Japan's largest carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) has expressed interest in upgrading its annual charter operations to the Slovenian capital by introducing scheduled flights to Ljubljana. It comes following talks between the airline's President and CEO, Yuji Hirako, and the Slovenian State Secretary within the Ministry for Infrastructure, Jure Leben, in Tokyo this week. ANA is seeking the drafting of a bilateral air agreement between Japan and Slovenia, which is a precondition for the establishment of scheduled flights. In the meantime, the two sides will negotiate a temporary arrangement in order to allow the Japanese carrier to operate regular services to Ljubljana, if it wishes to exercise such rights.
ANA has been maintaining summer charters to the Slovenian capital for several years. In 2018, the airline will run a total of five charters to Ljubljana with its wide-body Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with the capacity to seat 264 passengers. This year, the Japanese carrier will commence its leisure program to Slovenia on June 23 with a flight from Fukuoka to Ljubljana, followed by services from Ljubljana to Sapporo on July 8, Tokyo Narita to Ljubljana on August 4 and September 29, as well as a flight from Ljubljana to Nagoya on September 30. In addition, ANA's counterpart, Japan Airlines (JAL), will run one charter service from Osaka to Ljubljana on August 1. The flights are expected to carry some 1.250 passengers.
Slovenia has seen a steady flow of Japanese tourists over the past few years, with the Slovenian Tourist Board putting Japan amongst the country's key overseas markets. Over 30.000 Japanese travellers visited Slovenia last year, which is up some 1% on 2016. They are most likely to visit the country in May, August and October and spend almost half of their time in Ljubljana, followed by mountain resorts and seaside resorts. However, it is tourists from South Korea which are most plentiful in Slovenia from the Far East, followed by China and then Japan. The Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure recently noted that it is concentrating its efforts on boosting the country's air connectivity and linking Ljubljana Airport with new destinations. "In our opinion, it is important for Slovenia to be connected with the rest of the world, no matter which airline provides the service. As long as they are safe and offer affordable fares to the public". Currently, the ministry is negotiating with Flydubai to introduce services from its hub to Ljubljana, as well as with a Chinese carrier for the establishment of flights from Xi'an.
wow this would be fantastic!
ReplyDeleteCould their really be enough traffic to sustain scheduled seasonal flights?
ReplyDeleteNo. 5 charters is not enough to deploy scheduled flights with 777-300 to the city with size of Ljubljana. This article is "trla baba lan da joj prođe dan".
Deletefor scheduled flights is planed B788
DeleteNice. Hope it materializes.
ReplyDeleteWhy not? Makes absolute sense.
ReplyDeleteHow?
DeleteBecause LJU has the best location for tourists to arrive. Venice, Budapest, Istra, Plitvice, Vienna, Budapest ... are all close.
DeletePlus, LJU is quite affordable as an airport.
everyone claims to be the best location. amusing
DeleteYes but LJU is. No doubt about that.
DeleteNo doubt about that.
DeleteLJU has better geo location vs ZAG.
DeleteNo doubt about that.
DeleteTrieste airport (in Ronchi dei legionari) location is even better. From mid March 2018 it's directly connected by rail to Trieste, Mestre, Milano, Roma etc.
DeleteYet Trieste barely has any flights to outside ifeItaly.
DeleteThank you for the charter schedule ex-Yu was looking for it everywhere
ReplyDeleteJAL is coming too this year? Nice! So ANA + JAL. Hopefully there will be seasonal flights soon.
ReplyDeleteYes but JAL just one flight like it says in the article.
Delete6 flights this year and only 2 last year so this.... go LJUBLJANA
DeleteHope JAL sends their B747 again :)
DeleteI think B777 is more realistic but you never know. They have sent the B747 in the past.
DeleteBoth, ANA and JAL, retired their 747 fleet. :(
DeleteThis would be great if it happened.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I think LJU needs to pull something out of the bad to remain competitive against all the nearby airports which are attracting a lot of Slovenians. This would be a very good start.
ReplyDeleteThey've been doing exactly that.
DeleteIn the words of Michael Jackson; Who's bad?
DeleteGood one.
DeleteDoes any nearby airport offer scheduled nonstop flights to Japan?
ReplyDeleteYes, VCE and VIE.
DeleteSorry, is this ANA or JAL that fly to VIE and VCE?
DeleteI know Austrian will resume Tokyo but Venice I can't remember. I think ANA.
DeleteIs there still a scheduled service between Venice and Japan? Alitalia once offered flights between VCE and NRT, but that services were discontinued. Don't found any information that All Nippon resumed that particular route. Yes, Austrian will fly to Narita again and VCE will get a seasonal service to Seoul operated by Asiana.
DeleteMihael
There are no direct flights to Japan from VCE. Even from VIE there is only a 4x weekly ridiculously expensive connection.
DeleteDo they dock the B777 in LJU onto the air bridge? Or they park it at the stand?
ReplyDeleteThey could dock it (and loose space), but they park it at the stand near to where transport planes park (NW part of the airfield)
DeleteYes I thought it would take up too much gate space. Thanks.
DeleteHuh, it will be a long shot, as ANA afaik only fly to UK, Belgium, France, Germany in Europe (maybe I’m wrong), but on the other hand, it may serve as another gateway to discover this part of Europe. Anyway, time will tell. (Hope it goes trough tho :) )
ReplyDeleteA small explanation: London and Paris are huge O&D-markets, FRA and MUC are big transfer-hubs from ANAs joint venture partner Lufthansa, BRU is the politcal centre of Europe and also a (smaller) Star Alliance hub and DUS (again Germany) is a special case - the japanese community there is one of the largest in europe. A few charters may work, but it will be hard to fill regular scheduled services to an airport, in this case LJU, without good transfer opportunities.
DeleteMihael
"as well as with a Chinese carrier for the establishment of flights from Xi'an."
ReplyDeleteWTF? Why Xian of all places in China?
Because Xi'an Airport is operated by Fraport.
DeleteAhhh ok I see. Makes more sense now.
DeleteJapanese tourists represent a large market potential for Slovenian tourism.
ReplyDeletePriorities should be flights to the Middle East and better connections to the Scandinavian and Russian markets. When they do that then they can think about Japan and China.
ReplyDeleteAnd they should attract more low cost airlines and make flying more affordable.
DeleteLCC offer is not bad from Ljubljana - Wizz, easyjet, Transavia. Could be better but its not bad.
Deletenorwegian is a must though
DeleteHV already extended LJU-AMS for winter 2018 ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
DeleteLet's hope easyJet is next.
DeleteHahahaha.... Yes yes, A380 to Maribor this season, maybe even Emirates hub... C'mon people, that aircraft is bigger than the country itself.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet that plane flies to Ljubljana...
DeleteOk, shvatili smo da ne moze nista nadmasiti Emirates u ZAG... Mislim let za Dubai ima svaki drugi grad ovde.
DeleteDoes Croatia have more Japanese tourists than Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteI would assume so. 30,000 is not that big of a number.
DeleteYes but adria more regional network then croatia so maybe thats the choice over
DeleteI think even Dubrovnik alone has more Japanese tourists than Slovenia. Btw, how many Japanese charters will DBV have this summer?
DeleteAnyway, congrats, Ljubljana, hope this materializes!
Yes there were 142,043 Japanese tourists in Croatia in 2017. There are some ANA charters to Dubrovnik each year too.
DeleteCroatia has been extremely slow to secure flights from far away markets. Look at what happened with the Chinese.
DeleteAnd before someone bashes me I find this very odd and put it down to inaction from airports and government because Croatia has the best potential in attracting these flights at least on a seasonal basis.
DeleteJapanese tourists are not really into beaches. They prefer mountains and lakes, rural tourism which is exactly what Slovenia has. They can then hop to Venice and the surrounding areas. Also LJU is a much cheaper airport compared to ZAG.
DeleteAnon 9:34, if you think Croatia is only beaches and sun, you can google Istria, Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Zagreb, Slavonija, Varaždin...
DeleteLast year, more than 100,000 Korean tourists came to Slovenia, so the potential for tourism from the Far East is huge.
Delete400 000 Koreans in Croatia, 3 times more charters from Korea in ZAG, and yet no scheduled service from Korea, and LJU would make it with 30 000 Japanese and 5 charters per year, yeah right. And just btw announced by a politician :)
DeleteAnd how many Croats live in the UK and how many Slovenes yet LJU has more flights to LON.
DeleteLol. What an argument. Thats only because of LJU being the only proper airport in the country which is also and evrn centrally located. In Croatia ZAG serves only a part of the country, there are 6 other large international airports all with traffic serving the other parts of the country and many of them also have LON traffic.
DeleteFor scheduled flights you need bigger market in 2 way. Some Japanese toursts is not enough to introduce long range flight in LJU.
ReplyDeleteWe don't know the traffic flow between Japan and Slovenia. Slovenes have the money to travel.
DeleteJapan people as well. And with 130m people there's bound to be enough to travel to nieche desstinatdns like slo
DeleteANA is a Star Alliance airline like Adria. If I were Adria I would lobby the government to seal this deal. It could provide a great feed to Adria's network.
ReplyDeleteSure, lot of Japanese will to TIA/SKP/PRN/TDG via LJU. I bet it will be daily year round flights.
DeleteWhat's your problem?
DeleteIf S.A. membership would be that important, don't you think ANA would first start serving VIE?
DeleteAlso OU is also a S.A. member, same applies to them and ZAG has more traffic than LJU.
If BUD managed to make YYZ year round this year, then there is no reason why LJU cannot have year round flights to HND or NRT.
ReplyDeleteSure, so comparable.
Deletelol
DeleteMaaaan this will never happen, the market is simply to small to justify scheduled longhaul to Japan. These routes are hardly sustainable even from bigger markets.
ReplyDeleteIf these flights were about Zagreb I bet you world speak like that.
DeleteFor starters, Croatia have 5 times as much Japanese tourists as Slovenia
DeleteMaybe it does, but ANA is interested in LJU and not ZAG obviously.
DeleteFor the time being.
Delete@Anonymous (09:39): Of course, now ZAG would be also a too small market for regular flights to Japan. Take a look at ANAs cabin configuration - a lot of premium seats to fill.
DeleteMihael
@AnonymousApril 20, 2018 at 9:26 AM
DeleteI think there's market, Croatia and Slovenia...
It all depends if fares are competitive enough for people in northern Croatian and Zagreb using Ljubljana instead of Zagreb or Vienna.
Croatia has 177000 Japanese visitors in 2017, some 120 000 visited Zagreb. In 2016 the number of Japanese visitors to Croatia was around 255000. Getting these numbers would be nice.
Perhaps direct flights to Ljubljana could play well for both countries.
Fraport is working super hard to promote its European siblings. LJU is in a constant growth and will be looking forward to see a 773 or 788 land in LJU.
ReplyDeleteI read also that 5 or 6 Greek airports are being prepared for summer 2019.
Also BOJ will have a bigger terminal by 2021 as it is expected to reach around 3,2 million this year.
LJU will easily reach 2 million in 2 years time.
That is all nice and well, but is it realistic? Is there enough potential?
ReplyDeleteANA seems to think so.
DeleteWith Fraport operating the airport I wouldn't say it's impossible.
ReplyDeleteThings are finally starting to move at LJU. Next up should be Fly Dubai announcing new flights.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Good to see Ljubljana Airport bouncing back.
DeleteHope so about Flydubai.
DeleteIt would definitely make the airport more competitive. If you attract a major carrier especially operating long haul it attracts other airlines.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Slovenia!
ReplyDeleteThe main reason Japanese tourists could be drawn to fly to Slovenia is the nature and outdoors.
ReplyDeleteIt is actually a great market for the Japanese. Has absolutely every they want to see.
DeleteIs Slovenia waking up? Possible flights to Japan, China and UAE. Good to hear.
ReplyDeleteYes all possible but nothing concrete.
DeleteSlovenia has a good Tourist Board that could market the country well to Japanese tour operators.
DeleteI will be happy when ANA actually touches down in LJU. Until then, wishful thinking.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey already fly to Ljubljana.
Deleteyou can laugh or be serious, but it is up to the carrier to decide where they will fly and how often...
ReplyDeleteThe cheapest, quickest and most convenient way for a Japanese to reach Europe is with SU. They have amazing prices via SVO. Instead of relying on the load factor of those flights it would be better if JP increases flights to SVO and code sharing with SU. But because SU is Skyteam, I don´t think this is possible.
ReplyDeleteJP and SU have code-share because of that Adria fly to Sheremetyevo insted of Domodedovo where is the most SA airlines
DeleteAh, I had no clue, thanks for the info. Well yes, I wouldn't mind flying SU. They significantly improved their fleet. The sole issue is that Russia has a very poor flight safety record.
Delete@AnonymousApril 20, 2018 at 11:14 AM
DeleteYou talk nonsense, it is quite embarrassing to read your childish comments. Please stop.
Maybe ANA wants to introduce some other European destination with a stop in Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteHighly doubt it. There are more lucrative destinations in Europe.
DeleteAnd how would you know what's lucrative for them?
DeleteWould be good for LJU and Slovenia.
ReplyDeleteHope it happens. There are a lot of Japanese tourists visiting Slovenia and they could also use Slovenia as an entry point to Croatia.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting to hear how Croatia , which actually is the only exyu country with decent number of tourists from faraway markets, should have Japanese coming via LJU, Chinese coming via BEG, Koreans via PRG, Americans via VCE and so on and so on .. And I just repeat what I read here several times
DeleteWell it makes sense. If there are flights to LJU that brings tourists, do we really need them at ZAG?
DeleteI am waiting for a certain someone to write that this is a political route since it is being negotiated by the government and then say how they are copying another country.
ReplyDeleteI think Slovenia as a country has a lot to offer. It's already doing well in attracting Japanese tourists. It is also close by to many countries so a good entry way to Central/East Europe. We will see.
ReplyDeleteAre there any factories or big projects related to Japan in Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteI read about Sumitomo a big tire company, anything else?
There are 5. 3 are announced I think and 2 are kept secret for now. More are said to come in the coming years
DeleteSo maybe this is the reason why flights to Japan are needed.Combine this with the leisure travellers and there you go. It all makes sense now and why the need of these flights is essential...
DeleteYaskawa (industrial robots) is making a new factory in Kočevje and Sumitomo in Logatec.
DeleteLJU Airport is far away fromg being ready to accept regular scheduled long haul flights. Check in, Gate areas and arrival is a huge mess with almost 300 passengers at one time. Skobir is a ridiculous dreamer with trying to promote such flights. First expand the terminal and than go out and look for new opportunities. Its exactly in cases like this where they show how much they care for customer satisfaction and convenience
ReplyDeleteThey are expanding it. Skobir said few days ago that they are changing blueprints and that T2 will be somewhat bigger then presented in 2017.
DeleteIf Wizz Air already flies with their 230 A321 seater (can be considered almost "long-haul" compared to a 767 or 330 and if LJU is already capable of this job, then what is the problem? Why is everybody so sceptic when a small country has the money, has a current 4% economic growth, is the most developed of all in the region, has a stable banking, has perfect nature and what the Japanese are looking for, has serious Japanese investments, has ambitions to grow big and not to focus on Europe - which is a super competetive airline market.
DeleteLJU is trying to attract destinations what would bring money in and not rely on poorer ones to constantly feed their hub.
Slovenia as a rich country should look into destinations such as LCY, SIN or HKG and try to attract serious airlines such as CX or SQ.
Slovenia doesn't have the Croatian beaches that rely on massive tourism but has a BUSINESS capital ready to give it all. Economic routes should be launched and not just cheap routes to secondary or tertiary airports to Europe with 1 or 2 weekly departures.
Just look at PRG or KTW and not to mention RIX.
At the end of the day, if you want money, call the bigger ones to join your club so you can gurantee some money for at least a couple of years in the future before the aviation sector changes again.
We might be able to see a 321LR flying from LJU to BOS.
I just think it's a matter of very short times for LJU and Fraport to sit down together and speak about the future long haul flights.
Good examples will be financial centres: SIN, NYC, HKG, BRN, SHA.
Touristic routes do not bring that much money compared to bank ones.
i stopped reading at Slovenia as a rich country ...
DeleteCan I get some of what you are smoking? Seems to be good stuff.
DeleteLJU at the moment cannot,sustain a single non-LCC route to London, let alone LCY. When somebody will fly daily to LHR, then we can talk about LCY.
About the long haul flights... Even though Slovenia is the most developed country in the exyu region, it is a very small market. It is unrealistic to expect somebody to launch multiple longhaul routes from LJU. There’s simply not enough demand.
As for the A321LR going TATL from LJU, I would be very sceptical. Even A320 is performance limited out of LJU, let alone A321LR...
LUX is half the size of LJU and oh boy, look how they're doing. LJU needs to get really serious about aviation and to start promoting LJU and MBX instead of relying on JP, the same as BEG does with JU. Wake up and move on...!!!
Delete@AnonymousApril 20, 2018 at 4:45 PM
DeleteWhy, is Slovenia not rich ? It is a high income economy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank_high-income_economy
No idea what a rich country is tbh, but i presume being high income economy is one of the criteria.
Anonymous @ 0325pm
DeleteTell Skobir to add 4 jetbridge stands. Old or handicapped people dont like to board CR7/9 from the ground
Once he s ready by 2020, lets attract new airlines.
All: SLO is indeed increasing its living standard. This is obvious if you visit Restaurants and Malls outside LJU. People spend money and if I judge my friends, they are travelling more and more abroad and to long haul destinations. Nice to see actually the progress
@ An.4.10
DeleteThe diagnosis for what you wrote is "kompleks vise vrednosti". If you don't understand foreign languages southern of Slovenia, you can google it. Btw. I think too Slovenia is one of the most beatiful countries in Europe at least. But all other you wrote is big BS, pardon my french.
WorldwideUpdate: "Last year, more than 100,000 Korean tourists came to Slovenia."
ReplyDeleteHas LYU had charter flights from South Korea last year?
Are these flights only for japanese people or can anyone book those flights(for example slovenian people)??if that’s possible does anyone know how much those tickets cost?!
ReplyDelete