Belgrade Airport sees “light at the end of the tunnel”
Belgrade Nikola Tesla expects to handle up to 50% of its 2019 traffic if the recent positive trends continue. Speaking at the Southeast Europe Aviation Summit this week, Belgrade Airport’s General Manager, Francois Berisot, said, “It’s been a big challenge to assess anything in this environment. The starting point is very low for us, we lost 70% of our traffic last year. The beginning of this year - January and February - were not more than 30% of what we used to have. The good thing is that we are seeing signs of a light at the end of the tunnel. I need to thank the government of Serbia because the pace of the vaccinations is really a blessing for us. What we want is to prove to the world, starting with people in Serbia and Belgrade, that it is safe to travel and that they can travel again. Of course, it does not depend only on us. Conditions to enter other countries, isolation and tests need to be taken into account … so we are doing all we can to enable traffic from here. We can see some good signs right now. Airlines, starting with Air Serbia, are increasing their summer program with more flights and destinations so we are seeing things happening. We are hoping these are the first signs of a real summer season. If we are lucky and we have this summer season, we hope we will reach about 50% of our usual activity that we used to see in 2019. It still seems low so it’s not the end. But if we are there, it will be a great achievement for us”.
The Serbian market is among the better performing in Europe at the moment. During this month, the amount of offered capacity compared to the May of last year stands at 48.7%, well ahead of all Western European markets, the first being Norway at 35.7% of capacity. “The beginning of 2020 was great for us. We were having significant double digit growth. We were starting construction work. All was great but suddenly everything changed literally overnight. We were preparing for the busiest summer season. We lost 70% of our traffic, which was a gamechanger because we were preparing for the busiest year. Suddenly, our traffic was down. Did that change anything? No. We still have the same belief. Nikola Tesla still has the same potential. This is just a hick-up in its history. We’ve tried to make it an opportunity as much as we could and we did, because some of the works that were difficult to plan and organise in the middle of heavy traffic were easier to perform. The key point is we never stopped working, for the airlines and for the passengers. That’s why we are where we are today. Everyone can see the new building growing and we are really building the future and its coming, Covid or no Covid”, Mr Berisot explained.
Despite the ongoing difficulties, the airport has not postponed or delayed its expansion project, the first phase of which should be completed by the end of the year. “It’s a major project for us and Serbia. Big things are already happening. It’s an investment but also a partnership. We are very proud to be partners with the government of Serbia. It will be a big change for the airport. We believe in Nikola Tesla Airport and we believe in this potential of being a capital city airport and a hub for Air Serbia. That’s the main target for us”, the General Manager noted. He added, “We want to achieve the potential of the airport, but to do that we are basing all we are doing in pillars. The first one we are doing is improvements. We really want to improve in all possible ways, and it has started. We have already changed the look inside the terminal and the passenger flow. It’s only the beginning. The deep renovation of the facilities are coming. The goal for this year is to continue with these improvements and increase capacity. We will finish the building under construction by the end of this year, which will bring tremendous change for us, not only just new facilities, but big improvement because it is a state of the art building, it will increase our capacity and it is for the future. Our goal is not tomorrow. Because of Covid, tomorrow we don’t need this capacity, but our goal is after tomorrow. We want to bring Air Serbia a tool for their development. We will also start the next phase for us, which is the expansion of the main building. Passengers who are familiar with our airport are already seeing some changes. We are deviating roads, closing car parks… These are signs of the beginning of a new big phase where the building will be much wider and bigger. There will be significantly more check in counters, a greater commercial offer and space. I believe that by the end of this no one will recognise the airport. It will take more than this year, probably around two or three”.
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