A massive concentration of birds over the runway at Tivat Airport triggered a bird-strike emergency on July 24, 2026. The incident shut down all flight operations for more than three hours, diverting more than ten flights from eight carriers and stranding hundreds of passengers across the Adriatic region.
Operations halted at approximately 07:40 local time and did not resume until after 11:00, according to airport officials. B92, citing an airport statement, reported that all flights scheduled to land before 11:00 a.m. diverted to alternate airports. Departing flights waited for clearance to take off. One aircraft landed after 11:00 and two others departed, but the airport warned that further disruptions remained likely throughout the day.
Eight Airlines Rerouted
The disruption hit Tivat during peak summer season. The small Montenegrin coastal airport handles heavy charter and scheduled traffic through July and August. Airlines affected included Air Serbia, Air Montenegro, Eurowings, easyJet, Turkish Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Israir, and FlyOne.
Diversion airports included Podgorica, Tirana, Brindisi, Rome, and Bari. Air Serbia cited unsafe conditions “due to an unregulated flight of flocks of birds.” The carrier diverted its Belgrade-to-Tivat service and held all subsequent inbound departures. It cancelled its 08:25 Tivat–Belgrade departure.
Furthermore, the hazard produced at least one confirmed bird strike. An inbound flight from Istanbul struck a flock and turned back to its departure airport, according to Montenegrin broadcaster RTNK.
A Reserve, a Landfill, and a Runway
Tivat Airport’s bird-strike exposure is structural, rooted in its geography.
The airport sits between two significant bird attractants. To one side is Tivatska Solila, a protected coastal wetland and special nature reserve. It provides feeding and roosting habitat for migratory waterbirds, particularly yellow-legged gulls. Roughly 100 metres from the runway threshold on the other side sits an open municipal waste transfer station — an easily accessible food source for the same birds.
The result is a bird corridor directly over the airfield. The Montenegrin Civil Aviation Agency safety briefing for Tivat Airport (LYTV) explicitly warns pilots of bird risk along the entire runway length and near both thresholds. It links the hazard directly to migratory flows between the sea, the Solila reserve, and nearby landfills.
Indeed, the hazard has been building steadily. Vijesti reported that bird-aircraft contacts at Tivat were “breaking records,” with 21 confirmed incidents in a single recent year. The July 24 event was the worst single-day disruption the airport has seen in recent memory. Multiple strikes combined with a full runway closure — all in a single morning.
Bird Strike Mitigation Measures Overwhelmed
However, Tivat Airport maintains an active wildlife hazard program, deploying pyrotechnics and patrols. Those efforts proved insufficient on July 24. During the closure, the airport’s Local Safety Committee convened an emergency session to assess conditions before clearing operations to resume.
Attempts to escalate dispersal methods ran into regulatory limits. The airport sought a permit to cull yellow-legged gulls. Montenegro’s Environment Agency rejected the request. The agency found that the airport had not yet exhausted non-lethal options and that the species carries protected status.
Regulators and the airport operator have formally pressed the Municipality of Tivat to relocate or enclose the waste transfer station — the primary driver of bird concentrations near the runway. That demand remains unresolved.
The standoff illustrates a principle well-established in aviation wildlife management: dispersal alone cannot solve a hazard sustained by nearby attractants. As FODNews’s earlier coverage of the FAA Wildlife Strike Mitigation Playbook outlined, effective programs require coordination between airport operators, local authorities, and land-use managers. That is precisely the coordination Tivat is still working to achieve. The situation also reflects a worsening global trend. Coastal airports near wetlands and waste sites face compounding hazards. Summer traffic spikes can push those hazards into operational crisis.
Meanwhile, Tivat handled more than 1.5 million passengers in 2023, with summer months accounting for the bulk of that traffic. Until the municipality resolves the landfill question, the conditions that shut down the airport on July 24 remain in place.
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Sources
- B92 — Air traffic disrupted in Tivat; Air Serbia reroutes flights
- N1 Info — Air Serbia diverts Tivat flights due to bird strike hazards
- Montenegrin Civil Aviation Agency — LYTV (Tivat) Aerodrome Safety Briefing
- Vijesti — The number of plane and bird collisions at Tivat Airport is breaking records
- EX-YU Aviation — Tivat Airport hit by diversions amid uncontrolled bird flock
