AIR TRANSPORT MARKET CHALLENGES IN THE SOUTHEAST EUROPE

Abstract: Air transport industry is one of the very important businesses worldwide. The global recession in the years 2008/2009 and regional economic crisis in the countries of Southeast Europe have caused domestic demand weakening for air travel. At the same time, high increase of competition on the air transport market in the period 2008-2016 made positive influence on flows of people, goods, capital, technology and ideas. State of the economy and air transport industry in the Southeast Europe countries has been analyzed in all-important segments including airlines, airports and air navigation services. Air transport regional market is still undeveloped with relatively weak connections within the region. Financial achievements for selected dominant airlines in the Southeast Europe region are showing negative result and questionable sustainability of the business models in the future. Analysis of air transport infrastructure within the Southeast Europe region shows relatively low level of performance indicators compared to 136 countries worldwide in the year 2017. Implementation of different restructuring measures and strategy improvements are necessary for the future surviving perspective of air transport Southeast Europe regional market.

Keywords: Air transport, Southeast Europe, competition, restructuring, airlines, airports.