Charter flights to holiday hotspots are becoming an important source of passengers for Ljubljana Airport as it continues its slow recovery from both the demise of former national carrier Adria Airways and the coronavirus pandemic. During the first half of the year, 9.3% of all passengers using Ljubljana Airport flew on charters. This is up from 5.2% over the same period in 2019. In the first six months of this year, a total of 35.709 travellers flew on charters with the bulk being handled in June. The figure is set to significantly grow in the second half of the year with the majority using charters during the peak summer months of July and August.
Earlier this year, the General Manager of operator Fraport Slovenija, Babett Stapel, said there is potential to turn the airport into a hub for charter flights. They accounted for over 20% of Ljubljana’s passenger traffic in 2021, with the figure to be exceeded this year. “I would like to review and evaluate with our employees some old ideas that have not been effective in the past. I have one specific thing in mind. I would like to create a hub for charters at Ljubljana Airport. We are already talking about it and this year we will analyse whether this is a potential that could differentiate us from others. Last year, we handled a fifth of all passengers on charters, compared to 11% the year before. This year we can further increase these numbers”.
During the first half of the year, Ljubljana’s busiest charter market was Egypt with 10.214 passengers travelling to and from the country. The strong figures have resulted in Air Cairo announcing a new scheduled one weekly service between Hurghada and Ljubljana from October 1, with the outbound flight to run via Skopje. Other charter markets in demand included Greece and Turkey. Croatia’s Trade Air operates the bulk of Slovenia's charter traffic, although other carriers also contribute. This summer, tour operators have been running leisure flights from Ljubljana to Turkey, Spain, the Greek islands, Jordan, Portugal, Egypt, Tunisia, Malta, Albania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Italy, Iceland and Latvia. Last year, several tour operators joined forces to organise a charter flight from Ljubljana to Zanzibar.
Ljubljana Airport's busiest charter markets, H1 2022
.gif)
This would be a world first.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it make sense for Slovenia to set up its own charter airline then instead of Trade Air profiting?
ReplyDeleteThere were plans. That Southeast Airlines or something like that. But it is difficult to start an airline from scratch.
DeleteNo because when winter comes they would lose everything they made in summer.
DeleteThere are many destinations they could fly in winter too. Canary Islands, Malaga, Tunisia, Malta, Egypt, Morocco...
DeleteAlso in winter they could focus on ACMI charters. I mean ETF found customers, Trade Air has customers...
DeleteIn winter they could also attract inbound charters. Brits wanting to go skiing
DeleteIf it were profitable, someone would already have done it.
Delete@9:04 Southeast European Airlines :)
DeleteThis is by far not enough traffic to found an airline
DeleteModest numbers, they would have to start attracting passengers from neighboring markets in order to become a hub. Otherwise they are just going to be working on expanding the offer for local market.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say over 20% of passenger share on charters is modest but I agree they would need to attract passengers from neighboring countries. I guess they realized they lost the battle of doing that for scheduled flights.
DeleteIt can be 80% if the basis upon which you are calculating is modest. They need to double or triple their charter numbers to be considered relevant. Let's face it, JP was the only thing which made Slovenia relevant in aviation. Now they are gone and so is Slovenia's relevance. They have become an irrelevant market.
DeleteSad, but true. Some passengers were taken by LH, some by others, PRN and macedonian transit pax were taken by direct connections. It will never get better.
DeleteLet's wait and see what the charter numbers are at the end of the year.
DeleteIt will be between 20% and 25%
DeleteWhy not just turn into an LCC hub? Your numbers will jump straight away.
ReplyDeleteFirst there needs to be interest from LCC. Second airports are much more concerned with profits which is not easy when you rely on LCCs. Just ask SKP.
DeleteBecause LCC base will hurt LH cartel.
DeleteSlovenia is perfect for LCC base with millions of gastoz around the world and with huge tourist potential. Greece and Croatia are nothing for us, really. Excellent idea!
DeleteCharter hub? So having charters from like UK to LJU and then charters to Egypt, Greece? Lol
ReplyDeleteHub: “the effective centre of an activity, region, or network”
Delete"the city has always been the financial hub of the country"
Any plans for more charters to some exotic far away destinations like Zanzibar?
ReplyDeleteIt would be cool to see some long haul charters from Ljubljana
Delete@9.09 Did it operate nonstop or did it have a technical landing?
DeleteIt was via Luxor on a Trade Air A320.
DeleteTime for Air Tanzania to to launch Zanzibar-Ljubljana :D
DeleteDidn't Adria fly scheduled flights to the Seychelles in the 90s? Would be exotic to have some charters to there.
DeleteIndeed they did
DeleteIn 1990, an Adria Airways A320 flew non-stop from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean to Athens in Greece setting a new record for the longest flight ever made by the A320 at that time.
DeleteMust have been brutal flying on A320 from Ljubljana to Seychelles or Zanzibar.
DeleteThe Trade Air flight to Zanzibar was a long affair. 3h.30min to Luxor, then 4h.45min from Luxor to Zanzibar.
DeleteWonder if they get proper meals on board or if it is buy on board? Would be fun to see a trip report from this flight :D
DeleteThese flights won't happen again especially since there is Flydubai now. The reason they happened in the first place was because transferring in winter last year was impossible because of all the restrictions. So they wanted to offer a direct flight.
DeleteAnyone know how much did those packages cost?
DeleteOh and how long was the stay too?
DeleteIt was 9 days, from 1600 per pax
DeleteWell if you can't get regular passenger traffic, might as well go after charters.
ReplyDeleteThey should be working on conditions so that they can get regular passenger traffic.
DeleteHUB = ČVORIŠTE = VOZLIŠČE
ReplyDeleteYou fly pax in multiple flights IN, distribute them (and their bags) and fly them OUT again on multiple flights. So frau Stapel: Condor, Tui, Eorowings and others will fly charter PAX from western Europe to Ljubljana and then Aegean, SunExpress, Air Cairo and others will fly fly them to Greece, Turkey, Egypt and beyond. And vice versa. Frau Stapel have you ever thought that you have missed your profession?
+1 it seems doesnt even know the whole point of hubs.
DeleteI believe there are fewer passengers on charters than 3 years ago even if the share is bigger now.
ReplyDeleteChartres alone won't allow for any meaningful recovery.
DeleteAnon 9.19
DeleteTrue. Adria flew a lot of charters.
What is a charter hub?
ReplyDeleteI guess a base with lots of charters from which people from neighboring countries could also use to go on holiday.
DeleteI think they want to attract charters and to become entry/exit point for mainly Asian tourists coming to wider region: North Italy, Austria, Hungry, Croatia and the rest of ex-yu maybe... Many of them are making a tours linking few countres and LJU believes they could be the hub for them... Being a hub i the way hub function in commercial aviation has no sense.
DeleteIn that case it is called exit/entry point. Gateway, if you want to look really smart.
DeleteIt's clear they want to look smart, but even that they fail.
DeleteSo Trade Air has the most to gain?
ReplyDeleteEvidently.
DeleteDoes Trade Air still have a plane based in LJU?
DeleteYes it does
DeleteYes, 9A-BTK
DeleteThe one on the photo of the article.
DeleteGood job Slovenian tour operators. They managed to feed 20% of Ljubljana's traffic last year.
ReplyDeleteMostly because the number of passengers on scheduled flights has gone down significantly in recent years.
DeleteSlovenian tour operators are very proactive and know how to spot an opportunity. It is not surprising that the biggest tour operator in Yugoslav times was Slovenian.
DeleteWith such unqualified statements she just shows, that she doesnt seem to be the best capable person for her job position. 35700 H1 charter passengers and she is talking about a hub?? Or a market potential of around 1 mio travellers and she talks about a hub?
ReplyDeleteThis is becoming ridiculos. Running out of ideas. Hey Mrs. Stapel, I have a couple. This one is for free: how about pitching up a tent, since it seems circus is constantly in town…
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteIf we had a national airline, all of these flights could have been operated by it.
ReplyDeleteAt least the money would stay in Slovenia.
DeleteAnd if we had a national airline, the taxpayers would have the privilege of covering the loss all of these aircraft used for charters would make during the winter.
Deleteand now we are covering even bigger loss due to lack of capacity..very smart!
DeleteYou can see they are amateurs. We all know true professionals don't use terms like hub when they can use a fancy term in stead like 'regional leader.'
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this is quite sad :(
ReplyDeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteWhat are the most popular holiday destinations for Slovenians in general? Egypt?
ReplyDeleteCroatia is the most popular. Many people have houses there. But in terms of flight destination, I believe it is Greece. I'm certain 98% of those number for Greek market in the table were in June.
DeleteCorrect. Greek islands are most popular that people use charter flights. People use cars to Croatia. I remember Adria tried in its final years to fly to Dubrovnik and Brac but failed. Although this was under the genius German management of 4K Invest. They couldn't make anything work.
DeleteEgypt is number 1 during the first half of the year because it's a year round destination and people travel there a lot in January. But overall I'm certain Greece will be number 1 by a mile at the end of the year.
DeleteJust another german provincial airport like Dresden, Dortmund, Karlsruhe. Just started with shooting JLA.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is, all of those have more traffic than LJU.
DeleteSarajevo has already surpassed Ljubljana in terms of traffic and this was once an airport that was around the 700 thousand annual passenger levels. Is is only diaspora? Don't think so as SJJ is having more connections to the world and already on the path of reaching Skopje, which basically is fed thanks to the Albanians living in their country.
ReplyDeleteLol
DeleteIn ''their'' country? Whose country? North Macedonia is multi-ethnical, Albanians are also Macedonian citizens, Turks and whatnot.
DeleteQuota woman
ReplyDelete?
DeleteTodays charters from LJU
ReplyDeleteHeraklion
Santorini via Chania
Tomorrow
Rhodes
Karpathos
Tel Aviv
Hurghada
It will need much more to become a charter hub.
DeleteThere is a charter to Zuirch today. On Saab 340 operated by Nyxair. Anyone know something about it?
DeleteI've noticed those a few times before. Don't know what they're about.
DeleteYes, Google knows, so, google it!
DeleteI'm not surprised about the interest for charters. There is a lot of pent up demand.
ReplyDeleteThere would be demand for scheduled flights too if there was a sufficient offer
DeleteIt is definitely a segment worth exploring but they need to address other more pressing issues first.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAir Serbia can fly it's Havana flights via Ljubljana,
ReplyDeleteDoubt it can get fifth freedom rights from either Slovenian or Cuban authorities to fly between the two countries.
DeleteOr they can just transfer them in BEG using their numerous LJU flights.
DeleteThat's the idea
DeleteThey are running out of ideas
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteCharter hub = oxymoron AKA utter nonsense
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteI don't know if there is a glitch in the Amadeus-GDS, but at the moment only three weekly Flydubai flights are shown between Ljubljana and Dubai from 9. Nov. to 11.Dec.:
ReplyDeleteFZ1790 357 LJU DXB 1430 2320 0 09NOV22 11DEC22 7M8 5:50
Worldcup in Qatar, and up to 48 DAILY flights between Dubai and Doha in the period mentioned, operated by Qatar Airways and Flydubai. So they will probably cut frequencies on the routes with the lowest LF, to employ aircraft on Dubai to Doha service
DeleteIt has always been three flights per week on sale in that period. I don't know what you are talking about.
DeleteMy comment can be seen in relation to the statement in 24th August Flydubai thread:
Delete"... Until mid-December, the carrier will maintain five weekly flights to the Slovenian capital..."
When full-size international airport say that 20% of it's traffic were tourist charter passengers, it's not potential chance for business development
ReplyDeleteInteresting concept. I guess it could work, especially if you attract charters for nearby markets too. 20% of all passengers on charters is a high number.
ReplyDeleteThe concept is madness.
DeleteGood move by Trade Air getting into LJU after Adria collapsed.
ReplyDeleteHave they ever considered scheduled flights from Ljubljana?
DeleteI read an interview with their CEO last year who said they did but that it made no economic sense.
DeleteWe can only hope that the economic impact of this crisis won't be as big as predicted so people will have enough money to travel.
ReplyDeleteThey will expose this project to our "competent" government just to get some money out of it. SLO is a paradise to make money this way.
ReplyDeleteThey are unable to open Pornhub, let alone aviation hub of any kind
ReplyDeleteGood one! 😃
DeleteAgain to prove incompetence. Thought the worst we saw in the last decade. It seems like bringing it to the level of POW.
ReplyDelete