Adria Airways intends on launching four weekly flights between Ljubljana and Dusseldorf this summer season, which would bring its total number of new destinations in 2018 to seven. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, services should commence in late April or early May. The Slovenian carrier has so far scheduled new operations to Sofia, Bucharest, Hamburg and Geneva, as well as seasonal flights to Dubrovnik and Brač. Low cost carrier Eurowings planned on introducing three weekly services between Dusseldorf and the Slovenian capital this January, however, these never materialised as it continues to deal with a fleet shortage. Adria itself has wet-leased its equipment to the German budget airline.
The Slovenian carrier is expanding its network as it adds new aircraft to its fleet. On Wednesday, Adria added a Bombardier CRJ900 jet previously operated by Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum. Registered S5-AFB (formerly EC-JXZ), the eleven-year old aircraft arrived in Ljubljana recently. It will be joined by a second CRJ900 in May under the registration S5-AFC (formerly EC-JYA). In addition, the airline will begin introducing former Darwin Airline Saab 2000 turboprops to its fleet at the start of the 2018 summer season, in late March. The extra aircraft will allow for Adria to launch new routes and increase frequencies on its existing services this summer, including Copenhagen, Paris, Prague, Podgorica, Skopje, Tirana and Warsaw.
The new additions to its fleet will also further give Adria the ability to establish itself on the ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) lease market. It already plans on extending the wet-lease of its CRJ700 to Luxair, which was initially planned to run until the end of the winter season. In a statement last week, the Slovenian airline said, "Adria Airways will consistently continue to improve its offerings and has ambitious plans for 2018. The year will be dedicated to opening more connections between cities in Europe and the Balkan region. With the implementation of novelties and optimisations, Adria Airways is continuously committed to improving the travel experience and offering the most convenient way of travelling in the region".
They just keep expanding. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteDestination and fleet wise :)
DeleteAmazing expansion for an airline Adria's size.
Delete- 7 new routes in summer 2018 (8 if you include Kiev which was launched in winter)
- Frequency increase on 7 routes
- 2 new planes to the fleet + an unspecified number of Saabs.
Well done.
Its just not sure yet where they find all the crews and not less important the flight dispatchers which are lacking badly since a while now
DeleteFlight dispatchers? As in flight planning? It's done more or less automatically these days.
DeleteDoesnt mean they dont need flight ops staff. And they lack especially with the poor salaries JP pays. And take them from a foreign country is not an overnight operation. They need to be certified by SLO FAA incl medical check and that takes time
DeleteYou dont need dispatchers to run flight support and not, flight planning it’s not automatical. You need a flight watch in real people.
DeleteI wonder if this is done in coordination with Eurowings or they simply wanted to start the flights so EW wouldn't?
ReplyDeleteI would assume on their own. They lost Berlin to easy jet. They don't want to loose another route.
DeleteI highly doubt they didn't get Lufthansa's seal of approval.
DeleteExactly. It will probably be codeshared by Lufthansa too.
DeleteI heard that they couldn't get slots until now
DeleteCodeshare would definitely help this route.
DeleteNice. How many frequencies could we expect?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is 3-4 p/w.
DeleteTo be honest would prefer Eurowings because the fares would be more accessible.
ReplyDeleteHow many routes in Germany does Adria cover now?
ReplyDeletefrom march MUC, FRA, HAM, DUS :)
DeleteFrom Ljubljana only Munich and Frankfurt but they will start Hamburg this summer plus Dusseldorf it seems.
DeleteDid they used to fly to Stuttgart? Or was that from Pirstina?
DeleteWill this be a Saab route too?
ReplyDeleteHope not!
DeleteI think it will be the CRJ actually.
DeleteSaab
DeleteThey really might overtake their all time record of 1,7 million pax from the late 80s.
ReplyDeleteCould they really add an extra 500,000 passengers this year?
DeleteNow that's how a summer expansion is done. Take note OU and JU.
ReplyDeleteOU will have 8 new destinations?
DeleteI see only 2. Dublin and Mostar. I'm not counting seasonal routes from the coast where they already fly.
DeleteWhy cant JU do the same thing? Serbia is a far bigger market yet the national airline cuts its fleet, routes and frequencies at a time that air travel is exploding all over Europe.
DeleteIt has significantly more competition on its home market.
DeleteJU can't do the same thing because they are not getting an extra 8 planes this summer.
DeleteCroatia:
Delete2016 Lisabon, St.Petersburg, Milan, Prague
2017 Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Bucharest
2018 Zagreb-Mostar, Zagreb-Dublin, Split-Copenhagen, Dubrovnik-Munich
So, that is 12 new routes in 3 years. You can not say it is not fascinating.
You are taking about a span of 3 years. I'm talking about a single year for Adria with eight new routes and 6 of them are year round. All the ones you listed are seasonal.
Delete@Anonymous at 9:26 AM
DeleteIt is hapening because Adria is now run as a private enterprise while ASL is still being run as a polititian's prestige project.
I have no intention of entering a discussion about Air Serbia because it's not relevant for today's article. But I should remind people that in the last 4 years JU has added new or resumed flights to Bucharest, Sofia, Tirana, Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik, New York, Banja Luka and Beirut. At that time OU and JP were shrinking their network and going through restructuring.
Delete@OP & Anon 9:43AM
DeleteReally? How many new routes Adria opened in the previous years? And did Adria buy all these planes? It's must be so easy for you to write such condescending posts.
It opened Kiev last year and 7 more routes this year. So if you can add that is 8 routes in total. I don't see what's condescending? I simply said that anon 9.38 is adding three years of seasonal routes for OU compared to one single year for JP (and even then it's the same number of new destinations). Seems that you are just irritated.
DeleteIt's absolutely condescending when you try to put yourself on a high horse with planes handed down from another airline.
DeleteSo if Adria opens another 4 routes next year, that would not be as big as an achievement? Also, owning an airplane is much more expensive than leasing them. What does not buying their planes have anything to do with this conversation?
Delete@ Frishki Planes handed down? You think we are getting those planes for free? Adria is paying the lease on it just like Croatia Airlines is paying the lease for the CRJ 1000. But wow, ok didn't expect someone would get offended because I listed the amount of destinations but I'm not surprised. Croatia Airlines is the best and opened the most new routes ever, no matter about actual fact. Hope that settles it.
DeleteDude, playing innocent doesn't become you. If you've wrote the post where you congratulate Adria instead of "take note OU and JU", I wouldn't write a thing. But with this kind of attitude, I'm bound to. Now, go get back up on that horse and look down on us.
DeleteI'm out.
I wrote the comment at 9.43 I did not write the first comment you are referring to.
DeleteOh people why are you arguing who has added more new routes. Does it really matter. On the inside all three companies are struggling, no matter how shiny they look on the outside.
DeleteDon't see why JP would have to own any aircraft. Unless you want it to go bankrupt in couple of months.
DeleteIt's great to see Adria add more routes. I would love if they returned to Spain, at least seasonally. I'm sure there would be sufficient demand.
ReplyDeleteThe market is definitely there.
DeleteI think JP used to fly to both MAD and BCN.
DeleteThey used to fly to BCN until 2012.
DeleteDUS is Germany's 3rd busiest airport and a huge gastarbajter destination.. i can see a lot of connecting pax to SJJ,TGD,PRN and SKP
ReplyDeleteGreat Add!
+1 since their main goal is to be a transfer airline been west Europe and the Balkans, routes like Dusseldorf and Geneva are good additions.
DeleteSo would be INI, too.
Deleteand DUS is heavily Slot restricted ;)
DeleteW6 already flies from SKP to CGN and DTM (which are both half way to DUS).
DeleteJP may capture some transfer passengers from SKP to North America (via DUS), but hardly any Gastarbeiter (this presuming JP prices would be higher than W6, which normally is always the case)
I hope the fares are reasonable.
ReplyDeleteGreat news
ReplyDelete2018 will be huge for Adria
ReplyDeleteNice spread of new destinations there from Adria.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Good mix of new routes - continental Europe, Balkans and the Adriatic coast.
DeleteGood to see more CRJs being added too.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Hope the fares are good as well when the tickets go on sale.
ReplyDeleteAdria has a habit of making these surprising announcement no one sees coming. Happy they are growing though.
ReplyDeleteDusseldorf is a very smart route in my opinion. It will definitely feed their Balkan flights.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteJP is doing the hub for connections between Balkans and the rest of Europe business model a lot more succesfuly than JU ever managed!
ReplyDeleteAnd I think that sais a lot more about JU's management than JP's...
I doubt you can conclude how successful they are since they just established this model and bankrupted an airline to get their hands on six turboprops. Also the success is not in the amount of flights you open it's in the finances at the end of the year without selling your brand name.
DeleteOn the other hand I wish them good luck. It's good to have strong airlines and I'm very happy they are expanding.
Is there potential for Ljubljana - Rome flights? I would think there is a market.
ReplyDeleteI think there should be potential, although they would have to compete with FR route from Trieste to Rome.
DeleteI think with the Saab they could make it work. Lower risk with a 50 seat plane.
DeleteDid they ever used to fly to Rome?
DeleteLJU - MXP would be also a good one to feed interconti flights....
DeleteLJU-MXP is already served by Goopti.
DeleteSmart move to start DUS before Eurowings.
ReplyDeleteWonder at what time they got the slots. DUS is heavily slot restricted. So flights will probably be around noon.
DeleteIt would be vital if they got slots that allow them to connect these flights onto their Balkan flights.
Deletebut they will also have night flights to balkan..
DeleteFrom some rumors it will be split schedule. Morning/afternoon but still not confirmed.
DeleteAgain, does anyone know when will Adria's financial results for 2017 be published? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteIn a couple of months.
DeleteIn May.
DeleteGood news coming from Adria lately. Nice :)
ReplyDeleteI assume that the increase in frequencies will mean the Saabs being put on Balkan routes and the CRJs being redeployed onto western European flights.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily. Skopje for example is operating with CRJ, Podgorica with mix of Saab and CRJ. I think it will depend on their loads.
DeleteThe best thing about the frequency growth is that some key routes will finally be operating daily.
DeleteYes. Nice that they will finally have daily flights to Moscow, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
DeleteAll of this also means a huge year for Ljubljana Airport. They could easily reach 2 million this year!
ReplyDeleteYou are being too optimistic. I think 1.8 million this year.
DeleteDidn't LJU Airport say growth will slow compared to last year?
DeleteThey are always conservative in their estimates. Last year they said how they would have single digit growth and look how it ended up.
DeleteLJU's future is looking bright.
DeleteInteresting strategy. I hope it works out. Again I'm not sure if shuttling transfers from point A to C via B will have a positive impact on their finances. It didn't for JU.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised they did not think of resuming Berlin. They could get feed from SJJ, SKP and TIA plus I think it would also work well for the point to point market. Now it's too late with Easy Jet starting the route.
ReplyDeleteWill this be a year round route?
ReplyDeleteHighly likely. They have to do something with all those planes during the winter.
Delete"Adria itself has wet-leased its equipment to the German budget airline."
ReplyDeleteAnyone know which aircraft? CRJ or Airbus?
A319 until the start of summer.
DeleteDo you know if they use it on a particular route like Luxair uses Adria's CRJ700 or they use it on various lines?
DeleteEurowings operated by Adria
DeleteCologne – Barcelona
Cologne – Berlin Tegel
Cologne – Brindisi
Cologne – Cagliari
Cologne – Dresden
Cologne – Dresden
Cologne – Faro
Cologne – Funchal
Cologne – Gran Canaria
Cologne – Hamburg
Cologne – Klagenfurt
Cologne – Leipzig
Cologne – Lisbon
Cologne – London Heathrow
Cologne – Milan Malpensa
Cologne – Munich
Cologne – Nador
Cologne – Palma Mallorca
Cologne – Prague
Cologne – Rijeka
Cologne – Rome
Cologne – Sarajevo
Cologne – Tenerife South
Cologne – Tunis
Cologne – Venice
Cologne – Vienna
Cologne – Zagreb
Cologne – Zurich
Wow thanks for that!
DeleteThat's great, but they are still not making any profit.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a good thing. Tourists can benefit greatly.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, tourists can benefit greatly.
ReplyDeleteThe way things are going Adria will have a 90% passenger share in LJU :D
ReplyDeleteWhich is bad for both the airport and the passengers. Barely any competition is never good.
DeleteI'm happy to see Adria growing and expanding again. I hope they can sustain this growth. Who knows what 2019 could bring.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if there will be Japan-Lju flights this summer?
ReplyDeleteyes same as last year
DeleteCan we expect how much flights and wich airline?
DeleteI'd love to see Adria back in Dublin since they weren't bad for connections to Ex-Yu areas. I know OU is starting services but they are useless for connections.
ReplyDeleteAdria flew to dublin? And if it did, wich plane did flew?
DeleteThat was in 1995 - 1999, on saturdays in summer season. I think that they used a320.
Deletewhat about bcn,pmi,mad,lis and dub?
ReplyDeleteFor Slovenian tourism it is a pity not to offer charters for russian tourist to LJU or MBX from LED
ReplyDeleteOf course. Slovenia could have more destinations, at least charters, if malta has, why not slovenia, but you know everything in slo is slow motion
DeleteAnd after 7 new destinations Doha and Dubai are approaching for sure. HahaHa
ReplyDeleteWhy not? JP has a far more impressive network than OU for example.
DeleteGulf carriers, i thought. With some agreement JP could fly with A319
DeleteAustrian flies to Teheran with A319.
Delete