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.
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Finally! Hope it sticks this time around.
ReplyDeleteHappy that LJU is getting a new airline and route but I do wonder how it's going to be any different than in 2016?
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteAnd 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.
ReplyDeleteWith one weekly and not really competitive prices i am not suprised
DeleteYes 🥰 this made my sat morning much better :)
ReplyDeleteMine too! :)
DeleteA3 an airline who knows how to deal with seasonality. Oh and its also a privately owned company.
ReplyDeleteHope they can make it work on both routes.
ReplyDeleteDo the times from LJU offer good connections via Athens?
ReplyDeleteWhen do they have departure waves?
DeleteOf course they do, A3 already codeshares JU flights to LJU so now they'll offer direct connections via ATH !
DeleteI'm sure many people in Ljubljana will use these flights to reach Greek islands in summer.
ReplyDeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeleteGlad for Ljubljana but why only seasonal and why only from June?
ReplyDeleteHopefully the route will do well and they will keep it for winter
DeleteFraport should actually do more to attract airlines. It took them 7 years to get flights to Athens.
DeleteCartel said they only allow airlines that fit into their business model. Thats very few airlines.
DeleteWell Aegean is Star alliance and closely coperates with Lufthansa so.. :D
DeleteLJU 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^ it was not a year round route. It operated from June 2016 until September 2016. No need to make things up.
Delete@Anon 11:49: Can you proof?
DeleteGreat news! Aegean is a great addition and will offer more choice and competitions to Slovenian passengers to Greece and the Middle East.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAt least it will substitute the loss of Finnair.
ReplyDeletein LJU I mean.
DeleteIt will substitute the loss of Finnair? Lol
DeleteYes, in terms of passenger numbers.
DeleteOnly 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.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/09/finnair-terminates-zagreb-and-ljubljana.html
Just two flights per week? They are being really cautious.
ReplyDeleteIf they see that demand is there they will increase flights (provided they have spare capacity).
DeleteHope so
DeleteThat'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!
DeleteWhat are the fares like?
ReplyDeleteCheck their website... I mean ticket prices aren't fixed.
DeleteTickets 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
ReplyDeleteIt 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.
DeleteJust Spain and Scandinavia? Where is Rome for instance?
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteHuge!
DeleteAs 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.
ReplyDeleteMontenegro keeps winning!
DeleteThat's a big expansion from Aegean
ReplyDeleteAgree, although most new routes are seasonal.
DeleteGYD, BRS, BHX, DMM, RIX are all year-round what do you mean?
DeleteWill they maybe operate some charters too? I remember Aegean used to fly charters to Maribor around 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThat 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.
DeleteIt's sad how much things have regressed in Slovenian aviation.
DeleteBack then A3 also used to fly LJU to Rhodos charters.
Delete@anon 14.50 true unfortunately.
DeleteAegean had a number of regular charter flights this summer from LJU, among others to Rhodes, Karpathos, Samos,… It complemented Trade Air.
DeleteNice to see Aegean sending A320 to Split. When they started in 2016 it used to be the Dash.
ReplyDeleteA3 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.
DeleteI hope we see Aegean add some routes from Thessaloniki to ex-Yu cities next.
ReplyDeleteThey launched SKG-DBV this year. Wonder how it performed.
DeleteThey never did.
DeleteThessaloniki - Belgrade , Thessaloniki - Podgorica can work with an ATR on a year-round basis.
DeleteSo 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.
ReplyDeleteI thought JU was leader in the Balkans.
DeleteVery happy for LJU. Let´s hope VIE, MAD / BCN and LIS will follow next.
ReplyDeleteRome too!
DeleteSo it seems that SKP will be the only ex-Yu destination with Olympic Air ATR, correct?
ReplyDeleteSooner or later the A320 will carry passengers to SKP too.
DeleteVolotea scheduled Split - Atena, but Covid happened. Sad
ReplyDeleteI believe they will come back too in 2023 on ATH-SPU.
Delete