Foreign carriers double Ljubljana operations in 2020


Four carriers operating to Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport plan to double their services next summer season when compared to this year. Air France, Aeroflot, British Airways and Montenegro Airlines will all increase flights from their respective hubs to the Slovenian capital, with Air Serbia and LOT Polish Airlines yet to finalise their summer timetables. Finnair, which maintains seasonal operations from Helsinki to Ljubljana will also add flights, while Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines, which launched services to Slovenia this winter season, could increase their offer next summer but are yet to schedule any additions.

Air France plans to maintain double daily services to Ljubljana, up from seven weekly for the majority of the 2019 summer season. Russian flag carrier Aeroflot will introduce a second daily flight from Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport starting March 29. Both daily operations will be carried out by the Airbus A320 aircraft. British Airways will increase its seasonal services from London Heathrow to Ljubljana, which were launched in 2019, from two to four weekly. The flying season will also be extended and will start almost two months in advance, on May 22, and last until September 26. Montenegro Airlines plans to run six weekly services from Podgorica, up from three for the majority of the summer of 2019, and increasing to daily during peak months. In addition, Finnair will operate daily flights into the Slovenian capital during the peak summer months, up from five weekly.

The German national carrier has also made changes to its planned 2020 summer operations with the airline’s evening service from Frankfurt to remain in Ljubljana overnight. Therefore, as of March 29, Lufthansa will offer a more convenient early morning departure to Germany. On the other hand, just days after launching six weekly flights from Brussels, Ljubljana Airport said it expected for the Belgian airline to introduce additional frequencies from next summer, while strong demand and solid advanced bookings would likely result in a more convenient schedule. The airport is also courting carriers for the introduction of flights from Prague, Copenhagen and Skopje.




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    Fantastic news for Ljubljana.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    Recovery is on the way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:03

    Cudos to Air France they really stepped up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:23

      Air Serbia as well, from 12 to 17.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:25

      Read the article. They haven't finalised their summer schedule yet. So far 12 flights are in the system for summer.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:29

      Check down @ anon 09:13

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:32

      I don't recall LJU upper management commenting at all about Air Serbia's 2020 summer operations. That only talked about winter. But fingers crossed.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:49

      I work for LJU so they mentioned it internally when discussing 2020. ;) Management probably spoke to guys from JU. From what I've seen flights have really good loads, around 40 to 50 passengers these days.

      Delete
    6. Nemjee10:07

      It will be interesting to see how JU did in summer 2019. Last available month was May:

      May 2018: 5.751 passengers
      May 2019: 6.032 passengers

      That's an extra 281 passengers in a single month. In May 2019 BEG overtook TIA to become the 10th busiest destination.

      Istanbul was number one with 15.381 passengers so JU isn't doing that badly in Slovenia.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:15

      That's like 8 extra passengers per flight? On an Atr that's a lot. So JU had 97 passengers per day to LJU in May or 49 (for double daily flights). The year before it was 93 or 46 per day for double daily flights,

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:25

      I am sure than Air Serbia's number in LJU will explode for October and November 2019

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:30

      I wonder if they might be similar to TK ones since most flights were on larger aircraft.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous10:35

      TK is still way ahead of JU with double daily A320/21 with good load factors.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous10:57

      Read above, they are at 15.000 in May and JU is at 6.000. October is about the same (probably) so JU will be for sure over 10.000.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous11:56

      Tomorrow's JU 192 BEG-LJU-BEG at 13.15 is operated by A319. ;)

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:04

    Good to see British coming back after all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      Will they use A321s again?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:17

      In the system the A320 is scheduled

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:29

      With double the flights it would be too much to have A321.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:19

      I was hoping they would fly it thought the entire summer season to be honest.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:05

    Only thing missing (other than Adria obviously) is Wizz which won't resume Luton.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      Yes but they will introduce third weekly flight on Charleroi route much earlier in the summer.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:10

      They should launch Skopje-Ljubljana!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:12

      There is no market, JP carried mostly transfers on a regional jet. Flying a high density A320 would be an overkill.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:14

      Way too big aircraft for the routes O&D demand.
      It was used primarily for connections when JP flew it.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:18

      the guy with the "high density A320" nonsence again.

      if Malta can work with a 4k diaspora then calculate whats going to happen with 40k in SLO which were avoiding JP because of their high prices. lcc markets and Legacy markets have zero in common. Malev had 95% transfer pax with virtually zero diaspora in Hun but Wizz has no problem to fill a A320 ...

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:32

      And you are the guy who comes with the same arguments but in the end nothing happens and there are no flights from SKP to LJU. As for Budapest, you are aware that the Hungarian government subsidizes those flights to SKP so they are not commercially viable?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:43

      nonsence.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:58

      You mean nonsense?

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:06

    Wow Finnair daily. Nice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      Hopefully in 50 years Finnair will finally have the balls to make it a year round route.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:47

      Haha +100

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:49

      They will be feeling a lot more competition this summer because of Aeroflot. Almost all of Finnair's passengers to/from LJU are Asian tourists. SU offers fantastic prices to Asia and now connecting flights too.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:01

      With two daily flights SU wil be as strong as TK, always good to have more competition.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:08

      Yes we might see TK reduce their prices.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:44

      TK and SU are totally different stories at the moment. While TK has 90% of transfer passengers, SU has 90% O&D traffic. Finnair's competition in terms of Asian tourists is TK, not SU.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:58

      LO is as well competition to AY.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:07

    Lufthansa seems to have a lot of overbooking issues on the Ljubljana flights. Perhaps time to up capacity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:40

      Not just Lufthansa, the whole group: e.g. Two Wednesdays in a row all 3 afternoon flights LX, SN and LH to FRA overbooked.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:43

      They probably will increase capacity but all the airlines have issues with the lack of equipment. Remember they were leasing Adria planes after all.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:07

    Someone still missing Adria?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      Fraport being the first. What people read and cheer and boo here and the financials of airports differ significantly.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:17

      The only people missing JP are those who worked for it.
      Just like any other state owned carrier that closed around Europe is missed only by the overpaid and underworked former staff.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:23

      Well I'm still missing flights to Scandinavia and significantly more frequencies to major European cities like we had before.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:40

      What you had before wasn't supported by the market though.
      All those year round destinations and frequencies were loss making for JP.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:05

      "Fraport being the first. What people read and cheer and boo here and the financials of airports differ significantly."

      I'm pretty sure Fraport prefers a bit less cash in the account than some fictional revenue that will never be paid, or paid very late.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:46

      @Anonymous10 December 2019 at 09:17:

      I'm one of those "overpaid and underworked" employees and I really hope you lose your job in 2020.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:14

      Everybody knew Adria was going bust sooner or later. It's just that some people decided to wait until they were jobless.

      Delete
    8. JU520 BEGLAX11:36

      Most people in Adria were not underworked and I know people personally they were heavily overworked, not to forget working in a company on the edge of banruptcy is mentally another burden u wear around day by day. And this burden they have worn for several years
      Adria is history, lets respect their achievement, under other circumstances they were quite succesful and have still some very nice stories to tell.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous11:50

      Yeah, so did workers at Primorje, Mura, Labod, ... So what?! You're trying to say as if they deserved it jsut because they were there until the end. What an arse.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous16:33

      you are such an idiot, I hope you go jobless and homeless soon.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous17:29

      I hope you are referring to Anonymous10 December 2019 at 09:17 or Anonymous10 December 2019 at 11:14.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:08

    Hopefully JU keeps LJU as 17 from BEG.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:08

    I'm surprised Turkish hasn't added more flights...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      Transavia too.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:16

      At least TK is using A321 on all flights in winter schedule. But I agree, it would be better for onward connections to add third daily flight on some weekdays

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:19

      In my opinion Transavia is the biggest looser up until now. All other carriers managed to schedule additional rotations but Transavia couldn't even do it in winter time (while Amsterdam was one of the top destinations in Adria era). Is the problem getting AMS slots? Is KLM launching flights soon?

      Delete
    4. Nemjee09:24

      AMS has no more slots until 2020 when new ones are supposed to be released. All increase have to happen only once something else has been decreased.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:32

      I hope Transavia/KLM get some of Adria slots for flights to LJU. Dutch people love Slovenia and more direct flights are a must

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:34

      Would there be sense in transferring the Transavia flights to KLM?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:39

      I don't think so. AF has the connecting passengers covered.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous09:55

      and Transavia as well.they offer connection/transfer on KLM flights

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:10

      Delta too.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous10:41

      @ Nemjee. Please elobarte:
      AMS has no more slots until 2020 when new ones are supposed to be released. All increase have to happen only once something else has been decreased.

      So AMS has no slots, but in 2020- in 3 weeks time they will have them? Who will bring them? Santa Clause?



      Delete
    11. Nemjee11:02

      No, Santa Clause only allocates slots at Rovaniemi airport. AMS is not restricted in the same way LHR is, as in they have enough runways and gates but the Dutch government was bullied by ecotalibans to limit the number of aircraft movements to, I think, 500.000 a year.

      From what I recall in 2020 that cap is supposed to be changed by being increased. I said it will be changed in 2020, not on 01.01.2020. :)

      Delete
    12. Anonymous17:41

      Indeed, real shame for not getting back (yet, hopefully) daily AMS flight. Transavia operates very choppy schedule and many people tend to avoid CDG. If KLM can operate daily to GRZ, I don't see why not to LJU as well. Whenever I flew to AMS and back, CRJ900 seemed quite full and I've also noticed there were many transfer passengers. I'd rather fly via AMS with KLM than via CDG with AF, since connecting in CDG is really messy.

      Delete
  11. Nemjee09:09

    Hopefully all this is enough to put an end to the discussion of a potential new national carrier.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:27

      Don't count on it

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:11

    So we will have double daily Air France, Turkish, Aeroflot, Lufthansa and Air Serbia (probably). Not bad at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:13

      JU will be 17 weekly from what we are told here by LJU upper management.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:20

      It is nice to see JU in the good company of AF, TK, SU, LH with the most frequencies to LJU.

      Well done Air Serbia!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:45

      Good to see LJU recovery is on the way!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:01

      You do realize that with all these additions the number of flights will still not reach the Adria levels.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:13

      Step by step...

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:12

    Bravo Slovenija!

    ReplyDelete
  14. JU520 BEGLAX09:15

    Ljubljanas good development continues, glad to see that foreign carriers are investing into LJU

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous09:28

    Any ideas when we could see the passenger decline end and LJU return to growth?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      September 2020.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:35

      After the anniversary of Adria's demise

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:44

      Maybe even earlier than september 2020. Summer season will be interesting for sure

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:29

    Easyjet has kept quiet. They will keep all flights but no additional frequencies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:52

      Other than Berlin they only fly London routes from LJU which were in no way affected by Adria's bankruptcy.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous09:37

    There were rumours Iberia might also start LJU seasonally in summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:53

      That would be nice

      Delete
  18. Anonymous09:38

    Austrian not starting flights is the big shocker for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:45

      It means the flights were probably not profitable.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:51

      OS is losing millions thanks to Wizz Air. They are attacking them on every single market out there, from Tirana to Athens to Tel Aviv. Imagine how happy OS was when they found out Wizz Air will be flying double daily VIE-TLV.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:07

      Yes OS is having quite big issues. LJU is probably the least of their worries.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:07

      OS has bigger problems than loosing couple of transfer pax from LJU: Wizz Air and Lauda.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:14

      How often do we need to mention that Austrian serves very near KLU instead or LJU and will not cannibalize themselves

      Delete
  19. Anonymous09:40

    I think Turkish Airlines will triple LJU when the 737 MAX gets back into the sky.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:44

      Well if nothing Turkish benefited from Adria collapse by getting one of their A320s :D

      Delete
  20. Anonymous09:54

    Who will operate the summer charters next year with Adria gone?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:06

      Foreign airlines from Greece, Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:08

      There are tons of charter airlines in Europe - most of them don't last long, because charter business ultimately isn't very profitable, so names change every couple of years.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:10

      After Adria collapsed in September local tour operator wet leased planes for charters. Maybe they do the same next year too.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:49

      Another 4 times?

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:02

    Well it seems Fraport did some work. It's not easy to stage a recovery but they agree doing it relatively quickly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:15

      The writing was on the wall for months that Adria would go bust stop they had time to prepare.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:03

    And exactly what most people said would happen happened. Other airlines have stepped in and taken Adria's place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:05

      There are still a lot of routes missing though.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:09

      Patience

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:13

      When the new terminal is completed, more airlines will come.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:24

      Why? It's not like there are capacity constraints at LJU at the moment

      Delete
  23. Anonymous10:13

    Fantastic news. I think some exciting times are ahead for LJU. Hopefully some new airlines come too.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous10:17

    And let's not forget DHL increasing capacity to LJU :P
    https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/12/dhl-increases-ljubljana-capacity.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:25

      Could this have had something to do with Adria too? I mean Adria did carry some cargo.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous10:21

    Regarding Wizz and them not resuming London-Ljubljana, I think they simply got smashed by easyjet. And British starting flights probably won't help.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous10:22

    Anyone going to pick up Adria's seasonal Manchester route? I think there is potential there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:23

      Didn't Adria itself plan to dump that route from 2020 and start Liverpool instead?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:25

      Yes they did.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:16

      At 1pw it was more like seasonal charter, so very unlikely.

      Delete
  27. Anonymous10:26

    Expected. Budapest scenario just on a much smaller scale, comperative to the airport's size.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous10:56

    It was posted on the FB group 'Slovenes in Brussels' a few days ago that SN is planning three daily flights to Brussels. It is apparently already in the system?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:58

      It's not true. At least the part about it being in the system. There are only 6 flights scheduled for summer.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:36

      For a while (until last week), there were three flights a day to BRU in ST2020 showing up in Momondo (the first departure at 5:55 in the morning, another in the late morning and one in the afternoon). No prices. These are now gone, so the FB group you are mentioning could have picked up that. I seriously doubt there will be 3xdaily, but I can imagine late evening arrival (overnight) and the early departure is the best bet for ST2020. If you look at SN network, they operate such flights to quite a number of EU cities, even those smaller than LJU with a smaller catchment area and more nearby competition.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous05:58

      My guess is that the A319 is too big for that route to be operated three times per day. If they had the SSJ or AVRO then sure.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous11:03

    I wonder if Pegasus considers to fly to LJU. They have a strong presence in ex-yu.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:37

      They have a strong presence in ex-yu, where there are no visa restrictions for Turkish passport holders. That means, ex-yu except Slovenia and Croatia.

      Delete
  30. Anonymous13:39

    This seems like very positive and sustainable development for LJU. Of course it doesn't beat having a home based carrier when looking at non-stop connectivity but it is much more long-term sustainable than having JP around was. I do think Fraport should court LCCs a little bit more however not necessarily for a base but certainly for O&D routes and city break routes such as London or Germany. This would help the local economy as well as giving Fraport higher revenue and passenger numbers.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous19:09

    Against all odds, it seems that JP did LJU a huge favour going bust and letting more carriers boost in.
    LJU will be dominated mainly by Star Alliance and will get back to positive figures as early as March 2020. Excellent achievements¡

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous08:31

    Finally, after many years waiting for this...
    https://twitter.com/Iberia_en/status/1204792663444197376

    ReplyDelete

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