating a business is simple and quick, even if that business is a national airline company. But it can also be very risky and reckless, particularly in a nation that generates a quarter of its GDP from tourism and has not used even 50% of its potential in that industry. Indeed, it will not be able to use it if it does not become an easily accessible destination, which cannot be achieved without, among others, a national airline”.

In a statement issued today, Air Serbia, which is the largest foreign carrier in Montenegro in terms of both passengers handled and overall capacity, said, "Due to the new circumstances and the suspension of Montenegro Airlines flights, Air Serbia will continue to provide strong links between cities in the region, Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as North America, through its hub in Belgrade. The Serbian national airline will carefully monitor possible changes in demand during the next period and adjust its capacity and frequencies to those changes".