Airlines have continued to reduce their flights to Ljubljana as a result of the coronavirus pandemic with the Slovenian capital to be served by just four carriers as of next week, which will maintain four scheduled routes. It comes after Slovenia introduced a nigh-time curfew and restricted its citizens from non-essential travel. Montenegro Airlines becomes the latest carrier to temporarily suspend its operations to the Slovenian capital. Despite Ljubljana being the first destination the airline restored following the spring lockdowns, flights will be cancelled until November 29. Earlier this week, LOT Polish Airlines pushed back the resumption of its flights between Warsaw and Ljubljana until December 1. Services were initially scheduled to restart this Sunday.
For most of November, Ljubljana Airport will be served by Air France, Air Serbia, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. Following Montenegro Airlines and LOT, easyJet is expected to return from December 11, Transavia from December 17 and Brussels Airlines from mid-February of next year. Ukraine’s Windrose Airlines, which was to start services to Ljubljana this weekend, has delayed the launch of it is two weekly flights until coronavirus restrictions in Slovenia are eased. As the situation with the pandemic continues to evolve, additional changes to Ljubljana Airport’s network remain possible. Operator Fraport Slovenija will later today publish its official winter schedule.
Commenting on its passenger numbers, the airport operator said, “We will finish the year off with some 300.000 passengers, which will be 20% of what we expected at the start of the year. A long and hard winter is ahead, as well as a long-term recovery”. It added demand would not improve before next spring. During the first three quarters of the year, Ljubljana welcomed 267.780 travellers through its doors, down 81.5% on the same period in 2019. The airport is expected to record its lowest number of passengers since 1992, when It welcomed 248.821 travellers.
Just 4 airlines left. I can’t believe it :(
ReplyDeleteDear fellow Slovenes, I am an aviation professional with a 20 year industry presence. There are indications that LJU is being quieted down on purpose and harvested for unused carbon emission quota that will be "transferred" to German airports in facilitation of post corona restart. We are being dooped and plundered. Mark my words, LJU under Fraport is never going to breathe again. Wake up and smell the coffee.
DeleteHow many frequencies will the airlines still around offer?
ReplyDeleteTK will be two in November. Not sure about others.
DeleteLH is 12
DeleteLH will start 2 daily (14pw) and they will rise capacity to E190 this Sunday
DeleteWell at least something good.
Deleteyep
DeleteWould this be the same frequnecy as before the virus?
DeleteThats right, but the airplanes will be bigger.
DeleteNice
DeleteAir France is going down to 3 per week from next week.
DeleteAir Serbia will initially offer four flights a week to Belgrade, and plans to switch to a daily flight early next year
TK will be 3 weekly.
DeleteThings are bad and are getting worse all over Europe
ReplyDeleteThe air transport industry hasn't collapsed in most European countries. It has been hard hit, but not to this point.
DeleteAdria going belly up few months before the pandemic certainly did not help.
DeleteYes because that really could not be foreseen since everyone has been talking about Adria's bankruptcy for the last 2 years. Airport should have done a better job at securing new airlines and routes before Adria went bust. But they just told us how they are very prepared, and we see how. Same as them talking to a Middle East airline for the last 20 years.
DeleteThat's why state owned airline is bad for competition, because other airlines would have to compete against a company that can afford to make loss year after year after year, knowing full well taxpayers will save them once again after couple of years.
DeleteWell now we might as well introduce a complete lockdown. There are barely any flights.
ReplyDeleteNo thanks
DeleteThere was little point in YM flying once weekly.
ReplyDeleteToday there are just 3 flights. Two Lufthansa from Frankfurt and 1 Air Serbia flight from Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteFirst flight departs at 7, last one departs at 1pm.
DeleteTomorrow won’t be as bad since there will be 5 flights
DeleteLufthansa's efforts to save Fraport in LJU are heart-rending
DeleteWow 5 flights. Amazing...
DeleteLufthansa is keeping LJU alive.
DeleteWhen will LH resume Munich?
DeleteNext spring, hopefully
DeleteI understand it's a difficult situation everywhere, but more should have been done to keep at least some of these airlines.
ReplyDeleteLike what?
DeleteLike forcing people to fly. I don't get how some people still hand comprehend that there is almost no demand due to restrictions. Airlines can't fly if 90% of the aircraft is empty.
DeleteHow come they fly from other countries?
DeleteTerrible
ReplyDeleteI assume Lufthansa is currently performing best at LJU.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia has the lowest demand for air travel at the moment.
ReplyDeleteIn Europe.
DeleteSo 300,000 pax in 2020 :(
ReplyDeleteA bit more, but there abouts.
DeleteHappy 1992
DeleteI notice that Trade Air is still flying charters from LJU to Greece. People still going there?
ReplyDeleteCorona situation in Greece is much better than the rest of Europe.
DeleteI know but I thought the charter season had ended.
DeleteThe summer season in Greece ends normally around 30.10. ... Due to the problems in Spain, especially Mallorca, I would not be surprised if the season will be prolonged, first of all on Rhodes, Kos and Crete. The climatic conditions are there as good as Mallorca, if not even better...
DeleteOk nice, it's just that I read somewhere that the charters had ended but I'm guessing they were wrong. As far as I'm concerned, the longer they last the better.
DeleteThe current situation in Slovenia with the virus shows just how dumb the government's entry system was. They banned almost everyone from entering instead of letting for some recovery to take place in tourism and at the airport like most European countires before this winter partial lock down.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the difference between Slovenia's entry system and system of other EU countries? There wasn't any! Do not search for excuses for incompetent managers of Fraport.
DeleteThe difference was that Slovenia had less than 20 countries on its "green list" which is way below many other EU states. And for what? To become corona hotspot and introduce curfews. Nice work. On top of everything the government destroyed any prospect of a temporary recovery during summer.
DeleteAlso the government was very reckless in implementing changes to the entry lists. They would do it overnight, without giving any warning or time. There were literally people that had to fly back as soon as the plane landed because the government changed the rules at 8pm the evening before and no one even knew about it (not even the airlines).
DeleteHealth situation in Slovenia is extremely bad and getting worse.
ReplyDeleteI doubt JU`s commitment to SLO market (after-Adria rescue flights, increased frequencies, continous presence during corona crisis) would pay-off.
I don`t know transfer numbers to/from LJU, but if they are not decent measured by LF to/from LJU, JU should immediately suspend flights to LJU and protect its hub.
JU should protect its hub from what?
DeleteYeah I also don't get why exactly they should suspend flights to LJU?
DeleteBut finally something is moving in right direction. Slovenia government has decided to give 7 M € subsidies to carriers flying to/from LJU under certain conditions and 70 M € to establish new national carrier together with private companies. So maybe there is still light at end of tunnel (I just hope it's not train)...
ReplyDeleteNot true. These are just proposals made to government. None of it has been adopted.
DeleteMy mistake, it's actual proposal within fifth anti-covid package. At least they are mentioning this topic now, I would say that this is progress..
Delete:(
ReplyDeleteFrom bad to worse
ReplyDeleteBye MGX. Hope they come back.
ReplyDeleteThey will be back for sure. There is quite some demand between SLO and Montenegro (in normal times)
DeleteUntil travel restrictions are lifted, there is little point
DeleteAgree with last anon. They obviously couldn't make it once per week
DeleteWonder if Adria would have survived Covid if it didn't go bankrupt last year.
ReplyDeleteIt probably would not.
DeleteAlready dozens of airlines around Europe have gone bankrupt.
Maybe state would be more willing to help.
DeleteThey wouldn't, unless the government decided to suddenly give them 100m+ EUR to pay off their debt. And that's before the loss they would make during this year.
DeleteActually it's a fair point - Adria should have gone under but potentially might not have if they made it to 2020 since Covid has actually warped the situation. There are about half the bankruptcies this year as there was last, since all the weak companies are using the pandemic as an excuse for their failing business, Alitalia is a glaring example of this. The interesting thing will be to see what happens in the recovery when these weak airlines burn through their Covid aid, presumably there will be a onslaught of liquidations.
DeleteYep I believe many bankruptcies are coming in 2021.
Delete4 airlines. This is by far the most affected big ex-Yu airport by covid.
ReplyDeleteIt's a snowball affect of several years of bad decisions making. Like not trying to attract more airlines during Adria time, not trying to capitalise on Adria collapse by inviting LCCs to open base and even giving discounts etc.
DeleteOf course, LCC would be glad to open a base in small country like Slovenia...+
DeleteIf the price was right, I don't see why not
DeleteW6 succeeded in SKP, a far poorer market than LJU. I don't see why it wouldn't succeed in SLO as well.
DeleteJust my2cents
to fulfill 4x 180+ seats from LJU on daily basis? Mission impossible..
DeleteLCC is flying to destinations where they have mass tourism (we don't have that) or to destinations where are a lot of people living abroad. Those are two main reasons for LCC to open a base somewhere. And of course subsidies...
And Macedonia has mass tourism? LCCs create new market opportunities, attract people who used to drive or go by bus, attract people who used to fly from nearby airports. I think there is potential.
DeleteNo but you have huge amount of diaspora from Macedonia, not to mention that those flights are filling also people from Kosovo (PRN - SKP less than one hour with car). So their catchment are for diaspora is really enormous. And that's the second reason which I mention in first post why LCC would open a base. LJU is simply to small, unfortunately..
DeleteAgree with last anon's arguments. I don't think LCCs could find the loads necessary for them to operate with a profit.
DeleteThey could operate with profit, but subsidies per passengers would not be the same as those in SKP. I believe that SKP is paying 10 eur per pax or it's even higher? So for less than 20 eur per pax they would not even talk with Fraport/Slovenia govrnment.
Delete7 euros.
DeleteLJU will bounce back in a year or two. I'm sure of it
ReplyDeleteHope so
DeleteNot surprised. November is the slowest month for the aviation industry along with February even at the best of times, let alone now.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope all those airlines actually return in December.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that we even keep those which are flying now..
DeleteHow are other Fraport airports preforming?
ReplyDelete*performing
DeleteI think LJU is most affected in their portfolio.
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteExpected unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteSad
ReplyDeleteThings won't improve any tine soon.
ReplyDelete"A long and hard winter is ahead, as well as a long-term recovery”.
DeleteI really hope things do improve in spring.
DeleteAll airports are in the same problem. It isn't unique to LJU.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that LJU is affected particularly badly. Look at other airports around. Yes they have big declines but they all have more than 4 destinations.
DeleteI really hope that the next summer schedule will be better. Miss flying :(
ReplyDeleteAnd we still don't need national airline?
ReplyDeleteThe way things are going, the airport will probably be closed soon.
ReplyDeleteThe government said today that imports of the virus from other countries are not currently present
DeleteLH goes to 1x daily to FRA from Monday on.
ReplyDelete