LCCs and Croatia Airlines add most capacity in Q1, Air Serbia largest airline


Low cost carriers Ryanair, Pegasus Airlines and AJet, along with Croatia Airlines are adding the most seats on flights during the first quarter of the year in the former Yugoslav markets when compared to 2024. Air Serbia remains the largest carrier with over 1.1 million seats during the three-month period. Ryanair’s growth comes as a result of its expanded operations in Croatia, as well as services from Sarajevo, which did not operate during the first quarter of 2024. The airline has added an extra 157.714 seats on the market compared to Q1 of last year for a 36.9% increase. Pegasus Airlines is adding 89.688 seats and AJet 42.460.

Croatia Airlines will surpass its pre-Covid capacity levels during the first quarter of the year, with a total of 589.189 seats on the market, an improvement of 6.3% on last year, or an extra 35.000 seats. It has added the most capacity on its Frankfurt service during Q1, with over 7.000 additional seats compared to last year. The airline recently took delivery of its second Airbus A220-300 aircraft, with both jets of the same type to be deployed on flights as of tomorrow. The airline will gradually begin retiring A320-family aircraft as another six A220s are delivered this year.

Fastest growing airlines in EX-YU in Q1 2025


Air Serbia remains the largest carrier in the region, both by the number of available seats and the number of operated flights. Its capacity on the market stands at 1.153.612, representing an additional 17.436 seats on the same period last year. It is the only carrier, alongside Wizz Air, to have over a million seats in the former Yugoslavia during the first quarter. However, the low cost carrier has 6% fewer seats than it did the previous Q1, removing 72.261 of them from the market as it continues to deal with the fallout of engine inspections on its Airbus A320neo family aircraft.

Largest airlines in EX-YU in Q1 2025



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    Bravo Air Serbia!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      +1000

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:44

      With the transits they have they should have even more.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:08

      Air Serbia is one of only European Country that flys to Russia without the EU sanctions

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    Good to see OU finally recovering

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:03

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:03

      It took just 5 years...

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    3. Anonymous09:06

      Hopefully finances will recover too

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    4. Anonymous09:10

      And load factor

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    5. Anonymous09:25

      And of course the most capacity OU has added is to none other than FRA!

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:56

      Jasmin will make a beast of a Croatia Airlines!

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    7. Anonymous10:47

      Lol

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:47

      Hasn't he been CEO for 6 years or so?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous12:04

      OU provides more in added value than it receives in subsidies. Elementary economics.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:21

      Does that make subsidies legal?

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:34

      Yes, under the EU law they are. Nevertheless, my point is elementary economics, so please, comment that.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:27

      I must have access to some old EU laws where it still says it's illegal.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous16:06

      You obviously do.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous17:05

      @12.04
      And how is the weather in Buzin today? Oh, sorry, I forgot you "connected" Christmas, New Year, school winter holidays....Such hard working people as you in Buzin deserve nothing less, my mistake to ask about the weather

      Delete
    15. Anonymous17:54

      "under the EU law they are"

      Too bad no one told Adria, Malev and others.

      Delete
    16. Anonymous19:32

      1754, you need to educate yourself.

      Delete
    17. Anonymous20:56

      If unlimited government subisidies are 100% legal in the EU why would goverment-owned EU airlines look for silly ways to raise capital such as issuing 14.5% bonds or looking for taking airline private by merging it with state-owned airports while retaining control of the entity?

      Delete
    18. Anonymous21:21

      2056, who sair unlimited? What 14,5% bonds, what mergers?

      Delete
    19. Anonymous21:43

      Looks like you haven't head of Air Baltic (example1) or Croatia Airlines (example 2). Educate yourself.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:02

    When will Wizz Air's constant decline end?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:03

      2026

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:59

      They are not declining in reality, aircraft's are getting delivered and still they have around 30 on the ground sitting. Once their entire fleet is in the air expect from W6 90 to 100 million pax per year.

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    3. Anonymous11:37

      Well their capacity growth last year was something like 3%. That's catastrophic for an LCC.

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    4. Anonymous15:06

      Neither aircraft's, nor aircrafts, but aircraft.

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    5. Anonymous05:39

      Yes Aircraft is both plural and singular. Will be interesting to see growth of 40 million pax in single year.

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    6. Anonymous10:41

      Why would that be interesting? In my opinion, interesting is used by the people who have no opinion but feel a need to have one.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:05

    Turkish carriers are killing it

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      As usual

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    2. Anonymous11:41

      With Pegasus and Ajet doing the same thing, market will get oversaturated.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:34

      Turkish market is huge. To the non EU ex-Yu states Turks don't need a visa. Also people from ex-Yu love travelling to Turkey so I don't think there is an issue of oversaturating the market.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:35

      Oh and not to mention that both airlines offer transfer options.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:09

    Looks as if Ryanair will dominate this year too

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      I'm wondering when they will announce new routes from Sarajevo for which they will get subsidies?

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    2. Anonymous09:13

      Probably this month

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    3. Anonymous09:13

      I think the delay in the announcement may have something to do with change in management at SJJ.

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    4. Anonymous09:17

      I hope they don't reconsider.

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    5. Anonymous09:17

      They won't. They have already signed the contract.

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    6. Anonymous09:18

      As if signing something has ever stopped them.

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    7. Anonymous09:46

      They better hurry up with the announcment

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    8. Anonymous09:47

      My guess is the new routes will launch in June so they are not in a big hurry.

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    9. Anonymous12:00

      Maybe they will be gone from Bosnia by June considering the new-old nonsense tax.

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    10. Anonymous12:03

      I would not be surprised.

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    11. Anonymous13:37

      The thing with the tax is that the airports will pay for it so Ryanair can keep flying. Complete nonsense

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    12. Anonymous00:13

      Airports will pay the tax, but airports will charge them to passengers.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:12

    Number of seats being added in ex-Yu is actually really low. I mean if Sun d'or with its flights to BEG and TGD is near the top of the list

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      +1000
      An airline flying from Tel Aviv is adding more seats than JU does to its entire network!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:14

      And China Southern with its 2 weekly flights to BEG.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:16

      @9.13 sorry but you can't expect JU to add so many seats every single month or quarter. In last few years they probably added over half a million.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:23

      Who cares. JU is the busiest airline by capacity in Q1. You can twist and turn your comments as much as you want but that fact ain’t gonna change. Lol

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:26

      The biggest fish in a small pond!

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    6. Anonymous09:40

      Well ten years ago they weren't even the biggest fish in a small pond. So they have obviously made some progress

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    7. Anonymous10:46

      True

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    8. Anonymous11:36

      What equipment does Sun D'or use?

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:38

      B737-800 and wet leased A320.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous11:42

      And they recently painted first B737-800 in beautiful new Sun d'or livery :)

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:14

    Bravo Hrvatska!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:24

    Great news for Croatia Airlines finally surpassing pre-Covid levels! The new A220s should help

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:27

      The new A220s are amazing. A great flying experience that OU fliers never had before.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:51

      How is actually getting killed on LX better than what your incorrect assessment of almost getting killed?

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:34

    Low cost carriers clearly winning the growth race. More competition is always welcome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:42

      It's the same situation all over Europe.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:39

    Ryanair really took advantage of the whole Wizz situation. Well done to them

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:48

      They said 2 years ago they will overtake Wizz in the Balkans. And they have

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:23

      Wizz Air will fight back. This is a temporary decline which is out of their control.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:43

      We will see. I think the main fight between these two will be over Ukraine when it opens.

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    4. Anonymous14:48

      and how did they take advantage?? by launching zero flights to BEG and SKP???

      its the other way around

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:45

    I've noticed that Pegasus and AJet are now competing on many routes. I wonder if it is sustainable to have to players on all those flights or if one of them will beat the other.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:47

      *two

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    2. Anonymous09:49

      It would be great to get at least one of those two in LJU.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:56

      ^ +1

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:09

      Afaik traffic is limited by the bilateral air agreement between Slovenia and Turkey, so until that's revised...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:45

      Yes I believe so too. Unfortunately. Only TK and JP are designated airlines, eventhough JP is no longer among us.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:46

    I really hope Wizz Air's comeback will be drastic, if that day ever comes.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:51

    Where is easyJet's growth coming from?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:57

      New Pristina routes

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:02

      Ah that's right. Thank you.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:21

      Are those routes staying during the summer?

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    4. Anonymous10:22

      Yes they are

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    5. Anonymous11:21

      Excellent.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:21

      They are becoming very strong in PRN

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    7. Anonymous11:24

      I believe they were the busiest in PRN in 2023.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:29

      Actually Wizz Air overtook them in 2023 but they were busiest up until then.
      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/01/wizz-air-overtakes-easyjet-to-become.html

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:31

      GP Aviation will be busiest this year.

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    10. Anonymous11:31

      In 2024 I mean

      Delete
  14. Anonymous10:19

    But W6 do it with less flight on bigger planes :) Saving good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:17

      And mostly new planned too.

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    2. Anonymous11:19

      Meant to write **planes

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:22

    I'm surprised Ryanair parks up to the terminal in ZAG. (looking at the photo)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:23

      They park at the gate but they use the stairs to board/disembark passengers.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous11:01

    Can't believe Pegasus is ahead of Lufthansa!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:08

      And Austrian too

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    2. Anonymous11:10

      Yes but it would be interesting to see how much the Lufthansa group has in total.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous11:34

    Nice growth from LOT. How come they are adding so many seats?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:50

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/12/lot-to-grow-frequencies-across-most.html?m=1

      Delete
  18. Anonymous11:35

    Ryanair dominates in summer but they are not huge in winter. Wizz Air has much more balanced year round network

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:39

      It's because of the seasonal Zadar base.

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    2. Anonymous22:07

      Also Dubrovnik. Ryanair has 9 aircraft based in Croatia all summer.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous14:35

    I'm surprised that OU still doesn't fly from Ljubljana to Dubrovnik and Split or Brač during the summer months. There would probably be demand for twice a week at a reasonable price.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:10

      As soon as Jasmin finishes drinking his coffee

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:24

      OU don't know what reasonable pricing is. Just look at the LF

      Delete
    3. Anonymous01:05

      Why should they fly. Adria flew to all three destinations and failed

      Delete

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