easyJet was Pristina Airport’s busiest airline in 2021 as three major European low cost carriers handled the bulk of Kosovo’s passenger traffic. easyJet welcomed 282.357 travellers on its Pristina operations, notably improving its position on the year before when it was the airport’s fourth busiest airline. The carrier also outperformed its pre-pandemic traffic levels by 5%, as it handled 268.674 passengers in 2019. easyJet maintains just three routes out of Pristina, which include Berlin, Geneva and Basel, with the latter being the airport’s busiest destination overall. LCCs accounted for 52% of Pristina Airport’s passenger traffic. Eurowings was the second busiest airline with 236.849 travellers, while Wizz Air followed closely behind by handling 229.738 passengers.
European legacy airlines have continued to see their share at Pristina Airport decline, as LCCs and flights organised by tour operators take a leading role. Turkish Airlines was Pristina’s busiest legacy carrier, handling 124.955 passengers on its flights from Istanbul last year. It was followed by Austrian Airlines with 103.505 travellers and Swiss International Air Lines, which managed to carry 20.032 passengers on its service between Geneva and Pristina. British Airways, which maintains seasonal flights from London Heathrow, was the fourth busiest legacy carrier, accounting for 8.032 travellers.
easyJet was not alone in managing to outperform its pre-pandemic traffic levels in Pristina last year. Pegasus Airlines posted improved figures on its pre-Covid era performance by welcoming 146.611 travellers, compared to 129.744 in 2019. On the other hand, Eurowings reached 69% of its pre-Covid passenger numbers, Wizz Air managed 90.8% and Chair Airlines attained 82.5%. Switzerland continued to hold its position as the busiest market out of Pristina, with 38% of all passengers either departing or arriving from the country. It was closely followed by Germany with a 32% share, then Turkey (15%), Austria (6%), Sweden (3%) and the United Kingdom (2%).
Legacy carriers have cut their onboard service that much in recent years that they've lowered their standard to equal low cost carriers. So there is no longer any point paying extra to fly with the likes of Lufthansa or Austrian when their service is no better then easyJet or Ryanair's.
ReplyDeleteThere is a point if you transfer and people do transfer a lot. Second reason is more central airports which legacy carriers use, third - if you need baggage, legacies are price competitive and fourth - some people like business class experience.
DeleteWhen you look at it, PRN does not have too many legacy airlines flying there.
DeleteTrue that. But there's BA, interesting.
DeleteBA went from a weekly flight every Saturday to 4 weekly towards the end of the summer season, but changes to the UK entry rules related to Covid effected it (Montenegro entered the list of red countries, and Kosovo was expected to do too although it did not in the end). This coming summer season the one weekly flight has been upgraded to twice weekly already.
DeleteBA has moved most of its European network to Gatwick Airport, but has kept Prishtina at Heathrow (moved to Terminal 3 from Terminal 5 though) and this is significant as the Kosovan community in London is centered in northwest London and Gatwick Airport being south of London is a terrible location. So, I remain hopeful for this route in 2022.
In the meantime at LJU they went from 4 routes and around 3 daily flights to 1 route and few flights per week. "LJU keeps winning" they say..
ReplyDeleteEasy was LJU's busiest airline after Adria went bankrupt... now it has one weekly flight.
DeleteWhat I find interesting when comparing PRN and LJU is how PRN managed to cover the loss of its main airlines over the year - Belle Air Europe, Germania and Adria.
DeleteThey did find replacement. All passengers are now flying via LH hubs. Even more, they got rid of airlines/routes (and are not trying to get new routes) where LH cartel has the most transfer passengers. Bravo Fraport!
DeleteThe situation was quite different between LJU and PRN with regards to these airlines.
DeleteIn the case of Germania, for instance, they did not 'discover' and serve this market themselves. These independent travel agents contracted them and they grew and grew and grew. The moment Germania went bust because of the rest of the business, not because the market in Kosovo was not working for them, the independent travel agents moved their business elsewhere. In the case of Air Prishtina they initially setup their own Chair Airlines, which then they sold to Enter Air and expanded their offer to Prishtina to now serve not only with two A319s that Chair Airlines had in its fleet, but with Enter Air's B738 and just recently Chair Airlines acquired a A320 which serves mostly BSL-PRN route.
In the case of Adria, the market is not fully covered. LH Group sent Eurowings to offer approximately the same number of seats as Adria on its PRN-FRA and PRN-MUC routes. But PRN-LJU is unserved and I know for a fact that this route was being used by the north Italian communities too.
The same with Belle Air Europe, a lot of the market that they covered never 'recovered' but it has since be re-routed. Until recently only Air Prishtina was connecting Kosovo to Italy with its PRN-VRN route, but now Wizz Air has opened MXP-PRN and FCO-PRN routes. That's a decade since Belle Air Europe collapsed.
But, yes, the most significant routes were picked up reasonably quickly by LH Group and independent travel agents, which I don't think exist as a concept in the Slovenian market.
No wonder easy did not cut any flights to Pristina this winter unlike at all other ex-Yu cities.
ReplyDeleteToday it was announced that they are terminating BER-PRN.
DeleteInteresting. Would have thought busiest would be one of the tour operators.
ReplyDeleteSame. Would have thought it would be Mywings with their partner Trade Air.
DeleteIt surely is but i think they're only counting real airlines.
DeleteIt isn't. All airlines are counted.
DeleteIf a single airline was used by the independent travel agents, such as MyWings, then it would have been the busiest airline but they use different airlines:
Delete1. GP Aviation with 177,152 passengers;
2. Trade Air with 147,574 passengers;
3. ETF Airways with 127,655 passengers;
4. Air Mediterranean with 78,454 passengers; and
5. Malta MedAir with 14,960 passengers.
I don't know hot the Tui flights are arranged, but you might be able to add here passengers from TuiFly GmbH and TuiFly Belgium.
On the other hand, Air Prishtina, had:
1. Chair Airlines with 139,386 passengers; and
2. Enter Air with 87,184 passengers.
So, well over 200,000 passengers served by Air Prishtina plus they send a lot of passengers to Eurowings as they cooperate.
Independent travel agents have carved a niche for themselves and I just hope they don't get too greedy and lose it all.
Thanks for the numbers, some interesting names there.
DeleteAnd a question: Could any airline register an AOC in Kosovo?
DeleteYes, the could. But there's little benefit in doing so.
DeleteIt's simpler for these operators to lease aircraft from EU-based airlines and cover all of the markets they want to fly to.
To this date there has been no incentive, and I don't necessarily mean in terms of subsidies, to register an AOC in Kosovo. Neither from the government nor from the airport operator.
How insanely busy is the Swiss-Pristina market.
ReplyDeleteIt is a huge market. I mean Edelweiss sends A340 during the summer.
DeleteVery interesting results to see. Thanks
ReplyDeletePRN did very well last year considering the circumstances.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAny chance Easy will open some new route from PRN?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it
DeleteI wonder if them starting flights to Skopje will have any impact on their Pristina flights?
ReplyDeleteWhy would it? These are two different markets. I doubt people from Kosovo will go to Skopje when they have the same flights with the same airline at the same price from PRN.
DeleteFigured would only be impacted if SKP-bound passengers flew with easyJet to PRN. Some did, particularly from GVA, but I don't believe it was many. But the bottom line is that both, PRN and SKP, can coexist and can continue to grow. If they are clever they learn from pitfalls of each other, but also from the success of each other.
DeletePegasus seems to be hurting TK in PRN big time
ReplyDeleteeasyJet’s result is by far the most impressive considering they achieve that figure with just 3 routes to PRN!
ReplyDeleteTrue but two out of those three are from Switzerland ;)
DeleteI have a feeling Wizz will open a base in Pristina sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteAirport is too expensive for them to open a base.
DeleteWizz Air is more than welcome at PRN, but the management has proved the point that it can grow without giving unfair advantage to airlines like Wizz Air at the cost of alienating its long-term operators such as Turkish, Austrian, and others. But I would like to see Wizz Air expand its offer at PRN, I certainly would.
DeleteThe airport in coordination with the government made the following offer:
1.
Decouple services at the airport so that if an airline such as Wizz Air does not require certain services then it does not pay for them. An example being jet bridges;
2.
Offer incentives to all airlines for new routes, new frequencies, and such.
To me, as a neutral, that sounds fair.
Good mix of airlines.
ReplyDeleteI don't get why Edelweiss flies from Zurich to Pristina and not Swiss...
ReplyDeleteEdelweiss cost base is cheaper than Swiss's.
DeleteEdelweiss crew and service is better than Swiss actually.
DeletePlus Swiss codeshares on these flights.
DeleteSwiss is flying to GVA
DeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeletewow PRN is not far behind SKP in the share of the market LCCs have.
ReplyDeleteI believe Skopje has around 70% so there is a difference.
Deletebut it's worth to mention that PRN does not give away state subsidies (like SKP does to W6). meaning PRN is VERY organic
DeleteNot quite true. PRN offered subsidies that to the best of my knowledge have now expired. But it has offered subsidies to all airlines, including Wizz Air.
DeleteWhat you're probably trying to say is that it did not offer subsidies that would give Wizz Air unfair advantage compared to other airlines that operate at PRN. That part is true.
Pegasus should start 3x weekly LJU.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia - Turkey market is huge and with low prices Pegasus offers and historically low TL, the market would explode.
very healthy statistics!
ReplyDeleteWell done PRN!
A few (unorganised) notes about 2021 at PRN.
ReplyDelete1.
easyJet has seriously increased its offer at PRN and I am glad they have become the busiest airline but some of the praise must go to the airport management and staff, who one several occasions have been recognised by easyJet for the quality of the ground services. They started with twice weekly services from Basel and Geneva and grew very conservatively, but they finally offer more than daily flights from both destinations (10 weekly mostly) and they also managed to make Berlin work, which also goes daily during the high summer season.
They opened CDG route on the expectation that Schengen visas would be waived for Kosovan citizens and it didn't quite work, but if that ever happens I expected CDG and AMS to be opened by easyJet.
2.
Eurowings with mostly a single aircraft at PRN is also doing well and expanding this coming season. I don't consider them low-cost by any stretch of imagination, hence the old school no-frills terminology in my posts. But they have kept a reasonable schedule to FRA and MUC during the pandemic and passengers are able to connect to onwards destinations.
3.
Pegasus are the only genuinely surprising operator of the year. They operate mostly A321 flights to PRN on a daily basis, but they land very late and depart during an ungodly hour, so the fact that they have more passengers than Turkish Airlines with their North American routes is a pleasant surprise. Good on them.
4.
The biggest losers not just of the year, but of the decade perhaps, remain Swiss. They have by far the largest market on their doorstep and could sweep the North American market and perhaps also the West European market. But I don't know whether it's the fact that they are owned by Lufthansa or what, but they have lost half of its Zurich market to Basel no-frills airlines and serve (together with Edelweiss) around the same number of passengers although their O&D market is multifold bigger. A shame.
5.
The last two years have been the years of independent travel agents. Considering that they cooperate with Eurowings, if you add them all together and move Eurowings to their category then they lead the market more than no-frills or legacy airlines. They have become particularly useful during these turbulent times with constant rule changes (quarantine, PCR test, various forms) by offering genuinely changeable flights (name, date, route, etc) and passengers have clearly reacted. I few days ago I posted how I was unable to cancel a business class flight with Austrian. Wizz Air charges you more to change a flight than book a new one entirely. And with this landscape these small independent operators have found a niche.
6.
I consider ZRH and BSL to serve the same market. After all, they are 1 hour drive apart, much the same as IST and SAW. With that in mind, how does ZRH/BSL-PRN market compare to BEG-POD or SSJ-IST/SAW market considering that it serves 720,000 passengers? Is that the busiest air corridor in the former Yugoslavia?
Thanks for the notes, very insightful.
DeleteThere were talks, even agreement, on PRN-BEG flights. What's your POV on it: chances to happen, chances to be successful...?
Firstly, because I was typing without reviewing, I made at least two mistakes that I noticed later.
Delete4a. Swiss, including it subsidiary Edelweiss, carried approximately the same number of passengers from PRN as Austrian although the Swiss market is 6.33 times bigger than the Austrian market.
6a. I meant to say BEG-TGD route. I would still like to know how does PRN-ZRH/BSL compare to other air corridors.
Now, Anonymous @13:13, you've asked a very sensitive question that it's easy to lead to different misunderstandings.
I will say the following:
1.
The agreement and talks for the BEG-PRN route took place at a time that it has become clear that other agendas may have been in place. The people mediating might have had other agendas and were pushing for arrangement that were not necessarily long-term or stable solutions. It appears that they were more after headlines than substance, but there are other that disagree and I am fine with that. This arrangement of having a neutral airline (Eurowings) open the route does not seem long term to me primarily because of the monopoly that would be in place, secondly because it would only cover O&D market, perhaps the aircraft or schedule would not be ideal to help develop the market.
2.
My view is the following: I think that the Kosovan CAA wanted a 'normalisation' of the BEG-PRN air corridor. That means airlines, any airline registered either in Serbia or Kosovo or EU, could operate the route and crucially for Kosovo for the air space to be open for flights from and to PRN. JU could then open the route and if it does I think it will be much more successful than TIA. Ordinary people (on the street, so to speak) do not have any issues flying to BEG or via BEG, and unlike TIA I strongly believe that there is a significant O&D market too (although that may not be evident from day one). It's only logical that BEG-PRN is busier than BEG-TIA. So, read into this whatever you want. There will be others that will not fly via BEG, but in my view most of the traffic is inbound from 3rd countries and people just want decent prices and a convenient schedule.
3.
If an agreement could be found where Serbian authorities don't feel like they have explicitly recognised Kosovo, while Kosovo does not feel like it's giving away access to the market for nothing in return (opening of the air space being the main point) could be a long-term and stable solution. Then let JU or Wizz Air or Air Albania or anyone for that matter fly as much as they want.
4.
Some on this site, Nemjee being one, have said that PRN needs JU more than JU needs PRN, but that's not the point. PRN is doing well enough, apparently within top 100 busiest airports in Europe (if you take away connecting passengers from BEG perhaps the figures are not far apart between the two airports actually), and whatever the intentions of the closure of air space were in 1999 it has not prevented the market from thriving. It all air corridors are open then both countries will benefit financially through air traffic management fees. If BEG-PRN is opened then both countries will benefit through more passengers feeding into JU's network and PRN-bound passengers having more options. But if it doesn't happen then neither will suffer a fatal blow. They will coexist.
Thanks a lot. I think this site is safe environment to disccuss sensitive topics and that's one of the reasons I'm coming back.
DeleteI've been on streets of Prishtina and I have absolutelly same feeling about people's preferences. I hope we'll witness direct connection sooner rather than later. People should meet, get to know each other, get over some bias and transportation is key condition for that to happen. Looking forward to it...
According to the initial Wikipedia list of top 100 busiest airports in Europe , Kosova and PRN made it to the 93rd position putting airports such as Trondheim, Reykjavik and Gothenburg behind! Unbelievable achievement!
ReplyDelete