Turkish low cost carrier Pegasus Airlines is introducing six new routes to markets within the former Yugoslavia next year, with Podgorica being the latest to see the addition of new flights. Complementing the previously announced new routes to Zagreb, Pristina, Skopje and Sarajevo, the airline will add two new destinations to Podgorica starting in February, from Ankara and Izmir, joining its existing service from Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen. The development comes less than a year after the airline gained regulatory approval to commence flights to Montenegro. Regulatory issues, governed by strict bilateral agreements that Turkey has with countries in the region, including individual air service agreements with each member state within the European Union, are still preventing the airline from growing in many regional markets.
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Pegasus Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Onur Dedekoylu, recently said, “We are continuously developing and growing this network. We aim to increase point-to-point traffic going into Turkey but also to our transit traffic, to take advantage of our geographical location. We call ourselves a network low cost airline”. He added, “The one way that we differ from the typical low cost airline model is that we do transit business. That’s because we are based in Turkey, which is located at the crossroads of Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Around 20% of our ASKs [available seat kilometres] are in Turkey and the other 80% is international operations”.
As it currently stands, next summer season, Pegasus Airlines will operate up to fourteen weekly flights to Skopje, thirteen weekly to Sarajevo, twelve weekly to Podgorica, up to eleven weekly to Pristina, four weekly to Belgrade and two weekly to Zagreb. Overall, within the former Yugoslav markets, Pegasus Airlines will grow its number of flights during the upcoming summer season by 42.1% compared to 2023, while capacity will increase by 45.3% to almost 700.000 seats. “The demand is there. It’s not the so-called post-pandemic ‘revenge travel’ that we’re seeing, but rather strong, sustainable demand. This is despite all the challenges, inflation, and strong competition from other Turkish carriers, such as Turkish Airlines and AnadoluJet. Passenger demand is there. Our yields are strong, already 26 euros per passenger higher than in 2019”, Mr Dedekoylu noted.
