The CEO of Croatia Airlines, Jasmin Bajić, has said the carrier is in talks with Slovenian authorities over improving connectivity between Zagreb and Ljubljana. He noted that the Slovenian capital has potential for flights such as Skopje - Ljubljana - Zagreb since over 40.000 passengers flew between Macedonia’s and Slovenia’s largest cities each year prior to the bankruptcy of Adria Airways in late September of 2019. The route has been unserved since. Ljubljana Airport’s operator Fraport Slovenija previously expressed interest in Croatia Airlines serving Vienna, Skopje, Prague and Copenhagen out of the Slovenian capital. Ljubljana Airport’s General Manager, Zmago Skobir, recently said talks were underway with a carrier from the European Union to set up a base in the Slovenian capital, without naming the airline. “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”, he noted.
Croatia Airlines initially held talks with the Slovenian government over launching operations from Ljubljana last year. The airline proposed the stationing of a Dash 8 turboprop aircraft. “Croatia Airlines is potentially interested in establishing flights from Ljubljana Airport in order to enable passengers from Slovenia to connect to European destinations”, the carrier said at the time. However, no final deal was reached with the authorities. The head of Croatia Airlines’ Commercial Division, Slaven Žabo, said last year, “We have had some gain on the Slovenian market since Adria Airways’ bankruptcy where we offered certain solutions in order to react to the demand that was there. However, we had not added any flights to Slovenia because our hubs are nearby and we were more focused on our sales and marketing activities in Ljubljana at the time, which helped us significantly increase our market share in Slovenia”.
Croatia Airlines previously toyed with the idea of setting up bases outside of its home market. In 2017 the airline planned to station aircraft in Sarajevo, Pristina, Skopje and Tirana. At the time, it said, "Market research data has shown that there is a potential for the successful opening of additional bases in the south-eastern European region and Croatia Airlines, as a European Union community carrier, has recognised its business interest in this. The prerequisite for this is to purchase four to six new aircraft and extensive preparations are underway”. However, the idea was abandoned upon the departure of the carrier’s CEO at the time, Krešimir Kučko, to Gulf Air.
This one is actually a good decision for both OU and Slo
ReplyDeleteThey want to run away there from Ryanair.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteExactly
DeleteWho wouldn't if they don't get same conditions as FR at their "own" airport.
DeleteGive me a break @An.10.02, for 30 years they have been protected at ZAG as Licki medvjed, and for 30 years they have been so inert and incapable of making any serious business, with all the protection, all the subventions, and all ideal conditions to make decent medium size airline. And they do get the same conditions at their "own" airport, they can as well open new services as FR is opening, under equal conditions and terms, and in line with EU rules. But it is difficult to understand it with uhljeb mindset, on that one I agree
DeleteWe can agree that all airlines in our region are not doing perfectly but I can't understand that some foreign airline open a base at airport and get immediately much better prices than airline which made the fortune in the past.
Deleteand don't get me wrong, that practice is everywhere. If you change mobile provider you get much higher discounts than those who are loyal customers for many years.
In my opinion that's not good at all!
But I agree that they have other option as well. I personally would place most aircrafts to LJU/SPU/ZAD and take money from there.
Maybe OU should be rather based in Split/Dubrovnik rather than in Zagreb?
DeleteRyanair did NOT get any better conditions and prices comparing to Croatia, if Croatia opened any of those new routes!!!
DeletePeople, conditions at Franjo Tudjman are crystal clear! Any new route that was NOT serves for at least last three years gets XY subsidies!
Ryanair opened all new routes and for all of them they gout subsidies!!!
Croatia KNEW what Ryanair will open and they could "soft block" them by opening seasonal 1 PW flights to 90% of current Ryan routes!
But they did not! Now they must suffer
So you admit that they got better prices!!!!
DeleteDon't forget that with those prices OU would make profit!!!!
OU could start many routes 1-2pw, but what's the point of being legacy carrier?
DeleteAlso, OU is not present in all those airports while Ryanair already have dozen of routes from each.
Ryanair can afford that while OU can't. Easy.
Oh please...OU had it all for the past 30 years, both Ljubljana and Skopje were asking for flights, in the case of Skopje more flights. Not to mention they weren't able establish direct, nonstop flights to Rome and Athens. They gave up on Sofia and Bucharest and on those two routes they had the same privileges as FR.
DeleteNot to mention the number of times I flew over 1000km from Copenhagen to Zagreb on a frickin Dash turboprop even tho the plane was full or at 90% every time. Same thing often happens on flights to Amsterdam and Brussels.
OU sucks and it will still survive regardless due to state help although it doesn't deserve to survive.
It is absolutely amazing that ZAG finally decoupled from the dictates of a state owned and poorly operated airline!
It's also obvious how much this shocked OU. Hopefully it shocks them into running a proper business, but I'm not holding my breath.
Now the airport and customers will benefit and OU can leave, or base part of their aircraft at Split and elsewhere.
Lufthansa's main bases are Frankfurt and Munich, not Berlin.
At any rate, no ordinary citizen not beholden to OU cares. We as taxpayers will unfortunately still continue to finance them no matter what.
This would be a very smart move.
ReplyDeleteIt's risky. Not sure it would pay off in the long run. But we will see.
ReplyDeleteWith FR going crazy in Zagreb, I think they have nothing to lose anymore.
DeleteSmart. With state support from Slovenia they could base a Dash which has lower operating costs and launch a few routes.
ReplyDeleteDo I understand correctly that they also want to fly Ljubljana-Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteHow long would such a flight take?
Delete25 minutes on a turboprop.
DeleteMore like 5 minutes...
DeleteThere is really no point for such flights.
Deleteisn't it better to fly ZAG-SKP-LJU-SKP-ZAG?
ReplyDeleteIt is also better to fly ZAG-FCO-SPU-FCO-ZAG, yet they miss is for some 20 years. So, when talking OU, it probably would be ZAG-LJU-SKP vv
DeleteSKP remained one of the few cities from ex-yu that is not reconnected to LJU after Adria's bankruptcy, beside the high potential that this route has. ZAG-SKP-LJU-SKP-ZAG with Dash would work perfectly.
DeleteThe current crisis has shown that opportunities have to be taken where they open up. This would be an excellent development for both OU and LJU.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines has taken up 0 opportunities so far, and somehow I'm not sure this one will materialize either.
DeleteI'm surprised they didn't do it earlier. But better late than never.
ReplyDeleteTo quote OU "it was too early to react" :D
DeleteI hope it works out.
ReplyDeleteBolje strateški uzmak, nego herojski poraz! Finally good foreign adviser.
ReplyDeleteWell Croatia Airlines first talked to Slovenian government long before BCG was in the picture.
DeleteIsn't it too early?
ReplyDeleteAgree 100% ... it is way way TOOOOO early .... better to think about this for sometime in 2023 /24
DeleteThe Q400 is the ideal plane for the routes Ljubljana wants established.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhen could this base be established?
ReplyDeleteThey have been talking about it for over a year so I wouldn't hold my breath.
DeleteIf they are smaet, start of winter schedule
DeleteWhat about Ljubljana-Pristina?
ReplyDeleteNo local demand, it was all transfers
DeleteLOL mr "market will take of itself" expert again.
DeleteAbout time
ReplyDeleteOU will still make heavy losses if they went ahead with this!
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteIf the Slovenes want to hand out subsidies OU should take them. But apart from SKP, where else would work?
ReplyDelete"Ljubljana Airport’s operator Fraport Slovenija previously expressed interest in Croatia Airlines serving Vienna, Skopje, Prague and Copenhagen out of the Slovenian capital."
DeleteVienna, Prague, Pristina, Copenhagen, Bucharest and Kiev, would all work with dash8
DeleteI guess feeder routes for Star Alliance to VIE and CPH would help OS and SK without them having to loose money on the routes.
DeleteWow, hold your horses. I'm sure the "concerned taxpayer" brigade will oppose the idea of subsidizing a foreign carrier. It would be pretty hypocritical if not.
ReplyDeletethere is a huge difference in terms of financials, if tax payers' money is thrown into a bottomles pit a.k.a national carrier vs. subsidizing a foreign carrier (with much less money) to serve routes where there is demand.
Delete@anon 10:09
Deleteit's also huge difference what kind of product you get from foreign carrier. It's huge difference if you operate FRA/BRU/ZRH/MUC/VIE early in the morning and late in the evening than operating it once per day (normally in the middle of the day as we can see from current schedule at LJU).
or how our people would say..malo para malo muzike
@10:09
DeleteAnd you got those numbers from where?
How much would OU actually get? "Far less than subsidizing a national carrier" is not a valid answer.
Fingers crossed it's successful.
ReplyDeleteBeen talking about that for years even before Adria's collapse. But nooo it was not viable ZAG and LJU were too close together to make single airline for both countries to work. But all of a sudden it is an option now when RYR squeeze you out empty like a toothpaste.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred if an LCC opened a base in LJU.
ReplyDeleteKeep dreaming...
DeleteIf an LCC wanted to open a base in LJU they would have done it by now. Look at how many new bases and routes LCCs opened up in the region since Covid started.
DeleteHow about Fraport actually makes a deal with a successful business like easyJet or Wizz or Ryanair ?
ReplyDeleteWho says they didn't try?
DeleteIt will cost them much more and I hardly doubt an A320 or B737 from any of those airlines could be successfully filled to places like SKP without any transfer traffic.
Deleteseriously. they just opened Torino from Skopje and you are questioning whether they can fill a Ljubljana route which had 20k non transfer pax yearly on expensive Adria?!? Start flights for 29€ and you will see
DeleteYou still don't get it! Just check Wizz's routes from SKP and you will quickly see that those route are not primarily there to serve Macedonians but Kosovars.
DeleteFrom 20k P2P pax there were 15k from Kosovo...
MUHAHAHA i feared this troll will emerge again. ok stay in your nationalist bubble its really not worth it wasting time . (stil laughing loud in this train im sat though)
DeleteBoth SKP and PRN had 40k passengers in 2019, out of these there were around 50% transfer pax. So 40-45k pax in a year, on really expensive Adria and both routes were terminated in late September. This is more than enough for wizz to start SKP-LJU 2-3x p/w, maybe even 4x in summer.
DeleteSo can you please provide information on how much was return price on SKP? if you claim that JP was expensive than you must know that...
Deleteas far as I remember, rtn tickets to SKP were never less than 220-250 EUR.
DeleteJP was selling tickets for 99 eur (rt) without baggage and with min stay 3 days. And this was not promotion, it was regular price on SKP. Of course if you went there and return next day ticket was above 200 eur, but at least you had chance to return next day and passengers were willing to pay that amount.
DeleteFinally!!! They woke up!!!
ReplyDeleteHang-on, they haven't done anything yet ...
DeleteSounds exciting. Hope it happens.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAs far as I understood in that article there is not a single word regarding placing an aircraft at LJU. So actually it means routes like ZAG-SKP-LJU-ZAG.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that this is the way how Slovenia should improve their connectivity (if that's improvement at all...).
They are focusing on SKP while there are many EU hubs not covered at all (MUC, BRU, ZRH, VIE). Also schedule for FRA and CDG are not perfect for traveling via those two hubs.
What's wrong with FRA schedule? Would you like a 4th evening flight to FRA to grab a bier in biergarten.
DeleteOut:
7.00
11.50
14.25
In:
11.15
13.40
22.10
I agree CDG could be better and will be. LFs are good. But please stop with FRA cry, it doesnt make sense anymore.
I am very thankful that you paste schedule for FRA so I don't need to do it by myself. Now please latest outbound flight and let me know if that's perfect for you?
DeleteI can't argue with any other flight, but that particularly is way to early.
So we came to a point where we can conclude that it's not perfect!
So it seems like OU will go down the same way JP did - by spreading itself thin across secondary airports around Europe, while their incompetent management fails to see what the real problems are.
ReplyDeleteeverything is wrong in your post
DeleteThis is the best time to do it. There is little competition in LJU, they have surplus aircraft, they could ask (and get) support for the government and with a Dash they could make the routes profitable.
ReplyDeleteI am sure with Q400 they could at least break-even. And in winter it's better flying from LJU than keeping some planes grounded.
ReplyDeleteThey should have done this in October 2019!
ReplyDeleteThis could improve LJU's connectivity. Good news.
ReplyDeleteZAG-SKP-LJU-ZAG? You must be joking...
DeleteInteresting
ReplyDeleteLJU - SKP is long overdue
ReplyDeleteif MUC is stil not covered from LJU thats another route possibility for OU beside SKP
ReplyDeleteThere are so many routes uncovered in LJU that OU could move all fleet there..
Deletelufthansa is starting munich next summer ...
Deleteof course it is, like it started it this year...
DeleteWith two planes they could make:
ReplyDeleteLate afternoon departure towards Frankfurt and late evening arrival
Second departure to Zürich
Daily flight to Skopje, Munich and Sofia. Rome maybe.
Copenhagen, London, Madrid... are too far for turboprop
Paris will soon get Transavia flight to Orly
Did you read article ? There is no discussion about placing an aircraft at LJU. So max 1 route per aircraft as it needs to return to ZAG.
DeleteI did. I was just giving an example what could be done with two LJU based Dash 8.
DeleteI do not see any need why they did need to talk to Slovenia government about this.
ReplyDeleteIf Croatia Airlines would like to setup a base in Slovenia, they only need to talk to Fraport to get slots, handling, fuel and parking. After this is signed they are free to reposition they aircraft and call it "a small base".
They do not need Slovenians government permission to do so.
They obviously want state subsidies. Or subsidies from some EU fund.
DeleteAgree. Article did not indicate that they require funds from Slovenian government to found their base.
DeleteProbably because the CEO didn't day it :D
DeleteSo let me get this straight.
DeleteSo public has a problem that the government is financing a national airline.
But it does not have a problem that government finances airport owned by Fraport
and operational cost of foreign airlines ? to the tune of 10 mil a year and rising?
I guess they still have the mentality that foreign is better.
DeleteWe should sell them bottled water :)
@13:38:
DeleteIt's just envy. Slovenes are notoriously envious of any fellow countryman, who is doing better than themselves. Some of them hated Adria due to "high" salaries pilots were earning (which were peanuts compared to what some physician are earning).
OU stop spreading yourself too thin
ReplyDeleteIf this happens, I wonder if OU would take over the Lufthansa and Swiss flights.
ReplyDeleteWould this be the first time Croatia Airlines has ever flown from Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteScheduled flights, yes.
DeleteIf this happens, I hope they offer decent prices.
ReplyDelete