The 2017/18 winter season begins in just under a month's time with Adria Airways significantly boosting its operations out of its hub in Ljubljana. It will also mark the first winter since the closure of the airline's base in the Polish city of Lodz, from which it maintained eighteen weekly departures during the 2016/17 season. This winter, the Slovenian carrier will introduce three new weekly services to Kiev, marking the route's resumption following a six-year hiatus, when it was operated on a seasonal summer basis. Furthermore, Adria will strengthen its regional network with additional frequencies to Podgorica, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje and Tirana. The airline continues to grow its operations to the Montenegrin capital since ending its codeshare partnership with Montenegro Airlines earlier this year.
Adria will add the largest number of frequencies when compared to last winter season on services to Zurich with an additional five weekly flights for a total of twenty. It comes following its purchase of Switzerland's Darwin Airline, although the regional carrier itself does not maintain services to Zurich. In addition, Adria will continue to grow its frequencies to Amsterdam despite increased competition from Transavia. The Slovenian airline and Transavia's part-owenr, KLM, remain committed to their codeshare partneship on the route. Adria will run the same number of flights from its base in Pristina as it did last year, while its nonstop service between Tirana and Munich will operate three times per week this winter, down by one weekly frequency on the previous season.
The 2017/18 winter season runs until March 25, 2018. Please note that the changes listed below are preliminary and based on current availability in the GDS (Global Distribution System). Both frequencies and destinations are subject to change. Over the next month, EX-YU Aviation News will bring you all the winter season modifications the remaining two national carriers in the former Yugoslavia - Croatia Airlines and Montenegro Airlines - will be making. Meanwhile, you can also review changes made by Air Serbia.
Departing Ljubljana
| Destination | Frequency W16/17 | Frequency W17/18 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | 5 | 7 | ▲ 2 | - |
| Brussels | 12 | 12 | - | - |
| Copenhagen | 2 | 5 | ▲ 3 | - |
| Frankfrut | 20 | 20 | - | - |
| Kiev | 0 | 3 | ▲ 3 | starts OCT29 |
| Moscow | 6 | 7 | ▲ 1 | - |
| Munich | 14 | 14 | - | - |
| Paris | 5 | 7 | ▲ 2 | - |
| Podgorica | 3 | 7 | ▲ 4 | - |
| Prague | 3 | 4 | ▲ 1 | - |
| Pristina | 6 | 10 | ▲ 4 | - |
| Sarajevo | 6 | 7 | ▲ 1 | - |
| Skopje | 7 | 9 | ▲ 2 | - |
| Tirana | 7 | 10 | ▲ 3 | - |
| Vienna | 12 | 14 | ▲ 2 | - |
| Warsaw | 5 | 5 | - | - |
| Zurich | 15 | 20 | ▲ 5 | - |
Departing Pristina
| Destination | Frequency W16/17 | Frequency W17/18 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frankfurt | 7 | 7 | - | - |
| Ljubljana | 6 | 10 | ▲ 4 | - |
| Munich | 4 | 4 | - | - |
Departing Tirana
| Destination | Frequency W16/17 | Frequency W17/18 | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frankfurt | 3 | 3 | - | - |
| Ljubljana | 7 | 10 | ▲ 3 | - |
| Munich | 4 | 3 | ▼ 1 | - |
"It will also mark the first winter since the closure of the airline's base in the Polish city of Lodz, from which it maintained eighteen weekly departures during the 2016/17 season"
ReplyDeleteSo basically all this growth in LJU is the result of the Lodz closure and them having an extra plane.
Thank goodness they are focusing on LJU and not Polish villages.
DeleteUmm might want to rethink that about Polish villages since Lodz is double the size of Ljubljana.
DeleteIt is not just the result of the Lodz closure.
DeleteOver 30 departures more per week mean something like 2 more aircraft in LJU.
Wouldn't it be than expected Lodz to be inserted in separate spreadsheet with all red arrows?
DeleteOn that way we might have more realistic overview of JP winter operations.
-18 weekly frequencies in Lodz, +33weekly frequencies in LJU!
DeleteThe airline is clearly growing.
Happy to see that the privatization turned out to be successful and that 4K is growing it instead of just selling off its assets like many were saying last year.
All those extra flights to LJU are great news for the economy!
DeleteThe national airline focusing on serving Polish cities didn't offered us anything.
I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised with 4K's performance and their plans for the future.
you should follow this blog more frequently,so you wouldn't miss the articles about 4K's overall financial performance - and then share your feelings with us
DeleteInteresting. Is JP second after JU in terms of weekly frequencies?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Croatia Airlines has more flights than Adria.
DeleteI am talking about the winter season when OU cuts some frequencies and destinations. I also heard OU will be reducing MUC and FRA this winter.
DeleteIt's good to see that some key destinations will become daily like Amsterdam, Moscow and Paris. I think it was really poor not being able to have daily flights to these cities. Good to see Copenhagen growing as well.
ReplyDeleteHow are JP's fares to AMS, CDG and SVO?
DeleteAMS and CDG: 179, SVO: 199 are the lowest JP fares. Flights to AMS and CDG (where they moved back to T2) are now with KL/AF code share and at least during summer quite full. There are also several very competitive combined promotions of AF and KL out of LJU that include one or two segments with JP.
DeleteThis will probably be Montenegro Airlines' last winter in Ljubljana. Adria are really going after them on this route.
ReplyDeleteQuite ambitious but proper strategy to strenghten existing network before expanding further. KBP however will be a short one. Probably sponsored by Ukraine government. So once this subsidies are gone, KBP will be gone too
ReplyDeleteNice to see extra flts to ZRH. The route is really going well especially Friday to Sundays
I'm really interested to see how Kiev will work out, especially since they are launching it in winter.
DeleteI actually think KBP will do extremely well because the market is large and it was recently liberalized with the removal of visas for Ukrainians.
DeleteI think reading your comments on here you would want ex-YU airlines to fly only to Western destinations such as ZRH, MUC, AMS...
UKRAINE is a country of 40 million people!
DeleteAnd it is highly undeserved from the ex-Yu region.
OS takes all this market for itself so far.
It was time for a local airline to try it and it is a damn same that JU abandoned it so fast.
But then again JU's management has done far bigger mistakes that this.
I know some people from Croatia wich cant wait for Adria to start Kiev. So, there will be some pasengers from Croatia too.
Delete@10:56 +1!
DeleteThe question is not whether to fly to east west ec, what matters is where does it make sense to fly. KBP makes no sense, I wld love to see JP flying to places such as Venice, Split, Brac, Tivat, Marseille, Girona, Bilbao, Valencia. At least during SUTT. Of course not all of them but start with two of them and slowly develop them. Most important, dont just open evrry 2 years new ones but rather strenghten yr position in a market year by year
DeleteAnd leave this non sence subsidies bullshit behind. Poland did not work, Estonia was nothing sustainable. Focus on yr core market and thats the Adria region with some similar closeby markets such as North Spain or France
They should look into adding flights to the UK. Yes, London is well served but I'm sure they would be able to fill flights to Manchester as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying what I have been for years! Manchester/Liverpool flights would be full of skiers and those on city breaks.
DeleteWhy doesen't LH takeover flights from MUC/FRA to TIA/PRN?
ReplyDeleteLH cityline gave up on MUC-TIA. JP jumped on it
DeleteLow yields while OS handles the rest.
DeleteHow about checking first? LH already flies FRA-TIA daily.
DeleteWould there be any point in launching flights between Ljubljana and Zagreb? Would people actually fly instead of drive? The flight time would be around 35 minutes. There are shorter flights than that in Europe.
ReplyDeleteSince you can take a bus between two cities in a bit over two hours for like €10-15, who would pay 3-4-5 times more just to be there in 35 minutes plus all the time you need at the airport and getting into the city?
DeleteHave there ever been flights between LJU and ZAG?
DeleteNot too my knowledge. The distance between both cities is only 130 km.
DeleteNot even freight?
DeleteThere are shorter flights but to islands where the travel time by boat makes the flight cost competitive.
DeleteFor example Athens to Mikonos etc.
Or HER to RHO where the flight is between 10 and 15 minutes.
DeleteThere is BEG SJJ which is 20 minutes on a jet aircraft.
DeleteThere isn't a good road between Belgrade and Sarajevo so flying is more attractive.
DeleteI just realised that Adria has competition on just 4 of its routes - Amsterdam, Podgorica, Paris and Warsaw. That's just crazy. They have a monopoly on all other routes.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that just 8 airlines operate scedualed flights to LJU so it's normal that they won't have a lot of competition.
DeleteAnd anyway it's not like anyone is restricting others to start flights if they want to.
Delete@anon at 10.30 am: it is actually 10 airlines: Adria, AirSerbia, Air France, Montenegro Airlines, easyJet, Lot, Turkish Airlines, Wizzair, Finnair and Transavia.
DeleteI am still waiting for W6 to add more destinations. I mean, they are doing well from Luton. Maybe they could try DTM.
DeleteDo you guys remember when Adria used to fly Vienna-Frankfurt flights?
ReplyDeletewow forgot about that
DeleteI think it was triple daily on the CRJ200. Shame these never worked out given how high the fares are between the two cities.
DeleteHow come they operated flights between these two cities? Was it a request by Lufthansa or what?
DeleteI think the EC forced a new player in the market after AB bought Niki. Just like the EC tried to do the same for BEG FCO
Deleteno, when Lufti bought AUA
DeleteFor a market the size of Slovenia, the schedule is more than good. I wonder if we will see some new routes next summer.
ReplyDelete+1
Deletei really think they should give SPU a seasonal try
DeleteGVA and FCO are up for it too
Will some of these be operated by Adria Switzerland?
ReplyDeleteone ATR and one Saab will be in LJU whole winter :)
DeleteOne ATR is already in LJU, Saab will be there from tomorrow, 1 Oct.
DeleteThe Atr has been flying for about two weeks now, it's regular in VIE, SJJ and PRN.
DeleteThese are perfect type of aircrafts for a short flights like VIE and SJJ. Was pleasantly surprised with an ATR flight LJU-VIE. Bright fresh cabin in a very warm colour of Etihad Regional, on time and all in all very pleasant. On the other hand a clash with Adria blue, thou :) They will have to find a bit coherent overall solution for the future.
DeleteI agree. The ATR is a pleasant aircraft for short flights (like VIE and SJJ) and as fuel prices go up, it will become more and more cost efficient vs. the CRJ. Flying really short flights with jet aircraft is a bit of a waste.
DeleteLet’s be brutally honest. At the end of the day all ex-Yu airlines have a disastrous network. They either lack destinations or frequnecies.
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Do you really think that for example JP and LJU airport need extra frequencies and extra new destinations? So As I understand you would like to see a lot of new destinations and a big number of added frequencies to various cities, but that would only lead to cancellation of existent routes to many European hubs such as ZRH, FRA, MUC, VIE, AMS ...as passengers would stop using them. I believe that our regional airports LJU, ZAG, SJJ, BEG,... are quite well served as it is. Suddenly every airport in this region wants to become a HUB???
DeletePerfectly agree. Regional airline serving regional airport with 2-3 daily flights to all Star Alliance hubs is more than good frequency. It is not real to have a huge number of destinations that can not be financially viable. On the other hand there is still lots of potential for LCCs.
DeleteA better comparison would be with winter 2015/16 since last year they cut everything.
ReplyDeleteFantastic to see Adria bouncing back.
ReplyDeleteWith Monarch being close to collapsing (again) can we expect OU and JP to maybe start expanding in LON and MAN again?
ReplyDeleteI know ZB doesn't fly to Slovenia but they do to ZAG and they do compete for a similar market.
OT
ReplyDeleteStarting from 29.10.2017 Qatar will bring back the A321 on its DOH-BEG route.
BEG-AUH will be discontinued, so it´s normal.
DeleteNo, BEG-AUH is not being discontinued, it's only Air Serbia that is cutting its flights. Etihad is not going anywhere.
DeleteAir Serbia's suspension will help but both Qatar and flydubai have been performing rather well for a while now. Don't forget that Qatar sent its A321 this summer while flydubai has upgraded BEG last winter as well.
Nice jump in seats offered. I think last year it was 4 weekly A320
DeletePoor EY can't catch a break.
DeleteQR and EK group seem to be attacking them everywhere!
They were doing nothig for 4 years on their product and seem to be happy with the A320. On the other hand others have been active in improving their offer. Instead of already upgrading BEG to A332 EY is leaving the market to QR and FZ.
DeleteThey should have increased BEG to double daily A319. Next step for QR is ten weekly while with flydubai who knows, they have a tremendous amount of O&D.
DeleteDon't forget that we will also have five weekly KK to IST. They offer competitive fares to the Middle East.
DeleteEtihad has become a joke. The faster they become irrelevant here the sooner EK will consider coming.
DeleteIt's interesting how all these Arab airlines always increase Belgrade in winter. Is it because Serbs go for holidays to Asia?
DeleteIT is because unlike Etihad those other airlines make some sense.
DeleteINI has been missed again. Why doesn´t JP focus on it once and for all?
ReplyDeleteBEG is a far, far more important destination. It could offer connections there from the rest of its network.
DeleteKiev for example.
I can't see JP launching Belgrade any time soon.
DeleteBEG is too competitive, INI has flights will fit in nicely. LJU will also be important airport unlike gasterbeiter routes to Germany.
DeleteYeah but remember when JP flew to BNX and charged €500 for flights to ZRH?
DeleteGood work Adria!
ReplyDeleteNotoriously screwed-up airline.
ReplyDelete