Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of 24.872.887 passengers during the first eight months of the year, with 4.94 million travellers in August alone. Among them, during the eighth month of the year, three airports stood out for their high growth rates. They include Zadar with a year-on-year increase in August of 30.2%, Tivat with 28.6% growth, and Sarajevo, which had a 24.2% boost in numbers. On the other hand, several regional airports underperformed during the month, including Tuzla, which saw a 67.8% slide in figures, Banja Luka, which had 20.4% fewer passengers than in August 2023, and Niš, which shed 20.2% of its travellers year-on-year. A number of other airports also saw their figures decline compared to last year, among which are Skopje, Ohrid and Rijeka.
Passenger performance by airport, August 2024
During the January - August period, Belgrade Airport ranked as the 76th busiest on the continent, just behind Larnaca, Lanzarote and Reykjavik but ahead of Glasgow, Sofia and Thessaloniki. Zagreb positioned itself as the 110th busiest, behind Menorca, East Midlands, and Leeds, but in front of Olbia, Chania, and Pristina. Pristina itself took 113th place. It was immediately behind the abovementioned, but ahead of the likes of Split, Trondheim in Norway, and Chisinau. Skopje ranked 136th, with the Macedonian capital behind Cork, Treviso and Santorini but outperforming Ponta Delgada, Tromso and Zakynthos. With over 1.4 million additional passengers by the end of August compared to last year, Croatia is the fastest growing market in the former Yugoslavia in 2024 based on the number of added travellers.
Passenger performance by airport, January - August 2024
Number of added year-on-year passengers by market, January - August 2024
European rank of select regional airports by passenger numbers
Most European markets saw year-on-year growth during the first eight months of the year. The exceptions were Belarus, Russia (-15.5%), Armenia (-1.9%) and Sweden (-0.2). London Heathrow was once again Europe’s busiest airport over the eight-month period, with 55.800.267 passengers, while Istanbul’s main gateway was second with 53.452.178 travellers. The pair saw growth of 6.7% and 5.3% on 2023 respectively. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 46.719.178 passengers, Amsterdam with 44.519.984, Madrid with 43.892.023 travellers, Frankfurt with 40.872.258, Barcelona with 36.868.441, Rome Fiumicino with 32.624.741, London Gatwick with 29.219.959, and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen with 27.526.718 passengers. Out of Europe’s top ten busiest, four are still below their pre-pandemic 2019 records. They include Paris Charles de Gaulle (-8.9%), Amsterdam (-7.4%), Frankfurt (-13.9%), and London Gatwick (-8.4%).
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, August 2024
I think this is the first time in summer that Pristina had more passengers than Zagreb.
ReplyDeletewho cares. Pristina will never have what we have! Great connection to Western Europe plus Ryan Air base.
DeleteWell I wouldn't say Zagreb has such outstanding connectivity to Europe with some major airports missing - Lisbon, Madrid, Prague, Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm (in winter), Milan Malpensa....
DeleteAlso Prishtina is smaller and less affluent than Zagreb. So anonymous 09:24 should start hating less.
DeleteZagreb is 1 hour drive from Austria, 2 hours from Italy. Pristina is much far away geographically.
DeleteZagreb has terrible numbers given the wealth and tourism potential of the city. Hopefull it will do better in the future but proportionally to its population Prishtina is doing very well!
DeleteZagreb has nice numbers.
DeleteSo does Prishtina
DeleteZagreb is in a country with 9 airports and in a country where distances between cities are very long. From Zagreb is quicker to come to Munich with a car than to Dubrovnik. Said enough.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteSta bravo kad Pristina ima vise od Zagreba?
DeleteNije to bitno , Zagren je povezan evropom glavni aerodromi , pristina samo par gastrbajterski, nije poenta brojke , vidi kvaliteta usluge i destinacije.
Delete@anon 10:00 Personally, I care more about ticket prices, destinations and how fast you can enter/exit an airport than I care for passenger numbers. But, its interesting to see here that, most of the times debate is about passenger numbers, yet some of you fans, when numbers are not in your favour, you go: yes but our airport is bigger, yes but you Lufthansa flies here, yes but we have a direct flight to US and so on and so on. This article is about numbers and stop whining. I love this blog as it is where I first learn what new destinations/carriers are being introduced to our airports. At the end of the day, more carriers means more competition, destinations and cheaper tickets which should enable us to travel more.
DeleteResults of many Croatian airports are magnificient!
DeleteRijeka and Osijek not so much.
DeleteI said many, not all.
DeletePegasus i slowly but surely stealing Istanbul capacity from Turkish.
ReplyDeleteYes, crazy growth
DeleteI think Turkish and Pegasus cater for completely different types of passengers.
DeleteDifferent yes, but not completely. There is still a lot of p2p passengers to Istanbul, ant both of airlines are fighting for them. Also, do not underestimate transfers on SAW, not like IST but still there are some good offers to the Middle East.
DeleteLast month I went Sarajevo - Sabiha - Moscow Vnukovo with Pegasus, they are doing great, the Moscow route was full, and so was Sarajevo.
DeleteWhere is the guy saying couple articles before that SJJ is coming close to SKP , the difference is 800k pax and for him that is close ...😂
ReplyDeleteAnd where are the people who said that SKP would be really close to Zagreb this year, huh.
DeleteSJJ is just starting with subsidied flights that Skopje had for years now, and even with almost no subsidised flights it manages to reduce the gap between SJJ and SKP significsntly. I am sure it will overtake SKP in a few years, Bosnia is a bigger country than MKD and Sarajevo has much more tourists than Skopje.
Delete@Anonymous 09:04 , That comment referred to the last month, where the difference was 40 thousand .
DeleteLast years yes that was reality , but since March this year we all know what is reality with SKP numbers .... zagreb and pristina went far away for now ...
DeleteKUM We need to look at the total numbers each airport have , I am not speaking about for a single month , even for a month the difference is still not close , 40-50 to 60k , for me close is 5k but not 50k ...
Delete09:52 we all know what was SKP doing until 2019 , good destinations as well as airlines , good numbers , and from 300k 10 years ago , reaches almost 3m , and we all know why numbers are down for now , but the story will be different from 2025 , and I am guarantee , SJJ will never overpas SKP , even Bosnia has more population and tourists as you say , difference now is 750k ;)
Delete@Anonymous 10:04 , I understand all that, but the comment you mentioned was related to the last month, last year there was a difference of 120 thousand passengers and this year 40 thousand. How is it not closer? Only if you expect the number of passengers to be the same in a year.
Delete@Anonymous , I am glad that you are so self-confident, but here is only one factor to change and everything changes drastically. For example, WizzAir gets into huge problems or decides to close the base for some reason. What then?
DeleteKUM SJJ has napredak , thats for sure , but still is far away to come close to SKP or overpass. As I mentioned in the moment total difference is 750k Jan-Aug. But even with W6 problems SKP facing right now still reaching 308k and SJJ 259k , imagine what would be difference if W6 was without problems?
DeleteNext year W6 will come back ,there will be new destinations as well and new airlines will enter our market, I am confident with right my friend.
Btw W6 will never close the SKP base , getting 1.5 pax in a year from a country of 2m that will never happend be sure in that.
DeleteBtw W6 will never close the SKP base , getting 1.5 pax in a year from a country of 2m that will never happend be sure in that.
DeleteBut what would happen even if SJJ surpassed SKP? They're not competitors, so really there is no correlation between these two.
Delete"Btw W6 will never close the SKP base" Yep, that"s what Tuzla, Sarajevo and Debrecen thought... And Doncaster, Dortmund, Riga, Poznan, Prague. And another dozen airports...
DeleteBrac did very well in August. What flights does it have?
ReplyDeleteI think it has charters plus flights to Zagreb.
DeleteThere are also SkyAlps flights to Bratislava and Kosice as well as Luxair flights from Luxembourg.
DeleteForgot about those. Not bad for a small airport like Brac.
DeleteIt's rather bad for an island that has more tourists per year than Belgrade.
DeleteBrac has more than 1.38 million tourists? (number of tourists in Belgrade in 2023)
DeleteI think in the end of the year SKP will overpas Dubrovnik but probably be same with Split :D
ReplyDeleteThe question for me is if SKP will have have more passengers than last year. At the moment it does but the difference is chipping away. It was mentioned that in September SKP probably grew so we will see.
DeleteNo the pax numbers will be the same , just a small difference in over all 2.7 or 2.8 thats it , no chance to reach 3m , as for now the reality is 2.8
DeleteSmall mistake in the article : "Skopje ranked 136th, with the Macedonian capital behind Cork, Treviso and Santorini but outperforming Ponta Delgada, Tromso and Santorini. Skopje can't be behind Santorini and outperforming Santorini at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe latter should be Zakynthos. Fixed.
Delete8,5 in BEG 2024?
ReplyDeleteYes, seems likely
DeleteLOL dude!
Delete^ what?
DeleteI'm surprised to see that some ex-Yu airports had fewer passengers in August than in July.
ReplyDeleteSo we have 9 airports already with over a million passengers this year. Have there ever been more?
ReplyDeleteNo. Not this early in the year. Although Tivat use to have over 1 million passengers per year once upon a time.
DeleteLjubljana too
Delete^ Ljubljana had over a million passengers last year, what are you talking about?
Delete^ think it was meant million until the end of august, not the whole year :)
DeleteInteresting ranking! I didn't expect Leeds to be so far ahead. I thought it was something like OHD, BNX...
ReplyDeleteCrazy to see that the Olympics did literally nothing for CDG in terms of passenger numbers.
ReplyDeleteFor the last few Olympiads most tourists tend to avoid a host city during the games.
DeleteEven so, you would expect some movement with the thousands of athletes and officials arriving. But nothing.
DeleteThis Olympics in particular seems to have been avoided by everyone. Both locals and foreigners.
DeleteHopefully the EXPO will be more popular with foreign visitors.
DeleteKnowing the prices of everything in Paris, no surprise that people were avoiding it during the Olympics.
Delete1.7 million international visitors came during the Olympic period, up 13% compared with the previous year, and another 1.4 million French tourists visited the capital, up 26%. In addition, the Olympics drew millions more visitors who traveled to Paris for the day. Flights between Paris and the US had an 8.8% YoY increase in August 2024. Sabre's insights show that air travel to the main host cities during the Olympic period was up 31% compared to the previous year.
Delete(all these info with 3 min Google search)
Again, it did absolutely nothing. Charles de Gaulle still 8.9% below pre covid numbers at the end of August, at the end of July it was 9%. So no major boost from the Olympics.
Delete1003, ever been to an EXPO? Me neither.
DeleteLet's ask AI:
DeleteThe passenger numbers for Charles de Gaulle Airport in August 2023 and August 2024 are as follows:
August 2023: 6,523,730 passengers
August 2024: 6,931,232 passengers
This represents a 6.2% increase in passenger traffic from August 2023 to August 2024.
Paris CDG handled 6.868.032 passengers in August 2024, an increase of 5.3%. The figure is still 8.1% below its August 2019 performance.
DeleteAI sucks. They are not reaching that level soon, especially with this Middle East crisis going wilder and wilder. On the other hand, Paris is packed with tourists, so I guess for the Olympics they just swapped: those in museums abstained for those into sports for a while.
DeleteNumbers in Sarajevo would be even better if an airline opened a base.
ReplyDeleteWhere wouldn't?
DeleteYea but nobody showes even interest to open a base ... :D
DeleteTirana is on fire!
ReplyDeleteCould someone please share the number of passengers also in Sofia, Thess, Tirana and Bucharest for this August?
ReplyDeleteTirana in August 24:
Delete1.245.279. Info is official from Tirana airport.
I don't know what the limit of Tirana's growth is, with the growth of tourism, it seems only the sky is the limit...
DeleteThat's huge!
DeleteI'm pretty shocked they can handle that amount of traffic succesfully at that terminal. They need expansion asap and opening of that seaside airport too. That will stabilize Tirana at some level, which is yet to be determined...
DeleteThe airport is an absolute mess and zoo. They aren't dealing with the situation. They are making some short term plans to expand but the airport and staff are stretched to the very limits. I won't go even into the hour long queues. The criticism you give about airports from ex-Yu is nothing compared to what you would have experienced at TIA this summer.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteWe are often reading about economics loom & gloom in Europe, yet "Most European markets saw year-on-year growth during the first eight months of the year".
ReplyDeleteMostar overtook Osijek, who would have thought.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to notice that lifting visas has had a minimal effect on PRN. Last year they had bigger growth.
ReplyDeleteTIA has benefited more than PRN
Delete@Anon 12:16 +1, throw in SKP as well. last two yrs I travelled: SKP-4 times, TIA-2 and PRN-2 and I live 15 minutes drive from PRN. What a shame, prices are mainly crazy from PRN. EX-YU can correct me, but it was mentioned several time they are highest in the region.
DeleteThey're just using the market conditions, will get better during the time, with new comopetitors. I was driving Pristina-Skopje some dozen years ago, can't recall the time needed. How much time you need to reach SKP and TIA and would you consider flying from KVO/INI in the future?
Delete15:51 you can get to SKP in 1,5h from Prishtina with the highway opened a few years ago, so it’s really an option if the ticket price is better or the destination isn’t served by PRN. TIA is a little further away (2,5-3h) but also has much better prices and serves more routes (especially the middle east and Italy). Right now INI and KVO don't really have any routes that aren’t available from PRN/SKP/TIA
DeleteMany Kosovars use Skopje Airport or Tirana because of cheaper tickets and more destinations than Prishtina.
DeleteIs that warehouse in the back of the photo part of Ljubljana airport? Haven't flown in there for a few years, but I'm sure it wasn't there when I did!
ReplyDeleteIt is a car park
DeleteTop right?
DeleteIt's KUEHNE & NAGEL logistic centre
DeleteOh I thought you were referring to the building with the solar panels right behind the terminal, that's the car park but the top right is as mentioned the logistic centre.
DeleteThat logistic centre is owned by a guy that also has the biggest share in Lufthansa. But this is just conspiracy theory LOL!
DeleteAnd there is also a DHL building on the photo which is also a German company! The pieces are being put together!
DeleteAnd DHL is upgrading their service to LJU this winter :OOOOOO
DeleteSurely anal i tićar will write something about it, Bravo Fraport!
been recently to ZAG and TRS. More thant third of the plates of parked cars there were SLO. Well done Fraport.
ReplyDeleteOne third were SLO? But Fanboys keep saying that nobody uses other airports?
DeleteFlew from ZAG last year and only saw two cars with Slovenian plates. Ha! gotcha!
DeleteAs someone flying with slovenian GOVERNMENTAL delegation, or flight will be LJU-DESTINATION-ZAG.....we had minister step down because she used blue lights on her way to the Vienna airprot to fly to Geneva last week, and many many other examples
DeleteThis minister and her team were so completely incompetent that would not even figure it out that there is a direct flight from Ljubljana to Geneva, if there was one. Especially since she liked to drive using blue lights.
Delete@Anon 11:51 not sure what you are talking about. There are always many cars from Slovenia at ZAG airport.
DeleteNo, only lies. Nobody uses ZAG, TRS, VCE.. because LJU has the best air connectivity! Bravo Fraport!
DeleteWhat is happening with TIA is unbelievable 🙄
ReplyDeleteI see on the new routes list that we will have zero of them in the whole region between November and April. It's never a hectic period but usually there is some new in December or late February/March... So, I think this list of the busiest airports will not change for the better anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteCroatia rules!
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines is in the plus almost +10%, as we can see. Nice.
ReplyDeleteAnd still below 2019
DeleteStill in the plus.
DeleteFinances certainly not on list year. Or passenger numbers on 2019.
DeleteEnjoy in the pluses for Croatia Airlines. It is in the graph.
DeleteYou need help
DeleteMuch love to you, dear.
DeleteWow Split and Dubrovnik!
ReplyDeleteBelgrade August result of 933 thousand is the most for any Ex Yu airport ever. One million in a month should be within reach next year.
ReplyDeleteMany Croatian airports are doing magnificent.
ReplyDeleteSorry duplicate post at 16:43 please delete.
DeleteGotta love the comments here bragging about own villages 😄
ReplyDeleteWe bigger. - No, we better. - No we got richer tourists. - We got Lufthansa. - We got bigger wieners 😄
Is Priština airport busy because a lot of their people work abroad and go back and forth between Kosovo and EU? Just trying to figure out their high numbers.
ReplyDeleteYup.
DeleteAnd because it is not so quick to come to western Europe by car like from Croatia and Slovenia.
DeleteAnd Serbia. But Pristina is doing great, yes.
DeleteRespect for that.
Delete