Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of 32.114.233 passengers during the January - October period, with 3.17 million travellers in October alone. Among them, during the tenth month of the year, three airports stood out for their high growth rates. They include Tivat with a year-on-year increase in October of 61.3%, Sarajevo with 32.1% growth, and Dubrovnik, which had a 26.7% boost in numbers. On the other hand, several regional airports underperformed during the month, including Maribor, which saw a 72.2% slide in figures, Rijeka, which had 65.1% fewer passengers than in October 2023, and Niš, which shed 9.6% of its travellers year-on-year. A number of other airports also saw their figures decline compared to last year, among which are Podgorica, Banja Luka, Ohrid, Osijek and Brač.
Passenger performance by airport, October 2024
During the January - October period, Belgrade Airport ranked as the 75th busiest on the continent, just behind Basel, Lanzarote and Reykjavik but ahead of Glasgow, Rhodes and Sofia. Zagreb positioned itself as the 110th busiest, behind East Midlands, Chania, and Leeds, but in front of Olbia, Split and Nuremberg. Pristina took 116th place. It was immediately behind Trondheim and Billund, but ahead of the likes of Stavanger, Verona and Paphos. Skopje ranked 135th, with the Macedonian capital behind Memmingen, Cork, and Treviso but outperforming Ponta Delgada, Zakynthos and Tromso. With over 1.7 million additional passengers by the end of October 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 - October 2024
Number of added year-on-year passengers by market, January - October 2024
European rank of select regional airports by passenger numbers
Most European markets saw year-on-year growth during the first three quarters of the year. The exceptions were Belarus, Russia (-14.3%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (-2.5%) and Armenia (-2.1%). London Heathrow was once again Europe’s busiest airport over the ten-month period, with 70.302.664 passengers, while Istanbul’s main gateway was second with 67.603.264 travellers. The pair saw growth of 6.0% and 4.9% on 2023 respectively. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 59.151.200 passengers, Amsterdam with 56.591.082, Madrid with 55.408.935 travellers, Frankfurt with 52.400.116, Barcelona with 46.884.816, Rome Fiumicino with 41.863.273, London Gatwick with 37.349.897, and Antalya with 35.504.351 passengers. Out of Europe’s top ten busiest, four are still below their pre-pandemic 2019 records. They include Paris Charles de Gaulle (-8.6%), Amsterdam (-7.2%), Frankfurt (-13.6%) and London Gatwick (-7.2%).
Largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity across the former Yugoslavia, October 2024
Shame to see Podgorica's numbers going down in October. What caused it?
ReplyDeleteDidn't Ryanair suspend all routes except London?
DeleteYes but from November.
DeleteAir Montenegro probably underperformed.
Delete^ said it before and will say it again. Most useless airline in the region.
DeletePegasus discontinued flights to Istanbul, that's probs it
DeletePodgorica is doing extremely well considering Air Montenegro is more than half the size smaller than Montenegro Airlines plus it can't handle transfer passengers, which is something that Montenegro Airlines did.
DeleteYM had like three transfers per month
DeleteNot true. They had quite a lot of transfers from BEG.
Deletewow Trieste was busier than Ljubljana in October
ReplyDeleteNext year it will have more passengers than LJU.
DeleteIn Trieste they care unlike here.
DeleteAll sponsored by tax cuts given by the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia until next year, what happens afterwards, no one knows. So subsidies in LJU are a problem while tax cuts in TRS are completely fine. Also, I absolutely prefer two daily connections to Iargest hubs than 4x weekly flight to Bari.
DeleteThe issue is that LJU's subsidies are not working.
DeleteWhat are you on about? Most of the new routes in the last two years were opened with subsidies. We are talking about connectivity to other economically important places. Do you really expect the government to subsidise flight to Mykonos, Olbia, Palma and the likes?
DeleteIgnoring how utterly useless Fraport is, LJU is already expected to see pretty decent growth next summer with 5 weekly Eurowings flights, 4 additional TK and a capacity increase on Iberia, plus any other new potential routes
DeleteI don't think Berlin is happening.
DeleteMommy LH probaly said no as they will lose transfers.
DeleteThey literally applied for subsidies, the commission granted them and admin even said they'll likely schedule the route a bit later than Dusseldorf
DeleteCongratulations to Trieste, now in a serious position to drastically overtake LJU and become Slovenia's national airport, together with Zagreb. The railway infrastructure next to it, which vertically grew overnight, is impressive and useful. Unlike in SLO where it's "veliko se govori, malo se naredi"! LJU can continue sleeping in its laziness and the gov. can continue preparing useless "razpisi" which airlines obviously find unattractive, to say the least. Yes, FVG provided tax cuts but hey, that's how business is done. People are now coming and the traffic is flowing. In SLO, we provide subsidies and still nothing happens! So apparently SLO will continue to remain the only country in the EU to which FR doesn't fly. Well done! Truly, brava.
DeleteFYI, Trieste might even overtake LJU this year.
how many pax trieste had so far?
DeleteAnon 13:19 Gov subsidies and tax releases are stronger in LJU than in TRS, but still nothing happens in LJU. Think again about the reasons... especially why you will not see FR in LJU in near future.
Delete^anon14:16 where did you get this info?
DeleteIt's probably the same expert that claims LJU is the cheapest airport in Europe.
Delete@13:19. Yes, and only three people here care about this and you never asked yourself why things are the way they are. If you offered significant tax cuts to airport and Ryanair employees stationed in Slovenia, the whole manufacturing industry would jump on it and expect to get the same treatment. The public sector would jump on it and demanded higher salaries for doctors, nurses, teachers, police and the likes. Slovenia does not have regions and is not governed the same as Italy and their regions. For what I care, Trieste can have three times as many passengers as Ljubljana and this won't change the fact that most of their routes are actually useless for business travelers. What you demand is Ryanair propaganda and you would even sell your own grandmother just to get a cheap flight to somewhere, doesn't matter where.
DeleteRyanair propaganda 🤣 give us a break please.
DeleteOf course it is. The statement "that Slovenia is the only country in EU without Ryanair flights" is playing on the feel of fear of missing out. It's trying to create some sort sense of urgency that the government should bend the knee as soon as possible to this one specific private company instead of creating a good business environment for all airlines.
Delete+1
DeleteWhy did so many airlines in the top 10 have less capacity than last year?
ReplyDeleteEngine issues with W6, TK and LH, I suppose.
DeleteYes, Turkish cut a lot of flights because of engine issues. There were articles here about how many flights will be reduced in ex-Yu.
DeleteWizz Air almost ahead of Ryanair in Oct
ReplyDeleteLast year it was the largest airline.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteWe are all waiting for fraport fanboys, stating how well Ljubljana has recovered
Delete^ they already have, see above.
DeleteAgain Ex-yu commenters who mistake being realistic for praise.
DeleteSKP almost 300k in Otcomber , not bad at all for all the cuts ...
ReplyDeleteAround 0.5% growth on last October. In October the cuts weren't big. Remember Wizz increased flights in September and October. November will be a disaster though.
DeleteYes thats true , and its not possible to reach 3m this year , I was waiting for this results , realistic 2.9 , for around 100k will not reach the goal
DeleteStill amazing that even with all the cuts, Skopje will be reaching a new record, although not 3M yet. Next year will be big, could see 3.5M if wizz returns with full force. Spain + new France flights + Dubai + returning wizzair, Skopje looking like it has covered all of its basic needs.
DeleteIt is not perfect but like you said amazing numbers if we know that this was probably the worst start of the year , only 2-3 months were good . Mostly it will cover the basic needs especially if W6 return strong as they plan , but still need some main hub routes which we all hope to see them in the future.
DeleteSkopje still has room for improvement, the catchment area is excellent, they just need to work in bringing more routes.
Delete@10:36 Actually I ran the numbers and there is still some hope that SKP reaches the 3M milestone this year. SKP load factor on most months this year was within the 88% - 93% range (with very few exeptions), which I believe is excellent. In October the load factor was 89%, which exceeded my expectations. In an optimistic scenario, if the load factor ends up being 80% in November (slow travel month), and 90% in December (holiday travel), then they will have achieved the 3 million mark.
DeleteOtherwise it seems that they will miss that mark by less than 30,000 passengers. It will be really, really close.
@admin can correct me if my calculations seem wrong. I'd love to go back to this comment in January to see if I was off by much.
Croatia is killing it this year.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteSeems that by year end FR will have more passengers in the region than JU.
ReplyDeleteImpressive!
To be fair FR are the biggest airline in general in Europe by number of passengers
DeleteCompletely incomparable. I
DeleteCan BiH as a market be in plus by the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteI think it will be just under. Tuzla will be in decline from Novenber. Last year they had Lumiwings.
DeleteSarajevo killed it this year!!!
ReplyDeleteMaribor got surpassrd 2000 mark 😀
ReplyDeleteI feel this airport has got a lot mlre potential.
Delete*more
DeleteYes, especially with the nice terminal. Maybe one day....
DeleteThe airport is in need of a new operator.
DeleteThey had the Chinese and it didn't work out so well.
DeleteAt least it had flight under Chinese operator. Now it has absolutely nothing and it has had nothing for years.
DeleteThe Chinese left because they could no longer wait for government to adopt spatial plan so the airport could expand. And guess what, they still haven't adopted it!
DeleteThanks for the figures.
ReplyDeleteGood morning ! Does anybody remember what are the predictions for BEG airport for november and december ? Thanks in advance .
ReplyDeleteGood results for most exYu countries! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteYes, I really like this monthly update.
DeleteWhat the hell happened in Rijeka?! 65% decline is crazy
ReplyDeleteHere you have what has been happening at Rijeka lately
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/11/easyjet-discontinues-four-croatia-routes.html
Anyone else find sad that ex-Yu airports are behind Leeds and Memmingen?
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteAll ExYu airports combined are behind VIE and almost on par with ATH.
DeleteYugo legacy
Delete@13.56
DeleteYugo legacy?
How old are you?
Yugoslavia had one of the most modern and most developed aviation systems within Europe, even worldwide
You can LOL as much as you want but JAT was the first airline in Europe to fly brand new, straight from Seattle, B737-300, before Lufthansa, British, KLM, Air France.... JAT had 36 aircraft while Emirates had 8. JAT had been operating scheduled long haul to 5 continents while Austrian and Turkish DID NOT HAVE LONG HAUL AT ALL. Beograd had Qantas, Pan Am, Air China, Zambian, Zagreb had Air Canada, even Dubrovnik had Pan Am, while many today uncomparably bigger could have just dreamt about it. Adria was one of the launch customers of new A320, together with Air France. All bigger Yugoslav cities where linked with Beograd and Zagreb several times daily, with jets seating 115-168 passengers, and so on and so on. Still LOL?
DeleteConsidering the huge cuts Wizz Air had, Belgrade is doing rather well. It will have another record year and growth will be around 4%. I expect things will pick up again from next year.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Dubrovnik is ahead of Split in October.
ReplyDeleteRyanair
DeleteIt wilp be ahead all winter.
DeleteNice photo of LJU.
ReplyDeleteYes! Is DHL B757 operating on scheduled basis or just one off?
Delete@12:06
DeleteDepends, lately it's been mostly 737.
BiH down, all others up.
ReplyDeletePrimarily because of Tuzla which had a Wizz Air base for most of last year but not this year.
Deleteme too because of the visa free travel.
ReplyDeletePassenger numbers are up 16%. I don't know what you are on about.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 12:00
ReplyDeletePRN had 18% growth in 2023, without visa liberalization.
Simple math, no?
Very nice!
ReplyDeleteBravo for our beautiful region, cities, coasts, islands, lakes, rivers, mountains...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the women!
DeleteWhat our region? There is EU, and there is Western Balkans, i. e. BiH, ALB, KOS, MNE, MA i SRB.
DeleteEx-Yu
Delete@12:52 Math is not your strongest subject, right?
ReplyDelete2023 was a year that all airports had double digit growth because of rebounding from COVID restrictions in the previous years.
But to record a 16% growth this year is most impressive.
Especially if you compare it with BEG and SKP.
PRN was already above pre Covid levels in 2022.
ReplyDelete@13:57
ReplyDelete+1
It goes to show how strong the PRN market to Europe is.
ReplyDeleteTo Europe? lol
ReplyDeletePRN has strong demand to like 5 gasto destinations and that is it.
With the European economy struggling I expect 2025 to be difficult for many out there, not just Yugo.
ReplyDeleteBEG will at least go over 9 million passengers in 2025.
Delete