Bucharest remains Ljubljana’s busiest unserved route


Bucharest was Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport’s busiest unserved route over the past two years, with European cities dominating the top ten. On the other hand, during the last normal year for commercial aviation, in 2019, New York was the only far away destination to position itself within the top five for indirect traffic, according to global data provider OAG. A total of 13.781 passengers flew between Ljubljana and Bucharest in 2019, while there were 8.371 origin and destination passengers between the Slovenian capital and New York. These figures do not include Slovenian travellers who began or completed their journey from nearby airports such as Zagreb or Venice.

The 935-kilometre capital connection between Ljubljana and Bucharest was previously operated on and off by Adria Airways. The Slovenian carrier initially launched the route at four per week in the summer of 2008 with its CRJ200 jet. However, the service was short-lived and lasted until 2010. The airline made another attempt at the route in 2018 with four weekly rotations but the flights were discontinued just a few months later as the airline’s financial problems began to mount, which ultimately led to its demise. Adria remained the main feeder carrier for services to the Romanian capital in 2019, transferring passengers primarily to Vienna who would then connect onto Austrian Airlines flights. Air Serbia was the second busiest transfer airline on the route, accounting for 24% of total passengers carried.

New York was last served nonstop from Ljubljana by JAT Yugoslav Airlines prior to the demise of the former Yugoslavia. In 2019 It was the fifth busiest unserved route, although it fell out of the top ten last year due to significantly reduced passenger flow to the United States as a result of a travel ban. In 2019, Adria was still the main transfer airline, shuttling passengers for onward connections from Frankfurt, however, both Air France and Air Serbia were a close second, each accounting for 15% of all passengers flying between Ljubljana and New York City’s airports.

If you would like to find out the full list of the busiest unserved routes from Ljubljana, of which nine were in Europe and one in North America in 2019, as well as nine in Europe and one in Asia in 2020, subscribe for this week’s EX-YU Aviation Premium Newsletter here.


Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    This could be a good route for TAROM!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:04

      Perfect for their ATRs

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:09

      When you think about it, TAROM has a very poor presence on ex-Yu markets.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:11

      Maybe they just don't see the financial benefit.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:14

      I think their main problem is that they couldn't make it work more than 2 weekly. Most passengers from LJU to OTP are business passengers who need flexibility. JU offers same day travel in summer on their night flight to OTP.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:16

      Anyone remember the schedule of these flights? LJU-OTP I mean?

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    6. Anonymous09:17

      RO also has a codeshare with JU via BEG.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:17

      It was in the middle of the day.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous09:19

      @9.16
      https://www.exyuaviation.com/p/adria-airways-ljubljana-bucharest.html

      Delete
    9. Anonymous09:22

      Not that convenient for business travel.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous09:24

      Maybe it was scheduled to link with Adria's wave of departures. But I can't remember at what time that was.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous09:40

      I think their main problem was that they were extremely expensive for O&D passengers.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous11:49

      Their entire focus was on transfer passengers in Ljubljana. And they also had some weird bases in Poland and P2p flights from Pristina.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous21:45

      Although I agree that Tarom's ATRs are suitable in terms of size, I'm afraid it's still not a suitable aircraft type for this route. LJU-OTP is 930 km, which would be far too slow and uncomfortable with the ATR. Since the flying time would be so long, it would also be an expensive operation in terms of low crew and aircraft productivity.

      Delete
    14. Anonymous22:57

      True that

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    15. Anonymous07:27

      They send the ATR to Vienna from time to time. It would be about the same flying time. Also to LJU they wouldn't have any competition.

      Delete
    16. Anonymous08:07

      Maybe they do and B&H Airlines used to fly SJJ-CPH with the ATR. Just because it's operationally possible, it doesn't make it a good choice.

      From a passenger perspective, I'd draw the line at 600 km and this is more than 50% longer than that (!). Still, I think the economics are the main factor. You can do so many more short sectors in a day with the same crew and aircraft than if you try to squeeze in a really long route like this, so it's an unwise investment from the airline. The Q400, which normally has higher operational costs, is probably a more economical option in this case.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    Never would have thought

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:58

      Neither would I. My guess would have been something like Madrid or Barcelona

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    But it is interesting Adria could not make OTP work - TWICE!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      Well Adria could not make most things work. That's why they went bankrupt.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:58

      They tried everything but invested very little in their routes and did not give them time to develop.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:04

    New York seems to be top unserved from most airports it is not served from :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      Yes, that's actually quite expected.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:21

      Melania should have done more to get those flights going from JFK ;)

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:58

      Too late now...

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:06

    Good to see JU do so well to both OTP and JFK from LJU. Maybe JU eventually introduces night flights.

    I wonder what share of OTP passengers will JU have now that VIE link is gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      I assume it does well in terms of transfer passengers on quite a few routes from or to LJU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:10

      VIE and OS seem to have lost the most from JP going bust

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    3. Anonymous09:15

      That would be a very early departure from LJU. I think at around 04.20!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:29

      I think Lufthansa got a big share of former Adria/Austrian passengers.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:31

      LJU is generally closed to scheduled flights at night until 06.00 due to noise reasons.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:41

      I don't know, LH didn't start flying months after JP went bankrupt. Meanwhile JU rushed in. It makes sense for people to fly to the Balkans via BEG than via MUC or FRA. Going in the other direction makes segments longer meaning it's more expensive.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:46

      Didn't LH start flying in October and Adria went bust in Spetember?

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    8. Anonymous09:46

      * September

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    9. Anonymous09:48

      End of October so JU had a whole month just for itself. That's when they were increasing almost every flight to A319/B733. They basically took over all of Star Alliance passengers.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:08

    These are good news for JU once they start again flying to OTP.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      Now we know why they boosted LJU to 17 from Belgrade.

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    2. Anonymous09:12

      Probably not the only reason but surely one of them.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:48

      I'm pretty sure there is healthy P2P demand between Ljubljana and Belgrade too.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:12

    A lot of people from Ljubljana, especially those going on longer distance flights start their journey from other airports. So I assume the list would be a bit different if these could be attracted back to LJU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:15

      Does anyone know what is the approximate number of Slovenians using airports in close proximity for travel?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:23

      Almost everyone. LJU-BRU for tomorrow 400 EUR, VCE-BRU 180 EUR (both via FRA, not to mention direct flights on other days from VCE). It makes no sense whatsoever to use LJU anymore. Just shut it down.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:34

      Good point, that data of unserved routes are made without any sense. Feedback from travel agencies is that passengers mostly travel from other airports due to lack of connections.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:49

      To Anon 09:23 :
      You are not being fair - before corona price for return direct flight LJU-BRU was cca 150 eur with SN. But timings were not so good for bussines travelers, thats true.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:03

      @09:49:

      Not fair? It is what it is. What did you think would happen with LH having a monopoly in LJU? 4.99 EUR fares?

      In the last year, I haven't used LJU once. It's too expensive.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:53

      January 2020:
      LJU- BRU direct return cca 150eur (SN)
      LJU-NYC return t. 480 eur(LH)
      LJU-BKK return t. 420 eur((SU)
      Talking abt bought tickets, not just listed.
      Prices were getting much better than were before. All LJU needed were more convinient dep times.
      And then Corona came...
      Ofcourse is cheaper elswhere, there are almost no flts from LJU.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:57

      I agree with the last one. The main problem is booking tickets 2 weeks before your flight, than they are super expensive. If you book Lufthansa mostly 3 weeks in advance than return ticket is less than 200€ which for me is fine (for EU flights).

      Delete
    9. Anonymous13:20

      Ah, I see. When people on here were quoting Adria's prices it was alright to quote LJU-BRU via BKK prices (one day before the departure), but not so for LH.

      Well, the matter of the fact is, LH for tomorrow is expensive. I don't have the luxury to book tickets one month in advance. Even two weeks ago it was crazy expensive. But go ahead, you need all the arguments you can find to justify subsidies of a certain German national carrier.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous13:47

      Sorry but not booking in advance at the moment is stupid. Let me give you a hint... 99% of airlines have flexible tickets for 2021. You book your flight and if you dont have a meeting you just rebook it for different meeting. Simple. Im doing that all the time and flying always from Ljubljana And always flight ticket is below 200€. My friend booked ticket yesterday from Helsinki to Ljubljana first week of March for 160 via frankfurt. cheaper than with Finnair... Nobody is saying we should give subsidies to german company - but booking plane ticket one week before your flight is expensive (it was expensive even with Adria).

      Delete
    11. Anonymous16:33

      @13:47:

      Rebooking is free, canceling is not (except maybe business class fare)!

      If you got lucy a couple of times, it doesn't mean that tickets from LJU are cheap! Adria also had cheap tickets if you bought them in advance. Poor connectivity coupled with expensive tickets equates to a useless airport.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:14

    There are so many European destinations in top 10 because there are so many unserved European destinations :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:48

      Yes, many major hubs missing.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:16

    Incredible that JU has the same market share to New York as AF.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:47

      Why are you surprised. I think JU offers a good price and there is an excellent connection.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:22

      .... and market is smaller then Split ones.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:20

    Unfortunate there are no flights between the two.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:21

      And I mean Bucharest-Ljubljana, not New York-Ljubljana :D

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:47

      Well there used to be New York - Ljubljana once upon a time.

      Delete
    3. There used to be also Ljubljana- Cleveland-Detroit. And Zagreb-New York. And Zagreb-Cleveland-Detroit. And Zagreb-Chicago. And Zagreb-Montreal-Toronto. And Zagreb-Toronto. And Dubrovnik-New York. And Dubrovnik - Chicago. But then, thanks God, we finally stopped living in that dark, in prison, in poverty, behind the iron curtain, and now, again thanks God, we are part of the prosperous West, completely equal, led by experts and living in democracy. Hahahahahahaha

      Delete
    4. Sorry, just forgot to mention we had only one type of yoghurt at that dark evil times....

      Delete
    5. Anonymous23:01

      Pozdrav, you are the best !
      Love your humour, btw i also miss the good old times of Yugoslavia .
      Well, not everything was good then but it still was much better than today .

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:21

    I assume most unserved routes are those that were flown by Adria at some point in the last few years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:28

      Probably because I remember a recent article here about Windrose flights to Ljubljana and it was mentioned there were 10,000 indirect passengers. So if Bucharest had 13,000 then Kyiv was not far behind on the list.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:25

    I love these articles :)) hope Skopje is next

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:02

      admin said last week in comments that LJU is this week and SKP next.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:59

      Can't wait!

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:25

    It's interesting to see how different LJU is compared to BEG and ZAG where there are a lot of Asian destinations in the top 10.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:27

      Because Asian tourists pass through Slovenia for the most part. It's unlikely it is their final point of arrival or first point of departure.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:00

      There used to be charters from Japan to Ljubljana before corona. But yes, 09.27 is correct.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:49

    Who can enter Slovenia these days? What are the restrictions like?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:46

      Very few. People from third countries are not allowed in and people from "red list" countries/regions from EU are not allowed and that's almost every single country.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:44

      Why you want to come?
      Right now Slovenia is the 3th worse covid affected country among all the EU entities.
      Yes there is some improvement but it's so slow and covid can explode again very soon.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:56

    I really hope that someone will not take this analysis seriously. If they would count Slovenian citizens departing/arriving on other airports (ZAG,VIE, VCE,...) then picture would be much different. I remember when LJU had decent connectivity and BUH was not even on list of first 5 unserved routes. I could bet that LON, , BRU, ZRH, MUC, CPH, ARN, MAD are way ahead of BUH at that moment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:59

      At the moment but these are for 2019. But I agree that the issue is that Slovenians use neighboring airports a lot.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:05

      Which airports do Slovenians use most for flying (besides LJU). Zagreb or Venice? Or Vienna?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:35

      My family and I as well as my friends and work collegues mostly use both airports at Venice and we are from Ljubljana area.
      We rarely use ZAG. Used to on Norwegian flights, but that's about it.
      I think it mostly depends on location tho.
      Western half Venice, eastern half Vienna and Zagreb.
      But the closest ones are Venice and Zagreb and Venice has much much more to offer than Zagreb, that's why we use it.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:51

      VCE is mostly used for leisure passengers due to good LCC network, ZAG for business due to more convenient connections.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:39

      Interesting, thanks

      Delete
    6. Anonymous14:48

      Venice and Treviso were very popular and still they are.
      Many Slovenians are going as far as Bergamo or Milano to fly to Spain etc

      Delete
    7. Anonymous23:01

      That's a bit crazy in my opinion. By the time it takes to drive there and catch a flight you can transfer directly from Ljubljana through another city.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous23:09

      ^ It's not about the journey duration, it's about the price.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous00:35

      The price would have to be better than 300€ for a return ticket to anywhere in Europe to be able to beat LJU. By the time you add extra traveling time to Venice, motorway tolls, petrol, wear & tear on yous auto, it is hard to make an argument to drive to Venice.

      ZAG maybe, because it is only about 1.5 hours from centre of Ljubljana.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous21:20

      We were using TRS before quite a lot. It is closer for us then LJU In the summer LTH will have three return flights daily to MUC. I think they will cover whole western part of Slovenia with good connections via MUC.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous10:03

    I think there are a couple of European routes Ljubljana could easily secure traffic to. I think a big problem are costs and I don't mean airport fees I mean taxes. I remember LJU management once said that that fees that are not set by the airport are quite high.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:38

      Didn't the Slovenian government just recently reduce some taxes?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:39

      Found it

      "Recently, the government also reduced taxes for the use of aviation-related infrastructure at airports in the country."

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/01/slovenia-to-see-biggest-air-travel.html

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:24

      LJU management is searching for excuses everywhere..after JP demise airlines did not have enough time to prepare their schedule, then it was Covid, now airport taxes..

      ZAG has even higher airport taxes and they do not have such decrease in terms of passengers. What is for sure that LJU managements is totally incompetent!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:04

      ZAG has a government that is willing to pour money down the national carrier blackhole.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:52

      Because are aware of the fact that passengers which they get on OU flights bring them 10x more in state economy then they spend on subsidies for OU. Only our "experts" does not see that..

      Delete
    6. One expert does not see that. Two or more experts don't see that. In order to be able to know basics of the aviation, let alone being an expert, one needs at least decent level of English. And the only thing they (gvt) are aware of, is their personal benefit, and uhljebnistvo for their family, friends, mistresses and party supporters

      Delete
    7. And the fact how much they care for "state economy" is the data which shows that only Bulgaria is behind Croatia in economic results in EU. Even Romania is ahead. And if OU as it is contributed to that position, than I finally must agree with you - obviously they did miracles for" state econony", led by those so "aware"

      Delete
    8. Anonymous08:05

      I have to say that OU how it's managed is disaster, but I am 100% sure that it is much better to have that kind of airline then none of it. Of course that's not excuse to keep working as they did in past, something (or everything) has to change in future. I don't know much regarding economic situation in Croatia but I assume that big part of it comes from tourism which was affected most in 2020. Without OU I think that situation would be even worse. You can easily see how market is taking of itself in Slovenia and situation would not be much more different in Croatia in case of OU bankruptcy.

      Delete
    9. For at least some connectivity during corona, I agree. For tourism, no, it's 18 % of overall economy in HR, but OU has less than 20% coastal(tourists) market share. About OU shutting down - I am not calling for it, on the contrary. But I don't see any changes coming, like during last 25 years, because much more needed structural reforms have not happened in HR - pension system, health, education, so concerning OU, status quo is to be expected, the worst possible solution.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous10:14

    TAROM could fish a lot in the ExYu market. Theres opportunities like LJU, ZAG, SKP (not to mention SPU) who stil have lots of connecting traffic void.

    TAROM is as passive as OU

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      My assumption is they are under performing on much more important and lucrative markets for them so they are focusing on that.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:37

      Likely, TAROM is not the best managed airline around.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:17

    Is there any other Romanian airline that could operate routes like this? I'm don't know the Romanian aviation market too well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:37

      Blue Air could. It's a big Romanian LCC. But the issue is it has no suitable aircraft in my opinion for this type of route.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:02

      ^ B737 way too big for this route.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous14:14

    Hej, what about SOF? Didn't JP have quite a success with this route? Frequencies were increased and the A319 upgrades.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:54

      Only because 319 was the cheapest on SOF or VIE. There were never enough passengers to fulfill 319. But it's true that after increase of frequencies the results were much better.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:59

      The route was originally planned for SB20, most of CRJ fleet was leased out, so when introduction of SB20 took longer than planned, A319 was the only option on some days.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:29

      Before the JP demise, they actually increased the frequencies from 3 to 5 weekly. Those guys from FB are sleeping again. Maybe the new airline Gullivair includes LJU together with SKP and CLJ. Well, at least this is their plan. The new ATRs arrived yesterday but currently still all white and not yet painted.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:36

      The Gullivair guys are doing pretty well. They received already 2 our the 3 ATR72s and by the end of the week they need to receive the last ATR72-600 and the second A332. The last A332 should be received by the end of April.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous16:07

    Love seeing JU do well in LJU!

    ReplyDelete

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