Lufthansa, Turkish and Air Serbia to expand Ljubljana operations

Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport expects a solid year ahead with the likes of Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia to increase their operations. The German national carrier, as the busiest airline in Slovenia, will introduce a new daily service from both Frankfurt and Munich, starting March 26. As a result, it will maintain three daily rotations from Frankfurt and a double daily service from Munich. The airline will operate an additional fourteen weekly flights into the Slovenian capital for a total of 35 weekly rotations. All flights are currently scheduled to be performed with the CRJ900 aircraft, however, equipment changes are likely and may vary.

Turkish Airlines will be growing its frequencies to the Slovenian capital as early as February 1. It will introduce an additional two weekly flights between Istanbul and Ljubljana for a total of twelve per week. As a result, services will run each morning, and five times per week during the evening hours. Most of the flights will be maintained with the Airbus A321 aircraft. According to Ljubljana Airport, Turkish will further grow frequencies to fourteen weekly during the summer, although these are yet to be scheduled. On the other hand, the airport notes that Air Serbia will boost operations from Belgrade to eighteen weekly flights next summer season, while services from Niš will be increased to three weekly. The airline is yet to indicate the changes in its timetable.

Besides the trio, Flydubai plans to maintain daily flights to the Slovenian capital from late June, Transavia will run five weekly rotations from Amsterdam and two weekly from Paris Orly, Brussels Airlines and easyJet will operate six weekly flights from Brussels and London Gatwick respectively, British Airlines will restore its five weekly seasonal service from London Heathrow, Wizz Air will run two weekly rotations from London Luton, while Air France plans to maintain up to ten weekly rotations from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Swiss will operate nine weekly flights from Zurich during the summer, LOT seven weekly from Warsaw, while Air Montenegro will fly from both Podgorica and Tivat, although frequencies are yet to be finalised. Finally, Israir plans to restore its two weekly seasonal service from Tel Aviv.

As previously reported, Aegean Airlines will inaugurate its new two weekly service between Athens and Ljubljana on June 6 with its Airbus A320 aircraft. Furthermore, Slovenia’s busiest airport will continue to grow its leisure flight offering. “We expect an abundant offer of charter flights in the summer season to the most popular destinations on the Greek islands, Egypt, Turkey and Spain, to which a wider offer will be available (Vittoria, Santiago di Compostela, Barcelona, Sevilla and Girona). Holiday packages tailored by Slovenian tour operators will also be available to Madeira, Porto, the Azores, Faroe Islands, Scotland, Iceland, Tenerife, Cape Verde islands, Cairo, Jordan, the Netherlands and Riga”, the airport said. 

Starting next year, Ljubljana Airport will also have to contend with Croatia entering the Schengen Area, which will enable quicker cross boarder travel and use of nearby Zagreb Airport. However, the General Manager of Ljubljana Airport operator Fraport Slovenija, Babett Stapel, notes, “Passenger traffic is recovering well in the winter season. Some carriers have or are still expected to strengthen their frequencies, which shows that flight demand is continuing to recover. The initial announcements for the summer season look promising - frequencies to the biggest hubs (Frankfurt, London, Paris, Brussels, Zurich, Munich, Istanbul and Dubai) will be significantly increased thus expanding the possibilities for travel from Ljubljana Airport to all around the globe. Our flight network will be richer by a new scheduled destination - we will be welcoming flights of Aegean Airlines to Athens. A wider selection of charter flights will be available too”.