The level of recovery in air capacity serving many countries in south east Europe has surpassed pre-pandemic volumes, according to new research.
Croatia, Cyprus, Greece and Albania have overtaken 2019 figures for air capacity, with the main growth coming from international flights, the analysis by travel intelligence provider Mabrian shows.
Croatia’s air capacity of 7.1 million seats is up by 16.1%, mostly driven by a 57% increase in capacity with Italy.
Bulgaria is getting very close to the air capacity volumes of 2019, with better signs of recovery for international flights than for domestic.
However, Slovenia still needs to recover air connectivity, with scheduled flights representing just 58% of 2019 levels.
Meanwhile, hotel rates continue to go up for almost all destinations across all three of the different star categories.
The destinations with the highest increases in prices over last year are Bulgaria and Croatia.
Albania is the only exception, with prices 4.1% below 2022 levels for 4-star hotels but up 6.3% for both 3- and 5-star hotels.
Mabrian has published this analysis ahead of the annual New Deal Europe travel trade marketplace focused on 12 destinations in south east Europe taking place in London on March 28.
Mabrian business development vice president Anna Borduzha said: “Knowledge is power and with these insights destinations in south east Europe can now begin safely preparing summer campaigns that focus on the source markets that really can deliver them visitors and avoiding those that can’t – as in many cases their typical visitor profile will now be quite different from 2019.”
Photo: Explore