NEWS FLASH
Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot will launch nonstop flights between Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and Ljubljana this coming winter season, starting October 28. Flights will operate on a daily basis with the carirer’s 87-seat Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, featuring twelve seats in business class and the remaining 75 in economy. The Sky Team member will compete directly against Adria Airways on the route, however, the two airlines maintain a codeshare partnership on flights between the Russian and Slovenian capitals. This winter, Adria will maintain daily services to Moscow, as was the case the previous season. Ljubljana becomes Aeroflot’s fifth scheduled destination in the former Yugoslavia following Belgrade, Tivat, Split and Zagreb.
Further flight details for Aeroflot's new Moscow - Ljubljana service can be found here.
Further flight details for Aeroflot's new Moscow - Ljubljana service can be found here.
Now this is news!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations LJU and Fraport for the great job they are doing.
The good thing is that from Moskva to Ljubljana you have a morning and afternoon departure, which are great for connections via SVO.
FZ or QR will next ;) ;) ;) ;)
First they added a third daily to BEG now daily to LJU... I bet double daily to ZAG is next.
ReplyDeleteThere's no demand for 2nd daily, at best they'll be sending A320 to Zagreb, daily. Links between Russia and Croatia aren't as good as those between Serbia and Russia, so you can't expect same demand for the route.
DeleteLast year 66000 passengers used the service to and from Moscow, need to check the numbers, but its there around. For double daily you'll need three time as many passengers on the route.
For a reference, Emirates will handle 200 000 on the route between Dubai and Zagreb Dubai in 2018, in 2019, 220 000 pax, this also includes 3 months of FlyDubai service that will cover daily Emirates flights to Zagreb.
You bet.
Delete@17:56 - Do you have a crystal ball?
DeleteThis will further complicate things for EK in ZAG as a matter of fact since Aeroflot is mainly after transfer passengers to Asia.
DeletePonovno molim administratora da obriše postove vezane za FZ/EK i ZAG koji stvarno nemaju veze s navedenom temom i koji se koriste svakodnevno bez ikakve potrebe. Hvala!
DeleteДа ли је реално да је Анон 18.38 Србин? Шта тебе брига за то ко колико спомиње Загреб и ЕК. Аман више.
DeleteNisam Srbin. EK se spominje u svakoj mogućoj temi, do granice opsjednutosti.
Delete@QR 92110 August 2018 at 18:24
DeleteIt won't, as Aeroflot has tiny numbers on the route, 65000 pax, most Asian transfers are via Lufthansa, BA, Air France, Emirates, Turkish, Qatar and other airlines.
Links between Croatia and Russia aren't as developed as between Russia and Serbia, we have a tiny fraction of demand and business links that exist between Serbia and Russia.
Double daily between Moscow and Zagreb would be only possible if traffic between the two cities triples.
Are you there to predict the amount of transfer there will be between LJU and SVO?
Deletewow! (this are mainly for russian ski tourists i assume)
ReplyDelete...and transfers to Asia.
DeleteNisu prolupali da idu na skijanje u Sloveniju.
DeleteAko Rusi dolaze na Kopaonik na skijanje, ne vidim razlog da ne idu i u Sloveniju, manje je staza u njihovim ski centrima u Sloveniji ali su bolje jer su to ipak Alpi.
DeleteSamo neka se drze Kopaonika!
DeleteThis is about Aeroflot trying to tame-in LO which has grown too much.
DeleteSU launched daily flights to BOJ and will deploy the cute Sukhoi jet during winter to compete with S7.
ReplyDeleteAny chance to see pobeda in MBX or SU flights to MBX?
Of course, but only after VLM starts Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou Chengdu and Xiamen
DeleteHope we get to 2 million tgis year.
ReplyDeleteBravo Slovenija!
ReplyDeleteWell done to Lju! Really glad to hear that!
ReplyDeleteGreat news! btw, i saw it is possible to book tickets from LJU to Berlin by easyjet also after november, however not Tegel but Schoenefeld!i guess it remains a year round service then
ReplyDeleteThey are also launching BEG today.
DeleteBtw, final renders for Ljubljana's new terminal have also popped up
Deletehttps://image.ibb.co/nQUOVp/terminal.png
https://image.ibb.co/hkDiVp/terminal2.png
Hope they'll publish some high-quality renders soon as well.
SXF is much cheaper than TXL so it is a logical move.
DeleteNice terminal photos. It might be ready by summer 2020!!!!!!
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/06/ljubljana-airport-unveils-future-plans.html
Really bad news for the jealous ones and you know who you are! ;) ;) ;) ;)
What matters is that they are staying
DeleteYeeeah! I was so happy for U2 Berlin route :) even if SFX is much further out and departure times from SFX are horrible! Really horrible. But happy to see this route year round!
Delete@Anonymous10 August 2018 at 11:31
Delete"Btw, final renders for Ljubljana's new terminal have also popped up"
Looks bigger than original design from last year, they need to expand the terminal that is given, however I hope they extend passenger boarding bridges to new terminal as well, they can add 4 more of these, and make whole terminal look worldly.
Thanks for sharing. Will there be another runway?
DeleteUnofficially one more air bridge will be added (which brings the total to 5) with the option of additional air bridges to the west as needed.
DeleteThe land for second runway is reserved in the "OPN", however it's not planned before 2040.
... and how about adding SKP to this? seems its the only capital along with SJJ not to have direct flights to Russia
ReplyDeleteI whole Europe also Tirana, and of course temporarly Kiev.
DeleteHvala bogu. Konačno se može iz Slovenije letit do Moskve, a da dobiješ normalnu uslugu na avionu.
ReplyDeleteTrebalo bi i LED uvesti. Bilo bi to dobro za turizam.
JP will launch LED for sure.
DeleteHe said normal service, not JP legacy price and low cost service...
DeleteJP is considered legacy, while JU is hybrid (free water and no more metal cutlery).
DeleteOU is somewhere between.
JA is almost legacy.
I*ll give you an example of how legacy JP is:
DeleteAfter buying an e-ticket via www, I have sent an email to JP requesting wheelchair assistance for boarding the plane. It took them two weeks for an answer to a simple request. For the same thing (different flight) it took OU less than an hour to deal with it. So JP legacy malo morgen. And as I pass the Adria counter at LJU daily, I can tell you stories about "nice" passanger treatment by their staff. "Legacy" is not only about free sanwich and metal cutlery.
Just because you had 1 unfortunate case doesn't make JP a bad airline.
DeleteOn Skytrax there is a client from Germany that ranked it 10/10 and I usually trust German reviews:
http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/adria-airways/
Also, JP has one of the highest punctuality rates amongst the rest.
@16.10 have you ever actually flown with Adria? If you had you would know they are hybrid. In fact more so hybrid then JU. You have to pay for everything except a bottle of water and until last year they didn't even offer water for free for years.
DeleteSo? At least JP has a young fleet and not so bad network coverage at all. The website is extremely user friendly too. Lastly, they are definitely excellent when it comes to price. They usually offer the shortest minimum connecting time in LJU airport and price + distance time is great.
DeleteAs you can see, JP has many strong and key advantages.
@Anonymous10 August 2018 at 16:10
DeleteOn OU flights you get small pack of tarallini, few olives and a soft drink, as most flights are less than 2 hours, it is more than sufficient.
Every legacy carrier on routes with in the EU does the same service, soft drink and a snack. Just the Croatian airlines offers healthy option, olives and tarallini are healthy and part of Croatian diet and cuisine.
Would have that over any cheese sandwich. BTW, if that is not considered legacy carrier than t Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss and Air France are also not legacy carriers, or BA for that matter. For all of them offer something similar, snack and soft drink.
Also LOT offers free water only. No diference to JP. IBERIA is even worse - no free water, everything is for purchase.
DeleteLJU is converting itself into a regional player. Very interesting news lately.
ReplyDeleteU2 expansion, JP's Balkan expansion and now the arrival of a legacy. Very good.
You bet.
ReplyDeleteInteresting add and the SSJ is ideal for this kind of route. I am sure there will be quite a few transfers onto their Asian network.
ReplyDeleteThe market between LJU and SVO is not small:
2015: 43.133
2016: 42.762
2017: 48.271
Last year there were on average 66 passengers between the two cities, up from 58 the year before.
Yes, I am really glad the aircraft improved a lot, especially its safety concerns following the Armavia crash in 2012.
DeleteInterestingly enough is that they deploy this aircraft to OTP as the route apparently is not so busy.
I am a big fan of Sukhoi and hope JP considers buying them one day:
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/06/adria-plans-order-for-twelve-sukhoi.html
They had initial plans but apparently gave up-
Nemjee do you maybe have info on other routes from lju airport and adria?
DeleteI usually post numbers for city pairs as they are updated more regularly and are easier to go through. These are the available numbers, first is last year and then this one.
DeleteLJU-FRA - 29.125/ 32.676
LJU-IST - 23.554 / 30.967
LJU-STN - 21.933 / 22.453
LJU-ZRH - 19.810 / 22.302
LJU-AMS - 9.100 / 21.894 (Transavia effect)
LJU-CDG - 14.191 / 16.599
LJU-MUC - 19.892 / 16.450
What I found interesting is that last Q1, BEG with 13.636 passengers was busier than VIE, SKP, TIA, SVO, CRL and CPH.
As for OTP, I am not surprised. The market to Russia is just not that big, it always struggled. I think that when it comes to the Balkans, BEG is the second largest market to Moscow after Istanbul.
Nemjee, what about Bulgaria?
DeleteMoscow is connected year round to SOF, VAR & BOJ. And seasonally to PDV.
What is your opinion?
Bulgarian numbers are interesting.
DeleteThese are the top performers in 2017 with 2016 next to them.
BOJ-DME - 242.804 (347.825)
BOJ-SVO - 173.441 (117.724)
VAR-DME - 120.955 (138.176)
SOF-SVO - 120.344 (107.370)
BOJ-VKO - 53.609
VAR-SVO - 32.145 (31.693)
Market between Sofia and Moscow seems to be of similar size to Sofia-Paris. Last year there were roughly 165 daily, one way passengers, up from 147 the year before that.
I looked at the 2017 numbers and only destinations that grew compared to 2016 are those where Ryanair and Wizz Air launched or added flights. All others either grew modestly or, like Istanbul, experienced a drop in passenger numbers. Like I wrote a few months ago, Sofia's booming numbers are primarly due to the ongoing feud between lowcost airlines.
Here are the numbers for SVO-wider Balkan region.
DeleteTop destinations in 2017:
1. VIE-SVO - 325.929 (278.786)
2. BUD-SVO - 197.455 (167.000)
3. TIV-SVO - 123.893 (120.476)
4. SOF-SVO - 120.344 (107.370)
5. ZAG-SVO - 57.451 (51.179)
6. LJU-SVO - 48.271 (42.762)
I am sure BEG numbers are similar to VIE which had 447 daily, one way passengers.
Хвала много, Nemjee!
DeleteBOJ figures are crazy and mind you there is a decline of Russian tourists because they now return to Egypt and Turkey.
SOF-MOW has never changed for more than a decade - 11 weekly.
So how much passenger flow between BEG and MOW then? Is it like VIE?
Now with the new 3rd daily SVO-BEG SU flights in autumn, the numbers will be crazy!
BEG should try connecting more Moscow airports such as VKO and the new ZIA airport.
BEG-VKO with Pobeda would be simply awesome!
It might actually happen.
DeleteBEG got DME but it will fail.
Delete@Nemjee10 August 2018 at 19:14
DeleteFrom these figures we can see ther's no need for 2nd double daily to Zagreb as some suggest here. 60 000 pax on the route is barely worth of an A319, we need to graduate to A320 first before we can consider double daily to Zagreb. Sofia on the other hand has good chance of getting double daily with superjet service.
Became of ad? Lol ok
DeleteOuch, not good not good. The prices are always the same from Moscow to Belgrade on their calendar until the end of October and no flights are displayed afterwards.
DeleteI hope Red Wings not end up like Ural :(
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/08/ural-airlines-to-terminate-belgrade.html
Like we mentioned before, now that the GoS has control of INI, I think it is high time to give it a chance. 5 daily flights BEG-MOW this winter is just unbelievable.
Well, pity that Zagreb can't have more than a daily small plane to Moscow, ads don't help.
DeleteA daily flight with a small plane suits the demand between ZAG and Moscow, but thank you for caring, Anon 19:55. xoxo
DeleteI am sure one daily FZ suits your demand as well. xoxo
DeleteIt actually does, how about your EK? No?
DeleteAnonymous10 August 2018 at 19:28
DeleteНема на чему! :)
BEG-MOW reminds me of BEG-ROM. Seems like only hub to hub airlines can make it work. That said, I hope Red Wings succeeds as the market seems to be there but JU-SU have their claws in it and are not letting go. Well, at this point it seems like it's mostly SU's claws. lol
Then again, with JU collapsing to SVO, this could be an opportunity for Red Wings to get some of market that JU lost.
Anonymous10 August 2018 at 19:41
Isn't ZAG operated by the SSJ in winter? Or is it 5 weekly on the A319?
@Anonymous10 August 2018 at 19:55
DeleteAir Serbia can't fill ATR72 on a dialy basis to Zagreb and you expect Aeroflot will be filling A320 to Zagreb??? For flights to exist between two cities there must be more demand, Croats needs visa to enter Russia and vice versa, so demand is stifled by that one bit of paperwork, add to this that Croatia become somewhat expensive in past 4-5 years and prices have skyrocketed, average Russian can't afford to travel to Croatia as they used to do. Number of Russian visitors to Croatia has been stagnating for nearly 6 years now, it is around 140-150 000 visitors per year. In 2012 186 000 Russians visited Croatia, in 2013 that number dropped to 136 000, 50 000 drop, and hasn't recovered since.
I think only developing business links between the two countries can improve this number, i/e traffic, but considering Russia is considered unsafe and under EU sanctions, any links with Russia at this point are hard to establish.
Anon 20:14 - nice analysis.
DeleteI think the weakest performing capitals from the former bloc on the Moscow flights are:
1. OTP - 2 daily is just way low for 2 such big cities
2. ZAG - Barely daily
3. SOF - 11 weekly for more than a decade - coast is a complete different story
4. BTS - SU used to operate now replaced with Pobeda
Like Anon 20:14 said, the visas are a big issue, the rouble plunged badly and Russian choose cheaper countries like Georgia for example.
Same is happening with UK tourists - weaker pound now they ditch Spain and Italy and go to Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, etc.
Russian tourists are generally notorious especially richer ones. They complain a lot and have an arrogant attitude. Not all of course.
Serbia and Russia do have decent economic ties but they are not that strong to warrant 3 daily flights on SU, daily on JU and three weekly on Red Wings.
DeleteThe main difference with BEG and ZAG seems that the former has far more demand for markets where Aeroflot has been traditionally strong such as domestic Russian flights, the CIS as well as eastern and north-eastern Asia. For example, there might not enough passengers to secure non-stop flights to Kazakhstan but there are more than enough high yielding transfer passengers. For them right now there are only two real options when booking flights: SU and TK.
Aeroflot might be strong today but that wasn't the case some years ago. Just a decade ago they used to operate five weekly flights onboard their Tu-154.
There are more ways to develop a route besides tourism.
SU has invested heavily on its product and has went from shitty IL-96 and falling Tu-154M to A330, A320 and nice US B777 flights.
DeleteThe livery is sophisticated with the names of all Russian poets, writers, scientists, etc, etc. inspired by JU - tribute to Novak Đoković as the idea was initially from there.
Also good for SU to refurb SVO as it had a very bad reputation worldwide. Ironically, JU has been a good example of what to do and how to do in the aviation.
Anyway, good luck with the Београд-Москва route....long live our letters and brotherhood.
Nemjee
DeleteWhere to you get pax info for each route?
Shitty Il-96?
DeleteAnon 23.27
DeleteI get them from a friend who is from the industry.
By the way, this Sunday's INI-NYO seems to be sold out. I wonder if a third weekly flight would have been possible.
:@Nemjee10 August 2018 at 21:59
DeleteI am not saying tourism is only vehicle of growth, but it is important in establishing demand between two destinations. Someone said, soon there'll be two daily flights to Zagreb, to which i said, there's no demand for the route, when you have 60k on the route, that barely supports small regional jet, let alone A320. Links between Croatia and Russia aren't strong, most Russians avoid Croatia once it joined the EU, visa issues and Croatia becoming more expensive. Prices along the coast in Croatia are now higher than in Zagreb, and Zagreb has higher pays, 25% higher, yet coast is around 20% more expensive than Zagreb.
And Zagreb ain't cheap, consistently it is ranked among most expensive cities in Central Europe, ahead of Prague, Budapest and Warsaw . https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index/europe, Average NET pay in Zagreb is around 7550 Kuna (€1027), average pay in Croatia is 6450 kuna (€877), however most expensive city to live in Croatia is Dubrovnik, followed by Split, Pula, Korcula and Hvar. Average pay in any of these cities is bellow national average, with only Pula above national average, 6870kuna(€935).
Anyhow, I don't see how we can attract more Russians to visit when their pays have been frozen since 2011, with an average pay of around €436,or slightly above Serbian average pay of €418 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage. And getting Russian business will be very hard, first screening of Russian business interests against EU banned list and than creating environment of trust between two sides knowing the EU has set high barriers for any serious trade talks.
Druzhba-Adria fine example, add to this Agrokor fiasco and reputation of Russian businessman as mafia connected to Putin, it'll be hard to improve relations in that field. I see transfers from China, and Asia via Moscow as an option as often to Asia Aeroflot is cheapest, and from Asia to Europe, again, there's one hitch, Korean Air is coming this year, Hainan and ANA next year, and Ukraine Internationale also plans to start flights to Zagreb next year, hitting on possible Central Asian transfers, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia...
I think numbers could improve, from presents 60-65k to 90-120k with in decade, but for that both sides will need to work hard and income at least in Russia would need to double for any significant increase in tourist visits to Zagreb and Croatia, however Russia atm is still relatively poor country and I don't think many will travel to Croatia, now that Croatia is just as expensive as Spain, Portugal and Greece.
But you see, that's something I don't get. If Croatia is as expensive as Spain, Portugal or Greece... which are all countries for which Russians need visas then how come they have more and more Russian arrivals.
DeleteGreece alone saw a 17.3% rise in Russian arrivals in the first five months of the year. They expect at least a million arrivals this year.
In the same period, 335.000 Russians visited Spain which is 9% more. Mind you, both of these numbers represent the pre-season period.
If Croatia is experiencing a drop in Russian arrivals then I fear it has nothing to do with visas or Croatia being too expensive for them. I think it has to do with Croatia either not caring about attracting Russians or them failing at it.
Nemjee that is not true that in Croatia there are less and less Russians. There was a big drop because of the visa regime, but in the last two years their numbers are up again. Especially in Istria. Croatia is expensive, bit definitely not nore than Spain or Portugal. So those assumptions are fantasies.
Delete:@Anonymous11 August 2018 at 17:13
DeleteI have no idea where you get your info from, but numbers are still low, @133000 Russian visitors last year, this year about the same trend.
@Nemjee11 August 2018 at 10:09
Perhaps it is not costs, no idea what it is, perhaps Croatia not caring to attract more visitors from Russia might be it. Funny thing though, number of Ukrainian visitors is up, 90 000+ expected this year.
What on earth are you talking about considering the type of aircraft SU uses for Zagreb flights? Small planes, we need to graduate to A320? I agree that there's no need for double daily flights and the number of Russian visitors had decreased a few year back, but now it's mostly holding steady and SU regularly flies with an A320 on a Zagreb route.
Delete