Low cost carrier easyJet is ending six routes to three markets in the former Yugoslavia with Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro being affected. The carrier will discontinue its operations between Berlin and Ljubljana, which it had launched in August 2018. It is the second easyJet route to be terminated out of the Slovenian capital over the past three months after the airline shut its base in London Stansted. The no frills airline now anticipates restoring flights from London Gatwick to Ljubljana on February 12, while its planned new service from London Luton has been delayed until March 28. Further changes remain possible.
easyJet will be terminating four seasonal routes to Croatia at this point, with flights from Venice to Split and Dubrovnik, as well as from Liverpool to Pula and London Luton to Zadar all cancelled. The airline had previously discontinued routes from Stansted to Dubrovnik and Split, from Southend to Dubrovnik and Pula, as well as from Newcastle to Split. In the pre-pandemic era, the budget airline was 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.
easyJet has also shelved plans to introduce flights between Milan and Tivat, which were initially to launch this year but were postponed until 2021. The service was to run twice per week during the peak summer months of June, July and August. However, it plans to go ahead and inaugurate seasonal services between Berlin and Tivat as initially planned on March 29 and maintain its existing routes from Geneva, London Gatwick and Manchester. In the summer of 2019, easyJet was the sixth largest airline in terms of offered capacity to and from Tivat and is expected to be fifth in 2021 based on existing schedules.
wow that's a shame :(
ReplyDeleteEvery time LJU management says they are in talks with other airlines or when airlines will return... boom 2 or 3 days later bad news
ReplyDeleteWell let's not forget that Slovenian government disqualified easyJet from getting subsidies for flying to Slovenia.
DeleteI think they were more deserving than Swiss! They have been flying to Slovenia for over 10 years.
DeleteYes but Swiss is a German airline so...
DeleteExactly, that's what I'm posting here for 2 months, as soon as they publish something good than we can already know that new cancelations/suspensions are on the way..
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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...
ReplyDeleteSmall seasonal bases don't work.
DeleteIt's not that small with over 15 routes.
DeleteNot enough for a base.
DeleteLJU just can't catch a break.
ReplyDeleteWell at least MGX resumed flights today
DeleteNot good for the coast
ReplyDeleteCould Wizz Air take over these routes?
ReplyDeleteI don't see W6 taking over the Berlin route. As for the others, perhaps.
DeleteDepressing.
ReplyDeleteHow many times has Berlin-Ljubljana been cancelled now? Didn't easy used to operate 10 years ago too. And then Adria.
ReplyDeleteI think an A320 is simply too large for this route.
Deletei guess it was performing well, they planned to increase weekly frequency in SS20. but it seems like they are cutting everything that might be risky. they cut also klagenfurt and graz.
DeleteIn 2018 and 2019, I frequently flew between Ljubljana and Berlin, mostly via MUC and FRA, but when I flew with EasyJet, the planes were full. It was interesting that there were a lot of passengers from Friuli on them, often also school groups. It seems to me that this news is more about EasyJet problems than airports, so the constant comments about LJU airport management are getting boring and completely unproductive.
DeleteAgree with Anon 12:06. EasyJet itself stated that it did not guarantee that they would survive the crisis if cuts in flights will continue on a rolling basis for the foreseeable future that could result in the long-term grounding of the majority of the EasyJet fleet. I find it funny when some people constantly repeat the mantra about the superbly thought-out communication strategy of the Slovenian Fraport, even when the news is in fact with a completely different focus.
DeleteWe all understand the crisis where airlines are but how could we understand statements of Fraport's management that they don't need national carrier and that they will do just fine without it? Tell me who on Earth would say that when all airports are tying to get as many airlines as possible. I understand that this is some general process done by Easy but that one route affect Slovenia more than 4 routes canceled in Croatia. Of course that would not be the case if we would have national carrier at LJU. And that's why there are so many negative comments regarding Fraport.
DeleteWhat if they cancelled this route to be able to get some funding from the government for establishing new connection? :)
DeleteI am not an Air Slovenia advocate. At the same time, Fraport Slovenia has no strategy. When they should be really extremely active, they seem to be just waiting for the pandemic to pass and think that it will then be more or less the same as it was before. Well, it won't be.
DeleteEven before pandemic their actions were catastrophic. We already knew what was the plan for Summer season before there was any sign of Covid and it was a disaster. So they are repeating same mistakes for a long time.
DeleteDid easyjet get the Slovenian government subsidies?
ReplyDeleteNo! they were disqualified.
DeleteBut hey, swiss got them :)
DeleteAnd the funny thing is they had 3 (now 2) routes from LJU while Swiss has 1.
DeleteI still don't get why they were disqualified.
Delete...there are rumors that they are in talks with Sarajevo airport for opening for opening new base there.
ReplyDeleteThat would be nice
DeleteHighly doubt it's easyjet.
DeleteWhy is LJU being constantly cannibalised by Fraport? Why did U2 extend their seasonal BER and LGW in VAR and not in LJU? Both airports are different but under the same management. Why did W6 expand their base with 3 aircraft there and not a sole one in LJU? Fraport should try and treat its airports and borrow the good practices.
ReplyDeleteWell Skobir is in LJU management
DeleteSkobir rather consider that Slowenija is the second most visited ex-Yu country and can easily receive more tourists especially from other EU states such as Spain, Portugal.
DeleteSkobir doesnt care for LJU, he only cares for his salary
DeleteThis is really sad news. Many EU capitals have so many connections even if they are smaller than LJU. TLL is probably the best example:
DeleteThey lost Estonian Air but still managed to increase their figures and HEL is just less than 100km away by boat.
2013 1,958,801
2014 2,017,371
2015 2,166,663
2016 2,221,615
2017 2,648,361
2018 3,007,644
2019 3,267,909
Similar to Slowenija, the diaspora is very low and it also has bigger airports nearby. Clearly, something has to be done. Climate is better in SLO, economy is strong, many places to visit....
No worries, Skobir is on top of it. In fact, he is in the middle of negotiations with a well renowned airline which might even employ local people. Hey, I think I just saw a pig fly past my window.
ReplyDeleteHaha +1000
Deletethey cut 9 routes to croatia? woow thats big. tbh i was hoping summer 21 will be close to normal but it looks like it will be far from that.
ReplyDeleteIt us quite a hit for Croatia
DeleteUnlikely. Even when things start start getting back to normal, a huge number of routes won't return.
DeleteUnfortunately, I fear there will be more such announcements by various airlines.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely.
DeleteNot good but primarily for easyjet. I'm sure the coastal airports and LJU will find alternatives.
ReplyDeleteLJU will find alternative for Berlin. Who?
DeleteAir Slovenia now could start flying to Berlin
ReplyDeleteAdria failed several times. And now Air Slovenia will suddenly have huge success.
DeleteFor start we would be happy with decent conx to FRA/ZRH/MUC/BRU and some Balkan. No need for something which was not profitable in good old times..
DeleteAnd Balkan routes were profitable?
DeleteNo but also EU flights would not be without Balkan flights...Simple as that. You can fly to TXL via many EU hubs, but you don't have so good options to fly to Balkan cities. JU has mainly covered all those destinations (except PRN) but connection time is sometime so long as you would go by car.
DeleteSo actually what LJU need is more or less same as we had with JP, with competent managers I strongly believe that business of Air Slovenia could be profitable. With politicaly appointed managers we know that this is impossible, as other airlines across EX-Yu knows as well.
Pity about Milan-Tivat. Could have worked quite well.
ReplyDeleteUnder normal circumstances yet, but obviously not in pandemic circumstances.
DeleteWhat's going on with easyjet?
ReplyDeleteIt's affected by Covid like every other airline in the world.
DeleteGood news for Croatia Airlines from Split at least. More pax for their seasonal Gatwick and Heathrow flights.
ReplyDelete