No easy ride in Ljubljana
The low cost airline easyJet has cancelled plans to commence flights from Milan to Ljubljana, which were scheduled to begin on December 9. The flights, which were to operate 3 times per week, have been dumped due to low interest. The airline’s plans to inaugurate services from Paris to the Slovenian capital on December 2 have been unaffected. The news comes as easyJet looks to expand into the EX-YU region, with the no frills airline starting flights from London to Zagreb early next year. Over the past several years, many low cost airlines have failed in Slovenia, unable to attract passengers. Previous low cost attempts include Wizz Air’s flights from both Brussels Charleroi and London Luton. Both routes started in May 2006, but Luton was dropped the following February, while the Charleroi service lasted until March 2008. Ryanair shortly operated flights from London to Maribor from June 2007 until March 2008. As a result, Adria has managed to retain over 80% of both frequencies and shares from Ljubljana Airport in 2010.
I think it's just that the Slovenian market is too small and Adria has their connecting passengers to rely on...
ReplyDeleteHowever, its a shame
They could try Milan-Skopje and Berlin-Skopje instead. Yes, the operating fees at SKP is quite high by regional standard. But EZY doesn't need to overnight there anyway. The 17.5EUR departure tax is also a bit tricky, considering the current terminal has few amenities to offer. But blah... I dunno.
ReplyDeleteIs it a case of too big a plane? Would JP do better with 50 seat CRJ? However they couldn't get FCO to work a few summers back.
ReplyDeleteMilano-Ljubljana flight is a joke....it's too close. People can drive. Would have been better to offer LJU-CIA.
ReplyDeleteit's Ljubljana's Airport fault, because they let Adria Airways keeping monopol at the airport, which makes the airport unatractive for other foreign airline companies, and the supply is very poor, so lots of Slovenians travell from Zagreb, Trieste, Klagenfurt etc...
ReplyDeletebit off topic:
ReplyDeletefrom the munich aviation forum:
an airline with a code DLN appears on the Munich airport slots waiting list for S11 with the following flights:
6/7 SPU (320) 3/7 OSI (Osijek / 319) 3/7 ZAG (320)
Any clue? (apparently is called Dalmatian Airline )
is it this one: http://www.dalmatian.hr/ ???
I am thinking why flights bewteen Slovenia and Italy are un-successful. Adria used to fly between LJU and Rome I thing they have been starting this routes twice, and the route failed ...
ReplyDeleteDLN should be the ICAO code for Dalmatian.hr
ReplyDeleteIt's sad LJU-MXP can't work.Wizz stoped to Charleroi when Brussels airlines started code share with Adria and they had good prices, but now, only Adria remained.Otherwise, LJU is having a lot of competition:Trieste, Klagenfurt, Graz, Zagreb are the closest.A lot of Slovenians (from central and western part of the country) use Venice airport.it's quite close, 2,5hrs by car from Ljubljana.VCE has very good connections all round Europe, and also with some destinations in US, Dubai...A lot of different companies, also low cost.And nearby is Treviso- Ryanairport. Not to mention Munich and Vienna are only 4 hrs by car from Ljubljana..
ReplyDeleteSad to see a name like easyjet leave Slovenia. But this might be because of Adria's good connections. As far as I am concerned, Adria has one of the best regional routes that benefit Slovenia greatly. Competition against them is tough. But it's always sad to see an air carrier leave. British Airways is also leaving Belgrade, so that makes two air carriers leaving Ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteTo last anonymouS: EZY isn't dropping LJU.They only canceled Milano. Flights to STN will remain (it seems a very stable route since they are flying this route since 2004), and flights from CDG to LJU are not canceled, just as it the article says.
ReplyDeleteoops not anonymous, but to Jeebusman
ReplyDeleteI apologize. thanks Anonymous for correcting me. To just restate my opinion, I think that losing services are not good. Once again sorry for my misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteThe strength of many of the LCCs is they have a common fleet type (typically a medium-sized jet of 150-180 seats) which helps bring costs down significantly. It does mean that they have to sell x% of seats however to break even, often at a higher cabin factor than legacy carriers due to lack of business section etc.
ReplyDeleteOne of JPs strengths is they have a fleet which well matches frequency and capacity. These larger planes of U2 at 156 pax however don't fit the right requirements...
/.../ Milano-Ljubljana flight is a joke....it's too close. People can drive.
ReplyDelete- I think that's a bit of an overstatement. If a certain destination is "close" that doesn't necessarily mean it can't work. For instance, Ljubljana airport has 21 flights per week (each) to Vienna (around 380km from Ljubljana) and Munich (around 415km) and they're both much closer than Milan (circa 550km).
/.../ it's Ljubljana Airport's fault because they let Adria Airways maintain monopoly at the airport /.../ so lots of Slovenians travel from Zagreb, Trieste, Klagenfurt etc...
- Now that's true. Klagenfurt, Graz and Salzburg for those in the north, Trieste for those in the west and northern Croatia airports for those in the south seem a much more sensible choice than Adria.
Slovenian smugglers are flying from Venice or Munich to avoid paying customs too!
ReplyDelete