Lufthansa has positioned itself as the busiest transfer airline in Ljubljana since launching operations to the Slovenian capital just over two years ago. Although the carrier’s services to Ljubljana have been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, it held a considerable 31% share of all transfer traffic to and from the city. For the majority of last year, the German airline had only been operating flights between Frankfurt and the Slovenian capital with services from Munich temporarily suspended as of March 2020. Since restoring operations to Ljubljana last summer following the global lockdowns, Lufthansa has consistently offered the most flights in and out of the city.
Top transfer carriers in Ljubljana in 2020
Due to Covid-19, traffic flow was greatly distorted last year. Based on OAG figures, Helsinki was the main point of departure or arrival for passengers flying with Lufthansa to or from the Slovenian capital. Finnair scrapped its seasonal route between the two cities at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with plans to restore flights next summer season with up to seven weekly rotations. London Heathrow was Lufthansa’s second busiest transfer destination to and from Ljubljana. The route is usually served on a seasonal basis by British Airways, which suspended flights last year but returned this summer. The German capital had the third largest number of origin and destination customers transferring with Lufthansa to/from Ljubljana. Berlin was previously served by easyJet, however, the airline permanently terminated the route in 2020. Notably, all of Lufthansa’s top origin and destination points to and from Ljubljana last year were in Europe.
Lufthansa's top origin and destination points to/from Ljubljana in 2020
Lufthansa handled 63.171 passengers on its Ljubljana flights last year, while figures stood at 52.423 travellers during the first three quarters of this year. During Adria Airways’ last full year operations in 2018, the Slovenian airline carried 150.000 travellers on its service between Ljubljana and Frankfurt. Some 70% of those transferred onto other Lufthansa flights. All Lufthansa Group airlines have now resumed operations to the Slovenian capital, with Lufthansa being the airport’s busiest. The Group’s only route yet to be restored to Ljubljana is Munich, which is expected to commence by the 2022 summer season, in late March.
"All Lufthansa Group airlines have now resumed operations to the Slovenian capital, with Lufthansa being the airport’s busiest. The Group’s only route yet to be restored to Ljubljana is Munich, which is expected to commence by the 2022 summer season, in late March."
ReplyDeleteHope we see Vienna too one day.
Will Austrian ever come to LJU?
DeleteDoubtful, LHG has transfered that market to LH and OS.
DeleteOn LJUBLJANA AIRPORT's offical page today:
ReplyDeleteMUC - LJU - MUC by DHL start: Dec 29, 2021 with daily operation
that is not true?
DeleteIt could just be that they are moving flights forward?
DeleteYes but you can buy tickets only from end of March.
DeleteI doubt operations start by, and tickets can be bought for DHL ☺DLH perhaps
DeleteWhat a surprise!?!? They are the only one departing in the morning, mostly they carry transfer passengers. But let's not forget that LJU is at 21% of pre-pandemic traffic while TZL is at 48% and BEG at 52%... in other words, total failure for LJU (Fraport & government)
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIn the meantime Easyjet canceled plans to launch daily LTN-LJU. Now they will fly only from LGW to LJU. From 4 airports to 1. Bravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteYou missed the part where Easyjet is downgrading everything because they are short on money, and where Wizz will stay on the route
DeleteYet they are still launching new routes.
DeleteThey would not be downgrading LJU if it was performing well.
DeleteYeah they went from planned 22 flights p/w to LJU from 4 different airports in 2020 to just one airport with 4-6 flights p/w in 2022. If they were not performing well they would not be planning 22 flights. But Fraport fanboys will find excuse for everything.
DeleteYou forgot to mention that Easyjet also closed their base in STN, where I think they had 7pw. They are still operating at about half of their 2019 capacity, so you can't expect they'll maintain LJU routes at 100%.
DeleteWow go JU, go! Really good number for them. I have a feeling with more flights added this winter their share should grow.
ReplyDeleteYes, quite a good share.
DeleteImpressive that they are ahead of AF.
DeleteExpected
ReplyDeleteWell I hope this is not reason why Fraport is not doing more to attract new airlines. So as not to hurt Lufthansa.
ReplyDeleteOf course they are helping LH. For first three destinations its obvious. For Helsinki Finnair is reducing flights and might switch to ZAG, there are less and less flights to London and Easyjet stopped BER-LJU.
DeleteFinnair is increasing Ljubljana to daily next summer. So they won't switch to ZAG. ZAG only lasts till September.
DeleteI can see only that they are operating 4 times per week. On Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri.
DeleteLjubljana will start as 4pw in April, 6pw in May and going daily from mid June to mid August and than back to 6pw till the end of summer season.
Delete^ nice. Let's hope it actually happens.
DeleteWhat can airport do to attract new airlines?
DeleteI’m actually really surprised by Helsinki. Would not have thought there to be much P2P demand.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, almost all former Adria destinations.
ReplyDeleteBut LJU says there is no need for national airline.
DeleteAnd no need for other airlines too. LH is enough for them.
DeleteAir France's growth in LJU indicates otherwise.
DeleteWho was number one before Lufthansa?
ReplyDeleteAdria obviously
DeleteI'm surprised there is no VIE on the list
ReplyDeleteI think it was mainly used in the past for Adria to transfer passengers. I doubt there was too much P2P.
DeleteI doubt OS could make a profit on LJU with E190. Their entire strategy is going to replace short hops with train.
DeleteShame that Slovenia's railway infrastructure hasn't really improved for the last 170 years.
hahaha the last 170 years :D that made me laugh and cry at the same time. However, very true.
DeleteWhat equipment does LH use to Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteCRJ on 99%, they used e90s for a few rotations and a couple of times a319
DeleteCRJ900
DeleteThanks. And what do other LH group airlines use? I presume Brussels is A319. What about Swiss?
DeleteSwiss is using BCS300 or embraer 195-E2 from Helvetic
DeleteInformation on flightradar24 for last few Brussels rotation: half A313, half A320.
DeleteInteresting Aeroflot not in the top 5. They were doing quite well in LJU.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't fly for most of 2020.
Deletesomeone from LH group like eurowings could do Hamburg or Dusseldorf...
ReplyDeleteMy thought too. Lots of German cities on the list.
DeleteWasn't Eurowings planning to fly to Ljubljana? I seem to remember something about them and LJU.
DeleteYes, they planned two weekly Dusseldorf-Ljubljana. Then they cancelled that. Then they put Ljubljana on its social media competition for new routes but it was not selected.
DeleteIm surprised that Finnair will fly daily to Ljubljana while starting Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteMakes no sense at all as they will cannibalize heavily from each other.
Many airlines dont have a clue about the Ex Yu market and thus experiment a lot around.
I agree many airlines are not very familiar with ex yu market, but Finnair is definitely not one of those. It's one of the best managed airlines in the World with thorough strategic planning and one of the very few that almost never experiments around
DeleteIm quite sure that they did market research before deciding.
DeleteHow about Transavia? Transavia is definitely a transfer carrier.
ReplyDelete