The former Yugoslavia’s 24 commercial airports handled 4.416.759 passengers during the first quarter of 2023. Brač managed to see its first travellers of the year this March, with three passengers handled. On the other hand, the region’s newest commercial airport in Kraljevo welcomed a total of 1.689 customers during the first quarter, with its two weekly Air Serbia flights to Istanbul. This figure was some 500 passengers ahead of Rijeka before the start of the busy summer travel season on the Croatian coast. Following a strong February and March, Ljubljana extended its lead over Sarajevo during the first quarter with just over 7.000 passengers setting the two apart.
Passenger performance by airport, Q1 2023
In March itself, just one airport from the former Yugoslavia was within the top 100 busiest on the continent. Belgrade positioned itself as the 78th busiest in Europe, just behind Reykjavik, Malta and Cologne, but ahead of Riga, Thessaloniki and Larnaca. Zagreb just missed out, placing 103rd. It was behind the likes of Yerevan, Luxembourg and Stavanger in Norway, but ahead of Tbilisi, Tallinn and Pristina. Pristina itself was 111th on the list, ahead of Verona, Paphos and Cluj. The Kosovo market saw the third fastest growth rate in Europe during the month when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019. Skopje and Podgorica were the only two other airports from the former Yugoslavia to make it within the top 150 busiest in Europe during March.
Passenger performance by airport, March 2023
During the first quarter, the Slovak market saw the biggest decline in passenger figures in percentage terms in Europe (excluding Ukraine) when compared to the pre-pandemic era and was just ahead of Slovenia which saw the second largest decline, down 41.2%. On the other hand, Albania recorded the fastest growth, amounting to 91%, according to Airports Council International Europe, and was ahead of Armenia with a 37.6% increase. The Kosovo market registered 36.5% growth, Serbian 26.3%, Montenegrin 18%, Croatian 12.1%, Bosnia and Herzegovina 11.3%, while the Macedonian market saw its passenger figures grow 2.7% on the same quarter in 2019. Notably, Russia has handled more passengers so far in 2023 than four years ago with 4.5% growth. Overall, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe during Q1, handling 16.9 million passengers, ahead of Istanbul’s main gateway, which was second with 16.4 million travellers. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Istanbul Sabiha Gocken, London Gatwick and Rome Fiumicino.
European rank for EX-YU capitals and select regional airports, Q1 2023
Mostar and Brac competing for the bottom.
ReplyDeleteBrač.
DeleteLošinj Airport is the winner between the clash of the bottom titans
DeletePortoroz is impressive. How do they handle so many passengers when they have no commercial flights?
ReplyDeleteAnd in Q1 they handled more pasaangers than Osijek, Rijeka, Kraljevo and Pula which all had at keast one scheduled service.
DeleteTrue although I heard they have some weird way of counting passengers, if anyone can confirm
Delete@9.32 tell us more :D
DeletePortorož is a proof that thinking out of the box works. You don't need commercial trafic to work well, but charters, private planes, taxis... Something that Maribor and Osijek should look into for outgoing charters and Brač , Lošinj and Mostar for incoming traffic.... And they would all bloom, but why bother if your salary is paid anyway.
Delete@ Anon 11:41 Even such mini-Airports require quite some funding to be operational.
Delete3.300 PAX in 4 months translates into an average of 27 passengers a day.
In what world does classify as 'blooming'?
I would like to have the job in the flight tower there. Would be like a Slovenian Homer Simpson: all you need to do is press 2 buttons a day.
DeleteThanks for the list! I like this monthly review for all the airports.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteZagreb and Pristina very close. It will be interesting to see who will have more passengers at the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget Split which could be ahead of both by the end of the year.
DeleteIndeed, seems like Banja Luka is taking a chunk off ZAGs traffic.
DeleteAt the end of February, the difference between ZAG and PRN was 15,000. Now it is 45,000 at the end of March. So PRN won't overtake ZAG as the difference will keep growing as the year goes on.
Delete@9.17 Dude
DeleteLooked at your earlier predictions and they all failed miserably.
Delete@Anonymous18:31
DeleteLOL
Interesting that Podgorica has more passengers than Ljubljana in Q1, when you compare the population size of two countries and the flow in Q1 could not be attributed to tourist arrivals in Podgorica.
ReplyDeleteIt is not that surprising when you consider Podgorica's location and that driving anywhere is not very convenient. Although they are interesting to compare as neither has transfers.
DeleteWhat is most interesting that the collapse of Montenegro Airlines, which wasn't that tiny, has barely been felt at Podgorica Airport.
DeleteJust as the growth in ZAG could not and can not be attributed to its national carrier.
DeleteIt's about LCCs
Slovenia has highways and trains and a good location unlike Montenegro
Delete24 ex yu airports: 4.412.763 , Athens airport : 4.476.251 . Still ex yu market is insignificant in Europe .
ReplyDeleteThat's the bottom line.
DeleteThis goes to show how far behind Croatian airports are and how little tourism traffic they have compared to the important players. I guess most tourists go to Croatia by road.
DeleteYou can’t compare Athens with any Ex-Yu airport. ATH is a huge hub in Balkans the comparison can be done with Thessaloniki as they did in the article.
Deleteand good luck geting to Greece and Turkey with a car :D
DeleteKosovoars will start travelling without visas 1 Jan 2024. So I think next year PRN will be ahead of ZAG.
DeleteATH market is insignificant in Europe and the world. Why waste time discussing non-ExYu airports like ATH or ATL?
Delete91% growth in TIA is impressive.
ReplyDeleteIf it continues at this pace, will surpass Belgrade this year or the next.
What is the Q1 2023 growth vs Q1 2022?
Delete53%
DeleteIt seems you keep forgetting how many new destinations JU is going to open in BEG this year.
DeleteThe growth at TIA has been a bit perplexing to me. Do they have the facilities to handle that many passengers, especially in summer when I imagine most tourism travel will happen?
DeleteThe terminal was expanded last year
DeleteTIA 91% growth is insane! Every Airports dream!
ReplyDeleteAren't there other airports in Albania? 91% is growth for entire country.
DeleteAlbania is looking for 100,000 tourism workers this summer, they are really growing! The social media clips helped a lot….
DeleteThey have a second Intl. Airport in Kukes. But it is seasonal and very small.
DeleteVlora International incoming...
Delete+1
DeleteWhen will open ? 2024?
2025 for elections
DeleteGood results overall
ReplyDeleteLJU will probably be around 1.5 million this year.
ReplyDeleteProbably around 1.3 million.
DeleteDepends on the subsidies as well.....how many airlines will start new flights from LJU following the subsidy scheme at the start of the winter.
DeleteIf LJU grow up 60 % per month like first 3 months was, then have easily 1.5 million passengers.
DeleteSo basically in Q1 BEG handled 30% of all traffic, not bad.
ReplyDeleteToday there are I think 83 departures and tomorrow over 90.
Yesterday there were over 100. It will be very busy at the airport for May day holidays.
DeleteHow are things going with Sofia? Will it overtake Belgrade again?
ReplyDeleteDespite everything, Ljubljana is growing slowly.
ReplyDeleteairport were slovenians going on holidays. Probably same story in zagreb on that day (it was a public holiday in slo). Seeing that its just sad
DeleteLook eventually LJU will get more passengers. The subsidies will surely bring at least a few new routes as Sierra5 said in their article (something about the LJU-BER route) 2 days ago that the interest was pretty big and quite a few airlines submitted the application but of course, it is not known which are those airlines yet. And there will be discussions about the new national carrier as well as it was reported earlier this year so there is at least a pinch of hope still for that even though that I am probably going to get roasted in the comments for that....
Deleteits about an online petition ^^
DeleteDBV vs SKP ia also interesting to follow. They were apart by some 10k
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting point in the article for me is the Russia part - +4.5% on 2019, despite the sanctions and the war.
ReplyDeleteYup, that's incredible!
DeleteA lot of one-way out of Russia tickets to avoid the draft. Not something to be proud of.
DeleteSure sure.
Delete@Anonymous 19:26 cope harder
DeleteThat terminal in Split on the photo looks beautiful. Really nice job they did there.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to have data for SOF, ATH, OTP, BUD.
ReplyDeleteSplit and Dubrovnik and other Adriatic coast airports' numbers clearly show that Croatian tourism functions old socialist way. They rely on sun only. There is no effort to add value and make it year long industry.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's old socialist way. Croatia is held hostage of unreformed wing of ex- SKH/SKJ, interest organization Kradeze, which destroyed croatian civil aviation, robbed the country, made half of young and educated population leave the country, and which is not interested to have any kind of strategy for any field of economic development, tourism including, because they care for their pockets and benefits only
DeleteThe difference between Portorož and Rijeka is really incredible. How can that be? Who doesn't do their job properly here!?
DeleteThe State is majority owner of Rijeka Airport. Kradeze is in charge. Your post only confirms what I wrote before.
DeleteCroatia is really not that attractive during winter time, I've been working in tourism for over 10 years and have seen so many different winter tourism incentives, but never with any significant results, the reality is that there is so much nicer places to go during winter months, we'll never be a significant winter tourism destination.
DeleteDo you know that old story: 2 shoe salesman went to Africa. First called office and said: "Why did you send me here, everyone is barefoot". Second one called and said: "This place is great, no one is wearing shoes ".
DeletePiR: and who owns Pula, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik? notice yourself, right?
Deleteanonymous17:34
DeleteThere is a segment of tourism in North America that is called Snowbirds where retired folks Canada, Northeast US, Mid West (Chicago, Detroit) move to Florida, Arizona in winter months. Probably the weather in Croatia is not as warm as Florida in January but it could be attractive for long term stay (3-4 months) and for retired guests if price is right compared to lets say cost of living for these 3-4 months in lets say Scandinavia.
Of course its not summer weather in January in Mediterranean but if i would have a choice and ability as retiree to live 3-4 winter months in Split or Thessaloniki or Alicante instead of Edinburgh or Gothenburg there would be no doubt in my mind what i would choose.
But it has to be promoted from the state level. I believe Portugal is doing something similar with aggressive campaigns.
cant compare really Portugal weather in winter with Jadran please
DeleteBoris, you can't compare Split/Dubrovnik with Florida/Arizona/Portugal/Alicante, those places have much better winter weather. I am from Dubrovnik, we have 110 rainy days per year! Add bura and jugo and you'll see the reason why tourists avoid us in winter months.
DeleteTIA the best
ReplyDelete