Pristina Airport was the busiest in the former Yugoslavia during the first quarter of the year, achieving the milestone for the first time in history. It also became the first airport in the former Yugoslavia to mark an end to the monthly decline in passenger numbers, which began as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In March it saw its figures grow 23.3% on 2020. The airport handled 330.787 passengers during the January - March period, compared to some 283.000 at second-placed Belgrade and 148.991 travellers at third-placed Skopje. However, Pristina Airport, as well as Belgrade, performed better than other major European airports including Budapest, Prague, London Gatwick, Luxembourg, Larnaca and Malta, to name a few.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 134.204 |
▼ 26.9 |
| FEB | 96.442 | ▼ 42.3 |
| MAR | 100.141 | ▲ 23.3 |
Pristina Airport has been more resilient than most others in the
region to the Covid-19 downturn as it depends on a high volume of diaspora
traffic who are based in the European Union, and, in turn, are permitted to
enter both their country of residence, as well as their homeland. Furthermore,
parliamentary elections aided figures in February when a large number of those
living abroad, particularly from Switzerland, returned to their homeland to
cast their vote. The pandemic has changed the usual traffic flow at airports
in the former Yugoslavia. In addition to Pristina becoming the busiest during
the first quarter, Skopje has leaped past Zagreb to become the third busiest,
while both Sarajevo and Tuzla have overtaken Ljubljana, with Slovenia
continuing to be among the most affected markets on the continent.
Pristina Airport’s Chief Operations Officer, Gokmen Aritay, told EX-YU
Aviation News late last year, “Our traffic mainly relies on the diaspora,
which lives and works abroad, meaning most of them hold citizenship and/or
residency permits of the countries they are living in. Based on the
abovementioned reasons, our passengers are not as affected by document
limitations, while their desire to come and visit their families back in
Kosovo continues despite the pandemic. This is one of the main reasons that
passenger figures have seen a smaller decline compared to other regional
airports”. Pristina Airport is in the process of extending its runway from
2.500 to 3.000 metres, while its Instrument Landing System (ILS) will be
upgraded from category II to category IIIb, enabling aircraft to land in more
adverse weather conditions. The project, which has been delayed by the
pandemic, is expected to be completed in late summer.
wow
ReplyDeleteJust wonder why so many people travel to the region in the pandemic, while the rest of the world stays at home not to spread the virus?
DeleteBecause they want to.
DeleteProportionally, more peeople are still travelling around west Europe.
DeleteI am surprised Pristina performed that well and the Belgrade did not pick it up in March.
ReplyDeleteBEG relies on transfers, after all JU remains a dominant carrier. But because of the EU restrictions, the numbers went down and demand fell. Current focus is Russia, MNE, Switzerland and Turkey all of which are non-EU countries.
DeleteThat's a very good result all things considering.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGoes to show that airport relying on diaspora traffic will recover much faster.
ReplyDeleteWithout doubt.
DeleteTrue. But relying only on diaspora traffic isn't sustainable in the long run.
DeleteObviously countries that rely less on tourism are less affected than those relying heavily on tourism.
DeleteCongrats Pristina. Solid result for an airport in covid era. Good work.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if they can maintain that spot for the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteDon't be ridiculous.
DeleteWell they were second in 2020.
DeleteIt needs to reduce its fees.
ReplyDeleteThey give some nice incentives out now.
DeleteThe problem with Pristina is that the government sets the fees, not the airport operator.
DeleteWhat are conditions for entering Swiss / Kosovo*? I remember they were pretty relaxed in Christmas time last year.
ReplyDeleteIt was recently put on Switzerland's red list, meaning residents/citizens who have visited Kosovo have to quarantine on arrival.
DeleteWhen was that? What month did they introduce quarantine?
DeleteSecond half of March.
DeleteIt means they had 2.5 months in this year of free travelling between Switzerland and PRN.
We will see how this will impact PRN. Edelweiss has suspended flights to PRN now.
DeleteI think I know how it will impact PRN.
DeleteI'm surprised Croatia Airlines no longer flies to Pristina. Couldn't they have used this route to feed their West Europe flights?
ReplyDeleteIt used to. But thanks to its successful management, it failed in that market too.
DeleteRoute was struggling for years, even though it was scheduled to link onto the morning bank of flights from Zagreb. It was expensive to operate because crew rest was also involved in PRN overnight.
DeleteAlso PCR test in PRN is just 20$ on airport
ReplyDeleteGreat move.
DeleteIs it for real?
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/01/pcr-testing-site-opened-at-pristina.html
DeleteCongrats Pristina!
ReplyDeleteWizz Air should open a base there.
ReplyDelete+1
DeletePrishtina's pax numbers will continue to perform this good and maybe better than this, in the months to come considering that there were no flights up to late June 2020.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, as restrictions among EU countries will possibly continue to be lifted, there will likely be more travel back and forth.
It just shows that airports around the region such as Skopje, Tirana or Niš (which are supposed to offer cheaper tickets) have no or very little impact on Prishtina's numbers.
+1
DeleteThere is a new competitor: the newly opened airport in Kukes
DeleteDoes Eurowings still have a base in PRN?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. Their base was also family tour agent contracted I think?
DeleteHow long does Limak's concession of Pristina Airport run for?
ReplyDeleteUntil 2030.
DeleteThey won a 20 year concession in 2010.
Thanks. Still a while to go.
DeleteThey should work on attracting flights from Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen and Rome.
ReplyDeleteHighly unlikely in these circumstances.
DeleteTUI will be starting flights in May to Amsterdam via Tirana and I think they have been doing the same with Brussels. Just have to see if they will go ahead with their schedule.
DeleteDo they sell tickets on TIA-PRN sector?
DeleteIt's surprising that Lufthansa does not fly to Pristina. They could easily pack passengers to the US via Frankfurt, not to mention all the diaspora from Germany.
ReplyDeleteLH has very high costs, that's why they don't fly to SKP either.
DeleteIts because they care about profit
DeleteThey usually get others to do the work for them. Used to be Adria in the region.
DeleteExcellent result for PRN taking into account what's going on around in Europe at the moment. It will be interesting to see whether the new airport in Kukes will have any impact on it?
ReplyDeleteIf it becomes an ultra low cost airport as previously indicated that is going to affect the numbers in PRN and the numbers in Skopje.
DeleteThe airport will cover north Albania and majority of south Kosovo
DeleteI know Kukes was just recently opened and they are in the process of being internationally recognised (https://simpleflying.com/air-albania-kukes-first-flight/). There is media report that the airport is in talks with low cost airlines with the aim of offering flights to Germany, Swiss, Scandinavia, North Italy and the UK. But have to see if these will materialise to better then understand the impact on Prishtina.
DeleteI don't know which airline would start operations there. W6 has a 4 plane base in TIA while gradually expanding in PRN.
DeleteAirlines are still rather hesitant to open routes to TIA and PRN, so let alone Kukës. Kukës only has a chance when TIA and PRN are saturated.
DeleteSo now that W6 still hasn't opened a base in PRN, Kukës doesn't stand a chance but when TIA and PRN are saturated it will?
DeleteGood for PRN!
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that PRN has no transfer/ connecting traffic.
ReplyDeleteYes but they have a huge diaspora that only keeps on getting bigger and bigger.
DeleteGreat results for PRN considering covid and entry ban.
ReplyDeletenever in a million years would I have thought it would be no. 1 in exyu :D
DeleteGrowth even in times like this? Amazing, good work PRN
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear good news for PRN.
ReplyDeleteHave a feeling over 60% of passengers were from Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteHighly likely.
DeleteIf Kosovo didn't have visa restrictions, it would probably be second or third airport in ex-Yu for years.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely
DeletePRN remained most open during the pandemic and demand has been increasing compared to other airports in the region. Despite the EU restrictions, the numbers are still very good.
ReplyDeleteNumbers in Albania seem to be lower as well.
They remained most opened? PRN airport was closed for the longest out of all the major airports in the region.
DeleteWell done to both PRN and for Albania for opening the new airport. The tandem seems to be working great! During the last couple of months there was an insane number of flights between Kosova and Switzerland and Germany. Even foreign carriers. I personally saw a Bulgaria Air charter from PRN-FKB operating more than once. Not to mention W6 who are planning to operate PRN-LTN 5 weekly in summer.
ReplyDeleteHistoric moment!
Ultimately, if there wasn't any gastos flying between Germany, Switzerland and Italy, there would technically be no flight market in Kosovo*. Tourism air travel is almost non-existent. In the long run, this growth is likely not sustainable.
DeleteWhy not? Philippines or Lithuania for example both have huge diaspora figures as well and still managing to have good numbers. The Albanian diaspora is just too large and there will always be demand.
DeleteI don't understand your point @An.10:22. What are you trying to say? If Croatia didn't have tourism, it would have double less passengers, maybe even triple less. If Serbia didn't have JU doing that much transfers, it would have double less passengers as well. If Kosovo (with *, according to your preference) wouldn't have that large diaspora, it would have double less passengers or almost no passengers at all. So what are you trying to say, I don't understand. What I know is that Kosovo always had huge diaspora, within ex-yu, in Europe and North America, and PRN was the most neglected airport in ex-yu, with 5 weekly flights to BEG and one weekly to ZRH. So, coming from that position to position no 1 in ex-yu, is something one should say :"my respect", and not trying to belittle their success.
Deleteanon 10:22
DeleteAdding to what pozdrav mentioned: all airports in ex-Yu rely on diaspora travel and the more to the south the more reliance there is. Who is flying on JU flights to Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia or US, if not diaspora (including diaspora from neighbouring countries)?
Who would have thought that PRN would be busier than Luton, Budapest, Prague :D
ReplyDeleteI didn't think I would ever read a headline like this!
ReplyDeletePRN definitely has potential.
Anyone know why runway is being extended to 3000m? Transatlantic flights - JFK perhaps?
Pristina handled Swiss 777 and Edelweiss A330 in the past without a problem. It also handled a United 747 once.
DeleteThe United one was in 2015 but the plane had a light load, just some army personell. Plane from Zurich can land with widebody but for a full long haul flight it wuld be very difficult.
DeleteAlso Atlas Air B747 military flight
DeletePrishtina Airport similar to Skopje has problems with fog at times the longer runway will allow flights to land during these weather conditions, previously some flights were diverted to Skopje when visibility was low.
DeleteBravo PRN!
ReplyDeleteMarch 2021: in 2.5 days Priština has more pax than Ljubljana, next EU presidency country, in the full month.
ReplyDeleteDo not worry. Our government can make international problems over zoom or twitter.
DeleteThey are quite skilled in the use of social media.
Both Sarajevo and Tuzla overtook Ljubljana, lol.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that just a little bit more than 10 years ago, LJU used to be third busiest airport in ex yu. Anyways, bravo PRN!
DeleteAnd SJJ and TZL
DeletePandemic or not, Pristina has the opportunity to keep top position for a while. If not first then second.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the rest of the year to PRN. I noticed that Trade Air will take over the Air Mediterranean flights, which are all operated for the family tour agents.
ReplyDeleteTrade Air is operating on behalf of Air Mediterranean which is contracted by the family tour agencies
DeleteSlovenia continuing to be among the most affected markets on the continent.
ReplyDeleteSo we are again first in something 🎉🎉🎉🥂🥂🥂
It's a shame. I don't understand why it has hit Slovenian aviation so hard. I mean many countries are in the same situation as Slovenia but have managed to have a smaller decline.
DeleteNice work Pristina. Keep going forward -->>
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the Budapest-Pristina flights, they were scheduled twice a week for several years now? Are they gonna resume after the pandemic?
ReplyDeleteThey were subsidised by the Hungarian government so it's dependent on them. And i doubt they're returning anytime soon
DeleteThe Budapest - ex-Yu routes have all been terminated. The subsidy program ended in 2020 and the Hungarian government has decided not to extend it. And none of the routes seemed to have been viable to operate on their own.
DeleteUnbelievable achievement by PRN
ReplyDeleteWay to go
ReplyDeleteAny new routes this summer?
ReplyDeleteIt's probably the only airport in Europe that saw growth in March.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to get over the fact that Skopje overtook Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteAlbanian diaspora, my friend. After all, SKP is a 90% gasto airport and can be considered as a PRN alternative.
DeleteGreat that they will finally finish the runway extension. It has been dragging on for some time now.
ReplyDeleteOU did lot of mistakes in PRN. First, they reduced capacity, then they deployed turboprops and reduced capacity even further. Then they started with tactical cancelations ending up slashing majority of the flights. Kosovo market has overseen by OU MK, and they did everything to keep SKP and remove PRN. I other words they did nothing, and eventually the route was performing so bad that they have to withdraw definitely. SKP was saved, and bus traffic has flourished e eversince.
ReplyDeleteIt really is the end of the world
ReplyDelete