Spain’s national carrier Iberia will introduce seasonal flights between Madrid and the Slovenian capital. It will mark the first time the airline has ever flown to the country on a scheduled basis. Iberia will run four weekly services to Jože Pučnik Airport starting July 28, 2020 for a period of five weeks. Flights will operate each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday with a mix of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, which have the capacity to seat 141 and 180 passengers respectively. Ljubljana Airport has been attempting to secure operations to Spain for several years. Both the defunct Adria Airways, as well as Iberia’s subsidiary Vueling, previously operated flights between the two markets.
The new service will mark a welcome addition to Ljubljana’s 2020 summer schedule, which will also see a number of foreign carriers significantly boost their operations to the Slovenian capital. The airport’s General Manager, Zmago Skobir, recently said, “[Operator] Fraport Slovenija is working with airlines to meet the traffic demand left by Adria’s exit from the market. This includes quick-start capacity increases, as well as new scheduled flight services in the near future. Furthermore, Fraport Slovenija remains strongly committed to developing Ljubljana Airport and to further growing passenger and cargo traffic. All airlines are welcome in Ljubljana”. Further details for the new Madrid service can be found here.
Meanwhile, the rate at which Ljubljana Airport’s passenger numbers have declined following the collapse of Adria Airways slowed in November. The airport handled 85.787 travellers, representing a decrease of 27%. The number of aircraft movements declined 38.2% to 1.551. Overall, during the January – November period, Ljubljana welcomed 1.635.865 passengers through its doors, down 4%. Aircraft movements declined 10.2% to 29.713. As a result, the airport has shed 67.487 travellers on the same period in 2018. It previously said it would be hit by the bankruptcy of its primary customer in the short-term but that it should rebound within a year and a half. Fraport Slovenija expects for Ljubljana’s figures to decline between 100.000 and 200.000 travellers this year.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 103.525 | ▲ 3.1 |
| FEB | 105.470 | ▲ 6.3 |
| MAR | 133.641 | ▲ 3.0 |
| APR | 157.992 | ▲ 0.1 |
| MAY | 170.307 | ▲ 1.8 |
| JUN | 188.622 | ▲ 6.7 |
| JUL | 207.292 | ▲ 4.2 |
| AUG | 211.431 | ▲ 4.5 |
| SEP | 172.387 |  10.1 |
| OCT | 99.231 | 38.5 |
| NOV | 85.787 | 27.0 |
Nice! But this has obviously nothing to do with Adria.
ReplyDeleteWow thats cool. Like a dream comes true. Bienvenidos !!
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
ReplyDeleteFinally
ReplyDelete4 weekly is not bad at all.
ReplyDelete.... for five weeks only?
DeleteThis isn't even serious.
What a joke attempt by IAG - a handful of flights in peak season. I can't consider this anything but a joke. Even Eurowings did better and they are an utter joke themselves.
* the reference to IAG comes from a combined view of today's news from BA and Iberia.
DeleteAnonym 1104h
DeleteGive them time to develop. This is a first step in, now step by step. Like BA which already increased fm 2 to 4 weekly and extended the timeframe where they ll be ooerating. In the longterm I hope for 3-4 weekly all SUTT IB flts
Sorry, but this can only ever fail. There is no time to develop anything, and post mortem analysis will point to weak performance while ignoring the completely inappropriate product. An amateur move.
DeleteThese are de facto carter flights in peak summer season. 20 rotations in August, not bad for the start. Ljubljana is booming in terms of tourism. It would be great if Ibearia would establish regular flights to offer connections to Spain and South America.
DeleteGood to see new airlines but also food to see that decline decreasing.
ReplyDelete*good
DeleteWhat's interesting is that movements were down significantly, yet passengers numbers did not decline by the same margin.
Delete+1
DeleteLogically, with a lot less seats, the planes are more full. The problem was the lack of flights/seats not demand, demand stayed the same and made the planes fly more full from LJU.
DeleteSo for now we are up to 4 new airlines in summer 2020 for LJU.
ReplyDeleteTheir coverage in SLO/CRO will be great.
ReplyDeleteThey will be flying to DBV, LJU, SPU, ZAD and ZAG :)
Yes and it's nice to see them resuming all the seasonal routes to the coast too.
DeleteBut just to Slovenia and Crotia. IAG is concentrating on Slovenia and Croatia.
DeleteBA is increasing ZAG to double daily next year from LHR with Iberia having double daily to ZAG/DBV and SPU from MAD in the summer months. With EI doing extremely well in Croatia IAG seems to have taken a shine on the region :) Great they are adding LJU as well.
DeleteWith BA going double daily to ZAG I don't see OU lasting much longer on the market. Who will fly on their 4 weekly when they have BA two times per day.
DeleteHopefully they are successful and extend the season in 2021.
ReplyDeleteYay! It's finally happening.
ReplyDeleteSchedule is good too.
ReplyDeleteNice. Now all we need is Vueling from Barcelona :D
ReplyDeleteStep by step :D
DeleteSo the rumors were true. Nice addition.
ReplyDeleteAnd people are still crying over Adria...
ReplyDeleteIberia's arrival really has nothing to do with Adria...
DeleteOf course it has. The market has widely opened. Iberia clearly stated still in spring this year they are not interested.
DeleteGreat, another foreign airlines making money off of Slovenians all because we were incompetent at doing it ourselves.
ReplyDeleteDon't you think Slovenian tourism industry will benefit from these flights?
DeleteDoubt it, it will be most for connections onto Iberia's network.
DeleteWhy do you think this route would not be interesting for Spanish tourists?
DeleteI think with Iberia story is just like with Aeroflot - it will bring more passangers at the end as it would be if Adria would fly this route. With Iberia you have coverage of Spain plus South America and North Africa opens with this route.
DeleteBecause Spanish tourists go to Croatia (look at statistics) not Slovenia. This will be for Slovenes going to Spain, Africa and the Americas.
DeleteNo, there are very few connections available from those flights. Route will be mostly for Spannish tourists. There are Spannish tourists in Slovenia but off course not as much as in Croatia since Slovenia is smaller and do not have "mass tourism".
DeleteNumbers for Slovenia for jan-oct 2019: Spain tourists - 84.269 which is actually not bad (more than russians for example - 63.552)
DeleteNot bad at all considering no air service at the moment.
DeleteMuy bien!
ReplyDeleteWhat are the fares like?
ReplyDeleteThey still haven't started ticket sales.
DeleteShould be later today.
DeleteTickets are on sale through various booking engines. They only have't been added to Iberia's site yet. But the tickets are very pricey. In August return ticket is over 390 euros!!
DeleteIt's possible that they still haven't entered the lower fares.
DeleteI'm interested in seeking what kind of passengers will use these flights? Spanish tourists, Slovenian tourists, transfers to South America?
ReplyDeleteI think all the ones you mentioned.
DeleteAll sorts of traffic. That's why they will be flying 4 per week.
DeleteMost of Iberia's South America flights are around midnight, while they arrive in Madrid around 5.30-6.00 in the morning. So this schedule is not ideal for that.
DeleteActually once I flew with Aegean from Athens to Ljubljana in 2016 and the A320 was at around 75-80% capacity and the vast majority of the passengers were actually Spanish speakers, so I think this route will compromise of transfer pax, Spanish tourists to Slovenia, and Slovenian tourists to Spain.
DeleteNow we just need Austrian to start Vienna and SAS Stockholm and the schedule for LJU will look good.
ReplyDeleteI really hope that we will see a Gulf airline start flights to LJU for better connections to Asia.
DeleteSAS to CPH is more likely than ARN, which has gate availability problems and falling demand, while SAS offers more connections out of CPH (except to minor Swedish airports). But yes, SAS to LJU would be good, even 3pw as a start.
DeleteThe only airline I'm really surprised at, which has done very little at LJU since Adria collapsed and from which I expected much more is Wizz Air.
ReplyDeleteAgree. They could have at least introduced Skopje.
DeleteIn fact they are decreasing their operations since they won't resume LTN-LJU next year.
DeleteSorry but no one is missing Wizz... Lousy product, delays and avoiding compensation. Hope they stay far away from LJU.
DeleteAt 4 per week they obviously expect good loads.
ReplyDeleteGood quality carriers flying to LJU and mainly primary destinations.
ReplyDeleteExcellent job, LJU!
FRA, MUC, LHR, BRU, ZRH, MAD...
3 London airports
Not bad at all!
Next predictions: DUB, MAN and LIS.
Aerlingus and TAP but who would fly MAN?
DeleteMAN will be Air Slovenia by Pocivalsek :)
Delete^ Haha good one.
DeleteMAN by U2. LJU has all the chances.
DeleteDUB by FR.
More UK connections are needed and the return of W6 to LTN.
This could be a year round route in my opinion.
ReplyDelete2 per week in winter with Iberia Regional could work.
DeleteGood work Fraport.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to Iberia and Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteHow did people travel to MAD up until now from LJU? I mean which airlines did they use?
ReplyDeleteMy assumption is Lufthansa/Adria to Frankfurt/Munich and then connecting onto Lufthansa.
DeleteOr on Iberia from ZAG.
DeleteOr on Iberia from VCE.
DeleteOr on Iberia from VIE.
DeleteMostly from VCE.
DeleteI my own experience (did Ljubljana - Madrid around 40 times in the last 8 years):
Delete50% MAD-VEN + GO OPTI
20% MAD-ZAG + GO OPTI
15% MAD - VALENCIA (train) + VAL-TRI + GO OPTI
10% MAD - OTHER CITIES (BOLONIA, TREVISO, MILANO, VIENA)+ DIFFERENT WAYS TO GET SLO ...
2 times to Ljubljana: once via London, once via Sofia. Always separated flights...
I could not be happier with this piece of news and the large community of slovenes and half/slovenes in Madrid and around, too...
And yes many Spanish toursit would love to visit the country but are pulled off by the the fact of no direct flight (it is not always easy to understand that Trieste is only half an hour the bordier and the fact of being another country is perceived by many specially older people as a big burden)
I used swiss via ZH...
DeleteWonder how much incentives FRAport is giving new airline to start ops. I mean they are in a really unfavourable situation following Adria´s demise. BA, SU, IB have obviously nothing to do with the Adria demise.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Fraport by Slovenian Tourism Organisation has listed Spain as a market that will get incentives from them for promotion if flights begin.
DeleteI also believe that it is the state spilling money through tourist organizations and it has to be quite a large amount to take so much attention and lead several carriers to launch flights in such a short period to a destination that size.
Deletethe STO tender was not that big. 150k EUR for new route and 90k EUR for higher frequency if I recall correctly. And the winners of the thender were I believe not airlines but some other intermediary companies, with the exception of Arkia.
DeleteOne world presence growing in LJU :) - Finnair, British Airways and now Iberia
ReplyDeleteHopefully Qatar Airways is next.
DeleteWith exception to S7, all European one world members will be serving LJU.
DeleteThe prices Iberia has published are very high at the moment. Lufthansa is half cheaper.
ReplyDelete* I mean half the price.
DeleteLike I said above, I think Iberia has so far only entered their highest sub classes so that's why tickets are so expensive at the moment.
DeleteThe more the merrier. Welcome Iberia.
ReplyDeleteAdria's collapse was a blessing in disguise for LJU.
ReplyDeleteActually not- Iberia would have come even if Adria was ther. I mean what are the touching points here with Adria?
DeleteAdria was constantly talking how they would start Spain. Who knows if Iberia would have started the flights if there was a risk of Adria launching this route.
DeleteNice to see Iberia expanding ex-Yu presence. I hope they add more markets.
ReplyDeleteWe have been waiting for flights to Spain for such a long time. I'm really happy we finally got it.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see Ljubljana Airport working on getting new routes. I hope more are to come.
ReplyDeleteWhen were the last nonstop flights between Slovenia and Spain operated?
ReplyDeleteI think Adria. Was it 2009?
Delete2020 is shaping out to be quite a good year for LJU.
ReplyDeleteI am quite sure that they will reduce their flights before summer season even start and there are few reasons for that:
ReplyDelete1) IB does not have appropriate capacity for this market. 319/320 are simply to big for LJU, even LH is operating only with CR9 on FRA
2) from VCE you can get almost free tickets to Spain so there is quite strong competition in this region
3) MAD was never on top O&D from/to LJU
But wouldn't people fly nonstop from Ljubljana then drive to Venice? it is much more convenient.
DeleteIndeed it is, but unfortunatelly most people only see really low prices and not additional cost and time which is connected to this. Let's wait to publish their prices but I assume that it won't be cheap.
Delete@Anonymous 13 December 2019 at 11:02:
DeleteWell, judging by comments usually posted on ex-yu by people bragging how they always avoid LJU and fly from VCE/TSF/ZAG/GRZ/..., the answer is NO.
I expect a lot of the LJU-originating traffic will be connecting further afield (e.g. LatAm), where Iberia prices are very competitive, so A319 should work fine. They will assign A319/320/321 on a flight-by-flight basis depending on demand, currently listed type is only a placeholder so many months out.
DeletePeople are insane when they drive to Venice to save 100eur on flight price! Ridiculous... All connected costs... And time.
DeleteAnonymous13 December 2019 at 18:31
DeleteNormally if you reach 20% of trans atlantic traffic you could be happy so this is around 30 passengers per flight (on 319). Even that number seems to be quite high for that part of the year as 3/4 Slovenians are on Croatia coast and the others does not have enough money to go on vacation at all.
Also we have to wait for their schedule first, if it's gonna be shitty as current one in LJU, then they will not reach even 20%...
It is great to see so many new routes to ex-Yu next year, to all markets.
ReplyDeleteI think Iberia has the same strategy as BA in Ljubljana. In 2021 Madrid will probably be extended.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting to me is that nobody is hinting anymore or saying to wait a bit for something new anymore.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is as much new stuff LJU will get next year.
Hope they add Barcelona some time in the future too.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice.
DeleteIf they do, it won't be Iberia flying it but Vueling. Iberia only flies to MAD from BCN with a handful of other domestic destinations on Air Nostrum. If LJU-BCN happens and it's not Vueling running it, I would bet on Easyjet over FR and Norwegian. Though who knows what happens in a few years, especially what IAG ends up doing with Air Europa.
Deletemaybe Volotea will play also with LJU :)
ReplyDeleteNo added value... Look at their delays. And museum rated fleet.
DeleteThat would actually be great! Had several flights with them. No complains. And about the fleet: more than half of the fleet are A319. The oldest B717 is from 2000, the youngest form 2006. Flying with them is much more comfortable then with A319.
DeleteIt would be great if that flight is operated by the low cost brand Iberia Express, they have very reasonable prices
Delete