If LJU get Japan flights ZAG can forget them!

Could their really be enough traffic to sustain scheduled seasonal flights?

this would be fantastic!

If Belgrade cannot secure those flights, how could Slovenia?

There were 142,043 Japanese tourists in Croatia in 2018 and 32,000 in Slovenia...

And all of them could be flown to LJU.

There will be no need for ZAG flights if any Japanese air carrier decides to open non stop LJU route

LJU has the best location for tourists to arrive. Venice, Budapest, Istra, Plitvice, Vienna, Budapest ... are all close.

Will JAL operate charters this year too?

No.

Trieste airport location is even better.

This would be great if it happened.

Why does it seem that the ASA's are taking so long to conclude with Japan? Same thing with Croatia-Japan. Talks have been going on for over a year.

Honestly I think LJU needs to pull something out of the bat to remain competitive against all the nearby airports which are attracting a lot of Slovenians. This would be a very good start.

No ExYu country can sustain Japan flights. If BUD, PRG or OTP can not support them then definitely neither can BEG, ZAG or LJU.

I always thought that air agreements were regulated by the EU and is applicable to all EU states. Obviously I was mistaken.

That is correct

But to me it looks as if ANA wants to serve either ZAG or LJU, which makes sense since these are Star * airports and they obviously want to have some agreement with either Adria or Croatia Airlines.

I think charters are enough for now.

They need to pull the plug on JP's debt.

They fly to Wienna so by that logic we can all forget these flights to Japan...

Foes any nearby airport offer scheduled flights to Japan?

Anonymous at 09:10
+1000
The best we can hope is for some charter flights which will carry 99% Japanese package tourists during summer.
And that would probably be in Croatia.
Normal scheduled flights, even seasonal are completely out of the question.

*does

Yaskawa, the world's leading manufacturer of industrial robots, opened a new robot factory and a European robotics R&D centre in Kočevje. Slovenia-based company will cater about 80% of the European market's demand for Yaskawa Motoman robots.

I'm a bit surprised that only two charters are planned so far. Last year it was 5.

OS at VIE and AZ from MXP.

I can't decide if I should laugh or feel sorry for Slovenians (let's say Slovenian politicians and bureaucrats). Expecting an upgrade from two charter flights annual (more or less 500 tourists in total) to scheduled flights from 9,500 km. away. And they believe (or at least announce officially, except PM's move two weeks ago) that Adria is doing good and will survive. And they also believed that Maribor airport could be a hub for Chinese tourists, hosting 15 wide-body aircraft, they even let a funny fake Chinese company to officially operate the airport for more than a year. Are they really too naive, stupid or corrupted and acting stupid to cover it?

Interesting. So we might see more business travel between SLO and JAP.

There was a nice trip report from an ANA charter on here to Ljubljana. It was a cool read.

+1000

+1

But they negotitate with LJU and all the other ex- YU airports are not candidates.

VIE has double daily flights to Tokyo both on Austrian Airlines and ANA.

OS is seasonal only. ANA is year round.

They are negotiating with ZAG/CRO as well. There was news about it here just a few weeks ago.

Is there still a scheduled service between Venice and Japan? Alitalia once offered flights between VCE and NRT, but that services were discontinued.

ANA only fly to UK, Belgium, France, Germany in Europe (maybe I’m wrong), but on the other hand, it may serve as another gateway to discover this part of Europe.

Japanese tourists represent a large market potential for Slovenian tourism.

Priorities should be flights to the Middle East and better connections to the Scandinavian and Russian markets. When they do that then they can think about Japan and China.

And they should attract more low cost airlines and make flying more affordable.

I think even Dubrovnik alone has more Japanese tourists than Slovenia.

Congrats, Ljubljana, hope this materializes!

Aeroflot already increased LJU to A320. Same capacity as BEG or ZAG in ex-YU region.

@9.47
LCC offer is not bad from Ljubljana - Wizz, easyjet, Transavia. Could be better but its not bad.

yes, ANA A380 to Maribor soon...

Japanese tourists are not really into beaches. They prefer mountains and lakes, rural tourism which is exactly what Slovenia has. They can then hop to Venice and the surrounding areas.

For scheduled flights you need bigger market in 2 way. Some Japanese toursts is not enough to introduce long range flight in LJU.

Also LJU is a much cheaper airport compared to ZAG.

Croatia is not all about beaches and sun anon 9.57.

We don't know the traffic flow between Japan and Slovenia. Slovenes have the money to travel.

Japan people as well. And with 130m people there's bound to be enough to travel to niche destinations like slo

ANA 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.

In case you missed it, Adria is currently lobbying the government to save it from bankruptcy.

Sure, lots of Japanese will go to TIA/SKP/PRN/TDG via LJU.

If BUD managed to make YYZ year round this year, then there is no reason why LJU cannot have year round flights to HND or NRT.

Sure, so comparable.

This will never happen, the market is simply to small to justify scheduled longhaul to Japan. These routes are hardly sustainable even from bigger markets.

Doesn't Fraport operate some Japanese airports?

For starters, Croatia have 5 times as much Japanese tourists as Slovenia

I think there's market in Croatia and Slovenia... It all depends if fares are competitive enough for people in northern Croatian and Zagreb using Ljubljana instead of Zagreb or Vienna.

No they don't. In Asia they have them in China, India and Turkey.

That is all nice and well, but is it realistic? Is there enough potential?

ANA seems to think so.

It would definitely make the airport more competitive. If you attract a major carrier especially operating long haul it attracts other airlines.

The main reason Japanese tourists could be drawn to fly to Slovenia is the nature and outdoors.

It is actually a great market for the Japanese. Has absolutely everything they want to see.

I will be happy when ANA actually touches down in LJU. Until then, wishful thinking.

+1

The cheapest, quickest and most convenient way for a Japanese to reach Europe is with SU. They have amazing prices via SVO.

Maybe ANA wants to introduce some other European destination with a stop in Ljubljana.

Highly doubt it. There are more lucrative destinations in Europe.

Some are negotiated as a bloc, like the one with the US but almost all are on a country to country basis.

@ 9.10 I think you meant to say hat :D

No there isn't. Alitalia is almost nonexistent in Venice anymore.

This could maybe be a route of JAL's new long haul low cost airline which is launching next year I think.

And how would you know what's lucrative for them?

If it were they would have been flying to Ljubljana for a while now.

Croatia is precisely about beaches and sun and that is reflected by the yearly traffic figures.

And yet, there are almost 5 times more Japanese tourists in Croatian compared to Slovenia.

Would be good for LJU and Slovenia.

Hope it happens. There are a lot of Japanese tourists visiting Slovenia and they could also use Slovenia as an entry point to Croatia.

To Anon 09.21 majority have no clue, few just pretend so they organize events, meetings so they can write in the annual report what they did to justify the salaries they are getting without problems. It's just burocracy: from the head to the toe. Official travels abroad are a bonus and fun (if you speak English) but please don't ask these questions now: it's hot outside and everyone among them is hardly planning shifts for the summer vacation time so it will be at least one left in the office at any given time. Why they don't close the offices when they can't take any decision (in summer) is a mistery.

https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/03/trip-report-ana-tokyo-ljubljana.html

If I'm ANA I would fly to Trieste first: excellent position, close to Venice and the Alps, friendly airport with a train station and excellent parking capabilities for buses, cars etc.

Regular flights Japan-Slovenia just a dream..mission impossible. Only charters are feasible as usually.
The slovenian market is too small.

They're just going to Slovenia and Western Europe.

ANA already flies to LJU.

So interesting to hear how Croatia , which actually is the only exyu country with decent number of tourists from faraway markets, should have Japanese coming via LJU.

I think Slovenia as a country has a lot to offer. It's already doing well in attracting Japanese tourists. It is also close by to many countries so a good entry way to Central/East Europe. We will see.

Are these flights only for japanese people or can anyone book those flights(for example slovenian people)??if that’s possible does anyone know how much those tickets cost?!

Norwegian is a must though

Yes,they are flying two charter flights!

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... and Sumimoto is opening a new factory for elastomers for medicinal applications in Logatec.

Oh c'mon, stop this Slovenes have the money to travel thing! Yes, if compared to other ex Yu republics, they earn more money. But if you look at Statisticki urad RS, the vast majority still choose one country during the summer: Croatia.
So the argument they have money and they travel, in the ANA scenario is totally not important.

Yes. So all in all they would have 10 flights per day. Brilliant.

Dude, have you ever walked the streets of Zagreb or visited Plitvice? They are literally packed with Japanese tourists. ZG has the most tourist arrivals of all Croatian cities, Croatia is most certainly not just a transit point for these tourists, nor is it just about beaches. When I moved to UK I was surprised as well when I saw just how many people here have visited Zagreb and Plitvice (and to a lesser extent Krka). Mountain tourism (hiking) is also popular, specially among Czechs and Poles.

You can only book them from Japan through Japan's largest tour operator.

160 124 Japanese visitors to Croatia in 2018, sadly less than 177 000 Croatia had in 2016 and 2015. This year three's a 10% growth, so it might be around 185 000 visitors. If Japan secures flights to Ljubljana there won't be direct flights to Zagreb.

Both markets are too small to sustain flights to Japan. The fact Zagreb has direct flights to Seoul, soon to have China flights, 2020 probably, and North America will be covered with Canadian and US carriers, things are ok for Zagreb right now. Would be nice to get Japanese carrier in Zagreb, but it is not necessary, Vienna is only 4 hours drive from Zagreb, or 3 if traffic is light, also there's a possibility of flying via Seoul for Tokyo with Korean air. I like the number of carriers that are currently in Zagreb, would like more European based carriers

+1

LJU has not even a proper terminal size, how the heck they wont to process 280 passengers for one single flight or at least how they want to do it in a for the passenger convenient way. Not possible. So build first infrastructure and then lets dream on

Vse je to ok, ali reci mi koliko ovakve investicije mogu generirati putnika? Ajmo reći da svaka ima 10tak nekih top managera koji će letit jednom mjesečno. Nije to baš neka potražnja.

100 komentara ali jedino tvoj konstruktivan! Slažem se. Pokušavam samo zamisliti ljubljanski bagage claim kako 280 od jednom čaka na kufere. Pa kontrola putovnica itd.

Croatia has nearly 150.000 Japanese tourists per year compared to just 30.000 in Slovenia and i am reading a comment above that Japanese ppl is not about beaches, sun bla bla, Croatia has more national parks than entire exyu

People, please. When debate goes around ZAG, no one posts silly comments about LJU. The fact is that Ljubljana DOES have an airport which did and will co - exist along with ZAG. There is no need to post things such as "even ZAG doesn´t have this" or "it´s no way it would work for LJU if it won`t for ZAG". People, really? It al seems like you all would like to just close LJU airport, which still has 1.8 million passengers per year and the number is increasing year by year. Sorry but Slovenia will still have it`s own airport, which isn´t ZAG. And it will have some airlines and routes which ZAG doesn´t have. You can`t just comment under every topic about LJU how even ZAG doesn´t have something and therefore LJU also can´t have it. Well, newsflash people. LJU will have what it will have. If LJU will be the first with flights to Japan than it will be. I don´t care how many tourists visit Croatia each year. Just because of that it doesn´t mean Slovenia won´t have it`s own airport which it´s own routes. And yes, many Slovenes use ZAG but also many Croats use LJU. Some southern Austrians use LJU. LJU will exist and attract airliners so please don` t comment the same boring stuff about ZAG about every Ljubljana, Split, Dubrovnik and Belgrade section. Zagreb isn´t the centre of the world and will never be.

Why do you guys compare Srb &Slo airports with anything Croatian? How can Korean Air fly nonstop from Seoul to Zagreb & Japanese Ana can not? This year Croatia's gonna have more than 12million passengers compared to Serbia 5,5 mil, or Slo 1,5 mil

Both Serbia snd Slovenia had more passengers than you listed last year.

Who said, but you that Zagreb is the center of the world? Calm down.

Thanks and yep baggage claim, check-in or Security control would very inconvenient. ANA is a 5 star Skytrax airline, I doubt they would agree to such service

Well, If they can do and they did it with B777 and B747 they will manage also with B787. And it was ANA B777, the same 5 star airline :)

LJU airpot is just fine, on the other hands Adria is a total mess, an unreliable, at least. Just for this morning Prague is cancelled and there are even no flights to *hubs, both Zurich and Munich. On the other hand they are flying a charter to Kos and Dole.

Indeed, today 17 out of 22 planned regular flights out of LJU, cancelling even several flights to ZRH and MUC.

Adria indeed is worsening the image of LJU. Let's hope that along with new terminal and possibly new carriers, if Addia goes bust (apparently that would even help LJU image) things get even better.

They managed it at LJU without any problems before with charters from Japan and Japanese are very satisfied with the services at LJU, otherwise they would change the airport. But they didn't, since they know it is not only the size of a terminal that matters. Compare NRT and HND in relation to convenience for the passangers. HND wins big time ALTHOUGH it is much smaller.

Don't be jealous !

LOL. Jealous.
Classic.

That's not exactly true. In 2018, 145,000 South Korean tourists visited Slovenia.

List of cancelled flights in the next few days:

15JUN
JP376/7 LJUBRULJU
JP810 LJUSKP
JP726 LJUTIA

16JUN
811SKPLJU
727 TIALJU
JP376/7 LJUBRULJU
JP324/5 LJUSOFLJU
JP890 LJUPRN
JP726 LJUTIA

17JUN
JP891 PRNLJU
JP727 TIALJU
JP852/3 LJUTGDLJU

18JUN
JP838/9 LJUPRNLJU
JP510/1 LJUCPHLJU

19JUN
JP568/9 LJUPRGLJU
JP838/9 LJUPRNLJU
JP364/5 LJUZRHLJU

Well done, Adria.