It's the European success story of the early summer. Belgrade attracts airlines with very strong growth in passenger traffic. At the beginning of May, Belgrade hosted KLM with three weekly flights. The Dutch airline had not served the former federal capital of the late Yugoslavia for 30 years. Demand is such that the flight has already become a daily occurrence since mid-June.
Air France had taken over on 28 April its Paris CDG-Belgrade route with three weekly frequencies. From 19 July, the French airline will be ramping up its operations with five flights a week.. Among the companies returning to Belgrade this summer are Russia's S7 or the brand new national carrier Air Montenegro.
For its part, the carrier Air Serbia dessert again 45 destinations this summer. In March, the company inaugurated a route to Geneva. It has since resumed services to Prague, Sofia and Thessaloniki and opened up a new route to Rostov in Russia. The carrier is positioning Belgrade as a regional hub for Central Europe and the Balkans.
Belgrade airport is experiencing a real upturn. The hub - whose main shareholder is the French VINCI group - had seen its traffic fall by 69.1% in 2020, with 1.9 million passengers. A far cry from the six million passengers recorded a year earlier.
The emergence of a new hub for Balkan Europe
However, since the beginning of the year, the trend has been in the opposite direction. According to VINCI Airports, Belgrade airport is experiencing a dynamic upturn in traffic, with a number of destinations already comparable to 2019 this summer. The Serbian capital is thus linked to 71 destinations compared with 72 in 2019. In June, its traffic was only 30% lower than it was on the same date in 2019 - the latest reference year.
VINCI Airports has in fact launched major modernisation work the airport and extending the terminal. With a total surface area of 12,000 m², the terminal extension (Pier C) will be completed by the end of the year. Belgrade airport has already opened a modernised boarding area. It promotes Serbian gastronomy and local brands. At the same time, a new car park and new bus access are improving the airport's accessibility.
create a new hub in south-eastern Europe
The ambition of the platform's shareholders is to create the new hub in south-east Europe. When VINCI Airports completes the modernisation works in 2024, Belgrade will have 40,000 m² of additional space in its terminal. The terminal will be equipped with new gangways and boarding gates, and an additional runway will be brought into service. These works will give Belgrade a total capacity of 15 million passengers a year.
