Serbia’s Euro vision continues to prosper

Serbia put itself well and truly on the European map last weekend by hosting the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest (won by Russia incidentally). This dubious honour is bestowed upon the nation that wins it the previous year, something Serbia managed to do at its first attempt. During the three hour long live TV broadcast an estimated 150m viewers were treated to some local music and dance but were spared the usual televisual ‘postcards’ promoting tourism in the host country.

Name up in lights (inset photo) – just in case you were wondering the airport was renamed “Belgrade Nicola Tesla” in 2006 in tribute to the Serbian whose theoretical works led to the development of polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor. Main photo: a Serbian we have definitely heard of – Jelena Tomasevic who came sixth in last week’s Eurovision.

Despite not (yet) being a member of the ever-expanding EU, traffic at Serbia’s main airport in Belgrade has grown by almost 25% in the last two years while the national carrier, JAT Airways, has also seen passenger numbers rise, although more modestly.

Source: Belgrade Airport, AEA

JAT, with a fleet of 11 737s and five ATR72s, has seen its share of Belgrade traffic fall in recent years from over 60% to around 45%. It is still by far the dominant airline offering 33 destinations across Europe and North Africa (in the heady days before the civil war it also offered DC-10 serices to North America and Australia). Almost 20% of its capacity is now on just two routes to Tivat and Podgorica in neighbouring Montenegro where it competes head-to-head with Montenegro Airlines.

JAT Airways recently became the official airline sponsor of Red Star FC – the reigning Serbian football champions. Pictured with the club shirt are JAT Airways Director General Sasa Vlaisavljevic and Red Star FC President Toplica Spasojevic.

Airline	Frequency share	Capacity share	Number of routes
JAT Airways	52.9%	51.2%	33
Montenegro Airlines	12.0%	12.2%	2
Lufthansa	11.7%	10.0%	3
Alitalia	3.9%	3.7%	2
Austrian	3.6%	3.7%	1
Swiss	2.5%	3.7%	2
Source: OAG Max Online for w/c 26 May 2008

A total of 16 airlines currently offer scheduled services to Belgrade including Olympic Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Tunis Air. Europe’s LCCs have only a marginal presence in Belgrade with Germanwings serving Cologne/Bonn (four times weekly) and Stuttgart (three times weekly), while Norwegian flies twice weekly to Oslo Rygge. Norwegian will add a Stockholm service in mid-June.

No routes to Spain, only one to France and UK

Surprisingly there are no direct services to anywhere in Spain and only a single route to the UK (London Heathrow is served by both JAT and British Airways) and a single servicee to France (Paris CDG is served by both JAT and Air France). Demand at Belgrade follows a typical European seasonality profile with a significant summer peak suggesting a strong leisure component – although this is likely to be mainly VFR related as Belgrade and its catchment is mainly an administrative and trade centre.

Source: Belgrade Airport

Traffic in the first four months of 2008 is up around 8%. Swiss started its Basel route at the end of March while Norwegian’s Rygge service began in mid-March. JAT’s capacity is expected to increase around 10% this summer with new routes to Oslo, Pula and Thessaloniki and increased frequency on a number of services including Rome and Vienna. Along with frequency and capacity adjustments by other airlines the airport expects passenger numbers during the seven month summer season to increase by around 12%.

Two proud days for Pristina: Main Photo: On February 17 the flag of Kosovan independence (not recognised by Serbia) is raised over the airport. Inset Photo: Earlier (in 2006) the phoenix airport received ACI EUROPE’s Best Airport Award in the <1m category.

Pristina: New base for Belle Air?

Pristina airport serves the state capital of Kosovo, a disputed region which earlier this year declared its independence of Serbia. While this has been recognised by some countries, others including Serbia and Russia have not accepted the decision. In 2007 Pristina airport handled 990,259 commercial passengers (up 12.2%) with Austrian and Swiss carriers featuring prominently. One-third of all passengers were on flights to/from Switzerland. This summer there are scheduled services to 13 destinations in 10 countries. There are twice-daily services to Vienna (with Austrian) and Tirana (daily services with Albanian Airlines and Belle Air) while Budapest, Istanbul and Ljubljana are all served daily.

Belle Air, the low-cost carrier based in neighbouring Albania plans to expand its services from Pristina. It recently started services to Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa and Verona (all thrice weekly) and will soon start operating to Liege (twice weekly from 24 June to 16 September).