Adria Airways plans to further grow its network after it began introducing the first of its seven new destinations this summer season. The carrier's CEO, Holger Kowarsch, said he was satisfied with the demand for the new flights and added that Adria planned to further expand its operations. "We're a small carrier, we have to grow, strengthen our operations and improve our connectivity", Mr Kowarch, who was appointed Adria's CEO in mid-February, said. He added, "We are happy with the cooperation with Fraport Slovenia, which enables us to create opportunities for growth and development. I am certain that together we will find ways to compete with airports in Trieste, Venice, Zagreb and Klagenfurt".
According to the company's CEO, Adria will add three aircraft to its fleet this year. These include two Bombardier CRJ900 jets which are in the process of entering revenue service. Furthermore, the airline has scheduled Saab 2000 turboprop equipment on some of its routes from June onwards. "We are currently training many new pilots and cabin crew. In the coming months, we will add three new aircraft to the fleet. We search for pilots all over Europe. We are still growing, and with the inclusion of new aircraft and routes we will continue to grow", Mr Kowarch said. The Slovenian carrier introduced services to Sofia over the weekend and flights to Geneva yesterday. This will be followed today by Bucharest, then Hamburg on Sunday, Dusseldorf on April 26, Dubrovnik on April 27 and Brač on April 28.
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| Ljubljana Airport's new terminal to be slightly larger than planned |
The General Manager of Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport, Zmago Skobir, noted, "New connections translate into greater stability for the airport, while they also bring new tourists and investors to Slovenia. The airport is keeping in step with the traffic growth through infrastructure development and we hope to get a construction permit for the new terminal this year and have it completed by 2020. As a result of increased passenger numbers, the terminal will be slightly larger than originally planned". Mr Skobir also said the airport was working on linking Ljubljana to the Gulf. "If I'm being optimistic, Flydubai could launch flights to Ljubljana this year". Slovenia's busiest airport handled 199.588 passengers during the first two months of the year, up 11.3% on 2017.
Think we might see flights to Spain and Greece.
ReplyDeleteUK should be a market they should focus on. LCCs now fly double daily to Ljubljana from London while JP has no flights there. They only fly to Manchester seasonally. It's obviously a growing P2P market.
DeleteSpain and Greece in Winter? you must be joking
DeleteI meant for summer 2019.
DeleteSpain is very popular with Slovenes during winter, so this could work.
DeleteMaybe they reconsider Tehran. They were planning on introducing it last year.
DeleteCompletely agree with 0905 comment. UK north of Luton completely overlooked.
Delete@10.46 That would be interesting but the way things are in the Middle East and potential conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, I don't think they will take the risk.
DeleteAnyone know how their load to Bucharest is today?
ReplyDeleteAnd how did Geneva perform yesterday?
Delete8 and 12 pax GVA yday
Delete:O that's a really poor load.
Deleteso much for the "satisfied with the demand"
DeleteThat is horrible. So the load factor was
Delete9% and 17%...
Loads were not much better for Sofia the other day either. Yes inaugural flight had LF of 90% but that was because on board were officials from Min. of Infrastructure, Adria, Ljubljana Airport, journalists, the Slovenian President and a football team. On return lf was 27% and almost all of them were non revenue passengers.
DeleteIt's only the first flight guys. You can't expect 100% LF.
DeleteWhy not? The flights didn't go on sale last night. They have been selling for 4 months already. Also Easter holidays are just around the corner. You would expect a boost from that too.
DeleteWell equipment with less capacity was originally planned for all these routes. Obviously with a reason.
DeleteStill, 12 pax for Saab 2000 doesn't even cover the costs of the flight...
DeleteYes the load on the first flight is disappointing but we can't draw conclusions unless we now broader booking numbers.
DeleteIf someone has BUH numbers for today please share :)
Deletefirst flight to KBP had 15% LF, look at the flights now 75%
DeleteHonestly new terminal at Ljubljana should have been completed now. Not in 2 years.
ReplyDeleteIt seems neither Ljubljana Airport or Adria were prepared for this growth.
DeleteSurely the growth came as a little surprise, but it's really nothing to worry about ....
DeleteSo if they are adding 3 aircraft this year does that mean 2 CRJ900s and 1 Saab?
ReplyDeleteSaabs is planed for June
DeleteI know. But how many?
DeleteOr 1 more crj900? S5AFD?
ReplyDeleteWould be nice. That would make it 10 in the fleet right?
DeleteIf JP wants to compete with TRS VCE ZAG GRZ BGY it needs to reduce ticket prices. Too many travellers still avoid LJU and depart from airports neighbouring SLO
ReplyDeleteAlso LJU shld build 4 jetbridge gates extra but under Skobir this wont happen anyway
+1
DeleteAirbridge for what? There's a lot of times when they use airbridges for CRJ.
DeleteThe only way LJU will get more bigger aircraft (737/320) which would use jetbridges is LCCs who tend to avoid them anyway.
How many air bridges does Ljubljana have at the moment?
DeleteI think 4
DeleteOnly 3 of them are operational
DeleteWhat's wrong with the 4th one?
DeleteWhat's wrong using airbridge for CRJ9? I'm happy every time this happens in LJU although I'm not getting this satisfaction very often...
Delete@anon 10:01 hahaha i agree 😂
Delete@ Anonym 0939h
DeleteNot sure how u prefer to travel. Me, I like the convenient way and I like to pay for service and quality
Also handicapped and elder people prefer jetbridges. Not every passenger is young and agile
Not to talk of the small buses without aircondition LJU AP uses. Where ZRH AP uses two buses for a JP CR9 load, in LJU they squezze it all in one. I travel via LJU about 20 flights a year and if u travel a lot, convenient travelling is even more important
But re infrastructure in SLO we are back to the discussion we had before on this blog. Look at the referendum of the 2nd rail track which has to be repeated. SLO and infrastructure investment is def not a really balanced relationship.
Airbridge should be a human standard in 2018. In 2016 n early 2017 I flew in/out every few weeks and it happened to many times that JP AC got parked just in front of the terminal (but no airbridge) and we had to board on bus to literally “escort” us for fucking 5m. I felt embarrased in front of other foreigners because it was a typical birocratical non sense (probably there is some stupid rule people should walk around that area).
DeleteLegacy carrier or airline which wants to be seen as a one should use airbridge without exception specially at their home base! I dont care if LCC puts me on the bus, bcz i paid 60€ for a return ticket, but if i pay 200€+ pls be fair and use airbridge with AC (!).
Too* 5 meters* shouldnt*
DeleteTx Sloavio
Delete+1
If you have ever seen a CRJ, you know it isn't designed to be used with jetbridge, in fact not all of them can connect to CRJ, as they can't lower that low down. It's funny how everyone things CRJs should be connected to airbridges all the time, yet nobody suggests this for ATR72, which has only couple of seats less...
DeleteSecond, rules in aviation are mostly written with blood, so the "escort for 5m" exists because somebody, somewhere got injured or even worse due to no such rule in place.
There is absolutely no logical reasoning behind this ... u can always secure safety in different ways ... that “road” is not used by AC, but only by ground service, so u can always change these rules to make it more effecient - making passenger disembark from CRJ, embark on the bus, ride it for 5 meters and disembark again is typical typical and once again typical slovenian obsession with rules noone reconsiders them. At least dont park it in front of the entrance .. people can see the entrance but they r not aloud to walk those 5meters...non sense par excellence
DeleteA tiny monster is born. I think JP will soon become one of the biggest regional carriers in CEE.
ReplyDeleteBWK can now be connected to the whole of Europe and get known internationally.
That is bad news for ASL.
DeleteIf they survive. Still no signs the whole thing is profitable at this point. Wet-leases to cover own wet-lease-out surely isn't.
DeleteGreat to see LJU and ADR booming again.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm happy to see they are really talking to FlyDubai!
DeleteI doubt they will start flying from LJU, as this flight would canibalise their brother Emirates flights from ZAG, VIE and VCE. And believe me, they know exactly how many Slovenes are taking these flights.
DeleteObviously enough to hold the negotiations...why would they even start talking about it if they knew its not plausable?
DeleteIt would be interesting to see the percentage of Slovenes using Trieste, Venice, Zagreb and Klagenfurt. Anyone have some statistic?
ReplyDeleteTrieste 70k, Venice probably around 200k, Zagreb probably around 200k too, Klagenfurt maybe a thousand or two.
DeleteThanks. That is actually a very high number LJU is loosing there. It has a very competitive environment.
DeleteIf flydubai comes and maybe vueling to spain those numbers will fall
DeleteAgree. The more LCCs come to LJU, the fewer passengers it will loose. It is primarily these types of passengers that travel to other cities.
DeleteI think ZAG losses are compensated with passengers from Croatia. Does anyknow know how many people from Croatia uses LJU?
DeleteAt least 60k Croatians use LJU.
DeleteHm, LJU said few times that number of Croatians flying from LJU is somewhere same as number of Slovenians flying from ZAG
DeleteI hardly believe there are so many croatians flying out of LJU. Im sure slovenians use ZAG more than the other way around ... much more.
DeleteThey use flights to london, amsterdam and to hurgada and ercan
DeleteNot surprised. They now have quite a big fleet which they will have to deploy somewhere during winter. So I do expect to see some more new routes soon.
ReplyDeleteCheap ACMI / wet leases in winter which bring zero money in as every airline wants to lease out planes during winter season.
DeleteThey should start BEG. Challenge Air Serbia a bit on this route.
ReplyDeleteDoubt it. They codeshare with Air Serbia.
DeleteThey codeshared with Montenegro Airlines too. Look at their Podgorica operations now ;)
DeleteJU flies 12 weekly to Ljubljana, so maybe Adria could try 2x per week.
DeleteBut why? What could they gain from it?
DeleteTransfer passengers.
DeleteTo where. Pretty much every single route operated by Adria is covered from Belgrade. Exceptions are Manchester and Brac which are all just summer routes for Adria.
DeleteYou forgot Kiev too.
DeleteINI should work much better vs BEG
DeleteAgree. INI has much more potential in this case.
DeleteWho would fly to KBP via LJU, when you can transfer in OTP or IST?
DeleteThey fly both to Skopje n Pristina, so i doubt they will launch Nis anytime soon😵
DeleteWhy not Sloavio? SKP/PRN/INI/SOF is known to be "densly populated" region so there is no reason why INI could not work out...
DeleteWell, i think that the needs of economy and transfer pax can be well covered from SKP/PRN/SOF, i doubt there is much demand for “weekend break-(ers)” in ljubljana.
DeleteSloavio, u need to b aware of the sensitivities on this blog:
DeleteINI (and recently BWK) r major stars - every carrier should start flying there
Remember that LJU can be a bit of everything: weekend destination, transfer, also Slovenian companies. I think you are underestimating it a bit.
DeleteHm. That's BWK, INI is more of a rising star in terms of passengers it will handle.
DeleteI got that, but anyway we all know what facts are - economy in Nis region isnt booming nor serbian Standard. But its true INI has great growth, but mostly based on LCC. If JP was able to fly for 40-50€ One way, in this case i would try it with saab 2-3pw, but as we can see from SOF prices thats not the case so market is too price sensitive for JP
DeleteAnon 11:17 enough to fill up lets say 150 seats each way every week if we got 3 rotations pw? I doubt.
DeleteNaravno Ljubljana je maleni grad.
Deletejust checked, transfers via LJU are super expensive from SOF, what do they expect from a market where one can fly to almost everywhere for <40 EUR direct...?? I guess OTP is a similar story
DeleteMaybe they think Bulgaria and Romania are 3rd world countries with no connections to the west. Or they think people will connect from OTP to go to SKP :D
Delete:D
DeleteSOF-FRA 07.05
Bulgaria air (direct): 40 EUR
Wizzair (direct): 51 EUR
Lufthansa (direct): 98 EUR
Ryanair (1 stop): 82 EUR
LOT (1 stop): 112 EUR
Air Serbia (1 stop): 124 EUR
ADRIA (1 stop): 162 EUR
competitive pricing :D
Stop this bs please. What makes you all necessarily think JP are unaware of the situation? Maybe the current flights are pure O&D traffic and not tranfer? Do you think they will just waste their money investing in OTP or SOF?
DeleteJP is fully aware of huge LCC presence in both capitals and also presence of JU who also offer excellent prices.
Please, behave like adults and not some wannabe brats. Lets give JP a chance to prove themselves instead of making fun.
He who laughs last, laughts best...
true, O&D
DeleteGood news for Adria.
ReplyDeleteThose SAABs will probably never come.
ReplyDeleteThey will. What do you think they are going to do with all the Saab pilots that are in training now.
DeleteThere is one thing i cant get with JP. Ok, they planned to get these SAABs directly from “Darwin” together with pilots. Thing with the metal got complicated coz insolvency proceedings take time - ok, but to start looking for pilots when the scheduled expension is already taking place is at least pathetic n a bit naive. So they werent able to find even a single pair of pilots to operate at least one Saab or in any case pilots need to go thru training when shuffling to a new metal?
DeleteI mean they werent avle to find even a single pair of saab pilots* i know that if changing the type u obliged to go through training
DeleteThere are no saab pilots on training.
DeleteThere is a huge number of captains an copilots on training for crj
Huge? Where did they get them?
DeleteThey are foreigners.
DeleteReally loving the term "foreigners" here. It looks like they are really welcome there.
DeleteHow would u call them? Non-slovenians? People from abroad? Expats?
DeleteCapt at JP are Slovenians. They dont allow foreign captains. What they do is training SLO F/O to become capt and they hire foreigners for F/O
DeleteNothing new, already past 10 years JP had pilots fm Spain or the US
Beglax completely wrong. There were a lot of US captains in in JP in the past when there were not enough adria fo's able for upgrade. 12% of pilots in jp can be contractors, no matter captains or fo's. No matter slovenians or expats. The only thing that is that no new pilot can skip seniority, but that has nothing to do with nationality. New fo's are now both contractors and adria employed.
DeleteSo salaries are not that bad as ppl are saying... if americans are willing to fly for JP and their wages
DeleteThat was over 10 years ago, and the airline industry was in a much different state. Nobody in their right state of mind would leave US regionals now to work for JP today.
DeleteThis is silly. JP not allowing captains who are not Slovenian? Seriously? That would make the company highly illegal and the EU would sue the airline to bankruptcy in a second if that were the case. Which it obviously isn't, since such major crime wouldn't slip under the radar.
DeleteSmart. They need to grow in order to remain relevant both in Slovenia but in Croatia too.
ReplyDeleteWhat could be the next new destination?
ReplyDeleteThey probably talk about their planned base in Germany
DeleteHere is what I think:
DeleteCLJ, LWO, RIX, VAR, KRK, KIV, SKG, LYS, BHX, MAD
To cover us much CEE as possible they should launch RIX, but i doubt it will work out. If anything from the above mentioned, i would try SKG (seasonal) n LYS (seasonal as well). I would love to get MAD but probably not enough demand, but they could at least be competitive with prices to Iberia from VCE (around 160€ return), but hardly to Air Europa (90€ return if booked well in advance). They should try LJU-MAD-BCN-LJU rotation
DeleteKiv? Hehe 😂
Oh Sloavio, KIV is rising. They constructed a new terminal, Air Moldova is a decent carrier and the airport is thirsty for more European connections. Many Moldavians have Romanian passport so they live and work in EU. I think KIV can be very successful indeed.
DeleteSo i found this on google “Average Salary in Chisinau, Moldova. The average salary in Chisinau is not that exciting either. According to Wikipedia, the average brutto salary in Moldova is 4909 Moldovan lei, or roughly $250. According to this other source, the average salary after tax in Moldova is 3921 MDL, or roughly $200.”
DeleteI think it says it all. The average JP return ticket costs around 200$, so the whole monthly income for one return ticket - so if we apply this to slovenian standard, average netto salary around 1100€-1200€ (ljubljana), how many ppl are willing (and able) to be a frequent flyer on the route where the return ticket costs their whole monthly wage (1100€)??? Not many probably...
Hmmm, but you are forgetting that the flights heavily depend on the diaspora. I think there are 2 million Moldavians abroad.
DeleteSpecially the big one in Slovenia n neighbouring countries. Or u think people will choose JP over other transfwr option?
DeleteYes, that's what I meant. Transfer option similar to KBP.
DeleteIf they are not making profit, all of this is just a giant scam to try to offload the company to a naive buyer. We will be able to judge 4K's work once they show us the financial report - without accounting tricks. Currently it looks to good to be true.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteStrange that so many foreign pilots seem to want to join (according to previous comments). Yes, being based in LJU must be nice, but with so many other airlines recruiting pilots across Europe, including CRJ operators, I can't help but thinking there are safer options (I mean for job security - I don't doubt the JP safety culture).
I'll tell you why I don't fly out of LJU. I travel around 7-10 times per year and live in Kranj, so 10 min to the airport. However I fly out of LJU once per year or 2 years. Why? Because travelling to Zagreb or Venice for 30€ return makes me experience a P2P flight with no wastefull connections and with also a lower price. The only time I have flown out of LJU was when I was visiting London and Brussels and next week when I'll visit Amsterdam. Any other destination, I used the other 3 airports. Prices are too high on this Adria controlled airport. It's not competitive at all. I'm not a buisness passenger, I'm a completly normal leisure one, so that is why LJU doesn't work for me. Because I can get a less hassle free flight from the other nearby airports for a cheaper price too.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you.
DeleteLJU should do much more to attract low cost airlines. The choice from Ljubljana is bad. Adria has a monopoly on 80% of the routes.
Hmm yet ZAG isn't known to be exactly cheap.
DeleteSadly, both LJU and ZAG remain very expensive EU capitals.
DeleteSJJ has the same problem.
As we previously mentioned, just make a search from any medium sized city in Europe to ZAG or LJU, you will see that prices are very high.
During my travel to Asia, I met people telling me they would stop in Venice and do ZAG and LJU by car/couch/train. The same for BUD.
Well ZAG is competitive or even cheap to Asia. Within Europe you can find decent fares to Berlin, AMS, BRU, FCO, ZRH, CPH and other cities OU flies to. I travel often from AMS to ZAG and I never pay more than 130 euros. I always look at the fares JP is charging which are almost never less than 200 euros
DeleteI'm always shocked when I see people from Ljubljana flying out from Bergamo because it is cheaper. Slovenians are obsessed with low air tickets prices (with low cost airlines and other airlines too) when they need to pay from their own pockets. The air ticket price is more I'm than the destination. I'm talking of leisure flights meanwhile they splurge on cars and houses. They don't spend a lot eating out too. So strange.
DeleteAnon 4:01; stupid generalization
DeleteThis generalization is accurate for 90 to 95 % cases.
Delete@ anon 4:47: nope, it is just stupid like all generalizations.
DeleteWell, they are right. Why would you pay 500+ EUR for a return ticket to Spain and you would have to connect through MUC or FRA if you can catch a bus or GoOpti, and have a direct flight?
Deletelook at my case from last year:
DeleteLJU AMS LJU Transavia 120 EUR Adria 188 EUR. Transavia have a very bad timetable. I lost 2 day beacuse dep from is on 6pm and I'm in AMS at 8pm basically I'm just going to sleep in AMS. retur time is bad at 7am from AMS than again I'm just sleep that day in AMS. If I look all that than I throw away min. 60 or 70 EUR just for sleep. If I take Adria's flight 5.30 am dep from LJU at 7.30 in AMS and back at 9.30pm for 188 EUR. I will always choose Adria when I have this kind of situation.
Anon @12:34 yes, for europe destinations it's not that cheqp. Altho, if catching a cheap fare on Norwegian to Copenhagen or Stockholm, that works very well. It also works on vueling. Got great prices there too. Manly tho, I use ZAG for long haul ops with Qatar. Unmatched prices by anything LJU can offer.
ReplyDeleteThey should try Canary Islands once a week.There is a season all year round but price schould not be too expencive.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about it, but they wont be able to fill up the airbus, and for crj900 is too far probably?
DeleteSo any LF for todays flight to Bucharest?🙏🏼
ReplyDeleteLJU OTP 24%
DeleteOTP LJU 31%
Thank u bud! 🙏🏼 I think OTP will perform better than SOF, in may i might try it, if they manage to still operate it 😂
DeleteThank you very much. I
DeleteFrankly,I was expecting better results, but lets not jump to conclusions yet.
I've read before that BWK and SOF are doing well, do we have any sources?
As I commented a few days ago ... LF of the first 3 new routes explains why JP 2 weeks ago started quite intense advertising for the new destinations covered... probably even LF in the next few days wont be much better. JP should start offering direct transfers to the coast/ski centres (depends on the season) with support of GoOpti or any other provider.
DeleteI have checked the prices of return tickets for different new routes throughout the next 2 months - in 90% of the combinations the final
DeletePrice is still the (basic) one advertised... if i dare to make some conclucions that means they r still in the “phase” of selling “cheap” tickets (higher the LF is, more expensive the tickets tend to be - general rule, not sure if applied with JP) ... but its also true that the amount of “cheap” tickets is higher due to bigger AC used (72 seats instead of 50). If the LF was 24% and 31% that means 17pax and 22pax, had JP used the SAAB today, their LF would have been 34% and 44%, which is not even that bad.
OTP was operated using CR7, SOF using CR9 but LF was high on the outbound flight because of the President official visit to SOF.
DeleteBut I guess JP knew that the S2000 is exactly the perfect aircraft for those routes.
as I wrote few comments above. KBP first few flights had 15 or 20% LF. Look at this route now 75% which is really nice. Sometimes use A319 to KBP.
DeleteWas FRA cancelled today?
ReplyDeleteGeneva was cancelled, dont know about FRA.
DeleteSecond day of operating GEN and they alread cancelled it?
DeleteFRA afternoon flight was cxl
DeleteLOL what a fantastic start
DeleteYes, the early afternoon LJU-FRA-LJU was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteFRA and GVA was cancelled because of tehnical issues on one of CRJ900
ReplyDeleteHm, hard to buy that - isn't AFA standing on the apron? Looks more like a lack of crew.
Deleteno, AFA is on C check, white CRJ is EC-JYA and havn't yet in Slo. reg.
Deletebtw this CRJ will became S5-AFC...
Deletebtw AFA is now in full Adria's c/s
DeleteSo much negativity and sarcasm towards JP, I don't understand you.
ReplyDeleteSo what if the launch of some routes has been delayed or cancelled? The aviation sector is dynamic and keeps changing all the time.
The same type of comments the other day with JU cancelling some routes. Please, the aviation experts are not you, but the people working for those airlines.
I simply think JP wants to show the world that it ain't no ordinary airline and has something to offer, especially having LJU in the heart of Europe and now part of the prestigious Fraport.
Hahahahhaha dude, what are u on? Because i want that shit as well 😂😂😂😂 JP is very ordinary! I am mostly PRO JP, but we all know what it range is and JP will never be nothing more and nothing less than an ordinary airline - you cant be a luxury airine operating riutes with CRJ 😂😂😂😂😂
DeleteSo what if it operates using CRJ? Does it make it inferior? RO and JU both use ATR, does that make them bad??! JP also have bigger aircraft and at least have a decent network coverage. So, just relax a bit and let's see how their plan works. Thanks.
DeleteLJU needs to start advertizing in ZAG especially for flights operated by LCCs.
ReplyDeleteThis Adria story will have one hard mid-air collision with reality and then Ljubljana will suffer as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of possible scenarios. Another one says LH was upset when EY bought JU and started messing with miniature Balkan world LH built mostly with OS, OU and JP Lego blocks. Avoiding government deals and public companies, they are now using obscure financial vehicle to rebuild New Balkans Order according to LH.
DeletePersonally I think this is obviously fake. We all know Slovenia is not in the Balkans.
Well, what did you expect from LH? To remain passive regarding entries such as EY or FR? They have created their masterplan buying OS,SN,LX. Creating EW and dominating well countries like Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, etc. FRA is quietly becoming the master of Europe and will definitely replace LHR in 5 years after they open the ongoing Terminal 3.
DeleteSo, JP and OU will have to play with the LH legos.
i believe this "LH is behind it" is a theory on a level of earth being a flat surface
Delete