Belgrade Airport: 1,013,000 Passengers in July, Up 4%

Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport served 1,013,000 passengers in July 2026, four percent more than in the same month a year earlier. The one million threshold in a single month has now been crossed only twice in the airport’s history, and this is the first time it has happened in July.

The only previous month to reach that mark was August 2025, when 1,003,934 passengers passed through the terminal. July’s figure came in above that result, making it the airport’s best single month on record.

Cumulatively, from January through July, the airport handled 5.2 million passengers, more than 322,500 above the same period in 2025. Measured against last year’s base, that puts seven-month growth at roughly 6.6 percent, faster than July’s four percent on its own. In other words, the record month arrived at a slower growth pace than the airport had posted in the first half of the year.

Who added the capacity

The growth is not spread evenly across carriers. Air Serbia added 43,708 seats on scheduled flights out of Belgrade in July, up 7.6 percent year over year, alongside 8.8 percent more flights. Wizz Air added 37,035 seats, a capacity increase of 20.5 percent.

The percentage and the absolute number point in different directions here. The national carrier is growing from a much larger base, so a smaller percentage still translates into more new seats than Wizz Air’s growth rate, which is more than double. For the airport’s overall traffic, it is the seat count that matters, not the growth rate.

Capacity was also increased by easyJet, SCAT Airlines, a new carrier at Belgrade Airport, and airBaltic.

The busiest routes out of Belgrade in July were:

• Tivat
• Zurich
• Vienna
• Istanbul
• Podgorica
• Frankfurt
• Munich

Those same destinations also had the highest number of available seats. The largest increase in flight numbers compared with July 2025 was to Munich, after Air Serbia, working with Lufthansa, added extra flights on the route. Madrid ranked second, after Wizz Air entered a route Air Serbia already serves.

Can August repeat the million mark?

The flight schedule suggests it can. Available seat capacity for August 2026 is 6.5 percent higher than in August last year, pointing to a second straight month above one million passengers served. If that holds, the seven-month total of 5.2 million combined with another seven-figure month would push the airport past six million passengers before the end of August, three and a half months ahead of year-end.

That would be a pace Belgrade Airport has not set before, coming in a season when tourist traffic across the region has not moved evenly.

Uncertainty in the fourth quarter

The airport’s performance in the final three months of the year is an open question. Wizz Air, its second-largest client by seat count, has warned it could be forced to close its Belgrade base in November because of changes to local regulations.

The company has confirmed it will not withdraw entirely from Belgrade Airport, but says closing the base would reduce the scale of its operations and flight numbers there. A final decision on the base’s future is expected by the end of September, while talks with authorities continue.

The European Commission, which Wizz Air has called on to intervene, said last week it had no further comment beyond its earlier statement that it would stay in contact with both sides.

The arithmetic is straightforward. A carrier that brought 37,035 new seats to Belgrade in July is entering the winter schedule with the status of its base unresolved, and winter is already the weakest stretch of the year for the airport. The next data point on this will be August’s traffic report, and the decision shaping the fourth quarter is due by the end of September.