By far the two busiest air routes within and between the countries of the former Yugoslavia are the airlines between Montenegro and Serbia, that is, the routes between Podgorica, that is, Tivat and Belgrade.
This is shown by the data collected by the analysts of the "ExYU aviation" port, according to which in the first half of this year, the busiest route between some parts of the former joint state was the route Belgrade - Podgorica, on which in the first six months of 2024 a total traffic of 148.354 passengers. This is 3,9 percent more than at the same time last year, i.e. 4,9 percent more compared to the traffic of that line in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
The second busiest route in the area of the former SFRY in the first half of this year was Belgrade - Tivat, on which a total of 116.942 passengers flew. Although this is 3,3 percent less than in the first half of 2023, traffic on the Belgrade - Tivat line has grown this year by as much as 29,9 percent compared to the pre-pandemic 2019. In total, there were 265.296 passengers on flights between the capital of Serbia and two airports in Montenegro in the first six months of this year, which shows how great the demand is and how important this market is for carriers operating air traffic between Montenegro and Serbia.
Third on the list of the busiest airlines in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the Zagreb - Dubrovnik route, on which a traffic of 2024 passengers was recorded in the first half of 103.049, is far behind the results achieved by the air connections between the two Montenegrins and the airport in Belgrade. On the route between Tivat, i.e. Podgorica and Belgrade, only planes of the two national airlines of Montenegro and Serbia - "Air Montenegro" and "Air Serbia" fly. These two companies use this duopoly very well to accumulate a large profit by keeping relatively high ticket prices on these lines thanks to the significant interest and needs of passengers.
This season, the line to Tivat, with 58 weekly departures, is the most frequent line flying from the airport "Nikola Tesla" in Belgrade. Of these, "Air Serbia" has 38, and "Air Montenegro" 20 departures. With 35 weekly connections, the Belgrade - Podgorica line is the fourth most frequently operated from Belgrade airport this summer, with "Air Serbia" having 21 weekly departures and "Air Montenegro" having 14 weekly departures.
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