EX-YU airports to start new year with growth, Wizz largest airline


All capital city airports from the former Yugoslavia are expected to see passenger growth during the first month of the year when compared to January 2023, with most ahead of the same month during the pre-pandemic 2019, based on available scheduled seat capacity levels. On the other hand, Wizz Air will retain its position as the region's biggest airline ahead of Air Serbia.

Belgrade Airport has the most available seats on scheduled flights in January, standing at 828.726. The figure represents an increase of 35.8% on 2023 and up 63.7% on 2019. Air Serbia will continue to maintain its position as the largest carrier, holding 53.1% of all available scheduled capacity at the airport. Zagreb follows as the second largest airport with 372.151 available seats on scheduled flights during the month. It represents an increase of 15.5% on the previous year and is up 22.7% on 2019. Croatia Airlines will retain its position as the largest carrier at the airport, with 43.9% of available capacity.

Skopje Airport boasts 329.390 seats in January, up 69.1% on the previous year and an improvement of 73.4% on 2019. Wizz Air will hold a 66% share of available seats at the airport. Pristina Airport will have 237.379 available seats, however, it has numerous flights sold exclusively through tour operators which are considered as charters. Therefore, these are not included in overall scheduled seat capacity. If only seats on scheduled flights are taken into account, the airport sees an increase of 35.1% in capacity on the previous year and 46.1% on 2019. Chair Airlines has the largest portion of scheduled seats, holding a 23% share.

Podgorica Airport has 119.288 seats on sale next month, up 5.9% and 27.3% on 2023 and 2019 respectively. Turkish Airlines is the largest carrier, with a 20% share, ahead of Air Serbia with 17.7% of the market and Air Montenegro with 13.6%. Sarajevo Airport has 118.250 seats available this coming January, which is up 18.2% on the previous year and an improvement of 41.9% on the pre-pandemic 2019. Turkish Airlines will be its largest carrier with a 20.7% capacity share, just ahead of rival Pegasus with a 19.8% share. Finally, Ljubljana Airport’s scheduled seat capacity levels will still be below January 2019 levels when Adria Airways was still on the market. It boasts 113.579 seats this January, down 35.8% on 2019. However, the figure is a notable improvement of 33.9% on last year. Ljubljana’s largest carrier by seats next month is Turkish Airlines with a 19.6% share, ahead of Lufthansa, which will have 16.134 seats with a 14.2% share.

Largest carriers by scheduled seat capacity in the former Yugoslavia, January 2024




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    Wizz will drastically reduce its capacity all over the network, due to the engine inspections they have to perform.
    Some of those changes are already filled. Like BEG is going from 4 to 3 aircraft, SKP is also losing one aircraft.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      Wizz has not finalized its schedule yet. They are moving things around. In BEG they increased BGY from 5 to 7 already.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:20

      SKP and BEG are not losing any aircraft during the summer. They will remove one from BEG and two frol
      SKP during the mid-january to mid-march period and frequencies will drop. BEG will have 3 aircrafts and SKP will have 4 during that period. Skopje - Bologna and Luxembourg will be suspended and another 25 weekly flights will be removed from each SKP and BEG. Sofia also has reduction during the period as well as other bases which is totally normal for February as its the slowest month in the aviation. Air Serbia also reduced the flights, its normal.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:22

      Also they wont reduce anything during the summer cause they have enough aircrafts now, thats why they closed Tuzla and Suceava. They wet leased two A320s for now one of which is at TIA and another one in GDN. Currently they dont even operate their whole fleet with only 110 A321neos in operation and around 20-30 parked, 39 A320s and 39 A321.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:56

      They are firing cabin crew and sending pilots to unpaid leave. Thinking that they will not reduce anything is optimistic to say the least...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:40

      That's not good. They leased a 737 in OTP as well

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:04

      They are firing now cause they hired new ones everywhere. Ryanair is doing the same, thats why you never know your destiny with LCC. They hired 25 new cabin crew at SKP.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:05

      @Anon 10:56

      I may work for a crappy airline, but they most certainly aren't firing anyone, neither cabin crew nor flight deck crew... for now. You're full of bull talking straight out of your a$$. Good job.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:24

      You must a good apple

      Delete
    9. Anonymous13:25

      Must be*

      Delete
    10. Anonymous13:33

      13:05 i was thinking the same. If you work for WizzAir can you please tell me if it is true that someone from the company needs to recommend you so that you pass the interview at the open day. I want to applay for cabin crew at SKP next summer, thats why i am asking. Thank you in advance.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous15:01

      Wizz is unexpectedly reducing capacity at Belgrade airport. Yesterday reduction of Air Serbia was met with plethora of mean comments.

      Should we just copy/paste vicious comments from yesterday, replacing Air Serbia with Wizz? No, it's better to expose douple standards by leaving it as-is.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    Mark my words SKP will reach ZAG in 2025.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      How are we supposed to which anonymous you are? In order to mark your words.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:44

      Anon@9:13
      I don't think the previous anonymous was serious.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:54

      Mark his words and we all know that SKP will reach 3.5m pax in 2024 and for 2025 definitly will reach its maximum and thats 4m pax.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:18

      SKP has had over 300,000 capacity every month since July.Quite good.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:20

      Thats what I am saying z they keep the good work and pax numbers grows every month.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:24

      Skopje has the highest increase in available seats out of all airport in ex-yu when compared to 2019. 74% is outstanding! In November they had 240k pax which was common for the summer months in 2019 not in slow month as November, while SJJ for example had only 80K.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:43

      Mark his words, the same anon claiming that Skopje is the second largest city in ex-YU. Mind you, with no flights to Amsterdam or Paris-CDG or even PRG.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:07

      @10.43 you are falling for the same troll every single time and in the same time outing yourself as a hater

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:11

      ''Mark my words SKP will reach ZAG in 2025.''

      .......................................................................................

      Mark my words, Tirana will reach Belgrade in 2025...... So what??

      Delete
    10. Anonymous11:18

      11:07 - maybe you are the one claiming that SKP is the greatest airport in the world and forgetting for example all the rest of your neighbours having at least 2x as much as your airport to begin with. PRN already is leading SKP - SKG, BEG, SOF and now TIA have at least twice as much traffic.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous11:20

      I really can't understand someone still believes in Santa Claus or in theory that TIA will reach BEG...

      Delete
    12. Anonymous11:23

      @11.18 no im not but you are on the same level as him just the opposite side and your last post proves it. You obviously have issues with the airport/country for whatever reasons

      Delete
    13. Anonymous13:12

      @11:23 You are right! Yes i said that Skopje is the second biggest city in Ex-Yu but i was wrong as Zagreb comes second. I didnt know that that bodered you so much. But my comment now is logical, it is a fact that SKP has the most improve out of all airports in ex-yu ( i am talking for seats available ), i suggest you read the article again if you missed that. It is a fact that next year will be the busiest for Skopje Airport. Not having flights to CDG or AMS wont stop us grow and brake new records. Skopje is not in the same group with SKG, SOF, BEG, TIA, The airports you named can be compared between themselfs. Skopje is doing great wheter you like it or not, wheter that is secondary routes or as you call it villages or not. We are poor country and we are happy with Beuavais and Eindhoven. For the rest of us who want to fly directly to those major airports we have enough carriers who offer connecting flights. No other airport then BEG in ex-yu has flights to Prague. Correct me if i am wrong. You can say what ever you want but cant deny the fact that SKP is growing, as everything shows it no metter if we reach ZAG or not. Stop hating my beautiful city and my airport.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous15:13

      This is too funny

      Delete
    15. Anonymous16:20

      Laugh then, whats stopping you?

      Delete
    16. Anonymous16:41

      Zagreb is 6 hours closer to the heart of Europe. People from Zagreb are 1-2 hours from Austria and Italy, 4 hours to Vienna, 6 hours to Munchen etc. Said enough.

      Delete
    17. Anonymous17:31

      Munich is even closer to the heart of Europe but it has almost 20 times passengers Zagreb has. Stop repeating irrelevant nonsense.

      Delete
    18. Anonymous17:37

      That is a lot relevant. Croats are going often with the car to Austria, Italy, Germany. Macedonians not because it is faaar away for them with many borders.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:09

    Ljubljana has the least capacity of all of them...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:12

      but its recovering ...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:26

      Shows how horrible the last few years have been

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:42

      It almost has the smallest diaspora out of all of them. Be glad for that. Having your (young) population abroad is never good.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:12

    The Wizz share in Skopje is massive

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:25

      How much is it on an annual basis?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:28

      Around 60%

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:25

      In summer it will drop to 50% as they will operate 17-18 flights per day and another 18-20 flights per day will be operated by different carriers including charters.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:12

    The growth in Skopje and Belgrade is huge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:21

      good growth for almost all airports.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:12

    Air Montenegro only third in Podgorica...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:32

      expected

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:57

      Sad how Air montenegro is 3rd in its own nation. but also how poorly OU and JU are doing regionally.
      outside of TK is bigger than JU in croatia, montenegro, slovenia and bosnia.
      OU is probably like 5th on the list regionally.
      Turkish airlines have been spreading a lot and keep growing.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:10

      JU is doing poorly in the region?? JU operates at more airports in ex Yu than any other airline and has more flights and passengers on flights that both depart and arrive at airports within ex Yu region.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:58

      @15:10
      yes JU is doing poorly.
      can you not read? wizz is the biggest airline, TK has more passangers in the region than JU.
      Im talking about regional flight. outside of Serbia.
      TK just overtook JU in Montenegro shows how poorly they are competing regionally.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:11

      No, Turkish didn't overtake JU in Montenegro. The data shows it had more capacity in January in Podgorica, not in Montenegro.

      You haven't a clue how many passengers TK or JU handle regionally, so stick to facts rather than what you wish.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:27

      @16:58 On this site region is exyu. Let me know if you don't understand comment @15:10 or if you don't want to understand it.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous17:34

      its reported every few months.
      since october TK has more passangers in zagreb, Lju, Sarajevo, skopje, Podgorica, Sofia. and when you add the load from Pegasus and then AJet very clear how far behind JU is to the turkish airlines. and when TK starts its flights to Austrailia in 2025 it will get even worse.

      lets not blindly and make false claims for JU. when they need to improve in the region.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:13

    I'm impressed that Chair is on the list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      They fly with A320s right?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:18

      2 A319s and 1 A320.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:37

      They have 3 A320, not A319. These A319 are history.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:40

      3 - 320. 2 319 are history

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:15

    Interesting how Ryanair has dropped off as the winter began

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      Logical considering that many of their flights are seasonal to the Croatian coast, including their base in Zadar.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      There is a reason why they are hyper profitable.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:45

      I would definitely add their huge expansion in Morocco. Morocco is preparing for 2030 and wants to "steal" tourists from Egypt as both countries rival each other. Honestly, Morocco is 100 times better. Not so crowded and somehow a bit more "European" at times.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:18

      Morocco has stupid visa regime.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:18

    Turkish is really pulling ahead of Lufthansa in Ljubljana.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      I have noticed that too. Very interesting.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:25

      Who would transfer via IST from LJU to Europe?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:27

      It's surprising they haven't increased LJU similar to Zagreb.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:38

      Maybe they will

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:50

      Doubtful. They already filed their European frequency increases.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:18

      ^ They haven't even started

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:38

    Good start to the year

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:40

    Pegasus Airlines is really up there. I'm surprised how much capacity they have. They to only a couple ex-Yu airports and not with too many frequnecies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:45

      They have very high density seating.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:46

      What are you talking about? They have the same capacity on planes as any other LCC. Same as on Wizz Air.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:40

    Not that much difference between Turkish Airlines and Croatia Airlines!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:44

      Well it's around 33,000 seats difference. I wouldn't say that is not that much.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:01

      Well it's not a lot considering TK doesn't have a base in ex-Yu or 40% presence at any ex-Yu airport, unlike OU.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:53

    Wow SKP is starting the year with 300k , thats massive and huge start , well done , just keep the great work , and I am sure that 2024 will be one of the most sucesufully for SKP in its history!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:27

      Not one of the most successfully but the most successful year in the history. With only 50k seats difference from ZAG, the overtaking is gonna happen soon, maybe in 2025 IF Zagreb doesnt change smth.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:50

      Dear SKP fan boys, please enough with the ZAG obsession. It has 6 new FR routes announced and already increasing frequency on other routes. What does SKP have new in 2024? A weekly charter to Tunis and few flights to Riga and that's it. SKP will never overtake ZAG anytime soon. Plus, OU still hasn't received its A220s as there will definitely be more action to come.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:18

      Well, some said TIA won't overtake ZAG soon...Hmmm...

      The fact that OU is getting A220 does not mean they will have more passengers. Only LF can drop.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:39

      SKP is not TIA

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:16

      What SKP has in 2024??? 6 aircrafts of Wizz Air which means increased destinations, Salzburg and Stuttgart as new routes plus Riga. 7-8 charter flights to Tunis, Djerba, Enfidha and Monastir not 1 as you mentioned. Four new weekly flights to Antalya for a total of 21 weekly. What does Zagreb has beside the 6 new routes of Ryanair? Oh air Baltic missed it, sorry.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous14:12

      i tie dobivaat dopolnitelen avion ako ne ti se razdenilo. Pocnaa lugjeto da si igraat majtap so tebe

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:31

      Ocigledno tebe ne ti se razdenilo posho toa znachi deka ednakvo kje ima pokachuvanje na brojot na sedishtata i kaj niv i kaj nas. Logichno, neli?

      Delete
    8. Anonymous15:03

      13:16 momko, the 6 new FR routes are operated mainly from April to October 2 weekly and with 189 seaters. Riga is just A220 and operated for a couple of weeks only from May to September and with the worst timetable in the world. But, we will speak again in 2024....

      Delete
    9. Anonymous16:22

      And the 6th jet of wizz offers another 21 weekly flights, which is far more then the 6 new routes of Ryanair, right? The schedule to Riga is perfect as it is for transfer passengers, perfect if you want to continue to Tallinn, Helsinki, Vilnius, Stockholm and so on.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous16:42

      Zagreb is 6 hours closer to the heart of Europe than Skopje. People are going with the car. Macedonians not so much. There is an explanation.

      Delete
    11. Slav.Man16:54

      TIA represents the total air transport in the country ZAG is only the hub for Croatia. The total demand and air travel of Croatia is more than double TIA and comparison between the nations will never compare.
      Also when the infrastructure projects in and around Croatia are finished along with the A220 plan the ZAG will see a further growth.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous17:19

      What A220 plans???

      Delete
    13. Anonymous17:35

      Croats know geography. Look on the map where is Zagreb and where is Skopje.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous10:06

    Wow Sarajevo is on par with Podgorica already and the Ryan flights haven even started, and is still ahead of Ljubljana, nice :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:13

    LCCs dominating as largest airlines in ex-Yu.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:07

      as in most other countries

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:14

    Well done. Most of them had a very good year in 2023.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous10:16

    Skopje has been a quiet achiever this year. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      Skopje is doing very well but Ohrid is struggling.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:19

      Agree, hopefully more new routes for OHD soon.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:21

      Lots of new routes at SKP this year.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:21

      Ohrid will see good numbers in 2024 also , and TAV also say they will build new terminal building , so thats also a food sign for OHrid.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:28

      Ohrid lost the flights to Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Milan, London, Freidrichshafen, Basel and Malmo. Some of these were last operated in 2019 and the others in 2022 and this year.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:44

      Turkish Airlines is coming back to Ohrid

      Delete
  18. Anonymous15:31

    As per the article, January 2024 Belgrade capacity is up 63.7% on 2019. Zagreb capacity is up 22.7% on 2019.

    ZAG keeps growing but BEG keeps growing at much faster rate, extending already huge gap over ZAG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:23

      SKP is also growing twice as much then ZAG, if this continues then SKP will overtake it in few years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:28

      Who asked?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:43

      Zagreb is 6 hours closer to the heart of Europe than Skopje. People are going with the car and there are no borders. Macedonians not so much. There is an explanation.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:16

      Explanation is right in front of your eyes: weak OU and unmotivated ZAG management.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:35

      And nothing about geography? Why then everybody is mentioning geography when somebody says that Tirana has almost the same number of passengers like Belgrade?

      Delete
  19. Anonymous16:48

    Priština already has more passengers than Skopje.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous17:39

    Zagreb is 1-2 hours drive away from Austria and Italy. Skopje is far away with the borders. There is a big difference when you compare Skopje and Zagreb. And I am not mentioning that Croatia has 9 airports, North Macedonia 2.

    ReplyDelete