Istanbul became Ljubljana Airport’s busiest individual route in 2022 overtaking Frankfurt, with no carrier managing to outperform their pre-Covid passenger levels in the Slovenian capital last year. The first quarter of 2022 was still heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. If all of London's airports are taken into account, figures on services to and from Ljubljana just edged ahead of the Istanbul route. Turkish Airlines carried a total of 119.631 passengers between Turkey’s largest city and Ljubljana, some 9.000 more than those travelling to Frankfurt with Lufthansa. Despite strong point-to-point demand, Turkish Airlines was also Slovenia’s second busiest transfer airline behind Lufthansa. Holiday destinations in Turkey proved most popular with Turkish Airlines’ passengers from Slovenia, followed by the likes of Tel Aviv, Bangkok and the Caucuses.
Ljubljana Airport's busiest scheduled routes, 2022
Turkish Airlines is still on the road to recovery in Ljubljana, with the carrier expected to surpass its pre-Covid passenger figures this year. In 2019, the airline handled 147.548 travellers between the Slovenian capital and Istanbul. Turkish Airlines’ General Manager for Slovenia, Ufuk Unal, said the subsidies provided by the Slovenian government for airlines maintaining flights to Ljubljana over the past two years helped the carrier recover on the Slovenian market. “The subsidies were very effective for us to rebuild frequencies. At the beginning, following Covid and the start of the recovery process, we were losing money but we managed to cover some of the losses with the support from the Slovenian government. It was an incentive for us to sustain operations. We lost more than half a million dollars in Slovenia in 2021 but we were able to cover some of these losses with the Slovenian state aid”, Mr Unal said.
During 2022, the Lufthansa Group held a 20% passenger share at Ljubljana Airport. LOT Polish Airlines was the only carrier that came close to overtaking its pre-Covid figures in Ljubljana, with just 1.000 fewer passengers last year when compared to 2019. The Amsterdam and Munich service saw the biggest decline compared to their pre-Covid figures. Amsterdam had 57.910 fewer passengers on the Ljubljana route compared to 2019 and 64.357 fewer travellers on 2018. Similarly, Munich saw 45.724 fewer passengers last year than in 2019 and 48.147 fewer travellers than on 2018. Lufthansa did not restore flights between the Bavarian capital and Ljubljana from March 2020 until late March 2022.
Well deserved. It is the best airline out of the lot.
ReplyDeleteDisagree.
DeleteSo which airline do you think is the best out of the ones flying to Ljublajan?
DeleteTurkish is the best followed by AirFrance
DeleteAirFrance long-haul flight was far better than Turkish. Unlike AirFrance, Turkish did not walk around the whole flight with drinks, snacks, chocolate, icecream etc. The main food on Turkish that was served 2 times during the flight was good of course. But inbetween, there was nothing offered! I vote for AirFrance/KLM.
DeleteTK has snacks, drinks and sandwiches in the galley.
DeleteI quite like TK but prefer AF/KL mostly due to cabin crew. I found them much much nicer and professional than TK.
DeleteAby chance they could increase frequencies in near future?
ReplyDelete*any
DeleteTurkish ambition is 21 pw next summer.
DeleteHope so. That would be excellent for passengers and potential connections.
DeleteSeems that the subsidies offered by the government did have some positive impact.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that from all the airlines LOT was the closest to pre covid numbers.
ReplyDeleteDid Adria fly to Warsaw in 2019?
DeleteThey discontinued Warsaw at the end of summer 2018.
DeleteWell it could be that some of the old LJU-VIE traffic switched to WAW. Also, it could be that LO's competitive and aggressive pricing diverted some traffic from LH to them.
DeleteDon't forget that they also probably took a chunk of passengers that used to transfer via Moscow with Aeroflot, particularly to ex-Soviet countries.
DeleteGiven the detour LO has to make, I think most of these passengers switched to TK. That could be one of the reasons why they are doing so well right now.
DeleteLOT had a good year in all ExYu
DeleteInteresting numbers.
ReplyDeleteFlydubai's performance is not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteI was on two flights with them out of LJU, one in March, one in April. Both flights full. Was surprised to see so many Austrians on board though considering FZ flies out of SZG, too.
DeleteThey were probably from klagenfurt or villach
DeleteReally interesting to see the passenger numbers. I think things will improve at LJU this year.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope so.
DeleteOf course it will improve but no where near the level of other airports.
DeletePace of recovery will pick up when the subsidy tender for new routes is completed.
DeleteWhich destinations are mostly likely to be launched from LJU once the gov incentives come?
DeleteWhich aircraft type is TK mostly using to LJU?
ReplyDeleteA321
DeleteTurkish workers rise the numbers of passengers not tourist...
DeleteIt would be nice alsoto see load factors of the main routes. It seems that LF in the last few moths are very high, much higher than in 2018 an 2019. Extreme prices (especially with LH) are indicator for that. If that is true, the market can support more frequencies and with subsidies also new routes.
ReplyDeletewow Munich is much less than I thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't start till the summer season in 2022.
DeleteWould be interesting to know for what other destinations, besides the already mentioned is IST a transfer destination-since it overtook FRA.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Caucasus or flying to BKK would justify 100k+ pax transferring in IST. Imo, IST makes sense for transfers to eastward destinations, or to the west eventually to N.America but only if pricing is competitive.
100,000+ didn't transfer via Istanbul, that's the total number of passengers that flew with TK between Ljubljana and Istanbul. The majority are P2P and it says the most of the transfers were to other destinations in Turkey, likely Antalya, Dalaman, Izmir etc.
DeleteMost transfers to the US use Lufthansa. TK is too much backtracking.
DeleteAir France did really well
ReplyDeleteDo they carry mostly transfers or point to point passengers?
DeleteBoth probably
DeleteI would like to see Eurowings start flights next from the LH group.
ReplyDeleteConsidering their new routes from Graz, I highly doubt they will start flights to Ljubljana.
DeleteThey had a press conference in Maribor the other day, Eurowings and Graz Airport, so they are obviously going to target the SLO market from there. No LJU for them probably anytime soon.
DeleteNis did pretty well considering the low frequency and capacity and the fact that it start mid-way thoruhg the year.
ReplyDeleteThat was supposed to say *through.
Deletemonthly capacity on that route is 2304 pax (114 seater A319 if its correct). One can easily calculate how well it performed or not.
Delete144*
DeleteWhat A319?
DeleteOh its on ATR 72, didnt know the switch!
DeleteTurkish is impressive as usual but the most stunning performance is no doubt Dubai being such a new route and already as much passengers as Belgrade. Just shows that LJU definitely needs more Gulf connections similar to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely untapped potential.
DeleteFZ benefited from expo last year during the first quarter.
Delete9:39 could be. But also this year FZ have been operating extra frequencies around the Easter period to LJU and now in May as well which clearly indicates that there is big demand for Dubai. Won't be surprised if the route goes daily in 2024 and they will compete with TK on flights to Asia.
DeleteGood morning.. route is already daily since March23.
DeleteQatar would defenitely be welcome
Delete12:13 If you're talking about DXB-LJU, no, it's not daily
DeleteI hope we will see more new airlines and routes.
ReplyDeleteLoads are quite good all around
ReplyDeleteI’m interested to see how those ATH flights are gonna change these figures.
ReplyDeleteTK did really well across ex-Yu last year. They overtook pre Covid numbers in most markets.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteWith those numbers on an ATR, JU is turning a nice profit on their Ljubljana flights.
ReplyDeleteLJU was always a solid performer for JU as there is a healthy mix of locals and transfers flying with them. It's a shame that JU struggled with capacity this year as their numbers would have been even better had they increased it to 18 as they initially planned.
DeleteIn all honesty, I think LJU and PRG are ready for the A319 from BEG. Hopefully JU adds it to Ljubljana next summer at least on Friday or Sunday afternoon.
Air Serbia was actually the second busiest airline in Ljubljana in December believe it or not.
DeleteI saw AS's A319 land at LJU twice in the past week. I can't remember the exact date but it wasn't too long ago.
DeleteYes I saw it on flight radar aswell, i think it was yesterday and on sunday
DeleteIt happened for operational reasons but flights sold quite well, I know that one of the legs from BEG had around 100 passengers.
Deleteand for friday there is again A319 scheduled…anyway its nice to see some other than Atr aircraft from AirSerbia at Lju!
DeleteWould love to see the break up between Podgorica and Tivat. Interesting to see how it compares to Niš.
ReplyDeleteHope KLM eventually replaces Transavia on their Ljubljana flights.
ReplyDeleteThere is enough room for both KLM and Transavia.
Deletehopefully with Amsterdam being among the subsidized destinations KLM will introduce flights.
DeleteThere is obviously room for both considering the huge decline in AMS figures compared to pre pandemic numbers.
DeleteDidn't Adria used to have double daily flights to AMS?
DeleteYes they did
DeleteWhy "should" Transavia replace KLM? If there is more O&D higher capacity LCC demand on the route? Plus, Transavia flights are also used as transfer KL ones if needed. See no difference having a 738 KLM operating to LJU compared to a Transavia one. What's more is that the transfers via AMS with legs where Transavia operate are cheaper. KL operates to other nearby capitals with their Embraers which have less seat capacity.
DeleteTransavia does a really poor job on the Ljubljana route in terms of maintaining flights. They even operated from Rotterdam at some point, they lack aircraft and they are cancelling flights as we speak because they don't have the necessary equipment.
DeleteNot really sure what is the difference between the two (only flown with KLM so far), but I regularly fly with LH/OS and EW and there is a big difference between the former and latter.
DeleteWhen I book flights and I see a leg is flown by EW, i always take either an earliner or later flight to avoid flying with them. Difference in service, from which terminals they fly, how you book/change online, most importantly legroom. Now if the flight is in standard tariff and a leg is with EW they would automatically assign you a seat with "more legroom", but if it's not, then you would need to pay extra for the "more legroom" which is actually a normal legroom with LH/OS. This would then cost the same amount you think you would be saving if you didn't buy the "more expensive" ticket with LH opposed to the "cheaper" one with EW.
Please stop talking about LH as a starship experience. Flew AMM-FRA with them couple of months ago, one of the worst experiences in my life - less legroom in their economy A321 than on Ryanair, the most uncomfortable seat I ever had in the plane, and one disgusting frozen sandwich which couldn't be eaten because it was completely frozen and one drink for four and a half hours flight, for 800 euros one way. Disaster of what some time ago used to be good airline
DeleteI merely wrote that for me, flying with EW is worse than LH and/or OS/ thus I avoid it whenever possible.
DeleteNot sure why you then imply that this means I described flying with LH as "starship experience"
This utter shame of 'Turkish Technic' that has been hanging around in the old Istanbul airport is hanging there now.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there somebody to teach to those idiots that in English it is written 'Technics' or Turkish Aviation Maintenance and that 'technic' means litterally nothing, maybe 'technique' as in Turkish massage.
Anyway, it's mind boggling how this shame is on display for the whole world to see.
Better write it in Turkish, if you can't get your English straight.
Someone woke up angry. Technic is actually an English word and is considered another word for technics. It is not widely used anymore but it is correct. You can check in any dictionary.
DeleteAviation maintenance incorporates many techniques and not a single one.
DeleteThereby, if not grammatical, it is a logical abberation.
Also don't try to tell me that the guy who wrote this went looking into an old English dictionary.
Take it easy amigo.
DeleteI'm interested to see how Finnair will perform this summer
ReplyDeleteAnd compare to their ZAG performance.
DeleteTomorrow A321 is scheduled, so probably they are doing well.
Delete@ 12:05
DeleteI was just going to say, sending the A321 so early in the season must be a good sign, mustn't it?
Mostly Asian tourist going to visit Croatian cost and natural beauties.Flying back from Split or Dubrovnik
DeleteOf course. All passengers flying to LJU are simply there to visit the Croatian “natural beauties”. Give me a break!
DeleteThe main question is how many Slovenian passenger flew with Ryanair from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteProbably around 10% of Ryanair's Zagreb passengers are from Slovenia.
DeleteIm sure its more
DeleteI mean there is quite a few of them but don’t think it’s more than 15%. Slovenians are also using ZAG for other flights like KLM to Amsterdam since the cinnection to Ams from Lju is pretty bad and as well as Qatar for Doha flights and OU for Copenhagen etc…it’s not just Ryanair
DeleteInteresting to see LJU being served by 2 Paris airports
ReplyDeleteNot a big surprise. There is a lot of transfer demand but also P2P.
DeleteShame the Orly route isn't year round though.
DeleteBulk of P2P travel is in summerr.
Delete* summer
Deleteit is not yet year round but with the subsidy program it could become
DeleteIn first two months this year Flydubai had 12.350 passengers between LJU and DUBAI.
DeleteSo in 2022, Flydubai performance:
ReplyDeleteZagreb: 50.771
Ljubljana: 45.263
Fantastic result in LJU considering it was only its first full year.
Delete@ 11:37
DeleteI agree.
And interestingly ZAG had just over 100,000 passengers on DXB route in 2019.
DeleteThere is no need to spread false information around, or I would rather say deliberately lie. Emirates had 147.000 passengers in ZAG in 2018, and 131.000 in 2019. It's not just over 100.000, it's 40 % more. Further more, more than a half of passengers on Flydubai today are passengers from the Far East, both in LJU and in ZAG. And still ZAG has more passengers on Flydubai. So interestingly you are once again trying to make up things claiming that majority of passengers on Emirates in ZAG were from Slovenia, which is simply not true.
DeleteNo one is claiming that. The fact that it bothered you so much that you had to type all that comment says more about it than anything
Delete@ 14:37
DeleteI agree.
I listed exact numbers. You wrote LIES. In order to fake reality. Nothing and no one can change that, despite your another failed attempt.
DeleteTake it easy amigo
Delete