What’s On The Horizon For: Bratislava International Airport

During Routes Europe 2025 in Seville, representatives of Bratislava International Airport told Routes about the potential of its catchment area and how the Slovakian airport plans to provide more convenient air travel for passengers.

Bratislava M R Štefánik Airport (BTS) is the international airport serving the Slovakian capital. The airport, located 9-km from central Bratislava, served 1.9 million passengers in 2024, a 7.4% rise on the previous year.

In 2024, BTS launched a partnership with Pegasus Airlines, which began year-round service to Istanbul with 2X-weekly flights. Frequencies have since increased to four times per week as of May 2025. The Turkish LCC has also resumed its seasonal Antalya service from April 2025, doubling to 4X-weekly flights.

BTS’s summer 2025 schedule includes six new routes, with the majority driven by long-time partner Ryanair. The Irish ULCC, which marked its 10th anniversary of base operations at BTS in March, will base a third aircraft at the airport and operate a record 24 routes, including new services to Bari, Milan Malpensa, Gdansk, Skiathos, and Zadar. Ryanair forecasts a 25% year-on-year increase in passenger traffic, projecting 1.1 million travelers on its BTS network in 2025 alone.

Norwegian is also expanding at Bratislava, launching 2X-weekly flights to Copenhagen starting in late June 2025, further strengthening the airport’s presence in the Scandinavian market.

With a catchment area of more than 6 million inhabitants, Daniel Kulla, route development manager at BTS, told Routes the airport is focused on attracting more point-to-point routes and international hub connections to address growing demand and reduce traffic leakage to nearby gateways.

During Routes Europe in Seville, Kulla said: “This year we are focusing mainly on Spain as we don’t have a direct scheduled connection to Spain mainland. Other markets which are important to us where we see a lack of connectivity is Germany, France and Scandinavia.”

To communicate its latest developments, unserved route opportunities and event attendance to potential airline partners, BTS utilize its Routes 360 membership.