Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport is expected to see a mild recovery in the number of operated flights and offered capacity during December compared to November. The airport has seen both metrics decrease month after month since peak summer and is currently served by just three airlines. If current schedules remain in place, Ljubljana will see the return of three carriers in December – Air France, LOT Polish Airlines and Montenegro Airlines, which will offer nine, ten and thirteen flights from their bases to the Slovenian capital respectively. While Montenegro Airlines is expected to restore operations on November 29, LOT will do so on December 16 and Air France on December 19, if current schedules are kept intact.
During December, Ljubljana Airport is expected to handle 100 incoming commercial flights and offer 9.830 one-way seats. This is compared to 56 incoming flights this month and 5.596 one-way seats. During December, Lufthansa will be the largest carrier, offering 36 flights, followed by Air Serbia with nineteen and Turkish Airlines with a planned thirteen flights. However, capacity-wise, Lufthansa will offer the most seats, followed by Turkish Airlines, Montenegro Airlines and Air Serbia. The German carrier plans to maintain operations from Frankfurt with its Embraer E190 jet, Turkish Airlines with an Airbus A321 twice per week and an A320 once per week, while Montenegro Airlines will deploy its Fokker 100 jet from Podgorica.
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| Airline market share in Ljubljana based on frequency, December 2020 |
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| Seat capacity by airline at Ljubljana Airport, December 2020 |
The figures for next month are still notably behind the kind of frequencies and capacity offered from Ljubljana in the prepandemic December of 2019 when it was served by eleven airlines. Back then it handled 501 incoming commercial flights, offering 55.952 seats for sale. At the time, easyJet offered the most capacity out of the Slovenian capital, followed by Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia, while most flights were operated by Lufthansa, Air Serbia and easyJet. The British low cost carrier has now completely pulled out of the Slovenian market until the new year. It has further delayed the launch of its new service from London Gatwick to Ljubljana until February 5, 2021, while a single flight from Gatwick will operate on January 1 before being suspended again until February 1.
The data above is correct as of November 11. Changes are possible to take place in the coming weeks as airlines continue to slash capacity.
At least something
ReplyDeleteSo in December 80% decline in flights on 2019 and 90% in capacity.
ReplyDeleteand then theres a third category: LF
DeleteWell that we cannot predict at this point :D
DeleteIt will be low
DeleteInteresting how differently the airlines are positioned in terms of frequencies and in terms of capacity.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest surprise to me is YM having more capacity than JU.
DeleteI just don't see things getting any better at LJU without either a national airline or a carrier basing a plane there. The new subsidies for foreign airlines does very little in attracting new ones. It's mostly to keep the ones flying.
ReplyDeleteBut people on here said that getting rid of JP was the best thing to happen to the airport.
DeleteI think offering the subsidies is smart. After this is over airlines will be more determined to quickly axe underperforming routes. So the extra cash will definitely help and keep them flying until demand returns.
DeleteConsidering everyone was about to increase frequencies to LJU before covid, I don't think any routes were nonperforming.
Delete@9.07 they attracted Sky Express for next year
Deleteand Tunisiar
DeleteExpiry date for first step ended on Monday (09.11.2020), is there anyone who know who applied to that tender for subsidies?
DeletePeople were cheering for the demise of Adria under the pretense of saving taxpayers money yet now everyone is happy the government is subsidizing foreign airlines.
Delete@9.42 I assume every single airline that meets the conditions. I don't see why they wouldn't.
DeletePlus I'm sure all of them were informed about the subsidies by Fraport.
DeleteI think they should do everything they can to get Wizz Air to open a base in LJU.
Delete@Anon 09:15: Luckily nothing major has happened in aviation or the world since 2019, so we can easily compare LJU's performance before and after JP's bankruptcy.
Delete@09.47
DeleteSun Express, not Sky Express
Yes, SunExpress sorry. Sky Express is long gone :D
Delete@10.07
DeleteI agree, especially since they are willing to open bases at such short notice
@anon 10:07
Deletelol, LCC fanboys talking again. You just don't get tired..
I'm not a fan boy. I just don't see any other solution for our airport to increase passenger numbers quickly while offering more destinations at affordable prices.
DeleteFor 101 times.
Delete2 most important KPIs for LCC to open a base are:
1) country with mass tourism
2) country with huge number of ethnic living across the world
Slovenia does not have any of it, so forget about any LCC opening a base in LJU.
Only solution for Slovenia is to establish national carrier or to give subsidies to foreign legacy carriers to place aircraft in LJU.
If it cannot sustain LCC base, it can sustain higher precentage of LCCs on the market.
DeleteThat's true, but for that reasons government has prepared subsidies so they are more than welcome to operate to LJU. I'm just saying that this will not significantly improve Slovenian connectivity
Delete@11:21 Could you please explain to me why TLL has a good number of LCCs and it's not either a massive touristic destination nor are there many Estonians living abroad?
DeleteEstonia and Slovenia are very similar in size, population and economy.
Are you really comparing TLL and LJU? They had more than 3 mio pax last year, that's more than 100% more than LJU. So that they are much bigger than LJU we already know but still neither one LCC has based aircraft in TLL. Why?
DeleteAlso most flights they have to LON airports, like LJU had in past. I believe that LON could be defined as mass tourist destination, right?
No, because they have flights to 2 London airports but still many other Scandinavian ones. Again, lets stick to economics and population this time for the sake of aviation. Both countries are quite the same, but TLL is apparently doing better. Time to find out why.
DeleteI'm not expert on TLL business model but one of the reason is that their closest competition is RIX (4,5 h away) and LED (5h away). So in comparison with Slovenia where you have much stronger competition in radium of 5h (ZAG, TRS, VCE, BEG, MUC, VIE, MIL, BUD). Some of those airports already have base LCCs.
DeleteHopefully things get better.
ReplyDeleteNot in a few years.
DeleteIt's good to see some improvement.
ReplyDeleteDoubt this capacity will be in place come December. Hope so though.
DeleteI'm not so certain all these airlines will come back as they plan.
ReplyDeleteThey probably will because lockdowns will end in December and there will be a bit more demand because of Christmas travel.
DeleteToday and tomorrow just one flight to LJU. It can not get worse.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the airport's financial results. Having one or no flights per day is a financial disaster.
DeleteWhat level of activity (aircraft arrivals/departures) does LJU need to brake even?
DeleteHow on earth could anyone know that.
DeleteAnd your profitability does not simply depend on the number of aircraft arrivals.
DeleteStill waiting for LH resume Munich
ReplyDeleteYou will be waiting till summer 2021
DeleteAt best...
DeleteConsidering LH's strong position in LJU, I'm certain the route will be resumed.
DeleteThis is a good example of how unsuitable YM's fleet is especially in winter. They will send an F100 to Ljubljana (their smallest aircraft) and will be third by capacity there but probably LF will be terrible. A gas guzzling plane with low LF, great combo.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Good luck with filling 1,400 seats between LJU and TGD in December.
DeleteWhich airlines still have to return that haven't? (not including the ones in December)
ReplyDeleteeasyjet, transavia, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, Aeroflot
DeleteLet's see if all return.
DeleteThere is also BA and Finnair with seasonal flights.
DeleteAnd what happened with Iberia?
DeleteThey were supposed to launch flights this summer but covid happened.
DeleteI know but have they rescheduled for 2021?
DeleteNo. It's cancelled.
DeletePity
DeleteWill there be winter charters in December?
ReplyDeleteWell there we go, just a year after launching flights, LH is first in market share in LJU. Great success :D
ReplyDeleteIt would be no.1 even without covid.
DeleteNot necessarily. Easyjet would probably have more capacity.
DeleteGreat to see that some airlines will start operating to LJU again.
ReplyDeleteI hope so
DeleteGood. At least something is starting up
ReplyDeleteCrumbs.
DeleteIs there any indication when SU will come back to Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteWhen the Russian government allows it.
DeleteYes, there is not much the airport can do about Aeroflot's return. The Russian government is deciding when markets can open, and it has little to do with epidemiological situations in each country.
DeleteAirport should NEVER had been fully privatized like this.
ReplyDeleteWhat you think it would be different if Fraport was not running the show?
DeleteThe management is more or less the same as it was before Fraport took over,
DeleteI think Fraport is busy with the updates. They recently announced that TK will resume flights to VAR this weekend. We may see an announcement for LJU too.
DeleteFingers crossed.
DeleteNormally after they announce who is planning to return, then a day after we get announcement that those airlines will postpone their flights to LJU. Same story is repeating for few months now.
DeleteThese numbers are tragic
ReplyDeleteLJU might end the year with similar pax numbers as Tuzla.
DeleteEveryone will have poor results this year. Not just Ljubljana.
DeleteBut LJU had biggest drop compared to PY figures. And not everything is connected to Covid-19.
DeleteExactly poor preparation once the pandemic hit.
DeleteLJU airport PR is repeating same story every month. Last month was disaster but airlines will come back this month. Then next day we are reading article about how airlines will postpone their return to LJU. I expect this will be published in next few days...
ReplyDeleteI don't think LJU PR wrote this article. The article even says 3 times that it is possible capacity/frequnecies will be adjusted.
DeleteProbably they didn't wrote it but I'm quite sure that they are the source for that article.
DeleteInteresting info. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the Banana King and his plans to relaunch Adria?
ReplyDeleteThe coronavirus happened which decimated the global aviation industry, making new start ups even more risky and unprofitable then they were before.
DeleteI hope LJU will be able to find some sort of solution of the upcoming months.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of solution can it find?
DeleteHopefully more airlines will come soon
ReplyDeleteeasyjet already delayed till February, Brussels will probably delay LJU from February until late March, Swiss is nowhere on the horizon.
DeleteAccording to the Route Shop, there were 6 airports that were interested having a route to LJU namely:
ReplyDeleteDBV, LCA, MMX, PFO, SOF & VNO
http://www.therouteshop.com/profiles/ljubljana-airport/
The biggest surprise is definitely VNO and PFO. I guess SOF expressed this after the demise of JP and perhaps Trade Air for DBV. PFO is usually a Ryan airport while MMX and LCA might go to Wizz.
I'm not sure that route shop has been updated in years.
DeleteEven though it is not updated like this year, the fact that 6 airports are interested in LJU is still something. Don't you think? Compare ZAG and you will see that the interested airports list does make sense.
DeleteDBV flights were launched this year but didn't work at all.
DeleteWhat is the passenger load factory of the airlines currently flying to Ljubljana?
DeleteI would assume very low.
DeleteWell but essential travel is banned from Slovenia.
Delete*all but
DeleteLjubljana, the most obnoxious airport in Ex Yu .
ReplyDeleteThe curse that haunts the Ex Yu Aviation reader !
Good luck filling those 56.000 seats next month.
ReplyDeleteI suggest to all you guys to buy a flight ticket from LJU (or other ex-yu airport) and support the industry, if you are so keen to improve the current situation and full of advices. When you are in quaranteen or infront of a choice of only a handful destinations without, you can say to yourself - it's one for the team!
ReplyDelete