Numbers down as Ljubljana Airport plans big for 2012
Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport is expected to end the year with slightly fewer passengers through its doors than in 2010, as it prepares for major investments in 2012.With the exception of April, Ljubljana Airport has seen its passenger numbers decrease each month compared to last year. During the month of April the airport saw colossal growth of 114%, although the figure is not representative since the airport was closed during the month last year due to a runway overhaul which coincided with the shutdown of European airspace as a result of the Icelandic volcano ash cloud. While the passenger decrease was slight at the beginning of the year, standing at less than one percent or recording exactly the same amount of passengers as last year, as was the case in March, more worrying trends developed in May. By August the airport’s figures fell by 15% while in September numbers were down 5%. Adria Airways’ recent suspension of several key routes won’t aid the airport’s performance. The airport’s CEO, Zmago Skobir, anticipated a fall in passenger numbers and recently said the airport would experience a short term crisis as a result of Adria’s network cuts. In the first nine months of the year Ljubljana handled 1.097.536 passengers. The airport’s best performance was in 2008 when it welcomed 1.673.050 passengers. Due to April's extraordinary performance, Ljubljana shouldn't see a major fall in passengers by the end of the year.
In order to offset the same scenario repeating itself in 2012, the airport is working on attracting several new carriers, mostly low cost airlines, to begin flights to Slovenia’s capital. Talks are being held with Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling, IZair and Norwegian Air Shuttle to begin services next year. Also in 2012, the construction of the airport’s new terminal should begin, as well as the construction of a new apron and cargo terminal as part of the “Aeropolis” project. In a recent World Economic Forum report, Slovenia was ranked highest for having the best airport infrastructure out of all of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. It ranked 69th in the world.
where is all this brain of management? LH is cutting everything to JP that is a slave of them + bad management and no right marketing activities..... IT IS NO WONDER! why LJU does not have low cost to MAD and for example twice a week to LPA?
ReplyDeleteNow it seems almost certain that Ljubljana will loose its 3rd position as the busiest airport in ex-YU!
ReplyDelete2010:
Ljubljana 1.388.000
Pristine: 1.305.000
Dubrovnik:1.270.000
Since Dubrovnik has already had (Jan-Oct) 1.304.000 and is expected to reach some 1.375.000 for the year the contest is pretty much between DBV and Pristine.
If Ljubljana loses only 5% it will mean an overall drop to 1.318.000 pax for 2011.
The third place is now definitely up for grabs!
Lets see who is gonna get there first 'cause it's a tight race!
One should also take a look at the prices of airfares from Ljubljana to Frankfurt in summer 2012 and compare them with OU and JP for the same dates (ZAG-FRA and BEG -FRA).
ReplyDeleteI used Skyscanner.net (highly recommend them) and was surprised how expensive Adria is compared to Jat and Croatia! No wonder they are losing passengers! On the same dates in June Croatia charged 178 Euros, Jat 199, and Adria 388!!!
Slovenia escaped the wars of former YU unscathed and had since positioned itself as a powerful player in those former markets (Mercator, Fructal, etc..)
As those companies are faltering and up for grabs it is no wonder that J. Pucnik and Adria are also doing so abysmally!
It is time for Slovenian government to re-evaluate its economic position, strengths and weaknesses. Maybe the time when 2 mil Slovenes enjoyed disproportionate economic supremacy in former YU (both before and after the war)is coming to an end.
Time to think about the future...
Adria is awfully expensive, just unreal with their prices.
ReplyDeleteOT: always wondered why not a single airline(LC or national) doesn't link ANY ex YU airport with any of Canary islands(Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma....)?
New terminal at Ljubljana airprt. New hotel, commercial centre , parkings etc
ReplyDeleteMaegaloman cathedral in the desert once more.
What about connections from airport to town, taxi scams and unclear not easy to manage transport services plus expensive end inefficient?
Sorry for foreigners or peole that don't use rent a car.
What about Ljubljana bus station? It looks like 50 years old it's derelict. Worse capital bus station in Europe.
And yes there is traffic.
Many better in Africa too.
You can't have a good second impression of the country when the first impression is terrible (arriving by bus to Ljubljana).
I didn't see bus station in Ljubljana but certainly can't be worse than main bus station in Frankfurt, believe me
ReplyDeleteewell I do know FRA bus station and believe that LJU is much worser!!! the signes are for sure 50 years old! maybe it will go under UNESCO :) someday....
ReplyDeleteAdria is flying to many destination in Europe for 190€ since November.
ReplyDeleteThe ticket prices for summer are odd, pleas report your dates Damien
Been all over Europe, Ljubljana's coach(bus) station is definitely THE WORSTE!!! For such a nice city, really shame.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London
Alex
expedia
ReplyDeleteLJU-FRA 14DEC / 21DEC
JP €192,89
ZAG-FRA 14DEC / 21DEC
OU €150,44 -> €198,44
LH €215,44
BEG-FRA 14DEC / 21DEC
Niki €232,23 via VIE
OS €257,23 via VIE
JP €280,49 via LJU
LH €309,30 nonstop -> €459,30
JU €205
YM €213 via TGD
Note that I found even 142€ for BEG-FRA 21/28JUN12 but as you might know, just few ticket under that price ARE available, not the whole cc 130 seats. Even with LH you can find a ticket on the same date for 135€
And to tell the truth I found €206,42 for JP on 21/28JUN12
so your comparison is strange.
While providing ticket prices you should at least provide the date and results - was it even a direct flight? What class of the ticket was it ? Usually the range of that prices you get FUL economy ticket which is upgraded to bussines for no costs.
Thu 14 Jun – Sun 17 Jun
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines - 95 €
09:05 ZAG – 10:40 FRA
10:05 FRA – 11:30 ZAG
JAT Airways - 142 €
12:00 BEG – 14:00 FRA
14:50 FRA – 16:40 BEG
Adria - 247 €
08:00 LJU – 09:25 FRA
10:10 FRA – 11:25 LJU
@Sky; here are the lowest prices for the dates above. I used Skyscanner.
Here are more dates, Christmas season:
Fri 23 Dec – Mon 26 Dec
Croatia Airlines - 223 €
09:55 ZAG – 11:30 FRA
17:20 FRA – 18:45 ZAG
JAT Airways -253 €
12:00 BEG – 14:00 FRA
14:50 FRA – 16:40 BEG
Adria -210 €
07:55 LJU – 09:20 FRA
14:20 FRA – 15:35 LJU
Here Adria is the cheapest although the differences are not that drastic.But watch what happens if the return date is Dec 27th, the first working day after Christmas:
JAT 185
Adria 210
Croatia 196
So if one is flexible and travels a day AFTER the holidays so are JAT and OU, Adria keeps the same price.
All in all, I punched in a lot of dates and 90% of the time Adria is not only more expensive but often MUCH more expensive than the other two.
Croatia is often the cheapest and has most direct flights.
Or let's go to New York in June from these 3 cities:
ReplyDeleteThu 14 Jun – Sun 24 Jun
LJUBLJANA –JFK -768 €
Adria + British Airways
14:30 LJU – 22:35 JFK
2 stops ZRH,LHR14h 05
18:25 EWR – 12:50 LJU
1 stop 12h 25 (+1)
ZAGREB – JFK - 619 €
Malev
09:55 ZAG – 15:35 JFK
1 stop BUD11h 40
18:40 JFK – 14:25 ZAG
1 stop BUD13h 45 (+1)
BELGRADE – 665 €
Lufthansa/Continentl
06:20 BEG – 18:33 JFK
2 stops FRA,IAD18h 13
06:00 JFK – 13:20 BEG
2 stops IAD,FRA25h 20 (+1)
LOL what a comparison !??!??!
ReplyDeleteAdria operates one flight OUT OF 3!
While the ZAG one has just 1 STOP ! one flight LESS
Really dud, what do you want to say here ?? That Biritsh is more expensive than LH ?
Get serious pleas.
well, it's not really aviation related but i agree, Ljubljana bus terminal looks terrible.you should note however, that a new bus and railway station are being built.about aeropolis maybe it is going to be built but not soon, only if there will be a need.so basicaly only a new terminal (new check-in area, some additional jet bridges, arrival area)are going to be built soon, and they are very needed!however even the existing terminal is way better then some in the region, just have a look at zagreb for example.i agree, connections to the centre of Lj should be better, even though now there are some private shuttles as well, decent price&quick.taxi can of course not be cheap as the airport is quite far from the centre of Lj.
ReplyDelete@Sky
ReplyDeleteI gave you flying options to NYC from those 3 cities; it is NOT a comparison of LH and British! How in the world you ONLY saw that escapes me.
This is exYU site; therefore comparisons are made only between exYU airports or airlines.
Damien, what has Adria to do with expensive tickets to New York ???
ReplyDeleteYou stated flts to FRA and I still can not find that 350€ ticket from LJU. And you still have not report the date u choose to compare.
@Sky
ReplyDeleteWhat is your problem? How many times do I need to repeat that I gave an example of tickets to New York from LJU, ZAG, and BEG. Unless Adria has a direct flight to North America than Slovenes either have to fly across Atlantic using another airline OR drive to the nearest airport which has that connection.
My point is that both Adria and Ljubljana airport are too expensive to either fly on or fly out of.
OK?
P.S. I do not remember now which dates I used when I got 388.
I gave you other dates which are easily verifiable.
The problem is that you stated Adria is expensive while I prooved it is not so true. It is +-20€ from other prices.
ReplyDeleteWhat is true is that when I was at Travel ageny, we looked at prives how to get to JFK, looking at AF for example,
from BUD via CDG was the cheapest, than VCE via CDG and the most expensive LJU via CDG, all by AF
Now I ask you, why is that?
You must look which plane operates on the routes and you will get the answer.
While you can get with Adria to most of Star Alliance group hubs, none of it provides cheap tickets, LH specially not. Maybe OS or something.
And again, when stating Adria is expensive, pleas show fact that can be verified, not just words from your friend friends which maybe looked at the last ticket available in economy which has the highest price on the plane.
I saw a price on easy of 270€ return for STN while I could get 180€ with Adria, same dates. This was beginning of April 2011.
Adria operated A319 that weekend.
Why was that, there were many free seats on A319 (around 20) while EZY was packed as I was looking just 2 weeks before. So Every airline operates on this, early tickets are cheap, if plane is full, the last tickets are expensive. If not, they are still cheap.
And note, that Adria is still undergoing structural changes, lay off are still to be happened.
While you are still looking at the old summer timtable, a new one will be available till January, with new prices.
@Damien
ReplyDeleteRegarding the 3rd busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia, PRN has reported a 9 pct increase in the number of passengers for the first 3 quarters of the year (1 Jan - 30 Sep) and if a similar patter continues for the rest of the year PRN should reach 1.42m pax in 2011 (more than 1.38m pax LJU had last year). So, PRN reached the 1m mark within the 3rd quarter of 2011.
Now, I don't know much about patterns at DBV or SPU, but it's looking likely that LJU will drop from the "podium" or the former Yugoslavia top 3 airports.
Joze Pucek airport ?
ReplyDeleteOink Oink !