Pristina Airport prepares for terminal opening

Pristina’s terminal nears completion as passenger numbers continue to grow

Despite the construction of Pristina Airport’s new multi million euro terminal running late, the building is expected to open its doors to the public at the start of the 2013/14 winter season. The airport’s operator, Limak and Aéroports de Lyon, say construction work has been gaining momentum in the lead up to the terminal’s opening with technology now being installed for the handling of passengers upon arrival and departure. The airport has also invested into new aircraft handling equipment and the construction of a brand new control tower. The Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority says Pristina Airport will have the most modern terminal in the Balkans which will be fitted with the latest technology.

Besides the construction of the 45.000 square metre terminal building, the 130 million euro project includes three air bridges, new aprons, control tower and a car park with the capacity to handle 1.750 vehicles. The airport’s operator says the new terminal building features a significant amount of commercial space both prior to and proceeding passport control, adding that the structure was designed in such as way “to enable rapid traffic flow”. It concludes that the new terminal, coupled with the airport’s rapid passenger growth, will become a regional leader. Pristina Airport is currently the former Yugoslavia’s third busiest airport behind only Belgrade and Zagreb.

Meanwhile, the airport recorded another month of strong growth by handling 221.196 travellers in August, an impressive increase of 11.8%. During the first eight months of the year, Pristina handled 1.175.684 passengers. Zurich, Dusseldorf and Munich are the airport’s busiest routes so far this year, followed by Istanbul and Stuttgart. Belle Air Europe has proved the busiest airline operating out of Pristina, followed by Germanwings, Darwin Airline, Adria Airways in fourth position and Turkish Airlines.


  1. Anonymous09:26

    in the balkans you have the airports 10 x capacity over pristina. also as soon as the new airport gets built in the balkans, it becomes the best, most modern and what not.

    1. Anonymous18:52

      And your point is?

    2. Anonymous19:44

      I think he is jealous.

  2. Off topic but the minister is right. BEG management has done little to make the airport aesthetically nicer. I guess this could also mean that the CEO (Dinkic's man) might go.

    1. Anonymous12:07

      We all know BEG is far from perfect, but seriously, "they have done little to make airport nicer"? You sure know that entire T2 has been refurbished, and that works on gates are ongoing.

      On the other hand, international arrivals are as bad as they get, especially after customs.

    2. I know that the T2 area has been refurbished but I still do not like. I think they have made it look way too sterile, like some sort of pharmacy. It does not have that modern look airports these days should have. Plus, what kind of material did they use to cover the floors?! It's really bad.
      The only positive thing is that they have added more glass walls which means there is more natural light in the terminal.

    3. Anonymous12:35

      I think that we can then agree that they actually did a lot, just not that much with some sense of modern design and pax comfort in mind.

      My biggest downside is the new checkin floor, with that low ceiling - it was way better before, and I actually think the capacity of checkin desks has been reduced! Well, I did comment months ago that I really liked that funky black and green industrial design with aircon pipes visible BEG sported before renovations, it should have kept it in my opinion...

    4. I absolutely agree with you when it comes to the check-in area. Wasn't it reported that Air Serbia might move its check-ins to Terminal 1? If that's true then it would be much better. Especially if you could access the gates directly from there, as we used to back in 2006/2007.

    5. Of course AirSerbia will use Terminal 1, as it seems that they actually own the terminal! It seems the old terminal was never officially transferred to Belgrade Airport ownership and remained in the books as owned by Jat. That's why from the very beginning AirSerbia management said they will use Terminal 1 for their flights. A lot remains to be done, however, as Terminal 1 has been completely neglected during recent renovations. Not really a surprise, knowing that Belgrade Airport actually doesn't own it.

    6. BA88815:51

      Hope that T1 will keep some of the 60s/70s style and not become clone like the rest of the airports...

      On the down side...

      T1 is pretty far away from those stairs towards the passport control and I guess they are not going to open separate baggage hall and passport control. Overall, it will take longer from plane to the exit compared to non-JU airlines.

    7. Thanks for the clarification. So I guess Jat was receiving money from all the airlines/businesses that use Terminal 1?

    8. Anonymous15:57

      @BA888 there are stairs at T1 which lead to the second level.

      @Nemjee Offcourse JU didn't receive money. Conveniently the airport realized they don't own T1 just when Etihad bought Jat

    9. BA888,

      Unless all those passport control booths and so on have stayed in place when Terminal 2 was closed off for renovation.
      It would make sense to open it as otherwise it would be quite a walk from Terminal 1 to let's say gate C6 or A10.

    10. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2013 at 3:57 PM

      Thanks. What a bunch of corrupt idiots are running the show there. I guess their profits will be lowered once JU/EY takes over.
      I wonder if some other airlines, JU/EY partners, might move there as well.

    11. Anonymous16:39

      I bet that T1 will be used by JU and all other EY's equity partners. It's the only thing that makes sense.

    12. There was a passport control on T1 long time ago, so it is not impossible to see it introduced again, especially taking into account that there is no more security check there, but rather directly at the gates.

    13. Anonymous17:33

      Does anything else belong to Terminal 1 besides the check-in area? Do they have some gates as well?

    14. From Terminal 1 top floor you enter the gates area, so basically you can reach any gate from there. AFAIK, again long time ago, some gates were separated by a large door and could be entered only from T1, but again, you could potentially access all gates from T1.

    15. Anonymous23:45

      Actually, there was a glass divider in the A concourse (at Gate A6), that separated gates accessible from T1 and T2, when the former was domestic terminal. As all flights are international now, that glass divider has been removed, so all gates are equally accessible from T2 (passport control is near gate A4) and T1 (former security control was near gate A6). So they are actually quite close.

      Now, what used to be the restaurant / cafe at the second floor at T1, still landside, is now airside business lounge. But I guess they could have airport staff at the bottom of the escalator and make the whole second floor area boarding pass only, so once up the stairs, there would be passport control booths, and security, once they make them centralized again. Also, one wall overlooks a lawn, so theoretically, they could actually make a small expansion there and do a proper passport control area.

      However, arrivals are a bit of an issue. There is a former domestic arrivals hall, which houses random offices now, but I don't think there is room for passport and customs plus the baggage carrousels, not to mention staffing issues...

    16. BA88800:05

      Those were exactly my thoughts.

      It will be a loooong walk for JU arrivals until they reach baggage hall...

    17. SQ2600:17

      If BEG want to be a serious regional HUB in the Balkans then they need to do a lot of work to make it happen. BEG need to attract more transit PAX and to do that in my opinion they need not only more quality airlines & destinations but also to offer more entertainment for transit PAX such as more café bars, restaurants, Lounges, Duty Free Shops and so on...
      As a passenger, for me it is very important which airport I will choose to connect my flight and I look so many details such as number of flights to my destination, layover time, also what kind shops do they offer and finally which airlines are on that airport :)

      My personal favorite airports are FRA, LHR, SIN, AMS and JFK.

      And by far the worst airport I have ever seen are TXL and FCO.

    18. Anonymous00:26

      TXL is not pretty but everything is so close and convenient! I also love how at those rate gates with passport control there are signs that are actually exclusively in Chinese! :) I will genuinely miss it once, if ever, BER opens.

      FCO is terrible, regardless of expansions they pull once in a while. They have the best coffee in the world, though.

      @BA888, I think two or three conveyors might solve that problem, BEG is not that huge. Also, once the new top floor is done, I guess that would be the place to put new arrival passport control, and then they could make it more in the middle of the airport.

  3. Anonymous18:53

    Fantastic news for Pristina Airport. If this keeps up Pristina will be the main Airport hub in the Western Balkans.

    1. SQ2623:30

      yea and PRN will be better than Changi, FRA, LHR & JFK together...

    2. Anonymous16:18

      No, just better than Belgrade and other airports in the Western Balkans. That's enough.

    3. SQ2623:41

      LMAO like it is hard to beat BEG or any other Western Balkans Airport that are crappy IMO.

  4. Anonymous22:20

    you are joking, right?

  5. Anonymous23:31

    WOW this looks amazing nice terminal !! I am sure Lufthansa, British Airways, Americans and other airlines will open service to this airport with brand new terminal in Balkan, good job!

    Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

    1. Anonymous23:41

      Don't forget Egyptair, South African Airlines, Air Asia X and Cathay Pacific.

    2. SQ2600:20

      Don't forget Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and Qantas xD

    3. Anonymous03:14


  6. Anonymous23:40

    ^ Danke Deutschland !

  7. Anonymous06:06

    That looks small. Pristina needs a bigger terminal!

    1. Anonymous07:22

      its big, as big as Belgrade Airport, 2nd largest terminal in ex-Yu region, behind Belgrade airport.

      Dubrovnik airport once 2nd part of the new terminal is up will still be smaller than Prstina Terminal,

      Currently largest airport terminals in ex-YU

      1. Belgrade 48.600sqm
      2. Pristina 45.600sqm
      3. Skopje Airport 40 000sqm
      4. Dubrovnik airport 36.500sqm (once completed)
      5. Ljubljana Airport - 18.500sqm
      6. Zagreb airport - 15.500 sqm (not sure if 5600sqm add will be completed now that paris airport has taken over, if yes than 21.200sqm)
      7. Split Airport 12.500sqm (new 35000sqm to be build in 2014/15
      8. Podgorica 6500sqm
      9. Pula 5500dqm
      10. Zadar 5000sqm (expanded in 2010/11 from 3500sqm.

  8. its interesting to go through the comments were all the discussions are for BEG airport while the news is PRN

    the new terminal will not be fully completed with the launch now but remains to be completed before the summer season 2014

    1. Anonymous16:16

      Of course there are. This is typical serbian jealousy. No matter though, I am having fun reading those posts because I know every post not related to PRN in this topic is a desperate attempt to make them feel better.

    2. Anonymous18:19

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    3. Anonymous19:58


    4. Anonymous20:23

      How is it possible for PRN to have so many passengers?

    5. Anonymous15:47

      Typical Serbian jealousy? Seriously... Four people, myself included, were involved in an OT discussion about things we wanted to know more about. So what? This was the most recent piece of news at exYU, so that's where the comments go.

      OTs are allowed and encouraged here, as long as they have something to do with aviation. You should know that. There are some in virtually every article.

      On the other hand, I am truly sorry there are virtually no knowledgeable people from PRN at this blog, their input would make PRN topics more interesting. "VisitKosovo" is rarely here nowadays.

    6. Anonymous20:51

      Underestimating Albanians was something that always turned to serbs as boomerang and you seem to make the same mistake yet again. How many more battles do you have to love before you realize your own mistakes?

      You say you "are truly sorry" because there are, and I quote: "no knowledgeable people from PRN at this blog"? Well, setting aside the obvious sarcasm from your post, you are absolutely wrong as you are wrong about anything else.

      We are here, we monitor, we follow, we comment and when necessary we even correct the admins of when they have incorrect information. For instance, PRN will have 4 jet bridges and not 3 and I wrote this several times in this blog but admins continue to write the number 3. Tell me, who's fault is that?

      Your ignorance is not our problem.

  9. Anonymous12:57

    It is nice to see aviation growing rapidly in Republic of Kosovo now after its independence from Serbia. Since 2005 Kosova has also a privately owned IATA Authorized Training Center, currently the only one in Western Balkans, where future capacities are trained in aviation and travel&tourism. See


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