Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is finalising work on its new central processor building and runway, with both expected to come online in less than a month. According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the central processor building, which has already been partially opened in the arrivals area, will be used by departing passengers early next month. The facility will serve as the central drop off and pick up point for passengers. It will act as an integrated facility with the remaining terminals and jointly feature almost 100 check-in desks. New retail, as well as food and beverage facilities, will be located inside the new processor building, as well as expanded centralised security and passport control.
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Belgrade Airport has also begun testing its new automated baggage handling system. As part of an upgrade of its baggage handling capabilities, the airport has also acquired BAGXone, manufactured by the French Alstef group. The high-speed AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) is designed to handle individual bags. The AGV can cover short distances (check-in to screening machines or from the screening machines to an Early Bag Store (EBS), reconciliation room, make-up carousel) or long distances and are easily adaptable to suit scalability and redundancy requirements. It easily interfaces to load and unload from the baggage handling system and can reach speeds of up to seven and a half metres per second.
The construction of Belgrade Airport’s new inserted runway is also nearing completion. A Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) - an aviation document informing all carriers of important and urgent messages - has been issued indicating the introduction of the new runway 12R/30L, new taxiway D1-D7 and taxiway Y from February 23 until March 23. During that period, radio navigation and landing aids will be introduced for the new runway as well as changes to navigation procedures at the airport. The new runway is 3.500 metres in length and will replace the existing one, which will be overhauled in the coming period. Once its reconstruction is completed, the inserted runway will become a parallel taxiway besides the original runway. The two will be linked through a new system of taxiways, including four rapid exit taxiways (RETs), for which exits have already been built. The inserted runway will also be used in the future, should the main one be incapacitated to handle aircraft for whatever reason. The overhaul of the existing main runway will commence this year. Belgrade Airport’s existing runway was built in 1962 and was extended by an additional 400 metres to 3.400 metres in 1978. It has been determined that its weight bearing capacity is no longer sufficient.
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Nice! Can't wait to use it
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see they will have a lot of passport booths
ReplyDeleteEven up to now there were enough passport booths but not all of them manned with respective personnel. I always saw empty unused booths both on arrival and departure.
DeleteIs there any way to automatise the passport control at least for Serbian citizens via some eGates or something? I imagine that the sacred stamp for foreigners is inevitable though… I arrived last night at the same time as 3 other flights and the queue at passport control was so bad. Not all booths were opened of course…
DeleteThere was an egate some years ago for Serbian passports issued aftet a certain date but it was constantly breaking down so they eventually removed it
DeleteYeah, and there was a single eGate where it really should be a couple of them. I hope they bring them back at some point, the queues at the passport control can really be disastrous, even in winter. 2 weeks ago was coming back from BRU, took me one hour to clear immigration, almost as long as it can take me to enter EU
DeleteHonestly it is beyond comprehension that while they are modernising and expanding the airport, they wouldn’t do something to improve the passport control experience. Sometimes there is even a long queue after the security checks at departures which can be quite stressing
DeleteAnonymous12:12
DeletePassport control is slow in almost every country i`ve been too, entering Greece or Israel can take up to 3 hours sometimes (at least in my experience) by using the airports. BEG needs to improve, but lets be honest, even though there are very few used booths the staff is pretty efficient (which may come at a cost of not doing a proper check on people), especially when it comes to Serbian citizens that don`t even get stamped and the whole check lasts just couple of seconds. Just let people do their jobs.
Bravissimo!!!!
ReplyDeleteBravo BEG 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
ReplyDeleteI hope that they cover the facade of T2 building which is partially visible so it matches the new building plus extensions. T1 they should leave as is.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSadly I do not think they will do it. I doubt it....could be that it will be this mix/match different color design.
DeleteI think they will match the old T2 building with the new one. On the render, the old building has the same color scheme as the new one. The video showing the airport's future look in that part shows a new entrance and a green wall with a big screen for ads.
DeleteThey wont' do it as old T2 building looks similar. Not part of the budget. Don't bet they ll do it.
DeleteIn one word, "wow".
ReplyDeleteFinally
ReplyDeleteOh I'm flying next month. Hope it is open by then!
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested to see the F&B and shops they will have.
ReplyDeleteLooks beautiful, well done to BEG
ReplyDeleteWhen the central processor is done, what other projects are left to do?
ReplyDelete- Runway reconstruction
Delete- Completion of A gate reconstruction (although they will probably finish this in a month too)
- Reconstruction of current T2 check in
- Park development in front of airport
- Extension of C gates wing
Looking forward to them developing the park. It looks great on renders.
DeleteWhat's with further extension of C wing?
DeleteWhat do you mean?
DeleteI mean C gates extension till C17. I don'have any information about it.
DeleteIt was announced by the airport's CEO in the past as the next phase of the development. It was published here (and it is visible in all renders).
DeleteI know. When next phase begins?
DeleteIf this year's expansion goes according to plan then I think it will speed up their expansion plans. BEG increased their charges at a time when they are recording record passenger numbers. On top of that they are having more and more extra revenue from shops so they should have a very solid financial performance this year.
DeleteHope airport reaches 7 million passengers this year.
ReplyDeleteWith a solid performance in January, I think 7 million is absolutely guaranteed. JU's expansion is kicking off in less than a month and I think April will be extremely strong, I expect over 10% growth compared to 2019.
DeleteGood job doing all this without stopping operations on the airport.
ReplyDeleteThat inserted runway is a stupidity of unimaginable scale.
ReplyDeleteIt was required by the government.
DeleteSo what will they do when they'll really need a second runway, build a third one, at taxpayer's expense? 🤦
DeleteThe inserted one will be a taxiway so its not like you threw money through the window. I don't think BEG will need a second runway any time soon.
DeleteThere already was a taxiway.
DeleteIf there is someone with knowledge it would be interesting to tell us the difference in price per sq2 for building a runway and a taxiway, without counting the navigational and radio/ILS equipment.
DeleteThe 'inserted runway' was never part of masterplans but a separate runway on the other side of the airport.
Deletehttps://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EwrzXyUVbz8/VQUzbPfixUI/AAAAAAAAQPM/xMmWbaU9y54/s1600/beg2025.jpg
Yes, but that plan was made in 1987. Things changed since then.
DeleteThis plan makes a lot of sense.
DeleteIt has a separate terminal and satellite terminals as well. It was made for an airport that by 2025 was supposed to be handling something like 40 million passengers per year.
Delete@Anon09:20, care to elaborate a bit your opinion that the inserted runway is a stupidity?
DeleteSingle runway in Belgrade is sufficient from the traffic load perspective, and will be so till the time that hourly demand exceeds 50 operations for a sustained period of several hours over a several months. We’re still more than a decade from that, even in most optimistic scenarios.
At the same time, the current runway needs a thorough overhaul, rendering it out of service for many months. Further, single runway is a major risk for business continuity for an airport having an ambition to become a regional hub.
However, building a second parallel independent runway would cost easily three times the cost of the inserted one, given that it would need a completely independent system of taxiways at the far end of today’s movement area, not to mention the displacement of the public road. All of this, however, wouldn’t start paying off for at least a decade, and would have to be subsidized (imagine from where?).
Do you still think the inserted runway was a stupid choice?
That plan was made in 2003.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2015/03/belgrade-likely-to-expand-without.html?m=1
Yes it was made in 2003 based on 1987 masterplan made in 1987. You can also find the 1987 masterplan render online. It is exactly the same as the one you posted.
DeleteYou sound like the one who presented this abomination to the world.
DeleteYes, i think it's a stupid choice cause instead of solving it merely delayed the problems.
One decade is nothing in terms of aviation.
And by then, instead of the 'concessionaire' the taxpayers will have to foot the bill.
BUD/OTP/PRG/KBP/WAW were all built with dual runways at the time when their traffic was WAAAAY behind what BEG handles currently or in the 80's/90's.
I guess they were all stupid and didn't see the illumination the 'inserted' runway brings 💡 🤦.
FYI - BUD started building their second runway in 1977 when their traffic was ONE million.
DeleteWhen Budapest built its second runway, it was still a military owned aerodrome. This explains a lot. Others on your list were also not drive by economy logic.
DeleteTaxpayers will not build the parallel independent runway; it will be built by the concessionaire (this one or the future one) once the traffic conditions dictate it.
Inserted runway is not a good sight for our typical imperialistic (yet provincial) megalomania but does the job just fine, and costs nothing the taxpayer. Welcome to the world of rational aviation investment.
While i do agree that the inserted runway is not ideal, we can all agree that building a second one to the south-west, as per the master plan would be a massive endeavour requring governmemt involvment to expropriate land, and resolve illegal building issues on said land, which is owned by the airport since the 80s.
DeleteYou all forget that another prominent Vinci run airport - one little Gatwick, servicing 40mil pax, has the EXACT same runway situation that will become the norm in Belgrade. The inserted runway may not have been a govt requirment, Vinci has some expertise with those, and they probably did the math and realised that the 2nd runway would not pay off well.
Once BEG nears 15mil by the end of the concession agreement, then we can think of whats next
BUD has more than double of the BEG traffic in 2022 and they have 2 runways. BEG will probably achieve its current traffic in 5-7 years time. It is not necessary for BEG to have a 2nd runway. Traffic is still way too low.
DeleteDear Meraf,
DeleteBUD was also a military airport prior to 1977 as well.
They somehow managed it.
The reason they went for it is the increase in passenger numbers, from 1 million in the 70's to two million in the late 80's.
Still WAY below Belgrade at that time.
Regardless of the rationale behind it then, are you somehow trying to tell me that by nowadays it wasn't justified or they (them and other central European airports) should have waited for 2020 to do it?
You think LOT's expansion would have been possible in such a scenario?
Being mindful is planning AHEAD, not applying patchy and costly half-way solutions at the last minute.
What we're seeing here is nothing rational but stupid logic from the onset.
The land reserved for the second runway shouldn't have never been touched.
...or you're somehow trying to explain me how 1 full runway+ inserted runway + another one full runway some time in the future or three runways is somehow cheaper than two independent runways? 🤪
How can three be cheaper than two or this is some buy two get one free? 🍟 🍔
I don't think so.
This was an opportunity to correct this stupid mistake that that runway wasn't built in the 80's, hellas, albeit not tragical this mistake is indeed enormous, from an architectural point of view, its stupidity staggering and its cost astronomical.
Have a nice day (or flight from the inserted one 😁🛫).
Btw Gatwick airport looks VERY similar to BEG airport.
DeleteGeneva and Gatwick manage more than 20 million passengers per year with single runway operations, including a very strict night curfew. Therefore, from the perspective of the passengers' needs (the ones who should, in the end, pay for the runway) BUD still doesn't need the second runway, let alone back in 1977. (I use here passenger numbers as you keep on quoting them, but the runways are built with reference to number of aircraft operations, not to number of passengers, although there's a correlation between the two).
DeleteWhen you say that the opportunity was missed to build the second runway back in the eighties, note that five miles to northwest of Belgrade, there's a military aerodrome with three parallel runways - that's where the air force fulfilled their needs and Belgrade was focused entirely on the civil use.
No opportunity has been missed in the past (except the opportunity to waste money), nor it is being missed now. The land earmarked for the second runway is still there, defined in national and local urban planning documents (Prostorni Plan Republike Srbije i Plan detaljne regulacije područja aerodroma). Contrary to widespread opinion (also here), the land foreseen for the parallel independent runway is not cluttered with the illegal constructions. It's still fields. Illegal constructions do spread like a cancer, but up to the limit of the airport expansion area. Once the economic reality of traffic requires the second independent runway, there's room for it to be built.
Be also aware that no airport operator that is driven by economy logic would build a second independent runway for an airport that does not exceed 20 operations per hour for maximum of four daily hours in a peak day. If Serbian government put a condition for the concession that the second independent runway is built, there wouldn't be a concession (apart from, possibly, with some snake oil sellers like the guys who took the Maribor's one). There's only one alternative to this inserted runway built by Vinci - that the independent runway is financed from Serbian budget. Now, that would be a complete waste of public money.
I heard that both runways can be use for takeoffs and landings not simultaneously but with much shorter delays.
DeleteThere is a plan for new airport in Belgrade anyway.
DeleteAlthough it may look counter-intuitive, but the use of both runways in Belgrade (the main and the inserted one) would, in fact, slow down the traffic flows. This is due to the fact that both runways are served by the same system of taxiways, therefore, if one runway is used for departures and the other for arrivals (as is normally the case with independent parallel runways), the departing aircraft will have to cross the arrival runway to get onto their departure runway (or other way around), thus both slowing down the flow and introducing unnecessary safety hazards (crossing an active runway while taxing is the most hazardous scenario at any aerodrome).
DeleteThey can"t use main and inserted runway at the same time. Runways are too close and that's a main reason for the whole story about the justification of adding a runway.
DeleteAll these arguments are useless, since when the day comes, the parallel runway wont be wasted. By the time we reach required pax numbers, and built the second runway, the inserted one can just be dismatled bit by bit and turned into a taxiway, basically what FCO did 20ish years ago with runway 16/34C, which today serves as a taxiway
DeleteIt makes sense very much. It will be definitely taxiway from Bravo to Charlie and that helps to relief congestion when planes are pushed back from C gates during the rush.
DeleteCannot recognize it from just a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteGood progress. With the opening of the central processor I hope that the huge mess in front of the airport with car congestion is finally solved.
ReplyDeleteAll things considered they completed the main projects at the airport rather quickly. They started work in early 2019 and 5 years later they are almost complete all the main projects.
ReplyDelete* 4 years later
DeleteI'm interested to see what they will do with the old control tower.
ReplyDeleteIt is up to SMATSA what they do with the tower.
DeleteIn fact, the old tower is owned by the airport, not SMATSA.
DeleteNo it is not. A few years ago the operational director of the airport said in an interview that was published here that the tower is operated by SMATSA and that while VINCI can give its suggestions on what to do with the tower it is up to SMATSA to decide.
DeleteMeyraf speaks lots of nonsense today.
DeleteAre these finished? When its going to happen?
DeleteWhat is with the new arrival passport control? Any pics, development?
ReplyDeleteIt will look the same as the ones you see for departures.
DeleteAre these finished? When its going to happen?
DeleteThank God. Belgrade will finally get a decent airport with adequate infrastructure which can sustain long-term growth.
ReplyDeleteNow we see that Vinci was a good choice for BEG. They started with the expansion on time (during covid) so that they could cope with post-covid demand.
Without all this investment, JU's upcoming expansion would have been impossible.
Even JU's 2020 expansion would have been a challenge. Already back then BEG did not have enough gates to serve everyone. That is why back then W6 had to move FMM and YM TGD to a later time. From what I remember, FMM was supposed to depart at 07.45.
With adequate facilities. Tesla can now further position its role as the main gateway in its wider catchment area.
great work by all the good people at ANT and Vinci!
ReplyDeleteWith Air Serbia's expansion and them focusing on increasing the share of transfer passengers, I really hope the airport will build a hotel. At least for starters they could do some pod-style hotel, which is rather inexpensive for the airport.
ReplyDeleteAgree! Much needed
DeleteAnd rail link to the city
Delete+1
DeleteI couldn't agree more with the comments above. Congratulations for the work done, all looks quite impressive. After all this is done, a hotel and the train link to the city (and ideally to Novi Sad and Nis as well) are something that is obviously missing. Not sure who would be in position to deal with the hotel, Vinci or the government of Belgrade/Serbia, but for the rail link, I know that government needs to be involved, so that might prove to be tricky because since 90s, they managed to devastate national rail system and bring it to a level beneath the level of the rail in between the great wars...
DeleteLooks good
ReplyDeleteReally nice picture of T1 with the sunrise ...looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteHotel hotel hotel, will repeat this for Vinci to read this blog. For a big European city, an airport hotel is SUPER important. That said, BEG needs at least 2 similar to many other airports. Come on, a hotel can be constructed in 1 year with no problem. So many international brands such as Best Western, ibis, etc to begin with.
ReplyDeleteAre you aware that a hotel was not a priority given the overall state of the airport when the concession was announced?
DeleteThere were so many other things that needed to be addressed, from the runway, new ATC, expanded terminal facilities and so on.
A hotel is a welcome addition but it's not absolutely necessary. After all, there is Hotel IN by the Belgrade Arena which is no more than 10 minutes away.
How come it is not a necessity? If there are going to be so many new routes. There will be delays, cancellations, weather issues, etc. JU currently offers layovers of more than 12 hours sometimes. There are night flights, there will be more trafic.
Delete@10,26
DeleteBEG had and still has a lot of other tasks that need/ed to be completed first.
- separating arrivals and departures.
- expanding the terminal.
- expanding the aprons.
- additional gates.
- resurfacing the runway.
- building a new runway to cater for the main runway being closed for resurfacing.
- adding high speed exits at the runway.
- expanding arrivals.
- reorganising the access roads.
- upgrading the cargo facilities.
- upgrading the luggage sorting facility.
A hotel doesn't affect their operations, but the limited gate space did and was a problem during a couple peak periods in 2020, hence if needing to choose between the 2, expanding gate space is the priority. Runway is in urgent need of reconstruction, closing it for a month would affect operations. Again a hotel there isn't the priority, it's the runway.
I don't know if you have been to BEG recently but it's still a mess. Building a hotel during this phase would only make things a lot worse. Not everything can be done straight away. The most important projects that were a must are now in the final stages for completion. A hotel is a nice thing to have, but currently not a must.
Remember that the airport isn't being built from scratch, it's fully functional and has to remain functional during the entirety of the reconstruction with as little disruption to operations as possible.
Biće i hotela i železnice i mnogo više od toga u blizini aerodroma.
Deletehttps://novaekonomija.rs/vesti-iz-zemlje/vlada-utvrdila-plan-za-nacionalni-stadion-i-kompleks-expo-2027
Ako Beograd dobije Expo, a to je veliko AKO. Cak i da dobije BG:VOZ linija pored Aerodroma do stadiona NE moze da se zavrsi za 4 godine a i kostala bi preko 300 miliona. Ne nasedajte.
DeleteAko su izgradili brzu prugu do N.Sada za tri godine zašto ne bih verovao da će za 4 god. izgraditi 10-ak km. obične pruge? Ako i ne dobijemo Expo možda će sajamski prostor biti prolongiran, stadion,hoteli i pruga će biti izgrađeni.
DeleteDa pratis, znao bi da je prethodni plan kojim je pruga od Surcina do fabrike vakcina trebalo da bude ukopana - odbacen. Novi predlog plana kaze da ce pruga iznad centralnog dela aerodroma biti kompletno na stubovima. Da se kladimo da ce i to biti odbaceno (a vreme prolazi)
DeleteIt's nice that they matched the check-in desks to the ones in T2.1 and T1.
ReplyDeleteIn three weeks time redy to be in new Processor Building and take off from new runway. Will be exacting. 😀🛫🌐✈
ReplyDeleteBravo Radovane, napišite nam utiske.
DeletePostovani Anon 14:56. Verujte da cu napisati kada stignem u Sydney. Posto letim do Ciriha sa Er Srbijom.
DeleteCim se malo odmorim od jet lag. Ovo je i simbolicni
usamdeset osmi povratni let izmsdju Beograda i Australije. U zadnjih 53 godine. Od kako sam na koridorima u podnebesju Gospodnjem.
Nisam siguran kada budem napisao tekst utiska leta izmedju Beograda i Ciriha, kako treba poslati tekst? Da li redakciji Bloga. Ili na EX YU - AVIATION.
Obzirom da do sada nisam opisivao utiske na ovom blogu... Veliki pozdrav i uspesno vam dolazece prolece. 😀🛫🌍✈🌏🛫🌐✈
R.✈
Na ovoj adresi se šalju 'trip reports':
Deleteexyu@exyuaviation.com
I nemoj zaboraviti slike. ;-)
Postovani Carlie 01:00. Hvala Vam za adresu koju ste napisali za slanje moje price utisaka sa puta. Videccu da koliko mi bude dostupno za fotografisanje na prvom segmentu leta...
DeleteSvako dobro.
Radovan. ✈😀🛫
Excellent news!
ReplyDeleteHoping they add some passport egates.
ReplyDeleteYes please! It is becoming more common across airports worldwide.
DeleteI didn't understand what this
ReplyDeleteThe high-speed AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle will actually do?
Help the baggage sorting or passengers or ... Especially the part saying it is "designed to handle individual bags". Anyone can explain the purpose?
This is a third time that they postponed the opening of BCIR (RWY 12R/30L).
ReplyDeleteWhat are you talking about? This is the original date set in January. And in January it was reported that this is the date.
DeleteSo glad to see that airport is getting bigger and bigger
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that phase 1 will open sometime in September...if anybody knows...I usually go end of August or beginning of September from Toronto I hope by the maybe some airline might go directly
ReplyDeleteThree issues no one seems to have noticed or is not authorized to provide answers:
ReplyDeleteRoad infrastructure right after (to the left of) the processor building is still in the rough shape and does not seem to be ready for early March operations in 10 days (or even 2-3 weks). Is it going to be ready soon?
What is the purpose of foundations seen in picture below the one with the sunset? Older plans had that area earmarked for future expansion of processor building. Are they just laying the groundwork for future expansion or has this area been repurposed for some new function?
Once processor building opens up next month or in the coming months, how exactly will current large space at upper level of Terminal 2 with security and departing passport control be repurposed and with what deadline?