NEWS FLASH
Ljubljana Jože Počnik Airport handled 126.659 passengers during the first quarter of the year, representing a decrease of 63% on the pre-pandemic 2019 and a decline of 33.9% on 2020, during which the global health emergency began in March. A total of 4.319 aircraft movements were recorded. In March, the airport welcomed 50.928 travellers through its doors, down 61.9% on 2019 but up 39.9% on 2020, although it closed its doors for commercial traffic that year on March 17. The airport’s management has reiterated traffic will reach over 50% of 2019 levels by year’s end.
A shame. No strategies with slovenian airports and neither with airliners a shame.
ReplyDeletePlane connection should be also defined as a part of public services that the country serves to its people. If buses and trains get subsidies why not planes? and why Slovenia is not thinking on own airline company like air dolomiti, air baltic? There would also be a place for cooperation or to start a company with water airplanes as Croatia had years ago and try to build a hub in LJU for Adriatic coast... why not. ZAG is now overcrowded with Ryanair.
Because there's no pressure from public. Or in other words, because there's not enough support from public for national airline. Unfortunately many Slovenes are happy driving 2 hours to ZAG or TRS or even further to Venice/Vienna.
DeleteActually they are frustrated but there is no other options. What do you suggest from public, to go and demonstrate to establish national carrier?
DeleteAnd don't forget that main problem is not that Slovenes have to drive 2 hours to ZAG/VCE but even more problematic are passengers who would like to visit Slovenia (no matter if its tourist, business, etc...)? Most of them simply stay at Croatia or Italy rather to drive to Slovenia. And here we are loosing money.
Government should do something about it, they have tried with incentives and did not work out, now it's time for national carrier.
Don't worry, I agree with you on national airline, I wish we'd have it. Maybe they're frustrated, but not enough. I also agree with you that we are losing money for not bringing tourists, but tourists don't have a voice in elections so they don't matter - I think the public that matters to politicians is more concerned about the health system, corruption and inflation for the next 4 years. National airline is just not a priority for anyone right now. But I hope they'll find space to set it up, let's see.
DeleteOf course they will reach 50% till end of year, because second half of 2019 LJU did not have any passengers at all due to demise of JP. They should compare 2022 with 2018 and that will show us realistic picture.
ReplyDelete2019 for LJU does not count. Complete different situation with JP and its hub model.
ReplyDeleteIt s funny how people are asking in current crisis situation for a national carrier, where neighbour HR loses tens of millions to keep OU alive and this despite having a fantastic coast.
Same time SLO had one of the thougest Covid restrictions, apparently due to limited ICU beds.
So whats more important? Better health care and better preparedness for next winter where the Covid drama will restart again or a national Carrier where SLO will burn tens of millions again in the future??
LJU def needs more LCC connections as the wide society is not yet wealthy enough (especially after the Covid crisis) to afford flying legacy carriers more than once a year if at all.
There def should be LCC flights to Italy, Greece, Spain, Sweden.
But the way it looks, people soon will have different problems, than flying around.
I would never agree with establishing national carrier if that would mean pure loss of revenue for a country, but we have to understand that 5 mio per year is peanuts compared to what you get with good connectivity.
Deleteanother thing regarding money, do you think it wiser to spend 72 mio for Army transport aircraft which will be in use (maybe) up 5 times per year or to establish national carrier?
Well, LJU can be whatever it wants. However, it can't be an LCC base. With TRS becoming FR base and ZAG already being one, there is no way in hell LJU will also become one.
DeleteIt's pretty simple and I've been saying it since Adria's bankruptcy. Either pay someone to fly from LJU (it's not going to be cheap) or set up a new national carrier. It will cost money in any case.
A national carrier would cost 30-50 million € a year not 5, this has been tried and tested with Adria. Most likely much more since the fuel prices have doubled since 2019 and in general cost of staff and services has gone up. On top of that, it's against EU competition laws. To have a national carrier just so that you can say "the numbers are good" is simply ridiculous.
Delete30-50 million PER YEAR? Oh please.
Delete"To have a national carrier just so that you can say "the numbers are good" is simply ridiculous." We want GOOD CONNECTIVITY, which is important part of economy if you guys still do not understand. Also you probably work for Fraport I guess, they are also againts national airline.
@20:07:
Delete"in general cost of staff and services has gone up" - have you been living under the rock for the past two years? Do you have any idea how many pilots are unemployed at the moment? At the moment you can get dirt cheap aircraft and pilots willing to work for peanuts. Having said that, things are already changing in the US (lack of pilots).
@ anonym 1303h
DeleteCargo military plane is useless too, a waste of money, but part of the deal if u re a NATO member. I voted 20 years ago for NATO, today I would vote against it
I think currently is just not the time to start adventures, eventhough I agree that connectivity is yery important for the development of Slovenian tourism. As Slovenia I would for the time being work with incentives and push marketing activities with LCC flying to TRS GRZ ZAG or Air Transat and KE (not sure if they still have inflight magazines or if this is all electronically after Covid)
We always start from what we are already spending for air connectivity per year.
DeleteLast year we did spend 10mil on air connectivity.
Anything that can deliver current level of connectivity and costs below 10mil per year is a good investment.
Slovenia needs a national airline bad ! terrible passenger numbers. no strategies in attracting tourists
ReplyDelete