Montenegro's airports and which one to fly into

Choosing your airport in Montenegro looks like a detail, but it shapes the whole trip. The country is small, yet there are mountains between the Bay of Kotor and Podgorica, and the popular shortcut, Dubrovnik, is in another country. Here are the official facts on each airport and how I’d use them.

Two airports, one operator

Montenegro has two international airports, Podgorica (code TGD) and Tivat (TIV). Both are run by the state company Airports of Montenegro, which the government set up in 1999 and which took over both airports on 23 April 2003 after years of talks with the Serbian airline JAT, according to its own history. A modernisation programme worth around €30 million, funded by loans from the European Investment Bank and the EBRD, rebuilt both. The new Podgorica terminal opened on 14 May 2006 and the refurbished Tivat on 3 June 2006, the same day parliament declared independence.

Both have 2,500 m runways. Podgorica’s, at Golubovci, opened in 1977, and Tivat’s in 1971, when the airfield that had opened on 1 May 1957 was rebuilt.

Tivat, the airport on the bay

Tivat’s runway runs right along the water of the bay, which changes everything if you’re heading for the coast. By the operator’s figures the runway is 4 km from Tivat, 8 km (a 12-minute drive) from Kotor, 21 km out of Budva and 60 km short of Bar. It also lists a time and distance for Herceg Novi that don’t add up, so I don’t use that one. It’s a seasonal airport, handling over four in five of its passengers in summer, and in December 2018 it opened a second departures terminal of more than 3,000 m². Everything about it is in Tivat Airport.

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Podgorica, the year-round airport

Podgorica’s airport actually lies at Golubovci, part of Zeta municipality, roughly 12 km out of the city. It holds on to far more routes in winter, the London ones from Gatwick and Stansted among them. From here the operator counts 40 km to Cetinje, 46 to Bar, 62 to Nikšić, 118 to Bijelo Polje and 133 to Žabljak. Kotor is 79 to 88 km away by its tourist board’s reckoning. There’s a bus stop outside the terminal for the central bus station, two authorised taxi firms, car hire desks and a medical service with a duty doctor. All of it is in Podgorica Airport.

What you’ll find inside

Neither terminal is big, but both cover the basics. Each has free wifi and a Montenegro Duty Free shop in departures. Tivat has a business lounge anyone can use, and Podgorica a medical post staffed by a duty doctor and a technician, with a consulting room in the arrivals hall. At Tivat, visitors who spend at least €100 on one receipt can get the VAT refunded at the customs counter, as long as they do it before checking the bag in. Both airports want you there two hours ahead of take-off.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Tivat and pick one that fits your day.

Dubrovnik and the options next door

Kotor’s tourist board measures 71 km from Dubrovnik airport, over in Croatia, to the town. It makes sense for a two-centre trip, but you cross Schengen’s external border, and the Foreign Office mentions summer queues there and slower re-entry to the EU now the Entry/Exit System is in place. The full journey is in Dubrovnik to Kotor.

To the south, Albania has an airport at Tirana. I haven’t read an official source on it, so all I’ll give you is the road distance between the two capitals, about 159 km on OpenStreetMap, and the border crossings, which are in Montenegro to Albania.

Which one I’d pick

For the Bay of Kotor, Perast, Tivat or Budva, Tivat without hesitation, even if the fare is a bit higher. For Podgorica, Lake Skadar, Cetinje, Ostrog or the north, Podgorica. For Ulcinj and the far south either leaves you an hour or so away, with the edge going to Podgorica, where the Zejdin bus company runs straight to Ulcinj according to the airport. There’s no bus listed for Tivat, so I’d count on a taxi or a hire car.

And if your flight lands late in Podgorica, I’d spend the night in the capital and drive to the coast in daylight. It’s a mountain road, gov.uk notes that rural roads get worse in bad weather, and you’ll be getting used to driving on the right. Routes into each airport are listed in flights to Montenegro.

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