British Airways will consider extending its planned new flights between London Heathrow and Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport once its resumes operations to the Slovenian capital next July following an eighteen-year hiatus. The airport's operator, Fraport Slovenia, noted that the airline will make a final decision based on the route's performance, which is currently scheduled to run twice per week between July 15 and September 2. British Airways is advertising Ljubljana as a leisure destination, and will compete against two other carriers operating year-long flights from three other London airports to the Slovenian capital. Furthermore, the UK carrier will also consider adding extra frequencies between the two cities.
The General Manager of Ljubljana Airport, Zmago Skobir, said, "The return of British Airlines is the consequence of long-term efforts of Ljubljana Airport and Slovenian tourism. The connection with London Heathrow Airport is of great added value, as Heathrow is one of the world's most important hubs, connected to destinations across the world. Furthermore, it is going to have a positive influence on the visibility of Slovenia as a tourist destination on the British market and, at the same time, on the inflow of British tourists to Slovenia". Fraport Slovenia added, "British Airways is a central airline of the One World alliance, that will return to Ljubljana Airport after eighteen years".
British Airways noted, "Ljubljana is very much a hidden gem amongst former Eastern European cities. As a result, tourism in the city is growing rapidly, making it a destination on the radar for many airlines. We are gearing up for an exciting summer next year as we add more routes to our extensive network. We’re always developing our leisure offering and are committed to giving our customers even more choice of destinations at competitively low prices". A total of 239.727 passengers flew between Ljubljana and London last year, with 47% of those opting for easyJet's Stansted service, followed by Wizz Air's Luton flights and easyJet's Gatwick operations.
Mr Skobir recently said the airport is working on attracting more carriers to operate existing routes, in order to offer passengers more choice. "We are investing a lot of efforts in attracting new airlines to destinations already covered by one of the carriers. When Transavia introduced flights to Amsterdam, the existing Adria Airways service did not lose passengers. We attracted a completely different market and the number of travellers on this destination has more than doubled. As a domestic carrier in the Netherlands, Transavia is much more recognisable than Adria, which makes it easier to address this market ", Mr Skobir said. Ljubljana Airport expects to handle a record 1.8 million passengers this year after exceeding 2017s end-of-year result on November 25. "This year's traffic growth will be around 8.5% compared to last year, as we expect another 140.000 passengers by the end of 2018. Therefore, the new record will amount to roughly over 1.8 million passengers, which was also our forecast at the beginning of the year", Fraport Slovenia said.
Flight details for British Airways' new service to Ljubljana can be found here.
It's great to see new arrivals in LJU. First Aeroflot, now British. Hopefully we get to see Hop upgrade o Air France mainline soon and maybe Alitalia start flights.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget easyJet from Berlin that launched flights recently. They are a great addition and they seem to be doing very well. Maybe that's why Eurowings is cancelling ZAG-TXL.
DeleteHopefully Easy adds some new routes to LJU next summer. Transavia is also doing well, as Skobir says in the article.
DeleteEurowings is cancelling ZAG and reducing SPU from Tegel, because they wont have any Airbuses stationed in the city. They are reducing their fleet.
Deletehttp://www.airliners.de/so-lgw-tegel-exit/47761
EasyJet and Adria flew to LJU aleady for at most a year before cancelling the flights. Judging by their short term prices, hmm lets see how long this route will survive this time.
2 weekly year round to LHR could work.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteEven more as LJU seems to be the only ex-YU destination that can sustain multiple daily, year-round flights to London!!
DeleteMost EU capitls are linked to 2 to 3 London airports.
DeleteIt's one of the largest transport hubs in the world. No surprise.
DeleteWhat is the fascination between London and Ljubljana? What sort of passengers are these mostly? Tourists?
ReplyDeleteSorry, why the surprise? Both Ljubljana and Slovenia (in general) are really beautiful places to visit!
DeleteI'm not saying it isn't but you don't see the same traffic volume from say France or Spain or Italy. So I'm just asking how come Slovenia is so popular with people from the UK.
DeletePassengers are mostly drunk British tourists. The same ones who go to the Baltics for the weekend for cheap beer.
Delete118,508 British tourists in Slovenia in 2017.
DeleteEnglezi vole popiti, to je znana cinjenica.
DeleteVole i skijati, manje znana cinjenica.
A slovenska skijalista su jedna od rijetkih koja jos nisu zabranila konzumiranje alkohola.
Seventh largest group of tourists in Slovenia.
DeleteTo counterbalance the tedious stereotype I have never been drunk in Slovenia during my frequent visits. Brits have always travelling in numbers to ex-Yugoslavia, so the modern day popularity is nothing new. Ljubljana is though a popular 'stag do' destination, and sadly many UK citizens let themselves down on these occasions.
DeleteThere's a couple of factors here. I've been working in the UK for 3 years now. Every English person I talk to, has either been to Slovenia and wants to return or wants to go there soon. On top of that, quite a few Brits have holiday apartments around lake Bohinj. Furthermore, whoever wants to visit Slovenia form outside of Europe, will usually either come through Istanbul or London. Lastly, there's around 5k Slovenians living in London and even more in the whole UK.
DeleteWhenever I took the flight, most of the times, it was full. The lowest I've seen is at around 80% capacity.
British people always liked Slovenia and were coming for holidays. JAT was operating scheduled LJU - LHR service 3 times weekly with B727 in period 1970-1990. And if I remember well it was year-round, not seasonal. And it was the same case with whole of ex-yu. BA used to send even B747 on its charters to PUY for example. Just for info to younger people.
DeleteAviogenex had extensive number of charters from Cro coast to UK back in the day.
DeleteCorrect. Aviogenex had up to 11 planes in its fleet. They were all based in Pula, Split and Dubrovnik during the summer season and were operating charters mostly to the UK, mostly for touroperator Yugotours. Only Aviogenex carried more than 500.000 passengers/tourist between ex-yu and the UK. Plus JAT scheduled and charter service plus Adria. The traffic between the UK and ex-yu was always quite big. And Aviogenex even considered introducing B767 to its fleet. If the country remained as a whole and everything remained normal it probably would have happened
DeleteWhat other OneWorld airline flies to LJU?
ReplyDeleteNone except Finnair seasonally.
DeleteThey could really try going year round.
DeleteSo Ljubljana now has flights to 4 airports in London? Wow.
ReplyDeleteYes. Heathrow, Luton, Gatiwck and Stansted.
DeleteHope these flights work out and that frequencies are increased and service upgraded to year round.
ReplyDeleteVery nice addition for LJU.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Ljubljana Airport. I'm glad things are picking up with new airlines and routes, plans for a terminal expansion and passenger numbers growing.
ReplyDeleteLJU is really moving forward. Good luck, Slovenia!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how many flights they used to have to LJU when they used to fly? Was it from Heathrow back then?
ReplyDeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteBravo Slovenia!
DeleteAnd still no prospect of flights to UK airports besides London!
ReplyDeleteWould be nice if JP resumes seasonal Manchester flights.
DeleteWith Sukhoi.
Delete@9.35 Adria flew Manchester this summer, once per week.
DeleteIt used to be twice a week - May-September. North of Luton, that is/was the sum total.
DeleteAre the flight time convenient for connections or is this mostly for P2Ps?
ReplyDeleteSeeing as the operating days are Monday and Friday, I would say these are heavily targeted at leisure passengers wanting to spend a weekend in LJU.
DeleteOne can connect to practicly no onward flight unless he spends the night in London. Pitty.
DeleteWon't the market become a bit saturated?
ReplyDeleteAlmost 50% of all passengers flying between London and Ljubljana are on the Stansted route. It makes sense that BA wants a piece of the cake.
DeleteWas it smart for Adria to leave the London market completely? This seems to be a good money maker route for the other airlines.
ReplyDeleteThey even ended seasonal Gatwick flights.
DeleteOf course they ended it. They can't compete against U2 on that route.
DeleteFunny how JP can't seem to make LHR work.
DeleteThey can’t even pay salaries on time or afford any other aircraft than SSH100, where would they get funds to buy a pair of LHR slots?
DeleteThey sold their LHR slots some 15 years ago.
Deletelike the rest of the stuff.
DeleteDidn't JP also fly to Southend Airport?
DeleteYes but from Maribor.
DeleteThey still fly to SEN from PAD. With leased ATR72 to cover for super reliable Saab 2000, whenever they don't cancel the flights all together.
DeleteLegacy carrier material.
Actually from 07.01 to the summer season JP is suspending flights to SEN. lol
DeleteIt is really surprising that LJU will be linked with 4 airports in London. Good job.
ReplyDeleteEven more surprising that the market didn't get saturated.
DeleteWhat are the fares like?
ReplyDeleteIn August 140 euros return ticket from Ljubljana in economy.
DeleteWow that is a grate fare for London!
DeleteCompetition does wonders :)
DeleteBe careful though, don't get fooled by the British Airways named. In Europe they are a low cost airline with worse service, seat pitch and amenities than Ryanair.
DeleteWonder if W6 and U2 prices decreased when BA announced flights?
DeleteThis is good because Hethrow offers connections to just about anywhere in the world.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly the flights to London from Ljubljana are used by quite a lot of people from nearby cities.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand what BA is thinking by not offering KHR flights from BEG which is the biggest airport market in the western Balkans.
ReplyDeleteYou need visas to the UK from Serbia, including transit visa unless you have a valid US or Australian visa. To top it off UK visa is expensive.
DeleteNot the only reason.
DeleteVisa regime was active starting from 1990s but BA flew to BEG until 2009.
Yes. At a time when there were a total of 5 foreign airlines flying to Belgrade and very limited transfer options, particularly to the US.
DeleteSerbian citizens are among a handful of European countries nationals who need t apply for a visa to travel to the UK even if it is just for transfering from one flight to the other.
DeleteSo small demand for travel from the Serbian side and also the British are not big on coming here for tourism.
@anon 09:54
DeleteExactly. So, as I said, the reason is not only the visa regime.
BA has competition in BEG and obviously they don't know how to deal with it.
I hear all your acid comments about how small Slovenia is, how tiny the market is, bla bla.
ReplyDeleteLJU had made a tremendous improvement in its performance as an airport.
We see a healthy mix of LCC and legacy. A touch of transfer, O&D, very slightly gasto.
I suppose there are Slovenes in London but in London there is a bit of many other nationals such as Polish, Romanian, Hungarians, etc
Anyway, Fraport is carefully taking care of it siblings and this is good.
I think the seat capacity will also be increased in the future as well. We may see W6 sending mainly A321s, TK sending bigger machines, JP with a new fleet, etc.
LJU has a great option and position to develop into a hybrid airport.
DeleteAttracting more and more LCCs and LCC routes is the way to go and best way to compete against Zagreb.
DeleteWell Slovenia is a tiny market. Slovenia has mountains, sea, woods, a very nice landscape. And it has not even 1,9 million air passengers on a year round basis. The neighbour Croatia has almost 11 million air passengers. Although Croatia is not big in comarison with others, Slovenia still remains tiny when it comes to carried air passengers.
DeleteI think Slovenia needs to lure LOT to introduce LJU-LCY like they are doing from Budapest, Warsaw and Vilnius.
ReplyDeleteSeems London-Ljubljana is where money can be made.
ReplyDeleteMaybe another destination in the UK could also work.
ReplyDeleteNewcastle, Liverpool and Manchester could all work, at least seasonally.
DeleteManchester is flown seasonally by Adria Airways.
DeleteBA690 LHR1720 – 2035LJU 319 15
ReplyDeleteBA691 LJU2120 – 22335LHR 319 15
Not targeting business pax obviously
DeleteLJU has a bright future.
ReplyDeleteMore good news to come soon.
DeleteRyanair?
DeleteI really wish more new airlines will start flying to LJU with new destinations, as there sure is a lot of potential.
ReplyDeleteSo BA will now fly to Ljubljana, Zagreb and Dubrovnik in ex-Yu right?
ReplyDeleteAs well as Pula and Split.
DeleteDouble daily DBV-LGW, daily LHR-ZAG (often with A321), 5 times a week LHR-SPU and twice LHR- LJU/PUY.
DeleteBA has decreased Zagreb flights this winter. It's no longer daily. Waiting to read that it's not demand based but the airline's internal problems...
DeleteOh noo really? No longer daily? We are soo sad now, since all people want to fly, they will be soo sad that they can go only on 5 days of the week...
DeleteI was just correcting a mistake. No hard feelings.
DeleteAnon 14.41
DeleteObviously since they are reducing flights not many people will be sad. ;)
Seems like the ZAG-LON market was overestimated on here and OU probably knew demand wasn't that large.
Every winter they reduce the number of flights LON-ZAG, especially early January and February. They used to send 319, these days it's 320 and 321 twice per week. I fly this route often, the flights are packed. This week 321 was full to the last seat. So no overestimation. This route is underserviced since CA has sold its slots.
DeleteHow many weekly flights are there currently from Ljubljana to London?
ReplyDelete15 weekly.
Delete11 by easyjet, 4 by Wizz Air
DeleteActually it's up to 18 weekly flights. LJU-STN runs up to 10 weekly flights (with Sun, Tue and Thu 2 daily) + 4 LGW + 3/4 LTN. In highest season (when BA is flying) there will be 19 weekly flights between LJU and LON (no Tue STN flight but 2 LHR flights instead).
DeleteIn this case LJU beats ZAG if we compare EU capitals connected to London airports.
DeleteThe best ones so far in the region are BUD and WAW connected to all 6 airports.
Here are some other examples of other fomer Eastern bloc including Athina, now EU capitals:
BUD: 6/6
WAW: 6/6
SOF: 5/6
OTP: 4/6
ATH: 4/6
ZAG: 1/6
Impressive number of flights from Ljubljana overall.
DeleteAs for WAW not surprised considering the number of Poles in London. Same with Budapest, although BUD is a tourist powerhouse. Lot of English tourists there.
LO has really strong presence in LHR thanks to both local demand but transfers as well.
DeleteWhat's interesting about Ljubljana-London flights is that they are almost exclusively for point to point passengers, meaning that the local demand is excellent. BAs flights are also mostly for P2P judging by the tinetable. If they scheduled them better to attract a greater share of transfers we could see LJU-LHR year round.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete"Former Eastern European cities"? When you join the EU/NATO you somehow geographic location on Earth? Where is Slovenia now compared to let's say France? East/west? In Middle East, Asia or at Greenwich or on Mars?
ReplyDeleteI have only seen people in ex-Yu get uptight if someone labels them as Eastern European. For the majority of western Europeans, any country that was behind the Iron curtain is considered "Eastern Europe".
DeleteAnonymous 11 December 2018 at 16:08
DeleteExactly, all countries who belonged to the Warsaw pact are called Eastern by the rest of Europe.
No need to get upset about Eastern Europeans, many see this as something dirty.
DeleteWe should all be proud of who we are. The Balkans and ex-Yu are a prosperous region.
Our lovely Balkan airports are all growing like tigers and breaking passenger and aviation records.
We have true warrior airports like ATH, BEG, SOF, SKG, ZAG and technically IST/ISL.
In the Balkans we also have gem airports like DBV, TIV, OHD, BOJ, TIA, etc, etc.
We also see the new kids on the block>> SKP, TZL, INI, BWK, Entire Croatian Coast.
Hopefully we see the rebirth of KVO, OMO, IVG.
Let it be, fellow aviation fans.
@An.16.08 and i @An.16.24
DeleteYou are absolutely right saying that Eastern Europe countries are those which belonged to Warsaw Pact and were behind the "Iron curtain" (meaning couldn't travel freely). The reason why ex-yu people are upset when referring to them as Eastern Europe is because Yugoslavia WAS NOT behind the "Iron curtain"and WAS NEVER member of the Warsaw Pact. Just small comparison, aviation-wise, as this is after all aviation blog:Eastern European countries had ONE AIRLINE COMPANY EACH, and their fleets consisted of Russian-made Ilyushins and Tupolevs. Yugoslavia had minimum 3 (JAT, Adria, Aviogenex), at some times even 4 airline companies (Pan Adria/Transadria), and their fleets consisted of US -made Boeing and Douglas planes, DC-9, MD-80, DC-10, B707, B727, B737. Actually JAT Yugoslav Airlines was THE FIRST scheduled operator of at that times ultra-modern new generation B737-300 in Europe. Now non-aviation stuff: We NEVER had one single Soviet soldier on our soil. We had very decent living standard. We had fully open borders and we used to travel around the World. We used to drive Ford, Opel, Citroën, Peugeot, Fiat, Volkswagen, to listen rock, to learn English at school, not Russian, and to mingle with millions of foreign tourists which ex-yu has always been attracting. We lived in very prosperous country, in terms of combination of market economy and social and human rights, which could have represented model for numerous other countries, not only outside Europe. That is why it had to dissapear, and that's why we have strong attempts today to equalize it with former Eastern Europe. And that's why we don't like to be called Eastern Europeans. Cheers!
"We lived in very prosperous country, in terms of combination of market economy and social and human rights, which could have represented model for numerous other countries, not only outside Europe. That is why it had to dissapear, and that's why we have strong attempts today to equalize it with former Eastern Europe"
DeleteSMFH!
Yes, it was such a prosperous country, so much so that more than half a million people fled their country as soon as they were given a legal option to live abroad.
DeleteWhat you talk about happened in 1960. I speak about modern Yugoslavia, after modernization and industrialization, with developed tourism, traffic and industry, free health care and education for everyone, individual liberties, blossoming culture, good living standard. Btw. how many people FLED these banana countries lately? Cheers!
Delete300k+ Croatians and 500k+ Serbians and around 30k Slovenians. I don't have the number for Bosnia and Macedonia unfortunately but I would estimate both figures are bigger than for Slovenia.
ReplyDelete