Countries from the former Yugoslavia offer among the fewest connections to passengers travelling by air, both direct and indirect, compared to their European counterparts, according to Airport Council International's (ACI) latest connectivity report for 2022. Connectivity is the metric by which airports live - the more connected an airport is to the wider world, the more attractive it becomes to its users and the greater the value it provides to the community and local, regional or national economy it serves. The 2022 report looks at Europe's total airport connectivity (direct and indirect), onward connectivity from Europe and hub connectivity. In essence, the report defines the connectivity of an airport as the weighted number of weekly flights available from that airport to non-stop destinations and to one-stop destinations involving flights of the same airline or of two airlines in an alliance or codeshare.
Data indicates Slovenia has the poorest air connectivity on the continent out of 42 countries (if Ukraine is excluded, which currently has no commercial air traffic). It is followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ranked fortieth on the list, behind both Slovenia and Belarus, as it gains more flights but lacks services to major hubs. Macedonia settled for two spots ahead of Bosnia. While it has seen significant passenger growth over the past decade, Wizz Air's dominance and it primarily serving secondary airports impacted on the country's overall ranking. Croatia was the best-connected air market, with a significant number of summer flights from almost all of its airports and multiple daily frequencies to Europe’s biggest hubs, with onward connections offered through a multitude of codeshare agreements. Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina all improved their connectivity rank when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, although these gains were minor and were mostly the result of the movement of others on the list.
2022 market connectivity
On the other hand, the best-connected capital city airport in the former Yugoslavia is Belgrade, ranking 75th in Europe. It is followed by Zagreb, which positioned itself at the 109th spot, followed by Pristina. Although Kosovo was not taken into account for its market connectivity, Pristina was included in the individual airport rank. Overall, Amsterdam has been named as the best-connected European airport, followed by Istanbul, London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaulle, while Spain was the best-connected air market, which is proceeded by the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, France and Italy.
2022 airport connectivity
Slovenia and Ljubljana seem to be at the bottom of all aviation related metrics. Sad really.
ReplyDeleteSeems most countries without a national airline are at the bottom of the list.
DeleteIt can't be. Most people here claim flag carriers are unnecessary and that all things will be solved with Wizz Air and their flights to Vaxjo and Saarbrucken.
DeleteIt's really is unfortunate but I do think LJU has one of the most difficult propositions. Its sandwiched between busy airports in a very small market.
DeleteWhich just shows how important it is for Slovenia to have a national airline.
DeleteAnd our whole aviation was sold to Germans which turned out ot be a big mistake.
DeleteStrategic mistake. I don't mean because it's Germany but selling all the airport and the airline to any foreigner an not keeping anything to yourself. Not a smart move.
DeleteBravo Fraport and Slovenia!
ReplyDelete
DeleteWow another aviation expert .What has the »airport« got to do with the country's connectivity ?!? (and no, their charges are not expensive compared to others) How many times have you taken a bus because of a bus station ?? C'mmon use your brains folks.
When Slovenia has less id…(sadly not allowed to use adjectives for censorship reasons) politicians like Bratušek, Boštjančič &co who sold the house silverware and put the final nail in the coffin of Adria, yeah, then maybe something will happen in terms of connectivity
"What has the airport got to do with the country's connectivity?" Do you even read what you write? Do you know that Fraport as the operator of the airport is the one (together with government) who should also increase air connectivity? What was then the point of selling LJU to them? Fraport is doing absolutely nothing to increase air connectivity.
Delete*and government
DeleteA great example of how important the airport operator is can be seen in TIA. As soon as the previous parasite foreign operator left, the difference in the airport is night and day. To say that the airport operator has nothing to do with the country's connectivity is very naive.
DeleteThis just shows how unimportant our region is and how low it rates in the grand scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense as Balkans is least developed region in Europe
DeleteBalkans isn't least developed region in Europe.
DeleteWhich region is less developed?
DeleteMoldova and Ukraine.
DeleteUkraine (before the war and especially 2013) certainly wasn't less developed.
DeleteIt was WAAAY ahead of Ex-Yu countries in many areas.
Least (industrially per capita) developed European countries are Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Kosovo, Armenia, Albania, and Bosnia with stark contrast of level of life among those.
Moldova is absolutely the poorest and their current nose-diving 'president' is taking them further into that direction.
Georgia would be the same (or worse) without tourism.
And actually, Slovenia is a developed nation.
DeleteI'm really not surprised about these results
ReplyDeleteNeither am I.
DeleteIf this isn't a wake up call to the Slovenian government, I don't know what is.
ReplyDeleteThey haven't woken up for almost 3 years. They don't care. There is a flight to Brussels. That's most important.
DeleteI had hope the new government would change course on this issue but as time passes it looks less and less likely.
DeleteBEG is quite well rated all things considered.
ReplyDeletecan guarantee that if they generated this report 7 years ago the figures for BEG and Serbia would have been very different. I assume most of the growth was produced thanks to Air Serbia.
DeleteOf course. Air Serbia has generated significant connectivity, increased its codeshare partnerships with airlines across the world and flies to almost all the major European hubs.
DeleteWell done Croatia! :) and well done Belgrade
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that ACI compiles this list based on peak summer months.
ReplyDeleteThey should come up with connectivity in off season too. Results would be very different.
DeleteLJU would still be last :)
DeleteMy guess is that it would produce the biggest change with Croatia's position.
DeleteOMG Slovenia what the hell. I'm sorry but that's a disaster.
ReplyDeleteMathematically speaking, BEG is ranked among top 16% in Europe. Not bad at all!
ReplyDeleteBelgrade does well but it still needs greater LCC presence in my oppinion.
DeleteBelgrade will see its lowcost boom eventually. No way to circumvent it !
DeleteA bit too late. ASL already is the dominant carrier in both Belgrade and Niš.
DeleteHmm, very interesting indeed
ReplyDeleteResults are not surprising at all. They make sense actually.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the full list of all European airports?
ReplyDeleteConnectivity is the most important value of any airport. Asside all the glamour, large lounges, duty free areas, amusement facilities, gyms, spas and other gimmicks - what matters the most is ease of access to the world.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit surprised by Montenegro's low ranking to be honest
ReplyDeleteWhy? No flights to Heathrow, Charles de Gaule, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam...
DeleteExactly. And almost no major European legacy airline flies to Podgorica. Exceptions are Turkish, Austrian and LOT.
DeleteIt used to have flights to many main European cities when Montenegro Airlines was around.
Delete@9.29 Air Montenegri flies to CDG. But it is not in IATA, it has no codeshares and makes connecting through any airport impossible. The ceo of the airport mentioned that a few weeks ago when TK launched flights to Tivat. It was published here.
DeleteLJU has flights to AMS, CDG, BRU, FRA, MUC, ZRH, LHR, DXB.. and it still ranks below TGD.
DeleteAren't some of those flights timed quite badly so they don't connect to much?
DeleteWhile Sarajevo's growth has been impressive in the recent year, it still lacks flights to most major European hubs. I believe SJJ is going down the same route as SKP.. Offering a lot of destinations but lacks quality of the destinations it offers.
ReplyDeleteThat is true. Flight on Sarajevo are usually for Tourism and dijaspora. Generaly people from BiH are not traveling a lot. If you want to go from Sarajevo it is realy bad connected. Last year are better, but before Wizz it was disaster.
DeleteBeing from Slovenia, it is plainly aware that we are at the point of no return. Our aviation industry has been completely ruined.
ReplyDelete:(
DeleteSad. Those rankings are very low
ReplyDeleteSlovenia dead last. Wonder if anyone at the Ministry of Infrastructure will read this report and if they even care.
ReplyDeleteThey are very much aware of it. They don't care.
DeleteWell they should have taken into account an average waiting time for security as well. On Amsterdam Schiphol airport waiting over four hours on passing security and in the end missing your flight or taking off with a huge delay because they are waiting for passengers is part of the "new normal"... so rather give me ZAG where in four hours I can pass security (15 min.), fly to Amsterdam (2 hours) and transfer within Schiphol airport to a connecting flight (1 hour)...
ReplyDeleteThis has only been an issue at AMS in the last few weeks. Hopefully more people come back into the industry and these scenes can be avoided.
Deleteethic traffic wont make u a hotspot
ReplyDeleteLJU has today 22 flights. 4 of them are cargo and two are charters. Just 16 scheduled flights. Disaster.
ReplyDeleteIn peak summer :(
DeleteTomorrow is nothing better. 21 flights, 4 of them charters and 1 cargo.
DeleteFlydubai is also downgrading LJU from daily to 5 weekly. Bad news keep on coming.
DeleteAlso it looks like Corendon isn't coming and easyjet is reducing from 6 to 5 weekly. Its going to be another bad year.
DeleteThings are going from bad to worse.
DeleteWhat can LJU realistically do?
DeleteFly Dubai is not reducing its frequencies. It will be daily from august. Corendon never announced flights, there was an article here saying they are considering it…
DeleteThen it means they delayed it. They were supposed to increase to daily in June.
DeleteCheck Flydubai site. Its 5 weekly in August.
DeleteLJU is 378th, which airports are 377th and 379th?
ReplyDeleteare LCC's included in the "connectivity" model?
ReplyDeleteYes they are
DeleteEven if they include them they don't fly to major airports or offer connections which would explain Macedonia's relatively low score
DeleteBosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro have been near the bottom of the list almost every years. But Slovenia used to rank much much better before. Shows the value of Adria.
ReplyDelete* every year
DeleteA National Airline is must for small countries like ours. People from these countries are not using planes for traveling. And we are.not traveling like some other countries. Usually these routes a for tourists and diaspora. When people here start to travel more it will be better connected and vice versa. Because even if you want to travel from here a connection is not good.
DeleteSlovenia will continue to stagnate if nothing is one by Fraport and the government.
ReplyDelete*done
DeleteI sent this article to Fraport Slovenia
ReplyDeleteLet's hope it makes some of them think, but I think they are well aware. of this.
DeleteHopefully the airports will use these reports to improve their connections.
ReplyDeleteEx-yu where can we find the entire list?
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteEveryone from ex-Yu needs to improve.
ReplyDeleteAMS truly is a global hub
ReplyDeleteYes and you have to wait 3 hours to clear security at AMS :)
DeleteWhat does that have to do with their connectivity?
DeleteJist arrived to beg. Total disaster.
ReplyDeleteKinda pointless to leave a comment such as this without any details.
DeleteSlovenia's aviation is collateral damage of bigger forces. It is Shift of global business and economy from TransAtlantic economic area to Aisa pacific. Also because of deglobalization process the rot is first happening in the periphery and going toward the center. small countries, small ,markets suffer first. It is also due to end of capital accumulation in the capitalist economic system of debt based economy. Dont get fooled by this short lived uptick in air traffic in other areas. Comes September/October is true test of inflation, oil price increases, electricity price increases and cash strapped population. It will be a scary situation in the fall.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteIt was funny to me, that DXB is not on the global top 20 list for 2022. DOH is 14th, even SAW placed 18th. The other fun fact is that 11 airports on the global top 20 list come from Europe (12 if we count SAW) 6 from the USA (DFW in the lead, followed by DEN; EWR; ORD, CLT and ATL ) and YYZ from Canada
ReplyDeleteto improve ranking /connectivity it's not just flights to important cities. Airlines also have to have codeshares
ReplyDeleteCroatia leader due to inbound tourism. What is lacking the region are business travel and outbound tourism
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for others but Serbia has quite a bit of outbound tourism. Look at charter flights
DeleteStill that us nothing in comparing to other countries. We don't have habit to travel with the planes because you can reach woth you car everywhere. Also we don't have hobbit to use plan and go to some destination for weekend. Outbound tourism is missing. I agree
DeleteInterestingly, if you look at the report where airport connectivity is rated, Belgrade is quite ahead of Sofia for example
ReplyDeleteIt's amusing that for years in these reports Germany always had the best connectivity but has now been overtaken by Spain and UK. Good on them.
ReplyDeleteBoth BCN and MAD have worked hard to open new routes. Aena is a great operator.
DeleteYou only have to look how ex-Yu suddenly got flights to MAD and BCN from many cities, which wasn't the case just a few years ago.
DeleteAdmin, very interesting subject thanks!
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteWith Finnair suspending ZAG from 28.07 I wonder if this will impact their ranking.
ReplyDeleteA realy good article. A statistic is always best indication
ReplyDelete