Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has seen a second consecutive month of declining passenger numbers, wiping out gains it recorded earlier on in the year. Slovenia's main airport handled 116.499 travellers in May, a decrease of 9.3%. This is despite the number of operated flights remaining almost unchanged at 2.863 aircraft movements, up 0.1%. The results follow on from a disappointing April when the airport recorded a 10.5% drop in passenger figures. The slowdown comes as a result of Adria Airways, which boasts a 60% - 65% market share at the airport. The carrier discontinued flights to Istanbul and Stockholm so far this year, while Swiss International Air Lines suspended its Zurich service as well.
During the first five months of the year, Ljubljana Airport welcomed 462.514 travellers through its doors, a decrease of 3%, while flight operations also edged down 2.5%, to 11.879. The airport's General Manager, Zmago Skobir, recently said, "We expect a slower growth rate to that of last year and we would like to close at 1.5 million passengers. That will be heavily influenced by how Adria Airways' new owners manage the airline. Air traffic growth is forecast to be moderate, but stable. At the same time, changes in the traffic structure are expected to go in favour of an increased share of foreign air carriers". Ljubljana Airport is yet to surpass its all-time passenger record, set in 2008, when it registered 1.673.050 travellers.
Despite Adria's network suspensions, Ljubljana Airport has also welcomed some new carriers recently. LOT Polish Airlines launched flights from Warsaw in March while Aegean Airlines will introduce seasonal services from Athens next Wednesday. Recently, Turkish Airlines boosted frequencies on its Ljubljana service from ten weekly to double daily, while budget carrier easyJet increased its daily flights from London Stansted to nine weekly. Ljubljana Airport held talks with a number carriers from the United Arab Emirates last week, including Flydubai and Air Arabia, relating to the possible establishment of services between Slovenia and the Gulf nation. Reportedly, Flydubai has shown interest in the potential flights.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 73.567 | ▲ 0.6 |
| FEB | 77.976 | ▲ 7.9 |
| MAR | 93.923 | ▲ 3.3 |
| APR | 100.549 | ▼ 10.5 |
| MAY | 116.499 | ▼ 9.3 |
I'm quite concerned about the winter. From inside info, Adria will be making some deep cuts in its network and this will no doubt reflect on Ljubljana.
ReplyDeletePa šta očekivati kad Adria leti iz Poljske sa 10 putnika?
ReplyDeleteThe bad thing here is that flight ops were up while passenger numbers were down.
ReplyDeleteResult of over relayenece on one airline.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see if Aegean and these new flights by Easy Jet and Turkish will help in June.
ReplyDeleteNow there is no chance for it to try and overtake Skopje. I'm sure if they had a few more routes from easy or Wizz Air it would be a different story.
ReplyDeleteYeah, lets see until when will SKP continue with those figures.
DeleteMay should be the last month of major growth at SKP. Then we can actually see organic growth numbers.
DeleteNot really. June should be the last month with such a big growth in SKP. Last year, the 3rd aircraft was based at the end of June (28th I believe). So, we'll see SKP's organic growth starting from July.
DeleteWell even from July on I expect growth rates around 10 percent. There is Czech plus the capacity increase of W6 is 20 percent above last summer season. But what makes me happy the most is OHD which is brilliant this year. This week Arkia started 3 weekly from Tel Aviv plus Air Serbia next week. W6 operates 3 weekly instead of 2 to BSL plus dutch charters which are also up. Summer will be very busy for sure!
DeleteEven if its not 20% but an "organic growth" SKP is still growing- whereas LJU is declining...
Delete@anon 12:18
DeleteI don't think that W6 has 20% more capacity than last year. Maybe if you compare 2016 May with 2015 May, but if you compare 2016 July with 2015 July, W6 capacity is the same. Czech will bring some capacity increase, but it will be small (it is only 3 weekly with mixture of ATR and A319). I don't think that any other airline has increased it's capacity to SKP, and the same goes for charters. My expectation is that SKP will grow somewehere between 2% and 5% from July.
Regarding Ohrid. It is great news that they have both Air Serbia and Arkia, as well as more charters from Netherlands, but don't forget that Edelweiss canceled its regular service to Zurich. Ohrid's main problem is its seasonality. During the winter, it's almost as if there are no flights. Ohrid should try and do something similar to what Nis is doing (at least during the winter months). As things are right now, INI will have more pax than OHD in 2017.
Girona also grew a lot when it subsided Ryanair, it went from 0.5mln to 5,5mln pax. Impressive growth and then look at it today.
DeleteSo SKP might reach 2mln but will it keep it up?
LJU is a tricky destination, not much Slovenian diaspora worldwide and very close to Zagrab, which is the second largest in ex-Yu after Beograd.
@anon 4:54
DeleteYou cant compare Skopje to Girona. First of all, Skopje is a capital of a country, and it is the main getaway for most of its citizens. Secondly, most of the W6 routes are not subsided anymore, which means they're profitable. If they're profitable, even if W6 decides to drop them, dont you think that someone else will come and serve those routes? The real question is, what is the maximum pax SKP can have in the near future (5-10 years from now)?
Not sure, but definitely cannot reach 3 million for example unless MK gets itself a national carrier or W6 base a 4th aircraft but Wizz has already covered the "important" destinations.
DeleteAdria is an expensive airline and LJU needs more affordable routes to break the bloody monopoly.
The biggest problem this year are the charter flight in firts half of the year. there are no HRG, SSH even AYT. HRG and SSH was regular charter flight whole year.
ReplyDeleteWell golden days from end of 90's and later are over, when they were they rulled ex you market.
ReplyDeleteSmall OT:
ReplyDeleteOn the other habd Maribor is even in worst position. Last summer season they had seven flights per week (whitch is still way too little)
3 Adria (CRJ900/A320)
3 Aegean (A320)
1 Freebird (A321)
And this summer season there is only one Aegean flight.
We can say that 2016 is not hthe brightest year for Slovenian aviation.
So Iran Air pax were counted as transit after all. Now sanctions are lifted Iran Air gets fuel everywhere and "virtual" pax have vanished
ReplyDeleteNumbers will improve when they get rid of their dependance on Adria. And that will happen when new carriers arrive. Such as Lot, Aegean and hopefully FlyDubai and others.
ReplyDeleteFraport epic fail.
ReplyDeleteLook at VAR and BOJ figures for this year and then judge the Germans.
DeleteAnonymous June 11, 2016 at 4:56 PM
Delete+1
Germans deserve zero credit, as everything has to do with events in Turkey and Egypt.
DeleteI really hope this doesn't become a trend and that they manage to turn things around.
ReplyDeleteOT Question. When will the new terminal in Zag open? I will fly there in october
ReplyDeleteMarch 2017. I assume for the SUTT 2017
DeleteMarch next year.
DeleteYou have a time outline here.
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/06/photos-zagreb-airport-terminal-nears.html
Thx:)
DeleteStill wondering why the hell Austrian and Tarom not operating in LJU?! OTP especially is a huge market! Romania is the second largest Eastern European EU state after Poland and there is room for much more. Wizz should open at least 2 or 3 more destinations to Germany e.g. HHN, FMM, DTM, SXF, etc.
ReplyDeleteHow long would the flight from VIE to LJU be?
DeleteApprox. 25min
DeleteJP flies to VIE. They were very expensive and empty of course in July when I flew with them. Flight was just over 30 mins on the CRJ900.
DeleteOS is just waiting to step in as soon as JP goes belly up, they would also increase flights to at least 3x daily -no doubt. Flight time is 37-44 minutes in one of their Dashes, though in the schedule it would appear as a 50 minute flight.
DeleteYU-ARA landing in ZAG
ReplyDelete