The former Prime Minister of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, has said her country is in urgent need of a new national airline. In addition, the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, has hit out at Slovenia’s lack of air connectivity noting it is hurting both the country’s and city’s tourism industry. With just months to go until Slovenia’s Parliamentary Elections in April, Ms Bratušek’s party is advocating for the launch of a new national carrier - Air Slovenia. “First, we have to wait for the final results of the upcoming elections. However, if my political party wins the vote in April 2022, we will establish a new national airline in Slovenia. We believe that our plan will succeed, as Slovenia urgently needs a new carrier”, Ms Bratušek told the “Aviation Market” portal.
The Mayor of Ljubljana noted that the central government needs to do more to secure flights from Ljubljana to key European markets, some two years following the collapse of the national carrier Adria Airways. “The biggest problem with tourism is our airport. There is an insufficient number of flights”, Mr Janković noted. Based on OAG data, the busiest unserved routes during the pandemic-stricken 2020 were primarily those previously served by Adria. Bucharest was the busiest followed by Copenhagen, Skopje, Helsinki, Athens, Izmir, Prague, Stockholm, Barcelona and Prague. This list includes only destinations that were not served for the entirety of 2020.
Ljubljana Airport’s operator, Fraport Slovenija, noted it would support any solution that would be sustainable and improve connectivity. General Manager Babett Stapel, said, “The government subsidies for airlines aimed at increasing connectivity have helped us a lot. The current scheme expires this year and all stakeholders, including the airlines, the tourism sector and the airport, want it to be extended”. She added, “Before its bankruptcy, half of the passengers at Ljubljana Airport travelled with Adria's planes. We served 1.8 million passengers in 2019, We plan to reach 900,000 travellers next year, if there are no surprises with Covid-19, of course”.
I'm glad this is being discussed again. Unfortunately it is two years too late.
ReplyDeleteAt least it's on the agenda again.
DeleteI doubt that the void Adria left will ever be filled by another airline, especially on the Balkan routes where there is a weak or no presence of national carrier (SJJ, SKP, PRN, TIA, OTP, etc.). The LCCs already had their chance but apparently SLO is not that interesting market for them. If the government is really serious and ready to invest, it could be done. The question is what fleet composition would be most suitable for the new airline? The Slovenian market is kind of a mix of everything but due to stronger economy and popularity of winter sports and tourism is less seasonal than the rest of ex YU. Let’s not forget that in good times, Adria had no problem filling A320 and A319s on certain routes and JU used to connect LJU with JFK. It would be great to see the new airline starting with four or five A220s to cover major European markets and then getting a couple of A321XLR to fly to NA (JFK and YYZ) and charters in the winter time to places like LPA, ZNZ, SEZ, HRG, etc.
DeleteInteresting that this is an election topic in Slovenia :D
ReplyDeleteFrom my point, I do not see topics of air connectivity of LJU as any topic for the upcoming election. It might be in very small circle, hoping that “new” government will do something about it, but “an average voter” in Slovenia is not a regular air passenger, at the best, he or she use a charter flight out of LJU to holidays’ destinations every couple of years. Alenka Bratovšek’s party, the SAB, is also trying to fill the gap among pensioners left with destruction of the pensioners’ party (DESUS) and pensioners (as a group) are the last concerned with air connectivity.
DeleteI fail to see how subsidies to airlines that already flew to Slovenia helped LJU.
ReplyDeleteWell none of the airlines that flew to Slovenia before the pandemic left so...
DeleteThanks to the subsidies they have not stopped their flights, otherwise they would have done that. And the results would have been worse than this. This shows how poor the demand is in LJU and how doomed Fraport is there. What a failure!
DeleteThey would not left, but it's not true that demand is low in Slovenia. as pointed several times, demand is also driven by offer and that is major issue in Slovenia. There is no flights so passengers go to ZAG/TRS/VCE/VIE..
DeleteExactly, that is why the first step is to make the basic offer competitive enough so thta fewer people decided to travel 1, 2, 3 ... hours by road to catch a flight. Getting FZ to launch LJU was a brilliant move in my opinion as it will also provide a solid enough alternative to TK and SU.
DeleteSlovenians are enjoying driving their cars.
DeleteIf the price of the airport parking e.g. Treviso is not too much, they are in heaven already.
Competitive air tickets ex Ljubljana: just a dream.
For some destinations LJU will never have competitive prices and we don't even need them. But now we have to pay extremely expensive tickets and go from other airports as well. BRU is perfect case, flight out of ZAG, normally sold out and tickets are reaching the sky.
DeleteAir Baltic announced base in Tampere.Will be interesting in LJU. One A220+Frankfurt,Munich,Vienna,Zurich,Amsterdam,Copenhagen,Skopje,Tirana,Sarajevo and touristic routes to Greece or Croatia;)
ReplyDeleteWould be nice but I don't think they have any plans to base an aircraft in Ljubljana.
DeleteIronic that these promises are coming from the woman that is partially responsible for the current situation.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, "vi dont nid mani, vi đast nid tajm" :)
DeleteIt's the only way we could se a more meaningful traffic rebound.
ReplyDeleteI agree, otherwise the capacity will never be replaced, LJU is sandwiched between larger markets and is losing its base. There was some hope with a domestic carrier, but no chance now without it.
DeleteWHY NATIONIAL AIRLINES`? FOR WHAT? Is it such a problem to have Wizz / Easy / EW basis??????????
ReplyDeleteIn LJU it seems so.
DeleteOf course it is, in LJU there won't be LCC base because Slovenia does not have millions of gastoz around the world and their tourist capacities are very limited. Those are two major reasons why LCC is establishing base at certain airpot/city.
DeleteSlovenia needs national carrier or they have to provide subsidies to foreign legacy carriers. But first option is much cheaper then second!
BUD is is almost ONLY LCC and it is connected with the whole world. So please...
DeleteLOL @sarajevo, are you really comparing BUD with LJU.
DeleteHe's really not in aviation business. Hungary has huge gastoz population around EU, not to mention that Slovenia has maybe 10% of tourist capacity of Hungary...
DeletePlus, the only real airport BUD has to compete with is VIE which is some two hours west. South, north and east it's pretty empty so BUD can enjoy a pretty solid situation with minimal competition.
DeleteNow that I think of it, to the south the first real airport they compete with is BEG while to the east it's LWO. Debrecen is too small to have an impact.
LJU on the other hand...
Well, simply because of the added value and the green bills national carriers bring into the budget. OU is a prime example. Their losses are easily compensated with the money they make collectible for the budget. Let's not forget that Ryan for example exsists in a tax free oasis called Ireland, contrary to all EU regulations, thus sustaining grey, illegal economy. So, and Čačak, listen to this catefullly and take notes, even a loss making carrier, can be profitabile on a National level!
DeleteAt this point the Croatian government needs to do some math with OU's share on the coast shrinking. Yes, they bring tourists but do they bring enough to justify the losses? If OU was more aggressive on the coast then sure but like this it seems like they are on the defense.
DeleteNemjee, I appreciated your comment. Indeed, OU is this Govt's and every previous Govt's orphan, with an inapt Minister and even more so inapt, socialist-style PM. They should definitely introduce more local flights at affordible rates. Yet, as ineffective as they are, they still bring in more VAT money than what they take.
DeleteWhat I dislike the most are bloated, arrogant, conceited self proclaimed experts who pretend to care about OU at the same time advocating crime, corruption, nepotism, incompetence, inertness and the fact that VAT money they talk about could have been triple than it is if OU was managed and developed properly and taking opportunities of the market. With kindest regards, Srbislav Radosavljevic, Cacak
DeleteAnd the statement about grey illegal economy in Ireland, one of the most regulated, most organised, most controlled and most developed EU countries and economies, I will simply not comment. It speaks for itself. And about the poster as well. Whose one and only task is defending at any cost failed disappointing and loss making model OU has, and whose mindset is accusing people being critical of such model to be from Cacak and writing National with capital N. Wow!
DeleteUnfortunately only pre-election promises but I fully support that idea. It's needed more than anything!
ReplyDeleteEven if they win the elections it will take at least until January 2023 for a new airline to start flying.
ReplyDeleteAnother question is if all left parties agree with such project (LMS, SD, Levica)?
DeleteMontenegrin government managed to create new airline in 6 months.
DeleteWhen there is a will there is a way.
DeleteIn Montenegro it was easier because the government bought the planes that were used by Montenegro Airlines.
DeleteMontenegro also isn't subject to EU state aid rules.
DeleteTo buy aircraft at this time is really not a big issue..
DeleteSo much for people's predictions how the market would take care of itself and LCCs would jump in to take over.
ReplyDeleteIf it were not for covid people would have a greater choice in terms of airlines and more competitive pricing now that Adria is gone.
Deletewe saw that from October19 till Februar20 how interesting we are for foreign carriers. While other airport had 20% increase, we had 50% decrease.
DeleteEven now LJU has less flights than many smaller cities in Ex-yu. Of course huge reason for that is due to Covid but with carrier based in LJU we could react much quicker to any business opportunities.
Delete@Anon 09:40: Adria went bust long after winter schedules were already finalised. You can't expect airlines to keep loads of spare capacity on standby, just in case one of the players on the market goes bankrupt.
DeleteSo you are saying that LH group did not have spare capacity to base it at LJU? Heh don't be funny..Foreign carriers will only operate if there is profit, that's why LH is not competing with themself on FRA/MUC/ZRH/VIE/BRU..They only have morning/evening flight to FRA, for all others they use midday flight to take care of p2p traffic.
Delete@Anon 10:18: Yes, LH did not have spare capacity at all. Adria at that time flied for LH group with several CRJ aircraft. To start LJU LH cancelled one of Trieste-Frankfurt rotation. In pre-covid era there were simply no spare capacity to simply move it around in a short notice.
DeleteYes, LH Group had so much spare capacity in 2019 that JP totaly didn't have 4 or 5 aircraft flying for them at the time of bankruptcy. Not to mention Air Baltic and the others.
DeleteAt that time there were lack of pilot & cabin crew and not lack of capacity. That's the main reason JP flew for LH group which at the and was also one of the main reason JP went bust (they operated flights for LH group while they canceled so many their own). So LH group could simply hire JP staff (they had all necessary certificates for CRJs), put aircrafts in LJU and keep operating but they did not.
DeleteThere would be no benefit from LH opening a base in LJU, that's not the way they do business. They operate a classic hub and spoke model, with aircraft coming to the outstation in the evening and departing early morning, so they can connect onwards from the hubs.
DeleteThey don't even have a base in Berlin, and people dream about them basing an aircraft in LJU.
Ok let's say it overnight then if you are happy with that. So why exactly they did not overnight not even one aircraft after JP demise? It took them half a year to "overnight" one aircraft for FRA and even now we don't have FRA schedule is it should be (afternoon outbound is way to early but ok at least 3 out of 4 flights are scheduled ok).
DeleteSlovenia has been too passive since the demise of Adria.Other airports in the region had taken a serious stance on improving their connections. Look at TIA and SJJ - 2 poorer countries with no national carriers but yet their management have made reforms to attract as many foreign carriers as possible.
ReplyDeleteYes, one would say Slovenia has a small gasto population but if it is the second most visited ex-Yu country and the one with the highest GDP per capita in the Balkans with the least developed air traffic, then there is a serious issue going on. On top of all, there is a new terminal.
Not to mention neighbouring ZAG that was extremely active and secured important connections not only to Western Europe but also LCC regional routes.
I mean seriously, it is quite disappointing how stale the situation is for an EU capital.
Because Covid was the wake up call all the airport lagging behind needed, which is why many woke up. Except for LJU unfortunately.
DeleteIt's huge difference between tourist who stays in certain city 1-2 days and those who stay at destination for 5+ days. Slovenia has huge number of tourist but those mainly use 1 or 2 nights here and then they go further to Balkan. That's why Slovenia is not very interesting for LCC as they are targeting other type of tourists.
DeleteWhat Slovenia needs is morning/evening flights to major EU hubs, in the middle of the day flights to ex-yu capitals and that's it. Forget that we will fulfill A320 3x per day with tourists, it's not gonna happen in 100 years.
Do you know that there were more than 3 flights per day with LCC in 2019? Do you also know that when LCC arrive at the airport they increase demand? Looks like some people don't know they are talking about .
DeleteA new national airline is required
ReplyDeleteThings could change quickly if new national airline is set up.
DeleteThe situation is dire and no matter what you think of Adria it definitely would have been better with them.
ReplyDeleteIn a couple of years we will still be reading how someone is interested in creating a new airline.
ReplyDeleteThe never ending story
DeleteThe more time passes the less of a possibility there is to establish a flag carrier.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that
ReplyDeleteThey really should have just kept Adria, kicked out 4K and found a partner.
ReplyDeleteCityjet was already lined up to buy Adria, but the government didn't want to give adria a 4 million euro bridge loan that would have been paid back in a month.
DeleteThere were too much debts in JP, only solution was bankruptcy but I agree that they should already have prepared everything to open new company one day after JP went bust.
DeleteYou are all forgetting EU limitations on government to intervene.
DeleteThey should just open new companies, buy/loan aircrafts, hire employees and Slovenia would remain good connectivity. Now it's a disaster!
DeleteIf Adria had not gone bankrupt in 2019 it certainly would have now with Covid.
DeleteNot necessarily. Had Adria survived until corona, the government would now certainly give them bail out money.
DeleteYou're naive if anyone would have bought Adria with all of their debts. Bankruptcy was the only solution.
DeleteThey would need so much money that it would be unsustainable even for the government to provide them with that amount.
DeleteHope they set up the new company on some healthy foundations.
ReplyDeleteDo not waste taxpayers money.
ReplyDeleteThey are wasting it much more now because of lack of connectivity. Few mio for national carrier is drop in ocean compared to what Slovenia's economy is loosing now.
DeleteHope some sort of a solution can be found.
ReplyDeleteThe only solution is to create new airline. The other solution of the market taking care of itself did not work out.
DeleteToo little too late.
ReplyDeleteWhy would it be too late?
DeleteThe damage has already been done.
DeleteHope it happens.
ReplyDeleteIf they don't open it by 23 I will
ReplyDeleteA320s are too big for such a market; we need E75s and one max two A319
LH would be up for split revenue model but I have no idea what the officials are doing
In my opinion this is proof that local management (mostly at LJU) is completely useless. So the government says that lack of connectivity is hurting tourism but is it? If there is demand someone would step in either with a charter or regular flight.
ReplyDeleteWhat the government wants is to have a new airline that is not going to be run on purely commercial principles and where, among other things, they can hire their own people.
If LJU management had any sense then they would have first worked on airlines like JU, LH, TK, LO and AF to have at least two, three daily flights. Once you have ensured decent, basic connectivity then you can think of other things.
Since this is a pre-election promise, it will most likely be forgotten once election is over.
I can not agree with you as national carrier look first for national interest and secondly for it's own profit. It's proven that good connectivity bring multiplicative effect to many other industries and foreign carriers does not give s**t about it. That's why they are operating to ZRH/BRU few times per week (in the middle of the day), not operating to hubs like VIE/MUC/CPH/AMS.
DeleteWe saw where brought us "market will take of itself" mentality.
Slovenia needs national carrier or they have to subsidize foreign one to base few aircrafts at LJU. There is no other solution.
Slovenia needs a national carrier only as long as it can be competitive and efficient in the same way Belavia was before the sanctions. Given our past experience with Adria, it makes one wonder what would be different this time around. I have a feeling same people, that is the same team would be behind this new business venture.
DeleteOk let's discuss about "given our past experience with Adria", what does it exactly mean? That JP in last 2 years of it's existence:
Delete-canceled tons of flights
-had many of triangle flights (LJU-VIE-MUC-LJU)
-had a lot of delays
If you mean that experience then I can not connect that Adria with Adria which was still in state ownership. I can also agree that it was not managed well even at that time but at least they had solid business model.
What was happening with JP in last two years it's a shame for Slovenian aviation but one and only to blame for that is 4k and not JP employees (in majority).
Last comment, yuo are right,!!!!
DeleteWonder if we would have been in a different situation re connectivity if there were no Covid.
ReplyDeleteIt would be better of course but still while other airports would have 100% increase, we would have 20% of decrease compared to 2019
DeleteOh no shit, and look who is saying it, she killed adria *****
ReplyDeleteYou lost me at Alenka Bratušek...
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteThere is a French airline in Slovenia - Amelia. Why didn't it try to launch at least 4-5 destinations? Lipican Aer also has two Saab2000 aircraft?
ReplyDeleteSaabs operate for swedish company.
DeleteThey probably have their own business which works well and don't won't to get involved in Slovenian air market, which, at the end of the day isn't very profitable.
DeleteWizz will be super with one A320 (as Sarajevo)+Hahn,Memminghem,Vienna,Eindhoven,Copenhagen,Basel and summer flights to Greece.
ReplyDeleteLol...you made me laugh :)
DeleteThey offered a deal to the Slovenian government, to take on part of the risk for basing an aircraft in LJU. Government rejected them.
DeleteInstead of buying military transport aircraft for 75 mio they could set up national carrier and put 1 aircraft for government and military purposes any time they need it.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteAnd THIS pledge comes from the totally immoral and shameless former PM who has been in charge at the time where many of state owned companies have been sold for peanuts and with no guarantees or commitments ... list of most known companies: ADRIA AIRWAYS !!!!!, Aero, Elan, Fotona, Helios, Airport Ljubljana, Adria Airways Tehnika, NKBM, Telekom Slovenije, Cinkarna Celje, Gospodarsko razstavišče, Paloma, Terme Olimia, Unior in Žito.
ReplyDeleteHaha yeah i bet she will. Empty promises as always.
ReplyDeleteIs there a chance she will actually win the election?
DeleteShe will be part of coalition for sure but she does not have any chance to win elections.
DeleteThis would be amazing. Hope it happens.
ReplyDeleteCreate a virtual airline and wetlease some Dash 8-Q400 from Croatia, Sky Alps or Avanti Air. Outsource the backoffice and only put Slovenian cabin crew on the planes.
ReplyDeleteReally good idea, and in which alliance such "virtual" airline would be accepted? That could maybe work only for p2p traffic as something similar to charter carrier. Primarly LJU needs flights to major EU hubs
Delete