Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport registered its busiest month this July since March 2020, although recovery remains slow with just 12% of 2019’s pre-pandemic traffic reached. The airport’s performance has been directly linked to harsh and disproportionate travel restrictions implemented in Slovenia during the first half of the year, which were significantly eased during the second half of July with the abandonment of the traffic light travel system. The airport handled 65.474 passengers last month, down 68.4% on July 2019. During the January - July period, the airport welcomed 135.485 travellers through its doors and recorded 8.777 aircraft movements.
As one of the most affected European capital city airports by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Ljubljana will see its recovery continue in August with the number of scheduled flights for the month increasing 17.9% compared to July, while capacity will grow 23.4%. Earlier this month, Iberia inaugurated seasonal flights from Madrid, while British Airways is set to resume operations from London Heathrow on August 30. As was the case throughout the previous thirteen months, Lufthansa continues to be Slovenia’s largest carrier, offering both the most flights and capacity, while Frankfurt is the country’s busiest destination. It is followed by Air Serbia, Air France and LOT Polish Airlines.
Commenting on its existing operations, Ljubljana Airport said, “The aviation sector is still heavily dependent on existing entry restrictions and other measures introduced individually by each country to combat the coronavirus pandemic. This impacts on the recovery in demand for flights. International services to Slovenia are currently operated by thirteen airlines. We expect a few more to come during the remainder of the summer season, with a total of seventeen destinations to be made available”. It added, “The easing of travel restrictions is also being followed by an increase in charter traffic. Among the most popular charter destinations are the Greek islands, Antalya in Turkey, Djerba in Tunisia, Egypt’s Sharm-El-Sheikh and Hurghada, as well as Barcelona, Madeira and Tenerife”.
How many passengers can be handled by the end of the year? 300,000?
ReplyDelete250 000
DeleteLjubljana wake up your passenger numbers will be eaten by Zagreb Airport. Look what Skoplje Airport did, do the same with just more airlines!
DeleteSKP has the advantage of being close to PRN and Albania to serve gasto routes so it makes sense.
DeleteSKP has a large amount of gasto routes, which helps a lot. Less Slovenians live/work abroad, and Germany is only couple of hours away, unlike SKP/TIA/PRN/SOF etc.
DeleteAnon 09:54 Not anymore with W6 exploding in TIA and gradually expanding in PRN.
DeleteAnon @9:54 how is being close to PRN an advantage for SKP?
DeleteSlovenians are giving away aviation market share to Croatians which is unheard of Slovenians who are basically Swiss of former Yugoslavia. What they need is government subsidy package like a Macedonia did intended to boost Slovenian Economy and Tourism. Slovenia is beautiful county with amazing Alpine mountains and amazing sea side. Getting more tourists from Europe is must for Slovenia! Undisputed jewel of Europe!
DeleteSlovena was the Switzerland of Yugoslavia when Yugoslavia still existed.
DeleteBut times have changed.
Nowadays Slovenia is just another backwater in the European empire where majority of people do not even know that Slovenia and Slovakia are different countries .
GDP per capita, Nominal GDP, constant and steady rise of Salaries last 20 years, change of economy from manufacturing to services, birth rate, investments, stable foreign policy, stable internal politics, good neighbor affairs(couple of 100 m2 of sea disputed inside EU common economic area really funny), EU activities, fully developed infrastructure, basically 30 years in front everyone in exyu and most important one of the smaller states in EU when it comes to population, size and military power. Comparing it to let's say highly developed EU states, at least 30 years more and they are on top -small Switzerland job done game over. Aviation sector needs more attention, other than that...
DeleteI really hope JU brings back those noon flights out of BEG, they were really cool as they offer connections to many places in western Europe.
ReplyDeleteAren't they operating with a split schedule?
DeleteWe probably won't see LJU reach pre pandemic levels for some time to come.
ReplyDeleteIt will take years
DeleteI just don't see things getting any better at LJU without either a national airline or a carrier basing a plane there.
ReplyDeleteThis is a disaster. Skobir and Krašnja should be ashamed of themselves. Fraport should be looking at replacement for these two.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for LH resume Munich. Will they start in winter?
ReplyDeleteNo, they removed flights for winter. Now scheduled for summer 2022.
DeleteThanks. Hopefully it starts then.
DeleteI don't understand why
DeleteThings are slowly improving
ReplyDeleteOh really? With few flights per day when we took over presidency of EU, on top of that we are in peak season with actually very few entry restrictions and you call that improvement? Only one word describe current situation - DISASTER!!
Delete@09:09:
DeleteOh, come on Mr. Skobir, don't you have an airport to run?
What people don't seem to get is, that the numbers are mixture of not having a national airline, country not willing to pay subsidies, pandemic, restrictions that didn't make any sense (its ok-ish now). It's not all because of the management
ReplyDeleteExactly.
Delete+1
Delete-not having national carrier (a big par for that also wear management of Fraport with their nonsense statements in media)
Delete-country not willing to pay subsidies (we paid exact amount of money which JP needed to be on 0 but there was no effect)
-pandemic (it seems that Slovenia is affected much more than other countries)
-restrictions (again, it seems that only in Slovenia restrictions are in place...).
So I would say that big part of guilty in on Fraport side aswell (and politicians for listening them).
If you think JP would only need 5m EUR of goverment subsidies during a pandemic, you're very optimistic.
DeleteFor new JP it would not need anymore, with 4-5 aircrafts cost are not so high.
DeleteFR made a loss of nearly 3m per aircraft last year, and that's one of the most efficiently run airlines in Europe, operating at a large scale and with fair amount of aircraft owned, not leased.
DeleteAnd you think new JP would (proportionally) lose less money than FR?
and please enlgihten me which aircraft FR use and which new JP would use? a bit of a difference right?
DeleteI'd bet my left arm that FR's 737s cost less to buy/lease than a regional jet of a typical micro state-run airline. Not to mention the economies of scale when it comes to... everything - from booking system, IT, spare parts, admin, crew training, etc.
DeleteMOL buys airplanes at the peak of crisis (just post 9/11 when airlines were cancelling orders left and right, during MAX grounding+covid, etc.), when Boeing is giving them away for free to anyone who will take them.
I hope you don't use that hand for something important as you must be crazy to compare costs between CR9 and 737, even when we talk about FR.
DeleteCRJ9 in a micro airline costs more to operate than a 737 or A320 in a company with 400+ aircraft, believe it or not.
DeleteThere is a reason why small regional airlines are rarely profitable, unlike LCCs.
Of course CASK is much lower with LCC but cost per aircraft is still much higher however you turn that.
Deleteand regarding profitability of LCC we could spend days to discuss on this topic but at the end we would not come together. I think that LJU need both, LCC presence and scheduled airlines. For now we don't have any of it and it seems this is not going to change any soon.
LCC is a schedule airline 🤔
DeleteI still think the best would be to attract some foreign carrier to base 3 to 5 regional planes here in LJU and focus only on LJU nad SLO market. Forget about transfer passengers, this is long gone.
ReplyDeletethey are all fighting to come in LJU. If we wan't to "attract" them, that would be much more expensive than creating new airline.
DeleteMaybe it would be more expensive, this I have no idea. But maybe it would be better for us as customers to use an airline not managed by our state.
DeleteSeptember should be good with BA back, Flydubai starting flights, easyjet coming back and Air Montenegro starting Podgorica.
ReplyDeleteSame story we listening every month. And what will be excuse next month when most of those airlines will prolong suspensions? Covid situation again? And they say that donkey only steps on ice once, its seems we are running on ice for ages..
DeleteOnly thing that can turn the state of affairs at LJU is an LCC basing a plane there. Otherwise these sluggish results will continue.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a good opportunity for Wizz to base a plane in Ljubljana and counter Ryanair's growth in Zagreb.
DeleteLCC fanatics are here again altough that it was explained thousand of times why we will never see LCC base in LJU. But good luck in believing in miracles...
DeleteNo need for a base. Just get Wizz Air to introduce flights to key destinations with the largest O&D demand. I assume those would be Berlin, Brussels, London and then probably on a summer seasonal basis flights to places like Barcelona. Once these basic routes start working then see where you go from there.
DeleteAnon 9:28 i assume you are a Fraport fanatic.
Delete@An.09.28
DeleteI am not LCC fanatic but I believe LJU can sustain LCC base. A looot of Slovenians, and visitors to Slovenia, use LCC, and of course not only LCC. The problem is not in lack of potential and market, because these passengers use VCE, ZAG, TRS, RJK, VIE for their flights, and they could use LJU. I way saying the same for ZAG before FR opened the base. And yes, LJU has much less gasto traffic than SKP, but much more tourist and city break traffic, both ways. And if one Treviso can sustain LCC base with VCE on 20 km distance, than LJU can as well, despite FR in ZAG.
On contrary, I blame Fraport for situation we are in. Do you really believe LCC will base aircraft in LJU while Slovenia does not have any mass tourism and millions of gastoz living across EU? Please enlighten me how to fill 6 flights (in case they place only one aircraft) with a320 per day?
DeleteIn case that Macedonia is paying 15 eur per pax, than we would need to pay at least 30 eur to cover their loss. What Slovenia need is small airlines connecting EU hubs and Balkan capitals.
@anon 09:41
DeleteI am not against LCC, of course not. every additional flight is more than welcome in LJU. I just think that LCC will not choose LJU to open a base because of the reasons I mentioned, unless we pay much more than other airports are paying (because someone have to cover loss where demand is lower). I think that some destionations are perfect to be covered by LCC (London/Amsterdam/Berlin all year round; Barcelona for example during high season). But still that is not enough to base aircraft in LJU. of course that's just my opinion...
@09:16
DeleteForget about LCC base. Jesus Christ, how many times must we say it? Nobody will base an aircraft in LJU without subsidies. Might as well set up a new national carrier.
There were rumors easyjet wanted to open base at LJU but Fraport was againts it.
DeleteIt really is a sad little airport, as I was flying out of LJU a few days ago I wanted to have a snack in departure area (a mix of duty free shop and a snack bar) a couldn't sit anywhere as they only have a few tables around all taken by customers eventhough there were only two flights departing. Not to mention all the trash left behind at the gates and not even one cleaner in sight. DISASTER
ReplyDeleteLJU is a mess. The turkish guy who takes care of TK at LJU told me last time the airport was not ready to open and things do not function. They let us on the airbridge before the aircraft was ready for boarding, so everyone got stucked on the bridge for 20min, full summer, full sun, no aircon with 35C. I went nuts and the guy came to appologize, but told me that it keeps happening because the ground staff is lost . On the way back, the aircraft was parked for 15min before they managed to connect the airbridge. After waiting to let us leave for more than 15min I somehow hoped the luggage will be ready. But no. Another 15min to collect the luggage. And there was only one arrival at that time. PATHETIC. Its not damn LAX.
DeleteWhatever happened to that Southeast Europe Airlines? They were supposed to launch this summer.
ReplyDeleteSeems like LJU is going through an identity crisis. They don't want to be an LCC airport but at the same time there isn't much demand for a considerable activity of legacy carriers. So what gives? At some point they will have to reconnect with reality like ZAG did when they made a deal with FR.
ReplyDeleteLJU should try to court Wizz Air and to provide them with subsidies for routes that are bleeding passengers to ZAG. Give a reason to those people to fly from LJU in stead of airports within your catchment area. Once you stabilize your numbers, boost your revenue and passenger numbers and only then can you think of the next step.
There is no need for a Wizz base, they can expand in LJU from other places. They got rid of cancerous JP but unfortunately they didn't take the next logical step.
we would be more than happy with LCC base here in LJU but fact is that this will not happen unless we pay them much more they do ZAG or other ex-yu airports. Why?
Delete1. Slovenia does not have mass tourism.
2. Slovenia does not have millions of gastoz living across EU.
those are two main reasons why LCC would base aircraft, of course with some agreements with state/airports etc...
Now we see what "cancerous" JP meant for LJU airport. For few millions per year we had good connectivity and now we are connected as some African village.
Like I said, there is no need for a LCC base, it would be much cheaper to introduce a few low risk destinations as a first step. Once those work out see where you go from there.
DeleteJP had no future and as such it was becoming a problem. Connectivity wasn't good at all. For years it flew to LH Group hubs in addition to a few regional destinations in ex-YU. If my memory serves me well they did not fly to places like Athens, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Madrid ... and they struggled with many other key destinations like Moscow or Berlin.
Like I already wrote, JP had to go and LJU management was aware of its unsustainability for months before the airline's eventual demise. Only carrier that actually responded was JU and LJU management had nothing to do with that. They were completely unprepared for the inevitable. The moment JP started introducing triangle routes that was the time to start calling airlines.
First of all we have to separate JP when it was state owned airlines and when 4k took it over, that was two different airlines. I still believe that connectivity was good, even if you connect to major LH hubs you can have huge benefits out of that. JP tried with ATH/MAD but there was simply not enough passengers for that. IST/SVO were took over by TK/SU.
DeleteYou got 2 main actors on the field who can fight to bring new (regular) operators If your airport is not spotted by airlines themselves. One is the airport operator, the other one is the gov.
DeleteIn case of Slovenia Fraport has no real intention to spend its money on incentives to bring new airlines (if they had cared about pax numbers, Krasnja and Skubir would have been long gone, but from the official statements of Fraport we know they omly focus on cargo, so it makes sense all of this), gov on the side has no clue what to do with aviation and they dont really care about it. Just look where the "aviation money" goes to? They are paying Kostić to operate LJPZ (the gov bears ALL the operational costs of LJPZ, just to keep it open), they are covering all the costs of LJMB for nothing.
We are doomed.
I understand it's a difficult situation everywhere, but LJU is underperforming.
ReplyDeleteI assume Lufthansa is currently performing best at LJU.
ReplyDeleteof course
DeleteLufthansa dominance.
Deletelow demand equals low connectivity.
ReplyDeletelow connectivity equals low demand. Connectivity creates demand and not the other way around
DeleteFinally some good news for Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteStill peanuts.
DeleteGood news? Yeah from 9% to 12%
DeleteThings are slowly improving
Deleteyup, we went from 9 to 12 %. In peak season, we are presidenting EU and situation with Covid is stable. I can't even think what will happen in January when situation will much worse..
DeleteShould be noted that the passenger decline trend started well before Covid at LJU.
ReplyDeleteyes, because adria airways which carried 50% of LJU’s traffic went bankrupt…
DeleteSo what is the average LF on Ljubljana flights?
ReplyDeleteLju is improving but there is no demand and germany is destroying Lju because of money. We want wide body aircrafts NOW
ReplyDeleteHow are other Fraport airports performing?
ReplyDeleteDuring Jan-Jun period Ljubljana was the 188th busiest airport in Europe. A real disaster.
ReplyDeleteI still don't get it. How come one of the richest Balkan states have one of the lowest aviation traffic figures in Europe? Brand new terminal... ok, forget about mass emigration but at least basic connections to Europe.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem the need for a smaller, regional flag carrier is very important....
Promote it as a digital nomad destination, promote Bled, etc.
Something must be done ASAP!
What do people expect when the borders have been virtually closed for the last 16 months? I really don't get why it is so hard to work out.
DeleteIt is amazing how even people who follow ex yu aviation forget that LJU airport was closed for long period of time due to goverment travel restrictions in last year and a half?
DeletePlease stop with this non sense. LJU was closed due to travel restrictions? Fake news. There were travel restrictions, but the airport CAN NOT be closed and it was not closed, we got binding international treaties that forces us to keep it open.
DeleteLJU was actually one of the airports that was closed for commercial flights the shortest. Certainly in ex-Yu, they reopened in May.
DeleteWhat international treaty requires LJU to be open?
DeleteNATO
DeleteNot familiar with that, but surely that wouldn't apply to civilian operations or passengers without diplomatic status.
DeleteI doubt NATO requires a country to have 24/7 operational civilian airport for international travel, even in the middle of a pandemic.
So 32% of 2019 in July is not even that bad, considering that there are no transfer passengers anymore like in BEG or in ZAG with their two hub carriers.
ReplyDeleteToday Friday, LJU has 20 departures with Carriers like Air Serbia, Lufthansa, Aegean, Aeroflot, Iberia, Air France, Trade Air, LOT, Air Montenegro, Medavia, Brussels Airlines, Fly Egypt, Wizz Air, Swiss, Turksih Airlines, Transavia, at least the mix of airlines is for the size of the airport not bad.
What are reasons for the limited passenger numbers
Slovenia has nearby 0.5-2h car drive airports such as Graz, Zagreb, Trieste, Treviso, Venice, Verona.
Slovenia Radius of 3h drive has beautiful spots surrounded such as Kärnten, Salzburg, Steiermark, Vienna, Istria, Jadran, Venice, Verona, Dolomiti, Lake Balaton. Fortunately the accomodation infrastructure in SLO has improved a lot recently, so lots of Slovenians same as Swiss or Germans are during Covid taking their vacation at home, in Slovenia or near by places, espcially Istria and Jadran. Same as Austrians, Italians, Bavarians, Czechs and Hungarians are visiting and holidaying in Slovenia by car and not plane.
Slovenia has less ethnic traffic than other YU republics
Slovenias biggest trade partners are reachable with a car drive: (Bavaria, Austria, Croatia and Northern Italy) or by plane (CDG, ZRH, FRA). Biggest trade partners are Germany, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and France)
It will take until LJU will reach 1.5 mio passengers and LJU can not be compared to Kosovo, or Macedonia with their immense ethnic traffic, it can also not be compared with ZAG and BEG with their transfer passengers. A person from ZRH flying to SOF via BEG and return is counted at BEG airport 4 x but never visited Belgrade.
Slovenians are Nr. 2 in numbers of tourists in Croatia. So its clear where preferences of Slovenias are and with gorgeous Adriatic Coast so near, there are less reasons to fly away.
The airline mix is quite pleasing, still I hope for the next years to see OS coming back to LJU, KL coming with daily flights to AMS and that SK will connect CPH or maybe during SUTT ARN (Stockholm)
+1
DeleteNice. Keep on good work.
DeleteNo one would even think about new state owned airline if LJU would have decent connectivity. It does not even mather which airlines fly to LJU but with what frequency and which time slots do they use. And foreign airlines will always look for their own interest and not interest of state where they fly.
DeleteAnd if those airlines are not here today when we are running presidency of EU, on top of that we are in peak season and situation with covid is stable then we can't expect to have them any soon here. Do you really think that we have to drive to nearest airports (in other countries) to catch some good connections?
Or even worse, do you think that people innitially coming to Slovenia will drive with Go-opti from ZAG/VCE etc to LJU? maybe 20% of them will, other will simply change destination or do business via skype/teams/zoom etc..
I don't think that Slovenia deserve that and the only solution to solve that issue is to establish national carriers or to give much more to foreign airlines to establish those flights (in same frequency/time slots as national carrier would do).
@anonym 1421:
DeleteFrom Ljubljana you reach this summer with nonstop flights:
Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, UAE, Russia, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, France, Spain and Switzerland
Thru CDG ZRH FRA IST BEG you reach plenty of other destinations.
Rates are affordable. IB sold MAD at 72 EUR one way.
Besides this, intercontinental too many destinations are not open for EU Citizen leisure travel, so for example USA; Canada, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, Oman, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, India, China, Vietnam
So plenty of holiday destinations are currently closed for leisure travel. And suggest before people dream of more flights and destinations, to visit those, which are currently available.
And yes intercontinental tourists, usually visit Slovenia together with Italy, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, sometimes even with Prague.
I personally travel various ways to the region. Either I fly to LJU, VCE, ZAG or TRS and from there I usually visit Slovenia, Istria, Jadran, Friuli and Kärnten.
JU 520 BEGLAX
DeleteThe problem is not holiday destinations. The problem is that Slovenia due to contract with EU does not have sovereignty in establishing their own national transportation policy.
That is root of the problem. Same with OU. On a paper Croatia has national Airline. But OU is just the feeder for the Lufthansa group. That is inherent contradiction in EU that appear in other segments of the economy: Energy, Military industrial complex, Banking etc etc
@anonym 18:30h
DeleteThere I am fully with you. You are basically just colony of EU West. EU East is used for cheap labour production, extension of consumer market including that all important assets were taken over and controlled by colonial masters. They give you credits to upgrade your infrastructure, but in exchange they dictate you their rules for their own game. Very similar they did since centuries in Africa or the US in LatinAmerica. And those who tried to oppose their deal, were removed.
I am born and grown up in the west, but I dont agree with their philosophy and politics towards you or the countries in Africa or LatinAmerica.
Look at ZAG. The profiteers of each crisis are usually the big and powerful companies. So Ryanair is stepping in and trying to kill OU whereever they can. Thats why me personally, I will always support OU to secure jobs and revenues in our region. Same as I try to support YU products while I am spending cash in your area.
@anon 16:31
Deletewhen I see your list of destinations then I really don't understand why we complain about connectivity, it seems that only NYC and TYO are missing and we have everything. #sarcasmoff
True, LJU had 20 flights today which maybe is ok, but when we see that ZAG had 40 flights, while LJU only have 10 flights tomorrow and ZAG have 35 then we quickly realize that LJU is not performing well.
In aviation it is crucial how often and when you fly to certain destination. I really don't care if we have flight to ZRH if that flight is in middle of day as you can't help much with that. more or less this is with 90% of flights coming out/to LJU.
Croatia indeed is doing surprisingly well this summer season. Just read that in the first days of August HR recorded 80% of the results in arrivals and 93% in overnight stays compared to the first days of August in the record season 2019
DeleteLJU needs to work on making sure Lufthansa expands their presence there. They seem to be struggling in ZAG, today they reduced FRA-ZAG to 12 weekly on the CRJ.
ReplyDeleteLJU should use this to make sure LH boosts and consolidates its position there.
It seems they are not interested, ZRH/BRU with 1x flight per day (with worst possible time slot), OS not flying at all, MUC not covered, FRA afternoon schedule could be much better...There are many things to improve
DeleteThe biggest problem is yet to come. Authorities in all EU countries are announcing the closure again, because the number of infected people will increase from September and because a new strain of coronavirus has appeared. Citizens do not want to be vaccinated, which is an additional blow
ReplyDeleteThe number of aircraft movements in July was 2,010, which means that the average number of passengers per flight was just short of 33.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the average aircraft size used by airlines at LJU? Surely, this must be a very low load factor?
Do remember that they count all aircraft movements - cargo planes, private planes, planes coming to Adria Tehnika.
DeleteGood point, but how big of a share of the total do such flights make up? Even if they would be as much as half of all movements, 66 pax sounds quite low.
Delete135k passengers in 7 months and they expect 500k in whole year. Where in the world will they get additional 365k in 5 months?!? Does the operator of the airport even know whats happening there?
ReplyDeleteNo word for the London flights? What went wrong there??
ReplyDeleteHow many passenger the airport handled in July 2020 (lat year)?
ReplyDelete