Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport anticipates a strong 2020 summer season despite the loss of its busiest customer, Adria Airways, last September. Operator Fraport Slovenia, which is in the process of building a new terminal at the airport, has said passenger numbers are beginning to improve following an initial steep decline in figures. "Traffic is picking up just as forecast. However, we are not building the new terminal solely as a result of passenger growth, but because we also want to improve the standard and quality of our services", the operator said. It added that the addition of a number of frequencies and new routes by airlines following Adria’s collapse are restoring investor trust, with the airport also developing a business hub around its terminal.
This coming summer, several carriers will increase their number of frequencies to the Slovenian capital when compared to last year. They include Aeroflot, Air France, Air Serbia, British Airways, Finnair and Montenegro Airlines, while Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines will continue to run flights to Ljubljana following their launch this winter. Low cost carrier Transavia has become the latest to boost frequencies when compared to last year with the airline adding an extra weekly flight, for a total of three, during the high season. In addition, the Slovenian government is planning on subsidising flights from Ljubljana to Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Brussels with talks being held with three “European regional carriers” to commence services in order to improve frequencies to the four cities. On the other hand, Spain’s Iberia will inaugurate operations from Madrid to the Slovenian capital in late July.
Fraport Slovenia is also confident that the business hub around the country's biggest airport will continue to grow in the coming years. Apart from the new terminal, the operator is moving forward with a host of other investments, worth some forty million euros. They include utilities and roads in the growing Ljubljana Airport City, which is an area covering some fifteen hectares. "When you enter the airport, the first thing you notice is the growing Brnik Business District. TNT Express Worldwide, Cargo-partner and Kuehne + Nagel have already set up their own logistics hubs here", Fraport said. “UPS Adria Ekspres is building a logistics centre as well, and Iskra Mehanizmi and SchaferRolls are constructing their facilities here too. More than half of the plots are, or will shortly be, under long-term leases, while some of the bigger plots are still available”, it added.
Congratulations on the quick recovery.
ReplyDeleteWith all of that not even near to "recovery". Still some 90 flights per week missing.
DeleteAs long as Fraport's bottom line isn't affected it will be considered a success.
DeleteNice to see Transavia adding flights too. I'm surprised LOT hasn't added any though.
ReplyDeleteLOT has a fleet shortage issue. They are wetlleasing planes to substitute the grounded MAXs.
DeleteTrue. Avion Express will fly for LOT from WAW with 4 A320's starting Jan 15
DeleteCould we see LJU numbers increase already in summer?
ReplyDeleteFrom September they certainly will. Before that, not sure.
DeleteIt is very possible. Remember that throughout summer Adria was already hemorrhaging and cancelling loads of flights.
Delete"More than half of the plots are, or will shortly be, under long-term leases, while some of the bigger plots are still available”
ReplyDeleteI really hope they lease one of the plots to a hotel developer.
I remember reading at one point the airport's CEO say how that's the plan but it seems they haven't been successful so far.
DeleteIs airport really needed at LJU?
DeleteIt is not close to city centre but not hard to reach so people have accommodation options in the city. maybe it can be convenient if the business are around the airport grows.
In a year no one will remember Adria even existed.
ReplyDeleteMost already don't.
DeleteThe plan to subsidize "regional carriers" to MUC, FRA, BRU and ZRH is still the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteCan't they get SN, LX and LH to increase flights?
DeleteThey asked them and their response was for the state to subsidise their satellite airlines.
DeleteI'm still in shock Finnair will be flying daily to LJU. That's great. Now if only they could go year round.
ReplyDeleteThey are extremely cautious. They have been flying to Ljubljana for more than 10 years and only now have they come to daily flights. I don't think we will see them flying year round for some time to come.
DeleteTheir entire traffic to LJU relies on Asian tourists/transfers.
DeleteSo? I assume there are Asian transfers in winter too.
DeleteNot enough to sustain flights. Hence why there is no Korean in Zagreb in winter either.
DeleteInterestingly seems that Trade Air has picked up quite a few charter flights around the New Year period from LJU.
ReplyDeleteThey will be flying summer charters as well.
DeleteGood business for them.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is benefiting from Adria's disappearance as well, even though it hasn't started any flights from LJU. It's route to BRU especially.
DeleteBasically every single airline has increased frequencies to LJU.
ReplyDeleteeasyjet and Wizz Air have not.
DeleteIn fact Wizz Air will have fewer flights since they won't operate London.
DeleteMaybe they will launch Skopje-Ljubljana instead.
DeleteMaybe Easyjet will start new flights to Paris, Amsterdam...
DeleteNo one is really missing Wizz...
DeleteWhy? Their fares were quite good.
DeleteWizz will introduce the third weekly flight on Charleroi route much earlier in the summer then before. So at least something.
DeleteWell the fact fares were low is enough reason why they decided to downgrade their presence in LJLJ.
DeleteI miss Wizz to London...
DeleteI don't know why they downgraded to be fair. The flights to London were always full.
DeleteRegarding Wizz and them not resuming London-Ljubljana, I think their yields were affected by easyjet. And British starting flights probably didn't help either.
DeleteTheir fares might be good but their product sucks... As far as LCCs are concerned we are way better off with easyJet.
DeleteI miss Wizz LTN-LJU as well. The planes were always full, despite competition. Easyjet will gladly charge €300 for a base return ticket.
DeleteI'm interested to see how Iberia will perform and hopefully they will extend flights in 2021.
ReplyDeleteAegean should come back!
ReplyDeleteMaybe when they buy OU :D
DeleteThen there is the least chance that they would start flights to Ljubljana.
DeleteI hope easyJet launches something soon.
ReplyDeleteThere was a rumor that they offered to base a plane in LJU right after Adria collapsed but that Fraport didn't want to give any discounts or accommodate them in any way.
DeleteI really hope this is just a rumor...
DeleteEasyjet has kept quiet. They will keep all flights but no additional frequencies.
DeleteSo the airport city complex is fully owned and operated by Fraport?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteAirport city yes, however, there are 3 business parks being developed:
Deleteby Fraport (e.g. TNT, UPS), by Raiffeisen-Leasing (e.g. cargo-partner, Iskra Mehanizmi, SchaferRolls) and Invest4SEE (e.g. Kuehne+Nagel).
Thank you. Great to see so much activity around the airport.
DeleteNice to see that BEG-LJU is the busiest route at the moment. Quite an achievement by JU.
ReplyDeleteIt is not. You are mixing things up.
DeleteIt is the most frequent route (most flights) but it is not the busiest (most passengers).
What's the most passenger route from LJU in 2019 then? Do you know?
DeleteIST is probably still number one like they were in 2018.
DeleteAlthough its nice that JU will have 17 weekly. Plus the two Nis flights. Still it's mostly on ATRs.
DeleteWell JU and OS are after more or less the same market, from Slovenia to the east. JU has this now covered so OS decided to stay out as it's being bankrupted by Wizz Air.
DeleteFor an airline it is much more important how many passengers it has on the route then the frequnecy so it can be first on flightradar display... but ok each to their own.
DeleteWell not necessarily. For JU there are a lot of business and transfer passengers from LJU. At first it makes sense for them to push for frequencies and then to work on capacity and volume. They seem to be aiming for triple daily flights after which they will work on increasing capacity from ATR to A319. If they wanted volume as you say then they would have increased capacity in stead of increasing it to 17 weekly on the ATR.
DeleteSo your statement is absolutely and utterly wrong, there are airlines out there who value frequency over capacity. Look at how many regional jets are flying for US mainline carriers. Why is that? If your argument was true they would replace triple daily CRJ service with a single A319/B737. But they don't. They don't for a reason, a reason you seem to miss.
Please, there is no point in constantly attacking JU. We are here to discuss aviation.
Why would Air Serbia have bad loads if they were recording passenger growth while JP was still around?
Delete01-05.2018: 23.663
01-05.2019: 24.286
So in the first five months of 2019, JU had somewhere between 45 and 50 passengers per flight. Since they operated the ATR those numbers are really not bad.
What was the busiest airport route from LJU in 2019 in terms of passenger numbers? Does anybody know?
ReplyDeleteIstanbul. It has been for some years.
DeleteIn 2018 it was
Delete1. Istanbul
2. Frankfurt
3. London Stansted
4. Paris
5. Amsterdam
6. Zurich
7. Munich
8. Brussels National
Oh okay, I thought so. Thank you very much.
DeleteI expect a third daily from TK once MAX issue is solved. They have 24 MAX airplanes and will be able to use them all at the same time.
Funny how TK manages to be the busiest with just two daily flights while places such as FRA and MUC had multiple daily flights.
Delete^ Yes but on smaller planes and I doubt Adria was full, otherwise they wouldn't have gone bust.
Delete@9.37 I expect that too. TK is using A321s on almost all flights from/to LJU this winter.
DeleteI think BEG will jump by a few spots now that JU is having extra flights as well. Loads have been really good from LJU, even on the noon flight. For many destinations it's not a big backtrack.
DeleteI heard there are a lot of transfers to Rome. Shame Alitalia never tried LJU.
I wonder if Pegasus would consider flying to LJU, seeing as Turkish is successful on the market.
DeleteThey should work on getting an airline to fly to Scandinavia. Currently there are no flights to any Scandinavian city. Finnair is an exception. But they only fly in summer and virtually only for tourists.
ReplyDeleteHopefully SAS or Norwegian come along.
DeleteFinland is not in Scandinavia so Finland can't be an exception. :)
DeleteHow is the terminal coming along?
ReplyDeleteI mean the new terminal.
DeleteThey are doing building work. Should be completed by the end of the year, as planned.
DeleteGreat so it should open at the start of next year?
DeleteNo. After they finish construction they have to do testing of the terminal building. It will open around June of next year.
DeleteWhen the new terminal is completed, more airlines will come.
DeleteMaybe like in ZAG, LOL
DeleteHahah Pozdrav iz Rijeke is right, it's not the terminal that attracts customers but the management of the airport that has to do it.
DeleteKeep up the good work LJU. I know it will take time to recover from Adria's bankruptcy but I think they are doing it at a much quicker pace than most thought they would.
ReplyDeleteBravo Slovenija!
DeleteHopefully more new airlines to come.
ReplyDeleteSuch as?
DeleteAustrian, SAS, maybe even TAP from Lisbon.
DeleteZagreb didn't work out for TAP, I doubt Ljubljana would either.
DeleteThat was years ago. Circumstances have changed.
DeleteActually ZAG worked quite well for TAP. I remember flying once ZAG to LIS (and on to DKR) on A321 fully booked, up to the last seat. Of course I 'm not claiming it only because of that single flight but because loads, especially during summer were good and healthy. Reason why TAP stopped ZAG (I believe temporarily) was restructuring and lack of aircraft. After all if the route was so bad, and if there was no market, why OU continued LIS after TP stopped?
DeleteThis is all great but I was expecting a bigger response from LCCs.
ReplyDeleteThe airport is still expensive and the market isn't too big.
DeleteIt's not just about that. There are a number of airports very close to LJU which are already LCC hubs.
DeleteYou would think Fraport would reduce its fees after Adria went kaput.
Delete^ Why would they hurt their finances. Airports primarily serve operators to make money.
DeleteV7 should come to LJU, with their flights to Greece (Summer) and Iberian peninsula (all year long)... I wish to see them anytime soon :)
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to see their B717 in LJU :)
DeleteIdeal cost sensitive airline with ideal 100 seater capacity for very popular destinations and very much missing services from LJU - Spain and Greece, and why not southern Italy and secondary France as well - if you ask me, LJU and Volotea could be a perfect couple :)
DeleteWould be nice to see their 717 - in a museum... Have you flown this thing lately?
DeleteI believe you mixed something up. We are not talking DC-9 here, which btw flew in the US till couple of years ago. Majority of 717's is produced 2000-2005, which mean they are average of 15 years old. With Rolls Royce engines and good maintenance they can fly for at least 15 more. In addition to Volotea they are in fleet of Delta, Hawaiian, Qantas, some of the World's best and most appreciated airlines. What museum you talk about, please?
DeleteAnd yes, I flew from Venice to Bari with Volotea few years ago. Excellent plane and excellent flight.
Deletei agree with pozdrav iz Rijeke.flew this summer with V7 717 VCE-ALC rt, great flights, and the plane feels actually comfortable, prefer it much more then A320/737 on shorter flights
DeleteYou are correct about the age, the oldest are from around 2000- which shouldn't be too bad... I flew TRS-NAP and the plane was really run down with true museum feel - so probably 0 upgrades in the cab. I guess from what we experience around LJU, only Carpatair has been worse.
DeleteSo this summer we will have double daily Air France, Turkish, Aeroflot, Lufthansa and Air Serbia. Not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteLJU will reach 2018 number of pax in 20121 and probably slowly grow at 3-5% per annum. Business segment will support this trend as well as KLU pax and some from TRS area.
ReplyDeleteTourism wise anticipated growth for 2020-2025 is 4-8%, which may help AY, AF and LH group.
Cargo will take more important role due to lack of restrictions in operations at LJU, with as much as 15-20% growth from 20121
Another 1 with a crystal ball
DeleteWell it seems Fraport did some work. It's not easy to stage a recovery but they agree doing it relatively quickly.
ReplyDeleteAnd exactly what most people said would happen happened. Other airlines have stepped in and taken Adria's place.
DeleteBudapest scenario just on a much smaller scale.
DeleteLet's hope that financially it's not like the Budapest scenario.
DeleteFantastic news. I think some exciting times are ahead for LJU. Hopefully some new airlines come too.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like positive and sustainable development for LJU. Good luck to them.
DeleteIf everything would be so great then Nomago would not open LJU-ZAG bus transfer twice per day (Mr Pececnik used a right expression how Slovenians are travelling now). There are still a lot of passengers using flights from ZAG, specially BRU and FRA. Let's just check passengers figures and we can easly see that it's a natural disaster on airport LJU:
ReplyDelete1) LJU is not interesting for LCC
2) LH group is not increasing flights to FRA, MUC, ZRH, BRU
3) MAD will only operate for 5 weeks during the S20
Fraport forecast is that they will completely replace traffic from JP in 2021 but they are not mentioning that Slovenia will take Presidency role in European union and last time when Slovenia was in that position, airport passengers growth was around 30%.
There are a lot of people from Ex-yu countries searching for work in Slovenia, I hope that someday we get one of their leaders aswell. They are not interested in public opinion when there is a need to stand behind strategical important companies like national carier is. Respect to Croatia, Serbian and Montenegro!
You really want politicians from Serbia, Croatia or Montenegro in Slovenia? Is everything ok wiht you?
DeleteAnd what our leaders did for Slovenia? Sold everything what could be sold. In near future our people will see the consequences of those unreasonable actions. I don't say that everything is perfect in ex-yu, but at least they are supporting strategic important companies. Without those leaders Croatia Airlines, Air Serbia and Montenegro would face same fate as Adria.
DeleteWell, I don't think that putting enourmous amount of money in non-profitable national airline makes any sense. It is cool to have national airline. But national pride usually cost a lot and does not pay off. At least that we know. Regarding privatisation - people voted for capitalism and EU. And most (not all) private companies are much more efficient than public ones... Oh, and I honestly don't care about hour politiacians (or leaders as you call them).
DeleteIf private company would replace national one then that would be satifaction for all of us. But in case of JP for example, we can see that a lot of passengers are using flights from ZAG/TRS/KLU/VCE (because of convenient schedule). A lot of money goes directly from our government, not to mention that personal driver has to drive them to ZAG. They have a lot of extra expenses with that. Whos money is that? Or if our politicians have to spend for 2 extra nights in BRU? There were many congress canceled in Slovenia due poor connectivity of our country. There are so many other business oportunities connected with good connectivity of the country that it is pointless even to discuss about meaningfulness of carrier which is placed in a country (private or national). Slovenia is unfortunatelly to small for other airlines to place airplane here.
Deleteah the whining and crying never stops. yeah 2 smallish congresses had to be cancelled last second because of adria collapse. bu hoo the whole hospitality sector will now collapse.
Deletec'mon guys some of your are sorry to put it plain stupid with iq in the ballpark of current outside temperatures.
reality of the mighty adria connectivity was flying around empty planes. Sibstract from the LF the number of transfer passengers, you are crying over 10 or 15 seats per airplane. Yeas that will save all of LJU basin and Gorenjska Region.
Al others of us don't give a rat's ass about it, cause we never were using LJU in the first place.
And you will keep using flights out of LJU for which most of Slovenian really don't care but it's a fact Adria has transported over a million passenger per year.
DeleteFor one thing I am quite sure that you are not from airline business or you just don't have accurate data. Adria LF was one of the highest before 4k came.
You are that kind of people who are against everything, even now when Ski resorts in Slovenia are asking state to help, which is btw common practice in other countries, you would probably say that it's better to close them as you don't use them at all.
"Al others of us don't give a rat's ass about it, cause we never were using LJU in the first place."
DeleteGreat... Doesn't effect your once per year flight from Venice... But for the business sector working across EU we should care. In the end it's the sector paying your social transfers...
I also miss Wizz Lj-Lon Stansted, although I now got used to Easyjet again.
ReplyDeleteI miss them too, they were so wonderful and convenient. easyJet is ok but they are not our Wizz Air, I still hope they come back.
Delete