The launch of three new routes this summer, coupled with an increase in frequencies and capacity on existing services, has fuelled hope that Ljubljana Airport could recover from last September’s collapse of Adria Airways earlier than initially anticipated. Tel Aviv-based Israir Airlines recently joined Iberia and Windrose Airlines in announcing new services to the Slovenian capital. Although all three plan to maintain seasonal summer flights, airport operator Fraport Slovenija hopes some operations could be extended into the winter. “We are convinced that the increasing number of tourists traveling between Slovenia and Israel will result in good loads. We hope that the carrier will maintain the route during the winter timetable as well", the operator said.
Capacity to/from Ljubljana by carrier in 2019
| Airline | Capacity |
|---|---|
| Adria Airways | 548.005 |
| easyJet | 122.436 |
| Turkish Airlines | 101.753 |
| Air Serbia | 51.400 |
| Aeroflot | 49.394 |
| Air France | 37.028 |
| Transavia | 34.661 |
| LOT Polish Airlines | 29.843 |
| Wizz Air | 26.528 |
| Montenegro Airlines | 22.658 |
Fraport previously said it would take a year-and-a-half for the airport to fully recover following Adria’s bankruptcy on September 30, 2019. This January, the airport registered a passenger decline of 27.1%. In 2019, Ljubljana Airport offered 1.115.294 departure seats. It processed 1.721.355 travellers, with Adria providing a significant share of transfer passengers, which are counted twice by the airport. “Fraport Slovenija is working with airlines to meet the traffic demand left by Adria’s exit from the market. This includes quick-start capacity increases, as well as new scheduled flight services in the near future. Furthermore, Fraport Slovenija remains strongly committed to developing Ljubljana Airport and to further growing passenger and cargo traffic”, the operator previously noted.
Capacity by route to/from Ljubljana (two-way) in 2019
| Route | Capacity |
|---|---|
| Istanbul - Ljubljana | 203.686 |
| Frankfurt - Ljubljana | 191.489 |
| Ljubljana - Zurich | 132.878 |
| Ljubljana - London Stansted | 130.932 |
| Paris - Ljubljana | 130.077 |
| Ljubljana - Munich | 127.429 |
| Amsterdam - Ljubljana | 120.508 |
| Ljubljana - Moscow | 104.978 |
| Brussels - Ljubljana | 102.567 |
| Ljubljana - Podgorica | 98.234 |
Apart from the abovementioned newcomers, Air France, Aeroflot, British Airways and Montenegro Airlines will all double their operations to the Slovenian capital this summer when compared to last year. Air Serbia, Transavia, LOT Polish Airlines and Finnair will also be adding extra flights, while Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines will continue to maintain services to Ljubljana following their launch this winter. Furthermore, Trade Air, Croatia Airlines and Aegean Airlines will run summer charters. The Slovenian Tourist Board has stepped up its activities in an attempt to alleviate the effects of Adria’s demise. "Promoting Slovenia as an airline destination is one of the key goals and strategic orientations for Slovenian tourism and the national Tourist Board. Furthermore, promoting Slovenia with the aim of establishing new routes from foreign markets and increasing frequencies on existing services will take place in the coming period”, the Tourist Board said.
Almost 550,000 seats isn't easy to cover. We will see how things turn out.
ReplyDeleteMany of those passengers have gone to nearby airports. LJU should work out a strategy how to make itself attractive to airlines in face of nearby competition. Be it with a more attractive incentives scheme or something else. Just complaining that there is too much competition like they do want bring new passengers.
Delete^ Problem is there are a number of airports very close to LJU which are already LCC hubs.
DeleteYeah but those airports are also close to LJU but somehow they make it work, if you know what I mean.
DeleteAlso their behavior is not helping them, especially statements about how Slovenia doesn't need national carrier because new airlines will fill the gap very soon. It doesn't look like that now..
DeleteSome 2019 airport figures to show u where others stand with no hub airline:
DeleteDresden 1.59 mio
Graz 1.03 mio
Innsbruck 1.14 mio
Leipzig 2.61.mio
Linz 0.43 mio
Nuernberg 4.11 mio
Klagenfurt 0.20 mio
Salzburg 1.71 mio
Dortmund 2.71 mio
I really hope so a turnaround will be sooner rather than later but I'm skeptical. All the new airlines/route are only seasonal.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind it's been less than 5 months since Adria's death and we already have 6 new airlines (3 that will start this summer). That's not bad.
DeleteNumber of airlines doesn't mean a lot if their schedule is crap.
DeleteI still can't believe there are no flights to Vienna!
ReplyDeleteIt's too close. Majority of passengers to Vienna were transfers which have now been taken care of by other Lufthansa group airlines.
DeleteWhy? JP carried like 35 passengers on average and most were lower yielding transfers for OS. Market to the east can be covered by JU, SU and TK just fine.
DeleteOne word: Klagenfurt!
DeleteWell it is sad if Klagenfurt is our biggest competition.
DeleteOr Trieste.
DeleteAgain with these transfer passengers. Please let me know how many passenger would take flight with one stop in LJU if OS if operating DD in every bigger village on Balkan. VIE was one the routes with lowest percentage of transfer pax.
DeleteSo this year easyJet has the most capacity to Ljubljana? Wow.
ReplyDeleteMost people expected some low cost boom at Ljubljana after Adria disappeared. To this day nothing. In fact LCC offer has decreased with Wizz Air not flying London route.
ReplyDeleteWizz will introduce the third weekly flight on Charleroi route much earlier in the summer then before. So at least something.
DeleteThis is because the airport is still expensive and the market is small. But Fraport doesn't seem to care.
DeleteI hope easyJet launches something soon.
DeleteI think LJU needs to deepen its ties with easyJet which does not fly to Zagreb nearby. Forget Wizz Air, they seem to be in a strange place right now. On top of all the other routes they cut, they also announced the discontinuation of Luton-Prague. If they are scaling back on markets such as Belgrade, Cluj or Prague, I highly doubt they are ready to invest funds into LJU.
Delete"in a strange place" lol
DeleteWell they have been cutting flights and frequencies in our region, quite opposite from what we were used to in the past.
Deleteonly to open 5 new routes from TIA , ma kakvi
DeleteAnd new flight to Podgorica
DeleteWhile no growth whatsoever in Sofia, stagnation in Bucharest, downsizing Cluj, reduction in Slovenia, suspending some flights to Greece, cutting flights to Frankfurt, downgrade of Belgrade operations... the only reason why they are growing in Tirana is because Ernest went bankrupt, so it's an opportunistic move.
DeleteRegarding Wizz and them not resuming London-Ljubljana, I think they simply got smashed by easyjet. And British starting flights probably didn't help.
DeleteYou have to understand something about the Slovenian market, it might not be massive but it's relatively well-off. It means passengers are not swayed by Wizz's trash fares and non-existing quality. They don't mind paying a bit more to fly on easyJet or British Airways.
DeleteDon't know if you've flown BA inter-European flights recently? They are worse than Ryanair let alone Wizz Air!
DeleteYeah but they fly you to a centrally located airport, not some warehouse up in the north, in a region outside London.
DeleteLJU needs a greater LCC presence.
DeleteThere is no market to fly a full A320/B737 to Ljubljana on most routes. Therefore we won't see any major LCC expansion.
DeleteAnon 10:33. I did. They are still better then Ryanair, let alone Wizz. And I don't mind to pay 100+ EUR more for Heathrow then for flights to Luton. Well, I still prefer EasyJet to Gatwick, mostly because my final destination in London.
Delete@Anon 11:58: This "there is no market" mantra is now really getting boring. As we all know market is very relative term, especially when related to LCCs. Don't tell me all the smaller airports Ryan, Easy or Wizz fly to have market to "fly full A320/B737". But if this market is supported by additional funds from governments, tourist boards, municipalities and airports operating for peanuts then you can have massive market from nothing.
DeleteSince Slovenian government and others don't have any strategy for aviation sector development and don't offer any incentives, we won't see any major LCC development in LJU.
The incentives Slovenia would have to pay would probably have been more than what Adria needed to keep running... So I doubt you'll see the government spending on LCC now...
DeleteBut then Slovenians love to give their money to other companies to do stuff they could do instead 😂😂😂
I have a feeling soon enough BEG-LJU will go to triple daily, 13.10 seems to be very popular.
ReplyDeleteAnd someone on here was obsessively claiming a few weeks ago how they have the most capacity at Ljubljana which is clearly not true.
DeleteAnon 09.14 you are wrong, someone wrote that BEG-LJU was the busiest route which is true since it has 17 weekly, LJU-FRA has 14 which is less than 17.
DeleteI have to admit that I was one of those who was skeptical about JU growing in LJU but I am super happy I was proven wrong, not so much because of JU but because of LJU!
DeleteSo basically, SU will most likely be the 4th top carrier in LJU this year. TK capacity is just incredible...
ReplyDeleteNemjee posted SU numbers in LJU yesterday and they exploded last year. I wonder if we might see a triple daily next summer.
DeleteI'm surprised Turkish hasn't added more flights...
DeleteThey have increased capacity
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/01/turkish-airlines-boosts-ljubljana.html
The only reason TK can't increase capacity to LJU (and Balkan region) is grounding its 24 737 MAX airplanes. It's grounded aircraft fleet's capacity is higher than every airline in the region...
DeleteExactly. Last year a third, mid-day flight was already in the system. I even had a ticket with mid-day departure from LJU.
DeleteCongratulations on the quick recovery.
ReplyDeleteWe are far from a recovery.
DeleteWe will never reach same figures without national carrier. When most Airports in region has 10+ increase of pax, Fraport is kind a happy with only 30% of decrease in comparison with previous year. Shame
Delete@anon 12:26: Name one airport that had 10+ pax increase 4 months after their major airline went under.
DeleteI'm interested to see how Iberia will perform and hopefully they will extend flights in 2021.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they increased capacity from A320 to A321 is a good indication that the route is performing well.
DeleteThey increased capacity?
DeleteYes from A319/A320 to A321!
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/01/iberia-increases-ljubljana-capacity.html
They actually didn't increase capacity. The A321 was in the system from the beginning, but it seems that nobody noticed it (except portal letimzbrnika.si). But with the prices they offer (400€+ without luggage) I don't believe these flights are selling at all...
DeleteIt is not true at all that the A321 was in the system from the beginning. I saw myself when I was looking at tickets (few days after they started sales) that the A320 was scheduled on the days I was planning to fly.
DeleteOk... And A321 still isn't scheduled for all the flights. A320 was scheduled for your dates, but A321 was scheduled on some other dates. But I won't be smart ass. I only hope the loads will be good enough for them to extend flight season next year.
DeleteIf these half a million seats that JP offered to the market represented PROFITABLE demand for travel then other airlines will rush to cover it.
ReplyDeleteIf not it means that JP was flying half empty planes at loss making fares in routes that there wasn't any PROFITABLE demand for.
As an example when Cyprus Airways shut down overnight in January 2015 LCA airport actually increased its pax numbers that year as other airlines rushed to fill the void.
And the absence of a state sponsored national carrier who distorts the market brought the following four years an increase in traffic of almost 60%
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larnaca_International_Airport#Statistics
If TIA-LJU was profitable who would step in?
DeleteInteresting. Unfortunately, we won't see that happening in LJU.
DeleteGood example.
DeleteThe Slovenian government should promote the country and Ljubljana more as a destination.
That will bring more air service.
Good example.
DeleteThe Slovenian government should promote the country and Ljubljana more as a destination.
That will bring more air service.
Anon at 09:19
DeleteAny EU or Albania based airline has the right to operate that route. Albania has open skies agreement with the EU.
Just because someone can doesn't mean someone will! That's the issue with routes like LJU-SKP or LJU-TIA!
DeleteFirst you need to have good connections and than you can promote country as destination. Just think a bit if Slovenia would spend millions for promotion and there are very limited possibilites to fly to LJU. Normally passengers would check the nearest airport which is ZAG. If they already arrive in Croatia they should also see it. So actually with promotion of Slovenia we would invite guest to Croatia. Not a smart move..
DeleteAnonym@0919h
DeleteThey promote but honestly said SLO compared to its neighbours is in a difficult position: Austrian and Ialian Alps are nicer and more attractive than SLO ones. Adriatic sea and coast in HR looks better than in SLO.. Istria 85% is in HR and offers better vacations than SLO Istria.
SLO with its narrow minded mentality in terms of infrastructure investments is paying the toll by being less attractive for leisure travellers. There is hope for SLO as slowly u can see some positive development but its still a very long way to go until u reach yr neighbours. And SLO should never forget, a large share of the intercontinental tourists visit SLO because of its vicinity to Venice, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest and Croatia. Many of them do not even overnight there and if just 1 night
@Petar: Comparing Larnaca and Cyprus Airways with LJU and Adria doesn't make much sense. First, Cyprus Airways' share in Larnaca airport few months before bankruptcy was 17%, Adria had over 50%, so obviously their demise didn't have such an effect on the airport.
DeleteAnd second, LCA is an airport on the island without any other serious transportation alternative. Combined with strong tourism sector and large ex-pat community it is logical that other airlines quickly stepped in.
Wondering where pax via BEG are heading since quite a few other transit options now available.
ReplyDeleteThought BEG would be higher ranked for total capacity.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA ... and then Greece.
DeleteKrasnodar is killing it from Ljubljana, some flights have around 20 transfers. I have no idea where this demand is coming from.
Btw 13.10 departure from Belgrade is also very popular with locals, especially those who don't want to sit and wait for the night flight.
you cant be ranked higher with ATR's
DeleteYou can if you keep on boosting flights with those ATRs. I think once LJU goes to 21 from BEG we might see the A319 sent.
DeleteYup, definitely some additional quality with this 13:10 flight. Interesting because it breaks traditional morning/evening flight mantra...
DeleteThey should work on getting an airline to fly to Scandinavia. Currently there are no flights to any Scandinavian city.
ReplyDeleteSAS or Norwegian would be a good option.
DeleteNorwegian Air Shuttle could start Copenhagen
DeleteIt 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.
ReplyDeleteHopefully more new airlines to come.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI would like to see TAROM, Bulgaria and Aegean launch flights.
DeleteDon't think RO will be launching LJU, they are cutting flights these days, not adding them.
DeleteWhen the new terminal is completed, more airlines will come.
DeleteWhy? It's not like there are capacity constraints at LJU at the moment
DeleteYou would think Fraport would reduce its fees after Adria went kaput.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how February is performing?
ReplyDeleteSame as January.
DeleteCould the passenger decline end before September?
ReplyDeleteSummer season will be interesting for sure
ReplyDeleteEasyjet has kept quiet. They will keep all flights but no additional frequencies.
ReplyDeleteOther than Berlin they only fly London routes from LJU which were in no way affected by Adria's bankruptcy.
DeleteI know but it provided them the opportunity to try out some new routes now that Adria is no longer with us.
DeleteThey do not want to ruin their company. Not much earning routes from small country and city.
DeleteAnd exactly what most people said would happen happened. Other airlines have stepped in and taken Adria's place.
ReplyDeleteBut it will take a lot of time
DeleteThere are still a lot of routes missing though.
DeletePatience
DeleteThey stepped in and that's why LJU has 30% decrease when every airport in regions has 10-20% increase of pax. Very promising..
DeleteI think some exciting times are ahead for LJU. Hopefully some new airlines come too.
ReplyDeleteAnyone going to pick up Adria's seasonal Manchester route? I think there is potential there?
ReplyDeleteDidn't Adria plan to dump that route from 2020 and start Liverpool instead?
DeleteYes they did.
DeleteAt 1pw it is very unlikely.
DeleteLH group has so far proven to be a huge disappointment. Instead of improving slots and frequencies compared to the Winter TT, they've managed to downgrade the slot on LJU-ZRH service and provide only one morning departure (to FRA). So sad. Too bad that KLM handed the LJU route to AF (via CDG) completely, with relatively poor connectivity maintained by HV. Most of the potential passangers don't care about flights to Moscow, Kiev, Tel Aviv, but would rather see better connectivity with hubs in the Central and Western Europe...
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. LH group is the biggest disappointment, especially when it comes to summer TT.
DeleteAnyone who tought that LH is gonna operate 3x per day to major hubs is very naive. I'm really surprised that they even decided to place A/C during the night in LJU for S20 as they already operate morning flights from ZAG and TRS. But ok at least that is an improvement.
Deletewell technically they dind't downgrade any slots. at that time the slots were still JP's. So its their own new slots at their origin aiport. Some still available slots will actually be tried to be sold in the bankrupcty proceedings (although they will most likely be too slow and they will be void).
DeleteThe Slovenian tourists will be flown by foreigners. Great.
ReplyDeleteWho cares? Last year Adria's charter flights were a total mess. Huge delays, families with babies waiting in Ljubljana and Greek islands for hours... Everything is better than this. Who really cares about the nationality of a crew members nowadays?
Deletewell a lot of slovenian tourists are slovenian citizens only, not slovenians :P and if trade air will fly they can use their mother language
DeleteWish them good luck.
ReplyDeleteWithout JP handling under 100,000 passengers per months is becoming the norm. Sad.
ReplyDeleteI would give comment only from very personal perspective as someone who – from time to time – have to travel a lot, but also as someone with kids, with wife who have to travel a lot.
ReplyDeleteI still miss a possibility of those morning flights to VIE, MUC and FRA as well as evening flights back. They gave me a possibility to attend meetings in most places in Europe from lunch to early afternoon next day, quite common format of meetings in my circles. And it was one night away. Some destinations, especially BRU, many times, it was up in the morning, back in the evening. Many times I would fly back in the evening, my wife would fly out in the morning.
This is – at the moment – not really a possibility. Even for one day meeting, two nights away. From lunch to lunch quite often three nights for a lot of destinations. So…
Janez
How do you manage your meetings now? Which combinations of airlines do you use?
Deletehttps://i.imgur.com/3RAHPAw.jpg
Delete:)
Next week, one day meeting in Brussels, would be evening Brussels Airlines flight to BRU, going back two days later, this time – would be LOT via WAW, leaving in the morning to be in LJU by 13.10. Quite often – due to the price – I would wait for Brussels Airlines departure at 16.00 to LJU.
DeleteBut if I have to change somewhere, it would be MUC or FRA, sometimes ZRH, also in this case would be Star alliance group. And yes, I have used also Zagreb or Trieste for example for flight to Helsinki via MUC.
From my perspective, any flights via Istanbul or Belgrade, are not really convinient, in most cases I would really have a full traveling day. Therefore “capacity” available for example Ljubljana Istanbul is not really my cake. J.
Thanks for that Anonymous from Ljubljana.
DeleteMaybe it's time for JU to consider night flights to LJU :D
DeleteThey could be something like this:
BEG-LJU 00.30-01.50
LJU-BEG 04.30-05.50
Like that they would open a whole new market for Slovenes and they could reach Europe by 09.00.
Economic development in Slovenia
ReplyDeleteSlovenia posted a EUR 356.5 million deficit in December 2019 compared to a EUR 176.5 million deficit in the same month of the previous year. It was the widest monthly trade shortfall ever recorded.
Yes and what you wanted to say with this data? At least explain what are you talking about, so people don't get confused. It has nothing to do with "economic development in Slovenia" as you are suggesting. It's only data for a single month of December 2019. If you look at 2019 in total export/import trade ration is 98%, so quite balanced.
Delete"EUR 356.5 million deficit" - you mean surplus?
Deleteahh sorry i see you were talking about external trade deficit, i thought you were talking about government deficit.
DeleteThe big surprise will happen before summer season ....
ReplyDeleteDon't know anything about that, but Fraport is employing new ground and pax service staff again. Let's see.
DeleteSeems like easyJet is increasing TXL-LJU. I guess this kills any chances of getting ZAG-TXL back.
ReplyDelete