One EX-YU airport within Europe’s top 100 busiest in 2022

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was the only one from the former Yugoslavia to rank within the top 100 busiest on the continent last year, according to Airports Council International (ACI). With 5.610.364 passengers handled, it was the 81st in Europe, ahead of the like of Riga, Tirana, Belfast and Luxembourg but behind Sofia, Thessaloniki and Malta. Notably, during the second half of 2022, the airport ranked 76th on the continent with 3.468.058 travellers handled, outperforming Sofia, and just behind Thessaloniki with 3.499.838 passengers. During the first quarter of the year, travel was still heavily restricted from Serbia due to entry bans and limitations for Serbian citizens in many European Union member states as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

European rank for former Yugoslav airports in 2022

Zagreb Airport ranked 114th on the continent during 2022, ahead of Tbilisi and London City but behind the likes of Santiago de Compostela and East Midlands. Pristina ranked 117th in Europe, followed by Split, which was 119th, then Dubrovnik ranking in 129th and Skopje in 130th position. The only other airport from the former Yugoslavia to make it within the top 150 was Sarajevo, which ranked 148th. As previously reported, Ljubljana was the lowest ranked main capital city airport in Europe, taking 159th position out of over 300 airports. For comparison, in 2021, which was severely impacted by Covid-19, there were two airports from the former Yugoslavia in the top 100 - Belgrade and Pristina - while there was the same amount in the top 150 - a total of seven.

European rank for select airports in the region in 2022

During 2022, Istanbul’s main airport was the busiest, handling 64.284.215 passengers. It was followed by London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, and Madrid. The first, among the busiest airports, to have handled more passengers in 2022 than the pre-pandemic 2019 was Charleroi, ranking 56th in Europe with 8.260.095 travellers or 0.6% more than in 2019. Commenting on the results, Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe said, “The surge in passenger traffic last year has been phenomenal. Kicking off in early spring when most travel restrictions were finally lifted, it boomed over the summer and remained resilient afterwards. All of this despite geopolitical shocks, deteriorating macro-economics, fast-rising air fares and Covid still being with us”. He added, “There is still a lot of uncertainty about 2023, not least because of geopolitical tensions and the fact there is no end in sight for the war in Ukraine. But the traffic outlook is getting better thanks to demand headwinds easing somewhat with the reopening of China, recession fears for Europe subsiding and inflation softening. This should help in reducing the current traffic gaps and getting more airports closer to their pre-pandemic volumes. However, supply pressures are likely to remain significant given the structural capacity reductions made by most airlines during the pandemic, their strong focus on increasing yields through higher air fares rather than market share, aircraft delivery delays and labour shortages still being an issue in some markets”.

Busiest airports in 2022

EX-YU Aviation News

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