Belgrade Airport eyes busy 2019 after record year
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is expected to see another successful year after handling a record 5.641.105 passengers in 2018. The figure represents an increase of 5.6% year-on-year, or an additional 297.685 travellers. In its quarterly report, airport operator VINCI said, "Over the full year, traffic at the airport rose to 5.6 million passengers. This solid performance mirrors the capital city’s vitality". Traffic at Belgrade was buoyed by foreign carriers in 2018, with most increasing either frequencies or capacity to the Serbian capital, while Air Serbia saw its passenger figures decline. Overall, VINCI's portfolio of airports processed a total of 240 million travellers during 2018.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 333.989 | ▲ 1.3 |
| FEB | 297.430 | ▲ 5.3 |
| MAR | 366.099 | ▲ 6.5 |
| APR | 447.681 | ▲ 7.5 |
| MAY | 479.384 | ▲ 10.8 |
| JUN | 539.169 | ▲ 6.4 |
| JUL | 670.354 | ▲ 6.4 |
| AUG | 689.308 | ▲ 7.5 |
| SEP | 577.862 | ▲ 1.8 |
| OCT | 495.881 | ▲ 3.2 |
| NOV | 370.456 | ▲ 5.8 |
| DEC | 373.492 | ▲ 3.1 |
Over the past twelve months, a total of five new airlines launched operations to Belgrade, including Russia's Red Wings, Egypt's AlMasria Universal Airlines and three Iranian operators. Subsequently, the Iranian carriers scrapped their services to the city due to the reintroduction of visa requirements for Iranian nationals. During the year, China's Hainan Airlines discontinued flights to Belgrade, while low cost easyJet introduced two new routes to the city. In 2018, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate rejected Turkish Airlines' application to operate one of its two daily services with a wide-body Airbus A330-200 aircraft throughout the entire summer season and later rejected the carrier's request to add an additional four weekly flights between Istanbul and Belgrade as of September 2018. The regulator also blocked Syria's Cham Wings Airlines from launching three weekly flights from Damascus during the summer of 2018.
Belgrade Airport is expected to continue growing this year, with three new airlines having already announced their arrival to the Serbian capital this summer season, including Air France, Air Arabia and ASL Airlines France. Numerous carriers will also be adding frequencies on their existing services to Belgrade, among which are Lufthansa, Aeroflot, Austrian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Etihad Airways and Atlasglobal. Eurowings, which is yet to schedule the resumption of its seasonal services between Stuttgart and Belgrade, has confirmed it will soon be putting tickets on sale for the route.
Meanwhile, Germany's development finance institution DEG, which has provided VINCI Airports Serbia with a long-term loan of 22.4 million euros, has said the French operator will build a new terminal and runway at the airport during its 25-year concession. "The expansion of Belgrade Airport, which was built in 1962, will include the addition of a second runway and a new passenger terminal. This will increase the airport’s maximum capacity to twelve million passengers a year. VINCI Airports will also upgrade the existing terminals and taxiways. The company is one of the leading international airport operators and plans to make Belgrade Airport the company’s base in Central and Eastern Europe in future", the DEG said in a statement.
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