Slovenia is emerging out of a long lockdown which has significantly impacted Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport’s performance. Traffic is slowly beginning to recover, however, the country still lags behind the majority of the continent. This May, the number of offered seats on the market is at just 10.3% of 2019 levels, one of the lowest in Europe. During the January - April period, Ljubljana Airport handled 27.115 passengers, down 85.9% on the same period last year. Aircraft movements decreased 22.8% to 3.840. During the first quarter, the airport registered a loss of 2.4 million euros. It is currently served by Lufthansa, Air Serbia, Turkish Airlines, Air France, Aeroflot and LOT, with Transavia restoring operations last week.
Commenting on the current state of the country’s air travel market, the President of the Association of Slovenian Travel Agencies, Mišo Mrvaljevič, said, “The season from October until mid-April was non-existent in our country, as restrictions were such that almost nothing could be sold. The only bright exceptions were two charters during the winter school holidays, which coincided with the planned short reopening of the country. Three large agencies managed to get organised quickly at the time, but shortly after everything closed again. We organised a business trip here and there and sold tickets to business passengers. I won't mention percentages at all because the numbers are so sad, so it's fair to say that we didn't do anything all winter”. However, when the partial closure of the country ended on April 11, agencies took a breather.
This May, Lufthansa is offering the most flights out of Ljubljana, followed by Air Serbia, Turkish Airlines and Air France. In terms of capacity, Lufthansa has 2.890 seats on offer, followed by Turkish Airlines with 1.800 seats, Aeroflot with 1.260 seats and Air Serbia with 1.122 seats. Ljubljana Airport’s General Manager, Zmago Skobir, recently said that talks were underway with a carrier from the European Union to set up a base in the Slovenian capital. “It is no secret that we are working on having at least one of the EU airlines set up a smaller base at the airport. We believe this would be the fastest and most effective way to improve our country’s air connectivity”, Mr Skobir said. He added that talks were also taking place with low cost airlines but ruled out Ryanair, which will set up a base in nearby Zagreb this September.
Ryanair's entry to ZAG doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteAgree. It will take away some passengers from Ljubljana
DeleteLJU in first 4 months: 27.115
ReplyDeleteTZL in first 4 months: 46.440
Lol
Disaster for LJU, and bravo TZL.
DeleteDont forget SJJ: 59.296 :)
DeleteZadar will also have more passengers than Ljubljana this year
DeleteFor zadar is not shure as summer charters in lju are comming in hughe nummber.
DeleteRyanair is opening a base in Zadar with 30 routes.
DeleteSad
ReplyDeleteAnd what is happening with that EU airline that is supposedly interested in setting up a base in LJU?
ReplyDeleteI dont believe a single word Skobir says..
DeleteNothing will happen as usual.
DeleteThe government's decision to drop plans for new national airline will slow recovery and we probably won't see LJU reach pre pandemic levels for some time to come.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how differently the airlines are positioned in terms of frequencies and in terms of capacity.
ReplyDeleteI 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 and even that has not been fully sucsesfull.
ReplyDeleteLufthansa dominance.
DeleteBut people on here said that getting rid of JP was the best thing to happen to the airport.
DeleteOnly Fraport fanboys are saying that, all other knew that bankruptcy of JP will have huge effect not only for Fraport but also to Slovenia economy.
DeleteHopefully things get better.
ReplyDeleteJU does quite well in Ljubljana, hopefully more flights are added. Flights these days have between 35 and 60 passengers on the ATR.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile easyjets new Luton-Ljubljana flights delayed by more than 2 months till late July. Skyexpress also delayed Antalya-Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteVery sad about all the delays. Chartres alone won't allow for any meaningful recovery.
Deleteand this week Eayjet cancelled their Gatwick - LJU schedule for June and most of July.
DeleteIf you enter UK from Slovenia, you still have to quarantine for 10 days, which is why Easyjet probably doesn't see enough demand to keep the flights.
DeleteWell, there won't be any need for easyjet after July 23rd :)
DeleteWhy? What happens July 23?
Deletethose that are travelling currently (myself included) are likely using test to release to end quarantine after 5 days. I appreciate easyJet is primarily a leisure airline, but my experience of their UK routes was always business traveller heavy.
DeleteAs a side note there were a lot of xfer passengers last week in both directions lhr-vie-beg
Good luck
ReplyDeleteToday just 1 flight at LJU.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow is better. Two flights in total :D
DeleteThis is sad and painful to watch.
DeleteIt can not get worse.
DeleteHaving one or no flights per day is a financial disaster.
DeleteRJK has one or no flights per day 8 months every year for 30 years now. 19 seaters not counted. Stil alive.
DeleteStill waiting for LH resume Munich
ReplyDeleteYou will be waiting at least till winter 2021/2022.
DeleteConsidering LH's strong position in LJU, I'm certain the route will be resumed.
DeleteAnd while you wait for MUC other airports will already have connections to Mars. I can't believe what they did to LJU, it's a shame! And now I'm waiting for one of the Fraport guys to start explaining that Slovenia had most restrictive entry rules in whole EU...
DeleteWhich airlines still have to return that haven't?
ReplyDeleteBrussels Airlines, Swiss, Wizz Air, British Airways, Finnair.
DeleteLet's see if all return.
DeleteThings are slowly improving. Can't wait for the new terminal.
ReplyDeleteAre they improving? I don't see any progress..
DeleteGood to see that some airlines will start operating to LJU again.
ReplyDeleteHopefully more airlines will come soon
DeleteCrumbs
ReplyDeleteOnly thing that can turn the state of affairs at LJU is an LCC basing a plane there. Otherwise these sluggish results will continue.
ReplyDeleteLJU is too expensive for LCC
DeleteLol LCC fanboys again. And who will LCC carry? just check where LCC is opening bases and quickly find out that Slovenia with no mass tourism and no ethnic around EU is not attractive for LCC.
DeleteFor LCCs to come to LJU Fraport would have to give them a deal, like SJJ or ZAG did.
DeleteFirst you should see how many Croats/Bosnians lives across EU and how many Slovenians. I agree that we could have LCC here, but for what cost? It would be much more expensive to attract them to LJU than to SJJ/ZAG simply because they would never get so much revenue as they could do in SJJ/ZAG.
DeleteAfter Ryanair's arrival to ZAG, I don't think LJU has a chance left to start a LCC base, even if LJU proposes free of charge operations.
DeleteLet's wait what will happen with ZAG base, as far as I know government is not happy that LCC got much lower prices than OU. I have the feeling that this story is not over yet..
DeleteI dont see LCC making the next IST out of LJU but I do think there is room for their expansion. A few routes from various bases I am sure would work. Just in the ex-YU republics alone, I dont see why TGD, SKP and SJJ wouldnt work with a couple of weekly rotations. It will be interesting to see how FR does on the ZAG-TGD route.
DeleteSJJ with 180 seats without transfer traffic? Never.
DeleteAnd not even a glimpse of Swiss which was given money for flying to LJU. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteswiss got money for nothing
DeleteI don't think LJU will even hit 100k this year
ReplyDeleteIt will but not much more than 200k
DeleteSomething MUST be done with LJU when the terminal opens.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: nothing will be done
DeleteSomething MUST be done with OU when covid scam stops
DeleteSad fact : nothing will be done
Meanwhile Flydubai is opening new routes left and right but still no Ljubljana. For an airport that has been chasing flights to the Gulf for 10 years you've got to wonder why not LJU.
ReplyDeleteThey should have done more to attract Fly Dubai which has launched several new routes in the last few months, meaning they are looking at any opportunity they can get.
DeleteI don't think there is anything that can be done. FZ has looked at Ljubljana and probably realized the route won't be commercially viable, based on their cost structure.
DeleteAnd what is happening with that new Slovenian airline? Southeast Europe Airlines or something like that?
ReplyDeleteI'm very skeptical it will happen
DeleteMe too, not holding my breath. Sounds nice but I don't think it will become a reality.
DeleteI see no difference between them and Trade Air.
DeleteSE Airlines won't improve connectivity, its meant as charter/ACMI operator and will not focus on Slovenia.
DeleteDo not worry friends, it is all about correct timing to enter the market. Slovenia will fly again.
ReplyDeleteAnd lets not forget, where other nations had to spend millions or billions to back their aviation sector, Slovenia gave a few mio to Brnik Airport. Not sure how much cash OU burned last 16 months with super low load factors around
DeleteIn my opinion this is quite sad :(
ReplyDeleteThey should try attracting LCCs. The recovery would be much faster.
ReplyDeleteSo many airlines have launched flights to Dubai in the past few months because entry restrictions are relaxed and the virus situation is under control. I'm surprised tour operators have not worked with Trade Air to get some regular charters to there. I'm not going to even mention LJU/Fraport not trying to attract Flydubai. They even started flights to Grozny!
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteJust yesterday they announced Mykonos and Santorini.
DeleteOld 320 (TDR) with no limitations can't make it DXB-LJU. With limitations or with technical stop make it unprofitable.
DeleteSad
ReplyDeleteFraport reallys needs the state to come in and do something about this.
ReplyDeleteI understand it's a difficult situation everywhere, but LJU is underperforming.
ReplyDeleteTerrible
ReplyDeleteAny chance of KLM replacing Transavia?
ReplyDeleteHighly doubt it. Especially given they fly 3 x daily to/from ZAG and it seems that Skyteam split the markets - HR/KLM, SLO/AF.
DeleteSplit the market? AF SLO only? AF flies daily (twice daily pre-covid) to ZAG plus to SPU and DBV. How did AFKL split the market then?
DeleteYou tell me. 3x daily to AMS (clearly, aiming at transfer pax), vs 1x daily to CDG. Moreover, before the COVID AF had plans for 2x daily to CDG, while HV did not/does not have regular daily service. In fact, for the most part AMS is served from LJU only 3-4x weekly.
DeleteI believe you misunderstood me. Maybe my fault, maybe I wasn't precise enough : I fully agree with you that chances of KL to replace HV in LJU are very slim, one of the reasons KL flying twice daily to ZAG plus daily OU codeshare. The part I disagree is that SLO market "belongs" to AF within Skyteam, because AF operates more flights to CRO than to SLO. That's what I was talking about and has nothing to do with KL/HV
DeleteI assume Lufthansa is currently performing best at LJU.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia has the lowest demand for air travel in Europe at the moment.
ReplyDeleteAnd how do you know that? because of passenger drop? First you need to have decent connectivity and after that you can expect some results. 90% of people are travelling from ZAG/VCE, even public tenders for government are asking for flights out of ZAG due to better connectivity.
DeleteAnd where did you get your info that 90% are travelling from other airports? As far as I know nobody is travelling. Slovenian businesses cancelled all business trips, congress tourism is on pause, incoming tourism is zero, only outgoing tourism has a tiny demand that is served by charters directly from LJU. If you have any other statistics I'd like to see it.
DeleteYou can see data from agencies how much business do they have. Also you should check public tenders for government, all their journeys start from ZAG or VCE.
DeleteAirlines, especially these days, are not going to ignore a market if there are passengers. So many airlines have delayed LJU despite having tickets on sale. Why is that? If bookings were good airlines would keep their flights.
Deleteand please enlighten me who is postponing their flights? LX, SN, with few flight per week and even those flights are in the middle of the day..with that kind of schedule you don't improve connectivity so you can't even expect to have good bookings. There is more than enough demand for two flights per (morning/evening rotation) for at least BRU, ZRH, CDG.
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 countries
ReplyDeletehere they are...and other countries did not have bans? look at the entry system in Balkan countries, they were in much worse situation than we and look their traffic. It's not entry system but the fact that Slovenia does not have national carrier.
DeleteNo, it's just the fact that Slovenia has no diaspora compared to other Balkan countries. And that's currently the only sector that's willing to travel amid all quarantines and restrictions. And that's the main reason why other Balkan countries are doing comparatively better.
DeleteYou are so wrong, just check public tenders for government and you will see that there are a lot of business passengers as well. they simply don't use LJU for their journey due to no connectivity.
DeleteAll that is just a few seats here and there. It's all very simple - low demand equals low connectivity. If you are not willing to cover tens of millions of losses for a flag carrier (which thankfully Slovenia is not) then you won't see any traffic for a few more months. When demand picks up the traffic will return.
ReplyDeleteYou can see how demand is picking up on all other airports except LJU. And flag carrier with 2-3 aircrafts would not lose tens if millions so you are exaggerating.
Delete@ 13,40
DeleteNot exactly 3 aircraft but YM is an example. MAT was another example which ended ops basically with 1 aircraft and roughly 15 million Euros of debt.
@13,29
The subsidies Slovenia was offering to airlines operating into LJU was not well distributed. For example, JU would probably be operating at least daily had they received more incentives to do so. Obviously money given to YM and LX for example was well spent.
When Skobir will retired? He did never understand aviation. Under his management LJU dropped from 1st airport in region to last. LJU could be at least as Venice, unfortunately they are not.
ReplyDeleteVenice? Lol. Also LJU was third, not first
DeleteExactly. Always, but always, the rank was :BEG, ZAG, LJU, SPU/DBV, all others. SKP and PRN joined the club recently as well and temporarily took over, but bottomline is : LJU was much better before, but never the first in ex-yu
DeleteAnd LJU went from third place to last, and it will probably remain it like that, unless incompentent LJU management does some big changes into their strategy. While all other airports grow, LJU doesn't.
DeleteLJU was 1st in exYu and around by passenger numbers. You can not count traveling politicians to BEG. Equipment, including cat II., was the best,...
DeleteNo comment
DeleteSmall country, centrally located, low demand, no tourism to speak of, bankrupt National Airline, no diaspora, fast developing Airports nearby....the list goes on!
ReplyDeleteI'm always baffled at why people have such high expectations of LJU. Their safest bet is to subsidize some selected flights and go with the flow.
LJU does not have the potential to grow like other primary airports in the Balkans. When they reached their peak of 2 mln pax was thanks to transit passengers who were exploited by the likes of Austrian and Co. but those days are gone now.
Thats it, agree!
DeleteI agree that potential is very limited and that why Slovenia should focus on tourism with added value and for those guests you need very good connectivity.
DeleteCentrally compared to what? Over one millions of tourists visit Slovenija every year. Bled is packed with tourist. Some diaspora especially in England.
ReplyDeleteTrue that proximity to other airports hurts, but could also work other way around. With all the people with 2 hours drive could fly from LJU if prices and offer was good.
Problem is bad management.
With JP's death, LJU's relevance died as well. Unfortunately from now on the airport will be third rate at best. ZAG is too close and airport management too incompetent. My projection is that LJU will be somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million once covid passes.
ReplyDeleteFact is, that slovenian passenger potential is poor. 1mio pax two years after Adria bankruptcy is only the dream. Maybe up to 800k in few years, as all airports around has better connections. Small new company with help of goverment is the most rational way for little Slovenia. Any base of any bigger company is waste of money.
ReplyDeleteSo, any rumours about this new "base", someone said LOT is the partner, is it true?
ReplyDeleteTurkish Airlines is Just amazing — they’ve never been late for me, but Turkish Airlines change Policy is a little bit difficult to understand. After searching so much about the modification policy, finally, I got a solution by {Airlinespolicy.com }. They have crisp, short, and relevant information about modification, cancellation, check-in, Baggage, and Pet policy. They helped me a lot during the harsh Covid-19 time. I am very thankful to the team of airline policy. Visit here to know more: https://airlinespolicy.com/flight-change-policy/turkish-airlines-change-flight-policy/
ReplyDelete