NEWS FLASH
Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport handled 4.923 passengers in January, representing a decrease of 93.5% on last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 708, down 59.4%. During the month, the airport was served by Lufthansa from Frankfurt, Turkish Airlines from Istanbul and Air Serbia from Belgrade. Available two-way capacity on commercial flights stood at 9.828 during the month.
Comments
Some of you people really need to get a grip with reality, you can't have high numbers if you have so many restrictions in place, and people obey them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Europe#2020
Most of them are now Russian but even leading airports like PRG and BUD had barely.4 million passengers!!!
Krasnodar jumped by 49 positions. Crazy!
As nobody will benefit from them closing the doors, not fraport not the firms and not the little guy.
That's why I'm for reestablishment of national airline, with cargo and pax operations.
PAX from LJU, cargo from MBX
What can MBX do that LJU can't? And then, at what cost to have 2 fully operational airports in such a small country?
How on Earth did you come to that conclusion? Slovenia's restrictions are no more restrictive then elsewhere. Blame it on lack of national carrier and an uninteresting market. How many times will I have to say it? If you want air connectivity, pay for it.
If corona showed anything, it's how unimportant Slovenia is for foreign carriers.
Oh, don't comment if you don't know what happening in Slovenia. In Slovenia you are not allowed to leave your municipality. I live in capital Ljubljana and if I go to Brnik airport (which is in another municipality) penalty is 400€!!! You can do that for business reason, but not for tourism purpose.
It looks like this travel ban will be canceled in the next days.
Sure, just couple of tens of millions and MBX can be a cargo hub. Or you know, cargo aircraft can land at LJU, where we already have all the infrastructure in place.
In 2019, LJU handled 24.875 tonnes of freight, which is about 68t per day, or roughly about 5 large trucks. There's no need for railway link for that amount of traffic, especially when you consider that most of that are express courier shipments (DHL/UPS/TNT), which are transported via vans around the country, not even trucks.
I don't see the need to invest an obscene amount of money into yet another failed project (remember the extremely utilised brand new terminal in MBX?), as long as LJU can handle cargo that comes to Slovenia by air.
Unfortunately for you, I live in Slovenia. And just to let you know, you are allowed to leave your municipality if you have a reason.
Besides, do you really think people are following government's rules to the letter ? Why do you think we had so many infections? Not because of the government and its rules, but because people didn't give two di*ks about them.
Like it or not, Slovenia will never be a very popular destination. If you're paying for the railways, pay an airline to do its job.
Situation is pretty much the same in Western Europe compared to Slowenija.
People are not allowed to travel to other regions or provinces and you have to have a proof. If not, you will get fined and in some extreme cases go to jail just like in the UK.
Still, much work needs to be done to recover the 2018 levels.
LJU could be treated as any other small to medium sized Germany city, like NUE, or Austrian INN, or SZG. Basically incorporate LJU into the entire Lufthansa network of flights as a feeder for their hubs, but also with some direct flights to select cities. Demand surly exists (pre-Covid). That way they could corner the market for most transfer flights from LJU.
"pay an airline to do its job"
For now we decided not to pay, except some small money for last tender. And I think at least 70% of others Slovenians agree with that.
It's very nice to see Croatian pax numbers. But bill, for all empty seats in last year, is already coming. And I'm sure most of taxpayers are not happy with that.
If LX/SN flies to ZRH/BRU once per day and even that flight is in the middle of the day then we can not talk about good connectivity. Those flights were completely useless and that's why they were canceled first. Even LH took half a year to place aircraft overnight in LJU.
Charlie
From JP figures we sat that there is demand for morning and evening rotations to main hubs (FRA/MUC/ZRH/BRU) and some flights to Balkan (PRN/SKP/TIA/SJJ).
Hmm, I wonder how did you come up with that number (70%)?
Do you always pay such close attention to how the government is spending your hard earned money? Or you just have/had something against Adria?
From what I can tell, there are a lot of areas where savings can be made. Air connectivity is not one of them.
Aaaa, so are elswhere?
@azdren:
Because we let our national carrier go down the drain. Actually, a former comedian an a prime minister , Marjan Sarec decided it would be in his best interest to let Adria go bankrupt in order to get some votes. The guy voluntarily stepped down a couple of months later and now he wants to get back. Only in Slovenia.
Really? Do you know why? I just hope it's not so we could give our (taxpayers) money to Lufthansa in order for them to fly to LJU.
I don't know about SJJ and SKP, but i can guarantee you there is zero O&D demand between TIA and LJU. Maybe a bit more for PRN, but not to justify direct flights.
For perspective, let's see the absolute numbers: LJU had 4.923 pax, which is similar to Corfu (4.818), Santorini (4.659), Kos (5.021), Samos (5.077); all between -58% and -84%. Btw, Chania, the secondary Crete's airport had twice as much pax as LJU. If you don't like comparisons with island airports, Varna had -72% and 4x LJU pax figures.
So, question for all the guys saying Slovenia is in lockdown and we are not allowed to go out of our municipality and that's why LJU is suffering so much: How come a small greek island with 15.000 inhabitants has the same pax numbers. Oh, yes and Greece is also in lockdown, you have to do a PCR test and self-isolate for a week upon arrival. Probably there's not many tourists and also, it's January.
I think sooner or later it should be clear there's something going on in LJU. I bet on a combination of bad management and lack of government strategy. We'll see that in the coming months, when LJU will still be lagging behind everyone else, despite increase in traffic.
As for Varna, same scenario, there is some domestic traffic combined with selected European winter destinations.
We don't know if there's something going on with LJU but let's not forget about geography. This has been discussed here for many years. Slovenia is a drive society and surrounded by many big airports especially Venice Marco-Polo.
Adria managed to bring a good number of passengers to the country yet again, the figures were never soaring.
It remains a tricky market for the LCCs and we see U2 becoming more dominant on the London route. W6 seem to act quite passively and preferred to stay with Charleroi.
Whatever happens, the new terminal must be filled and utilised and more work should be done not only by the government but by the local municipalities. They have to unite and try working closely with Fraport and determine, which destinations would work best.
What competition? LJU has 5000 pax.
Big airports?? You gotta be kidding me. ZAG and VCE are big? Perhaps VIE but it's nowhere near LJU.
@23:49:
Very nice analysis. Just goes to show that LJU is dead without a national carrier. Some people are just to arrogant to admit they were wrong and will search left, right and center to find other excuses.