Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport is confident that next year will bring further growth on its way to recovery as it looks to end 2021 by welcoming a total of around 407.000 passengers, up 40% on last year but still down 75% on the pre-pandemic 2019. This figure is expected to grow to 900.000 travellers in 2022. The airport’s General Manager, Babett Stapel, believes a full recovery will be achieved in 2025, based on Airports Council International Europe modelling, but warned that new variants of the coronavirus could have an impact on the airport’s performance in the years to come. Speaking to the STA news agency, Ms Stapel noted next year should see some nineteen airlines maintain operations to Slovenia’s capital. In addition to Flydubai, which handled 4.800 passengers in its first two months of operations to Ljubljana, with plans to continue serving the city over the coming summer, next year will also see Lufthansa restore services from Munich, Finnnair return its flights from Helsinki, while Transavia France will introduce operations from Paris Orly. An airline is expected to restore flights between Niš and Ljubljana in 2022 as well, while Iberia, which introduced seasonal services this summer is likely to return next year.
Commenting on the airport’s position towards the establishment of a new Slovenian national carrier following the demise of Adria Airways in 2019, from which Ljubljana Airport is yet to recover, Ms Stapel noted, “We will support any solution that is sustainable and improves connectivity”. The Slovenian Ministry for Economic Development and Technology has turned down several offers by airlines to either establish the country’s new national airline or station aircraft in Ljubljana. Talks have been held with the Lufthansa-owned Air Dolomiti, low cost carrier Wizz Air, Slovenian cargo airline Solinair and the French Valljet. Recently, a carrier from the Middle East also expressed interest in establishing a new Slovenian operation. However, the Ministry said it had not accepted a single offer.
Ljubljana Airport’s General Manager noted her satisfaction with the recovery process so far and is hopeful travel restrictions will be eased in the future. She pointed out that demand is still relatively low and some destinations, especially in Asia, remain closed. According to Ms Stapel, the aviation industry will consolidate small and medium-sized carriers in the coming years, so there will be fewer airlines, but they will be stronger. Ms Stapel forecasts that as competition contracts, ticket prices will rise, which will be further exasperated by environmental taxes. There will also be less capacity according to the General Manager, as carriers will not fly with half-empty planes and routes under 500 kilometres will be shelved due to new green policies. With all these expected changes in the aviation industry, Ms Stapel sees airport operator Fraport Slovenija as a stable and more sustainable company, which will fully recover from the pandemic over the next five years.
I find the forecaat a bit too optimistic but let's wait and see.
ReplyDeleteAnd does not take into account Ryanair's impact from Zagreb.
Deletethe impact wont be that big... most of the routes were not available from ljubljana before so ppl were using venice/trieste. passenger flying lufthansa/airfrance wont switch to ryanair. the biggest problem for ljubljana is Adria.
DeleteI am supprised that air dolomiti still didn't fully gave up. I hope they will realy do something and base at least up to 3-5 planes.
DeleteFrom where did you get the idea that Air Dolomiti is still intereste?
DeleteThere was an article on ex-yu few weeks ago. I don't remember clearly but I think they said something they are still interested.
DeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteLJU will only ever fully recover with an airline that has planes based at the airport. The ministry seems against it for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteBecause they do not want recovery.
DeleteBut why??
DeleteI like her. She is charging into situation will full force, while previous MD was waiting for magic to happen and than it was all me.
DeleteGood to see some improvement but long way to go.
ReplyDeleteShe has a good CV and a lot of interesting experience however it is mostly related to commercial strategy at various airports, not so much operational and strategic in terms of aviation development. Let's see how she performs. She has a tough battle ahead of her and I think she needs to end LJU's post JP identity crisis.
ReplyDeleteI think LJU can serve up to 3 million passengers without a national carrier. With FR going wild in ZAG, they can always attract some legacies to operate out of LJU where there would be less pressure on their yields. Things are already slowly improving for them.
Lju keeps on winning
ReplyDelete"Drugačna je situacija na področju tovornega prometa, ki je letos na ljubljanskem letališču zrasel za 12 odstotkov v primerjavi z letom 2019 in za 21 odstotkov v primerjavi z letom 2020."
ReplyDeleteso cargo is up 12% on 2019. which is great result.
Of course when the airport is more and more shifting from passengers to cargo.
DeleteAmong others in the airports vicinity :
Deletehttps://siol.net/digisvet/novice/huawei-je-izbral-slovenijo-za-svoje-vozlisce-19-drzav-554324
Cargo is up at all airports across the world. Nothing special.
DeleteWell also cargo business is developing fast around airport. started with huge Kuehne Nagel drug logistics centre (38.000m2 plus more to come), following with Cargo partner (first phase 25.000m2) which is already preparing for second phase adding additional 13.000m2.
DeleteVaccine shipments alone have boosted cargo transport everywhere.
DeleteLJU has actually been performing well in terms of cargo for many years. As anon 10.17 points out, there have been many projects to stimulate this.
DeleteLike someone said, airport needs to find a solution to Adria's bankruptcy. Until that is done, we can only dream of numbers we had before pandemic.
ReplyDeleteWhat was LJU's best year in terms of passengers handled?
Delete2018 was the record - 1,818,229 passengers.
DeleteThe new terminal looks fantastic in the photo.
ReplyDeleteSome trends are starting to look encouraging. Existing airlines are starting to increase frequencies to Ljubljana. Aeroflot, Air Serbia, Finnair next year..
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand you have airlines suspending flights. Wizz air cutting Charleroi, easyjet cancelling Luton...
DeleteYes but look at the global situation.
DeleteI'm still worried about Iberia. They haven't scheduled flights for next year.
ReplyDeleteWell I assume the airport knows and wouldn't announce it if they weren't coming back.
DeleteFor me it looks like they will not return. What a shame for the airport.
Delete"An airline is expected to restore flights between Niš and Ljubljana in 2022"
ReplyDeleteIt is so unpredictable as to who the operator will be.
Nailbiting wait to find out :D
DeleteI'm a bit disappointed with easyJet's reductions at the airport. They were once one of the biggest airlines in LJU. Now just a couple of flights a week. Airport should do more to engage them.
ReplyDeleteI would be reducing if I was the only airline to be disqualified from Slovenian government's subsidy scheme while money was rewarded to an airtime that didn't even operate flights for the timeframe subsidies were being given, in violation of the tender rules.
DeleteI don't think it has anything to do with that. Simply put, easy it's responding to current demand. Once that recovers, more flights will be back.
DeleteeasyJet isn't in the best of places financially at the moment. I think out of the major LCCs left, they are most unstable.
DeleteEasyjet will soon completely leave LJU.
DeleteAir Baltic is apparently opening a base outside the Baltic regiom in Europe, could we possibly see them stationing a plane or two in Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice but I doubt it. They will look towards bigger markets.
DeleteBut in bigger markets is also fierce competition. I hope they come. I only have good experiences with them.
DeleteAt least new CEO is not against new national carrier, that is one big improvement compared to previous one. I highly doubt that LJU will reach 900k without having based 4-5 aircrafts at LJU.
ReplyDeleteYes it's a positive step at least.
DeleteSo they expect to more than double their passenger numbers next year
ReplyDeleteThey "expect", in reality there will be like 600.000
DeleteIn July they were expecting they would have 500,000 passenger at the end of the year but we are going to end it close to 400,000.
DeleteSelling LJU to Fraport has been proven to be a mistake.
ReplyDeleteYou think the situation would have been better under another operator?
DeleteAt least Ljubljana has over taken Tuzla.
ReplyDeleteFlydubai is actually doing great; about 60% load factor just 2 months in is great!
ReplyDeletebecause people were desperate to go anywhere. There is no chance LJU will ever see more than one million passengers. never ever.
Deleteright. and who are you to know that? if you do a bit of a calculation you realize they can have around 1,5mio passengers. that is maximum with current network and without a base. 1 mio should not be that hard to achieve in 2023.
Delete"because people were desperate to go anywhere." - so they are desperate only in Slovenia? people just love to travel. i'm just looking for a ticket to Mumbai and they have the same price as Turkish airlines 450€ return but 3 hours shorter stopover. im sure they will be successful in the future.
You want to compare Turkish Airlines and FlyDubai and give advantage to FZ only due to 3 hours shorter layover? To fly with low cost, narrow body, no IFE, lower luggage allowance, meals,.. For 3 hours shorter layover? I guess they will do great in Slovenia if this is the only criteria.
Delete