NEWS FLASH
airBaltic is reducing operations on its seasonal service between Riga and Pristina next year. Flights will resume on June 29 and run twice per week until August 21. In 2024, the service was maintained between May 4 and August 17, although it was initially scheduled to conclude on September 29. Commenting on its expansion into former Yugoslav markets this year, which included new routes to Skopje and Ljubljana, alongside Pristina, airBaltic recently told EX-YU Aviation News, “As with most new routes, we have some that overperform and some that underperform compared to our business case. For example, on some routes, we have noticed very strong demand directionality, which can be challenging to overcome, while on others we were surprised to see strong incoming demand to the Baltic and Nordic countries”.
This is the second time they are reducing it!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd You happy?
Delete"we were surprised to see strong incoming demand to the Baltic and Nordic countries”." surely Ljubljana? Do we have any data available Admin?
ReplyDeleteIn October there were 2.319 passengers between Slovenia and Latvia, with 18 flights both ways which would make LF around 86%.
DeleteYep. Flew during July and flights were full, so it's probs the flights around May and in autumn that are around 70%
DeleteVery good, let's hope they add more and more flights. LJU needs that.
DeleteWith 90% LF, why in the world did they cancel Jan, Feb flights? Surely even 65& LF would be profitable with A220?
DeleteYou can have 100 LF and s… yields.
DeleteThey extended the route pretty late, plus I don't think they had subsidies for winter months hence why the LF needed to be even bigger then
DeleteNext time they will cut the route for sure!
ReplyDeleteairBaltic is struggling financially so they are cutting where they are not making a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteThis company reminds me of Croatia airlines - both are unrealistically ambitious, both focus on A220 and both are losing money (Air Baltic almost 50 million eur in the first 9 months).
DeleteCroatia Airlines ambitious? They are totally opposite - inert, incompetent, slow, uninterested, not responding to market changes, not taking any opportunity of the potentials of the biggest ex-yu air market and having shamefully low market share. That can be called any other name but ambitious
Delete...and I believed they closed their route to PRN!
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I think they will do so soon. They supposed to be a cheap airline but they charge like KLM or Swiss from PRN.
They closed a full year to open later for 6 weeks?
ReplyDeleteHow can one expect to maintain a route like thay 😄
Airline is a joke!
Why is the airline a joke? I think if anyone is a joke then it's the market, they didn't manage to fill the seats. Gasto market likes to fly on shady reiseburo mafia airlines.
Delete@11:56
DeleteSeats wont be filled anywhere if
Airbaltic charges some 300eur for a return flight like they do from PRN.
Why would someone in PRN fly to Riga, when they can make a comfortable weekend for same money in places like Vienna or Milano or elsewhere with accomodation and everything included
And you think BT is here for P2P? Of course not, they are after transfers to the Nordics.
Delete@15:55 there are already flights from Prishtina to Helsinki,Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo and Oslo so idk what Air Baltic is searching for in PRN
DeleteAnd you think no one connects via other hubs to destinations which are served nonstop? Not just from PRN from anywhere else in the world.
Delete@15:55, during summer, PRN is already well connected to Scandinavia. Beside the 4 capitals’ airports, there are flights to Gothenburg, Malmö, Halmstad and Växjö. Riga as transfer hub for PRN has higher chances of working during winter than summer.
DeleteClearly PRN cannot handle route like this , admin do you have any info how is SKP doing for now ?
ReplyDeleteWhy are Macedonians jealous of Pristina's success? Pristina is the third largest after Bg and Zg. Lots of Macedonians fly from Prn on routes that Skopje lacks. It's a good thing that Skopje is close to Prn.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, yes, I am Macedonian myself and work at a bus station in Skopje that has over 100 employees. I and many of my colleagues often fly to the West through Prn. They have a nice modern motorway so you can get there quickly and easily. I look forward to Pristina's success.
Delete@13.42 lol
DeleteWhat PRN success? A bunch of shady reiseburo carriers operating more than half of all flights and which are mostly going to gasto centers? SKP on the other hand has a much larger and more diverse network.
DeleteNobody is jealous on PRN my friend , Skopje slowly but clearly for sure is getting main hubs connectivity and showing its real potential ;)
Delete@17.29 lol
DeleteAnon 17.29
DeleteTrue and Transavia is such a great addition. Also BT seems to do well in SKP while they keep on cutting PRN. Says a lot.
Introduce Sarajevo already, it's the biggest tourist destination out of the capitals after Belgrade
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteAs a Sarajevo citizen, I'm pretty sure you meant Zagreb.
Delete@14.10 LOL
DeleteTourist destination that barely handle 160k passengers in a month ? :D
Delete160.000 is after how much growth? It's a developing market.
DeleteYes developing the market every year :D
DeleteSarajevo has around 1.1 million tourists officially while Belgrade has 1.5. Both struggle with private rentals and Booking/Airbnb grey economy not being counted in these stats. I wouldn't be surprised if Sarajevo overtakes Belgrade, it does feel quite busy even in offseason compared to 5-10 years ago, but for now Belgrade and maybe Ljubljana are certainly ahead
Delete2025 Will be the best airport in ExYou like this:
ReplyDelete1. Belgrade
2. Zagreb
3. Priština
4. Sarajevo
5. Ljubljana
6. Split
7. Skopje
8. Podgorica ....
It is quite certain that it will go like that. It impresses me that for Sarajevo is climbing up the table lately.
Deleteyes especially LJU at 5 . you must be really an expert
Deleteand SJJ at 4
Delete15:14 dude are u ok ? 🤣did really u share this with us ? Dont blame urself please , its not april for jokes like this
Deleteam worried about the exorbitant fares to all 3 exyu destinatins (except LJU)
ReplyDeleteBecause LJU is subsidised.
DeleteAirlines should understand that the only routes that will success in pristina are German and Swiss , thats the reality
DeleteI have flown from both Skopje and Pristina. Why I prefer Pristina I will explain. Pristina airport is 3.4 km it can land the biggest planes in the world, Skopje 2.9 km Pristina has better service with automatic check-in and staff are nice. Kosovo has better and qualitative highways, Macedonia narrow curvy ones with potholes. In Kosovo there are fresh petrol stations, while in Macedonia old ones from ex You.
ReplyDeleteYet airlines keep on reducing PRN and SKP keeps on performing well. I guess most people don't share your opinion.
DeleteYeah because airlines keeps reducing PRN, Prishtina Airport is closing the year with 4milion+ passengers and SKP by "performing well" can't even reach 2.5 milion passengers
DeleteBy October, SKP reached more than 2.5 million pax.
Delete18:45 First both airports has runway of 3km , at SKP every year for Nato purposes landing B747 like Atlas air and other airlines , first lie is that bigger planes can land in prn and not in skp.Second SKP also have automatic check in machines long before pristina.Third Macedonia has motorways and highways since 1990 z kosovo has first highway 2015 as well as gas station ,I remember the time when they didnt have any petrol stations ans cominf to Macedonia to reduel.Fourth every country has curves and patholes.
DeleteFor extra infos you're the one lying here! Prn runway is 3050 meters while Skp runway is 2950 and not both airports have 3km as you saying. So 1 lie, second NATO/KFOR also use Prn runway for their purposes Including B747 of Atlas Air, daily by USAF with their equipment, A330 MRTT phenix by french airforce, A400M Atlas by turkish airforces, also here including Royal Air force, Canada Air force etc, 2 lies, third Kosova have highways since 2011 and not 2015 as you mentioned 3 lies, fourth gas station's exist here since yugoslav era with INA's existence, 4 lies acumulated!
DeleteAnd the lastly without forgeting Prn airport staff is far better than Skp airport staff, so first get informations and then come here and give coments with racist backup
I don't understand this animosity between PRN and SKP fanboys, really. This is not a race between these two, but we (travellers) should look forward to new destinations in both airports, as this would bring prices down.
DeleteI am from Kosovo and I live 12 km away from PRN airport and for me it's very convenient to fly from here, same should be for Macedonians using SKP. And yes, everyone feels more comfortable flying from their home airport and that is normal. However, most of the times prices are quite higher in PRN compared to SKP, as we don't have as much as LCC destinations as SKP has with Wizzair. Personally, I've used SKP in last 5-6 years much more than I used PRN. Calculation is simple, 4 family members X 100-200 euros price difference (depending from destination), it adds up to 800 euro per trip! Where this difference is smaller than 200 euros total, I use PRN (time and travel cost).
I am a fan of all regional airports getting as much competition and new destinations as they can, we all benefit from that. We can choose where to fly, our diaspora can come more often and spend their money here, which means more collected taxes, which means improved services.
Talking about potholes in Balkans is a joke, we all have potholes and that is being improved in all countries, maybe not at the pace we like but we're getting there.
Last but not least, I would like to thank ExYU-Aviation guy! Thank you for all these news, update and statistics that you bring here daily. I love stats and this blog is a daily goto site. THANK YOU and keep up good work!
Anonymous18:51 You must be joking or suffering from some serious illness. PRN just surpassed 4 Million while SKP is struggling to reach 3 Million and yet you say PRN is "underperforming"? No, my friend, PRN is lightyears ahead of SKP and the gap will continue to increase, in a few years SKP will only be able to compete with Nis Airport.
Delete