Japan's largest carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) will return to both Ljubljana and Dubrovnik this summer by operating a number of charter services originating from Tokyo and Osaka, which will be run on behalf of the country's largest tour operator. Services will depart Japan early in the morning and arrive in the Slovenian capital in the early afternoon (13.00). Return flights will originate from Dubrovnik. Flights from Osaka will commence in mid-July and from Tokyo in late August, however, additional charters are expected to be scheduled to both Ljubljana and Dubrovnik in the coming weeks from cities including Sapporo, Fukoka, Nagoya and Sendai. All of the planned flights so far are scheduled to operate with ANA's wide-body Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which has the capacity to seat 264 passengers.
ANA expressed interest in upgrading its annual charter operations to the Slovenian capital last year by introducing scheduled flights to Ljubljana. The company's President and CEO, Yuji Hirako, held talks with the Slovenian government in 2018 over the matter. ANA has requested for the drafting of a bilateral air agreement between Japan and Slovenia, which is a precondition for the establishment of scheduled flights. In the meantime, the two sides will negotiate a temporary arrangement in order to allow the Japanese carrier to operate regular services to Ljubljana, if it wishes to exercise such rights. ANA is also said to be seeking a codeshare agreement with its fellow Star Alliance member Adria Airways.
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On the other hand, the Croatian government recently authorised the Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, to commence talks with his Japanese counterpart over the establishment of scheduled flights between Zagreb and Tokyo. The two sides must first sign a Bilateral Air Service Agreement, which has already been drafted, with Mr Butković expressing hope for negotiations to be swift in order for flights between the two capitals to be launched in the near future. In addition to Dubrovnik, Zagreb also boasted charters from Tokyo in the past. The initiative for the introduction of regular flights from Japan to Croatia is said to have come from the Japanese side.
Time for these flights to become scheduled.
ReplyDeleteJapanese tourists represent a large market potential for Slovenian tourism.
DeleteAre they looking at ZAG flights because there is no room at SPU? Similar to Transat which gave up on SPU and boosted ZAG?
ReplyDeleteThey don't fly to Split. Only to Dubrovnik.
DeleteSPU does not want long-haul flights, not part of their strategy.
DeleteYes but is it because they don't have enough space until the expansion is complete?
DeleteNope, they will not target long-haul flights in the next mid-term plan. Their focus area is getting as much as possible EU destinations in cooperation with LCCs.
DeleteThat's smart of SPU as they can make more money from two packed B738 than from a single A330.
DeletePlus these get subsidies from the local Tourist Board further increasing the interest of LCCs. Long-haul tourists arrive from other regional hubs anyway or by bus. Those will not disappear.
DeleteBullshit, they have runway 2.500 meter. That is only reason why they "don't want" long-haul. No long-haul planes can lend in Split.
Delete'Lending' isn't the problem, taking off fully loaded is. Someone could operate flights to SPU via ZAG or ZAD.
DeleteThe runway is not an issue ... it will be renewed in the coming months but still you will see that no long-haul flights will be scheduled. SPU simply gets pax from EU and it will continue to work to extend this base.
DeleteSo the runway will be lengthened this year? Source?
DeleteVery happy for LJU.
ReplyDeleteAll the gloom and doom about JP will not change the airport's excellent performance.
Adding Japan to the services is simply awesome.
2 million is more than realistic, with the ANA charters, additional CRL W6 frequencies, TK A321 regular service, more flights to more London airports, AF aircraft upgrade.
Interesting year for LJLJ.
Things are finally starting to move in the right direction at LJU.
DeleteCould their really be enough traffic to sustain scheduled seasonal flights to either LJU or DBV.
ReplyDeleteDoes Croatia have more Japanese tourists than Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteI think even Dubrovnik alone has more Japanese tourists than Slovenia.
DeleteConsidering the amount of tourists in Croatia from certain markets, sometimes I'm dumbfounded that flights haven't started.
DeleteDubrovnik has more Japanese tourists than any ExYu country.
DeleteThere were 160,000 Japanese in Croatia in 2018, 36,000 in Slovenia.
DeleteNot bad, a good basis for scheduled flights.
DeletePerhaps surprisingly, Slovenia gets considerably more tourists from South Korea (146,000 arrivals in 2018) than Japan (36,000 arrivals in 2018).
DeleteANA is a Star Alliance airline like Adria. If I were Adria I would lobby the government to seal this deal. It could provide a great feed to Adria's network.
ReplyDeleteOh and same with Croatia Airlines too.
DeleteAdria has more or less no flights to the coast..
DeleteIt has none actually.
DeleteWohoo very good for Dubrovnik and Ljubljana.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/04/ana-considering-ljubljana-service.html
ReplyDeleteSo many big words by (then) state secretary Leben last year and still no bilateral agreement ???
Banana republic ministry for infrastructure...
Same in Croatia. Minister told 8 months ago to make deal with Japanese. Nothing has happened.
DeleteThe only scheduled non-stop flight from Japan to CEE is only WAW and VIE.
DeleteNot even ATH has scheduled flights. So, I think it will be a challenge for LJU if BEG is not quicker that it is.
I think our travel agencies and national tourist boards could do more on promoting the area in countries such as Japan. We have to compete for the new markets and not be focusing on the tourists from the West only.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. Other than the UAE and from recently Korea, there are no flights from Asia and this region has a lot of potential.
DeleteANA converting their charter flights into seasonal scheduled ones might happen down the road, but that's about it.
DeleteDoes ANA ferry the plane between LJU and DBV for the return flight?
ReplyDeleteis there no space for charter JP LJU-DBV ?
DeleteWell JP operated scheduled LJU-DBV flights last year and they are not coming back this year.
DeleteHow about future route Tokyo - Ljubljana - Zagreb - Tokyo? :)
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. I think it can either be Ljubljana or Zagreb but ANA definitely won't fly to both.
DeleteMaybe ANA launches Ljubljana and JAL launches Zagreb :D
DeleteDoubt that too. If someone will start flights from Japan it will be ANA because they are Star Alliance.
DeleteWe will see who gets to them first.
DeleteJAL is launching a long haul low cost airline, so maybe it will potentially serve these parts of Europe.
DeleteJAL used to fly to ZAG but they haven't for a couple of years. What happened?
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago they ended a lot of flights, charters to ZAG included because of financial problems. They haven't returned since.
DeleteJAL had one charter to LJU last year.
DeleteJL has codeshare to ZAG.
DeleteWhich airlines?
Deleteon BA's daily flights from London
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteMaybe a stupid question, but do these planes fly back empty? At least the first flight, second one probably picks up first group and so on?
ReplyDeleteI remember that a few years ago they used to reposition the first flights to go somewhere to Western Europe and do a charter back to Japan where they probably had passengers.
Delete+1, return flights v.v.
DeleteI really do hope that scheduled flights eventually materialize out of these charters.
ReplyDeleteThe EU and Japan have recently signed a very important trade agreement, similar to that one with Canada, so watch out for future EU capitals including Ljubljana, Zagreb, Budapest and so on as it will not only be leisure but also business.
ReplyDeletehttp://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/eu-japan-economic-partnership-agreement/
It came into force literally last month.
Alphaville - Big in Japan.mp3
Nice
DeleteYes!!! Bravo LJU.
ReplyDeleteLove the Pokemon livery :D
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteFantastic !!
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know how many flights will they operate?
ReplyDeleteI think 5 like last year.
DeleteThere were five to LJU but not sure about Dubrovnik.
DeleteCroatian government has done nothing to get scheduled flights to Japan. They have a "draft" bilateral but haven't actually finalized anything or adopted in parliament. I don't know what exactly they are waiting for.
ReplyDeletelju is growing in a nice way.
ReplyDeletejapan, l ondon, berlin and soon middle east maybe...
really good and amazing news related to slovenija.
More and more japanese companies are investing in Slovenia, so maybe there will soon be demand for scheduled flights (tourism+business)
ReplyDelete