Lufthansa remains Slovenia’s busiest, Transavia adds most passengers

Lufthansa has maintained its position over Turkish Airlines as the busiest carrier operating out of both Ljubljana and Slovenia during the first three quarters of the year. The Turkish national airline overtook its German counterpart last year and held onto its number one spot until June. However, Lufthansa benefited from a 33.9% increase in passenger numbers with the introduction of its second daily service from Munich earlier this year. During the final fourth quarter of the year, Turkish Airlines will be offering slightly more capacity than Lufthansa on the Slovenian market, with just 710 seats separating the two.

Ljubljana Airport passenger performance, Q1 - Q3 2024

Transavia was the fastest growing carrier in terms of the number of passengers added, however, this was mainly due to a lack of flights last year. Transavia suspended its service between Amsterdam and Ljubljana from February until late March in 2023. Similarly, GP Aviation commenced operations from Pristina during the last day of March 2023. Finnair saw some of the strongest percentile growth on the Slovenian market by handling an additional 7.214 passengers on its seasonal Helsinki service. Figures on flights between Ljubljana and London, maintained by three different carriers, improved slightly. The 3.5% growth was primarily fuelled by British Airways which maintained services to the Slovenian capital over the winter months (January to March) for the first time. On the other hand, Wizz Air discontinued its London Luton route in February.

Among airlines that commenced operations to Ljubljana recently, Luxair saw is average cabin load factor for the first three quarters stand at 71.8%. Wizz Air continues to perform strongly on its flights between Skopje and the Slovenian capital. The service, launched last September, registered a high average cabin load factor of 95.6% during Q1 - Q3 2024. Norwegian, which entered the Slovenian market in late April of this year, welcomed 13.673 travellers on its Copenhagen flights for an average load factor of 79.4%, while airBaltic, which also inaugurated services to Ljubljana in April, registered an average cabin occupancy of 83.4%. Meanwhile, Aegean Airlines’ seasonal Athens route saw loads average 74.2% up until the end of September. Iberia’s limited operations between Madrid and the Slovenian capital averaged a high 86.6%.