Low cost carrier Transava is temporarily suspending operations from the Netherlands to markets in the former Yugoslavia due to travel restrictions and entry bans which have resulted in falling demand. The decision will affect the airline’s operations to Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. The budget carrier is temporarily suspending its flights from Amsterdam to Ljubljana starting September 13. Services are set to resume on October 29. As of last Sunday, Slovenia has placed the Netherlands on its red list, requiring all arriving travellers, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality to go into fourteen days of quarantine, although some exceptions apply. Transavia was among the first airlines to restore operations to Ljubljana, once the airport reopened for commercial traffic. As a result, there will be no commercial flights between Slovenia and the Netherlands until late October.
Transavia will suspend its seasonal operations to the Croatian coast on September 19 and September 20. This includes flights from Rotterdam to Dubrovnik, Split, Pula and Zadar, as well as from Eindhoven to Rijeka. As all of these services are seasonal, they will not be restored until the 2021 summer season. Last year, flights were maintained until mid-October. All passengers arriving from Croatia into the Netherlands are required to self-isolate for a period of ten days, even if the traveller is in possession of a negative coronavirus Covid-19 test. Croatia Airlines, which last year maintained a seasonal one weekly service from Dubrovnik to Amsterdam via Pula, has not restored the flights this summer. It continues to run daily operations from Zagreb to the Netherlands’ largest city, although select flights in September have been cancelled. In addition, KLM continues to maintain services between the two cities.
The Air France - KLM subsidiary has temporarily suspended its flights between Amsterdam and Belgrade this September, with three weekly services scheduled to resume on October 1. Serbian nationals are not permitted to enter the Netherlands although some exceptions apply. A decision on whether to recommend the reopening of the European Union’s external borders for Serbian citizens is expected to be made by the bloc tomorrow. Air Serbia continues to operate four weekly services to Amsterdam, while Wizz Air maintains two weekly operations to Eindhoven. Transavia was among the first foreign carriers to resume flights to Belgrade.
So now we are left without flights to Amsterdam too from Ljubljana, This is crazy.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they will resume the flights at the end of October.
DeleteI have my doubts for LJU because it is supposed to resume on the 29th of October, and they haven't revised their winter schedule yet (it's the same frequencies as last winter).
DeleteYes, very unpredictable regarding the immediate future of the Ljubljana route.
DeleteI actually think it's Slovenia imposing those restrictions and has even included NL!
DeleteI guess Slovenia is trying to protect its citizens.
Agree, this is the result of the Slovenian policy obviously. But I also think even without this quarantine the flights probably would have been cancelled. The demand is just low, everywhere.
DeleteWith only 41 new cases yesterday (minimum of 70 according to the EU) I see Serbia being put on the green list. Bulgaria opened the borders for Serbs yesterday, no more PCR
ReplyDeleteConsidering all the entry restrictions. I am really surprised at how many flights BEG has maintained.
Deletei don’t get it why is Serbia on the red list. This just shows how hectic and confusing situation is and decreases the demand even further, this is a bit extreme. Bans, lifting bans, then „temporarily“ suspending flights, agony without an end. If I have to travel somewhere i would think twice.
DeleteBecause it was a decision made in July when the situation was not good. Since there were no meetings in August (holidays), the next meeting in is the middle of September.
DeleteIt's only a recommendation. Even when the EU decides to lift restrictions, every country will decide for themselves. Mind you, the Netherlands had Serbia on their green list until the EU decided for the borders to be closed.
DeleteBulgaria opened the border for Serbs a long time ago and not since yesterday.
DeleteYes but from today no PCR test is required. You can enter freely.
DeleteUkraine has also placed Serbia onto green zone countries as of yesterday.
DeleteCan you enter Serbia from Bulgaria without any test?
DeleteSituation in Bulgaria is improved too.
Serbia still requires a negative PCR test for those coming from Bulgaria. I guess they are afraid because many tourists go there so there is a high risk of infection.
DeleteWrong. Serbia does require PCR test from Bulgaria but only from foreign citizens. So if you are a Serbian citizen who went there on holiday or for what ever reason, you do not need a PCR test to get home.
DeleteThank you last two anonymous.
DeleteI was asking for foreign citizens not for Serbians.
Seems like we are going in reverse compared to summer when flights were being resumed. Now they are being suspended.
ReplyDeleteYes, less and less capacity each week and the percentage at which we are on last year is decreasing.
DeleteIn Europe that is.
DeleteI'm not surprised considering all the entry bans and restrictions.
ReplyDeleteIt is becoming hard to keep up.
DeleteThe non-uniform approach from the EU regarding these measures is killing the aviation industry.
DeleteThis is sad :(
ReplyDeleteIs LJU airport management taking some action? Too many airlines have left this year. I know its corona but still.
ReplyDeleteA lot of airlines will be rethinking their route networks in the next few months.
DeleteWhat can they do? Slovenia's government placed 80% of Europe on the red and yellow lists. That basically prevents any flights.
Deletewell, no one has interest in flying almost empty planes...
Delete@anon 09:12
Deletefor the beginning they should stop giving idiotic statements in public and LJU would be in much better situation
I remember in April when they announced that all airlines would come back and all routes would be restored. And here we are now.
DeleteJU also cut DBV once corona exploded in Croatia and restrictions were introduced. In the first half of September JU will fly to DBV only once a week. :/
DeleteThis sucks :(
ReplyDeleteWhat is the financial situation with Transavia? Have they asked for aid?
ReplyDeleteThey are part of the Air France-KLM group which has received billions from the government.
Delete3.4-billion euros from Dutch government and 7 billion from French.
DeleteThat is massive!
DeleteIt comes with a lot of strings attached.
DeleteMany airlines have announced plans to shrink network and operations after reporting their first half results. Not surprising.
ReplyDeleteBut they will resume BEG and LJU next month. They are not being suspended forever.
DeleteLet's wait and see.
DeleteBEG will probably restart as planned on OCT 1. LJU we will have to wait for the winter timetable to be released.
DeleteIt's odd they never expanded more in the region from Amsterdam.
ReplyDeleteDidn't they fly to Tirana?
DeleteThey did but that was suspended even before corona.
DeleteMore of an oddity is how little KLM flies in the reegion.
DeleteTransavia is perfect for the Balkan market.
DeleteKLM codeshares on these Transavia flights as well as on JU's flights to BEG.
DeleteAre these flights really codeshared because when I tried to book Transavias BEG flights via KLMs web page they were not avalabile. Only JUs flights were offered while Transavias were only offered via their own web page.
DeleteBut this about KLM I really do not understand. In this region and wider they are only flying to ZAG, SPU, OTP, IST and ATH . No BEG, SOF, DBV, SKG, TIA etc.
Delta sells flights from AMS to BEG on them as part of a codeshare.
DeleteMore to come.
ReplyDeleteIn our case here in Ljubljana I don't see who is left to be honest.
DeleteDemand is low.
ReplyDeleteQuarantines and daily changes in policy certainly isn't helping.
DeleteGoes to show the importance of having a national airline based at your airport and providing vital connectivity to Europe's biggest hubs.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteYeah, I bet if Slovenia had a national carrier, they would be able to completely fill 3 daily flights to hubs. Right.
DeleteAirlines are cutting capacity with a reason - low demand.
No, but I'm sure they could have been able to fill at least one weekly flight.
Deleteor if it's half empty, still those 50 pax will give much more to Slovenian economy than no passengers at all.
DeleteOne weekly flight to hubs is useless. And Adria's LF was around 65% in excellent economic times.
DeleteAre you comparing LF of LCC and regular airline? JP had huge drop immediately when it was took over by 4k. Before LF was around 70% which is normal for regular airline.
DeleteWhat impacted on JP's loads, among other things, was Transavia itself. They started flying to Ljubljana in 2017.
Delete@anon 11:01
Deletethis is not correct, actually JP flights for AMS had increase in every KPI after HV introduced their flights. This was unexpected but most probably reason behind that is very strong marketing impact of HV but on other hand very poor schedule so passengers were searching for other options. If I am not wrong I believe that in the beginning they have operated only twice per week on AMS.
"Before LF was around 70% which is normal for regular airline."
DeleteA normal LF for any airline is that at least a break-even one. Anything less is not sustainable, regardless whether you call yourself an LCC or a legacy carrier.
@anon 11:41
DeleteSo in your case we would have 10 airlines on entire planet (those who reach break-even).
There's much more than 10 airlines in the world that are profitable (in normal times). You just have to look further away than your neigbhour's back yard.
DeleteI will buy you a beer if you name 10 of them. Of course they should not be supported by government.
DeleteEasyjet, Wizz Air, Ryanair, IAG, Lufthansa, Southwest, Alaska Airlines, American, United, Delta, JetBlue, ...
DeleteDo I need to go on?
You are funny if you think that most of those legacy carriers does not receive subsidies :) Pumping money into airlines is not the only way how to prioritize flag carrier. Just take a look how helpful Fraport is to LH. And we all know who is owner of Fraport.
DeleteYeah, Fraport helps to LH soo much, so LH decided to move some A380 in MUC because of Fraports helpfules to the LH.
DeleteAnon 13:06
DeleteSo if aviation is not profitabile business in general, why are then so much people interested in investing in it? Are these people also supported by goverment?
LH has made more than 1.5bn EUR profit/year on average for the last 5 years. Are you saying the German government or the state of Hesse is subsidising them to the same amount per year?
DeleteAlso, Fraport is helping LH so much that Ryanair is expanding their FRA base every year more and more.
And you did not think of idea they might cannibalize some traffic to MUC as FRA was overcrowded before Covid-19. From passengers perspective MUC is much more convenient than FRA, at least from my experience.
DeleteAre they cutting flights to anywhere else or just to the Balkans?
ReplyDeleteEveryone is cutting flights to everywhere.
DeleteThis is a disastrous year
ReplyDeleteTime to start planning for 2021. This year is a lost cause.
DeleteThe start of 2021 isn't looking much better.
DeleteIf the Slovenian government gave a subsidy to each airline flying to Ljubljana, we would setill have Transavia... and many others.
ReplyDeleteIn that case it is better to give an LCC money for it to base a plane in LJU and start flying to a lot of destinations.
DeleteThere's no point subsidising the airlines in these times. Wait until this thing is over and demand for travel starts to go up.
Deleteam not from SLO but lol @9.59 did you even read why this flight got suspended?
DeleteYes I did. The flights were certainly not empty and there are certainly people willing to take flights even with quarantine, while on flights to Amsterdam you have no limitations in the Netherlands. If there was a financial incentive, the flights would have continued.
Deleteagain: no financial incentives (or call it subs.) is enough to let a plane fly half empty (which is probably what we can expect in these days) especially low cost companies.
Delete(hint: just look at other airports in the region that have such incentives...)
Slovenia as itself is not interesting for LCC base. Why:
Delete-does not have a lot of tourism
-does not have a lot of diaspora around the world
Those are two major reasons why LCC would open a base anywhere. Slovenia is simply to small to fulfill 6 flights per day with a320 (this is in case they place one aircraft in LJU).
Last but not least, giving incentives would cost much more than to establish national carrier.
Luxembourg is much smaller than Slo, but has higher GDP per cap. Not in the top 20 list of tourist destinations. Frankfurt Hahn only an hour away, FRA with global reach only about 2 hours away.
DeleteYet they have multiple LCCs flying there, plus national airline. More than 4 million annual passengers at local airport.
You mentioned that they are much smaller than Slo but still they have national carrier. Someone there know where to invest money..
DeleteLuxembourg has almost 3 times the GDP per capita than Slovenia. You can't compare the two.
DeleteJust because they have 3x GDPpc doesn't mean they are flying 3x more. Some airports served by LCCs like Wizz are in the area with GDPpc that is one third of Slo.
DeleteBut you forgot to mention they are carrying diaspora from countries which again has GDP 3x more than Slovenia..
DeleteAs explained before diaspora or mass tourism, there is no other parameter for LCC.
Luxembourg disputes that LCC myth.
DeleteThere is no Ryanair base in Luxembourg. They operate just flights out of their bases to Luxembourg. These is list of destinations out of Luxembourg:
DeleteBarcelona, Bergamo, Budapest, Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London–Stansted, Madrid, Malta, Porto, Seville
Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca.
It doesn't have to be a base. Plus EasyJet has Berlin–Schönefeld, Bordeaux, Lisbon, London–Gatwick, Milan–Malpensa, Porto. Volotea has Nice and seasonal Alicante, Marseille, Venice. Imagine LJU with just half of all those LCC routes.
DeletePlus Luxair and others with dozens of routes.
funny @11.45: Slovenia is at nr.2 in ExYu in terms of tourist numbers.
Delete@anon 16:12
DeleteLUX and it's surroundings has huge population of foreigners where Portuguese stand out with almost 20% of all populations. So it's not strange that most flight LCC are operating are to Porto and Lisabon. Maybe flights to Banja Luka or Velika Kladusa would be interesting from LJU (oh last one does not have an airport).
@anon 18:04
50% of all tourist in Slovenia are from Italy, Austria and Germany which are just passing Slovenia and going to Croatia/Serbia/Montenegro. I am not quite sure if LCC would open base in LJU because of 10 km of coast, Lake Bled and Postojna caves..
@20.39 you need to learn first what is defined as a "tourist"
Delete@anon 22:47
Deleteand you should check in to segmentation of tourist in Slovenia. Average overnight stay per tourist is a bit more than 2 which is extremely low in comparison with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Like I said, Slovenia is just a stopover on the way to other destinations.
To make a conclusion, forget about LCC base in LJU.
@Anonymous 07:45:
DeleteExactly. There is no way in hell any LCC would open up a base in LJU. Few flights, yes, but not a base. Most of the pax on Adria flights were foreigners, either transit or business. Filling an A320/319 or a B738 would be mission impossible, especially 8 times/day.
On the other hand, a small carrier with a 100-seater might work. If they could brake even, it would be a huge success.
I keep forgetting there is also a French Transavia.
ReplyDeletefrench Transavia wasnt allow to grow much because of an agreement with AF/Hop.
DeleteInteresting, didn't know that
DeleteChaos
ReplyDeleteBravo LJU. Soon enough and you'll be a cargo-only airport.
ReplyDeleteI love Ljubljana and Slovenia but this statement is looking more and more likely :(
Deletemaybe this is actually the plan all along.
DeleteAustria has more than 40 cases for 100.000 people in the last 2 weeks and no limitations at all made by the Slovenians meanwhile for the Dutch it's so different and the situation is slightly better than in Austria. It's just crazy!
ReplyDeleteDouble standards everywhere.
Deletethe difference bein Austria has a stable count of around 41 for quite some time, whereas Netherlands started a bad trend and are now also above 41 in a very short time. So trends are different.
DeleteAnyone know hoe many passengers Transavia handles to BEG and LJU? Last year for example?
ReplyDeleteBravo LJU! Bravo Slovenia! Smooth, smooth, smoooooth!
ReplyDeleteATP tennis tournament at the airport, like they did it in Germany.
ReplyDeleteQualifications will be on runway and taxiways.
Finale in new terminal building.
+1
DeleteWhere does it say Croatians must self isolate? NED never actually closed its borders to EU citizens during the pandemic. On their official website the info is the same as before, they "strongly advise" to self isolate for 10 days. It's not a must
ReplyDeleteOn the government website
Deletehttps://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/tackling-new-coronavirus-in-the-netherlands/travel-and-holidays/self-quarantine