Three airports in the former Yugoslavia have placed among the top 100 busiest on the continent this February, as well as during the first two months of the year, according to Airports Council International Europe (ACI). With a total of 208.917 passengers last month, Belgrade Airport ranked 81st ahead of the likes of Stuttgart, Malta and Luxembourg, but just behind Thessaloniki, Riga and Tirana. Pristina Airport positioned itself as the 94th busiest with 156.447 travellers handled. It was ahead of Newcastle, Tallinn and Larnaca but just behind Gothenburg, Vilnius and Ibiza. Zagreb Airport made it into the top 100 by placing 98th, handling 148.830 travellers. It positioned itself ahead of Treviso, Salzburg and London City, but behind Tromso and Larnaca.
February performance
During the first two months of the year, once the January results are added, Belgrade Airport was the 77th busiest on the continent, Pristina Airport was ten spots behind, while Zagreb Airport ranked as 96th. Elsewhere, Skopje Airport, as the fourth busiest in the former Yugoslavia during the first two months of the year, ranking just outside the top 100 on 111th place. It was followed by Sarajevo, which positioned itself on 131st. Ljubljana, which welcomed a total of 75.731 passengers through its doors over January and February, was Europe’s 148th busiest airport, placing between Biarritz in France and Kutaisi in Georgia.
January and February performance
Overall, during February, the Kosovo market was the only one in the former Yugoslavia to exceed its pre-pandemic 2019 figures by 13%. It was followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had the smallest decline compared to the same period two years ago. During the month, the first effects of the war in Ukraine were felt on the continent, albeit its impact was still limited as it occurred towards the end of the month. During February, Istanbul Airport was the busiest in Europe, with 3.548.431 passengers, which is still down 26.6% on 2019. It was followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid, London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
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| February results by market |
I expect a big boom in March
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a big one for BEG, that's for sure.
DeleteLooking forward to see March performance.
DeleteAfter slower January and February, we can expect very good BEG result this year. I predict around 5 million passengers.
DeleteSummer will definitely perform will with many new routes.
DeleteWhat are your predictions for March numbers?
DeleteI don't know if I should laugh or cry
ReplyDelete"Ljubljana, which welcomed a total of 75.731 passengers through its doors over January and February, was Europe’s 148th busiest airport, placing between Biarritz in France and Kutaisi in Georgia".
The sad part is that both Biarritz and Kutaisi will be miles ahead of Ljubljana once the summer season begins since they have many flights in summer.
Deleteembarrassing
DeleteBravo Fraport!
DeleteWonder where the airport would be if Adria was still around.
DeleteCertainly in a better place than it is now.
DeleteWill be interesting to see if they manage to keep these rankings this year. So far they are.
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. Many western airports are still affected by Covid. Once that wares off over summer, I think only one airport from ex-Yu will be in top 100, and towards the end of the list.
DeleteLet's wait and see. Hope all can.
DeleteImpressive results for Pristina. Tirana as well.
ReplyDeletePRN has achieved incredible results.
DeleteIt will continue through the year.
DeleteIn recent interview of the President of Wizzair for newspaper. He said that Wizzair is opening a base in Pristina and will start soon many new destinations. This will be a big boost for Pristina Airport...
DeleteIt was only a matter of time. Good for PRN.
DeleteCongratulations. I'm really surprised to see Tirana ahead of all of them.
ReplyDeleteWizz air is the answer.
DeleteTrue. How many planes do they have based there now?
DeleteI believe 7 at the moment. Although, Varadi said that he will base 8 this coming summer.
DeleteTirana boomed purely because of the change in management. They lowered the airport charges to LCC-level. In return the airlines boosted their frequency and destinations.
6, soon 7
DeleteVery impressive. How is Air Albania competing against them?
DeleteNot to mention that they are successfully managing their recently opened second airport in Kukes. Impressive.
DeleteWizz is also going into Kukes starting June with 4 routes and will compete with ZB on flights to BSL.
DeleteAnon 10:32 They have been quite competitive in the Italian market despite Wizz's much lower prices, which is great for the customers. Last week they launched ATH and STN and next week they're launching DUS. Also Antalya and Bodrum in summer.
DeleteAnon 10:27 Actually 7 currently, 8 from next month.
Kukes will take some pax frm PRN
DeleteWill an ex-Yu airport ever reach top 50?
ReplyDeleteOnly BEG has the potential to be in top 50.
DeleteYes, in few years as EU starts forcing people in "old Europe" to use trains instead of planes on environmental protection grounds...
DeleteWhen you think about it, it's sad actually.
DeleteWhy is it sad? I just took a one day trip from London to Paris and it took a bit over 2 hours between St. Pancrass and Gare du Nord. If I'd fly out from any of the airports, it would take me longer and probably cost me more. Most of western Europe has excellent railway network and it's not just a great alternative to flights, but sometimes beats them. And not to mention the carbon footprint difference between the two.
DeleteWhy sad? It's excellent not only for environment, but also for passangeres since taking a train will save the time people normally lose commuting to airports and going thorugh security.
DeleteYes, rail is so advance in the former Yugoslavia.
DeleteI would love to know what is currently the busiest route from ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo has really improved its rank. Perhaps next year it could be close to 100.
ReplyDeleteWhat a line up of Lauda planes in Zagreb in the photo :D
ReplyDeleteIt is the main reason for Zagreb's relatively good performance.
DeleteSeems like the airport made a smart decision.
DeletePassenger wise yes, time will tell whether it was a financially sound decision.
DeleteAnon 09:21 So you believe that the consortium running Zagreb Airport is not able to make a financial projection about Ryanair operations, but despite being not able to calculate how much they will earn and how much will this cost to them, they have launched the project.
DeleteI have no more comments :)
Considering the amount of loans they have taken out and the amount of times they have restructured their debt, I am not sure.
DeleteThey are taking new loans to refinance old loans under better terms.
DeleteMakes you wonder how insignificant the ex-Yu market is. Just 3 airport in top 100. All three almost barely.
ReplyDeleteThis is great compared to the situation 2-3 years ago. They are gaining significance :)
DeletePuts things into perspective
DeleteThis is a poor and undeveloped region. What do you expect?
DeleteDuring the "dark ages in" communism", "behind the iron curtain", in times full of fear, poverty and tortures, this region had living standards 3 times bigger than today, it was maybe not extra rich but definitely not poor, especially compared to Eastern Europe, and it was much more developed than today, in all fields and especially aviation. I just wonder how many more years will have to pass until people in this region open their eyes and get rid of corrupted criminals who took over throughout entire region and who made us all poor and undeveloped during the last 3 decades
DeleteWhat numbers do you use to establish that the standard of living in Yugoslavia was higher than it is today? if i remember correctly, the economy collapsed in yugoslavia at the end of the 80s, keyword hyperinflation.
Deletewhat is the background of most corrupt criminals in the eastern bloc? in my experience in the 90's the biggest thieves were those who came from the old ruling class
Give it a rest people. It has nothing to do with airport numbers for January and February.
DeleteI don't use numbers. With numbers and statistics you can back up anything you want. I use my eyes and my brains : 80 percent of people in ex-yu had income they could live on, travel, going to holidays, going out, building weekend houses or buying flats and so on. Today, it's 20 percent of such people. Or roughly, 3 times worse. Not to mention ex-yugoslav airline companies, which were among Europe's strongest, each in its own field of work, unlike today. Numbers at the region's airport might be slightly higher - the sad part here being numbers are product of the people who fled and tourists, almost exclusively achieved thanks to foreign, and not ex-yu airlines, with exception of JU but on symbolic level only
DeleteWe are hearing stories about standard in former Yugoslavia but we all have cousins in Western Europe, America, Canada, Australia... Why they fled the country if everything was so nice as someone tries to convince us? The other thing is that famous travelling with Yugoslav passport and majority of people travelled as far as Trieste to buy some jeans which now you can do in almost every city of every country which were in that very same Yugoslavia
DeleteYeah, right, people travelled as far as Trieste only. Before writing such BS you should have looked at Aviogenex charters map, currently in vintage section, with flights to Rome, Paris, London, Palma, Athens, Istanbul, Antalya, Tunis, Cairo.....And it's only Aviogenex, JAT and Adria had much more. People travelled more for tourism during Yugoslavia than today. Talking just about travel, leaving alone free health care, free education, construction sites everywhere, succeses in sports, culture.... Even such important things as blue jeans were produced and sold in ex-yu, Levis and Wrangler for example. Same as Marlboro and Winston, Coke and Pepsi, Renault, and Opel, and so on and so on. For cousins abroad, people used to leave ex-yu for diferrent reasons, and for generations, Rijeka had scheduled direct ship service to New York long time ago. And if our situation was better today than before, and we all expected that to happen, at least some of those cousins should have returned. But they are not returning, even more people run away. However I know I will not make you change your mind and you are more than welcome to continue believing both global and local brainwashers who obviously did their job succesfully in your case, that Yugoslavia was evil, poor and bad place to live in. I, who lived its best years know for sure it was opposite.
DeleteEvery single person that I've talked to only mentions a jeans from Trieste and shopping in Thessaloniki, so I have every reason to believe that majority of people traveled only there and that holidays in for example Canary Islands, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc was not that popular as today. Nowadays is also a lot easier to travel to various destinations. Charters you have now also. Not for capitals like Rome and Athens because we have almost daily flight there for less than 100 euros return ticket. Also we have great success in sport nowadays as we had at that time. Maybe even greater now. Coke and Pepsi are producing near Belgrade as we speak. We don't have Goli Otok now and we don't sleep in the park because we can afford ourselves a home (thank God (pun intended)) and we do not share one bottle of beer. So my point is it is is far from perfect now but don't get ourselves about some former country that in theory was perfect but in reality it fell apart because it was far, far, far away from it
DeleteGoli otok was there for those supporting Stalin and dominance of Soviet Union. I don't know which parallel Universe you live in but banks are taking flats and houses from people on daily basis and we have tens of thousands of homeless people in ex yu who sleep in parks and share bottle of beer. Hundreds of thousands of old and sick digging the waste to survive is our reality as well. If for you achievement is to have on the market what we had 50 years ago but majority of people cannot afford it, then I can just say once again Bravo for brainwashers, global and local
DeleteSeems ex-Yu markets in general are performing much better than the rest of Europe.
ReplyDeleteEastern Europe in general is performing better than west. Things will change in March.
DeleteEx yu never was and will never be Eastern Europe. Mentality, way of life, culture, tradition, habits, everything is different. It belongs partly to Southern and partly to Central Europe. No matter how much corrupted politicians and those who believe them trying to place us behind the iron curtain where we had never been, in order to justify theft and ultra discounted sale of assets in the entire region
DeleteYes, the mentality is Central European and Southern, but of course also Eastern. due to the very different history, the mentalities, religions, etc. are also so different.
DeleteNice. Last year we only had 2 in the top 100 and before Covid just 1. Let's hope it can stay this way.
ReplyDeleteThis year it will likely stay 3 in top 100.
DeleteThe current war between Russia and Ukraine will have a big impact on most of Europe. Especially East.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on how long it drags on. IST will definitely benefit big time.
DeleteThe likes of Poland and Hungary will be more impacted than any ex-Yu country.
DeleteI was expecting February too be much worse to be honest
ReplyDeleteMe too considering how many airline cut flights, especially Wizz Air.
DeleteTK is making most of the situation.
DeleteWow at Russia being at 0% in February, even though war had just begun at the end of Feb. I can only imagine the disaster in March.
ReplyDeleteWhy wow? I mean 0% in February 2021 compared to February 2019 is something most markets in Europe can only dream of as illustrated in the map. I presume had the war not started, growth would have been around 10% in Russia, if not more. Of course, March results will be extremely poor.
DeleteNext six months is what matters.
ReplyDeleteThe entire year matters...
DeleteHopefully they all manage to improve their rankings.
ReplyDeleteIf they improve their passenger numbers, their rankings will improve too.
DeleteYou don't say.
DeleteLooking at the map, ex-Yu markets performed quite well.
ReplyDeleteWow, nice to see LJU beating every other European capital city airport at being the worst.
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteBravo Fraport!
DeleteInteresting. Thank you for the results
ReplyDeleteLet's hope Ljubljana stays in the top 150 this year.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will. It is 148th at the moment but there are many summer airports behind it at the moment which will have huge traffic in next few months and stay ahead of LJU for the rest of the year unfortunately.
DeleteI'm curious to see how BNX and INI will perform this year. Both have finally received considerable boost in flights.
ReplyDeleteBelgrade is behind Tirana? Really poor result at the start of the year, hope things will change in March, or someone should be changed
ReplyDeleteIt's ahead of all ex-Yu airports. Not just Belgrade.
DeleteBy the end of the year it won't be.
DeleteAre you sure? Tirana is commencing many new routes this summer. I really think they are heading towards the 5 million mark.
Delete5 million this year you mean? That's impossible. Obviously by the end of year we won't be ahead of BEG but being ahead these 2 months has still been a great achievement, it would be unthinkable even 2-3 years ago.
DeleteTIA had around half the pax of BEG in 2019. BEG is still recovering, TIA not so much. Comments about TIA being ahead of BEG is the same as when BEG was ahead od BUD. Don't get me wrong, the growth in TIA has been fantastic, but it would need to double traffic to be on BEG's prepandemic level, with a 0% increase in BEG, which isn't the case.
DeleteObjectively BEG will be ahead of TIA by the end of the year and this is for many reasons.
DeleteIs TIA going to grow exponentially? Yes, and based on current numbers TIA will likely be between 3.5 and 3.7 PAX this year which is indeed a fantastic achievement for them.
In March, the real fun begins
ReplyDeleteIn a few years I think Skopje will also be in top 100.
ReplyDeleteWizzair is opening a base in Pristina. That will hit Skopje airport...
DeleteRyanair is definitely having a very positive impact on Zagreb Airport. Had it not been for them, number would have been the same as Skopje or even lower. I expect the growth to continue.
ReplyDeleteAn unbelievable comment. Ryanair boosted airport performance.... Definetly in line with the Orwellian doublespeak of today... An airline that pays no or disproportionately little for the airport services is seen here as boosting the performance of an airport. Such lack of understanding. What an one-dimensional conclusion.
ReplyDeleteNo, it would be better to depend on the Cartel only, and have numbers, connectivity and options for passengers LJU has
Delete"Definetly in line with the Orwellian doublespeak of today..."
DeleteThe term you're looking for is doublethink. And RyanAir passengers are definitely better than no passengers. Besides it's a myth that LCC passengers are less likely to spend money at the airport - look at BGY as an example and the number of high-end brands that have outlets there.
Cerosene prices will skyrocket in summer and many routes will become unprofitable .
ReplyDeletePrepare for the worst ...
Ok
DeleteHow did Budapest perform during the first two months? Would be interesting to compare with ex-Yu airports.
ReplyDeleteWhere can I get the full list?
ReplyDelete