Aviation in Kosovo

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The history of aviation in Kosovo began with the opening of the Batllava airfield near Podujeva , where there was regular passenger traffic from 1935, which lasted until the Second World War. In 1965 Pristina Airport was opened; today this airport is the only one in the country for civil use. Kosova Airlines was also based here from 2003 to 2006 .

Beginnings

As early as 1936 there were first civil flight connections in what is now Kosovo. Aeroput , the state-owned Yugoslavian airline that later became JAT Airways , used the Batlava airfield near Podujevo for a stop on the Belgrade - Podujevo-Batlava - Skopje route . The flight connection was discontinued in Yugoslavia with the beginning of the Second World War .

The first airport still in civil use today is Pristina Airport, which opened in 1965. Since civil air traffic played a very minor role in the former Yugoslavia, the airport was designed exclusively as a military airfield . It was the second main base of the Yugoslav Air Force.

Airplane used by Air Prishtina on wet lease at the end of 2004

Shortly after the opening, regular flights to Belgrade began. The state-owned Yugoslavian airline JAT Airways flew this route three times a week. However, this connection could not be established. From the 1980s onwards, individual charter flights to international destinations were offered from Pristina , which were organized by Air Prishtina , which at that time was still operating under the name of Travel Agency Prishtina .

Civil aviation after the Kosovo war

Boeing 737-700 of Kosova Airlines

After Pristina airport was badly damaged during the Kosovo war, one of the goals of UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo) was to restore air traffic. To this end, the damage at the airport was repaired and the airline Kosova Airlines was launched, which from 2003 to 2006 connected Kosovo with important European cities with a Boeing 737-700 leased from Hamburg International , mainly for the transport of guest workers. There are now regular scheduled and charter flight connections with a focus on the traffic of Kosovars living abroad. Since the demand - especially after the declaration of independence - had increased significantly, it was planned to convert the abandoned Gjakova airport into a passenger airport .

Since 2013, Pristina Airport has had a new terminal with a duty-free shop and business lounge as well as modern handling systems and baggage claim.

Airlines and destinations

British Airways was one of the first airlines to connect Pristina to the international flight network after the Kosovo War.

The vast majority of flight connections to Kosovo come from Germany, Austria, Scandinavia or Switzerland, where most of the Kosovars living and working abroad live. Most of the flight connections are carried out by airlines in the Lufthansa Group ( Austrian Airlines , Germanwings , Edelweiss Air and Swiss ). There are also connections to Istanbul several times a day . EasyJet has been flying to Pristina since summer 2010 . Other airlines and low-cost providers such as Chair Airlines (formerly Germania ), Wizz Air and Pegasus Airlines followed.

There are currently no airlines operating from Kosovo. On June 19, 2019, an Airbus A319 from Eurowings was stationed at Pristina Airport.

Most of the flights are brokered by Air Prishtina and Kosova Airlines.

Today's airports in Kosovo

Incidents

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ airprishtina.com - History of Air Prishtina
  2. ^ Deutsche Welle - Competition for congested Pristina Airport ( Memento from March 15, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (2004)
  3. ↑ Prishtina international Airport - EasyJet: Initial application is finished, decision in December ( Memento of March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Eurowings opens base and stations A319 in Pristina. In: airliners.de. May 6, 2019, accessed December 26, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)