Air France to start Ljubljana flights, Belgrade and Zagreb on hold


Air France aims to operate about 15% of its normal schedule by the end of June using 75 of its 224 aircraft. The airline has earmarked a return to Ljubljana as early as next month, while its services to Belgrade and Zagreb are unlikely to commence before July, at the earliest. Flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and the Slovenian capital are set to resume on June 24. They are currently scheduled to operate twice per week, each Wednesday and Saturday, although additional services are expected in July. Initially, Air France planned to maintain double daily flights to Ljubljana this year, up from seven weekly for the majority of the 2019 summer season. The airline faces no competition on the route.

This summer was to see Air France expand its operations across Croatia as well. The French carrier was to introduce a second daily flight to Zagreb, as well as increase its seasonal operations to the Croatian coast. This included two additional weekly rotations between Paris and Dubrovnik, for a total of seven weekly flights, and six weekly services to Split, up from three last year. However, Air France currently has no plans to resume its operations to Croatia before July, although all three routes are expected to be restored at some point this year. The carrier’s service between Paris and Belgrade, launched in 2019, is also not scheduled to resume before July. Frequencies on all of the airline’s operations to Croatia and Serbia are expected to be initially reduced compared to last summer.

Since the end of March, Air France has been operating between 3 - 5% of its usual schedule, with a focus on maintaining services to the French regions and links with key destinations in Europe. The SkyTeam alliance member warned the new schedule was likely to change and said increased flights were subject to government authorisations. In late 2019, Air France said it sees further growth opportunities in the Balkan region and “few challenges” on the market in the coming period.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:06

    So sad considering all the growth they planned in ex-Yu this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      Everyone was planning growth. It would have been a great and exciting year :(

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      And now we will have peanuts...

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    3. Anonymous14:46

      In some cases not even peanuts.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:07

    Is there any chance they will go back to those frequencies?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      I think LJU is more likely than BEG or ZAG because there they have absolutely no competition, not even Wizz to BVA.

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    2. Anonymous09:32

      ^ +1

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    3. Anonymous09:35

      Well competition in LJU is pathetic, only to London and that's it. Really sad. I hope Pegasus comes to LJU.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:07

    What aircraft type are they operating LJU? Is it with HOP?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      It's HOP with Embraer E190.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:08

    When I read that they are resuming LJU in June I thought it would be much earlier than that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      At least they are coming back

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:09

    They are also postponing Sofia. Seems like they are looking for markets where yields might be better due to the absence of any competition.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:11

      Who else flies from Sofia to Paris?

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    2. Anonymous11:23

      Bulgaria Air and then there are LCCs to BVA and I think W6 to ORY.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:10

    Hopefully BEG and ZAG come back in July.

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  7. Anonymous09:12

    And they are retiring their entire A380 fleet unfortuantely.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:13

    It makes sense considering there is JU in BEG and OU will probably start CDG again soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes... They are so afraid of JU and OU.

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    2. Anonymous09:23

      No, they cooperate with both so it's logical to open markets where they have no competition since they can get passenger feed from these two airlines.

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    3. Anonymous09:36

      It's not about being afraid of them but about flying on routes where yields will be trash due to competition.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:15

    I just hope they don't discontinue any of their routes here.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      During the financial crisis 2008/2009 they culled a lot of destinations.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:27

    I find it weird that they are not resuming Zagreb straight away. To some degree I can understand Belgrade since it's not in the EU and there are still travel bans.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      What's not to understand. They will have just 15% of their network in June. And interestingly their main "Balkan base" as in office is in Ljubljana.

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    2. Anonymous09:35

      Why should they? Croatia start flying 1.6. with daily rotation to CDG where they have code-share. That is more than enough for June operations.

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    3. Anonymous09:37

      Obviously the travel ban is not as big of a factor as you keep on repeating here every day.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:44

      They could have resumed both cities twice per week with HOP.

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    5. Anonymous09:51

      ^ There is no point when they have codeshares with OU and JU.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:40

    Sad :(

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:51

    I wonder how AF was performing on LJU, ZAG, BEG flights before the crisis.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:53

      Very well. This year there should be double daily flights to LJU and ZAG, daily to BEG

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:59

      and also extra flights to SPU and DBV.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:24

      In winter BEG was almost exclusively operated by A320

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:58

    Hopefully as countries start to reopen, airlines will be quicker in resuming flights.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous09:59

    "In late 2019, Air France said it sees further growth opportunities in the Balkan region and “few challenges” on the market in the coming period."

    Guess they could't predict corona.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:00

    These are the European routes they are resuming in June

    Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bari, Bergen, Berlin, Birmingham, Bologna, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Florence, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Hanover, Heraklion, Ibiza, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Naples, Newcastle, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw, Venice, Vienna, Yerevan, Zurich

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:02

      To me only Ljubljana seems the odd one out.

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    2. Anonymous10:07

      not odder then Yerevan ..

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    3. Anonymous10:08

      Yerevan makes sense because of the huge Armenian population in France.

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    4. Anonymous10:32

      I'm surprised by the amount of flights to Italy.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:03

    Are they resuming flights anywhere outside of Europe?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:09

      Yes

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:10

      Metropolitan France
      Ajaccio, Bastia, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, Calvi, Clermont-Ferrand, Figari, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice, Pau, Perpignan, Toulon, Toulouse

      French Overseas Departments and Caribbean
      Cayenne, Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Saint-Denis de La Réunion

      Middle East
      Bangalore, Beirut, Bombay, Delhi, Dubai, Cairo

      Africa
      Cotonou, Douala, Yaoundé

      North America
      Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Montreal

      South America
      Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo

      Asia
      Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:19

      Where are all the concerned people on here to say how they should not be flying to Brazil or the US so they don't spread the virus?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:47

      They are usually silent, they only come out to play when one certain airline is being discussed.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous10:24

    People should get used to a slow recovery. It's good to at least see Air France resuming some flights in ex-Yu. Meanwhile Turkish has delayed the resumption of international flights by another week. Easyjet will onyl be flying domestic routes and flights between UK and France in June.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:31

      This entire year is a lost cause.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous11:05

    Good news for Ljubljana!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:10

      So for now we have confirmed:
      Air Serbia on 29.5
      Air France 24.6

      Anyone else?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:12

      For now that's it.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:47

      So JU will be the only one to fly to LJU rom 29.05 to 24.06? What about Lufthansa and Swiss?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:04

      Swiss won't be flying in June to LJU. As for LH it is still uncertain for June. Not before 15th of June
      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/05/lufthansa-not-to-restart-ex-yu-flights.html

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:12

      And Transavia has cancelled all flights until the end of June

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:07

      That is no true. Transavia still sells flights to Ljubljana in June. First available flight is at 11.6..

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:10

      He was partially correct. Transavia France has cancelled all flights until 25 June. But Transavia Netherlands (which flies to Ljubljana) has cancelled them until 3rd of June. So it is possible they will resume flights on the 11th. But lets wait and see for them to publish their June schedule.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:02

      Iberia is still selling tickets for the new LJU route from July :D

      Delete
    9. Anonymous14:47

      Transavia has not finalized their timetable yet.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous17:28

      LH starts with one LJU-FRA daily flight on 15 June.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous17:32

      ^ They don't. LH has only published its schedule until 15th of June. Everything after that listed is from the precorona schedule and will be changed.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous17:48

      Sorry, but no. Please, check the facts. LH published new schadule for the whole June.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous17:53

      No need to be sorry as you are wrong. LH published its schedule "for the first half of June" like it says on their website. If you think they will be resuming daily flights to Ljubljana on 15th of June you are dreaming.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous20:28

      Confirmed beginning of flights out of LJU: JU 29 May (2 weekly, 5 morning, 7 evening, no time change), LH 15 Jun (daily, time change LJU-FRA 10:25-11:45), SN AF 24 Jun (2 weekly 3-6 midday, no time change), SN 29 Jun (3 weekly 1-5-7, no time change).

      Delete
    15. Anonymous06:42

      Hopefully those materialize, things are still extremely uncertain at this point.

      Delete
    16. Anonymous14:52

      SN will come back in July !

      see: https://www.brusselsairlines.com/en-be/destinations/Default.aspx?version=3&fbclid=IwAR083ppg9aGaQAt1nIrk8X5XQUdD37gfKZLvThuLSsl0hnNq_tsX4-94fZU

      Delete
  19. Anonymous11:48

    People still do not realize how bad this will be. Volotea just announced new destinations for summer 2020 and they are all domestic flights in Spain ad France. That means foreigners will stay in their homes. This will devastate local economies that rely on these tourists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:44

      Yes, but Volotea launched its summer 2021 flights already.....

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:00

      Most airlines are selling their 2021 summer flights (especially LCCs) to get cash flow.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous21:22

      Also new Volotea summer destinations in Italy are all domestic. Agree with Anon 11:48. It will be bad. In Spain travel within the country will not be allowed until at least the end of June. Health authorities have indicated that the summer holiday season will start later this year and be focused on domestic tourism. Spain has not set a date to reopen its borders to tourists. They are not willing to risk a new spike in coronavirus infections by restarting international tourism prematurely.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous21:27

      Good that they are worrying about ir now. On March 8th they were holding mass marches and football games and their health system collapsed a few days later.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous06:43

      Ah yes, it was that feminist march in downtown Madrid from what I remember? Extremely irresponsible to endanger people like that.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous17:55

    Good for Air Serbia

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous07:09

    I guess with DY shrinking to just 7 aircraft it's the end for all ex-YU destinations. It's a shame I really hoped we would see more of them here in SKP. :(
    They were a really fantastic airline.

    ReplyDelete

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