Aegean and Onur Air to launch Maribor flights

Busy summer season ahead for Maribor Airport

Greece’s Aegean Airlines will launch seasonal summer flights to Slovenia’s second busiest airport, Maribor Edvard Rusjan this Friday. The airline will operate one weekly service from Kos to Maribor starting June 6 until September 26. In addition, Greece’s largest airline will inaugurate one weekly flight from Corfu, which will run each Thursday starting June 12 until September 18. It is the second year in a row that Aegean will serve Maribor. However, unlike in 2013, it will operate flights from two destinations throughout the summer season. The new route launches will be warmly welcomed by Maribor, which suffers from a lack of customers throughout the year, like most other small airports in the former Yugoslavia. On top of Aegean’s flights, Turkey’s Onur Air will run seasonal services from Antalya in Turkey starting June 19 to August 28, while Adria Airways will also operate charter flights from Maribor to Antalya and the Greek island of Zakynthos.

Maribor Airport’s CEO, Marko Gros, says passenger numbers are expected to reach between 20.000 and 25.000 this summer season, an increase of up to 40% compared to the same period last year. During 2013, the airport served 13.000 passengers from June through to September. The airport is now actively seeking to attract airlines to operate year long flights to Slovenia’s second largest city. “We are trying very hard to attract both commercial and cargo airlines to Maribor”, a government official said. Aegean Airlines has recently been eying the former Yugoslav market. Originally, the carrier looked into the possibility of flying to Ljubljana, Dubrovnik and Banja Luka but instead opted to operate summer flights to Maribor, Ljubljana and Belgrade.

Despite Maribor Airport opening a brand new terminal in 2012, the Slovenian national carrier believes it would be unprofitable to maintain year long flights from the city. In a recent interview, Adria’s CEO Mark Anžur, said, “Adria attempted to fly from Maribor but it is difficult to operate flights out of secondary airports in Slovenia because it is a small country with well developed road infrastructure”. He added, “You can drive from Maribor to Ljubljana within an hour and a half”.

Comments

  1. Purger09:19

    Air Tahiti Nui 340-300 in Zagreb 10.6. for Croatian football team supporters on direct flight Zagreb-Sao Paulo.

    Same plane in Zagreb 17.6. on direct flight Rio de Janeiro-Zagreb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      mora da su uhvatili neko slobodno vreme između leta CDG-LAX-PPT, pa rekoše da zarade još koju paru preko :-)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:33

      Can you find out what will be the product for that flight?

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:23

    Beautiful sight, one of the nicest liveries around, excellent photo-op, make sure you take some nice images and do share them with us. Pozz iz Beograda.

    And on the topic - great news for MBX, too bad that scheduled services cannot be secured.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:35

    Aegean will also fly (charter) from LJU to Rhodos this summer start from 30.06.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:32

    Congratulations to Maribor. It's good that a small airport is doing well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:32

    Lovely news. After so many years MBX is getting up.
    So INI is the only ex-yu airport without any flights this summer season? Even POW has some charters. Unbelievable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:52

      Off topic That' s interesting fact btw.
      Here is the list of EX-YU airports and apparently, apart from INI only KVO has no flights either.
      Taking in count that is not fully operative, your theory is absolute truth.
      Is there low demand in general apart from BEG or there is more reasons why this airport “abandoned “?

      Bosnia and Herzegovina
      • Banja Luka Airport, Banja Luka
      • Mostar Airport, Mostar
      • Sarajevo Airport, Sarajevo
      • Tuzla Airport, Tuzla
      Croatia
      • Bol Airport, Bol
      • Dubrovnik Airport, Dubrovnik
      • Lošinj Airport, Mali Lošinj
      • Osijek Airport, Osijek
      • Pula Airport, Pula
      • Rijeka Airport, Rijeka
      • Split Airport, Split
      • Zadar Airport, Zadar
      • Zagreb Airport, Zagreb
      / Kosovo
      • Priština Airport, Pristina
      Macedonia
      • Ohrid Airport, Ohrid
      • Skopje Airport, Skopje
      Montenegro
      • Podgorica Airport, Podgorica
      • Tivat Airport, Tivat
      Serbia
      • Belgrade Airport, Belgrade
      • Kraljevo-Lađevci Airport, Kraljevo
      • Niš Airport, Niš
      Slovenia
      • Ljubljana Airport, Ljubljana
      • Maribor Airport, Maribor
      • Portorož Airport, Portorož

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:12

      There are no flights from Mali Losinj

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:34

      There is no flight in Niamtougou Airport in Togo either.. lol
      That was like comparing LHR and BEG (lol)!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:39

      ^ I was not comparing anyone I was referring to the list of airport from above.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:39

      *airports

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:27

      In Croatia there are no flights from Brac and Mali Losinj, these are sometimes used seasonally but both airports are in receivership and no longer operate.

      Also not sure about portoroz airport, not sure if it has any flights, other than few occasional private jets landing there.

      Delete
    7. Purger20:13

      Brač is seasonal airport but it is not true that there are no flights. Croatia airlines and Austrian (Tyrolean) have regular flights to:

      Graz,
      Innsbruck,
      Linz,
      Vienna,
      Zagreb.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous20:20

      Plus, there is a plan to activate Mali Losinj airport

      Delete
    9. Purger00:27

      Problem with Lošinj is to short runway, just 900 x 30 meters, and so much money they have to spent for expanding. Till there were STOL planes for passengers they had routes (last one was to Vienna 2-3 years ago). Still they have traffic with business and small planes. In 2013 they had 5.143, in 2012 4.659, in 2011 6.152, 2010 5.019 passengers… in some 3.500 operations per year.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous12:30

    Kojim Avionima ce obavljati letove.
    Hvala unapred.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:22

      i'm not sure, but i think it will be A320 as Aegean has some of them dedicated for charter flights.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous12:31

    OT: SPU May stats: 159,477 an increase of 14.1%

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:55

      Great job, Split, this will be a great season!

      Delete
  8. Zagreb up 6%. pop the campaign bottles.

    Split up by 14.5%
    Dubrovnik up by 2.3%
    Zadar up by 2.5%

    And if anyone is interested, the initial stages of construction is now visible on google earth.

    https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Zagreb/@45.7416276,16.0762846,1075m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x4765d692c902cc39:0x3a45249628fbc28a

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:31

      yep, Zagreb is on target to hit 2.5 million in 2014, and this is mainly due to the foreign carriers, no growth with OU for they're still flying with reduced frequency out of Zagreb.

      With arrival of new carriers in June, numbers are expect to grow even further. Next year OU should return to normal, from March 31st that is. Than numbers should improve dramatically for Zagreb.



      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:35

      PS, management is holding talks with EasyJet over them staying with EasyJet perhaps being given a form of subsidy to stay, not significant subsidy, £30 000 Subsidy or around £1.50 per each passenger.

      We'll see what happens next. EU forbids subsidies, but there are ways of going around them, also there's a marketing tactics that can be used to incentivize more airlines.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:34

      @4:31 PM

      What about your prediction that Belgrade will have 3.5 million this year and how will Zagreb hit 2.5 million if the growth so far has been around 3%?

      Thanks.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous14:26

    OT question: Wikipedia states that about 7,3% of tourists in Bosnia and Herzegovina are from Poland. However, I noticed there aren't any flights between those countries. Does any of you know how most Polish tourists come to BiH?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:36

      Most Polish tourists are pilgrims and most pilgrims prefer bus trips. It takes some 17 hrs from southern Poland to Mostar by bus and its much cheaper than by plane. Those who prefer flying to Mostar use SPU and DBV which are closer to it than SJJ, and the place of pilgrimage is a part of Croatian heritage so local Croats organize connections for pilgrims via Croatian airports, so may they even use ZAG in low season

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:39

      There are also occasional charters from Poland to Sarajevo as well

      Delete
    3. Anonymous20:00

      Thanks for your answers! So you wouldn't think there is any potential for Poland - BiH flights?

      Delete
  10. Anonymous14:27

    SPU ...

    A few days ago the OU has canceled a flight from SPU to BEG today JU.
    Lack of passengers or some other reason ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:30

      For OU - one Dash was down and booking was light so pax were rerouted via SA hubs.
      For JU - i don't have info.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:57

      JU no cancel flight today because he was not scheduled flight to SPU, 10.6 start flights on Tuesdays for SPU,will be five flights a week

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:41

      On that note, another interesting fact, most visitors that visit Croatia from UAE come via Belgrade transit with Air Serbia, but numbers are small, only 2-3000 per year, Croatian tourism had 13 million holidaymakers last year, 72.5 million nights, only ~20 000 came from Arab countries, even more Malayans came, 28000.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:16

      SPU ...

      thanks for information , I just received confirmation that JU reported to start flights on 3.6. but changed to 10.6.

      I agree JU will benefit from the summer but for the winter I do not see traffic.

      Delete
  11. Perhaps it is possible to have a premonition of a light at the end of the tunnel. Of course AA and its lobbyists in the government, aviation establishment and government agencies will stop at nothing to prevent any formation of an independent carrier in Maribor or establishing new routes. I hope the people at Maribor continue with good work. BTW, in view of the comments of AA's CEO it may be interesting to note that taxpayers from Maribor and surroundings also participated in AA's bailout not so long ago.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous20:46

    Jadan Avion i Aeroflot-u ogromna steta.
    http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7828261

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ogromna steta??? The plane has been parked since March. Aeroflot at least gets some insurance money now.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:41

      Znam ali opet jedan vazduhoplov manje :)

      Delete
    3. Even if all of their Il-96s were to go up in flames tomorrow, Aeroflot would be unaffected operationally.

      Financially, the planes are worth close to nothing. Nobody wants those planes right now. Aeroflot might even get more money than the plane was worth because of this event.

      Delete
    4. Aэrologic03:14

      The damaged aircraft was named in a honour of Nikolai Karpeev. He worked as a pilot and flight instructor at Aeroflot during 1990s. The economical crisis greatly affected Aeroflot, and the IL-96 suffered from subsequent service-entry problems. But Mr Karpeev was extremely enthusiastic about this plane. He and a his colleagues had performed the enormous amount of work during the process of entry into service. They were real "IL-96-geeks". Without their efforts, maybe Aeroflot would newer operate Ilyushin IL-96. Pilots who worked with Nikolai Karpeev say that he was a dedicated flight instructor and great teacher.

      Sadly, Nikolai Karpeev died in 2000. He was only 54. His colleagues suggested to name one of the Aeroflot's IL-96s in honour of Mr. Karpeev. This idea was widely supported by pilots, and RA-96010 was named in honour of him.

      Aeroflot retired all IIlyushin IL-96s in March, and shorly after the aircraft RA-96010 "Nikolai Karpeev" burst into flames. Both the beginning and the ending for IL-96 operation at Aeroflot are associated with one name.

      Delete
    5. Aэrologic03:20

      http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpNLgKhCEAA3r_z.png:large

      http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpNIYw9IYAAMHuJ.jpg:large

      http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpM03_XIAAAjLUm.jpg:large

      Very sad week for CIS aviation, after the magnificent terminal of Donetsk airport was partially destroyed by Ukr-fascists gangs a week earlier.

      In homage to it and to all the patriots killed in the battle, tomorrow i'm gonna post a trip report to Donetsk airport made exactly a year ago.

      Delete
    6. Aэrologic03:34

      Long live the Kievan rus'!

      http://gdb.rferl.org/57230466-636C-495D-83A8-9B281D82A3E2_mwdynamic_mhdynamic_s.jpg

      Delete
    7. Anonymous08:54

      Did I understaynd you Aerologic:
      - Ukrainians in Donetsk are fascists and Russians are not ocupators but liberators?

      Delete
    8. Aэrologic09:25

      You understood me correctly. The "Ukrainians" in the army are 90% composed of units from Lvov (Western Ukraine) which has for centuries been under Polish, Austrian and Catholic dominance. Those people have little to do with Ukraine, Russia or the Orthodox culture whatsoever. Ironically, they call themselves Ukrainian nationalists while they're as Ukrainian as Croatia is let's say Serbian. They are those who are, while financed by the West and Jewish oligarchs in Ukraine, behind everything that is happening there since our government refused to sign the association treaty with the EU in November last year.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous22:32

      I resent this name-calling. We in the Ex-Yu countries had our share of "dealings" with "fascists", "patriots" and all other sorts... The resulting experience is that there is no such thing as the ultimately "right" or "wrong" side and its also valid nowadays in Ukraine. Please dont be insulted, but this conflict is to be resolved among Ukrainians themselves, this blog is not the place for that....

      Delete
  13. Purger00:24

    Problem with Lošinj is to short runway, just 900 x 30 meters, and so much money they have to spent for expanding. Till there were STOL planes for passengers they had routes (last one was to Vienna 2-3 years ago). Still they have traffic with business and small planes. In 2013 they had 5.143, in 2012 4.659, in 2011 6.152, 2010 5.019 passengers… in some 3.500 operations per year.

    ReplyDelete

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