Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport handled fewer passengers than Boryspil in Kiev, which has been closed since the onset of the war in Ukraine on February 24. Ljubljana was also the least busy main capital city airport in Europe in 2022 welcoming 970.156 travellers. It ranked 159th on the continent according to Airports Council International Europe. It was behind the likes of Bremen, Bastia, Varna, Bratislava, Timisoara, Stockholm’s second airport of Bromma, as well as Kiev, which handled 1.085.061 passengers. It also fell behind Minsk from sanction-hit Belarus and Chisinau in Moldova which was closed for over a month. The results come following the recent New Air Gateway to Europe conference, which was held in the Slovenian capital, during which many expressed their dismay at Ljubljana Airport’s lack of connectivity or initiative to improve its performance. A number of speakers were also forced to take six-hour train journeys to arrive into Ljubljana for the conference due to a lack of nonstop flights.
Fraport, which manages Ljubljana Airport, forecasts it will handle 1.2 million passengers in 2023. According to the operator, seventeen airlines will maintain flights to nineteen destinations this summer. Finland’s Finnair and Greece’s Aegean will inaugurate operations to the Slovenian capital, linking it seasonally with Helsinki and Athens respectively. A number of other carriers will increase frequencies on existing services. “The lack of staff, the rapid increase in the price of fuel, high inflation and the consequences of the Russia - Ukraine war are obstacles to the recovery of the aviation industry”, Fraport recently said. Ljubljana Airport had previously forecast it would hit its pre-pandemic traffic figures in 2026.
The Slovenian government has been attempting to improve the country’s connectivity. It has been paying airlines to maintain their flights to Ljubljana over the past two years and recently passed a new subsidy program which will provide 5.6 million euros per year over the next three years for carriers to introduce flights from select destinations. The plan must now receive approval from the European Commission as it constitutes state aid. Furthermore, the government has said it will decide by mid-2023 if a new national carrier will be established in the country, almost four years following the collapse of Adria Airways. Last year, easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air all held talks with the Slovenian government over the potential launch of new routes from the country, with all three complaining of high fees at Ljubljana Airport. No agreement was reached. Airlines have also accused the Slovenian government over the lack of a coherent policy in the sector, noting that the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology and the Ministry for Infrastructure have completely different ideas in respect to aviation.
.gif)
It really makes you wonder what Fraport is doing.
ReplyDeleteFraport is doing great on the 20 other airports they operate globally.
DeleteCould it be that LJU poor performance has to do more with the Slovenian market?
Anonymous 10:02
DeleteTrue dat!
Anonymous 10.02 I agree with you too.
DeleteOf course it is the market! From third busiest airport in EX-YU to barely in top 10. Completely normal!
DeleteAnd market stop existing immediatelly after JP demise, kinda normal too :)
DeleteAnonymous 11:20
DeleteThat proves that the market only existed for LJU to be 3rd busiest airport because Adria was selling tickets below cost.
@14:04:
DeleteWait, that’s impossible. According to concerned taxpayers brigade, Adria had the most expensive tickets on the planet. Apparently, return ticket to FRA (via DXB) was 1000€.
Don't forget that JP had transfer passengers and they all counted twice in the statistics.
DeleteCartel keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteWho exactly is part of this cartel according to you? Lufthansa which is cutting capacity in Ljubljana? Fraport? Which has brought booming passenger numbers to its other airports as soon as it took over?
Delete@Anonymous 09:02
DeleteFraport doesn't seem to kick all the other airlines from the airports it operates in favor of LH Group, what makes you think is doing so in Slovenia?
11:08 first read the definition of cartel, then you will know what i mean.
Delete11:11 maybe because here in Slovenia we allow them to do that?
Fraport chose to have fewer pax and revenues of all its airports in LJU!
DeleteI bet you think it is a conspiracy! :D :D :D
11:33 i see that people like you are still blind :D
DeleteI can't believe that there are still people around who thinks that Fraport is great at LJU. Do not forget that they were strongly against establishing a national carrier!? They would have most of it and they were against it, please help me understand that logic..
DeleteThere is no excuse for this performance. Bratislava has all the same problems Ljubljana has, even more so because Vienna is next door but still they manage to have flights and more passengers than LJU.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSame with TSR which has BEG right next to it.
DeleteYes, but the difference is that Vienna and Bratislava are used by both Austrians and Slovaks. The airports belong to both countries. While Ljubljana suffers from mismanagement, may 2023 be better for LJU
DeleteYes and BEG is also used by Romanians, they even have organized bus tours that bring passengers. So if TSR can handle 1.5 million passengers then LJU could easily attract 2 million. Slovenes love to travel, they are rich so they can pay more for flights.
DeleteLook how well FZ does in LJU and they don't even fly to TSR.
09:09
DeleteTo be honest, I know Slovaks who almost always use Vienna to fly. They are from Bratislava. This is precisely why I support the idea of a national carrier in Slovenia. A country should have its own airline and not people traveling from abroad like BTS.
Problem is that LJU and Fraport don't know how to attract Croats, Austrians and Italians to fly from there. Now with Ryanair in ZAG it will be difficult to achieve this.
DeleteHowever getting FZ in LJU basically kills any chances of EK being back in ZAG which is good for LJU.
Anonymous 9:10 "They are rich". How many of them? C'mon.
DeleteSlovenians are surprisingly wealthy
DeleteI mean Slovenians are definitely the wealthiest among the Balkans but we are pretty stingy as well and we will watch out for every cent and is like that when it comes to flying because if there will be a cheaper option with Ryanair from Vienna or Venice we will rather drive there instead of flying from LJU with Lufthansa and having to connect at FRA and MUC.
DeleteAnonymous14:17 Novi Sad has BEG an hour away (by using public transportation Train+ bus 72) and 45 minutes by car on a regular day. They dont need an airport :D
DeleteWell, Ljubljana has Zagreb.
DeleteNS is 80 km from BG and BEG is on the highway coming from that direction. Takes about 40' from NS to the airport.
Delete@An.09.14
DeleteJust to remind you, FZ is flying to ZAG as well, despite they introduced LJU too. Maximum number of SLO passengers on EK ZAG flights was 10 percent. An average is even less. 80 percent of EK ZAG pax were transfers from the Far East and Australia. Once those markets fully recover EK will be back to ZAG. Flydubai in LJU has nothing to do with Emirates in ZAG.
OK, mate, with Ljubljana being at cca 120 km from Velika Gorica, it makes a car ride on a motorway 20 minutes longer... which won't help much to Ljubljana Airport&Fraport.
DeleteFZ isn't even flying daily to Zagreb. I highly doubt return of EK will be their priority over there, especially now that they fly to LJU.
Deletepozdrav iz Rijeke22:24 - but you dont know how many people were flying to Zagreb but their final destination was not Zagreb but Slovenia or Trieste/Klagenfurt/Graz etc. Those are now using Ljubljana.
DeleteOnce again, over 80 % of EK pax on ZAG route were transfers from the Far East and Australia. 2 pax from Trieste, or 3 from Celovec, or 10 from Ljubljana on each flight are irrelevant for EK ZAG service.
DeleteI really doubt that western part of Slovenia will rather choose ZAG as LJU for DBX flights... just if the timetable much better is and the price difference more than 100 EUR is.....
DeleteThat departure board is depressing. I can see on the photo it is 6.24 pm and it is already displaying all the flights until 5.10 pm the following day and the board isn't even full.
ReplyDeleteWhat about today? There were supposed to be 14 departures but there will be only 13 since TK flight is cancelled.
DeleteAll are operated by regional jets except U2 to LGW, FZ to DXB and SN to BRU.
Depressing.
A number of speakers were also forced to take six-hour train journeys to arrive into Ljubljana for the conference due to a lack of nonstop flights.
ReplyDelete-------------------------
I don't get this. Where were they coming from and why didn't they connect to LJU from their city of origin. I am sure airlines like JU, LH and TK could have offered a much faster journey to the Slovenian capital city.
Well that is something unheard of! To have to change planes for a coninental flight?? It has certainly never happened to me- all the flights I have taken sofar have brought me directly into my living room.
DeleteAnd the 6 hours by train,, that is even worse.. because whenever I travel from e.g. Frankfurt to Paris, or from Berlin to Frankfurt, all the trains travel with light speed and it doesn't take me more than 4hrs, im there in a blink of an eye.
Looking at Flight Radar 24, the busiest route in the next 7 days in LJU-BEG with 13 weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Air Serbia for positioning itself so well in Slovenia. Now it's time to boost flights to triple daily!
lol
DeleteAnonymous09:05 triple daily and with A330!!!
DeleteFraport seems to be in a deep state of comma in Slovenia. They expect for everyone but themselves to attract traffic to Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteAll the other airports that Fraport runs seem to be doing just fine.
DeleteSo unless Fraport hates LJU and doesn't want their investment to it have positive return on investment we can conclude that the Ljublana market dynamics are at fault.
@anon 10:06 you are really funny :) As someone explained you before that LJU dropped from 3rd busiest airport to 10 (immediatelly after JP demise) and now market does not exist anymore.
DeleteSo you agree that a market doesn't exist that can sustain flights without government subsidies.
Deletethank you, that's what I have been saying.
1.2 million seems realistic for this year.
ReplyDeleteLJU needs more routes and competition on existing.
ReplyDeleteSince they manage airports like Bulgaria or Greece so well, why can't they do well in LJU?
ReplyDeleteBecause the market is smaller, less tourists and a lot more competition. I mean look at SKG. It has almost no real competition in a huge area. LJU on the other hand has a lot of it. That is where Fraport was supposed to show real skills and they obviously failed. Issue is that SLO government isn't pushing them to do more.
DeleteIn the case of Varna, it was a tough job securing 3 Wizzair planes based there and making it a year-round destination. The local municipalities worked together with Fraport and it took a while. Burgas lost many Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian tourists as it used to handle more than 3 million passengers. Fraport is now working in bringing more Polish and UK tourists as a compensation.
DeleteSKG is currently doing very well as well, but it also Greece's second largest city and Chalkidiki is very famous.
What Fraport needs to do is check what the other airports are doing and apply it to Ljubljana.
And yes, Slovenia is also a tourist country and the second most visited in ex-Yu. It is also a year-round destinatio and there is huge potential for ski charters especially from UK and Ireland as they are mad about it.
Disaster
ReplyDeleteBased on the photo, there are only 3 early morning departures and one of them was Trade Air to Cabo Verde. As an EU capital it should have at least 10. Morning flights are usually business travellers or connecting flights.
ReplyDeleteCome on, even Tallinn closed 2022 with 2,8 million passengers and they are also surrounded by busy airports and hubs like Riga, which interestingly handled almost the same number of passengers compared to Belgrade - 5,4 million.
Clearly something needs to be done in LJU.
+1 Exactly
DeleteThat's because Riga, like Belgrade, saved their national airline which is growing. Just look at the size of BT.
DeleteAs for Tallinn, don't forget that it was used a lot by Russians who couldn't fly once airspace closed for fligths between EU and Russia. Their numbers are inflated.
Besides from Tallinn you can basically only go by car to other baltic states and Finland for everything else you need to travel by train.
DeleteYou should know that Ljubljana is more village than city and therefore it's airport will always be more local airfield than some serious international airport. Only Luxembourg and Valleta are smaller capitals in EU so it's clear why is such situation in LJU. Malta as an island have logically higher air traffic, Luxembourg is also atracting people from nearby countries. LJU has failed with Adria Airways, because and will never regain reputation as it had in past.
Deleteit is not normal that a European capital has less passengers than another European capital city airport which has been closed for 10 months. Well done to 4k and Fraport which have destroyed Slovenia's aviation.
ReplyDeleteAviation wasn't destoyed by them, it was destroyed by politicians who are extremely corrupt.
DeleteLJU has very high fees for an airport with low traffic. It needs to discount prices.
ReplyDeleteI was puzzled, for a short time though, how Kiev managed to have so many passengers in only 2 months of winter 2022. But then I remembered how big Ukraine really is and how UIA was doing nicely. Really sad both for Ukrainians and LJU.
ReplyDeleteI should find photos and write my report about that airport.
ReplyDeleteI mean most Slovenians don't even use LJU for flying including myself. I would much rather use ZAG or Venice airport which offers many direct flights to any important EU city than go to LJU, fly with overpriced Lufthansa, and connect through such a difficult airport as Frankfurt. The only good thing about LJU is the summer season with a wide selection of charter flights to every popular summer destination. But that's it. And I hope those subsidies will help improve connectivity to either help an airline to base an aircraft or two here or just attract as many as possible foreign airlines to commence a regular number of flights to LJU. But I highly doubt that the government will decide for a new national carrier even though it would probably be by far the best option.
ReplyDeleteJust out of interest, where did you fly to from ZAG and where from VCE?
Deletefrom ZAG i flew to Manchester and Oslo and from Venice to Manchester, Barcelona, Madrid and Amsterdam.
Delete"connect through such a difficult airport as Frankfurt." - what is so difficult? for me its super easy ... and if u book on time LH is cheaper than any other option from Venice/Zagreb.
DeleteAs a Slovene I know how other people's travel habbits are. For example, even though one living in Ljubljana now has return tickets for Paris-Orly for maybe 30e more than in ZAG, they will rather drive to ZAG to catch a flight, which isn't even going to Paris, but Beauvais. From there, one has to pay for rather expensive transportation to Paris, also parking in ZAG. Summa-summarum the trip costs more, not to mention time involved. But yes, it is important that the plane ticket costs 30e less, people don't count other expences and time in. So unsucess of LJU has a lot to do with our mentality. Also yesterday it was written on the forum, that passengers to Tenerife from Bergamo were mostly slovenes. And Bergamo is 500 km from Ljubljana and 600 km from Maribor ... People are used to drive a long way to other airports.
ReplyDeleteBut this is Fraport's problem. They should invest a lot in marketing. To get people to fly from LJU. They haven't even been bothered to mention that Aegean is starting flights anywhere on their social media.
DeleteEven if they did, most from Ljubljana will rather drive 400 km to Vienna to catch a 50e cheaper FR flight.
DeleteIf you are a family of four then it makes perfect sense to drive a bit more. You have to pay for parking in LJU anyway so it makes no difference if you pay it in ZAG or BGY.
DeleteAnon 11:01
DeleteI don’t think that people are not calculating all the costs…
And is not just the cost of ticket, it is also the timetables, frequencys of the flights, morning evening dep, you need to spend one or two more night in the city with expencive hotels because of that, exact days…We calculate all of that(yes we are “cheap”:) ) And sometimes for the family of four, with all the costs included, there is still around 800 eur left in the pocket just for driving to “Bergamo” - thats one more week of holidays for “free”…:)
LJU need more frequencies, new dest, a carrier with a base in LJU with early dep and late evening returns… Personaly, would love to see new Slovenian Airlines…
It will get better, for example, last year ticket to greek islands from LJU was 400 eur(from VIE 100 eur), this year with Aegean 180 eur…THY, FZ, LH prices are also becoming more and more comparable with those on the others nearby airports…
I am optimistic, “We just need time”…;)
Interestingly no one from Fraport bothered to show up to the conference.
ReplyDeleteWho from Fraport even cares about this?
DeleteCan't wait for Babett Stapel to turn LJU into "charter hub"! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteSlovenians are really obsessed by low cost flights. Maybe they have a big house, a new car but for leisure flights price must be bottom low. They are ready to go by car to places as far Bergamo, going to Treviso or Venice is the norm. No problem at all
ReplyDeleteLow cost will Ryanair will start fly from Trieste to Barcelona the 28th of March 2023. Majority of cheapest tickets will be and are bought by Slovenians. Majority of them have time to travel whenever is cheaper, just the ticket must be low cost. It's not the same in western Europe where people can take vacations only during specific times of the year (public servants included). Dublin will start from Trieste from 29th March too. It's attractive for some Slovenians too. Than Tirana from July with Wizzair. I gave you just one example.
Zagreb airport is giving so many low cost options! For a big chunk of population in Slovenia Zagreb airport is closer or the same that Ljubljana, plus now border control anymore.
In short: no way new connections from Ljubljana can be profitable currently. Maybe Skopje is an exception.
Foreigners are not obsessed by flying to Slovenia eather. Exception is the tiny portion of business pax. For leisure pax it's better to reach nearby airports, rent a cheaper car, rent a car is way cheaper e.g. in Italy versus Slovenia and so on. Slovenia is a transit tourist destination for feed days easily accessible especially during the summer season even from airports on the Croatian coast that I perfectly served with foreign leisure travellers from central, northern and western Europe.
Agree with everything. But if FR decides for LJU, then Skopje, Barcelona, Lisbon, Berlin, Catania (seasonal), Valencia, Paris, Copenhagen, London will be profitable for sure.
DeleteSlovenia is car vaction destanation where most people go for skiing or enjoying the nature and also the coast.
Delete@11.54
DeleteNot so sure the first potential FR destination from SKP could be LJU. Not so sure either FR will introduce BER from LJU over ZAG,especially with BER prices. London, already served by British and Easy, also not so sure. CPH is not so cheap as well, combined with expensive LJU. For the other, I agree they might work
Yes but this summer BA decimated ZAG but increased LJU.
DeleteWhich means even more flights from London to LJU and less space for another airline, which I've said
DeleteOn this forum constantly same people are writing. I am not from avion industry but i can clearly see people who are writing here are not standard passengers and maybe because of that you all are looking on this from other point of view and you will never understand habits of standard passangers. On the other side people here are never happy. You are not happy with flights you can catch from ZG, flights you can catch from Trieste or Venice. I believe you would be unhappy even if Ryanair make a huge base in Slovenia because then you would find so much negativity in that. If Lufthansa base 10 planes in Ljubljana you would not be happy because CARTEL is dominating. I mean you all just need to relax a bit. In this world everything is as it should be and before you accept that before you will start be happy enjoying your flights :)
ReplyDelete''In the world everything is as it should be'' Says everything about your comment
DeleteAnonymous13:37
DeleteIn a way he is correct with statement ''In the world everything is as it should be'' because we really dont know the motive about some decisions that are made.We are just guessing.
We dont know the motive why Fraport in Ljubljana appears so lethargic?
We can only guess that Fraport is just part of decision making process but does not have full independence. Maybe Some Trust in Luxembourg that owns all Fraport Airports makes that decision.
Why Croatia Airlines picked the most expensive plane to buy . We are only guessing there are some other interest (private/political) involved.
or why still not Toronto as destination for Air Serbia LOL...it must have some motive behind.
So if there other motives and we dont know them then ''In the world everything is as it should be''
Anonymous 13:37…yes i truly believe that in the world everything is as it should be and before you understand that before your life will become beautiful. At that point you will start appreciating everything. You will stop asking for more, for something else, for something new. You will be happy with what you have. Once you get to that point you will become new person. This is more way of thinking post and intension of it were completely positive but at the same time i completely understand that majority will not get it. Anyhow i am completely happy with all the airports in Ex YU and all the possibilities we have :)
DeleteThat's just sad... all I can say
DeleteYou are so right, everything is as it should be and we should be happy that LJU had fewer passengers than Kiev which is in a state of wat.
DeleteAnon 11:34
DeleteNot sure what are you trying to say - do you know how much would those people have to pay for flying from LJU(now without low cost flights) to see DUB, BCN…? Yes, most of them wouldn’t pay that much(diff reasons).
Are you trying to say that only Slo people are like that?:)
I guess you are right, let them stay at home, traveling is only for the rich nowadays…
What is also interesting is that all surrounding and closer airports seem to be attracting new airlines and creating new routes. Klagenfurt will be connected to Mallorca and Alicante this summer. Mallorca is a super nice destination and so are the Alicante soft beaches and very warm climate and tapas - did both. How come a village airport like Klagenfurt which barely had 21 thousand passengers be successful and not Ljubljana a capital city.
ReplyDeleteBecause Klagenfurt is rich.
DeleteBecause slovenians go to croatia, Austrians love SPain.
DeleteKad bi slovenci samo smeli da od maribora naprave hub za lcc sa minimalnim taksama...
ReplyDeleteIf Ryanair or Wizz or Easyjet made a base there with two or three planes I am pretty sure that a lot of Slovenians would rather use Maribor than Zagreb, Vienna, or Venice and it would be successful but if that happened they would steal a lot of passengers from LJU and the government and Fraport wouldn't like that so it's pretty clear that it won't happen...
DeleteIt's pretty sad and frustrating. While it was never affordable to fly to Slovenia, at least it was possible with Adria. I recently took a connecting flight to Brussels, through Warsaw. And the saddest part is that everyone except for a few people were connecting. Also it's crazy to think that LJU doesn't have any low cost carriers, whereas all of the biggest cities have them. Not to mention the scam that WizzAir has been running this year (selling flights but cancelling them week after week) which has gone pretty unnoticed by the media outlets and the government didn't do anything to stop it from happening.
ReplyDeleteYou are actually wrong about Wizzair. Look at the official UK CAA recent statement regarding their massive cancellations:
Deletehttps://www.caa.co.uk/news/regulator-raises-concerns-with-wizz-air-following-complaints/#:~:text=The%20latest%20quarterly%20complaints%20data,811%20complaints%20per%20million%20passengers.
The UK is not doing anything. It just issued a statement, and only after massive massive disruption. Far too late and no action at all. Wizz was at its worst in the UK.
DeleteIf Babett ever reads this:
ReplyDelete1. Connect LJU with more UK destinations and more London airports
2. Work with FR in their other bases to launch flights to LJU
3. Explore the Iberian peninsula market - 57 million including Portugal, Canarias and Madeira
4. Wait until QR get their Maxes to connect with DOH
5. Work with more touroperators and charters with Trade Air and more warm destinations
6. Lower your airport fees or create an incentive programme such as Tirana or Sarajevo
7. Secure more connections to EU capitals being an EU and Eurozone member
8. Collaborate with other regions in securing more air traffic compared to car traffic
9. Assist in huge tourism events and promote further more Slovenia as a year-round destination
I mean there are so many ideas to be done. Fraport seems like a bear right now - in deep hibernation.......
It already cost them 16.5 millions of juris to keep even such small traffic. How much will cost to finance your ideas?
DeleteMy educated guess is, they earn enough from other operations, like long term parking and service for airplanes coming to Adria Tehnika, that they don’t give a flying flamingo for passenger numbers.
ReplyDeleteHahHa really?!
ReplyDelete