Pristina International Airport

Pristina International Airport "Adem Jashari" (Albanian: Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Prishtinës "Adem Jashari"; (IATA: PRN, ICAO: BKPR) is an international airport located 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south-west of Pristina, Kosovo.[lower-alpha 1] The Airport has flights to numerous European destinations.

Pristina International Airport

Aeroporti Ndërkombëtar i Prishtinës
Internacionalni Aerodrom Priština
Summary
Airport typePublic/Military
OperatorLimak Kosovo International Airport J.S.C.[1]
ServesPristina, Kosovo
LocationSlatina
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL545 m / 1,789 ft
Coordinates42°34′22″N 021°02′09″E
Websiteairportpristina.com
Map
PRN
Location of airport in Kosovo
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
17/35 2,501 8,210 Asphalt
Statistics (2019)
Passengers2,373,698 9.6%
Aircraft movements18,226 8.6%
Sources: Civil Aviation Authority of the Republic of Kosovo[2]
Kosovo AIP at EUROCONTROL[3]

The airport is the only port of entry for air travelers to Kosovo.[2] It is named in honour of Adem Jashari, the founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought for the secession of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Prishtina International Airport serves as an operating base for Eurowings from Germany and, formerly, Adria Airways from Slovenia.

History

From 12 to 26 June 1999, there was a brief but tense stand-off between NATO and the Russian Kosovo Force in which Russian troops occupied the airport. A contingent of 200[4] Russian troops deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina then crossed into Kosovo and occupied the airport in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo.

The apron and the passenger terminal were renovated and expanded in 2002 and again in 2009. In June 2006, Pristina International Airport was awarded the Best Airport 2006 Award by Airports Council International (ACI). Winning airports were selected for excellence and achievement across a range of disciplines including airport development, operations, facilities, security and safety, and customer service.[5]

On 12 November 2008, Pristina International Airport received for the first time in its history the annual one-millionth passenger (excluding military). A special ceremony was held at the airport where the one-millionth passenger received a free return ticket to a destination of his choice served by the airport.[6]

Due to the ongoing dispute between Serbia and Kosovo, flights to and from Pristina International Airport are impacted by the refusal of ATC in Serbia, namely SMATSA, to allow overflights via Serbian airspace.[7] This ultimately results in flight paths avoiding Serbian territory with flights to Pristina having to enter via Albanian or Macedonian airspace.[8] This dispute can generally add up to 30 minutes to a flight duration and discussions to overcome this dispute have so far failed. Being the only operational airport in the immediate region, any diversions would ultimately have go to either North Macedonia, Albania or Bulgaria, given that the Gjakova Airport is still a closed facility.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Pristina:[9][10]

AirlinesDestinations
Air Mediterranean Charter: Basel/Mulhouse, Düsseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart
Seasonal charter: Friedrichshafen, Malmö,[11] Paderborn/Lippstadt
Austrian AirlinesVienna
British Airways Seasonal: London–Heathrow (begins 4 July 2020)[12]
Chair Airlines Basel/Mulhouse, Geneva
easyJetBerlin–Schönefeld
easyJet SwitzerlandBasel/Mulhouse, Geneva
Edelweiss AirZürich
Enter Air Charter: Verona[13]
Eurowings Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich, Stuttgart
Norwegian Air Shuttle Oslo–Gardermoen
Seasonal: Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki,[14] Stockholm–Arlanda
Pegasus AirlinesIstanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Scandinavian AirlinesSeasonal: Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo–Gardermoen, Stockholm–Arlanda
Swiss International Air LinesGeneva
TUI fly BelgiumBrussels
Turkish AirlinesIstanbul[15]
Wizz AirBasel/Mulhouse, Budapest, Dortmund, London–Luton, Memmingen, Milan–Malpensa (begins 18 July 2020),[16] Vienna

Statistics
Check-in hall
Passenger and Flight movements statistics (2004–2019)[17]
Year Passengers Change Flight Departures Change
2004 910,797 9.1% 4,716 13.3%
2005 930,346 2.1% 4,983 5.7%
2006 882,731 5.1% 4,077 18.2%
2007 990,259 12.2% 4,316 5.9%
2008 1,130,639 14.2% 4,928 14.2%
2009 1,191,978 5.4% 5,709 15.9%
2010 1,305,532 9.5% 6,143 7.6%
2011 1,422,302 8.9% 6,738 9.7%
2012 1,527,134 7.4% 6,947 3.1%
2013 1,628,678 6.6% 7,305 5.2%
2014 1,404,775 13.7% 5,994 17.9%
2015 1,549,198 10.3% 6,773 13.0%
2016 1,744,202 12.6% 7,254 7.1%
2017 1,885,136 8.0% 7,508 3.5%
2018 2,165,749 14.7% 8,388 11.7%
2019 2,373,698 9.6% 18,226 8.6%

See also

Notes
  1. Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 97 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 112 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.

References
  1. "PPP Agreement" (PDF). PPP Unit. p. 1. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  2. "Civil Aviation Authority of the Republic of Kosovo" (PDF). Caa-ks.org. Retrieved 20 April 2018.)
  3. Archived 25 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Singer James Blunt 'stopped World War 3'". BBC. 14 November 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2014. In an interview with BBC Radio 5Live, to be broadcast later on Sunday, he said: "I was given the direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there.
  5. Archived 9 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Prishtina airport hits 1 million passengers". New Kosova Report. 12 November 2008. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  7. "Focus on Kosovo". The Controller.
  8. "Focus on Kosovo". The Controller.
  9. airportpristina.com - Destinations Archived 16 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 25 January 2019
  10. "Kosovo bans flights from European markets". exyuaviation.com. 13 March 2020.
  11. "Air Mediterranean to expand Pristina base". exyuaviation.com. 16 June 2020.
  12. "GET INTO THE 2020 HOLIDAY SPIRIT WITH SIX NEW BRITISH AIRWAYS ROUTES FROM HEATHROW". British Airways. 12 December 2019.
  13. "Air Prishtina".
  14. Liu, Jim. "Norwegian W19 Short-haul network changes as of 06SEP19". Routesonline. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  15. "Turkish Airlines March/April 2020 Network update as of 0955GMT 17MAR20". routesonline.com. 17 March 2020.
  16. "Wizz Air to launch new Pristina service". exyuaviation.com. 28 May 2020.
  17. caa-ks.org - Statistics retrieved 16 February 2017

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