Lufthansa extends dominance in Ljubljana


Lufthansa was Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport’s busiest airline during the first half of the year, as well as the busiest transfer carrier to and from Slovenia. The German national airline handled 57.840 travellers on its Slovenia flights, or 15.1% of all of Ljubljana Airport’s passenger traffic during the January - June period. It was the busiest carrier every month except April, when Turkish Airlines outperformed its German counterpart by 3.000 travellers. Overall, Lufthansa’s passenger numbers have increased 203.7% on the same period last year, which was severely impacted by travel restrictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Overall, Frankfurt remains Ljubljana’s busiest destination.

Lufthansa's Ljubljana passenger performance since launch


Lufthansa has been steadily increasing its operations to the Slovenian capital. In May it restored flights between Munich and Ljubljana, while it upgraded equipment on its double daily Frankfurt service from the CRJ900 aircraft to the Airbus A319, adding an additional 94 seats per day each way between the two cities. However, Ljubljana has been unable to avoid Lufthansa’s network cuts over the summer with some services cancelled due to staffing shortages at the company. On the other hand, the Slovenian capital faired much better in comparison to other Lufthansa destinations in Europe with only a few flights cancelled. The German airline also remains Ljubljana’s most popular transfer carrier, accounting for some 30% of all connecting traffic. Travellers are primarily using the airline from Ljubljana to reach Barcelona, Helsinki, Madrid, London, Bucharest, Oslo, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Dublin.

The Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure held talks with its counterparts at the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in June, where the two sides discussed ways of improving Ljubljana’s air connectivity, among other matters. The Slovenian representatives expressed interest in strengthening ties with Lufthansa in order for the country to boast better connections and more flights. Following the collapse of Adria, the Slovenian government proposed for it to jointly set up the country’s new national carrier with Lufthansa. Talks on the matter were held on several occasions in October 2019, however, the German airline eventually rejected the idea.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    What a surprise

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    They are using a319 for MUC flight constantly now, and more and more flights to FRA are operating on a320 and sold out, 2muc and 3fra daily flights are totally possible

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:02

      I also believe we may see 3 daily FRA next summer.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:02

    It would be interesting to compare LH's numbers with Adria's on flights to Frankfurt and Munich.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:04

      I'm assuming Adria had much more passengers. They had several daily flights to FRA and MUC.

      Delete
    2. In the first half of 2019, Adria Airways carried 71.174 passengers between Ljubljana and Frankfurt and 48.340 between Ljubljana and Munich.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:14

      Thank you! Those numbers speak for themselves really.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:21

      I assume 2018 numbers were even stronger. Adria was already struggling all of 2019.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:02

    Cartel keeps on winning!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:04

    I would like to see Eurowings start flights next from the LH group.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      They could start Dusseldorf and Hamburg. There seems to be a market for them from/to LJU.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:05

      Wasn't Eurowings planning to fly to Ljubljana? I seem to remember something about them and LJU.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:16

      Yes, they planned two weekly Dusseldorf-Ljubljana. Then they cancelled that. Then they put Ljubljana on its social media competition for new routes but it was not selected.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:07

      We want Eurowings! :)

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:06

    How come Turkish had more passengers than Lufthansa in April? What happened?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      Because of Easter. People were going for the holiday to Turkey.

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    2. Anonymous09:13

      Makes sense. Forgot about Easter.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:13

    My question is where did all the Vienna passengers go? I notice it's not in the top LH transfer destinations.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      98% of the Vienna passengers were transfers.

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    2. Anonymous11:05

      It was mainly used in the past for Adria to transfer passengers. I doubt there was too much P2P.

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    3. Anonymous11:17

      When Adria was going bankrupt, it was revealed that 70% of its Frankfurt passengers were transfers and 80% of its Munich passengers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:18

      All of that means that JP was flying these passengers for next to nothing for Lufthansa Group. No wonder they always struggled financially.

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    5. Anonymous11:23

      Just like Croatia Airlines now.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:55

      MUC handles the former VIE traffic.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:15

    This was the plan all along when JP was killed off.

    Do we know how other airlines did in H1? Who carried how much and how they performed?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:16

    With Fraport in charge at LJU, they will be dominating for many many years.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:17

    I wish Fraport would reduce their dominance and bring other airlines to operate to LJU. Oh wait, LH owns them!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:32

    Expected

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:32

    Well I hope this is not reason why Fraport is not doing more to attract new airlines. So as not to hurt Lufthansa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:34

      Of course they are helping LH.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:34

      We all know this. No need to copy-paste this same comment all the time.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:05

      no need for other airlines. LH is enough for them.

      Delete
    4. Danke Deutschland!

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:38

      There he is (with his usual nonsense...)!

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:49

      ^Fraport fanboy?

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:35

    Interestingly, almost all their top transfer routes are former Adria destinations.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:51

      Well of course. That makes sense

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:50

    Any chance we might see LH send A321s to LJU at some point?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:54

      Yes, probably next summer.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:56

      Turkish is sending it on a regular basis, so LH will probably too.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:39

      We already had it twice this summer and we all know that they had staff shortages so the demand was really there, judging by the prices, we should see 3 daily next season with am flight done on a319, 1pm flight on a320 and 5-6pm flight on crj.
      But if they keep 2 daily, both could be on a321

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    4. Anonymous11:19

      Nice. As travel recovers more and more they will also have more passengers. More capacity incoming for sure.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:20

      Yes, don't forget that Asia is yet to recover/reopen. Slovenia had a lot of tourists from Asia, especially Japan and Korea and many of them flew with LH/Adria.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:43

      Well let's see what demand looks like this winter with looming recession. EU economy is expected to be hit hard and we know that aviation is always the first to feel it.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:38

    Pathetic

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  16. Anonymous11:18

    Of course Lufthansa has no intention starting a new airline in Slovenia given that they use LJU to feed their hubs. Lufthansa has covered western Europe for Slovenians completely

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous11:22

    Real shame Austrian has not started flights.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:15

      im sure they will start flying once Koralm railway is finished in Austria so there will be no need for 3 daily flights to Klagenfurt and probably they will be forced to reduce or cancel flights (same as for Salzburg)

      Delete
  18. Anonymous11:56

    LH: mission accomplished.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:07

      In what sense?

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    2. Anonymous12:18

      They still have to get rid of some airlines. Then the mission will be completed.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:50

      No need for such pesimism. Airlines are coming to LJU, at a slow rate, but they are coming. There hasn´t been a single airline that would leave LJU after Adria.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:58

      Finnair left

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:00

      Not a single airline? Easyjet on three routes, Iberia, Finnair, Sunexpress... What new destinations have we got this year? Not a single one. And we will see if Air Cairo actually launches HRG. Which I doubt.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:02

      There are more airlines leaving than coming to LJU.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:09

      We got Paris with Transavia, last year Dubai came and increased frequencies in the middle of pandemics.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous13:12

      Paris? Already served with AF. Nothing new. Flydubai? Finaly after 10 years of "talks". We could say both increased and decreased. From 3 flights per week to 5 then 7 but then back to 5.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous12:07

    Glad to see they are doing well in LJU.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous12:08

    Are there any new destinations LH group could add to Ljubljana? For example Stuttgart or Hamburg? Maybe Berlin?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:25

      Berlin for sure, Hamburg also. Berlin on A319 and Hamburg on CRJ900

      Delete

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