Ryanair, the low-cost airline, stated to the portal EX-YU Aviation that Belgrade Airport is currently not an option for them due to high costs. However, the company emphasized that they continue to monitor the Serbian market and could consider further expansion if they recognize the potential for profit.
Ryanair currently serves the Serbian market through its flights to Niš, but according to commercial director Jason McGuinness, the reduced growth in passenger numbers due to delays in the delivery of Boeing aircraft poses challenges for expansion. He warned that airports and regions cannot afford to be complacent.
“We allocate our capacities where airports and bases work with us. This has always been our approach, but it’s even more important now in a limited market. When you look at our cost base, all our costs are fixed, except for one, and that is the airport costs. That is the only real variable cost in this business,” McGuinness explained, as reported by EX-YU Aviation.
The commercial director did not rule out the possibility of closing some bases or reallocating capacities from bases that do not cooperate with the airline.
Ryanair is one of the major partners of VINCI, the concessionaire of Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport, from which it was previously stated that the low-cost airline market is an important part of the airport’s development. In the former Yugoslavia, Ryanair has a base in Zagreb, as well as seasonal bases in Dubrovnik and Zadar. Among the capital cities, it also serves Podgorica and Sarajevo, and regionally, the airline has bases in Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia.
