Swiss to suspend Ljubljana service

Swiss International Air Lines terminating Ljubljana flights in January

Swiss International Air Lines will suspend flights between Zurich and Ljubljana, just nine months following the route's initial launch. Swiss spokeswoman, Karin Muller, confirmed to EX-YU Aviation News that flights will be terminated from January 4, 2016. However, Ms Muller added, "Our codeshare with Adria Airways will remain in place". The news will be welcomed by the Slovenian carrier, which will retain its monopoly on the route. This winter season, Adria is maintaining twelve weekly flights between the two cities. Despite initial optimism, Swiss failed to attract sufficient passengers numbers, launching the route on a daily basis before reducing flights to four per week.

Swiss International inaugurated services from Zurich to Ljubljana on March 29 this year with a 97-seat Avrojet RJ100 aircraft. Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport anticipated for the flights to generate an additional 30.000 passengers per year. Services were timed so passengers could connect on to Swiss' North American network. This year, Swiss expanded aggressively into the former Yugoslavia, introducing flights from Zurich to Ljubljana, Zagreb and Sarajevo, while its subsidiary Edelweiss Air launched seasonal services to Podgorica. Summer flights to Banja Luka were also planned but did not go ahead following disagreements with the airport's management. From Geneva, the airline began year-round flights to Sarajevo and Skopje. In addition to the suspension of its Zurich - Ljubljana service, this winter, Swiss also terminated its Geneva - Belgrade flights and will now operate the route on a seasonal summer basis.

Despite the setback, Ljubljana Airport has secured two new customers for next year, with LOT Polish Airlines to launch services from Warsaw on March 1 and Aegean Airlines from Athens starting June 15. Furthermore, earlier this year, Adria Airways' CEO, Mark Anžur, revealed the carrier would expand its operations out of the Slovenian capital in 2016. “We are already planning new flights for the 2016 summer season from Ljubljana. For us, these are interesting destinations as they are important business hubs and offer the possibility of connecting flights. The Iberian Peninsula will certainly be among them. Even Italy would be of interest”, Mr. Anžur said. Over the past ten months, Ljubljana Airport handled 1.264.056 passengers, an increase of 10.6% compared to the same period last year.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:06

    wow I would have thought Adria would be the one to give. I'm really surprised they didn't stick around a bit longer, at least unti the end of winter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      * the one to give up

      Delete
    2. Well starting the route with RJ100 while there are already 3 flights per day (summer) is not a good choice. Maybe if they started with smaller plane like DH84 they have, it would make more sense.

      And also operational wise, RJ100 is not very economical and also much underpowered.

      While their plan is to retire RJ100 I would expect they would not launch new flights with them...

      And "Services were timed so passengers could connect on to Swiss' North American network."
      this is fuuny cause all flights were almost one hour withing Adria's flights some even a few minutes apart... And they had codeshare on them so and good reason why you put 4th daily flight on the same times as you already have codeshares on them?
      The only logical thing would be that swiss and adria would talk and swiss would operate the midday flight, but...

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:17

    Good news for JP.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:21

    Somehow I have a feeling that someone would like to protect Adria...Estonia deal, removing Swiss from LJU, opening Lodz, leaving some routes from TIA and PRN to be asrved by JP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      Yes, it is a conspiracy!
      The fact that JP (or any other ex-yu carrier for that matter) has much lower employee costs compared with Swiss is irrelevant.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:11

      My exact same thoughts! I was talking to the LJU dispatchers a few months ago and they said Swiss' LF was very good. I have a feeling they're being forced to pull out.

      Delete
    3. "This is not good for Air Serbia" guy14:26

      Belgrade airport and Air Serbia are kicking out another foreign carrier from Belg... what, this is in Ljubljana?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:31

      If it's in Ljubljana then it's regular EU business. If it's in Belgrade then it's a Serbian-Arabic conspiracy and the Balkan way of doing things.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:22

    Anyone notice that only Star Alliance members are launching LJU lately?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:27

    Sure Fraport's tactic or the easiest way to grow...we all now that Fraport owns the biggest *A hub

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:37

    Well done fraport i guess?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:05

    They should have launched Banja Luka

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:25

      Their the smallest airliner is AVRO's RJ100 - a whissper jet - having up to 97 seats. If they didn't pay airport taxes in the first year of servicing BNX, in my humble opinion, they would succeed regarding the pax turnout but, there is a big problem due to BNX not being prepared to handle more than 70 pax for so many a reason.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:42

      A ti ocekujes 97 putnika? He he.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:14

      To Anon 12:42 PM
      Yes I do, in June and September and around Christmas and the New Year holidays.
      In July and August even more than 100.
      In above mentioned occasions, the company would expect to improve the LF.
      If they collided with the airport's inability to handle all those pax properly, especially without delays, the airline would give up.

      Delete
  8. Nemjee11:04

    Does anyone know how their ZAG and SJJ flights are performing?

    OT

    Wizz Air's Baden Baden flights, does anyone know if they are going to be operated by a BEG based aircraft or..? If yes, does it mean another destination will be served by a non-BEG bird or?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:33

      BEG.

      Delete
    2. Nemjee12:55

      Thank you but how?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:19

      4 rotacije dnevno. Znaci ima mesta za jos puno linija. Isto vazi i za ASL.

      Delete
    4. Nemjee14:42

      Hvala, znaci malo su pretumbali red letenja... Mada imao sam utisak da je vec bilo nategnuto.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous11:08

    ovo je dogovor unutar alijanse, demand je nedovoljan i odluka je sasvim racionalna. slican scenario je moguc tokom zime za ASL/ETD na liniji BEG-AUH ukoliko intresovanje bude smanjeno. nema tu nikakve zavere to je samo biznis.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous17:23

    OT: Breaking news!

    Turkish Airlines, Aegean and Lufthansa want to buy Croatia Airlines!

    http://www.vecernji.hr/kompanije-i-trzista/lufthansa-aegean-i-turkish-ostali-u-igri-za-croatia-airlines-1038971

    http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/region.php?yyyy=2015&mm=11&dd=21&nav_id=1065724

    ReplyDelete
  11. Дечко Тзар17:26

    OT: Večernji list claims Aegean, LH and Turkish are closest to purchase of Croatia Airlines. TK is outsider and limited to 49%, so it comes down to mother Lufti bringing Croatia into the fold or Aegean with it's ambition to counter TK and grow in the Balkans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:56

      There's still a second round of talks with potential investors, some new companies may appear as well. International Financial Corporation (World Bank) is in charge of privatisation. Good luck, OU!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:29

      tesko !

      Delete
    3. Anonymous20:13

      LH would break OU apart. Links to main Star Alliance hubs FRA, MUC, VIE, ZRH, CPH, BRU are easily replaced by LH, OS, LX, SK, SN and possibly Air Dolomiti (MUC). Slots at LHR would be handed over to LH or sold as announced before.
      Most of seasonal and charter flights can be operated by Eurowings/Germanwings, Edelweiss and airlines under TUI. AMS, CDG and FCO are only outstanding international destinations and can be offered via Star hubs. Domestic ops could be spun out, perhaps to be merged with Trade Air and operated with state subsidy.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20:17

      Then why should LH buy them instead of simply waiting for OU to fall apart?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous00:37

      To prevent A3 or TK from buying them.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous01:07

      Bolje da su CTN ponudili TDR posto su sve stekli kako sam video sami .
      LH ce verovatno kupiti ja mislim da je to najbolje za ASL posto ce biti samo samo feeder sto je dobro.
      INN-NS

      Delete
  12. Anonymous19:07

    Coul be true....why not? Some recent steps indicate to some serious movments in the reagion. I am asking myself why woud Fraport has bought LJU with such a passion? Leave Adria to be still alive? There must be bigger plan behinde this for sure. A found will buy Adria and *A trio will buy Croatia. Than will come to mearging both of companies under Adria brand and that fight for ex yu market... I am sure that Fraport did not buy LJU just like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:09

      Ahahaha and you think Croatians will give up the name in favour of Adria? To good to be true ;)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:16

      Anonymous 8:09 PM, we'll see what happens, changing name into Adria is just an idea, don't be bitter just because you thought no one would want to buy Croatia Airlines. This is phase 2 in privatisation process, who knows if anyone will buy them, although I think it will most likely be Lufthansa.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous20:40

      Money would be LH's for sure

      Delete
  13. JU520 BEGLAX22:19

    Finally a wise decision in favor of Star Alliance. Bravo LX

    ReplyDelete

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