Ryanair will be one of the fastest growing carriers across the former Yugoslav markets this coming winter season, despite only serving four of them. The budget airline has 922.962 seats for sale, representing an increase of 37.7% on the previous winter, or an additional 252.880 seats. Overall, it will be the third largest carrier in the former Yugoslavia this winter season.
The majority of that capacity and growth will come from the Croatian market where the airline will increase its operations by 32.5%. Contributing to the growth are the launch of new routes from Zagreb during the summer, some of which will be maintained this winter, as well as an increase in frequencies across its network from the capital. In addition, Ryanair will maintain operations out of Dubrovnik this winter for the first time, with flights to Charleroi, London Stansted and Vienna. During the 2024/25 winter seasons, Ryanair has 632.544 seats on the Croatian market
Ryanair will also grow in Bosnia and Herzegovina this winter where the airline will maintain operations from Sarajevo for the first time while strengthening its presence in Banja Luka with additional frequencies. In total, the carrier will have 222.314 seats on the market during the winter. Banja Luka Airport accounts for over half of that capacity, an increase of 80.5% on the previous winter. In Serbia, capacity will remain flat, with 39.718 seats across its Niš flights, up 0.5%
On the other hand, the budget carrier will significantly reduce its presence in Podgorica. Ryanair will turn three year-round routes from the Montenegrin capital into summer seasonal. As a result, it will operate just one route from Podgorica this winter. With 28.386 seats, its overall capacity will decline 65%.
Ryanair, which was the largest carrier in the former Yugoslavia for most of the summer, will revise down its passenger traffic estimates for next year because of expected aircraft delivery delays from Boeing. The move comes as an ongoing strike at Boeing has raised concerns about worsening delays at the planemaker, which has already faced challenges with deliveries for much of this year amid a broader crisis around its safety reputation. “We were supposed to get twenty deliveries before the end of December. They’ll probably come now in January and February, and that’s fine. We’ll have them in time for next summer. The big issue for Ryanair is we’re due thirty aircraft in March, April, May and June of next year, and how many of those will we get? I think we’re clearly going to walk back our traffic growth for next year, because I don’t think we’re going to get all those thirty aircraft”, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said.
