Zagreb Airport has seen an increase in the number of passengers from Slovenia since the demise of the country’s national carrier Adria Airways in September 2019 and expects for figures to increase as the coronavirus pandemic subsides and Ryanair establishes additional operations from the Croatian capital. "Following the bankruptcy of Adria Airways, we recorded a slight increase in the number of passengers from Slovenia, however, the epidemiological measures introduced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic impacted cross-boarded traffic and thus reduced the number of Slovenian travellers", Zagreb Airport said. It added it will negotiate the reestablishment of a direct bus service between Ljubljana and Zagreb Airport once the ongoing pandemic and entry measures ease.
Ljubljana Airport recently said it does not believe it will lose passengers as a result of the recent opening of Ryanair’s base in the Croatian capital. It noted, “We see Ryanair’s arrival at Zagreb Airport mainly as supplementary to other low cost flights operating from that airport. While we do expect some Slovenian passengers to use these flights, we hope that Croatian travellers will continue utilising low cost services offered by easyJet, Transavia and Wizz Air from Ljubljana Airport”. Ljubljana Airport recently secured a number of new routes including Flydubai from Dubai, Wizz Air from London Luton (launching in December), easyJet from London Luton (launching in March 2022) and Transavia from Paris Orly (commencing in April 2022). Flydubai noted it does not see its operations to both Zagreb and Ljubljana as competing against each other but rather complementing one another.
Zagreb Airport expects to reach its pre-Covid passenger numbers in two years. “Thanks to the enhanced offer of low cost flights, our projection is that we will reach pre-Covid passenger levels by 2023”, Zagreb Airport said. This year alone Ryanair has introduced 24 routes from the Croatian capital and plans to base an additional jet or two next summer. On the other hand, it may take Ljubljana somewhat longer to reach the 1.7 – 1.8 million passengers it was handling prior to the pandemic. This September, the airport welcomed 65.133 passengers through its doors, down 62.2% on the pre-pandemic 2019. During the first three quarters it handled 273.674 travellers, down 81.1% on two years ago.
Slight increase...most government tender requests flights out of ZAG. Or we (taxpayers) pay 950 eur for one way LJU-FRA-VIE-SKP as it happened recently. Well done Slovenia!
ReplyDeleteWhy does the government tender flights out of ZAG? That's crazy
DeleteBecause you don't have possibility to fly out of Slovenia. For example if you would like to take flights to BRU you have to leave LJU 1 day earlier and come back one day later.
DeleteIn case you take morning flight out of ZAG you can do come back in same day.
I see. Interesting and unfortunate considering these are high revenue passengers.
DeleteWhat is the percentage of Slovenian passengers that use ZAG.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's that huge. Maybe 5%?
DeleteWhen Adria went bankrupt, Zagreb Airport car park was swarming with Slovenian license plates.
Deletethey're kidding themselves if they think people from Ljubljana won't use Ryanair from Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't people from Ljubljana use Ryanair from Ljubljana?
DeleteHaha meant Zagreb obviously.
DeleteIf I flew from Treviso (Ljubljana resident) I don't see the reason not to fly from ZAG.
DeleteNot to mention northeastern Slovenia, Štajerska basically. Maribor is closer to Zagreb than to Ljubljana.
DeleteFor me the bigger issue is not so much that hundreds of thousands will flock to ZAG from Slovenia but the fact that it reduces the chances of some other airline introducing routes from Ljubljana which have been launched by Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteWell if they are smart they could present it as an opportunity for Wizz to counter Ryanair's strong presence around Slovenia.
DeleteThat happens when you have management that doesn't do anything.
DeleteLet's hope things change now with new CEO.
DeleteDon't hold your breath. She has been part of the management for some time. But who knows. Let's hope.
DeleteInteresting to note that Sarajevo is now the only ex-Yu capital city airport that does not have a foreigner as CEO.
DeleteLjubljana's first hit was loosing Adria, second was corona, third is Ryanair base in Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately first hit was also the biggest one..
DeleteTrue that
DeleteOh good so LJU is up to 19% of pre-Covid passenger numbers.
ReplyDeleteSame as August. So no improvement.
DeleteIt will never reach 1.7 or 1.8 million pax again unfortunately.
DeleteIt would with national airline or if it became a base for an LCC.
Delete@9.26 it is not the same as in August. In August it was 17%. Now it is 19%.
Delete@anon 09:35
Deletesecond one will never happen so let's hope for the first option. And be aware that those 19% is at the time when Slovenia is running presidency of EU. I can't even imagine what will happen after January...
Correct. The presidency has definitely added some extra passengers.
DeleteIs there a current shuttle service from Ljubljana to Zagreb airport? Stupid Schengen should finally be allowed between both countries. Reminds me of the 2 Danube bridges connecting Bulgaria and Romania. Useless boundaries.
ReplyDeleteShould, however, LJU become a base or restore its flag carrier, this will change quite a lot for Zagreb.
Currently no because of Covid but like they say it will be restated.
DeleteI meant restarted, auto correct.
DeleteWhy would someone from Zagreb drive to Ljubljana to use Wizz or easy to London when they have daily flights with Ryanair, or go to Ljubljana to fly to Orly with Transavia when they have Ryanair to Beauvais.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I don't think there is any draw anymore for Croatian passengers to use Ljubljana. Cheap London flights were but not anymore.
DeleteORY is much closer to Paris than BVA. So some would drive to LJU.
DeleteThe situation will be more or less the same. The LCC offer is even better in Venice/Tarvisio and no border control. I think that the only issue will be the price from ZAG or VCE. So, those current LCC users will have to decide which airport to use. ZAG FR project is more threat for VCE / TSF.
ReplyDeleteAll could have been avoided if we had a national airline.
ReplyDeleteHow? People that want to fly with low fares would still use alternatives.
DeleteBecause even people who don't want to fly low fares are drawn to them due to a lack of a nonstop flight.
DeleteTrue! We are losing even those passengers who are not price sensitive and that's a big loss for Slovenia. Of course Ryanairs's base in ZAG would have effect even if we had national carrier but at least LJU would keep most passengers.
DeleteYou snooze you lose.
ReplyDeleteLJU needs to attract a many airlines as it can to avoid bleeding passengers to nearby airports.
ReplyDelete*as
DeleteEasier said than done.
DeleteWhich other airlines could LJU realistically attract?
DeleteTake your pick. First they could get Iberia and British to fly all summer season. Try to get Finnair to fly year round. Attract TAROM based on high number of indirect passengers to Bucharest. Finally get Austrian from Vienna, as well as SAS to cover Copenhagen or Stockholm...
DeleteDon't count on TAROM. They are a useless airline that would not jump at an opportunity if it hit them in the face.
DeleteI agree that attracting foreign airlines is the only way forward. Flydubai was a big and important step, especially in the context of competing against Zagreb.
DeleteBiggest issue for LJU is not in attracting new airlines but to convince those who are already flying to increase frequencies. For start we need morning/evening rotations to ZRH/BRU/MUC. One flight in the middle of the day to BRU or ZRH is same as you would buy a Ferrari but you can use it only between 12:00 and 14:00. That's nice but if you have to go to work or some other business than even Yugo is much more convenient if you can use it all the time.
DeleteAgree. They need to stimulate LH group to do more.
DeleteFraport is to blame. They have been far too slow to react to any changes on the market.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt's like they don't even care, which is surprising considering they paid good money for the airport.
DeleteIf it was the fault of Fraport that would also mean than the tens of other airports they operate stagnate too.
DeleteBut they don't.
LJU situation has to do with the market and its location.
Fraport did invest a lot of money to the terminal.
The situation only suggests that they shouldn't have bought LJU. It proved to be a bad investment on their part.
@09:58
Deleteseriously?
please remind me how many passengers LJU had when JP was around? And now suddenly location and market is issue because LJU does not have passengers.
A big part of guilty is on Fraport side and that's because they were openly against new national carrier. Probably guys from government thought that those guys are real experts and they listened them which was clearly huge mistake.
Sure, Fraport being against new national carrier was a major factor in the deicision not to go ahead, not the financial aspects...
DeleteAlso, don't forget that JP went bankrupt with 4m+ debt to Fraport, no wonder they aren't keen on repeating the same story again.
and who made those financial report? and what did those reports include? I tell you that those guys who prepared that has so much with aviation as I have with Nuclear reactor.
DeleteAnd don't forget that those 4 m did not came from national carrier but from privately owned company. In addition I believe that LJU is losing much more now on monthly basis. Even with "bad" performing JP they managed to pay for new terminal without any loan so it was not so bad as you want to show it...
Right, when JP was government-owned, it was never in debt to the airport before, and certainly the airport wasn't forced to convert the debt into ownership of hangars, Adria Tehnika, etc.
DeleteIt seems you are doing now much better, how many employees you had to get rid off due to lack of passengers?
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteOuch's cousin is back.
Delete"Ryanair introduces 24 routes from ZAG", "Slovenian passengers represent big share for ZAG"... comments: This wouldn't happen if we had a national airline!! Sure, because those people didn't go to Treviso, Milano, Venice, Vienna, Graz,... before but they rather paid 800 EUR for BRU with JP. And that's why JP went bust. Come on, enough already. We need 3 planes in LJU. Who operates them is irrelavant. If it's a Slovenian company, great. If it isn't OK as well. We don't need another dinosaur with 500 employees, 120 pilots, 200 cabin crew.. Stop fooling yourselfs.
ReplyDelete+100
Delete+1000
DeleteHah first you publish senseless comment and then giving himself +
DeleteOf course passengers went to VCE/MIL/ZAG/GRZ but on other side you also had those passengers at LJU as well. and that's because we had decent offer at LJU. And those tickets for BRU you talk about is for flights leaving in the morning and coming back in the evening. Now you pay 500 eur but you have to stay additional 2 nights which is at the end much more expensive than first option.
The only thing which I agree with you is that it does not matter if we have our own airline or foreign one base their aircraft here. Unfortunately foreign airlines does not want to fly LJU, let alone to base aircraft here.
So if we want some connectivity back to LJU (and at the end some passengers) then we need to do something about it and cheapest and most convenient way would be to have our own carrier (as Pocivalsek stated yesterday).
@anon 10:00
Delete800 EUR to BRU. Via DXB? What the hell are you talking about? 120 pilots? For 12 aircraft. Perfectly normal number.
Don't worry, you have what you wished for. I just hope Fraport decides to sell the airport and the government shuts it down. It's useless.
Actually September results are not so bad as I thought they would be. October should be better because of increased traffic because of the EU summit.
ReplyDeleteUnder 100,000 in September not bad?
DeleteWell there is an ongoing global pandemic.
DeleteI just said it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, not that it wasn't disappointing.
Delete@anon 10:07
Deleteit seems that this pandemic is affecting only LJU airport...
Good luck LJU. You will need it.
ReplyDeleteI would believe Flydubai's statement had they not halved their Zagreb flights when they started Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteI think that has more to do with the current Zagreb market than with Ljubljana.
DeleteTrue. Without tourists from Asia and Australia there just doesn't seem to be a market for Zagreb - Dubai flights.
DeleteLooking at Zagreb's September results, Ryanair is hardly performing well.
ReplyDeleteI agree... In September Sarajevo was 52% of Zagreb PAX. Crazy!
DeletePeople have less and less money to travel, that's the culprit with Zagreb. I can't understand why you are all acting surprised.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite simple.
ReplyDeleteWithout significant market innervation by Slovenian government, LJU will die.
ZAG will get majority of the traffic. Croatia will fight for some time but will slowly die. Low cost carriers will take over making ZAG low cost airport hub.
Croatia will get typical low cost traffic, that means turist with low budget. This will make Croatia's costal cities party towns like Malta or Ibiza.
Well at least we will have a good party location, until this mass of truism will eventually destroy the infrastructure and culture of istra. When they do the mass truism will move to other locations same as with Malta.
Da mi je znat na cemu se baziraju te rekla kazala prognoze i "cinjenice"ahaha
DeleteSamo jednu cu pobiti: low fare flights jednako low budget tourists. You won't believe how many people would choose low fare flights in order to spend more money on food, attractions, experiences, visits and so on. Please, stop this pathetic non sense.
I'm always astonished by the number of people from Ljubljana and most Slovenia: driving to Bergamo and flying low cost to the Canary Islands, Spain in general, Marocco, Egypt...
ReplyDeleteVenice and Treviso are putting more flights on these routes.
Slovenians are a substantial part of pax on these low cost, especially in the no festive period.
Few Italians can take time off during no vacation time.
Bergamo from Ljubljana is quite a drive .... I can't get it completely.
LCC flights from Italy were always significantly cheaper than flying from LJU, even when JP was around, even when you add the cost of Goopti/fuel+parking.
Deleteof course, because JP did fly to Canary island, Marocco, Egypt etc...of course everything can not be covered in LJU and passengers will always drive to other airports if there is more convenient/cheaper offer. Big issue is that now we are losing all passengers, business and tourists.
DeleteOne silly option. Make ATR or Dash to fly 5 times daily LJU-ZAG and back and both airports will have increase in pax :)
ReplyDeleteHow long would such a flight take?
Delete20 minutes on a turboprop.
DeleteIf Zagreb wants to become a hub for Slovenia and potentially maybe Bosina, it needs to boost the flights going there. I'm talking about 5,6,7 daily flights to LJU, and the plane used should be Q400. On top of that as soon as Croatia enters the Schengen area, in between LJU and ZAG there should be a train line with speeds around 100 km/h with a stop at Zagreb Airport before entering Zagreb itself. Frankfurt has the same concept, the fast trains coming to Frankfurt coming from Brussels, Stuttgart, Ulm, the Ruhr area all stop at the airport before the city itself. If these two goals are achieved we could see a future where Slovenes have better connectivity through Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteThere is no time advantage for flight vs bus or train line. LJU-ZAG takes 1h 30min.
DeleteIf pax would go from LJU airport, average drive 20min, 2h before departure at airport, 20 min flight, disembarkment 30 min = 3h
There is no competitive advantage of flight vs substitutes.
It is a little bit funny because Tuzla airport has more destinations, flights and passengers than Ljubljana airport. Tuzla is just capital of Canton. So, what is Slovenia going to be..bosnian canton
ReplyDeleteWell if we count all new and current routes to LJU it will have more destinations if they get launched (could be way more if its management would care for the airport), i also believe LJU has more flights per day. And so far TZL had around 217.000 passengers, while LJU had 273.000. Its still a disaster that it is this close.
DeleteFact of the matter is that Zagreb will probably have around 2.5 million passengers next year while Ljubljana will have 500,000
ReplyDeleteZAG might have even more.
DeleteIt all depends how the virus situation unfolds.
DeleteIt all still depends on many factors, first of all the pandemic. There is also a chance Wizzair or some other LCC opens a base in LJU. ZAG also might be even higher that 2.5 because there are talks about Ryanair basing more jets in the first half of 2022. Only time will tell but im hoping for the best for both ZAG and LJU.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember who were the other bidders for Ljubljana airport?
ReplyDeleteVINCI from France and Friedmann Pacific Investment Holding from Hong Kong.
DeleteWonder if things could have been different under Vinci.
DeleteThey dodged a bullet.
DeleteZagreb will not get USA flights in 2022 from United Airlines as some expected. UA just announced new routes for 2022 and ZAG is not there. LJU will have to continue to connect at FRA for US destinations.
ReplyDelete