Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has swung back to growth following six consecutive months of declining figures. Slovenia's busiest airport handled 132.081 passengers in October, an increase of 2.8% compared to the same month last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 2.788, up 0.4%. The passenger decline, which began in April, was solely a result of Adria Airways, which made significant cuts to its network under new ownership this summer season. On the other hand, foreign carriers saw their numbers improve by 13% on their services to and from Ljubljana. As a result of the protracted downturn, the airport's annual figures are still softer to that of last year. It welcomed 1.210.414 travellers through its doors during the January - October period, a decrease of 4.2%. Aircraft movements were down 1%, standing at 27.906.
This winter season, Ljubljana Airport expects to see stronger numbers. Adria Airways has boosted frequencies on five of its routes (Amsterdam, Paris, Sarajevo, Warsaw and Zurich), although it no longer flies to Berlin, unlike last winter. Foreign carriers will also be adding flights, with low cost airline easyJet to introduce new services from London's Gatwick Airport to complement its existing flights from Stansted Airport. Overall, there will be just over 180 scheduled flights per week out of Ljubljana this winter, operating to 22 destinations in eighteen countries. The airport, which sees strong competition from larger nearby rivals such as Zagreb, Venice and Budapest, says it is holding its own. "Slovenia’s main airport is attracting a growing number of Slovenian and cross-border passengers by competing successfully with other airports in the region", it said in a statement.
During an interview earlier this year, Ljubljana Airport's General Manager, Zmago Skobir, blamed Adria Airways, which holds a 60 - 65% passenger share at the airport, for the declining figures. The airport has attracted several foreign carriers over the past year including LOT Polish Airlines and Aegean Airlines. However, Mr Skobir believes that under a new strategy, which will see Adria open new markets in the near future and put a greater emphasis on its Ljubljana hub, the airport's numbers will improve. "If we look only at the numbers, I would say they [Adria] do not have many options. However, if I look at their plans, now that we meet more regularly at a more professional level, I would say that the company really wants to recover. It should be noted that both Adria and the airport used to set the standard in the Balkans, but not anymore. All have recovered and found successful models. Serbia has Etihad Airways, while Skopje Airport, which was a dead-end, is now run by the Turks and has linked up with Wizz Air. It now boasts 1.2 million passengers. Zagreb is being developed by the French. Through Etihad Airways, Ljubljana is now linked to New York through Belgrade. In the seventies and eighties, JAT operated flights from Belgrade to New York via Ljubljana. Therefore, history repeats itself but we have stayed ten steps behind", Mr Skobir said. According to the General Manager, Adria's main advantage is its long tradition.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 73.567 | ▲ 0.6 |
| FEB | 77.976 | ▲ 7.9 |
| MAR | 93.923 | ▲ 3.3 |
| APR | 100.549 | ▼ 10.5 |
| MAY | 116.499 | ▼ 9.3 |
| JUN | 135.757 | ▼ 9.2 |
| JUL | 163.267 | ▼ 5.0 |
| AUG | 165.137 | ▼ 8.1 |
| SEP | 151.658 | ▼ 3.7 |
| OCT | 132.081 | ▲ 2.8 |
Finally!
ReplyDeleteVery good news! LJU will have a positive December with the arrival of U2. I am hoping they get retrieve their a-c from Nordica and focus on LJU only.
ReplyDeleteNow that JU is reducing frequencies to SKP next year, they can fill the gaps open new routes to OTP, SKG, etc.
JU is operating the same number of flights to SKP as last year, and in 2014.
DeleteU2 is already there. Their existing flights are not from Luton Airport (as it is stated in the original post); they have had flights from Stansted for years. Luton is served by Wizz.
Delete@Anon 9:58am - ok so how many JU flights do you see in April 2017 for SKP, just compare what Ex Yu wrote if you really follow the blog carefully:
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/03/summer-2016-air-serbia.html
SKP - 14
SKP S17 - 7 flights
Thank you!
Because like this year, the second daily flight to Skopje begins from June 15. I suggest you read more carefully what it says in the link you gave: "The table below displays the peak weekly frequency on each route during the course of the summer season. Increases in frequencies to a number of destinations do not come into effect until mid-June".
DeleteYou are welcome.
I admit my mistake :) thank you baby lol. You are 100% right.
DeleteLJU needs to end its dependence on JP. The minute Adria's numbers go down the airport tumbles.
ReplyDeleteWell that's what they are doing. Adria's share at the airport used to be around 70% a year ago. Now it's down to around 60%. A few new airlines have started flying over the last few years and next summer Transavia comes as well.
DeleteI think JU launching LJU was a great thing for them, it certainly opened a new market for Slovenia and it shattered the Star Alliance monopoly in Slovenia.
DeleteThere are still a number of airlines Ljubljana could try to attract like Iberia, Lufthansa, SAS, Alitalia....
DeleteIt's surprising that Lufthansa doe not fly to Ljubljana at all. Eurowings would be a good fit for LJU.
DeleteI don't think we'll see either one of these. AZ would have made the most sense but not now when they are falling apart once again.
DeleteLH and JP are working together, not sure how close their ties still are, but for sure good enough so that LH and OS will not unnecessary compete with JP on the star alliance hub lanes
DeleteJP vec igra ulogu Eurowings-a u LJU, a ne bi bilo bas veliko iznenadjenje da jedan od JP CRJ900 bude baziran u Zagrebu i leti za npr BRU, CPH itd sa svojim potpisom, ili u ime OU, a najverovatnije u i me LH grupe-Eurowings-a. Sad kad je OU planski i definitivno unistena preuzece je LH grupa potpuno besplatno i na na;in kako je preuzeta Adria. O ovome je i Purger vise puta detaljno pisao i sve se odigrava samo dosta brze od onoga sto je on predvidjao.
DeleteATCO
Attracting LH wouldn't help LJU. If LH starts to operate MUC/FRA-LJU, passengers would just move from JP to LH. Pax number for the airport would remain more or less the same.
DeleteLH will not come, she is already there. Lufthansa is real owner of Adria.
DeleteATCO
The airport needs to be careful, though. If they attract too much competition to JP to "balance" things, they may end up pushing JP into bankruptcy. Sure, other airlines would fill part of the void, but the airport manager can forget all about LJU as a hub if that was to happen.
DeleteI hope they manage to maintain the growth this year. From next summer I'm sure Ljubljana will grow at a marge larger pace. Apparently Adria plans to open a few more routes.
ReplyDeleteThe ones I have heard are TLV and IKA.
DeleteCongrats, finally some good news from LJU :)
ReplyDeleteThings are finally starting to move at LJU. Next up should be Fly Dubai announcing new flights.
ReplyDeleteHope so about Flydubai.
DeleteI really wish them well. The airport has increased its numbers only by about 40% since 2000 which is terrible, especially for a developed country like Slovenia where air travel has always been affordable to people.
ReplyDeleteThings can change quickly in aviation. Who would have thought 5 yrs ago that Skopje would have over a million passengers and be ahead of Ljubljana and catching up to Pristina...
DeleteTheir is a reason for this: best trade partner for Slovenia are Germany, Italy, Austria, Croatia and France. Except for France, all in a radius of 3 to 6 hours car driving. If a team of 2 are visiting biz partners abroad probably a car ride is the most economical way for them
DeleteTourism: also their nbr 1 tourists to Slovenia are Germans, Italians, Croats, Austrian. Most of them arrive by car
Slovenians preferred Tourist destination is Croatia, understandable if paradise is waiting in front of the door
Slovenia has not much of ethnic traffic, at least not comparable to other YU republics
Opposite is in Mac and Kosovo.: lot of ethnic traffic to Western Europe where car ride takes up to 1-2 days. With LCC offering cheap tickets, Visa restrictions, people prefer flts
Interesting would be to see arrivals to these countries in percentage: air road rail
Interesting is also to compare figures at nearby airports of LJU: Salzburg is one of the tourist hot spots in Europe, it lies in Austrias most powerful eco zone, still just a lit bit over 1.8 mio people flew to-out of SZG to the world.
DeleteSimilar scenario like LJU. Tourists arrive to VIE MUC ZRH VCE PRG longhaul, shorthaul, German, Swiss, Austrian, Benelux visiting arrive by car too
If SZG cant amke 2 mio, not to speak of GRZ INN LNZ, ZAG hardly making 2.5, i dont see LJU climbing to 2 mio anytime soon. Maybe in 10 years
Ljublana can get back to 1,5 - 1,6 mill without a problem. Even though, I think Zagreb could become a problem nex year with the new terminal,since it would be an epic fail if Zag doesn't attract at least 3 million pax. Considering that with this small, old terminal, it will surpass 2,7 million this year and probably surpass 2,75 mill.
DeleteSkobir makes a good point about the Balkan market but I think there is nothing Adria really could have done there. Before, it was impossible to set up bases in ex-Yu countries. By the time the market was liberalised it was already too late. Skopje is the only market I think they missed an opportunity with and I know Adria had plans to set up a base there but with everything that was happening in the company it never materialized.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIs it still possible that they reach 1.5 mill by the end of the year?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how Aegean did to LJU this summer? I am surprised they are not coming back next year.
ReplyDeleteWondering about that too. It would also be good to see Finnair start all year flights.
DeleteThis year has been such a dissapointment after last year's excellent results.
ReplyDeleteLJU airport fees are quite high and the market is relatively small and in close proximity to more affordable airports. So it is not surprising why a lot of foreign carriers are avoiding LJU.
ReplyDeleteAdmin, EasyJet flies to Stansted, Wizzair to Luton.
ReplyDeletePeter
Good to see Ljubljana Airport bouncing back.
ReplyDeleteLjubljana should have capitalized on the fact that most low costers are avoiding Zagreb and tried to lure them.
ReplyDeleteOT:
ReplyDeleteI'm at Belgrade airport, YU-ARA has a big delay. All pax moved out the boarding area, tech delay. They opened ENG 1.
My flight is late as usual with LX to ZRH
The passengers must be pissed, just checked on BEG's site, still hasn't left, listed as delayed
DeleteLX might be departing late, however arrivals in ZRH are in time again. Today 1632 planned with scheduled ETA 1635
DeleteMeanwhile, JU500 is cancelled
DeleteI think it's the first cancellation of a JFK flight with ASL.
DeleteA second A330 could help out in such situations.
Are the pax gonna sleep in BEG or will they fly with AZ or AB to JFK?
JU520 kad cemo na kafu na ZRH aerodromu?
Radim isto tamo
What happened to YU-ARA? Why was the flight cancelled? All other flights took off on time and some with delays up to 30min which is normal. But was happened?
DeleteThere was a tecnical issue with one of the engines on start up.
Deleteflew today JU BEG AMS - A320, the plain was packed.. there were maybe a couple of seats left in the economy class (and there were 3,4 people in business).
DeleteGreetings from the atlantic ocean on KLM 787-900 (which was late for an hour and a half btw, because they had some issue with a door, they could open only normally, but not during emergency.
No, again, second A330 could not help because it would probably fly to another destination on the other side of the globe. With this one being utilized three times a week, taking a second one would be a colossal waste of money.
DeleteAnd that's why serious and reliable airlines when they open a transatlantic route, they buy or lease at least 4 planes and don't give me as an example Czech airlines they are also a joke!
DeleteOh no anonymous 11 : 42 pm, if a serious and reliable airline don't want to be ridiculous it doesn't open a transatlantic route at all.
DeleteDon't be too surprised, if Adria's share next year drops to 0%. Yep, with the Nordica business ending in a week and LCJ operation slowly coming to an end, Adria will need a capital injection in 2017 or it's game over.
ReplyDeleteOT: Idk if it's new or not, but, MA stops leasing of 4O-AOD
ReplyDeletesource: http://www.vijesti.me/vijesti/letio-5000-sati-za-10-miliona-dolara-911593
Yeah it was reported a few weeks ago
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/10/montenegro-airlines-to-return-e190-to.html
LJU bi trebala da se potrudi da U2 otvori nove destinacije i ADR takodje da bi nastavili sa rastom putnika.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS