Ryanair is in negotiations with the government of Montenegro to provide flights between Podgorica and London’s Stansted airport and Glasgow’s Prestwick airport. The negotiations appear to have some very odd requirements.
The government is pushing for year-round service to Podgorica. At first glance, it makes far more sense for RyanAir to provide additional capacity during the peak Summer months and then to not compete with Montenegro Airlines during off-season. The push for year-round service looks to be either a poison-pill injected into the negotiations by someone intending to sabotage the deal or it is the first volley in a serious attempt to unseat Montenegro Airlines as the dominant carrier.
Another potential poison pill in the negotiations is the odd requirement that RyanAir be required to carry 100,000 passengers in the first year. This is a full fifth of all passengers at Podgorica airport. It doesn’t seem likely that one our of five passengers from Podgorica will want to fly to London or Glasgow. Earlier this year, Montenegrin Airlines suspended flights to London due to low customer interest — although the low interest may have been due mostly to high prices. In addition, RyanAir is reportedly being asked to carry 50,000 passengers during the low-season — which is probably closer to half of all low-season passengers.
The last oddity is that negotiations are centering on the Podgorica airport instead of the Tivat airport. Passengers from London and Glasgow are far more likely to be tourists interested in traveling to the Bay of Kotor than bureaucrats traveling to Podgorica. Currently, those tourist passengers either fly to Dubrovnik and drive to Montenegro or they pay ridiculously high ticket prices to fly directly into Tivat.
In return for these strange requirements, Podgorica Airport is offering RyanAir a discount on airport fees and is also offering to help fund a marketing campaign to fill seats on the flights. It might make more sense to offer RyanAir fewer financial incentives and burden them with fewer uneconomic requirements.
25 Comments on "RyanAir May Begin Flights to Podgorica"
Great news if it happens. Podgorica airport is as close (if not closer), to the budget resorts of Montenegro (Budva, Sutomore, Bar, Dobra Voda, Ulcinj) as Tivat and opens up tourism in Albania too. It would also be a great boost for Monte’s inland tourism (gorgeous Lake Skadar, for example, is just 25 minutes away).
Podgorica is also well placed for winter tourist resorts such as Kolasin and Zabljak which have a lot of untapped potential
Fingers crossed (they’ve been crossed for rather a long time…!). Although I usually head straight inland, flying to Tivat would make sense for many; and inland tourism (Durmitor etc) could be made a lot more attractive simply by improving direct bus connections to Zabljak from the coast (once upon a time, there was a direct bus from Kotor to Zabljak)….
@Emma
>Podgorica airport is as close (if not closer), to the budget resorts of Montenegro (Budva, Sutomore, Bar, Dobra Voda, Ulcinj) as Tivat<
Emma needs a geography lesson!!!
Tivat to Kotor is 15 minutes, to Budva 30 minutes.
Podgorica to Kotor is 2 hours, to Budva 90 minutes.
Yeah, so many people fly into Montenegro for holidays in Ulcinj ;-(((
About 1% of the people who fly in for Budva, Kotor and Porto Montenegro I imagine Emma!!! The only people who holiday in Ulcinj are Kosovans (the ones who don't take the motorway to Albania) and a few mad American kite-surfers and German nudists…………….
As for Bar being a "resort", ha ha ha LOL:-)) Even Kosovans and Albanians would not stay in Bar, the home of Europe's worst car ferries. Has anyone else ever crossed to Bari from Bar in 'Sveti Stefan'?? Yuck, a series of dirty holes held together by rust.
The key to growth and cash inflows into Montenegro at the moment is via Porto Montenegro, which is 5 minutes from Tivat Airport.
And Dubrovnik is far superior to Podgorica for most travellers.
It's Wizz Air to Dubrovnik every time for me over Ryanair to Podgorica.
This story is clearly a spoiler to make sure Ryanair flies some place else.
kico, from the sounds of things, you’ve never witnessed the throngs of tourists swarming the coast south of Budva in peak summer. I agree the way tourism stands right now, Tivat is the better option for many. However, Podgorica is capable of serving both coast AND inland. It’s also quite common for Ryanair to land at least 1.5 hours bus ride from the main advertised destinations. As you note, Budva is just 90 minutes away. Porto I don’t see as the main draw for the Ryanair crowd, although it would be funny to see the odd stag party strut their stuff up Quay One.
@kiko – you need to get out a bit more. Bar and Sutomore are massively popular with Serbs, Russians and plenty of other less well off travellers (you know, the kind that take budget flights over BA in the first place?). You might want to rethink your comments about Albanians and Kosovans too – your words sound ever-so-slightly pejorative. Montenegro is not all about the hyper-rich who wish to moor at Porto Montenegro, and with Tivat and Kotor already within an hours’ drive of Dubrovnik, flights into Golubovci would help to promote and support tourism in some of the more unusual (and just as beautiful) areas of Montenegro that would otherwise remain undiscovered. Jump in your car, head south or inland and have a look around. This country’s tourism potential is not restricted to the Boka, you know!
@Ben & @Emma
Au contraire, mes amis, I own a holiday home in Ulcinj, and VERY FEW people arrive via Podgorica airport (maybe a few Russian wannabe oligarchs with villas in Liman 1, 11 or 111 who fly in with looted Mafia dollars from Moskva?).
You think Serbs, Bosanceros and Kosovans FLY in for their hols in Sutomore and Stari Bar? Dream on guys. I’ve waited in line at the border for hours on the Beograd Niksic road and these peeps cannot afford gas, never mind the ridiculous JAT and Montenegro Airline airfares.
Anyway, I checked the Ryanair website, and guess what folks? No flights at all to Podgorica…. so no surprise there then.
As for Tivat, when Munk & his pals build a couple of golf courses at PM the masses will arrive, most of northern Europe is obsessed with golf holidays.
Until then, the numbers are not big enough for Ryanair.
Who started the Ryanair to PG false rumour anyway? Must have been some hopeful hotelier in Ulcinj………….. maybe this one http://ca.ibtimes.com/articles/197680/20110814/ulcinj-montenegro-hotel-ital-design-arco-projekt.htm ??
Southern Crna Gora is full of dreamers – a new high end resort/casino/Adriatic Dubai at Velika Plaza with its own airport built with Abu Dhabi money; a new niche resort at Valdanos; itd itd, all fantasies.
Get real folks, this is Montenegro not Monte Carlo (at least until Deripaska and Nathan Rothschild tell us it’s Monte Carlo)!
I’ve received quite a bit of feedback/queries from people planning to travel to inland areas (Durmitor, Prokletije etc) over the past few years, and based on this I’d say that flying to Podgorica WOULD be an attractive option for some. As things stand, much as I might like travelling via Dubrovnik and Kotor, it adds a couple of days to any itinerary – and if someone’s visiting CG for a week or 5 days, that’s significant. Yes, Tivat might be a rather more attractive destination to a greater number of potential visitors – but not all, so I wouldn’t write it off just yet.
@keecho ‘VERY FEW people arrive via Podgorica airport’ True at present, but I’d suggest that a lot more people might use Podgorica airport if there were some reasonably priced flights…. And just because it’s not mentioned on Ryanair’s website yet doesn’t really count for much, sorry ;~)
Btw building golf courses is wishful thinking – makes plenty of money for the person building them, but not necessarily something which will bring hoards of visitors from N Europe or anywhere else. And wrecks the landscape in the process.
@Rudolf
)
I agree about PG airport for hiking and skiing in the mountains naravno, however the numbers are too small for more than one Ryanair flight a week if that.
Btw, the government in PG has already announced a national plan for 10 golf courses from north to south, and Munk et al are going to build at least 1, verovatno 2, at Porto Montenegro, otherwise the marina will sink – Vidic, Jordan, Djoko and all the other ‘A’ to ‘Z’ list celebs with holiday homes in PM demand golf, tennis, gyms, coffee shops, boutiques, chandlers, new football stadium itd itd, and they WILL get them, these guys are seriously wealthy…………. http://www.portomontenegro.com/news
In fact, a lot of it is open already, including a 65m/210 foot infinity pool which costs mislim oko 50 euros per visit
I’ll see you there nadam se Rudolf!
The golf courses will change the landscape of course, and bring in mnogo ljudima i novca!
Personally I don’t play golf, but I greatly enjoyed a day in Sandwich for the Open last month………
Golf in Ulcinj may be a little longer in arriving, probably Kolasin and Zabljak will be golfing first.
I think you’ll find Ryanair will advertise it’s flights to PG (if they ever happen) BEFORE you read about it here on http://www.dailynewsmontenegro.com
Srecno!
@keecho
“I agree about PG airport for hiking and skiing in the mountains naravno, however the numbers are too small for more than one Ryanair flight a week if that.”
The numbers are small right now because there are no affordable flights into PG – although Monty Airlines have already started to bring theirs down to semi-acceptable levels. €220 return is already possible for September, booked only a few weeks in advance. Once a low cost airline does gain a foothold, you tend to see tourism numbers increase exponentially. Split and Dubrovnik via easyJet are just two nearby examples – and the knock-on effect extends all the way down.
More flights to less visited areas means more tourists, more accommodation options spring up, more activities are offered, restaurants inland improve (and that’s reason enough in itself to want this mooted route to succeed) and people stay longer than a night, meaning that communities in otherwise ignored beauty spots in this remarkable country
get a real tourism boost at a local level. Who knows, the visitor numbers might just rise to the point where they clear up the rubbish in the national parks.
This is the way to build sustainable tourism that works for host and guest – not the overblown projects of tedious loud-mouthed developers or the handful of millionaire playboys moored up in Porto Montenegro (which for all its media coverage, relative glitz and – whisper it – well-organised efficiency is hardly helping to stoke the local economy).
@keeho
Oh I’m sure they will get them (golf courses, that is) – unfortunately – my point was just that they don’t bring in a vast number of visitors, just a small v wealthy elite
‘I think you’ll find Ryanair will advertise it’s flights to PG (if they ever happen) BEFORE you read about it here…’
> Actually I expect to hear it from press announcements before anywhere else, including their website….
And I’ll stick by my comment re potential arrivals at PG (or Tivat) being proportionate to availability of reasonable fares
Cheers
Rudolf
I agree with Rudolf, north on country will benefit from the flights, and people from north actually know how to treat guests.
Anyhow it would be very good if Ryanair (the worst budget company in the world) starts with Tivat, as that will attract most needed pre & post season guests.
@Rudolf & @Ben
Golf holidays are big news for mass tourism, not just “a small wealthy elite”. Right up there with skiers, so maybe Crna Gora will develop decent skiing facilities as well as golf courses. Golf and skiing are far more popular and bigger spending than green eco-warrior hikers and twitchers. If you want green open spaces and tree-huggers with no crowds I suggest central Bosnia, which is where my family is from.
And Porto Montenegro is the largest employer in Tivat, not to be sneered at as merely the “overblown projects of tedious loud-mouthed developers”, it’s real jobs and careers for Tivatski ljudi, and when it’s complete it may be the biggest employer in the country.
As for 220 euros or pounds or dollars to fly to Podgorica you’re having a laugh………….. I fly from Luton to Beograd for £26 return with Wizz!!! And of course all the passengers are Serbs, not Anglo-Saxon tourists.
I tell you what lads, I’ll buy you both lunch at a restaurant of your choice in Kolasin if Ryanair flies to Podgorica any time soon.
If they fly first to Tivat you owe me a large Niksicko
I’ve been following this story since it was announced and I must admit, apart from some wishful thinking, nothing seems to have happened. Perhaps the MN government’s demands for 100,000 passengers is over the top. Ryanair will not do this route unless there’s money in it. Personally, I can’t wait for them to start. Perhaps they can take over the rip off route MN to Belgrade. Then I’m sure they’d come. Still nothing on the Ryanair website. If they were to fly from September I would have thought that you’d be able to buy a ticket in August. Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised last minute. Hmmmm.
Low cost flights should start with tivat,it’s not just porto montenegro,there’s also the 1 billion orascom resort on lustica.
Put flights where the tourists are likely to go,establish those areas then try & expand tourism inland & further south.
@NTDESIGN
Latest gossip on Balkans.com is that the government in PG will SUBSIDISE Ryanair to fly there…………. watch this space folks! I might be buying lunch for Rudolf and Ben after all ;-(
This will be absolutely fantastic if it happens. It will be so much easier than crossing the border from Dubrovnik. This service will have plenty support.
Yes this service will have plenty of support from the montenegrin government via subsidies for empty seats!
G8 idea bring empty subsidised planes into an airport in montenegro where few tourists will go.
It’ll fail when the government tires of funding empty planes,course they’ll blame ryan air for failing to promote the new route.
I agree with keecho.
Not everyone that lives and works in Tourism around the Boka Bay is that keen on Tivat airport. If it was expanded it would be a serious negative for tourism in the Tivat / Lustica area. Podgorica is the logical choice opening up the Balkans and the North and then no more troublesome waits on the Croatian border ( and how much more difficult will that become if they go into the EU next year ??)I can see Ryan Air making a big difference and if its not this next year its bound to happen sooner or later.
EX-YU Aviation News – 16.11.2011
Europe’s largest low cost airline, Ryanair, won’t be commencing flights to Montenegro before 2013. Originally, the airline was planned to inaugurate flights to Podgorica this winter season but negotiations between Ryanair and the Montenegrin government broke down after it requested for the no frills airline carry 100.000 passengers out of Podgorica in one year and a further 50.000 passengers during the low season, from October until May.
Petar Ivanović, the head of the Agency for the Promotion of Foreign Investments in Montenegro, said recently that Ryanair won’t start flights to the country next year either because the government has missed its opportunity to attract the carrier. He outlined that Ryanair has already compiled a list of destinations it will launch in 2013 and neither Podgorica nor Tivat is on it.
There will be budget flights eventually I’m sure, maybe Wizz or EasyJet if not Ryanair.
Probably starting sometime between 2015 and 2020, depending on the expansion of Porto Montenegro, the completion of the golf course(s), and the Lustica development.
Moot point whether there will be more visitors from London or Moscow……….
Hopefully the new bigger Tivat airport a few miles down the Budva road will be designed for low-cost travel that does NOT fly just a few hundred feet above the millionaires in Porto Montenegro and spoil their enjoyment of their al fresco canapés and G&Ts as at present………….
When Crna Gora and Hrvatska are BOTH in the EU in 5 or 10 years time AND a new road bridge replaces the trajekt at Kamenari then the Dubrovnik option gets even quicker than it is now.
Podgorica is just too slow a transfer.
Anyone know the location or rather proposed location of the new airport ?
It is said in this article:
http://www.neurope.eu/article/government-proposes-new-tivat-airport-construction that the new location would be south-west from the current airport. The only place this could be (long and flat) is actually 1km from the current airport, very close to the Solila Bird Reserve, which is a litttle strange…
yes it is true the deal was done today with the Montengrian goverment and ryan air and the flights will start this year . I think there is enough people who may want to fly to Podgorica and Tivat and it may be at different times of the year ie. Tivat in the summer and Podgorica all year.
Ryanair and Montenegro Government announce that the low cost airline will start to operate from June this year.