Low cost carrier easyJet will be ending a handful of routes to the former Yugoslavia, mostly to the Croatian coast, as a result of its planned closure of three UK bases - Stansted, Southend and Newcastle. Flights which are to be discontinued include those from Stansted to Ljubljana, Dubrovnik and Split, from Southend to Dubrovnik and Pula, as well as from Newcastle to Split, since all are operated by aircraft based at the three UK airports. The closure, which puts 670 jobs at risk, will come into effect from September 1. easyJet will offer alternative flights for anyone affected or offer credit notes or refunds.
Passengers due to fly from London Stansted will still find routes from London Luton and London Gatwick, while easyJet passengers travelling from Newcastle will have to head to Manchester or Liverpool. easyJet CEO, Johan Lundgren, said, “We had to take the very difficult decision to close three UK bases as a result of the unprecedented impact of the pandemic and related travel restrictions, compounded by quarantine measures in the UK which is impacting demand for travel. We would like to reassure customers due to fly from these airports that we are now contacting anyone whose flight is affected with clear advice on their options which include rerouting via alternative airports or receiving a full refund”.
Prior to the pandemic and following the demise of Adria Airways late last year, easyJet was Slovenia’s largest carrier, while Stansted - Ljubljana was the busiest out of its three routes to the country. In 2019, it offered 130.932 two-way seats between Stansted and the Slovenian capital. Overall, Stansted has been Ljubljana’s fourth busiest route in terms of passenger numbers. The carrier plans to introduce a new service from London Luton to Ljubljana on May 6, 2021. The route was originally to commence this year. In the pre-pandemic era, the budget airline was also Croatia’s largest during the peak summer month of August, eclipsing Croatia Airlines. Overall, in 2019, it was the second largest airline in the country in terms of offered seat capacity, behind only the national carrier.
wow that's a shame :(
ReplyDeleteOuch.
DeleteBig blow for Croatia.
I never understood why easyjet never opened a seasonal base in Split for example. I mean they have 18 routes from there and they are the second biggest airline in the country...
ReplyDelete+1
Deletebecause its not economical when you flying only 3 months?
DeleteSmall seasonal bases are recipe for an economic disaster.
DeleteWhy would they set a base in Split, when they can cover the routes from their other bases? What would be the benefit to easyJet?
It's not that small with 18 routes.
DeleteNot enough for a base.
DeleteAgain, why set up seasonal base, when they can clearly fly all the routes from their bases?
DeleteWell it seems to work for Ryanair with its seasonal base in Zadar.
DeleteRyanair hasn't had a seasonal base in Zadar since 2018.
DeleteWill stanste-LJU return? It was the busiest London route from Ljubljana!
ReplyDeleteIt's suspended. If you go on their website to book it, it shows available flight dates from October but when you click to book them it says no flights available.
DeletePeople can just use Gatwick instead, or Luton from next year too.
DeleteThose are not convenient for everyone
DeleteI agree, we will still have three other options, Gatwick, Luton, Heathrow.
DeleteWe will still have three other options: Gatwick, Luton, Heathrow.
DeleteI think easy will resume Luton for the winter, which will be enough for current corona demand and then from next year they bring in Gatwick, which will probably be enough for the immediate post pandemic demand.
DeleteWhat are the chances of seeing British Airways flying Heathrow year round?
DeleteNot this year. They cancelled their flights from Heathrow to LJU for the rest of the summer season.
Delete@Anon 09:56: Zero, for the forseeable future. Most LJU-LON traffic is P2P for tourists and Slovenians who live and work in the UK. BA shorthaul isn't much different to easyJet anyway, apart from the price.
DeleteIs London Ljubljana's number 1 destination? If all airport are counted together?
DeleteSame question as yesterday, are you sure you don't need a national carrier?
DeleteWhat we had with adria no! After covid-19 crisis things will get back to normal.
Delete@Nejc:
DeletePlease, give it up already. Nobody cares about LJU. You do need a national carrier. But a better one than Adria.
Well 18 airlines that fly there seem to care, the frequencies are currently not there because of covid-19 crisis...but we dont need what we had with adria!
Delete@Anon 16:26: So, how would it be better than Adria?
DeleteAll I see in media are plans for new national carrier with same aircraft (CRJ), same employees (ex-Adria creme de la creme), same destinations (SJJ, SKP, etc.).
How would this be any better?
@Anonymous 17:20:
DeleteReally? You must be reading some fictions news than. According to my info, Q400 is being considered and any pilot meeting the criteria will be (if it materialises) able to apply. Including "creme de la creme" ex- Adria pilots. Btw, what is your problem with ex-Adria pilots?
How will it be better? Hopefully, competent management will be able to come up with a long term profitable plan.
@Nejc:
DeleteYou really don't travel very often, do you? Cut the crap. If you want to fly out of LJU today, tomorrow or a few months from now, be prepared to pay a couple of hundred euros more to the same destination as from VCE or ZAG. To those handful destinations LJU has. And you don't have multiple departures to the same destination.
But be my guest, subsidise Wizz. They would be more than happy to take money from naive people like yourself.
Haha, i travel at least two times a month...and since adrias demise, I actually travelled from LJU a lot more, because prices were a lot better!! And when did i say i want to subsidise Wizz?! But if we would have a national carrier like adria, then I would rather subsidise wizz...
DeleteAnd lets see 10 years from now, all ex-yu countries probably wont have a national carrier...small airlines simply dont have a place in the airline industry anymore...
Delete@Anon 17:56: I didn't mentioned pilots, just employees in general.
DeleteHope doesn't float. There's no way the new carrier would survive without government support, and if they'd get government support.... political job appointments, here we go.
@Nejc & Anonymous 21:31:
DeleteBelieve me, if there is anything to learn from the corona crisis, we need a national carrier. That doesn't mean the resurrection of the old Adria. Far from it. What we need is a profitable, well managed airline (which Adria never was). Slovenia will never be a popular tourist destination (such as Croatia) - just look at our infrastructure. We have just a handful of hotels that weren't built in the 70's. Nor do Slovenes commute abroad on a daily basis.
Small, profitable national carrier in a small country. That will never happen.
DeleteWell, with a little less fictious "expenses" and a solid destination list, Adria could have been profitable.
DeleteJust another example of how corona will have a long lasting impact on airlines. For those that think everything will magically go back to normal after this crisis ends.
ReplyDeleteSome markets will need longer than others,you can see that from announcements on here.
DeleteMany shocking things are happening right now. Imagine this winter OS is not bringing back JFK and neither is LH from MUC. That's how bad the situation is.
DeleteOS is currently only at EWR. So situations is not so bad at all.
DeleteHuh? Of course it's bad, it means they can only survive in New York area thanks to UA feed.
DeleteThey are also cancelling Shanghai and Montreal. Btw they still didn't get the state aid but OS paid their management bonuses.
Deletesustrian is resuming Shanghai mid of sept. yesterday german gov gave green lights to state aid for LH's "non-german" companies
DeleteAccording to latest information Shanghai is not resuming in winter season. They will probably operate a few flights until then. LH is also cutting a dozen routes like Erbil, Addis Ababa and so on. Swiss is cutting three, Zurich Cairo, Geneva JFK and can't remember the third.
DeleteNot good for the coast
ReplyDeleteGood news for Croatia Airlines from Split at least. More pax for their seasonal Gatwick and Heathrow flights.
ReplyDeleteouch, up to 10 weekly flights from LJU to STN being cancelled. I hope they significantly boost LGW and LTN now.
ReplyDeleteEasyjet is now selling flights from LJU to Luton from end of october.
DeleteThat's good news and a quick reaction.
DeleteCould Wizz Air take over these routes?
ReplyDeleteWizz does not fly from Stansted. They cut Luton - Ljubljana last winter.
DeleteBut maybe they bring it back now.
DeleteDepressing.
ReplyDeleteWow that's a huge hit for easyjet. Closing 3 bases in the UK is massive.
ReplyDeleteFR is cutting around 25% of its UK flights so obviously the market is suffering big time.
DeleteAll three bases in the UK were fairly small. It's not liek they are closing LGW.
DeleteIt's interesting how under the radar easyjet is in the region yet they are the biggest airline in one ex-Yu market and the second largest in another.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's almost as if they achieve this without even trying lol
DeleteWell they did barely try, they are lucky that they operate from low competition markets
DeleteYou think the Croatian coast is a low competition market during the summer?
DeleteDo you know that in the season SPU is no. 1 in the region in the number or legacy, LCC and leisure carriers. So its not low competition market at all.
DeleteYeah and how many of those flights are scheduled and not charters? Exactly.
DeleteSPU generally does well for airlines. I noticed JU sends the A319 while DBV this summer is exclusively on the ATR.
DeleteAnon 10:05
DeleteTry to check what are you talking before you enter a comment.
All legacies are scheduled except UIA. LCC charters are only from Ryanair Sun from Poland while leisure carriers are mostly charters like Novair, some TUI flights, Air Explore and Widerøe.
Anon 10:05
DeleteWhat are you talking about?
Some people on here don't understand what a chartered flight is and what a scheduled one is. A lot, if not most flights from the HR coast are charters by tour operators.
DeleteI think you are the first one that doesn't know what charter and scheduled flights are.
Delete"Ä lot, if not most flights from the HR coast are charters by tour operators"
DeleteCan you give us an example? And just so you are aware. Charter flights are not those that are scheduled on a regular basis with tickets on free sale to any individual.
I live in Split region, and I tried to book the most of the flights which were offered from Split. And I can say that all of the legacy airlines which are flying to Split are offering rather scheduled then charter flights. KLM, Luxair, Alitalia, Aegean, Air France, Aer Lingus, Scandinavian Airlines, Finnair, Swiss (Edelweiss), Iberia, Air Baltic, British Airways, Air Serbia, LOT, Brussels, Austrian, Lufthansa are offering scheduled flights from Split and not chartered ones. Simply, Split isnt a destination made for a mass charter flights like Sharm el Sheik or Antalya...
DeleteAnd I assume these London routes are their busiest to Slovenia and Croatia.
ReplyDeleteThey are, even the text says so. At least for LJU.
DeleteDamn :(
ReplyDeleteIt is really surprising that LJU was linked with 5 airports in London.
ReplyDeleteEven more surprising that the market didn't get saturated.
DeleteFive?
DeleteGatwick, Stansted, Luton. That's three.
Sorry I meant to write four. BA flies Heathrow - Ljubljana
DeleteMaybe another destination in the UK could also work.
DeleteAgree. LJU needs more and more United Kingdom routes.
DeleteLooks like that Brits really like Slovenia
DeleteThey do. A lot of Slovenians also work in the UK, especially London.
DeleteLJU should support Easyjet to add new routes from Ljubljana, other than from London!
ReplyDeleteYes! I would like to see more new routes from other European regions as well.
DeleteYes, we should throw millions at them. Don't forget, we had a national carrier everyone hated throwing money at. But let's do it with Easy. It makes much more sense, since they offer 40 EUR tickets. Go figure.
DeleteAs if it good not get worse for LJU, now it losses one of its busiest routes...
ReplyDeleteLuton flights from Ljubljana are now on sale from October 28th 2020, 4x per week.
ReplyDeleteLuton is probably the UK's worst major airport.... Anyway, Gatwick is back at the beginning of September (still surprised it is not already back). The positive from the terrible news is that it will create more space for a return of BA next summer; better having sustainable frequencies into Heathrow over anything else would be a good result.
Deletethis are the news that Wizz is usually waiting for ...
ReplyDeleteBut Wizz have up on London-Ljubljana route last year.
DeleteI checked the easyjet booking system and all flights from LJU to STN are still aveliable to book.
ReplyDeleteCheck again. Click the date that they display as bookable and then you will see the information "No flights available".
DeleteThey are not bookable. That's why they are launching Luton ahead of schedule.
DeleteUnfortunately, I fear there will be more such announcements by various airlines.
ReplyDeleteThey are already happening. Ryanair has cut 20% of its planned capacity for September and October.
DeleteUnlike easyjet, Ryanir cuts will mostly be in flight numbers as opposed to route closures.
DeleteThe UK market is particularly problematic because of the government's erratic overnight quarantine decisions. No one feels safe going on holiday as the government can announce a change in quarantine measures. And it seems Croatia will be the next to be taken off the "safe" country list.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteVery poor planning by UK government.
Not good but primarily for easyjet. I'm sure the coastal airports and LJU will find alternatives.
ReplyDeleteConsidering all the affected airports have numerous flights to other London airports, it's no big deal.
DeleteSo and so. Dubrovnik has Stansted operated by Jet2 but it does not have any other airline operating from Southend. Jet2 also flies Stansted from Split but there is no alternative for Newcastle. From Pula, Ryanair flies Stansted.
Delete^ Thanks for that.
DeleteThis is bad news for Slovenia because it means these flights won't resume next month like LJU Airport was announcing and LJU currently needs all the flights it can get. What's worse, Slovenia currently has one of the lowest numbers of commercial flights. At the end of last week it was the fourth worst performer. Only countries behind it were Macedonia, Bosnia and Moldova.
ReplyDeleteWell people who were celebrating Adria's demise must be happy.
DeleteLJU situation keeps getting worse and worse. I am laughing my a** off at those who were predicting a boom in LJU after Adria's demise.
ReplyDeleteHaha laugh at yourself! Have you ever heard of covid-19 crisis ?
DeleteAnd if you forgot, before covid-19 crisis, almost every airline flying to LJU doubled their frequencies...
Deleteand @12.03 keeps coming with the same sentence every day
Delete@Anonymous 13:13:
DeleteSure I am, because of people like you and Nejc. I just love it when I'm right :).
@Nejc:
No, I haven't heard. But I saw the pre-covid numbers and they were disappointing (the frequencies and destinations were not even close to Adria's and even those were a disappointment).
For those of you travelling one or twice a year, a few charters per year is all you need. Unfortunately, some of us need more frequent flights.
Is croatia on the green list for the UK?
ReplyDelete