Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport aims to double its passenger numbers this year but expects its full recovery to take at least four to five years. “During the ongoing winter season, we are linked to fourteen destinations, which is a nice increase compared to the same period last year, when we had just six routes available. For the summer, we expect to offer flights to at least 22 destinations”, the Head of Airline Management at Ljubljana Airport, Janez Krašnja, said. He added, “Based on our estimates, we expect to reach 2019 traffic levels in 2026 or 2027”. The Covid-19 pandemic is not the only reason the Slovenian market has lagged behind most others in Europe over the past two years. The airport is yet to recover from the demise of Adria Airways in late 2019. “We were unable to make up for the shortfall in traffic caused by the demise of Adria Airways to the amount we planned due to the pandemic”, Mr Krašnja noted.
Ljubljana Airport expects to handle up to 900.000 travellers in 2022 with four airlines to commence new services to the Slovenian capital in the coming period. Following on from Air Serbia’s resumption of flights between Niš and Ljubljana earlier this month, and the introduction of operations from St Petersburg by Aeroflot subsidiary Rossiya Airlines yesterday, the airport is anticipating the arrival of Nordwind Airlines from Moscow, Windrose Airlines from Kiev and Transavia from Paris Orly in the coming months. “We are pleased with our recovery during the second half of 2021, as traffic at the end of the year was actually a little higher than we expected. Considering existing plans made by airlines for 2022, we can look forward to even greater traffic growth. Present estimates show we should welcome twice as many passengers in the new terminal than we did last year”, the General Manager of Ljubljana Airport, Babett Stapel, said.
Traffic development at Ljubljana Airport will also highly depend on whether the country decides to set up a new national carrier, which Slovenia’s former Prime Minister, Alenka Bratušek, has vowed to do if her party wins the upcoming April elections. The Head of the Slovenian Aviation Agency, Rok Marolt, said, “I have always objected to those who claimed the market would take care of connectivity following the collapse of Adria Airways. The market would certainly take care of itself at major hubs such as New York, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris … In Slovenia, in my opinion, the market will never take care of itself because, unfortunately, we are not interesting enough to foreign carriers”.
Fully agree with Rok Marolt. Could not have said it better myself.
ReplyDeleteAnd just a month ago they said how pre Covid numbers would be reached in 2025. Now they moved it to 2026 or 2027.
ReplyDeleteSoon they will say they will never reach 2018 numbers.
DeleteAnyone know how INI-LJU is performing? Or how many passengers were there on the flight from LED yesterday?
ReplyDelete23 passengers from LED.
DeleteZagreb wasn't much better. 97 passengers.
DeleteStill better than the LJU inaugural.
DeletePre covid numbers will never be reached without national airline or an airline based in LJU.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few new routes for LJU this year. Not bad.
ReplyDeleteOnly two new routes, LED and KBP (if they don't get canceled). Moscow and Paris are already served by Aeroflot and AF. Nothing really impressive.
DeleteOh and INI was already served in 2019 and early 2020, nothing new.
DeleteI'm sceptical about Kiev. They announced it a while ago, then moved the launch date by a few months and tickets are still so not on sale.
DeleteWindrose has cancelled their planned flights to Ljubljana so many times that I expect the same will happen this time around.
Deletehttps://www.sierra5.net/novice-novo/novice/item/3968-rossiya-airlines-opravila-prvi-let-in-odpovedala-polovico-ostalih
ReplyDeleteAh well..
In reality they will reach like 500.000.
ReplyDeleteMost likely scenario.
DeleteI think 600,000 is possible.
DeleteMy question ist about Rossiya and LED-LJU? Ist that only a single charter or this was missed in the message from Mr. Krasnja as new flight destination?
ReplyDeleteIt was supposed to be a regular one weekly service. But now they've cut flights and will have only a few.
DeleteBad news just keep coming on a daily basis and here they are talking about recovery..
DeleteThe question re the pax numbers is also, how were they counted?
DeleteA Passenger fm ZRH-LJU-PRN-LJU-ZRH was most probably counted 4 times. And with Adria having LJU as a mini hub, those passengers are gone and wont return.
With TGD TIA SKP PRN SJJ, PRN and in SUTT SKP and PRN with night flights, the numbers of transit passengers which were counted twice oer journey, were not too small.
New Carriers are arriving or have arrived since 2019, we will see if 2027 will be realistic, without more LCC flights I rather doubt it. And for LCC u need to fill B737-800 or A320s, preferably daily. With just 2.1 mio population and substantial part of it, not using LJU airport, rather difficult.
Meanwhile Rossiya/Aeroflot combo will be flying LED-ZAG until at least the start of summer - twice per week.
DeleteTheir announcements last year how Iberia will increase flights has not come true. IB has scheduled two weekly flights during August like last year.
ReplyDeleteThe good old predictions from Fraport. Ususally they don't realize.
DeleteSame with BA
DeleteGood to see some improvement but long way to go.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely zero improvement in comparing with 2018.
Deleteonly win would be haveing a national carrier or a based airline at LJU, untill than I doubt we will ever have 2019 levels.
ReplyDeleteLike someone said, airport needs to find a solution to Adria's bankruptcy. Until that is done, we can only dream of numbers we had before pandemic.
ReplyDeleteThe only two real successes at LJU in the last 10 years is the opening of the new terminal and the launch of Flydubai (which took them 15 years to negotiate).
ReplyDeleteAnd now it will take them 15 years to reach 2018 numbers :)
DeleteI'm a bit disappointed with easyJet's reductions at the airport. They were once one of the biggest airlines in LJU. Now just one flight a week. Airport should do more to engage with them.
ReplyDeleteYes I totaly agree with you. They were directly after adria. There were up to 4 of their a320s, at same time.
DeleteA3 needs to come back to LJU , there are many of us flying to ATH with JU or LH .
ReplyDeleteIf many are flying with LH, then they won't come back because that would mean less pax for LH. Fraport prefers if passengers are flying via FRA.
DeleteI don't get it. Is it really that difficult for a country like Slovenia to lease a couple of smaller planes and establish a new carrier?? I can't think of any other EU Capital with so few connectivites. Even Estonia with less gastos and population has secured many routes. They made fun of Montenegro and in a matter of months they now have a new carrier.
ReplyDeleteHow come the most developed ex-Yu country end up having its poorest air connections??
Why are we not seeing any developments? There is a modern, nice terminal to be used in LJU.
What about Maribor? What about the coast?Many EU countries are using their secondary airports. It's really frustrating to see how extremely passive Slovenia is handling the situation!
+1
DeleteWe were most developed country of ex-yu.
DeleteAsk our politicans, those who stabed adria in a back, and current minist pocivavsek why he doesn't do anything :/
DeleteThey will turn new terminal into cargo terminal. Thats how it will be used.
DeleteYes we were, but now no more...
DeleteSo they expect to more than double their passenger numbers this year? No way.
ReplyDeleteAs a non Slovenian, what are Bratusek's chances of winning or being in government?
ReplyDeleteI am not shure, support went down a bit. But to be honest, she's the wprst scenario that slovenia can get. She killed adria, and believe me that she won't make new airline and if she would she would steal again all the money.
DeleteFlydubai is doing great. Hope it leads to QR coming to Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteas long as same people are "running" the business, no joy. Like Krašnja, who moved from Kompas (at the time nearing default), moved to Globtour (default), moved to Adria (default) and now is ruining the airport. Some expert!
ReplyDeleteAnd it really seems LJU will also go down the same way Adria did.
DeleteMaybe this is the only way for LJU to become a normal airport. Let the fraport go bust, get rid of the guys like Krasnja, and start again from the beginning. It is painful to watch how this airport is lagging behind.
DeletePity about LED being temporary.
ReplyDeleteAll nearby airports are getting new routes and flights on a major scale. Why are we left with breadcrumbs?
ReplyDeleteMy question is why are all other Fraport airports developing while LJU not so much. I understand market conditions are different everywhere, but perhaps management needs to do more to lobby the government in Slovenia or create such a pricing policy to attract more airlines.
ReplyDelete