Ljubljana Airport ends passenger downturn


Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has swung back to growth following six consecutive months of declining figures. Slovenia's busiest airport handled 132.081 passengers in October, an increase of 2.8% compared to the same month last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 2.788, up 0.4%. The passenger decline, which began in April, was solely a result of Adria Airways, which made significant cuts to its network under new ownership this summer season. On the other hand, foreign carriers saw their numbers improve by 13% on their services to and from Ljubljana. As a result of the protracted downturn, the airport's annual figures are still softer to that of last year. It welcomed 1.210.414 travellers through its doors during the January - October period, a decrease of 4.2%. Aircraft movements were down 1%, standing at 27.906.

This winter season, Ljubljana Airport expects to see stronger numbers. Adria Airways has boosted frequencies on five of its routes (Amsterdam, Paris, Sarajevo, Warsaw and Zurich), although it no longer flies to Berlin, unlike last winter. Foreign carriers will also be adding flights, with low cost airline easyJet to introduce new services from London's Gatwick Airport to complement its existing flights from Stansted Airport. Overall, there will be just over 180 scheduled flights per week out of Ljubljana this winter, operating to 22 destinations in eighteen countries. The airport, which sees strong competition from larger nearby rivals such as Zagreb, Venice and Budapest, says it is holding its own. "Slovenia’s main airport is attracting a growing number of Slovenian and cross-border passengers by competing successfully with other airports in the region", it said in a statement.

During an interview earlier this year, Ljubljana Airport's General Manager, Zmago Skobir, blamed Adria Airways, which holds a 60 - 65% passenger share at the airport, for the declining figures. The airport has attracted several foreign carriers over the past year including LOT Polish Airlines and Aegean Airlines. However, Mr Skobir believes that under a new strategy, which will see Adria open new markets in the near future and put a greater emphasis on its Ljubljana hub, the airport's numbers will improve. "If we look only at the numbers, I would say they [Adria] do not have many options. However, if I look at their plans, now that we meet more regularly at a more professional level, I would say that the company really wants to recover. It should be noted that both Adria and the airport used to set the standard in the Balkans, but not anymore. All have recovered and found successful models. Serbia has Etihad Airways, while Skopje Airport, which was a dead-end, is now run by the Turks and has linked up with Wizz Air. It now boasts 1.2 million passengers. Zagreb is being developed by the French. Through Etihad Airways, Ljubljana is now linked to New York through Belgrade. In the seventies and eighties, JAT operated flights from Belgrade to New York via Ljubljana. Therefore, history repeats itself but we have stayed ten steps behind", Mr Skobir said. According to the General Manager, Adria's main advantage is its long tradition.

MonthPAXChange (%)
JAN73.567 0.6
FEB77.976 7.9
MAR93.923 3.3
APR100.549 10.5
MAY116.499 9.3
JUN135.757 9.2
JUL163.267 5.0
AUG165.137 8.1
SEP151.658 3.7
OCT132.081 2.8

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:06

    Finally!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:53

    Very good news! LJU will have a positive December with the arrival of U2. I am hoping they get retrieve their a-c from Nordica and focus on LJU only.
    Now that JU is reducing frequencies to SKP next year, they can fill the gaps open new routes to OTP, SKG, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:58

      JU is operating the same number of flights to SKP as last year, and in 2014.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:14

      U2 is already there. Their existing flights are not from Luton Airport (as it is stated in the original post); they have had flights from Stansted for years. Luton is served by Wizz.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:24

      @Anon 9:58am - ok so how many JU flights do you see in April 2017 for SKP, just compare what Ex Yu wrote if you really follow the blog carefully:

      http://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/03/summer-2016-air-serbia.html

      SKP - 14
      SKP S17 - 7 flights

      Thank you!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:27

      Because like this year, the second daily flight to Skopje begins from June 15. I suggest you read more carefully what it says in the link you gave: "The table below displays the peak weekly frequency on each route during the course of the summer season. Increases in frequencies to a number of destinations do not come into effect until mid-June".

      You are welcome.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:41

      I admit my mistake :) thank you baby lol. You are 100% right.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:57

    LJU needs to end its dependence on JP. The minute Adria's numbers go down the airport tumbles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:07

      Well that's what they are doing. Adria's share at the airport used to be around 70% a year ago. Now it's down to around 60%. A few new airlines have started flying over the last few years and next summer Transavia comes as well.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:38

      I think JU launching LJU was a great thing for them, it certainly opened a new market for Slovenia and it shattered the Star Alliance monopoly in Slovenia.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:00

      There are still a number of airlines Ljubljana could try to attract like Iberia, Lufthansa, SAS, Alitalia....

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:10

      It's surprising that Lufthansa doe not fly to Ljubljana at all. Eurowings would be a good fit for LJU.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:23

      I don't think we'll see either one of these. AZ would have made the most sense but not now when they are falling apart once again.

      Delete
    6. JU520 BEGLAX12:29

      LH and JP are working together, not sure how close their ties still are, but for sure good enough so that LH and OS will not unnecessary compete with JP on the star alliance hub lanes

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:29

      JP vec igra ulogu Eurowings-a u LJU, a ne bi bilo bas veliko iznenadjenje da jedan od JP CRJ900 bude baziran u Zagrebu i leti za npr BRU, CPH itd sa svojim potpisom, ili u ime OU, a najverovatnije u i me LH grupe-Eurowings-a. Sad kad je OU planski i definitivno unistena preuzece je LH grupa potpuno besplatno i na na;in kako je preuzeta Adria. O ovome je i Purger vise puta detaljno pisao i sve se odigrava samo dosta brze od onoga sto je on predvidjao.
      ATCO

      Delete
    8. Anonymous16:58

      Attracting LH wouldn't help LJU. If LH starts to operate MUC/FRA-LJU, passengers would just move from JP to LH. Pax number for the airport would remain more or less the same.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous20:03

      LH will not come, she is already there. Lufthansa is real owner of Adria.

      ATCO

      Delete
    10. Anonymous08:36

      The airport needs to be careful, though. If they attract too much competition to JP to "balance" things, they may end up pushing JP into bankruptcy. Sure, other airlines would fill part of the void, but the airport manager can forget all about LJU as a hub if that was to happen.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous10:03

    I hope they manage to maintain the growth this year. From next summer I'm sure Ljubljana will grow at a marge larger pace. Apparently Adria plans to open a few more routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:17

      The ones I have heard are TLV and IKA.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous10:09

    Congrats, finally some good news from LJU :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:15

    Things are finally starting to move at LJU. Next up should be Fly Dubai announcing new flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:18

      Hope so about Flydubai.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous10:32

    I really wish them well. The airport has increased its numbers only by about 40% since 2000 which is terrible, especially for a developed country like Slovenia where air travel has always been affordable to people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:43

      Things can change quickly in aviation. Who would have thought 5 yrs ago that Skopje would have over a million passengers and be ahead of Ljubljana and catching up to Pristina...

      Delete
    2. JU520 BEGLAX12:45

      Their is a reason for this: best trade partner for Slovenia are Germany, Italy, Austria, Croatia and France. Except for France, all in a radius of 3 to 6 hours car driving. If a team of 2 are visiting biz partners abroad probably a car ride is the most economical way for them
      Tourism: also their nbr 1 tourists to Slovenia are Germans, Italians, Croats, Austrian. Most of them arrive by car
      Slovenians preferred Tourist destination is Croatia, understandable if paradise is waiting in front of the door
      Slovenia has not much of ethnic traffic, at least not comparable to other YU republics
      Opposite is in Mac and Kosovo.: lot of ethnic traffic to Western Europe where car ride takes up to 1-2 days. With LCC offering cheap tickets, Visa restrictions, people prefer flts
      Interesting would be to see arrivals to these countries in percentage: air road rail

      Delete
    3. JU520 BEGLAX12:56

      Interesting is also to compare figures at nearby airports of LJU: Salzburg is one of the tourist hot spots in Europe, it lies in Austrias most powerful eco zone, still just a lit bit over 1.8 mio people flew to-out of SZG to the world.
      Similar scenario like LJU. Tourists arrive to VIE MUC ZRH VCE PRG longhaul, shorthaul, German, Swiss, Austrian, Benelux visiting arrive by car too
      If SZG cant amke 2 mio, not to speak of GRZ INN LNZ, ZAG hardly making 2.5, i dont see LJU climbing to 2 mio anytime soon. Maybe in 10 years

      Delete
    4. Ljublana can get back to 1,5 - 1,6 mill without a problem. Even though, I think Zagreb could become a problem nex year with the new terminal,since it would be an epic fail if Zag doesn't attract at least 3 million pax. Considering that with this small, old terminal, it will surpass 2,7 million this year and probably surpass 2,75 mill.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:36

    Skobir makes a good point about the Balkan market but I think there is nothing Adria really could have done there. Before, it was impossible to set up bases in ex-Yu countries. By the time the market was liberalised it was already too late. Skopje is the only market I think they missed an opportunity with and I know Adria had plans to set up a base there but with everything that was happening in the company it never materialized.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:50

    Is it still possible that they reach 1.5 mill by the end of the year?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:57

    Does anyone know how Aegean did to LJU this summer? I am surprised they are not coming back next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:04

      Wondering about that too. It would also be good to see Finnair start all year flights.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous11:18

    This year has been such a dissapointment after last year's excellent results.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous12:11

    LJU airport fees are quite high and the market is relatively small and in close proximity to more affordable airports. So it is not surprising why a lot of foreign carriers are avoiding LJU.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous12:13

    Admin, EasyJet flies to Stansted, Wizzair to Luton.

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous12:14

    Good to see Ljubljana Airport bouncing back.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous14:16

    Ljubljana should have capitalized on the fact that most low costers are avoiding Zagreb and tried to lure them.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous14:28

    OT:
    I'm at Belgrade airport, YU-ARA has a big delay. All pax moved out the boarding area, tech delay. They opened ENG 1.
    My flight is late as usual with LX to ZRH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:16

      The passengers must be pissed, just checked on BEG's site, still hasn't left, listed as delayed

      Delete
    2. JU520 BEGLAX16:20

      LX might be departing late, however arrivals in ZRH are in time again. Today 1632 planned with scheduled ETA 1635

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:50

      Meanwhile, JU500 is cancelled

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:20

      I think it's the first cancellation of a JFK flight with ASL.
      A second A330 could help out in such situations.
      Are the pax gonna sleep in BEG or will they fly with AZ or AB to JFK?
      JU520 kad cemo na kafu na ZRH aerodromu?
      Radim isto tamo

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:49

      What happened to YU-ARA? Why was the flight cancelled? All other flights took off on time and some with delays up to 30min which is normal. But was happened?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous18:53

      There was a tecnical issue with one of the engines on start up.

      Delete
    7. flew today JU BEG AMS - A320, the plain was packed.. there were maybe a couple of seats left in the economy class (and there were 3,4 people in business).

      Greetings from the atlantic ocean on KLM 787-900 (which was late for an hour and a half btw, because they had some issue with a door, they could open only normally, but not during emergency.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous20:26

      No, again, second A330 could not help because it would probably fly to another destination on the other side of the globe. With this one being utilized three times a week, taking a second one would be a colossal waste of money.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous23:42

      And that's why serious and reliable airlines when they open a transatlantic route, they buy or lease at least 4 planes and don't give me as an example Czech airlines they are also a joke!

      Delete
    10. Anonymous23:49

      Oh no anonymous 11 : 42 pm, if a serious and reliable airline don't want to be ridiculous it doesn't open a transatlantic route at all.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous15:15

    Don't be too surprised, if Adria's share next year drops to 0%. Yep, with the Nordica business ending in a week and LCJ operation slowly coming to an end, Adria will need a capital injection in 2017 or it's game over.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous21:40

    OT: Idk if it's new or not, but, MA stops leasing of 4O-AOD
    source: http://www.vijesti.me/vijesti/letio-5000-sati-za-10-miliona-dolara-911593

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:05

      Yeah it was reported a few weeks ago
      http://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/10/montenegro-airlines-to-return-e190-to.html

      Delete
  19. Anonymous22:19

    LJU bi trebala da se potrudi da U2 otvori nove destinacije i ADR takodje da bi nastavili sa rastom putnika.
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete

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