Ryanair has criticised the concession of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, describing it as a "big mistake" and referring to the concessionaire, VINCI, as "French profiteers”. Speaking at a press conference in Sarajevo yesterday, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, said, “One of the mistakes Belgrade made is that the airport is, unfortunately, under concession. You have the French profiteers, VINCI, operating there. Belgrade Airport is truly underdeveloped, but the French concessionaires don't care about that. Ryanair will not fly to Belgrade in the future”, Mr McGuinness said. He added, “Do not let foreign concessionaires manage your airport because they only care about profit. They do not care about developing the airport, the business, or creating new jobs”.
The comments come just weeks after the budget carrier reiterated it would not launch flights to Belgrade, which it labelled as expensive. “Belgrade Airport is too expensive and is not an option for us at the moment. We continue to track the [Serbian] market. It is interesting to us and if we can see that we can turn around potential into a profit, we will take the decision to further expand there”, Ryanair said. The airline currently serves the Serbian market through its Niš flights. VINCI was awarded a 25-year concession of Belgrade Airport in 2018. It has since been extended by a year and a half due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ryanair is one of VINCI’s largest airline partners across its portfolio of airports. The French operator of Belgrade Airport had previously said, “The low cost carrier market represents an important part of Belgrade Airport’s development. There is already a significant number of flights operated by budget airlines at Belgrade Airport. Even so, the decision to introduce flights to Belgrade is up to Ryanair”. Within the former Yugoslavia, Ryanair has a base in Zagreb, which is under concession, as well as seasonal bases in Dubrovnik and Zadar. Among the capital cities, it also serves Podgorica and Sarajevo. Regionally, the airline boasts bases in Budapest, which is managed by VINCI, as well as Bucharest and Sofia.
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It's not really the French who are responsible for this but the ministry who wants to minimize competition to JU.
ReplyDeleteYou are talking absolute nonsense and have shown you have little knowledge on the topic. The Ministry does not set the prices and fees at Belgrade airport.
DeleteWhy give business to foreign companies flying you to villages if you can also give it to your own airline flying to major hubs and boosting your economy?
Delete@09:04 this tactic has led to BEG stagnating while the airports in the rest of Europe are having double digit growth.
DeleteBut some people will never learn that protectionism is what actually hurts an economy.
Fact JU barely controls 50% of the market shows that the government doesn't care. It's Vinci that is making the airport so expensive.
DeleteBEG airport does not not need garbage airlines like Ryanair. I flew ones with them and never again. They are statistically the worse airline for a reason. Keep them in the Western Europe please and EU.
Delete@Anon 10:00
DeleteSMFH
Garbage airlines? It's the biggest airline in the world by international passenger numbers.
DeleteStatistically the worst? It is literally the BEST airline for safety: it is the only major airline in the WORLD that never had a single passenger casualty.
You know very well what he ment. It is by far the worst airline in terms of passenger comfort.
DeleteFR planes have BETTER legroom than W6, U2, BA and many others.
DeleteWhat passengers actually care about is affordable travel and that's why they have rewarded FR.
What passengers have proven time and again is that they don't mind being treated like cattle to save a few bucks. And that's fine, but let's call a spade a spade.
DeleteCan anyone really have conversation with someone who says that Ryanair is garbage airlines, and keep it in the west Europe hahaha...
Delete@Treshnja
DeleteWe can't have serious conversation with him but we can certainly laugh! 😂😂😂
Is it just me or has Ryanair been talking a lot about BEG lately?
ReplyDeleteThey probably held talks and were not happy with the outcome.
DeleteBecause it gets asked.
DeleteI think they are also trying to put public pressure on BEG to work with them.
Delete"To work with them" means " BEG to low their prices for FR profiteers.
DeleteHow yes no. They are nothing but frustrated one airport doesn't want to accept their blackmail.
Simple as that.
No, it's because they get asked at conferences and then they reply.
DeleteVINCI paid 500 million Euros for the concession plus more than that for new terminal, runway and general improvements.
ReplyDeleteThey are primarily interested in recouping their investment.
They obviously made some investments yet airport is quite uncomfortable for passengers. Really bad overall result.
DeleteI think delays and long ques is the result of understaffing by police, handling companies and airlines.
DeleteWell, comment of Ryanair manager is not any wrong...BEG airport is still very low standard for passengers- bad interior with cheap materials, low ceiling gives sensation of being in some shopping mall garage and not in the airport, only one narrow corridor for reaching police and security stands, borring inside of air transit zone, very few toilet facilities in main area.. organization- wise they are getting better- less delays, smaller queues, better handling of luggage when they gave it to concessionaire..
DeleteKad krece obnova starog terminala i zgrade? Unutra su jos uvek radovi. Novo propada, a radovima unutra nema kraja. Spoljasnjost prljava, travnjaci puni otpadaka, čisti li ko? Od hotela na Aerodoromu smo daleko deceniju. Kao da Vinci sve finansira iz tekucih prihoda, i da ne unosi svoj kapital.
DeleteThe fact that 2025 has barely any announcements only goes to show that FR is right when it comes to Vinci.
ReplyDeleteBEG is also being humiliated by Wizz Air which has recently added new flights from other airports but not BEG.
There are 5 new routes scheduled out of BEG so far this year. That's more than almost any other airport in ex-Yu. Taking into account that the airport already has over 100 destinations in summer, I'm not sure exactly what you want.
DeleteTrue dat. W6 seems to be putting the A320neo it receives (and it receives a lot of them now) to everywhere in Europe apart from BEG.
DeleteEven in TLV they are relaunching 20 destinations.
Incompetent Vinci isn't doing anything about it like other airport operators are doing. New CEO has literally done nothing since he arrived.
DeleteThey are putting it where they have LCC competition. Also have you maybe thought there is a limit to how much the Serbian market can grow with limited tourism? Or you think there is endless demand?
DeleteHow come VINCE operated airports in Portugal are booming?
Delete@anon 9:18
DeleteYou are comparing BEG with a tourism powerhouse such as Portugal?
@Anon 09:24
DeleteExactly because we are not a tourism powerhouse like Portugal we need to be far more accommodating with airlines who might be interested flying here.
@Anon 09:24
DeleteExactly because we are not a tourism powerhouse like Portugal we need to be far more accommodating with airlines who might be interested flying here.
^ You do realize Ryanair requests special prices and treatment. Look at any airport in ex-Yu where they fly.
DeleteYou do realize that the majority of airports in Europe that FR flies to do not offer them any special treatment?
DeleteIf it is good for Wizz, have to be good for Ryan. But they want more...
DeleteIt is good for Wizz, it is good for easyJet, it is good for flyDubai, it is good for Norwegian, it is good Eurowings, it is good for Pegasus...but it is not good for Ryanair?
Delete🤣🤣🤣
Wizz gets huge discounts. Pegasus has the huge demand to Turkey and flyDubai has the Emirates codeshare. Norwegian and Eurowings barely fly to Belgrade at all.
DeleteRyanair is fully eligible for the same discounts as Wizz. They just need to generate the necessary number of passengers.
DeleteWizz gets discounts because they dared to establish a base in BEG. Ryanair would get the same prices if they dared to do it, but they didn't. Instead of it they decided endlessly to complain and cry over BEG prices.
DeletePegasus flies to only 1 destination in Turkey while FR would be able to open all Europe from BEG. Of course that FR would have much higher demand that PC has to only 1 destination, but despite it Pegasus flies to BEG and Ryanair not. The same applies to FZ.
Norwegian flies year round to BEG and that is something Ryanair can only dream of even with the "barely presence".
Pax from Serbia need one true low cost carrier, and that's Ryanair..End of any discussion..Other "low cost" , apart of Pegasus, has proven not to have low cost prices from BEG..Fly Dubai has legacy carrier prices, as well as Norwegian and Eurowings, even higher than Lufthansa group..Wizzair is very very expensive from BEG, prices same like legacy Air Serbia..Easyjet is joke from BEG, only Pegasus has decent prices and coverage..I don't care about airlines, I care about us, people who want to fly cheap around Europe, like everyone else in Europe..And we don't have that..Ryanair is essentially needed for our market...
DeleteAnd you believe Ryanair would have lower prices than Wizzair?
DeleteKeep dreaming.
Tresnja you are completely unaware how aviation and lccs work. They are cheap only until they establish dominance on some route, then fares go up. Same with ryan and everyone.
Deleteposter at 13:07 nailed it. Bravo!
Delete@13:07 so you think Ryanair could establish dominance on Beg airport or on some routes from it, besides having pretty strong national carrier Air Serbia with quite extensive network and decent prices, and besides BEG being decent sized airport and not some village airport in central France?..Cannot happen..Only thing that could happen is drop of prices of all low cost carriers operating from BEG...and legacy would keep similar prices like now..the same that is happening on any similar european airport...Everywhere in Europe prices on low cost flights are low, that's it..
DeleteAdmin when is BEG going to announce the 2024 traffic results?
ReplyDeleteRyanair's comment is pure nonsense, as they fly to a number of airports operated by VINCI, as is evident from the article. Ryanair operates in 11 airports operated by VINCI, in Portugal alone it has 4 bases at ANA (VINCI operated) airports: Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Madeira.
ReplyDeleteWhich comment? They didn't say they don't fly to Vinci operated airports...
DeleteAnd Ryanair is a non -profit humanitarian organization sharing their income among poor and forgotten people on the edge.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete"connecting families"
DeleteThe Serbian government is the real problem protecting Air Serbia from competition!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSorry but you are talking absolute nonsense. Any airline can launch flights to BEG with countries where there is an open sky agreement. That's with all of EU. A government's job is not to negotiate new flights for Belgrade airport, a concept often forgotten in this region as most new routes in the region are paid.
DeleteHe is surely talking nonsence and I fully agree.
DeleteLet's add that with the countries where Serbia does not have open sky agreement more traffic is made by foreign airlines than by Air Serbia in regular traffic.
(Turkey - Turkish, Pegasus; Ajet, Tunis - Nouvealire; Qatar - Qatar Airways; Israel - Sun D'Or, Arkia; Egypt - Air Cairo). Before sanctions even Belavia was flying to Belgrade and Air Serbia did not fly to Minsk.
^^^
DeleteThat says more about JU's inability to increase its market share to these countries and thus BEG is suffering.
More reason to diversify the airlines flying to it and attract more LCCs/
Nobody is talking anything against attracating more airlines. It certianly should be done but under BEG terms.
DeleteThe point is that it is nothing but utter nonsence that Serbian Government is "protecting Air Serbia". They do not do it in the cases where they actually can and especially they do not do it in the cases where open sky agreement is implemented.
BEG terms has led to only 22 airlines flying here year round.
DeleteMaybe these terms need to change.
Sofia lowered the prices so Irish profiteers could fly from there.
DeleteAnd guess what - they have 22 airlines flying from there year round.
And SOF has 3 other international airports in the country competing with. BEG is for all intents and purposes the sole gateway.
DeleteBulgaria has 3 international airports, not Sofia.
DeleteAnd they have them due to the fact they have sea coast which Serbia doesn't.
So, no VAR and BOJ are not competitors to SOF.
LOL, sure! 😅😅😅
DeleteGlad you agree.
DeleteSOF did not lower no prices. FR exploited the huge debt of BG Air of unpaid fees to the airport (even before SOF was given to concession) to blackmail them to give them better conditions and usage of T1 (where there are no other LCC). As result: Wizz is weaker, Easyjet disappeared (common to many airports in the same region also outside BG) and FR has monopoly on many routes where is selling one-way tickets for 90-100 EUR. If that seems low-cost to you, I don't know what to tell you..
Delete@anon 13:59
Delete+100
1. They got a point there.
ReplyDelete2. They are arguably the only profiteers worse than French profiteers, so they are welcome to bugger off.
They can be the biggest profiteers in the world, but with them everybody can fly..We need cheap flights, we don't care who will loose money ore make money from airlines businesses..As long as I can fly for 30 eu to majority of European destinations one way..Time spending on shorts routes is less than spending in 95 coming back home from New Belgrade to Center, so I don't really care about facilities in the airplane, only safety matters...And Ryanair has proven being very safe and punctual..
DeleteThis is nothing but Ryanair propaganda.
ReplyDelete1. They do not care about the fact who runs the airport, all they care is the price. They fly to many airports with concession because they have good price (Zagreb example) or because they receive incentives (Sarajevo).
2. Vinci concessionaire is not a problem for them in other countries, but only in Belgrade. Interesting.
3. Vinci arrived to Belgrade at the end of 2018 while Wizzair came to Belgrade back in 2010. Why did not they arrive in period 2010-2018 to Belgrade as Vinci was not concessionaire back then?
4. Why did not he comment new incentive scheme Belgrade airport published which they could actually use to start flying there? Maybe because it is not enough for FR profiteers? Is it ever enough to them?
5. He is talking about "big mistake", but the biggest mistake is here made by Ryanair who let their first LCC competitor in Belgrade to take the profit right in the front of their nose while they play the role of offended princess.
6. Development of the airport does not stop them to fly anywhere else, so therefore he is again talking nonsense. And btw, Belgrade is surely not underdeveloped. It is biggest airport in ex Yugoslavia.
VINCI is not the problem in BEG just like Fraport is not the problem in LJU>
DeleteVinci is a problem only to FR. Let it be.
DeleteBy the way:
2018
BEG 5.641.105
LJU 1,818,229
2023
BEG 7.948.202
LJU 1.270.832
Really the same.
It has nothing to do with Vinci and Ryanair in Belgrade.
DeleteNo lies detected at 09:06
DeleteAgree, but some people struggle to understand it.
DeleteShame.
They paid a lot of money for it and they can do whatever they want. If this is their business model that works for them, let them. End of story.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the end of the story. They don't own the airport they just manage it and they have to do a good job, which they are not.
DeleteIf the concession agreement allows them to do what they want WITHOUT having provisions about increase in traffic then unfortunately it is the end of story.
DeleteAirport is of national importance, "nacionalno dobro", one of the major tools for national development, you cannot say- end of story...If you gave some foreign company to govern your biggest river, you cannot say- its their business , they can do whatever they want, and even poison the river that will affect entire population of country..This is exactly what airport means for one country, especially if it is the only real airport, like in case of Serbia
DeletePeople are saying, if there are no clauses in the contract that they have to do this or that, it is their will to decide will they lower fees for Ryan or not. If they see no interest in that, they can ignore it. They dont own the airport, but they got a 25 year management contract, they invested millions and they can lead business how they see fit. After all, Ryan is aggressive and attacks other carriers and airports when they are not satisfied with something, or lets say it, when they dont get what they want. I see no fuzz about this, they are just pressed.
DeleteHow do they explain that ZAG started making losses since FR started flying there.
ReplyDeleteZAG had over 4.3 million pax last year, a record. That's a 16% increase.
DeleteZagreb and Croatian economy are benefiting from this great increase in people visiting the country AND the concessionaire still build them a new terminal.
I'm sure everyone there is sad about the French operators losing money. 😂
ZAG is not making losses because of Ryanair.
DeleteNo, surely not.
DeleteThey are making losses as FR arrival to their airport does not bring them enough cash.
Is there any source about ZAG financial performance other than posts by anonymous commenters?
DeleteI think ZAGis more expensive than BEG. Am I right?
DeleteFor Ryanair surely not. They pay something like 5 EUR per passengers, a bit more than in Nis.
DeleteVINCI takes care only about the profite.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ryan flies to the periphery Airports in Europe out of goodness of its hollow heart.
I said this before and I'm telling it now : if BEG airport was a major tourist destination , things would be extremely different ! Ryanair would beg to come instead of being arrogant now.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Belgrade is not a major tourist destination should make both Vinci and the ministry less arrogant than they currently are in order to attract more than the 22 airlines that are currently serving the airport year round.
DeleteSo for you less arrogance would be to abolish all fees for Ryanair so they can be happy?
DeleteNobody said that. BEG would just have to stop robbing airlines with high fees as if it is LHR in order to give massive discounts to JU.
DeleteNo, it is not enough for Irish profiteers and they are never happy. You need to pay them in order they decide to fly to your airport.
DeleteSure buddy. Every airport in Europe pays FR to fly there!
DeleteEvery small does, one way or another.
DeleteSo you are comparing some small village in Poland with BEG? An airport than handles 95% of all traffic to and out of Serbia? 😅
DeleteNo, not me.
DeleteRyanair does it as they expect BEG to offer the same prices like some Polish village.
Good low cost connections have a big impact in making one destination touristy...You never asked yourself why BEG is not tourist destination, at least for Europeans? It has all preferances , it just doesn't have cheap flights like averyone else..
DeleteWell, no.
DeleteIt has cheap flights, but it does not have Ryanair flight.
And Ryanair flights are not always cheap flights.
So, sit.
1.
Visnja, you take this very, very personally. Truth is somewhere in the middle between UNICEF RF and RedCross Vinci.
DeleteIrish profiteers complaining about French profiteers?
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteNothing to do with Vinci at BEG at all to do with real competition Wizz "w6 cask" in BEG although I agree with him when it comes to concessions and profiteering "same could be said for FR" capitalism. MAN, DUB, STN not visa free for Serbians. CAG, GDN, NRN, WRO, PSA, MRS, ALC, CRL, HHN, ACE, PFO, TRF not taken by JU or W6. Potentially 0.5 to 1 million Ryanair pax for BEG at least. Wizz air is at 60 million pax per year, once engine issues are over expect them to be at 100 million pax per year. So yes, no potential market space at BEG for Ryanair without direct competition with W6 or JU.
ReplyDeleteFR is not afraid of competition.
DeleteNo matter what FR does, Airbus a321neo will 239 seats is cheaper per ASK than 737max200 or 737-800. That aside, 737 max 10 is still not certified and Boeing production is lugging severely behind. So yes, we can expect old a320's and a321's in Ryanair fleet soon. And yes FR is not scared of competition but theirs CASK is not competitive with Wizz.
DeleteDude are you serious? Have you ever compared FR profit margins with W6? Or any other airlines in Europe for that matter?
DeleteThe staff we read here...
@Anonymous09:56 - when using "dude" so confidently, try using spell check. It's "stuff", not "staff"
DeleteProfit margins are important for investors so Ryanair can buy back own shares. 8.6 billion € 🤯 and they are talking how Vinci is profiteering. And still Ryanair doesn't own their entire fleet, not to mention how much Ryanair is losing to its investors by not flying long haul to USA.
DeleteThe staff we read here...
And yes it is public secret that you are building hubs in STN, DUB, CRL and BGY for future long haul by 2030-2034! Waiting for Air Europe or Norse to die and then start a new venture!
Why not open a dozen destinations to INI if they are so pro-customer!?
ReplyDeleteHahaha, FR is pro-customer?
Delete🤣🤣🤣
Actually, yes, more than the concessionaire.
DeleteThe interest of Ryanair is pretty much the same as the customers (indirectly), while not for the airport operator.
FR is nothing but pro-money oriantated.
Delete"This time he (MoL) has called thousands of passengers "idiots" and saying they are "stupid" for not printing their boarding passes ahead of time, and therefore having to pay at the airport, reports the Mirror."
Well, it's true. If you know that you have to pay for something at the airport when you could do it for free at home, and then you complain about it, then you are stupid.
DeleteWhy? Someone maybe does not have printer at home, someone maybe does not want to do it at home, someone is maybe too lazy to learn how to do it, but it surely does not make him stupid. MoL should be thankful to these "stupid people" because it gives him the possibility to rip them off, but not to call them stupid.
DeleteIn MoL world stupid means "giving money for something you could have saved", in normal world it means "not understanding the basic facts" and it does not have to be anyhow related to the western God, callled money.
But what is certainly true is that his statement proves FR is surely not pro-customer oriantated.
Why aren't they growing in INI then?
ReplyDeleteIf ryan lands on beg, you can saw goodbye to airserbia
ReplyDeleteYes, true.
DeleteThe same happened to Wizzair. The moment they landed to BEG Air Serbia went belly up.
Oh, wait...
I remember the exact same comments when Wizz Air launched flights from BEG.
DeleteOf course not. Air Serbia beats a lot stronger air lines. But for OU at ZAG, I should be worried if I am at your place
Delete"Pa dobro je rekla"
ReplyDeleteActually, Ryanair is absolutely right about this one.
ReplyDelete- Vinci established zero growth strategy
- They did absolutely nothing to establish connections to non-served areas of the world such as central and North Africa, Middle-East, Caucasus (except Sochi JU was flying already), even till now the coverage of central and Eastern Europe is lackluster (no Kosice, Ostrava, Iasi, Suceava, Cluj, other Polish cities...meanwhile LOT is everywhere, from Skopje to Ljubljana)
- ZERO, absolutely zero development of cargo facilities and hence cargo traffic
- Cheap building materials
- No new terminal but actually cheap extensions of the existing one (ok, not against if the roof wasn't leaking and if they were developing the traffic right)
- Gotten rid of Serbian official alphabet everywhere in the airport
- Didn't build a second runway but a useless 'inserted one', meaning some years down the road, GoS will again have to fork out hundreds of millions to build a new runway (what's then the benefit of the concession at all??)
- Failure to recognize Budapest as the main competitor and threat to Belgrade's expansion and set it as number one priority
- Instead of, they bought a stake in Budapest 😂
- If some years ago, we could justify the poor performance by 'absence of professional management' and bla bla bla, BEG got totally annihilated by BUD in every area, most importantly:
a) zero coordination between BEG, JU and Serbian government to make Belgrade a 'must visit' destination such as by making a movie, which is pretty much all it took Hungary with its poor offer and bland landscape to have dozens weekly flights from China now (Grand Budapest hotel), or the example how tourists are flocking to Dubrovnik cause of Games of thrones; zero, absolutely zero long-term commercial and marketing strategy
b) for BEG's management, cargo doesn't exist as a revenue producing activity and enabler of some (otherwise unprofitable) passenger lines, the cargo at BEG is beyond miserable and hasn't grown in a decade. Yet there's a highway AND a railway line right next to the airport. GO FIGURE!
Now with Budapest in their pocket, we can be even more certain they'll do next to nothing to enhance Belgrade's connectivity and competitiveness, but simply squeeze and reap profit out from every cent. That's why they don't need Ryanair or say Ethiopian with huge discounts.
Long story short, a very shortsighted and self-defeating move.
This must be one of the worst failures in terms of airport concessions, in Europe at least if not in the world.
The most of the things you worte here have absolutely nothing to do with Ryanair.
ReplyDelete- Ryanair can't fly from Serbia to North Africa, Middle-East or Caucasus.
- Ryanair does not care about cargo and especially they do not care about "cheap materials".
- They fly from any cottage as long as they get good price or they get money to fly from there.
- They are especially offended and state as one of the main reasons of not flying to Belgrade "the lack of Serbian official alphabet" at the airport.
- Ryanair cares very much about number of runways in Belgrade...not. Btw, it was GoS condition inserted runway to be built, it was not Vinci's decision.
- Ryanair does not care if Vinci owns BUD or not.
Who's talking about Ryanair?
DeleteI am talking about Vinci and that they're useless as a concessionaire and that the general concession plan was a flop.
This article is talking about Ryanair.
Delete...and Vinci.
DeleteNo airplane lands on clouds.
...and yes, they're completely right that the airport is undervelopped.
DeleteBEG should be somewhere between SOF and BUD in terms of passengers and cargo.
Instead it is neck and neck with Sofia which has less tourists than BEG, no transfer airline, no long-haul flights.
BEG's potential is used 40-60% at best.
Go figure.
Let me put it on tis way...Some things you mentioned are valid, but maybe in the article talking about the general results of Vinci running Belgrade airport. It would have to be wider analyses taking in consideration all the bad and all the good things Vinci did in Belgrade.
DeleteBut this article is not talking about it. It is written based on FR frustration and despair they do not get big discounts in Serbian capital and nothing more.
Yes, Ryanair is frustrated and hypocrite... Yes.
DeleteBut numbers don't lie.
Passenger numbers at BEG are stagnating, Wizz took out many aircraft, cargo is just dead in the water.
That's clearly the fault of Vinci, BUT not only, as it is already mentioned in the article.
Belgrade is not underdevopled for sure.
DeleteBEG has more passengers than SOF no matter Bulgaria is in EU and NATO and no mattter Bulgaria has free visa regime with UK.
Apart from that Bulgaria has higher BDP and per capita than Serbia. They are even in Schengen. Their winter tourism is much more developed than Serbian.
So SOF has many, many advantages comparing to Belgrade, but still they are under "underdeveloped Belgrade".
"Passenger numbers at BEG are stagnating"
DeleteYes, numbers don't lie.
BEG
2018 - 5,641,105
2019 - 6,159,000
2023 (first non covid year) - 7,948,202
2024 - expected 8.4 million.
Reallly stagnating.
Next year is likely to be quite stagnant, if not worse.
Delete@10:39
DeletePlease post aside BUD numbers so that we can compare.
Thank you.
Also TIA numbers.
DeleteWait and see.
DeleteI would not be that pessimistic.
Should I post also SKG, SOF and ZAG numbers?
DeleteSOF, yes.
DeleteSKG and ZAG are irrelevant.
Why is SKG irrelevant?
DeleteBecause of this?
2019
SKG 6,897,057
BEG 6,159,000
2023
SKG 7,029,957
BEG 7,948,202
What does "no matter Bulgaria is in EU and NATO" have to do with passenger numbers??
Delete@ anon 11:12
DeleteWell, I thought it is more than obvious that EU and NATO membership bring a lot of advantages including many investments, business and tourist traveling. It also brings to living standard increasing that automatically generates more air passengers.
@anon 11:13
SKG did not try at 2019 or before to establish hub&spoke model (they have warm and long sea coast as an advantage) , but despite it they had been for many years ahead of BEG regarding to pax numbers. They aren't anymore.
In 2023 it obviously changed totally that completely denies given statement that "BEG is stagnating".
We are talking here about BEG and not about the comparison of TIA and SKG.
How NATO membership brings a lot of advantages including many investments, business and tourist traveling???
DeleteWhy would a tourist or an investor choose to come to a country like Bulgaria instead of Austria based on Bulgaria being a member of NATO? 😂😂😂
I am not going to explain you how NATO memebrship can bring any advantages, you will have to do it by yourself.
DeleteTourist or investor will choose Bulgaria over Serbia due to its membership. Nobody was talking about Austria. It is nothing but a lousy attempt to make a spin.
Actually, he's right about Austraia.
DeleteThere are many other countries to choose from.
Anon 11:56 you can't be serious, right?
DeleteWhen I look for which place to visit, whether it is for a winter or a summer holiday I always make sure to check first if that country is a member of NATO!
DeleteThis blog never disappoints!!!
Petar, you will hardly visit any European country for summer holiday that is not NATO member.
DeleteSome people, really...
@anon 14:38
DeleteDon't try anymore please, anyhow they won't get it...
Ryanair is the worst profit driver and this at the expense of the taxpayer. Belgrade has enough competition. The presence of WizzAir confirms this perfectly
ReplyDeleteQuite to the contrary, the stagnating-at-best Wizz air`s presence confirms that the market is not competitive enough at BEG.
DeleteWizzAir is stagnating due to engine issues.
DeleteIt's not stagnating in BUD and TIA...
DeleteWizz chose to grow in 90% of the markets it operates.
DeleteUnfortunately BEG is not one of them and would be interesting to find out why.
^ The first issue is that you first sentence is a complete fabrication.
Delete^ why can't you handle the truth?
DeleteW6 had a record year in 2024. 62.5 million pax, 22% more than 2023!
https://aviation.direct/en/Wizz-Air-increases-passenger-numbers-in-December-2024-despite-lower-capacity
Your comments that they grew from 90% of markets is completely false. Their capacity increased just 2% in 2024.
DeleteWizz is reducing and stagnating in 60-70% of their bases.
Delete@13:35 W6 capacity decreased by 2% in December.
DeleteDuring the whole of the year it had 22% more pax than it did the year before. And over 55% more pax than it did before the pandemic back in 2019.
Sometimes is better to say nothing...
You don't understand the difference between capacity and passenger numbers so yes I agree it would be better for you to say nothing.
DeleteOh, and Ryanair is going to develop it? They would turn it into a bus station with people waiting in line on the tarmac in their flip flops to fly to one of the destinations that change all the time. No thanks, I would rather have normal airlines operating from Belgrade which, by the way, is not underdeveloped. Grow up Ryan.
ReplyDeleteYou mean like in Budapest?
DeleteYeah, really, being the biggest on the continent, Ryan sure needs to grow up. Jesus.
DeleteOnly is matter that the BEG restricted development of INI, together with VINCI.
ReplyDeleteWe shall change that in the future, we shall return INI to people of Niš!!! ✊👊
On the other hand, the state plans to cover the Belgrade market through Niš as a low cost option, which is pure BS. But that is actually good news for Niš.
DeleteThe thing is they limited the development of INI, but didn't include a clause in the contract to prevent the takeovers of airports such as BUD or SOF... Go figure 🤦.
Delete^ they did actually.
Delete^ actually they only did it for exyu countries.
DeleteBUD & SOF are closer to BEG than many ex-Yu airports.
DeleteWho is exactly the idiot who draw that contract, that didn't include a second secondary runway and exclude all the major airports in neibhouring countries?
Delete@11.54
DeleteNo, again a fabrication.
Yeah, but the Budapest takeover is not a fabrication.
DeleteFor the umpteenth time, BUD and BEG have incredibly little in common. One is a major low-cost tourist destination, the other is primarily a transfer airport.
DeleteThat doesn't excuses BEG's abysmal cargo performance, whilst BUD is stellar in that regard, with decades long investment finally bearing fruit...
DeleteWithout restoring cargo they had prior to 90's, BEG will never be able to reclaim its position as one of the main aviation hubs in central and Eastern Europe.
^ Do you even know how much cargo BEG has?
Deletethey are begging to fly there
ReplyDeleteThat's how it looks like to me too.
DeleteAnd Ryanair is not driven by profit at all 😂
ReplyDeleteI can agree that it's underdeveloped .. there's very little done at the airport since the concession took place, apart from the new "runway" that can't be used the airport looks like your average 90s shopping center, not representative of the city or the country at all.
ReplyDeleteAirport is almost completely refurbished, although works are not finished yet. And what’s more, passengers are more than satisfied, especially foreigners. So, you can come back and cry, numbers will continue to rise
DeleteMost of the "more than satisfied" foreigners do not have many options but to use Belgrade to connect to European destinations.
Delete@anon 13:44
Delete+100
Ryanair: "Do not let foreign concessionaires manage your airport because they only care about profit. They do not care about developing the airport, the business, or creating new jobs"
ReplyDeleteRyanair also: opens a base at ZAG with a 30-year (foreign) concession by ZAIC consortium
In that case, they can open new destinations from Niš. It's not problem for someone from Belgrade to go to Niš for cheap flights. For the rest of Serbia it's same if they travel to Bg or Ni if they have good offer.
ReplyDeletethey had many and they werent that successful
DeleteIt is a problem, Nis is far from Belgrade..
DeleteMaybe they could rename INI to Belgrade South.
DeleteThey rather rename Timisoara Belgrade East.
DeleteSo, a company known for running its business like locus, leaving wadteland behind wherever they appear, is criticizing another sort of locus (minimal investment for maximum progit). Welcome to the new brave world in race to the bottom.
ReplyDelete* wasteland
DeleteOn the spot!
Delete"Do not let foreign concessionaires manage your airport because they only care about profit. They do not care about developing the airport, the business, or creating new jobs”
ReplyDeleteWas that directed at concessionaire at Zagreb airport where Ryanair has a base? Ouch!
No bollocks with Irish, love their straightforwardness. Although some points here are very questonable it's great we can hear them speaking in the non corporate boring language. Unlike Vinci.
ReplyDeleteAll the points are questionable.
DeleteThese are very hard words from Ryanair, unusually hard in business manners...
ReplyDeleteIt seems that they would live to fly from BEG, and they are frustrated that Vinci management doesn't want to do antything about it..We forget that Vinci operated BUD as well, so it is not in their interest to develop BEG that much..Their interest is not the same as interest of people from Serbia, and government who signed that kind of contract ( secret contract) with them should've thought better what were they signing
...or should be sent to jail for treason.
DeleteHow much long-term losses and a new runway will cost?
Treshnja +100
Delete"We forget that Vinci operated BUD as well, so it is not in their interest to develop BEG that much"
DeleteI would love to hear an explanation of this reasoning. Even if we ignore the fact that the passenger structure of the two airports is very different, why do you think a profit-driven organisation would invest in two airports with the intention of developing only one?
There is no point in Tresnja's text.
DeleteWhy didn't FR come to BEG before Vinci owned BUD?
"Belgrade Airport is truly underdeveloped"
ReplyDeleteNever let a cold, hard facts get in your way: Belgrade Airport has 24 bridges and announced expansion to increase that number. Ryanair does not operate but 2 out of 3 largest EU ULCCs do.
Next busiest airport in the Ex Yu region has only 8 bridges. Ryanair operates there but is the only one of 3 largest EU ULCCs.
easyJet only flies to BEG from GVA.
DeleteLets be realistic here.
They still do.
DeletePretty much on point assesment from FR
ReplyDeleteIf Ryanair would do Belgrade-Vienna it could do 5 flights per day
ReplyDeleteYupp, that`s why folks who think this is a zero-sum game are wrong.
Delete