The Montenegrin capital Podgorica and its airport (pictured above) are seeing a constant rise in passenger numbers, which has led to the improvement of facilities and services. However, the airport is still largely underserved to some key European cities while regional flights could also be made profitable. Rival Jat Airways from Serbia is still largely profiting from these unserved destinations from Podgorica which exist in Jat’s network. Podgorica Airport is served by 9 scheduled airlines one of which is a low cost carrier and 3 of which are from EX-YU republics (excluding Montenegro Airlines).Given higher demand and growing interest of Scandinavian tourists in Montenegro, a direct route with Copenhagen would be great opportunity to build a connection between Montenegro and Scandinavian countries. A great number of tour operators find this route interesting as well. In 2007, about 20.000 tourists from Scandinavia visited Montenegro and even higher demand has been reported this year. Thus this direct route should be established and serviced as it could return a profit for the carrier operating the line. In addition to the aforesaid, a great number of ethnic Montenegrins who live and work in Scandinavia would represent a large number of passengers travelling on this route. Among cities in Germany, Munich represents the biggest source for Montenegrin tourism. Every year about 30.000 German tourists visit Montenegro. Moreover Germany, being an important foreign trade partner, contributes greatly to business travelling. On the other side, almost 30.000 ethnic Montenegrins live and work in Germany. All these are good enough reasons for establishing a direct route with Munich. The existing economic cooperation with Turkey and the fact that both countries are tourist destinations implies a need for establishment of the Podgorica – Istanbul line that would connect the two countries and facilitate passenger flows. As Madrid-Barajas Airport ranks amongst the world’s top 10 busiest airports and represents an excellent hub, direct service would enable good connections with the rest of the world. Reasons justifying the establishment of this direct route are exchange of Montenegrin and Spanish tourists, easier and more efficient connections for transit passengers, favourable for business traffic and favourable for Montenegrins who live and work worldwide.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslav republics have been trying to intensify economic and political cooperation, which makes reasons for the establishment of flights to Sarajevo and Skopje obvious. There is an evident demand for leisure and business travelling in both directions.
To stimulate new routes, the marketing policy of Podgorica Airport includes an incentive scheme which offers discounts on standard airport charges for handling and landing in the first three years. Additionally, route development and promotion is supported through various advertising tools.
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