Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was the only one from the former Yugoslavia to rank within the top 100 busiest on the continent last year based on Airports Council International’s (ACI) annual report. With 8.367.931 passengers handled, it was the 75th busiest in Europe. The airport was ahead of the likes of Reykjavik, Glasgow, Sofia, Thessaloniki and Riga but behind Palermo, Basel and Lanzarote. During the second half of 2024, it ranked 72nd on the continent with 4.649.487 travellers handled. Over the last year, Belgrade Airport added 421.217 travellers on 2023 and welcomed over eight million passengers through its doors for the first time.
European rank for former Yugoslav airports in 2024
Zagreb Airport ranked 108th on the continent during 2024 ahead of Leeds, Menorca and Chisinau but behind the likes of Tbilisi, Turin and Wroclaw. Pristina ranked 114th in Europe, followed by Split, which was 123rd, then Dubrovnik in 135th position, Skopje ranking in at 136, and Sarajevo 150th, with the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina making its debut in the top 150. On the other hand, Podgorica dropped out of the top 150, landing in 155th place, while Zadar came 160th. Ljubljana remained the lowest-ranked capital city airport in Europe, placing 164th among more than 300 airports. Full passenger results for the former Yugoslavia’s commercial airports can be found here.
European rank for select airports in the region in 2024
During 2024, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe for a second year in a row, handling 83.884.800 passengers, with Istanbul’s main gateway coming in second. They were followed Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Rome Fiumicino, London Gatwick and Munich. Out of the top ten, only five reached and surpassed their pre-pandemic 2019 figures - London Heathrow, Istanbul, Madrid, Barcelona and Rome Fiumicino. Overall, in 2024, five billion passengers were welcomed by Europe’s airports, an increase of 7.4% over 2023, and up 1.8% on 2019. However, 47% of Europe’s airports are still below their pre-pandemic volumes, with structural aviation market changes and geopolitics resulting in significant performance gaps across national and individual airport markets. Europe’s smaller airports are still 34.5% below pre-pandemic levels.
Busiest airports in 2024
Hopefully at least another ex-Yu airport can make it this year.
ReplyDeleteZagreb is a candidate. Let's see,
DeleteBravo BEG 🎉🤩👏
DeleteZAG would be in top 100 if we had stronger national carrier with a clear strategy.
Delete^ things will improve this year with the five new routes.
DeleteTHEY JUST WILL HAVE BIGGER LOSES.
Delete@12:30
DeleteYou seem more upset than even Croatian tax payers about OU's financial performance...
BEG would be in top 50 if Ryanair came.
DeleteZagreb will hit 4.8 million this year, top 100, perhaps 95th this year is a possibility. Airport could hit 5.0 million mark, all depends on second half and load factor, but we'll see.
DeleteTo get to 95th place Zagreb would need to pass 13 airports on the list. It already lost one place in 2024.
Delete"Ljubljana remained the lowest-ranked capital city airport in Europe, placing 164th among more than 300 airports."
ReplyDeleteWay to go Fraport!
No surprise
DeleteTrieste is overtaking LJU this year.
DeleteSad but expected.
DeleteBravo Fraport
DeleteI hope one day we will move from last place.
DeleteIt won't get any better this year unfortunately.
DeleteWhat's the solution?
DeleteLCC base or new national airline.
DeleteGet better management.
DeleteWasn't LJU supposed to be a charter hub?
Delete^ lol
DeleteFirst and only charter hub in the world. Bravo Fraport!
DeleteWe still have a long of way to go.
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteInteresting that ZAG slipped last year despite all the growth and especially since Ryanair is booming.
ReplyDeleteMost airports slipped because airports which were usually ahead of ex-Yu airports finally recovered .
DeleteWhat's more odd is that BEG actually jumped to the 72nd position in the second half when it recorded worse results.
DeleteKudos to Tirana, not sure how but they are doing miracles
ReplyDeleteLCC's
DeleteEuropean passengers have become alergic to payin hundreds of Euros to fly on a 90 minute flight for the privilege of having a legacy national airline.
LCCs are the present and the future.
^ Smartypants, maybe it has something to do with them having a coast with cheap accommodation and cheap holiday packages. Btw Albania has a national airline.
DeleteYes, but you still need to fill those planes with people, and its not only LCC, BA, Air France, soon Iberia are flying there. Also Aegean is often sending A321, plus there are like 4-5 flights per day on average to London and many other interesting destinations, not only to the west but to eastern and central Europe as well. Overall, I think their developing nicely, I'm sure the Adriatic sea and all the new resorts and investments there play a role.
DeleteWhile this is all great and I commend them for it, Tirana Airport is an absolute mess. Used it last summer, massive queues, not enough handlers, baggage waiting up to an hour. Similar thing happening on the coast with too many people and infrastructure that can't keep pace.
DeleteTIA this year will pass VCE!
DeleteWho could have foressen that only a few years ago.
It has to do with TIA being owned by the Chinese who don't have to publish their financial results. Albanian government is pushing for tourism and that is why they give such discounts and subsidies.
DeleteAnon 09:25
DeleteNo, the Chinese sold all their shares of TIA to the Albanian Kastrati group 5 years ago.
They do release financial statements.
https://seenews.com/news/albanias-kastrati-swings-to-after-tax-profit-in-2023-1261179
All goverments want tourism, maybe with the exheption of North Korea.
No, even North Korea is opening a resort.
Delete09:15 True but the place is currently a construction site. It's being severely expanded and railway connection with Tirana and Durrës will be completed this year. So things will look different pretty soon.
DeleteBesides tourism, Albania has a massive diaspora in the EU, mich bigger than any od the Balkan countries.
DeleteIt's smaller than Bulgaria or Romania, let alone ''much bigger''.
DeletePoland too.
DeleteTirana airport is a battlefield for lowcosters right now. Battle can't last forever. Addition of second airport will balance out some traffic. Diaspora routes still lead the demand, with London airports and Italy ahead of emerging markets.
DeleteCrazy that 47% of European airports are still below 2019 levels.
ReplyDeleteEven with the Olympics Charles de Gaulle failed to reach 2019 numbers,
DeleteAviation is Germany is doing terribly. Almost no airport has reached 2019 numbers and government introducing new taxes does not help in attracting airlines or tourists.
Delete^ This is true. The main issue is the lack of domestic flights. Many LCCs discontinued domestic flights within Germany. Lufthansa is in complete control of the market.
DeleteAviation recovery seems to be very uneven across the continent.
DeleteNice overview
ReplyDeleteOnly Sarajevo improved in the rankings.
ReplyDeletePristina stayed the same.
DeleteYes, so only SJJ improved in the rankigs.
DeleteIn the region, it seems that Budapest and Tirana have had a very high pace in terms of pax numbers.
ReplyDeleteBUD has a very good air service development team. And before someone mentions VINCI it has nothing to do with them. That team has been in place there for years. It also helps Budapest is one of the most visited cities in Europe with very affordable accommodation.
DeleteSeems like VINCI made the right choice investing in BUD.
DeleteIt is true. Vinci never replaces local management at any airport except top management ie CEO. That is why absolutely everyone stayed the same at BEG. Unfortunately, many should not have as they have no clue what they are doing.
DeleteThe moment it was announced that Vinci is taking over BUD, Wizz Air announced the closure of their base in Debrecen. Coincidence?
DeleteAll of Hungarian traffic is now centered around BUD, in addition to all of southern Slovakia.
It is no surprise because airline has huge fleet issues and has huge competition in BUD.
Delete@Anonymous 09:24
Delete+1000
You hit the nail on the head.
...and yet BEG does nothing. Regardless of the numbers, the airport is still underperforming. Belgrade is nowhere on the map of tourist radars, even JU's transfer model isn't employed to a full extent, almost non-existant cargo traffic. TK sees 60% or transfer traffic, in the case of EK i think it's closer to 90%. How much Air Serbia has? Why is there no cargo division of Air Serbia with proper metal and/or real incentive to attract cargo airlines?
DeleteThere are systemic mistakes in the work of BEG airport and NOTHING is done to address them. Well, we can only applaud f****** BUD and now even Tirana.
JU's transfer traffic is at 40% which is a lot for an airline of its size. EK's is 60% according to their CEO.
DeleteQR921, depends on who owns that tourist radar. Belgrade is not showing on those radars from London, Monaco or Geneva, but is visible for tourists from Turkiye and exyu region. Belgrade had record tourist year in 2024. You are also wrong on cargo, BEG is not HKG but cargo is growing. Air Serbia alone grew cargo 25% in 2024. Other airports in exyu wish they could have cargo and passenger numbers like BEG.
DeleteSeems Skopje had the biggest fall in terms of rankings.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat!
DeleteI was certain Istanbul would be number 1 in 2024 but seems Heathrow managed to pull through. Do you guys think IST will eventually overtake LHR?
ReplyDeleteI believe so, especially with capacity constraints at LHR.
DeleteTK has fleet issues with late deliveries form both Airbus and Boeing.
DeleteIs this in Europe or the world?
DeleteEurope
DeleteTimisoara with over 1 million PAX?!? Wow
ReplyDeleteWhere is the demand coming from? Romanian diaspora in EU?
DeleteI don't think there is any other airport in Romania serving that part of the country.
DeleteIt still gets a lot of passengers from Serbia.
Delete10:32 Actually, there are airports in Arad and Oradea. Romania`s aviation is developed, including domestic traffic. It is now a developed nation, after all.
DeleteTell a local Romanian that they are a developed nation and wait for the answer. lol
DeleteLJU has some very serious catching up
ReplyDeleteIt has a ton of catching up to do.
DeleteZadar is doing exceptionally.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteFell from 152 to 160, 8 places down. Exceptional?
DeleteCould we get also financial report for ex yu airports?
ReplyDeleteI don't think all the airports publish their financial results.
DeleteWhat are the presictions for 2025?
ReplyDeleteThere will be growth but as usual it will be uneven. Like in the past few years routes dependent on business travel will lag behind while routes on leisure destinations, particularly to the Mediterranean countries will experience significant growth.
DeletePretty poor performance when you see how many passengers Vienna had.
ReplyDeleteOr even Budapest and Bucharest.
DeleteBelgrade being ahead of Riga is a bit of a surprise. I would have thought with air Baltic there they would be well ahead.
DeleteATH alone had as many passengers last year as all our 20+ airports combined.
DeleteAnon 11:57 , that's so true . I was 2 days ago there and even in february it was so crowded !
DeleteATH neded to expand years ago. And still are going to have double digit growth in pax again.
DeleteHow they are going to handle them I do not know.
Fact check: Vienna lost one position on the list. Not horrible but far from shining example.
DeleteNot surprised to see Skopje drop in the rankings. We need more airlines and less dependence on Wizz Air.
ReplyDeleteOr a solution could be a national airline.
Delete^ attempted several times and failed.
DeleteA national airline in our region would quickly become a place where primarily well connected people are hired, in much larger numbers than actually needed.
DeleteIt will be loss making, maybe forever and it will be very slow to adjust to market dynamics.
There will be more and more calls to be protected from competition.
When will BEG's passenger numbers for January be published?
ReplyDeleteNext Tuesday.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteWonder if they will somehow manage to pull off some growth.
DeleteI don't think so. It will probably be a small decline. On top of capacity decline the year started off with lots of fog. And some Wizz flights were also diverted and passengers bussed because of that refuelling thing.
DeleteHas the refueling issue been result? What happened?
DeleteYes, they are just paying through Menzies now.
DeleteAdmin, any chance to check with someone from Skopje airport, what happened with the flyDubai restore of flights to DXB? They were suppose to start next month
ReplyDeleteIn touch with Flydubai. Should have an update next week hopefully.
DeleteOnly SJJ managed to better its position in 2024. ex-Yu airports not in great shape...
ReplyDeleteZAG grew 16% last year, what are you talking about?
DeleteZAG grew 16% last year, what are you talking about?
DeleteZagreb was 7 spots behind Top100 in 2023, it slid down to 8 spots behind in 2024.
DeleteZar Kluz nije u regionu? Ako su Bukurest i Temisvar, trebao bi biti i Kluz, a on ima vise putnika od Temisvara i Trsta.
ReplyDelete