Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of 7.732.376 passengers during the first four months of the year, with 2.64 million travellers in April alone. Among them, during the fourth month of the year, three airports stood out for their high growth rate. They include Zadar with a year-on-year increase in April of 105.7%, Dubrovnik with 33.6% growth, and Podgorica, which had a 19.4% boost in numbers. All three recorded their busiest April on record. On the other hand, several regional airports underperformed during the month, including Tuzla, which saw an 80.4% slide in figures, Rijeka, which had 61.5% fewer passengers than in April 2023, and Ohrid, which shed 30.4% of its travellers year-on-year. A number of other airports also saw their figures decline compared to last year, among which are Niš, Banja Luka, and Brač.
Passenger performance by airport, April 2024
During the January - April period, Belgrade Airport ranked as the 70th busiest on the continent, just behind Cologne, Malta, and Palermo, but ahead of Stuttgart, Fuerteventura, and Reykjavik. Pristina positioned itself as the 103rd busiest, behind Hanover, Cagliari, and Stavanger in Norway but in front of Zagreb and Santiago de Compostela. The airport in the Croatian capital itself took 104th place. It was just ahead of Pristina but ahead of the likes of Tallinn, Florence, and Nuremberg. Skopje ranked 121st, with the Macedonian capital behind Verona, Chisinau, and Crock but outperforming Paphos, Poznan, and Salzburg. During the first four months of the year, the Slovenian market was the fastest growing in the former Yugoslavia in percentile terms, increasing its overall figures by 24.5%. In contrast, the market in Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of three in Europe to register a year-on-year decline, contracting 10%. Elsewhere, the market in Kosovo grew 23.4%, Macedonia 18.7%, Croatia 17.4%, Serbia 15.3%, and Montenegro 12.6%.
Passenger performance by airport, January - April 2024
European rank of select regional airports by passenger numbers
The majority of European markets saw year-on-year growth during the first quarter of the year. In addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the exceptions were Russia (-17%) and Armenia (-1.4%). London Heathrow was once again Europe’s busiest airport over the four-month period, with 25.239.346 passengers, while Istanbul’s main gateway was second with 24.277.183 travellers. The pair saw growth of 8.2% and 8.6% on 2023 respectively. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 20.809.192 passengers, Madrid with 20.224.916, Amsterdam with 19.867.379 travellers, Frankfurt with 17.629.262, Barcelona with 16.032.270, Rome Fiumicino with 13.500.052, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen with 12.787.028, and London Gatwick with 11.805.267 passengers. Out of Europe’s top ten busiest, four are still below their pre-pandemic 2019 records. They include Paris Charles de Gaulle (-9.4%), Amsterdam (-8%), Frankfurt (-15.4%), and London Gatwick (-12.7%).
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, April 2024
Looks like Dubrovnik will be ahead of Split this year thanks to the Ryanair base.
ReplyDeleteForecast for Split is 3,5 and for Dubrovnik 3,1
DeletePossible considering they will be flying during winter too.
DeleteSplit will have at least 3.75 million, Don't think Dubrovnik will pass 3.1 million mark, so even with good winter schedule @Dubrovnik, Split will do better. Zagreb is expected to do between 4.25 and 4.3 million.
DeleteRyanair is the only reason for Dubrovnik's growth. Q1 was a disaster and below 2019 levels. That's the reason they struck a deal with them.
Deleteand Croatia airlines, Turkish, easy jet, British.
DeleteHow exactly did Croatia Airlines grow in Dubrovnik?
Deletewow in January-April Pristina and Zagreb are on the same number!
ReplyDeleteand Ljubljana and Sarajevo too.
DeleteZAG will be ahead of PRN but SJJ-LJU battle will be interesting.
Delete@09:07 not only will ZAG finish ahead but make more money too, since they have their own airline.
DeleteEspecially with FR they make more money 😂
DeleteSarajevo will be ahead of Ljubljana. Huge growth expected in next few months.
DeleteZagreb is doing great.
DeleteSarajevo will easily surpass Ljubljana by 200+k. It's more interesting to see the TGD/SJJ numbers month 2 month as Sarajevo will have a higher peak in the summer
DeleteZagreb should do 385-400k in May, wide margin cause it is hard to guess how well Ryan air is doing. I presume it'll be around 385 000, and in June over 400 000 passengers. No idea how Pristina is doing, so can't comment on that, but I presume Pristina is doing much better at the start of the year, when Zagreb has relatively low noumbers,250k per month, with Pristina having solid traffic year round, 300k almost every month, I expect Pristina will do around 3.9 million passengers this year, could even reach 4.0 million. Zagreb will pass 4.25 million mark, as is, could be as high as 4.35 million passengers this year. In 2025, on the other hand, Zagreb airport will have very good growth, anticipate 4.8 million +, could be even 5.0 million in 2025, all depend on Ryan air and Croatian Airlines performance. Croatian airlines will receive first A220s of 15 ordered. Interesting year ahead.
DeleteWhere is all the growth coming from Podgorica?
ReplyDeleteIncrease from Ryanair, LOT, Austrian, Air Serbia, Turkish...
DeleteMontenegro keeps winning!
DeleteHow yes no
Delete@9.15 and Air Montenegro nowhere on the horizon.
DeleteWell they are sixth largest in TGD. Ryanair, Wizz, Austrian, Air Serbia are all bigger.
DeleteWonder what position they are at in Tivat.
DeleteSo in April Trieste had more passengers than Ljubljana. How?
ReplyDeleteRyanair base opened
Deleteryanair opened a base
DeleteYes, Ryanair opened 5 new routes. Now they have 16.
DeleteCongrats to them. I guess that could have been LJU.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
DeleteThanks but no thanks. Thank you Italians for sponsoring cheap routes from Trieste.
DeleteItalians are subsidizing the travels of Slovenes and Austrians at Trieste airport.
DeleteYou are right. They should fly premium fares and get complimentary tea on the flight.
Delete😂😂😂
DeleteLJU had a chance with Ryanair. FR was interested, held talks with the governne t and I believe long term a deal with them would have benefited LJU and Slovenian public immensely.
DeleteBravo Fraport
DeleteNo doubt Ljubljana would already surpass pre Covid numbers had a deal with FR been struck.
DeleteLast month Zadar had barely 4000 passengers, this month over 100,000 :D
ReplyDeleteIt's highly seasonal. 95% of their traffic so far this year was in April.
DeleteLast month Zadar had over 100000 pax
DeleteHe was obviously talking about March and the difference compared to April. And you know full well he meant that.
DeleteIt just proves that that there is interest even in the off season if there were only some routes.
DeleteTuzla now literally irrelevant. So sad.
ReplyDeleteAt least OMO got over 1000 pax.
DeleteBig success.
DeleteTuzla management should have been sacked long ago.
DeleteNot gonna happen. Politically appointed.
Delete23 airports combined had 7.7 million pax.
ReplyDeleteVIE alone had 8.5 million.
ATH alone had 7.7 million.
We are still way behind the rest of Europe...
True, sad unfortunately.
Deletevienna has an established airline serving it. and vienna + istanbul have a lot of success due to JAT no longer existing.
DeleteJAT had 7-11 long haul routes and if it remained the JUG would be double the number of 7.7 million at least.
^^
DeleteI/m sure VIE and IST are thankful that JAT's demise allowed them to become the global hubs that they are today....
@Slav.Man
DeleteDude you can't be serious. 🫤
@9.28 it definitely propelled them. Look at what happened to their traffic in 92. 93 and 94 and the growth they had. I'm talking about Austrian.
DeleteWell, JAT was a bigger airline than both Austrian and Turkish.
Delete09:40 no doubt!
DeleteVIE will have 35 million pax this year and IST 70 million because JAT is no longer arround to take that traffic from them!
That is not at all what was said. It just said that the collapse of a market that was bigger than the Austrian one at the time enabled them to grow at the time.
DeleteI am sure OS and VIE growth was propelled by the demise of Yugoslavia.
DeleteHow yes no.
Yes it certainly was. Take a look at the numbers and yoh will see.
DeleteWithout a doubt VIE and OS are were they are today because they took over the ex-yu market!!! 🤪
Delete^ you can repeat saying something no one wrote. I'm sorry you are challanged to understand what was written
DeleteIt was a different time. Air travel was heavily regulated.
DeleteOf course JAT and Yugoslavia's demise allowed OS and TK to grow. I remember back in 1988 that OS only received their very first A310-300, their very first widebody and were about to launch their very first intercontinental routes to Tokyo via Moscow. JAT was operating 6 DC-10s at that time and was serving West to East the following intercontinental destinations: LAX, ORD, CLE, DTW, YYZ, YMX, JFK, DXB, BOM (after 1990), BKK, PEK, CCU, KUL, SIN, MEL, SYD and was looking at starting NRT. TK was only serving Europe and Middle East and their biggest aircraft was the A310. I am sure Turkey and Austria's economic growth helped them grow but if Yugoslavia did not break up and the GDP of the Ex-Yu republics did not tank and JAT's ops were not abruptly stopped in 1992, then I am sure they would be the size of at least Finnair in terms of fleet size and network reach. I recall reading that some of the republics (eg Bosnia) have not returned to their GDP levels which they had in 1991. I recall only did so in the mid-noughties, Croatia in early 2010s in and some only did recently like Serbia. So in short, the break-up did cost the region a lot economically, not just in terms of aviation.
DeleteJAT was flying to Australia 30 years before TK who just managed to start. with a reputation and service TK only started being able to match 10 years ago or so.
DeleteHad JAT remained and continued its growth then the whole balkans would be dominated by JAT, ZAG and BEG being huge hubs.
Vienna and Istanbul would have their own success but it wouldn't have been so quick and they would have had to develop differently.
I don't know why some are so salty. There was an interview with Vienna Airport CEO a few years ago where he openly said that the collapse of Yugoslavia had helped in the arport's traffic development during the 90s because a lot of the traffic was redirected. He also said collapse of the Soviet Union helped because Austrian began shifted strategy and started to specialize in Eastern Europe routes at the time. I don't see that as anything to be ashamed or why some here deny it. I will try to find a link to the interview.
Delete@11.18 100% VIE’s growth’s in the 1990s was definitely boosted by BEG’s demise as a hub in the 1990s. For example, Lauda Air (NG) essentially took over all of JU’s routes to Australia in terms if customers. OS, SR and LH took over capacity over the Atlantic. OU took a while to regrow out of JU’s former HR ops (yes I know it was founded before that but all the offices, staff and infrastructure like computers were essentially requisitioned from JAT after 1991). BEG only really started to grow again after JAT was rebranded as ASL before that Lufthansa group dominated with a wounded JAT flying old 737-300s and ATRs.
DeleteIt's not only OS, it is also TK, LH, LX, A3 that grew and thrived because of JAT's demise.
DeleteIt is a well known fact that Yugoslavia was the aviation powerhouse of Europe in the 70s and 80s.
^ Make fun all you want but JAT was the 29th largest airline in the WORLD by passengers carried in 1988.
DeleteOh and 8th in Europe that year, just to add.
Delete^ Correct, we were the aviation powerhouse of central, eastern, southern Europe!
Delete+1
Deletegood growth for LJU, BEG, ZAG, SOF. 2025 will be a lot better year by this trend, as OU, JU, 40, FB grow
ReplyDeleteSOF is expected to continue growing in 2024. FR based a 4th plane and already launched summer 2025 for Stansted and Bergamo. BGY will be operated 3 daily next year on Tuesdays, which is crazy. ZAG-STN is also bookable for summer 2025.
Delete25% seat reduction by Wizz in single month...
ReplyDeleteExpected.
DeleteKeep in mind they also no longer have Tuzla base which was operational in April 2023.
DeleteWhen did the Tuzla base close?
DeleteSeptember 23.
DeleteWhy is Athens not included in list of regional airports?
ReplyDeleteFor the same reason Vienna is not included.
DeleteWhy then Graz and Klagenfurt are not included? They are much close to Slovenia and Croatia then Bucharest or Thessaloniki to Macedonia and Serbia.
Deletecloser*
DeleteI have the same query. Maybe to make our results look better?
Delete^ lol yeah sure. I'm sure that's the reason. Some people here.
DeleteCroatia strong!
ReplyDeleteI agree. Very good performance. Only one that is kind of sad is Rijeka. What is going on there?
DeleteThank you for data for Mali Lošinj. Put Portorož as well.
ReplyDeleteI think it's not posted because they have some bizarre method of counting passengers which no one else uses and inflates numbers.
DeleteIt is painful to see Kraljevo's numbers. The State investing in facilities and new terminal buildings without expanding the runway makes no sense. Even if Kraljevo had professional management, they would not be able to bring some LCC because of runway limitations. Like this, they rely on JU and their ATRs ...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Vinci would be happy if KVO had a proper 2 km long runway that could handle A320/737 class aircraft.
DeleteHow yes NO!
I'm sure they're very scared of Kraljevo's immense potential.
DeleteKVO is a basket case. The RS government should have invested more into INI or Rosulje if they were serious about a second hub down south. What also happened to Užice airport growth?
DeleteKraljevo's time will come. They are just finishing up the terminal in Nis. They will focus on Kraljevo afterwards.
DeleteBut it is definitely a pity. Serbian Haj pilgrims are flying out of Pristina on a charter this year. Could have been KVO if they had the capabilities.
DeleteBravo Prishtina, I never saw that you mentioned the Airport expansion which is almost completed in PRN, if I’m not wrong
ReplyDeleteIncrease in number of passengers for Jan-Apr period 2024 vs 2023:
ReplyDeleteBEG: 332.279
PRN: 220.714
ZAG: 148.060
Interesting
DeleteWe also now know that BA’s BEG slots appear to have gone to increasing flights to Riga to daily from 3 weekly, which was launched at the same time as BEG. However, the Latvians clearly did more to retain the BA flights. See https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/transport/31.05.2024-british-airways-to-launch-daily-riga-to-london-service.a556151/
ReplyDeleteWell they paid to keep the flights.
DeleteZagreb is doing great. Obviously it is great to be in the EU, Schengen and eurozone.
ReplyDeleteYet two airports outside EU, Schengen and eurozone are doing fer better.
DeleteAs a whole, has ex-Yu surpassed pre Covid numbers?
ReplyDelete