Ljubljana to survive without Adria

Adria’s fight for survival continues this week
The CEO of Ljubljana Airport, Zmago Skobir, has said that Slovenia’s main airport will survive without its main customer if its heads towards bankruptcy. Skobir states that the airport would experience a short term crisis but its planned investments for 2012 wouldn’t be affected. Next year, the construction of the airport’s new terminal should begin, as well as the construction of a new apron and cargo terminal. “If Adria were to go bankrupt, the airport would experience a 12 month crisis during which it would have to find partners to fill in the void of up to 70% of flights operated from the airport”, Skobir explains.

Last week, officials from Adria Airways met with several banks to which the airline owes millions of Euros. Adria wants the banks to convert their claims to the company into ownership stakes, as envisaged in the restructuring plan report. However the largest bank in Slovenia, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), has refused to convert Adria’s debt into an ownership stake. Adria is now hoping that it will be able to change NLB’s decision during the week. The Government of Slovenia has said it will provide Adria with a 50 million Euro bailout only if the banks agree to Adria’s proposal. Adria has been urging the banks to convert their debt into ownership stating that it has only enough means to operate flights for another month.

Zmago Skobir from Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport says he is optimistic when it comes to Adria, claiming that Slovenia as a country, as well as the airport and banks, would suffer from its demise. He reminds that there are virtually no countries in Europe that don’t have a national carrier, naming only Macedonia and Slovakia as the exceptions.

If Adria is saved by the banks and the state, as it is widely expected, it will introduce large scale cost cutting measures and will cut up to a third of its destination network which would impact its hub. As a result, Ljubljana is finalising an agreement with Ryanair to commence flights from the Slovenian capital next summer.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:06

    Well let's not forget that Lithuania also doesn't have a national carrier!

    Didn't the airport report losses last year? Which means that if 70% of their already insufficient income goes away then they are not going to face a minor crisis but a major one!

    With the loss of 70% of its operations they should be thinking of a survival strategy and not of constructing a new terminal!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No losses last year for LJU, just smaller profit then the previous year because of the runway reconstruction and airport closer for that

    But you are right.

    Sure after Adria, destinations such as VIE FRA MUC ZRH and BRU will be filles by the others but that is the less than quarter of the Adria's network.
    I am sure that Balkan flights wont be covered as that dest. are only for transit pax. Many scandinavian routes without transfer pax are not viable.
    So CEO will need to fill like 50% loss of JP pax.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:29

    Sorry about that, don't know why I thought that Ljubljana reported a loss last year.

    But with such a massive loss of operations in Ljubljana could Zagreb profit from it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:46

    Ljubljana can profit on a long term if Adria stops with operations!

    Thanx for 50 expensive years!

    Welcome to other airliners: more destinations with easyjet, maybe some tap, norwegian, italy air

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:04

    Yeah Adria was expensive BUT it did provide a decent range of destinations and it did contribute greatly to Ljubljana and Slovenia.

    Not to mention that any new airline that would start flying out of LJU will not be able to offer the amount of destinations and frequencies Adria had!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:50

    In any case, it would be so sad to see Adria closing completely. This Saturday I visited an exhibition Adria 50 - cleared for take off at the Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana and it was great experience to walk through the history of this airline. I keep my fingers crossed for Adria!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:01

    As I know Adria to LJU didn`t pay or just a small amount what they should (for a while now) no handling/landing fees. Adria is not a good customer for LJU - nobody dares to say that loud.

    ReplyDelete
  8. But, doesn't Ryanair require large amounts of concessions to fly to/from an airport. Will it be wise for Ljubljana to rely on Ryanair? I honestly think OU should make a move on Ljubljana. They do 'park' a number of aircraft during the winter, why not base 2-3 planes in Ljubljana instead? They will also be moving into a 'star' hub so setting up booking should not be too hard a problem. Also I would think Ljubljana would welcome a full paying airline then one which will demand a huge discount in airport handling fees don’t you?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous15:58

    Does anybody know which routes Adria will cut ,if it survives,except IST,LON,CDG,CPX,and WAW?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous16:34

    @Q400
    Would rather see a plane or two of one of the Sky Team airlines (CSA, Regional etc.) based in LJU since *Alliance will connect LJU with their hubs anyway. Probably will never happen but would be nice to see something like this at one of the ex-YU main airports to brake *Alliance monopoly.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Q400

    a full paying? you are joking right?
    Jusr few months ago, A320 would be grounded at ZAG because of unpaid bills.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous17:45

    Sky,

    He means full paying as in what they are supposed to pay... it's anotehr thing if they can actually pay it :P

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well Adria is full paying customer at LJU and for sure better one than RYR or EZY.

    And to ass, Wizz Air was in LJU and it left,

    Easy tried SXF and cancelled the route.
    Tried to start MXP, and gave up.

    LOT was here, OS, SWR, who else?
    Everybody quit becuase of the market.

    And than you say because of Adria and in next sentence, Adria is expensive.
    Why than other with cheaper ticket did not succeed??

    And from Adria's yearly report of 2010:

    Incomes from PAX ticket sales:
    151,94M€
    Passengers in 2010:
    1,17M

    Average ticket:
    129,86€ "one way"
    259,72 "return"

    VEEEEEEEEERYYYYYYYYYYYYY EXPENSIVE

    Not

    Pleas stop with this stupid comments about expensive tickets.
    If they were expensive for real, Adria would not have negative results!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous20:16

    regarding EZY and MXP-LJU i dont believe that was no success!! everyone that can come in to some booking numbers, there were dirty hands of someone else .... doing that! and hope JP will close down!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous20:17

    regarding EZY and MXP-LJU i dont believe that was no success!! everyone that can come in to some booking numbers, there were dirty hands of someone else .... doing that! and hope JP will close down!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous23:20

    Adria must close down. As sooner as better. Adria It's just eating money. Public money! Can't go for long.
    Ljubljana airport will survive and prosper. More tourists visitors will come by air. Low budger airlines qill come first. Aeroflot, British and other "real" playwers will come next. They need more time for planning.
    Who care if no more Ljubljana Tirana direct. YOu can gly from Trieste.
    Who cares if no more Banja Luka it was it is and it will ve always loosing.
    AIrFrance is for Paris, Turkish for Istambul etc.
    New airlines will come mybe someone from latin world and one more from the north in summer (there is FInnair already).

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sky,

    OU are in debt to Zagreb for only the year of 2009.

    http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5263744212273266286&postID=5072123536427039052

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous15:48

    If Adria Is a smart company they shell open a sister company in Macedonia(Adria- Macedonia with 3 aircraft for example CRJ200/900) and they will make money flying to destinations like Zurich,Vienna,Dusseldorf,ljubljana on daily basis from Alexander the Great-Skopje, and from friday to sunday from Skopje via Ohrid St.Paul The Apostle airport(there is a tax benefit by TAV).The average Pax fulfilment per aircraft in this direct destinations is high 86%)
    This also can be a great oportunity for CROATIA Airlines

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.