Aegean Airlines to launch Ljubljana and Split service


Greece’s national carrier Aegean Airlines will commence operations from Athens to both Ljubljana and Split next year. It will mark the company’s return to both cities following a seven- and four-year hiatus, respectively. Services to Ljubljana will commence on June 6 and operate twice per week, each Tuesday and Friday, with the 174-seat Airbus A320 aircraft. Aegean previously flew to the Slovenian capital for one summer in 2016 after which it terminated operations. Back then, flights also ran twice per week, albeit with the A319 jet. This time around, the flights to Ljubljana will also be maintained on a seasonal summer basis.

Athens has been one of Ljubljana’s busiest unserved routes for several years. During the pre-pandemic 2019, Air Serbia handled the bulk of traffic between the two cities, carrying a total of 47% of all passengers. It was followed by Turkish Airlines with a 14% share. Back in 2016, Aegean Airlines handled 5.646 travellers on its Ljubljana flights over the four months of operations. The airline faces no direct competition on the route this time around, similar to back then. Slovenia’s former national airline Adria Airways served the Greek capital seasonally until the end of the 2012 summer season.

Aegean Airlines will return to Split next summer for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Services will commence on June 7 and run twice per week, each Wednesday and Sunday, with the A320 aircraft. It will compete directly against Croatia Airlines on the route. Split’s return to Aegean’s network will result in the Greek carrier serving three cities in Croatia from Athens, complementing Zagreb and Dubrovnik. Aegean launched operations to Croatia’s second largest city in 2016. Services were discontinued following the start of the global health emergency. In addition to Ljubljana and Split, Aegean is also launching flights from Athens to Baku, Birmingham, Bratislava, Bristol, Dammam, Palma, Riga and Seville next summer.

Further details for the Ljubljana service can be found here, while additional information for the Split flights can be viewed here.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    Finally! Hope it sticks this time around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:05

    Happy that LJU is getting a new airline and route but I do wonder how it's going to be any different than in 2016?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:09

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:14

    And with every good news for LJU come bad news also. Air Cairo removed HRG-LJU from sale, which means LJU will not get a single new destination/airline this whole year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      With one weekly and not really competitive prices i am not suprised

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:17

    Yes 🥰 this made my sat morning much better :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:24

    A3 an airline who knows how to deal with seasonality. Oh and its also a privately owned company.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:36

    Hope they can make it work on both routes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:36

    Do the times from LJU offer good connections via Athens?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:39

      When do they have departure waves?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:42

      Of course they do, A3 already codeshares JU flights to LJU so now they'll offer direct connections via ATH !

      Delete
  9. Anonymous10:03

    I'm sure many people in Ljubljana will use these flights to reach Greek islands in summer.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:03

    Excellent news

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous11:39

    Glad for Ljubljana but why only seasonal and why only from June?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:42

      Hopefully the route will do well and they will keep it for winter

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:44

      Fraport should actually do more to attract airlines. It took them 7 years to get flights to Athens.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:49

      Cartel said they only allow airlines that fit into their business model. Thats very few airlines.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:02

      Well Aegean is Star alliance and closely coperates with Lufthansa so.. :D

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:26

      LJU was year-round back then with Aegean and again it will be a year-round route. There were so many indirect passengers these years to ATH from LJU, A3 will operate LJU-ATH year-round for sure.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:28

      ^ it was not a year round route. It operated from June 2016 until September 2016. No need to make things up.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous07:57

      @Anon 11:49: Can you proof?

      Delete
  12. Anonymous11:40

    Great news! Aegean is a great addition and will offer more choice and competitions to Slovenian passengers to Greece and the Middle East.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous11:44

    At least it will substitute the loss of Finnair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:44

      in LJU I mean.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:48

      It will substitute the loss of Finnair? Lol

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:56

      Yes, in terms of passenger numbers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:57

      Only difference is Finnair handled 32.218 pax to Ljubljana in its last year of service while Aegean 5.646 passengers in its last year of service.

      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/09/finnair-terminates-zagreb-and-ljubljana.html

      Delete
  14. Anonymous11:45

    Just two flights per week? They are being really cautious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:50

      If they see that demand is there they will increase flights (provided they have spare capacity).

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:57

      Hope so

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:58

      That's how they do things. When they were launching Dubrovnik they scheduled it as 2 per week. By the time the flights started they had increased them to 6 per week!

      Delete
  15. Anonymous11:53

    What are the fares like?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:56

      Check their website... I mean ticket prices aren't fixed.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous12:14

    Tickets to ljubljana are already seemignly selling well; 77€ base ticket, but most of them are selling at 118€ already, positive development for LJU, now just get us Spain and Scandinavia flights back

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:37

      It goes to show that demand exists but lack of proper planning by the airport and lack of a LJU based carrier has kept traffic depressed.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:09

      Just Spain and Scandinavia? Where is Rome for instance?

      Delete
  17. Anonymous12:25

    Bravo Hrvatska!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous14:06

    As I saw they are also increasing capacity on Athens-Podgorica route as they will send an Airbus A320 in Podgorica during summer season instead of the ATR.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:29

      Montenegro keeps winning!

      Delete
  19. Anonymous14:42

    That's a big expansion from Aegean

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:51

      Agree, although most new routes are seasonal.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:23

      GYD, BRS, BHX, DMM, RIX are all year-round what do you mean?

      Delete
  20. Anonymous14:42

    Will they maybe operate some charters too? I remember Aegean used to fly charters to Maribor around 10 years ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:47

      That was back in the day when there was some initiative at Maribor Airport. In 2014 they had one weekly service from Kos to Maribor and one weekly from Corfu by Aegean, both from June to September. There was also Onur Air one weekly from Antalya and Adria one weekly to Antalya and Zakynthos.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:50

      It's sad how much things have regressed in Slovenian aviation.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:53

      Back then A3 also used to fly LJU to Rhodos charters.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:10

      @anon 14.50 true unfortunately.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous01:19

      Aegean had a number of regular charter flights this summer from LJU, among others to Rhodes, Karpathos, Samos,… It complemented Trade Air.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous14:50

    Nice to see Aegean sending A320 to Split. When they started in 2016 it used to be the Dash.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:33

      A3 has was almost replaced all Q400 with Atr-600s. It is a slower plane and it is not scheduled to fly anywhere longer from ATH than TIA or SKP.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous14:51

    I hope we see Aegean add some routes from Thessaloniki to ex-Yu cities next.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:08

      They launched SKG-DBV this year. Wonder how it performed.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:15

      They never did.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:22

      Thessaloniki - Belgrade , Thessaloniki - Podgorica can work with an ATR on a year-round basis.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous16:25

    So sad Aegean is starting LJU, BTS, SPU and not returning to SJJ as well , if they did they would be a leader in the Balkans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22:17

      I thought JU was leader in the Balkans.

      Delete
  24. Anonymous16:34

    Very happy for LJU. Let´s hope VIE, MAD / BCN and LIS will follow next.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous19:52

    So it seems that SKP will be the only ex-Yu destination with Olympic Air ATR, correct?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous03:11

      Sooner or later the A320 will carry passengers to SKP too.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous01:44

    Volotea scheduled Split - Atena, but Covid happened. Sad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous03:10

      I believe they will come back too in 2023 on ATH-SPU.

      Delete

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