Ljubljana Airport surges in 2014

Ljubljana Airport records strong passenger growth

Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has seen its passenger numbers surge in the first two months of the year. Slovenia’s busiest airport recorded growth of 15.6% compared to the same period in 2013 but did not report exact passenger figures. The airport says both Adria and foreign airlines operating to Ljubljana attributed to the improved numbers. Apart from Adria, figures were primarily boosted by Air Serbia which launched flights to the Slovenian capital last December, the airport said in statement. It added that other foreign carriers also recorded healthy loads on their flights to and from Ljubljana. Growth in cargo traffic was also noted with an increase of 11.7% on the same period last year. During February Jože Pučnik Airport handled the greatest amount of cargo in a single day since opening its doors.

Ljubljana Airport is anticipating a busy summer ahead by offering 200 scheduled flights per week to 24 destinations in Europe operated by eight different airlines. Adria Airways will launch two new destinations this summer - Prague and Warsaw - and will also resume seasonal flights to London Gatwick, Manchester and Tel Aviv. On the other hand, Finnair will resume its seasonal summer flights from Helsinki starting April 16. They will operate four times per week until the end of the 2014 summer season in late October. In addition, Arkia Israeli Airlines will launch seasonal services from Tel Aviv while Tunisair will run regular charters from Monastir (once per week, increasing to two weekly during peak season) and Djerba (once per week). Both will operate with the Airbus A320 and will launch on April 23 and May 27 respectively.

Meanwhile, the airport is expected to be privatised during the summer. Interested parties were to be called to start sending in their bids on Monday, March 3. However, the process has been delayed until further notice. Officially, the holdup comes as a result of missing documentation relating to the airport’s runway, which is to be finalised by the Ministry for Transport. Earlier this year, CEO Zmago Skobir said the airport should be sold by the summer of 2014. Investors from Italy and Russia have already expressed interest. Ljubljana Airport recorded a 5.2 million euro net profit last year, which is on par with results from 2012 and 3.8% above the projected profits. Slovenia’s busiest airport handled 1.321.100 passengers in 2013, up 10.2% on the year before.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:33

    Nice to see LJU improving :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very good news for Ljubljana! By the way, how come Finnair flies to Ljubljana? I mean, what market are they after?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:54

      Maybe tourists? I'm not sure. They have been flying for quite a while.

      Delete
    2. So Finns visiting Slovenia? Could it also be that they manage to attract some of the Slovenia-Asia market? However, I think this market is well covered by Star Alliance carriers, especially Turkish Airlines.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:13

      Also tourists from Japan via Helsinki.

      Delete
    4. JU520 BEGLAX14:14

      AY is already for 5 or 6 summers now in LJU. Flts must be do well since last year during Jun to Aug they even had 6 weekly flights. They started with Embraers but more and more 319 320s came. Even 321 was in LJU. Think it s a good mix of everything who s flying on these flights. Really nice to see that LJU can keep AY. Something similar like TP to ZAG which also is doing fine and operates even yearround flights

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10:31

    Will be also charters from Japan to LJU again this year?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:56

      Don't think so

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:04

      That would be great and even to get some American charters :)

      Delete
  4. Anonymous12:33

    Looks like a slow news day on the blog. It would be great if we had a lot of comments. Pretty sure we can get to over 50 comments if we start flaming Air Serbia, or "mine's bigger than yours" or conspiracy theories. Any bored takers/haters to start this? C'mon we need more visitors to support this site!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:21

      If you have noticed you are the first one to mention Air Serbia. It is nice to have bigger traffic on the website, but you should not be an ass if the topic is not that interesting and there are not many comments. Did you try sharing this article on facebook or something like that??

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:25

      I actually find it interesting. If we get updates on traffic numbers from Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje… why shouldn’t we get from Ljubljana?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:37

      Quite the opposite, I love the news and love the fact this is not (insert any Ex-Yu country name here)-aviation blog! It’s just sad that haters are not as motivated to post imaginative, highly flammable off-topic comments when blog posts news like today.

      If you look back at previous days, weeks and months, statistically speaking haters are much more likely to post those messages on other topics. It’s just a statistical fact. Those messages then ignite dozens of comments and blog generally has a lot more visitors which in turn means good news for advertising revenue. True fans like me want to support the blog and see hundreds of thousands if not millions of unique daily visits, but sometimes noncontroversial good news day gets in the way.

      I’d just like to see some off topic comment that will bring number of comments to over 100 today! Regardless of how offensive or crazy it is: “Renegade JAT Boeing 737 pilots are responsible for the disappearance of Malaysia flight MH370. Using stolen passports, they boarded the Boeing 777 and took over the flight, changing heading to Belgrade. Differences between arcane 737 and uber-modern 777 caused them to lose control and crash in the Indian Ocean. Their intention was to bring the plane to Belgrade, paint in it retro JAT livery and then restart JAT with nonstop flights to New York and Sydney, according to the maverick pilot’s last message found on Ex-Yu aviation blog”.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:07

      You forgot that they wanted to extend 200ER version to 300LR version so they could have a range of 28000 km and be the first airline to fly non stop to any destination in the world they want

      Delete
    5. Anonymous21:30

      Apparently Vucic asked them to launch domestic flight Belgrade-Tokyo as well. They would refuel in Abu Dhabi, not because they have to, but because they learned on this blog that Jet-A1 is free in Abu Dhabi!

      Delete
  5. Purger15:21

    Greva sosedi, naprej! Zelo sam srečan kaj maste tak dobre rezoltate.

    10 years ago it was regular practice for me to travel from Ljubljana (especially to Skopje and Ohrid). But, unfortunately, cutting capacity and frequencies unmotivated this practice. Ljubljana could attract more passengers from Northern Croatia, not just charters to Greece, Tunisia and Turkey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:12

      Hi Purger!

      Actually, there are several Slovenian web pages like www.posvetu.si that publish regularly all good offers from LJU airport and the airports in vicinity, even Zagreb. They are very active on FB too. Hopefully they will expand their target population to include Northern Croatia people as well.

      Delete
    2. Purger00:39

      Thanks...

      Delete
  6. Anonymous17:01

    Anyone have any news/rumours about Eurolot (K2) of Poland opening any new routes in the region. I remember a few weeks back there was a lot of speculation about a Polish airline opening Zagreb-Warsaw sometime in the first half of 2014. There have been numerous news article about Eurolot opening 10-12 new rouets out of WAW in the next 2-3 months as LOT in unable to after receiving public aid?

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  7. Interesting that growth was felt primarily due to Air Serbia. If JU is affecting passenger numbers at other airports not just BEG that means they must be doing something right. It would be interesting to see data for how much passenger growth in terms of percent has JU contributed at nearby smaller airports.

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    Replies
    1. Especially Banja Luka. :P

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:45

      Adria had LJU-BEG route, which is not on now because of Air Serbia. So, instead of Adria there is Air Serbia in that route now whith almost the same size plane. So sentance "figures were primarily boosted by Air Serbia which launched flights to the Slovenian capital last December" is at least funny!

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    3. Same number of seats but different loads, there is a reason why Adria withdrew from the market. Plus, they flew like five times per week.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:54

      Even if Adria had 50% LF and JU has 100% (and it doesn't) tha is different of some 30 passengers per day. So it is 10.000 passengers per year. For sure that is not "pirmarly boosted".

      Delete
    5. Zoki22:07

      @ AnonymousMarch 15, 2014 at 11:54 AM
      I know you imagine that JU aircrafts fly empty, but they don't; it's only your dream! Wake up, buddy!

      Delete
    6. The way I understood it is that it was the airport which made the statement about Air Serbia's role in Ljubljana.

      Furthermore, since Adria did not fly daily to Belgrade, their average passenger number was less than 30, probably around 25.

      Delete
    7. The statement was made in the press release, it is not my own assumption.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous20:13

    Anybody knows something about tomorrow's 2 flights from Belgrade to Zadar?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous20:15

    http://www.airserbia.com/system/home/newsplus/viewsingle/_params/newsplus_news_id/127518.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=belgianjournalists&utm_content=news

    ReplyDelete

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