Commercial airports across the former Yugoslavia handled a combined total of 24.872.887 passengers during the first eight months of the year, with 4.94 million travellers in August alone. Among them, during the eighth month of the year, three airports stood out for their high growth rates.
They include Zadar with a year-on-year increase in August of 30.2%, Tivat with 28.6% growth, and Sarajevo, which had a 24.2% boost in numbers. On the other hand, several regional airports underperformed during the month, including Tuzla, which saw a 67.8% slide in figures, Banja Luka, which had 20.4% fewer passengers than in August 2023, and Niš, which shed 20.2% of its travellers year-on-year. A number of other airports also saw their figures decline compared to last year, among which are Skopje, Ohrid and Rijeka.
During the January – August period, Belgrade Airport ranked as the 76th busiest on the continent, just behind Larnaca, Lanzarote and Reykjavik but ahead of Glasgow, Sofia and Thessaloniki. Zagreb positioned itself as the 110th busiest, behind Menorca, East Midlands, and Leeds, but in front of Olbia, Chania, and Pristina.
Pristina itself took 113th place. It was immediately behind the abovementioned, but ahead of the likes of Split, Trondheim in Norway, and Chisinau. Skopje ranked 136th, with the Macedonian capital behind Cork, Treviso and Santorini but outperforming Ponta Delgada, Tromso and Zakynthos.
With over 1.4 million additional passengers by the end of August compared to last year, Croatia is the fastest growing market in the former Yugoslavia in 2024 based on the number of added travellers.
Most European markets saw year-on-year growth during the first eight months of the year. The exceptions were Belarus, Russia (-15.5%), Armenia (-1.9%) and Sweden (-0.2). London Heathrow was once again Europe’s busiest airport over the eight-month period, with 55.800.267 passengers, while Istanbul’s main gateway was second with 53.452.178 travellers.
The pair saw growth of 6.7% and 5.3% on 2023 respectively. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle with 46.719.178 passengers, Amsterdam with 44.519.984, Madrid with 43.892.023 travellers, Frankfurt with 40.872.258, Barcelona with 36.868.441, Rome Fiumicino with 32.624.741, London Gatwick with 29.219.959, and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen with 27.526.718 passengers.
Out of Europe’s top ten busiest, four are still below their pre-pandemic 2019 records. They include Paris Charles de Gaulle (-8.9%), Amsterdam (-7.4%), Frankfurt (-13.9%), and London Gatwick (-8.4%), EX Yu Aviation writes.
