Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia were the busiest carriers operating out of Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport during the first half of the year, data from the Statistical Office of Slovenia shows. The three flag carriers accounted for over a half of the airport’s traffic. The trio were also the only airlines to have maintained operations to the city for the entire six-month period, during which Ljubljana saw limited passenger flow due to strict entry requirements and Covid-related measures in the country. Lufthansa was the busiest, handling just over 19.000 passengers, followed by Turkish Airlines with 12.997 travellers and Air Serbia, which carried 6.212 passengers. While the German and Turkish carriers maintained operations with jet-engine aircraft, their Serbian counterpart flew exclusively with the ATR turboprop.
Despite the three airlines operating throughout the first half the year, the average cabin load factor on flights was relatively low, as indicated by Ljubljana Airport itself on several occasions. Aeroflot, which restored flights to the Slovenian capital in February was the fourth busiest carrier, followed by Air France, LOT Polish Airlines and Transavia. Figures for the remaining carriers that flew for part of the first half of the year were negligible. These include easyJet, Brussels Airlines, Air Montenegro and Israir. Most of them restored or launched flights to the Slovenian capital in late June and had just one or two return operations from the airport during H1.
Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia have been consistently growing their presence in Ljubljana over the past few months. Due to increased demand, the German national carrier recently added an additional three weekly flights between Frankfurt and Ljubljana for a total of seventeen weekly rotations. The carrier has also on occasion upgraded capacity as well, deploying Airbus A320-family aircraft instead of the usual CRJ900 or Embraer E195 jets. Turkish Airlines recently added an extra two weekly rotations to the Slovenian capital for a total of five. It too has been sending larger jets to Ljubljana with the Airbus A321 now used on most flights. Finally, Air Serbia has upped operations between Belgrade and Jože Pučnik Airport to nine per week, operating the second largest number of flights to the city behind Lufthansa.
busiest and the only :D
ReplyDeleteSad but true
DeleteNo surprise.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if these airlines carried mostly transfers or point to point passengers during these 6 months.
ReplyDeleteI would assume mostly transfers since there was no other way to get to any other city from other than these three for the most part of the year.
DeleteAir France did relatively well. I don't think they started flights until late March so their results isn't bad.
ReplyDeletewow nice to see TK sending A321s to Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteAlthough wouldn't it be better if we got two more weekly flights to we have daily with smaller aircraft.
DeleteYes but we can see that their A321s are really not full. I remember people were attacking Sloavia when he said TK wasn't doing well and that flights were half full. Now we see he was right. He deserves an apology from the hate squad.
DeleteHe was talking about flights a few weeks ago. These are statistics for the first half of the year and I assume you know that travelling from Slovenia was more or less impossible during the first half of the year.
DeleteAlso Turkish didn't send A321 between January and June. Obviously they are sending these planes for a reason and not for the fun of it.
DeleteYeah they upgraded flights from a319 to a321, and added two additional flights per week because they are not doing well right? Air Serbia, Aeroflot and LOT have worse LF but still keep adding more flights and bigger aircrafts.
DeleteI hope you are aware that it's peak season, Slovenia is running presidency of EU and on top of that situation with Covid is under control. Before you write again how good LJU is please think about circumstances. Situation as we are seeing it now is real disaster!
DeleteWell, well, well... Like the other anon said. I was attacked to say that MY FLIGHT had around 40% LF and here we can see how great TK did in LJU in H1. And the other guy HAS ALL THE NUMBERS how successful and obviously those numbers are not the same as published here. But anyway.
DeleteAs someone has already explained to you; this numbers are for JAN-JUN period, with all the lockdowns, travel bans,... and it's at around 60%. You were talking about single flight on Sunday, with specific date and I gave you the exact number of how many passengers were flying that day. And yes, I have numbers that are more accurate than these, trust me. I also now the numbers for SEP, OCT,.. 2021. They don't. You don't. Now, my friend Izidor, stop fooling around.
DeleteSomeone is all "important" because he has some numbers. Wow. It's obvious you work for Fraport but due to lack of flights at LJU consequently you don't have anything else to do than write on this forum.
DeleteYou rather convince your boss that situation will not get any better without national carrier.
I wouldn't do something that is wrong. Having the same airline as Adria was is wrong.
DeleteDoes anyone know the LF on Iberia flights?
ReplyDeleteMy niece flew to MAD and back one week ago. She told me both flights were almost full (on the way back she said there were maybe 8-10 seats left). Im flying on friday. Gonna check the LF.
DeleteI hope Iberia extends their flights to LJU.
DeleteI'm sure they will add more flights next year.
DeleteWhen Iberia wanted to start MAD-LJU in 2020 they had to upgrade aircraft from A319/A320 to A321 because there were so many passengers. No doubt they will add more months (probably from may to october) and more flights to like 4-5 or even 6 per week in july-august.
DeleteI believe there are 2 flights per week already in the system for SS22
DeleteThey should try 3x/week from MAD with IB and 3x/week from BCN with VY in SS22
DeleteBA also resumes flights today.
ReplyDeleteGood to see. They actually brought it forward compared to what they planned just 2 weeks ago. I guess because Slovenia was placed on the green list.
DeleteNot to worry, in few days we will be back on red
DeleteIs Slovenia planning on changing its entry requirements any time soon?
DeleteThose load factors are rather low but I would assume it was the same situation everywhere.
ReplyDeleteHad Adria still been around the airport's situation would have been much better. This virus and crisis showed how important it is to have a national airline.
ReplyDeleteRecovery would be much quicker.
DeleteAnd we would have flights to several major European cities that we are missing.
DeleteAt least LJU would have chance to recover! While we are reading how airlines are introducing flights in other ex-yu airports, articles about LJU are just regarding poor results, prolonged suspension or articles on "how many airlines are interested to fly to LJU".
DeleteReal shame!!
It's questionable if Adria would have survived Covid in the first place.
DeleteI am not speaking about old JP which they had to bury. But when they spoke about new Adria or Air Slovenia costs should not be so high with few aircrafts (4-5). Of course it would not make profit but at least Slovenia would be connected much much better.
DeleteAs I personally saw who was in charge for adria 2.o (air slovenia or w/e you call it) at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology I knew nothing good will come out of this "strategy" - on one piece of paper she had all the calculations. It was Nena Dokuzov in charge. Please.
DeleteThe person that cannot summarize strategy of a company on 1 page, does not understand the strategy of a company.
DeleteFinancial statements Income, Cash flow and balance sheet are usually done on 1 page.
Good ADRIA is out of business
DeleteAnon@12:08: i put strategy in the quotation marks, there was no strategy! Just non sense how they would fly CHARTERS to BRU for SPEU2021. Charters yes. The whole presentation was pathetic and obviously not serious.
Deletepresentation ?
DeleteWell the idea they tried to present.
DeleteSloavio
Interesting numbers.
ReplyDeleteAeroflot doing relatively well under the circumstances. Which aircraft do they use to Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteMostly A320. But they send Sukhois as well some times.
DeleteThey were usually sending a320 on all three flights a week, then they changed one flight a week to SSJ, and it looks like now they are back with a320 on all three flights.
DeleteThanks. So they have 3 weekly flights?
DeleteThey also downgraded ZAG to SSJ on Mondays from October.
Delete@9.19 yes, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
DeleteI just realized that no airline has competition on any single route in Ljubljana. Every destination is served by just one airline.
ReplyDeleteThere is some competition on the London routes, although different airports.
DeleteLufthansa rules the Slovenian market now.
ReplyDeleteThat was always the case. They just did it through Adria.
Delete@anon 09:28
Deletehow's that exactly? because JP filled their hubs? You are so wrong if you think that JP did not earn money on those passengers.
Does Lufthansa have a flight which arrives in the evening in Ljubljana and leaves in the morning? ie spends the night in LJU?
DeleteYes, Lufthansa has a night stop in LJU.
DeleteI think LH does well there because there isn't much competition. Look at ZAG, the moment FR started adding flights they downgraded FRA-ZAG in September from 14 to 12 weekly and all to be operated by the CRJ.
DeleteThere is a reason why LH stayed away from LJU when JP was around. Now it's different as they don't have to compete with anyone.
I guess JU is in the best position as they have a short flight operated by the ATR.
ReplyDeleteWill be interesting to see their result in H2 when they have I think 8 weekly flights. In H1 they had 4 if I am not wrong.
Nine
Delete"Finally, Air Serbia has upped operations between Belgrade and Jože Pučnik Airport to nine per week, operating the second largest number of flights to the city behind Lufthansa."
Short flight operated by ATR and load factor of 50%
DeleteYou realize the LF is the avarage for all flights between January and June (6 months). How many passengers do you think they handled on flights in January, February, March, April when no one outside of EU could enter Slovenia and Slovenians were not allowed to leave their municipality of residency? Get real and get a reality check. They are not flying 9 weekly flights now for the fun of it.
DeleteI don't understand why Lufthansa doesn't add MUC-LJU flights. There's a short flight for you! A shame that they don't have any cost-effective turboprop aircraft in their fleet, though.
DeleteBecause they have consolidated their operations to fly most of longhaul from FRA.
DeleteOk, but since when is longhaul generating considerable passenger flows again? Surely, Lufthansa isn't in LJU for the longhaul transfer opportunities at a point when Slovenians aren't even allowed into the US?
DeleteMUC network has almost completely collapsed in covid. They are slowly rebuilding it and I don't think ZAG and LJU will be back before S22.
DeleteConsidering LH is doing relatively well, have they thought about bringing back Munich-Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteThey don't plan to start before next summer season unfortunately.
DeleteI guess that Frankfurt flights are enough for now.
Deletethey plan Munich next year from April
DeleteI think LH moved a large part of their long haul to FRA, so it makes less sense for them to feed MUC from LJU.
DeleteIn other hand, they are just thinking about their own benefits. MUC was never meant as long haul hub as FRA was, but there short haul connections were really good. Airport as itself is much more convenient as FRA. What do they care if now you have to transfer via FRA to come to MUC. That's the price we pay for not having national carrier
DeleteIf Lufthansa had access to turboprops - ATR or Q400 - they would have been perfect from a cost-efficiency perspective on such a short sector.
DeleteAir France is almost fully booked for the past few weeks, if you want to buy a ticket for CDG it will cost you about 500€ (for the next 2 weeks). I think LJU is doing well given the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteSome DXB flights are apparently almost fully booked, and they are thinking about daily for summer 2022 (i checked the prices for rotation just now, and some of them looked like they are almost fully booked (500+€)).
Maybe it won't be as bad as we thought?
Things are definitely improving.
DeleteI think there is a lot of pent up demand in Slovenia. People just want to travel.
DeleteAF has worst possible schedule, they are just lucky that Slovenia is forgotten land and that they don't have any real competitors. It seams to be real success to fulfill one flight per day in peak season while Slovenia is running presidency of EU and situation with Covid is under control.
DeleteAn 10:02 they are introducing 2nd morning flight (7:00 dep, 22:00ar) in the winter schedule, there seems to be a lot of P2P demand
DeleteForgot to mention that they are operating with E190 which makes picture even clearer.
DeleteFlights to DXB almost full, thinking about going daily in summer and people were saying there is no demand from LJU to DXB..
Delete@anon 10:05
Deleteof course they do, and when did they have planned to return to LJU and when did they actually return? let's wait till November when winter schedule starts
Anon 10:05 it really seems like there is a lot of P2P demand, Transavia starts ORY-LJU on October 24. (But tickets are still not on sale, weird)
Deleteann 10:07 from what i can see many morning flights were upgraded from e70s to e90s, so there is a lot of demand. There won't be national lock down anymore, as vac people will be able to do stuff normaly, and as 60% of the country is vaccinated, i think that appart from stricter restrictions, travell will be allowed. I expect them to boost it to twice daily 7 days a week next summer
Deleteann 10:10 I tried to buy the ORY ticket, still waiting for transavia to reply to my email, as they are marketing it online as well xD. Apart from Flydubais YT pre-roll ads I haven't seen that yet for LJU
DeleteIn which country do you live if you have 60% of people vaccinated? What does it help you even if have 5 flights per day, if you don't depart from LJU at 07:00 then you won't be able to catch any important flights at that day. Just check morning schedule at CDG and you will see what I'm talking about.
DeleteAnn 10:17 43% fully vaccinated as for now, my bad! But CDG seems to be purely P2P for now, especcially seeing Transavia opening a new route. FRA is more of a hub for transfers (in slovenia).
DeleteFRA is more of a hub for transfers in Slovenia? Maybe, but have you asked yourself why? Because with AF you dont catch the wave. Because flying to the west with LO/JU/TK has no sense and whats left then? Some basic sense pls.
DeleteEven FRA schedule is far from what we had before. For instance last LH outbound flight is at 14:25, that's way to soon for those who would like to travel in the evening. Ok, you have LX then but they are operating only 3 days per week at 19:40. It's really a mess for those who travels a lot and that's the reason they/we are going mostly to ZAG.
DeleteI'm surprised no airline introduced flights to Dubai sooner and I'm not surprised they are already doing well with bookings. Although maybe it's a mixture of good circumstances considering travel outside of Europe is still pretty limited except for Dubai.
DeleteThe only airlines which could realistically fly to Dubai are Emirates, FlyDubai or (back then) JP. The latter would obviously have a problem by not having access to Emirates' world wide network of destination, which is why a lot of people fly to/through Dubai.
DeleteAdria was actually considering Dubai according to this article - https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/09/adria-mulls-new-routes.html
Delete"The airline's Chief Commercial Officer, Christian Schneider, said, "We are interested in a destination on the Iberian peninsula in the southwest of Europe, a point in Italy, and more further afield we are looking at Dubai."
The only aircraft they had they could fly there was A319. Good luck getting that filled, when you have to compete against multiple daily flights from VCE, VIE and ZAG on a widebody with much better service and pax experience.
DeleteWill be interesting to see how well FZ does in ZAG now that LJU is doing so well. I am not surprised they postponed their return to Zagreb since many of their passengers started flying from LJU.
DeleteHow is it that Slovenia as an EU member and wealthiest nation in the former SFRJ cannot afford its own airline?
ReplyDeleteMaybe not having own airline is the reason (one of many) why Slovenia is the wealthiest nation in the former SFRJ?
DeleteNo prestige type of expenses, but those that make good return.
^ No because they had an airline until 2 years ago. They didn't become the wealthiest in the last two years.
DeleteAdria was founded in 1960s. It existed in independent Slovenia by way of a continuation. The fact that Slovenia let it die kind of shows a mentality a bit. And that mentality apparently helps in getting richer. You need to concentrate on things that make you stronger.
DeleteImagine saying to countries with big flag carriers (BA/IB, AF/KL, LH/OS/LX) to concentrate on things that make them stronger and let Ryan/Wizz/Easy take over flying so that countries can get richer? Very funny!
DeleteNot counting AF/KL, the other two airline groups (IAG and LH) were privately owned and profitable pre-Covid.
DeleteYou can't compare them to flag carriers in exyu.
Now that subsidies are needed to prop them up, just cut the losses and let lowcosters take over. Get richer.
DeleteYou can concentrate on whatever you want. I was just trying to explain how it is so that Slovenia is the wealthiest in exYu. But please note that Germany is currently selling on the market shares it got in Lufthansa as part of the public aid at double or even triple price they paid for those shares. So I do not see how can you suggest Germany lost money on proping up Lufthansa. Yeah, it made them stronger. The same thing would make Slovenia weaker.
DeleteGovernment sent a message to investors when they decided to support LH: it's a safe investment. Market is emotional, attached to what was government airline for decades.
DeleteRyan and Wizz are more profitable than LH and have lower cost. If Germany decided to drop LH the way they decided to drop Air Berlin and not bail them out, and if government instead gave subsidies to lowcosters for absorbing many LH employees, Germany would have been even richer long term. Lowcosters are growing faster than LH and are taking over the market. They have younger, more eco friendly aircraft. LH model is a dinosaur on a one-way path to extinction. Lowcosters are stronger than LH when it comes to flying.
The German government did not send any message. The investors did not invest in parallel with the government, but only when situation became less dire one year later.
DeleteAnd what are you actually saying: that investment in LH is loss making? There are different market segments. Ryanair and Wizz are profitable, but LH too.
You can invest your money in Adria, if you want. If this is your path to wealth, do not hesitate.
Fraport said they don't want another national airline in Slo. In other words, let more efficient airline take over.
DeleteBut when it comes to cutting support when LH needed it and letting more efficient LCC airlines take over, then don't do it. Double standards.
Great article. Really interesting to see the load factor and passenger numbers. I think things will improve at LJU during the second half of the year. Let's see.
ReplyDeleteTransavia is planning 5 weekly fights from Amsterdam in winter which is a good sign. Plus those probably Orly flights.
DeleteIt's great if it turns out that way since that would be the same frequencies as before pandemic.
DeleteHope to see more LCCs at Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteterrible numbers for Slovenia ! hope passengers increase in 2nd half
ReplyDeleteSo newest additions in LJU are LTN, DXB and ORY. Is there anything else planned so far? Interesting to see LJU being served by 2 Paris airports. I think it's time for BVA, even though it is a quite gasto airport. ORY is like quite close to the centre and the CDG train is like super expensive like everything else in France. London airports are waaaaay much better.
ReplyDeleteThe RER B from CDG to Gare du Nord costs about EUR 10. The taxi price is fixed at EUR 53.
DeleteLess than e.g. Leonardo express from Fiumicino to Roma Termini, to just name one example. And if you buy a weekly Navigo or a Paris Visite pass zones 1-5 are included.
And saying that France is expensive is somewhat naive... It is expensive if you allow yourself to be dragged into tourist traps and if you need to pay rent in Paris. But London is definitely not much better in that regard (if at all).